Valentine's Day on a Shoe String.

So this year may a be tough for some to splurge for some. However, you still need to show that that certain someone is extra special on Valentine's day without blowing the bank. What are your options?

How about buying a thoughtful gift? Maybe a new apron for the hardworking chef at home or a new teapot for the tea-lover. Maybe none of these are the most romantic or spell L-O-V-E in a huge way but they do show that you do notice and care.

For the most classic lovers, how about going to the wholesaler to buy roses and packaging them yourself? Long stem roses in a box look the best and are the easiest to package. 

Maybe a small box of chocolates to please the choco-holic at heart or you could make your own chocolate dipped strawberries.

If she loves gourmet food, the place with the best value must be Au Petit Salut. There's Foie Gras, Belon 000 Oysters, Crab, Valrhona Chocolate, etc in their set dinner. Sure to please the most picky of eaters and for $128++ per person, it's fantastic.

Bush Fires at Victoria.

I feel so sad looking at the images and reading the news about the bush fires in Victoria that has claimed at least 170 lives, made 4000 homeless and ravaged 350,000 hectares of land. This is the worst bush fires that Australia has ever experienced.

The Victorian police believe that the same person could have lit two bush fires – one at Delburn on Jan 29 and one at Churchill that was lit over the last weekend and is still out of control. At least 21 people have died in the Churchill blaze, which was threatening the township of Won Wron.

Fire criminologists have said the number of fires burning across the state indicate that more than one arsonist has been lighting fires. There is more than 400 fires and some of them the police have declared as a crime scenes. 

400 Red Cross volunteers are working on a list of missing people and distributing food to survivors. Please help the victims of the bush fires and their families by going to the Red Cross website to donate.

A Weekend Escape.

Since coming back to Singapore, I've been thinking about the last two days. What did we learn from that experience?

1. If you want to make good money during the weekend, be a Malaysian traffic police. Those jokers set up two different roadblocks and we bribed them a total of RM 250. Everyone knows that the "usual" bribe is RM50 but what happens when you are cornered into giving them RM50 more? They merely shake your hand and tell you to drive safely. 

2. When at San Shu Gong and you spot the snacks that you want to buy, buy it without hesitation. We wanted the chestnut pastry and decided that there's so many packs displayed at the flagship store, so we'll get it later. When we got back, there was only 2 packs left. We had to go to the branch to get more the next day. How many packets of chestnut pastries did we get in total? 8 packets, besides the many other goodies we had bought.

3. Watching a movie in Malaysia is cheap! RM9 gets you a ticket at a brand new cinema. 

4. Never watch "The curious case of Benjamin Button" as a midnight show. Why? We were there from 11.30pm to 2.15am. Fortunately, our hotel was just next door.

5. When eating at Makko, don't resist ordering a large portion of the Sotong Goreng Kunyit. It was delicious! During our first lunch there, we ordered a medium, we still craved for more. At the second lunch there, we ordered a large and wished there were more. Sean and Denise even wished that they could order some to take home with us.

6. Never have a full dinner. There is so much tidbits to eat at the Jonker Street night market (every fri to sun). We had laksa, goreng goreng and chendol for dinner, and proceeded to eat bbq squids, bee chang kway, taiwan sausages (Denise and CJ), Durian Q cake (Sean and Kent) and a round of drinks.

We had such a blast and lots of rest. Looking forward to the next trip with the group!

The group with me behind the camera walking down the streets of Malacca.

Denise and I at a playground. We haven't seen these tunnels at playgrounds since we were kids.

Kent and Cilla enjoying their laksa. Kent ate so many different stuff that were bad for his cough. Although I'm sure that it aggravated it but he enjoyed his food.

CJ preparing a small sampling of his Chicken Rendang noodles for Denise to taste.

Sean's very focused when he is enjoying his meal.

At San Shu Gong. Sean's really happy that his drink is so much bigger than ours, till he found out that the bottom half was still frozen.

Hollywood, Mon Amour.

I love this CD, without a doubt. It is in the style of Nouvelle Vague as it is produced by the same producer. I love "This is not America" sung by Juilette Lewis (the actress / singer), "Call me" and "A View for a Kill" sung by Skye (of Morcheeba fame) and my favourite is "Reality" sung by Nancy Danino.

A must get for any 80s kid.

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An introduction by Marc Collin (Nouvelle Vague's Producer):

Rock and pop have reached and passed the ripe old age of 50... yes, they've aged and now seem to be retracing their steps somewhat to their golden past.

Like Nouvelle Vague, Hollywood, Mon Amour revisits a genre, a period, retaining only the basic skeleton of the songs (melody and lyrics) to demonstrate that by arranging them differently they can take on a new life while still respecting the original. The titles are, certainly for my generation, classics in their genre.

For this project my attention was drawn to the songs featured in the movies of the 80s, those mainly produced in Hollywood... strangely enough, you come across quite a lot of bands from the post punk era whose success led them to writing songs for feature films... Blondie comes to mind, Simple Minds, The Human league, Duran Duran and their godfather, David Bowie. Even if all these songs were a huge success, and will always remain classics, nowadays they suffer from having that typical end of the 80s sound which isn't any longer of our times.

John Barry is hailed by one and all for the film music he composed in the 60s, 70s right up until the 90s, and while Diamonds are Forever or Goldfinger are the first songs that spring to mind, what about A View to A Kill, written like the others for a Bond film in '85 and performed by Duran Duran? Barry's musical star has certainly not waned since then, it's still there, possibly hidden somewhat by (perhaps) a little too much make-up. So, let's imagine what A View to A Kill would have sounded like if Barry had produced it 10 years earlier...

Well, here is not history revisited, but a part of musical history rewritten that all came about while rearranging the songs from the movies of the 80s, each time imagining a different story and a different era. For the project I surrounded myself with the finest voices I have had the pleasure to come across recently: Skye, Juliette Lewis, Cibelle, Yael Naim, Dea Li, Katrine Ottosen, Nadeah, Leelou,Nancy Danino, Bianca Calandra ...

Hollywood, Mon Amour (some people will undoubtedly see an allusion to French cinema here), is a collection of the greatest songs from the movies of the 80s rearranged by Marc Collin, Nouvelle Vague's producer.

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Monsieur Truffle.

In Melbourne, Chocolate havens have been all the rage for quite some time now. In 2008, Australians have spent an estimated 1.4 million dollars on chocolate alone. I suppose that encouraged the growth in the chocolate sector or did the chocolate sector encourage the spending? But which ever it is, egg or chicken first, what is wonderful about these chocolate stores is that they are unabashed about being high end and made for the sophisticated palate.

Monsieur Truffle at 90 Smith St, Collingwood is the featured chocolatier. They started at first in Prahran Market and now they have their own store. I love their interiors, old fashioned green walls, a simple and nostalgic interior; bearing a little resemblance to a cafe in the 70s. They teach chocolate appreciation classes, sell all sorts of chocolates (from single plantations to blends and also those with candied fruits and not forgetting truffles.) and pastry & desserts. This makes an excellent place to have a spot of tea and to have a few pancakes or chocolate treats in an unadulterated gratification to the soul.

 

The interior.

The display counter.

The many types of hand made truffles.

The freshly baked croissants and pastries.

More chocolates for tasting.

Their lovely old-fashioned shelves housing their tea for ones.

The many different types of chocolate bars that they make.

The bigger chocolate bars before they are wrapped.

The wrapped up chocolates. Love their wrapping.

Another view of the delectable chocolate bar.

A few pictures of the different products available.

Erika Kuhn.

First, I must admit, I know nothing about Erika Kuhn except the fact that she is from Mexico and she is an artist. These are some of her work that she has done in moleskins. I love how beautiful they are and feeling that I get from seeing her work. It is almost like seeing Gustav Klimt's work for the first time. 

The difference is that there is more relevance to the modern world in terms of choice of media and tools.

She has a blog and a flickr page both in Spanish.

Check out her other works in her flickr page and be like me; clueless about the artist except for the emotions that her work translates.

Inspiration Boards

Been thinking of getting my own inspiration board for quite a while now. There were so many ideas that popped out, like ornate or simple, magnetic, cork or blackboard? It's so refreshing to have a inspiration board that keeps changing. It's like a piece of evolving "art".

While I am still trying to figure that all out, I've decided to put up some pictures of inspiration boards as well as two pictures that would have definitely made it on my board.

Drew Barrymore's Inspiration Board.

Fiona Richards of Cartolina Cards' Inspiration Board.

Handmade Detroit's Inspiration Board. Love the collage of old and new scraps.

Inspiration Board from Shabby Vintage Mom, an etsy shop. Love the frame and vintage buttons.

Arugula Press's Inspiration Board made from chicken wire. Love how the scraps are pegged on.

Love the picture of this bedroom. Simple and beautiful with a little bit of vintage spirit injected into it.

An old Mitsubishi Fan. Every one that grew up in the 80s would recognise this.