Wednesday 25 November 2020

Steamboat King Singapore Delivery [Review + Giveaway]

Preparing for a scrumptious steamboat can be quite an intense feat. Having steamboat dishes delivered to your table can ease us from some hassle, and here's one we tried last week, Steamboat King Singapore. 

We were in for a treat with its Steamboat King Bundle C (5-6 pax), it was definitely more than sufficient for our family size of 5 small eaters. Here's what our bundle included:

  1. Delicious Signature Soup Base (2L) x 2
  2. Fresh White Fish Slices (200g)
  3. Chicken Shabu (200g)
  4. Beef Shabu (200g)
  5. Pork Belly Shabu (200g)
  6. Pork Collar Shabu (200g)
  7. Chicken Sausage (200g)
  8. Luncheon Meat (Pork) (200g)
  9. Handmade Pork Balls (6 pieces)
  10. Japanese Steamed Rice (6 servings)
  11. Handmade Ramen Noodles (1 serving)
  12. Sweet Potato Noodle (1 serving)
  13. Enoki Mushroom (100g)
  14. Fried Beancurd Skin Roll (8 Pieces)
  15. Egg Tofu (100g)
  16. Chinese Long Cabbage (200g)
  17. Pearl Sweet Corn (6 pieces)
  18. Shanghai Green (200g)
  19. Shimeji Mushroom (150g)
  20. FREE Home-made Sambal Chilli Sauce (60ml x 2)
  21. FREE Thai Chilli sauce (60ml x 2)
  22. FREE Goma shoyu sauce (60ml x 2)
  23. Drink (1.5L) x 1
  24. Fresh Cold Fruits (6 pax)

 
Our feast!

Quite a feast eh?! There were so much leftover that we could do another round of steamboat for dinner. Our bundle selection began with 5 broth choices to choose from, with some requiring additional top up. We selected tomato soup, which was not too bad except that it was a tad sourish. Cooking and boiling along with the dishes made it much tastier. We ended our selections with choices of drink and fruit - chrysanthemum and watermelon for us.


Let's eat!

The meats and vegetables given were very fresh. I'm extremely particular when it comes to purchasing vegetables, and I've to say those in my given platter was beautifully fresh and green! In the event you received hotpot ingredients that are not fresh or stale, they will replace it for free! I love this assurance they give. Making our every cent worth.

Meat Platter

We love that its meat choices included all meat types - beef, pork, chicken and fish! The meats were mostly satisfying, just felt that the pork belly was too thick for steamboat, a little thinner would have been perfect. And of course, if the bundle deals don't work for your appetite, there's also a wide selection of ala carte menu to choose from. It's quality steamboat ingredients at affordable prices because they manage their own wholesale supply of steamboat ingredients. 

Enjoy free delivery when you spend above $100. Delivers anywhere in Singapore within an hour! Christmas is near, so Chinese New Year is not too far away! You have one steamboat option added. 

Photo credit: Owari Photography

 

Giveaway 
We have a set of Steamboat King Bundle (3-4pax) for giveaway to ONE winner.  Hop over to our Instagram post, @mumscallingblog for participating details. Giveaway ends 02 Dec, 2359hrs.
 

Steamboat King Delivery:

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Wednesday 18 November 2020

Heart Studio - Review (II)

Juboy ended his 10 weeks art lessons with Heart Studio. We shared the journey of his first 4 lessons in the previous post, where he drew a fruit bowl using different colouring mediums - colour pencils and paint. 

Subsequent lessons, he completed artworks of drawing and colouring various jellyfishes, and according to him, he said he drew a dragon! Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. I think his dragon is really cool. Along the weeks, I could tell that his pencil and colouring coordination skills improved tremendously. He used to dislike colouring, which is a fair understanding, especially when the area to be coloured is really huge. Recently, I spotted him taking colouring books to colour patiently when he's home. Practice surely makes it perfect. 

Jellyfishes

Cool Dragon

Every artwork begins with drawing and colouring with colour pencils. Then the same drawing will be replicated, and brush painted with water colour or acrylic. It was good that he got to try the different mediums on his various art pieces. With that, he has also learnt some brush painting skills during art lessons. He was taught the various brush positions when painting, how using a sleeping or standing brush gives different draw strokes. As well as how to properly clean his brushes with these various brush positions. That helped him clean his brushes really well after each colour. Being the playful little boy at home, I am really amazed at how well he followed instructions.  


Cleaning his brush
 

Juboy was also taught how to do simple highlight to his drawings. In one of his drawings, he was asked where does he wants light to be shining from. From there, he was guided to do a highlight on his drawing. It was a rather impressive detail for a 4 year old.

And here's a cute secret. For doing his lesson right smack at 3pm on a weekend, he fell asleep while painting his dragon. It was a day that he refused to nap. His angelic teacher gave him a few minutes to hibernate, which I thought was really a nice gift of time for this tired preschooler.

Juboy really loves his art classes. No cries, no stress and no tug of wars when we shooed him off to class. Occasional tantrums, but all sorted out once lesson begin. I'm glad how the fun and engaging lessons kept his interest ongoing. It definitely helped that his teacher was extremely patient and encouraging. Love too, that his art pieces are also nicely presented and kept in a huge booklet.


Art Portfolio

Apart from his art progression, the best part was always hearing how he enthusiastically shared about what he drew after each lesson. More than just asking what he drew, I extended the conversation by asking about his colour choices, what part of the dragon this was and every detail I could find! It was always some good conversations for us.  

GIVEAWAY
We have TWO slots of Paper Tearing Landscape workshop (worth $85 each) to giveaway to TWO readers! This workshop is a unique approach of using paper to create landscape artwork. It elevates the creativity of our little ones to another level, guiding them in the technique of blending and exposure to colour combinations. The objective is to teach children to transpose what they see and break it down into layers, to enhance their understanding of composition and depths using the stenciling method through an organic approach. Workshop is suitable for 3 year old and above.

Sounds cool? I'm excited that Juboy will be in for this workshop too. Join the giveaway on our Facebook post and Instagram post. You may try your chances on both platforms. But first, ensure that you can make it on the following date and time, if you win. 

Date: 02 Dec 2020
Time: 9.30 am to 12.30pm

Winners need to be able to make it for this date and time slot. It cannot be exchanged for a different workshop or cash. 

 

Heart Studio

Address: 1 Charlton Lane #01-04, Singapore 539631

Contact: (65) 6554 7563

Email: info@heartstudiosg.com

Website: http://heartstudiosg.com

Instagram: @heartstudiosg

Facebook

Opening hours: 

Wed to Fri: 11.30am to 8.45pm

Sat: 9.30am to 6pm

Sun: 9.30am to 4.30pm

Disclaimer: Sponsored post

Thursday 12 November 2020

My Social Media Dilemma

Many would have known that I lost my Instagram account about 2 months ago. Upset is an understatement, it's devastating! I remember vividly how I slid off my swivel chair and screamed in horror when I lost control to it. It was a day when all three kids were home, bugging for my attention while I was trying to boost an ad on Instagram. It was part of a paid collaboration agreement. I wanted to get things done that morning, so that the day and upcoming weekend would be work free for me. 
 
Many things swarmed up that morning when a link came through to my direct message box asking for my login details. I thought it was an part of the boosted ad seeking for some confirmation or whatsoever. First time with it, so I had no idea what comes next and I literally brisked read the content. It was all about timing when these two came together. And so, that was how I got phished without setting a two-factor authentication for that account. I belatedly do so now. I'm not sure if having Norton installed would have alerted this link that came through direct message, but I did so after that.
 
Instagram is still fairly fine and stable. After all, I went through it smoothly for 6 years. Only worry is how hackers get more innovative along the days, as more businesses and livelihoods depend on it. 

Photo credit: Hot For Security
 
The journey 

If you followed us through, I began blogging 11 years ago since the daughter was birthed. Then 6 years ago, I explored Instagram. It became a gradual migration from blogging to micro-blogging on Instagram squares. I still come back here to share when I have more than what Instagram captions can hold. So all these sharing and social media stuff were ingrained in me for a decade! 

There was an indescribable void upon losing this account. I know, it's just social media. But I had so much hard work and memories within, it was substantial enough to cause a burning ache.

Staying On Course
I was at 3800+ followers upon lost. Not a big deal to many, but definitely a big deal to this mama here. A big deal on our little red dot where population is small, and parenting demographic on Instagram is not high for my age. It was an account I lovingly and patiently build up for six years, and never once sought a quick way to get it up. Not even joining pod groups for likes, or follows exchange. Being a Mum, I'm stubbornly inclined to truth and authenticity. Sadly, that's not how most aspiring accounts are run. Likes and follows are sometimes strangely not correlated to the photos and captions shared. A terribly taken photo or account can astonishingly garner immense number of likes and followers! It dilutes the true appreciation of great content.

Here's one confession, I was tempted to inflate my new account the unorthodox manner after losing it. Just buy followers! Ok, don't try that. It's against Instagram's rules, you may be tracked. And buying of followers are usually non-local accounts, it affects the demographic distribution of your audience. I reminded myself why did this journey begin? It wasn't for income or fame, it began with just wanting to write, to inspire and be inspired. But of course, I do appreciate the streams of pocket money I get out of certain collaborations. It is a sweet pie to stay home mums, to be rewarded for the work and effort behind every post. Which of course, with little followers now, it translates to less opportunities. It's time to go slow, perhaps. 
 
Many collaborations sprouted throughout my journey, but I was careful to not become an outright advertising platform. No one likes subscribing to adverts. I still love bringing in spaces of my personal thoughts at times.
 
The Social Media Dilemma
In midst, I watched the Social Media Dilemma documentary on Netflix. I saw how social media monetises and manipulates users with algorithms, hijacking people's brains and dividing society. Social media can change a lifestyle. It didn't convince me to delete or deactivate my social media accounts, instead I turned off all my social media and whatapps notifications after watching. I've learnt to be more disciplined with its usage, and allocate scheduled or appropriate time for it. I don't want to get distracted at the wrong time and wrong place. I believe urgent matters will come through the line.  
 
 
There's more to explore in life than just social media. There are books to read, home to build, family to bond and many more! More importantly, I want to set the appropriate role model on social media usage for my kids.
 
I've also read 'Ten arguments for deleting your social media accounts right now' by Jaron Lanier. Interesting read, but I'm still hanging around my accounts. Simply because deleting social media accounts is not solution, it's mindset we have to work with. Undoubtedly, what many share on social media can float up various emotions in us. We can't control what the world shares, but we can control how to perceive it. We need to cultivate the mind of knowing that social media is not our judgement, it should not spike us, it should not waver our insecurity or self-esteem, and most importantly, we should not allow it to degrade our character. Which is more valuable than anything you can buy. When we are tempted to lash out or put someone down on these platforms, sift through the thoughts carefully.  

The idea behind 'Likes' on Facebook began with wanting to spread positive vibes in the social media realm. Along the years, it became one that determines the self worth, and to some self-esteem. It should not be a standard of excellence that determines personal value. We have bigger goals and visions out of social media.
 
These are the essential values of social media usage that I want to ingrain in the kids as it grows to become a bigger part of this world. It's not reasonable to get our kids avoid social media totally, instead we can teach them what lies within, what to share and what not to share, what to read and how to flea when you are wrongly influenced by content.
 
It involves much thoughts about an intention before hitting the 'share/post' tab. Do we want to share something purely for bragging? Do we want to share something to intentionally upset a friend? Or do we want to share based on bad underlying intentions? Privacy and lashes once given away are not retractable. What's shared has to be extremely well thought of. It's not too soon before the kids become teenagers, wanting their social media accounts. Teenagers are the most vulnerable group when it comes to social media.

Let me share a story that ached me years ago at a beauty salon. I was trimming my eyebrows at a hipster beauty salon where I was sat next to 3 young girls. Secondary school girls I believed. Not that I'm hip, it's just more affordable at these places and stay home mums are frugal. For sitting next to them, I became an accidental eavesdropper. One of the girls was telling her friend, "She saw my IG story!" Another went, "She did! She knows we're hanging out without her." My motherly heart sank. I've thoughts of how my children may one day become a social media bully or victim! If you know a friend will get upset over that, don't even bother to post in the first place!

Yes, it's the social media dilemma. The love and the hate out of it.

After hacked
Days after losing my account, I thought, finally a good break! I paused all collaborations that allowed me to hold back, while I sorted behind the scene on trying to get my account back. Obviously, there was no successful outcome connecting with Instagram. It was a bigger pain dealing with them. I reckoned it would better off starting a new account.

What sign was this? I was constantly running the thought of its significance. I prayed hard and sought God for directions. I was also getting weary. I would have halted if there were not any outstanding commitments. I'm ageing and my kids are growing. They have traded innocence and adorableness for 'publicity' since birthed. And each time we work with a brand, it's not just getting myself into frame, but the kids who are helping with the photo styling. Parents, you know how tough it is when it comes to photography! So yes, it's an onerous journey.
 
I went on a 10 days social media detox. Quite unintentionally, because I had no idea how to pick up the pieces. To move on, or to end. I had campaigns and products on hand that wasn't fair to the brand if I continued posting. I felt really sorry for that. On a hindsight, my Facebook and blog are still in tact. There will always be things to thank for. Yet, it's nice how the world isn't that bad after all, with brands still encouraging me to proceed working with them.
 
Whatever decision ahead, I created a new account on that very same day. Secured an account name first. Having to start all over again is arduous! Which means more time and heaps of hard work if I want to grow this account. I do love photo styling, writing and content creation, but I'm not sure if I've what it takes to rebuild again. Akin to a newborn, I keep reminding myself that I should not despise small beginnings. I'm back on social media, but perhaps with a less eager mindset in advancing.
 
@mumscallingblog


The empathy
I hope my foolishness is one living story to prevent a repeat. I thought that I would cry big time over this, but I didn't. Instead, I teared when I saw how the people I got to know through the social media realm readily shared my new account on their Instagram story. In hope to garner some previous and new followers to my new account. And I've only met most of them virtually. This is one that really warms the cockles of my heart. *wink* Very thankful and grateful for them.
 
The older kids were really comforting, Jazz went round asking our extended family and friends to follow my new account. Jare eased my ache by telling me that good things lie ahead after something bad happens. The roles reversed! My kids became my counsellors. And of course, I made it back into good shape after a few days. It's an intangible lost after all.

It's a lengthy post. Words just flood when I've so much to say. Thanks for hanging around! But maybe, the key message is this > follow my new account on Instagram, @mumscallingblog. Thanks Thanks!
 

Tuesday 3 November 2020

Fav Florist Review

 

  
 
We’ve always found the act of the flower gifting experience a rather personal and heartwarming one. When words cannot deliver, sending a bouquet of flowers helps speak volumes. Whether you’re giving it to your significant other for an anniversary celebration, or to a friend to send your condolences, we hope our flowers help say what you truly feel. At Fav Florist, we promise timely delivered, affordable and quality flower creations with a focus on simple yet elegant aesthetics. Our florists, with more than a decade's worth of experience, promises 100% satisfaction and quality in every bouquet made. Our farm fresh flowers are air-flown daily, carefully handpicked to avoid the oh-so dreaded quick to wither bouquets. Extreme measures are also taken to condition and cure the flowers from Fav Florist so that they last as long as possible. 
 

Flower Bouquets

 
You’re spoiled for choice when shopping on Fav Florist. With so many different flower types and bouquets to choose from, the range available for the flower bouquets are endless. Flowers are suitable gifts for many occasions and at Fav Florist, we offer bouquets for many different occasions. On the website, you will be able to shop by occasion and this very unique feature allows for a more efficient experience on your end. All you have to do is select the occasion that you’re celebrating, and choose your bouquets from there. If you’re looking more towards a specific type of flower bouquet, we carry many different flower types such as Baby’s Breath, Carnations, Roses, Lilys, Gerberas and so much more. Each bouquet is handcrafted with love and utmost consideration for our customers. If you’re looking for something with a special extra touch, you can choose to check out our Marble Envelope Rose Box that is a unique take on the traditional flower bouquets. Fresh succulent flowers are used for each bouquet and they are also pesticide free and organically produced. 
 
Premium Large Bouquets
For those who prefer a bouquet that’s grander and more luscious, we also offer premium XL bouquets. Available in 3 different options, they’re all beautifully crafted that is definitely made to impress.

Marigold Fire - Mixed Kenya Rose Premium XL Bouquet

Marigold Fire is a bouquet of 20 roses that uses a combination of premium white kenya roses and duo toned orange kenya roses. To add a special touch, it is also topped with filler flowers and greens for an extravagant aesthetic.

Winter Magic Bouquet - 12 Blue and White Kenya Rose Premium XL Bouquet

This beautiful bouquet is made with fresh blue and white roses for all the rose lovers out there. The strikingly contrasting colors make for an elegant looking bouquet that’s sure to catch the eyes of many.

Regal Roses Bouquet - Red Rose and Thistle Blue Premium XL Bouquet

Wrapped in black wrapping, it makes for a more edgy bouquet. Made with premium extra large red roses and rustic thistle blues. Surprise that special someone with this gorgeous bouquet today!

Affordable Prices
With the cheapest bouquet priced at $21.90, you can get a Surprise Mini Bloom bouquet as an inexpensive but thoughtful gift for that special someone. We think that the act of flower gifting is a great way to spread the love so we do our best to keep prices affordable, all while upholding the bouquets' standard and product quality.
 
Flower Domes
 

You’ve probably seen these beautiful creations on your social media because it’s been all the hype recently, as it should. Flower Domes are an alternative to regular bouquets with the added benefit that you can admire their beauty for as long as possible. Fav Florist also offers Flower Domes in many different styles and colors. It’s perfect for those who prefer preserved flowers instead of live ones and it also makes for a great display piece to decorate your home with. We promise, in any given setting, your eyes will land straight on the flower domes because it just adds life to any surrounding. With LED lights available in the dome, it amplifies the beauty of the preserved flowers, making it a gorgeous sight.

Cake and Flower Bundles

You can have your cake.. And your flowers too! To make flower gifting an even sweeter moment, why not add a decadent cake to go with it? We offer cake and flower bundles with a wide range of cake options to choose from. If the recipient of the flowers has a sweet tooth, this bundle will do just the trick. Available in 6 inch, 8 inch and 9 inch cakes, there’s more than enough cake to go around. Perfect for birthday gifts and especially popular during Mother’s Day, our cake and flower bundles are a great option for the various celebrations. The cakes are handmade with love by the bakers over at Whyzee cake delivery. With so many different cake flavours to choose from, there’s something for everyone.

We also offer cake and balloon bundles for those who prefer that. Especially popular for graduations and gender reveal celebrations, the bundles allow for customized balloons to fit your occasion. Available in 16 inch, 18 inch, 20 inch, 24 inch and 36 inch balloons, you can go as grand as you like. Choose from the different colors available and request for your customised message when you are making your purchase. With free delivery for all orders, surprise your loved one with this special bundle available on Fav Florist.

Hassle Free Delivery Services
For any flower bouquets, Fav Florist offers free delivery. We ensure that each bouquet that is sent out will be shipped to the recipient safely and conveniently. Offering different time slots for deliveries, you can choose from timings between  12pm to 3pm, 3pm to 6pm and 6pm-9pm. For those who want their order quickly delivered, an express delivery option is also available upon request at an additional $15 where your flowers will be delivered within an hour. You can also choose to self-collect your purchase in-store. Check out our website for more information and happy shopping!

 

Fav Florist

Facebook (Fav Florist) | Instagram (Fav Florist) | Website Fav Florist: Flower Delivery Singapore | Cheap Florist Singapore

Location: 11 Sin Ming Road Thomson Village, Singapore 575629
Telephone: 91737748 (Whatsapp)
Email: info@favflorist.com.sg

 

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