BelangZ

Working from home seems to be the new norm. And very convenient too! Just started a new job this year as an environmental officer and is definitely the highlight of my 2022… for now =D And the awesome thing about this new workplace is that you can choose 2 days to work from home. As a full-time mom, this flexibility will definitely help with multitasking. Hasben is also working from home - 5 days a week. Lucky man! Anyway, just gifted him with this IKEA Langfjall office chair to complete his home office. Super comfy, compact and looks beautiful. Matches his desk well! I am planning to buy one for myself too. *opens FB marketplace*   

Happy anniversary to us! Plus happy new year 2022. I will start the new year with this entry - talking about what we did at home... which is yes, very uneventful. At this point of time, Covid is still at large, with Omicron creating more drama than the other variants. And the weather has been a bit wild, with the ex-cyclone Seth sending us strong winds and some rain. Gloomy weather We did plan to have an anniversary trip - which was supposed to be our yearly event but I have forgotten when was the last time we had such a trip. And we ALWAYS go to Sofra to celebrate our anniversary but with everything that's going on, we thought it will be better to just stay home and have Uber send our food. We had Indian today from Bombay Bliss. I surprised Hasben with a Skechers GoRun, because he has been very determined to be active (which probably is his 2022 resolution this year). We all assumed that he liked it - as he wore them and ran across the house LOL! The boys went to Jumah Prayer and ...

B-Max and Venus in 2019. We brought home our first family pets back on 26th May 2016 - B-Max, Snowy and Nemo. Three goldfishes, so tiny with different colours. B-Max was black with small orange patches, Snowy was all white and Nemo was all orange.  The kids sat excitedly in front of the aquarium for the first few days =) However, just a few days later, Nemo died under the bridge - we suspected that the aquarium was too small for 3 fishes, so we maintained with only 2. A couple of years later, while we were on holiday in Malaysia, our friend, who was pet sitting for us, sent a picture of Snowy looking very sick. It died not long after, this time possibly because of trauma when Hasben transported them to our friends' house. Upgraded our aquarium . We bought a bigger aquarium for B-Max as it grew very big. It now looks more orange/white with small black patches. Also, we bought a new friend for it - a comet goldfish we named Venus - because it is bright yellow! Venus was very, very t...

Finally! I managed to complete this project which took approximately 1 year to finish.  I am a sentimental person and keeps a lot of old stuff stashed randomly everywhere. So this particular doona cover - or duvet, or comforter, depending where you are from - was bought by my mother maybe in 1999 because I requested a green bed sheet. It was my favourite colour and I wanted to decorate my teenage room green. I remembered when my mother brought it home, I was so upset that it wasn't what I wanted and I even bruised my skin near my big toe from the friction with the sheet (Boo hoo, typical, ungrateful teenager!). But I quickly got over it as I realised that God gave me that itty-bitty pain for being a jerk, LOL. Well, anyway, that's a piece of history I remembered so vividly. Back to the present day, the doona cover now looks a bit worn out - well it has been 20 years! So I decided to upcycle it into a coverlet or blanket as I don't use a doona anymore. My old doona cover has...

How awesome is the Facebook Marketplace? We are literally buying and selling most things through there now. I have been eyeing the IKEA’s KVISTBRO coffee table for a very, very long time. I missed out on the sale last year and being me, do not wish to pay full price. I lurked around the FB Marketplace for ages and finally, someone was selling 2 of them for just $25! What a bargain. Stair's gate is up as our lil miss is a climber now! But I only need just one, so will  have to sell one of them. Next project is definitely to replace the fake bamboo plant with a real plant. And probably the rug too. And... my other project is to set up the kids’ school station - where they can easily store their school bags, swimming bags, homework, sun hats, coats, etc. The idea was shared on Kmart Hacks. I needed at least 2 of these Kmart lockers (I already had one) and finally got the other one from FB Marketplace for just $10. Hasben had to drive 30 minutes to Highfields to pick it up and he was n...

Ahhh... Here we are, already February 2021 and Covid-19 is still here around the world. Australia is doing quite well, but not Malaysia. We can't travel home and I miss my family so much! I have never been apart from them this long and it's haunting my dreams! Anyways, I can't believe my mood for sewing or crocheting have not fully kicked in this year. I have a few ideas but just not in the mood to create. On the plus side, I managed to make a few cloth liners and before putting them on my eBay store, I decided to visit my blog. So here I am! Oh yes, my cloth liners have been out-of-stock for months now and one of my regular customers have sent me a message asking if I am still making them. And this was back in November 2020. Now that I am finally free from my uni work, I can slowly put on my maker's hat and embrace my creative side. For this batch, I pair the Dino microfleece with the yellow chevron cotton fabric. They look very striking, I must say. Ok, will upload th...

Kimi and Afi are getting so smart now! We were playing a game where I gave them a scenario, and asked them how they would react. For example: Me: If a girl say, ‘can you be my boyfriend?’ What are you going to answer? Kimi: No thanks. And suddenly Afi said it was his turn to ask a question. Afi: Ibu, if a boy say ‘I like you’ and ask you to go to the airport so you can fly somewhere, what are you going to say? Me: Hmm... where are we travelling to? Afi: Malaysia  Me: No thanks, I have been there many times. Kimi: Ibu, you should say, ‘No.. I’m married!!’ LOL These smart boys with their dinosaur art gallery. It’s bedtime, but they decided to get creative now.. pfftt...

I am officially a student, again! My career life has been quite monotonous  lately, not that I’m complaining, but to be honest, I am ready for a bit of a change. For years now, my bedtime story is reading through OZBargain, the website for bargain hunters like me. And during the pandemic, a post mentioned that University of Tasmania is letting people enrol Diploma of Sustainable Living free of charge!   So I looked it up, contacted them, and it was confirmed that this course is 100% funded by HECS scholarship until December 2021! Everything is online, no exams, just assignments! Plus, sustainability has been the core topic for most of my teaching and grading tasks - a topic I currently enjoy. So I tried my luck and applied - and to cut the story short, I am now a uTas student. I will need to complete the whole diploma by December 2021 to secure 100% fees waiver.  Wish me luck and hopefully I can successfully manage all my roles - mom, academician, crafter, and now student...

Oh wow... Writing more than 1 post in a week. So proud of myself, LOL. It is so important for me to document all these little events in my life for future reference but I am just getting lazier and lazier. But here I am, full of energy, fingers on the keyboard and ready to write! Previously, I mentioned that I am just super excited to beautify our home and have done quite a few changes in just 3 months. One of them is changing the colour scheme of our dining chairs from red to black! Basically, the old and new chairs look the same - only the colour and pattern is different... haha! New and old - same right? Initially, that did not go too well with Hasben because he just could not see the point. But Amart Furnitures had a massive 1-day sale on their Funk Chairs - from $45 to just $10 per chair, limited to 2 chairs per customer. I woke everyone up at 8 AM and after successfully persuaded Hasben that it was absolutely necessary to change the chairs, we went to the Amart by 9.30 A...

I am currently at my 36 weeks of pregnancy! And the nesting hormone has kicked-in to full speed! I have been redecorating the house, buying some new appliances, rearranging the furniture, and even brought out my sewing machine for some projects. The thing is, when you already have 3 boys, all your hard work seems to last only 1 day. The house just can't stay clean and tidy, and it is driving me insane sometimes, while mostly, I have just decided to accept my faith... An IKEA clock shelf that I have been eyeing since 2010. We finally bought it in October 2019 from Gumtree! Anyway, while changing the cushion cover on our lounge, I noticed that the fillers were coming out from some of the torn cushions. This one is the worst: On the spot, I whipped out my sewing machine, sacrificed Kimi's worn-out doona cover, and covered the whole cushion. As you can see, Hasben's previous attempt was to tape the holes with Fragile Tape! That particular cushion will definitely b...

A Dedication to My One and Only Hasben  finally did it! It took him longer than most people but he finally accomplished his greatest academic goal - getting a PhD in structural engineering. The truth is, he never planned on pursuing this part of life as he was quite an achiever in Kerteh as a maintenance engineer. However, God had other plans for him when he married me, haha! I convinced him to take up this crazy challenge of getting out of our comfort zones, travel to another country and dedicated hours of our time in doing research work for a PhD degree. With the supervisors We started together early 2012, at USQ, Toowoomba, Australia and I graduated in 2015. After this, it seemed he hit the pause button and was progressing very slow. This made me worry constantly! But in early 2018, he finally regained his momentum and completed 4 journals in that short time period. Proud parents! It was a big moment for us when he finally received the letter confirming ...

Okay, something crazy and ironic just happened yesterday! Around 6PM, I got a call from Hasben to come pick him up from work. He is working at Afi's school as a cleaner. After finishing, he locked the school's doors and realised that he left the car key (our Toyota Echo) in the building and so he can't drive home. While explaining all this, I can hear Afi wailing in the background, scared that he had to sleep at the car park. I asked Kimi, "Shall we leave Abah and Afi there? Haha..." Kimi, "That's not nice...~" Me, "I'm just joking, let's go." In the meantime, Adi has this new habit of screaming and crying if something doesn't go his way. He can do this for hours and it drives everyone insane. So he was actually starting to cry-scream while I was preparing to leave. I placed the car keys, water bottle and my handphone on the front passenger seat of the Tarago and closed the door. "Adi, you better be quiet or you...