{fluff and stuff} presents : ALICE IN WONDERLAND

yes, this post is waaaaaaaaaaay over due! the party was back in august 2010 and you might recall a sneak peek, as posted here. drawing inspiration from the movie as well as from the links mentioned in a much earlier alice feature, we came up with a whimsical theme, playing with the colours orange, turquoise and fuschia.

the party was for tunku alana's 25th birthday and the original "order" was for an alice themed dessert buffet. however, dear alana loved the moodboard we presented and so with much glee, we ended up decorating the whole venue!

here are some pics we snapped amidst the chaos...

- registration at the entrance - 

- the tables - 

   

- the dessert buffet -

   

   





   

- the bar counter -



   

credits: 1. the party took place at the pink sage diner, which i've mentioned before here. 2. we baked all the desserts ourselves except for the birthday cake and macarons. we already had a design in mind for the cake but we had a dessert buffet for a wedding of 600 pax to set up just hours prior to the alice party. with the mad hatter rush we knew we were in for, the cake was the last thing we wanted to take a risk with. hence, we commissioned satira diana to execute the cake-making for us. 3. as for the gorgeous macarons, we just haven't gotten round to mastering this particular art of baking, so we ordered them from whisk ;)

the overall night was named "alana in wonderland" and of course, we labelled the tags eat me and drink me. just for laughs, the biscuits were labelled bite me and the lollipops, lick me! we got a lil carried away, bought extra props and flowers for decor and most likely spent more than our budget...did i also mention we were mad hatters setting up two events back to back? yes, it was most definitely a mad day for us but it was oh so worth it!

MR MEN & LITTLE MISS...

amongst my favourite books whilst growing up was the mr men and little miss series...

i loved how the cute characters were so well illustrated based on their names and i always fancied myself being little miss sunshine ;)

of course, many would differ and probably say i was little miss chatterbox, more than anything else! but...i digress. the whole point of this post was to share pics of the bollipops we made for a friend's son and daughter. we matched the artwork to make them look like the cover of the story books...they turned out super cute!

square bollipops for all the mr men...

   

 and rounds ones for the little misses...

 

happy belated birthday, mr rayyan and little miss ranya!

OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW...

at the end of every year,  zain and i put ourselves and the entire household through an exercise of abundance...out with the old, to make space for the new. half way through, my sinus was acting up and the house was upside down, but with every bit of clutter and junk i threw out, i felt a sense of relief and oddly, mental clarity...

and so it was this exercise of abundance that inspired me to revamp this blog. with the new year and promises of an exciting (and hopefully rewarding!) future ahead, what better time than now ;)

i've decided that minimalist is the way to go so i deleted the pink background and changed the header to reflect my current mood and perhaps reflection of my life (click here for the original header design by my style backgrounds...lots of other lovely freebies too!) and this is the new 2011 look...

a lil more grown up, a lil bit rustic, a lil bit prettier...not too clean yet not too bare and splashes of the colours i love...

BAMBINI, ANYONE...?

in my bimbo moments of weakness, i sometimes justify purchases for ilaika by telling myself that just like me, most mums are suckers for cuteness and it's just beyond our control when we splurge on our lil princesses ;) and like most mums that fall in this category, i immediately fell in love with these bambini shoes, recently launched by shoes shoes shoes...

*aspiring feet model - ilaika & yours truly ;p

hers & hers! aren't these just absolutely adorable...?

when yiu lin, the mastermind behind this local brand, invited me to the launch of bambini, i popped by her store the very next day to purchase these two pairs ahead of the launch! i also jumped at the chance to offer our biscuits as a gift for all the other young mums who were to attend the launch. 

we prepared boxes of customised vanilla butter biscuits that bore the bambini logo as well as the names of each child & mum. we also threw in some polka dots, inspired by the brand's shoe boxes...these are the pics i snapped and edited using the iphone. will post more later ;)

yiu lin tells me these were a great big hit...both the shoes and the biscuits...but of course, you can never have enough ;)

PRETTY DARN PRETTY...

it's been a while since i've posted anything on my baking projects.  

to be honest, i haven't baked much as year-ends are always hectic and true enough, it was mad this year with the festivities as well as my handing over of work at the office. i'll get around to updating more on sweet stuff but for now, here's a cake i'd like to share...

i seldom take orders for whole cakes as my icing skills are no where near perfect...but my mum insisted i made a cake for her good friend and so i could not say no.  with the d.i.y. banner as a contributing factor to its prettiness, am happy to say that this cake turned our pretty darn pretty...!

DREAM A LITTLE DREAM...

as i count the days towards the end of an era (well, my days in full time employment to be precise), i find myself looking fwd to the simplest in things like taking ilaika to ballet classes, baking in the day, reading a book and cooking family dinners...(god knows it's been ages since i did the last two!)

for someone who has had her whole life planned out every step of the way, this is an odd and unfamiliar territory and a lil daunting too, these emotions i'm experiencing...and yet i welcome them with open arms. for the first time in my life, i have nothing concrete planned for the near future. the only plan that's certain is the impending last day at work. beyond that, only time will tell...

the world is my oyster i suppose. am looking forward to doing nothing and everything ;) there's so much that i'd like to do and there's no better time than now. 

perhaps tho, in the first month of unemployment, i might just indulge in being a taitai...!

for those close to me, they know only too well that i've been dreaming of this little dream for a long long time, years even! hence it was fitting that zain gave me this lovely tiffany notes pendant for my birthday...yes, it's my birthday ;)

dream a little dream? yes, perhaps it is time to live MY little dream...

YAY ME...

i came across a facebook app that puts together a person's status updates for the past year and summarises them in a word cloud. here's mine...

no surprises that ilaika came up a lot in most of my updates. monday morning blues and work had more than their fair share too.

well, i have a good feeling that those dreaded work blues will stay behind in 2010 and not tag along to haunt me in 2011....because...yes, i have good news! i finally did it -  i finally turned in that letter i drafted years ago...

yes peeps, i finally resigned! and what's next, i hear you ask? well, that's another story altogether ;)

for now, all i can say is - yay me!

OUR WISH FOR YOU...

did you know...?

(click here or the para below for the original webpage)

" Origami was invented in China around 100AD. The word origami simply means "paper folding". Japan was in the habit of adopting interesting parts of the Chinese culture, and took on the craft of origami around 600AD. It is Japanese origami which has become a world famous cultural emblem. 

As in many societies, paper was a luxury item, created by hand and used only for important, long lasting purposes. When origami was first brought to Japan, only the rich practiced the art of folding paper into shapes. The shape creation was a way of adding special meaning to what the paper held on it or in it.

For love notes, origami was doubly special. First, the origami shape itself could represent a message. The selection of color and shape help conveyed the true emotions of the writer. Second, origami is an intricate art. If the love note was intercepted, it would be unlikely that the reader could perfectly refold the shape. So the origami love note was very secure - it could not be read by the wrong person without the recipient knowing it.

From its inception, origami has held an honored place in ceremonies that were of great importance. Origami was used at births, weddings, and funerals to help commemorate the occasion in a unique, hand-crafted manner. The origami figures would be treasured by participants for years afterwards. "

(click here or the para below for the original webpage)

" One of the first books published on Origami was "How to Fold 1,000 Cranes", released in the late 1700s. It is no coincidence that the crane was chosen as the subject for the book. For thousands of years the Japanese culture has treasured the crane as a symbol of honor and loyalty. The crane symbol is used on many Japanese heraldic devices and is a theme in many famous works of art.

The crane is a majestic bird which mates for life and is extremely loyal to its partner. The bird is strong, graceful and beautiful. Because of the great importance of the crane, the Japanese people feel that a person who folds 1,000 cranes will be granted his or her greatest wish. "

as a child, i loved origami...i can't quite recall if it was the pretty paper that our japanese friends used or just the art itself that attracted me. whatever the reason, i fondly recall my mum folding lil bits of paper followed by my excitement in discovering the figure that unfolded...or folded, so to speak! i also recall asking her to unfold the paper just so i could try and fold it back into the figure she had folded just moments earlier.

a few weeks ago, i chanced upon an origami set at a local bookstore. it reminded me of my childhood days and so i bought a set for ilaika, thinking that i could introduce the art to her, just as my mum did for me. 

and she loved it!

the crane was and still is my favourite. so it was no surprise that the crane was also the first piece i chose to fold for ilaika.

we didn't fold a thousand cranes but hey, we don't ask for very much ;) our dreams are of love and happiness (and perhaps in ilaika's case, a year's supply of froyo!) 

we hope these two will be enough to grant us our little but meaningful dreams and wishes for this coming year and we wish the same for you...