5th December and Placemat bags.

Happy New Year 2015! Oh dear, a year just went by so swiftly.

My favourite girl, Nada ended her kindy years last year December, 05^th. It was definitely a bitter sweet moment for her and of course for me too. We have been sending Nada to Kindicare since she was 3 years old and I am glad I made the decision to send her there that early, during these foundation years. Whilst typical Asian schools usually be equal to study hard-achievement-award and all that intimidating scenario, Kindicare’s approach on the other hand encourage character building, creativity and the love for knowledge.

Yes I do want Nada to excel in her studies as this, in a way would pave a right and more concrete direction for her even though it is not necessarily true. However, I just do not want to be engulfed in the mess of fighting for YOU-MUST-GET-ALL-‘A’s-OR-AS-MANY-‘A’s-AS-YOU CAN-GET.

Urghhh, Mek rimas.

The best part about Kindicare for me, is the aunties whom are genuinely loving, nice and humble people. Every time I send Nada to school, I left the school compound at ease knowing she’s well love and taken care, without a doubt. Creative playing is number ONE, while learning A-B-C comes along.

My mami time and again asked me if it is necessary to spend close to RM1K each month for pre-school when there are many more other schools charging much less. It is only half a day. I totally get her, I myself didn’t even go to kindy for a start. On top of that, we have to hire commute transportation to fetch Nada from school and send her to the day care. Day care for another half a day then cost another usual RM300/month. But it is something I believe worth spending. Sure thing I got to buy a gold chain as big as tali kapal with money spent for school fees, but I don’t think I’ll be content with that.

The last day of school was marked with a Christmas party and the children were gifted with a present by Mr Santa. O well, – parents did supply the gifts! I thought it is the right year for Nada to hand out gifts for the aunties as well since it is her last year, as the way of saying thank you.

Thinking through, I thought this place mat bag idea by Dana would make a great handmade gift. It is something simple to make and definitely the cost of all would not create a big hole in my pocket.

So, one lunch hour I scouted the shops in VIVA homes, where my office is now located for the place mat. Emmm.. I didn’t go to many shops actually, in fact I straight away went to the RM5 shop hoping I’ll be able to find what I wanted.

Spot on, I got hold a pair of plastic place mat in blue stripes. I knew I must try to make one first just to make sure my Lady Gaga can take on the layers. You see, she’s kinda old this love of mine, you got to be gentle with her. Many times I snap on her for breaking the thread easily, not wanting to move….so on. Seriously, I wish Santa would gift me a JANOME! 

   

    To my surprise, Lady Gaga took on the challenge, and the first bag was whipped up quite easily. I got all excited about it and proceeded to buy 10 more pairs of place mats in multi stripe and solid colors.

A week to Christmas party, between work – house chores – many eating out – less sleep – countless time Lady Gaga broke the thread – I got frustrated….. I managed to get all 11 bags done just.. just (yes, I mean it) in time for the party.

Nada made thank you cards to each of the aunties accompanying the bags. I curse myself for not taking a single photo of them. They were only white A4 size papers that she folded into halves, decorated at the front and wordings in the inside. Some wordings came together with pictures she drew. What I like most about the cards was the fact that the wordings were thoughtfully written by Nada meant to each aunties individually.

-          
-       She likes Aunty Meena’s cooking. (Aunty Meena is the cook)

-          She thanked Kakak Kameria for her cooking too. (Kakak Kameria is the bibik)

-          She’ll miss Aunty Shanti so much, that she is the best aunt. (Aunty Shanti is her class teacher for two years. Nada is always taken as her side kick)

-          She thanked Aunty Liza for helping her. (Aunty Liza is the guardian of baby class, the very first aunty that Nada got to know at 3yr old.)

-          She said she likes one of the Aunty’s voice – I can’t remember which one, must be the one who always sings…

  I feel good that my girl feels good about handmade or self made things and being creative in expressing herself. What a pride.

I put all the placemat bags into IKEA shopping bag for Nada to bring to school and all of a sudden she changed herself to become Santa! Ho ho hooooo….

In choosing which bag shall be given to whom, I gave total freedom to Nada for the decision, which later that day I was told by A.Jeane (the principal) – “no wonder Nada has been discreetly putting up conversations like days before, with the aunties asking them their favourite colour .. if they like orange or teal or green”.

I know Nada’s mind. She does a lot of cataloging in her way of thinking. She did told me, the black stripe bag would be perfect for Aunty Liza because A.Liza has dark skin. Ummm.. I donno.

Enough said, I do feel the genuine appreciation from all aunties to the humble bags that I made them. For that, I’m a happy mom and I sure shed lots and lots of tears last year December, 5^th.

Nada with Aunty Shanti and her BFF, Arlia.

Farewell Kindicare, we hope to make occasional visits in years to come and remain friends.

Brace on Khalifah Model School, Bismillah……

I'm still here

It’s been long.. It’s been long!

The blog sure needs some mowing. I could see not only grass has gone wild in this pasture but cripples too has conquered many parts of it.

So many things and events had taken place for the last 5 months or so, good, bad and the in between. But let’s leave the bad aside and just cherish the good ones because seriously, there're too many good ones that the bad one just seems unseen.

In the big family, we had weddings, engagements, Raya this year which was so much better than last year’s though I was forced to do office work during the break, welcoming new family members … among many more other happy events.

Yeah, I know... the one showing fist is mine....

 At 3.45kg, Zairoul Naquib. My cousin's or more like little brother's son.

 

In my immediate family, of course Nada has the most to tell about which I just do not know where and what to start.

She really talks a lot now – Malay and English equally used. Kelantan dialect, she’s trying so hard to master. Sometimes I just can’t seem to believe what came out of her 5 year old mouth.

On  one Sunday at Ikea, she missed the boat in her queue to enter Smaland by just couple of kids in front her. I told her the next session would be at 7.30PM which really boiled her up that she had to wait for another 1 ½ hour.

In a single breath, she just needed to let the steam out, almost shouted at me :

“This all your fault. Not my fault. Why do you come here late? I am so upset with you and angry. You stay away from me. Don’t come near me!”

… o my.. I almost crawled on my knees hearing she said that.

One night, out of the blue she asked us :

“When Mommy and Daddy were children, you meet is it? Then, did Daddy ask you – will you marry me?”

... like, why would she thought about it?

We celebrated our 9^th year wedding anniversary the night before 20.08.13 at home. Only us, where I bought a Baskin Robbins cake for the tiny celebration we had. 

 

However to Nada, all cakes are for her. Hence, she wasn’t happy that the cake was not meant for her, till the extend she sobbed so badly. I didn’t want her sulking for too long and told her that the cake was indeed for her.

 

You see, she needed an event for herself to be having the cake.

She asked me : “Why do you buy cake for me ? My birthday is in January. Now not yet January”

Clever mom I am, I told her : “O… I bought you the cake because you did well in your spelling bee at school.”

She was delighted with the explanation.

The next night, that is the actual day of our Aniversary, we had steamboat at Johnny’s we called it “NADA’S SPELLING TEST EXCELLENCE CELEBRATION DINNER” instead of Anniversary Dinner. Talking about the extent parents would do to make their kid happy, huh?

 

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Of course, handmade dos that I wish not to miss the blog.

I finally fixed Baby’s OR Ary's leg!

 
 
I also managed to make this cute baby smock romper for Baby Naquib…. And of course, a pair of cloth shoes to match. Owh.. I'm in love with that boy already.

 

I now can cross the ROMPER from my list.

RM 20.00 Curtain for our Guest Room

I did make a declaration that sewing curtain for me, is nothing easy. However, because 'I do take sewing challenges seriously'.... I did sew another curtain for our home.

It's now nicely hanged in the guest room.

I know, the photo is bit blurry... but I'm just lazy to snap more.

Again, I bought the fabric during our trip to Japan at a shop called TOMATO. It was on price reduction which only cost RM4.00 per meter. Dirt cheap I would say considering the quality and thickness of the fabric. I didn't really know what I would end up with when I bought all the fabrics. For this one it was only 4 meters or so. Hence, I didn't have enough for the conventional curtain which the curtain tape is sew on one side of the fabric and gathers are formed once we slot in the curtain hangers. Y'know what I mean.

Instead, I took the pain staking step to create the pleats before sewing the curtain tape. In this way, I would be able to dictate the required length to suit my window size. I consider it as pain staking as I did try hard to get the match print due to repetitive print design of the fabric.

For more little detail, I capped the curtain top with bias in cream that I made from selvages cut out from the fabric.

 

Having done with two sets of curtains for our home, I now am looking at the main sliding door at our living room.

 She sure needs a new set, doesn't she?



For now, she is dressed with an unappropriate size curtain which need to be clipped together, so it will close!

 

I already have in mind the fabric that I'd love to have, however, it's quite steep in price... so that will have to wait. Hopefully.... I'll get it done someday.

 

For now, I want to strike out curtain from my list first.



Messy but not Dirty

There's a BIG mess in our multi purpose room now. Bad, yes. However, I want to take it at a good side. It means projects are in tow....

 

 

In my list, I have :

- Curtain for the guest room. Curtain again?

- Smock garmet at 12month size, definitely not for Nada.

- Play dress, yup for my girl.

- Another smock dress for my girl also, Blossom from issue 88, Australian Smocking and Embroidery magazine.

- Shoulder bag from Cath Kidston sample.

- Hot pot holder. (badly needed in my kitchen)

 

Too ambitous, huh? I don't know which one to start first. There's no priority. Well, it should be curtain.

 

Harris said : "Start all at one go. If you are bored with one, go to another...." He sure has the right thing to say, doesn't he?

YA, I think I'm gonna start all at the same time and see when all would be finished. Next year, perhaps? Heheheehehehh

BRITAIN AND CURTAIN, is it a rhyme?

(L-R - Me, Aida & Lin)

Wohoooo… a sneak peak.
Yeh, two of my good ol’ girl friends along with Lin’s two nephew and I just came back from Britain. Hmm... Aida & I spend 10 days of Britain, i.e England and Wales where as Lin detour to Paris on the last 3 days. Cold..it was C.O.L.D for my tropical skin, heh.

During our trip to Japan last year, I bought these :

of course sans the girl in pix.

cute craft supplies...

This time around, trip to the UK, I bought these :

It’s Cath Kidston, y’all…. I'm a happy girl.

Aren’t we crafters love her?

Anyway, enough about Britain. Hopefully I’ll get down about it some how.

Let's go to curtain, My actual entry :

It’s been close to five months that we moved to our current pad. Many times when I walked across from our living to the backyard, I can’t resist but to thank Allah.s.w.t of what we have.

Alhamdulillah, I recite the phrase quietly over and over again.
I thank Allah s.w.t for the Rezeki that we managed to procure the home.
I thank Allah s.w.t for allowing us to get a small renovation work done. (for the moment)
I thank Allah s.w.t for the space we have and when our big family come over.. it feels a lot more comfortable than before.

I really love our space despite it is practically bare at the moment. In-fact, we don’t even have enough sofa or chair for our guests to sit on. I’ll work on it slow and steady….

I’m pretty sure there’ll be quite a sewing for this place too. The first handmade was – to dress up this folding doors opening widely to our backyard.

(Note : Should you ever wonder what was Nada doing in this photo… the answer is the last photo of this entry)

I for one, preferred non-curtain. However, without the curtain it would be ‘a show’ when night comes!

I never thought sewing curtains would be tough. What I pictured was, just straight cut of fabrics to required length, straight sew curtain tape, straight sew the seams… wallah my curtain done.

No! it was not that easy. The difficult part about curtain is they have to be STRAIGHT. Cut straight, sew straight! My hands are not straight after all! Somehow, after all the scolding and cursing to Lady Gaga (she’s getting old and not so efficient anymore), I managed to get it done.

My first handmade for our home. I’m so satisfied.  

 

Last photo : Mommy scarecrow and baby scarecrow by Nada, yeah ~ that’s what she was doing…..

New (old) project

just completed.

 

I’d started the smocking many-many months ago, not only until few days back that it turned into a garment. Hmmm, speaking of procrastinating….  

The smocking for the front skirt was completed for quite a while, then I stopped. For the sleeves, it’s just 4 rows of smock, I believe I could finish them in 2 hours should I have that solid uninterrupted time.

Somehow the time I could afford to have is somewhere 10~15mins window between errands or before my daily slumber (of which it didn’t take long to shut down my conscious mind) or while waiting for the car engine to heat up in the mornings.  

Ya… times like that, hence the supposed to be 2 hours task has prolong for days….

Anyhow, it doesn’t really matter to me when should I complete a dress or any project as I am doing it for my own leisure. A stress relief and I do not enforce datelines.

Buuuuttttt….. B.U.T - BUT! this girl is growing up ever so quickly.

 

 

That means, my slow motion may gets into me that my girl could not fit into dresses that I intended for her once it’s finish !.. Ahhhh.. STRESS!

 

Dew in the long-awaited promised handmade bathrobe. It took me a year to seal it off !
She was so happy with the robe she’s been trying it on whole Saturday night it was finished.

On Sunday morning when we were about to go out for breakfast, she asked my permission : “Mommy can I wear this….”
How can I resist her.

Happened to be we planned for breakfast + grocery shopping, so off we went to AEON BIG. She walked AEON BIG like that.

 

She’s also been whispering to her dad : “Daddy, lets go to hotel – PENANG”… She really wanted to make use of her bathrobe by the pool, huh?

 

Our one and only, Mek Robey @ Cikgu Bedah.

What has gone wrong?

My friends and I spent some time at A&W for ice-cream after visiting our alma mater , the activity we used to do during our weekend outings back then.

We talked on a lot of things and of course, matters on our children are priorities.
A friend brought up a subject which I agreed with her and so keen to improve on my parenting skill.

She told me making reference to her very own off-springs : “Mario, I find that they are very smart with their words. They perform well in school, their vocabulary and their knowledge are way advanced than what I myself had when I was their age… but I find that they are actually “empty”. Example, I asked them to wash their own school shoes, given the brush, soap and they just had to ask me : How to wash ?” 

“How can they not able to figure themselves of a simple task in washing a pair of shoes ?….”

For a mother to confess such situation, I totally appreciate it. I know her kids, getting on stage for educational awards is like ‘kacang putih’ for them.

As we always want to see our children as ‘smart’, statements like this would make us grounded and realized : Yup, it could be true…….. and what should we do?

“Which part of our parenting skill has gone wrong?...”

“Haven’t we given them enough exposure to be a self-starter?..”

“Haven’t we created enough critical thinking, problem solving situation to our kids..?”

"Haven't we venture enough to instill the importance of creativity in our kids..?" 

It is indeed challenging, more over with our education system of seeing nos of A’s is so much important than nurturing diversity and EQ, I am so afraid I would be trapped in the same scenario.

In bringing up Nada, it is actually one of the things that I am afraid most…
That she grew up being an individual that is lack of common sense.. lack of EQ. For some reason, these two can’t be found in a typical school classrooms.

I am still lost in search of ways to overcome this lingering questions which has already nested in me for sometime.  

... at Taman Tasik Seremban.

Isn't that Mommy made apple box-pleat skirt yummy? One for sure, I know my example to her in handmades making has got into her habit in one way or another. She's now so keen with my sewing machine.

Letter Z & A

My best friend back then in school hosted a birthday party for her princess and prince sometime last December. Nada and I were invited. We both were so eager to attend.

Being a self-proclaimed avid crafter myself, I knew the birthday presents must be a handmade. Ever since I was re-hooked with creating and sewing, I feel a handmade is the best gift, (and I mean – BEST) one can give and also receive.

To me, handmade is the combination of passion, thought, effort and abundance of love.

My Mami has always been making special handmade as gifts ever since I can remember. She sew beautiful tiny dresses complete with undies, booties, mittens, hats, blankets, bedding sets and many more as presents if she’s visiting a newborn. One gifted lady she is.

However, she also always say… “I don’t have much money, and the dresses sold on commercial racks are too expensive. I’d better sew myself to make presents……”

For my love to handmade, I totally disagree with her on that point. Not all on commercial racks are that expensive to buy, handmade on the other hand not all could be bought even though with copious money.

She’d taken her effort too lightly, when most people realize handmade are out love, someone’s precious time and carries so much value.

After considering few options, I decided in making a pair of matching towel bath robes for the siblings. Of course one in pink and one in blue, made out of less than RM 15 normal adult towel.

Since the girl’s name starts with Z, I tacked a self-cut letter ‘Z’ as initial and for the boy, initial ‘A’. How cute.

I finished making both robes the morning Nada and I were supposed to attend the party in the afternoon. Unfortunately, I didn’t have spare appropriate boxes to put the gifts in which kinda forced me to make pouch bags for each robes.

So, here how they look once done.

At first, I just stapler the birthday notes to the ribbon ties only to realize how ‘unprofessional’ it looks. Hence, on the way to the party, inside the car… I made a hole each to the notes and slot in the ribbons. Then it made sense! Too bad, I didn’t take any photo of the amended ties.

Nada envied the pink bath robe and I promised her that she would also get one, I’ve yet to fulfil my promise. Too many project plans…..

Diaper bag and Make-up kit

Dinosour vs mankind on Mount Fuji

I meant to blog about this for many weeks, however only now it happen. Better late than never, eh?

My friend from school, Sabine who is now raising her family somewhere in Oz requested me to make her daughter a make-up kit and a diaper bag for herself on commission.

Gosh! It was a big request. I’d never make a make up kit or a diaper bag before.

So, with basic of my own on-the-go sewing kit organizer, I whip up the make-up kit. I'm so cincai.. i don't even have proper full make up set to compliment the kit for photo sake !... It has three slots zippered pockets at lower part for small items.

wrap around ribbon tie.

As for the diaper bag, I made reference to this tutorial, this blog and my self figured comforter bag that I made sometime back.

Results turned out to be like this :

FRONT Rear zippered pocket

Side pockets......one with elastic grip, one with velcro closure. I told Sabine she may want to replace the measuring tape with a stethoscope since she is a doctor.

tiny pocket on the strap for small items.. thumb drive, mp3, earphone... stuffs like that.

inside bag..

This diaper bag was the second item in my handmade list that I made following step by step tutorial after the booties. Oh! Frankly, I'm not comfortable to follow tutorials. It kinda make me nervous if I miss a step or do not understand the steps.

I didn’t exactly follow the measurement given in the tutorial because my friend has two babies of about to be 1yo and 2yo, hence I figured she needed bigger bag than the given measurement to put diapers and stuffs of use by double!

I also added the stroller hang referring to Aida’s blog and changed one outer side pocket to elastic grip rather than Velcro closure provided in the tutorial.

It took me one weekend to finish up the bag, with all the interval breaks… the like entertaining the princess cum ultraman, house chores, eating out and brought-home office works (blerggh)!

All in all, I gave myself 3 marks out of 10 with reasons :

1. 5 marks out of 10 is given to the person who came out with the tutorial and the blog that I made reference to for I was be able to sew this bag. So I was only left with 5 marks.
2. 2 marks out of 5 due to me was minus upon my mistake in putting the magnetic snap, that I had to re-do.

Simple arithmetic, 10-5-2 equals 3 marks which were valued for me.

On another note, I gave myself full 10 marks for making Sabine happy. She was very satisfied with her bag and asked me to make two more make-up kit because her daughter’s grooming stuff couldn’t fit into one. (booo to me... a 9 year old has more make-up than me !)

Both make up kit and diaper bag were sent to Sabine through a school friend, Aida whom is also living Oz that came back for Aidilfitri holidays.

Aida and me. I almost terjun longkang looking at this mother of two still slim figure!

Sabine paid me some RM 400 (about.. can't remember the exact figure already la) for both… Good? That covers our two weekend visits to The Butcher Steak House. Okay what…..

I have another request from school friend for the bag which I had been procrastinating. She wants to use it for her frequent travels. So I’ve figured it would be something to have :

1. Zippered pocket in the inside for passport, wallet & hand phone

2. Padded slot for I-pad or compact laptop

3. Elastic grip pocket at side for water bottle

4. Small pockets at outside with Velcro closure for card tickets like Octopus card, whatever necessary according to that particular country.

5. Slots for pens

6. The strap should be long enough that she could have it cross her shoulder.

How I want to make for her, but my time is so limited.

Arghhhhh… I love to create things………