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Okay fine, it’s not a smart sounding post as it may sound, haha

Let me introduce to you to some group buys/ discount sites! Ever since it first emerged, I’ve been somewhat intrigued by the discounted offers. As most would know, I’m a sucker for a good bargain, and granted some of these sites do offer just that – I’ve bought ‘quite’ a bit too date.  Dont ask how many, I think we can afford to eat out every weekend for the next few months, ahem. Some expired before I could even use it (see that’s one problem with buying vouchers, you tend to procrastinate and wait till the last minute and before you know it it’s expired, or is it just me?) while the rest I finally got to redeem two weeks ago.

Suchan Deal By Super Deals

That’s right, the brat is wearing shoes thesedays

I love the pink/blue combo and the entire feel to her outfit – she looks like a very cute dancer, hehe

Outfit: Gift from hubby’s aunt – Disney bought in Guam. Believe it or not, it’s tagged as 0-3 months! Oh my baby is so petite.

Somehow the headband I got customized totally matched the outfit, haha

Ooo ma let me seeee

Went there with Wylane and Jove. Both officially MARRIED now And living in UK. I miss them! And I officially dont have friends no more

Ok enough photos of us. Onto the deal. The hubby paid RM30 each (the deal is worth RM60) and this is what we got

Salad – not a big fan of salads but this was pretty yummy

Salmon pasta – we decided to go with the most expensive pasta. The other two choices were vegetarian pastas – MEH

And a cake each – mine was Red Velvet – OBVIOUSLY! A bit on the hard side, don’t know why

While the hubster had banoffee pie - now this was pretty good!

Was it worth it? Well kinda. For the size of cake we had and pasta (which is worth RM 20 on the menu). Though I highly doubt the entire deal was worth RM60 each. Approx Rm50++ maybe.  

(P.s: it seems like this deal is on another group-buy site now – buy here )

Duduk Cafe by Groupon Malaysia

I paid RM35 for TWO for this deal that is worth RM75.

We start off with photos of the brat who was misbehaving by throwing her toys onto the floor before proceeding to cause a ruckus in the restaurant, lol life with a baby I tell you….

Yes I’m very naughty today!! What you going to do about it old lady?

Strawberry shake for the hubby (please dont judge) and toffee nut milkshake for me.

A gourmet chicken burger each with yummy fries

Happy over free cheap lunch

Though the settings of the restaurant was pretty minimal, our burger and shakes were pretty good. But to be honest I wouldn’t pay RM75 for it no matter how gourmet-ish the burger can be.

Some of the other noteable redeemed discounts were a 1 kg chocolate cake from Sinfully Chocolate bought from Mydeal.com.my ,  Bread Basket voucher for two at Milkadeal.com, two buckets of ice cream from Milkadeal.com  and the Yogitree Organic food in Gardens bought from DealMates.com (for my parents!) which was totally totally worth it!! I got a massage voucher for the husband sometime back and he enjoyed it.

To date I”ve only had ONE bad experience with a hair salon which refused to speak in engrish, refused to give me the 50% offer on chemical work and on top of that made my mom wait 30 minutes before telling her she didn’t have an appointment (when infact I called and asked and they said no need appointment). Rest assured, I did file in a complain to that group buy site. I guess it’s 50-50 where service and a good deal is concerned. I try to stay away from the discounted facials/mani-pedi and obscure hair saloons because I dont believe I will get good service from paying very little. Plus most of the comments I read are pretty negative.

Overall, with groupbuys some people have bad experiences, while some are good. Always try to look out for noteable restaurants. And redeem your vouchers as soon as you can, the longer you wait, you will not be served properly because a million other people will be calling in to claim their vouchers (okay look who’s talking!) And FYI – there are over 30 group discount sites in Malaysia alone!! I wonder how long this thing will work until people get sick of it.

Next up to redeem sometime soon -  Russian food,  Middle Eastern food and Opus Bistro in Bangsar. I even got discounted movie vouchers AND popcorns for my parents. Amazing eh?

Told you I have issue with anything online-related If you can sell em online, chances are I’ve already bought it

Now go check them out!!! Sharing IS caring, and let’s save some $ at the same time my friends :D

What’s up mah hommies? We been good? I know you’ve been checking back for updates, LOL.

Any guesses which Madam Tussauds is this?

He is at peace, ohhmmm….

Well the husband’s expression says it all

Supppp Queenie, would you be so kind as to get me some tea? And make it English Breakfast will ya?

Coz there’s a new Queen in town All hail me!

And because we’re cool like that, even the Obamas like to chill out with us. Equally opportunity – you have it when you elect us!

Our hero

E is not equal to MC2 damnit!

Aaah, I made Beethoven so proud *flicks tears* It was an honour playing in front of his watchful eyes.

And to sing in front of Pavarotti……..truly an honor!

My own Beckham at work

The husband said the caption for this photo should read: Elin, this is the real reason your hubby left you but I went ewww, it’s such a disgrace being associated to this dude. Whatever. But I will take a photo for my blog coz I paid RM80 for it!

World’s No 1 husband – NOT

I don’t punch like a girl, I don’t, ask the husband

Now he punches like a girl, HA HA

I may be shorter than you, but I most certainly aim well biatch!

S C O R E  *takes a bow*

Oh just chillin with Serena, we’re cool like that you know what I’m saying?!

Oh how my cousin Roshan will KILL to take a photo with Tata

My arse is actually BIGGER than Beyonces. Does that mean I’m the new Beyonce?

No comments…..really, no comments! I’ve always suspected he secretly wants to be a blonde.

As good as it gets for a nerd

RIP MJ, we love you very much.

Madonna wanted to kiss me but I said M…. I don’t swing by that way…..no more.

Mirror mirror on the wall, I spot a Miss Britney Spears

Oh but did I tell you that I would SO do dirty things to Johnny Depp

Oh very dirty things indeed…..

OMG my fav comic character of all timesss!! Would he really be next in Madam Tussauds??!

Why Oprah, I was born to be a blogger….never once doubted that. Can I take over your show after you quit?

Pulling a lunny Tom Cruise, LOL, seriously the best photo by far.

Johnny Depp and Georgie Porgie TOGETHER, now that’s just double dirty And every girl’s fantasy – don’t you deny it woman.

Wait would I be a total slut if I say I wanna include Leonardo too?? I can almost see the husband nodding his head

The new cast of Men In Black III

Why you no include me in the list of together-getherness, lol, I wanna be the fourth guy, hehe, the husband clearly knows how to throw a fit. Oh groovy babyyy.

The free photos we got, see how I look so comfortable in the hands of a star.  But Brad Pitt looks so OLD now.

And yes, it CLEARLY shows we were in Madam Tussauds BANGKOK!

For I am the new face of Channel V Thailand.

Now peace out!

For more info, check out Madame Tussauds Bangkok and just go!

I decided to make something Asian the other day. Although Italian food is easy peasy and a dish I LOVE to make, it’s something I don’t think I would be able to make pull off every weekend without the husband missing his spicy food

SO I sourced for a local recipe and found this – spicy chicken in tomato sauce! I was SOLD at spicy

Ingredients were fairly easy to find and most importantly it tasted pretty good! Almost like panang curry according to the husband

Here’s the recipe which I’ve modified to suit two people. You can read the original recipe here. I omitted the candlenuts coz I thought I had some but realized I didn’t when I was about to cook.

1 onion, chopped

3 clove garlic

A handful dried chilies (soaked in hot water and drained) Go slow on the chillies if you don’t have an Indian husband, haha

1-2 inches galangal (lengkuas)

1-2 inches ginger

Chicken breast meat, cut into bite size (yay to no bones)

1 tablespoon turmeric powder

1 cinnamon stick (cut into half)

3 cardamon pods

1 lemon grass, bruised

1-2 tablespoon tomato paste/ketchup – I used both

A small box of coconut milk

Salt and sugar to taste

Method

In a blender, blend onions, garlic, dried chilies, galangal and ginger. Add in a bit of hot water. Set aside in a bowl.

Coat chicken with turmeric powder, salt and black pepper for 15-30 minutes. Then proceed to fry the chicken pieces until brown. Remove and set aside.

In a wok, sauté cinnamon, cardamom pods and lemon grass till fragrant. Add HALF the ground ingredients that you’ve blended first and fry until fragrant. Now add in the tomato paste (I used Hunt’s), some Maggi tomato ketchup, coconut milk followed by the fried chicken.

At this point, the dish is pretty SOUR. And spicy! Add in some sugar and salt and taste as you go along. Play around with the coconut milk, sugar and some water. You can also add in some tomato ketchup to tone the spicy-ness down. If it’s not spicy enough, you may add in the balance of the ground ingredient and once again play around with sugar and coconut milk. Getting it to taste the way you want is not that hard but does require some effort.

Let it simmer until sauce is thick. Once done, you’ll get this

It goes REALLY well with rice thanks to its tinge of spicy-ness. A real winner in the husband’s books

It is recommend to eat this with the tomato rice, see recipe here but because I’m lazy like that, I decided to have it with white rice and with some cabbage and carrots cooked in oyster sauce.

YUMMY I tell you!

Believe it or not, I’m actually dipping my itty bitty fingers (and toes) into designing baby clothes.

 Me. Design. In one sentence seems such a joke. I know right??! The world works in mysterious ways my friend.

In my head, I have these visions of beautiful dresses for a baby girl and they look so so gorgeous and stylish. In reality, I can’t draw for nuts so how do I express what I want?

I suppose when there’s a will there’s a way. I just winged my sketch and tried VERY hard to explain to my fashion designer/seamstress. I would have sourced the material on my own but since she said she had some lying around (and why wouldn’t she since she’s a seamstress) and charged me minimal, I thought why not just give it a bloody shot to see the end product. 

SO i created this fairly simple dark blue dress against a pop of bright peach in the middle and bottom, followed by some peach buttons to mimic what a child would wear. I love how the peach contrasts and just pops against the blue. I reckon this dress is suitable for daily outings and is pretty much fuss free. Topped with a nice blue or black beret, this piece is very ze French to me :D  Hope I aint kidding myself, lol

Presenting you my FIRST piece

A photo a friend took when she came to visit Sairah. She seems to love it so….

My design actually consisted of a tie-back sash for that girly effect but my designer forgot to add that on, so she’ll be sending it over once it’s ready. Overall, I’m pretty satisfied with the outcome, though if I had my way I would have picked an even nicer softer material. But since overall this dress cost me a mere RM35, I’m one happy bunny

It’s a bit too big for my lil fashionista at the moment, but will look perfect once the bub starts walking.

I’ve already designed a dress for my baby’s FIRST birthday in September. Hint: think *GREEK*. I’m not sure how the end product would be so I would most definitely have a back up dress just incase, lol. Or do a trial run first.

But if it does turn out great then hey I might just start my own baby label and call it…………….wait for it…….

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BABY GAGA!

So what are your comments? On the dress and label, haha. And pls go slow on me, I don’t have a degree in fashion, just the passion to dress my baby girl well. And have I mentioned this is my FIRST piece and I can’t draw for nuts?

Go slow, be gentle, oh I beg you kind sir.

Now I”m sure some of you may remember my maternity shot done with Asther about a month before I gave birth.

I took the Bump To Pop package (gotta love the name of the package) and while we had earlier agreed to take shots of Sairah as a new born fresh out of the oven, plans got changed since I had to go for an emergency C-sect and needed more time to recover.

Soon after that we were very busy with the baby, Sairah’s colic phase, the  apartment renovation….ah well you know life. We finally agreed to have the baby photo-shoot a week after we got back from Maldives in March.

It was a Saturday and Asther arrived my parent’s place pretty early. While for the pregnancy shoot, I had engaged a makeup artist to do my hair and makeup, this time around, I  did it on my own because as you know it, these things are a luxury now, haha. Besides, the focus is actually the baby

Sairah was still asleep when she arrived so I had to slowly wake her up, feed her and change her and then rushed to pack her props coz I was plain lazy the night before. Sorry Asther for keeping you waiting. We then headed to the playground just 2 minutes away from my parent’s place. Luckily the weather was alright (I was still sweating anyways, eww) but the baby wasn’t exactly all smiles at the begining. I”m sorry we had to disrupt your sleep baby girl, but it was for a good cause!

So yea, here are some of the photos to share

Grumples obviously doesn’t look too pleased here, lol. Like why are we up at 9 a.m motherrrr.

Still not too impressed…..and obviously has no idea that her folks are making out.

Slowly warming up to the camera. With all that training she got from me, you’d think she’d be a pro by now eh?

Incase you’re wondering how come the baby is smiling more when her daddy carried her, that’s coz I”m the fool behind the camera making her smile!!!

BIG smile for mama……..

LOVE this shot – this obviously will be up in her room

Mommy-Baby love

My little angel. I look retarded though.

Yet another one of my fav…….dad’s antique table finally came in handy

In her pretty pink dress I got from Manila. She looks so princess like.

Another favorite

Half way through she got sleepy (can’t blame her coz she was forced to wake up early), so Asther couldn’t  take some tummy shots so we agreed for some sleeping shots.

She’s quite the angel when she’s asleep.

A close up of her enviable lashes! Ladies, you have every right to be jealous, haha.

And here’s a photo with Grandpa and Grandma.

Overall, it was a fun session though I think I could have prepared more in terms of props etc.  Definitely would consider doing this again when Sairah is older.

Now we’re just waiting to get some photos done on canvas so we can put it up in the apartment.

Now that would ultimately be the final finishing touch to the apartment – a family potrait

Email Asther at asther@astherlau.com if you’re keen! It’s definitely worth it