My New Project - Completed!!

Ever since I got started on the whole 'tudung'-making venture, I got a renewed interest in sewing. In particular, bag-making and tops for myself, for now at least. I've half-sewed a jersey top for myself (just needs the finishing touches around the hems and such), and now I'm so proud & happy to declare I have 1 finished bag to my name!!!


Meet my first-ever handmade bag!!!

I'm especially proud cos I made this from scratch - no patterns, no drafts... just a rough measurement as per my mom's instructions (and no cheating by asking mom to complete it too!) ... but I have to say, using a paper pattern would definitely have been easier... leceh tul nak lukis line atas kain yang bergerak as the pencil draws on it!

I started on this last week (just the outer shell), and got to work on the rest yesterday. Beriya-iya nak siapkan jugak this weekend, tau! Broke a needle in the process too hehehe... sorry mama... In the end, managed to complete it this afternoon. It's not perfect obviously... it's a basic, simple tote design lined with red fabric with no pockets, zippers or buttons, ada some wavy stitches, ada uneven stitch size (still learning to adjust the tension and stitch size for each fabric type), but it's all my own! I love the fabric pattern too... so bright and cheerful... I guess it's also reversible, cos I just turned it inside out and it still looks OK stiches-wise...

Now I can get started on the many other patterns and tutorials I've collected from the internet, magazines and books... I've spent a bomb on sewing books and mags this year, on top of my usual literary interests... no wonder I've exceeded my tax deduction quota this year! Cute fabrics are calling out to me as well... my wallet is doomed I tell ya....

Gatal dah tangan nak buat this very cute wristlet (like I don't have enough as it is!!) I saw earlier... the pattern seems do-able to a novice (hehe, confident je kata)... a girl can never have too many bags, right? A cloth wallet for my daughter, a wristlet for the many membership cards I have, a simple cloth tote bag for shopping, another for quick trips to the store, another for my daughter's books, another for me just for kicks, another to cart all my additional stuff to work, and another and another and another...ahhh, what bliss to think of all the bags to be made...

Of course, it doesn't mean I'll stop BUYING bags (that's still a must!! Even now I'm eyeing another acquisition... yum yum... can I afford it???? I must make myself afford it hehehe)

Kalau macam ni, my own sewing machine would make a good investment, kan?

Agak-agak boleh berenti keje and just do this all day long tak? Hehehe... ke nanti mati kutu pulak tengok mesin je manjang?

I love the feeling of creating something!!! Let's make more!!!

Catching up on reading

I have at least 5 maganizes at home (Impiana, Impiana Dapur, Impiana Apartmen) from various months that are waiting to be read...

At least 3 more are at work...

This weekend's goal? To finish at least 2! Since my 'extra-curricular' class tomorrow is cancelled, I get to 'lepak' at home yeay!!!

I'm trying not to think about the pile of laundry that needs ironing...



Additional potential plans - if I can convince Hubby to go to either the MPH sale, or to Fella Design's sale... quality fabrics on sale for my potential projects... hehehe... and of course books need no excuse...

How do you know???

How do you know what it is that you're meant to do in life?

How do you discover what suits you best?

Is there a formula? A course that'll help you chart your way? How do you peel off the different layers that make you a person, and find the real being underneath? How do you find your true calling, your life's passion? Work that you enjoy so much, it doesn't deserve to be called 'work'?


















I feel worn out....

Is it the job? The company? The position? I'm just a 'balaci', by the way... please do not misunderstand this as the moanings of a boss hehehe...

Is this what I'm destined to be, to do for the rest of my productive years? I enjoy going to work, yet lately I'm feeling my work is becoming more and more meaningless. Mounds of paperwork that I have to force others to complete, yet without any clear, discernible use... paperwork with info that we already can get from other sources... and yet, to give feedback for improvement to the powers-that-be is to put my neck out to be chopped, to be branded a 'trouble-maker'...

Help!

Oh to be a WAHM, or my own boss... 1 year and 3 months more... *sigh*...

Nasty Conmen

You know how you hear about so many different scams out there right now, and sometimes wonder how people can be so gullible to fall for them?

I'm not talking about the Ponzi-like schemes.... more like the ones you get SMS'ed about (the AF schemes, supposed PETRONAS and Shell contest wins, the buy-this-crappy-item-you-win-this-great-gift-that-you-have-to-pick-up-in-person) as well as the panic-inducing one of 'someone's trying to use your credit card, you need to give me details to avoid that from happening' sort of thing....

Well, a very good friend of mine just got hit by the latter!!! Kesian dia... apparently she got a phone call from someone saying that someone's attempting to use her credit card in a fraudulent transaction... of course you'd worry if you hear something like that kan? So this guy tells her she needs to secure her account or something like that, and she has to follow his instructions at the ATM machine... siap boleh pesan lagi jangan cakap kuat-kuat takut orang keliling dengar... hallo, so dodgy kan? If the others had heard her conversation, sure they'd have highlighted to her this guy's scamming!

So anyway, she followed the guy's instructions at the ATM, and somehow I guess he got access to her account. She lost RM 10K tau!!! I just found out about it from another good friend...

Is it possible dia kena pukau over the phone? Someone from our office (Kak M, I think) got this sort of phone call before, but she hung up on the guy... and all of us (including my friend) discussed the matter and we agreed it was an attempt to scam money from Kak M, so it's not as if my friend was ignorant of these baddies' modus operandi... but somehow dah nak jadi, terkena jugak kat dia...

Hang in there ok buddy... ada hikmah yang kite tak nampak lagi ni... dugaan Allah masa ni... I hope the d@mn conman (thief is more accurate kot?) gets what he deserves!

Salam Aidilfitri

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri!

Finally back at home after being away since the Friday before raya... a week feels like a couple of days aje! I can't believe it's time to go back to work already!

This year we celebrated Raya in Seremban first (only the 2nd time in almost 6 years of marriage heheh) and came back to KL on the 3rd day (coincidentally Amani's birthday too). The snag about taking a whole week off? Other people are not around yet, all happily enjoying their holiday in their kampungs! Oh we poor people whose kampungs are in KL... but all was not lost, we took off to visit relatives outside KL too...

In the beginning, though, it felt somewhat subdued... hambar... usually we'd go and visit my grandma on the 1st day, and if we celebrated in Seremban first, we'd stop by on our way back to KL, but this year is the 1st year that she's gone... it feels strange not to see her... have yet to visit her grave, but will do so insya-Allah soon...

Am trying hard not to think about work... once we get back, the budget cycle's gonna be in full swing, and the mid-year review's coming up right after that... and the restructuring that's gonna affect us in Oct... not to mention the Hari Raya gathering in 2 weeks' time that I've been 'volunteered' to lead... aughhhh... any ideas for an independent work opportunity anyone????

Of The Less Privileged...

For the first time, yesterday I personally chaperoned a child I adopted under the company's annual buka puasa event... Previously a few of us would band together to adopt 1 kid, and sponsor his/her gifts, but none of us would attend the buka puasa event itself, not to mention the activities preceeding it. Nominate anak buah je pegi gantikan kitorang hehehe... Although we never attended the event, we loved participating in it from behind the scenes, simply cos it allows us the opportunity to share with those less privileged...

This year, I managed to adopt 1 child again, but since this time I did it individually (tak sempat nak ajak kengkawan join), I couldn't sub-con the attendance to someone else... I was looking forward to it though, especially since the organizing committee changed the format to resemble a mini 'Explorace', including a shopping portion! So this year, instead of us staff buying gifts for the children beforehand, we actually get to buy the things for them together! I thought that was a nice idea...

Needless to say, the little girl & I had a lot of fun... she was such a sweetie, smiling broadly all the time, and was not the least bit demanding. She was the third in a family of 7, and her eldest brother was living in another 'Rumah Amal' and went to school in Kedah. She was so surprised to see her brother in the same event! It was so touching to see the siblings' reunion... I get the feeling that they don't meet very often, unless it's the school holidays and they get to go home to their mom and family in Ampang.

We went to all the checkpoints (I didn't help her much during the mug-decorating part, she did a great job on her own! If I had, it probablywould have turned out worse heheh), and when we got to the shopping part, we got lots of books, some toys and tons of new clothes for her. Since she had no particular items in mind even after being asked repeated, I treated her as though I was taking my own daughter on a shopping trip... anything that caught my fancy that she liked, went into the basket! As you may guess, Iexceeded the spending limit hehehe... that's what you get with a shopaholic mummy :)

I was flat out by the time I went home (I'm still wiped out today!), but something lingered in my mind... I was more than happy to spend more than the allocated budget for her, simply because she wasn't pushy and demanding, and her requests were so humbly simple... When I spoke to some of my colleagues who were also participating, they experienced the same thing. This was in stark contrast to the same event from the past few years. You see, previously, when they put up the pics of the children from the various homes for the 1-day adoption, they also put up their wish list for us to fulfill. We're asked to buy the items on the wish list (on our own ye, not using the company money :p) within a certain spending limit set by the company (I guess to make sure everyone got the same value of items, no less), and the items will be handed to the children during the event. What began to irk me was seeing the items on the list. Very often you'd see very modest requests - black pants, white shirt, school bag, etc etc.... basic necessities for schoolgoing kids - very humbling requests for people like us who are used to buying more for our own kids and families. But we began noticing that starting some years back, some kids from certain homes were asking for things like Nike shoes, Adidas shoes, G-Shock watches... heck, these kids even knew which particular model they wanted!

It wasn't just me... my friends and colleagues felt the same way. When we saw the modest requests, we'd try our best to give even more than what the kid wanted and really make their day... but the kids with the branded wish list? We avoided them, full stop! I honestly didn't want to take any of them. I wanted to share our good fortune with someone, and I wanted to share it with someone who would appreciate what came their way... not someone who already had set high expectations beforehand and made a demand for things.

I try to see it from their point of view... Suddenly it's as if it's their birthday, or Christmas, and they have a chance to list down their dearest wishes, so they do it... but somehow it strikes a jarring note with me. So rather than b1tch about the things my/our adopted child wants, we'd rather go with someone who really touches us with his/her simple requests, and try our very best to make it even better. Is that terrible? I think not... someone else with a different outlook than mine would be able to fulfill those wishes, so let them go ahead...

All in all, we had a great day yesterday... I stayed behind till the kids got on their buses (tak sampai hati nak balik terus... my little girl and the girl our dept adopted had so many heavy bags to carry! Same goes for many of the other kids too, thanks to their generous patrons/chaperones...) My children are blessed to have two loving parents take care of them, fulfill their basic needs, love them with all our hearts... I was glad that for a few short hours, I could share what my children have with someone else...

Insya-Allah, I look forward to participating again next year... but perhaps I could start outsourcing the attendance again? Hehehe...

My Daughter the Shopper

Kakak has the makings of a shopping 'kaki' (abahnya kata, anak mama la tu... hehehe... I refuse to comment for fear of incriminating myself...:p)

And how do I know this?

We went shoe-shopping for the kids today... Kasut raya of course, as well as kasut nak berjalan-jalan... both Kakak & Adik have pretty much outgrown their 'nice' shoes (heck, Adik couldn't even put his foot in! That chronic wooo...), plus the sandals that they use to go to school are looking pretty beat up... Stakat nak gi nursery tu OK la, tapi kalau nak gi jenjalan, kurang comel laaaa...

So off we went to Jusco I Utama... Hubby and I like the selection there, and of course the prices are reasonable. Ingatkan it would be a short trip - grab the shoes, try them on, pay, leave (see Abah, no 'lencongan' from Mama... I had good intentions OK!) Rupa-rupanya anak daraku boleh tahan jugak shopping! Adik's shoes were chosen easily. Of course, it helped that by the time we got to Jusco, he was asleep in the stroller, so Mama sesuka hati je la tried on possible shoes on his feet as he slept; plus, he didn't get a say in the selection hehehe...

Different story with Kakak! Punye la banyak kasut try... yang I suka, dia tak suka... some that she liked were too pink for my liking (baju raya biru la, turquoise lagi!!) the ones she liked were pretty, but they didn't have them in her size... I literally felt dizzy, squatting down to put the shoes on and off, and standing up again. I'm sure if a doctor were to check my blood pressure tadi, it would have been on the low side.

In the end, we spent more than 2 hours there, just at the shoes section!!! Hubby & I wanted to finish the shoe-shopping there and then - malas nak gi cari lagi lain kali... in the end, tired out and sleepy, she finally found a pair that suited her (and us!). She fell asleep on Hubby's shoulder while waiting for the SA to bring the new pair of shoes.

So what were the fruits of our labor? 2 pairs of shoes, and 2 pairs of sandals, one each for Kakak & Adik... after this we only need to look for a turquoise Baju Melayu for Adik, possibly a sampin and songkok for him as well, and we're all set! Hmmm.... agak-agak Mama nak beli bag or kasut baru tak? Heheheh... We shall wait and see...










Oh, and why did I say Amani is a potential 'kaki shopping'? She kept on trying the shoes, even the ones she didn't like, just because she liked trying out shoes!! She definitely has taste, and doesn't hesitate to give her opinion on things! Tu yang lama sangat nak pilih kasut budak tu! Dia siap bagi input lagi to me when choosing fabric for tudungs hehehe... skarang ni dah terbantut kejap hajat mama nak beli bag baru, cos when I showed her a picture of the bag, dia kata tak cantik!!! Huwaaaaa.... anak mama... takpe la, maybe later you'll change your mind? :p Dah besar skit nanti mama ajak jalan sama-sama ek...