An Organised Mess

Two weeks back was my parents’ 31st wedding anniversary and prior to that, the sister and I were cracking our brains for ideas. Remembered my mum telling us not to spend so much money (last year we surprised them with a stay at Royal Scotts) so we settled on a home-cooked lunch.

I decided to set up a corner in the balcony for the lunch and I thought it was a pretty good move. The natural lighting was perfect for photos and it was a nice change from the usual dining area. I wanted to recreate a “restaurant setting” where the sister and I would take turns serving the food to them and that sort of gave them a bit of privacy as well.

The decorations were simple and very cost-effective – the overhead banner was made of crepe paper and I used doilies and paper flowers for the “LOVE” bunting on the wall. DIY projects really give you the room to work with what you already have (yes, I’m quite cheap like that).

We turned the sideboard into a display area. I attempted two watercolour pieces, (I was obviously trying to outdo myself here and it looked very amateurish!) and coupled them with haikus.

The food was largely prepared by the sister. Dabbled at cooking the filling for the shepherd’s pie and I must say it wasn’t too bad. Dessert were flower-cupcakepots – chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

To wrap up the event, I asked them to write messages for each other. I actually teared reading them!

Got them a flower arrangement in a vase and a very very pretty mossy terrarium, made lovingly by Nisrin!

Had a wonderful time executing this project – here’s to a truckload of blessings for my wonderful parents… they really taught me the true meaning of love and sacrifice.

I had the honour of creating a fabric bouquet for a dear friend’s wedding. It was the most fun bouquet I’ve ever created. Doing all the blooms from scratch with help from all the awesome tutorials available online. I got most of the tutorials from the links collated at this awesome website: http://kojo-designs.com/2011/09/49-fabulous-fabric-flower-tutorials/

It took me a week to complete the bouquet consisting of almost 40 blooms of 4 different varieties. It was my first try at fabric bouquet and I’m loving it! It’s so much fun, once you start you cant stop!

 

For the crafty brides out there, do you own fabric blooms, you can keep it for a lifetime!

Or if you’re too busy with your wedding preparation and need help with the creation of the blooms, do drop your inquiries to us!

LOVE!

I believe it’s a quirk of mine to give something handmade/DIY to a friend or family member when their birthday comes. A few weeks back, it was A’s birthday, and I decided to make a jar of (spiritual) inspiration for her.

It started off with a jar, which I bought a year ago probably, in KL. It’s quite difficult to get pretty (and at the same time, reasonably-priced) jars here in Singapore. The range at Ikea is limited… I probably need to hunt them down at old neighbourhoods.

Then I proceeded to write quotes on scraps of paper, rolled them up into little ‘cigars’ and tied them with ribbon.

I don’t know how practical this is, but I am a sucker for pretty things. The birthday girl loved it though!

It all started with the juicer that my father got me for my birthday. It was rather empowering being able to try out various combinations of fruit and getting a different taste each time I made a juice. The only downside of a juicer is the washing up of the various parts (I believe there’s five?).

Last weekend, my group of secondary school friends got me a five-blade blender with a ice-crushing function. This paved the way for more possibilities – now I have the chance to consume more fibre as well (as opposed to juice which doesn’t include the pulp). This afternoon I Googled for a banana-peach combination and chanced upon one which looked promising. I altered the amounts though, and included an extra ingredient, cinnamon powder.

2 frozen peeled bananas
2 nectarines (skin on)
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup plain yoghurt (you could use a fruity one too)
1/3 cup rolled oats
a dash of cinnamon powder

It sure did pack a punch. Adding oats is a good way to up the fibre intake and I believe this would make a good breakfast smoothie!

Yesterday marked Hardee’s wedding! As with my other close friends, I asked him a few months back if he would let me have the honour of making his wedding cupcakes – of course I said yes! He requested for cupcakes in individual boxes for the ease of giving them out to the guests. The royal icing was in green and pastel pink with rose gumpaste toppers. The top-tier cake was covered in shades of pink roses.

Initially I intended for the set-up to consist of 4 tiers, but because of the relative instability of the table, my fellow assistants suggested that we reduce it to 3. I thought it lacked height, but they assured me it looked fine. We also got the thumbs up from the groom himself, so it was good to go! The couple also wanted their initials to be up. These pretty wooden letters and heart were bought from Typo – 3 for $10.

I still have a long way to go in terms of cakes and cupcakes for weddings – I hope to be able to do this for all of my close friends and continue to improve with every assignment. (Long-term plans include signing up for cake-decorating and wedding cake courses!)