Singapore has a special place in my heart. I love the food, the city, the energy and the shopping!

Whenever I go to visit, I am often overwhelmed by the vast array of international brands Singapore has to offer. So much so, that I forget to look at the local fashion design talent.

So during my recent trip back to Singapore, I was very keen to meet some local Singaporean fashion designers – in particular, to see how living in such a modern, sophisticated and global society (with such tropical weather!) has shaped their interpretations on fashion.

Firstly, I had the honour of meeting fashion designer, Baylene Li.

I arrived at her lovely fashion gallery at Stamford House. The building, with high Victorian ceilings and gorgeous Renaissance architecture, is itself a statement of distinction and character.

A quick glance of the clothes on display confirmed that Baylene’s designs were oozing with originality and style. The colours and textures of her collection immediately seemed to offer something different and I was itching to have a closer look.

You won’t find a typical prom dress here. Nor copycat trends from last season’s Milan fashion show.

All her pieces were stunning. They looked classic, simple and stylish – but each one had a unique twist. A special detail. An elegant angle or unusual pleat. She focuses on creating a unique, bold look, something with strong character.

I tried on Baylene’s very popular Kelly dress, a multi-wear garment. I gushed at its clever design. There are 19 different ways to wear the dress – a dress with sleeves, sleeveless, halter, one shoulder, boat neck, cowl neck and more. You can even wear it with jeans, or as a wrap. I wished I owned one! The picture above is me wearing the SAME garment!

Baylene was born in Taiwan, raised in New Zealand, lived in Singapore, and launched her career as a fashion designer in Singapore.

In 2003 she opened her Baylene Fashion Gallery where she stocks her Baylene label and jewellery by local designers. With a string of international awards and stockists, she is now based in Hong Kong.

I was very fortunate that she was in Singapore when I was, and to meet and talk to her face to face, she was warm, friendly and very gracious. Not to mention, she just had this super-relaxed, uber COOL about her. Definitely the essence of her brand!

Baylene has a great website where you can view her latest collections and buy items online, baylene.com.

Or you can visit one of her stores or stockists:
Singapore
Baylene Fashion Gallery
Stamford House #01-04
39 Stamford Road
Singapore 178885
Phone: +65 6336 9619

Malaysia
Lush Icon Boutique
1F-1B, First Florr
Bangsar Village II
No. 2 Jalan Telawi 1
Bangsar Baru
59100 KL, Malaysia
Phone: +603 2282 9619

Japan
Mid Tower Project Co. Ltd.
3-21-32 3F Ikejiri
Setagaya-Ku
Tokyo, Japan 154-0001
Phone: +813 5834 7124

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I know it’s supposed to be Spring here in Australia, but these scarves from Anthropologie are enough to inspire me to dress up a simple black dress, or white top and pants. Love the colours!

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As much as I try not to live the stereotype, sometimes I sit back and think – Oops.

They say when you have your first child - you take your child to baby gym classes, baby swimming, baby art time and playgroups. You and your child will sit down for hours, singing songs, playing clapping games, moulding play dough and cutting and pasting. The novelty of having a child is delicious and you revel in it, making moments last forever.

But with the second child – you’re pretty much over it. You skip the gym classes and the art time, and the highlight of the day is going to the shops and buying vegetables. Yay! Vegetables are fun! Quality time is folding the laundry together in the lounge room, or weeding the garden!

It sounds terrible, but most of the time it’s true.

So today I sat down with my 3.5 year old and we had a 2 hour art and craft session. TWO whole hours. He was SO HAPPY.

Embarrassing to say, I was amazed by what the little guy could do. He could draw animals! He could make up really funny stories for his pictures! He had some hilarious and creative ideas!

And he refused any help for cutting out his animals. He’s so good with scissors!

Gah, I seriously had a tear in my eye when he drew a crocodile. He explained that it was a friendly crocodile with two happy orange fish friends. And if you look carefully, you can see a yellow seagull flying over to flip the E back to its right position.

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We received a huge, old, wooden toy box from our neighbour last week.

It was a great size for all our balls and outdoor toys. Problem was, it needed a new coat of paint (and it was pink!)

So my husband initiated a Toy Box Painting Project.

He basically poured out a whole lot of old wall paint from the shed, put the boys in old clothes, gave the boys a paintbrush each and said, PAINT!

Argh. I couldn’t watch. They made SUCH A MESS!

They would do things like, drop their brush in the sand, pick it up and then carry on painting with the sandy brush. They’d paint their hands and splat the paint on with their palms, and then wipe their noses. They’d dip their brush into the paint, walk a MILE around the box, dripping paint everywhere they went! They were covered in paint at the end!

Oh well. At least they had fun. And the box did get painted.

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Now that I’m actually pregnant, I suddenly have no need for a fertility clinic, or a team of nurses and doctors. It was really wonderful having them, helping me, holding my hand through each step of the assisted reproduction process and calling me up to see how I was going.

I was used to having all this support and care. I was used to having someone else manage everything for me! They told me exactly what to do and when to do it - Get a blood test. Come into the clinic. Go to this appointment. Fill out this form. Pay this bill. I just followed instructions, it was very easy.

But now I’ve been thrust back into the world of reality – to plan the rest of my pregnancy BY MYSELF! I’m at that scary place where expectant mothers are expected to make their own decisions!

So I sat down the other day, I booked my obstetrician, booked my blood tests, booked some other screening tests and scans. I printed out a pregnancy calendar. Got hold of a week by week overview of gestation. I pulled out all my old pregnancy books for references. And my diary is all up to date.

The last thing my fertility clinic advised me to do was to have an ultrasound at 6 weeks, since I had slight complications early on.

Here’s my little jellybean!

The scan went wonderfully well. The scanning nurses were absolutely lovely.

Usually, I don’t like it when medical practitioners are too nice or too tender. But this nurse eased absolutely any doubt I had - my baby is normal, a good, healthy size, and growing really well. My baby was perfect.

I’m so happy!

…
Click here to see the whole story of Making Baby 3.

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Every Sunday morning I try to make something a little special for breakfast. My boys love these mini pancakes (or pikelets), especially with fruit.

1 cup (150g) self-raising flour
2 tablespoons of castor sugar (optional)
1 egg, beaten lightly
¾ cup (180ml) of milk
butter for cooking

1. Mix flour and sugar
2. Mix in egg and milk, to make a smooth batter.
3. Add a bit of butter to lightly coat a hot pan. Pour dessert-spoons of pancake mixture onto the pan.
4. Wait for bubbles to appear on the surface of the pancake, flip!
5. Serve hot with fruit, yoghurt and honey!

My boys don’t like their pancakes to be stacked up, so I serve them like biscuits. Easier for little fingers.

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Bought them in Melbourne.
Discounted to $50.
SO comfy.
Best bargain ever.

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A few months ago, we tore open a new packet of sunflower seeds and scattered them through our little flower bed.

It turns out that one side of the garden bed gets a bit more sunshine than the other side.

The result is that we have short sunflowers and really tall sunflowers - wonderfully presented by my height assistant, Sean.

The difference in size is incredible! The tall sunflowers are going crazy. They are literally bowing down, over-burdened by the weight of flowers. While the short sunflowers, well, they look stunted.

Amazing to see what a bit of extra sunshine can do.

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So I’m 6 weeks pregnant.

With all the food I’m eating (and the lack of exercise), my tummy and thighs are starting to expand! I’m starting to show a baby bump!

Well, when I say “bump” I really mean that weird tummy flab that looks a bit like a “muffin top”.

I’m not too worried about the weight gain. I’m actually looking forward to having my body change during the pregnancy. I’m a bit nostalgic about it. It’ll be the last time I’ll ever be pregnant!

However I realise that I’m fast running out of clothes to wear. All my jeans are getting a bit tight and I have to wear them low on my hips.

I guess I’m at that stage where I should be looking to wear proper maternity clothes. If I keep wearing my usual clothes, I’ll stretch and ruin them all - as I’ve discovered from the past.

This is me wearing a $30 scrunch skirt pulled up to be a tube top. Lots of room to grow in the tummy area!

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My 5.5yo had his pre-school sports carnival the other day.

Ah, it was one of those days I’ve been looking forward to since becoming a mother.

When I was a kid, I LOVED sports carnival days. I was in green faction and I was really good at sport. I always came home with lots of ribbons and medals!

Today, parents were invited to join in the fun and games, as well as come for a picnic lunch. I made a special lunch, made frozen water bottles, packed a little picnic basket with fruits and snacks and all our supplies. I was jittery with excitement!

In fact, I was so excited, that I really had to check myself - and - everything that was coming out of my mouth.

I think I’m secretly very competitive. I’m not the kind who boasts and struts around thinking “I’m the best and I’m better than you”. But I do have an inner drive to win. Yes, I like to try my best AND I like to win.

So as I talked about “carnivals” with my son, I had to make sure that the right message came out – that sport was about having fun with your friends. NOT JUST WINNING!

My son was in blue faction, and he wanted me to wear blue too. Royal Blue to be exact. And the only royal blue top I had… was an expensive silk camisole.

So there I was, standing next to all the other sporty mums, looking all sophisticated and dressed up (like an idiot who doesn’t know what to wear to a sports carnival).

They had a mum’s race, a dad’s race and a teacher’s race. It was all so cute.

Callum ran over to me to make sure that I didn’t run - because I had a baby in my tummy. So he sat next to me on the grass patting my wrist for the duration of the mum’s race. I’m not actually sure why he did that… maybe he knew how much I like to race and win. Haha what a cute kid.

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