I Didn't Prepare A Speech...

I'd like to thank the Academy (and by Academy, I mean "Cupcake" from the blog Fashion Tarts) for nominating me for the Stylish Blogger Award!  I can't believe I won in the midst of all the drama and turmoil I've gone through in the past couple of days.  Did I actually manage to be stylish when I called the bitch at the Jet Blue counter an idiot?  I guess so!  I suppose that somehow I maintained a sense of style and a sense of humor through the ordeal because I've learned over the years that you have to laugh a little bit at ridiculous circumstances.  If you can't beat 'em...

Anyway, for those of you familiar with this prestigious award, you know that it comes with the requirement to divulge seven secrets facts about oneself.  I hate to disappoint my taffetadarlings with the ultra boring life I lead, so I'm considering making up some juicy tidbits.  Nah.  I'm too damned honest, I'll just tell it like it is...

1. I have a problem with wide flaired pants.  Always have.  I like to torment my mother about this because I blame her for making me wear them when I was little.  Nobody else was wearing them to school, just me.  I hated them and swore I would never wear them once I had a say.  I never have.  As a designer, I've grown to appreciate a slight flair extending smoothly from a tapered knee on a gorgeous pair of Italian trousers, but I still tend to steer clear of wide legs.

2. As if that's not weird enough, I have an extreme phobia of worms.  Now, I'm trusting all of you with this information and that means that you are not allowed to scare me or play tricks on me.  I've literally darted into traffic to avoid ones I have spotted on the road while running on a drizzly day.  In other words, I completely lose my rational mind and that can be a dangerous thing.

3. Despite my wimpy fears, I'm actually quite tough.  I was a competitive swimmer from ten years old until seventeen.  I even competed on a Masters team in NYC in my twenties.  I've done triathlons, taught Spinning classes (for seven years) and run several races (though nothing over 8 miles).  When I am passionate about something I am extremely driven.  I can be quite serious and focused.  I am hyper competitive.

4. I adore animals.  I am a huge softy and would rescue hundreds of dogs and bunnies if I had the space and the funds.

5. I had a little, brown Netherland Dwarf bunny named Miles for nine years.  She was a total house bunny and was even litter box trained.  She was gorgeous, funny and super clean.  I miss her.  Oh yeah... I thought she was a he when I got her.  Very hard to tell when they are little!

6. I knew I wanted to be a designer after reading my first Vogue in 1985.  I bought the book, Couture for $15 at a Flea Market that same year and absorbed every bit of information I could.  I also purchased a dress form for $15 and I still use it today.  A store in the mall was going out of business and I begged my mom to drive me over to buy the form.  I guess 1985 was a very pivotal year in my life.

7. Before I had dreams of becoming the next huge American designer, I wanted to be a comedian.  I idolized Carol Burnett and Steve Martin.  In fourth grade, I had a Steve Martin poster in my locker while most kids had Shaun Cassidy or Leif Garrett!  I still think Carol Burnett's Gone With The Wind skit is one of the best ever.  I'm convinced her curtain rod dress has influenced designers such as Hussein Chalayan!

Thank you and good night!  Oh, before I go, I must nominate some stylish bloggers....

Wendy Brandes (my mentor) from Wendy Brandes Jewelry

Elena Daciuk from Fabulous Finds

Kristin from K-Line

Melissa from Jewelry Dose Daily

Amy from Midtown Girl

Congrats girls!!

2010 Christmas Decorations In Klang Valley Malls (Part 2)

Continued from Part 1

Warning : There are a lot of photos in this post. If you have slow internet connection, you may want to blog hop or visit other sites while waiting for the photos to load.

During the last few days before Christmas, I went to Pavilion in KL and took some photos of the Christmas decorations there.



Although there was no "fake" snow falling like last year, I still felt as if I was in winter wonderland!



The front entrance with the tall Christmas trees were nice!



The interior was almost the same as last year so I was not too impressed, but for first timers, it should be quite nice.



I also saw the flying reindeers recycled from last year. It was placed at a different location this year.



They also recycled the reindeers with lights that were placed at the front entrance of the shopping mall last year.



This year, the reindeers were placed outside another part of the mall.



Not too impressed with all these recycled stuffs, but they were still pretty to look at, so I was OK with that. I just hope they don't use these reindeers again next year!

Although Fahrenheit 88 is just across the road opposite Pavilion, I did not visit it that evening. Instead I went there the next day!



The Christmas tree was simple and nothing to shout about, but I like that it was built from hundreds and hundreds of disks! Take a closer look!



It was really quite tall! But I think people were more eager to shop at Uniqlo than looking at this Christmas tree! Haha!



I noticed they use disks all over the place, like on the walls.



What do you think about using disks as decorations? OK, this is not really about Christmas decorations any more, so I shall move on.



Next, I went to KLCC half expecting a giant tall Christmas tree like what they put up a few years back.



Alas, what I saw were four small Christmas trees and nothing else. What a disappointment!



I thought KLCC could do much better than this!

My next destination was Empire Shopping Gallery in Subang. The theme was "A Raily Magical Christmas".

As you can see, there's a rail-track but wait, where's the train?



I spotted the train from above earlier on.



Oh! The train was there, hidden just outside the tunnel behind the Christmas trees!



Ooh! I like that white reindeer! Can you see it?



Later that evening, I went to Sunway Pyramid. I found the Christmas decorations inside the mall so utterly lousy I did not even bother to take photos of it!

But outside the shopping mall, it was another story.



The above picture shows the main entrance gate to Sunway Pyramid and Sunway Resort Hotel. It was quite impossible for me to get a good photo of this unless I stand in the middle of the busy road and risk being knocked down!

This is the decoration placed at the mini roundabout right outside Redbox Karaoke.



The whole stretch of road was filled with lights! It sure gave me a very festive Christmas feeling!



This is the beautifully lit-up front view of Sunway Resort Hotel located next to Sunway Pyramid.



Opposite the hotel I could see this beautiful area with lights and beautiful Christmas decorations.



There were quite a lot of people here and it was hard for me to take decent photos.



I like this Christmas tree and the Santa Claus and his carriage being reflected in the water.



Got to take another closer shot of this!



I was so engrossed in taking photos here I forgot I had to be at Subang Parade at 9pm to catch the dancing lights there! There was only 20 minutes left. Would I be able to make it?

Luckily for me, there was no heavy traffic that night and I reached Subang Parade 5 minutes before the scheduled show.



The show was held outside the main entrance of Subang Parade just opposite TGI Fridays. As it turned out, not many people were there to watch it.



The lights were dancing to music. It was OK but nothing too impressive. I have seen much better ones elsewhere.



I even recorded a small part of the show using my iPhone. Here it is - sorry for the video camera shake as I was feeling rather restless after drinking coffee earlier in the evening. I could not hold my iPhone steadily for too long!



So this brings us to the end of my 2010 Christmas Decorations posts! Hope you have enjoyed reading. Which mall do you think has the best Christmas decorations this year?

You might like to compare this year's decorations with last year's. If so, do read my post on 2009 Christmas Decorations Part 1 : Merry Christmas 2009 and Part 2 : Which Mall Has The Best Christmas Decorations In 2009?

With that, I would like wish all my dear readers A Happy New Year 2011!

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2010 Christmas Decorations In Klang Valley Malls (Part 1)

Warning : There are a lot of photos in this post. If you have slow internet connection, you may want to blog hop or visit other sites while waiting for the photos to load.

During the past few weeks, I had been visiting a number of shopping malls to take pictures of Christmas decorations. I would like to share these pictures in this post.

First, I went to 1Utama.



I was quite impressed! The Oval Concourse in 1Utama seemed to have transformed into a Christmas town square complete with an ice-skating platform in the middle.



There were lots of stalls lining the town square. Most of them are famous brand names like Memory Lane, Lovely Lace, Famous Amos and Cold Storage to name a few.



You can actually walk up the stairs to enter the upper floors to shop for Christmas goodies!



The place was beautiful!



Don't you think it looks like a scene taken out from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol?



Two thumbs up for the Christmas decoration at 1Utama this year!

Next, I visited The Curve.



It was a bit disappointing to me after last year's beautiful decoration.



The Christmas theme this year is "Under The Christmas Tree" featuring characters from the magical world of Toy Town.



There's a nice colourful house here!



And more Toy Town characters!




I was not impressed, but it's still better than many other shopping malls!

After The Curve, I visited Bangsar Shopping Centre (BSC). I really liked their Christmas decoration last year so I was eager to see what they offer this year.



It was quite nice, though could not match last year's.



There were lots of balls floating in the air!



Lots of stalls selling Christmas goodies here but I did not buy any!



Next, I visited Bangsar Village II as I heard they have the tallest LEGO Christmas tree in Asia!



Yes, the tree was indeed very tall (about 7 metres) and it was made entirely of LEGO blocks - all 850,000 pieces of them!



Even the ornaments were made from Lego. Look at the smiling snowman and candy canes!



I was told that the Christmas tree took 5 days to set up. Not bad, coming from the fourth largest toy manufacturer in the world!

From Bangsar, I headed to The Gardens Mall.



I did not expect too much from The Gardens as the Christmas decorations here was not good the last two years.



Indeed, it was pretty average, although I like this mall because it looks very classy.



I did not take much photos and instead headed next door to MidValley MegaMall.



Wow! There were so many things to see here! The whole Centre Court was filled with bears, snowmen, elves, puppies, rabbits and toy soldiers! Well, it's no wonder as the theme this year is "Have A FUNTOYSTIC Christmas!"



Look at this cute bear!



There's a giant brown bear amidst all the smaller white bears.



These fluffy bears were definitely a hit with children and adults alike.

Can you see that little child sitting on the box next to the two bears? That's how big the bears were!



Let it snow!



There were so many toys to take photos of and at so many different angles!



I had so much fun admiring each toy!



I'm not sure what these toy characters are, but the ones in the middle must be Tin Soldiers!



A funny looking Joker!



A ballerina dancing on a music box.



I'm just including this photo below to show that the ballerina had changed position due to her turning round and round!



There's even a Merry Go Round!



More snowman, Joker, bear and puppy!



Is this a rabbit in the middle flanked by two cute puppies?



Comical looking jester!



I like all those hot air balloons hanging from the ceiling. And what makes them adorable are the dolls and toys sitting in these balloons!



From the Centre Court, I walked over to the South Court and found more Christmas decorations there!



Oh my, what a cute donkey flanked by a group of Tin Soldiers!



Oh! There's a rabbit sleeping next to the adorable donkey!



I know, I know, you must be thinking why I am putting up so many photos of this donkey but it's so adorable! I want to take it back home! Haha!



I love the Christmas decorations at Mid Valley but could not help feeling that they copied Bangsar Shopping Centre's "Alice In Wonderland" Christmas decorations last year.



Coming up in Part 2 : Christmas Decorations at Pavilion, Fahrenheit 88, KLCC, Empire Shopping Gallery Subang, Subang Parade and Sunway Pyramid.

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