More food pages from the travel planner

Hello friends! Today I bring to you more food pages from the travel planner.... this time from a quaint French bistro! :)

It was a cold winter's night in Sydney. When your Uber driver can't find your location on his GPS and by the time you get into the vehicle you get caught in the evening city traffic, one must remedy that traumatic experience with yummy French food. For a start, French onion soup served with Gruyère cheese croutons and steamed mussels in white wine sauce.

Then something a little more hearty..like lamb..

And of course Confit de canard.

If you are ever in Sydney, do visit Bistro Papillon for classic French food done really well. Seating is really limited (I made an online booking before I flew to Sydney) so make a reservation.

Hope you are having a great week so far! We are officially in Phase 1 of the reopening of the Singapore economy with kids back in school but those who can work from home must still do so. Food is still takeaway only so my life is pretty much still stuck at home except for grocery runs. What about you?

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Tuesday Review - Canon Selphy Square QX10

I had been eyeing a portable printer for the last year or so... something to bring with me on my travels so that I can document on the go and actually be up-to-date with my travel journal instead of being years behind! Plus, I really needed to free up the space on my mobile phone (I keep all photos on it till I scrapbook them).

There were several contenders including the Fuji Instax Share (really expensive and I own a Fuji Instax Camera), the HP Sprocket Printer (been around for a while but no significant price drop) and the Canon Inspic Mini Photo Printer (not sure about the print quality) ....and finally decided on the Canon Selphy Square QX10. (Also because my sister bought it as my birthday pressie..otherwise I might wait for a price drop instead of buying it at launch...*winks*).

One of the biggest draws for this printer for me is that it prints square photos! Perfect for those Instagram shots that I want to scrapbook and document too!

Another plus point is that it is wireless! Once the battery is fully charged, you can print up to 20 photos before you need to charge it again. Of course, you can still use your printer while charging it. You simply download the Canon App, connect it via Bluetooth and just print. Which means you can use any existing photo-editing apps on your phone to edit your photos first before you send them to print.:)

There are some fun borders and overlays you can add to your photos before you print them.

You can also combine photos to create a photo collage which might be great for incorporating photos that you want to include but maybe don't hold up that well to close scrutiny? *hehehe* Bear in mind that the photos are small...the maximum printable range is 68x68mm.

I also enjoy the fact that it prints on sticker labels...which makes it easy to stick it on scrapbook pages (no need to use tape glue!)

The small form factor makes it great for smaller-scale scrapbooking..like a travel journal or a recipe planner.

The photos are printed in a "polaroid-style" and you can choose to have the broad white strip on the top, bottom, left or right of the photo. Which is great for adding your sticker embellishments or maybe do a little journaling.

It is easy to create a grid-style format with the photos. I mean, you can do it with a regular printer too...but this is so much faster and way more fun!

The printer prints out the vibrant colours quite nicely so if you have decent quality photos to begin with, your photos will turn out quite lovely too.

While I enjoy the convenience of printing directly from my mobile phone without the need to turn on my computer and plug in my regular printer, this can be be a pricey endeavour. Each print works out to be about S$0.95 (US$0.69) if you buy the labels at regular price. The 5 labels that come with the printer are used up very quickly (well, if you are a scrapbooker like me that is...*LOL*). Mine came in a bundle deal with 2 packs of 20....so I've been rationing until I can get to a store or find a great online deal.

It comes in three colours - a white, a black and a pink. My sister was very surprised that I chose pink but I thought it might look nice with washi tape all over it...hehehe.

So...final thoughts...definitely a want and not a need. I will still be using my regular printer to print 5x7 and bigger photos and heading to the photo store to print the 4x6 ones to get more bang for my buck. I love my Canon Selphy Square QX10 though...and will treasure it since it was a pressie from my fave sister. :)

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Rise and grind tag

Hello friends! Just a quick tag to share today...

The base is a leather tag that I embellished with bits and bobs from the stash on my desk.:)

Happy Thursday!

Playing along with the 2020 Spring/Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop.

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From the recipe planner - Dalgona coffee

Yeah, it's starting to look like beverage week here on my blog...*winks* ...but I did say I had so much fun with my new dies right?

Anyway, here's a page about Dalgona Coffee from my recipe planner. :)

Apparently I had been living under a rock because I didn't know about Dalgona Coffee until April when my sister asked me what I wanted from Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. I went to check out their online menu and it was on the best-seller list!

But as luck would have it, they ran out of ingredients for the beverage so I did not get to try it.

Well, you know me. I just had to google how to make it and there were a ton of YouTube videos on how to make it as well as a chocolate version and a green tea version.

The original recipe calls for equal parts instant coffee, sugar and boiling water which you then whip (either with a hand whisk or with an electric mixer) and what you get a a creamy coffee "whipped cream" that you put on top of either cold or hot milk.

The beverage originated in Macau and South Korean actor Jung Il-Woo tried it when he was there and gave it the nickname dalgona for its resemblance to a traditional Korean sponge candy of the same name.

It tastes like a rich-creamy coffee dessert. Have you tried it? :)

Playing along with the 2020 Spring/Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop.

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Yep...the owl loves to drink tea too *winks*

I'm a huge tea drinker...and apparently the owl on my card loves to drink tea too. *winks*

Found a bunch of fussy-cut cups in my stash and created a few (or more...hehehe) projects using them. :)

Playing along with the 2020 Spring/Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop.

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Make Stuff Monday - Coffee Lovers edition

Hello friends! Today's Make Stuff Monday is another mini decorated file folder - Coffee Lovers edition. :)

It only took me less than a year to finally get into the CUTplorations coffee-inspired dies I got last year...*hehehe*

Love a pun-ny sentiment. *winks*

I was tempted to use all the die-cuts from the set but settled for just 2. *LOL*

The coffee cup is a Maya Road wood veneer embellished with patterned paper, twine and bling.

Playing along with the 2020 Spring/Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop.

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Stay at home reorganization - the makeup edition

So your gal here finally got down to de-potting her eyeshadows from those odd-sized/shaped and mini eyeshadow palettes...despite having gotten those empty magnetic palettes months ago. *ahem..the gal is lazy*

But nothing to get things going than an unfortunate accident with some of her eyeshadow palettes while cleaning. Yep...the klutz dropped them on the floor, decimating some completely. *sad music plays in the background*

Part of the reason why I wanted to depot the eyeshadows was because I was tapping into 4-5 palettes each time I did my eye makeup (I like to challenge myself not to repeat looks) and sometimes it can get pretty messy in the morning rush. Since I wasn't "attached" to the colour story of each palette, it made more sense for me to reorganize them in a way that I would use them. And I could change them up whenever I get bored.

I know the eyeshadow pans don't really "fit" symmetrically but I'll just leave them as they are for now. I look forward to wearing eye makeup again. Which is looking like sometime in July I reckon.

What have you reorganized since we are spending more time at home?

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Another week of food adventures in my kitchen

Well friends, it's been another week of food adventures in my kitchen! :)

Pretty happy with how everything turned out...:)

I made:

1. Hokkaido Milk Bread
2. Kueh Dadar (pandan crepe with grated coconut filling)
3.Cinnamon twists
4. Madeleines

Cooking/baking while being stuck at home has kept me somewhat sane. There's something about measuring ingredients and watching chemistry happen between them in the different cooking methods...really appeals to the nerdy side of me. I watch multiple videos, read comments, research potential pittfalls before going in with the confidence of maximum success. That's the way I roll. *LOL*

Playing along with Let's Get Sketchy.

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Wishing you a happy day...life update

Wishing you a happy day friends...wherever you are in the world. :)

A quick life update with the Covid-19 situation in Singapore.

We are on Day 43 (initially was supposed to be 28 days) on our 56 day lockdown (badly coined as Circuit Breaker because our Health Minister is not a medical doctor but an engineer..*insert puzzling music*). Two weeks into the lockdown, we saw stricter measures imposed and the re-classification of what the government deemed as essential services. Which meant that people could no longer get haircuts or visit Traditional Chinese Medicine centres for pain relief. Those restrictions eased last week and people are finally looking human again and dogs no longer have to deal with bad hair days too. *LOL*

Students had online classes till May 4th because that was when the initial lockdown was supposed to end. Instead of heading back to school, the government pulled the month-long June school holidays into the month of May so students head back to school on June 2 instead. So basically parents who have to work from work also have to deal with their noisy kids stuck at home...not the most ideal situation. Nephew #1 has been counting the days when he can go back to school to meet his friends!

Just a quick card today...using some bits and bobs from happy mail. And yes, I actually "stamped" the sentiment on the card (in my bid to use or trash my supplies..*winks*).

Tell me what's going on in your corner of the world.

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