Crafts: Crochet Brim Hat

My crochet mentor introduced me to a pretty useful site with lots of free patterns (crochet, knitting, etc). It is Ravelry[1]. All you need to do to be able to download their patterns is to register/sign up an account with them. Signing up for an account is free as well ;)

This brim hat[2] is one of the free patterns which I downloaded from Ravelry :) I managed to finish within one night. Hence, I feel that this is a pretty easy pattern to follow. On top of that, it requires only a few materials - Just yarn, hook, stitch marker and darning needle.

I would consider this a good project for beginners. It would be even better if this project motivated a beginner to learn how to crochet the magic loop. That I feel is a pretty useful crochet skill.

Here is the model QW looking pleased with her new hat ;)

Front view

Side view

Initially, I had wanted a fancier border. Hence, I ended the project off with scallop/shell border:

But, I quickly reverted back to following the pattern as I faced a problem with this pattern. Without fabric stiffener, the brim droops down because this border was too heavy. Hence, I redid the the border and ended off with reverse stitch border as suggested by the pattern.

To end off this blog post, I would like to share a silly mistake which I made for this project :P *Haha~* Well, here it goes:

The pattern called for 4 mm crochet hook. And so, I picked up a hook with a big "4" and crocheted happily. After I crocheted the body and band, I paused as I wanted to see if it fits my model ;)

Well, that is when I realised that... the hat is TOO tiny!!! *LOL!* Take a look:

Do join me in laughing at this silly mistake which I had made!! *HAHAHA*

Wondering what went wrong, I finally took a good look at my crochet hook and saw this:

Have you realised what I finally figured out back then?
No? Take a look at this next photo:

Have you figured out the mistake which I had made? *Lol~*

Yes!!! I took the wrong sized hook *Hahaha!!!*
The "4" was a 2.50 mm hook!!!
I should have been using the "7" which is the 4 mm hook as suggested by the pattern!!!

Such a funny mistake I made (which cost me 1 more night of re-doing this hat)!

Ah well, it was an interesting lesson learnt :) *hah~*

References:
1. Ravelry
2. Ravelry - Ruffled Brim Sunhat

Vegetarianism: Dinner at Ling Zhi Liat Towers (Part IV of Birthday Treat - Last Part)

Last but not least, the final instalment of my birthday treat is dinner at Ling Zhi Vegetarian - Liat Tower branch[1]. Perhaps because this is not my 1st trip to Ling Zhi, I forgot to take a photo of the food we ordered!!! I shall remind myself to take some if I ever blog about Ling Zhi again...

Well, the only photo I took while we were there was of QW playing with the SG50 balloon. As mentioned in my blog post on our Staycation at Singapore Marriott Tang Plaza Hotel, we picked up at the balloon station of "Pedestrian Night on Orchard Road"[2].

If you are an American Express Palate Card member, Ling Zhi is one of the restaurants of this Palate Dining Privileges. So, do enjoy the privileges while you are there!

Anyway, we ordered our usual favourites:
Sauteed Monkey Head Mushroom with Dried Chilli,
Vegetarian Curry Fish
Sauteed French Bean with Fried Enoki Mushrooms.

Just a note: This branch does not have buffet, unlike their other branch at Velocity@Novena Square. But the standard of the food remains the same =)

Well, the dinner sort of marked the end of my birthday treat =)
Had a great day thanks to my hubs for all the arrangements that he had made =)

References:
1. Ling Zhi Vegetarian
2. Orchard Road A Great Street - Pedestrian Night

Vegetarianism: High Tea at Raffles Hotel Tiffin Room (Part III of Birthday Treat)

I had no idea that he planned for a high tea next! Not just any high tea! But high tea at Raffles Hotel Tiffin Room! No wonder he told me not to dress too casually!

Lobby

I only got to know that we were going for our high tea minutes before we stepped into Tiffin Room. Do not just treat it like a place where you just pop by because you are around the area. Do make a reservation beforehand to avoid disappointment. Yes, it is that popular.

It being branded as "Raffles", the quality and variety of food is absolutely on spot. At the end of the room, you will be find the refills for some of the items on your tray and assorted beverages.

The usual non vegetarian menu

One of the sandwiches left a pretty deep impression on me. On top of the usual fillings such as tomato, egg mayo and cucumber, the shiitake mushroom filling was probably my personal favourite. I think the shiitake mushroom sandwich was a vegetarian's special (probably to replace one of the non-vegetarian sandwiches offered by the usual menu)~

As for QW, her favourite was the Mango pudding with lemongrass cream on the middle tray =)

Vegetarian tray

The service? Of course it was great. Not only do they take care of the adults' needs, children needs are also well taken care of. QW's high chair was already set up way before we reached. Also, she was given children utensils and bowl =)

The ambience? Fabulous especially with the background harp music.

I must say that it was pretty flawless. If you really want to find a thing to complain, it might have to be the price then. With good food, service and ambience, the price seems pretty reasonable~

Just ending this post with my favourite photo which we took while at Tiffin Room:

Reference:
1. Raffles Hotel - Tiffin Room
2. Tripadvisor - Tiffin Room

Vegetarianism: Sufood Food Preview

I realised that I haven't blogged for 2 months (since Sep)! Life has been pretty busy - with a mix of good and bad.

September had been mostly enjoyable because we went for a vacation to New Zealand - Southern Island. That I will blog in another post. It was generally a great trip with some hiccups along the way, which made it VERY memorable. It had been SO memorable that I have to work on my negotiation skill a bit to convince my husband into visiting New Zealand someday again.

October had been a "buggy" month with QW falling sick =_= *sigh*

So yes, this post is extremely back-dated! But as we always say, better late than never!

Back to the focus of this post. Previously, I had experience being a woven wrap babywearing tester. With thanks to my sister who won the lucky draw to Sufood[1] Food Preview for two, I had the opportunity to be a food tester this round ;) I felt very excited from the day she shared this great news with me :)

The scheduled preview date was 28 Oct 2015. We were to sample and give feedback for dishes which Sufood planned to include in their menu from 1 Nov 2015 - which means they are all available now!!!

The whole experience as a food tester was very refreshing. Let me share with you a quick run-down of what happened that night:

Sufood set aside a section of their restaurant where all the testers were seated together. Although my sister was told to invited one more friend (which is moi~), they were pretty gracious and accommodated my hubby and QW in the same section. Of course, hubby got to pay for his own set meal and get to enjoy the samples as well ;)

We were served in the following sequence: soup, main dishes, dessert and beverages. Each time a dish was ready for tasting, they will bring the dish to us so that we get to (obviously) take lots of photos!!! Then, they will take them away to serve us a portion of the dish. Their marketing staff then came around to explain the dish to us: conceptualisation, how it may be eaten, etc. And of course, they also collected our feedbacks for their chefs.

Alright, I know there has been a lot of words to read thus far. Here are some photos of the delicious dishes we got to sample that night to break the monotonous essay mood ;)

Misto mushroom soup

First, we tried their Misto Mushroom soup. I would say it was quite flavourful. Kind of like the diluted Brand's fungi essence. I liked that you can see the fungi (e.g. brazil mushroom, button mushroom, etc.) that were used to cook the soup. I tasted a tinge of ginger and confirmed with the staff that it was indeed one of the ingredients. My only complaint? I wished there were more than ONE brazil mushroom =_=; My sis ate the one and only...

Sufood staff busy portioning the dish

Soup after being portioned

Next up was Zesty Oyster Mushroom Rice. It is like bibimbap-kimchi fried rice. As you can see from the photo below, it is very colourful. These 5 colours (yellow, white, green, orange and purple) are colours of Sufood. Not only are they vibrant, they look appetising and is great for health. I am sure you have heard talks about eating a variety of naturally coloured food and anti-oxidants, so I won't repeat how healthythey are. By the way, the eel-looking mock meat is oyster mushroom. I personally feel it needed more seasoning. My meat-eating friends would probably agree that it lacks the "sea" taste of an eel. Overall, the dish is decent and filling enough as a main though. 

Zesty Oyster Mushroom Rice 

 A portion of the fried rice

The Lucky Clover Pizza was my favourite main dish that night. Two main ingredients used in the leaves are spring onion and hericium erinaceum (lion mane's mushroom). The spring onion side tasted juicy and fresh, while the hericium erinaceum side is chewy and meaty. As you can guess, I ate the leaves individually at first. If not for the insider's information, I would never have thought of folding 2 leaves together to eat. The best outcome would be to fold the spring onion with hericium erinaceum sides to eat. 

Lucky Clover Pizza

The Rainbow Baked Pasta is actually baked conchiglie. This may not be as filling as the Zesty Oyster Mushroom Rice, but I prefer its taste. This was my next favourite main dish after Lucky Clover Pizza. Once again, the various colours come into play, which made the food looked appetising :)

Rainbow Baked Pasta

Last and perhaps the least, we had White Ferula Pasta. You probably can sense that I did not enjoy this dish, can't you? It might have to do with the fact that it came out as the last main dish. My stomach was beginning to feel full and hence did not appreciate this dish as much. I felt it was too oily. I did reflect that to their staff and was told it might due to the olive oil used in basil pesto and also when cooking the pasta.

White Ferula Pasta

Drinks wise, 4 out of their 5 colours were ready on the sampling day. Purple took its "leave of absence" because its ingredients were still on their way from Taiwan. Here are the breakdown:

Red - The Lively - Watermelon and tomato

Green - The Purely - Pineapple, choy sum and sour plum

Yellow - The Sunny - Orange and pineapple

White - The Comfy - Pear and yucca root

Purple - The Tasty - Beetroot and honeydew

I LOVE watermelon juice. So, I am biased towards The Lively because it is my LOVE and the most refreshing (in my opinion). To be fair, they were equally tasty. The Purely impressing me a tad more because it has choy sum in it! The pineapple and sour plum really did a great job masking the bitter after taste that the vegetable typically has. That made The Purely a pretty tasty drink, very easy to swallow.

I probably have to make a trip back to try The Tasty =_= Really curious about how it will taste like.

Dessert received the thumb's up and seal of approval from QW. Needless to say, it was the best dish of that night ;)

Mango Frollino

This is not my first time dining at Sufood. Thus far, Sufood has been a nice restaurant to dine in. It is just great to see that Sufood is creating and adding new dishes to their existing menu. It makes it more enticing to revisit them.

Personally, I just hope my sister's lucky streak continues :p

References:
1. Sufood
2. Facebook - Sufood

Motherhood: Babywearing Tester

I have been babywearing for a while (since Apr 2014). Recently, I have been offered the opportunity to be one of the testers for a ring sling and a woven wrap =)

Aloha & Light Silk Hemp blend ring sling is weaved, hand dyed and hand painted by Janel from Hawaii. Jars and Fluff [1][2], a local online shop, is our local vendor who partnered with Janel to bring in these vibrantly coloured ring slings. My review of Aloha & Light can be found on Jars of Fluff Facebook page[3].

In brief, the material is supportive, thin and airy. Pretty suitable for local weather. The colours are really loud, which I feel may only appeal to those who like very loud colours. Personally, this ring sling needs to "travel" through more hands. By that, I feel that it needs to be more broken in (worn, washed and ironed more times). The one thing about it that disturbed me quite a bit was that its colour runs when washed.

As for the woven wrap, I must say that I felt really honoured to be its tester. The main reason behind my sense of pride is because it is the first machine woven wrap produced by our local company CareRing Sling[3][4] =D I could hardly contained my excitement when I saw that one of the lines on the wrap label read "Singapore"!!! My review of Pearly Blossom Size 5 woven wrap can be found on CareRing Sling business page and Facebook page[5].

Though the wrap was not the usual length which I prefer, I can hardly find any flaws with it (apart from the fact that I am not a very pink/peach colour girl).

Disclaimer: I was given the chance to babywear with the said products for a week each. All opinions are my own. No gift or monetary compensation were received.

Coincidentally, the owner for both Jars of Fluff and CareRing Sling are certified babywearing consultants. From what I know, Nur Afifah of CareRing Sling happens to be Janna's mentor. Oh, Janna is the owner of Jars of Fluff~

I find the experience as a tester to be pretty interesting and very pleasant for the following reasons:

1. get to try out many pretty wraps and ring slings made of different fibres (cotton, linen, silk, etc.)

2. get to polish my selfie aka hand-pho(ne)tography skill =p

3. get to brush up my linguistic/writing skill~

4. get to polish my wrapping-QW-up skill *haha*

5. the support provided by the vendors are excellent - clear guidelines on what to write are provided, courier service to the next tester are provided for, the vendors are very responsive to messages...

blah blah blah~

The cons about being a tester is I don't get to keep the wrap if I fall in love with it~ *Sigh*

I hope to have more of such opportunities to try all the wraps =D Okay, that might be too ambitious =P I guess I will just have to settle for try as many wraps as I can while QW still let me babywear her~

PS: Actually, I have been given the opportunity to test another wrap soon ;) *excited squeal* *Sshh~*

References:

1. Jars of FLuff

2. Facebook - Jars of Fluff

3. Facebook - Review of Aloha & Light Silk Hemp Ring Sling

4. CareRing Sling

5. Facebook - CareRing Sling

6. CareRing Sling - Review of Pearly Blossom

Travel: Staycation at Singapore Marriott Tang Plaza Hotel (Part II of Birthday Treat)

Surprise, surprise~!! After my sister treated us to a sumptuous lunch at Boneless Kitchen, my next stop is~~~ *Drum Rolls*~~~

Staycation at Singapore Marriott Tang Plaza Hotel!!!

Lobby - Singapore Marriott Tang Plaza Hotel

As expected of renowned hotels, the hotel staff are well trained, i.e. great customer service. The facilities that are available are comprehensive as well. And yes, they provide free in-room WIFI ;)

I did not managed to explore every single facilities that they offer. What I did take a look at are the cafeteria, swimming pool and pool grill.

View of the swimming pool from our room

The room which was allocated to us was Room 1415.
Disclaimer: If you are going to buy 4D based on this number, we are in no way responsible for the outcome.

Quite often, we have to swipe the keycard to open the room door. But at this Marriott, I liked that the room door can be opened with just a tab of the room keycard. Totally WIFI :) How cool is that?

The decoration in the room is pretty luxurious and sleek. The wardrobe is well stocked with the usual items such as steam iron, ironing board, hair dryer, safe, slippers and hangers. There is a king size bed which is a good size for QW to co-sleep with us. FYI, they did set up a play pen for QW after I took the photos of the room.

King-sized bed

Smart TV
*please pardon the messiness. We dumped our barang barangs there :p*

I am not sure why they left the mineral water bottles in the restroom :/

Dressing table within the restroom

Guess what?
They left me a surprise :)
A birthday cake *Yay to mango flavour!!* and a signed birthday card :)

One bummer we faced started because I forgot to bring our handphone charger along. I got even more jittery when the room service staff told me that they do not loan out chargers to us. The only way is to bring our handphones or power banks and ask the receptionist to help us charge (using their PC).

Having said that, similarly to our experience at Marriott Mai Khao Beach Vacation Club @ Phuket, our stay this round had been a pleasant one :)

Coincidentally, it was "Pedestrian Night on Orchard Road"[2] that night. So, we had our evening stroll along Orchard Road and joined in the fun :) Walking on an iconic road usually occupied by vehicles kind of brings me back to the times when I was in Times Square, Manhattan, New York.

It was a very vibrant and loud event with bands singing, people skating, balloons being distributed, etc. QW's all the favourite was of course playing with the helium balloons we got for her :)

A memorable day indeed to be continued in next post~

References:
1. Singapore Marriott Tang Plaza Hotel
2. Orchard Road A Great Street - Pedestrian Night
3. Tripadvisor - Singapore Marriott Tang Plaza Hotel

Vegetarianism: Boneless Kitchen (Part I of Birthday Treat)

The first stop of my birthday treat was to Boneless Kitchen[1][2]. They specialises in vegetarian korean food.

It used to be located in Bukit Merah when it was reviewed by Hungry Ang Mo[2]. It seemed that he had mixed reviews on the quality of the food. Mostly leaning towards that there is room for improvement. But since he mentioned that they had improved from a previous days, it might be possible that they have made further progress since their Bukit Merah days.

As a vegetarian in Singapore, it is quite easy to find Chinese, Indian and Western versions. But other eastern food such as Korean, Japanese are harder to come by. Hence, I was really looking forward to it when my sister suggested to give me a treat at Boneless Kitchen.

Let me try to recall what we ordered:

Korean army stew, pancake, kim chi, pickled radish, potato vermicelli, squid rings, pan-fried tofu, dumplings, toppoki, etc.

This photo was taken at the beginning of the feast. I did not manage to to take any more when the other sides were served because I was too hungry by then :p

To quote my sister: "You are pigssss" :p *Haha*~ Ya, we really pigged out :p 

Location wise, it is very near Tai Seng MRT. Probably about 10 mins walk max and pretty easy to locate. Do note that they open from 11:30 am - 9 pm on Tues - Sun.

Ambience wise, the decoration is pretty korean looking but I felt that they could create an even more korean feel by playing k-pop as their background music instead of Titanic's "My Heart Will Go On".

Food wise, we liked the army stew the best. Dumplings were pretty interesting with the kim chi fillings. The rest which I tried are pretty alright or normal. But I personally find that the pancake was a little flat (just as Hungry Ang Mo reviewed) and oily. Also, I preferred the toppoki that my sister once made for me over theirs...

I feel that Boneless Kitchen is worth at least a try. Since there are quite a number of dishes which I have yet to try, I might visit Boneless Kitchen again if I am around the area or meeting my friends there. But, I probably won't go out of my way just to visit them.

*I revisited Boneless Kitchen again about a week after my 1st visit. This time, the background music is in Korean ;)*

References:

1.  Boneless Kitchen

2. Facebook - Boneless Kitchen

3. Hungry Ang Mo - Boneless Kitchen (Old Site: Bukit Merah)

Crafts: Crochet Eloise Baby Sweater

This Eloise Baby Sweater[1][2] was actually done by mid June but I only have time to blog about it now. Here is the finished look:

Yes, I made a matching pants :) I will blog about the pants in another blog post.
No, I did not make that hat. QW's aunt bought it for her :) It is a reindeer hat :) Isn't it cute?

And yes again, I have been making sweaters lately. That is not without a reason. We are bringing QW to New Zealand (NZ) in September!!!

While we are excited to show her the beautiful sceneries in NZ, I am actually quite wary of how cold it may get in September. It would still be Spring in NZ at that time. That means, it will probably be on the cooler, or I should just say colder, side. Hubby did a check and told us the average temperature will be about 11ºC. *Brrrzzzz~~~* *Shivers*

This is not my 1st time going to NZ. Actually, this will be our 3rd time. And I know what NZ is like. Not very cloudy, strong wind, etc. This just means a couple of things:
1. Strong wind means you probably won't feel the heat from the Sun. Having said that, it doesn't mean the Sun is not there. If you are deceived into thinking that cool = no sun, you are going to be sooooo wrong. End result? Sun burnt! and/or wind burnt!
2. Not very cloudy. This meant that the chances of getting sun burnt is high since the clouds which usually block out the Sun is not there~

So, what to do? A ex-colleague who studied her degree in NZ gave the following advices when I was going to visit NZ for the 1st time:
1. Apply sun screen and reapply often depending on its SPF and PA.
2. Apply aloe vera gel. It  is going to be a saviour especially if one really get sun/wind burnt.
3. Moisturiser should do the trick but aloe vera gel would be more calming for the skin.
4. Also, good wind breaker is a big yes yes! Sweater, inner wear, leg warmers, etc. anything to keep warm would be great because the wind is going to make you feel even colder.

Sharing some photos which I took throughout the process:

Skirt

Close-up of the skirt

Yoke completed, sleeves half done

Almost done!

I did follow the pattern pretty closely at the beginning. The main difference from the given pattern was instead of using 4 more colours on the skirt, I used only 2 (gold and purple) on top of the main colour (green).

I deviated from the pattern much more for the yoke area because I feel that the neckline of the original pattern was too low. Also, I spread the buttons further apart because I did not want the sweater to flare outwards too much.

The pattern is pretty beginner friendly, though it can be confusing if you looked at both the website version and downloaded pdf version. I suspect the differences is because one is written based on US crochet language, while the other UK crochet language. Personally, my preference is for the website version. 

This project took lesser time to finish as compared to the puffy baby sweater. It is also lighter than the puffy baby sweater. Perhaps it is because the Eloise baby sweater mainly uses double crochets and single crochets, while the puffy baby sweater has a lot of puff stitches. The puff stitches definitely added a lot of weight and warmth to the sweater. But, it also "consumed" much more yarn than this Eloise sweater.

Well, since this project is done, it's time to proceed to the next project yet again ;)

References:
1. mooglyblog.com - Eloise Baby Sweater
2. YouTube - Eloise Baby Sweater

Crafts: Crochet Puffy Baby Sweater

It has been a while since I last blogged. Got a bit caught up with caring for QW because of her recent MMR vaccination shot.

And... also because I was concentrating on getting my 1st crochet sweater completed.

Here are some of the photos I took throughout the process:

When I 1st ran out of yarn

When I next ran out of yarn

Finally completed

I like this puffy baby sweater pattern[1] because the puff looks like heart shape :) I think that it is pretty sweet to have a heart shape pattern on a sweater :)

Before I sew the buttons on, we did a poll among our family members:

Buttons on the york only

Buttons throughout

As you can see, the version whereby she had the brightest smile won. We decided to go ahead with sewing 5 buttons on (even though the other version had more votes >_<)

Many gave feedback that the colour is a bit dull (or not bright enough) for young babies. Well, I think it didn't turn out that badly. At least, this colour probably won't get dirtied easily.

This project took me longer than the handphone pouch. Partly, it was because it was a much bigger scaled project than my 1st project: this one used almost 3 skeins of yarn, while handphone pouch did not even finished 1 skein of yarn.

Another reason was because I miscalculated the amount of yarn required. So, part of the time was "wasted" on going back and forth to purchase the yarns.

Now that this is completed, on with the next project :)

I am really falling in love with crocheting :) Pretty therapeutic~

Reference:
1. YouTube - How to Crochet a Baby Sweater by Anna Phelps