My First Heart Bakery Client!

This week has been a fantastic week for me~ 

Because I had my first official client ever!!  

I was asked to make a fairy tower cupcake for 

a beautiful girl who was turning 3!!  

Two weeks ago, I was randomly showing 

my friends sister some photos of Savannah's 

birthday tower and she said, 

"my daughter would really like that too for her birthday!".  

I was so thrilled and excited when she placed 

an order with me!!  

So I especially took care in making the cupcakes, 

making sure that they are the best tasting 

Dutch chocolate cupcakes ever!! 

I also delicately made the fondant icing tops 

so that they fall nicely, creating a domed shape 

on the cupcakes. 

And here you are~ a nice batch of fairy garden chocolate cupcakes for my first client~~

I prepared the tower display, with the fairy, 

cupcake covers and also the cupcakes in a 

nice case, ready to be picked up this Monday morning~

I have never met my client before, so I was excited 

to meet her~ 

Isn't she sweet~~  She turned 3 today!!  

She was so happy to see my cake and 

that really made my day!!  

She kept waving at me as I walked away 

after the delivery... she is so adorable!

That night, her mum was so kind and 

sent me a photo of the birthday girl 

and her baby sister enjoying the birthday cupcakes! 

I love what I do~ Creating cakes and seeing 

the happy reactions of my clients! 

Isn't wonderful that you can enjoy what you do 

and feel so rewarded for your effort?

Maybe you also have a hobby that can be turned

into something that can bless others.  

If you think you do, I encourage to start taking photos 

of your work and blog about it!!   

It is seriously a lot of fun! 

That is how I started too~ 

merely just want to share my passions with others! 

And through blogging, I am hoping to share 

my passion and bless more people!! :)

Maybe you should have a go too!!

1 night sleep over in Paris!

In September, 2011, I had the best opportunity to go to Paris for a short trip with my best friend K!  

I wanted to make sure that we have a really good time so I offered to research and to come up with an interesting, fun, relaxing itinerary.  So this is what I came up with~~

Note: The grey line represented where we went in Paris~

~Two days in Paris~ 

Monday- City Seeker  

1. Arrive in Paris (Via Euro Star from London to 

Paris Gare Du Nord).

2. Check in to our Hotel and freshen up~~

3.  Have a snack at the near by French Cafe

4.Go to Champ Elysee and have a wonder around 

(Check out LV Flagship store!!) and then catch the Metro Train.

5.Pont Marie Metro- go to Notre Dame.

6. From Notre Dame, catch a boat to Eiffel Tower.

7. At 2pm, we have a reserved entry to go up to the 

Summit of the Eiffel Tower.

8. Ask Hotel for recommendation for dinner?

9. Go to a Jazz Bar

10. Go back to Hotel to get our beauty sleep~

Tuesday- Visiting the Sacred Heart Basilica of Montmartre

1. Have Breakfast at a French Bakery.

2. Catch the Metro to Anvers.

3. Take a tram up the hill to Funiculaire de Montmartre.

4. Walk a few blocks to the west and you will arrive at 

Montmartre Square.

5. Worship God at Sacre-Coeur~ and take in the beautiful 

scenery of the Paris City view.

6. Either walk or catch the mini train down the hill to 

Blanche Metro. On the way you will see Rue Lepic, 

where there are markets, Amelie's Cafe- Les Deux Moulins.

7. Go to Denise's Lolly shop to pick up chocolates for Mr J 

(my fiance at the time, now my husband).

8. Catch Metro to go to Galeries Lafayette~ Shopping!!

9. Somehow we also have to fit in Laduree Restaurant 

in this busy plan!?

  The best thing about planning your own trip is~ you can 

  practically do what ever you want and when ever you want! 

  It can also be the worst thing, because, things just doesn't go         

  according to your plans!!

  So be prepared if you want to plan your own trips~ 

  It is great idea to do your own research and have a plan~ 

  But, don't pull your hair out if your are behind your schedule 

  or if you missed a destination!

Remember, Julie's tips~

* Be Flexible

* Go with the Flow

* And just enjoy the moment

Well... enough about planning, this is actually what our trip looked like!!!


Day 1: Very early in the morning...

We caught the Eurostar from London to Paris.

Joy and Pierre came along too~ (my pets)

We had a quick lunch at the Cafe next door to our Hotel.

We had a wonderful French Lunch~ Croque Monsieur, Chicken baguette and some pastries!

After lunch, we thought we shall make our way to the Eiffel Tower, in case we get lost... 

We have a pre booked tickets to go up to the Summit.  

Tip: Please order your tickets online~~  It will save you a lot of time queueing to buy the ticket there!!

http://ticket.toureiffel.fr/index-css5-sete-pg1-lgen.html

We felt so good after we went to the Eiffel Tower because we      have now ticked off one thing on our bucket list! DONE!


Now off to the Champ Elysee to shop around~ before we go check-in to our hotel for the night!

 

Of course we had to buy some original French Macaroons!

We check into our Hotel and seriously~ It was Ladies Heaven!!  

It was so gorgeous!!  I think it is designed just to melt girls hearts!  So cute and colourful!!

It is called Hotel Cristal.

http://www.hotel-le-cristal.com/uk/index.php#index.php 

I highly recommend it!!  It is just across the road from the LV Flag ship store- great location (guys- don't hate me!), which is totally convenient because you can check out how long the queue is before you start going to join that queue!! Actually~ that is a great plus for the guys, because then you don't need to be stuck in the queue for so long to go into LV!!!

The Lobby

Our room

The colour orange is so energising!

This is their dining room~ So cute and it made me felt that I belong in a toy house! (please see the next picture!)

 

 K and I got some duck foie gras and we ate it with some milk bread~ So yummy!! Very rich in flavour! There is no other food that I can think of that resembles this unique taste!

 A must try when you go to Paris!  

We got ours in Galeries Lafayette Food Hall!

Mr J recommend us to check out this Jazz Bar which was very close to our hotel. However, when we got there, we found out that they aren't open on Mondays~~  O.o  What a disappointment!  

So please always check if the place you want to go is open before you head there~ to avoid any let downs like this one....

Closed on Monday, Tuesday, God knows what the French do for a living??!! 

French Onion Soup.

Beautiful K with the crepe maker in the background.

Well. it's all good! God is great! When one door closes, He opens another for us!  We ended up at a crepe restaurant next door to our hotel and had something to eat!

Chocolate and orange crepe! What a wonderful French way to end the night?!

Day 2.

K and I had a morning walk and we went down this  

tempting street full of to die for brands!!!

We were so tested while we were on that street!!! 

We resisted many items.... except one item!!

No, my item wasn't from Chanel actually!!

We then head to brunch at Laduree~

Make a reservation if you can, their staff can speak 

English which helps~

Champ Elysee Club Sandwich

Chicken Caeser Salad~
 
The French really knows how to eleganise everything!!

Paris really is a City for romance and fashion~ 

Anywhere you go can potentially be a really 

awesome backdrop for a Vogue Magazine Cover!

Here you have it!  A photo shoot right outside 

the Louis Vuitton Flagship store on the Champ Elysee!

Duncan's 4th Birthday Party

Not every kid would have a big birthday party, because whether you have one or not is not up to them. It is up to the parents to organise one for them!! You don't HAVE TO have a birthday party to prove your LOVE to your kids... 

BUT, if you do, then it would be AWESOME!!!

Too much work? The secret is~ to hire someone to organise it for you! (For instance, Julie)

Everyone would be happy!! Birthday boy/girl, all the friends who comes and all the parents and their friends! Why wouldn't you be happy? This is a great opportunity for your 4 year old to go mad with all their friends, while you sit back and watch the chaos and eat cupcakes!  

And hopefully, your kid's energy will be depleted by the time you go home and you can send them to bed early~ Then you get to have a long relaxing night with your husband/ wife to just enjoy some hot quality time together!!

Wahaha!! This is the most wishful plan for any parents with young kids!!  Actually, it is not quite "wishful", I can turn it into reality for you! Let me show you my party for my nephew~ Duncan!

Duncan is blowing bubbles with younger brother- SY.

Duncan wanted to have a birthday party because he has been to few other ones for his friends at school~ He said they always have so much fun! I really wanted to help his dream to come true~  So I offered to organise his party for him, from invitations to preparing all the party foods/ drinks, and all the games!

Party food: Mini sausage rolls and meat pies, IKEA meatballs and Fairy bread.

I thought deeply about the games for the crowd. We had around 18 kids, even numbers of boys and girls. I wanted to engage them with fun activities for both genders. So, this was what we did, Mr J (my assistant at the time, who is now my husband) and I split the group into two groups, so we each got about 8 kids, and we did different activities, then we swaped the teams over!

Activity 1

Cup cake decoration

Activity 2

Origami- to fold a paper boat. This boat is used for boat racing in the swimming pool later on!

          All the kids listened attentively as Mr J teaches them !

Now we swaped teams!

Boy's also liked decorating their cupcakes!

Activity 3

Lollies in the Flour Game.  This is a big crowd activity so we play this as one big team!

This is a simple game, yet very exciting!

Everyone waits their turn to cut into the flour cake with a ruler.

This is a video of the game. Please press the following picture to play~ Enjoy!

What flavour jelly bean did this boy get? Peach or Vomit?

It was VOMIT!!

What ever the flavour was, it didn't spoil the fun~ :)

Everyone had so much fun, everybody wanted to have a go!

Activity 4

Pinata!! The best way to sum up the party!!

Everyone had a go!

It was quite difficult to make 4 year old kids to wait for their turns!