Cookies n Cream

My daughter and daughter in law to be, testing my body butter!

For some reason everything comes to a standstill this month, and the meetings get postponed to the next, so turning my creative energies elsewhere,  I invariably end up in the Kitchen... uh where else!!

Since a very young age I've been told to use cream on my skin, being in Europe as well made my skin very dry.  I remember as a kid before we went skiing or hiking in the mountains my mother would make us slather Nivea cream on our faces,  my stepdad said we looked like we had kissed the frying pan!  As I grew up, trying this and that, I've narrowed  down the two products that  have worked wonders for my skin.    The two products are coconut oil and cocoa butter.

So having one of my moments in the bathroom, hey admit it, we all get our brilliant ideas when we're in there, mine especially in the shower, it must be the steamy, foamy environment... Ok moving on, anyway I was wondering what would happen if I combined the two together, alchemy I thought.  Well not so much alchemy as a test of sorts.

I gathered up my all natural  TRU RA cacao butter and my cold pressed coconut oil, and went to work.  I started with the cacao butter, because its a solid block in it's natural state, and will melt at body temperature.  If you think you can just rub the entire block down your body and it's going to melt on contact you'd be at it the whole day!!!   What I usually do is melt some first as needed and then apply it, so yes it can be a bit time consuming if your want pure cacao butter.

I cut a wedge of cacao butter

Virgin Coconut oil

First of all I melted the cacao butter in a make shift bain marie, then I mixed in the coconut oil

Once the two were combined I chilled it in the freezer for a few minutes :

Whisked it all up again, and this was the result :

Really awesome Caco Coconut Body Butter!  

Just put  it into an empty container and you have your OWN pure Body Butter

Obviously the more edible solution would be the Choc Chip and Sultana Cookies I made afterwards!!!

Cookie Monster!

I don't think I'll go into production yet for the cacao coco butter which reminds me I have to get cracking as another batch of ginger awaits me as the Tickled Pink Ginger™ is flying off the shelves since I launched my brand of pickled ginger!  Thanks again for reading my blog and for subscribing! Have a great week ahead!

The "M" word

So much has been spinning through my mind lately, it was hard to focus on exactly which topic I wanted to write about this week.  I realised that sometimes you do have to share some personal aspects of your life because somewhere, someone is going through the same thing and could possibly benefit from knowing they're not alone in their experience.

Lets set the scenario shall we.  I get a text from my son Christopher in the UK and he says "hey mum, you wanna Skype on Sunday?'.  Nothing out of the ordinary there as we usually speak once a month on Skype, so when we did have face time I was surprised to see his girlfriend Irena next to him on the screen.  Even more surprising was the fact that he was just staring at me after the initial hello and was keeping silent.  My youngest son Ayden who was next to me said "dude, this is getting awkward man, say something" aaanndd he did, "Mum Irena and I have decided to get married, after all we've been with each other for 6 years now and feel the time is right " he must have said more but all I could hear was "I'm getting married".   Now my son is 26, which is not an unusual age to get married, after all I got married at 25... WHICH is why I freaked out all the way from Skype, to my room,  to calling my mother up in the UK, to crying on the phone to my best friend in Australia.

father and son

Why was I freaking out?  Firstly he'd just finished his degree in Uni, had hardly been working for more than 6 months at a job he didn't particularly like whilst waiting and applying for what he was qualified for, secondly he had no assets what so ever including savings and LASTLY as I quoted to him, my marriage to his father at such a young age was a total disaster and I didn't want the same for him.  The most worrying part was that he was going to quit his job, pack up his flat and come back to Malaysia (as Irena is Malaysian) because Irena wanted a "traditional" wedding and he thought he could work here for a few months whilst all the marriage preparations was going on and wanted my blessing, (cue me clutching my chest and doing a southern belle swoon, well more like a Hobbit needing CPR if you ask me)

Back to the Skype conversation, by this time I was incoherent with anger, sadness, frustration because everything I had been hoping for, for him to work towards was thrown out of the window in a blink of an eye in a spectacular manner.  I said I did not agree to the marriage, and would not give him my blessing.. the conversation stuttered to a halt, and eventually I excused myself whilst Ayden took over (ever the diplomat to smooth things over)

To try to write about what transpired in those two months would be akin to a Latina Telenovella script.  Once Irena flew back to Malaysia, he packed up his things, went to stay with my mother for a week, and though she tried to talk some sense into him he was determined to see it through. Meantime back in the land of no smiles and political unrest, my father had been diagnosed with non hodgkins lymphoma and was undergoing chemo, my youngest brother whom I had not seen for 20 years was coming back to KL to see him and Christopher flew into town without informing me, which really hurt.

My best bud Ron and my brother Zaki on the right

Seeing my younger brother after so long was like a ray of sunshine, we had grown up in our teens and twenties in Hong Kong and had been close.   He had eventually settled his family in Australia and has been working offshore all this time, I have missed him so.   I took him aside at the family get together to have a quiet word with him, and he in turn had one with me.  He said "do you remember what  you were like in your twenties? and when you wanted to marry Chris's dad and how mum was totally against it? did anyone or anything stop you? think about it.  It's his life, and if it's a mistake it's his mistake to make, give him your blessing and let it go"  I mulled it over for a bit, thinking back to when I was the same age and what I was going through and feeling at the time. I laughed out loud in realisation because my mother reacted the same way as I did when I told her I was getting married!

Yup I got married against my mother's wishes !

So I wrote my eldest son, whom I love so much and had gone through so much for to have in my life, a letter from my heart to tell him in the gentlest way my concerns, to reassure him of my love for him and to give him my blessing because at the end of the day, the most important thing was his happiness.  Isn't that what all mothers want for their children?

Today I'm helping him sort out his wedding trays (in Malaysia they are called "Dulang" it holds the gifts he will present to her at their wedding ceremony),  making the door gifts for the guests, listening and discussing with him possible job opportunities, attending the food tasting for the banquet and generally any information he needs to help make his marriage and time here (as he's reassured me he's not going to "live" here) as stress free and as smooth as possible.  We've got a month and a bit more to go before the big day.

at his 21st b'day when Chris started dating Irena

The most important thing we are put on this earth, is for and to love,  and it is with love I write this (but please god let my other two kids be 350 years old before they get married!!!)   Have a great week and thank you again for reading my blog.

Bulging Eyes and Ringing Ears

Yeah of course the photo bomb

I've been researching a certain type of television program for the past week to see how they measure up to my latest concept,  and my eyes and ears are beginning to rebel from overexposure to media.  I'm sure if anyone saw me, all they'd think is, "huh, lucky for some, surfing shows daily."  Well believe me, most times it's not, especially if you see how much drivel is out there masquerading itself as a show.  (Now you understand why my kids try not to go to the movies with me, they usually shush me as I mutter a stream of comments under my breath ...)

So when the ladies organised a get together for Wednesday night, it was with a resounding yes that I agreed to go.  Suffice to say I've not gone out to clubs/bars/watering holes, whatever you want to call them, in quite a while so it was interesting to discover this new place called Elysium in town. Situated atop one of the business towers in town, it was relatively easy and painless to get there (yes this all really counts OK!) The lovely hostess guided me to the lift that whisked me up to the 31st floor, where the friendly waiters showed me to a lovely terrace overlooking the Kuala Lumpur Skyline.  It had just finished raining so the evening was cool and balmy.  I was introduced to everyone as there were fresh new faces there, one of the other reasons I went.

Great View

The young helpful young waiter efficiently went through a list of cocktails especially prepared for ladies night.  Unfortunately though, his accent was so thick I kept saying " sorry, could you repeat that " and leaned closer to hear him.  He sort of rolled his eyes and produced the menu for me to read for myself ... Oh you mean "urban legend" I said.  He gave me that look, you know the one, we've all done it before the "that's what I said" look.  Oooo kayy then.

biggest plate of nachos ever!

Back to the Ladies, so we have a former COO of radio broadcasting, 1 producer, 1 zero waste campaigner,  1 marketing and promotions whiz , 1 traffic news presenter and a high flyer from a major research company.  As you can imagine the conversation was eclectic and ranged from trips to the south and north pole to chasing escaping pets on a beach!  One thing we all had in common, we were all tired of the  chauvinistic behaviour still rampant in our  respective industries even though we've moved into the 21st century (I guess the burning of bras was not enough to break the glass celing!) and that feminism was more about equality, not who's better.  The conversation came to a head when we discussed how we could collectively begin to create a network of women to set up a form of "old boys club" in order to help each other move up the ladder.  I'm sure you understand exactly what I mean.  It was also refreshing to go out and have a lively and entertaining discussion, as opposed to being bored out of your mind with the company, conversation, place, time...zzzzz.

Pro back lighting yall he he he

As the night wound down,  the DJ started ramping it up, (must say really good choice of tunes from the lady jock).  We said our farewells.   A few of the girls had already agreed to meet up separately  for potential collaborations.  I'd say that was well and truly worth the night out.

And the best part?  We'll be meeting up again soon.  Right I have to get cracking, only two more days to our Scandelabra Showcase, now that Lisa is well and up and about, it's full steam ahead!  Look forward to seeing you there!  Keep those e mails coming in and thank you again for your subscription.

Change of Plan

In a jam again waiting to go to de Hoss Pee Tal

It's funny how sometimes life drops many little surprises into your lap.  Some good, some bad and some you kinda of scratch your head at.  So many cliches come to mind, "life never goes as you planned it"  " it's Murphy's law" "karma is a bitch"  and on it goes.

One thing I do know is that you should always be able to move laterally when a plan you've made doesn't come together due to extenuating circumstances.  I admit, I'm a stickler for plans.   I like knowing  exact dates, times, places, so much so that yeah I'm a bit of a control freak (well if you time every line for every frame that you've storyboarded for your own TV show.... ) however one of my life lessons is to learn to readjust fast ( I'm not good at that, I tend to grind a bit first before going into first gear) and go with the flow. (bobbing along on a lilo as the stream meanders to who knows where comes to mind) And that's exactly what I had to do with the Exhibition we had planned for the 13th May.

For some reason I decided to call Lisa early two days before the Scandelabra Showcase we were hosting.   Knowing artists the way I do, I knew there was some form of panic going on, the hint being we had only been communicating via e mail and texts.  She picked up the call and all I heard was a very bunged up, muffled " I'll call you back, I'm at the clinic , I can't breathe".  Yoikes!!  panic mode , and we're on Def con 3.  Eventually she texts me to say she's been admitted to hospital, hooked on to the oxygen machine and is undergoing tests.  Now here's the clincher, she's asking me if I'm OK as we text each other.  Errr hello, I'm fine, not in hospital, not hooked up to a machine,  stop asking about me, what can I do for you Darth Vader (is what she claims she sounds like at the moment)

Ms Darth Von Vader-ham

As diplomatically as I can, I ask her what she'd like to do regarding the exhibition, it's a bit sketchy because her results haven't come in.  She has a lung infection  compounded on top of her asthma and allergies and it's unclear how long she's going to be in the hospital , let alone convalesce for.  So we agree to push the Exhibition back another two weeks. I set another date on the event invitation and sent out apologies to the invitees.

In production we call it contingency dates, in real life you call it sods law.   I do recall when my husband had just passed away, a  "former" friend who had given me a ticket to a show/dinner, decided that as I was grieving,  I'd not be going, naturally.    She wanted the ticket back (to give to someone else....), but didn't have the balls to ask for it,  so she sent another friend to get the ticket back.  I call it bad taste, other people would call it practical.   There are some things you let go when another person is in a world of pain, loss, illness, hospitalisation, etc   and uh tact does come into play big time.

Anyway, Lisa's finally out of hospital, but not out of the woods yet.    I'm not sure how's she's going to be in a weeks time, so I will be ready to change dates in case she's still unwell.  Yeah, I think I'm finally learning to move from plan a to plan b without too much internal grumbling and swearing.  All I can say is in the bigger scheme of things what's more important, a friends health or her work?  I've figured it out, have you.

Friends, where would you be without them x

Thank you again for reading my blog and subscribing, I appreciate it so much , have a gorgeous week ahead and if you feel like dropping me a line it's daphnenasir@gmail.com
Toodles!

What a scandal

Whooo the exhibition  for Scandelabra is in a weeks time! The excitement is building, d  and as I'm co organiser,  I'm getting all the invites out.   Lisa the artist under her brand OXOLOCO,  has helped me in the past with  my graphics, banners, labels you name it, she did it!,  is working like Trojan to get the pieces ready for ... you'll love this date, Friday the 13th. Heh Heh, Lisa picked it purposely as she feels it's a lucky day.

Trying to get some  work in progress images from Lisa, was bit tricky but I managed to rile her up enough to send me a few! He He.  Do you remember the green Celadon tea pot I gave her to use as part of her artwork? ( I posted in my last blog)   Well I spotted it in her work shop (sneaky me!)

Can you spot the teapot....

 It's such a joyful feeling to see creativity take shape, especially if you're contributed, in a very minute way, towards it. Lisa told me she paired my Celadon tea pot with her mothers vintage Noritake saucer.  The story behind it was that her father had bought it for her mother when they first got married, but the entire set was stolen when they put the set into storage whilst having their house built, except for that one piece, how odd eh.

The noritake saucer that was left behind!

So can you imagine the stories behind each lamp?  I imagine owning such a lamp would be quite the centrepiece of some interesting conversation! 

She's also been working on the lamp shades, and they range from lace to little chi chi pom poms like this one 

You know you're going to touch the pom pom!

I'm still trying to imagine how Lisa will stage the area we've been so kindly given by the owner of Ziba carpets, but dressing areas is her forte and I'm sure it will look exactly the way she wants in order to highlight these beautiful upcycled pieces of functional art.  

For those of you who want to come join us, it's going to be at Ziba, the addy is 26G, 26-1 & 26-2, Jalan Telawi  2, Bangsar Baru, Kuala Lumpur, between 3 and 9 pm.   Here's the link for  Ziba directions

For those of you who can't make it, we're going to be staging a few more little pop up exhibitions around Malaysia, so stay tuned for that on my blog.  I'll leave you with a tantalising image of one of her finished pieces.   For those of you attending, see you on Friday.  Thank you again for subscribing to my blog and hey I do post vlogs up from time to time on you tube, so check those out too.  Happy Weekend!

Scandelabra Blue

Just a little Spice bebeh

Let me tell you a little story, no it's not a terribly long one, just a little one, promise...  it's about food, oooo my favourite topic!  Ok ok quick background, I grew up in  and around Hong Kong, as my step dad was a Chef in the hotel industry, and because of this we moved around a lot.  I learned to eat all sorts of strange and wonderful types of food.  So once in a while I get a bit nostalgic and want some of the more exotic stuff that I enjoyed in the Orient, and one of those little mouthwatering morsels are century eggs with pickled ginger,

in case you've not seen it, here's a pic.  Now I know it looks like a 'goth egg!', but it's actually quite delicious.

Also known as preserved egg,

They are made by preserving duck, chicken or quail eggs in a mixture of clay, ash, salt, quicklime and rice hulls for several weeks to several months.

As an hors d'oeuvre, the Cantonese wrap chunks of this egg in pickled ginger

Finding the century eggs here in Kuala Lumpur is easy enough.  Most supermarkets sell them as well as the wet market, but finding the pickled ginger... well that's how this journey begins!  Talk about a needle in a haystack.  I searched most the main stores for pickled ginger, and couldn't find any.  I was really stumped, we use pickled ginger for a lot of our food, well this one in particular : 

Pickled ginger otherwise known as Sushi Gari

Off I went to the Japanese grocers.  They did have some kind of pink ginger pickle but I couldn't read the ingredients (obviously I can't  read and write Japanese! but I can curse, long story,  but that's beside the point!). 

I mentioned this to my girlfriend, well when I say mentioned what I really meant was to grumble and moan about the lack of pickled ginger.  My galpal said, "Daph, most people either buy from a friend or make it at home".  Well talk about a light bulb moment!   I decided to make a batch for myself. 

First, I researched the best type of pickling ingredients and started off with normal ginger root. When you pickle old ginger root its very yellow and is pretty hot! yawsaahh, old ginger root, ...fail.  Next, I wanted a crunch but a light delicate ginger heat, so I  tried fresh young root ginger, it turned out pink!

Fresh younger ginger from the markets

Then I tested it on my friends and family, hey that's what they're for!,  and the feedback was good, so much so that my little Faerie Lisa suggested I retail it along with my signature chilli sauce I make which includes these ingredients :

Fire Engine Red Chillies

Garlic bursting with flavour

Taking my own advise, I've started a small home business retailing these  home made condiments, yes I've got a label too thanks to OXOLOCO. It was an exciting process, including sourcing all the materials!

Many thanks to OXOLOCO for designing my label.

I've now rolled out my first batch of both and taking orders! Both condiments contain no colouring or preservatives, the ginger naturally turns blush pink in the pickling marinade.  You can pop your orders on e mail,  that's, daphnenasir@gmail.com or pm me on Facebook!

My ©Cha Cha Chili Sauce ready to be labelled

©Tickled Pink Ginger anyone? 

I can't wait for my labels to be ready, they're in print as we speak.  It feels very satisfying because whatever the outcome, this venture fulfills two things, a creative outlet that allows me to utilise my home again as a workspace, and to make good quality products that everyone can enjoy.

Cheers and have a lovely week ahead! 

Speedy Gonzales

My daughter Leilani stays calm in traffic by taking selfies!

Yet another day goes by,  and yet again I'm gesticulating in traffic, or swearing at the person who just cut me up/tail-gated me/ didn't indicate, you've been there, you know what I mean (my kids certainly do, they tell me I'm Jekyll and Hyde in the car!).  You get home or to your destination totally frazzled and either grumble about it for a bit or  have to take a few moments to calm down.   I usually wonder to myself "what's the rush?"  Will being two cars ahead get you to your destination faster?  Are you that late that you have to drive like a maniac?

Idiot driver on wrong side of the road trying to muscle in with school KIDS onboard!

There's traffic even in Marseille, but at least the view's great!

But then this attitude is not only  relegated to when ones drives, it's with everything you do in life. For example, when I started my first TV show, man I was pushing and pushing and knocking on the doors of everyone and everything.  I had to get the show out, it was do or die, now or never, what if TOMORROW never comes!!! I pushed so hard I got my sponsor on board within a month, and just like that, even after signing the contracts they pulled out!... just as we were going into pre production. Fast forward two years from that after a really bad bout of depression, a couple of very shitty jobs and 3 lawsuits, I thought well this is it isn't it, I can't go any further down.  I remember  venting to my close friends, they said "what's stopping you from doing your show now?" , "we'd love to help you".   It's incredible how faith, luck, timing and some incredible partners can change everything.  5 months to the day they said it, we had "the Art of living show" on Air.  It is all about timing, which brings me to my point.   I rushed around like a blue arsed fly and it all blew up in my face.  You can not see all the outside forces that are influencing those moments, and sometimes when you push too hard, it pushes back.  Plus my sponsors this time round were so supportive and just the best sort you could hope for.  (Yes mum, patience is a virtue )

I've got my second TV show ready, but this time I'm not rushing around, I'm being methodical, taking my time, allowing the natural order of timelines to flow so it can and will be taken up by the right people with the right attitude for the show.  I'm not saying sit back and let it all fall into your lap, ha ha ha , it that was true, I'm sure we'd all be sitting at home watching the idiot box and waiting for the phone to ring!  I'm saying it's just like fishing, you have to put all your lines in the water, be patient and when you get a bite, reel it in patiently or it will get away if you rush the process.  (Who would have thought I'd use a fishing metaphor, thank you to Xtreme Fishing!)

My wonderful friend Reza who let us use his Shop

Here's another example, (err not a fishing one ok)  I've known Lisa for years, we've met irregularly at best,  but last year everything clicked between us, friendship wise, work wise, creatively(the timing was right).   We've been slowly building towards working on several creative projects together, and individually.  One of them is for her exhibition of up cycled lamps.  I must admit I was pushing for her to have her exhibition sooner, I felt it would be beneficial to get it out faster, get the word out and push her a  little harder.  We worked out the timelines and got to looking for exhibition spaces.  But you see, yet again the timing wasn't right, pieces were delayed,  the space we agreed on wasn't what she really wanted in the end.  So leaving all that aside, I carried on with some of my other ventures and whilst having a couple of hours to kill I decided to visit an ol friend who owned a shop in one of the prime locations of the 'golden triangle' in Kuala lumpur.  As we chatted over lunch together I told him about what I was doing and how were were looking for space for the exhibition and needed sponsors as well, and just like that, he offered his place... timing yet again is everything.

She was taking pictures of the place but the cat insisted on posing!

My Celadon pot that will be used for Lisa's work!

I brought Lisa for a visit the following week and she absolutely loved it!  It was perfect for her.  This time we did delay the timing for the exhibition further into the next month where she felt most comfortable and what suited the owner of the shop as well.   Yet again here is an example of not rushing, of taking the time to plan and organise, of fate, of luck.   Now that we've got the dates locked down for Friday 13th of May! (great date)  we'll create a FB page to extend an invitation to you to come see these beautiful upcycled lamps that Lisa has called "Scandelabra" .  Stay tuned for more info on that

 I guess as we get older as well,  one begins to wonder why?  Why are we rushing around?  Is the world really going to come crashing down on our shoulders if we slowed down?  Why are you working at break neck speed setting aside what you really want to do, and sometimes all you want to do is earn a decent living doing what you enjoy and spending time with the ones you love.  We've lost the ability to "stop and smell the roses.   So what I say to you is this, take a deep breath, slow that pace down a tad and look up... what do you see?

I see you !