Guess...

I have been busy with these lately. Can you tell what it is? hehehehe... I'm NOT telling as its part of door gifts handmade for 2012 NNC Anniversary meet up. Even though I'll be missing it (I ALWAYS MISS IT!:((( ), I thought I'd make some items for this year's anni meet up since I was so touched by their generous nature whenever I go home for the holidays. Them giving me their precious time for a small meet up especially.

Will up date photos of this once everyone has got theirs on April! heheheehhe...

Gifts from Diane!

This is a a very late post. Gosh! I can't get my head around how fast time fly by when I'm putting together NNC goody bag goodies! LOL! I know I need to work faster but they say, a rush job is never a good job....

Diane's gift came all the way from South Carolina! She so generously gave me a quilt pattern and its coordinating fabrics!! I was over the moon when it arrived on the morning of the 22/02. Was going; OMG!OMG! OMG! and Owen was looking at me like I'm a crazy person... LOL!

LOVE GETTING PARCELS IN THE MORNINGS!! :D

Bags of fabric!

Har!

Appliqué pieces

THIS I will keep till the boys are a little older to use!
From the "Royal Desk of Her Majesty THE QUEEN"!!! LOL!

And since we have agreed earlier on about making this into an exchange, I am at the moment scouting for items that says SWITZERLAND! LOL! Found 2 or 3 items but will add more to that collection as time comes. And since US has strict food import guidelines, I don't think I'll be sending chocolates over. Sorry dear! It'll melt by the time it gets to you..... May be next time if I ever plan to meet you State side, I'll bring some over? :)

Weekend baking spree....

OMG!! I didn't realised that I can actually miss baking goodies! LOL! The last time I baked was for Chinese New Year and then after that nothing... But that's good to, for the sake of our waistlines. :p

On Saturday morning I made this...

My pulled-apart cinnamon sugar pumpkin bread. Recipe here.

Its my very first time making this type of bread, besides croissants but that's another story for next time. ;) And its also my first time using a dough hook on my hand mixer. BTW, I got myself a brand new hand mixer during the winter sale period. :) I've never tried using the dough hook before and let me tell you its all worth it! Kneading bread by hand is tiring work... :p

Before leaving it to raise again and popping it into the oven....

The final result: really moist, soft, sweet and a DELICE! :)

And since I do not have enough space on my kitchen work top, I had to work on the floor with my silicone baking mat. :p Really feels like messaging the dough this way... hehehehe... The bread turned out wonderful despite the fact that I forgo the glaze seeing the amount of sugar I've added into the bread itself. Our whole apartment smelled of cinnamon sugar brioche when it was in the oven! :)))))

Seeing that I still have some of the cinnamon sugar mix  and 1/2 cup of pumpkin puree left over from the bread, I made pancakes the next day as a special treat for hubs birthday. :))) Sorry, no photos to show off as it was gone by the time I finish making them... :p

A heart for hubby and daddy dearest! :)

The sides...

The insides. A little undercook to me...

And to top off the day for hub's birthday, I experiment with a recipe from a blogger friend, Thanis Lim: Chocolate Cheesecake Swirl Brownie. The above is the final result. It wasn't a difficult recipe to follow just that since taste is objective, I find that I can taste the sugar (brownies ARE ALWAYS sweet! But we can make it a little less sweet no?) but not so much of the chocolate. Although hubs like this I find it a little under cook to me.

"My version" of chocolate cheesecake swirl brownie.. hehehehehe...

And since I've already planned to bake another brownie batch for hubs to share with his colleague, I used this recipe instead but mixed in the cream cheese mixture. I omitted the white and milk chocolate and used our local "brown" sugar found in Migros (popular local supermarket chain). Its called crude cane sugar and it has pale brownish colour which when poured into hot mixtures or being boiled/cooked, gives a very nice rich medium to dark brown colour. The plus side is that its not as sweet as white sugar, which is made mainly from sweet beetroot. :)

So that has filled out my dessert baking quota for the month. :) Don't think I'll bake again until at least till mid or end of March. Unless of course we're invited to other people's place for a party! :D

Valentines' day

How was your Valentine's yesterday? Well, as hubs and I aren't really fan of Valentine's Day - we think its all overrated and has become to commercialised, we just did kebab take out for dinner. :D I know, I know! Of all speciality and we just had kebab?!?! LOL! Well at least its still a little bit better than having McDonald's!

Since this year it happens to fall on a Tuesday, I asked Dude #1 if he wanted to gift anyone something for Valentines. And he said OK. So I've made a little something for his teacher and also for that special girl.. hehehehehe... Talk about starting early and at nearly 5 years old! LOL!

A cute little heart clip for "that" girl in class... ;)

Let's not forget his fav teacher: a fabric twisted rosetta bookmark.

Chinese New Year goodies...

Gong Xi Fa Chai! Wishing you that the dragon year will bring you and your family more prosperity and better health than the last. :)

Since this year's CNY falls on a MONDAY (of all days!!), which also means its a normal work/school week for us here in Swissyland. OH! HOW I ENVY MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY BACK HOME!!! Oh well! We can't always have what we want isn't it....

Dude #1 helping mummy.... :p

So to celebrate this special occasion, I've decided to bake some cookies for my dude #1 to share with his classmates and for hubs to bring to share with his colleague. Nothing fancy, just 2 batches each of peanut and almond cookies. The 1st batch I made with lard. Yes you heard me LARD!!! hahahahaha.... This is the 1st time I've bake with LARD! :D It turned out pretty great with this melt in your mouth goodness even.

Peanut cookies with a little dragon print out for the goodie bag.

But since I didn't want the little ones to get premature spike in their cholesterol level (or even have a hand at rising their % on having stroke/heart attack etc), I've made dude #1 batch with peanut oil instead. It turned out rather dry but still good. It wasn't as the lard ones which actually "hold" till you pop them into your mouth "meltiness", which means less mess for the teachers to clean up if they decided to pass the packs of cookies around during the 10 o'clock break time.

A small "production" line.. LOL!

 I actually got the recipe off a blogger here. Her recipe here are very straight forward which I like. For the almond cookies, I just replace the peanuts with ground almonds. :) These cookies were by far the easiest I've made. I've made pineapple tarts before and believe me when I say its too troublesome to even bother making when I've got dude #2 getting his grubby hands into everything! LOL! There just to much step to follow. :p May be in a year or two, I'll try to make it.  In the mean time I'll stick with non finicky bake goods.....

Happy New Year!

Well, first off wishing you guys a very Happy 2012! May all your wishes come true for you this year. :) It has been a while since I've updated anything here. Its not that nothing interesting has happen just that I can't seem to find the time to fit it all in particular spending most of my time just watching my boys grow. :D And they do grow up and change very fast! :( Once again I'm being reminded about how time just past us by in a blink of an eye.

So what did you guys do during Christmas and New Years Eve? For us we decided to stay back instead of making any trips to see family members. Reason behind it is that our eldest guy gets off for school holidays only on Friday afternoon, and that's after class. So it was just too rush with the traffic and so on. We didn't even get a tree this year! :( Many thanks to the littlest guy who seems to love pulling stuff down from tables tops, shelves etc onto the floor with a bang. We'll try to get one this year and THAT if we plan to stay back like last year.

All ready to hit the snowy outside. :)

Our friends from the South of France. WELCOME TO THE COLD! LOL!

The train ride to Caux. BAD choice of lighting in the train... :p

Breath taking scenery along the way....

My dude! :)

Little dude and me. Still snowing heavily up here.

We had house guests a week before Christmas. Friends of hubs (from uni) who lives in South of France on their way to Paris. They stayed a few days at our place before going on the road. We had lots of snow fall when they were here. We went up to Caux from Montreux train station to visit Papa Noel at the Christmas Village. We were supposed to go up further to Rocher-de-Naye but due to heavy snow fall and high risk of avalanche, the trains going up there were cancelled and final stop was Caux. Luckily Papa Noel was "moved" from Rocher-de-Naye down to Caux to accommodate the visiting kids! :)

Who is this FAT man with BIG white beard???

A snowy trail towards the restaurant up in Caux.

And since it snowed heavily, the kids had lots of fun after Papa Noel visit. We spent about 3 or 4 hours up there, enjoying the snow, the spiced hot red wine (very YUMMY!!) and even had lunch in their chalet styled restaurant. :) It was still snowing when we took our train down to Montreux. But in Montreux it was raining... :( Snowing is fine but rain is just SAD!! And in the rain we went walking around the Montreux Christmas market.

Stalls at the covered area of the Montreux Christmas market.

I really like some of the items of this stall but it was to pricey for me... :((

At the fantasy gardens of Montreux.
They were actually sculpted/shaped by the municipal gardeners! :)

The kids make that parents, were so tired that day, that we just had to take a nap after! LOL! The kids were fine.... In fact they were very well behaved that day, by not making too much noise and just sat on the sofa watching a cartoon DVD! I guess the visit to Papa Noel worked?!

Things that I've been up to

Our 1st X'mas market table on Friday evening: right side

As some of you would have know, I've been rather busy these few weeks, wait make that this 2 months, preparing for Blonay Christmas market, which was yesterday. Since that this is my first time ever doing a Christmas market, I would have to be on top things since it will be one of those event that will open doors for my small side business. :)

Our 1st X'mas market table on Friday evening: left side

Now that it's over and done, I'm just reflecting on how I managed to just do my thing with the two boys frequently hanging on my legs these couple of months since mummy didn't really have time.... Believe me, there are days when I really feel that I should spent my time with my boys and just put my thing a side. And there are days when I really want to just sit down and do my thing but I don't have the motivation to do it. Days of when motivation came but the boys won't leave me in peace especially when its bed time! Oh well! I guess that I would have to just go with the flow.

The lovely Carmen on Saturday afternoon.
We had to fill in the "gaps" with some my other items.
Notice the mini pink tree is gone?

Speaking about going with the flow, I received a custom order for some party favours from a colleague of hubs. They wanted princess crowns for the birthday of their 5 year old after I showed them what I've made for Halloween (Wonder Women tiara & cuffs) when they were at our place for Chinese hot pot lunch party. So I said OK why not and also suggested that my partner make some knight items since they will also be celebrating their youngest boy's birthday on the same day - double celebration thing. I was really over the moon with this order! :D

Custom order for a little princess! ;)
Makes me want to have a girl but I know THAT would be
impossible given our "track record" of boys on hubs side of the family....  

Being over the moon is one thing but also I was stressed out as I don't know what she might expect me to come up with. So I made some enquiries about what's her budget, colour and material and came up with some ideas. I was glad that she liked it and I immediately made at least 6 of it as she confirmed the amount right after the green light about the design etc. I really wanted to get that done and at the same time make more X'masy stuff for the market.

Cute trees! Which I didn't have any intention of selling at 1st.
Sold off the pink and green one by the end of the market day....

A day before the party she wanted an extra crown, which I was happy to do it for her, just that I would have to do a late night job. The day before the party was the evening when I have to set up our table at the X'mas market, be there til closing time (10pm), take the train down to pick up my sleepy boys who was at my partners place, go home, tuck them into bed and then sit down do that damn crown..... I was so so tired after that that I fell asleep within seconds!

The strangest thing is that even though I did not get my sleep quota filled on Friday night, the next day I felt fine. I think it must be the stress of thinking the worst of the worst that could happen on my 1st X'mas market: that my items aren't up to standard and won't sell. But at the end of the day, I was just silly to think like that after a good sale day. :)

Was really feeling the after effects of stress and lack of sleep after reaching home. Thank goodness I've warned hubs that I won't be cooking dinner and we had a pizza take out, much to the delight of the boys!! Yes, little Kevin at 17 months eat pizza as well to but I gave him only the vegetarian ones... hehehehe... He knows that we don't do take out of any types of food (Italian, Chinese, etc) often, make that only on rare occasions. He was wolfing down the pizza like there's no tomorrow! LOL!

Sunday is the lazy day for me in weeks! I just made fried chicken (was thinking and craving for KFC!), salad, and some pasta for lunch. Which BTW, we can not finish and ended up being dinner for me and the two little boys. Hubs just wants oats with milk, honey and banana for dinner...

Mental note to self; after this pizza & fried chicken treat, I would have to make detox meal aka more veg, non-processed meat and fruits for the whole family.....

Mug Rugs!!

I meant to post this some time back. Thought that with the 2 weeks school break I would have some time. But how wrong I was!!! LOL! It just seems to zip by so fast these days... *sigh OH WELL!

I  recently (more than 6 months ago) join the lovely people from NNC in a mug rug exchange with the recent mug rug fever there.... :D  We have the option of either joining for only the mug rug exchange or Chinese mug rug exchange OR even both. I joined both. As this is a secret exchange, meaning the receiver doesn't know beforehand who will send their mug rugs makes it all the good surprise!

Maple themed mug rug! Thank you so much Sabariah...

I received my mug rug two weeks ago from Sabariah. She made me a Maple themed rug! It was really pretty and had an autumn feel to it. She also gave me some maple leaf tea! I didn't know it even existed! I immediately brewed some that morning when I got them. It was has a refreshing maple smell and taste to it. I've even added some maple syrup and you know what? It tastes even better... :D

My Chinese fan mug rug to Mel

My partner was Mel from Kuala Lumpur for the Chinese mug rug and Janet from Ipoh for the mug rug. For the Chinese mug rug, I did a combo of cross stitching and patch work to show off the classic fan look. I inspired by (and immediately fall in love!!) this mug rug at Crafters by this wonderful creative lady. Though I had a go at making my own template after finding out how much it costs to get a Dresden plate template. I know I'm cheap like that! hahahaha... Any ways I don't think I would be making a lot of that type of pattern to make it worth my CHF. The XS pattern was from a book by Shopie Hélène entitled Chine (China in French). The fabric I used was bought while I was home. I got at least 1 meter of it I really like the print.

For Janet, I was really cracking my head for ideas until the very last minute! LOL! You know what they say about creative juices overflowing when "pressed"... :p Got the coffee themed fabric early this year for "just because" reasons and it was rare to find these type of print in my LNS!

BTW, I used to have 2 LNS but the other 1 closed down due to retirement reasons. :(( The only one that is still running now will be going into retirement (the owner) soon...... *sigh.....

My heart side of the mug rug to Janet

I saw this Seminole piecing technique while I was browsing for ideas. Had a "nice" time figuring out the dimensions and how to piece the whole thing together. All trial and error method with me! :p But at least I learned something new in the process right?

The appliqué mug and cookies side.

So I made a reversible mug rug for Janet; hearts one side and appliqué mug and cookies the other. I had to frog the binding the 1st time as I didn't like the way it turned out. Who ever say round corners are easy are wrong. I was having problems turning the piece! Any ways, I also tried my hand at FMQ for this piece. Also did it twice! LOL! I must say that I have to practice and practice more often to get the stitch length right. Perhaps I will find the time to do so next year??... hehehehehe...

Stuff I've been up to

It has been a long while since I've posted any thing here. My bad.... :p Been busy preparing some new seasonal items for my shop as my partner and I will be selling our wares at Christmas market next town. No it won't be the one in Montreux. It'll be in Blonay about 20 minutes drive from our place. :)

There's just so much to do and so little time to prepare! For the time being I've made some felt flowers, just not as fast as I thought that I would go...

First off is that I need to make more items to add in and I find that at the moment I do have limited dough to spread as I do not have a fix income working in a non-profit environment AKA stay at home mum. :( That's why I'll have to just make do with what I have on hand and perhaps look for cheaper alternatives. :p

Secondly, I really need to rethink my packaging and labeling for my items. Mind you people are looking for well presented handmade items and I clearly do not think my current zip lock method will cut it at the Christmas market. Even though it'll be a smallish (will be held in a school gym) thing but still... I'm now thinking of getting organza fabric by the meter and sew some gift pouches. Organza is not that expensive fabric but still I do not want to get it locally as I'll be paying at least CHF3 to CHF5 extra per meter! I know, Switzerland prices are bloody crazy...

As for labeling, I'm making my own tags using my Big Shot machine. :) I knew I didn't make the wrong decision in spending CHF130.- for that! :))))

One of my flowers, all hand sewn... :) And I didn't use my Big Shot for this!!  

So now I leave you to admire one of my felt flowers. Am not sure how to finish it off at the moment. Perhaps I'll double it as a clip/brooch/gift topper ensemble. Any suggestions welcomed!!!! :)

Copyrighted! RESTRICTED!!

As some of you would have known by now, I've started a small little shop selling handmade hair items with girlfriend of mine. She makes bags and little head scarves, scrunchies, neck warmers etc. We're doing a really small scale "production", if you can even call it THAT! LOL! Like for me, even to come up with 2 designs a week would be a miracle what with being a full time stay at home mum... But still it's been fun making some of it though I can not say much about looking for online inspiration.

As to NOT piss off the online crafting community, I'd like to play it safe by not infringing the copyright of the said artists work. They share their free patterns online because that's what the crafting community is about; sharing what you know and do. Yes, we are generous that way.

But what really annoys me is that there are times when my stuff tend to look like the creator's item, but without intention. I don't spend ALL OF MY TIME online stealing ideas you know! I've got better things to do like looking at flowers/trees/butterflies etc outdoors with my little boys, making/sewing up some stuff than to do THAT!

Then what? Can I still sell them? Did I just stepped into the illegal territory? Should I just e-mail them to ask permission even though I've made it without realising that its one of their patterns? I really have no idea.

Oh ya! By the way, do visit us at Asiafrique Mummies! We are in the process of whipping it up in shape - making more items and redefine some details. At the meanwhile do have a look at  some of our photos there! :)

Looky what I got!!

This is a backdated post. Life is just full of surprises these days...
My Chinese Mug Rug from Margaret, Kuala Lumpur of NNC! I received them one morning last week as I was rushing out the door with little Kevin in tow. :) Since that day I didn't get a chance to post anything about it!! :(((

My Chinese Mug Rug with a dainty goldfish tea cup and some packets of Chinese tea. TQ MW!!

THANK YOU so much for such a beautiful mug rug MW! For a novice, you're pretty good at it! So next project would be a single quilt? hehehehehe... By the way, I really Like the cherry blossom fabric in the middle and also the blue crackle fabric goes very well with the whole ensemble.

Did I tell anyone how this humble crackle fabric from MODA made nearly EVERYONE at NNC gaga over?  But of course it was sold at such a ridiculous price per meter at the local fabric shop that everyone wants to get even a few cms of it.... I was kicking myself for NOT being home when the frenzy of this fabric was on. OH WELL!

So for my part of the exchange, it's done only that I need to get some tea/coffee from the local shops here before posting it off. It was quite brain cracking as I was looking for ideas and to figure out how to put it all together was nail biting and or hair pulling process! LOL! But its all done and I'm glad as I did learn a thing or two while put it all together.

As you can see from my lists of projects, I FINALLY finish the Winnie the Pooh wall clock kit meant for the boy's room. Only thing now is to frame it up. My next thing right now is to try to stitch a birth sampler for a new arrival on hub's side, to make some more stuff for my web shop, whip something up for the NNC Anniversary gift exchange, some X'mas ornament for a very nice neighbour of mine, then perhaps some Xs on my UFOs. I am not sure IF I'll ever make it to the last thing on this "to-do" list though. As usual having the extra time and my little ones behaving like angels would be a perfect. AS IF!

Vietnam trip, Part 1

It has been a long time since hubs and I took a trip alone, just two of us, any where since the kids arrived. C'est la vie! That's why while planning our Malaysia trip, I took the liberty to book us a little  trip to Saigon AKA Ho Chi Minh city.

REALLY tiny in with! It looks like being SQUEZZZEEEEEEDDDDD!

I thought that since hubs was born there, I thought that it'll be nice to go for a visit. It'll be his 1st trip back to his home country ever since his family got out of there late 70s. And besides, it'll probably be one of those trips to one of these countries that we'd rather take alone, minus the whatever hazards the little ones will bring. :p

HCMC was surprisingly refreshing despite the fact that it has about 8 million people just in that city alone. Weather isn't that hot and humidity is not as high as in Kuala Lumpur. I think it's just a fact that its facing an open sea that helps to "chase" out all the hot air?

My 1st impression of this vibrant city is that, there's sooooo..... MANY motorcycles! The streets are full of them. Cars, lorries, buses and vans we could only count a few. But I can see there's a lot of growing population of the wealthy as there's no less amount of luxury cars cruising about the busy, busy streets of Saigon on our way towards our hotel.

It took us about 1 hours to reach our hotel in district 1 in the not so heavy traffic jam. When we arrived, they had a small problem with the room so they had to check us into another hotel, a sister hotel of theirs and we got an upgrade. Nice! This room at this other hotel was an equivalent of a suite for a 3 star hotel, my guess is. They paid for our return transfer to that other place.

I don't really care for a bigger room when I travel, since I'm only there at night to sleep in. What is most important for me is that the room is clean with reasonable sized bed (I've slept in really, really SMALL single bed made for kids in Verona, but that's another story), has a clean toilet and shower, and with no flying/crawling around insects of any kind (had a BAD experience here, unless of course if its sleeping under the stars in the jungle).

What is so nice about this city is that, even if its a 3 star hotel, we get Internet WIFI access for FREE!!And one could even get Internet WIFI access for free as well in most restaurants. And its just not slow a** connection but pretty fast ones. Malaysian hotels should learn a thing or two here.

The green, green fields of paddies.

At the pier for our Mekong river tour.

Anyways, since we were there for only 4 days, we didn't get to visit a lot of places. Did a day trip to visit the Vietnam part of the Mekong river and its 4 islands and another day trip for its city. We were joined by a couple of lovely New Zelanders for our river trip.

Already for the trip! :)

The river itself flows from the borders of China off the Tibetan plateau. So one can just imagine how many thousand miles it has travelled to get to the South China Sea. As we travel by boat, there were catfish farms (which I refrain from eating), boats pushing/pulling sand from Cambodia to Vietnam, along this wide and long river.

The 1st stop was at Turtle island, where we got to visit a honey bee farm; got a taste of their honey tea - which is not bad. And then they even have a snake farm.. The snakes were breed to make snake wines. Don't ask me how it tastes like, I'm not very much into snake wines. :p And then it was a visit to their coconut candy "production line". There's this little girl helping her mum warp the candies. And she's just 5 years old! I wish Owen would help me pick up his toys... :p

Next stop is at this fruit farm where we were entertained by local Vietnamese folk singers backed up by a 3 man band, playing traditional Vietnamese instruments. I know, it's kinda cheesy. But hey, it gets touristy here! Plus I've never seen so many longans along the pathway to the horse drawn carriage we take next. The carriage ride through their small village and we next hopped into a sampan (long boat) at the end of the ride. The canal runs through this island and there its really small and tight with traffic. Hubs helped the lady row the boat up front while she navigates through tight spots... We then hopped back to our river cruise boat towards the Phoenix Island.

It rained by the time we went for lunch at Con Phung Island (Phoenix). We were the lucky ones to reach the restaurant before it was pouring! LOL! The restaurant was quite interesting, it was built on a marsh full of water lilies! The sight itself was so pretty. And what with the pouring rain, I got to play around with the camera while waiting. :)

Our ride after lunch to the other side of the island where we'll take a boat ride along the tiny river.

The rain didn't really stop by the time we finish our day trip. It was still drizzling. But the skies cleared when we got to our hotel to reveal a calm and cooling night out with hub's uncle who lives in Hamburg. This uncle happens to be on his vacation trip with wife and 2nd son. And guess what? They all were down with diarrhea and vomiting on the 2nd day they arrived. What a way to began a trip. :( Good thing they've recovered a little by the time we meet up with them for drinks.

Drinks at this bonsai garden with hub's uncle & family

Don't worry, he's just interested in the desert rose bonsai plant. Don't mind the doggie! ;)

After that we decided to go towards the wholesale market area for a meal nearby. It was within 20 minutes of walking and dodging traffic to get there. LOL! The market is close of course but there was their night market that is open. Had dinner of grilled pork with rice, Vietnamese Phô (noodles with vegs in meat broth), crab & prawn meat  on sugar cane, Viet style spring rolls, deep fried squid with pork, and to finish off, a refreshing young coconut drink. It was ALL YUMMMY food.... :p  I just wish I still had some place left for dessert. Well, make that courage to try out street vendor desert! LOL!  

Viet trip, part 2

Impressive stone carvings at the temple court yard.

The next day, right after breakfast, we went on a HCMC tour whereby we went to Tien Hau tample in Cholon, built and rebuilt since 940 A.D. Its surprising to see that its still standing to this despite the war here. The wood carvings on its entrance and courtyard is really impressive!  We managed to do some prayers while we're there. :)

There's more stalls and tiny aisle once you go in...

Look at the "mountains" of dried prawns!!! But why are they so PINK?

A short visit to the Ben Thant market was next. Why short? Coz there wasn't enough time for me to go fabric shopping! LOL! The stalls were so tightly packet that its virtually IMPOSSIBLE to pass if we were to walk side by side! Fabrics and other items that were sold were PACKED vertically and did I mentioned that most of them looks like its going to topple over if one were to touch them? Was a hot and stuffy as it is, but there were so many people around. The place one could get a breather was either at the ground floor where food and jewellery were sold OR at the locally produced souvenir section. 

"Implating" them egg shells is hard work.

Worker sawing thru the mother of pearl

Just some of their products. There are more cramp into the next room!!

Then its off to the lacquer factory and shop. Honestly I've never got to know how lacquer good were made. So this was a chance to find out. It takes so many work and days for the primary lacquer to set. And not to mention the second procedure where one paints on it or set it with egg shells for a particular design. And then its another process of making the item shine. Those craftsman are really talented. And hubs being so impressed, bought 3 miniature paintings.

Me, happy to arrive here nevertheless

The visit at the War Museum saw a sad one for me. After seeing photos of dead children, I had to stop and get out of the room. Its just so sad and even now hearing about war and recent horrific crime, I'm thinking how can one human do that to another human being? Its just pure EVIL!! But still managed to take some photos of tanks outside the museum.

Hubs thinking of what to order! ;)

Replica tanks on the grounds

View of the main street from the Palace top floor.

Needless to say, my appetite for Huê province food ( a region in central Vietnam) at this restaurant. I did however managed to taste some delicacies wrapped in banana leaves. It was delicious although I've completely forgotten the name! LOL!

Part of the basement; look at the type writers!

We when make our move towards the Reunification palace. Looks as if it was frozen in time. There's 2 replica war tanks just on the gates of the palace. The tanks crash onto the place on 30th April 1975 and it ended the war. The recreation room was really late 1960s looking. And the basement. OMG! It looks eerie with the telephones, telegrams and other machines still looking in perfect working condition!

After having some photos taken on the grounds of the palace, it was the national post office building stop. This building was opposite the Cathedral of Notre Dame, which incidentally looks like the one in Paris! Only smaller... hehehehehe...

Hubs: we'll be back next time for sure!! :)

Soon after the tour and being dropped off at our hotel, we decided to go out on our own since it was rather early to meet up with hub's uncle for dinner. We went for a coffee at this Trung Nguyen coffee chain about 15 minutes walk from the hotel. As I don't really drink coffee, theirs are like a kick to my system! LOL! I couldn't sleep still late that night! And all I had was coffee with milk.... :p

As our plane are only leaving at 4pm, we decide to walk towards the HCMC Fine Art Museum. They were showing paintings and drawings of kids at the ground floor, contemporary art from local and international artist on 2nd floor and 3rd floor holds the museum's permanent collection. BUT at the basement, there's local artists galleries. Hubs ALMOST wanted to purchase one but I told him, how are we going to transport it back even in an art tube? That brought him back to earth. We only have hand carry with us this time. Perhaps next time when we have checked luggage as I think we'll go back there for sure the next time we return home.