The Best of Them All

Life is a many splendor thing.
There at the end of the sea is the sun setting and over the mountains the same rises.
In each event gloriously extending it's rays to melt one's heart.
Spring brings forth beautiful flowers and the grandest of patterns, in such vibrant colors and sweetest floral fragrance.
The breeze soothingly touching my cheeks, cool yet heart-warming.

Life is a many splendor thing experienced in the delight of opening  a ribboned-christmas present or the nostalgic feeling in hearing  songs from the not-so-distant-past.
Reminiscing the good laughs with close friends and all the wondrous moment.
Even more so with the comfort of the heavenly bar of chocolate in the middle of a rush hour and a cup of coffee on cold snowy winter.

Life is a many splendor thing through wonderful people we meet throughout our lifetime.
 It is in each moment with a child and the joy of it's innocence.
Through the music and stories that inspires us.
Life is a many splendor thing....

AND THE BEST OF THEM ALL is with each moment  spent with you.
When we laugh together out of mere silliness and corny jokes.
It is at it's best in every long drive's conversation about life and others.
Life is at it's best each night when you hold me so close to you after kissing me goodnight.
All the more with each text message reminding me of your love.
Your hug soothens me on bad days as it assures me on tearful moments.

And the best of them all is waking up each morning knowing that beside me is a greater cause to pursue more of life. 

I wrote this one in March 13, 2008, 12:29 AM

The Cake Baking Bug

 In 2012, I caught the baking bug and did so quite terribly! It crept up on me as though its been lingering around for years while in reality I had no desire to learn how to bake whatsoever up until a specific event. A friend's birthday was coming and as promised, I pulled together a nice dinner at home. Of course, what special meal doesn't have dessert? As I always am, random thoughts pops right through my head and viola-- I jump right to it! I thought a homemade birthday cake would be such a treat. So, here it is! The mother goose, the maiden cake, the beginning of this new and expensive hobby.

Prior to this day, I have never baked a cake in my life. And with that picture above, it is easy to guess my personality. When I get started with something, I can get obsessive and I like to go big. The cake is nothing more than a boxed cake and boxed icing. I became very ambitious with the fondant though. All it took was a few hours of Youtube instructions on fondants and here it is.

A few months came and went, I thought my baking days were long history until Hobby Lobby posted a Cake Decorating Class for cheap with a huge word "Fondant" on that poster. What can I say, it spoke to me like the Phantom of the Opera to Christine. I signed up for the class not knowing that all the tools was going to cost me a fortune. So after the first class, I dropped out and decided to teach myself.

My husband's birthday was coming up and so was my Dad's. Initially, I was so ambitious as to think I can do a Jordan Shoe-carved cake. I prepared and studied for few weeks until reality sets it: it would be disastrous for me to try it on my second attempt at cake. Its far too ambitious. So instead, I settled for a Jordan Shoe Box.

Did I honestly think I could pull a carved-shoe-cake? Thank goodness, I came to my senses because as you can see on this simple box concept, I barely made it look decent. Black fondant was so difficult to deal with without the right tools. Because of my naivete, I brushed the fondant with water to brush away the white spots from the corn starch. I will guarantee you, that's a lesson well learned for me! My husband is kind enough to appreciate me.

So that was cake number 2. Just 2 weeks after my husband's is my dad's birthday. This time, I've learned to keep the concept at my level of expertise--which is NOT AT ALL! My dad plays chess as a hobby so I decided to make him a chess-inspired cake. Unfortunately, I have little amount of fondants left so I made him half a chess board. Proudly, the royal icing is homemade. This time, with much research, I've learned an upside-down way of icing to make the top icing smooth.

Around this time, my confidence level has gone up. I dared to make cakes numbers 3 and 4. My nephew and Mom's birthday are both on December 1st. With my apron on, 2 cakes were made in 1 weekend. Not bad for a novice as myself.

My nephew is obsessed with superheros specifically Ironman. Back to my ol' faithful friend- Youtube for some superhero cake tutorials.

I cut up a template of Ironman's mask and use it to outline this. Clearly, momentum is on my side so I skipped on the boxed icing and whipped a chocolate frosting-homemade. The cake bug certainly is getting bigger!

With the red and yellow fondant leftovers, I found a design online to copy and here it is!

I took this to the church my parents are members of. Coincidentally, they have a big gathering that day. I must say, the cake became the centerpiece. You can imagine my ego growing taller than the ceiling and I became even more ambitious, hahaha....

Whew, way too much baking in a span of a month. I was about to take a break from this new addiction when my husband's cousin announced her wedding in 3 weeks. Well, well, well.. an opportunity presented itself so sweetly to my ego. I presented myself to make the couple's wedding cake.

This time, I bought most of the tools I need for the visually-simplistic-design yet daunting-to-make wedding cake. The theme was pink and stargazer lilies.

Each flower will take close to 45 minutes to finish. I did 2 flowers a night for 3 nights. The lilies are made of gumpaste and edible colors. Wilton became my best friend instantly. They have a detailed tutorial in making the lilies.

In my journey so far, I focused a lot in working with fondant. So what if the cake didn't taste good so as long as looks good. This time, however, is different. About 50 people will get a bite of my cake. Before finalizing the flavors, I invited the couple for a cake tasting at home. This time, no more boxed mixes and icing. They are all homemade from scratch.

From left to right: strawberry cake with raspberry frosting, double chocolate cake with espresso frosting, pink champagne cake with cream cheese frosting and white almond classic cake with royal almond frosting. They're about 5 inches big that the bride-to-be happily brought the leftover cakes to her co-workers. There's no way those cake is staying at home after a month of baking marathon. I've had enough cake to last me another month.

The winner: Double Chocolate Cake with Expresso Frosting for the bottom layer and Pink Champagne Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting for the smaller top layer.

I made the cake the day before the wedding and brought it with me undecorated. Those lilies dried up so fast and are so fragile. I placed them right before the wedding started. Here it is, my first official wedding cake with a lego topper. 

Here I am with such huge smile for my first successful cake!

My husband's cousin decorated this dessert bar. She is so artistic and did a marvelous job in putting this all together. Those cake pops are to die for. On the other side, is my cake and french macarons. Now those cookies are a whole new story! They are heaven in a bite but are super temperamental. I'll save my whining for next blog regarding french macarons.

That's about all the cakes I can handle in 2012 especially with my business taking off at the same time. I haven't made a single cake in 2013 but keeping my eyes open to opportunities. If you're reading this, I beg you to let me do your next cake! lol...

Last year sprung a whole new passion within me-- baking cakes and pastries. I have hopes to someday become a pastry chef and open my own bakery. Let's see how that unfolds, if it will ever do. As for right now, I am happily laboring down hours of this time-consuming hobby! In each whip, I find myself on a whole different world- a much happier world!

Here's to life lived with passion!

The Goal Boards

My eyes were opened to a whole new world in April of last year. Being new business owners, my husband and I became more and more sensitive to personal development. We signed up for an intro class to Stock Market through Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad Education. From then on, our journey to personal development commenced. Our lives has changed drastically since!

In just less than a year, Marlon and I had the great privilege of seeing a few power individuals speak. Inspiring people with such inspiring journey to success such as Toni Robbins, Robert and Kim Kiyosaki, Donald Trump and T. Hav Eker. We've learned so much about principles of success. Unfortunately, my life has a clear pattern of being a jack of all trades and a master of none. Fortunately, of anything-if anything, I know I am an excellent student.

In devouring books, audio books attending and listening to recorded seminar, I've realized one of the most foundational concept in achieving massive success in life is setting intentions. Some call it setting goals or vision, I personally prefer to use the word intentions as the word "goal" is overused and ever so commonly unmet. Setting intentions simply mean knowing exactly what you want to accomplish and intending to do so.

Marlon and I went right to the drawing board. We discussed what it is that we wanted out of life in general. From that broad concept, we broke it down to the very specifics. What better way to start setting your intentions than to make it visual. Often, people term it "vision boards" but with my observation from my friends' vision boards, they are often sporadic and abstract. Typically in vision boards, you will see abstract pictures of happiness, joy, love, money, freedom, health and so forth. All of these--I also want but the challenge is it doesn't outline exactly how to achieve it. So we've decided to create a more focused intention board.

Geared with my arts and crafts tools, with what little I had, I got right started. Above are pictures of our intention boards with different focus. On top, is our Passive Monthly Cashflow intentions for 5-year plan. It is clear that Marlon and I wanted to become first debt-free then become financial-free to have the freedom to create wealth. In each year, we outlined specifically how much passive monthly income we want and what vehicles do we use to achieve it.

On the bottom left picture is our business's intention board for 2013. I outlined the monthly and daily breakdown of our goals and making an emphasis on how many people we will serve. I've learned this from Robert Kiyosiki to shift the focus from the amount of money to the number of people we help. It's been a paradigm shift that allows us to grow our business in the direction we want while all at once feeling more fulfilled in knowing that we are adding value to the lives of others.

The bottom right box is my intention board for my business last year. Because we were a startup business with initially zero contact, I set the intention of fully taking over our  county and become the premier provider. I left out blank spots to write down each account I close. I am glad to say that our intentions were met when 2012 ended.

Since April 2012, in just a matter of months, I am very humbled and proud to say that we became debt-free and financially free. Truly, there is POWER IN SETTING INTENTIONS. Of course, our journey did not just magically happen after setting our goals. We had to fully commit ourselves to the idea and work smart and hard. What's very important though is to identify what you want and take the first step.

This year is still early. I encourage you to set goals for 2013 that are specific. Use a vision board if you must, it certainly helped me propel my business to the direction I want it to. Set your intentions, take the first step, commit to it and know that the rest will reveal itself to you. Setting clear intentions is perhaps one of the most powerful act you can do to drastically change your life.

Cheers!