a Celebration of Samadhi's & Matt's love

samadhi's been a good friend since my teens. i was first introduced to her by my dad as her dad worked with mine. she was this really sweet, gracious girl from aussie and opened to new adventures including a stint at ywam singapore that involved her staying in the middle of our red light district, geylang. over the years, we've not actually manage to meet after her move back to aussie and me in LA. however, ever since moving back to sg, she's come by sg a few times and even if it's only for a few hours, i'll try and see her. thank goodness for technology too as we now whatsapp/bb at least once a week.


it was absolutely sweet of her to ask me to be her bridesmaid and even thou i kept turning her down knowing i will not be able to help out in anyway, she persisted and i eventually relented and accepted the honour. 31st march 2012 was the most inspiring wedding ever -  it was simple, relaxing (which was a first for me) and filled with love from family and friends and most of all the couple.samadhi was a gorgeous bride and i had so much fun, it was difficult to leave the next day. as per the previous post, i really didn't know anyone except for the bride and her parents but yet all the other family and friends all made me feel so welcome, it was an absolute joy to be present and to be part of this.


everything involved family and friends - the photographer, flourist and hairdresser were all good friends of aunty donalee. in fact the hairdresser flew in specifically for this wedding. it was a great gathering of friends. the flowers were left in aunty donalee's bedroom the night before and brought in the day of. everything was perfectly planned, with time for flexibility. it went pretty smoothly especcially since alot of things were improvised upon last minute

the morning started at 730 for krissy as she was the first to get her hair done... this was taken at breakfast, samadhi the ever glowing bride. the boys had an early morning surf session... yes it was that relaxing.

our hair

then it was off back to the bridal room for the rest of the day... we took turns to get our hair and makeup done and just bummed around reading gossip magazines and watching the movie bridesmaid

charlotte and brooke also took this opportunity to get their nails done with last minute stick ons!

the rings... for different occasions including the gorgeous engagement ring

the boys boutonnieres (i flew in with the orchids from sg a week before and was amazed they kept the shape and colour!)

the bride's shoes

the bride's hair

the dress

sam and her parents

finally the finished product - samadhi looking radiant and amazing. she was every bit how i've imagined her to be on her wedding day

at 315, a little golf cart picked us up to bring us up to the area where the ceremony was to be held

then it was up those stairs towards the awaiting guests and guys on a platform overlooking noosa's gorgeous beach and water

photos before moving off to the next item on our list

then it was off to the beach for the photoshoot! (these photos havent been edited before... and they turned out absolutely amazing)

while we were at the beach, the guests had cocktails and mingled around. then it was dinner time.

the set up was very simple and pretty

food was good and entertainment that night included Caleb singing, garter removal, dancing and towards the end was the guest forming a little tunnel for the bride and groom to walk through

this post is for both samadhi&matt... wishing them a wonderful life together filled with love, joy, laughter and mutual respect and support :)

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Shinji

this week has been an absolute foodie heaven... first off, yazawa for dinner then off to shinji for lunch. i'm definitely going on a MAJOR austerity drive over the remaining of 2012

instead of heading to the original shinji at raffles hotel, i met berns, avon and claud at the quaint little one at OUE. it fits 8 just nicely and as berns was a regular there, they managed to fit us in on a short notice. the chef was really cute with amazing eye lashes and his wife wore a really pretty pink kimono and she kept changing our tea effortlessly. i've found my urasawa equivalent and very very happy. my list of LA equivalents are slowly getting ticked off... now only for a good mexican restaurant. it was a great lunch and the 3 of them are fantastic lunch buddies, i think we giggled a little too much for a small restaurant but it was amazing and i had loads of fun. cant wait for claud to come back and we can do this again.

warning: sushi images overload

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cute!

i think the Papier series of Balenciaga is really cute :) the word "papier" alone conjures an image of paper-thins and i least expected a boston bag from this series!

the Bolster 

& the Papier Wand

the name is just genius :)

why are they offering a complimentary papier insider purse? is this series not well received?

i think this range is chic , not as expensive and hmm.. looks more authentic than the others?

<3

S

project gimbap

perhaps you may ask what's the difference between a gimbap and a sushi roll?

it's not much really, after the rice is cooked, the rice for gimbap is mixed with salt,sesame oil , rice wine, sesame seeds , whereas a japanese maki probably has vinegar, some seasoning, sugar ,salt in it :)

then whatever goes into the centre is entirely up to the "chef"

they say food brings people together and below's facebook thread from my gimbap post shows how! :)

thanks for eating my gimbaps Pris & Gina. i believe it's the first time i've delivered food to you both.

lol!

shoe lust

waiting for an inspired version from the parallel universe :)

my mom has a silver version lying in the cupboard since eons ago, but i don't want silver, i want hot pink /yellow/mint green :)

& has anyone seen shoemint.com ?
Rachel Bilson has a line and i'm loving the Kathryns in Nude & Pastel Blue :)
love love  love but no international shipping..yet :)

<3
S

j's house cookouts

i'm not too sure where the recent inspiration to have cookouts at janice's started from but it's been great! a gathering of 6-10 friends while janice and i split the cooking... i'm so familiar with her house, i'd be there more often if it wasnt so damn far away. she's been good at keeping my over-cooking in check... and i believe we're to have a leftover party soon coz for once, food just got out of hand and we're gg to have to eat up the leftovers :) any excuse really to head over, eat good food, gossip and of course raid her father's awesome wine selection

menu for labour day's brunch was:
blueberry pancakes, spanish omelette with chorizo, sauteed mushrooms, corncakes, foccacia, citrus salad with feta cheese and copious amounts of champange

the past weekend's epic bbq had:
janice's famous salmon, gunther-inspired caviar angel hair pasta with truffle oil, potato salad, l.ance's awesome eggplant bruschetta (and i don't usually like eggplant but this was really yummy), grilled veg, spicy pork, beef, mussels, sausages (which we never got to, thus the upcoming leftover party), pavlova, poached pears, lots of soju and red wine

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Down Under part III

i know this is taking rather long to complete and there's the finale which hasn't been written yet but hopefully some time by the end of the year i'll be able to write it out :)

anyway enough of procrastinating. i would like to tell you about stand-up paddling. this little business aunty donalee does keeps her busy with her time while leting her maintain an awesome bod for a lady her age and lets her travel to all the beach destinations around the world! it's basically standing atop a board slightly larger than a long surf board if you're a beginner like myself or a surf board as a professional, stand up and paddle with an oar. while setting up, i was thinking that it would be torture for my arms when in fact it was more core work just balancing on a board in a body of water! what i'm even more impressed with was that aunty donalee would hold weekly yoga lessons on it! i mean seriously? this is the one class you had better not loose your balance or else everyone else would hear you splash in!

us setting up bright and early after a night out:

the lake we "conquered" since the ocean was too choppy that day... the houses on that lake were simply amazing... they reminded me of houses in san diego

it was really really fun and i wished i had spent more time in noosa to do another round but i'm sure i'll be back :)
you know come to think of it, it'll be a good sport to introduce to singapore in our waters just coz we barely get waves... hmmmm

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