The countdown : 10 days

Countdown to the festivity : 10 days to the eve
My demon bake ! The most difficult bake will have to be this Kuih Bangkit, it's part of Nyonya delicacy, Kuih Bangkit as in Coconut Cream Cookies or literally translated to Rise Cookies takes days ahead to prepare and I need to be prepared mentally to embark on this " melt-in-the-mouth" cookies. So for the third year, I am with my obsession again and some how my dough didn't felt good to begin with. The recipe said knead into a pliable dough and how pliable is pliable when I have not seen one ? Unlike many people who had this hands me down recipe, I had none, for the women from my mom and her generations are the liberal women who actually had careers and don't actually sweat it out in the kitchen.  I failed to obtain that "melt-in-the-mouth" texture, thou it's very aromatic from the coconut cream this round, so something is rightly done here, it's just that I failed miserably to achieve that  "melt-in-the-mouth" texture. However the cookies improved with a decent softness the next day. Threw away what remains of the dough after two trays. Sigh!

Nian Gao - Always, there is some thing new that caught my interest.

The Sticky Glutinous Cake is a welcome sight every Chinese New Year and it only appears once a year. Traditionally it is a must have in every household as it symbolize progress, advancement and growth. I made my first Nian Gao this year instead of buying from the market. The process is said to be tedious, well, not after one tried at baking the Kuih Bangkit. The hardest is getting the sugar to caramelize to a certain degree (great amount of patient here)  to obtain that distinctive color so to pass it onto the Nian Gao when it's done, and the next is most probably time, it takes about 3 to 4 hours of steaming and constantly checking the water on the steamer meaning no sneaking out of the house for a Starbucks grande.  I think I am addicted to this !

Project Pyjamas, a charity drive by NWUKMSIA (Nordic Walk UK-Malaysia) to raise awareness for a little bedtime comfort for the children in the foster homes or orphanages held  at our Perdana Botani Lake Garden on the last weekend of January. It's been ages since I went for a walk or a jog at this garden in the city. This was a  fun  Charity project, with people coming in all sorts of their ideal pyjamas wear.  SpongeBob , Mickey and Minion print Pjs including some traditional PJs  appeared on the scene that morning; spotted also a lady in robe and rollers in her hair, a lady in kaftan, some sporting guys in their sarongs and even teddy bears came along too. The shy ones are in tee and trousers or short. Mommies and kids came too and the seniors came in a groups. The charity drive is aimed at providing pyjamas for the kids in orphanages and the walk is open to the public by registration.

The Lake in the park

 The stream

Cascading waters

The weather was beautiful, the sun came out late which made the walk even more pleasant

 Jaimis who went with me found the clown who made each of us  a baloon crown, LOL 

Spotted too are these few ladies who came in their make-believe see thru lingerie 

My last bake will be the crunchy seaweed crackers which is house favorite and a cake to bake and getting the house ready for the festivity in 10 days. I still have the curtains to sew and my "cai" to put up.

Thank you Carol, Vickie, Brigitte and Meari for visiting and  leaving me your sweet comments in my last post. Seriously, I will need to improve the shape of my Doggie Cookies.

My Cherry Blossom wreath is done Brigitte only that  I will need some help in getting a good photoshoot of the wreath , hopefully I have another last blog post before I take a break for the festivity 

Till then, take care everyone and have a wonderful weekend

The time of the year has come

It's been weeks since my last blog post and that long too since I last went on my blog rounds. It's the time of the year indeed, lots to do, work is hectic as usual this time of the year and it's bad time too for upgrading the company's software, but  the boss insisted now rather than a month later. It's not easy especially when this old brain of mine has finally found  a comfort zone and to start all over again, feeling dreadful here.

Chinese New Year or the Lunar New Year falls on February 8th this year and the firm will be close for the whole week, which means I am off from the 6th until 14th, Valentine's day. Big smile here, LOL. Spring cleaning began slowly some two weeks ago. Every year, during spring cleaning I discarded lots of load and yet there's so much to throw out again this year. Now, how did all those stuff gets accumulated ??? Seriously, I don't have a clue !

Red in Chinese New Year is an expression of joy. Hanging red lantern are believed to drive off bad luck and couplets ; couplets are brush works of Chinese calligraphy in black ink on red paper placed either on both side of the front doors or on the door to symbolize  good luck or bring luck and auspiciousness in the Chinese culture. I never hang couplets but  an eighteen feet red sash on my front entrance, a traditional practiced from my side of the family for as long as I can remember .

I changed the curtains too, store bought this year, a chiffon with needle punch embroidery in moroon red with a tinge of bluish discarding the white semi-sheer lightweight from two years ago. The staircase gets a dressup too with those  ornaments . Now let's hope my lil' Princess Milo don't get the idea that I have put up some toys for her to play.

Going a little out of tradition this year, I baked for the first time Cinnamon cookies. You'll find this recipe from All Recipe.com . My Seaweed crackers is half done and am planning a pineapple tart later of the week.

Some crafting news, for the first time I finished this crocheted tunic in two weeks. I didn't have enough yarns in my stash and opted for this simple pattern where the yarns was just sufficient to complete this. I added two doily motifs just to give it a bit of a something to look at. 

Yarn : Cotton Juicy Boucle (Blue (5)) from Daiso

Something small I finished this January

A chart named Brin de Bonheur a freebie found   Here

I missed calculated and doubt I have enough space for the wordings

A round robin, my theme of Winter Home from a long ago rounds when I was still with a local group. It holds great memories from these wonderful ladies,  Anna, Margaret and especially Janet. Although it's been some two years or three ? since the dreadful cancer took Janet's life, yet I can still vividly remembers her warmth and kind smile that drew people to her, she will always be remembered.

This is something I need to ponder during the long holidays as to what I should do with the space below the houses. Thot of adding the lace did came to mind, will see how it goes and what sets my mood by then.

Had a three days weekend  last and I took mom out for some festive shopping. We had some me time and she even agreed to play along with some selfies with the festive decorations in the mall before we had lunch at Nandos.

Nando's Specialty Grilled Chicken Cataplana for mom

Mushroom soup with garlic bread for both of us

and I had the Chicken wrap

Something I missed out from my trip to Koh Lipe island.  While at the Walking Street, we found this little one man craft shop who crafted these  and both mother and daughter was spoilt by choice before we finally hauled these home.

That's it for now, doubt I'll have time to squeeze another update before the festival and so till then, take care everyone, especially those effected by the dreaded snow storms, stay warm please and stay safe, while those experiencing the heat wave like us here, drink lots and lots of water .

Till I see you next, have a good rest of the week.

September,

I thought I would have a bit more of me time in September with Diane in hostel.
I thought I would have more time to concentrate on crafting since I no longer have to chauffer her around and wait on her. I thought I  could also keep up with blogging and my blog rounds. But no, I just don't know how the time went by so quickly leaving me feeling a little lost for not being able to finish what I had planned. There was so much to do without actually accomplished anything worth mentioning except those that came with a deadline like the Halloween Mail Art and my Red Hexa SAL. By the way, Diane is home on sem break for a week but she will have her stuff to keep her busy.

Speaking of which, I am a little worried that I still have no news of the Mail Art reaching it's new home. It flew slightly over two weeks now and the postie track and trace records at my end here recorded it boarded the plane on 15 September, until todate the destination postal department has not provided a feedback on their delivery status.

September has been depressing, imagine waking up in the morning with a blurry skyline . I thought it was my eyesight that's failing. But the sky is shrouded with a thick pall of smoke and smelling burnt of organic material . Our air quality in recent weeks  deteriorated  and worsen tremendously with the prevailing winds continued to blow haze from the Sumatra fire. The light thunder shower in the late morning and early afternoon only provide temporary respite. The sad part is that this is becoming  like an annual haze season for us which should never even have existed, if only 'the government concerned' had exercise some form of enforcement and worked their MOA. At one point the Air Pollutant index breached over 200 in unhealthy mark that forced schools to closed.

Our skies turned grey, smokey and gloomy.

The effect of haze exposure may caused a variety of adverse condition where health is concerned
and thus forcing people to abandon outdoor activities. Sadly the thunder showers in the late morning and early afternoon is not enough to overcome the situation.

This was mid morning at the Lake Gardens when the sun should be shining brightly and full of joggers and children in the playground but now looking almost deserted.

The eight moon has come again, according to the Chinese Lunar Calendar. It's celebrating the moon , known as Mooncake Festival or Lantern Festival that falls on last Sunday

I bake my mooncake again

no Jelly mooncake this year

The before and after bake

Traditional Mooncake with White Lotus paste and Single Egg Yolk

I haven't been into any serious baking lately

I received a box of mooncakes by RT Pastry House which look like the Penang Tau Sar Peh that's worth giving a mentioned because it's not shaped like the traditional ones.

Thanks to Edwin

Four more done for the month of September

My hexies now totaling 37/52

Found this Mooncake box from Baker's Cottage Bakery to display

Vincent bought me this when I asked him to check it out at Kino two weeks ago

Me and some crafting ladies; June, Margaret W, BJ and Jackie finally had our long awaited meet-up when we decided to go stashing at Spotlight at IPC Centre

Here's my haul

All kinds of stitching and paper craft notions including a ball of  Patons Cotton in Off Cream

for doily crochet for SuSee. I'm not a doily person actually, I think I had enough of it along time ago.

 MW also became the 'unofficially Spotlight spokeperson' for these grinder cum shaker

She's so convincingly good and I am sold without second thoughts, LOL

A lil'surprised from MW.

Open lid Mason Jar

Endless possibilities

Some books I picked up this month

I'm very sure  I don't have these titles

A black tunic lacy blouse I started 2 years ago finally saw me finishing it a week ago

This is before wash

An afternoon English Tea at TWG Tea at Sunway Pyramid earlier of the month with Alice and Kimmi

A new toy, my smoothie blender

A visit to an Aunt, DH's who now occupy the ancestral home had me wondered into her garden. Besides growing vegetables, I found this rose bush

and this sweet pink daisy

I am currently working on my Annual Exchange, hopefully I get it completed by December this year, so that's WIP for now.

That's all I can squeeze in for this month. Hopefully in the coming weeks I get to be a little more regular with my blog rounds and with my blog post.

Here's my furbaby snuggled up on a seemingly cold, gloomy day. Even she stays indoors a lot lately.

Wishing you beautiful bright skies where ever you may be.

Chilly June

When it's Summer in Northern Hemisphere and Winter in Southern Hemisphere, we are experiencing  rain, at times heavy downfall and so the days can be chilly, at times chilled me to the bone in the office when the air-conditioning is in full blast and in away it awaken the lazy bones in me.

  

No stitching of lately, procrastinating a lot actually and it's June already.

 Towards the end of May I  manage to drag myself to put this on my drawing board.

The Pincushion Teapot, freebie design by Red Brolly . It's been so long on my to do list.

I envision it to be difficult just by looking for some weeks but it turned out that the tutorial was  a joy to follow. I omitted sewing the side seams not on purpose, I simply forgot . Added a little embellishment on the teapot cover and a tea tag. It wasn't perfect, I had hidden flaws and I tweaked a bit differently for both the Spout and the Handle.

We are having mango season, and it's always a joy to have fresh cut mangos with Sticky Glutinous rice and savoury Coconut milk or Mango Sago Pearls in Coconut Milk.

Can never have enough of mangos, yumz !

Both are good tea time desserts

I also bake a couple of cupcakes, these are Ferror Rochas Cuppies, just add the Ferror Rochas to your favourite cake batter and you are done. Mine is Passion Fruit, because a neighbour gave me some really large fruits and it's been in the fridge for over a week already.  I had some plain ones for mom actually whom was going away on a trip so she could munch in case she got hungry in her journey and some extras for her friends who was travelling with her.

My knitted tunic for Diane's is finally done. If you remembered about me posting  this knitted tunic some many months back, like a year or so. Another UFO done with.

The Red Hexa SAL, four more flowers done for the month of May. I am contemplating to start piercing the flowers together now or should I wait till I am all done with 52 flowers. Still thinking !

I hear the falling rain on the roof and it's heavy, there's  loud thundering too that doesn't sound too distance away, which means the rain will stay for some hours. Like always never like rain especially when it's near time to knock off from work.

That's all for now, have a good week ahead everyone and thank you for coming by with your inspiring comments.

Spring is here, the festivity

(* A re-post)

I made a short trip back to my hometown when Diane had an appoinment with the British Council there as she couldn't get the earliest appointment here. So a blessing in disguise for me. I've not been home for some three or four years now thou it's only like 4  hours drive.

Some photos here of my hometown up North, Penang Island. This is the 2nd bridge across the South Channel completed not so long ago and our first trip accrossed.

Sultan Abdul Halim Mu'adzam Shah Bridge, popularly called the Second Penang Bridge, is a 24-kilometer bridge linking Penang Island to the Mainland. 

Sharing here are some of the creative works that makes Georgetown or Penang as it is commonly known unique. Penang has been inscripted as a World Heritage Site.  Street Art and Wire scriptures can be found on walls on a certain part of the streets, thanks to the awesome efforts of Lithuanian artist, Ernest Zacharevic, Russian artist, Julia Volchova (I only know the names of these two for now.The artworks are funny, fascinating, and very much open to everyone’s interpretations with your camera

 Would you ride away or help the kids to some steaming hot 'pau' (dumplings)?

 Can you imagine yourself as the pillon rider or would you be chasing after it ?

 Larger than life, on a wall of a 4 or 5 storey building

 Would you kindly give this boy a lift?

The artist, Ernest Zacharevic getting a ride or is he trying to get off?

Some interesting wire sculptures that have been created to illustrate the meaning and essence within Penang.  

(Images from google seach, since these arts now one of the most photographs, you can see more by just google : Penang Street Arts)

Penang Road is the most famous street and the life of the city. You still feel the disparate influences not only in the wide array of historic architecture – grand colonial edifices, colorful temples devoted to various deities and Asia’s finest preserved shop-houses – but also the food.

 KOMTAR, the tallest building on the island

Loke Thye Kee,  an iconic building built circa 1929 and located right in the heart of George Town, it used to house the oldest restaurant in Penang looking new to me

An iconic landmark, the Kek Loke Si Temple

The paradise, I can't recalled the countless times I strolls along Batu Feringgi Beach’s golden sand. I so missed the beach here.

A peek onto the beach from the Shangri-La Rasa Sayang Resort

A shortcut view of other attractions on the island

Before we had the bridge, (now we have two ) the only way to get over to the island from the mainland is the ferry, the ferry to me that I knew when I was a kid was all yellow. I believed there's only two of it's kind. The other one is in Hongkong?

over the years, the ferry has been given a new coat of paint and looking colorful from it's original color. Seriously, I don't like it's new color (my opinion )

~ Back to the festivity ~

Some bakes for the festivity. I was late with my bakes, the case of so much to do so little time. I started baking only  a week before the eve of the festivity which had me still baking on the last two nights before the eve and spring cleaning cum decorating the house. 

The traditional must have of it won't be Chinese New Year

This I did no bake, Kueh Kapit is too much of a hassle for me.

Cornflakes Honey

Doggie Horlicks requested by Diane

 Pineapple Tarts concluded my baking. Sorry no photos as I was already in a rush.

Some photos I took a peek at the KKB district organising the Chinese New Year Festivity for it's townfolk

 The longest Yee Sang tossing and some performances

 On the third day of Chinese New Year, I made this fragrant sweet and colourful Bubur Cha Cha dessert. It's coconut milk with slices of  pumpkin and sweet potatoes, yam and sago (tapioca pearls)

Time flies, today is the 6th day of Welcoming the Spring and another week or so, the festivity ends.

I must thank Carol, Vickie, Lumiruusu and June (Butterfly Wings) for your comments. I must appologize to you for you must be wondering glueless at my post for the missing discriptions to my photos earlier. Truly very sorry that I got this posted then instead on draft when I had to leave  on a lunch appoitment without realizing that my supposingly drafted post  got posted.  I thank you for your kind and wonderful comments . Now this is complete at least for now or this post is going to be endless and that might put you off reading. LOL!

Have a good week everyone, thank you all for your sweet comments in my last post. Hopefully life returns to normal after the festivity to enable me to visit yours and me to get some crafting done.