I'm a full-time mummy

Oh yeah again! It seems that even as a full-time mummy, I still get to review awesome music as well! Anywho, I was pleasantly surprised when David of Lafamos PR and Branding contacted me (I mean, seriously, ME??!) to do a music review for one of the artist he's working with now. So without further ado, here goes my review:

Excerpts from Darius Lux's official bio:

"A multi-instrumentalist, a producer, and a performer came back as a free-thinker, a philosopher, and an inspirational lyricist. Combining his appreciation of 60s songwriting, 70s soul, 80s pop and 90s hip-hop into a current mix of soulful, rock-edged pop tunes, Darius Lux found his voice on his debut record “Arise”. He now takes us and his band to the streets of LA for his new EP, "Time is Now."

Darius' music is a statement describing how we can take control of our lives. “For each one of us, life can be full of different fears, but we have to remember that fear is a choice. When we decide we don’t want fear and we have chosen to believe in ourselves instead, we find that we begin to receive the things in life we’ve hoped for.” Darius is currently gigging in Southern California with his band and living his life against the grain - with every spirited note he plays; he urges us to do the same."

"Tah! Tah!" - these words immediately spewed out from Ben's mouth the moment we saw the picture of Darius Lux with a guitar next to him. You guys really have a way to make toddlers attracted to music nowadays huh?! Just kidding! Anyway, back to my feedback:

* ALBUM COVER - Love the guitar next to him, love the creative title with the clock (though I'd prefer it not to be too smudgy...) but do not like the side pose of Darius. His side pose made him look like an angry person. Maybe it was his eyebrows or sideburns or something. Undeterred, I dig more  in the world wide web, looking for more photos of him and voila! He is one good looking guy, they should really just consult me when coming up with the album cover do a full feature pose of him for the album cover, something like this:

Droolworthy right?!

Or something artistic like this?

* SONGS - I like the distinct and very clear guitar sounds in the album. The few particular songs that caught my attention and got me grooving along to it are "No Problem", "Best Day"  and "World Keeps On Turnin'". I really like the "Best Day" song, it started off with a really fast rock tune and had this awesome chorus.

There is also this part in the "World Keeps On Turnin'" song which is also meaningful:

Each day is a new chance
To make better choices
Switch off those voices - in your head
Don't be scared just dive in
Be glad you're alive and
You're right here right now...

In summary, I'd recommend this album for those who wants to groove along to some upbeat and catchy rock tunes.

You can get the album at http://www.dariuslux.com/getit.html

I would like to give a note of thanks to David & Amanda (for the password and lyrics) again for this wonderful opportunity to review this awesome album!

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the authorised password to download the 6-track EP album in MP3 format to assist my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine.

I was enjoying some Sesame Street videos on Youtube with Ben when I saw (reflection from the screen) him smiling to himself while watching one of the videos. So I quickly grabbed my camera, then point it back to ourselves and I asked him to smile for the camera, and this is what I get...

Sigh... and he goes back to watching Sesame Street...

Undeterred, I continue aiming the camera at him waiting for the right opportunity to snap one shot of him smiling while watching the videos.. heheheh..

(this mummy is very determined OK!)

And then he realised the camera is still on... Snap!!!

And mummy asked him to smile again for the camera.... and this is what mummy gets...

Sigh.... guess I have to keep trying to fish a smile out of my cheeky boy...

I was busy the whole afternoon yesterday (which is why no post yesterday), I was caught up in a mini baking mission to bake some surprise sweet goodies for my ex-colleagues. On top of that, 2 of hubby's close friends came over for lunch cum playdate with Ben (one of hubby's friend brought along her 17 months old daughter). From morning, I started off roasting the chicken wings which I marinated the night before and hubby went out to buy some cold cuts and sausages to make spaghetti for lunch.

About 1pm+, I accompanied Ben with hubby's friend and her daughter and spend some playtime with them in Ben's playroom. Around 2pm+, Ben looked tired and it was past his naptime already. So I nursed him to sleep while hubby's friend took her daughter downstair and play with the other friend who just arrived.

I then proceeded to start baking the Shortbread Shapes cookies (total 3 batches) while Ben took his nap and hubby and friends had their lunch. I had earlier prepared the ingredients in 3 batches to save some time. By the time I finished everything (I even bake some Orange Poppy Seed mini muffins again) it was 5pm+.

After the cookies and muffins have cooled down, I got ready the small plastic bags with my plastic bag sealer and started off the packaging exercise. In total, I prepared for 13 people and all 13 will get their bag of cookies (I think I put about 14-15 pieces into each bag).

But not all get the additional mini muffins cos my SIL and her daughter came over for dinner at our place and had some, and I also gave some to hubby's friend to take home as well. So, ended up about 6 or 7 close ex-colleagues only get to try the extra mini muffins in their goodie bag.

All in all, it was a tiring but rewarding experience. I'm pretty proud to achieve all this baking within 3 hours time. I hope to be able to practise more and perhaps find some way to reduce time wastage and probably need to think of easier and faster ways to do the cookies mould. That was the tiring part of all the tasks and also when I need to turn the baking tray 180degrees midway baking to ensure the air circulation are thorough and the cookies are baked nicely all over.

Some of my ex-colleagues have already emailed to thank me for the treats and I also gave some of them the links to my recipe posts. A couple even asked me to start taking orders for Chinese New Year cookies and doing this as a part-time business... hahahah... funny, funny... I told them it's not the right time yet as I'm still learning and can only do my baking when Ben is taking his nap, maybe who knows, in future I might think about this hahahahah... until then maybe I should start training Ben to do the cookies cutting/moulding part hahahahaha...