fashion and people watching

(warning, this blog has no point whatsoever. i don't have time for soul-searching nowadays.)

every morning as she brings her daughter to school, i get a glimpse of what a woman who has it all looks like. she's tall, svelte, wealthy, pretty, and dresses well. (ok so maybe she has her own share of sorrows too, everyone does.) she's always in designer clothes, with bags and shoes the brands of which i know i will never be able to afford in my lifetime.

i don't know her name. her daughter goes to kindergarten, that's all i know. =) but i love to watch her, i love taking note of what she's wearing. it's like fashion watch only more pathetic. hahahaha!

anyway, today she had on a spectacular outfit. her dress was in the palest ivory, with delicate black floral print, a fitted bodice, sleeveless, softly-pleated skirt, with a black sash around her impossibly small waist. i love that she paired the dress with classic pumps in a perfect shade of nude. just like the ones the march issue of vogue says we should all be wearing because it elongates the heels.

i say, hurray for the return of the nude heel! i've always been a scaredy-cat when it comes to shoes. i opt for classic styles and colors, afraid to experiment (although some red and purple have been known to creep into my shoe cabinet once in a while). but this is a classic that i really missed. not that i need one. i just remembered how good they look when i saw the pair she was wearing today. shouldn't have given my old pair away. huhuhu.


* made a quick sketch of her outfit in my little notebook. sorry, i didn't have time to make it look nicer.

grass are for goats

i can't believe the day would come when not only will i be eating grass, i'd be growing them too!
one of the take home packs my little boy got out of their field trip to the hydroponics farm was a grow your own wheatgrass set. curious, i followed the instructions and voila! a few days later, i had a healthy growth of wheatgrass!

what to do with it? i asked myself. i know wheatgrass is really healthy. 15 g of wheatgrass is equal in overal nutritional value to 350g of vegetables. it contains 70% crude chlorophyll, which resembles haemoglobin and therefore the body is able to easily utilize it to oxygenate, energise, and heal. it improves skin and hair, fights infection, lowers blood pressure, suppresses appetite (!), increases haemoglobin production (which i need because i'm anaemic), and purifies the liver and kidney. whew! so much from a small clump of grass.

anyway, i heard you're supposed to turn it into juice with cucumbers, celery, and other stuff but since i had none of those, i just ate them. yes, i ate the grass like a goat. and you know how it tasted? like fresh green guava.

i'm planting more of them tomorrow.

some days

some days i like to prettify myself and wear seriously nice outfits even when i'm just staying home.

some days i don't feel like doing anything or even trying to look good.

some days i feel like experimenting and don outfits that i wouldn't dream of wearing outside.

this is one such day. =)

i wore a coral pink tank top, with spring green capris =) instant pick me up!

reasons to hope

it's probably good that i'm not rich. (oh wait till my hubby reads this.) money, it seems to me, sends people in one of three directions: it accelerates an innate inclination to be generous; or it accelerates a kamikaze inclination to party with paris hilton; or it sucks away your sense of purpose and produces a desperate need to eat nothing but cheetos while staring blankly at an endless cycle of friends reruns.

i'd like to think that if i were rich, i'd be the kind of person who looks at the world and decides to fund cancer research and build schools and feed the hungry, and save whoever needs saving, but there's an excellent chance i'd be the kind of person who looks at the world and decides never to get out of bed again. in fact, staying in bed with cheetos and a tub of gelato isn't such a bad idea right now. if only i didn't have to do chores. sigh.

let's face it, it's not pretty out there. the economy of the entire world is in shambles and the world as we know it is threatening to collapse. global warming is accelerating at an alarming pace. and madonna still looks great. people no longer work like dogs to get ahead, they work like dogs just to stay where they are. some days i need to give myself a few good reasons to put on some lipstick and venture out (or at least get out of bed).

so here's my list:

• there are still flowers all around us, and they like to be photographed. they preen and pose and don't complain when we turn them this way and that or look at them from behind.
  
• javier bardem and gerard butler. swoon!
• friends, near or far, all deeply adorable, all wonderful people who make the world a happier place, who are interested and interesting, who are quietly unequivocally there for you, offering sweet salvation and good gossip.
  
• our friday breakfast at the hawker center at jago close is something i always look forward to. roti prata and milk tea! yum!
  
• who needs money? window shopping and planning outfits for nonexistent occasions is really fun! you can pretend to be a model or a fabulously rich socialite at a trunk show. next time i'm bringing my camera so i can snap photos of my favorites. =)
• bacon ice cream - seriously! check out davidlebovitz.com for the recipe. the first step involves candying the bacon! let's all take a moment of hushed reverence to contemplate this epicurian wonder. i firmly believe what chicken soup does for the common cold, bacon ice cream will one day do for the pms-ing woman. i bet it'll go well with cheetos.
  
• there's a reason why they printed cookbooks. it's so you can close your eyes and randomly open a page if you can't decide what to cook for dinner. thank you nigella! thank you jamie! thank you ina!
  
• life will never be boring if you rearrange your furniture ever so often. i do it every time i'm premenstrual. little improvements count for a lot. and it's a great way to make sure corners don't gather dust.
  
• today i watched my son organize his dinosaurs in two sets: herbivores and carnivores. more proof that he got great genes from me.
  

i could think of more, but those are enough for me. it's possible that gerard butler, bacon ice cream, and cooking good food will not change the hard truth that plans frequently fail and dreams have been known to dim. but at the end of the day, when my hubby kisses me goodnight and holds me tightly, everything feels right with the world again.

food stall favorite

the yong tau fu stall at raffles city food court


i wish i could have this chilled stall in my kitchen
so i can just pick out the veggies i like
then have them cooked by someone else

the one thing i hate about cooking vegetables is the amount of preparation involved.
you know what i mean --- all the slicing and peeling and dicing.

spring fashion

the mango display window
at our neighborhood mall


see that pale silk dress on the left?
i've been dreaming about it since i saw it.
i love the perfectly blush hue paired with a black sash. i love the silky softness of the fabric.
i love the utterly feminine, ultra romantic style!

sadly, i have neither the funds nor the figure for that dream of a dress.

i mean, can you imagine how my humungous behind
will look under that silk?
ugh!

(ok, maybe i'm sourgraping. but just a little.)

long ago and far away

me in 2003

i keep coming back to that year, the year i loved my figure.
yes, this is my target, and i want to reach this by the end of this year, if not sooner.

how far am i from that weight? oh, about 30 lbs.
how much weight have i lost to date? 45 lbs.

but it varies, depending on whether i indulge myself for the week. sometimes i gain back a few, and then i lose them again when i get back to being a good girl.
i'm already comfortable with my current weight, but i know i'm still overweight.
(at least i'm not morbidly obese anymore.)

just a reality check.

short stuff

so i went out for a short walk in my shorts yesterday. *big grin*

it was the first time i ever dared to show my legs in a looooooong time.

i walked home with a skip in my step because no one stared in horror or disgust. not a single one.

hahahahahaha! (it takes so little to make me happy!)