Tuesday 26 April 2011

Easter Joy

Yes Easter is gone and I'm sure many off you are back to work. I'll be joining that crowd tomorrow and for one, I am nowhere near ready too. Two and half weeks holiday has really pulled me out of the swing of things. On the brighter note... its two days of work and then a long weekend off for the 'Royal Wedding'. Cheers W&C!

Asides from that, I hope you all had a lovely Easter, a joyful one in fact. Stuffed yourselves with chocolate eggs and enjoyed the good weather (in most places anyway). Got a call from Colorado Springs, to tell us they were having 'White Easter!' Anyways, I had plenty of fun this Sunday. Sean & I went to Church; the hymns chosen really perked up our moods. We also renewed our baptismal vows to start a fresh. Then straight after, we made our way to my best friend's house to celebrate her birthday. Since it was such a great day, it was more than perfect to hold a BBQ (my first one of the year). Here I can finally say, is where Sean & I so happily broke our fast for chicken. I'm afraid, another time Nandos.

Our plate for of chicken lol
Their daughter; my precious, Alaya
The birthday girl and her other half
We sat there nibbling away, totally absent minded; savouring its taste we so evidently missed. I continued to enjoy the rest of the day in the company of some friends, the BFF and her family including my little precious wonderful and an endless table of food and desserts. It was divine and I so couldn't think of a better way to spend the day. The night didn't end so young as we went to watch the new 'Fast Five' movie which totally topped off my hype for the day. It is an absolutely fantastic film by far - action, suspense, love... the works! And there you go, that was one's fun Easter =)

SENSEFUL CREATIONS // Flutterby Birthday Card

The card I made for her: Brown textured card scattered with gold stars and pink flowers to compliment followed with a cut-out butterfly for a final decoration. Together with a Thomas Sabo charm bracelet.

Saturday 23 April 2011

Blossomin' fever =)

So, I've only just returned from my Easter break holiday in Italy and the strangest thing is... I'm not suffering from any holiday blues like I usually do. No complaints, its just really unusual because we had such a blast out there and I knew from my first day I was going to miss it (I promise to blog about our trip in due course -  its obviously a long one, so please bare with me). My only reasoning for this weird absence of sadness is that London has been blessed with such great weather recently. Waking up in the mornings to the sun beaming through my bedroom window leaves my mind only with happy thoughts of how to enjoy these pleasant days; days which London has been very much deprived of. As I sit here typing this blog on another beautiful day, must I say; absolutely broke of my ass (...oops) but I am content to just here in my back garden - my stunners on, shameless to have my legs out & chilling out soaking up some Vitamin D, nicely done! I think a bubble tea would be more than perfect right now but can't have everything.

J'adore le printemps...

"It's natures way of saying LET'S PARTY"

Just a few shots from my garden

Friday 22 April 2011

Tranquil refreshment

[11th April 2011] This day was spent in Kensington Close Hotel at the eMotion Spa & Leisure Centre. For Valentine's, I purchased a Spa Day experience for the other half. This was Sean's first time and even better, I thought it was a great idea to kick start out Easter break holiday. He's been working so hard in his teaching course... he most certainly deserved this.


We used the gym facilities and worked out together for the first time heehee. Thank goodness he was familiar with most of the equipment there, making it so much easier and fun =) We swam some lengths in the 18 metre swimming pool then hit the jacuzzi to relax. Feeling much more refreshed, we then both prepared ourselves for our treatments. A full body massage to last the hour; untangling the knots piled on from the school term's work. It was exactly what we both needed! De-stressing & deep tissue... absolute bliss.

To wrap it up, we got a late lunch at STRADA restaurant, which merely prepared us for our adventure to Italy. It was a nice, rejuvenating day spent with none other than my love.

A Sugar Sweet Saturday!

What a beautiful day it is today. Decided to take the laptop out into the garden and seek some form of motivation from the spring time atmosphere. It has been a little while since I last put an entry through. I do need to do some serious updating, as quite a lot of exciting stuff has happened this half term and would love to share with you. It'll be a bit back dated but gives you something to read, hey? Enjoy otherwise x
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[9th April 2011] I had a lovely lunch date with a couple of my girls. It had been a long while since we've been out altogether, so it made sense to arrange something small & sweet. We met up and made our way to Westfield, London. It was such a nice day too; the weather had just started to pick up at that time so we thought it would be a great idea to find a open-kinda restaurant to enjoy the scene. 'Kitchen Italia' was our best bet which was another first for me. We all chose different types of dishes particular to our taste buds and virgin cocktails to complete the meal. I had myself a pasta dish with salmon - simply because I quite fancied the ribbon shaped pasta lol. There's always room for dessert, everyone knows that! So, we extended our time and got ourselves a 'SNOG' frozen yogurt. It was very tasty and perfect for the type of weather; although personally it doesn't quite beat 'Pinkberry' from the States. As girls do best, we filled in the missing pieces, gossiped & had a laugh. It was really nice and it is always such a pleasure when seeing these beautiful ladybirds of mine. Love yous plenty <3

Quick kodak moment at Kitchen Italia (L-R: Sam, Lorz, Myself, Jen & Rach)

Monday 4 April 2011

Weekend Ramblings

The first weekend of the month of April was most certainly a busy one but definitely a fun one =)

Back in high school, I had a couple of best friends. I probably last saw most of them on my eighteenth debutant party... If I calculate this correctly, over seven years ago. We unintentionally drifted apart; went to university, started working blah blah blah... how life generally goes on. Thankfully, it was time. A certain move I put on my 2011 list, which needed not to be ignored.

The girls, Lina, Alicia & I got together at a lovely, elegant cafe in Knightsbridge called "Cafe Concerto". There are a few chains around, one in Westfields I believe, but this was my first visit. Disguised by the crowds of West London,  it was a nice little place for us to do a whole lot of catching up. Doing that over lunch was just not enough time for us ladies, so we continued our stories over coffee at Harvey Nichols, Fifth Floor Cafe. It was such a pleasant day, we couldn't resist soaking a bit of heat from the sun by sitting outside on the terrace. It was such a pleasure seeing them; both looking fabulous and its always nice to know how well friends are doing right? No time wasted, we're already organising our next day out.

Cafe Concerto, Knightsbridge
Fifth Floor Cafe & Terrace @ Harvey Nics
My day was followed by a big birthday dinner for my close friend JR, at a new place that has just opened up in Beckton, East London. Just by Showcase Cinemas, for those who live in the 'ends' lol. Its called "Big Moe's Diner". Typical 50's American diner - great for burgers, hot dogs & chips, but even better for desserts & milkshakes. I was absolutely stuffed after my fish burger meal. Got to see my favourite faces, ate lots of cake, played charades (girls won, obviously)... its always a laugh!

Big Moe's Dinner, Beckton
Mother's Day fell on the Sunday. I've had this day planned for a while. Although Mum has just had her big party, I couldn't help but spoil her some more and also my Auntie from Philippines. We surprised them with a bunch of flowers; some very unusual ones. Cards and presents also (a lovely pamper day when they please).


Then took them out to a Thai restaurant in the evening; a hidden little gem by the docks: Nakhon Thai. Riverside views, authentic thai decor and the food was absolutely to die for. Succulent meats, seafood upon mild spices, coconut rice all beautifully presented. Cocktails for the girls, and beers for the guys to keep the moods light. The restaurant was also under the Tastecard offers too. It was a very delightful day; family time is always enjoyable.

Nakhon Thai, Royal Docks
"Your arms were always open when I needed a hug.
Your heart understood when I needed a friend.
Your gentle eyes were stern when I needed a lesson. 
Your strength and love has guided me and gave me wings to fly."
 
(A quote I dedicated to all the mothers out there especially to my own)
SENSEFUL CREATIONS // Mother's Day cards

My handmade cards for my Mum and Auntie. Floral embossed card decorated with floral embeliishments and ribbon to match.

My weekend was surrounded by friendly faces, even faces from the past, my loved ones and not to forget FOOD... a small taster of a great month ahead. Plus, it is half term in a week afterall (WOO!)