Merry Christmas 2016

Merry Christmas everyone!

It has been really long since my last post. 

Too many overdue travel memories to blog .. I have stopped blogging for awhile as these days I have been really occupied with taking care of my little one and my business. I have started a new TSOBaby Facebook page and introduced more items for little ones. This is like my other baby gradually growing. Do hop over to Like TSOBaby Facebook page and check out on pretty things for little ones.

Being a SAHM, I have learnt to do things with an attention seeker being physically around me. It's a happy distraction. 

I have learnt to work with "intermission". Meaning to work when my little one is happy, stop when he needs me and resume when he's back to sleep.. it may sound easy but it's really not. I work when he sleeps. 

This Christmas I am really thankful for all the happiness in life. Thankful to be with my loved ones and being able to do the things I like. 

Thank you to those who have supported my dream.

I have all I wanted for Christmas. 

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you."

I wish everyone a Happy Christmas. 

With Love, 

Mommy Eve

An open-letter to my husband: Happy 9 years!

Time flies.. It's 26 October again!

It's 4am now in Israel time. 

Happy Anniversary! 

It has been 3 years since our wedding and 9 years in relationship with you... 

Looking forward to our a decade milestone next year! 

Though this is our 3rd wedding anniversary, it's the first time that we are going to celebrate this day physically together. 

Remember.. on our first anniversary, you were posted overseas for work. On our 2nd anniversary, after Aedan was born, you flew to Israel for your studies. Finally.. finally this year we are going to celebrate this special day together and with our baby! :) 

Though we are 9 years in a relationship... it felt like we just got together not too long ago. I can still remember the feeling when we first started, and the many fights we had on our differences to when I learnt to accept that you are not a romantic person but rather a very logical one which our relationship works better with clear instruction rather than playing the guessing game. And of course those memorable near breakup moments.. I'm glad that we stay committed to each other. 

I am a believer that we shouldn't try to change our partner but I realized that being with you for such a long time, you have inevitably influenced me. You have inspired me to be ideal. Though you clearly know that you are not good with romantic tricks, you never stop trying to be my ideal partner by making little surprises on special occasions .. just because you knew that I like it.  

You have taught me to be ideal too and to see the good things in people and life.

Thanks for providing many good things and memories in my life.

Thanks for tolerating my bossy behaviour :p 

Thanks for being such a strong pillar of support and showering me with your unwavering love. 

9 years together. From being good friend to dating to being in a relationship to marriage to being parents now...living in a new country and travelling the world with our baby, my life feels complete with you. 

But I believe it's still only the beginning as we have a lifetime to share. There are still so many things that we are going to experience together... I hope that we will continue to complement each other and be each other's support in good times and bad times. 

Thank you for loving me and everything. 

Happy Anniversary!! 

I ❤️ U,

Mommy eve

13 things to do in Athens

To chronicle the memories of our recent Europe trip, I'm finally blogging it down before I forget about everything. 

In my previous travel post, I blogged about our pre trip planning with useful tips on where to book value-for-money flights, accommodations and how to stay connected in Athens, Santorini and Italy. 

Today, I'll start with blogging on our first stop - Athens. 

Sharing with you our travel memories with 13 things to do in Athens. 

Arrival night:

It was night time when we arrived at Athens, we took a cab from the airport to our accommodation. Our host, Evangelic, was a super host. When we arrived at the airport, I texted her and she was fast in responding to my messages. She advised me on the various modes of transport to her accommodation. She was really nice and even agreed to wait for us on the street in case we couldn't locate the place. The taxi fares were indicated at the taxi stand - a flat fee of 38 euro before midnight and 50 euro after midnight. However, after we board onto the cab, the cab driver increased the cab fare and reasoned that the place was very far away and not around the region for this flat fare rate.. bla bla bla. These were all lies for them to earn extra from us. Luckily, after we arrived, our host argued with the driver and we paid him the flat fee. 

Here's my advice for the 13 things to do in Athens 

1. Stay with a local 

We were super glad when we arrived at our accommodation. It was so pretty, spacious and cozy. We were really happy as we got to enjoy our private space with the entire house to ourselves and also the privilege of having a local host who stayed next door that shared travel tips with us. Best of both worlds.

Our host was very helpful and showed us the list of food, eateries and attractions to visit! 

2. Get a local sim card 

The first thing on our list was to visit the Cosmote mobile shop to get a SIM card. We felt handicapped without internet connectivity so it's a must to get on our first day. We bought a 3 GB data plan for 15 Euro (could not remember the amount of talk time and messages as our main interest was the mobile data to access to Internet). 

3. Eat breakfast like a local 

There were many bakeries in Athens and they served local pastries and delights such as Kataifi which are extremely sweet but something that we have to try in Athens.

Throughout our trip in Athens, every morning, we look forward to our breakfast from a local bakery recommended by our host. 

The shop have a wide variety of sweet delights, pastries, cakes, sandwiches and they sell coffee and drinks too. 

4. Visit the Syntagma square 

On our first day, we took a metro to Syntagma where we visited the the Syntagma square and saw the Hellenic parliament.

5. Enjoy nature walk at the National Garden & visit the Zappeio 

On our way to the Temple of Zeus, we walked through the National Garden to hide from the scorching sun. It was peaceful and nice to walk through the park. There were even people mediating and sleeping underneath the trees. 

6. Visit and capture moments at the Temple of Olympiad Zeus 

7. Visit Acropolis Museum before climbing the Acropolis 

It's a MUST DO thing to climb the Acropolis when you visit Athens. 

Acropolis is a historic site which you can climb all the way up to see Pantheon and other historical structures. To make your climb more meaningful, I suggest to visit the Acropolis Museum first. 

At the top floor of the museum, there is video screening of the history of Acropolis. I'll advise you to watch the video as it summarizes the history so it's easier to digest.

Admission fee to the museum is 5 Euro per person. 

Admission fee to Acropolis is 20 Euro

Link to the Acropolis museum: http://www.theacropolismuseum.gr/en

8. Walk and take pictures along the beautiful streets at Plaka area

9. Shop around Plaka, Ermou street and the many streets where I cannot remember the names. 

Walk the area and explore the streets yourselves!

10. Eat souvlaki like a local 

You can never miss having a Souvlaki in Greece. It's a MUST! 

Souvlaki (stick meat) with or without a pita bread. 

Places for Souvlaki: 

Meatropoleos 3
Kolokotroni 39
Kostas at Agia Irini square
Savvas
Tylixto

11. Watch sunset wherever you are 

12. Watch the night view of Acropolis from a rooftop restaurant. 

There are many restaurants near to the Acropolis which allow you to dine at their rooftop for this stunning view. 

Restaurants with rooftop view:

A for Athens
360 Degrees
Cityzen
Couleur Locale

13. Visit the many other historic sites to take more pictures

Other historic sites:

Ancient Agora

Temple of Hephaistos

AgII Apostoli

Stoa of Attalos

Roman Agora

Hadrian's Arch 

With love,

Mommy eve

All photos are credited to Twentysixoctober 

Aedan's Birthday Party in Singapore by SacchaJoy

Hi all,

Recently, we celebrated baby Aedan's 1 yr + 1 mth birthday party in Singapore! The party was a joyful one. It was great to meet our friends and family again after being away from Singapore for some time. There were lots of chit chat and laughters... we talked about our life in Israel, their culture and how different it is from Singapore. During the party, besides catching up on each others' lives and playing with baby Aedan, another thing that caught our guests' attention was the super awesome Batman-Themed Dessert table. 

It was soooo pretty that we couldn't bare to touch the desserts and we took 1001 pictures of it. 

A few days ago, I posted a picture of the dessert table on Facebook/Instagram and have received Facebook messages from readers asking who made it.

I wish I could tell you that I have done it myself but the truth is it was set up by my friend who is the co-founder of SacchaJoy. 

It has been long since I last shared a story of inspiring mommy entrepreneur. Today I'll share with you the story of SacchaJoy! 

Who is SacchaJoy? 

SacchaJoy is an event / party planning company which helps to plan and coordinate events to ensure that it is smooth sailing and memorable. They specialize in baby shower, birthday parties, weddings, ROM and festive parties. As long as you have guests in the house, they are ready to help you create a blast.

Who is the owner?

SacchaJoy is managed by a sister team - Sheryce and Shirlyn.

Sheryce is a mother of 2 boys with a full time career. Shirlyn is my friend who also have a full time job. They are both passionate about event planning and they manage the business together.

What inspired the sisters to set up SacchaJoy?

Sheryce mentioned that it all began when she was planning for her 2nd son's 1st birthday party. She was very excited and eager to hold a memorable party for her boy which everyone would enjoy. She thought it will not be too difficult but when she got down to doing it, she realized that it was much harder than expected. There were so many things to plan and coordinate. It was too time consuming for her since she has a full time job and 2 kids to juggle on top of the daily chores. Luckily, she has her sister who helped her with the planning. 

After going through the planning once, she realised that many parents would face the same issue. It will be easier for parents to find someone who have the experience and expertise to plan the party. Given her own experience and contacts with vendors, Sheryce and Shirlyn started helping other mommies to plan their parties. Every party, they tried to improve on their decorations and concept. Also, being a mommy she understands the needs of mothers and try to make it as hassle free as possible while not forgetting to listen to each mommy's ideas to help them draft their dream dessert table. 

Soon SacchaJoy was established to extend their service to a wider audience and other events.

What're SacchaJoy's future plans?

SacchaJoy aims to expand their events planning to cover more personalized services. They strive to achieve their motto of creating priceless memories for their clients. Some of the services they are working on includes personalised cake smash outfit and baby rompers quilt. You may look up on their Facebook page for more updates. 

What Twentysixoctober thinks about SacchaJoy's service?

Before I engaged my friend, Shirlyn, for help, I thought I could save money and be creative by DIY-ing the dessert table myself. However, having to take care of Aedan, being overwhelmed with the planning of our Europe trip and not being physically in Singapore, it was difficult to plan and purchase items for the party. Luckily, my friend offered to help me so I gladly accepted it. :p

As I was in Israel before the party, I liaised with Shirlyn via whatsapp to discuss on the dessert table decoration and designs. 

1. Understanding the budget 

At the beginning, I told Shirlyn that I do not wish to spend too much for the party. I have opt for a "no-birthday-cake" dessert table as firstly a customized birthday cake can easily cost $200-500. Moreover, I personally think serving cupcake is a better option as it is presentable and requires no cutting to serve. Lastly, the party is not for Aedan's 1 year old birthday. It's more of a belated celebration for friends and family to see him when we are in Singapore. 

2. Theme of the party 

After understanding the budget, we needed to decide on the theme of the party. For me, I have long decided to have a Batman party. The got this idea when we bought a very cute Batman shirt for Aedan at H&M. We thought it will be good if he could wear it during his party. Batman is a pretty cool superhero as well. :) 

I like this Batman's quote: "We fall so that we can learn to pick ourselves up and rise"

I hope Aedan will be able to learn from failure and not be afraid to fall. 

After deciding on the theme of the party, Shirlyn sent me a few sample dessert table designs and we started to draft the idea. 

3. Decide the design for the backdrop 

My initial plan was to use black construction paper to cut out a city landscape and yellow construction paper to draw the light with a Batman logo within. However, Shirlyn suggested a better option which is to print poster design. It's more durable and I could place the poster in Aedan's room as decoration. The end result turn out really well. 

4. Selection of desserts 

SacchaJoy offers a wide variety of desserts selection. You can choose your desserts and the number of pieces depending on the number of guests. My favourites are their customised Aedan's cupcake, strawberry shortcake and batman poppies. They were really pretty and yummy! Many of my guests commented that they like the desserts because they tasted not too sweet. 

5. Design of the memory board 

Initially, I have opt out of having the memory board. However, my friend is very sweet to give it to me as a gift. All I have to do was to give Shirlyn the content to be included on the memory board together with a few pictures of Aedan. The end product was so pretty!! Though there was a small typo (spot the typo) but overall it's still very pretty. On hindsight, this could've been easily avoided if we had requested a soft-copy draft from them to check. 

After the party, I have to say that I am so glad that Shirlyn has helped me! It was so easy on my part as I only need to tell her what I want through whatsapp and the dessert table was so so nicely done. I couldn't ask for more! The cost of her service was not too expensive too. 

This diaper cake was made by me! :)

I heard from many mommies that they took at least one month of planning plus lots of stressful nights to DIY a dessert table. Yes, they managed to save a bit of money but given the time and effort spent...It may be more worth it to get a professional who have the expertise and contacts to do it. Time can be saved for better things and parents can fully enjoy the event without having to worry about coordinating and setting up the dessert table.

As a friends and consumer, I highly recommend her service. 

Discount code: 

We are spreading love to all our readers. If you are interested in their service, you may quote TWENTYSIXOCTOBER to enjoy a 10% off their service and a complimentary A2 memory board/collage foam board. This discount code is valid till 31st Dec 2016.

Plan your next party by contacting Sheryce and Shirlyn through sales@sacchajoy.com

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/sacchajoy/

Instagram: link @Sacchajoy

With love,

Mommy eve