My Quillling

During Christmas, Karen from my church (Note: She's also the one who designed my wedding invitation cards that received countless good comments) gave us a fridge magnet as Christmas gift. My first response was just amazed + astonished looking at this cute stuff. It's so simple, and yet, SO NICE!.... It came with a custom made bag with no glue.... But I forgot to take a pic of that.

When I was making some invitation cards for a church event in Karen's place, she told me this is called Quilling. And then she showed me those that she did for the Pastors in church, I was even more speechless looking at her work. Then, I started to have itchy hands to try on quilling too.

Since CNY is coming, Jireh U CG had a small celebration during CG time. I have decided to make a simple bookmark for all my CG members.

So, firstly, I have to cut the paper into 0.3cm size, and it's not as easy as I thought since I don't have proper tools.

Paper strips

Next, I started to roll the orange paper to be the mandarin orange, and the green ones to be the two small leaves. There are supposed to be the right tools to do the rolling but I don't have. So I have to use toothpick / hairpin to help me in the rolling. Lucky thing is my fingers are rather small, so it does help a bit. :P...

When I started rolling, then I found out my mandarin oranges are not in even sizes due to the inaccurate measurement during cutting. Gee... Now I really admire Dr. Andrew & Karen's steady hands since they will do the measuring & cutting by themselves if the quantity is not a lot.

My cacat mandarin oranges :P

Since it's Chinese New Year, I purposely bought some RED paper as the base. At First, I cut them into rectangle but EG said it looks weird. So after some trials, EG suggested me to cut off the edges on the top, and stick my mandarin oranges & their leaves on top.

My halfway done book mark

Then EG helped me printed my favorite verse from Jeremiah for 2009, with nice fire crackers as clipart (Chinese New Year maa....). Then, stick them slightly below the mandarin oranges, and ta-da..... here's my final piece of "art"... :P

My bookmark

In total, I made 25 pieces of book marks for my CG members, including 5 for myself and EG and I wanted to give my siblings too. Seriously I don't think it's VERY VERY nice but it's a good start for my little interest in quilling. I am still looking for the proper tools to do this.

Bookmarks for JirehU members

The bookmarks were given out on last Friday and I wasn't in the CG as I was on my way back to Taiping. At 10pm, my handphone was bombarded with thank-you SMSes -- That's how we thank someone when they are not around in CG.

I am inspired to make better ones next time. :)... But anyway, CNY is just around the corner. So, Gong Xi Fa Cai to everyone! And have a great time with your family and your love ones!!

Anniversary Presents

I have been looking for a new watch since both my current watches are at least >6 years old now. All girls like new things ok? :P.... Anyway, after looking for weeks, finally EG bought the Casio Sheen for me.

My new watch

I asked EG what he wants for anniversary. Funny, he asked for a bottle of potato chip for his anniversary present. Kakakaka!!! Ok here's the background - I once read in some magazine that potato chips are bad for health and are cancerous. I am not sure how true this is but EG used to eat quite a bit of potato chips at home - especially when he's reading his novel before he sleeps. I think that's a bad habit so I strictly prohibited potato chips @ our home.

Anyway, since it's anniversary - so I got his favorite Jacker's potato chips for him. :P

Jacker Potato Chips - EG's anniversary present

Ya, I know. It's unfair right? But then, nothing is fair in a relationship, right? No? :P. Kekekeke... **evil laugh**

1st Year Anniversary

Life has been busy these days - both in office, and after office. And that's why now only I am going to write about the celebration that EG and I had for our anniversary last weekend.

Strictly speaking, it wasn't our anniversary *yet*, but then again, it's actually the day we registered. For us, our wedding day is actually the day when we said the vows before God. However, since we have things tied up during the coming weekends and also preparing for our home trip back to Miri for CNY (YIPPIE!!), we have decided to celebrate it earlier.

EG found in a friend's blog about Blue Reef Fish & Chip shop @ Tanjung Bungah. We did a small search in google and found most good comments on the shop. Since EG and I are rather small eaters, the initial plan for buffet was off, and we decided to head for this new restaurant @ the other side of Penang island.

Map downloaded from some other blogs

I didn't manage to take a pic in the shop but it's a very cosy restaurant situated @ Casa Permai - a very quite and peaceful neighbourhood @ Tanjung Bungah. I felt slow-and-easy as it's not crowded, and you can even take your time take a walk @ the small garden opposite Blue Reef, which we didn't, where you see children and kids are doing all sorts of activities there like skating, jogging, etc.

The waiters & waitresses are very attentive and they can give very good suggestion on food to order. For the appertiser, we got smoked tuna salad with vinaigrette. It was very refreshing and the tuna was very fresh and they just melted in your mouth. Yums!

Smoked Tuna Salad with Vinaigrette (RM15)

For EG, he tried the dish where most people recommended - the Fish & Chips. It came with two choices - either battered or with bread crumbs. According to the waitress, for the first option, the fish is battered with beer while the second just with normal bread crumbs. So, EG tried the first one. When the food arrived, EG was amazed by the portion of the food.

Fish & Chips (RM16)

It looks different from the normal fish & chip from the normal shops - where it comes with HUGE fried batter, with lots of oil. For the one @ Blue Reef, the whole piece of the fish is full of juicy fish fillet. You're eating the fish, not the batter. :D... And the beer batter made the fish taste slightly different.

Look how juicy the fish is... Yummy...

For me, I am a salmon lover so I got a pan seared salmon with couscous. This was the first time I heard of couscous and the waitress explained that it's a kind of pasta from Mediterranean. The portion doesn't look real big but it was really very filling. And it has a really good food presentation. I didn't really fancy the couscous. It tasted good, but I just couldn't have too much of them. However, EG loves it very much and I think he took almost half of the couscous from my plate. =)

My Yummy Salmon Dinner (RM19).....

In between meals, there were waitresses kept dropping by our table and asked if the food is OK, if we need any help, or if we need anything. The service is very good and we were thinking they might charge 15% or more for service charge (kekeke!!) but to our surprise, the price is NETT! There's no surcharge. And the price is very reasonable.

The next highlight of the dinner was the cake. Weeks ago, EG's colleague ordered a Mille Crepe cake for the project team in office from HumbleBeginnings. And we decided to get one also for our anniversary celebration since I never try it before. I browsed through the website and was quite skeptical of which flavor to choose. Then I decided to choose French Vanilla - the signature flavor - which it's recommended for first timers. For topping, I chose my favorite shredded white chocolates & roasted almond. They don't have any shop but they will do free delivery with online booking of at least 48 hours - but only in Penang & Johor. Hence, they sent me the cake on Sunday and Ta-Da.... here's the cake! :)

French Vanilla Mille Crepe Cake

The waitress wanted to light up the candle for us but we stopped her. *shy* ma.. This Mille Crepe cake has 20 layers of crepes with combination of Fresh Cream & Vanilla custard between each layer. Imagine the amount of time + work needed to do this. And hence, the price is slightly more pricey than the normal cakes. It starts from RM55 for 0.9kg onwards, and we'll need to add RM10 for topping for regular size.

Look at the layers...

I was already 90% full after the dinner. But when I tasted the cake, it just tasted like HEAVEN. And I just couldn't stop eating though I was really very full. The taste is light and no as sweet as the other cakes. The cream and the vanilla custard tasted just NICE and with the sweetness from the shredded white chocolates and the cruchiness from the shredded roasted almonds, it was just PERFECT. =). Of course we didn't finish the cake. We left the remaining 6 pieces for our breakfast / lunch / dinner for the next few days. :).

Another shot of the cake

We were very happy with both the dinner & the cake. I told EG I think we had two of the best food in Penang that night.

Anyway, we were happy that we have endured our first year of marriage together happily. And we thank God for all the grace & blessing He had for us. And Happy 1 Year Anniversary to ourselves. :)