For those of you who didn't know, I have a knack for fancy hand soaps :)

You might call me a snob but I just love hand soaps. The reason behind that is maybe because I'm kinda weird with my hands. I don't like my hands to feel dirty or dusty, or greasy or dry, etc. I like my hands to be clean and moist, ALL DAY LONG. 

So every time I do something like applying moisturizer to my face or after I pet my cats even for just a stroke, I would wash my hands afterwards. Even when I'm cooking I would do 3-4 times of hand washing during the cooking process (wash hands after slicing onions, wash hands after preparing eggs, wash hands before making rice, etc until I finished cooking). I would also wash my hands after I went outside, before making tea/coffee, after applying body lotion, etc - That's why I always wash my hands up to 5-10 times a day. And THAT's why I need a good hand soap. 

I need a good hand soap that would make my hands smells good and would not dry my hands with all those frequent washing that I did during the day. So that's when I started collecting fancy hand soaps. It's not for show-off, but it's because they doesn't dry my hands like the regular hand soaps do. So please don't judge me (*_^)

So anyway, I just recently purchased two new soaps from Bath & Body Works when they were having a sale last week ( 2 hand soaps for IDR 160k ), and I purchased their Aqua Blossom Deep Cleansing Hand Soap and Peach Bellini Gentle Foaming Hand Soap. 

Below are the whole collection of my hand soaps (PS: my stash is not that much, but it's probably too much for someone who doesn't collect handsoaps ;p) :

They are mostly from Bath & Body Works because I used to buy them when they were having huge sales on their website and then I have them shipped to my brother in law's address who was residing in the US at that time. I also bought a couple of them when I went to Singapore a few months ago when BBW were not available here yet in Jakarta.

But now Bath & Body Works has opened it's stores here in Jakarta and I am so excited because it is one of my favorite store! Me and hubby K also love BBW hand soaps especially the foamy hand soaps because they last longer than the regular hand soap (which means it saves us money on the long run), so most of my stash includes those foaming hand soaps from BBW.

 BBW Citrus Garland (my current kitchen sink handsoap)

BBW Cranberry Tangerine Foaming Hand Soap

BBW Fresh Sparkling Snow Foaming Hand Soap

 BBW Iced Ginger Bread (my current guest handsoap)

BBW Kitchen Lemon Foaming Hand Soap

BBW Peach Bellini Foaming Hand Soap

 BBW Aqua Blossom Deep Cleansing Hand Soap

BBW Twilight Woods Deep Cleansing Hand Soap

Marks & Spencer Lily of The Valley Moisture Rich Hand Wash (my current bathroom handsoap)

From all my BBW hand soaps collection, only two of them are the Deep Cleansing variant which I think would be perfect for my bathroom sinks. The rest of them are the Gentle Foaming variant which is our favorite type of BBW hand soaps - which I like to use in the kitchen or when I have guests.

Before I tried BBW hand soaps I used to buy Marks & Spencer hand soaps because they have pretty packaging, they doesn't dry my hands even after repeated washing, and they smells great too. I also found a new hand soap brand that I found in Ace Hardware called Astonish that also smells great and surprisingly the scent lasts on my hands for a lot longer than any other hand soaps! So that's a score for me :)

 The last two of my Marks & Spencer hand soaps:

Lily of The Valley (which I'm currently using)

China Blue (which we finished recently)

 Astonish Milk & Honey Anti-Bacterial Handwash 

(which I'm currently using for my bedroom sink at my parents in law's house)

I think I would buy the Astonish hand soap again from Ace Hardware (in another variant, of course) because I love it so much. Every time I use this soap I can still smell the soft scent that lingers in my hand long after I washed my hands :) - This soap makes me want to always wash my hands!

One thing to note: it is a bit pricey for a hand soap (around IDR 40k when I bought it), but the bottle is huge (!) so I think it has the most higher value for money compared to BBW or Marks & Spencer hand soaps above (^_^). Totally worth trying out if you like fancy handsoaps like I do ;p

Do you love hand soaps too? 

Do you have a favorite brand of hand soaps?

Lemme know!

Adios Chicas!

Today's Drink !

How are you today, lovelies?

My day is great. I'm actually quite productive today. I took some photographs for the blog, I rearranged my big stash of soaps, I did a full body scrub and face mask, I decorated the first pages of my 2015 planner and re-organize my stationary stash a little bit. And then I also cooked lunch, reply old emails, ate dinner while watching movie with hubby K, and now I am back in front of my laptop, answering emails and writing blog posts, yay!

One of my goal for 2015 is to do more blogging and develop this blog into something better. So let's see about that ;)

Now on to my new blog series, I'm gonna have a couple of new blog series here and one of them is "Today's Drink" - which will feature a short/mini review on what I drink lately. Or just a highlight of my drink on that day because I like to switch my drinks daily and if you follow my instagram you will see lots of photos of me and my drink ;)

So without further ado, here are a couple of drinks that I tried the last two days. Both of these drinks are new to me so I'm gonna include a mini review on each of them. Let's start with the first drink. 

Yesterday I was feeling a little bit off and needed to de-stress. So I decided to drink this tea that my brother gave me a while back, and hoping that it would help me calm down and relax a bit.

The brand is called Traditional Medicinals, and my brother ordered it from an online drugstore and have it shipped here to Jakarta so I'm not sure whether or not you can get this tea locally here in Indonesia.

The actual name is Traditional Medicinals Tea in Organic Chamomile with Lavender, and it's a naturally caffeine-free herbal tea. I like the packaging on this one because I saw the box at my brother's room back in my parent's house. This is also my first ever caffeine-free tea!

The tea inside the bag looks very inviting with all those visible herbs picking out from the bag. When steeped, the tea has a pale green color almost like a brewed green tea. The scent is not too strong though, but I do smell a sweet fragrant chamomile in it.

As for the taste, my relationship with chamomile tea is actually pretty good, but I have a "love & hate" relationship with lavender tea. So what happened if it's a mixed of chamomile and lavender? 

I'm sorry but we just don't get along.

I don't know what happened there but I just found out that I don't really like a mix of chamomile and lavender herbal tea. Maybe if it was added with something else I would have liked it better, but I'm just not liking this one. You can definitely taste the chamomile and lavender combination, and there's that typical taste of herbal tea which feels a little bit raw. Maybe herbal tea is not for me? I don't know, I need to try more herbal teas now ...

Ok, that was yesterday, and today I tasted a new drink. 

I got this sachet drink from a colleague of hubby K who gave it to him at the office. After a failed attempt at caffeine-free chamomile lavender herbal tea yesterday, today's drink is a hit!

The drink is called Lipton Chai Latte, and it's a 3 in 1 drink so all you gotta do is add hot water. I think I've seen this variant in one of those online store that sells snacks but I forgot where I saw it. Anyway, this is my first time trying this and at first I was a bit skeptical because I once tried a chai latte and I'm not really a fan. But maybe a different brand means a different taste, right? So today I'm making one of these..

Turns out that I really like it. This Lipton version of Chai Latte is actually just a simple tea with milk and sugar. The concoction is really good and it reminds me of a simple teh tarik, a traditional Malaysian drink which is also a favorite of mine. I think this one would be good either served hot or cold. I used a taller glass instead of a little cup for this sachet and it tastes great!

I'm gonna ask hubby K to stalk his colleague and asked where did he get this drink because I want a big box of this !

What do you drink today?


Cheers!

2014 - A Year in Highlights

Happy New Year everyone!

As usual, every start of the year I made this kind of posts where I review the previous year to look back and reflect about everything that has happened through the year. 2014 has been a very good year to me and my husband. I experienced a lot of great moments and wonderful times in 2014, GOD has been so kind and generous to us. There are a couple of my long-time goals that I finally achieved in 2014, and there are a lot of things to be thankful for. So although I didn't get all my deepest wishes back in 2014, I still count my blessings because we were blessed with so many things and lots of wonderful moments that are worth the wait. Alhamdulillahirabbil Alamiin... May the year 2015 and the years ahead of us would be even more remarkable and full of blessings. Amien..

So now on to the Year in Review :

January:

At the start of the year we went for a short family holiday in Lembang with my husband's side of the family. The place was really nice and the view is beautiful. In January we also finally starts moving out to our new place! It was a momentous time for me and hubby K because we've been waiting for our own place for more than 3 years. And at the start of 2014 it finally happened and our new place is finally live-able :) Alhamdulillah...

(moving out process!)

February:

Then in February we got another blessing where we trade our old car with a New car ! It was another momentous time for us because it came at the right moment and we were so blessed with it. February seems as my lucky month because aside from getting a new car, I also won some contests, yay! I haven't been participating in many giveaways and contests lately so I was surprised to win these two contests, especially winning a Kate Spade bag from FemaleDaily contest (Can't believe it! My first designer bag! For free!!) - Alhamdulillah..
The other contest that I won is a FatBurger contest which I actually joined for fun but turns out I won 3rd prize :) We won the Bolt 3G Wireless Modem that we later sold for IDR 300.000 to buy some decors for our new pad (not bad, yeah?) ;p 

March:

The car was out from the dealer this month so in March 17th I took it for it's first drive :) I drove all the way from Fedex toll gate to the apartment. Another good news to note is that Hubby got a raise this month. Alhamdulillahirabbil Alamiin..

April:

It's election day and it's the first time that I got my spirits up again with the election because I kinda like the candidate this time. I also started to read again because I wasn't having much spare time to read for the past several months due to moving out process and decoration projects. But now I started to buy books again and try to read it if I have any spare time. Nothing really special happened this month though...

May:

It's hubby's birthday! We had our usual birthday date (dinner & a movie). Hubby K also took 5 days off work on his birthday week so we also went for a mini break to Puncak. We stayed at Novus Giri Hotel & Resort which I have fully reviewed HERE. During that week-off we also had a leisure day in Ancol beach, just me and hubby K. We had a ride in the gondola, we went to Columbus Cafe which is a newer cafe positioned out in the ocean, etc...

This month also marks the month where I finally can do "it" with confidence ;)

June:

This month is our first time experiencing Ramadhan (Islamic fasting month) in our own place. I cooked for sahur but we usually buy something for iftar :) My cooking skills gained a few points this month, Lol. Also, I finally "do it" alone around this time - One more long standing resolution accomplished!

July:

First time celebrating Ied day in our own place. Alhamdulillah... Although we didn't do Ied prayer at our place but it still feels different. This year we went to Bandung in the afternoon to celebrate Ied day with K's big family and we went back to Jakarta on day 2. 

This month I get to experience losing two of my most precious personal items. First, I lost my wallet due to an un-zipped loose bag that I wore that day, but fortunately a really kind lady found my wallet and gave it back to me the next day. Second time, I lost my wedding ring not long after I lost my wallet. I lost it in a taxi but fortunately the taxi was ordered by phone so they still have the taxi registration number and finally contacted the driver. The taxi representative came to my house the next day to return the ring. Thank you for the great service Blue Bird Taxi!

August:

It's my birthday month! (^_^)

We had dinner at Sushi Tei where the waiters gave me the birthday sushi cake with candles lit! And then we went window shopping afterwards. As a present, K bought me my MK Jet Set East West Tote in Luggage via Reebonz. Sooo happyy...! Thankyou Hubby :D - We also had a little family trip to Ancol beach again.

September:

I got bags-crazy this year and the PurseForum is my enabler, lol. I bought myself MBMJ Laptop Sleeve and Ipad Sleeve because they were discounted to 50% off! September is a great month for me because aside from the awesome discount above, I also had the chance to go with my old college friends to Singapore for a 3 days holiday. It's been a wonderful time because I get to visit USS which is also one of my long-standing goals from last years. We also went to Puncak again for a big family holiday. And finally this month I started to "do it" by myself regularly.

October:

There was not much interesting things happening in October aside of a few event invitations. I finally had the time again to go to events because now I have more spare time. My mom also got a new cat around this time, a Persian-mixed white cat that we named Chibby. He is so cute and adorable and I couldn't get my hands off those luxurious lustrous fur!

November:

This month is the start of my stationary crazy mode. I always love stationary and decorating planners etc but I haven't done that since college time, wtf?! So I was enabled by some of the stationary addicts in Instagram and Youtube that have ignited my old love of stationary, so the hunt for stationary stash begins this month. We also went to Ikea Indonesia the first time this month because last month (when Ikea just opened) the line is pretty crazy, so they say.

December:

At the end of the year, we are starting again our long-postponed infertility program. It hasn't succeeded the first round but we're hoping that it would succeed the next round, Amien. Meanwhile, I got another thing to be thankful for because I got myself a new Longchamp bag from my project with one of my blog sponsor! I felt so blessed, Alhamdulillah.. It's an extremely nice freebie stuff to end the year with a bang! - (though I suspect it would lead to another bags/designer-crazy mode next year ;p)

In summary, three of my biggest personal highlights in 2014 were: 

1. Moving out to our new place and started our life together in our own place.
2. Traded the old car and got ourselves a new one.
3. My Singapore trip with old college friends.

So thank you a lot 2014 for being so kind to me, and hopefully 2015 and the years ahead would be even better. Amien ...

Last  year I did a similar post but it's more towards highlighting what my blog has done in year 2013, if you want to read that you can CLICK HERE.

Adios Chicas,

Food Diary

I wanted to re-live the food diary posts that I had on this blog a couple years ago and I even saved several photos on my phone (mostly when we ate outside). The last time I did this kind of post was back on September 2012 (what??!! it's been so long). So without further ado, here are some of the food that me / we ate recently :

 Kenny Roger's Roasters

(love the beans!)

 Ramen and Fruit-infused Ice Tea at Little Taiwan (so-so)

 Yummy sandwich which I forgot where I bought it from

 Danish style Fish n Chips at Fish n Co. (Yum!)

Some sweet snack from Le Bridge Resto at Ancol Beach

 Super yummy Kaya Toast & White Coffee Freeze at Old Town White Coffee

 My weekly dose of Starbucks! Oh yeah.

 Good 'ol American fried chicken, curly fries, and waffle with vanilla ice cream from A&W. 

Junk food galore.

I actually still have several food photos left on my phone but I am too sleepy right now so I'd just end the post here and will continue posting my food diary photos later on.

I hope these food photos won't make you hungry ;p

Adios chicas!

Pretty Things in My Shopping Bag

Incase you didn't know, I am such a packaging-freak.
I love anything with unique/pretty/cute/wonderful design/look/packaging.

Sometimes I buy things just because they look pretty ^o^

Cookie Tin & Pretty looking peach Meringue

Shabby-chic sunglasses case from Daiso!

My newest "Vogue" iphone case from ebay ;p

 A set of super cute mini tapes from the stationary store Paperclips

Pretty much random stuffs!

^_______^

Adios Chicas, See you on my next post!

Cats Update!

It's time for the cats update!

My big boy Blackey is getting old but surely he's not getting wiser, LOL. He is even funnier now. I never owned a cat like him before, he is hilarious, I love him :D

My other cat Kiddo is also getting older now. He already ventured out and experienced mating, LOL. And he always bring his girlfriend home and showed her the food bowl. Oh man...

Lastly, I laugh out loud when my instagram timeline showed these hilarious lion mane wig for cats! LOL LOL LOL - I want one please....

 Hahahahaha

 Adios chicas!

Journal: Cats Galore!

A few months ago there's a stranded cat outside our house, almost got into a fight with my big cat Blackey. I ran out to see who was Blackey fighting with (because he's the biggest cat around here so I don't want him to hurt smaller cats in the neighborhood), then it turns out that Blackey was meowing to this beautiful fella!

How cute is this strayed cat? 

It's not everyday you get a strayed cat as cute and as beautiful as this! ;p

I think he is lost and because it was almost in the middle of the night so I took him inside my house and let him sleep in our room for a night before we let him out again the next morning.

We thought that he is one of our neighbor's cat but we don't know whose because we never saw him in our territory. After several phone calls we got information that he probably belongs to a family who lives right across our block, because someone saw this cat walking around that street a couple of times, in and out of a house.

So we let him out the next morning and hoped that he could find his way back home. I think he has found his way home because we didn't see him walking around our neighborhood that afternoon, especially when Blackey is still keeping his watch in this area ;p

Anyway, since we're talking about cats today, here's some funny cat photos from icanhazcheeseburger to make our day a little brighter ;)

LOL... ROTFL...

I always love that website, it's hilarious! :D

Have a good day, everybody!

Cheers,