Every time I go back to Singapore, we will always have a durian feast with my family. My sisters would source the best and one of the most expensive ranges of durian for me. Through the years, even though they have tried to buy from many durian sellers, they will always look out for more – in case, their usual sellers run out of the type of durian they want, they have someone else to fall back on.
Chinese New Year Mandarin Orange Ang Pow Display
Gong xi, gong xi! Have you ever wondered why mandarin oranges are so important during the Chinese New Year? First, let me explain that the Chinese pronunciation of mandarin orange sounds like gold and wealth in abundance. Since Chinese people love to say or listen to good words, they believe the auspicious items will bring them luck and fortune for the whole year. Hence mandarin oranges played a major part during this festive season. We will have mandarin orange ornaments hanging on the ceiling, ang pow displays (I will be showing you how to do it below), tangerine or kumquat tree plants and many more items throughout the whole house.
Chinese New Year Pineapple Ang Pow Lantern
Ong lai! Ong lai! Did you know that the pineapple is known as ong lai in the Hokkien dialect? It also means prosperity comes/brings wealth! This is why we Chinese love to display pineapple ornaments throughout the house/workplace in the hope that it will bring their family/business lots of good fortune for the Chinese New Year.
Can you use coffee to dye leather
Leather is a fantastic material that can be used in lots of different ways. A leather piece in a room can bring the whole look together, and a leather item of clothing can really elevate a look. But sometimes our leather loses colour, or we decide that we aren’t the same person that we were when we bought the bright yellow leather jacket. At that point, there’s only one thing to do: dye the leather.
You can dye leather in a number of ways, including using oil-based dyes, leather dyes, and acrylic paint. But all of these involve using chemicals that you can often get away without using. There are plenty of natural dyes out there that provide anything from a subtle colour to a big change.
Practical Ways to Drop a Dress Size This Summer
Summer has finally arrived! With glorious weather hopefully on the way, we all want to get outside, take in the rays, and feel body confident. For those who aren’t happy with their current weight, you may have goals and aspirations to drop a dress size. Even if you had plans to do this before summer and haven’t succeeded, that doesn’t mean you should throw in the towel now. Here are some practical ways to drop a dress size this season that can help you feel more comfortable and content in your skin.
Jucee Lunchbox Ideas
Are you worried that your children don’t get their 5 portions of fruits a day or maybe they have been consuming too many sugary drinks? Let me introduce you to Jucee. Jucee comes in three ranges: 100% pure juice, juice drinks and squash. All the ranges are 100% no added sugar.
Jucee re-introduced their 100% pure juice in 2011 as small lunchbox cartons with a straw. At the end of 2012, they launched their juice drinks in small bottles. So whatever your children’s preference, they can be enjoyed conveniently when they are out and about or at school.
Butternut Squash & Raspberry Traybake
A few months ago, I tried to bake Jamie Oliver’s Butternut Squash Muffins and it was a great success. I am not a big fan of vegetable cakes like carrot cake but I love the idea of hidden vegetables in cake. Ever since I tried the muffins, I’ve loved it. So I decided to make a Butternut Squash & Raspberry traybake for my Lichfield Mandarin Club’s party. This was my first time baking it and all the children and parents loved it. They all couldn’t detect the butternut squash. The only let down was that the raspberries were slightly sour!
DesignaFriend Post Twitter Party with fruit bowl
Yesterday, we all had such a great DesignaFriend party at home with our little guests. It was very manic and messy at times. We have received Florence and Madison for our little guests to play with. All of them saw the dolls and just wanted to play with them. I had to keep separating them away from the dolls otherwise we’d have never been able to do our activities!
Pop Chef: Push, Pop & Eat review
Character Online have brought out a new product called Pop Chef that allows you and your kids to create all sorts of edible fun shapes from your favourite foods. It turns fruits, vegetables and sandwiches into masterpieces. It can also be used to make cute cookie shapes or cake decorations!
Eden Project Baobab Fruit Review
Farmers from Africa joined the team at the Eden Project in Cornwall. A mutually beneficial scheme, it is designed to help farmers in Africa achieve a sustainable future, whilst educating people how to use the increasing demand for the baobab fruit to change lives for the better. The baobab fruit powder is available in the shop at the Eden Project and online.
It comes in a powder form and has more vitamin C than six oranges, more iron than spinach, more calcium than milk and gives you 50% of your RDA of dietary fibre. Due to the high levels of vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants baobab is said to be a natural boost to health and may also aid the absorption of iron from food, which is really important for children when their bones are growing. It is also believed that it can ward off winter colds, combat fevers, stomach upsets and can help as a general pick me up.
Our Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs
Yesterday, we went to watch Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs and Mr K decided he would like to make a fabulous fruity creature for himself. This is his ‘Mr Pear’. We used a pear, two grapes, two strawberries, a banana’s top, 5 toothpicks and a permanent maker pen.
Pac Man and the Teething Pumpkin
Mr K is a very creative boy and I had asked him what would he like me to carve. So I let him design his pumpkin using a permanent maker. This is his crazy teething pumpkin which I used the pumpkin seeds as his teeth. As for the ears, I used the leftover pumpkin skin with toothpick to poke it into the pumpkin itself. So I decided to carve a Pac Man to eat his crazy teething pumpkin. Planting the pumpkin seeds into the flesh of the pumpkin is not easy as it kept popping out. Hope you all like it!
Our First #HealthySnackChat Round Up!
I’m overjoyed at how well our Twitter party went yesterday morning between 10.30 – 11.30 am. It was brilliant! At some point during the party, Josh Robson spotted that we were trending and we were trending in the top three UK list for the rest of the party! I have to thank Pippa @RedRoseMummy who came up with our #hashtag #HealthySnackChat.
#HealthySnackChat Twitter Party – SA Fruits
From April throughout to September delicious varieties of South African fruit are widely available in UK supermarkets. They are affordable, produced in a sustainable manner and fairly traded. Did you know? Approximately 99% of South African fruit is shipped, not flown. The lovely people from South African Fruit has kindly given us a variety of fruits to taste. They are: Comice pears, Red Williams pears, Royal Gala apples, Songold plums and Angeleno plums.
Naked Juice Smoothies Review
We were given vouchers to try out Naked Juice Smoothies and so we popped by our local Sainsbury’s. There were only two ranges of smoothies on their shelves which is the Green Machine Antioxidant Family and Blue Machine Superfood.