Yeah~ strawberry season is back!

Finally, the strawberries are back! The last time I saw them was last winter and since then, I cant find a single strawberry in this country...

 My brunch today, strawberries with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. Yummy~!

Poochi was ecstatic too, coz he finally get to eat his fave strawberries after so long. The silly thing even gobbled up the some of the leaves before I got the chance to take it out. Back in SG, it was his daily fruit and my parents would called him "Strawberry" coz he respond to it better than his own name. Thus, his nickname "Strawberry"...

Will be resuming my Hebrew lesson tomorrow after a LONG break. Been trying to revise all that I had learn so far coz I have forgotten almost everything. The saying, "If u don't use it, you will lose it" is so true somehow...

Went out for dinner with Hubby and the guys and ended up talking about really crap stuffs like armpit hair, toilet habits, farting, etc...But it was real funny and I cant stop laughing about it even when I reached home...haha...Thinking about it still cracks me up.... : D

'The Help' Movie and book review

Discovered that there is actually a movie based on the book 'The Help' which I read just recently and I goto watch it!
Emma Stone played the role of Miss Skeeter, think she is just too pretty for the role and not really what I imagined Miss Skeeter to be. Other than that, the rest of the characters fit their roles v well, esp the role of Miss Hilly and Miss Leefolt. Although it's not as detailed as the book and missing out quite a lot of scenes, it still managed to bring across the important message of racial prejudice and freedom. Even though the setting of the story is in 1960s, I feel it's still very relevant in today's society. Racial prejudice will always exist and it does not just limit to the colour of our skin. Even with the same skin colour, people can also be discriminated based on their educational level, birthplace, religion, job, etc.
This book opened up two perspective of thoughts, one on enslavement due to skin colour and the other is the enslavement of the mind. Although we can't change the colour of our skin (unless u are Michael Jackson), it is possible to change how our minds think. To free one's mind is perhaps one of the most important and also the hardest of all.

Cold and gloomy....

I have been slacking alot recently, in no mood to do anything but eat and sleep. The weather had been getting colder and gloomier, same as my moods nowadays...
I have decided to sworn off vodka for good after getting a really bad hangover a few days ago puking 3 times and feeling like someone had bashed my head in with a bat. Made me realized I almost killed myself with alcohol poisoning. Anyway, vodka dun even taste nice.
Been reading this book called "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett on my ipad for the past few days. Its so good that I wish I can continue reading it and never reached the ending. Definitely one of the best books I read so far this year! :)

curry puff mania and new projects

Ended up making a lot of curry puffs yesterday. This time round, I used store bought pastry for the puffs. Its SO much easier and taste even better. The ready made pastry was already cut into round shapes and the size was just nice.

With this pastry, the puffs turned out light and crispy, yum~! Think I made about 20+ puffs, can eat till I 'peng' and grow sick of curry puffs (hope not coz I love curry puffs).

My latest creation is this cosmetic bag that I had been making for the past 3 days. Could take even longer if not for my new sewing buddy, the sewing machine. Everything was sewn using the machine except for the pink bias tape. I just can't sew it using the machine coz its so difficult, end up I just hand sew the pink tape all around the edge of the bag.

I made the bag according to the instructions in this Jap magazine called "Cotton Time", which I asked Ah Teck to help me buy when he was in Japan. Its such an AWESOME magazine, and I LOVE everything featured inside and wish I could make them all. Although its in Japanese, there are many pics to illustrate how it was made, so it wasn't much of a problem. The magazine comes with a small piece of fabric for making the bag as shown but its so small and doesn't give any room for errors.

I added a zipper on top

Ta-da~ final product!

Essie nail polish

I am trying to make an effort to start the day earlier since winter time had 'eaten' much of daylight hours. The sun starts to set at about 4pm here.

Recently, been having an obsession with dark nail polish. No longer do I like pinkish or light beige nail colour as I find them too girlish and young for me.

Above are some nail polish I got from the last US trip. I love essie coz they have some very nice range of colours with some very cool names.From the left, Sally Hanson's Gunmetal, Sexy Divine, Its A Genius, Trophy Wife, Wicked, and Wrapped In Rubies.I am currently wearing Wicked, a dark brown colour with a tinge of red. (second bottle on the right from Sandy the nail filer) So far, its my fave one.

More cute pics of Poochi in a cowboy/sheriff costume,

Luckily, it fits him just nice

Got it from Target during the Halloween season. It comes with a hat, a red bandana, and the costume even had a gun holster at the side, so cute....haha....

Lunch at Little Prague

There was a farewell lunch today at a Czech restaurant in Tel Aviv for some of Hubby's colleagues who will be going back home at the end of this month. This is the first time I tried Czech cuisines. Turned out I have discovered a hidden gem in this country.

Entrance of the restaurant

As usual, the traffic in Tel Aviv was insane and we were caught in a jam. Think driving in this country can really drive someone crazy. I dont drive here unless I wana kill someone or get myself killed.
Anyway, back to the food. The wonderful thing about Czech cuisine is that its not kosher. They served roast pork, barbequed pork ribs and pork knuckles. In fact, after I did some research online, I found that Czech food are famous for being unhealthy, high in fat and calories. Of course, I dont mind it at all. I'm so glad I found a place that served meat with diary products and pork. Finally, some decent food!

 For myself, I ordered cordon bleu, which is pork/chicken wrapped with cheese and ham, the whole thing breaded and fried, served with salad and rice. For the beer, I chosed their Czech beer called Pilsner Urquell. Turned out to be bit too bitter for me, so I changed to Edelweiss, a wheat beer which had a lighter sweeter taste.

Hubby ordered roasted pork Knuckles served with knedlik (Czech steam white bread) The bread tasted quite nice to me.

Overall, I had a great lunch and a great time, especially becoz WH was not around today as he was busy entertaining Edna somewhere in the northern part of Israel. It was nice chatting freely over good food and beer without hearing his 'noise pollution'

Crafting time!

Had finally recovered fully from my flu and cough. Its terrible being sick, nothing is more important than having good health to me, coz without it, its not possible to enjoy life at all.
Winter came early in Israel this year. Good for me coz I like winter :) We havent activate the heater yet as the temperature is about 21 degree celsius inside the house but outside is about 17 degree. It had been dropping by about 0.1 degrees everyday. Ever since I came back from Denver, think my tolerance to cold has increased. Been wearing a sweater and socks at night now, so now is just waiting to see who can't stand the cold first and on the heater, haha...

Below are some pics of the sewing stash I gotten during this US trip.

 Bought all these fat quarters from Walmart, its less than $1 USD each, so cheap!

 Also ordered from fabrics from an etsy seller living in Orlando to send it to the P.O box. I loved the pac man print and the tiny house prints

 Some other fabrics from Walmart and Jo-Ann stores.

 A bunch of ribbons, lace and trimmings

 The sewing machine I hand carried back. Its a Brother XL 2600i, with 25 types of stitches, can do embroidery and make button holes (haven figured that out yet) Took me a while to finally be able to start using it.

 The first project I did with the sewing machine was this pouch to put my 3DS. Actually, it took me about the same time to sew on the machine compared to sewing it by hand since I was still trying to figure out how to work the machine. It can be very frustrating....

For the interior lining, I used a multi coloured dots fabric.

 I also try sewing vinyl fabrics and this is my first water-proof pouch. Sewn it by hand coz I wasnt very sure how to sew it with the machine and also dun wana re-adjust the configurations again.

Bought the vinyl fabric from an etsy seller in China. It looks exactly like the Lesportsac, Artist in Residence print. Think its called Jeremyville or something. Anyway, I like this print very much.

 Yes! I have finally upgrade from my first generation clamshell DS to the latest Nintendo 3DS at last! The only game I MUST play is Professor Layton, which sadly, only released a new game once a year. So, I am playing my current game as slowly as possible...

 This time round, I din buy anything much from Coach except for this small coin pouch. Think I had enough Coach bags already.

Oh yah, I cant resist getting this plushie from Barnes and Noble. It had been like decades since I stepped into a bookstore. End up I din buy any books but a plushie and his name is Bear in Underwear.

He even had a story. Haha...its so funny :)

US trip -Orlando, Colorado and Utah- Part 6 (Final)

 Last day of Disney was at EPCOT, which stands for experimental prototype community of tomorrow. Was late afternoon by the time we got there, as I needed more rest in the hotel, so din get to take most of the rides as all FASTPASS were over by afternoon.

Posing with the iconic golf ball. There's actually a ride inside it and it was quite fun.

There was a food and wine festival at EPCOT, so we went around all the foodstalls set up by the different countries in the world. Surprisingly, we spotted Singapore.

Was kinda disappointed by the food on sale. I dun really feel shrimp cakes with Singapore noodles or beef rendang as iconic Singapore food. I was hoping for chilli crabs or chicken rice....

 Other countries include Japan,

 Germany, France,

 Italy, England, Ireland, Spain,

 China

 Norway (a viking restaurant),

and Mexico.

It was like an international pasar malam with food stalls and restaurants from all over the world. Lotsa people, nice smell of food in the air and a festive ambience to the whole place.

The night ended with illuminations fireworks display over a lake.

Next day at Kennedy's Space Center, which is about an hr's drive from Orlando

 The rocket garden

Hubby posing with a signboard. If the four other guys in his team were there, it would have complete the picture...haha..

To end it off, here's some cute pics of Poochi in his new halloween costume. Seems like he had a great time at Uncle Moshe's Farm as he is looking well and happy when we fetched him. Guess he must have missed his doggy friends now....