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.



The White Toaster Story

Cik Ra went back to Kota Bharu and Mok sent me a white toaster.

 

Mok simply did it because I am a self-proclaimed (something like Sultan Sulu) Mok’s  favourite grand daughter. Wahah! Of course it has to be self-proclaimed for how I wish to be one.

But the truth of the matter is Mok doesn’t have any favourite. She loves her grand children all the same.

You could be the prettiest, semi-pretty, the smartest, semi-smart, the one whom regularly spare her some cash, the one whom sometimes does, sometimes doesn’t or even none at all, it doesn’t matter to her. Trust me, I know it very well.

For anyone to visit her, all will get the same treatment and the most common would be “GO – EAT. GO – EAT. Come, lets eat” Over and over again.

There’s no way for her to compare her grandchildren to one another. She always thinks good of everybody and believes in giving people chances, whenever we have gone bad. She’s strict during her young days and may not be the kind of grandmother whom hugs and kisses, but deep in her heart, I know she loves us so much.  

Now, Story about the toaster :

Mok came to our ‘new’ pad for a short stay during the Chinese New Year break. As usual we chit-chat on a lot of stuff and one of it I told her how I love toast bread. I already had couple of toasters during my marriage life that had gone kaput on me, which shows how much they were in used. My one and only rice cooker on the other hand, has lasted for years. It is actually been inherited from Harris being most eligible bachelor days. Still working good till now which only shows one thing – it’s hardly being used.

Mok told me, she has a new toaster back home in Kota Bharu that my Ayah Ngoh won over a tennis match. (Not bad, huh? my uncle, playing tennis at 50+++ age and still winning). She without any hesitation said that she wanted me to have the toaster. Reason being, the entire household back there hardly eat toast bread. Even if they want, there’s already another toaster that could do the work. I know that another toaster, it could be the same age as me! So old gadget. Really, I had toasters done by the very same when I was a kid.

It was even more interesting Mok told me, the new toaster is white in colour. She said it will suit well to our home as she noticed how I try to keep my home simple and ‘white’ is bring to enhancement.

 I tell you…. My grandmother, Mok, she got the eyes and class. She’s 80+++++, she didn’t go to architecture or art or graphic school, but she definitely could interpret what lies beneath. I think so.

 Two days upon the arrival of the toaster, it had already made into use.

 

Perfect Sunday breakfast for me.

I really hope this one will last long.

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…..

School works

Every now and then, Nada’s school would return the ‘works’ which were done by the kids to each parent. The works could be handicrafts, art-works, drawings, worksheets and stuff. I didn’t realize how much Nada had brought home since she started ‘schooling’ in 2011 until one day I decided to organise the works.

Overwhelming!

I spread out the stuffs to categorize them and I got stuck! I didn’t know where to start. Dang… no plans – shoot me.

Should I categorize according to the classes that she was in? The Baby Buttercup class, then in 3 year old Daffodil class and 4 year old Hibiscus class. Somehow I can’t do that because I had dumped all the works in few boxes before, they all got mixed up and I just don’t remember how to sort out according to classes timelines. Crossed the idea.

So, I settled for categorizing the works in which I think would be easy and appropriately stored by my standard. (not any ISO!) The A4 size worksheets and drawings would go into files, drawings of drawing board sizes into ‘handmade’ folders. (Thank You Daddy). Artworks and crafts into A3 size boxes of the same kind.

After couple of hours, I finally managed to have my living hall floor cleared. Fuhh !!!!

Nicely categorized and kept. There are also artworks that I’d like to hang up on our walls soon once we move to our new-old pad. Yeah, I am proud of my daughter’s silly artwork like that.

I was happy with my progress in organizing Nada’s school work. I thought I was done for the day……. NOT until I found this box full of the same stuff, all still jumble up. Drawings, art-work.. misc.

O dear.. I was not at all done – Shoot me again. How does other people handle more than one kid ?

Eid 1433H

How’s Raya everyone?

My Raya this year was a mix of  joy and also sorrowfulness as I anticipated.  Even I tried so much to put the energy to the joy, the grief is still in everyone’s eyes. I do pray hard things would change.

 

Our new-old pad is getting it's way with us scratching our heads hard for the moo-lah.

Photo just before breaking off for Raya.

 Yesterday photo of our backyard view from dining.

Nada said : "But this house got no playground, Mommy."
Mommy : "Owh.. you'll play in the backyard. Mommy will get a trampoline for you."
Nada : "Got mosquito here. Later I scratch my hand here-here-here. And you angry me."
Mommy : "Mommy will apply mosquito repellant on you."
Nada : "What's that? Mosquito spray-spray one?"
Mommy : "Hmmmm... " (dalam hati : ha-ah.. elok jugak, Mommy spray Ridsect, kurang sikit songheh)



Work in progress

After very much consideration, in between of go or no-go or paint and move or may be just move.. we finally made the decision. Two freakin’ months of uncertainty. Tiny renovation it will for our new-old house.   

This morning view of our backyard, where works had started on the 1^st of Ramadhan.