Happy New Year 2026!

Happy New Year to all my readers! May 2026 be as bright like the flowering maples! Wishing you a Joyous, Healthy and Prosperous 2026!

Into the Modern: Impressionism at Singapore National Gallery

I visited National Gallery early this month for the Into teh Modern:Impressionism from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the largest French Impressionist exhibition in Southeast Asia. To see more images, visit Blooming Flowers and Arts blog here. 

https://bloomingflowersnarts.blogspot.com/2025/12/impressionism-into-modern-exhibition-at.html

Sweet Durians!

I like the sweet tasty durian. Taste is subjective. Some people find the smell from durians pungent but I find it fragrant. Yesterday we had lots of sweet creamy durians. There was great durian promotion yesterday near my home.

World 's Highest Food Forest Garden 世界最高食林空中花园

Explore the World's Highest Food Forest garden with over 150 varieties of herbs, fruits, vegetables and flowers at 1-Arden Sky Garden located Singapore CapitaSpring level 51 with stunning panoramic city view. 

Great news for visitors, this is free attraction but you do need to make reservation first before visiting. Visit 1-Arden Sky Garden for more information and to book a slot for garden admission here .

At CapitaSpring

Nearest MRT station: Raffles Place MRT station

Visit Blooming Flowers and Arts Blog for more flowers updates here. https://bloomingflowersnarts.blogspot.com/

 

Happy Winter Solstice 2025 冬至快乐

Happy Winter Solstice 2025. I like tangyuan or glutinous rice balls with black sesame seed filling. What about you? 2025年冬至快乐。我喜欢黑芝麻汤圆，你呢？

First Botanic Garden in Singapore 新加坡首个植物园

Do you know the location of first botanic garden in Singapore? You can visit the blog here or watch the video to find out. 

Like and subscribe Blooming Flowers channel for update. 

Delicious Food at Tampines West

There are many coffee shops in Tampines West, about 10 great coffee shops. I'll share 8 coffee shops in Tampines West.  I enjoy their food for many years and normally buy take-away as I prefer to eat at home. Let's see the various coffee shops from different blocks in Tampines West.

1) Blk 823A: Zichar stall (this is the best zichar stall as I like their fried bee Hoon), Western food stall, popiah, chicken rice stall.

2) Blk 824: Popular dry prawn noodles from the Soon Soon prawn noodles stall as noodles are springy and chilli sauce is great. 

3) Blk 826: Ah Hua's Kitchen Econ Bee Hoon and Nasi Lemak and Face Ban Mian  

4) Blk 827: Affordable and tasty Dim sum stall that opened in 2023. There is a popular Teochew porriage stall.

5) Blk 828: Great curry puffs from Have A Puff, AMCM Ah Ma Fishball noodle, Fried Hokkien mee and 828 Bee Hoon and Nasi Lemak

6) Blk 829: Wanton Noodles and Chicken rice stall.

7) Blk 844: Popular fried Hokkien Noodles and prawn crackers.

8) Tampines Central Community Club Chang Cheng coffee shop: Fishball noodles

I like Ah Ma fishball noodles at Tampines Blk 828. I added more black vinegar sauce and tomato sauce at home. 

The curry puffs are good too. At Tampines Blk 828.

Face Ban Mian at Tampines Blk 826, try their signature dry ban Mian.

 Blk 823A has the best Zi char stall. 

At Tampines Blk 826. This is a popular fried bee Hoon and nasi lemak stall for years.

Vegetarian Nature Cafe at SMU

My friend and I enjoyed the vegetarian dishes at vegetarian cafe, Nature Cafe at Singapore Management University. I like to eat vegetarian food as I don't feel so guilty eating meat. I do think if everyone of us just reduce meat intake and have more vegetarian food, there be less suffering for animals. 

I don't eat beef and lamb. I mostly eat seafood and am trying to cut down on meat. It would be good if vegetarian food are at affordable prices to attract more people to eat vegetarian food. I think the promotion set is quite affordable.

Baked mushroom pasta

 

Majestic King Protea Flowers

 Read the latest update from Blooming Flowers and Arts blog here.

Like and subscribe to my awesome Blooming Flowers channel. 

Early Tweets From Trump

Love him or hate him, you can't ignore him. While looking through the magazines amidst clearing my bookshelf, I saw this interesting page from 2017 Forbes Asia 100th anniversary issue. 

Books Sold Finally! Thank You!

I just want to say a Big Thank You to my friend who brought my books. To be honest I didn't expect my friend to buy all four books that I published. I thought it would be great if she just buy one book. I was wondering if I should continue as there was no sales for the past two weeks. I also want to say big thank you to someone who brought the weekly planner. 

Anyway, I plan to launch another sketch book but this time, it will be on premium colour as photographs are clearer and paper thicker. Ink pen can be used on the paper without impacting the other side of the page. For the current sketch book which is printed with standard colour, only pencils and colour pencils are suitable. 

The following are books I published with Amazon KDP. 

1) Where Flowers Bloom, Wonder Grows. (More than 138 stunning flower photographs) Click here to buy. 

2) Let's Sketch Flowers! Discover The Joy of Sketching! (108 Breathtaking Floral Photographs) Click here to buy. 

3) Weekly Planner and Journal With Floral Photography. Click here to buy. 

4) Blooming Flowers (Flower photographs) Click here to buy

For current sketch book, Let's Sketch Flowers! There are flower photographs at the top and empty space for you to sketch. You can use pencils and colour pencils to draw on it. Ink pen will affect the other side of the page. Just have fun sketching and be creative. I just sketched and played with various design elements like lines and shapes as shown above. I will release another sketch book that will use premium colour but this time there be no blank pages and all pages will be filled with photographs for reference and inspiration.

Like and Subscribe to my awesome flower channel.

Latest Song by Jay Chou : Forever Forever

Finally Jay Chou has composed and  released new song, titled Forever Forever. This song is a collaboration with Mayday Ashin and three members from the popular F4. Jay Chou is truly King of Mandopop who has composed and sang many memorable songs. My favourite songs include 七里香 Qi Li Xiang. 

Forever Forever

My Published Books Arrived!

I ordered books that I published last month via Amazon and they finally arrived! I wanted to see how it look like first and what are the differences in delivery packages for author copies and for customers.

I like the flower photography book, Where Flowers Bloom, Wonder Grows as images are of higher quality as the interior is premium colour with white paper. I use it as an inspiration when I sketch and also just looking at flowers make me happy. The other books such as Let's Sketch Flowers and Weekly planner interior use standard colour with white paper. 

These books are great gifts for flowers, nature lovers and artists! You can order from Amazon website now. From Amazon site, I see that there is free delivery for purchase above S$60.00.

You can buy the following books from Amazon website. Friends, if you ordered you can update me.

1) Where Flowers Bloom, Wonder Grows. Size of book: 8x10 inches. Click here to buy. Premium colour at $23.80 USD

2) Let's Sketch Flowers! Discover The Joy of Sketching! (108 Breathtaking Floral Photographs) Size of book: 8x10 inches. 

Click here to buy Standard colour interior at $19.80 USD. 

Click here to buy Premium colour interior at $24.80 USD

3) Weekly Planner and Journal With Floral Photography. Size: 7.5x9.f25 inches. Click here to buy. Standard colour at #18.90 USD

4) Blooming Flowers Beautiful flower photos for inspiration. Size: 6.14x9.21 inches. Click here to buy paperback at US$12.90.

Kindle ebook is available here at $5.80 USD.  

All Books arrived.

Where Flowers Bloom, Wonders Grows flower photography book is great gift for flower and nature lovers. Also great inspiration for artists and designers. Images are clear and vibrant. The interior is premium colour with white paper.

You can sketch and doodle. The interior here is standard colour with white paper.

Weekly planner interior is standard colour with white paper.

Spring Cleaning: Surprising Finds

Finally cleared the small bookshelf after three days of looking through the magazines and books. I felt so good after clearing the shelves as I just keep those magazines that are inspiring and interesting. I normally look through all magazines first and just tear away those advertisement pages or anything not relevant. I find Home & Decor and SquareRooms magazines great with interesting and informative content so I still keep some of the magazines. Home & Decor is no longer available monthly but now they have annual magazines on different parts of the home like living room and bedroom editions. In a way I think is good as I realise that most of the topics are quite similar like floor tiles comparison, types of kitchen layouts or different styles. I can also save money.

While flipping through the pages of magazines I saw some interesting information as shown below. I also rediscovered some great magazines that are no longer in print and cease publication like Simply Her and Vanilla.

I still keep Elle magazine as it has interesting idea whereby you can change the costumes of the model by turning the pages. 

I love hardcopy books and magazines as I find reading online unhealthy for eyes. It is better to have hardcopy magazine as information is kept intact. Sometimes information might be removed online or magazine might just cease publication.

The pages are divided to 3 parts so you can change the costumes of the model. Very interesting and good idea. I value this magazine as it involved more processes to produce and this is the only magazine I see so far with this interesting concept and implementation. 

This is from Home & Decor magazine 2007 on the HDB flats prices in various parts of Singapore. What is the price difference now?

Should I throw this book away? Papers have turned yellow. 

Very messy.

All these magazines are no longer in print except for Home & Decor.

These magazines are no longer available. I find the content quite inspiring and interesting so I still keep a few copies. Anyway they are no longer available so you can't buy these female magazines. 

MacDonald Blind Box

 I rarely eat McDonald food. Today is an exception as I want the pocket pouch of iconic MacDonald character. These MacDonald characters were quite popular during my childhood.

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Another Blog

This blog is about joy.  Another blog is about my opinions on serious topic. If you want read, you can read my latest post here. If not, you can ignore. Now I will separate happy topics and not so happy posts in two separate blogs.