Chinese New Year Break

Sure now most of the mom's blogs will be filled with CNY activities, well MINE TOO!! hahaa. This year is our 3rd CNY here in Kota Kinabalu Sabah. WOW!! Can't even feel it!

We had a simple, very simple dinner on the eve's . Since it is my dh's off day too , so we just had dinner at home. Some dishes are bought and some I cooked , My dh also help me with one dish.
He used to CNY celebration .He always appreciate my culture and heritage , which I think is very important for any (mixed)marriage. To respect and appreciate each others cultures.

Lunch before the CNY dinner

My version of Abalone , celery and broccoli and the boar stew with yam ( babi hutan kekekeekek) I bought this dish .

Prawn sauteed with beer cooked by my dh, beside these dishes we also had glutinous rice balls, coconut pudding and cupcakes

our lil diners . So serious

CNY cupcakes by coluscake.com . I put back the mini orange in the wrong place, and I took this pic in HURRY as I knew that this wont last long
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see what happened next?

Those tiny hands got radar for cupcakes....
yup that is my cupcakes snacther. For those who've witnessed her action , you will know what Im talking about. She's practicaly snacthed all the deco from the cupcakes!!!!

Then the next day , of course we got the Lion Dance in our neighborhood . That is the nice thing about CNY in KK. Maya and Indy were scare from the loud noise :) .

The girls showing of their cheong sam . It is hard to find a good one here unless you custom made them. So I was so happy when my sis bought these from Singapore . It's made from silk and so delicate, I am worry that Maya will tear it apart in no time .

She is not the "cheong sam " type of girl. Indy suits it much better :)

Yes she looks much better in pants and black t-shirt with the writing :I MAKE BOYS CRY!!

as she aiming for Papa's giant burger left over !:)

Saying hello to the neighbour ( Maya was shy here )


As Indy went out with her friend's family , Maya had a quiet time at home with mamma

her signature smile at the moment

On the third day of CNY, we went to our neighbour 's house and play with their kids ( I didn't take any photos.Forget to bring my camera ) and then heading to Bonnie's house for her b'day and CNY 's open house too. Thanks Bonnie for inviting us! It 's a rare occasion for us to be invited to other's people house here in KK. So my girls are more use to be the host rather than to be a guest . And Maya been behave very good as a guest haha better than when she become the host!
They had a good time at Aunty Bonnie's house. And Maya didn't want to leave LOL. But we must leave at 3 as Maya needed to nap.

Wawa can't help not to join the sisters hug!

Oh Maya found that Watari is so irresistible !! Specially with that bowl hair cut!! LOL

The kiddy gank....Nyree ( what was she biting btw? Indy the big cie cie, Wawa the only boy and Maya)
Indy looks so grown up here ! like a lil lady already haha

Playing ( and fighting) at the balcony.
Wawa the mandarin orange tosser!

The girls vs ONE boy .LOL

Wawa: aya ayaaa enuf! stop!!!
Maya: nali nali help me help me !
Nyree: ok ok ...got it got it!!!
Indy : and the girls group is the WINNER!!!

poor wawa !! hahahah


Our Second Lion Dance at home :) I asked this one to enter out house .

We also got the "unicorn" or Ji lin ( is it ?) the smaller version of lion dance. But we didn't see the dragon this time. I am just celebrating this festivity in the" local" way. In KK that means a lot of lion dances, and we just had a great time with it and taking advantages of it! :)

Hey who knows will be in another city/country next CNY? But anyway we ALWAYS love to celebrate anything in the local's way/custom whenever we are. Just taking advantage of the city and country. Never take anything for granted, make the most of your life and time. Well at least that is for us .

See ya soon...

Welcoming the year of OX!!

Xin Nian Kuai le to all my dearest blogger friends !!
May your family will be blessed with good health, and happiness through out the year!
GONG XI FA CAI!!! XIN NIAN KUAI LE!


FROM : ROCCO FAMILY

My Virtual Make up

My niece, Zoe , told me about this website a few months back ( I think about 5 months ago ) and I always want to share it in my blog. www.taaz.com.
But I always keep forgetting about it.
We had a great time doing this, and Indy loves to play it too :)
We literary did a make over for all the member of our big family and had a great laugh over it.

So here is what I did to my self LOL, have a good laugh ,people!

The left is before pics taken with my mobile and I use the mineral foundation on that pic , can you see the nice result? It is so smooth and natural but has a natural glow is it?And on the right is the virtual make up :I put the smoky eyes effect with pale lips and hazel contact lenses

Here me with more darker lips and eyes with green contact lenses

And here is what Indy did. She likes Mamma in the curly hair ;P and she did all the make up by herself. I don't need to help her and she can read some of the instruction on the screen! haha a good way to teach her to read . ( with the vocabs like: foundation, concealer, eyeshadow, mascara, eyeliner, gallery, save image, re do, hair style) haaha well at least she learn something!


Tips : you need to take a photo of yourself , front view, if possible not to far , And you better keep your hair off from your face, a pony tail if you can and put bandanna to keep your bang away from your front head. The photo also must be bright enough or else the virtual make up wont come out so nicely.

Have FUN , girls! and try those hair style or hair color that you want !!!

Rocky road a head?

Yesterday I read the newspaper about the prediction for 2009 economy. The tourism line will also hit by the impact for world crisis. And there might be a few airlines company will collapse or cut down the number of their employees. As well as hotel , restaurant and catering business. But this also can mean the prices for air tickets and hotel will be decrease to attract more people.

Been in Sabah for almost 3 years now, and I understand that one of the major economy incomes here are coming from tourism , so this will be a rocky road for many people .

Economy will be tight this year, we will need to be very wise on spending, and not over spend in something that we don't really need. I admire my husband , he really can save money, and he is the one that taking care of our financial matter. He always keep telling me to save our income for raining days. And I m glad he does!

For some of us this year will be a tough year but whatever the future bring let face it with strength and have faith!

My beauty inspiration

I always like to play with make up. I don't always wear it every day ( but I will have my powder, blush and a bit of eye liner everyday ).But I have always have interest in it.I love to see the make up section in the magazines or TV.

When I was 16 years old I bought a book by Cindy Crawford , Basic Face. Where she showed how to put the basic and accentuate our best features. And I did many make up error phase too. Too dark lipstick, to light hair color, uneven foundation and all :)

During these year I "think" I finally know what works for me and what 's not . and I LOVE to see those celebrity blogs , just to "steal" the idea for me to buy clothing, I never be a fashion follower or victim ( at least in my opinion hahah) I always try something classic to wear but I do like to add a piece of some "IN" or " TRENDY" piece into my outfit. But I don't like to over dressed too . In KK now, people dress very casually, so I don't have much opportunity to dress up unless if I go clubbing which I ( almost) never do . So I only wear something nice and pretty when me and hubby go to dine out in certain places.


For me basic make up means the daily make up I can wear so I won't looked "washed out" or "pale" or " sick" , I dont have the killer look or look to die for .Gee wish I had!
So I need a bit of help .
For me it will be:
A good moisturizer, a great and light powder/foundation that matches my complexion

A great pink blusher is a must. I put this on the apples of my cheeks and the nose of my bridge to give it a sun kissed look :) I don't look good in a very dark pink.

And then a bit of lengthening mascara ( since my eye lashes are drop dead short!) a bit of eye liner.

And lipgloss in pale pink. I almost never wear lipstick for the past years hehehe... I prefer lipgloss lately to create a glossy but very natural finish.

Most of the time I don't use eyeshadow , I will put on if I go out to some where nice or if I am in the "mood" or when I just bought a new eyeshadow and want to try it on :)

I only got about 5 to 10 mins top to do my basic daily make up. So sometimes it wont come out so "perfect"either.

I like to learn about tips and tricks of make up, and I love to read it from Troy Jensen's blog, a Hollywood leading make up artist.

Why do you wear make up or dress nicely?

I do wear make up on regular basic IF I could, a tiny bit of it. I put on make up , because I feel good If I look good. If I wake up and never put powder or take care of my look, I think it will affect my mood and my confidence too. It 's is not about to show off to other people, It is about my feeling and attitude.
If you are a working mom, sure you understand, you will feel more confidence in work, while facing clients, or your boss. Even just a simple lipstick will make a big different right?

And also , put on make up and a nice clothing ( nice mean simple but nice not over do it ) can do good in our marriage/relationship . How do you think your husband will feel, if he never see the wife dress nicely? and smell like garlic all the time just because we cook daily? and keep nagging all day? :)


I always admire a friend of mine, (she is on my FB list) she is a beautiful young sophisticated lady , and she looks good, and she cooks good too. But people underestimate her cooking skills because she looks to good !haha
So is there a stereo type in our society that says:
Good looking/sophisticated women = can't cook?
Average looking women ( read as no make up , plan simple house wife look )= a great cook?

Being a stay at home moms doesn't mean we can't have the career woman's good look :). We still can look nice at home. And being a cooperate career women doesn't mean you can't cook either right?
But chance are, when you've been married for long time like me.. your husband won't even notice when you try to dress nicely at home,. or he will ask : where do you think you are going?
Oh those men.... but they do exist! hahaha...

So , if you feel down lately, or have a bad mood or your children and husband or your work drive you crazy, try to dress up a bit and put those lipstick on, change your hair color/style. It will sure brighten your day a tiny bit!


So back to basic make up. What is your basic make up style? And will you dress up a bit nice than your usual attire for your hubby in the near future? ;)


Have a great Holiday every one....

again gong xi fa cai

Latest Addition

My brother, Victor and his wife , Licu just became a proud parents this morning at 8.30 am

Nathania Irawan

22.01.2009
( a day after my mom's b'day)

3.1 kg/ 48 cm

Sorry for the blur pic :)

And she will be FULLY cloths diapered sponsored by her Proud and Kepo Aunty Sandra .... :D:D:D

Welcome Nathania , be careful if you see cie cie Maya she can bite you and feed you M & M chocolate too!

Chinese New Year Memory

Everyone seems to be fully prepare for CNY. In our house , it is still very normal :) .Being a Chinese -Indonesian , we do celebrate it. But my family always celebrate it in a quite modest way. I didn't have new clothing for CNY. My parents told me , we don't have to wear all new stuffs , since we also have many nice clothing even though it is not brand new. I also never did throw tantrum just because my other friends will put new attire except me. I think I just accepted it that is our family way. My sisters and brother also never seems to bother .

Both of my parents came from a very big family. When my late fraternal grandmother still lived with us, I remember it very clearly until now that I really became very excited to wait for the CNY dinner. My aunts came, my late uncle and his wife, my cousins. We then played fire crackers after dinner . My mom usually put the black and white embroidery table clothes, suddenly there were a lot of cookies, Gua zhi( melon seeds) , peanuts, drinks, every where in our house. Very festive!

Being the General Manager of one of the largest Supermarket chain in Indonesia at that time, my dad received a lot of hampers from the bussines associates, and clients. And we were the one that got most excited about all the hampers, I peek and tried too guess what it 's in inside. And we can't wait until we can open all of the hampers.

And of course the biggest memory for me as a kid is the HONG BAO collection part. I got a small bag in the shape of a cow that I use to put all my hong bao. The first thing in the morning we did is run down and greet our grandmother with the beaming face and full hope of the hong bao hahaha...

We also will go to neighbors' houses, and other uncles and aunties ( from my mom side) . I usually will have the hong bao collection competition my my brother, to see who will collect the most :D

I also remember the food! Sea cucumber, abalone is the must for CNY. I love to help my mom to cook in the kitchen ,specially during CNY, because I can cut the abalone and ate it in the same time. LOL until my mom found out and she kicked me out of the kitchen hahaha... But I keep trying every year to help her cut the abalone , even if I only can "took" a couple of pieces of it before she kicked me again, It was WORTH IT! I always love to eat, can't help it when I saw the nice and yummy abalone there. :P

We also had a ancestor praying ceremony in our house. My dad is a Buddhist as so were my late fraternal grandfather. So we did a Buddhist ceremony , with the red candles and all, and the offering were : chicken, fruits and cakes and my aunt also will burn the paper ( I don't know how to call it in English). I also help to fold the paper but I never like to stay near the fire as it really burn my eyes!

But when my grandma passed away in the 1991, the CNY celebration is getting quieter in our family. After that , my sis got married and moved out the country, me too. And it is hard to be home during CNY as the break is not long .

Then become even more when my uncle ( my father 's younger brother) left us in 2003 , he lost the battle to pancreatic cancer .

Last year , it was a great time for me here in KK as my dad, my aunt, sister and her children were here with us for the CNY , and my dad was even here with us until the Valentine day.

But living in the time of the great technology this time , I really can't live without internet and telephone. We can chat and being in touch every single day via email or chatting or even easier we can call each other.

So this year, same for me, I don't have new clothes for Indy and Maya. They got a very pretty silk cheong sam from my sister. And I think that will be more than enough.

And My husband, don't judge him by his skin. In a way he is more Chinese than me. He will wear a RED underwear hahaha ( Did I just reveal too much?) and He will be UPSET if I dont call the lion dance into our house. He will also give Angpao to every one in his working place. Yes everyone, from the dishwasher to the manager , to the parking staffs . He knows that CNY is the biggest celebration for most people in Asia. Oh and he will also play firecrackers :)

As for our experience, the biggest CNY is in Shanghai. That was a great experience we have ! And they have a different cultures for CNY compare to Guangzhou and even Singapore and Malaysia.
And we are lucky to be able to experience different kind of cultures and traditions to celebrate CNY.

For example, in Shanghai , they don't have the sweet Nian Gou like in Guang Zhou or in South East Asia, but they have this plain Nian Gou that will be stir fry. I can't find it in KK, I much prefer the stir fry Nian Gou compare to the sweet one. Yummylicious!
And then for Shanghainese they MUST eat dumplings at midnight on the CNY eve. Love the dumplings! I think I will try to cook some dumplings for our CNY very simple dinner.

I think the most important of all is to let our children know that they are Chinese and need to celebrate it in whatever way we could, either modest or very festive .
For us that will be a simple dinner and Hong Bao giving away and maybe lion dance and fire crackers.

To All of you who celebrate Chinese New Year or just enjoying the festivity and holiday , we want to wish you

HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEAR ! MAY YOURS WILL BE PROSPEROUS ONE!

GONG XI FA CAI

恭喜发财

XIAN NIAN KUAI LE

新年快乐

WAN SHI RU YI,

万事如意

SHEN TI JIAN KANG

身体健康

My new blog

So .... after a short thinking I 've decided to create another blog just for bento and cooking, so my blog will be neater. I hope I will make bento regularly, I will also try to share some recipe.
I m far for a great cook , but I can cook something "eatable" sometimes :D

Oh ya almost forget
here is my new blog

www.dapursandra.blogspot.com

See ya!

Bento # 8

Tuesday bento

Again simple haha... I try to avoid fried stuffs, so here are
cucumber sticks with peanut butter dip on the HK container, I also put a few cut tomatoes on the side, Cheese sandwiches cut into Mickey and Minnie mouse ( I got the cutters and never use it until today), fuji apples wedges, and shortbread cookies in stars shapes.

I like this Pikachu monster double deckers lunch box. I think it is super cute !

Anyway I dont think I will be able to do alot of cute bento like other blogs haha , not easy !
Salute those moms! really....

My bento look so "plain" hahha

Vanity Fair in me

My blog become very boring lately, I think I should post the bento post in other blog. What do you think?

Being busy lately too, re-vamping my boring clothing /wardrobe collection hahaa I think I would like to look more feminine this year :-D , trying new make up thing ( minerals make up ) and I am Luvin' it!

Well actually I 've tried it quite sometimes, from Loreal but I found other brands too and love it,
The powder foundation and powder really give my face flawless look but without making it too thick and cakey, it is so natural. For me the biggest mistake on make up is, that people try to look fair by using a foundation/powder that is too light for their skin tone. Have you ever see a photo where someone 's face look WHITE until their chin then the neck look darker? That is a big NO NO. I think the best compliment is when people thought you are not wearing any make up but actually you are! So for me natural make up is very important, but I love eye catching eye shadow too sometimes . Oh just in case you didn't know , I got my eyebrow embroidery last year ahhaha. S0 far I love how it looks. So next time when you see my photo go and check my eyebrow hehehe.. I always wanted to do it for long time , finally I did it. It is not the eyebrow tattoo that looks bluies and greenish , embroidery is much more natural.

I think it is funny that most people prefer to look FAIR in Asia, while I think a darker , more tanned look is the look that I like. I think my skin consider to be fair. I m not complaining about that, but I prefer to look more tanned. And I think I got that after our last vacation but it wont last long! hhaa.. anyway I love tanner looking skin, it looks more exotic. I wish I can find self tanner products here .


oh ya btw this is the link where I bought my mineral make up.
Oh and I am not getting paid to blog abt this link. It is purely for sharing :)

Monday morning

I woke up and then checked my emails on my mobile phone, the one from my fathers caught my eyes with the subject : breaking news, the largest fuel depot in Jakarta exploded last night at 9 pm. OMG, I hope all are ok, but for sure it will cause a chaos today in Jakarta as there will be a lot of speculation about the price hike. The flames of the explosion reached 100m high and can be seen as far as 10 km away. News


So after that , I need to dragged my self to prepare bento for Indy. Easy one hahaa.. Wieners, mixed veggie and Fuji apples cut in pooh shapes :) I totally forget about this Keropi lunch box I got a few months back, I dig into my cupboard and I found 3 other bento boxes that I never use !
I love this box..it is super cute!

Speaking of which, I should look and sort out my bento tools, I am sure I got plenty of other stuffs that I never use yet ...

Sunday Post

Quiet weekend for us. As other families are busy preparing the upcoming CNY , we are having a quiet time here. :) This year no family are visiting and since we don't have any relatives here means also no celebrating. I am used to this, anyway my dh still must work during CNY and no day off.

Yesterday I just took my gals to have a fast lunch outside and today as Maya is sick so she must stay at home and me , dh and Indy went to Langkah Syabas for lunch and buying the cheese.

Nothing much to do. As tonight gonna enjoy the telly and cook at home. Sometimes being at home and looking at our children running or playing in the yard is very entertaining .

Have a nice week ahead

Bento # 6

So I try this new kitty set. Sorry for bad photo , I took these with my mobile phone. We are in a rush every Friday Morning. Indy must be at school before 7.30 . And she will have P.E class today, so that's why I was thinking to pack something more filling like chicken and rice since she will finish at 1 pm today.
The seaweeed puncher for the Kitty face got stucked after I punched the first time and I only got eyes and 3 of the whisks , so I get to do the whisks on the left side manually by scissor :D. I stick the carrot ribbon with mayonnaise but not sure it will make it stick until recess time. As always I put the sauce container separately inside bento bag . I put too much grapes since Indy loves it and she shares it with her friends.

So inside the bento are : chicken, corn, rice, banana cakes and grapes :)

And we have a good news. Indy can go home with her class mate now. But the classmate will go for holiday next week so I think the car pool will start after CNY break. And also My dh 's working hours will change starting next month, so that will give him more free time to pick Indy.

She is very happy to go to school and excited about the E.C.A tomorrow , it will be art and craft for this week.


Have a great day

Bento # 5

I was planning to use my brand new Hello Kitty set that I just received from CP

But I don't have any left over rice, so I changed my plan and make cheese sandwiches with the cookies stamp set/cutter that I never use before :D . I got plenty of other gadget and tools and bento boxes and picks, and cups that I never use but yet I m still eye-ing for more . Sigh...


Can't really see the breads here. I put in inside a silicon cup, I also put heart shapes chicken nuggets, french beans with flower carrots ( using the same cutter for the bread) and some grapes.

And these are the cutters that I use for the breads and carrot ( flowers) , I got it from NST
I just got about 15 mins to prepare bento for Indy every morning, in between I still must entertain my lil girl, who loves to open my bento tools drawers and then took something from there. Here , she took the mini silicon cups, she said it is nice, it is soft, Maya like ...maya like!
She doesn't want to bring lunch box now and she said cie cie kasiaaan....( poor cie cie) at school no food for cie cie...Maya school have food. :D



Take Care you all.....

Bento # 4

Don't be surprise If I post about bento early in the morning :) , I got time early in the morning everyday after the girls went to school. So I use this time to check my emails, and do a bit of blog hopping . After this then I will see if there is something I must do for my e-store ( the courier is still close anyway ) or if I got some errands to do. So for now it is just "me" time .

I managed to go to Daiso yesterday ahaha... can't get it out of my mind. I need more silicon cups. And I also text her to asked for more tips and we ended up chat on the FB ( thanks so much). And I ended up want to buy more tools to complete my collection! :-p

Indy told me that her friends (young kids and bigger kids) at school always gather around her when she open her lunch box. She said everyone wants to see my lunch box! I don't know if it will do her good or the opposite :) but she seems to enjoy the attention. :) Even the teacher called other teachers to look at her box. "Alamak" I thought.... *malu*..... but I told her, you bring bento not because you want the attention or praise or whatever...just because you need to eat and you prefer Mamma to packed it for you. Good or bad...nice or not...cute or ugly.. just EAT IT! Dont waste the food! haha..

Anyway here is today bento.

Chocolate bread rolls, boiled Chikuya ( pre-roasted sotong roll) with beans, grapes, and mayonnaise . Since it is quiet full, I didn't put he mayo container inside box , but I just put in in the bento bag.

I also use 4 silicon cups that I just bought from Daiso. I love it, before this I only have the medium size, so I bought the smaller size ( the one that I use for the bread rolls here) and the bigger one ( the one that I use for the grapes). Also the food picks, got it from Daiso yesterday, it is fruits and veggie foodpicks, 50 pcs per pack only at RM 5...how can I resist?

Bento # 3

So I made bento again today. I woke up late but luckily still can managed to made one.
Simple as usual. Today I packed extra fruits for Indy, She loves Jambu. So here it's today bento

Jambu air, Mini Mandarin as CNY is near we can find it everywhere now. And then boiled egg, long time she never eat boiled egg, I packed the soya sauce in the soya container and then peanut butter sandwiches.

I got the bento box and soya container from Daiso ( I think) Also the silicon cups. The baran/food divider I got it from NST, and the toothpick I got it from my sis.

A little story

I went to Indy's school rally yesterday. It was a Sunday English Service in the church. And they had the blessing for all the students for the New School Year.
During the service they had a short session about the school and there was a testimonial from a student.

His story really touched my heart. The simple version is like this:
He is about 15 years old boy , came from a non Christian family. He was raised in West Malaysia by his grandparents , however he was a quiet and not a good student at school. So the parents had decided to bring him back to Sabah and put him to a public school . But nothing change, he was still not a good learner and still couldn't get along with the friends and hard to keep up with the school.And he told in front of everybody that he was thinking to kill himself. ( I was nearly in tears when I heard this) Finally his dad found his current school ( which is my dd's school ) and he said that he loves the school, the friends , the teacher and his grade is keep improving. And I think the most important is now he feels better about himself. He feels that people can accept him here and it gave him more confidence .He is a Christian now and he said a big thank you for the school ,for it has changed his life.

His story made me realize more about people judgement around our kids, not too mention the preasure on their shoulder, the stress they must cope with. And I think it is very important to teach our kids about emphathy toward each other, being sensitive to other people's feeling , about how to make friends by being a friend. How to teach them to listen to other rather than seeking for more attentions, or how to teach them to not to make others feel bad just because it makes them feel good about themself.

Because without knowing it, we COULD save other's people life....