Bridesmaid Dresses 101

When I got hitched 19 years ago, I didn't get my bridesmaids proper bridesmaid dresses.  I had a fairly simple wedding and my bridesmaids wore simple yet elegant dresses of their own. There was no theme for my wedding either. Generation X weddings were pretty simple back then.  Fast forward many years later to weddings of the millenials and we welcome an exciting era of themed bridesmaid dresses, personalized wedding favors, chi chi wedding themes and venues, wedding planners, extreme wedding shoots and all the bells and whistles to make a wedding feel like a wedding made in heaven 😅

There are many things to consider when choosing your bridesmaid’s dresses. You need to consider the most flattering shapes, the color scheme, the theme. the venue and whether there is one style fits all solution. It can be a challenge appeasing all your bridesmaids but it's not that difficult if you know where to shop for bridesmaid dresses.

If you’re a bride on a budget, check out BM Bridal for the perfect bridesmaid dresses. With hundreds of fashion essentials and unique fashion insight, this site is the best place to find trend-led bridesmaid dresses at affordable prices.  There's no need to worry about the sizing of the dresses as there is a Custom Measurements feature at the site where you can key in your specific measurements and the dress will be customized to your measurements.  Isn't this just awesome?

Navy doesn’t just have to be for winter, this one-shoulder piece in flair long skirt from BM Bridal is light and breezy and your bridesmaids will be able to move it and shake it all night long! I so love this dress!



I can’t promise you won’t get jealous of your bridesmaids in this gorgeous cold shoulder Maxi Dress in burgundy from BM Bridal. The glittery straps and waist are wedding perfection.



I also couldn’t resist this simple yet elegant flounce sleeves maxi dress in sunny yellow from BM Bridal for all the same reasons…



Choosing a look for your best pals on your big day is equal parts fun, funny and stressful.  In 2019, it's all about bold colors and statement detailing, so prepare to gasp when you see some of these looks at BMbridal.com 😊

Ipoh Trip (Monday, 3 June 2019)

We were supposed to return to KL on Monday but the boss gave us one more day in Ipoh. The girls and I were elated! 😁 One more day in Ipoh meant more time to spend with my parents, more Ipoh food for us to tuck into and more time to relax in my hometown.  We would have to wait for another 5-6 months before our next trip back to Ipoh. The second half of the year is always the toughest for the girls and especially me.  I wanted a longer break to fully rest my mind, body and soul before I head back to battle zone KL.  I don't need expensive overseas holidays. A simple few days in Ipoh with my parents, tucking into all my favorite Ipoh food and just slothing around doing bugger all is sufficient to make me a very happy girl. I am pretty low maintenance 😉

Since we have one more glorious day in Ipoh, the boss announced his plan for Monday on Sunday night, which is to have dim sum breakfast at 9 a.m. and the girls and I went "WHAT?  SO EARLY ON A HOLIDAY? EEEEEYERRRR!!!!"  Since the boss said so, we all dutifully dragged our butts out of bed by 8 a.m to get ready to head over to Ipoh's Dim Sum Street with high hopes of getting a table for 11 pax at Ming Court Hong Kong Dim Sum.  No such luck for us as the restaurant was filled to the brim, so we ambled a few steps away to Yoke Fook Moon Dim Sum.








Check out how humongous the 'tai pau' is juxtaposed with the normal size paus.



Love this stir-fried fish noodles with bean sprouts, carrot strips and eggs.




As we walked out of Ming Court Dim Sum, we chanced upon a rare sighting ~ of a ting-ting candy man in action!




Ting-ting sweets are traditionally made from white sugar, maple syrup, honey and glutinous rice. The Chinese call it Gui Fei sweets (concubine sweets) because only the emperor’s concubines consumed these delicacies back in the dynasty days. It gives you a sugar high, but what harm is an occasional candy, eh? But I didn't get any ting-ting candy for the girls as they are not fans of sweets and candies.

After breakfast, it was free and easy afternoon for everyone. Hubs had a gathering with his ertswhile school mates while I went retail therapy with the girls for over 4 hours -- we shopped at our own pace at every store that enticed us, sat down to sip and savor every drop of our Tealive milk tea (this time I didn't choke on the grass jelly!), and had a leisurely lunch. This is something that we could hardly indulge in back at our battle field.  It's always a mad rush from one activity to another back in KL and shopping can only be done within 2 hours on a weekday morning before abruptly leaving the mall to drop off Sherilyn in school.


Despite a heavy dim sum breakfast, the 3 piranhas with bottomless pits could still scarf down Korean food for lunch! And then had boba tea!

After dinner at Sun Marpoh Restaurant, we had Haagen Dazs ice-cream to celebrate Father's Day in advance.


Me with the two fathers in my life and my gorgeous 73-year old mum.

Traipsing Around Ipoh And Tucking Into Good Food (Sunday, 2 June 2019)

Our road trip back to Ipoh during the school cum pre-Hari Raya holidays was surprisingly smooth. The KL-Ipoh trip was delayed by about 20 minutes by the bottleneck at Slim River. Other than that, traffic was pretty smooth. Weather was chilly and we were freezing in the car.

Breathtaking foggy hills scenery towards Ipoh...


Our trip back to KL on the eve of Hari Raya was super smooth all the way and we reached KL in under 2 hours. Thank God!

Our lunch on Sunday was at Thean Chun kopitiam, one of the most popular kopitiams in Ipoh located at the hottest tourist spot in Ipoh. Again, we were lucky as we got a table in under 10 minutes despite the crazy crowd.   A visit to Ipoh will not be complete without tucking into a bowl or two of Ipoh 'kai si hor fun' at Thean Chun or Kong Heng kopitiam. These two kopitiams are located alongside one another. Across the road is the famed Concubine Lane.







After our satisfying lunch, we segued into Concubine Lane.  The girls love walking down this lane, checking out queer knick-knacks, costume jewelry, snacks, rainbow toasts, colorful ice-balls, trinkets and much more.



Then we had white coffee and milk tea at Lim's Delights White Coffee, located just next to Concubine Lane.




You'll be greeted by impressive wall murals when you walk along the roads of Ipoh Old Town. This time we noticed a new wall mural, painted by Ernest Zacharevic, the Lithuanian artist in Penang who has made quite a name for himself from his interesting wall murals in Penang.  OldTown White Coffee recently unveiled a series of murals painted by renowned artist Ernest Zacharevic in conjunction with the Art of Old Town project.



This above mural can be found on Jalan Market off Jalan Bijih Timah.



Around the same location, we spotted this beautiful wall mural on local fruits.





Then the hubs brought us on a joyride around Ipoh old town and new town, revisiting all our childhood places, including his old alma mater and mine.

Above: St Michael's Institution. Hubs spent his primary and secondary school years with my older brother in this school.

Next stop was at the pomelo stall at Tambun to get some pomelos.



On our way home in the car, I casually mentioned to the hubs that the entrance fee to the Movie Animation Park Studios (MAPS) in Meru is now FREE and guess what? We made an unplanned visit to MAPS and all of us were totally not prepared for the half day visit to the theme park!  Cass only had flip flops and an old faded tee on. Fortunately I had a pair of super comfy Hush Puppies sandals and walked the entire theme park without an ache on my feet 😁

Restaurant Sek Me Choy

After a scrumptious lunch at The Farm Foodcraft followed by calorie-laden yummo desserts at Sunbather Coffee, I was stunned when, on my drive back from evening service at the church, the hubs suggested going out for dinner.  We would usually skip dinner and have something really light and easy in the evening after a heavy lunch.  He hadn't decided where to bring us for dinner though and after a lazy evening Sunday drive around KL, he remembered a famous 'tai chow' restaurant in Salak South that serves really good traditional Chinese dishes. The hubs used to patronize Sek Me Choy with his pals after basketball matches but it's the first time for the rest of us.




Sek Me Choy is well known for their signature pepper Bak Kut Teh.  Sek Me Choy’s Bak Kut Teh has a history of more than 20 years. It is one of the first shops in Malaysia to start making pepper Bak Kut Teh. In 2006, it was chosen as one of the “Top 20 National Kings of Bak Kut Teh”.

Sek Me Choy's pepper Bak Kut Teh is reminiscent of pig's stomach and intestines pepper soup.  As it was our first time tasting it, we were confused as to why it's called Bak Kut Teh when the soup tasted like pig's innards hot pepper soup. Instead of using pig's innards, pork ribs, puffed tofu, mushrooms and vegetables are used in the claypot of piquant hot pepper soup. Hubs couldn't get enough of it and ordered another pot!  The Sarawak pepper soup mix sachet is available for sale at the restaurant.



French beans with salted egg yolk has a very creamy and aromatic taste of salted egg. Every strand of bean is well coated with salted egg yolk. The beans are crunchy and not overly cooked. This was nicely executed. I loved it!

I super duper love the claypot chicken cooked in rice wine and wood fungus topped with fried egg and finely julienned ginger strips. I had so much of this during my three confinement and till today, I've never gotten bored of this dish as well as other confinement dishes.

The aroma of the claypot kangkung fried with belacan can mesmerize you!  Even for someone who's not hungry will suddenly have his/her tummy rumbling just from the aroma of the belacan!



Sweet and sour deep fried fish can really whet one's appetite and the claypot fish paste cooked in vegetables soup is soothing and not salty.


Mui Choy Khau Yoke (braised pork belly with preserved vegetables) served with mantou and signature Kai Choy (bitter mustard green) rice.  The signature Kai Choy rice is very flavorful but a tad salty for my liking. It would score an A+ if they go easy on the sodium.


Sek Me Choy is a family run business.  One of the lady bosses who attended to us is very jovial, witty and vivacious. She and her sister, who is the chef at the restaurant regularly appears on 8TV cook shows and had even hosted Chef Martin Yan at their restaurant.  This is one gem of a Chinese restaurant that I will revisit again and again.


Restaurant SekMeChoy
199, Jalan Besar, Salak Selatan
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Call 03-7982 3132

School Holidays Bakes and Makes

School's out and someone's aching to bake and cook in the kitchen again!

Thus, I've been grocery shopping almost everyday! First for fresh basil, then for flour, butter and nuts.

First baking project was pesto sauce. We tweaked the classic recipe a little.    Here's what we used to make pesto sauce:
1.  3 packets fresh basil leaves
2.  3 cloves garlic
3.  Extra virgin olive oil
4.  Nuts ~ mix of pecan, walnut and cashew. Sorry, no measurement was used.
5.  Salt to taste.

This time we omitted the cheese so that the sauce can last longer.  Plus it's healthier sans cheese.

This pesto sauce is keto-friendly and perfect for weight watchers. Plus it's so yummo and healthy!

You just need to adjust the taste and consistency during blitzing in the blender. If it's too dry, add a tad more olive oil and if it's not creamy enough, add in more nuts.


Directions:
1.  Wash the basil leaves thoroughly and dry them in a salad spinner. Make sure that the leaves are dried so that the sauce can last longer in the fridge.
2.  Separate the ingredients into half and pulse all ingredients together in blender in two batches.
3.  Store in sterilized bottle.

What was supposed to be enough to fill up 2 bottles was only enough to fill up 1 bottle coz the second the pesto sauce was poured into a bowl, everyone charged at it, dipping bread and crackers into the sauce!

Sherilyn said that pesto sauce was unexpectedly so easy to make. That's music to my ears as I'll definitely be asking her to make another batch 😁






Second holiday baking project was cookies.


My condition to my baking queen before I consented to her baking cookies was that sugar must be reduced by at least half as I cannot stomach anything that's too sweet.  Sweet cookies, cakes and desserts often make me feel sick.



Same dough baked into 4 different flavored scrumptious cookies:

1.  chocolate chip for the girls
2.  organic oats + pecan for moi
3.  premium matcha cooked with white chocolate and
4.  Nutella for the girls.

The cookies have a hint of caramel aroma as the butter was cooked on the stove before being mixed into the dough.



Next baking project for the baking queen when we return from Ipoh next week will be tortilla wraps and probably another batch of pesto sauce! 😀💓

After the holidays, Sherilyn will be hyper busy choreographing and practising for the inter-school Berjaya Teen Challenge dance competition semis and inter-school Taekwondo competition.  She's really a very busy teen 🙋🏃

Teacher's Day 2019

Teacher's Day gifts for the girls' teachers this year:



Grandma's home-baked biscotti and a bottle of body lotion / shampoo from Melaleuca.  Cass topped up the gift with a cute keychain for her favorite teacher who's been her class teacher for 3 years but  this year she's no longer the class teacher but History teacher instead.


Freshly baked from the oven, Cass helped to pack the pistachio and almond biscotti.

Teacher's Day was celebrated on the last two days of school this week at Cass' school with a pot-luck buffet-like spread class party complete with games that ran for two days.

The two-week school holidays started today. Besides a trip back to my hometown in Ipoh and catching several movies at the  mall, I still haven't planned anything yet. I suggested a one-night stay in Pangkor Island as I've been 'poisoned' by my friend's beautiful photos of her recent stay at Anjungan Beach Resort & Spa Pangkor. 😆  But the hubs said NO as he's always avoiding crowds during school holidays. It's going to be a double celebration ~ Hari Raya and school holidays; crowd and traffic will be double too!  Well, maybe we'll go in December then.

#keepingmyfingerscrossed

Wednesday, 22 May 2019

I was feeling bone-idle and didn't feel like lifting my finger in the kitchen on a public holiday today.  I just didn't feel like leaving my super comfy portable Osim massage chair while I worked on the computer.  I'm not a kitchen person to begin with but thanks to my middle child who loves cooking and baking and who gets better each time with her culinary skill, I can now order what I want to eat from her!  I pay and buy the ingredients and she'll take care of the rest 😆

Today Sherilyn grilled beets and vegetables for lunch. 



The boiled organic beets were seasoned with rosemary, salt, olive oil and Balsamic vinegar and grilled with garlic at 170C for almost an hour. Super yummy and healthy, these grilled beets can be really addictive. 

Sherilyn pureed some of the grilled beets with garlic, walnut and the juice from the boiled beets in our Blendtec blender to go with pasta. She made this for her school lunch box for tomorrow. Her mid-year exam is still on-going and only ends this Friday.



Also baked some organic pumpkin seeds for snacks. In our home, there are plenty of nuts, beans and seeds, fruits, sugar-free yogurt and frozen yogurt as snacks. When I don't buy flavored yogurt, the girls have now learned to enjoy sugar-free skinny yogurt topped with nuts and seeds 😁


Throwback bake ~ Sherilyn baked some healthy oats muffins with blueberry, pecan and chocolate chips two weeks ago. The muffins are butter-free (replaced with peanut oil) and lightly sweetened with organic Javanese coconut sugar.

Tuesday Dinner From Dah Makan

Since the fasting month started two weeks ago, food companies are striking it big time while the iron is hot. Browsing Facebook  these day is too distractive when food delivery, food promotion and tons of ads on food keep popping up in between every two posts. And I finally succumbed to food delivery order today! The mil doesn't fancy food delivery but she's not feeling well today (Vertigo again) and I told her to rest and not to cook. But I don't have the mojo to cook too!! How?

So yeah, I ordered some healthy meals from Dah Makan today 😬.  Dah Makan approached me to do a review for them several years ago and since then, I've ordered from them several times already. The girls and I are pleased with their food which has a rather 'restauranty edge' as their team of chefs have a wealth of experience from previous attachments at restaurants and hotels. If you're feeling bone-idle or just too pressed for time to cook, do give Dah Makan a try.

Dah Makan's menu consists of healthy and wholesome meals at reasonable prices.  Just order from this link and you'll get RM40 off your bill!

Happy mid-week holiday peeps!  I can finally have a sleep in tomorrow!

Remember your order at Dah Makan has to be via this link to get the RM40 rebate off your bill yeah! By the way, this is NOT a sponsored post 😉

Our sweat-free scrumptious dinner from Dah Makan tonight consists of:

1 x Nasi Kerabu

RM 19.9

1 x Roast Chicken Breast with Ratatouille

RM 23.9

1 x Spaghetti Chicken Bolognese

RM 14.9

1 x Roast Chicken Breast with Sweet Potato Mash

RM 26.9

Super love the mashed sweet potato with grilled chicken breast and roast vegetables.

Jumping Jacks / Star Jumps Health Benefits

I started incorporating strength training into my daily morning exercise regimen sometime in August or September last year. That's about 9 months ago. With strength training, lower abdomen exercises, brisk walking and running, I clock in 40-45 minutes of workout five times a week. Ever since I increased my workout duration with strength / bodyweight training, I lost 2kg of stubborn post-pregnancy fats that I gained after the birth of Cass 11 years ago!!  My weight now hovers between 44.1kg - 44.9kg. It fluctuates throughout the menstrual cycle and I'm always fattest just before Aunt Flow visits.

One of the exercises that I do during bodyweight training is jumping jacks / star jumps.  This is one of the simplest bodyweight exercises to do and it makes you perspire  real quickly.  Just two or three minutes into jumping and I already start to sweat bullets. Enter frog jumps, jumping squats and lower ab exercise and I'll be drenched in sweat.  The more you do it, the more agile your body gets and the happier you'll get each time you step onto your bathroom scale 😁💪

Sometimes jumping gets a bad rap, but when it comes to increasing bone density it is a great thing. A jumping jack is one of the best plyometric exercises out there and it is a fantastic cardiovascular drill. If you are looking for a way to improve your quickness, this is the exercise.

Health benefits of jumping jacks:

1.  Jumping jacks are highly beneficial to the overall health of the heart. It has been found that this exercise aids in combating serious health problems like cardiovascular-based diseases, obesity, and diabetes.

2.  The heart rate is increased while performing jumping jacks, which increases the amount of blood and oxygen that reaches the muscles.

3.  Jumping jacks aids in improving the stamina of the body and its overall endurance level. These simple exercises will improve the overall flexibility of the body; therefore, improving circulation and mobility.

4.  When performing jumping jacks, you are exercising against the force of gravity. As you perform each jumping jack, the muscles actually pull at the bones of the body. This, in turn, strengthens the bones and increases their density. As a result, the chance of developing osteoporosis is drastically reduced.

5.  Jumping jacks burn calories and fat. This will aid in combating against obesity and obesity-related health complications.

6.  Jumping jacks have the ability to increase your metabolic rate. Not only does a high metabolism aid in burning unhealthy fat from the body, but, it aids in toning and sculpting your body so that you are able to look your absolute best!

You don't need to be attired in sports wear to do jumping jacks. I used to do stretching and jumping jacks in my corporate suit bare footed in my room during lunch hour. I also used to run outside the house at 5:30 a.m. with a stick in my hand to ward off muggers and stray dogs and did a second round of running after work at 7 p.m.  That's how I overcame the symptoms of PCOS 19 years ago!

Diabetes

Today the hubs Whatsapped me a photo of his staff who's warded in the hospital. He had one of his legs amputated yesterday from the knee down as a result of complications from diabetes.  Now I can't seem to shake off the image of his staff with just one and a half leg from my mind. 🤦‍♀️

This morning I bought a punnet of onde-onde from the supermarket. There are 6 bite-size pieces in a punnet. I took two pieces and the other four pieces will be shared among the 3 girls. That's how little sweet stuff we eat. Most times during cafe happy hours, a slice of cake will be shared by the six of us in the family. Each one gets a mouthful or two. I don't really suppress my cravings for sinful food but will satiate them with a bite or two. The girls are much more sweet toothed than us adults but they are well informed of the consequences of having too much sugar in their body.

Today after I'd shoved the second piece of onde-onde into my mouth, the image of the staff's pre and post-surgery leg flashed momentarily in my mind and  I almost spat out the kuih! 🤮 I know a mouthful or two of kuih won't hurt but I may have the predisposition of developing diabetes (though my blood sugar is still pretty good now) if I eat without caution as my maternal grandmother had diabetes and this disorder tends to run in the family. Imagine  waking up from your sleep one day only to realize that you now only have one leg and the bad dream that you thought you had has now become your lifelong nightmare! Scary! 😱

Breakfast On A School Day

Breakfast on one of the school days last week:




The mil got up at 5 a.m. to boil dumplings which she made and organic baby sweet potatoes for her beloved grand-daughters. Because the littlest grouchy girl is fed-up of eating eggs, toast, sandwiches and cereal for breakfast at 5:30 a.m.. She doesn't like eating biscuits in the morning. Because this little manipulative brat will just turn her head away from the 'usual breakfast stuff' and go to school with an empty stomach, we have to think of new breakfast menu for her. Just for the littlest brat. See how much loved she is, even though lately she's been really really manipulative and challenging.

Because boiled dumplings are not her kind of breakfast food, my health freak daughter #2 prepped her own healthy low-carb high-protein breakfast consisting of organic traditional rolled oats with premium matcha powder, vanilla, organic Javanese palm sugar, banana and low-fat sugar-free yoghurt.  She made some for me too and it was surprisingly yums!



Early quick lunch with the hubs at PappaRich before rushing back with takeout lunch for Sherilyn and then went out again to drop her off at school...













Love this new item on the menu at PappaRich ~ fried meehoon with chicken curry and sambal sotong. I had less than a quarter of it and doggy-bagged the rest for Sherilyn.

Pesticide-Free Sweet Potatoes

Last week I chanced upon some super slim and short pesticide-free sweet potatoes at the night market.  These purple and orange sweet potatoes are farmed by Orang Asli in Pahang and according to the organic vegetables seller, they are pesticide-free.  The skin can be eaten and the flesh has no thread-like veins.

Some of the purple sweet potatoes are about the size of my fingers. Never have I seen such slim sweet potatoes in my life!



Just like human fingers, some of the purple sweet potatoes are fat and stumpy while some are slim and long.




We had them steamed ~ the flesh is soft, smooth and free from thread-like veins/fibers.



These sweet potatoes are sold at RM12 for 3 packets.  These tubers are one of the best I've tasted. They'll taste even better when roasted.