september happy mail!

oh hello ~

Here i am again! There were plenty of public holidays last month, which means it was a great snail mail month as i get to have many time for letter writing! Hehe... Let's see who's mail came in ~

 

Azusa a very sweet lady, a newly met friend through instagram, I must say that the great thing about instagram is that people have a tendency to get along well with those who share the same interest! I have found many of these lovely people who actually share the same interest with me.

 Her instagram username called 'kamitopen', remember she told me about what it means for 'kamitopen' in the previous letter. 'kami' means papers, while 'pen' literally means pen! Easily defined her love of stationery, isn't it? ^_^ 

Look how beautiful are those paper ephemera she sent?

She sent me 2 Hawaiian teabags from her Hawaii trip recently, its definitely a dream holiday destination for me. Lovely stickers, postage stamps, washi tapes, little L!FE paper notepad...etc! 

I am as happy as a little girl when i saw these, and friends ~ make sure you enjoy the little things in life okay!

 Lisa pick up letter writing once again after quite a while on her snail-mail-pause.
 And she will soon become a mother, i'm really happy for her and the little person in her belly. Stay happy and healthy baby!

A simple and good handwritten letter can really touch your heart, even perfect with a little piece of (good looking packaging) chocolate! 

I love everything Lisa.

Sylvie's huge parcel arrived in my mail box last week! You can't imagine what it has been like, opening her parcel~ 

i was so surprised, yays!! wow!! oh~ lovely!! all the time.

She bought me a souvenir from her trip to France, can you see that little bright yellow tin? Fyi, Cachou Lajaunie is a French product that was developed in 1880 by a pharmacist who wanted to help people gain a sense of fresh breath and health. The tiny liquorice lollies will make your tongue completely black! (woo, i can't wait to try that!)

Sylvie has a green fingers, very good at keeping plants healthy and making them grow! This time she sent me some chive seeds from her garden, with a very pretty pressed chive flower. A smiley face latte spoon for my kitchen, oh~ Sylvie, thank you for being so sweet!

Symbol of love wax seal stamped in bright pink color! That's cute, I just had to show you the close-up and details.

 We came up with the idea that is to exchange our succulent plant via snailmail, and here it is! Sylvie sent me one of her succulent plant in a tin box. Unfortunately, it didn't make it somehow~ T_T It might be because of the travel distance is too long inside the dark tin, or the soil is too damp when it reached here. 

However, this little rosette still stay green, i have already place it in my flower pot with plenty of sunlight. I hope it will live!

Sylvie, please wait for my succulent~ will be on your way soon once i finish packing it!

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I really can't thank you enough for all the love you have given me my dear pen pal.

A big hug from me to you!!

weekend food making

Hello,

As the weather has not be very good with the haze, we stayed home most of the time over the weekend, therefore i cooked & baked food we are craving for!

 Guess what's this little transparent like pearls?

 We call it sago pearls, it is usually made into chinese / nyonya dessert. They soften, and turn transparent when cooked. 

I made sago pudding with gula melaka syrup for dessert!

Boiling Gula Melaka (palm sugar) syrup + coconut milk!

Tada, i couldn't wait, as I took my first bite, I was amazed by just how good it was! 
Sago pudding & gula melaka syrum in this recipe is a match made in heaven!

 
Roselle jam in the making! I always make roselle juice, but have never tried to make fruit jam.

 My first attempts at jam making was quite successful, yohoo! I bet you all will know how it feels~

An incredible homemade jam, come on!!

Canning & preserving the jam for longer storage. Yummy!

outgoing mail august!

hello peeps!

I get a lot of amazing mail from my dear penpals, and here are my outgoing mail to them! Hope that my mail reaches you, you and you well! ^_^

 My mail to Azusa

Tokyo, Japan

 My mail to Jocelyn

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

  My mail to Mirta

LC, Italy

  My mail to Olga

Saint Petersburg, Russia

  My mail to Silver

Selangor, Malaysia

august happy mail! - part 2

Here it is my part 2 incoming happy mail! Eternally grateful to all my lovely pen friends, cause you all mean so much to me! I need to prepare each mail with love to all of you~ hohoho!

Met a super sweet mama through instagram recently - Naoko chan, she has 2 beautiful & adorable daughters Yuka & Chisa. We love the same things - gardening, baking, snailmail!

 Naoko wrote me a beautiful decorated letter and a lovely birthday note card!

Her handwriting is so neat and cute, love it love it!

 Look what naoko sent me for my birthday gift! A little bird-shaped wooden tray for my cooking.

ありがとうございますArigatou gozaimasu, it hard for me to describe how much i love it!

Pack of wonderful happiness! 

 Yumi chan sent me a secret mini love letter!

Yumi chan is also a tea lover, remember i asked whether she can keep those tea tags for me once she finished the tea because i'm starting to collect different type, brand of tea tags. Hehe~ how weird i am? We usually share/exchange seeds we harvest from our own garden, this time she sent me some oregano herb seeds, i have already sown part of them in the pot, will wait and let the magic happens. Last but not least, she also attached a beautiful postcard with notes and some pretty postage stamps too!
 

 A special birthday parcel for me.
 Guess what yumi chan sent me for my birthday?
It's a secret! Heehee...

How lovely is this package?

Letter-Writing Day series of postage stamp

from the info - it is a tradition originally founded by Japan Post back in 1979 to promote the fun of exchanging letters. 

A little package from this pretty lady - Silver from Taiwan relocated to Malaysia lately, she saw and love the seed packs i have posted on my instagram, and of course said i would love to shared it with her.

At first, she wanted to sent me her hand-illustrated postcard to say thank you, and then this little package came in with surprise! She sent me set of her illustrated postcard and a few lovely tea bags which i couldn't really find it here! 
谢谢您，silver!

 ALL HAIL, SNAIL MAIL!

august happy mail! - part 1

Hello!

August went by so fast, i haven't had enough time to finish and to do my favorite things! I went back to my hometown last weekend, and we celebrated my older brother's birthday. Dad treated us to a great sunday dinner (i will share some picture in my next post), we sang the Happy Birthday song to him (my brother), we had baskin robbins ice cream cake (mint flavoured), little edward running around and it was just so much so much fun!

Here, i am very pleased to share with you my superb incoming mail last month, with very lovely birthday gifts attached!

 My new pen pal from The Netherlands, she found me from Brinja's blog (i left a message there and she reads my message!) >_<

Thank you so much for contacting me Ageeth!

 I love everything in the parcel,  everything are so vibrant! You know what Ageeth, I am started to love pineapple print lately, eyeing on a pineapple pattern wax seal stamp and i absolutely love that pineapple pouch and the print you hand stamped.

Thank you for the cute clipper tea bags (how did you know that i'm collecting tea bag? hehe) with matching little envelopes, you are so cute!

Pretty paper ephemera, she pretty much made / craft everything on her own!
Another very talented lady, oh~ im so lucky to be able to know you all!

Here it comes again, Sami's summer mail!

Beautiful cherry hand-stamped cloth tape with lovely postcards!

Have you ever seen any notebook with 3D paper glasses? >_< too cute! 

And a travel guide, map & postcards for my reference. Please wait for me, someday i will be there - Port of Vigo ("O Berbés")

My first penpal from Bulgaria - Diana had a super adorable baby boy! I know so little about Bulgaria (please tell me more), but it sounds like an amazing country to me. Bulgaria has the most beautiful postage stamps!

She sent me a 10 sheets super long letter which i enjoyed reading every bit of it! 

 Thank you so much dear Diana, those origami papers, stamps & doilies are pretty and useful for my next snailmail!

Yen Fong's happy mail! No doubt, she have a great sense on choosing beautiful stationery, has been a collector for beautiful paper & ephemeras. If you are stationery-lover and wanted to get some well made stationery, feel free to visit her online store.

 Look how cute is the Instax mini film she took with her newly bought succulent plant for her new home!

I was totally addicted to the beautiful papers and ephemera she sent! 

谢谢你

Aki chan sent me a huge parcel with many lovely goodies and a sweet birthday gift this time!

 An absolute summer greetings parcel for me!
Seashells postage stamps & crystal drop seal / Japan scenery seal flake stickers / little cute fork & spoon / yummy blendy stick & coffee / sightseeing map (i will go to visit you someday aki) & a pack of yummy puff cakes (not showing in the pic it as i have nearly finished it >_<)

 Tadaa! A canvas tote bag with beautiful cooking/food inspired print for my 30's birthday, how beautiful it is? She just knows me so well! We have been writing to each other for about 4 years if not mistaken, I can't believe how fast time flies. Wish for many more years to come, more laughter, more joy, more love and more SNAILMAIL!

 I just can't help myself staring at these lovely postage stamps!

Summer seashells!

And very adorable unique shapes moomin postage stamps, i may need to frame them up! aww~ makes me happy just to think about it!

Not finished yet, there is a part 2 coming soon!

my birthday, all about food!

Happy 30th Birthday! Yays.

My partner's birthday is just 3 days apart from mine, so we always celebrate together! My brother will date us out for dinner every year on our birthday, it's like a tradition!

Last week, he treated us the best birthday dinner @Alexis Bistro & Wine Bar. It was our first time dining there and we enjoyed it because the food were pretty good, specially the signature tiramisu! So here's some of the delicious food we ate, "beware!" the food images that might causes you to salivate! Hehe.

 

 This was mine - Moroccan style lamb racks with roasted eggplant, topped with cheesy sauce & fresh pomegranate. I love grilled egg plant, but don't really fancy the taste of this roasted aubergine might be because of the cheese sauce, the lamb rack & mint sauce taste very light~ but overall was still good!

 My boyfriend's favorite, forgot what the dish is called~ but it was certainly a delicious herb roasted chicken leg. It has the crispiest skin and the meat was so juicy! Yum!

My brother ordered Angel Hair Oglio Olio, this is actually my favorite! Well, maybe you might not know yet, i love seafood more; especially shrimp, or shrimp family~ and that's in there are crayfish, aka crawfish!

 Here comes our birthday cake, also forgot what this cake is called!

It taste so good, my brother asked if i can bake something like that >_< 

I answered: "of course no, as homemade always taste different and better! HAHA"

pardon me please~

Now this taste delicious, something different, it was no ordinary tiramisu! It's layered with silky mascarpone and coated with caramalized almonds & mixed nuts. And the plus point, a touch of cognac! Oh, tasty, i'm in heaven!

The gardenia plant that my dad gave me has bloomed just a day before my birthday and it reached full bloom on my birthday! Although this seems like a small thing, but i feel really fortunate & amazing!

Wish for many more wonderful things and memories to come!