Ambitious Baking

Borthi and I set out to make a checkered cake inspired by one of those cake blogs. It turned out that the cake was light and crumbly, so it would've been hard to form checkers. Instead, we made a layered cake featuring 100,000s :D

Buttercream filling between cakes

We didn't have a cake leveler, so this is how it turned out!

Visiting the chooks to collect a few eggs for the royal icing.

Very proud of our creation!

When we first cut the cake, the layers weren't very distinct, but after I put it in the fridge, it turned out perfect! Next time, that's what I'll do! All in all, a good morning of baking with Borthi. :) I'll drink a whole bottle of water now to balance out the glucose.

Wishlist

When I'm at uni, I develop a habit of not buying the things I want because I'm busy (and I want to save money). Over time, the list of things I want to purchase grows and when it comes to holidays, I'm simply overwhelmed by how much money I would have to spend to obtain those items. I don't want to lose the money I've saved from not buying those things!! My desk was the most urgent thing on my list, so I can gladly tick that one off. I'm a girl, so don't be surprised by the list.

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Yes. Those who know me will know that I don't do makeup. But I'm deciding to give it a shot now. Not for everyday use, but for special occasions. When I've got these things I'll start experimenting. Fingers crossed, because I have no natural talent for doing this.

I saw this for $30 at My Cube! It's a bargain compared to the one sold on the urban decay website.

 Blush Brush for contouring.

I was watching a tutorial on youtube and some guy recommended using a
push brush for eyeliner application. He used it and it looked simple
enough- just push into your eyelashes! I hope it's not expensive.

I'm someone who needs more sleep than the
average person does. As a result of not getting
that, I have dark circles under my eyes.
I hope this works! 

  For contouring + blush.
My face is round, and I have low cheekbones, so I hope this will create more definition!

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Rizzo ate my thongs, so Becki gave me a pair of cheap thongs to wear. I've been wearing them everyday now, and they've worn out. I need a good pair of havaianas so my feet don't die! I also need insoles with good arch support, because I have flat feet. When I walk, my feet roll inwards, which then affects my ITBs and hips. No good. I'd better get onto this fast! Before I die :(

 

Dresses from Popcherry.com - they're so pretty and under $30!!! :DD 

I need togs - my current ones are very small!

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Now, to the electronics!

First, an external monitor. I often need to open lots of articles for my assignments, so it's not convenient swiping back and fourth in my mac. This would defs help a lot!

I don't know if I want this camera in particular (need to do more research), but this is definitely on my wishlist! You would be able to tell from my posts that I love taking photos! There's something special to record your life in images! It's a worthy investment for someone like me. J says that when he has a full time job and a steady income, he'll contribute 60% to it. :') Hopefully that'll be soon! 

These days, I've been wanting to design things, but with no photoshop it's not possible :(  For example, for this blog banner, I've wanted to use a photoshop brush of a splatter or something and put a mask in it of a picture of the rose. On top of that will be a cool font of the blog name. It'll be perfect :') But for now, Picmonkey will do.

Speakers to listen to music when I'm not in my room :D

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J and I went to Kikki.K today (well I dragged him in) and I found this book. Its theme is love. It features quotes (I don't agree with all) with a blank page of pattern on the adjacent side. It's really cute, and if I had it, I would stick polaroids of J and I in it ^_^ That would be cute.

 

Ikea lantern - only $9.99! I would put this on my bedside table.

 

Phew!!! I've probably missed things, but that's it for now!

What's been going on these days?

These couple of weeks have been fairly eventful, with things to do and places to go (as compared to other holidays where I get bored). I was scrolling through Facebook and found a page called Rik Lee Illustration. This person is an amazing artist who features realistic drawings of females, tattoos, animals. Taking a particular linking towards the style, I decided to see if I could replicate one of the simpler pictures. 

I hadn't picked up a pencil to do a proper drawing in years, so it was a hit/miss kind of thing. It turned out alright - I didn't need to use a rubber yay! If I had, I would've fixed up the eyes instead of drawing on top of my mistakes haha it looks like she has really thick eyeliner! Nonetheless, I enjoyed this activity and decided to do more these holidays. 

The next day I woke up and just started drawing!

   This sketch turned into a watercolour artwork! I went to get watercolour pencils to colour it in and paint over it. I think it turned out quite well! :) 

I can identify with 'the hermit' - enjoying staying at home, chilling, reading with
a cup of hot chocolate/tea :)

Jeffy and I replicated the same picture as a competition haha. We clearly have different artistic styles, so it was
interesting to see how the picture would turn out. 

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It was also CNY a couple of days ago, so J and I decided to head off to have yumcha and visit our Chinese roots. There weren't many people there (as children have gone back to school), so it was a stress-free situation!

My favourite egg tart - crispy and buttery :D

The arrival of February brought about a sense of excitement as my mum's birthday approaches. I suggested to organise a celebration with her friends, and she happily agreed. She's always been a fan of Hong Kong style BBQ, so we decided to have a test run in our backyard. We borrowed the BBQ from our friend and got some firestarters going. It actually went really well, as we could test things out and get a great meal out of it. The menu consisted of sausages, meat + cuttlefish balls, crab sticks, chicken wings + drumsticks, prawns, pork, steak topped off with honey + lemon lime bitters. We had a lot of fun!

Charles came along after his own dinner and we had a nice time :) He was matching clothes with Jeffy
(on accident haha)

Jeffy is looking for a new car to buy and found a potential car online. Today we went to the seller's home to check out the car. It was a very good drive performance-wise, but in terms as aesthetics, not as nice as the Type R. We decided to use this trip as an opportunity to visit the beach and get some sunshine!

It is finished!

A year ago, on the 1st of February 2013, Jeff and I commenced this "read-the-bible-in-a-year plan". It involved reading 3-4 chapters of the Old Testament and 2-3 chapters of the New Testament each day for one year. This challenge was prompted by my wise and godly sunday school teacher. She said, "how can you call yourself a Christian if you haven't even read the whole bible at least once?" I couldn't agree more. It got me thinking of how to achieve this. I talked to J and he suggested choosing a random website on google. This was the one (highly recommended). It lets you choose which day to start reading, what version of the bible you want to read and how to split up the passages (e.g. OT --> NT or OT/NT each day). N

Now, I had tried to stick to reading the bible previously, but I had never really succeeded. I was always "too tired" or "couldn't be bothered". It was a leap of faith as I asked God to help me persevere with this. At first, J and I kept ourselves going by assigning a 'punishment' to the one who forgot/skipped a day of reading (shouting the other person green tea ice-cream). However, as we did our bible reading day-by-day, it got easier, and eventually we fell into a routine of doing so. I admit that I skipped about six days of reading, and Jeffy only skipped out on one or two. Rain or shine, travel or home, energetic or sleepy, joyful or angry, the bible had been read!

Here are some screenshots of the last few passages of the bible: 

Malachi 4

Revelation 22

I remember during a sermon from a while ago, someone said words along the lines of this: "Isn't it amazing that the Old Testament ends with God bringing about a curse on men. Compare that to how the New Testament ends in Revelation - it ends with a blessing of Jesus' grace upon the saints (those who accept Christ as their Lord and Saviour). The gospel (what God has done for man in Jesus Christ) has turned a curse into a blessing. We have been pardoned from the penalty of our sin (death), and given something we do not deserve (eternal life with our Creator God) - all due to the infinite love of God." 

So what now? Personally, I plan to study the bible in more depth. Reading the bible through this plan has given me an overview of the bible, but now is the time for detail. I will use my application bible to study shorter passages and meditate on God's word. Ignite strand group #2 definitely sparked a curiosity for the area of biblical theology and the Old Testament in me. I'm now reading the Goldsworthy Trilogy by Greame Goldsworthy, a theological professor in these two areas! I'm nearly finished the first book Gospel in Kingdom, and it has helped me develop a greater understanding of how the different epochs (periods of time/era) in the bible all point to the gospel. Biblical Theology is the process of interpreting what the bible says, and that's what I aim to do this year (at least). It's a pretty ambitions goal, but then again, reading the bible in one year was too! 

For those struggling to read the bible, especially the dryer sections, the more you read, meditate, understand and apply, the more you will thirst for the Word of God. It is our spiritual food, which gives us strength to live out our lives in a joy, faith and hope that only comes from our Father in heaven.

Sweet Treats

A couple of nights ago, Huldah and I went to this little cafe, Sweet Treats. It recently opened, so I suggested for us to go there. It was really nice inside, with cute little decorations around the place. The stuff on the menu wasn't too pricey, and since it closes late, it's a good place to sit down and have a chat.