BelangZ

Weehooo! It took me a week, but I finally completed my first jubah. With Spotlight having a massive sale, I spent $13 on a 3 meter cotton fabric and $1 on the ribbon. If the finished work was a disaster, I wouldn't feel too bad about chucking it in the bin. But it turned out alright... I traced my favourite jubah, the one Mak bought from Mecca, and basically just copy-pasted the design and size. Added the zipper for BFing. Had Kimi took a photo of me in our lawn. The little man had proven useful as I do not have to use a timer. Pssttt... Trying out my Gucci sunnies while I'm at it... Am a horrible model - but hey, since no one in their right mind is going to hire me, I might as well hire myself [^_^]'

I know what all the healthy-eating-mommies are thinking: Look at all those colours! It's bad, bad, bad! I must agree but I got the food colourings for free, hand-me-downs from fellow Malaysians. Might as well put them to good use. I followed the recipe from my favourite site: www.taste.com and was actually impressed with myself for trying a recipe with a difficulty level of "Capable Cooks". I usually go for the "Easy"s. Hasben and Kimi loved it and this means a lot. As a cook, I admit that I am well below par. I ALWAYS make something that I THOUGHT was superb, only to be met by disappointed eaters. "I made something special today~ Hurry up everyone, come and grab your mushroom soup/frozen strawberry yogurt/buah melaka/apam balik/mac and cheese/mash potato~ Confirm yummy!" Hasben would shut his eyes and wiggle his shoulders while Kimi would yell and cry "Not tasty!!!" So in the end, I alone had to finish up the "syok se

I really really do... But it is not easy. Something as basic as cleaning oneself is now a luxury to have. Like for instance, yesterday, I just had it with smelling like a dude from a construction site... Baby was cranky and sleepy and screaming. So the top priority was to bounce him to sleep. Yesss! Success! But I barely made it to the bathroom door... "Ibu, Kimi hungry, pancake pleaseeeee~~~~" said the toddler. Before he starts making more noise, which will lead to screaming baby, I made a super fast (horrid looking) pancake, served with choco topping, just in time for baby to wake up and cry his lungs out. So again, I bounced baby to sleep. Tip toed into the bathroom, brushed my teeth... "Ibu....~~~ water!!!" The decibel (dB) was just right to wake baby up as I can hear him crying through the door. Filled bottle with water, bounced baby to sleep, ran into the shower... Bliss... 3 seconds later, could it be possible? "Uwaaa uwaaaa" was drowned by

Date: 9 October 2014 My boy turns 3 today while Hasben is 30 years 1 day old! We were very excited to have a little party for Kimi since he now understands the joy of a birthday party (am guessing from his kids' apps and cartoon shows). Made a party invitation card for him and asked him to check the mailbox for it. He ran from the mailbox to the house, his face full of expectation. His reaction when I yelled "SURPRISE!" was priceless ;0) We had a Baskin Robbins ice cream cake (What? No homemade mommy's cake? This is special indeed!) The presents were wrapped up nicely... Instead of using pamphlet papers. Kimi was super excited to unwrap his gifts, and played with them on the spot. Hasben, not as excited - turning 30 didn't make him smile as wide as on his 25th birthday ;p Wearing his Mossimo shirt and Lacoste specs. Served yesterday's Nandos chicken for lunch (Haha!) Used my Special-Occasion-Teapot from Maxwe

Date: 8 October 2014 Okay, I am nearly 30 years old (not yet, mind you) but this is the first time that I actually tried to witness the eclipse. And Toowoomba was basically the best place to witness the Blood Moon. So I readied myself with my Canon G15, and counted the seconds to see the unfolding of this rare event. Tried learning from Hasben all the technical aspects of a powerful camera (DSLR). Guess what, being sucky with numbers, I just couldn't grasp the concept well... Too much thinking was involved! So this was basically my attempt to capture some decent pictures of the moon by 'point-and-shoot'. But first, we had to go to Coles to buy some groceries... All the while praying, " Please God, don't let me miss the moon turning red... " Ordered Nando's for dinner because Mommy was just too distracted to function well today. Yes... am very excited to see the whole process. Missed the part where the moon went completely dark (wait, was that s

Date: 10 October 2014 Am not a fan of plain white for home deco. Decided to busied myself with an impromptu project. Was initially hoping to purchase some IKEA fabric to make cushion covers, but thought to myself, "Please... stop spending money... Have some self-control, woman!" Well, actually, if IKEA had online stores, I'd probably be waiting for the postman by now... (Note: IKEA is a 2-hour drive from Toowoomba. This may explain the situation better). Ransacked my bag of leftover fabrics and found this pink cloth. Drew on a few heart shapes with a black pen.  Traced the heart shapes with coloured threads using the sewing machine.  And tadaa...  Belang-belang chenta!

Our 2014 Eid-Adha celebration is different this year. Instead of having our 'jamuan raya' at Kak Zai's house like we always do, we decided to celebrate it at Brisbane and Gold Coast, with all 6 Toowoomba families. After Eid prayer, we convoyed to Brisbane, picnic raya at Parklands Southbank. I made pulut kuning with beef rendang. The kids played in the pool and later, we took the free ferry ride along Brisbane River. Had some chocolaty dessert at Max Benner's: ******************** We reached Kak Rosmini and Abang Daniel's Homestay in Gold Coast at 5 PM. Their hospitality is superb! Meals are included in the package and it feels exactly like spending time in a relative's home. If you are planning to visit Gold Coast and needs a place to stay, do contact Kak Rose by checking out her website: Kak Rose's Homestay Our bedroom for the night: Raya dinner served hot and fresh: The daddies enjoying their hearty meals - rice with lamb curr

Didn't like the fact that these 2 bolsters were under-utilised, just laying around occupying precious space. Thought that maybe Kimi would like a toddler-sized pillow to sleep on at night - instead of randomly sleeping on sofa cushions. So I destroyed the bolsters, took out the stuffings, and fitted them in a little rectangle sack. And also made a cover for it, sewed on some patches of fabric into a car shape. Everything blue for a little boy's bed. But... He still sleeps on the random sofa cushions... Oh well... A bit of acting for the sake of picture-taking.

Reusing old stuff to make something new always excite me, because I don't like to see something semi-usable get thrown out. I mean, the old thing still has life in it, but not so pretty anymore. When I arrived here in Toowoomba, a few friends passed some hand-me-downs and this included this old blanket. The tag is sooo old-school, it says that it was made in England. The blanket has a big whole in the middle which I attempted to cover, and the edging is also torn at some places. The patch sewn was used as a parking lot for tiny cars. I smiled at this sight. Kids have the cutest imagination! Another item given was a comforter/duvet cover which is square shaped, thus not a good fit with any comforter size I own. So, what I did was, placed the blanket inside the cover and fold it at the edge so it will fit nicely. I sew together the cover with the blanket about 3 inches from the edge, making a square shaped frame. Initially, I wanted to make more squares until it reac

Apart from being stuck at home (well, for the first two weeks to be honest) and suffering the pain of post-labor (mostly due to the tearing), my confinement period was AWESOME! Both my mom and MIL came to take care of me and wee baby for nearly the entire 44 days! Hello social life and great-authentic-home cooked with love-Malaysian food! Okay, here are some memories to cherish of the past 1.5 month, which by the way, passed too quickly for my liking. Mak and Mama had to get vaccinated against whooping cough since they will be spending most of their time with baby. This is serious stuff in Australia. Me and Mak at USQ clinic: Two weeks after their arrival, my dad, siblings and BIL (from hereon known as Dad and gang) arrived to celebrate Eid together. Our little house was so packed with people that I have to ignore my "Monk-ness" as the house was in a horrific state. They came with gifts and kuih raya from the homeland. This particular one is from Awin aka Mama Win (who