Confessions of a Shopaholic

Was browsing online when I stumbled upon this wedding photography blog and was instantly captivated by its images - Our Labor of Love is a husband and wife creative photography team and has an entirely unique style of their own. I was particularly in love with this couple's wedding featured there: Poonam and Chirag.

I love books + everything book related, so when I first saw the Sapien bookshelf at Elements of Style's blog, it was definitely love at first sight!
Definitely a space saver, it's such an unconventional way of storing/more like displaying books.

My problem is that I can never make up my mind over which fragrance I want to commit a bottle to! I swing from pretty, sheer florals to fresh or clean smelling scents. Currently using Marc Jacobs and loving the smell of gardenias laced with vanilla. Also love L'Occitane's Cherry Blossom but the lasting power is next to nil on me and DKNY's Be Delicious, however so many girls in the office already have that and I don't want to smell exactly like them.

After dropping by the perfume counter, I now have a HUGE lemming for Stella by Stella McCartney. I love the smell of lush, fresh roses and the slight musk scent makes it slightly edgy. Only issue now is that should I buy the full bottle now or wait until 5 months later for Christmas to get a gift pack?

My Milk Toof is becoming 1 of my favourite blogs - whimsical and too cute! Showcasing the adventures of 2 milk teef: ickl and Lardie, this blog is a delight to read. I love, love, love how detailed everything is, right down to ickle's yello rubber duckie and towels.

All pictures from My Milk Toof

The hot and humid month of June is usually uncomfortable with the strong sun burning everything to a crisp and the air so sticky that you feel like showering as soon as you step back into your house. The only bright spot about June is that it's durian season! Makeshift stalls start to sprout like mushrooms at nearly every street selling pile loads of durians. I adore durians. While C gags at the smell of it, I love its sweet, custard-y taste; it goes with my giant sweet tooth, the sweeter it is, the better. Although I'm not that big a fan of the mildly alcoholic or bitter tasting ones (an acquired taste), I still love it because of the strong durian flavour.

So I was brimming with enthusiasm when our friends found a durian orchard that did ... yes, you guessed it, durian tasting sessions! The idea was that you'd pay a fee ranging from RM15 - RM20 and you could eat all the fruit you wanted. The orchard has durians (of course!), rambutans, mangosteens and cempedaks - all of which was my favourite.

C was really sporting enough to tag along even though he doesn't eat any of the fruits there. We were all laughing so hard when he brought his dinner of buns and bak zhang (meat dumpling).

There's nothing like a plate of piping hot nasi kandar with fiery curry and an array of dishes from the humble ladies fingers (okra) to the giant prawns that unite the hungry together. With the growing popularity of 24 hour nasi kandar, you can find one nearly at every street corner but it's hard to find one that serves really good nasi kandar and has a clean store at the same time.

A friend, knowing my love of spicy food, brought C and I to his favourite haunt: nasi kandar at Tajuddin Hussain. It's tucked away in the middle of Queen Street in town and finding a parking spot can be downright impossible. Low frills, it was quite clean and what surprised us more was that for dine in customers, all you have to do is just tell them what you want and they'll rush away to get it for you.

Alvin highly recommended the nasi briyani and nasi tomato, along with the ayam ros (Rose Chicken? Didn't taste like a rose at all so guessing it's probably because of the colour), mutton curry and interestingly enough, pigeon curry! Alvin & C were eating it but I refused to even touch it and kept calling it a rat on wings. 

After watching this amazing performance by Jon Schmidt, I was totally blown away. Though I'm not a huge fan of instrumental music without vocals, this made my jaw dropped. Plus I love how animated they look, like they're having a blast! Just say ...... yesss

C and I were watching the Discovery Travel & Living channel and was particularly taken with this Italian grandmother making the simplest ravioli with ricotta cheese for the filling and pasta sauce from just tomatoes and basil. She said adding garlic or onion to the sauce would over power it and she just wanted the taste of fresh ricotta, tomatoes and basil.

I was keen on buying ravioli from Cold Storage but balked when I saw the price (who the heck pays $20 for a small tray of measly-looking frozen ravioli???) C then decided to try making it ourselves at home which I was at first hesitant to agree to. Not to mention, Cold Storage was out of ricotta and sun dried tomatoes so C improvised by using home made pasta sauce with some chopped Swiss brown mushrooms as the filling.

I've always thought of cocktail rings as being really, really huge chunky pieces, especially on skinny fingers so I usually avoid them. However, these pieces from Piaget's Limelight Paradise collection give a whole new meaning to the words "cocktail rings".

Sex on the Beach is such a whimsical piece with a twist of "lime" at the side of the ring. Decadent yet chic, I can imagine this being worn n the set of Sex and the City!



For something even more delightful, check out the Blue Hawaiian. With a large cushion-cut blue topaz and a delicate blossom of white chalcedony topped with a yellow sapphire complete with a diamond studded "straw" this cocktail ring makes a refreshing treat for fashion-parched eyes!

Penang has a reputation as a food island with many of the best stalls nestled away in locations that people "in the know" would only find based on world of mouth recommendations. Although it may not be found in any doctor's guide to healthy eating, roti canai is incredibly yummy. Freshly made over a blisteringly hot grill, I love how crispy it can be and when paired with really good curry, it is so darn good.

One of the best roti canai stalls in Penang has to be the one at Transfer Road. It sits right at the edge of a busy road and right over a huge covered drain with paint peeling off its pre-war walls, might not be a poster boy for best good hygiene standards but that does not deter the huge crowd that swarms it every morning. To avoid the crowds and stifling heat of the morning sun, a good time to try the roti canai there would be around 8am.