Before Christmas is over, I just want to thank all of you for TWO years of reading my random ramblings!
Coley's just saying... is now TWO years old!!!
To celebrate, I will be doing a giveaway to celebrate my blog's second birthday! I am giving out not one, butTWO Sophisca Chocolate Gift Packs.
This is my favorite photo for Christmas 2013.
I am giving out a Sophisca Chocolates gift pack, to the TWO people who can guess how many #nutcrackers there are on Auntie Stella's tree as of December 25, 2013.
Auntie Stell customized her #nutcrackers. This is one of my favorites, the Sheriff with a Wanted Neoprint with me and Jacob from ages ago.
Rules of the Game:
1. No asking Auntie Stell (or any of the Schaperos) how many nutcrackers there are. I will validate with her before the winners are announced.
2. There will only be two winners. If more than two people guess the correct answer, there will be a manual raffle to determine the two winners. If no one gets the correct answer, the prize goes to the two people with the closest answer.
3. Contest is open to anyone with a Philippine Shipping Address.
4. To join, all you need to do are TWO simple steps:
Just follow @coleysjustsaying on Instagram (No need to follow me on facebook or twitter) AND leave a comment on this post with your guess and your IGname.
As an added bonus, since I am only leaving for Taiwan after the New Year, you can read my post on Sophisca Chocolates here, and let me know if you have any special chocolate requests just in case you win the Sophisca Chocolates Gift Pack.
The contest ends midnight of January TWO, 2014 (Philippine Time).
Before the day ends, I just want to say Thanks again and wish you aMerry Christmas to you and your loved ones! just saying.
Last year, I wasn't able to make it to London for the Royal Wedding. Good thing Will and Kate did not invite me so I did not have to send them my regrets. Hahaha. Feelingera much.
Anyway, I was shopping at the Petticoat Lane Market last Sunday (it's a Sunday morning market) and with the crowds and Sofia in the stroller, the only stall I was able to buy from was the £1 souvenir stall.
When I saw the Will and Kate mug, I knew I had to have it.
I bought three of them and a Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee magnet.
I loved this magnet, but not enough to buy it.
It made me crave for a full British Breakfast though.
Sofia's favorite stall was the one selling soft toys.
She bought a Royal Guard teddy bear for £3 (SG$6 or Php 210).
Then on our way out I left her buy the little Beef-eater and the other Guard and a pink beanie bear.
Sofia also bought a London School Set which she was excited to use.
Sofia also bought presents with her own money for Lukey, Taima, Auntie Chi and all her yayas.
I just recently found out that my youngest blog reader is 4 years old!!!
I want to do a blog giveaway for all the kids who read (look at the pictures on my blog).
CONTEST MECHANICS
Just ask your mom, dad (or any adult) to help you leave a comment on this post (if you're too young to do it yourself) about the favorite thing that you've read on my blog (past posts included), leave your name and age (and parent's email address if I don't personally know you).
Instead of putting an age limit, I will open the contest to all the young and the young at heart! Just remember to put your age...and be ready to withstand the embarrassment of competing against my 4 year old readers.
Sofia will be picking her favorite answer. You can leave as many comments as you want for more chances to win.
The contest ends on 29th April 2012 (at 11amUK time - the time Will and Kate got married one year ago).
The winner will get this London School Kit and the adult that helps you join the contest will get a Will and Kate mug.
So Join Now and Good Luck!
The good thing about this contest is that it will end while we are still in London, so if we have a hard time deciding who the winner is, we can always go back to Petticoat Lane to get more prizes...
It's not as good as I remembered but I was still able to find something to buy.
There are still a lot of clothes stalls selling high street brands at lower prices,
but with Primark so accessible and affordable - it's no longer as attractive.
There used to be a lot of food stalls, including one selling mussels and fries.
Now there's only this fried seafood stall. It still smelled good, but Sofia wanted McDonald's.
Petticoat Lane Market is only open on Sunday mornings. You can get there by tube or bus. It starts from one of the side streets across Liverpool Street Station.
In my previous post on Myeongdong (the cosmetics capital of Seoul) which you can read about here, I talked about all the freebies we received (even without buying anything) and how much I was tempted to buy face masks despite my very basic face regimen which is only Facial Wash and Moisturizer (as required).
The "window shopping gift" strategy in Myeongdong was actually quite effective on me because the first thing I did when I got back from Myeongdong the first night we went there was I tried the face mask I received as a window shopping gift to see if I liked it and if I actually would use face masks.
We all know the result!!!
Here was how my experiment went:
Materials Required: Freebie Mask (from my Day 1 Loot)
After your shower, put on the mask (that looks like a face shaped wet wipe),
and leave on for 15-20 minutes.
Pat dry once mask is removed.
This is my after picture.
Conclusion: Sheet masks are easy to use (+). It was really refreshing when I had it on (+), I have no idea if I got the desired benefits out of it (+/-), but it felt like I my skin was so much softer afterwards (+).
Now, the problem was that I used a freebie that I didn't plan to buy. Hahaha.
I wanted to buy this because it was the best value.
So I searched for "Korea Face Masks" on google, and what do you know... my favorite video blogging stars Simon and Martina from eatyourkimchi.com came up!!!
and the icing on the cake was that they reviewed the mask I wanted to buy... Hooray!!!
The reviews weren't great, but they didn't diss it either, and I know they are totally capable of dissing something they don't like. The mask went immediately into my "to buy list".
My second problem was that there were so many variants, I didn't know what to buy. So I searched for "Korea Face Masks Different Benefits" and I found a GroupOn Deal in Malaysia for the exact same brand!!!
The deal was RM35 for a set of 10 masks from RM100!
photo credit: GroupOn Malaysia
Even on deal, it was so much more expensive than the price in Korea... so my second dilemma was solved. Buy all interesting looking variants. Hahaha.
Myeongdong Day 2 Shopping!
Not only did I buy, I got both of my friends to buy 50 masks each too.
Part of my freebie stash on the second night were Bunny Pens that I was collecting from Sofia.
It's the gift you get for buying from the saem (of wise beauty --- i swear, that's what it says on the bag, just like in Korean stationary) where I got the cute hand cream.
When I realized you got one for every purchase, I kept on buying hand cream from different branches to get more bunny colors for Fif.
When I didn't want to buy more hand cream, I realized it was cheaper to ask my friend to buy a Jelly Mask (KRW1,000) to get the last bunny color.
and since I was curious, I did a Jelly Mask experiment on the second night:
The instructions were in Korean so I had to wing it.
I put a thin layer on my face and let it dry for 15 minutes, then I washed it off.
The after glow.
Conclusion: The jelly mask was sticky to put on and I wasn't sure if I put on enough because half the jelly was left in the pack (but the pack looked like it was disposable - thus implying it was only for one use) anyway, that's a clear (-). There were times when it felt like my skin was heating up - so it might be tightening? (+/-), I have no idea if I got the desired benefits out of it (+/-), but it felt like I my skin was soft, but not as soft as when I used the sheet mask (-). Bottom line, it did not make me want to go back to Myeongdong to buy more.
There it is, my face mask experiment :) If you want to win some face masks... please join my Beauty Giveaway here because I will be throwing in some... if you win, you can even choose the variants you want to receive!
I have been a blogger for a little over three months now... and can I just say, I am really loving it!
With 100 posts and close to 5,000 page views. I want to thank you all very much for spending the time to read about all my ramblings, nonsensical as it may be at times. It really gives me pleasure when friends I meet tell me that they enjoy reading my blog.
To show my appreciation to everyone, and to be considered a proper blogger... I am going to do my first blog giveaway.
Since I am dead-set on doing a macaron giveaway... I am raffling off a beauty package with one It's Skin Macaron Lip Balm and a lot of other surprise goodies.
Blog giveaway mechanics:
1. No need to follow me on twitter or add me on facebook. Hahahaha. Just Saying.
2. Just leave a comment on this post with your name to enter. You can leave as many comments as you want... but I will only count your entry once. Please remember to include your email address so that I can get in touch with you if you win.
3. Re-posting about the contest details on facebook will give you an chance to win. Just tell me in your comment if you have done this so I can check.
4. Tweeting about the contest details on twitter will also give you another extra chance to win. Just mention me @c0leysan.
The contest will end on 8th April, Easter Sunday at 11:59PM SGT and is open to all the readers worldwide. The winner will be notified through email and the prize will be sent through SingPost.
It's my last night in Seoul and together with my friends, we attempted to go shopping in Dongdaemon (again!) until 4:00am, however, just like the last time, I was unable to find anything I wanted to spend my hard earned money on, so I just bought an extra Macaron Lip Balm instead and we decided to call it a night earlier than the 4am planned. I need to catch more ZZZzzzz's again so I can check out the Hello Kitty Cafe before I fly back to Singapore tomorrow. Goodnight :)
My baking philosophy applicable only to our Singapore home is "Why bake from scratch, when there is a perfectly good mix available?". That doesn't mean that we don't bake from scratch at all... It just means that we are extra ambitious when it comes to baking from scratch. Hahaha.
Our first project, which really came out well was Red Velvet Cupcakes! After I perfected that in one go, hahaha, bilib sa sarili much, I set my sights on wanting to make French Macarons! I've researched on recipes, techniques and ingredients, but whenever I contemplate making it, I manage to convince myself that it's much easier to buy it from TWG at SG$2 a pop, with so many yummy flavors to choose from, than go through all the hassle. I previously wrote about the To Die For Macarons of TWG here.
When Pami, my friend in Sydney told me she was planning to make macarons for a party she was attending on Saturday, I immediately volunteered to help.
This is the peg. This is what we want to make.
I conveniently had to go on a telecon for work so when I got back,
the macarons were already piped on the tray.
The future macaron queen of Australia patiently waiting for the macarons to dry.
We made the butter cream filling with coffee and salted Nutella variations while baking the shells.
For our first attempt, I must say, it's not too bad! Hahaha
Our timing is really excellent, because today, 20th March, is Jour du Macaron(World Macaron Day) started by Pierre Hermé 7 years ago in France. Other cities like New York, Toronto, Vancouver, Berlin and Hungary will be celebrating it for the first time with participating bakeries offering customers one free macaron each. That's happiness... just like Ben & Jerry's Free Cone Day! Too bad, they aren't celebrating it yet commercially in Sydney or in Singapore.
Ironically, Pierre Hermé only has a édition limitée Jour du Macaron for €49,00
(limited edition Macaron Day Promotion)
Here are links that may come in handy if you find yourself in one of the cities celebrating this great day.
As special thanks to the readers of this blog, we will be celebrating our own macaron day!!! You can get as much macarons from our first trial batch as you want... As long as you pick it up in Ropes Crossing or in Northmead in Sydney, Australia. Hahaha...
Salted Nutella macarons
Coffee macarons
Stocks good while supplies last! Go come to Sydney na, NOW na! Just Saying. Hahaha...
