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)