Chocolate Cats: nuyou

What a way to start off the morning! Especially when I woke at 545am on Saturday..

I want them all!

Organised by NuYou together with Burt's Bees, we were invited to the poolside of the Royale Bintang Hotel after a warm welcome greeting from Jo of Burt's Bees. Candi Soo of Candi Soo Fitness, kicked start the workshop with a Yogataal session by the poolside. Nice place to conduct a yoga session. If only the session was a bit more less stressful. It was more fast paced than the yoga i'm used to, but it was a different and interesting experience nonetheless.

Yogataal

After the blood pumping yoga session, we were treated to light snacks and honey/lemon drinks. The workshop then continued with a short video presentation on everything Burt's Bees. They believe in "earth-friendly natural skin care, natural beauty and natural personal care products". I'm all for it! Jo also shared tips on how to eat healthier and take care of our body using all natural products.

Jo with a video presentation

I won a lip shimmer and a hand salve from the Q&A session afterwards! All I did was look for something in my bag that used all natural products.. I gave them the Burt's Bees Pomegranate lip balm which I bought last week. I knew that was a good move.. lol!

The DIY session was informative and exciting. Each table was given cups of honey and 2 eggs to make a mask. As I have oily skin, I had to mix together the egg whites and honey. Egg whites have an astringent like property and honey was to sooth the skin. Washed it off after a few minutes and my skin was less shiny and felt fresh! I'm definitely going to DIY this at home.

Carina, training manager for Bobbi Brown then took over to introduce the Pretty Powerful Campaign which sent out a very strong message. It's all about enhancing your natural beauty without having to hide behing thick heavy make-up. Lurving this video! A Bobbi Brown make-up artist then demonstrated on a model simple techniques on how to get a fresh natural look. I must get my hands on that cream blusher, its great for a pop of colour! Pretty! Bobbi Brown also had mini makeovers after the workshop.

Carina with Model & Cream Blusher

Pretty Powerful Campaign

*Check out Miu's Post on the Burt's Bees Workshop,

she has a link to the Pretty Powerful Campaign Video.

Before the workshop ended, there were lucky draws! 5 fitness vouchers from Candi Soo Fitness and 5 hampers from Bobbi Brown. Lucky indeed! Despite wanting to rob Adrienne and Rane who were sitting next to me as both won the Bobbi Brown hampers, I went home happy with the goodies I got.. lol..

Bobbi Brown Lucky Draw

(Should consider robbing Adrienne & Rane again.. lol!)

Adrienne, Rane & Cia Wei

Just as we thought it was over and it was time to get going, we were told that lunch was served at the Coffee House downstairs! Buffet lunch! Omg! Burt's Bees really spoilt us!

Thank you soo soo much Burt's Bees & Nu You for a rocking workshop and goodies filled goodie bag! Couldn't ask for more.. :)

Lurving Burt's Bees!

Doroshi, Jean, Adrienne, Miu, Wing

Goodies.. :)

More Cupcakes! This time with fondant icing. Organised by Nuyou together with Cake Connection last Wednesday 3/2/10 at Jaya One.

My Cupcakes with Fondant

Pigita, Strange me with Kitty ears, Doroshi, Miu, Wing

Ever wondered how much effort is put into doing one tiny figurine, say of a duck. Well for someone who is not all too creatively inclined when it comes to shaping 2D or 3D shapes/characters/figurones, it is one heck of an effort. Me me me!

Remember how I said last weeks workshop, working with buttercream fun, calming and therapeutic, this week's working with fondant was challengingly fun.

Nancy kicked off this session by introducing Fondant. Then went on to pass around a small ball of chocolate fondant, which is more expensive than the white one, for all to try! Omg! It tasted so good! I had this picture in my head, of me munching on it while sitting in front of the tele. Side tracking.. Oops..

Nancy's fondant

Shaping 2D

The Baby Face - Apart from the pacifier handle and bit of hair, it moslty included rolling out the fondant into a falt piece, cutting the desired shape and placing it on the base with glue (edible gum powder). A gourmet pen is used to draw the bits the need drawing.

My Baby Face

Shaping 3D

Bottle & Pacifier - One of the more simpler ones. It only required shaping into a basic shape and putting it together.

Baby with Blankie - This required more parts. I suppose this one was slightly more tedious than anything. Did not attempt this one either.

Ducks In Water - A bit tough! Start with the base, using a blue coloured fondant with marbled effect. Then prepare the body, head, wings, beak and eyes. The body required a bit more shaping. Use gourmet pen for the eyes. My poor ducks turned out looking a bit strange!

My strange looking Ducks In Water

How the ducks are suppose to look like..

The tediousness of working with fondant makes it very time consuming. The 3 hours allocated for this session felt rather rush as a lot of the participants worked super fast to complete their fourth.

But it was still a fun experience tapping in on one's creativity. It would be incomplete for me not to attempt a Cat. Thought a 3D version was too ambitious, so I settled for a 2D one. Though I ran out of ideas and time for my last cupcake and ended up doin a 2D "F".