Need a to-do list, quick!

I have lots of things floating around in my head today.
The things I'm worried about most are household related since next Monday, I won't be around to do them.
Laundry; washing, airing/sun-drying and folding them, dishes in the sink, sweeping/mopping. You know, everyday things that I have been doing all these while, while Ahmad snores away till noon. *Urghhh*
Come Monday, who's going to do all that?

I'm worried the most about the boys. They are used to having me around, especially Nazrin who still breastfeeds. When I'm at work (still can't believe I'm going to work next week, heh), who is going to make Shahrin's formula? And make sure Nazrin eats his food and not play around with it after he's full?
Who is going to break up their fights over toys?

Ahmad and I had discussed these things, briefly anyway, since he's never really at home for a proper discussion. From what have been talked about, he would take care of the children and some (just some) of the household chores. He would send Shahrin to pre-school and pick him up at noon. He would stay at home with Nazrin and feed him and bathe him and put him down for his nap. During the evening when Shahrin is home, they would spend the time watching TV or maybe go for a ride to the playground. Ahmad has also agreed to hang the laundry out only if I've put them in the washing machine. But he doesn't do folding or the windows or the sweeping or the mopping.

*Aiiiiiyaaiiiyaiiyaaiiii*

Anyway, I need to list down the things I need to prepare for Monday. I think I need to iron 5 pairs of my baju kurung, in preparation for the whole week. Then, I need to do a check-list for Ahmad, so that he knows what to expect when dealing with the boys, though personally, I've always winged-it with them.
Hmm..need to rummage through my 'download folder' for all the cute free printables I've collected so far. I know there's quite a number of them that are cute.

Great news!!!

Sorry for not being around for the past 4 days. We had to go back to my parents house from Saturday to Monday for Shahrin's post-op follow-up on Monday. I did brought back my lappy but the broadband connection there was crappy. Plus I didn't have time to blog since my father hogged my lappy, watching Sumeyye Eddeb reciting verses from The Quran (don't know how to place the YouTube video of her in here *sigh*).

Anyways, in the short 4 days, I have quite a lot of news to tell. Ready? Ok, let's so this hehe.

Great news #1
My father (Baba) bought me a Hewlett Packard notebook!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yay Baba!!!!!!!!!!!!! This has been my mother's doing. Back when we had to stay in Alor Star during Shahrin's recovery, I said in passing, while drooling over a notebook/lappy advertisements in the local news paper, that wouldn't it be nice to have a new lappy? This current one is a Fujitsu P Series Lifebook, a hand-me-down from my younger sister Ateh. She gave it to me to use while I was completing my MSc since she wasn't using it then. I love this lappy because it's small, light and hasn't given me any trouble (not much). But as the saying goes, "Kecil tapak tangan, nyiru saya tadahkan" (Since my hands are small, I'll hold out a basket instead) hehehehehe. Unfortunately, the new lappy is with Ateh's husband for formatting. Baba had wanted to install Quran recitals in it but the salesperson said that they couldn't do so. That was why he gave it to my BIL, so that he can install it in for me. Can't wait to meet my new lappy but have to be patient due to great news #2.

Great News #2
My youngest brother is finally coming home for good in June.He has been studying at Vanderbilt University in the US of A since 4 years ago. He's finally graduated and will be landing at KLIA on 3rd of June 2011. My parents will be going there this weekend and pick him up. Then, they will travel back together and will come by here to give me my #1 great news, hehehehehheheheheh. This is because Ateh & her family lives in KL and my parents will be staying over at her house during this weekend.

Great News #3
Just this morning, my teacher's boss called me and asked me to join their English class at SoLLAT, USM. Since I am their RA (Research Assistant), I will have to be the replacement teacher should any of the project members couldn't teach. Apart from that, she also wanted to introduce me to her Uncle and discuss.....

MY NEW JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes! I have been employed by my boss's Uncle! This is the greatest news of all!!!!!!!!!!!
I start this coming Monday, from 8.15am to 5.00pm. I felt a bit rattled while doing the 'interview' since it has been ages since I last attended any. Can't believe I have a job now. Granted, it's only a clerical position but it's better than nothing at all, right?
Plus, I still get to keep my RA position with SoLLAT (School of Literature, Linguistics and Translation) where my boss (old boss) will call me if ever they need me.
Syukur, alhamdulillah. Hopefully, our financial situation will get better after this.

And I still have one more news to tell, about a new business venture I'll be taking part in but enough news for tonight. I'm saving this one when I have more to show.

Till later, folks!

Part 3: Felt cratfs I made!

Well, after proclaiming my eagerness to update my Crafting Craze projects, I went and slept very early last night. 10.30! I was already asleep by 10.30! Man...I must have been very tired, making all these crafts. Ahahkss..

 This is the latest one. I did it yesterday evening when the boys were 'busy' watching BabyTV on Astro. It was very easy to make and quite comforting. The lull of pushing and pulling the needle through the felt gave me a sense of control. I now understand how some people could say that cooking or sewing or craft-making soothes them. Although, personally, I don't think cooking can be relaxing since Malay type of cooking requires a lot of preparations. But that's just me heheh. 

 This key-chain is a very basic craft. I cut letters from a pink felt and sewed them onto a purple felt. The instruction called for just glue but I've had bad experiences with it, so that was why I had sewed my letters. I do think that doing that gave my letters some character. In case you are wondering, the little button at the bottom is a whale and I sewed him on too. Then, all I needed to do next was to back-stitch all around the purple felt. I did leave an opening for the stuffing/fiber to go in as well as to put the key-chain in. That was all. Now I have a personalized key-chain cum rocket. <---Shahrin took it and pretended that it's a rocket. *sigh* At least it was mine for about a minute. Heh.      

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 These 2 loves were for Shahrin's pre-school teachers. I didn't know what to get them, so I thought these could be my first felt project. I mentioned in Part 2 that the starter kit came with instructions as well as cut-outs for the projects they had in the module. So, I used the love shapes to make these.

 
These are the finished project. As I said before, I do not trust glue, thus the untidy sewing lines along the edges of the loves. These I made into hand-phone straps, complete with tiny bells that rang every time the loves move. Cute, aren't they?

These are flowers I made 3 days ago, following the tutorial posted on Kedai Sus's blogshop. I bought the starter kit from them. The flowers are called Kemboja in Malay, but I don't know the name in English. I made these by making small circles and cutting off a small part from each circle. Then all I needed to do next was baste each petals, five of them, together and pulled the thread tight. When the form was just as I wanted it to be, I tied it of with a button. Then, I sewed the flowers onto my new sling-bag. On the left there is me, modelling my new bag with its new decorations. I'm loving this! Heh. 
Here they are, stuck on my bag. I deliberately made them unaligned for 'artistic' purposes. As if, heh. I had originally wanted to put one flower at the bottom right corner of the bag but since it was so easy to make, I made two. Then, since 2 flowers at the bottom corner looked awkward, I placed them at the top instead. All in all, I think they look better like this, right?

This one was made by tracing the flower shapes provided in the module onto different colored felts. The bottom 2 were of the same size while the upper part was smaller. All that was left was to stack them up and sew on a button. It was that simple. 

At the back here I glued on a safety pin. I know, I know, I hate glue but I was in a hurry while making this so I had to resort to using glue. I will sew the pin when I have the time. On the right is where I put this flower brooch. I love the pop of color on the brown-ness of the bag.




Well, that's all folks. The projects I've been making in the last week. I'm going to buy more felt and buttons and cute shapes. I have a business project coming up with felt crafts as the centerpiece. Got to go play housewife now. See you later!

Part 2: Felt craft starter kit.

As promised, here's the second part of my Crafting Craze.
I've been wanting to do some sewing/crafting since forever. I know I love to sew, I just don't have the time and the machine to do that. Excuses much? Maybe. Or maybe because I don't want to be criticize by my mom since I'm supposedly the 'brilliant' one in my family and sewing/crafting would be a 'waste of my brilliance'.
I don't know. 
Plus, I'm not original. I love checking out other people's crafts and try to match their creation because I can't come up with an original idea of my own.

Anyway, I was checking out some handmade-blogshops and stumbled onto a felt craft blogshop. They offer starter kits at RM 60 which includes:

Different colored felts, a marker, another marker, glue and a tweezers.

This is the crafting 'module'. In it, the blogger showed how to make felt key-chains, hand-phone straps.

Some cute buttons, needles, treads, scissors, key-chains, bells, hand-phone straps.

All of the above items were sent over via PosLaju in this file.

I'm having some fun making stuff with this starter kit. It also can just in time for Teacher's Day. So, I had time to make 2 hand-phone straps for Shahrin's pre-school teachers. Though I have to admit that before we got to his school and gave the HP straps to the teachers, I was feeling very proud of myself. 1- because I actually made the gifts myself and 2- I remembered to bring something as appreciation to the teachers.
But, when we got there and I saw all the other gifts/presents other parents had brought over, my pride burst. *POP*
Well, beggars can't be complainers. I seriously couldn't afford the other presents. Hopefully the teachers know that it's the thought that counts, right?

Well, the last part is going to be fun. I can't wait for tomorrow night, heh. 

Part 1: Upcycled T-shirts. (Crafting craze!)

Well, now that I've finished proofreading the thesis my 'client' gave me, I would be able to post about some of my crafting projects. The Crafting Craze will be done in 3 parts; Part 1, upcycled t-shirts, Part 2, felt crafts' starter kit and Part 3 is the actual craft I made myself for my son's preschool teacher. Oooouuuu..can't wait to tell you guys all about them but I have to be smart & divide the news in parts to make sure that I would have more posts for the next few days. Hahahah....

Ahem..

Anyway, regarding the upcycled t-shirt, I found 2 lovely t-shirts that if I were skinny, I would've worn them every single day. I love the texture, color and the stripes on the t-shirts but they were too small for me. Plus, I can't wear horizontal stripes, they would make me look even bigger, right? Basic fashion rule.

Ahmad said I could have them (they were in our bundle stash) so I decided that if I can't wear them, I might as well do something else with them.

Blue shirt with dark blue stripes, wide round-neck collar. Love it!

Brownish shirt with a collar.

So, I took out my scissors and began to hack away at the sleeves and some of the bottom part of the T-shirts. Again, I'm not doing a tutorial here, just telling you guys what I did with these lovely shirts that I can't wear (buhuhu...). I used the long sleeves of the blue one to make a long strap and I kept the bigger bottom portion of the shirt for another project. Since the brown shirt has short sleeves, I had to cut strips out of the bottom part to make the straps. Then, I turned them inside out and sewed down starting from the opened sleeves area till the bottom. I sewed the bottom part too and made 2 triangle shapes at both ends. Not really sure what they are called among tailors/seamstresses, though. So, have you figured out what they have turned into yet? 

Yes! I made sling-bags out of them! Aren't they cute? I especially LOVE the blue bag, with its round-neck as the opening and the clean stripes. I can't wait to use them. This had to be the easiest project ever. Maybe next time I rummage through Ahmad's bundle stash, I'd find more shirts to be turned into bags. Yay! :D

So much to update but so little time.

I am the worst procrastinator ever!
It's already Sunday & I've got plenty more pages to go. Ughhhh!!!
Why do I keep doing this to myself?

I also want to update on several projects that I've been doing.
Hopefully, I'll finish proofreading early & can update but I'm skeptical.
Anyways, I've turned off the TV, the boys are down for the night & I'm all revved up!

Yes.

Any minute now.

JUST DO IT ANIS!!!!

Ok, ok, I'm really going!

Waiting....

I'm still waiting for my parcel to arrive.
I bought something online 2 days ago, from a blogshop based in Kelantan.
When I tracked the parcel via Pos Malaysia's web, the record shows that its already here at Bagan Serai's Post Office. However, the postman is still not here.
He should've been here by now.
I can't wait to start my new project!

Please hurry up, Mr. Postman!