BelangZ

I have been using cloth pads for more than 10 years now, and have never looked back. I babbled on an on about it in this post:  https://belangz.blogspot.com/2011/11/cloth-pads-for-earth-loving-ladies.html  - being so excited to save the planet LOL! Guess what, I still use these pads until today. They are definitely long lasting. I thought I add some more cloth pads to my collection and absolutely loving Designer Bum’s designs. I bought one from  https://fluffbumsandmums.com/  and also purchased from their website when they have promotions:  https://designerbums.com.au/ . 40% off is definitely a bargain!  How cute are the prints? Different sizes for different days. Black cotton layer - good idea hey! Australian owned and designed in Melbourne. Cloth pads are definitely a sustainable product - based on my own 10-year experience. You can layer them with cloth liners through out the day to ensure that you feel more confident and comfortable. I have been making ...

If you're like me, obsessed with plants, I am sure you will have many collections of plastic pots from the plant nursery. Here in Australia, the most popular place to buy plants is of course, Bunnings. I usually go for the clearance section, obviously, as I am such a frugal person. But also, because I am not confident enough to ensure the plants' survival. So if I kill them, at least it won't be such a great lost! Anyways, since I keep going back for more plants (either because they did not survive, or just because it's spring!), I have soooo many plastic pots in my backyard. One way to reuse these pots is to make a cozy - either from fabric or by crocheting. It would be a waste to throw such a perfectly usable plastic pot, right? So, for my friend, Sofi's belated birthday present, I decided to make my first plant pot cozy.  1) I started of by crocheting a circle, just a bit larger than the bottom of the pot that I am using: 2) Then, without any changes in the numbe...

A pamphlet by: Islamic Dawah Centre of Australia, United Muslims of Brisbane, and Islamic Information & Services Network of Australasia.  A beautiful and simple explanation on the importance of women in Islam. Just sharing it here for my future reference. Click on the images to enlarge.

I have sooo many scrap fabrics! I can’t possibly throw them in the bin, they are so precious. I might need them one day - but the rate of collecting scrap fabrics are higher than actually using them and now I ended up with such a huge pile! If you’re like me, what kind of sewing projects will you take on to clear your stash? For me, fabric binder is the way to go. They use up a lot of scraps and make colourful borders for any sewing projects. And they are super easy to make: Step 1: Cut fabrics into same sized rectangles - width depends on how wide you want your binder to be, and length depends on how frequent you want the patterns to change. The shorter the length of the rectangles, the colourful the binder will be. Step 2: Sew a straight line connecting all rectangle fabrics. Give some considerations on how the patterns match one another. I prefer contrasting colours. Step 3: Now you can just sew the long connected scraps as a binder - YouTube tutorials on how to ...

I love my Bissell SpotClean! We all know how important a vacuum cleaner is, or maybe some people would say that steam mops are great... but this little appliance is definitely a must for a house full of children. Its primary use is to clean carpets - not the whole carpet, but small affected areas, and also car seats. Me? It's the bed wetting! All my life (probably since my teenage days), I get so frustrated with little people peeing on my mattress - I'm talking about my little sister back then. We were roommates so I was the one who had to clean her mess up. "Mak Cing, Mak Cing!" I would scream at her. The poor girl would just pretend she didn't here anything and went straight to school... Haha... the good old days. Now, it's my own kids. Imagine having to clean a very heavy, thick mattress. It's just impossible. The more I scrub, the deeper the pee will seep in. Thinking that it will be forever in the middle of the mattress just gross me out. I tri...

The Toowoomba Mosque has finally started construction. As you might be aware, it was subjected to an arson attack a couple of years back. So currently, efforts have been undertaken to raise funds for rebuilding the burnt mosque, and one of the ways is through Fundraising Dinners. We have attended last year's event at Brisbane. This year, it was held at Darling Height States School and the outcome was positive, with an estimated AUD200,000 raised. Anyway, for our Madrasah class, we are now learning and trying to memorise the letters Dal, Dzal, Raa and Zai. These are the Banana Letters. Dal and Dzal are the little bananas , while Raa and Zai are the big bananas . As of yesterday, my students still did not remember them, and they even forgot the ones they learnt before... Oh nooo! =(  Here is the worksheet I made. Happy learning girls and boys!  Banana Letters  Signing off, Ju Zie.

Now that the kids have remembered all three Duck Letters, we can move on to our next batch of letters. Here is another worksheet I made for the Sunday madrasah class. It is to introduce Baa, Taa, Thaa and Nun.  Reciting some surah before the lessons. I call them The Funny Face Letters as they resemble smiley faces with different eyes. At first, I called them Monster Letters... but one of the kids said - I don't like monsters! Fair enough... Afi thinks they are hilarious, so hopefully, it will help the kids remember easily. Sharing this worksheet to all kiddos out there. The tasks are: 1) Draw the funny eyes on the empty faces. 2) Colour in the smiles. Happy learning!

Every Sunday morning since early this year, I have volunteered to teach non-Arabic speaking children, ages 4 to 8, to read Arabic at our local madrasah. It has been a good experience for me, as teaching little kids is obviously waaay different than what I am used to. It also gives me the opportunity to meet up with other moms who volunteered, and make new little friends from different cultural backgrounds ;)   Saw this wild flower near the car park - pretty! Beautiful Sunday morning at the mosque. So every week, I have to plan ahead on the lessons which usually takes about 1 hour. Currently, I am teaching Jim, Haa, Khaa - I call them The Duck Letters - Jim with the dot on the wings, Haa is the funny one (Ha ha ha!) and Khaa is the angry one with the dot on the head. It seems to be working as after 3 weeks, the kids can remember all 3 quite well. Learning the Ducks Letter! I have made a worksheet based on this concept (using some of the images online) and anyone who ...

Viewer discretion is advised. Post contains toilet related issues. I don't know why but being as frugal as I am, I find it very hard to buy a new toilet mat. Those fluffy luxurious ones can cost up to $20, and I feel that is better spent on my clothes/shoes/handbags. Heee~ My current mats are not very pleasant to look at, with holes and black spots all over the place. So I challenged myself to upcycle this blue one using only scrap fabrics. I am a hoarder of scrap fabrics, I have loads of them. Am not sure what I am planning to use them for - so Challenge Accepted ! 1) This is actually very clean, freshly washed... Just a very ugly looking mat. So firstly, you need an ugly mat: 2) After much deliberation, I finally decided to use this blue fabric (it was previously a scarf). Covered the whole mat on both sides, and pinned them together:  3) Used a ruler and a pen to draw evenly spaced lines on the mat. With a sewing machine, sew on the lines, starting from the ...

For Toddlers with Eye Infection I remembered in the pass that Kimi had an eye infection and the nurse gave a saline solution to be wiped on the infected eye. This helped to clear the mucus. She also printed this from the internet so we can make it at home. Seems useful for future reference (although I could just visit the website for the recipe, but knowing me, I might not be able to find it [-_-]"). Source: www.aboutkidshealth.ca How to make normal saline solution at home  Saline solution is easy to make at home.  You will need:  o 1 clean glass bottle or jar with lid  o table salt  o pot with lid  1. Put one cup of water and 1/2 teaspoon of salt into the pot. Put the lid on.  2. Boil for 15 minutes with the lid on (set a timer).  3. Set the pan aside until cooled to a room temperature.  4. Carefully pour the salt and water (normal saline) from the pan into the jar or bottle and put the lid on. 

A Literally Painful Experience... Beware of biting baby!!! It's great how millennium mommies are very aware on the benefits of breast milk for their babies. Sharing of pictures of frozen breast milk is nothing unusual on my Facebook wall. Most of them are lucky to be able to direct feed their babies with no problem whatsoever. This lucky ladies often wonder why some mommies are not breastfeeding their children. To them, it is simple: Put baby's mouth near the breast... and wallah..! Hmmm... If this is the case, be very grateful. God has given you powerful nipples! Those other unlucky ladies, however, may not be as blessed as you are. Babies who cannot latch on or painful breastfeeding experience, may be some of the problems faced. To me, seeing my baby for the first few days of his life really scared me. The nurses were bringing him to me and saying, " Mommy, baby is hungry~ " And I would be like (silently)," Oh NO !!!" Cracked nipples, which some...

Muslims in general are well aware of the power of Ayat Kursi. I have always preferred to have it hanged at home, not just for display purposes, but to remind the whole family to recite it at least once a day. In Malaysia, it is easy to purchase decorative writings of Ayat Kursi, or other ayats and surahs even. Here, I decided to design, print on A4 paper and frame it since I am not sure where to buy it. I would like to share with everyone my copy of Ayat Kursi. The background is black so it will use up a lot of black ink if you're thinking of printing it =p Wassalam...

Reducing Waste 1 Disposable Pad At A Time! I've just bought my first 5 cloth pads from Fabulous Mom . The brand is Mama Patch . The retail price per pad is RM17 but I bought them on sale - success! They are pretty expensive when compared to the disposable ones. However, the advantages are worth the money. 1) They are washable thus reusable - No more monthly expenditure for pads. In the long run, you'll be saving more money! 2) Reduce waste . This can help our environment as diapers and pads will take about 500 years to disintegrate, so less usage of landfill areas! 3) No more rashes . Plastic causes our skin to melecet and itch. The soft cotton flannel feels as though we're not wearing any pads at all! Super comfy! 4) They are cute - comes with many colours and patterns. If you are anything like me, this IS a very important point! 5) The snap button makes sure the pad stays in place . Disposable pads can curl up and causes leakage on the side. Wings you say? T...

Date: 17 September 2011 Venue: British Council Kuala Lumpur Center Wisma Selangor Dredging 142C Jalan Ampang 50450 KL (In front of KLCC) Hasben and I sat for our IELTS exam today! After days of preparation, our English language proficiencies are finally put to test. It was very nerve wrecking... we were unable to sleep even at 2 AM last night! Placement Test In July 2011, we took a placement test to determine our English language level. This test result is required if we want to join the English classes conducted by British Council. The placement test cost RM100 and is conducted 2-3 days weekly. We were tested on: 1) Grammar 2) Vocabulary 3) Reading/Comprehension 4) Speaking However, when we got our results, Hasben decided that he was confident enough to study on his own instead of enrolling into the classes. IELTS Test Today we woke up early to make sure that we arrived on time. The registration time is from 8AM-8.45AM . After 8.45AM, no one will b...

A Date With Ustaz Zamri~ Date: 10 August 2011 "Apa dia adik-adik?" "ZAKAT!!" Such an adorable show. When I heard that Ustaz Zamri was coming to Kerteh for Forum Ramadhan, I was excited! He is practically a celebrity! The panel of ustazs. The forum was really good. The panels discussed on the advantages of Ramadhan and fasting in terms of spiritual and medical benefits. Half way through the forum, I had to attend a meeting, crappy! So below were a few points that I was able to capture.     Before the meeting, I won myself a book for answering correctly a quiz question... Yeah! Signed autograph from Ustaz Zamri... another Yeahh!! How some Muslims nowadays percieve the fasting month: 1) A month of hunger and thirst. They will only concentrate on eating as much as possible during sahur, and neglect ibadah. 2) A transition month to Eid Fitr They will buy new clothes, curtains, sell Raya cookies and biscuits as a preparation for Eid celebration. 3) A mont...