OPP Staff Treat!

With 2012 ending, we ought to treat ourselves to a good meal and have a gathering since there’s hardly any chance for everyone to work together at the same time.

And P.S. Cafe was the deal!

Truffle Fries is <3…

Portion was extremely h-u-g-e! It took 6 of us to finish up this plate~

I had Soft Shell Crab Salad. Didn’t quite liked it as this crab had a strong seafood smell.

Jayne ordered a Japanese Miso Noodle Salad.

R. & Amy shared a beef burger! Hohoho, and there’s more fries~ We still love our Chokchai though.

Triple Chocolate something.. With caramel, nuts and tons of chocolate!

Extremely sinful but nice! 😉
You should never attempt this alone~ Trust me!

Super-sized coffee eclair. See it longer than the knife!

The OPP Team!
A pat on our shoulders for the wonderful 2011~
And a toast to an even better year ahead! 😀

Another shot in the toilet~ Hehe.
I’m wearing the Sequin Collar Dress in Burgundy. Mad love for the sequins! 🙂

PS. Cafe
+65 98348232
Palais Renaissance
390 Orchard Road 

Dinning in the gardens

Before the year ended, I managed to catch up with YQ. This time round, the food places that we wanted to try were ALL fully booked~ So we settled for Halia @ Botanic Gardens.

I went there for brunch some years ago and it left me a good impression.

We had some fresh oysters for appetizers.
They were fine, not exactly the sweet type that I like.

His Oven-Baked Chilean Seabass Fillet.

You know, I always regret my choices whenever we eat out together because his food always turn out to be much nicer than mine! If you do dine at Halia, you cannot miss this seabass~

Even though it’s oven-baked, it doesn’t compromise on the fish’s freshness and tenderness. And the sauce is just mouth-watering!!! The fish is accompanied by Japanese rice and cucumbers. Perfect combination!

My Pan-fried Hiramasa Kingfish.
It was really just so-so and I was simply drooling over the seabass throughout the dinner. I would usually choose seabass but I get disappointed all the time, so I decided to opt for kingfish and still, it was a disappointment. 😦

We had a cheese platter to end off the dinner. Yums.

The gorgeous lightings at Botanic Gardens~

Halia Restaurant
+65 6476 6711
1 Cluny Road, Ginger Garden
Singapore Botanic Gardens 

Happy Ducks!

Ettusais has been really nice to send me a greeting card with lovely goodies just before the year ended!

The super moisturizing Lip Essence x Little Twin Stars. *Kawaiiiiiiii*!

Another one added to my inventory! I wonder how am I ever gonna use up all the Lip Essence and Lip Essence Stick with only a pair of lips. *smooch*

Lip Essence has been my favourite lippy-care since I was introduced to it in early 2010. You can read here for my review back then~

Besides the limited edition Lip Essence, I’ve got an Ettusais 2012 Planner! This is soooooo awesome~

Not only does it include monthly planners, they come with note pages after every month! Plus, there’s a sticker page too! Heh.

Totally loving my new HOT pink planner! Thank you Ettusais for the love` ❤

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow~

Thanks to Google for making my screen snow! 😉

Google “let it snow” & wait for the whimsical magic to happen. 🙂

all prizes must go ~

Have you been religiously eating McDonald’s value meals and hoping to be a lucky soul in the Monopoly game? 😉 Hope you did win something because this 6-week long Monopoly game has officially ended last Friday.

For this year’s game, McDonald’s decided to double up the excitement and declared that all prizes must be won! And so, the ‘Chance Card’ winners had a second chance to win off the remaining prizes at Clark Quay last Friday~

Did you know that it’s already an instant win of SGD $100 when you get the ‘Chance Card’!!?

Here’s the 200 over hopeful souls at Clark Quay patiently waiting for the draw. 

Gee… I wished I was a winner too!

We all know that someone already won the top prize of SGD $80,000 and here he is collecting his big prize!

As for the night itself, they were giving out the remaining uncollected prizes including the Volkswagen Touran 1.4 TSI, Altanta Holiday Trip, MacBook Air and many other vouchers.

Mr. Monopoly. (:

After a good one hour of drawing the small prizes, it’s time for the biggest prize for the night – Volkswagen Touran 1.4 TSI. The remaining hopeful souls vying for it.

*drums roll*

And the winner of the Volkswagen Touran 1.4 TSI is……

There was a (major) hipcup for this draw! I guess everyone was really hoping that their number will be called up and someone heard the announcement wrongly. She thought they called out 0034 and the excitement on her face and her daughter was overwhelmed. She went on stage and collected the key plus photo-taking only to realise the winning number is 0035! And so, this lady in white above is the rightfully winner of the prize.

Well, what an eventful way to end off the draw. We feeling kinda sorry for the lady who mistook the prize for hers. She was really jumping for joy at that moment.

Anyway, here’s me and Mr. Monopoly. The richest man in Monopoly game!

We were all so excited for a photo! 😉

Thank you OMY and McDonald’s for having us. 🙂

Octoooober in photos

So much for attempting to keep my blog alive. *embarrassed*

Here’s the photo log for Oct!

Freezing cold at mid-mountains in Beijing.

Bring on the music and liquor, baby!

Attended a couple friend’s wedding at Wenzhou.

Looks like I’m heading there more often than I’ve ever imagined.

Dinner was held at Shangri-la. A pretty grand affair with 40 tables~

The firecrackers and beautiful fireworks for welcoming the newly weds.

Isn’t it lovely? :*) I am always so mesmerized by the gorgeous short-lived sparkles. I was promised a ten times more grand welcome affair for my wedding, and I am taking his words for it!! 😉

My outfit for the dinner. Wore a skater dress from Topshop, cuff from H&M and clutch from OPP. If you have been following OPP, you will probably notice that the cuff is my favourite accessory!! 😀 We have been using it whenever possible and needed!

The Chinese ‘Chinese wedding’ is somewhat different from SG Chinese weddings. As you can see, the cold dishes were served even before the event officially starts.

Debris of my cold crab. 😛

My favourite cuff and clutch! Love the clutch, it is so versatile. (:

I was also wearing my favourite earrings. Not quite visible from the photo though, but we are gonna launch it on OPP for the end year! Egg-cited~ 😉 Oh! I didn’t realised that I was wearing all my favourite items that night~ Yes, including my footwear. I wore the most comfy pair of flats I got from Topshop. 😀

Unlike SG, the newly weds didn’t go around the tables for photo taking. Instead, they went around toasting and collecting red packets!

The night ended off with this yummy and nourishing dessert: Papaya Hashima
It was soooooo good that I wanted a second serving! Sadly, all the guys at my table ate their share. Boo…

Spotted fake Crocs at departmental store in Wenzhou. *dumbfounded*

Outfits of the Day in Shanghai:

Striped Sweater – Topshop
Grey Leggings – H&M
Snakeskin Carrier – OPP
Potion Bottle Necklace – F21

An extremely adorable mustache double loop ring coming up on OPP soon! 😉

Snakeskin Carrier – OPP
I love how comfy the maxi dress is but it’s just to viable to wear in SG unless on cold rainy days. I was tempted to bring it in for OPP and we decided not to as our customers don’t seem so receptive towards maxi clothes. What say you? (:

Checkered Top – H&M
Highwaist Denim Shorts & Oxford Shoes – Topshop

Diamond Knit Cardigan – OPP
It’s a very cute piece and it’s already sold out at OPP. Comes in Cream and Mustard too! I wanted to keep Mustard as well but I already own a Mustard sweater.
We have opened up BO and all slots for are taken up. There’s still so many customers enquiring about it but sadly, we couldn’t get hold of any more stock. 😦

Embellished Cuff Dress – Love, Bonito
Ribbon Flats – Topshop (extremely comfy!)

Spent a Sunday in town at Kinnokuniya.
Embroidered Maxi Dress – F21

I managed to grab some Moleskine under the Discount Day for members. 😀

It took me almost an hour to decide between what type and what color I should get.

Lastly, I bagged home 2 twin pack – one plain and the other with lines.
Love the vibrant colors! Makes me happy instantly. 😀

Braided Sandals – Pretty Fit
It was such unlucky (or lucky) that my wedges’ strap gave way before I reach Kinno. I ended up shopping for footwear first. Lovely sandals, isn’t it? :*)

Arburi Sushi @ Fuji, BKK

Met up with FZ and A for Sept babies celebration and a catch up @ Timbre!

For the first time, I plait my hair out! How do you like this look? 🙂

Top & Skater Skirt – OPP
Bag – ASOS
Horse Necklace – F21
White Leather Cuff – H&M

Cajun Fries, Buffalo Wings, Hawaiian/Roasted Duck Pizza!

Nothing beats talking through long hours with good friends over yummy food and drinks!

Blended Mango Margarita.
I have a bad habit of licking the sugar rim. 😛

We had too many failed self-take group shots and this is one that’s more presentable. 😀

It felt rejuvenating catching up each others’ lives. It’s been years since A and I met up with FZ. I’m so glad things are going well for the both of them now. On contrary, I looked at myself and reflect….

There are many times when I’m alone or late in the night, I asked myself if this is all worth it. I have graduated from Uni for almost 6 months and I’m not bringing home any income. Comparing to my peers and many of them who have started work after Poly, I feel dejected at times.

Many people think that blogshops earn a lot but they fail to realize all the hard work behind the computer screen. Also, success doesn’t come for every single start-up. I have been in this business for so many years and I have given up once. But I do like what I’m doing and nothing beats that. Yet, to juggle between dreams and reality is a challenge.

I am always so excited when we come across gorgeous items during our sourcing and planning for manufactured designs. The adrenaline rush keeps me going on. And also, having to know that our customers are satisfied and happy with their purchases.

I am hopefully that OPP will be a strong brand in time to come.
Of course, with the support of our customers and our continuous hard work.

Gambatte, Jeanine!
Gambatte, oh! poupée 🙂

Festive Gourmet Food Trail

With Christmas, New Year and Chinese New Year coming soon, it’s gonna be a huge feasting season. Have you started thinking about where to eat and what to order?

In collaboration with Wan Bao and OMY, the veteran food critic Ah Lun sets out to bring you through 4 sessions of festive gourmet food trail. The 1st session took place last Saturday and I was really lucky to be part of it! 😀

The day started off at Crystal Jade Palace with Salmon Yu Sheng. I was late and therefore missed out on the tossing part.

My portion of Yu Sheng. The portions were just nice and had a generous serving of 4-5 slices of Salmon. (I know, sometimes when you pay so much for Yu Sheng, you get only a few slices for the huge plate) The sauce is slightly blend though, I prefer it with more plum sauce! 😉

The participants of the food trail. There were 6-7 tables? I heard that Ah Lun oftens hold food trails and this festive one has been a traditional for 8 years!

Here’s Ah Lun (in red) and the host of the day. 🙂

They had yellow lightings in the room and so all our photos turn out really bad. Pardon for the photos. It was halfway through that I switched on the flash mode.

Me and Steph! Another blogger invited for the food trail and she is my table buddy. She’s such a nice person and it’s so amazing how we hit off straight away! 🙂

Next dish served was ‘Peng Cai’ 盆菜.

A closer look at it. It is basically a pot of everything! Scroll down and see what’s in the layers~

As many ingredients are used in this huge pot, it has to be served in 3 portions!

1st layer – (Delicacies/Seafood) Abalone, Fish Maw, Dried Oyster, Shitake Mushroom, Dried Scallop
2nd layer – (Meat) Pork Knuckle, Roasted Duck, Preserved Meat, Sea Cucumber
3rd layer – (Vegetarian) Cabbage, Yam, Raddish, Bamboo Shoot, Dried Tofu Skin

Of all the ingredients, the roasted duck stood out and beat the rest hands down! I never had such gooood duck before~ It was so soooo tender!

We were served with Honey Ginseng Water Chestnut drink to cleanse our palette. It tasted like Ginseng sweets. 🙂

In between the dishes, the host and Ah Lun interacted with the participants by playing games.

Here’s the black box game! They had to put their hand into the freezing ice box to look for red marbles. Unfortunately, none of them found it. Poor thing!

Here comes the next dish!

Chef live-demo:

The soup is simply marvellous! It’s brewed with a few KGs of fish bone and you can see the stock is milky white. Drank up all the wholesome soup and the fish slices were so tender. Yums!!

The other game played was making red packet lanterns. Each table was given some red packets and staplers. And our table conveniently asked me and Steph to do up the lantern.

Although I like arts & craft, but this is too random! I frantically grabbed the red packets and started folding and stapling the ends together. I didn’t really know what I was doing! Thankfully, with cool and calmed Steph, we managed to fix up something, decent?

Each table had to send a representative to showcase their works and give a short introduction of the inspiration.

Me and Jacqueline, the other blogger invited but she’s siting at another table. Check out her pretty lantern (as compared to mine).

Now, what can I say about our lantern!!? Ok, I said it’s a durian lantern~ LOL. Some slight resemblance right!? No?

The judges bought my story and we got 2nd!!! But too bad, no prizes. The kid won with his nonsensical replies. He said he made it but he doesn’t know what it is. HahahahaAh..

Alrighty, next dish up – ‘Eight Treasures Rice’ 八宝饭

As the name suggests, it’s glutinous rice with 8 ingredients. I like this dish! And I’m already thinking of ordering it for CNY. It would be great for relatives get-together times~

The glutinous rice is soft yet textured, not the mushy and sticky type and is well-flavoured! The 8 pairing ingredients were really yummy too!

Finally, it’s time for desserts!

Look at the white chocolate and champagne oozing out! I love this fusion delight~ The traditional ones are usually either stuffed with peanut or red bean. Had this somewhere else before and it’s definitely a favourite! 🙂

This is Pulot Hitam (Black glutinous rice with coconut milk) with a twist of mango and strawberry. I thought it was a weird combination. The fruits were kinda sour and didn’t blend into the aromatic coconut milk.

That ends off first half of the session! What a filling CNY dinner tasting~ Thankfully, the next stop is a bus journey away, giving us some time to digest the food.

Crystal Jade Palace
Ngee Ann City #04-19

We followed our guide and hopped on to the bus and head away for the Christmas treat! 🙂

A welcome gift was placed at each of our seat when we arrived at Merchant Court.

Matching mask! 😉

Kicking start the Christmas dinner was Cream of Cauliflower. Creamy, smooth and with a tinge of chicken broth.

Pear Salad. A refreshing flavour~ Love the berries, honey roasted walnut and the glazed pear. A harmonious blend of flavours and something different from the usual salads!

Turkey with Cranberry and Apricot Stuffing.

The turkey was tender but cranberry and apricot stuffing was new to me. Besides, we already had so much food previously and I only managed to finish half of this.

Lastly, Fruit Cake with Vanilla Ice-cream. The cake was kinda dry on its own. The ice-cream added moist to it and brings down the heavy cinnamon taste.

That pretty sums up the day but wait! There was a lucky draw to end it off~ 🙂

Swissotel Merchant Court
20 Merchant Road

Ah Lun will be having 3 more Festive Gourmet Food Trails over this month and if you’re interested, you can check out more information here. It’s $108/pax or $88/pax for 2 to go. It’s pretty worth it since you get to try out so many dishes and chances to win dinning vouchers~ Plus, everyone gets to bag home a goodie bag with lots of goodies! 😉

Thank you OMY and Wanbao for having me~ 🙂

Shopping Mission!

How’s the long weekend coming along? Mine was a blast starting from Friday! Did lots of shopping and had tons of good food~ ❤

FashionFastForward sent us some awesome vouchers with awesome perks. If you’re the first 10 to use up all the vouchers, you will be rewarded with 10,000 F3 points!!! And do you know what that translates to? An awesome $400+ voucher~ *eyes open wide*

The promotion starts on the 4th and that happens to be Rina’s Birthday. What a perfect timing! Shopping spree on birthday~ ❤

If you are a F3 member and have yet to receive the vouchers, just pop by any outlet with your member card to collect them. 🙂

Our stint started at 10:30am with Topshop, followed by Miss Selfridge, Dorothy Perkins, Ben Sherman and back to Topshop. We managed to use up all the 8 vouchers at 1pm! Along the way, we were pretty worried as we saw some other girls carry MS and DP’s shopping bags while we were at our 1st stop. Thankfully, at our 2nd last stop Ben Sherman, the staff told us we still stand a chance be in Top 10. After making our purchase at BS, we rush off to Topshop again to use that very last voucher. Hehehe. We pray hard. *fingers crossed*

After 2+ hours of massive browsing, trying and walking, we settled at TWG for lunch. Been wanting to have tea there for the longest time ever but always had no chance to.

It was a friday afternoon and they were full house. (too many ‘tai-tai’s!) We had to wait for seats.

I opted for the lunch set while the girls chose Wagyu Burger.

Pan Seared Saddle of Lamb. The meat was just nice – tender and juicy. It went well with the potato pancake and sauteed spinach. It comes in 3 little portion which makes it more delicate. 😉

Wagyu Beef Burger accompanied with fries and fresh salad. The fries tasted like McDonald’s, in my opinion. The beef patty was normal.

Homemade Chestnut Entremet served with blackcurrant sauce infused with Earl Grey Tea. This chestnut sweetie didn’t impress me on the first bite but a few later. You can taste the light and aromatic sweetness of the chestnut, well-combined with the berries. ❤

We surprised the birthday girl with a mini heart-shaped cherry mousse. The staff were really nice to sing her a birthday liner too! 🙂

My full lunch set cost $35++ with a main, a dessert and a tea.

Food is reasonably good but limited in selection. The teas and desserts are definitely 2 thumbs up. Hopefully I will get to go back for tea some time soon! 😀

TWG Tea Salon & Boutique
ION Shopping Mall
2 Orchard Turn, #02 – 21

After the fulfilling lunch, we went on walking around Orchard.

<333 the girls.

Finally checked out the Smoky Palette from Make Up For Ever. I wanted to get it from Sephora US and after waiting for more than a month, Sephora emailed me saying it won’t be released. ahhhuh..

I was shocked when I saw the palette as it’s really tiny~ But the colors were so pretty! It’s retailing at $88 but the staff told me an Indonesian lady bought all of the 10 pcs that was left. Oh well, it’s either I travel to MBS outlet or probably get it from KL? Anyone going soon?

2-tone top – BKK chatuchak
candy skinny belt – oh! poupeé
maxi skirt – random shop
metal cuff – H&M 

Amy bought this yellow circle stickers and I started drawing silly smiley faces on them! Amy says the one on top right looks “pa-jiao”. LOL.

Here’s my loots!

Scooter Tshirt from Ben Sherman –  Lace Dress, Wool Shorts, Accessories from Topshop, Diamond Design Tights from Dorothy Perkins. I also got a Yankee Candle diffuser from Takashimaya.

Have I told you how much I looooooveeeee Yankee Candles!? 😀 My favourite scent is Mistletoe and I got the diffuser as they didn’t have the candle ones. My room smells sooooo good now~