BelangZ

Date : 26 August 2013 I love the smell of lavenders! And in Kingaroy, late August is when the flowers bloom! I expected a lavender farm to look like this: Google But a 2-hours drive from Toowoomba revealed that it was just a tiny farm with a few rows of lavender bushes. It was not too disappointing for me because I still had the chance to take some decent pictures. And it was free to enjoy the farm. We only had to pay $5 to pick 50 lavenders, which I didn't participate (typical me). There was a little foyer for wine tasting I think. And some shops selling English-y things. It is a nice feeling being amongst the purple flowers, but not so much with the bees (a lot of them) buzzing as well. And a word of advice that left me and Mak sniggering ;o)

Funny how depression can be used as a reason to not do any actual PhD work, whilst a hobby like crocheting and sewing is considered okay ^_^. I guess, to distract oneself from over-thinking, it is best to do something you really enjoy. It works well for me! My crochet needle was summoned after being in my sewing box for nearly a year. I tried searching for a kopiah tutorial but could not find any. So this was a product of my 'hentam keromo'. Not perfect, but it was a productive tension-releaser. This little model kept taking off the kopiah and throwing it on the floor... Erkkk... Wearing his Ninja Turtle PJs - a gift from his much missed Nekma. A part from the kopiah, I managed to modify my oversized round table cloth - making it smaller, squarish, and added a red border. I know, they don't match, but is it not colour blocking season? I hope this is still in style, ahaks! Stacks of kuih raya from Malaysia! Priceless!

Aaahhh... 2 fun days of eating during Syawal abruptly came to an end. Bleeding during pregnancy is never a good sign. Some sites do mention that there was a 50-50 chance of having a healthy baby in the end but, this actually gave false hope in desperate situations. Friends are complaining that they can't fit in their pants after successfully trimming down during Ramadhan, but it was the other way round for me... Ironic. Anyways, it was a blessing to have a little companion during the fasting month - Sahur and Iftar together-gether. Now for some distractions from the emotional roller coaster - which includes online bargain hunting and crocheting. Ahaks! And look who gets all the benefits - Kimi! I was Gumtree-ing nearly every hour now (Gumtree is the equivalent of Mudah.com) Funny, I was all excited to let Kimi play on his new horsy, and the first thing he did when he saw it was crying and running away from it... (@_@) Ok... Am picking this up tomorrow! Too late...

Date: 11 August 2013 Samping or sampin is a Malay traditional attire worn with Baju Melayu. For Eid-Fitr, my little boy only had a pair of Baju Melayu sent from Malaysia. I decided to make him a simple sampin to match his attire. Plus, it seems that cotton sampin is the current trend, which is great! The only suitable fabric I had was this red stripy cotton one. 1) Cut the fabric into a rectangular shape. Measure the dimensions on your little one: Length: 2 inches below the knee. Width: Long enough to fold as though he is wearing a sarong/kain pelekat. He thinks it is a sejadah~ 2) Sew together the edges. Sew the upper and lower seams. 3) On your baby, fold the fabric like a sarong. Adjust the fold to ensure that it is not too tight on your baby's bum. Pin the fold in place. 4) On the top part of the sampin, sew a waistband (even across the fold) and insert the elastic band that will sufficiently grip your son's waist. The simplest way to keep the samp...

During Ramadhan, I was given a bunch of leftover carrots from an Iftar event. Kak Min requested a carrot cake. Hmm.. Cake sayur ??? Anyway, I used this recipe from taste.com but modified some bits according to the supplies I currently had in my kitchen. 1) Didn't have any golden syrup, replaced it with maple syrup + honey. 2) Didn't use any cinnamon. 3) Too lazy to make the icing. 4) Multiplied all ingredients by 3, to make more cake! Since I was fasting, I had no clue how it tasted, so I used my personal food critic, Kimi, who seemed to really enjoyed it. I passed this around to friends at the Islamic Center during Iftar and Alhamdulillah, I did not poisoned anyone! Yeaaah! Blogging on the Go!