SmearForSmear

The newest social media campaign poised to go viral also supports a great cause. 

Cervical cancer rates have been on the rise across the pond for women under 35 in recent years, a pretty scary trend considering the disease most consistently affects older women. But the scarier fact is this: The number of women getting regular Pap tests has fallen. Now nearly one-third of U.K. women between the ages of 25 and 29 are skipping their Pap smears, while the number of women in that age group diagnosed with the disease rose 4.8 percent in the past year alone. Coincidence? Not at all. And since getting a Pap smear is the easiest way to prevent the disease or catch it early, there's absolutely no reason why this should be the case—which is why the #SmearForSmear campaign is so important.

Little thing that goes a long way. Help to create the awareness with your smeared lipstick selfie. Include this in your tag: Cervical Cancer Campaign #smearforsmear @JoTrust I nominate .....  ( 3 person)

Wishing Out Aloud

It's always good to wish for something aloud. The universe works in its own way to deliver you your wishes when you wanted it bad enough. 

I was wishing for a chaise lounge and a foot stool. Allocated a spot for them as I was trying to work out my budget. I daydreamed with Danielle how I will decorate them in future. 

Then one day Danielle sent me a picture of a stool saying she's giving it away and if I mind hands-me-down stuff. "No! Not at all! I can always reholstered and customized it" that was what I said. The best thing was she's going to help me out with this little DIY work. Nice, I have a foot stool now. Then I bought a piece of strong tweed grey fabric and 4 piece of chromed kitchen cabinet legs. A perfect combination. It was simply beautiful. No sewing required. Just stapling and sealing the edges with some ordinary glue.

Here's my Princess Emmanuelle being the showroom model.

Another pleasant surprise came up soon after. I was at work when Danielle called and sounded so urgent. I wondered what's wrong, she never calls out of a sudden like that. All sorts of things came across my mind during that few seconds. I can't believe it when she said there's a chaise lounge to be given away as well. Wow! Am I dreaming or what? This is really an awesome dream! 

More works were required to give it a new leash of life. The frame was sanded before it was sprayed with silver paint. Boy, it was a mess. The paint fume were all over the place during the process. A lot of cleaning to do afterwards. Then I reholstered it with grey velvet fabric. And as for the bolster, I had to leave it to the professional. The place where I bought all my fabrics provided the sewing service.

This is the most comfortable spot in the house now. I always fell asleep and even slept soundly right in this chaise lounge. Thanks to my buddy. 

OOTD 170115

Beautiful weekend with beautiful black mesh lace dress. The little owl is coming to work with me....

Canelé de Bordeaux

A canelé is a small French pastry originated from Bordeaux, France where they were baked by nuns in the 18th century. It was said to be the ultimate pastry. It's what the Creme brûlée wants to be when it grows up.

I never personally tasted it before but somehow I managed to imagined its taste as I stumbled upon the article one day. The only thing I could bake was butter coffee cake and usually I don't have a clue about baking other stuffs what's more of knowing how things will turn out or taste like by just looking at the recipes and yet the imaginary taste seems to lingered in my mouth and mind for the next few days. Sounds crazy but I was craving for something that I never had before. 

So I've decided to give it a try. I used silicone cupcake mould instead of the copper mould, it was too expensive to buy for a baking noob like me.

The making of noob canelé:

Heat up 2 cups of milk with 3 tablespoon of butter and leave it aside until it's cold enough for you to dip your finger into it.

Then, mix 100 gram of plain flour with 100 

gram of icing sugar, 2 whole eggs and 2 egg yolk. Slowly mix them up to avoid trapping any air bubbles into the batter. It is not supposed to expand or raise during baking. Then add in 1/4 cup of french rum and 4 teaspoon of vanilla essence along with the milk mixture just now. And that's it. Place the batter in the fridge and let it sit for at least 36-48 hours before baking. Stir it again the 36 hours. By this time, there shouldn't be much air bubbles trapped inside.

On the long anticipated day, heat the oven at 240 degree celcious for 30 minutes. Grease the moulds with butter and pour in the batter to the top. Then start baking them at 240 degree celcious for 15 minutes and turn down the heat at 190 degree celcious for 45 minutes. Try to move the tray nearer to the bottom during the last minutes as we want to have even caramelised dark bottom. Otherwise we'll end up with white ass canelé.

The verdict: I was blown away by the sweet dark caramelised outer layer. Then the wonderful rum infused custardly taste and texture has instantly won me over. It's exactly what I had imagined.

My Billy Babies

Taking my Billy baby home with me. I bought two bigger one and got them shipped to my place along with all the other furniture I bought. Then I decided that I want another smaller one. Almost has to pay IKEA for this little baby to be shipped, luckily we managed to fit it into the car with my dining table (will elaborate more on the dining table in another post ). That's RM 75 saved.

As you already know, it will be just a plain white bookcase and I'm not going to leave it to that. I have some wallpapers sitting in the storeroom collecting dust, left from my shop's renovation a couple of years ago. Sometimes I just have no idea what to do with all those leftover materials. 

It was a very simple project. Just a few hours and I'm done with my very own customized Billy babies. Measurement taken, alligning the pattern, glue application and it's done.

Black wallpaper for the shoes :

White wallpaper for this :

I ran out of wallpaper for this one and I was so frustrated that I couldn't finish this one for a while. Who knows it turn out to be something good for me. I found this beautiful gold wrapping paper at half the price at British India store. It's was only RM 7.50 per piece. 

So far I'm loving this to the max compared with the one I did with the leftover wallpapers. The thing with interior decorating is that you won't know exactly how's the outcome going to be when you see certain things in the store. But these very things seem to be calling out for you, they stopped you in your tracks and turn around to look at them. From there you let your imaginations reigned.