Revamping My Blogger Template

I'm getting a little frustrated trying to widen the the main body of my blog template.

There's too much wasted black wooden panel space that could be utilised well.

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I'm thinking of widening the white main body like this:

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I'm able to widen it but the following problem would occur:

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The flower motif header is fixed at that width and whether widening it or increasing it in proportion would result in the problems mentioned in the image above.

Furthermore, the pink bar with tabs has to fit the main body's width too.

SOLVED!
Also, I'm trying to increase the distance between each widget on the sidebar.

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I find that everything at the side looks kinda squeezed and not very pleasing to the eye. It is not about including too many widgets at my side bar as I've seen so many blogs with spacious and clean sidebar even though they've got many widgets there.

If any of you know how to solve these, kindly leave me a comment. I would really appreciate your help.


On a separate note, did anyone see the Google animation on its home page? I like it when Google does such stuff. No, you won't hear such cute music on google.com. The music and information in the video was added by the person who uploaded the video.

Stuffing Ourselves with Garlic to Ward Off Victoria

In case you don't know, Victoria is the name of one of the evil vampires in Twilight. And no I'm not a twilighter, I just happened to catch part of the movie on Warner TV on cable.

Anyway, does anyone know the name given to fans of Twilight? I've been pondering about this for a while and a search on Google didn't provide me with the latest answer.

Before I trail off topic, I've to clarify that this post is not about Twilight but about GARLICS.

*hears the sigh of die-hard Twilighters and the clicking of the x button at the top right hand corner*

Dear evan had got some discount vouchers for Mad for Garlic and since reviews on that place were favourable, we decided to stuff ourselves and stink our breath with garlic dishes to ward off Victoria that evening.

"Originated in Korea in 2001, Mad For Garlic is one of Korea’s most popular restaurant chains known for its unique and innovative menu with garlic-specialized Italian cuisine served in an atmosphere of medieval European rustic tavern."



We met up with her fiance at the restaurant itself after we were done with camera shopping. (Yes! She got the Canon S95 too, after playing around with mine and realising what a good point and shoot it is.)



The decor is reminiscent of a rustic European tavern.





For main dish, there were pizzas...



and then there were pastas.



For appetizers, we had Dracula Killer which is a dish of soft bread served with garlic cooked in olive oil and anchovies. It was a rather unique dish. I would have loved it better if the garlic was more salty and not so bitter. I've got a soft spot for the soft bread. I'm tired of hurting my very weak teeth trying to gnaw off hard bread at most eateries.



For mains, we had the Calzone Pizza...



...served with garlic dip. I love the dip!



We also had the Garlic Snowing Pizza topped with shrimps and pineapple dice which was one of the recommended dishes.



The snowing pizza was good except for the fact that after eating a few slices, we hoped that the pieces of garlic were chunks of juicy tangy pineapple instead. All the bitter garlic after taste with not much salt was beginning to be a little too overpowering for our tastebuds.

The final mains was Lobster Pasta topped with fish roe.



All the dishes were actually not bad if we were to savour them individually but because they weren't really too salty, the cooked bitter garlic aftertaste was a little overpowering. I guess we ordered too much but still we finished up everything, except some cloves of garlic.

Enough of mouth-watering food shots. Now for some people shots coz we're delicious too ok?

I just trimmed and neaten my hair as you could see how bad my bangs looked in the previous post though it was a little too layered for my liking.



I always marvel at how alike they look! 夫妻相!



Being inspired by Nelah, I shall end this post with an acid jazz tune.

An Earth Hour Outing That Wasn't

Back to updating backdated entries yet again.

On the 26th of March, the night of Earth Hour, tiff, gera and I had wanted to meet for dinner at some eateries that participated in the lights out. Alas, we missed the hour due to everyone's lateness.

If I remember correctly I think gera and I had work and had to go home to change out from work clothes since we were in very warm attire that would not fit the humid weather and a long night out. Our contingency plan was to have steamboat at 国府珍锅 (Guo Fu Steamboat) which is located at China Square Central.



It was the first time I was there but tiff and gera had been there a few times and nodded in agreement that it is a humble place that offers comfort soupy food.





I like the herbal soup base and the beef slice combo that I chose. We each chose different kind of meat so that we could grab some slices from one another. The little side dishes were quite good too.



As I'm typing this, I feel like eating soupy steamboat!

A tacky feature about this place was/is the Santa Claus at the entrance. Pardon the grainy feel of the photo. I've to up the exposure to show all of you the Santa by the entrance. 



It was already March at that time! The reason why I put a choice of "was" and "is" in the sentence above is due to the fact that we returned to that place again in June and the Santa Claus was still there so I'm not sure if it is there still as you know, it's October now and very close to Christmas.

Who needs to watch comedy for laughs when in real life, you have crazy friends like gera and tiff to make me laugh? I was just gonna capture the beautiful night scene of Boat Quay when gera pretended to dive and tiffy followed suit.



That was the first night I was testing out the various functions of my canon S95. I was still a noob then and had a hard time trying to find the right mode to fit the dim lighting. In the end, I've to adjust the ISO on the auto mode and the night shots look grainy as usual.



You know how many girls and ladies have this very useful talent of taking self shots?

Yeah, we had to undergo many trials and errors on our own cameras before we got to the level of taking perfect self shots such that everyone's in the frame. It's the same for this new camera. We took quite a few shots to get us all into the frame.



I think this is the best?



Next, we wanted to go shopping but all major shopping centres were closed by the time it was 12 midnight so where do we head to but MUSTAFA where we met up with zanne, jq and his friend!

I love that place! Despite catering mostly to the Indian residents, lots of locals, expatriates and tourists alike love the shopping experience there. In Mustafa, you won't have an inkling how late the night is as at 2am everyone seemed to be shopping as though it was only 9pm.



I bought 2 very classic DVDs there at only $6.90 each. One was War and Peace with cast like Audrey Hepburn, Henry Fonda and Mel Ferrer. The other was The Last Time I Saw Paris with Elizabeth Taylor and Van Johnson. I'm not too sure about the quality as I haven't watched them yet.



At 3am, the boys were hungry so we headed to Scissor-Cut Curry Rice for supper. What a mouthful of a name!



While the boy ate, the girls not only pinched food from them but also amused ourselves silly with this FatBooth iPhone application.

My fat looks transformation is quite credible eh?



Tiff and gera's faces look a little outta shape.



Zanne too and jq too. I guess it's the angle.



All of us laughed at jq's friend coz his fat transformation looked genuinely credible, like if we did not know him and know his thin self, we would really believe that his fat self exists. I'm not too sure if I'm making myself clear here.



At 5am, we decided to call it a day and headed back home with eyes wide opened.

I move back to my maiden home that time with only 6 sets of work clothes and outing clothes combined thinking that I was only going to stay for a week. I stayed for a month till the hubby came home from overseas and so I've to raid my sister's wardrobe for casual clothes.It's really funny coz I raided her wardrobe to find MY clothes inside so here's what I wore that night.

♥ Alano plaid shirt
♥ Alano wool shorts
♥ vintagey-looking crossbody sling bag from Far East Plaza.

How's that for looking retro and village-like to fit into the theme of no-lights-that-night outing?



The shoes on the rack and the shoe boxes do not belong to me. My mother has conveniently converted part of my room to her shoe walk-in closet. How nice would it be if I had a daughter moving out so that I could convert her room into my walk-in closet too!

Nails, Lace, Satins & Bows

Remember my post about Clara's farewell?

Yay for Melbourne dwellers coz Clara H Fabulous Nails is now opened in Melbourne officially!



For yet more information and gallery of her works, go to clarahnails.com now!


~~~

Another dear friend of mine, Regina, was given the opportunity to design her dream dress as part of the ClubCouture ambassadorship program. If you like what you see and have a Facebook account, click here to vote for her by liking the photo.



A total of 5 designs have been submitted by the respective ClubCouture ambassadors and the top 2 designs will eventually be manufactured by ClubCouture! One lucky voter per dress will also win the dress they voted for. I personally love the combination of pink and black as well as satin and lace so this is a definite choice for me. Voting ends on 17 October.

For those who remember me being an ambassador for ClubCouture as well, I need to announce that I'm no longer an ambassador due to some personal issues. Though it was only for a short period of time, it has been a great pleasure working with the lovely team at ClubCouture.

I did draw out some sketches of my dress too and I may or may not be sharing them on my blog coz you know I'm no fashion designer and I can't capture texture very well. I'm not so sure if my sketches would be laughed at. I'll see how it goes.

Gathering for a buffet spread

Back to updating backdated entries!

Looking at my March 2011 folder, I realised that I've got only a few albums and I cannot remember lots of events that happened then. This is what happens when my camera died totally and it also goes to show how reliant I am on a camera in capturing the moments in images and for documenting these memories in words.

Some time in March this year, a bunch of colleagues from the same zone gathered for a buffet lunch at Merchant Court Ellenborough Market Cafe on our common off day.

That was the first time I made an appearance when it came to such gatherings of zones. In the past, my off days were always spent giving 2 to 3 sessions of tuition. I had to make an exception this time as it was a gathering cum farewell for one of my colleague whom I had great working relationship at the branch.

The following photos are taken from my tagged photos on Facebook.



It was a pretty huge turn out.



While updating this post, I realised that for one of the rare occasions, I do not have photos of the food! All the photos are in viv's camera and I did not even get them from her till now.

I've been to Ellenborough Market Cafe twice before this and you can see more of the food spread here and here.

Here's what I wore:
♥ Tokyo Fashion double layer flutter sleeves dress





I'm sure you're wise enough to know that the model above isn't me.

Accessories:
♥ Green Petals bird and flower necklace
♥ DMK nude chunky heels/ clogs



As you can see from the outfit photo above:

1. I seriously don't look as good as the model in that dress.


2. The dress looks a tad sheer and lightweight.
I've to wear a pair of shorts underneath just in case a gust of wind blew.

3. I've gotten my Canon S95 to replace Fujifilm Loyal Pink Bimbo.
I felt so handicapped without a camera that I just had to head down to buy a camera after the buffet.

4. If you're observant enough, you would also see that the background of my mirror outfit shots look different.
I moved back to my maiden home when the hubby was overseas at that time and that's my bedroom with the many bottles of Absolute Vodka (not mine ok?) lining the headboard.

Since you've seen a little of my bedroom from the mirror, I'll let you in on one more view of my room -- the ceiling.

The collection of vodka which signifies someone of legal age to drink is a stark contrast to the ceiling of my room which seems to hint at a child's room.

Glow-in-the-dark stars and planets dusted the path from the door to the the light in what I imagined as the "blackhole".



I put these childish stuff up when I was still in school and even though I've outgrown them, I would not want to waste time and effort climbing up and down the ladder taking them down. Maybe my future kids would love to visit my parents' place coz of these glow-in-the-dark stars.

I'm a little too used to updating events by the month on my blog and since I've switched to updating events as each individual event for 2011, I find myself writing about so many random stuff that trails off topic.