I love fashion with a passion. The discovery of tools to aid my creation of style sheets is driving my passion, almost to the stage of addiction. That translates to the necessity to blog more, I guess :)

With the promise of spring drawing near, I am gravitating towards this seductive colour with a sprinkle of gold and neutrals in the choice of accessories. Makes me feel like a royalty now…

Purple, dazzled with gold

1. Having a social life- I complain too often about the lack of social life until I realise how tiring it can be to have one. One can never win, no?

2. Keeping fit- have just started doing 10-km walk/run every Saturday morning. Will aim to hit the gym and fitness classes three times a week, plus badminton once a week. Oh, I really enjoy badminton even though I suck at serving, and my wrist is still sore from yesterday’s game. Wish I pick up more fun sports :)

3. Baking, cooking and trying out new recipes… While I love the eating bit, the cleaning-up exercise can be off-putting at times. Yes, I am lazy… And then, I being to see the vicious cycle of over-eating and exercising to death to fight those calories!

Since I am on the subject of food, I thought I would share a wonderful recipe book that was gifted by a friend of mine who had successfully published her first book. The photos are beautiful, and I can’t wait to try out the recipes this weekend!

The book is available in both soft and electronic copy from her website:

http://www.publications.burntdamper.com.au/

As I have always said, all girls should have a few wardrobe essentials, such as a good quality leather handbag. I love my designer wares, but I don’t insist that everyone has to own one, to qualify as chic.

I haven’t had a notably good experience with ASOS. But, that doesn’t stop me from checking out their leather section, especially after reading a review about a full-leather ASOS clutch on purseblog. Sorry, I can’t find the Purse Blog link now.

Here are a couple of great finds- yes, I’m abit biased towards the cross-body satchels because I need one, as a workhorse ;)

Cambridge Satchel Company15" Satchel- love the neutral colour and the classic box structure! It has to be my top pick from the lot! It is also available in black and purple on the website.

ASOS Faux Croc Leather Bag- Love the faux croc prints, even if it’s faux! But again, as good as it looks in the photos, I dont have much faith in ASOS house products…

Another ASOS leather satchel. It is a nice pop of colour, given that ASOS has represented their colour in good faith. Ok, I know colours do vary with monitor display. But if it is a common encounter amongst practically all of my gf with mispresentation of colour hues, then I guess I'm not really whinging excessively this time :P

However, they have screwed up a recent order (and quite a huge one) for my sister’s 21st bday. The gift never arrived. It turned out that they have screwed up and sent the order to somewhere in Turkey! I have no problems with the order being messed up, as mistakes do happen sometimes. What disappointed me was the way their customer service team chose to ignore my pleas to expedite their investigation on this matter. To date, after 1 month from the date of my order, and more than 10 emails to them, I have not received a response. I am most appalled by the lack of service recovery, despite the fact that I have explained how important this order was for me.

It is apparent that I am just an insignificant customer to them. Oh well, I am more than happy to take the patronage to Sasa.com from now on. I can’t be more thankful for the protection that credit cards offer these days- have lodged a dispute, and I will be expecting a refund on the transaction soon enough.

Farewell Strawberrynet (and buyers beware) !

No doubt, this is one of my favourite activity during my yearly visit to Singapore!

Here I am, sharing some of my cheap and chic finds from some of my favourite labels and haunts.

Far East Plaza

14 Scotts Road,nearest train station- Orchard

Even with the introduction of new and cool concept malls like Ion, Marina Bay Sands and Resort World Sentosa, this quirky mall opened since 1982, has remained as one of my favourite places to check out for bargains. Being fashion and quality conscious, and with the ability to differentiate cheaply-made and mass-produced Korean, China, and Hong Kong wares, I can spot a bargain really quickly :)

For first-time visitors, it is highly recommended to window-shop around, before making a purchase. Often, you will find similar items selling at a different stores for less. Some shop assistants may not speak much English. However, it should not severely hamper your shopping experience in this bargain paradise.

Some items I’ve bought from my last trip in November:

Most of the dresses are priced between SGD 30.00 – 40.00. My sister showed me this shop that offers belts for as low as SGD 5.00!

There is a large Korean nail salon, Iputa, that I would visit, when I need a break from shopping. It is on the 5th level. On the same level, there is another personal favourite hair salon, Super Cuts. Their stylists have never disappoint!

Somerset 313

Nearest station: Somerset

Nichii, a Malaysian-owned boutique, located on Level 3, don’t seem to be a hit with the locals. I am, however, a great fan of their clothing. They come in fabulous cuts, and for the price offering, I’d say that they are quite a bargain.

Forever 21 has opened the biggest boutique in Singapore within the same mall. It goes without saying that I’ve spent quite some time checking out their accessories section, and made off with quite a loot.

Another random boutique where I got this cute-looking dress for SGD 30.00 (excluding belt, which cost SGD 15.00 from Far East Plaza).

My sister and I retreated to Brotzeit, a german bar and restaurant for dinner after a massive amount of shopping. They have got small but pretty lovely German beer selection too. Although the restaurant only offers open-air seating, I have really enjoyed the breezy evening (thanks to gigantic ceiling fans) with my sister!

My beautiful sister, at Brotzeit!

A random photo: Night out with the family at Canele in Orchard. They've got really decadent cakes to sweeten up your day! And yes, I'm taking off with chocolates and macaroons too :)

I really had a fabulous time this trip, and can’t wait for the next one!

Have got a couple more dresses and shoes, coming my way. Will show and tell when all of them have arrived. It has been a great year, although I might have burst my wardrobe budget for next year already! You will see why in the next post, hehe…

So, it was a day well-spent on good food, catching up and shopping! Talking about shopping, allow me to indulge my xmas gift to me:

There you go, my third and final shoe purchase for 2010 :) I’ve been extremely lucky to bag an exceptional bargain. To top it off, the last pair came in my exact fit, and I knew that I just had to buy it!

I’ve been pretty good this year. In keeping with efforts to go minimalist with my fashion purchases, I’ve only purchased the two other pairs of shoes with comfort and durability in mind.

I have no qualms in recommending Florsheim to the budget-conscious. Most of their shoes come under AUD 100.00, which is an absolute bargain. Ican’t find any other shoes that are designed and built to be as comfortable as Florsheim’s, at that price point.

In my next post, I’ll try to share my clothes purchases for the whole year :)

I'll have to try out this look, with a summer twist sometime this week (note that model is wearing a cardigan, and the winter palette in this look). Let's see what I can come up with...

Image credits to www.shopbop.com, See by Chloe key looks.