Yup..you got that right. After getting Ashley’s cupcake bag made, I couldn’t help staring at it for the next few days and decided that  I TOO wanted a bag of my own! So I got Sasha to make this one for me.

It’s also reversible bag so you can use it however you like. I requested for a bigger bag so that I can use it as a shopper bag – well not to put groceries in it la but more to put in non-groceries stuff. Sasha got this made just in time for my Jakarta trip so I brough it along for the trip to put the kid’s stuff e.g. Ashley’s barbie, Aidan’s car, pillow, coloring books and stuff. And I’m not using the bag, I can just fold it and chuck it into my handbag! Versatile or what? I likeeee!

I’m off to Jakarta for a breakie with Hubs and the 2 kiddos. Hopefully we manage to squeeze in some shopping cause I wanna get some nice batik and check out some of the local designers clothing line and buy dirt cheap childrens’ clothing too! Till then, have a good weekend! 

Can’t wait to eat the sambal over there..looking at this picture is already making me salivate!

My 5yo daughter, Ashley, goes for ballet classes once a week and each time she goes for class, she insist on carrying a really oversized bla-pok bag to put in her ballet shoes, ballet attendance book, her hair accesories and a change of clothes. I noticed other kids bringing nice girly bags and thought of getting her  a nice girly bag too especially to bring to her ballet class. I have shopped around and the cute girly bags that I had KIVed are quite expensive and of course not unique. And then i recalled that Sasha is really good with her hand work  and got her to help me sew a bag for Ashley at a very reasonable price.  After ding-donging for less than an hour, we finalized on the material, design and measurements and set off to work (and finished this bag on the same day!).

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Ta dah! Nice?

I love it! The cupcake  material is imported from Australia…and Ashley and I LOVE cupcakes.

Notice the little face stuck on the left hand side of the picture – that’s Ashley’s master piece pasted on the door.

The bag is also reversable so it can be used either way…..

And as a surprise bonus, Sasha made a little handphone pouch – initially for me but it was too small for my phone..but perfect for Ashley’s princess handphone!

In 2008, I wanted to  jump onto the Bento bandwagon and started buying all my Bento supplies online. Shopping online is blardy addictive! Anyway, I bought and bought and bought and you know? I never got to use all of them. I only used some of the bento boxes that I bought to store their food/snacks with no frills.  I got lazy after looking at all the nice bento creations made by other bento-crazed mamas and thought pffft! I’m too lazy to do all that decor and stuff.

Fast forward to today…..most of my bento supplies still lie in a box I stored them in I started digging out for them because my daughter has started bringing her own lunch to school 3x a week  when she has extra class in the afternoon.  Here’s what I found in the box. With stuff as cute at these…they are just too cute to resist!

I have a 2G iPhone and if you noticed, the 2G iPhones have a metal back as opposed to the black plastic that’s on the 3G iPhones. Hence without some sort of a casing, the phone is proned to slip out of my hands.  Plus, my kids hog my iPhone too by watching movies or play games and I gotta make sure that the phone does not slip out of their hands. Therefore, I have resorted to using a rubber case / skin  for my iPhone. I used to use a boring black rubber casing for the longest time and then I decided to spice it up by changing to a hot pink rubber casing which costed me only RM15 (from jakarta). Over the weekend,  I was walking along the fela market stalls  at The Curve and chanced upon this funky orange case for my phone and bought it for RM30. I’m sure it can be bought for less elsewhere…but I was with my 2yo son and didn’t have the energy to haggle. The stall owner did give me a RM5 discount though. What do you think? Funky? I like!

Am definitely gonna try and redo this Blake Lively inspired look whipped out by my fav makeup guru on YouTube.

(Ok spinning off from makeup talk but nevertheless, still relating to shopping )

One of the many joys of living in KK (I’m living in KL)….My dad is showing off his loot ….

The big bag of sayur manis on the left costs RM7 only.

The bag of cucumber on the right costs RM4. How’s that for cheap and good and fresh veges from the Donggongon tamu eh?

Mineral makeup IS taking the cosmetics world by storm. So what is all the fuss about mineral makeup?

Mineral makeup is based on hypoallergenic loose powder that’s supposed to nourish the skin and contains no perfumes, talc, alcohol, dyes, mineral oil or preservatives unlike most traditional makeup. I was first introduced to mineral makeup about 3 months ago by a dear friend who recommended me to try Bare Escentuals but Malaysia being Malaysia, this product is not sold here. I hear alot of good reviews on them and me being the kiasu woman that I am wanted to try it but then, I didn’t know how to get my hands on them then. And then, I stumbled across Loving Minerals. The best part is this online shop is based in Malaysia and ya…obviously they ship within Malaysia. They carry several mineral cosmetic brands such as Lumiere, Monave, Everyday Minerals and Earthen  Glow. Ok so how is my mineral cosmetics experience thus far? I have to say that I am not  so into mineral eye shadows cause I find them very messy (no matter how hard I try tapping off the access, there are always some access which would drop onto my lower lid and argh….) but thank God for sample jars right!?

Moving on from there…I wanted to check out mineral foundation and bought their Loving Sample kit where you can choose 4 types of mineral foundation, a finishing powder, a blush, a baby kabuki brush and a swirling dish for RM60. The mineral foundation, finishing powder and blush came in sample jars. And after sampling several types of mineral foundation shades, I’m glad that I’ve finally found the right shade of mineral foundation for my skintone – Lumiere Cashmere Silk Foundation in Medium Warm (My MAC shade is NC40).  I used to use Mac’s liquid foundation but now, I leave that for evening/night outings or if I feel i need more coverage and I use my Lumiere Mineral foundation during the day. I don’t know whether it’s in my head or what but i feel that my skin can breathe better with mineral foundation – plus it’s supposed to not cause clog the pores on the face.

So yea I’m so happy that I am able to find my mineral foundation shade and something which works for me

Here’s a picture of my stash from Loving Minerals.

One tip – if you’re looking for a brush to apply mineral foundation, I’d recommend Lumiere’s Kabuki brush. It’s so thick, dense and soft and you get to pick up a lot of product on it before applying it on your face. I got LovingMinerals’ Flat top kabuki as well but it doesn’t work as well as Lumiere’s kabuki if you ask me since it is a smaller brush and you’d take more time applying mineral foundation on your face with this one.

yea more makeup and unfortunately or fortunately??? these are not available in Malaysia. This time, i bought a whole stash of Nyx products – eye shadows, creamy jumbo eye pencils and glitter liners (the ones with the tassles – great for a night out or to part-yyyy) and I bought more brushes  – the 2 individual brushes (black and brown) are from Coastal Scents and the pack of brushes on the far right are Essence of Beauty brushes - which I’ve heard great reviews on. I have seriously stopped buying makeup cause I have loads of them but not all my order has arrived from overseas yet…so there’s still that thrill of receiving new stuff from the mail But honestly, I think I’ve had enough and am considering giving some of the stuff away cause really? what the heck was I thinking buying all that makeup?

…baby products??

Have you ever given much thought as to what kind of ingredients are in the baby products that you use on your babies/children? We all think that baby products are, well, the safest as they were made to be used on babies. But that’s not entirely true.

I recently stumbled across an article which said that studies have shown that baby products such as  baby lotion, baby powder and baby shampoo may be exposing babies to a potential harmful chemical called phthalates (thowl-ates).

Phthalates are a group of chemicals primarily used in plastics to increase their flexibility e.g. phalates are added onto children’s plastic toys and teethers to make them more flexible.  Tests have shown these chemicals can damage the lungs, liver and kidneys, and seriously harm the developing testes of male offspring. Scary shit right!? Also, there was a study whereby the phthalate levels were tested on 163 babies’ urine samples. 24 hours before the test, baby products such as shampoos, lotions, diaper creams, baby wipes and powder were used on the babies. The results showed that all 163 babies had one or more phthalate in their urine sample and that the youngest babies showed higher levels of phthalate in their urine samples and were found in babies whose mothers had used shampoos, lotions and powders on them. Yikes!!!!

Phthalates are also added to perfumes – I didn’t know that either cause I never ever look at the labels of any perfume  but even if you go check the perfumes that you have, there is not such mention of Phthalates anywhere on the packaging. You’d probably see it hidden under the guise of ’secret fragrant formula’ or something like that. The worst thing is that manufacturers are not required to list them on their labels.

So for starters, I’m definitely going to replace the baby products that I currently use on my kids. We should be looking out for products that :

1. have Phthalate-free labels – Identifying the fact that a product does not contain phthalate is becoming very popular and it’s a good selling point too

2.  have  labels that contain specific names and abbreviations of phthalates such as  di-2-ethyl hexyl phthalate (DEHP), diisodecyl phthalate (DIDP) and diisononyl phthalate (DINP.) and avoid them!

Scared you enough for today?  Be an informed consumer. Google this and you’d find tonnes of articles on how phthalates.

If you know of any phthalate-free baby products, let me know…I’d love to hear from you.

edited : You can find the following baby organic products here in Malaysia :

1. Erbaviva and Organic Chilren at a shop at Bangsar Village called bluedotbaby or babydotblue (can’t remember) but it is in between Think Toys and Toys R Us. Organic Children Shampoo, Condition and Shower Gel  – 200ml is going for RM 45).

2. Earth Mama and Angel Baby at The Baby Loft

I’m sure there’s more..I’ll just add them as I discover them into this list.