I've just finished ironing a gazillion articles of clothing, showered and prayed and I am finally in bed.
Given all the wonderful things mankind has managed to achieve, you'd think they would've come up with a machine that irons for you by now. Obviously they've got their priorities wrong. Less iRobot more ironing-machine please, thanks.
I also managed to iron and hang the husbands anniversary gift where he'll see it. On the door knob of the wardrobe. Hard to miss, hopefully he'll love it.
Something I found coincidental while ironing, (ironing leaves with you a lot of time to ponder and think, just like the other activity) Iliya asked me what blogging was in the car this evening. I explained to her what it was and thought about how long it's been since I last blogged. Little did I know that I'd be posting two posts in a row tonight.
Time to call it a night. Wouldn't wanna use up all my blogging mojo in one night and go silent for another 3 years now would I?
So I've decided to blog again. Mainly cause blogging is a way for me to say what I feel. Often times I find myself editing what I want to say just so I don't hurt anyone's feelings. Over here, I can say what I want (most of it) without prejudice cause no one knows this blog exists lol.
So a quick recap on what has happened:
• I had a miscarriage
• we bought our first house
• I got pregnant
• I have a 3 kids now
• I'm 3 yrs older
• I've been married 10 yrs today!
Nothing much has changed otherwise.
This shall suffice for now. Be back soon. (I hope)
I just finished reading keeping faith by Jodi picoult. It started of as an okay read. It was very heavy on religion and that sort of caused some disinterest for me.
But halfway through the book, they started developing a romance plot for the main characters and it was then that I got sucked into the book. So much so that it was partially to blame for my sleepless night last night.
Needless to say, I've finished reading the book and I now feel somewhat empty.
This is the problem with me unfortunately. Reading for me is both pleasurable and torturous all at the same time. The former because I usually really get into the story and start feeling as I am with the characters or I'm one of them. This is also exactly the reason for the latter.
I start imagining myself as being the one in love. As of right now, I'm missing Ian Fletcher. The love interest in the book. I even 'stalked' him in an appearance he made in one of Jodi Picoult's later books.
I have a feeling this is rather unhealthy. I have an urge to reread the book just to revisit Ian but at the same time I feel I shouldn't cause I need my mind to get back to real life. It's currently stuck in perfect romance mode. Smooth guy, always saying the right thing.
I wonder if anyone ever feels this way? I wouldn't be surprised if no one else didn't though. I know I'm a little weird.
I guess, it's the same thing with the many ladies swooning over the charms of Seth Tan couple of months back.
A few years back I read Bridget Jone's Diary and started behaving weird to my husband cause I was so 'into character'.
I just hope my mind returns soon. Till then, I'll just stay away from iBooks for a while.
The girl was disappointed that we couldn't go to the playground due to sudden rain. This was the conversation heard between her and her cousin:
Girl: Go away rain!! Boy: We need the rain so the trees get water. If the trees die, then we won't have fruits. Boy: The rain also makes the grass grow. If the grass dies then the goat can't eat. Girl: But we don't have goats?!
I have been pondering for the past couple of days whether to start blogging again or not. I reread my posts, tweaked my template and even posted a photo. Gingerly dipping my feet back into the world of blogging.
The main reason I stopped blogging was because it got to be impossible to sit at the computer to blog with an inquisitive 3 year old hogging my attention and a baby on the way.
It got to be even more impossible when the boy came along. My life became a zoo, a zoo with wild animals and crazy patrons. If you let your guard down, you'd be eaten alive by the animals in the zoo. *ehem* the bit about the zoo was added by the husband. I'll just leave it there for posterity.
Anyway, I finally decided I should in fact start blogging again because I realized that this blog is like my time machine. A time machine to my kids past. What they were like as wee ones. The hardships and craziness that is parenting. I blogged a lot about the girl's early years. Her first words, her milestones. Stuff I don't even recall anymore. It's all neatly tucked away in my digital archive. Rereading those entries made me realize why I started blogging in the first place.
I still don't have time to sit at a computer and blog because I now have a 5 yo AND a 1.4 yo to entertain, but I will try to make a conscious effort to blog when I can from my phone because my future self will most definitely appreciate it.
So here I am once more. Rebooting this little journal of mine, my very own time machine.
Incase you're wondering, no I don't feel old. I don't feel different either. I spent most of the evening cleaning my room. It is now clean and 'almost' spotless. I'm happy.
I don't have any wise words to pen down. I also do not wish to contemplate the last 28 years of my life. (I have my parents to do that for me!)
I will say that I am thankful to be blessed with loving family, and wonderful husband, an adorable lovely, lovable darling daughter and fantastic friends. I know I have said this so many times, but it bears repeating, I do not have that many friends, but what little I have, I hold dear to my heart and I would not trade for anything else in this world.
For my birthday, the wonderful husband got me a handbag. Not just any handbag, he got me a handbag! I was so happy when the bug handed me the bag. It's a beautiful blue and is just the right size for me. I can fit all my essentials in my bag and look good carrying it.
I fell in love with Radley bags the first time I saw them at Robinsons. I never dreamt of asking the husband to buy one for me because they were so pricey that I couldn't justify having one. So I forgot about them.
Then last Monday, the bug came in after dinner and handed me a bag. I thought she was carrying my MIL's or my SIL's bag. But then the husband said it was mine. Needless to say, I couldn't stop smiling. But I had to ask him, how much was it? Not too much I hope? He said he got it on discount due to the sale and that it was 2 seasons old. I felt much better.
So that's what I got for my birthday. I will photograph it once I get the chance. I've been slightly busy of late with the business and such that I haven't gotten around to taking a photo of the bag.
I'm not one to make resolutions but I did promise myself that I'd try to be a better muslim from now on. Stop missing my prayers (especially subuh), be a better mummy to the bug, be a better wife to the husband, have more patience, and be a better person overall.
On day 2, we decided to go hiking at Taman Perbandaran. It was a tiring trip because we had to carry Iliya most of the way up. But despite that, I have to say that she was very well behaved through out.
All in all, it was an enjoyable trip. Tiring, but enjoyable. I loved going to the park and look forward to going back again.
Morning Beach Walk
Before the hike up the mountain
And the hike begins!
Halfway up; Really exhausted.
Was told these were poisonous
On our way down
Yay! We survived the hike!
We left for Kedah around 2 p.m. to visit our grandfather in Kedah and to eat yummy Prawn Mee at Pulau Sayak. If you're ever in the area, you MUST drop by the stall to have a plate. I promise you, you won't regret it.
We left kedah around 5 and reached KL around 9 p.m. Had lunch at uptown and arrived home at 11 p.m.
Boy am I glad the weekend is over. It's probably one of the longer weekends to-date. I was working almost non-stop since friday. I only slept for 2 hours on Friday and was up from 7:30 a.m. - 11.00 p.m. on Saturday. You can imagine my exhaustion.
We had some big orders to complete for Saturday so sleeping was not an option. We had 300 cupcakes to bake, and 800 cookies to ice. 200 of those cupcakes were for a wedding on Saturday so they needed fondant roses on them. The 800 cookies were also for a wedding.
It didn't help that we were shorthanded and both my MIL and my SIL left around lunch time, so I was left at home alone to man the fort. It was hard. I wanted to cry and hide in my room because I was so overwhelmed by the amount of work that had to be done. It didn't help that I was sleep deprived and hungry.
There was no one around to give me a hug, pat my back and say, "there there, you'll get through this." I felt so alone and helpless. It was depressing. It's times like this that you feel the loneliest. I had 200 cookies to ice before nightfall and the kitchen was a mess from all the work that had been done the day before. As my SIL said, "this is the worst I've seen the house since we started business." No truer words were ever spoken.
Thankfully, my cousin came to help me out with the cookies. She's a live saver. I couldn't have completed my job without her. Okay, I would have completed it in the end, I guess. But there would've been a lot of tears, cursing and anger.
We managed to get all the packing done by 7 p.m. and I sent the cookies out after prayers. Thankfully, the bride was happy with them. All in all, I'm glad it's over and no one was killed in the process.
We have a wedding cake for this weekend and some cookies and cupcakes for a birthday party. I think I should be able to handle those. The next big order is for the 14th where we will have to deliver 720 wedding cupcakes. I shall have to start making roses now if I want to survive that weekend. Wish me luck!
Today, I went to Dira's wedding. It was nice to meet Julia again. *waves to Julia* Dira looked beautiful in her pale yellow ensemble. She's so thin now! Congrats Dira! Oh, and both Julia and I agree that Sham is a definitely looker. I wish the both of you nothing but happiness till the end of your days.
I also met Marissa and Jooli at the wedding. It almost felt like a blythe meet instead because Julia brought her Blythe Doll with her and we snapped photos of the doll, and us with the doll. Heh.
We talked and laughed and ate and talked some more for a good 2 hours. I also bought a bag from Julia somewhere in that 2 hours.
I left the wedding around 4 p.m. because it was about to rain. It did rain before we managed to leave the house so there was a lot of running involved. I covered the bug's head under my tudung so she wouldn't get wet but she thought we were having a game of peek-a-boo instead and went, a-boo! and come out from under my tudung.
We stopped by shah alam mall to have some ice-cream because the bug has been asking for ice-cream everyday with out fail. We had our ice-cream and people watched for a while. I couldn't hang around there for long because I had an order for cupcakes at 8 p.m.
It was raining when we wanted to leave so I had to hide the bug under my tudung again. She didn't play peek-a-boo this time but she sang the rain song instead. I would say "rain rain" and she would go "go away". This may sound biased but I think the bug is such a clever little girl. Clever and cheeky. God is she cheeky.
I'm free for now. But in two weeks time, It'll be frenzy again! Till then, I'll just put my feet up and enjoy my time. I leave you with the obligatory bug photo.
Sorry for the long absence. I've been swamped with work. Business has been good so that means, no free time for me. Although, I guess that shouldn't be an excuse for not updating my blog, right? Right.
So what's new? Hmm.. The bug has learned a whole lot in the past few weeks. I can't even keep up. She recognizes McDonald's. She calls it McDonos. Whenever we ask her what she wants to eat, she'll go McDonos.
Now, before you come banging on my door questioning my parenting skills, let me tell you that we do not feed her McDonald's that much. Occasionally we do go there, but it isn't so frequent to warrant her wanting it for every meal. So, I am just as puzzled as to why she would request it every time I ask her what she wants to eat.
Her new favorite food is, Char Hor Fun. Or, cantonese fried kuey teow. One day, she suddenly developed a taste for it and she never look back since. She calls it kuey shiow.
She recognizes trucks, busses, motorcycles, vans and cars and she will point them out while in the car. Her favorite is the bus. She just loves busses. Oh, she can also say plane, train and crane. I've been reading too many Dr. Seuss books, can you tell?
Yesterday, she came to me with a feeding bottle and asked for some water. Orange juice to be exact. I asked her twice, "are you sure you want to drink in this", "nak" was her reply. So I filled it up with some juice and gave it to her. She happily took it from me and walked away while drinking from the bottle. I found it both amusing and confusing. She never took to the bottle. When she was younger and I was experimenting with ways to feed her milk, she would cry/bawl/turn away at the sight of a bottle. So, you can see my confusion.
She walked around the house a bit with bottle in had, occasionally drinking from it and even went up to her grandma to show her bottle off. She patted herself on her chest and exclaimed, "baby!". Ahuh, my kid is in denial. She's barely two and she's already trying to act younger than she actually is. No one told me it starts this early. Why don't kids come with a manual?
She loves elmo. Loves loves loves elmo. She constantly asks for him, especially when the tv is on. Thankfully, we have youtube so she can watch elmo online, on demand. Her favorite elmo clip right now is this one.
Because she watches it so much, everyone else in the house sings it too now. It's quite addictive. How can you not love elmo?
We bought a potty for her recently from Ikea. We think it is about time to potty train her, but I have no idea how/where to start. Can someone point me in the right direction? Or even better, train her for me? Please? I'll pay you in cupcakes/cookies, whichever you prefer.
The other day, during her bath, I took her diaper off and put her on the potty. I went, shhh... shhh... for the longest time. Even the bug joined me. Nothing came out. Not even a trickle. So I figured, she must have just peed in her diaper and stood her up and I went to pee. She came up to me, and peed, standing up. I didn't know what to say.
This potty training is more complicated that I thought. Is there a way to not go through it? She'll learn on her own, eventually, right?
I've been knitting a bit here and there. I still have a few things I have to knit. I just need to find the time. I also have some knitted things that need to be put together. I just need to find the time. Starting to see a pattern here?
I haven't had time to do anything else. So most of my projects are on hold. Hopefully, I'll be freer after mid-june. Hopefully.
Till then, it'll be long silences and infrequent posts.
Last Friday, I met Alin to deliver her the cupcakes she ordered from me. You can read more about it at her blog.
We just stood infront of my car and chatted a bit. She took a photo of me with her phone. I would have rather she didn't but, since I wanted to help her score her phone, I agreed anyway. You can go see the photo at her blog as well. Do yourself a favor and don't though.
Here's the 1 photo of her I did take.
Alin
The bug also wanted to do her bit in helping Alin win her phone.
I seldom take photos of what I bake. (most of the time, I forget till after the fact) So Last Monday, while all was quite, I took some photos of the cupcakes I was baking at 1 a.m. I'll leave you with some visuals.
So I survived. I survived the baking, the icing, the decorating and the delivering. I also survived the not sleeping. I'm still running on reserves and I'll probably go to bed early tonight. We left the house at 8.45 a.m. to make sure we made it there before 11 a.m. (as requested by the bride). Thankfully, we managed to arrive by 10 a.m. despite there being an accident on the vary narrow road that leads to Banting.
I am very pleased with how the cake turned out. There are some flaws that we have to try to avoid in the future but all in all I am very proud of this cake given that it is our very first commissioned wedding cake. (We've made wedding cakes before but they were all for family) I just hope the bride loves it too. (fingers and toes crossed)
I'll leave you with the photos. If you wish to see more, you may go to the official babycakes blog.
p.s. I love the birds. I made them. (Hah!) But don't you think they turned out uber cute? I have mad skillz. (end self-praising)
I have a headache. Oh, and I'm angry. No, the headache is not the direct result of being angry. But the anger is aggravating the headache.
I have tools that help me work more efficiently. I like things that make my life easier. That's why I buy them. But when I want to use them and find them incomplete, missing pieces, completely missing it makes me angry.
My rotary cutter is missing its mat. I'm not blaming anyone but I think the kids played with it. They love playing with anything that isn't suppose to be played with.
I was instructed to cut stickers tonight to be used for packing tomorrow. Happily I packed my cutter and the stickers to be brought into the room. Just as I was about to start work, I noticed the cutter missing one vital piece, its mat.
I went downstairs in hopes of finding it, but no luck. So now, I'm stuck with manually cutting the stickers with either a scissors, or blade. Both of which seem unappealing to me.
There's nothing I can do about it now though, so I'll just have to make do with what I have. But trust me, I will find the culprit tomorrow and make the little worm pay for it.
I'm not being picky or stingy. You can use my stuff, just make sure it's returned the way you got it.
Okay, I'll stop complaining now.
I feel like I don't have enough time in a day to do the things that needs to be done. And I have so many things that needs to be done. I'll be glad when this week is over and done with. But all at the same time, I dread as days move closer to deadlines.
Oxymoron, much?
I'm on a mini quest to make more money. Oh, wait, that's my life's agenda. Heh. Okay, let me rephrase, I'm expending my income sources. Hopefully, this new venture will bring in more moolah for me to spend.
Plenty of happenings going on at home as well. Nothing much to talk about. Will let know, when there's REAL updates to be made.
I want more time to play. Is that too much to ask? I don't have much time anymore to do anything else. But, like I always tell my MIL, this can only mean business is picking up. So, I'll stop complaining. (out loud)
Here's the stuff I put in a swap for my partner. It's for the Surprise surprise surprise! swap. I got mine a long time ago so I kind of felt bad for sending out so late. But I already have and I do hope it arrives all right. (I have a fear of my packages not arriving and getting lost)
The package consists of a cow pencil topper, 4 pencils, a chocolate straw (I wanted to give 2, but my nephew and nieces got to it before I did), a dotee dolly, a knitted cow, a polymer clay cow, a pack of calender stickers, a pack of assorted local candies (coconut candy from Jonker Street, tamarind candy and peanut candy both from Jakarta) and finally a coin purse. Most items are handmade by me.
I do hope she'll like the items. I am still new at this swapping thing and I just realized today that I should be a better swapper.
I bought this at Jonker Street last weekend when I was back in Malacca. I had high hopes for it. Helping me sew and stuff. But, I was disappointed cause the bloody thing can't even be depressed. I am determined to make it work. I spent RM10 on that thing! It will be worth every penny! (okay, I know I sounded cheap saying that, but still.)
I'm going to return it when I go back to Malacca next weekend. The apek did say I could. I do hope he doesn't disappear.
Oh, I also ordered a pair of really pretty clogs. I'll post photos once I get them. It takes a month to make. They are so pretty, you're going to be jealous.
I really should be asleep. But as you can plainly see, I'm not. Not that I don't want to sleep, I do. But I also want to do other things as well. Things I can't do during the day. i.e. Craft.
During the day, I have to fight with the bug for time. She's a time hog. She takes up all my time leaving me with little to non. And when I do try to craft, she'll want to 'help' too. I could do with less help from her, really.
So what is a girl to do? Craft at night! When little people are asleep. I have a couple of swaps to complete. All due end of this month.
Why I picked up a new hobby I will never know. Not that I have any free time on my hands. This new hobby is quite addictive though. I just love getting mail. Getting stuff in mail is even better. I was trying to figure out whether this new hobby is expensive and I've come to the conclusion that it isn't. It's basically a hobby where everyone just buys more stuff. Because when you buy stuff to send to people, you get the same type of stuff back. So, you're getting your money back, in a form of something different. If you're not careful however, you'll end up with a whole lot more stuff than when you started!
Does anyone other than me know what I'm rambling on about? No? Do yourself a favor and click that link above then.
I also have a really busy day tomorrow. I have a lunch meeting with a client to discuss her wedding cake and let her taste the cake I chose for her. I have to bake cream puffs and burger buns and cupcakes as well. And still I choose to craft. This would be the perfect time for my mother to say, "you've got to set your priorities right!".
Mommy dearest isn't here, however. Therefore I'm spared of the lecture. I do feel that my decision to NOT sleep is going to bite me in the derrière. I'm not that worried though. I'm more the live in the moment kind of person.
My table is awfully messy from all this crafting. I took some photos to show you the current state of it. It's pretty, but messy.
And lastly, I'll leave you with a photo of why I hate and love polymer clay.
