"You will never know your limits until you push yourself to them"

Turning #23

February's my month. It's also a month filled with love, joy, happiness & all the good food. Every year, I look forward to Feb the most since my birthday falls in feb! The celebration started off as early as on Valentine's Day! On the day before my actual birthday, I had a mini BBQ with the family right at our place poolside!

Got home and changed into something casual and comfortable for BBQ!

We had endless food, drinks and all the nonsense that came by. Thankyou to the lovely sisters & bro for always being there and making this BBQ a huge success! <3

My erjie was really cute to have bought me a Valentines Day cake as a birthday cake! Teehee, from Swissbake! 

With mommy!

& the family! I "forced" my bro to do the heartshaped with me! HEHEHE.

& the sweetest girls actually came up with this on IG!

They snapped a photo of themselves and tag me inside wishing me Happy Birthday! <3

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So on the actual day, 16th February, I was out for dinner & drinks with my #Clique 4 peeps. 

Birthday #ootd; Dress from #Ohvola

Glad we managed to reach on time even though we left town pretty late! 

Love this shot taken by Estee <3

The night began well and ended well. There was no casualties of drunkards! HAHAH. Th gang paid for my dinner and all the drinks I had for the night! Plus with my fav Strawberry Shortcake from TCC!!

On Sunday, we had hotpot over at Tiff's new crib @ Paya Lebar!

#ootd
Top: MDS Collections
Shorts: FEP

As usual, the guys prep the food for us! Its amazing how great chefs the guys in our groups are!

We had our mini "Lou-Hei" too! And that was my birthday cake as well!!

To many more years of friendship! 

Lovely girlfriends & me. A pity mommy A couldnt make it down that night due to being under the weather. The gang got me a Chanel perfume, capital land vchs and a handmade card frm G! <3 

Just the passed Friday night, met up with the closer uni-mates for dinner @ Boston Seafood Shack @ Star Vista! Been wanting to try them out since I always walk past whenever I hit the gym.

Food was decent. And portions were huge to be enough to be shared amg friends. We ordered a promotional feast with 2 sets of Fish & Chips, 4drinks, 1 pasta & 2 salads for $39. Adding on, we had 1 spicy nachos & a Teriyaki Burger too! Th bill came up to $60. Boy, it got us really bloated. So I'd say the dinner is worth it and something worth trying for!

My 5th birthday cake!

My dearest himbos and bimbo!

Not forgetting #ootd

Top: LoveBonito
Pelpum Skirt: LoveBonito

The gang surprised me totally with a really unqiue birthday "card". Our dearest, Zhizhong who's really good at drawing drew a picture of me and printed it on a tshirt. They all wrote wishes on it for me as well. Definitely one of the very memorable gifts I ever received!

#glomagetees

 

Aft dinz was KTV at Teo Heng at NTU Alumni!

Couldnt resist but to take more photos w my tshirt! 

Btw! They made me wear it over to the KTV which wasnt a challenge for me as I really love the tshirt!

4 birthday cakes to mark this very blessed birthday #23! 

And whats birthdays without presents?! So much love this year!

I think this year had started off really well. Stepping into the 2nd month of the year, I had settled down in work and things seem to be picking up bit by bit. I am thankful to hv this opport as compared to quite a few of my friends who are still job-hunting. And I told myself to do well and in time to come, hope for a good prospect as well. 

And this year's birthday had been simple dinners with friends but yet a very heart-warming one. I had all the closest friends with me to celebrate this joyous day and receiving all the well-wishes through FB and texts. They mean something to me. I guess it was also because that last year I hadn't really a good birthday so I am thankful this year's has been nothing but awesome!

A year old, a year wiser. With that said, there comes much more responsibility in life and I will take on them. 

With love, 

Rach

"Live well Laugh hard Love more"

The Chinese New Year was a great way to kickstart the month of Feburary. The yearly tradition of having hotpot home w the family nv change. But this year, we added a new addition; BBQ grill! And it was th first CNY at the new place since we moved in. We had dinner at the balcony and it was really nice. Love family times tgt, I can be all myself and hv so much fun eating w my family :")



The 3days of CNY break was def a very good break for me as I had been tied down w #rachbake and my new full-time job. Even tho our family dont do much visitings but it was the quality time spent tgt that matters more. Mahjong alot, won some and feasted on really good food & yummy CNY goodies! So glad I didnt put on weight depsite the feasting of bak kwa and pineapple tarts!



Taught the brother mahjong and now he's a pro in winning all my $$. Dont know why he was laughing so heartily in this photo. Must be winning $$.

Hit the gym in th morning of CNY eve. And decided to reward myself w a good roast chicken Salad & some me time after gym.

#OOTD
Dress: #Ohvola
Clutch: #Ohvola
Belt: FEP

I love how this polkadot dress is able to pull off well on me and love th green color!



Thats my dajie together with me ")



Le sisters and bro :) We always squeeze fo camwhoring in th car!

#OOTD
Romper from Miss Selfridge!

Day 2 of CNY started off very early for me as I had runs in th early morning. Too much good food already. And we drove back to my granny's place in JB for visitings. This year we had 2 new additions to th family. My cousins gave birth to 2 baby boys. TIme do flies,they're all mothers now.



Day 3 was spent sleeping in and then in the noon I prep to head to Estee's place for visiting. We had mini cooking session and whipped up a good meal fo th few of us tgt w her family.



Look at the feast we whipped up!

This year Valentines Day was well-spent w my favourties. My besties and twiny. Our friendship of more than 14years and still going on strong. We also celebrated my birthday. Thanks twiny fo gettin me a Tory Burch Wristlet and Dior lip color frm th girls; Yvonne, Zombie & Swing!

14years & going on strong! xoxo



My very first cake of #23, Red Velvet cupcake from Dessert cup! Its not too sweet which is to my liking:)



My twiny & Tory Burch from him <3



Thanks girls fo the Dior Lip Color! Mwahs <3



#OOTD
Loewe Dress from #Ohvola

Decided to put on this dress for this special night out with the friends. Love how special the cut-out design of the dress at the waist area. Received alot of compliments for this dress :)

Tory Burch from twiny <3

Well, some people would feel rather down that they do not hv a Valentine for this day. But I feel my Valentines are more than enough :) Feel so loved by them. Many more years of Valentines and birthdays together!

Im looking forward to th 3rd round of celeb tonight w my besties; Clique 4 @ Timbre.

xoxo,
Rach

"When life gets tough, remember you're tougher"

#TWENTYTHREE

Th past 6mths had brought alot of changes & different impacts into my life. I learnt how to let go. I became a more positive person towards life. I started to plan and have goals fo myself & my life. I started to work really hard for my very first goal; #rachbake. I fostered alot of new r/s w diff people which I nv imagine I will. I met new people. I learnt new things and skills. I embraced changes. I walked through th darkest path of my 22nd. I moved on. I became better emotionally and stronger mentally. I worked out more. I felt better and healthier. I look forward to a brand new day of challenges. Life def got the better and I graduated off well. Something that I had wanted to finish off to make myself & my family proud. Then came along a stable job w a decent pay. And meeting new people @ work. I learnt new things.

Everyone says that there'll be a turning point in everyone's life. I guess mine happens at the 23rd. I am glad it happened cause I learnt. I dont mind falling cause thats when you know how painful it is and then you'll learn how to walk the road further ahead. 

I thank my family, every of my friends and th past that taught me well and supported me through th good and bad. And this year,2013, I truly learnt to cherish each and every of them well. And also adopting a whole new attitude towards things like r/s. I am sure this whole year may bring abt new challenges in every aspect of life but im able to battle thru them. I may fall but I know I've people to catch me :)

Thankful fo all the blessings received this birthday. 

Indeed, its the simplest things in life that brings the biggest joy =)

"The things we lose have a way of coming back to us in the end"

Work officially started on the past wednesday. I was both looking forward & nervous at the same time. But i guess the first day went off all well for me. Thankful for the blessings to get me through th day well. 

#OOTD: Fully decked in OhVola for the 1st day of th new journey!
& received my bag frm Bricks & Bolsas! Hee.

So glad I was decked in work pants for the first day to do a rain check on the coldness in the office. And yes, the work pants came in handy in protecting me frm th colddd :)
Gym after work, had a great time @ Floating with Fabi. Guess it somehow made me feel fresher and the tiredness were all worked out!

The team had a welcome lunch for me on thursday during lunchtime! Initially we had wanted to go for Thai Food however the weather permits us so we ended up heading to Vivo City for Black Society.
We had a wide spread of dimsum for lunch! But it was tad too heavy fo a lunch :/ felt super sleepy midway during work!
The colleagues were mentioning how lucky I am to be able to have really good foods for first 2 days of work. Apparently lunch on the first day of work was at Tung Lok with clients :/

Finally friday came! Now I know why people looked forward to friday that much!



#OOTD

Followed by gym after work again, went for Hatha Yoga and a good run on the treadmill.



#gymoutfit!

Headed to pick up containers for CNY goodies for #rachbake & remaining ingredients.
Had to on-call a cab bck home as the loots were heavy and the taxi quene was maddd

Worked like a mad cow on both Saturday and Sunday. Finally completed ALL orders for #rachbake CNY 2013! Am so so so thankful to th mom for all the help rendered to clean,wash and prep th baking ingredients tgt with me. & the sister for printing all the logos and packaging ideas offered! Am done with 30bottles of CNY goodies! The pineapple tarts taste mad awesome. Hv saved some for the coming friday to bake for the family & a few friends of mine.!



YUMMY PINEAPPLE TARTS TO DIE FOR! #rachbake



" A tiny oven, 2 pairs of hands & 48hrs of bake"- The end product
Look @ how pretty and nicely packed they are! Just left with the labels & packing them into paper bags and sending them to the customers tomorrow! :*)

Few lessons learnt from #rachbake CNY 2013 this time round
- ensure ALL ingredients are bought & sufficient before the bake starts
- ensure all labels & pp bags are bought
- prep ALL ingredients specifically the night before the bake to facilitate the baking
- ensure cookies are big enough to fill the containers ( the double choco was abit too small fo th containers :/)

Told myself to do better for the next upcoming bake. Thinking of doing small double choco cookies fo V.day'13. Shall need to work on new bakes for V.day'13.

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Thankful that I completed all by Sunday morning. Had a good hair mask & facial jus now followed by a power nap of 10mins. Th baking has def taken a toil on my health & I knw I need to badly get them back.
Shall intake more vitamins, water & sleep.

Been working on a strict "Pre-CNY Clean Eating" regime compel with a regular workout plan of thrice a week. Im glad it has been kept on track and I look forward to 2days of feasting! HEHE. Quite thankful that my PT at th gym is a really friendly gym to work & converse with. He ensures I get the right workout done, food intake and also motivates me to work harder.

This CNY couldnt have been better. Though I am really tied down witrh work & #rachbake but I made it all possible! Just need to focus fully on work this febuary and learnt as much from the boss. Giving myself a target of March to get on track with work. And then thats when I'll be busy with the sister's wedding prep again.

Going into the 2nd month of 2013, it had been busy yet really fulfilling and achieving well in all aspects of life, im thankful to everyone who aid, encourage and offer me advice along th way. I will do better!
I realized I too hv changed, being more positive in my life, putting good faith in what I do and just being very independent. Think I've grown stronger mentally.

Love,
Rach