Trainspotting

Today marks the end of an 80 year run for the KTM train service into Tanjong Pagar railway station. It is a historic event with reporters, photographers and the man on the street clamoring at the station for one last look, photo or meal before the last train rolls out slightly before midnight. From tomorrow, the service will only be available from the Woodlands station.

Exactly one month before, my friend Ik Hui decided that just for fun we should go for a ride on the train with the kids to Johor Bahru and back! What a swell idea and the boys were pretty stoked about going on their first train ride too (i try to ignore their whining while we got seated onboard about "what's that smell mummy?!").

Here are the pictures taken with my iPhone yet again. Yes, I brought the DSLR but with two kids to mind for, it was just easier shooting with the phone :p

CHOO CHOO!


the 3 adventurers


our seats and ticket


love the reflection of kay


the boys missed their naptime


jaeden chirpy and checking out the onboard brochure


while Ik Hui looks on




two good friends


sharing is caring!








KTM, the end of a good run.

SAM with the iPhone

An excursion with the boys and mummy's entire studio yesterday :p Will update with full blogpost and DSLR pictures soon. All shots taken and edited with my iPhone.

Sultry Siren / Sweet Angel

Ok this post is probably coming at a bad time since I am in the Best Family Blog category of the Singapore Blog Awards so I have to warn you first that this blog post is rated PG :p

After my advertising photography workshop with Geoff Ang, my classmate Tanti and I had a photo session in my studio with the very beautiful Ena to try out different lightings we learnt during the workshop. Here is Ms Ena in two different looks :)





Tanti says Ena looks like Shu Qi (the actress) and yes I think so too! Thank you Tanti for the friendship and Ena for being our lovely model. Look forward to working with you both again soon!

BTW this is the last week for voting on the SIngapore Blog Awards. If you haven't voted for me, please if you can spare a moment of your time to do so. I appreciate all your votes and support :)

Save the Colour

Birds have enjoyed a raised level of interest in our lives lately, in particular the angry one who resides in our iPhones :p There was also the recent animated movie Rio which told of the adventures of the last two remaining blue macaws and the mission to get them *ahem* doing the *errrm* so that they will not be the last blue macaws, oh you get the message!

In the real world, birds are also dwindling in numbers as they lose their natural habitats. In a bid to raise awareness of this fact to our children, the Jurong Bird Park has been running the Save The Colour event this month.



To help the kids learn more about bird conservation in a fun way, there was an Origami Village at the park where kids fold paper fishes to release back into the sea, create ice blocks for the penguins, plant some origami flowers and colour butterflies to set free. The boys chose to fold the fishes and colour the butterflies. It was challenging for Dylan to do the origami on his own but he had lots of help from the park staff and Gong Gong. Colouring of the butterflies was a breeze though! Ok, he had a bit of help from Daddy :p





kayden putting some finishing touches to his fish






dylan letting his origami fish go into the "ocean"






our butterflies are ready!


setting the butterflies "free"


the madatory family pix by the waterfall :p gong gong was our photographer


There were also other activities like adding your own origami crane to the Pledge Tree with a written promise by you to do your part for conservation. You can also send your friends and family a free postcard sharing the conservation message! And a hit amongst the kids were of course the air-brushed bird tattoo and bird-face painting stations :)

The month long event may have come to an end but the message on bird conservation to our kids especially, will certainly resonate through our daily activities and actions. Save the colourful birds of our world, save the colour!

Rah Rah video (ok ok, it's a slideshow)!

Sorry for the plug again...we finalists for the Singapore Blog Awards have been ordered told to make a video of our blog to garner votes :p Here's my little video slideshow made with iMovie. It took me way longer and way more effort than expected as it was my first time using this software. Stuff that I could easily do with professional software like Final Cut Pro or Premiere are not possible with iMovie. But please do turn up your speakers, I have edited the video to the piece of soundtrack :) Hope you enjoy it! Please vote for me once a day till 3 July under Best Family Blog category, thank you! :)

xoxo,
maryann

Getting that look

While researching for Dylan's birthday cake on the internet, I was surfing through tens of websites and food blogs. I came across one whose pictures I really love and as I was reading the blog posts, I realised that this blogger WAS FROM SINGAPORE! What the?!?! I scrolled back to look at the photographs on the site again and they were darn good! This can't be shot in Singapore (what terrible light we have) I kept muttering to myself. BUT THEY WERE! And they have that look, I dunno how to describe...the "ang moh" look that's what I would say hahahaha. Anyway, I showed the photos to the girls and they too were impressed. I said we HAVE to try shooting some food and getting THIS LOOK so one afternoon in between shoots, we took some shots of the leftover cupcakes that Audrey from Sugar Pie Gourmet Cakes and Classes made for my photography workshop with Geoff Ang last week (more on this in another post).

So here you go, our virgin attempt at the "ang moh" look kind of food photography wahahahahaha!













How? Do we get a pass? :D

Happy Daddy's Day!

What do you call your father? I call mine Pa, short and curt. My kids call their father Daddy, one syllable longer and slightly more endearing :p But that don't make me love my Pa any less. I gave him a call at almost midnight to wish him and he was asking why I left it so late as I usually remember such things. I guess when you have your own children, there's another father to celebrate for and one thing rolled over another and I only got the chance to call him when the kids have slept. But hey I made it before midnight so it counts :D

Growing up in a broken family, my Pa has always been there for me more so than my mother. My husband is saying the same now about him being around for the kids more so than me, their mother. This makes me sad. I do not want my kids to feel resentment towards me like I do towards my own mother. I want to be the sort of mother I have always dreamt of having, one that can be my best friend and whom I can tell anything to, one that I turn to whenever I am in need and one I hold in high regard over everyone else. It seems that at this juncture, Daddy is this person to Kayden. And I admire this bond that they have built. My husband worries over every little cough that comes out of his mouth, teaches him maths, chinese and english every weeknight, goes for workshops and essentially making sure his daily needs are met. He is a great Daddy :) But don't rest on your laurels Daddy, this Mummy will be catching up soon with my plan to work lesser hours this year on!

Meantime, here's wishing the father of my children a very HAPPY DADDY'S DAY and a very HAPPY PA'S DAY to my Pa! You both are great fathers and thank you for being there.

(The iPhone picture above is a Father's Day art piece Kay did for his Daddy, cute isn't it?)

Beauty For Japan

The earthquakes and tsunamis that hit Japan earlier this year claimed many lives and caused so much devastation that it made the rest of the world want to reach out and help the land of the rising sun. Singaporeans too offered their hand and donations in anyway they can and we were delighted to be a part of the Beauty For Japan fundraiser organised by my client and world renowned makeup artist Andrea Claire. It was a gathering of the top makeup artists and hairstylists in Singapore offering tips and a beauty clinic to the guests of the event. With a minimum donation of $50, participants got themselves prettied up and had a portrait shot by us on the spot :)

We thought it would be fun to shoot some iPhone pictures of each fundraiser participant holding a speech bubble with their message of encouragement to Japan.























Here's a composite of some of the ladies (and one guy!) who had their shots taken after being made up!


And here's one shot in colour (so you can see the wonderful makeup) of Andrea's beautiful daughter, love the hair too!


For 2 hours of all our time that day, we managed to raise for the Japan Red Cross just under $1k. We hope this will help you in some small way Japan, gambatte!

Terrific Three???

My little Dyl Dyl, you turn three today! Fiercely competitive, full of character and never one to lose out, you have turned out to be one tough cookie :) Yet you remain a loving son and brother. Well behaved and quiet in school your teachers tell us, you remain the big boss at home :p We have enjoyed the year so far since you turned two but now signs of a strong willed little boy are emerging! We think this is just your way of coming into your own and may this be the year of the terrific three and not the tyrannic three :) No matter which, you know you are loved dearly by your sweet brother Kay, daddy and mummy and that we will do anything for you!

Keep that trademark scrunchy smile shining always my pooky pie >)

Looooooooove,
Mah-meee!

Singapore Blog Awards - The Newbie

Can't believe it, I was booted out from the Photography Blog category but got into the Best Family Blog category! Wahahaha! This is my very first time participating in any blog contest so I'm going to do the shameless and ask that if you are a reader of my blog and be so kind to help out this newbie in the blog awards scene (so that I don't come in last place at least!), please vote for me? You will have to register to vote, thanks in advance for your help :) You can vote once a day and I'm grateful if you vote just once. I promise to update my blog more frequently from now on :p

Gratefully,
the mummy, the photographer & the wife

The Blue Cake with a Hearty Surprise

So this was my first attempt at working with fondant for a cake and yes I had to do it on such an important occasion as my son's birthday and even more ridiculously ambitious, I decided it needed something more interesting on the INSIDE of the cake! I was doomed for failure right from set go but miraculously it still looked presentable despite the amateurish fondant decorating work :p

All in all, this cake took me one full evening and another half day the next day to complete. Yes, sweat! I cheated and bought an interesting couple of cake pans from B-I-Y. They were designed in such a way that you can get a filled cake in the shape of a heart on the inside. Ok, I've lost you...please refer to iPhone pictures above. Firstly, I bake 2 chocolate cakes in the specially shaped cake pans. While waiting for them to cool, bake another cake, this time a red velvet cake. Crumble up the red velvet and mix in some buttercream (again, I was being a smart arse and did this from scratch). Fill the cavities of the cooled chocolate cakes with the red velvet. Flip one cake over the other. MESSED UP! I didn't put enough buttercream to the red velvet so it was still crumbly and when I flip one cake over, some of the red velvet came loose and spilled out. Yup, I was mortified when that happened but there was no turning back. Next, ice a thin layer of buttercream over the entire cake, sort of like a crumb coat. Next, time to exercise. At least, that's what preparing the fondant felt like. I put in some food colour and started kneading and rolling out the fondant so that it's big enough to cover the entire cake. First two attempts the fondant tore as I tried to put it over the cake, third attempt was successful but trying to smooth the bottom edges was a disaster, some buttercream started oozing out and by then I had about enough and was ready to drive down to Awfully Chocolate and just get a damn cake. But my little boy wanting a blue cake was more important so I persevered and got something half decent after I cut off the excess fondant. Then I thought it looked kinda plain, so i cut out some triangles and rolled two strips of fondant together to form a bunting along the sides of the cake, pretty cute huh? ;) Idea not original of course, Google and YouTube were my assistant designers. For the finishing touch, I poked 3 meringues I baked for the party into 3 chocolate Pocky sticks and they sat on top of the cake. TA-DAH!!!


OH, did you see the inside? When you cut open the cake, there's a red heart shape (the red velvet)! Of course the heart didn't look so good due to the lack of buttercream mixed into the red velvet, so the heart came crumbling out (like mine) :( Not nice? Well, my little boy loved it! That smile was all I needed to take the fatigue away and make it all worthwhile.

I DID IT! *pat pat* :D

The Naked Cake

I made this simple cake for Dylan's early birthday celebrations..................NAH! I wouldn't do that to my little boy! See next post for what the cake really looked like :)

(shot and edited with my iPhone)