For me, it was very much not about glamour, champagne or sparkles but all about eating, relaxing and spending time with my family. I can’t believe 2011 is over already..that was definitely a whirlwind of a year. All I can remember about it was tons of stressful days at work (can’t believe this was the first thing that came to mind), meeting great new friends, making life-changing decisions, plenty of great days but a hefty share of ughhhh-kill-me-now days too.

Now that it’s finally 2012, all I can say is that this will be the year of change and hard work both career-wise and definitely life-wise. I hope this year will be full of fun projects and collaborations, using my time wisely, building and strengthening relationships and friendships, focusing on the important stuff and lastly to make sure to be smart and not over-think things. I can’t believe this year I’ll be closer to 30 than 20…oh man sounds insane and so fast and I definitely don’t feel like my age but it just means that real life starts now and I’m just that much closer to becoming a real grandma.

Anyway so I’ve finally gotten round to editing my New York pictures! Surprisingly, I didn’t really take that many pictures. I bought a new 16GB SD card thinking I’d be snapping away but actually, I rarely even whipped out my camera. Between too heavy bags and hands busy eating, I just couldn’t be bothered to take pics really. Out of all 13 days of being there, I only took ONE outfit photo (for another post later). Anyway, New York was amazing..it was just great being there and I missed it so much. Everywhere reminded me of when I was there almost 3 years ago and I was drowning in nostalgia. Anyway I don’t want to blab on too much, might get a bit too sappy so here’s my first (of 4) post on New York.

After spending the first 5 days upstate with Mo and his family living the suburb life (i.e. driving everywhere), relaxing and having yummy home-cooked breakfast, we headed down to the city where I stayed for the next week or so at Jen‘s super cute apartment! (P.S. She makes aaamaaazing cakes so hit her up if you ever need a custom cake!)

First stop: my older sister‘s place to see her big huge baby Baron! In case anyone was wondering, he’s an African Boerbal Mastiff and he’s huuuuge. I think he’s like almost 75kg?

On another day, I went to meet my favourite NY buddy KHOX! She took me out to my favourite restaurant……CHIPOTLE!

omg guys seriously….I miss this SO FKING MUCH.

Khox’s dish!

Later on she took me to this SUPER cute knitting store called PURL Soho. I’ve recently taken 10 steps further into grandma-hood by taking up knitting…but more on that in another post.

SO FLAMING CUTE MUST LEARN HOW TO MAKE BABY PANDAS. These were like thumb size!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You can buy the little kit here!

So pretty.

So want to get giant fat ass needles like these.

Earlier I made a quick pit-stop at the newly renovated Cole Haan store on Wooster…but more on that in another post too..

Awesome boobs are awesome.

♥

P.S. Did everyone enjoy CLN’s guest post below? She’s super funny right? I mean, obviously cos we’re fake twins and I generously shared with her some of my funny genes. She also takes super cool nice photos and is blogging about her temporary life in London on her blog: SHA LAI. You all BETTER go read it!

uhh i look so weird..but my mom likes this pic -.-

Weeeee these pictures are from earlier this week when I met with Carmen for a quick coffee. Carmen, along with my other buddy Kenneth, are the dynamic duo who run How I Met Your Style: the amazing site that allows us mere mortals a view of some of the really well-known fashion bloggers in their home environment. Carmen and I hung out for an after work coffee and took some of these quick shots just before heading home. Hopefully, we’ll be doing some fun stuff together soon! Oh and thanks Carmen for the awesome pics! Am trying to save up now for my 50 :)

Moving on……below are some of the goodies we got from Boutique Boulevard!

Super cute giant YSL lollipops made by PAPABUBBLE! Don’t think we’ll ever actually eat these cos it’ll probably just be a big giant toothache :|

This is the YSL tote my mom managed to get for us! I didn’t realise it was just the manifesto tote, which I already have. Nonetheless the little tube thing is pretty cool!

Goodies from Chanel! A quick brochure and an awesome notebook with a pencil!

Inside the white Chanel card was some info as to how Chanel bags are made. This was an interesting quick read so click the image to view a larger version :)

A closer look at the Chanel pencil and notebook cover

First page of the Chanel notebook, love these illustrations.

Flipping through!

Polaroid from…duh Ralph Lauren, with Julie!

Now for some fun random photos….all with NANZ at home! Some people said they missed nannies’ LITTLE FACE!

Firstly………..new toy! Yes..in my bathroom.

hey nice TONGUE!

he looks SO worried for his life

luckyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Nanz ~werkin~ the cougar look

BAM! Hot stuff right down to the tip of your toes!!!!!!!!!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAND that’s all for today people! See yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

Spookehhhhh

Stuff I’m into lately:
• My new super hardcore but equally cute at the same time ironic skull bracelet. They all look constantly SHOCKED!
• My 3 silver David Yurman bracelets that my mom got for me and nanz (matching!) as our late graduation presents. The one far left is black diamond, cos we juz balluhz like dat.
• My mom’s camel coat that she got like 20 yrs ago and never even worn (tag still on). Used to be ankle length but I got it chopped.
• Pairing our huge red scarf with everything and using it as a blanket at work.
• Long skirts with chunky sweaters and sneakers.
• The awesome super sunny but nice and cold weather Hong Kong’s been having lately.

Nutella Coconut Brownies! These are like the simplest brownies ever; they literally only require 4 ingredients (flaked coconut optional). They did come out a bit on the dry side but I completely blame my shitty-ass oven. It can literally only fit a baking try that’s smaller than A4/lettersize paper and only really cooks the back right corner. WTF.

While we were waiting for the brownies, nanz was eating banana dipped in Nutella!

Of course this could only happen in a floral princess apron!

“OMG Helie it’s zewwwwwwwwwww gewwwwwd!!!”

I was feeding Obi his favourite carrots and this was what his face was like the whole time. I SWEAR his hair on his ears were naturally staying up like that.

Taking in the sun in my new XXXXXXXXXXXL (fake) wayfarers from Annabel!

Congratulations to Monica and xr/helloxr! I will be emailing you guys to let you know about receiving your gifts! I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who entered and I really wish everyone could’ve won at least something small! I’m having a good year so far so maybe I’ll have another giveaway sometime soon!

P.S. thinking of a blog overhaul. A new year should have a new layout. Any thoughts/comments/critiques on what it should/currently looks like?