Vote For The Best Cover Child & Parent

SMS to 77688 who you want to appear on the cover of Today’s Parents magazine — plus, a bunch of family activities on 13 July

FOR six weekends in a row last March and April, Today’s Parents magazine scoured the island for the most infectious smile, and the most endearing father-and-child or mother-and-child pairs.

Those participants have now been shortlisted to 18 finalists and you can now help the magazine decide on who will be named the CANON Cover Child, Cherie Hearts Cover Mother & Child, and OCBC Cover Father & Child. They are looking for one grand winner per category to put on the cover.

Read more about how to vote for the best cover child and parent.

Want Some American Idol Soup?

It’s a mixture of good and bland, actually.
By Fiona Poh
Photos from www.chickensoup.com

The ever-popular TV talent-search series American Idol has found another way to milk its appeal and is now making soup. Not literally, of course, because Chicken Soup for the American Idol Soul is just another book in the uplifting Chicken Soup series. Though this edition is about a reality TV series, it seems too tightly entwined with the fantasies of American Idol to be totally believable.

First season finalist Jim Verraros’s “The Impossible Dream” is both memorable and touching. He writes about his parents and the sad fact that they’ll never hear him sing. “I wouldn’t trade them for all the hearing parents in the world, but sometimes I dream that one day, by some miracle, I could pick up the phone and say ‘I love you’ without an interpreter in the middle,” he writes.

Speaking like a character out of a Disney production, Verraros is still optimistic, however, because “impossible things happen every day”.

Read more about Chicken Soup for the American Idol Soul.

25 °C Is Hot

Every month, this restaurant/bookshop in Chinatown recreates a recipe from one of the many cookbooks they’re selling — this May it’s miso-steak by lifestyle guru Harumi Kurihara, regarded as Japan’s Martha Stewart
By James P. Ong

WE’VE all heard the story before: friends who love food so much they decide to open a restaurant and café. For sure, it’s not a new trend, and definitely, it’s not an original idea. But to be able to create a restaurant that’s both original and trendy — well, that’s something we’ll always welcome in Singapore.

At 25 degree Celsius in Chinatown, which opened six months ago, owners Sally Tsai and Karin Chan have hit upon a brilliant idea: a bookstore and dining outlet that also happens to be a test kitchen.

Read more on this food review.

Orchard Road’s best-kept secret shop – yet

Get your cutest knick knacks here this weekend
by Mavis Ang

IF YOU’RE looking for a bookstore along Orchard Road, only two names come to mind: Borders and Kinokuniya. Too predictable? The quintessentially quirky shoppers can now forget about those two because there’s WoodWould.

“We wanted it to feel like your grandmother’s house, where you can find all sorts of hidden treasures,” WoodWould owner Grace Ng quips. “You know how most bookstores are pretty standard and boring? We tried as much to stay away from that idea.”

Most of WoodWould’s products are imported from USA, Japan, and Korea, so you can feast your eyes on unique journals, planners, graphic books and cards, and gift items which previously could only be bought online.

When it comes to indie brands and items, most Internet-savvy Singaporeans would go to online shops and pay costly shipments. Now that WoodWould has brought in unusual stationery for all to see, touch, and feel, shoppers can now buy them over the counter easily.

Read more about this specialty shop on Orchard Road.

Click and Shop

Now you can do all the shopping without the walking. Just some clicking will suffice.
By Ronald Wan

The malls are increasing and the shops and boutiques are endless. There’s a plethora of choices to satisfy your fashion needs. You want a pair of skinny jeans; you can get it at Gap. You want a loud striped shirt; you can get it at Paul Smith. You want nice lingerie, you can get it at La Senza. So, what else is left?

For some people, they just can’t find what they want at the malls. You would be surprised. At the malls are big label boutiques that churn out stuff in bulks that probably someone else is wearing it too. If you want to be different and unique, we probably won’t find you in a mall. You should be hunting for good buys at one of the shops at Haji Lane, Amoy Street or you guessed it right – online websites.

The last we checked, many people are burning their credit card online, shopping at any imaginable site, from obscure blogs and websites to Amazon. What’s the real deal here? Are the products safe and usable? If we can’t feel it, should we buy it? Is it safe to give credit card details online? Put these questions and shop at your own risk. There’s where the fun is. You click. You buy. It’s a free world out there, even on the Internet highway. We feature three local sites where girls are flocking to for their irresistible buys.

La Piccola Donna
La Piccola Donna means The Little Woman in Italian, but it isn’t a hot Italian woman behind the site. Darn. Instead, we have Aileen Yang, a local Singaporean girl setting up the site to sell vintage accessories and contemporary dresses. The clothes are brought in from a local supplier and the accessories from the States. The dresses are especially feminine, with floral prints a main feature and perhaps to celebrate the little woman spirit. Accessories include the vintage necklaces, which are the bestseller. For those with a taste for something girly, like a little woman as the name suggests, do check out this site (includes mailing list).

Bonito Chico
The dresses here are sold like hotcakes on a Sunday morning. One gets the impression that most of the dresses sold here are party dresses you will wear to a Saturday’s night out. It’s popular with the young working girls (the site name means pretty girl) and especially those with extra credit to burn, because there are even designer shoes (Stuart Weitzman) and shades (Marc Jacobs) sold here. Set up by three girls, Vel, Rach and Lin, the site is conveniently equipped with a mailing list. And for boys hoping for some eye candy on the site, the models used here are faceless, so in other words, forget about it.

Glamz Style
We suspect the duo (Juliana & Weixing) behind the site are students studying in a business faculty or are in some marketing job, because they dangle carrots like 10% discount and shopping sprees (read: massive sales) for her customers. Very entrepreneurial indeed. The clothes here are from Taiwan and Korea, a variety of babydoll dresses, ruffles tops, cropped shorts and the likes of leggings and what’s hot in those Taiwanese magazines.

8 Tricks (And Treats) For The Home-bound

SO YOU don’t feel like going out because you can’t find the right costume. Fret not, there are plenty of things you can do to celebrate Halloween at home.

1. Make your own Ouija board. If you want, you can also buy the original Parker Brothers board at the local bookstore, but experts swear the spirits prefer to patronise something more personalised. So make one with your friends. By the way, a ouija (pronounced “wee-jah”), as defined by Wikipedia, “is any flat surface printed with letters, numbers, and other symbols, to which a planchette or movable indicator points, supposedly in answer to questions from people at a séance. The fingers of the participants are placed on the planchette that then moves about the board to spell out messages.”
2. Get a tarot card reading. The eve of Halloween is said to be an auspicious day to communicate with the spirits, because that’s the time when they freely roam the streets and the skies. Book early and gather round a group of friends so you can all pitch in for the cost of asking the psychic for home service.
3. Hold a Halloween B movie Marathon. I know what you did last Halloween — and if you don’t want to embarrass yourself again this year, we suggest you stay home and go on a movie marathon. Classic titles you can borrow from the library of friendly neighborhood movie rental store: Rosemary’s Baby, Friday the 13^th, Amityville Horror and Damon.
4. Cook scary food. Pick a theme, like axes, and pick out 4 ultra B-movies that involve axes. Or a couple of titles that show a lot of blood in them, then you can plan your snacks around blood-coloured food. Like gazpacho, tomato juice, laksa.
5. Go online and play a game. We’re sure there’s something interesting there, somewhere. Or go to a chat room and use a scary handle like Frankenstein, Gollum or Lucifer. If someone asks for your intro, say Go To Hell.
6. Change your desktop. Bring out the Paint software and sketch something scary (like your favorite gym teacher) and post it in your computer. Keep restarting your personal computer.
7. Host a murder. This is a popular game where you invite friends for dinner three weeks ahead of time so they can learn their roles and look for costumes. At dinner, they come as different personalities (and they’re not allowed to revert to who they really are) and you, the host, narrates the evening’s plot: one of the guests at the dinner table is about to die – and the killer is among the guests. Guess who he/she is! The game set is available in local bookstores. If you want a simpler whodunit game, you can also try Cluedo.
8. Read scary poetry. “Bushes quiver where shadows lean/And not a sliver of moon is seen…” If you’re a total nerd, go in front of the mirror, hold a candle under your chin, and recite a horror poem. Let’s see if by the end of your soliloquy you see someone else listening to your performance.

8 Self-Help Books to Improve your Relationships

LADIES might get their monthly relationship advise from fashion magazines, but 88DB recommends these eight self-help books to both sexes. For women, it is definitely more in depth than all the fluffy relationship columns, and for guys, stop thinking it’s embarrassing to read this stuff. You’ll never know until you try.

1. The Seven Levels of Intimacy: The Art of Loving and the Joy of Being Loved by Matthew Kelly
   Kelly begins his book with a statement: Sex is not intimacy. The first half of the book discuss factors that are not considered forms of intimacy. Then proceeds to Kelly’s seven levels of intimacy: facts, opinions, hopes and dreams, feelings, faults, fears and failures, and legitimate needs. It would be a greater impact for you if this book is read with your partner.
2. Weekend Love Coach: How to get the love you want in 48 hours by Lynda Field
   More like a magazine, Weekend Love Coach is written in a friendly tone, and features tips, questionnaires, and even celebrity case studies. Field is Cosmopolitan’s resident Life Coach, so you ladies can be sure to trust her views.
3. The Secret of Staying in Love: Loving Relationships through Communication by John Powell
   This book focuses heavily on how loving yourself would enable you to improve relationships with your partner, family, or friend. Although written by a priest, The Secret of Staying in Love has minimal religious references, and is effortless to read. Powell strongly encourages deep introspection and self-love through his pages, so be ready for an insightful outlook of yourself.
4. Sex & Love for Grownups: A No-Nonsense Guide to a Life of Passion by Sallie Foley
   Written in a Q&A format, Sex & Love for Grownups is humourous, amusing, and fun. Foley assesses relationship problems, then provides a step by step guide to go about solving it. As the title suggests, this book is meant for those in the 40s and up.
5. Addiction To Love: Overcoming Obsession And Dependency in Relationships by Susan Peabody
   A recovering love addict herself, Peabody explores the different situations in which love addicts find themselves in, and presents a recovery program to save yourself from anymore emotional harm. She also reveals this damaging addiction can involve relationships with family members and friends as well.
6. How to Live with a Man… And Love It! by Jennifer Worick
   Unlike all the serious self-help manuals, this retro themed one is more for entertainment purposes rather than serious problem solving. If you don’t read into all the sexist statements and idealistic ideas, this book does provide practical solutions too. Its 50s inspired designs and images is easy on the eyes, which makes it an excellent gift too!
7. Getting the Love You Want: A Guide for Couples by Harville Hendrix
   As a couples counselor, Hendrix’s divorce wounded him awfully, so he started exploring the technical aspects of love through this book. Through interesting case studies depicting the psychology of love and major problems in marriages, Hendrix provides valuable advice as more of a therapist than an author.
8. When You Love A Man Who Loves Himself: How to Deal with a One-Way Relationship by W. Keith Campbell
   So you think you’ve bagged the best looking charmer in town? You might want to give this book a go before you start suffering in the relationship. Campbell identifies the traits of common narcissists, describes how they view their relationships, and reasons why women are so attracted them. This well researched piece also recommends methods for ladies to stay well away from narcissists.