What I've been up to …

Shanny is a Malaysian, residing in Switzerland. I got to know her through the NeedlesNCraft e-group. Last year I had the pleasure of meeting her in person at Tini’s place.

This year, Shanny is my Birthday X-change partner. For the exchange, we need to send to our partner some gift, preferably hand-made.

Remember the tatted bookmarks I produced some time ago:

I could not disclose then, but the blue one was meant for Shanny.

I also made this gold-filled 9Malay: suasa) chain for her, using the stones that I bought at a shop in Kelana Jaya Mall:

As for the stash (we needed to add at least 3 stash), I opted for a cross-stitch kit that I bought some time ago (Oh, no! I forgot to snap a pic of it). I hope the kit qualifies for the 3 stash types, because it has thread and fabric. I also added a piece of cotton to the package, hence the final package looks like this:

Shanny, I meant to add in a Japanese paper fan, when wrapping them I totally forgot about it! .

So, Shanny, I hope you like what I’ve got you. And I also wish you a wonderful birthday – may all your wishes come true!

Hope to see you again when you come back to Malaysia, ya!

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I started to tat again yesterday during Nafis’ registration. I got bored sitting in the theater not doing anything so I took out my tatting shuttles and started to tat.

I eventually managed to finish a bookmark, and last night I finished another one in blue. Here are the two tatted bookmarks:

I also tried to create my own pattern and produced this today:

I don’t know what to do with it, and am not so proud of it either, but at least I have my own pattern .

In between the above items, I tatted a few little motives :

I think I am going to tat more before I get bored with it and stop.

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It’s not really new, because I made it over a month ago, or maybe even over 2 months ago, I can’t really remember. I forgot to blog earlier.

The fabric was bought online. I thought the musical instrument design is appropriate for the bag that she puts her music books whenever she goes for her music class.

I didn’t forget to include a pocket inside:

Oh, yes, the inner lining has loads of musical notes . It’s the leftover fabric from her old (sling) bag that I made her in Feb 2009:

I am quite happy with the new bag, and I think so is Aina . Let’s have another view of it:

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About 2 weeks ago, Nuni bought me this book, “Falling Leaves” by Adeline Yen Mah:

(pic from Adeline Yen Mah’s site)

Last sunday night I finished reading it. It’a a great book. It was another an -unput-downable book, just like the Wild Swan, by Jung Chang. I think I am always facinated by Chinese female writers, especially when it is a  biography and involves hardship in their lives.

Now a friend is reading it and a few others are in the wait-list!

It somehow made me want to write about me too, hahaha!!!

Thank you, Nuni for the book!

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I came across the phrase RT (retail Therapy) from some of my “Mak Cik Blogger” (blogging aunties) friends, esp Kay.

Two office mates and I booked our Jakarta tickets some time ago, and last Saturday (15th May 2010) was the departure day.

We were really aiming to shop till we drop and nobody brought a camera! Why would we need a camera, we were not playing tourists, hahaha!! We however had our phones (though mine doesn’t have roaming facility) that have built-in cameras. Hence all the pix here were taken using my phone camera.

Day 1

Armed with a few millions rupiah (yeah, we were millionaires that day!), we arrived at LCCT at 6am (having checked in online the day before). It was a fast move to the departure lounge because we were not carrying any check-in luggae (hence skipped the baggage drop).

Our plane left at 7am, and arrived at Soekarno Hatta Airport 2 hours later, at 8am local time. By 9am we were already at Tanah Abang!!

Oh, by the way, I met Tini of Snazzy and Such on the plane. She was accompanying her friend for some shopping too!  Our path crossed again at the food court in  Tanah Abang!

First stop was at the textile shops for bargain on cotton fabrics. I managed to take these pix:

It looked so much similar to the shop that I blogged (about wanting to visit).

The shop not so cheap, but we found others that offer better prices. One of them was this one:

My friend looking at some of the cotton:

while I looked at those outside the shop:

After this second shop, I totally forgot to take any other pic, and just engrossed myself in the RT .

We had our lunch of nasi padang  at the food court in the (Tanah Abang) shopping complex. It was simple but delicious. I also had one of the best cendols I’ve tasted so far too.

After lunch, when our initially almost empty hand-carried bags were full, and we had just too many plastic bags to carry, we took a cab to our abode for our stay there, the Traveller’s Hotel.

We took a rest until it was time to have dinner. We asked the reception for some suggestions of places to go. The guy suggested “Mall of Indonesia”. We didn’t hear it right, and when we tried to tell the cab driver, he (the driver) asked us back “Grand Indonesia?”. Clueless, we said yes. Little did we know we were heading to downtown Jakarta, and it was Saturday night! We ended up spending quite some time in the traffic jam before we eventually reached the place.

Grand Indonesia is too grand for our purses, so we only had dinner, bought some foodstuff and headed back to our hotel. The dinner was pricey but nice and tasty. I took some pix but somehow I could not find them in my phone, I wonder why…

Day 2

Well rested the night before, we excitedly had our breakfast early, because the destination for that morning was Pasar Pagi (Morning Market) at Mangga 2. As the name suggests, we thought the place would open early, but when we asked the concierge to get us a cab to the place, he smiled at us and told us that the place started business at 10am!

Argh…. Disappointed, we went back to our room and watched tv instead (we caught an episode of Upin & Ipin!).

At  9am we however agreed to take a gamble and headed for the market. We agreed that if we arrived early, we’d just wait at the entrance to the shopping complex. We had a pleasant surprise – there were quite a number of shops open and bustling with transactions!! One of the first things we did was to get ourselves a check-in bag each! We needed these bags to put in the goods that we’d bought and were going to buy . I also managed to buy a Simpati prepaid call card and called Yudi (an Indonesian friend who was my coursemate during my training in Tokyo in 2004)  and Norita (a Malaysian friend who lives in Jakarta).

To cut the story short, we ended our visit with an early lunch at the food court. The food that we chose that day were not as nice as the nasi padang that we had the day before.

After lunch, we took a cab back to our hotel, to drop the bags and the stuff that we bought at Mangga 2 (Pasar Pagi).  We then went back to Tanah Abang. Yes, Tanah Abang. We were there until the shops were about to close (they close at about 4pm-5pm).

We then had no choice but to go back to our hotel to rest .

Since we missed going to “Mall of Indonesia” (or locally known as MOI) the night before, we were determined to go there that night. I told Norita about it, and we agreed to meet up there. So that night, we went to MOI and met up Norita and hubby, Endi.

Here’s a pic of Norita and Endi choosing the dishes (we gave up trying to understand the menu):

My 2 “partners-in-crime” whiling away:

Norita treated us to a Sunda meal. It was delicious and I remember to snap a few more pix .

The way they served the sambal belacan was really attractive:

Similarly with another sambal:

More dishes:

And I love the sayur asam:

The main ingredients were buah malinjau and its shoots.

I know the seeds are used to make a type of crackers (keropok) that i love, as shown in this pic. That night it was the first time I saw the seeds in the soup:

Ah, enough about the food. In short, the dinner was wonderful!!

Before we parted, we thanked Norita and hubby for the wonderful dinner. Luckily we remembered to have a photo of me with them taken:

Hope to see Norita soon in KL, when she comes down to KL for some official tasks.

Day 3

We were leaving for home that afternoon. I had no more rupiah in my purse (I even owed S a few hundreds rupiahs!). Initially we were planning to just rest in our hotel room before we leave for the airport.  The temptation was high, and we found ourselves at Mangga 2 (ITC) again that morning, looking for more bargains! I resisted buying anything until I came across some chiffon head scarves that I couldn’t resist. So, I borrowed more rupiah from S and bought them.

We came back to our hotel in time for a brief rest, before we checked out and headed to the airport. Our flight was on time.

While in the plane I saw Air Asia’s new advert on the tray:

I thought the kitten looked so cute, don’t you?

We landed at KLIA at 5.50pm, and by 7pm I was home, cooking dinner for my family!

Now, that was a short and sweet RT outing!

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This is a long over-due blog. I wish I can write more but time doesn’t permit me to do so. I got many lovely gifts from these great ladies!! I wish to be able to list them one day, but no promise ya!

Date: 27th March 2010

Venue: My house

Time: 10 am – 5pm

Menu: Pot luck.

We certainly had a great time. I only cooked chicken rendang, and fried some beehoon. I also prepared guava cordial. The rest were brought by the other attendees. Nobody came empty handed. So much food and so much fun. There were Malays, Chinese and Indians – no need to listen to the 1Malaysia slogans. We are united in our hobby and passion for Needles and Crafts.

Let’s see the food:

I am going to cheat on this blog by linking you to some that blog entries that have been posted by some of these great ladies:

• Nik Ainun’s blog
• Alynn’s (See Alynn’s gift for me here, and mine to her too)
  
• Tini’s
• Mel’s (see the gift Mel made for me here)
  

Did I miss any other related blogs?

Anyway, here’s the group photo that I pinched from Tini’s page:

Tini, I hope you don’t mind me using this photo! By the time we took this group pix, some of us had left already .

Just the week before that I joined some friends of the same group in attending Rose’s son’s wedding reception at Hotel Singgahsana.

There are a couple of photos that I’d love to add here, maybe later?

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Admiring Sabre’s Cheesecake??

Yesterday (Monday) just beforre I left for work, DH told me that he had invited Howard, Pat & Sabre to our home after work. Wow! I thought. But I finished work late on most Mondays!! I told DH so. He then said he’d arrange everything himself. Phew!!

So, when I arrived home at about 7.45pm, I found some Ayamas roast chicken, orange juice, salad (from Nando’s), soft drinks and some mandarin oranges in the kitchen.

DH was no where to be seen. He went to fetch Howard & Pat at the Kelana Jaya LRT station. Soon after that, Sabre arrived.

Not long after Sabre arrived, Nuni came home! She was early!!

I am too sleepy to say more now. Nuni has saved me from blogging in detail by her writing her blog about the evening much earlier.

DH and I later sent Howard and Pat back to their hotel (Le Meridien, KL).

It was a brief but enjoyable evening meet. Thank you, Pat for the bouquet of flowers and thank you, Sabre for the cheesecake!

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Yesterday I sewed the fabric that I bought just the day before (during lunch time) to make these:

I just realised yesterday that there’s another nearby window that needs curtains too. So, today, after office hours, just before I came home, I dropped by at Nagoya (Plaza Alam Sentral) next door to my office to buy more of the same fabric.

Tonight, after dinner, I started sewing to get these:

Ignore the messy boxes and containers! I’ve yet to unload the stuff in them.

The leftover of the fabric was turned into the curtains for the only window in the boys’ room (DH calls it “The Men’s Cave” – it’s where the Wii and PS3 are). Since I was short (literally!) of fabric, I combined the fabric with the leftover from last week’s curtain:

Not bad, eh?

So the status now – the only room that is still without curtains is my own bedroom. Nevermind, slowly, but surely….

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Some shots here:

The dark background curtain is to reduce glare from outside, because we want to watch our B.yond Astro here:

The dining area has a lighter background curtain:

This is the guest room:

I like Nuni’s curtains:

DH’s work corner in our bedroom is using “loaned” curtains which are supposed to be downstairs:

Curtains in Aina’s room are still not in this blog. Will update later.

I also need to sew more curtains, including for the glass panels at the stair case. These curtains are functional. The decorative parts (if any) will come much much  later.

I think the pix do not do justice to my curtains, esp with the over exposure at the windows. Anyway, thank you DH for the pix. Don’t forget Aina’s room!

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Today was relatively more relaxing than few days before. Yesterday the built-in wardrobes are almost done. Only the sliding door/mirrors are not ready. Nuni’s bedroom set also came yesterday. Yesterday too I finished sewing the curtain fabrics that I’ve got so far. I am not saying the curtains are all done – I only ran out of curtain fabric!

So, today started with some unpacking of stuff into the storage space that we’ve got so far.

Then, late in the morning I started to knit some old t-shirts into this rug:

Actually, some time back I was influenced by what Paul did to his old t-shirt.

Recently while cleering my old stuff, I came across the huge crochet needle that I bought in the 1980s when I was still a student in Adelaide. Here’s a pic of the needle, with the RM10 note and a typical Nokia phone as comparison:

I finished the above rug this morning too, and this evening I decided to turn an old bedsheet into another rug.

Here’s a pic of it in progress:

Unfortunately I am sleepy, otherwise I am sure I can finish it before midnight!

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