The Proposal Video

I've already shared the news on my other social media platforms (Instagram, Facebook...) but nothing beats an honest-to-earth blog entry, and Instagram can only do so much with its tiny little square pictures and limited text space! But I'm guessing many of you have already seen the good news.. which is that I got proposed to, right in the middle of my gig at Switch!

 Thought it was just gonna be another fun night singing with the GroundZero folks, but little did I know that there was a mini three-man conspiracy hatching quietly that day.. And YZ with the egging on and help of my two scheming-but-loved friends Evonne and Trish, contrived the hugest birthday present I've ever received in my 26 years. A surprise (and very public) proposal that I did not see coming at all!! Even the band was roped in too to help stage the entire proposal!

 When Evonne started standing up and waving a funny signboard that said "Go Yina! Happy Birthday!" I started to get puzzled and was wondering what was going on, until YZ appeared in a white blazer and holding up even more flash cards.. I began to realise what was going on just started tearing on stage (so embarrassing).. And then came a bouquet of gorgeous roses (it didn't even register to me what color the roses were, or how many stalks there were cos I was so overwhelmed already, even if the roses were made of plastic I doubt I would have realised it at that point in time) before he finally produced a ring box from his pocket and presented it to me. 

For the record, the reason why I wasn't expecting it at all is because the ring that we picked a ring a couple of weeks at JannPaul, but it isn't even ready yet so I didn't entertain any thoughts at all of bring proposed to! Who would have thought that a $8 dummy ring would serve the purpose just as well?

Because I was so shocked and shy on stage yesterday in front of such a huge crowd, I didn't even say those three words I was supposed to say... So here they are: 白永赚, Yes I Do! 

 Thank you to everyone who were present that day at Switch and shared our happiness and joy, we are so immensely blessed!

For my friends and loved ones who weren't present that day and were as shocked as I were to learn of the proposal via social media, this is for you! :D I'm so sorry that some of you couldn't be around to witness it in person, the whole proposal deal was such a surprise hush-hush affair because I think YZ and my friends were worried that someone would give the secret away -.-

Edit: My sissy Lina took another video and uploaded it for me too... So I'll just put it here as well! It's clearer than mine -.- And has YZ's and my singing too. Haha.



I apologize for the lousy hand held quality from my camera and my amateur editing skills... As well as our awkward unscripted dialogue and floundering about. But this is as real as it gets. And I'm so thankful for it :)

There are many pictures that I haven't received from my lovely friends and close ones, but I really want to share the wonderful news with everyone, so I hope this video of the proposal itself will suffice first! Edited it myself in iMovie HAHAHA. Thus I added in all the captions here and there.. So that you might get a better idea of how I felt! I could probably write a ten thousand word essay on this, lol. But I'll save it for a future entry (with more pictures!)

For now.....

WE ARE OFFICIALLY ENGAGED!!! ❤

The two masterminds ❤ Trish and Evonne! Big fat round of applause goes to these two amazing people. Will share more in another entry I promise!!! Love you two girls!

The entire party that turned up to share this extremely special day with me (There are more who weren't in the picture!). THANK YOU EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU! You guys make me feel so blessed! :)

xoxo

I Still Believe

I'm editing pictures in the middle of the night and listening to mandopop songs as I edit away, and I suddenly remembered this extremely old video that YZ and I recorded almost 2 years ago on one of those "Let's do a duet video!" kind of whim.. It's so long ago I think we both look completely different now: this was before I even got my braces done! D: 

Look at those long permed locks and my weird awkward smile (still weird now but marginally better with my braces done and removed :D) YZ has got amazingly long sideburns that Evonne commented look like helmet straps bwahaha. 

I never put it up (I forgot why, but I suspect it's because we both look very stupid, I thought and it didn't sound that good. HAHAHAHA) I always have the funniest expressions when I sing :(

But well, since it's sitting around doing nothing in my hard drive, here it is! :) Hehehe. It's not perfect or very good by any means, but please don't judge me here :X Enjoyyyy! I hope.

***

(Vivian)

卸下美麗的外殼
透明的我們還剩下什麼?

愛情就像水晶球 堅固而脆弱

(Gary)

一個人也許自由

二個人的感動大過天空

喜怒哀樂共同擁有 不讓遺憾留

(合)

Baby~ I still believe 

愛可以走過亂流

緊緊握住雙手 一秒就夠

不孤單寂寞

Baby~ I still believe 

愛要有夢才會快樂

就算未來的路不同

你在我心中到永久

感覺寒冷時候 我抱你在我胸口

當你淚流的時候 我在這裡不走愛

散發的溫柔 在此刻用心感受

我想和你一起 讓幸福轉動

Baby~ I still believe 

愛可以走過亂流

緊緊握住雙手 一秒鐘

不孤單寂寞

Baby~ I still believe 

愛有夢才快樂

就算未來的路都不同

你和我 到永久

***

YZ just turned the big 30 yesterday, and we went out for a nice movie date: Despicable Me 2! As well as a sumptuous dinner feast with his family! ^.^ Nothing very fancy, but most importantly, we spent some precious quality time together :) Gonna put up the pictures soon once I've sorted through them and edited them.

Happy Birthday to you my dearest, and this year, I wish you happiness, fulfillment, lots of love (from me), and 永遠賺多多錢!  May this turn of decade bring you maturity on a new level and yet keep your spirit youthful and soul young. And may you always look like your babyface 26 years old look!! (Cannot be 25 cos then you look younger than me) 

Love you! ❤

Now it's back to editing pictures for this week's new arrivals on TheVelvetDolls.sg! More previews are on Facebook heh so go check out TheVelvetDolls Facebook page okay?

Hoping that July has been nothing short of wonderful for everyone!

xoxo

Sarah Mclachlan's Angel

Sarah Mclachlan's Angel
arr. Annie Nepomuceno.

(Please plug in your ear phones if you have them!)

***
Spend all your time waiting
For that second chance
For a break that would make it okay

There's always some reason
To feel not good enough
And it's hard at the end of the day

 I need some distraction
Oh beautiful release
Memories seep through my veins

Let me be empty
Oh and weightless and maybe I'll find some peace tonight

 In the arms of the angel
Fly away from here
From this dark cold hotel room
And the endlessness that you fear
 You are pulled from the wreckage Of your silent reverie
You're in the arms of the angel
May you find some comfort here

 So tired of the straight line
And everywhere you turn
There's vultures and thieves at your back

The storm keeps on twisting
Keep on building the lies
That you make up for all that you lack

 It don't make no difference
Escaping one last time
It's easier to believe

In this sweet madness
Oh this glorious sadness
That brings me to my knees

 In the arms of the angel
Fly away from here
From this dark cold hotel room
And the endlessness that you fear

 You are pulled from the wreckage
Of your silent reverie
You're in the arms of the angel
May you find some comfort here

***

Not many people appreciate choral music in Singapore, and even fewer know that I spend two days a week singing and rehearsing in the SYC Ensemble Singers (formerly known as the Singapore Youth Choir) and have done so for the past five years.

Music is a huge part of my life, and everything in between from pop music to choral music, I adore and love :) Music is the universal language of mankind, it is what feelings sound like. Its language is a language which the soul alone understands, but which the soul can never translate. 

This arrangement of Sarah Mclachlan's beautifully composed Angel was arranged for our choir, and we performed it at our last concert. I love the harmonies and dissonances in this piece, it's so heart-wrenching and soothing at the same time, and I love the new life given to a familiar pop melody. It is such a gorgeous piece :)

I hope you listened to this video, and enjoyed this beautiful song :)

You can check out more of our videos and performances on our websites!

http://www.syc.org.sg/ 

https://www.facebook.com/SYCEnsembleSingers

http://www.youtube.com/user/SYCEnsembleSingers 

 PS. Fresh blood always welcome! You can email in to enquiries@syc.org.sg if you'd like to audition for the choir! :D

halved

i <3 this song,

tried recording a video with my new E-P3, the singing is very soft though cos the camera was closer to the speakers :S used the cross process art filter, together with my SLR magic toy lens! love the blurred background effect!

叮当 － 一半

ok.. the lyrics are wrong btw. and i came in too early on the 2nd verse.

hope y'all like!

pretty as cupcakes!

i'm so sorry! :( i wanted to put this entry up last night but i was so tired i decided to do it this morning instead.. so here it is!! :D :D :D

i had to rush for an event last night that i did not realise was last night, so that left me with a pile of undone things and i need to rush everything nao nao nao! D:

so anyway, back to the topic! our photoshoot last Sunday!

gosh, never had such a long & tiring photoshoot yet, but because we managed to get Susu's help (the customers who've been following TVD since early days might remember her cos she used to help us shoot back when we were still doing outdoor shoot at my house lol) so i could "slack off" on being the photographer, which is really awesome because it's very tiring to have to direct the shoot and shoot personally! which is also how i managed to guest model for a couple of pictures, teehee.

i woke up at 6AM just to prepare for the 8AM shoot, had to go down to office to grab the outfits, shoes, accessories and all that before making my way down to photoshoot location.. but as usual, most of the other girls were late lol. Susu was the earliest to arrive followed by Cherri, so we got a headstart without Woon & Farah! thank God it didn't rain because the weather forecast (when i checked the day before) was supposed to be rainy weather for like the next 5 days or something!

by the way, if you're wondering where we changed? we did all the changing in the car :S hahahaha. my car looked like a tornado hit the backseat by the end of the day!! good thing the windows are so reflective you can't really see what's happening inside (unless you're really near!)

Su loves getting into strange angles & poses to get her shots, but as long as they look great i'm not complaining... :S

Cher & I! a lot of people have been commenting that we look alike. hmmm! not really la, she's prettier, cuter, taller and skinnier!

the back of the romper is fully covered and comes with a concealed back zip. don't worry about going to the toilet cos it's fairly easy to zip up and down! :)

we spotted a lazy fat cat lounging around! it was more than happy to be scratched behind the ears and taken pictures of haha.

and Woon arrived a while after, she's supposed to be the analog photographer for the shoot! i love how her film shots always turn out so interesting.. but we had a minor set back :( shot an entire roll of film and then realized that the film wasn't loaded properly so all the pictures didn't come out at all... :( that's the problem with film sometimes! :(

Cher & I posing together. i made her wear flats while i wore heels.. cos we were the same height after i put on the heels!!! -.- darn.. she's about 8cm taller than me i think?

loving how Cher looks in the wine piece, she kept wine for herself btw!

the photographer....

the model.

those sun flowers are fake by the way! :S

i figured since there were 3 of us, we'd get Woon into the fun and made her wear one of the rompers so that we could take some group pictures!! :D :D :D

walking along the streets of haji looking for our next spot to shoot at. and that's Farah, TVD's helper!

found a lovely spot with blue BG and red chairs.. perfect for shooting the black romper!

and a close up of the patent bow belt :D it's damn cute right! though you can choose not to use the belt if you find it too cute.

we managed to get inside a cupcake shop! hurhur. that's the Rainbow Stripes Cardigan i was wearing in the previous entry! i really luuurve the colors and especially the buttons!

check em out.. rainbow striped wooden buttons!! mad cute or what??

and we ended off the shoot with the yummy cupcakes from My Fat Lady!

here's three of us...

and attempted a fail jump shot. WHY AM I SO BAD AT JUMP SHOTS ;_;

ANYWAY.

we took like 4 hours just to shoot 1 romper. cannot believe it right. HAHAH. so slow!!! but it's okay cos we had lots of fun!!! followed by lunch at a Turkish restaurant cos they were all famished by then!

the shoot wouldn't have been possible without all these lovely girls! Susu our photographer, Cher the model, Woon who was so spontaneous and jumped right in to guest model and Farah who was busy taking care of all our stuff and snapping candids on the go!!!

our prettaaaay cupcakes

look how dedicated em photographers are!! hahaha. they were practically sticking their faces against the pavement to get their shots!

us three!

and i wore the romper out for an event last night! coral pink this time :D

for a better gauge, everyone already knows that Cher is 171cm, UK6-8 right? Woon is 168cm, UK6-8 and they both are wearing size S. i'm 163cm and UK8-10, i'm wearing size M but there's still allowance on me! Cher kept Wine, Woon kept Robin Blue & i kept like every other color (except Robin Blue) bwahaha.

my take on the colors: black is the mostest classic, and timeless/ageless for the ladies who are worried about looking too cute/young! wine is gorgeous, but can look too mature on some girls. robin blue will definitely suit the students and teenagers, while coral pink can look extremely classy and not too cutesy if you carry it off well! i actually love all 4 colors so it's hard for me to choose one specific color that i like la.

i mentioned i had a little surprise.. hehehe.

it's a video of footage we took during the shoot last Sunday!! and i think it's damn adorable!!! credits to Woon for editing the footage and making this awesome little trailer. hope you girls will like it!!!! please "Like" it on Facebook if you do okay? :D :D :D

THE END.

launch tonight.. is 9PM okay? seems like some girls won't be able to make it for too early a launch! so i guess it'd be 9PM! will send out the mailer in a bit! i still have to verify payments from yesterday cos i wasn't able to do it last night!! sorweeee. will try to clear as many emails as possible!

the travelogues: Krakow day 3 aka eatwalkeatday

i'm gonna blog about another day in Krakow, Poland!
disclaimer: my blog posts are all not in chronological order! i'm just jumping about from day to day depending on my mood :D

so this was our 2nd last day in Krakow, and we spent the day doing nothing but exploring different nooks and crannies of the town, and stopping for food breaks like every three hours, or basically every time we passed by anything that looked yummy enough to distract us! D:

the best way of exploring a city, i feel, is to spend a day exactly like how we did. all you need is a map in case you get lost, and maybe a travel guide book if you want to find out more about the area you're in, and what sights there are in the vicinity. no schedule, no timing to follow, and no guided tour!

off we go!

all three of us take an interest in photography, so we had a number of cameras on hand! my fuji instax always comes into handy over seas cos it feels extra special to take polaroids when you're in a foreign land :)

we started the day early, and visited St Mary's Basilica, which is the church i mentioned in my previous post.

grainy filter mode on my e-p1, it always captures beautiful pictures! :)

the inside of the church. very richly decorated and it's beautiful.

all these beautiful churches aren't just tourist spots, they're actual places of worship for the Catholics. you have to be hush hush in them though, and take your photos discreetly so as not to be disrespectful.

outside the church! there's a sort of tourist market inside the square of the city, selling trinkets and amber etc..

we initially wanted to visit this cafe which had rave reviews in the travel guide and all, but they were sadly closed for business because of water shortage, or something of the sort! D: didn't get to eat there in the end.. so we just walked around a little and walked for other places to open.

on recommendation, we went scouting for a local spirits/liquor shop.. it was a really quaint and amazing place!

all their liquor are home made, and come in giant urns from which you get to sample from, and when you've decided on your poison of choice, all you need to do is to buy one of the bottles they offer in various sizes, and they'll fill the bottle with your liquor and you pay for the bottle + liquor per 100ml ;D

so yummy that Woon wanted to drink it straight from its dispenser :P
the liquor was amazingly cheap too! we all bought 4-5 bottles of honey vodka and mead, which is Poland's traditional liquor, and i think we paid less than $15 sing per bottle!

the store lady dispensing liquor for us :)))) they're all really sweet and helpful people!

look at this adorable furry creature we stumbled upon! it looks like a fatter version of QQ!!! aaaand it is soooooo tame and endearing!




hearts many many!!! it's sooo cuteee right!!!! awww!!
i think we spent a good 15 minutes just cuddling and playing with it ^-^

our first breakfast stop was at this obscure cafe at the back of a random museum,

we went a bit insane and ordered ALOT of food! hahaha.

mine. apple pie with ice cream!! yes, for breakfast :P

some tomato soup with sandwiches.

Woon and moi.

anyway... we headed back to our apartment to put our liquor and we were showing off the menagerie of soft toy cats we collected over the past couple of days.

for some unknown reason you can find cat plushies in different fabrics, shapes and sizes all over Poland!

this suddenly brings to mind Shrek. hahaha. "Man, you are a CATastrophe!!!" "and you are simply reDONKulous!!!"

this is the gingham kitty i got for Farah! it's currently the girlfriend of her two cats now. teehee :P

went back downstairs to continue our journey of exploration, and we somehow got ourselves into another church...

this one looks smaller, quieter and with really quaint decorative wall art!

green hearts and pretty flowers, all painted on the wall!

gorgeous stained glass windows, they are much more breath taking in real life.

myself camwhoring :3

lovely structures in contrast with the colorfully graphical walls

horses on the streets, these buggies are for tourists, but we didn't go on any of them! think the poor horses are quite sad looking even though they're so large and majestic :( must be terrible to have to carry such heavy loads everyday! :(

we walked further, and lo behold, a cupcake bakery & cafe! time for our 1st tea break! :D

pretty pretty cupcakes and a very happy Woon.

i got myself tea, while the other two girls had coffee! we ordered some nice looking cupcakes & muffins! yummy.

my Reeses' peanut butter frosting cupcake. this was scrumptious!!!!!!!

Über NOMS!

we were trying to be cupcakes with cherries on top. bwahahaha.

so we sat down, and just chit-chatted and relaxed and sipped our teas/coffees.
*sigh of bliss & contentment*

here's Hil looking super pretty in a brand new red beret we bought in a vintage handmade goods store! we all swept that store clean on two consecutive visits. teehee. remember my awesome bucket bag, that was from the same store as well! so glad i got it!

trying to be touristy, and checking out a map on the streets.

you would have thought we had enough of food, but then we found yet another amazing looking shop with little tarts and pastries... couldn't resist!!!

what a pretty scene :)

Woon was very very VERY adamant about having the strawberry tartlets.

i think we bought... like. EIGHT tarts. i ate one, Hil probably ate two, and Woon had the remaining five. HAHAHA.

we love food, very much!

helping themselves to the tartlets!

Woon wanted to take a funny picture.. guess WHAT. the poor strawberry dropped to the ground after this shot!!! :( :( :( poor little strawbie.

teehee.

lovely interior decor! so so so so nice.

what i wore that day.. denim jacket from Topshop, relaxed button-down blouse from TVD, leather trim skirt from H&M, with stockings from Risque & also my Tods bag i bought in Italy previously. awesome bag for travel!

we walked our way over to the quieter side of the city, Podgorze.

this is also where the Jewish Ghetto is located..

this area is now known as the Plac Bohaterow Getta square, and huge bronze chairs can be found on the square as a monument of the brutal history of the area, and in memory of the Jewish population who were horribly persecuted by the Nazis during WWII.

referring to our guide book for more facts and details.


a signboard explaining the history of the square.

it's quite a sad place :( good thing i didn't visit Auschwitz, the Jewish concentration camp, where the Jews were massacred and tortured, i think it would have been very depressing! :( you can read more about the history of the Jewish Ghetto here.

moving on....

the pigeons there are very much fatter than singaporean pigeons methinks.

Woon fiddling with her old school camera.

the last church we saw for the day. this one was just another regular church in Krakow, we couldn't find it in the guide book!

after which we went to the canal/river side and looked at ducks for awhile :) before calling it a day!!!

i LOVE traveling :D

and and and and,
the pretty H&M skirt that i was wearing in the pictures, i loved it so much i sent it to manufacture, but made it a little quirkier... with contrast leather trim instead of same color leather trim! can't stop raving about how pretty it is!!

the hot pink comes with contrasting orange slit pockets... :)

used the fabric we did the lampshade skirt in for this skirt as well, and it's really pretty!

wearing it with the Selfridge Dollhouse Blouse which is another upcoming piece, very simple and versatile! this one comes in a brand new fabric which is a sort of chiffon polyester with awesome shimmers in the fabric. can't really capture it in the pictures, so you'd have to see it for yourself! :)

oh yes, i got myself new glasses finally :D :D :D i'm so lazy i don't even bother to wear glasses/contacts daily! my degree is about 150 in one eye and i have astig in the other eye :( this pair of tortoise shell frames are so cuteeee. i feel like a secretary in them.

last but not least,
i have an exceedingly retarded video to share with y'all,
i couldn't stop laughing to myself on the bus when i saw this video that Woon sent me! hahahahaha.

taken while we were at Cupcake Corner, and for some reason Woon forgot to turn on the audio or something, and my expressions are sooo hilarious without the audio. LOL. i think i was saying something like... "Here we are in Krakow.. and we're at cupcake corner! i have this Reeses peanut butter cupcake in my hand and it looks delicious..." *oishi expression with head spasm* "mmmmmmmm...." *wriggles eyebrows*

HAHAHAHAHA.

i cannot stop laughing at my own retarded expressions.

also, i've been thinking about getting braces done for some time now. i have really crooked lower teeth, and i think getting braces might be good for my dental hygiene, or might even correct my lisp (very major plus point), and of course, make me look better!!! :D huge decision!!!

i look like a shih tzu if i show my lower teeth.

...

teeth crooked enough to give you nightmares.

need to go do some research on the braces thingy... and decide!

:)

looking forward to the weekend already! hope everyone is as hyped up as i'm feeling on a Thursday night. feeling extra good cos we managed to clear most of the emails in office today! :D

cheerios! have so many other updates to share! hope i'll find more time to blog again soon!