The perfect red number

In a blink of an eye, Christmas is over and we have leaped into a brand new year. December has been extremely busy and I'm grateful for a short break from work this week to spend time with my family and catch up on blogging!

December is definitely the busiest month of the year for us makeup artists as we doll up many ladies for weddings and parties. But no matter how busy we are, my colleagues and I will definitely find a day, doll ourselves up and get together for Christmas. Good food, drinks and great company - there's no better way to end the work year! Before the celebration, each of us wrote a riddle for a cosmetic product we like to have for Christmas. My colleague, JH who picked my name were totally spot on with what I wanted, a hot pink lippy! It's interesting to have a fellow makeup artist choose a cosmetic product and inject some freshness into my makeup.

This beautiful red dress is also something new I decided to try this festive season! Time to get out of comfort zone and leave all my black dresses at home. As ridiculous as it may sound, this is in fact my. first. red. dress! With such a vibrant red on me, I kept the accessories simple with just an acrylic clutch (my Christmas present from Ashley!), bracelet and studded flats.

On Ft

Hallie dress in red: Ash Lapin

Acrylic clutch: Christmas present from Ashley

Rilynn bracelet: Ash Lapin

Studded flats: Steve Madden

Lipstick: Givenchy in Rose dressing
Photos by Jennifer

What are some new style you like to try this year?

Ft

Spring and flowers

It's Chinese New Year next week! Chinese New Year or also known as the Spring Festival is the most important holiday in the Chinese calendar. My plan was to wear this dress during the celebrations. The bright colours and flower prints are so apt for this festival. hehe but baby is growing so quickly these two weeks that this dress is a snug fit for me now and I'm not sure if I can still fit into it in a week's time.

It's a Chinese tradition to wear new clothes from head to toe to symbolise the beginning of a new year. I can still remember how excited I would be about the shopping dates with my mother for new sets of clothes and shoes before the festival. Now that I'm much older, I'll go get my own new sets of clothes and it's still a fun affair. It's the few occasions in the year where it's fully justified to go shopping. haha.

Dress from Fancytreehouse

Flats from Topshop

Bag from Topshop

Necklace gift from sister-in-law

Love,
Ft

Colourful Deepavali

Deepavali or the festival of lights is one of the most important festival for our Hindu friends. Every year, this is just another public holiday for me. But this year, I had my best Deepavali celebration on its eve with my friends! Little India must be the best place to go for a total Deepavali experience in Singapore. Thanks to my dear friend Jenn who was our friendly tour guide of the day, we had a lot of fun exploring the streets and shops at Little India.


To get us ready for the celebration, Jenn also got each of us a set of beautiful Punjabi suit! Punjabi suit or Shalwar kameez is a traditional outfit worn by many Indians in Asia. Shalwar are pyjama-like trousers while kameez is a tunic or long shirt. Here are our outfits of the day!

Outfit courtesy of Jenn

Assorted bracelets from Diva

Turquoise bangle gift from friend 

Sandals from Covet at Far East Plaza

We began the day with a yummy North Indian and Nepalese cuisine at a quaint traditional Nepalese restaurant.


With our stomachs all full and satisfied, we are ready to start our tour through the colourful and crowded streets of Little India.


Our last stop is the Henna art station where some of my friends adorned their hands with beautiful Henna art. It's a traditional body art where intricate designs are drawn using temporary dyes made from Henna plant on the hands and/or feet.

If you are planning a visit to Singapore, visit Little India! Walk the streets, taste the Indian cuisine, try the Henna art and immerse yourself in the rich Indian culture!

Ft

Lunar New Year

Happy Lunar New Year!  Lunar New Year aka Chinese New Year is a huge festival in Singapore for all ethnic Chinese. Just for those who do not know, in Singapore Chinese takes up 70+% of the population, the rest is made up of Malays, Indians and Others.

Sorry for my inactivity on the blog these few days as it's my first CNY at my own place so I had to do more preparations (own spring cleaning, baking, shopping,etc). Hope you guys would like these photos and have a little idea of what I had been busy with!

Where else to have a taste of the festival than Chinatown! So hubby and I went down this year to try to get some New Year goodies since it's our first New Year in our own place.

It was an uncomfortable shopping experience with the horrible crowd and I was struggling  not to get pushed by the streaming crowd while I snapped on with my camera. But I must say the festive atmosphere was to it's maximum. The whole street was filled with New Year music, decorations (all in red which is the auspicious colour) and a lot of food items with auspicious meanings. 

Oh, and we even met the God of Fortune, every New Year you'd meet someone dressed up to give out goodies! I was joking with my hubby about how much resemblance we can find between Santa and God of Fortune. Both give gifts (Santa gives Christmas gifts and wishes, while God of Fortune gives $$), both are in red costumes and both have beard (only Santa's white while God of Fortune's black)!

So this was what I bought at Chinatown! A cute Dragon decoration for my door (this is the year of the Water Dragon)! Loads of CNY goodies also filled my cabinets to get ready to serve visitors!

Besides buying goodies, part of the fun comes from making them yourself! I made some almond cookies and went over to my mother-in-law's to help her make pineapple tarts.

Last but not least my favourite part of the festival is to dress up for it! I was decked in the festive colours of red and orange (to please the seniors) for the 1st and 2nd day (there are 15 days for CNY) of house visiting.

Do you feel my hectic schedule and joy of the festival? :)

Ash :o)