CNY Festivity // Lookbook

Hi everyone!! Happy Chinese New Year! Gong Xi Fa Cai to all! Haha hope everyone had a great time collecting angbaos, feasting (aka growing fat hehe) and simply spending quality time with your family and loved ones! :) Regardless of what our zodiac readings are, I still believe that our actions and thoughts will play the biggest role of how our 2015 turns out! So here I want to wish all of you, all the best in your pursuit of happiness! <3 Below are some photos of how my CNY went! Enjoy :)

< CNY DAY ONE 初一 >

Gave my hair some soft curls for Day 1!

Bought this top from Taiwan!

Photo credits to my brother; He did such a great job! Hehe.

Mum testing out her angle ;) Pretty right?!

The smiles on my grandparents and mum's faces are PRICELESS <3 

Jeffrey's turn!

Francis's turn! 长大了~

Mum's turn to give her best wishes to grandparents with FULL enthusiasm haha!

四大美女 (but missing my mum! lol)

Uncle Roger!

My bros~

< CNY DAY TWO 初二 >

Ahgong and Ahma's couple wear!! Awww~

The background makes this picture perfect <3

< 美珍香 Bee Cheng Hiang Bakkwa Commercial > #freebakkwaplease? Haha! 

Cousin Flo!

I'm always camera-ready ;)

Ready...

HUAT AH!!!

Like I said... camera-ready hehe :p

Photo credits to Couz Gerald!

< CNY DAY FOUR 初四 >

Annual CNY affair with Shux & Baby E! x

So glad that Rachel came along this time round! :D

Awesome dishes prepared by Chef Seb; Seriously DAMN GOOD I tell you!  

You know that he/she is your bestfriend when you're able to bond so well and feel so at home with his/her family <3 

Till later! x

With love,

Shirley

Crossroads;

Hellooo! My heart is beating fast as I'm typing this lol. Probably because I just read about some people who really inspires me to go for what I really want to do. I can feel the fire burning inside me omg haha~ Do you have such moments?? I have been feeling this way quite often lately and sometimes, I even have problems going to sleep because I've so many ideas popping up in my head! I can't exactly put it into words yet; I don't know who would be supportive of it too; but I really hope I can share it out loud with people who understands once I settle my thoughts. 

It's important to always have the hunger to learn and improve. But I think the first key to success is to believe in myself. Without the belief, it's easy to get shaken by negativity and doubts. Also, there's basically no right time to go after what I want; Time is all in my own hands. It has only been a month plus into the new year and I'm already excited for it. Good luck to myself. Good luck to you too (yes, you that's reading this)! If you have a dream that you want to work towards, let's go for it together!

Ps: Whoever you are, I just wanna say - Thank you for reading :) x

With love,

Shirley

Restaurant-hop: Blisshouse // Valentine's Day

As we all know, Valentine's Day is just around the corner~ To me, this day has always been considered as a Friendship Day haha. Seriously I can't even remember when was the last time I celebrated V'Day with a guy #justsaying hahaha *coughs* So if you're single and feeling "lonely" because you've no date, you're not alone BUT you really shouldn't feel that way too! Maybe few years back I might have joke about "how sad" it is? Come on, watching all the couples holding hands and roaming around literally everywhere, it's a lie if I say that I don't feel anything lol. But as years go by, it really isn't a big deal anymore.

Let's be real here -- I wouldn't consider myself being loved any lesser than the couples out there. The only difference is that the love I'm receiving is not from any guy but my closest friends! I can still recall the different kinds of roses (including my first Champagne Rose which was soo pretty!) and chocolates given by my colleagues last year, which already made me feel very loved and thankful :) It's definitely something nice to receive flowers or chocolates on this day (oh-so-cliche hahaha) but even if you don't, IT'S OKAY!!! :D

Oh by the way, I'm pretty excited as I'd be going cycling with my close friends this coming V'Day! So to all the single peeps out there, just go out and have some fun! Afterall, it's a Saturday! If not, a stay home Saturday night movie sounds perfect too ;) Back to the main focus of this post, I would like to share my first dining experience at Blisshouse @ Clarke Quay The Central (#03-21). The ambience of Blisshouse fits the valentine theme perfectly -- pretty and romantic. Unfortunately, it's a pity that their food cannot make it :( The portion is just not worth the price, and fried calamari served cold..? :/ Luckily, there's still hope!! With the super pretty garden theme and ambience, it is a really nice place to unwind and have some wine or drinks!! You can't go wrong with the standard drinks like cider, beer, wine etc... But food... I'll give it a miss the next round~ 

Up till this point, you can pretty much see where I'm coming from right?? The garden theme is really very pretty!! And it's indeed one of the most spacious restaurants that I've ever been to!

Apart from my dear Aud, this would be the second best thing I love that night haha~ My favourite apple cider! Hehe cheeers! 

I don't usually like to complain but the portion of this risotto is simply way too little for that price (I can't remember, maybe around $17?) :/

I would like to (buay paiseh aka shamelessly lol) say that my photo-taking skill gave a lot more credits to this plate of calamaris than it should deserve haha. Fyi: I wouldn't order this again.

Thank you for the birthday treat love! And I'm so happy for your present work achievements! :D May you find your 如意郎君 soon and... I love you!! <3 

With love,

Shirley

YouTube: January Favourites 2015

Hello! I'm back with my second favourites video! :D I did my very first favourites for December 2014, slightly awkward here and there because it's considered my first time speaking to the camera lol! It was quite fun filming for my January Favourites, where I shared some pretty awesome stuffs and even did some random dancing #dontjudgemeplease hahaha. Hope you enjoy it! :p

My YouTube username: Shiiirleygoh

Subscribe for new videos every week: http://goo.gl/SkB2pk

With love,

Shirley

It's always easier said than done.

I just ended a phone call with my friend. Well let's just name my friend, X. X had some relationship issues going on and needed to talk it out. We had a long chat and found myself giving "sound advices" to guide X to the right train of thoughts. What I shared probably hit X like a ton of bricks; X agreed for the most part because it's very relatable, I presume. It's almost like I know it all. Then it got me thinking... It's always easier said than done.

Everyone needs a listening ear at some point in life. Everyone also becomes someone else's listening ear at some point in life. It can be about anything -- school, work, family, relationship etc. When we share our opinions, sometimes it's based on our real life experiences, sometimes it's just based on what we think is right. You may be wondering: Does what I say really helps? Am I even saying the right thing?

My point is, there is no right or wrong. It's just a human behaviour - a need to communicate our feelings and thoughts to someone else, in an attempt to find peace within or at least see some light at the end of the tunnel. When we speak as an outsider, we see things very differently from the person who's in it. We probably know what's the "logically right thing" to do. Despite knowing that it's gonna hurt, we'd probably still trust our gut feeling and decide to speak the harsh truth instead, something which the person involved might have been trying to block off, simply because it hurts. It may now feel like you've done something good, or rather necessary to help your friend. But think again, would you be able to do it yourself?

Let me be honest with you: there's a very high chance that I wouldn't be able to do what I said. Haha what a joke right? Of course, I was very open to tell X that it's always easy to say, but hard to do. It then got me thinking and I finally realized why I would say what I had said -- The absence of emotions.

It's not that I had no emotions when I was sharing my thoughts; it's just that lack of real emotions felt by the person involved. I'm sure everyone knows that it's extremely tough to think straight when emotions get in the way. It's like you know what's right but you just can't do it right, yet. Now that explains why I was able to speak logically, not because I know it all. Then again, who's to say what's right or wrong?

Hello February :)

Hello everyone, Hello February! Before I start off, I just want to say... I'm soo in love with this "cover photo" for this post!! Omg it's just so pretty and pleasing to the eyes, isn't it?? I'm craving for some macarons already! :p Photo credits to this link, do check it out as they have a lot more "Hello February" themed pictures that all look amazinggg! :) Well, I hope everyone had a great January! 

The start of the month was pretty bumpy (emotionally) for me, but I'm glad that things slowly fell into place the way it should be. It's always hard to break a bad habit -- that constant struggle between your brain and heart, which obviously, are moving in completely opposite directions. It's like... you know it's unhealthy, you know clearly that it's not right; yet you just can't stop it. But trust me, once you're able to finally break free from it, nothing else feels better than having that weight being taken off your shoulders or rather, your heart. Of course, it's not going to be an *snaps fingers* overnight thing, but you'll definitely get through it. Why? Because you've made the right decision for yourself. Because you deserve to be treated right. Because what's most important is you deserve so so much more than that. #thingsItellmyself

With that said, overall my January was still pretty good and I'm definitely looking forward to a fabulous February :) Furthermore, Chinese New Year is coming!! Oh yah, I recently put on some brown and shimmery gold eyeshadow makeup using my Naked Palette 1 and I'm absolutely in love with the colors!! So most likely, I'll be wearing that look for the coming cny hehe :D Will take a picture soon and post it on my Instagram (@shiiirleygoh)! 

I'm currently editing my January Favourites video, which should be up by next Monday! Subscribe to my YouTube channel (username: shiiirleygoh) if you would like to keep up-to-date with my weekly uploads! I'm still working to improve on my channel content, so it'd be really nice to have your support :) Hmm~ I'm actually planning to sing Jay Chou's "算什么男人" for my first song cover using my new microphone! So stay tuned! ♡

With love,

Shirley

YouTube: SNSD Tiffany's "By Myself" (with English Lyrics)

Hello! Just realized that it's been a while since I did my last song cover~ Once my throat feels better, I'd be posting more song covers of awesome sound quality because... 4 of my dearest friends actually chipped in to get the Audio Technica AT2020+ USB Microphone for me as my birthday gift!! *AWW* It has been a wish of mine for many years to own a proper microphone which, thanks to my loves, my dream finally came true and I'm really thankful! :)) Saying goodbye to earpiece mic quality covers..! Can't wait :D

Meanwhile, here's my latest song cover, which is also my very first attempt to cover a korean song -- SNSD Tiffany's "By Myself" :) Hope you'll like it!

Producer & Engineering: Henry Chang

Music by SM Entertainment

My YouTube username: Shiiirleygoh

Subscribe for new videos every week: http://goo.gl/SkB2pk

With love,

Shirley