Belated birthday gifts for 35 year old me

The past few days I received 3 gifts - from R to make me smell good, from S (the owl figurine) to further beautify my room and from the 2 girls to make my own Popsicles :)

Baking madeleines

Dad and mom bought 2 madeleine trays from Daiso some weeks back and I had been wanting to try baking madeleine. I initially wanted to bake them yesterday on my birthday but ended up spending the afternoon clearing office emails. I prepared the batter last night and kept in fridge for baking today. The madeleines turned out a bit too oily as I may have coatwd the moulds with too much oil. But they are still edible.

Fat Cat looking for a job?

Yesterday morning, Fat Cat's teeth and gum didn't give him too much discomfort, so he settled down quite fast in eating his breakfast. I didn't notice the newspaper placemat was from Recruit until a friend pointed it out to me :)

Waking up with Bob on weekends

I could linger on the bed longer with Bob on weekends and see how he sleeps/rests in such adorable manner. Yesterday I captured him in various poses :)

That Sneaky Cat Shop

Sister has just opened her shop on Etsy.

 It's called "That Sneaky Cat Shop" and she describes her creations as 

"Sterling silver, gold filled, brass and gemstone adornments made with love and in limited quantities. From elegantly simple vintage-inspired jewelry to whimsical pops of color for when you just want something fun.  Every piece is lovingly made by me and is a piece I would happily wear. I'm inspired by vintage jewelry, nature, architecture, sometimes a word or phrase - many, many things!" 

Check out her shop, if you are in need of pretty trinkets :)

What are important to me?

I was on a 10-day course recently and one of the interesting things that our training facilitator got 18 of us to do was to draw on a small paper cake box what are important to us individually. On top of the box, I drew my family, S and ABC. If I have more time, I would draw the community cats too :)

What do ABC do at night?

Sleeping, staring and acting cute :)

Alumni gathering at my secondary school

On 12 Apr, my old friend of 20 years and I met to attend our secondary school alumni gathering. On the way, we saw a friendly cat at the void deck of a block of flats and gave him our attention. When we reached the canteen of our school, it was packed with ex-students much younger than us, busy catching up with their friends and teachers. We bought our dinner from a stall and it cost only $1.80 and the teriyaki fish with veggie and rice tasted like a home cooked meal. Our dear friend, one of the organizers for the event, briefly chatted with us for a while, before we made our way home.

Cooking my weekend meals

On weekends I enjoy cooking meals for myself, as I can add lots of vegs and season with just enough salt and black pepper. I guess it's kind of like a hobby :) and it's nice to be able to feed myself with healthy and not yucky food. Haha

Healthy quick bread

I've been wanting to try one of the recipes using spelt to make a quick bread. Today was the day and it was fairly simple and fast to prepare. With baking soda instead of yeast, the bread muffins turn up hard and dry outside and only a little soft inside. The honey taste isn't detectable but there is a slight nutty smell from the spelt flour. They will be eaten up by me alone as my family prefers soft bread. I tried one which was quite yummy with strawberry jam :)

Baking 1234 cake again

I made cupcakes from the 1234 cake recipe in Jan. On Sat, I baked the batter in the square Pyrex dish and melted Ghiradelli bittersweet chocolate bar with a little bit of butter and low-fat milk and almond. When the cake was ready, I cut it up into pieces, spread the chocolate ganache between the sandwiched pieces and on top. I like the taste better than the earlier attempt :)

Angel and thunder

Angel was wide-eyed when there was thunder in the mid-afternoon. I stroked him for a while before he slowly moved to one of the rooms.

Bob and napping

I brought Bob home at the start of the long weekend, after entrusting S to take care of him for 2 days and 3 nights. I enjoy watching Bob taking his naps in cute poses. And the past few days I caught him "in action".

Cinnamon and Sis

Cinnamon adores Sis. She likes watching sis making her jewelry. Recently she even napped next to her :)

Cooking my lunch

On Fri and Sun (yesterday), I decided to cook as I was tired of eating outside food. When cooking for myself, I can find whatever veggies in the fridge, and season with ketchup, chilli/black pepper and salt. Usually they taste quite yummy :)

Souvenirs from a good friend's solo trip to Japan

FT was back in office early last week after her week-long holiday to Tokyo, Nara and Kyoto. She shared with us a bit of her positive experiences in Japan and we were smiling and laughing. The sweet girl also gave me the maccha bean snack and a cute cloth that I could use to wrap a small lunch box. I wonder when I will visit Japan.