Yarnatheart

No man is an island ...so they say

2012-02-01T10:45:00.001+08:00

But apparently I am one!!! At least that is what my recent live traffic feed seems to indicate, I have a country and a flag!!!

Latest stitch

2012-01-18T09:49:00.001+08:00

This will be my first time blogging from my iPhone using the blogger app.
The first stitch in green is a diagonal box stitch inspired by the blanket from yarny days, thank you for the inspiration !! It's crocheted and at first I was a bit confused with the design but after getting into it, it was quite simple and the result I think is stunning! I liked it so I made another one in red this time as an iPhone cozy tied at the end with a very festive ribbon!
Another stitch I was experimenting with is a dishcloth pattern from Mason Dixon Book 1. I used a cotton yarn for this and after awhile , the stitch pattern became familiar. Love the effect of a simple slip stitch. Well that's it for now, I hope you are discovering and loving crafting as much as I do!!!

Baby bootees for a friend

2012-01-09T20:10:00.002+08:00

After a dry spell of crafting, I'm excited to be knitting again, this time tiny bootees for a friend's baby due any day now!
The plan is to crank out a few more of these as I have a feeling there will more dragon babies coming my way and fast! Such a satisfying knit as it is small and easy . Pattern is from a book I bought in Lincraft many moons ago. With that, I hope you are enjoying your new year, Happy 2012 and wishing you a prosperous dragon new year!

Homemade Gifts

2011-12-17T15:34:00.006+08:00

I haven't updated my blog for awhile and its mostly because I'm technically challenged - I have no idea how to upload photos from my macbook to my blog. It was all so easy with my old computer, until it decided to break apart..literally, I couldn't open it without breaking the hinges!
In the end I exported the photos into a new directory which is what blogspot likes and able to read from. Not very elegant , I say this because normally apple is very clever like that , able to slurp documents or photos and upload it all at once. Not this time. Anyway, its just an extra step, but at least I know how to get around it!!
This morning, my crafty friends and I had a knitting/crochet get-to-gether. It was a wonderful day. Jenifer was very kind to have the knitting session at her place again, and this time she had a lot of clothes and shoes to giveaway , in return for a small donation to the Catholic Mission. I ended up getting 3 pairs of shoes and 3 tops! Thank you so much Jen, you are very, very kind!

While catching up with friends, eating and drinking tea, I managed to finish a washcloth!! A few friends brought some delicious goodies to share. This was my tea-cup this morning, its in a shape of a muffin.

These are the washcloths that I made. I could have knitted it but that will take a long time, so seeing that christmas is only a week away, crochet it is!! I read in a magazine about giving something homemade as christmas gifts, so I decided this would be a handy thing to give. I made it all out of cotton yarn.

In three different sizes and colours:

and top it off with a handmade vegetable soap , tied together with some bakers twine! Oohh the things I love to do with strings!
If I don't get to blog again before christmas, have yourself a merry christmas and enjoy this special time of the year with your loved ones! Till then, I'm signing off and wishing you a merry christmas and a happy new year!

Not much craft but I've got a new toy!

2011-11-24T23:23:00.000+08:00

and its not craft related! Because I'm still new to this machine, its going to be a very short post! I am now joining the dark side that is the apple revolution! That's right I've got myself a MacBook Air and boy it feels weird. The keyboard for starters, why is it so sticky and who moved my mouse! Anyway, I'm still learning at this stage , hope the light will shine down on me in the next few weeks. Apart from that , I am happy to declare that it is now holiday season and the kids are out of school Hooray! More later!

My Flower Scarf

2011-10-24T21:37:00.004+08:00

Only 3 more flower motifs to go!!
I was asking for feedback at 9 pm from you know who and apparently I look like I'm ready to go to a retirement village with it on! Harsh!!!
I guess it does look old-ish, but it was fun just mixing the colours and crocheting! I was thinking if it was just one colour say brown or different shades of brown, maybe it wouldn't look like I'm wearing a table cloth..would it?
An interesting thing about this scarf, its from a Japanese crochet book, which I don't have , but written out in french by someone who wanted to crochet the exact same pattern! Needless to say, there was a lot pain in deciphering the codes and french, but I made it in the end ..yay is me!

Word on War

2011-10-21T11:37:00.004+08:00

I just love this song! Its dedicated to all the Westlife fans out there particularly to fathers or mothers who are away from their little kids. The songwriters had in mind , parents who are away deployed at war when writing this song. So touching especially when you have to go through it yourself.
It is also timely that Matt wrote something on War yesterday, not for schoolwork, just as a practice for him to write on any topic . His teacher was very impressed and rang me up to tell me they want to print it in the school year book! Needless to say I am so proud of him! One thing that stood out of all this is his maturity and understanding on life, and he's not even 9! I love him ever soo much!

This is matt's essay:

I know its not clear so I've typed it out:

Everyone knows war is bad. Doesn’t everyone know that? Why is war bad? War makes everyone die. Imagine that your family members were in war, and they died. It would be sad. Wouldn’t it be sad?

War is hard to win at because you get lots of surprises in it. If you join war, you’ll have 90% of surviving, why? There are vehicles and weapons to get killed by.

There are types of wars :- country wars, law wars, world wars, cold wars and crusades. Crusades are wars in knight times, with kings and queens.

War isn’t fun. It started by taking over an operation to make the world better, but it just makes it worse.

You can make the world better by making agreements, in my opinion.

25 minutes work

By: Matthew Baker

A blanket with an edge

2011-10-16T20:36:00.005+08:00

Before I forget, I must tell you about this almost heavenly experience that I had whilst I was in kl last week. My friend's hubby treated us ( my friend and I ) to a Gommage experience at a turkish bath which is Hammam in Bangsar , KL! A gommage treatment is where your skin is scrubbed , masked and washed off to prepare for your hour long massage! The part where they actually scrub your skin is an hour as it involves cleansing the skin with henna and black soap , sloughing your dead skin off with a coarse mitt and putting on mask all over your body while you lie on these really warm slabs of tiles...bliss! Can I say at this point , all modesty is thrown out the window as you are given disposable undies and bikini tubes. Anyway, there was only my friend and I and the two ladies, so its not really an issue for me. After our heavenly scrub, I swear you could hear my skin squeaking against the dressing gown that we were given to wear, I felt oh so squeaky clean! We were then dried off and given some baklava and turkish tea, before we head of into our room for our massage!! It is sooo good! If you haven't tried it, I recommend it as it is so good! Sigh!!!

Alright , anyway, now that I'm back in reality, I have finally finished the edging of my crochet cream puff baby blanket. It was a close choice between a scallop edging and a picot one. In the end I chose picot as it doesn't drown out the design of the actual blanket in the way a scallop one does, in my humble opinion of course!
Here I present you the blanket with an edge hehe!

Another thing I've finished knitting recently is the Pagoda Bag (a pattern from an Australian Knitting Magazine called Creative Knitting). Yarn used here is a mixture of Jo Sharp silk ultra in black and Noro Kureyon in many shades of blue. It is made up of 2 squares knitted exactly the same and I just had to sew it together in the end. Still figuring whether my bag needs a cloth lining inside, I think I will put one in later, but at the moment, I'm just happy the way it is! There you go, that's what I have to show for this week. I hope my weeks ahead will be as productive. Have a good one!

Westlife in Malaysia October 2011!!!

2011-10-11T11:36:00.005+08:00

Every fan likes to think they're a die hard fan and I am no exception.. except for one thing how the heck did I nearly miss this concert? Westlife was in Malaysia last week and I discovered it just in time to see them. Oh dear was that you Stace that I hear groaning??? Yes eat that ...they've been around that long and still going strong ; ) Ok I hope I didnt jinx it by saying that hahah , anyway, the big appeal of Westlife to me, apart from their great voices and cute looks , is that they are just nice, family-oriented boys, always talking about their parents, brothers and sisters and how much they appreciate their mum and dad...all the time and what they have done to help their parents now and went on to have kids of their own. I was so into Westlife when they started in the late 90s, that I read up anything and everything about them, and always loved their music and how they sang together! Anyway to cut a long story short, this would be my 3rd time going to their concert. The most memorable would have to be when I scored 3rd row seats for their concert in London back in 2002! I was 5 months pregnant with Matthew and I remember telling hubby, guess what... we have to go to London , I've got really good seats for Westlife! Even he can't say no to travelling to London, because after that we proceeded to visit friends in New York, , had a whole apartment to ourselves for a week, right in front of Wall Street - how cool is that!! I also have to add that this friend is very special as he was the one who introduced hubby and I together as they use to work together in the same law firm. He was working in NY at that time and his office was in the Twin Towers, lucky for him on Sept 11, he turned up to work late and for that we are grateful to still have him around! Anyway, It was a great trip ..worth every cent!

Anyway, the concert 'was held in Stadium Putra, Bukit Jalil , Kuala Lumpur. It was held on a Friday evening and I was reminded by my friend to get there early as traffic in KL on a friday can be horrendous , which I did as I was there 3 hours before, and I needed to pick up the tickets 2 hours before the concert started. As I arrived, there were, as expected, a lot of Westlife fans, which I am very happy and excited about..its like going to a knitting convention where you share the same interest! Haha nerd speak alert! This is how it looked like outside.

I even met fans from New Zealand who flew in all the way for this concert. Now these two ladies are in their 60s , retirees and proud grandmothers. How they spend their time now is plotting out the next holiday destination.. what a life!! Last year they flew to Ireland to watch Westlife in concert at Croke Park - I'm jealous!! Hmm I've never been to Ireland and have always wanted to go there and Etihad has really cheap airfares and fly from KL- Abudhabi - Dublin...Even bigger HMMMM Maybe I will wait till their next concert next year or the year after or the year after haha!

This photo shows us lining in front of the Premier entrance, I don't look like a die hard fan do I! In fact even worse, I look like a Zebra with that top!!!

The man with the voice!!
Shane Filan singing, he's the lead vocalist in Westlife and despite the fame and successes, he went on to marry his childhood sweetheart- now he has a good heart!

I had a lovely time during the concert, it was so good! The only complaint I have is the the public toilets! What is going on there?? A huge venue but very limited toilets and so dirty..haha this is how I rate public places , by their toilets...anyway we still have a looong way to go in terms of cleanliness! With that, I'm signing out.. till the next update!

Its been awhile - lets get the knitting going!

2011-09-26T20:24:00.004+08:00

Last entry was way back on the 1st of August and after that, there was a blogging drought! But let me assure you, the knitting, crocheting and crafting was always going. First up let me introduce my latest baby beanie.

This is my go-to beanie pattern (Simple Hat by Debbie Bliss)

Do you like that little green bootie behind it? I was testing out a yarn and the bootie was too small for it. I think this could be a christmas ornament!!
Next up is a really popular pattern in Ravelry, its the Saartje booties!

I felt like I took a better photo than this, but I just couldn't find it or maybe I didnt take any..that would be right!!! Ah well, I just have to live with this! Loved doing this although after looking at all the Saartje booties on ravelry, none of them was on a baby's foot..so my suspicion is, it might not have stayed very well on babies' active feet! It didn't take up that much yarn at all, in fact it was minimal! The only thing about it is the fiddly finishing which I am hopeless at. The button loop at the end of each strap was challenging for me. I looked up Ysolda's button loop tutorial on how to do this , that was very helpful! Something I would change next time would be to use an embroidery floss instead of the same wool for a firmer loop!

This beanie looks familiar, that's because this is my third one! I knitted this pattern a while ago and experimented with a few color combination. This time with a huge flower!
This next photo is me trying to be organise with all my knitting/crochet tools! I saw this zipped bag at Smiggle. Ash had one for her birthday and I thought this would make a great organiser. Of course I could not possibly fit all my needles in there, just the basic , frequently used ones and so far it seems to work out fine! Yay for some organisation in my life!

Lastly, this is Matthew's little old bear he calls Pokie. Apparently he's been rather cold lately coming in from Melbourne and needs some clothing. This is a free pattern that I found from Ravelry and its called Sweater for Ysolda Teague's Otto bear. I've recently sewn 3 different coloured buttons on the sweater but havent had the time to take the final photo. Anyway, it was a fun and quick knit, and both Matt and Pokie I'm sure is happy as larry! Until the next knit..take care!

Food again!

2011-07-17T20:17:00.007+08:00

I dont know what it is, but I feel like I'm always running out of time with yoghurt (the expiry date that is)!!! I buy yoghurt, like most people do, with the best intentions of consuming them prior to the expiry date and before you know it, their time is up!! Don't you just hate it when they sneak up on you like that.
Well now, I think I've got a creative solution ! Lets just freeze the time...literally!

Over the weekend, Miss A and I went grocery shopping and bought some mixed berries and mango flavoured yoghurt. I cut up some fruit (strawberries to go with the mixed berries) and (banana as we don't have mangoes to go with the mango yoghurt) and mix fruit and yoghurt together. I took out my ice cream moulds, and poured the mixture into them and pop them in the freezer!

The result...it tasted exactly the same but frozen! I used to buy Bulla fruit and yoghurt ice creams but this one doesn't taste anything like it! Bulla are much sweeter... which makes you wonder how much sugar did they actually put in there, considering its 97% fat free!
I devoured my frozen yoghurt anyway, which makes me feel a little bit better about myself , yay!
This is the mixed berry ones, as i put loads of sourish strawberries in there, it was a bit too sour for me..duh! Please excuse the teeth marks!

And this is the mango with banana which I prefer!

On Saturday morning, I took my son to the tailors to have his outfit done for a special ocassion. Since it was a bit early, we had breakfast just next door to the tailors. I really enjoy my time with Matt as we chatted away eating our breakfast! I had the most awesome Sarawak laksa, and he had kolok mee. I can feel the laksa calling me back soon, my sister is arriving this week and I am definitely taking her here!

With that, I hope you had a lovely weekend, I surely did!

I have a confession

2011-07-10T14:46:00.002+08:00

I listen to Justin Bieber.. only in my car..with my kids..and I just happen to love this song, the lyrics, the tune .. everything about it haha I wish I wrote it! Have a good weekend!

Crafting and Baking

2011-07-02T22:05:00.008+08:00

Look what I found in an old magazine...a recipe for a quick and easy pavlova where kids can help bake!!

All you need is 3 egg whites, beat it like crazy with a mixer and 3/4 cup of caster sugar. Bake it for 45 minutes at 120 celsius...easy right! Of course I had my little junior chef who is so helpful to beat and scoop the egg whites nicely onto the baking tray.

The topping that we chose is what we could find in the supermarket, blueberry syrup and fruit flavoured toppings of your choice! Put some thickened cream on top of the baked pavlovas, your preferred choice of topping and its ready for eating!

Another thing that is just hot from the oven , the crating oven that is... ta dahhh, presenting the shell stitch beanie for a newborn. I am very excited as I found this pattern in ravelry and it is actually the most popular crochet beanie pattern and best of all its free and easy to make! I think if I didn't have anything else to do, it could easily be completed in a few hours! I did the newborn size in baby blue Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino (the best baby quality yarn in my opinion)! I want to make some more in diferent sizes and colours..oohh the sky is the limit!
Had to borrow Ash's teddy bear as a model because who has a baby to spare at 10.30 at night ..duh!

Oh yes,I also want to show you a recent felted teddy bear that I helped Ash make. It came in a box with a set of instructions but I think if you could find felt and just do a similar cut out , you will get the same result! And yes, I am already on to my 2nd teddy bear..I've copied the outline onto a green felt. We'll see how it goes!

In the meantime, enjoy your weekend, I'm looking forward to mine, I have a feeling its going to be a crafting one!

Knitting Saturday

2011-06-15T20:13:00.008+08:00

Its that time of the year again in Melbourne where knitters are happily clicking their needles! Although I was only there for a very short period of time, I still manage to keep in touch with my other fellow knitters (Thank you Jen) who is such a pro in organising a knitting getogehter at the very last minute and not to mention yummy snacks and tea. As I was flying out that very night, I made sure I came in early as I had to leave early. Jen has a special surprise for the first person to arrive, a bagful of beautifully coloured yarns. Just take a look at this!

Actually there's more in the bag and this is just part of it! How lucky am I? Thank you so much Jen!

I have to say Jen has the best collection of teapots I've ever seen!!!Look at that teapot on the left, isn't it just pretty? And yes, those macaroons taste as good as it looks!
Everyone brought their own knitting project and I worked on the second half of my Pagoda Bag.

Oh yes, talking about bags, I managed to finish up crocheting a little bag just before I left for Melbourne. Pattern can be found here. How cute is this!

Another thing that is keeping me busy is this cream puff blanket! And its 0% fat!!!Stare all you like, I promise you won't put on weight ;) I'm double stranding it and it feels very soft and puffy, yes just like cream puffs except that its a baby blanket, for a lucky baby girl! Pattern can be found here. Ok gota go craft, till then happy crafting my friends!

Guest blogger: I interrupt this blog to make a very special announcement

2011-06-05T18:40:00.006+08:00

On behalf of my mum, I turned 6 on the 3rd of June and had a blast on my birthday! Please excuse my mummy who has been very slow in updating her blog, she's been busy helping me. I will be busy playing with my toys so I hope, she will have more free time! Love, Ash

Trip continuation - Amsterdam

2011-05-08T21:53:00.005+08:00

I took many photos during my trip, and I don't really know how to show them off without boring the heck out of people so I'm going to do what I did for my Penang trip and that is, make a picture collage of some of the photos which I thought was interesting.
(How we got to Amsterdam - From London we took a Eurostar train to Brussels and from there we boarded our coach and was driven to Amsterdam.)

Amsterdam River Canal Cruise:

That photo with the red sign is actually covering a multilevel bicycle parking! How you can recognise one bike from the other is beyond me,( as I don't own a bike, all bikes look the same to me) but I'm curious as to the road toll in Amsterdam as walking around the city in one day, there were bikes going everywhere, just watch out for the red lane , that is meant for bicycles, I even saw a smart car whizzing past using that same red lane!
See those buildings with windows (1st photo) , people actually live in there. How they get there furniture up to their floor? There is a big strong hook just on top of every building and they use this to hoist any big items up through the windows as going up the narrow staircase is not an option!

The Dutch Windmill:

Taken on our way to Vollendam. I managed to climb right up to the top of the windmill. The stair case was very steep and narrow, and there wasn't much space up there anyway, but it was good to say that I've been up a dutch windmill! I couldn't wait to get the heck out of there though!

Keukenhoff Gardens:

Talk about being at the right place and at the right time!!! The tulips were just perfect when we were there, nice and close and some were already in full bloom. I say this because, I saw some photos of the same garden in a blog which was taken a week later and there were already fully bloomed and wide open. I love tulips, my favourite flower, but they're very quick to wilt :( We had a lovely time there, eating strawberries and cream...as you do.. in a tulip festival in Australia ( I've been to the one in Tassie and Victoria) and I even tried the Dutch waffles, nice.. but the syrup in the middle was a bit sickly sweet, even for me.

Among the many things I like about the trip is how everything is efficiently organised! Our group consist of a driver and a tour director. The Europeans are very strict with their driver's driving hours and one of the many rule is that they are not allowed to drive more than 2 hours without taking a 15 minute break ( at the minimum)or more! They are also not allowed to drive more than 6 days in a week and has to take 1 full day off. How do you wonder this work? Well every driver has a card which is required to start the bus, and on the card, every driver's miles are already recorded, so if they go beyond their set allowance, the bus will literally not start for them! How about if we have this in Malaysia, think of all the crazy fatal road toll that we can avoid!
Also, our tour director is amazing - she can speak 6 languages fluently ( Dutch, English, German, Italian, French, and I forgot the other one..) she's Dutch and her English is flawless. We've heard her spoke all those during our trips through phone calls confirming local tours, hotels, cruises etc!
Another thing I was impressed with was the ease in which we checked in into our hotel rooms. We were on tour for nearly 14 days, with only 2 cities in which we stayed for 2 nights (Amsterdam and Rome), so you can imagine how many hotels we checked in and out!!! The fabulous thing about it is we didn't even have to line up and register for our rooms, it is already done for us, all we do is just arrive at the hotel and wait for our tour director to hand us our keys, that simple. What about luggage you say, well, we didn't even have to carry them to our rooms, it is sent to our rooms! How great is that, all we have to worry about is to make sure when we check out the next day, that the luggage is ready outside our room ready for it to be back in the bus!!
More later.......

My European Tapestry Tour 2011

2011-05-02T23:21:00.004+08:00

I haven't been blogging for awhile as you may have noticed. The reason for this is that I've been away for a couple of weeks in Europe having a ball!! I shouldn't sound so excited because I was away for 3 weeks from my hubby (he was away in Sabah for his 4wd trip) and 2 weeks away from the kids, but I was in the good capable hands of my sister in law, which is also family right ! My sister in law asked me earlier in December 2010, whether I would do this trip with her, I think I said yes immediately : ) ! Thanks Stace it was sooo much fun , I loved the experience and meeting soo many nice people on the tour! Stace is also very fortunate as prior to this she was already on a 2 weeks luxury cruise around Eastern Europe with a very dear and close family friend! They even have their own personal butler!! Stace can we go on a cruise holiday please ??;)
Oh back to our European tour, it was so full on that I didn't have time to think about anything, nearly everyday is a different city, wakeup call ranged from 6am - 6.45am at the very latest, and if you have insomnia, these tours will take care of it! Towards the end, I think Stace and I was looking forward to going back to work , at least we could sleep in then ! ;) I know its terrible to say that when you're on this awesome trip! Everything was fantastic , I don't know which was the highlight of my trip.. it would have to be a close call between, going to the top of Mt Pilatus in Lucerne Switzerland , sightseeing and shopping in Venice, walking around the ancient city of Rome and looking at the Colloseum and the Roman forum! See I told you I can't pinpoint which one!
Here is the map of the trip that we did, countries visited were : Austria, Belgium, England, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Switzerland. City Highlights were Amsterdam, Black Forest, Brussels, Cologne, Florence, Innsbruck, London, Lucerne, Monte Carlo, Nice, Paris, Pisa, Rome, Tuscany, Venice!

This is our Group Tour photo, there was 21 of us ( small in a sense but its good for us), mostly from America, New Zealand, Australia and me the Malaysian! ). The coach bus was big and luxurious, and there was plenty of seats for one person to take up 2 seats as it could sit over 40. We made a lot of new friends and they were all very nice and some funny people especially the Kiwi family! There was also a very nice Texan Judge and his very lovely wife! Hehe can we go on tour with them again Stace? I will write more about the trip, but as it is getting late here, I better get some shut eye!! Yikes, I haven't even talked about the food yet!!!! Till the next instalment!

Bubbly weekend

2011-04-03T22:50:00.002+08:00

It is the weekend and it was in the afternoon when I decided they've played enough and its time to hit the books ( "boring but have to" mummy mode). So I gave them each different assignments and left them there to do their own work. As usual, this is the time when they start to get very thirsty/hungry or have to visit the toilet...its amazing how their bodily function spring into action when school work is involved, you never hear that happening over computer games or televison!
This is what I saw when I came down to check.... err kids what are you doing??
We're making brains mummy and see who can make the biggest! You see they blow bubbles through a flavoured straw into their milk drink which makes all those bubbles on top of the cup! Not so charming but they were really having so much fun so I let them do it :o Please note that if we were in public, I would not let them do this - the sound itself is disgusting!

This sippah straw makes milk drinking really fun!

It does look like a brain a bit....

Have a BUBBLY weekend everyone or whats left of it....enjoy Bubbly by Colbie Caillat, this tune has been hanging around my head lately and refuse to go away - lucky I love it!

Tale of a missing cat

2011-04-01T14:40:00.004+08:00

Or should it be titled "Tail of a missing cat" - okay jokes aside, this is a sad post..
Smokey has been missing for nearly a week now, he has never been gone this long. The last time we saw him was on a Saturday morning where he was stuck on a tree just outside our house and he refused to go down. He can climb trees like anything and it was peculiar to see him stuck like that. Earlier on he was chased by our dog and I think that frightened him!
I took this photo using my mobile phone and here he was meowing very loudly. The funny thing is he was blowing funny bubbles from his mouth, lots of it and one of his eyes was swollen. It just did not occur to me that he might be poisoned at that time. I just thought it was a strange reaction being scared by a dog. After a few minutes, he jumped down when he realised that the dog ran away. I did not even think of running after him as I thought he was okay and wanted to hide from Blackie (the dog).

This photo was also taken from my phone, the last time we saw him:

Smokey is the cat on the right, my mum found it near a drain not far from our house :-(, and I think he's one of the most beautiful and smartest cat around! My kids miss him a lot and refuse to hear the D word! Matt wants to go around and stick missing posters of Smokey.

There's no easy way to explain this to the kids but I guess if anything, this is the best way for them to learn.

Still so cool!

2011-03-25T09:32:00.000+08:00

As my hubby would say - this is soo cool way back in 2005 ;p
I don't care, he still rock in my world oh except that he just got his whole left arm tattooed- what's going on with that!
John Mayer- No Such Thing - Live at the chapel, Melbourne

The three Rs - Reading , wRiting and aRithmetic!

2011-03-24T18:31:00.008+08:00

Every Friday is spelling day for the kids at school, so mummy being very efficient (only lately) will do this exercise beginning of the week to make sure they're prepared! I thought the easy part of parenting is now.. who was I kidding! This is where parenting becomes more like a chore and hard work, I really feel like a mean mummy but I have no choice - cruel to be kind as they say! I am very grateful that Matt's teacher highlighted the fact that Matt's handwriting is below average and that something has to be done about it since he is in grade 4 this year and the Cambridge exam paper requires a lot of writing. We have tried writing endlessly all the letters of the alphabet last year but to no avail, the results were still the same. He even suggested that I read a book about dyslexia and getting him to squeeze a stress ball to loosen his hand motor, oh dear i hope its not dyslexia as he can read and write but not that fast and orderly.
This year writing is still the biggest problem and time management as he has to write an essay 1 page and a half in 30 minutes. For example, this is his latest English test paper:

....and yes he didn't make any notes because THERE IS NO TIME MUMMY! He had to jump in and just write his essay.
So like it or not, he has to spend an hour everyday on writing and I have to be there by his side. If I'm not, it will take an hour to finish a page or even more as he likes to drift in and out of reality, hmmm the joys! I'm not sure whether this is common for boys but I think girls have little trouble concentrating.
This is Matt's spelling for the week and his improved handwriting, see what I mean about the handwriting, there's still a long way to go!

Next Matt is now doing multiplications and every morning his teacher will drill them one by one before they can get his stamp of approval (they literally get a stamp on their hands if they manage to get all timetables correct)!
He had to do this exercise today and luckily I notice this unfinished work in his messy drawer because he was struggling a bit. The way they teach them to do this is by multiplying in 2 stages and then adding the results. So weird but I guess its for clarity so that they can see a system. It starts of with doing multiplication for the first most significant number, it works for 2 digits x 1 digit. so if its 67 x 2, you do (60 x 2) first + (7x2) next. Okay so I can see how it works here but not when there are more numbers involved! I'll cross that bridge when I get there..

Matt's latest English exam, and I was told it will only get harder.

No problem with his comprehension here, just writing a full page story seems to be his stumbling block.

Okay enough about Matt, now its Ash's turn. This is her spelling for this week:

Action shot - Ash doing her spelling:

This is her ejaan for next week, woo hoo Malaysia boleh!!

Okay on top of this, they have music on the weekends and Sunday school for church! I am a mummy/teacher/chauffeur but having said that, I would not trade my life for anything! Bye for now need to conserve energy for my next marathon.

Collages of Penang

2011-03-22T15:05:00.005+08:00

Ok you might have not notice this ; ) but I've been lazy updating my blog!
This is my lame attempt to remedy that, at this stage I will let the photos do most of the talking : ) If you are my fb friends reading this, I apologise as I have used the same photos !
How Penang happened for us:
1. A friend updated her status on fb saying that she is having nasi melayu;
2. I said whats that;
3. Another friend said go to Penang and find out;
I found out from my friend that there is a direct flight from Kuching to Penang with AirAsia and she will be there and its school holidays, all stars aligned ---> Yay us! And the rest is history as they say!
First day in Penang:
We stayed at the Rasa Sayang Hotel at Batu Ferringhi. The hotel has been there for quite awhile, and its a bit further from the city. The pool was amazing and so was the breakfast buffet!

The hotel at G on Persiaran Gurney:
Now this hotel is quite new, and right next to the Gurney plaza and the Gurney hawker stores, to me its perfect!

We also went to visit the Kek Lok Si temple in Penang and what an amazing scenery of Penang from the top! Absolutely breathtaking!

Although it was only a short visit, it was a memorable one filled with gathering of good friends, making more good friends and yummy food! With a heavy heart and heavy tummy, I bid Penang a reluctant farewell!

My new baju kurung - Kedah style

2011-02-21T09:16:00.006+08:00

Yippeee , they are done - my baju kurung that is!! My colleague at work has a very talented mother who can sew. Since I do not have a lot of Malaysian outfit (we call it baju kurung), I bought some material and requested her to make two for me. It is soo comfortable and soft it almost feels like pajamas!! I can sleep at work which may not be a good thing :P zzzzzz
There are a few styles to choose from but my all time favourite is this one, mainly because its comfortable, suits short (or petite is a nicer word) people like me.
This is the blue (which somehow reminds me of a staff uniform at a local bank) but I like it!:

and in dark red wine or magenta, photo taken in front of my desk (hmm a lot of work going here!):

Oh yes these are the photos of the new office!

My desk with lots of clutter, souvenirs and oranges..which reminds me, must have one of those today. That greenish mouse pad is a mouse persian rug I bought whilst in Abu Dhabi verrry soft!

The mini kitchen with a lot of cookies:

On things crafty, over the weekend I came across a super cute beading shop in Kuching. The shop is cosy and has a nice frontage. We went away with some sparkly (is there any other lol) beads for Ash to do some craft!
At the Elizabeth King bead shop at One Jaya!

Abu Dhabi and why I like Etihad!

2011-02-15T20:49:00.008+08:00

Recently I had the opportunity to travel to the UAE and what a beautiful place it was! I have never seen anything quite like this place. Hang on, I have seen them in movies but its not really the same is it. I think its the mixture of the culture, the people there, the food, what they wear and the beautiful unique sceneries! Overall I have been very lucky this year in terms of plane tickets. I flew there using Etihad with only 2 days notice, booking online, I only paid RM2,243.00 for a return ticket to Abu Dhabi..What a bargain! I didnt believe it at first, I even kept the receipt so that I can remember it! I definitely will fly with them again if I get the opportunity!
This is what I love about them, apart from the bargain fares:
The camera that shows where we are about to land! Not sure whether they do this with other airlines but I am very impressed . I think I may be the only one excited about this, but I like to know these things. Oh and they also have prayers on the tv screen before taking off which has a rather calming effect in my humble opinion!
The photo here shows the plane is getting ready to land in Abu Dhabi airport:

Next up is the food! Omg, everything I tasted is ultra delicious, the lamb is to die for and the sweets and cakes are so yummy, I had to bring back home to share. My favourite of course is the chocolate dates..can someone in Malaysia please make one like this because I am addicted!

This is a refreshing drink, a mixture of lemon and mint!

The sweets:

A stop sign, in Arabic. I think their writing is beautiful. I should have taken a photo of the Coke bottle but I think I was too thirsty and drank it all up!

On the way to Dubai (1 hr 40min drive from Abu Dhabi) we experienced a sand storm:

The Burj Khalifa (currently the world's tallest building in the world) and its in downtown Dubai! This photo was taken while we were having our dinner at an Italian restaurant in Dubai Mall.

Have you ever wondered how the Malaysian runaway looks like? Well, wonder no more, here are the pics!

Ok with that I better sign off as its getting late! Till next time! Enjoy...

Dream Swatch Head Band

2011-02-13T14:52:00.004+08:00

I completed a head band last night, not that I needed another head band but I was very curious to try this design. At first glance it looked quite complicated with all the yarns criss-crossing at various places, but after a few rounds, it became very easy! It is so addictive too and I want to try it again in another colour! Here are the specifics:

Pattern: Dream Swatch Head Band by Wendy Bernard
Yarn: Paton DK Smoothie - Leftovers and it was very little!
Needle : 4mm on circulars
Satisfaction level: 100% felt like a pro but it was actually very simple!
There's even a short video to show you how to do it, I love youtube!

Not quite sure how to wear this out but I did anyway! Have a great weekend everyone!

All things grandma-ish

2011-01-23T10:24:00.005+08:00

I have resigned to the fact that I like things that grannies like for example craftworks, knitting, crocheting, cross stitching etc. I think my latest finished object is testament to that. Yes I've made myself a tea cosy, not that there is any need for this in hot Malaysia but I like the look of it on a teapot. So I've made it for its aesthetic value rather than its practicality! So ta dah!!!

I love it so much that I've been asking my sisters and relatives what their teapot measurements are so that I can dress their teapot up!
I just hope when I am an actual granny, I don't regress back to what a 20 year old would fancy...what a scary thought!
On another note, its nearly the lunar new year in two weeks and we are back in the festive mood again so soon after christmas! I love this time of the year as it is always filled with mandarins (yumm) and places everywhere are being decorated with big bright red lanterns! My girl loves it so we actually have one hanging up in her room and I think it really brightens up the whole place! Here's saying goodbye to the year of the Tiger and looking forward to the new Rabbit year, wishing you a prosperous new year! Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Display Homes

2011-01-03T22:38:00.007+08:00

I've been wanting to talk about this but didn't get around to it while I was in Melbourne with it being Christmas and all. Now that I'm back in Kuching, I have all the time in the world...wonderful!
Here goes, back in December, I visited a display home village somewhere near where my sister is living. I love going to display homes to get ideas on how to decorate! My sister and her hubby is planning to build their dream home this year in April!
Here is a photo of it, they have decided to go for the Nolan which is a type of home. There are a few to choose from, but the Nolan is not only huge, it looks quite nice!
Here is the photo of the entrance/kitchen/living area:

I just love kitchens, one of the option was to have a splashback wall or a long glass window like this one, I think they decided to go with a splashback wall which is a better idea, because it can get quite spooky hanging around the sink at night...just saying!

This is called the Butlers pantry, where you put all your food stuff and fridge:

Just outside of the kitchen is the BBQ/outdoor entertaining area:

The master bedroom upstairs:

Another room- all rooms have their own ensuites and I think from memory this house has 5 bedrooms (including the master room).

The following photos are random of different homes we visited, I can't remember them all.
This bathroom caught my attention because there is no door, although its in the master bedroom, anyone who is there in the room can see you in that bath tub!!!

I really like this dining place:

Look at the space of this walk in wardrobe..even Carrie from Sex and the City would be impressed!

And one of the homes with a pool:

Enjoy the photos and hopefully you get some decorating inspiration for your own homes too!

We went to the Melbourne Zoo Woo hoo!

2010-12-16T06:21:00.017+08:00

Yay we finally made it to the Melbourne Zoo - and what a beautiful zoo it is! Of course you cannot beat Taronga Zoo in Sydney for its picturesque views but I love the Melbourne one too! I felt like signing up for membership ie. being "Friends of the Zoo" so that I can go visit the 3 zoos in Victoria for a year and would cover the cost even if I visited the 3 of them once.. but I was intercepted by the ticket lady saying that it has to be a family (father, mother and kids) I was with a girlfriend so this doesnt count...hmm !
Anyway, this is the entrance to the Melbourne Zoo which is located in the heart of the city near Carlton and Melbourne University!
Matt checking the Zoo out at the start of our tour:

Ash wanting to go in the zoo store which should be our last stop:

It was a cloudy day to start of with and we were hoping for it to get better, unfortunately it was a windy day too and soon it was raining. We rushed off to the shop to get ponchos so that we can still walk around despite the rain!
Our Tour Guides in their ponchos...when the rain took a short break from work:

The first thing we saw were the giraffes!

Getting up close and too personal with the mild and harmless Southern Fiddler Ray:

followed by sea lions:

and there were cute little penguins:

We also saw an elephant:

We went into the Australian Bush enclosure where all the Australian animals live. The animals can wander around freely in the enclosure and we were able to see them really close. Here's Matt in his poncho looking really happy in the Australian Bush section. We didn't take the ponchos off because the minute it was off, the rain will come pouring down!

We were hopping to see kangaroos hopping everywhere , but they were sleeping! This is how they rest...

How cute is this Koala Bear's face!!!

I was wearing a black and white stripey top, maybe that's why it was shy!

Matt playing wrestle the Iguana reptile .... statue of course:

We had an ice cream break and while everyone was enjoying their ice creams, we had a visitor, and what a beautiful one!
Here the peacock is trying his luck for food.. I say "his" because the zookeeper told us that it is the male peacock that has beautiful feathers!!!

Here Matt is playing chasey with the peacock!

I think it sensed danger and flew up to the roof! Matt's face here is a classic!

And finally, we got to see the baby elephants which are the new comers into the zoo earlier this year..how cute are they!!
Anyway, we went back very happy... and I think we are planing to go to the next zoo which is the Healesville Sanctuary when Daddy is with us ! Enjoy our zoo photos!

Do you like sushi like I like sushi?

2010-12-14T15:21:00.008+08:00

Virgin Sushi-maker alert!
This is my first time ever making hand rolled sushi. I attended a friends cocktail party and she made the sushi herself and it was simply delicious and somehow it got stuck in my brain that I also can do this...except that I decided that I wanted to make sushi for my mothers group playdate! Not a good thing when it is your first time trying things out.
Anyway I think with more practice, I am confident that my hand sushi roll will look good ..but in the mean time I just have to bear the "homemadeness" look! I think I need a seriously sharp knife.

Firstly, I didn't have all the ingredients that I wanted, so in the end I improvised. You would need rice of course , I cooked mine in the ricecooker. Once its cooked, I mixed it with a little bit of rice vinegar. Then let the rice cool down for a little bit. For the fillings, I tried avocado and cucumber and lace it with japanese mayonaise. It looked like this:

Then I tried tuna and with a bit of mayo:

After a few rolling failures,I used a rolling mat covered with glad wrap (this saves me from cleaning it up later as rice can be a sticky thing!) I ended up with something that looks like the store bought ones...but then again maybe not!

The verdict: delicious with wasabi and soy sauce! I can't wait to try out different fillings for my sushi..definitely a keeper!
Care for sushi anyone?

We've been hungry

2010-12-13T11:20:00.007+08:00

Lately, I've been inspired to cook, bake , do things with my hands. So let me show you what we have been up to lately.
1. Blueberry Custard Loaf - recipe is from Coles magazine which is free every month I think.
It is soo easy to make and so yummy to eat. Its soo quick and easy I feel like a fraud saying I made it because it literally made itself.
All you need is
250g Sponge Fingers
2 tbspn Orange Juice
500g Custard
300ml thickened cream
1 packet of blueberries
You just have to arrange and layer them nicely in a mould and put it in the freezer overnight. And here's the result:

Next is Pumpkin Soup. the photo doesn't look really nice but it tasted heavenly to me ... I have it with crusty dinner rolls and it was so filling. The kids love it too. The ingredients to make is soo easy. I followed a youtube instruction.
You need:
1 pumpkin
1 large brown onion
50g butter
1 litre chicken stock
1 litre water
Salt and pepper to taste.
Put butter and fry the onion in a solid base pot. Then add pumpkins which have been skinned and cut into cubes. Then slowly add the stock and water. Simmer for 30 minutes and then leave a few minutes to cool down. Then use a food processor or blender and blend it all to form a thick but runny consistency. If you like you can add 1 tablespoon of cream .
And voila:

Next I was inspired by a friends pasta photo on facebook, so I made pasta bolognese. I normally make this for my kids but this time I added a bit of cream in my meat pasta and it does taste a lot more yummier! Sorry about the photo I was too hungry i ate that hole in the middle and then I remembered my camera!

And finally, moving on from eating and cooking, we have been painting and sanding. A few months ago my brother in law made this postbox from wood bought from Bunnings, for less than $10, he managed to make a new one for the kids cubby house as the old one was rotten. This morning, we managed to paint it , the colour looks a bit odd but thats because we bought samples from the paintshop which is just for $3 a pot. I dont mind the colour, its growing on me.

After that, I tried out the sanding machine on loan from Les. It is soo much fun, I'm going be sanding a few things and painting the wood for my kitchen window which is looking rather tired. Ok gotta go do stuff :)

Of Flowers and Jelly Beans

2010-12-06T20:24:00.006+08:00

Today we went shopping at the USA foods store in Moorabin. Its a store which sells only American food in Melbourne. Matt was after Apple Jacks cereal, while hubby requested for the 3 Musketeers bar - they were all out!!! We didn't leave the store empty handed of course, how could we , there were too many goodies to choose from although the ones we REALLY wanted were out of stock *Sigh*!!
Anyway while we were in the area, I suddenly thought of my mother-in-law as she was buried in the cemetery not far from where the store was, and so we went there since the kids wanted to go and see. As it was a last minute thing, I didn't have any flowers as I thought they would sell them outside as they always do. Today however, there were none. As my kids were eating jelly beans we bought from the store, I suggested that we leave some there for grandma, I hope this is not disrespectful. My kids thought it was a good idea. I knew her grave was just next to the fence underneath a tree so it was not hard to look for it. Matt did call out "grandma where are you" which I thought was very cute!

I think they are wondering how grandma would be if she was alive..
After this photo was taken, the next thing I knew, Matt was running towards the opposite direction, I called out for him as I didn't know what he was after.

He came running back with a small yellow weed flower he found on the ground and wanted to place it in the flower holder (he is such a sweet boy!) and Ash placed a bottle brush flower which is growing next to her grave.

If she was alive today, I cannot imagine how overjoyed she would be with her grandkids I think she would be over the moon to say the least.. They are already spoilt by my parents anyway! Ah well, she's in a better place now, no more pain and suffering ..RIP mum/grandma

This is the part where I have no self-restraint!

2010-11-29T20:53:00.006+08:00

Last weekend I went with my sister to a shopping tour, this is where you travel in a big group on a bus and they bring you to all the factory outlets (read bargain galore!!) At the end of the day any money spent, a percentage of it goes to a charity of your choice! Melbourne is very good at this, they even have a booklet to let you know which factory outlets to shop - there are many!!!
This was my tag:

and all you have to worry about is nothing err maybe your wallet! It is soo good, no need to stress about parking, food etc, its all organised for you including breakfast and lunch!
My christmas present shopping was nearly done at a leather goods store - I love this leather factory outlet , so many quality leather goods and at an affordable price!
Ok , next up was the shoe store (Diana Ferrari outlet) , the plan was to go in and get myself a pair of sneakers so that I can do my walking also known as exercise haha as I do not have one in Melbourne! Anyway, in my moment of weakness (that I have many), I ended up with not one but Three ballet flats!!! And all under 60 bucks! Ok maybe in Malaysia it might be cheaper,I know it always is, but I digress! I love my shoes!

Anyway, I did this tour for many years ago, the last time was in 2007, and this would be my 3rd time!
In all we visited 10 stores which included a homeware store, clothings, books, bedding and toiletries.The group spent the highest (over 1k) at the Leather goods, Shoes store (hey its not only me) and the Natio toiletries store!
Anyway enough about shopping and bargains, I want to show you this knitted blanket which I finished knitting but didn't have time to blog! It's for Luke and is from the Debbie Bliss Baby Book ( I heart this book so much - the photos in there are so beautiful you can almost eat it up)! My sister wanted to knit this blanket up for Matt when he was a baby but never got to it, so I knitted one for her baby instead!
Garter Stitch Baby Blanket all done in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran on 5mm needles.

I think when he has outgrown this, I may want to use it for a cushion cover (might have to be a rectangular one by the looks of it!)
And look baby is wearing the garter stitch hat I knitted for him!

Matt also wanted to show the hat he made for Luke!

Kissing Baby goodbye, apparently its a contest with my kids as to who can give the most kisses!!!

Finished Knits

2010-11-14T15:08:00.012+08:00

I spent the whole of last night from 8-ish pm till after 12am, watching DVDs and finishing up on my blanket and mini shawl..bliss!!! It took two movies to finish my knitting- The Proposal and The Accidental Husband, light chick flick, just perfect...

Free Pattern: Textured Shawl by Orlane
Yarn: Jo Sharp Alpaca Slk Georgette in Quince (2 Balls)
Needle: 5.00mm
Thoughts on the pattern: Simple and straightforward, yarn was simply exquisite to work with! I could go longer to get a bigger shawl but I only had 2 balls in my stock!

As you can see, the yarn has this soft halo fluff all over!

One of the ways you can use this shawl..

Pattern: Granny Square Blanket
Yarn: Green chunky acrylic yarn from Spotlight (10 balls bought on sale at $5.00) alternating with furry yarn
Crochet Hook: 5.5mm
Ok, the blanket looks small for a 6 year old but I've ran out of yarn. I've tested it on Ash and her legs are sticking out! I thought of continuing with another greenish yarn for the edges! It won't look the same but I'm stuck and have no other choice otherwise it would be too small to giveaway :-(
Back on the drawing board again!

In the meantime I have just purchased a granny square kit - its a Cath kidston colour concept and I love Cath Kidston stores when I visited London in July this year! So looking forward to crafting this one! Paypal is soo dangerous!

Blankety Goodness

2010-11-11T14:37:00.008+08:00

It has been awhile since I've posted anything craft related on this blog and I think the time has come to do just that!! I haven't been crafting as much as I would have liked as I have been very busy (whats new!) and hubby has not been well lately, which means I can't really craft late into the night! Acutally, that's a silly excuse, I could craft if I wanted to but I think other internet distractions are the culprit (yes I'm looking at you facebook!)
Recently, I heard from a friend that her 6 year old girl wanted a blanket for christmas ( I've never heard that being in a christmas wish list - but wow I'm so excited!) and immediately I took that as a sign to crochet one for her. I asked her what is her favourite colour and she told me it was green.
This is the progress I've made so far..I dont have enough green yarn and I am down to my last 2 balls of green. I think I might just have to continue with another colour that is not green... oops!!!
In the mean time, this is how the second floor office looks like at the moment , apart from the cabinets, there's no furniture just yet - its soo bright, you've gotta wear shades ;-)

Wid and Luke comparison!

2010-10-30T23:16:00.004+08:00

My dad just found a photo of Wid - my sister doing the same pose as her son Luke! Obviously not exactly the same, but what a striking similarity! I miss this gorgeous baby boy!
And while I was flipping through the old album, I found a funny photo of me and Wid!
This was taken back in 1979 in Taman Ria Jakarta, back when we were still living there! The best thing about it is , if you look closely at Wid's tshirt, the writing says "Memburu Harta Karun" which means "Hunting for treasure", and look where my sister had her hands in - the lions mouth, she was indeed looking for treasure at that moment!!! Anyway, have a great weekend everyone!

On cars and renos

2010-10-21T09:26:00.008+08:00

My car has seen better days! I love my car to death.. I love to drive it, passage it, its just perfect for me and the family! The kids love it because they can do whatever they want in the back seat. Now, they also love to bring their toys with them everywhere they go, once in awhile I do a toy spring clean just to make sure that my car is , you know , looks like a car instead of a moving toy shop. Today, Matt had a special request, he wrote a note to me this morning, its very detailed that its so unlike him as he is a yes/no/maybe type of person!

Matt has already prepared all the equipments for me so that I can just bring it along me when I pick him up.. see I told you my car is soo messy!

Oh and another thing, the office is getting a face lift and there's a whole lot of banging going on here, this is how the 1st floor office would look like, yay I'm so excited!

Oh and I managed to squeeze in some speedy knitting recently - I just took some bulky yarn and my 8mm needles, and cast on 12 stitches... and wee I ended up with a head band/cowl or whatever! Talk about instant gratification.. Its been awhile!

Weekend Update

2010-10-16T15:47:00.005+08:00

I really enjoyed my time this Saturday morning, it started out with a trip to a local shopping mall as Matthew had a colouring competition early in the morning. Funny thing is Matt was never a colouring type of person which is why it took me by surprise when he said he wanted to participate. We arrived there, as it was early in the morning and we were in a rush, Matt didnt bring his colouring utensils... but hey, don't let that stop us from joining in !!!

Yep its true - a picture is worth a thousand words or in this case more than a thousand! Oh boy, there were thousands of kids at the mall! I couldn't believe how many other kids there were - nearly 1400 of them from different schools and mostly had brought their mini table and chairs along with a multitude of coloring utensils. To say we're ill-equipped was an understatement..these kids are pros and I think they've been into competitions a few many times. Anyway we were there to have fun and join in. So while Matt and his friends were colouring and doing other fun activities, the mummys and their other kids had breakfast and bookstore browsing at a place nearby. I had so much fun just talking to other mothers that we decided we must do this again another time, not the competition - just the breakfast together bit!
After the hectic morning, because you know, I love hanging and being around big crowds - NOT!!!! It was good to just come back home and relaxxxxx!

Just chilling with my copy of the Australian Women Weekly and a cup of Lady Grey Tea - my favourite magazine and tea... have a great weekend everyone!

Matt's journal, a continuation.........

2010-10-12T11:17:00.007+08:00

I know,I know its starting to look like Matt's blog instead of mine, but I just cannot resist this journal entry of his! This entry just summarised the relationship/power struggle (or you can call it both if you like ) between matt and ash!

Here goes:
"I was figuring out what to write when ashleigh came in and offered me Gum! Next thing she new was me that was holding her pencil and forced me to let go of it. She does it a lot. Why? Because she's bossy! Then I said to her I'll tell Daddy that you said
_ _ _ _ in australia for holidays."
When i read it I went argghhh 4 letter word... what could that be??? The first thing that crossed my mind was the F word. After digging some more, I found out it was HELL!!!

Matt's journal

2010-10-11T21:17:00.004+08:00

As part of an exercise to make him write faster and more for school, Matt has to write in his journal everyday. This has been going on for a few months and today he wrote something which I thought was cute......

The photo is not really that clear but this is what he wrote:
"My mom likes to close the van door before I get out, She told me to write this in this journal that she wants to squish me. She's a weird mum". It doesn't look like he wrote a lot, but trust me coming from Matt this is a lot! I'm still trying to make him write neatly, nicely and quickly..just so that he will be alright for his exams next week!! Oh and the reason for wanting to squish him is not to hurt, but to make him move faster!
I don't know why being thought weird is a cute thing, it must be true then .. I am weird!

Weekend update

2010-10-09T22:46:00.008+08:00

I have to show you this bargain that I managed to get at a local furniture store, for our room, an entertainment unit for RM600.00! Its only a sample with a few bruises and scratches here and there, but what a steal! Even the PS3 cost more! The TV was an old one which have not been used for a year.

My hubby's man cave is now complete with everything that he wants, TV, PS3 and his fatman sound system linked to the TV. Before this, we had two bookshelves covering the walls. The only thing that I would change is the number of messy wires hanging out from the TV but not much could be done about it I think. Needless to say that hubby is really happy with his man cave, so much so that he refers to it as his third son and told Matt "lets call him Steven" to which my son replied "no, lets call him Sony " I dont know why but I thought that was funny! Anyway, my son is very impressed with this set up!
On the knitting side, I have been busy knitting a jumper for my mum. Pattern and yarn is from Jo Sharp. I am now on to my last sleeve but I do not have enough yarn to finish the last centimetres of the left sleeve!!! Argghh, so near yet so far, I was so looking forward to finishing this for mum but it will have to wait till I get back to Melbourne again. Till then, have a great weekend everyone!

Look who came visiting...

2010-10-03T21:17:00.006+08:00

Why its Aida , my very good friend from Matriculation 18 years back, wow that's a long while ago now that I had to count, from memory I could remember the first day we met, how we were room mates from Shah Alam right up to Tassie! The mind is still fresh and filled with memories but the time is sure rushing past! From day one we were in the same class, actually right up to when we graduated in 1997.. How time flies, am feeling a touch sad to know that those days are soo over! We still keep in touch quite regularly , I think nearly every week, mainly through our BBMs, followed by phone calls if its urgent..easier now that I'm in the same country..thank goodness!
She's here for a really quick lightning visit and took the time to visit us at home! Although it was for less than an hour as she had to attend a dinner function, she managed to get ready at my place while filling me with recent stories etc!!!
This is her getting ready and preparing her tudung - I watched in awe as she did this effortlessly in less than a few minutes. It looked complicated but she managed to make it look easy! Before I knew it, she was already done, and our stories still went on and on :D She looked so cantik here!

Here she is saying goodbye to the kids before rushing out the door with her hubby! Looking forward for tomorrow as I promised her Sarawak Laksa for breakfast!

Once when we were young!

2010-10-01T21:53:00.005+08:00

Look what I found whilst flipping through my old albums:

Taken: 4th November 1998;
Occasion: Admitted to practise as a Barrister and Solicitor in the Supreme Court of Victoria, Australia;
Mover: Hubby of course as he was already a Barrister then, how convenient for me!
Movee: Feeling very ecstatic..hehe can you tell!

I'll be lonesome for awhile..

2010-09-23T20:44:00.005+08:00

Yep thats right, today I got my hubby a Playstation 3 and a Burnout Paradise driving game for him. Since I havent got him anything for his birthday and anniversary, this will cover it hehe! Our room now has a gaming corner where hubby can play all his heart out on the PS3! Now you see why I say I'll be lonesome for awhile - hmmm maybe not such a good idea after all. Oh and another thing in early November, there is a new game coming out called Gran Turismo 5 only for PS3 which is what he's been wanting for ever since it was announced. Wow if I'm lonesome now, just imagine what it will be like come November !

The Bakehouse

2010-09-17T20:52:00.020+08:00

My father in law is one amazing man. While others want to fly around the world and see new places (ehem me) he prefers to drive around Australia in his truck! He has been doing this all his life, previously with his big Denning bus. This is where Brad gets his idea from as he wants to travel all around Russia by road!
Why is this truck so special, its because he custom build it himself a few years ago (just as a background, he's been in the truck building business for over 36 years, his kids that is my hubby and my sister in law both have truck licenses and can drive semitrailers! So , safe to say that he knows a thing or two about trucks, motor bikes, speedboats you name it, if it has an engine, he will know what to do! Here's the interior tour of the truck:

This is the "living and dining room" of the truck, as you can see its fully equipped with modern amenities, aka I can live here comfortably! That wooden door straight ahead is the door leading to the drivers section. There is also a door on the left hand side once the truck is stationed somewhere. There is a staircase attached to this door which slides out, I didn't take a photo of this as it wasn't out at the time.
Here's Ash who minutes before this photo was taken said "Lets have a chat mummy", doesn't she look comfy on the chesterfield??!

This is the kitchenette which leads to the bathroom and the bedroom:

This photo is for scale, just to show a comparison in size between the truck and my FIL:

This is how the inside of the trailer looks like, it is where he puts his boat and 4WD, for him to travel around the small country towns, where the truck is too big to go.

This photo shows Brad backing the truck in the garage and us standing from a safe distance in case anything happens!

What a great way to retire I reckon, doing what you love, travelling, bike riding, and playing fireman (oh yes, did I mention he's also a volunteer fireman in his area). Phew, with all these to do , I don't think he has time to retire ;)
Till we meet again .. bye bye Bakehouse!!

Being Cheeky

2010-09-01T21:26:00.004+08:00

This photo was taken a few weeks ago, one day after school, I was in the middle of doing something and told Ash to practice her piano. I said' "Ash go and practice your piano first and I will help you later". So off she went, after a few long minutes, I heard a different sound though - not quite the sound that I requested! This is what happened - A case of right concept, wrong instrument!!!

What my kids gave me..

2010-08-29T17:32:00.005+08:00

for turning a year older!

The kids arranged for Grandpa and Grandma to go shopping with them to get me gifts for my birthday since daddy has been really unwell lately...soo unwell that he literally have to stay away from us ! I was not allowed to come - that was the deal.
They were very good to keep it a secret but I could see Ash getting very excited about "not telling" that she nearly let the cat out of the bag.. so to speak!
Anyway, when I found out about this arranged excursion, I thought it was just the funniest thing to me ..
Ash bought me some toiletries from her favourite shop L'Occitane..

and Matt bought me something I didnt expect, shoes from Hush Puppies and not just ordinary shoes, they've got heels! Now I dont wear heels at all unless forced to, but I love it anyway because its what Matt chose - lucky its not stilettos!

Masterchef Menu

2010-08-28T22:58:00.005+08:00

This menu was created in school by Ashleigh a few days ago. As you can see, her brother's influence has definitely rubbed off on Ash since she decided to name her restaurant The Ironman Restaurant!
The menu selection is quite interesting.. a word of caution though there's a drastic price range from the very affordable $2 to a whopping $9,000 which warrants Triple Michelin stars in my opinion! I love it ...although the chocolate milkshake looked rather "phallic" to me , apart from that, its perfect - biased mummy signing off!

Angora Baby Booties aka Mahnolo Blahnik for babies!

2010-08-15T18:06:00.009+08:00

is done..YAY! Look at all that fluffy fur.
The specs are as follows:
Pattern : Last Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson
Yarn: Bouton D'or Angora in Algue
Needles: Double pointed in 3.75mm
No seaming, yep none whatsoever.
Now , on to more "meatier" stuff!
Knitting the cuffs :

I can't seem to get a proper photo of these booties, I suppose this will just have to do.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-08-11T20:57:00.005+08:00

Swimming Day 4 - Evidence of a Health Kick!

Daddy joins us on Day 4:

Whats on the needles and Loop London

2010-08-08T11:38:00.012+08:00

Whats on the needles:
Baby Angora Booties from Last Minute Knitted GIfts! I've just finished knitting one bootie last night (took me only half an hour)... and let me tell you , I forgot how hairy this yarn is (I knitted the exact same booties for Ashleigh a while back). My plan is to give it a good wash to get rid of the excess fluff, before it gets rejected by baby's mum!
Current reads:
My dog-eared copy of Eat Pray Love has seen better days!!! I have been reading and not reading this book for nearly 5 months.. Brad even said if I don't like the book, stop reading it, the funny thing is I do like it but I just get distracted every single moment! I'm up to India which is the 'Pray' part of the book, so I'm halfway through! I actually finished another book (Essays in Love by Alain de Botton) 2 weeks ago which I loved reading, I think this is why I'm taking such a long time finishing this one.

Loop London:
I had the opportunity whilst in London to visit Loop a knitting shop on one gorgeous Saturday afternoon. Located in the suburb of Islington , the shop can be found in the shopping alleyways of Camden Passage. The place has a wonderful feel about it, so quaint, cosy and has a friendly atmosphere. I just want to keep on walking and explore the many small laneways that was visible to me.
Now what about loop? Well , as I entered the shop, it felt like I was entering someone's craft room, filled with knitted samples of gorgeous and scrumptious luxurious yarns from all around the world!
The laneway in front of Loop.

Loop Frontage

Loop as viewed from the side - can you see the number of yarns in there!

I bought one skein each of the yarn which I haven't had the pleasure to work with. Just by touching them, I know I'm going to have a lot of fun knitting : ) ooohh the excitement!!!
Anyway, here's my splurge - The Yarn:
Jade Mongolian Cashmere in Light blue and Malabrigo lace in sapphire green:

Handmaiden Silk Casbah:

Phew with all these purchases, I haven't even got one thing to show...Will be back with some finished photos soon hopefully!

Jet lagged

2010-07-31T02:58:00.009+08:00

When's the best time to update your blog? Oh yes, I know, when you're jet lagged and feel wide awake and fresh at 2.30 am in the morning of course! It is so quiet and everyone's fast asleep, I feel a little bit left out! The reason for my jetlag is I've just been back from London and Paris this morning, it has been quite an amazing trip in terms of meeting new people, networking and also catching up with old friends! I just love facebook for this very reason, it makes it so easy. For example, I managed to catch up with ex-work colleagues who are now working and living in London, it has been nearly 10 years ago since we started working together! The last time I caught up with them was in Singapore 3 years ago ( as we happened to be in the same city at the same time (thank you facebook again)! This time I've encouraged them to come visit me in Kuching and stay at the Beach Resort which is not far from my place for a different holiday experience. As they will be moving to live permanently in Singapore, this will only happen then, in the mean time they're still happy to roam around the world from their London base.
My friends and me catching up for dinner near their place in West Hampstead, London.

When I was in Paris, I just realised how easy and cheap it was to travel anywhere via eurostar or budget airlines, in just a matter of days, you can visit so many countries! My trip started in London where we had to do some work promo and proceeded to Paris for a quick holiday. My fascination for France and anything French started in April 2010 when my friend invited me to visit her! Even Brad cannot stand the francophile I've turned into! After touring and shopping in Paris, I booked a day trip out to visit Brussells in Belgium, its only 1 hour and 20 minutes away by eurostar. I would have loved to go to Amsterdam or even Milan(for obvious reasons) but that would have to wait till another time! What did I do in Bruxelles? As it was only for 6 hours, I've decided to visit Waterloo Boulevard in search for my sister's bag which is sold out in Paris and Rue Dela Colline which had the Tintin boutique ( my son used to love reading Tintin, I think he still does , which by the way is pronounced tonton)!
The Tintin Boutique at Rue Dela Colline

What a lovely place it is.. as I was walking around the shops, the laneway suddenly led me to smallish lane which became the center of the Grand Palace, imagine 360 degree views of grand buildings surrounding you! I can't quite capture the essence in my photos but that was how it looked! It was just amazing! Before I start rambling on, let the photos do all the talking, till then aurevoir!
The Grand Place in Brussels ..this is a shopping place!

Oh did I say that Belgian chocolates are the best? They're everywhere ...I'm just biased!

Evidence /purchases of a francophile:
Amour bracelet

Oui ring

A beautiful pattern and a movie

2010-06-30T21:39:00.013+08:00

I must confess, I have not been reading knitting blogs in a long while, and I forgot how much I really enjoyed doing that! One blog I really enjoyed reading is Wendy's. I have followed Wendy's blog over the years since 2005 and have knitted a few of Wendy's creations (Cabo Hoodie, Somewhat Cowl and Natty Duo) All of which were knitted during my pre blogging days and with the exception of Natty Duo , never even made it to the blog! I even have her book, thats how much I like her patterns!
Anyway,last night while catching up with my blog reading, I read that Wendy has a new pattern out recently. I usually avoid lace patterns like the plague (only because I can't seem to follow patterns correctly) but this one in particular caught my attention:

Everything is amazing - the beautiful photo, the delicate design - feminine without being too overly sexy..I think I might just knit it. Knowing Wendy, I know there would be minimal seaming and more knitting - just the way I like it..simple but really effective designs. Oh and did I tell you she has only one eye that works?? Yep , she designs and knit with one eye! Don't know why but that has always intrigued me!
Another exciting thing happened last week too, I brought my kids to see the movies for the first time. We watched Toy Story 3, daddy had to work so it was just me and the kids! We enjoyed the movie thoroughly and as expected there were laughter and tears! Matt summarised the movie as being scarier and nastier then the previous Toy Stories which I agreed. There were more deviousness and back stabbing to it this time round and a darker side to the toys, all of which I did not anticipate and was cracking my head thinking of ideas explaining to the kids why there are bad people in this world...yes I cotton wool my kids! Although I did not quite expect the ending to be so touching (ok those who haven't seen the movie please do not read any further), touching in that Andy and Woody parted ways, I read a review somewhere that its an important lesson that love was never about possession, and that made me feel so much better for some unknown reason!

A visit to Perth

2010-06-11T20:13:00.009+08:00

While we were at Perth for a short holiday, we were very fortunate to meet a special person. She is the author of the books below:

When hubby was young, he used to love reading her books which is one his favourites. She left such a big impression on him that until today he still remembered the author. To cut a long story short, he found out that she resides in a retirement home in Perth and made plans to meet her last week (she is in her early nineties). Before this, the staff at her retirement home didn't even know that she's an author and became a celebrity overnight when they found out. She was very pleased that hubby made the effort to see her. Considering her age, I think he's very fortunate to have finally met her and let her know how much he enjoyed reading her books.

At the reception:

With the kids and me:

Finished Baby Knits

2010-06-05T18:11:00.005+08:00

Finally some finished objects to show and tell... about time did I hear you say?? I hear ya sista :)!! These are baby goodies for my sister.
The baby hat on top is a garter stitch hat with a very clever construction. I had to knit and decrease 6 times before casting off and sew the ends together.
Here's how the decreases look like.

Yarn is Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino which is a 5 ply and in my humble opinion just luscious to knit with!

The baby blanket is crochet , inspired by the author of this blog. Its called the Larksfoot stitch and is very simple but I think, visually highly effective. I used a 6mm hook which should be a fast project but took me ages this time!

Closeup of the larksfoot stitch.

Birthdays and Yarny days

2010-06-04T08:06:00.007+08:00

The best thing about winter is being wrapped up in winter woolies -I am finally reunited again with my hand knitted garments, scarves, jackets, vests and the best thing of all , knitting again for everyone!
I have just recently finished my crocheted baby blanket...finally, I could go longer but I think its big enough for the baby at the moment, will upload the photos once I get around to it.
Yesterday morning, I was given a link by a friend about a yarn sale which is just 500 metres from where I live..what a coincidence considering there are not a lot of stores in the area where I live! So Ash and I went to visit and my were we surprised - they happen to be the headquarters for supplying yarn for BIG W , Kmart etc and were having their end of financial year clearance. They are not stores in a traditional sense and only open occasionally. In the store everything was $2.00 and less...here's the link...!
Apart from that, someone turned 5 yesterday!

Here she is 5 years ago...

Back in Melbourne!

2010-05-29T20:31:00.006+08:00

I have been busy knitting for this little bump here!!!

I'm soo excited for my sister, at the same time very happy and scary to see how biiiigg her bump is, although she claims that mine was bigger the first time! I just have to find those photos to remind me because I don't quite remember it anymore. I'm pretty sure it was big!
So far I have knitted a baby hat, crochet half a blanket and that is it. I am trying to fit in some booties as well! For some reason , I am terribly slow to the finish line this time : ( How can I be like this, its been my dream to knit for my sisters baby since I started knitting!!! All I can say is luckily baby is due end of July so I still have time!
Its school holidays in Malaysia right now so we are spending it in wintry Melbourne! The leaves are starting to fall and the roads are looking very pretty with orange leaves everywhere. Also another exciting thing is someone special is going to have her birthday this week, so we are all in party mode with it being Gawai! This will be my first Gawai away after 5 years, the last time I couldn't make it to Kuching because I was waiting for a little bundle to make her appearance. Anyway, more updates to come so stay tuned!

Someone busy baking and testing her own cake..

Thursday at rubgy...

2010-05-14T09:36:00.013+08:00

it rained like it never rained before, midway into the game. My kids had an absolute ball, there's nothing like good "clean" fun when it comes to getting wet and playing in the rain, puddles, mud etc... when I gave them the green light to play in the rain, I think they could not believe their ears.
Ash preparing for a picnic with her friends ...before the rain that is:

Matt abandoning rugby to join the other kids playing with mud....hmm I think they just want to play in the rain! You're only young once..so what the heck!

Wimpy kid

2010-05-10T20:16:00.010+08:00

I'm actually very happy that Matt's reading - yes a proper book now !!! I was happy when he started reading Tom & Jerry comic books, and then it was Tin Tin and then it moved on to Asterix & Obelix.... Now its the Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney! I was quite curious when he started giggling away at the corner while reading this. I was already guessing that its about a boy who does naughty things and Matt finds it funny because he knows its wrong and that he wouldn't be able to get away with any of it! He told me that this boy in the book is soo naughty, I said what did he do, well he just leaves his dirty laundry on the floor and expects his mum to pick it up after him ..hmmm I hope you're not getting any ideas. No, I've got a laundry basket now mummy, I can put it there (actually he tosses his clothes there like playing basketball). Anyway later on he said mummy this boy goes to sleep straight after school and wakes up in the middle of the night and watches TV while doing his homework (more laughter), well you know that's not going to happen.. at least he know its naughty and think its funny... lets hope!
So in the end, I started reading the first few pages of this just to get an idea. I must think like a 7 year old because I err got the humour.....oh dear but it is hilarious! Just don't do what I did .. reading the book while eating at the same time..choking can be fatal! When Matt saw me reading this he asked me to turn to page 44 and recited the dialogue which he thought was funny.

Okay maybe the humour isn't for everyone but as long as Matt continues reading for pleasure ..I'm all for it!
Oh yes, and look at what Matt got me for Mothers day..flowers, chocolate and a bracelet.. he is such a sweetie.. I love him to death!

Here is the part where I've been busy..

2010-05-01T15:19:00.025+08:00

Busy knitting
What a whirlwind time it has been for me these last 2 weeks. Look at what I whipped up in just a few days before I went travelling.. I must say I love knitting for babies just because it doesn't take long, its so quick and its so cute! I didn't think I could knit that fast but booties and beanie took just under 3 days and I only knit at night (1 day for each item). I'm soo proud! I think the main motivation was that the baby was already born and I was afraid that these knitted items would be too small if I waited too long.
Here I am knitting as fast as I can on the baby beanie and what a lovely pattern this is!

Baby Booties and a little hat in the palest baby blue
Pattern for booties can be found in the Cleckheaton Bonnets and Booties Book
Needle size 3.25mm
Pattern for the Baby Hat is from Debbie Bliss
Needle size 4mm
And voila...the finished products all ready to be sent to a friend.

Another thing that has kept me busy is that I went travelling to visit a friend in Paris and what a wonderful time I had there. I am convinced that it must be the company because my sister told me the last time she went to Paris, it was only so so!
The weather, food, city, shopping and company was excellent and more than I could ask for really..in fact I just want to go visit Paris again which is a sign that I really enjoyed my holidays! It was soo easy, just hop on a plane, no visa requirements like the USA and no customs check , like in Australia! The only hiccup to this trip is the fact that I was delayed just 2 days before I could fly out due to the airspace closures over Europe as a result of the Icelandic volcano. Needless to say the flight out of KL was full!
Did I visit a yarn store over there? What do you think.. of course, my visit will not be complete otherwise. So armed with my friend's Iphone, we tracked down this yarn store called La Droguerie which is located in Rue Du Jour, also in the city not far from the Des Halles (pronounced Dee-yal) train station. The thing that strike me the most about this yarn store is that it is very old fashioned compared the stores in Australia. If you want a particular yarn, they will have to wind the yarn for you as they sell it in skeins. They also stock the most amazing ribbons, laces and buttons that I've ever seen. I managed to get away with a pattern and yarn with some embellishments for this particular design. It is soo french that I have to get it for Ashleigh! The only thing is that the pattern is written in French, which I now have to translate over the net.. I'm sure its worth the pain!
Here is the entrance and front of the yarn shop:

Inside the shop:

The photo on the far left ( the one with the little girl) is the kit that I bought - same colour as I am vey partial to greys and blues!

Busy Eating
As my friend is a foodie (A person who has an ardent or refined interest in food, as per the online dictionary), she brought me to the most amazing places for food. In just a week, I managed to try some Beef Tartare (uncooked beef), escargot (snails) and some of the most delicious food in the finest restaurant that is L'atelier! I told her I am the most simplest person on earth when it comes to food, a Baguette (french bread) and butter will do me just fine and make me really happy, but she really has tempted and spoilt my taste buds because the food that she has introduced me to is utterly amazing!
Trying out seafood which included escargot:

Snails for sale:

Beef Tartare, trust me it doesn't taste as bad as it looks, but I didn't finish mine :P

I will just leave you with a few photos of Paris and let the photos do most of the "talking". Till then enjoy....
Louvre Museum by night:

Eiffel Tower by night:

I love Paris in the Spring time... Flowers at Avenue Montaigne:

I love this photo

2010-04-13T20:25:00.004+08:00

If I had to choose a favourite photo, this would have to be one of them. This photo was taken around 2003 when Matt was around 5 months, back when there were no digital cameras. Hubby was in a car racing competition (that white car just behind them, we still have it back in Melbourne) and we were his cheering squad/ duo! Now that baby is 7 going on 8!!!

Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

2010-04-06T12:28:00.010+08:00

I have to share this recipe with you , its not mine , I came across it on another knitter's blog and oh my it is soo easy and delicious. The dangerous thing is you can get so addicted to it, I have a feeling it won't be long before I bake another set of these delicious cookies.
To show you how easy it is let me share the steps with you:
Mix the following into a bowl:
100g margerine or butter ( I used naughty butter)!
50g soft brown sugar
2tablespoons (40g) honey
Give it a good stir and then add the following :
100g self raising flour
100g oats (to make me feel good about eating it)
50g dried chopped raisins
50g chocolate chips
The last two ingredients is totally up to you, you can add whatever you like ie nuts, dried fruits or chocolate
Put the sticky mixture onto a baking tray ( you can make it as big or as small as you want) and flatten it slighltly with a fork.
Bake in a moderate oven 180 for 12-15mins until they are golden. After that let it cool down for a little bit.

There isn't it the easiest thing but most important of all it tastes yummy - at least thats what my little testers told me : )

Ohhh and another thing, I have to tell you about this knitting blog that I have not read for awhile, she's an online yarn store owner in Perth and I use to read her blogs and dream about her projects when ash was still a baby! Anyway, I suddenly thought of her when I remembered a while ago I used to knit ash a cupcake baby hat - it was the most cutest design which now I cannot seem to find anywhere. I know its safely kept in my knitting library in Melbourne ...so I went back to her newly desinged website and of course every project she did just seem to take my breath away ie the colourful citron shawl, the scoop neck vest.. everything! Of course this will have to be put on hold because I have quite a bit of knitting to do - hmm let me see:
1. Crochet baby blanket (50% done)
2. Baby Booties
3. 2 Bow tie scarves
The truth is I want to knit them all at once! But since #3 has a deadline which is in 11 days I am going somewhere exciting... I am soo excited.. I can't even begin to describe it..I think I have to do this rather quickly ..so wish me luck !

Look...look...

2010-03-28T08:53:00.005+08:00

I have a captive audience!!!

While waiting for little Ash to finish her ballet class, I seized the opportunity to do my crafting. These cute little prima ballerinas were waiting for their next ballet class. They were stunned to see what I was doing with a crochet hook and some wool. I explained to them what I was doing and they just wanted to see how I did it and who it was for.So I let them touch the blanket and the hook and they were very excited, some not even wanting to let go off the hook , lucky its not sharp : )
Here, one of the little girl is explaining how she has a baby brother who is very small and might need this blanket.. she's a cutie!!

Rainbow Dress by Tikki

2010-03-21T11:21:00.007+08:00

Nearly there...

Something lurking in the horizon...

And ta daaaa...

Taking it out for a test climb - so far so good.

Here are the specifics:
Pattern: The Rainbow Dress by Tikki (pattern found here)
Pattern was free when I got it last year, due to its popularity (last count in Ravelry, there were 607 projects! ), you now have to buy it. Anyway tikki deserves it as she's a genius designer!
Yarn: Paton Smoothie DK (2.5 balls)
Needles: Circulars on 4mm
Time: took me ages because of other "distractions"

Once is never enough

2010-03-20T12:51:00.013+08:00

.. so they said on the luge ride. Yes, we finally went to the new Sentosa Resorts World in Singapore earlier this week during the school holidays. The Universal Studio was not opened yet when we were there so we decided to go do the next best thing .. the Sentosa Luge and Skyride. Before going there, we had to take a short monorail ride to the Beach station where it is located. When we arrived there which was only 2 stops away, we were greeted with this scenery:
An oil refinery (environmentalists please avert your eyes)

and this

We started off with the skyride - a bit like a cable car ride but with no metal around you - just the steel bar in the front so that you don't fall off. Actually its more like a skilift now that I think of it.

From the photos that I managed to take (which is not many) I was too scared to think of anything else, the ride was pretty steep going up a little hill. The kids were soo excited but even if they were scared, they didnt let me know this.
After we arrived at the top of the hill, we went downhill on the luge, I was a bit sceptical especially after hearing the freak accident in the recent Winter Olympics where an athlete died from the luge event. Of course we were no where near the olympic speed lol. I shared a luge with Ash as she was too small to go on her own. It was soo good, I would have gone faster but since there were two of us in there I was scared that I didnt have enough energy to slow it down especially around the corners going down hill. We had soo much fun though and felt like doing it all over again.

Apart from Sentosa, we also stayed in a hotel at the heart of the city . The kids also had an enjoyable time swimming - practically begged me to go swimming everyday. So whilst the kids swam and splashed around, I took this photo while waiting at the pool. I love how the hotel looked like from where I was standing.

Cool lights at the hotel in Resorts World Sentosa.

Till the next update....

Finished Object - Snowflake Hat

2010-03-06T20:22:00.005+08:00

I finally finished off the snowflake hat and I must say I love doing this mini fairisle design. Not too complicated but effective nonetheless.
Pattern specifics:
Snowflake Hat ( I could not print out the colour chart so I had to draw it out on a piece of paper... very technical -NOT)

Yarn: Gerdifira Sport (1 ball)Main colour
Needle: 4.5mm circular and dpns (towards the last few rounds)
Time to knit: around 3 to 4 nights (sometimes while watching Crime & Investigation - yes I love to watch this at night and scare my socks off - after that I'll ask dear hubby to switch off the lights)!
Next up , I have been wanting to knit this pattern up for awhile and last night I bit the bullet and decided to "charge ahead" - typical!
I am already up to the textured pattern and oh dearie me ,it is such a beautfiul stitch! I am using the Jo Sharp Alpaca Silk Georgette in Quince- that is one fine yarn!!! I am in knitting nirvana if ever there is such a thing!
Here's the sneak preview...

Snowflake Hat

2010-03-03T21:04:00.005+08:00

Just a preview, but since I rarely ever blog about knitting work in progress, I thought that it is timely that I do. I get too excited finishing it off and sometimes forget to take a photo of the process/heartache etc..

I know it looks like it shouldn't be anywhere near a kids head but rest assured, it was under strict adult supervision :)Pattern can be found here.
Can't wait to finish it off!

The doomed beret

2010-02-28T08:51:00.006+08:00

Remember this project which I just have to knit, well, its done! I finished binding it off yesterday , tried it on and to my dismay - it wouldnt fit on my fat head!!!!
Argghhhhh - in hindsight, I should have bind it off with a larger needle to give it a bit more elasticity - I knew this, but it didnt occur while I was knitting it *sob*
The worst thing is I tried to unravel the end but could not for the life of me find the piece of wool that I so "cleverly" hide, so in my frustration, I snipped off the end which ended up looking like this!

On the bright side, I can still use it :)and hide the embarassing bit. Please excuse my wet hair, for that I have no excuse :(

I'm thinking of doing a double crochet edging around the unravelled bits to secure the stitches later.
This pattern is from the cover of Knit simple magazine winter 09/10 edition. There was a slight errata , actually it was more of a misprint but enough to create confusion in my "fat head"! Didnt realise there could be variations to the double moss stitch as I have discovered!
Anyway, I am itching to do this beret again, this time in the Jo Sharp Silk Aran Tweed (the yarn I used for 2830) and this time I will remember to use a bigger/biggest needle to cast off!

Just wanting to share..

2010-02-23T18:24:00.004+08:00

Today while checking Matt's school bag I found two books - I asked Matt where he got the books from and he said he bought it during the book fair at school for a dollar each. The cute thing was he bought those books for mummy and daddy - the Hardy Boys book is for Daddy and the Mills and Boons book is for me!
I had to ask what about you Matt? To which he replied, " Oh, theres nothing there that I liked!" There, I just wanted to share the cuteness of my boy!

On Gifts

2010-02-19T22:13:00.003+08:00

During my trip to KL recently, I came across this advertisement in the Australian Financial Review. I must say I was stunned to see the ole AFR being offered in a domestic Kuching - KL flight, of course it was the only one so I pounced on it. The thing that I love about Australian newspapers is the photography - they can make something dry like IPO announcements or an AGM looks good and interesting. I wish our local journalists could do this.. but that wasn't what I wanted to write about, what caught my eye in particular was this advertisement for a Chanel Crochet Cardigan -

and yikes - look at the price tag! $8,180 Australian Dollars for a crochet cardigan - Chanel of course.. but still. Hmm it must be 100% Cashmere for that price! Doing simple maths that cardi looks like it would use up at least 10 balls of cashmere , at $80 per ball, the price would still be $800 AUD , so it must be the brand!

Now I know that I have baby knitting to do but this Beret is just caling out for me to knit it - yes I heard it call my name! It shouldn't take too long should it - not that I need it in this hot tropical weather .. it must be the beret craze thats taking over my crafty head ..ahh well.. Here's a sneak peek!

Before I forget, last week was my 11th wedding anniversary .. yep I've been married for over a decade now.. funny thing was we were apart on the actual day! But look what I got for my gift - loads of pressies - Aren't I lucky!!! Thank you soo much sweetheart!

What did I get him , ermm... yes I got him nothing- I'm soo bad, I really dont know what to get... because whenever I ask if he wants something, he always says no.... so in the end, ta da I baked him his favourite cake - a fruit cake! Not really the same is it... never mind he knows and I know I still owe him a pressie!

New Shots, new beanie...

2010-02-08T22:05:00.010+08:00

How beautiful is this butterfly hehehe - to say I loooove my new camera is an understatement of the year!!! Caught it in the nanosecond that it decided to just hover over the flowers
Meanwhile, here are just some of my knitting and crocheting projects that I am working on..getting there , but couldnt resist the photo opportunity..

Someone is obviously happy with the progress of her colourful blankie!!!

And finally presenting my finished Natty DUO , the beanie version using the Rowan Cocoon on 8mm. Very nice to knit with and I can't wait to knit a small top/cardie with this yarn again - thats how much I like it!

Till then stay tuned for more stuff!

Trying out my new toy...

2010-01-25T21:20:00.005+08:00

I have now taken my photography on to a new level..I bought a new camera last month and have been taking loads of photos, its so much fun experimenting with it though I havent really explore its capabilities throughly yet. So rest assured that I will try on every opportunity to use the new camera.
Firstly, a big thank you again to Kak Shidah for getting me these books at a bargain price in KL! Can you believe it - 2 Erika Knight books for only RM5.00 each???

In Melbourne they retail for at least AUD$29.90. What a bargain! I'm beginning to feel like I am running out of time to knit all these lovely designs when I stil have so much unfinished knitting. Talking about unfinished knitting, here are the ones that I can remember and realy want to finish it up so that I can wear them!
When oh when am I going to find the time to knit - ahhh well if there's a will there's a way I'm sure!

Baby Blanket

2010-01-18T22:10:00.007+08:00

All this to make really tiny squares which will end up to become a small baby blanket.

Remember this ??? Its now referred to as itchy. The yarn for some reason has not softened even after a few washes - so I am determined to make another one , this time with softer yarns. Its knitted with big size needles so hopefully it wont take up too much of my time.

Hi Neglected Blog of mine :(

2010-01-14T23:17:00.006+08:00

I've been soo slack and very unmotivated during the christmas perod to update my blog. Errmm blame it on the weather? Nope blame it on the blogger , I've just been lazy and uninspired really. On the knitting side, I've been knitting squares which will make up a baby blanket from the Debbie Bliss Baby book which I just love. The photos are just inspiring and delicious for yarnoholics like me!

Anyway, a Happy Belated New Year and of course a customary first day of school photos must follow.

Since I do not have Matt's first day photos at school, as I wasn't with him at the time, 1st day swimming lesson at school will have to do!

Ash's 1st day back at school!

On a very exciting note, I have discovered a little yarn shop in Orchard Road ( at the Basement floor of Far East Plaza) the building next to Hilton Hotel. Very nice and cosy! I managed to get something from there too - it wasn't hard believe me:) Photos will come later .

In the mean time, this is the progress so far for Ash's rainbow dress which I hope will be done before winter 2010 is over in Melbourne!

My Creative Space

2009-12-08T22:21:00.008+08:00

As I have just finished of knitting and winding the ends up on my bow tie scarf, I thought I should just put a photo of how my creative space looks like at the moment. As you can see its pretty messy and this is not even half of my "stock" :)

Here's a photo of my Star Blanket - I have seamed the ends and will just enjoy it for the moment until I decide to continue with it again - the choices are endless.

I just love knitting the Bow tie scarf and am always excited to experiment with new soft and lushy yarns to this very versatile scarf. As long as it is 8 ply or DK weight, it will work with my 5mm needles. I really think this is also my travelling project as it is very portable.
The latest yarn experiment is the beautiful Zara and a coral colour # 1741 - totally inspired by Jennifer who is knitting a cardigan from Stefanie Japel's book Fitted Knits. I so loved the colour that I hunted it down and found it in Wool Baa. I hope it is the one :)

I don't know why but I always seem to finish my knits at night - so as it is getting late, I better bid you farewell ... till the next update !

My Sisters Wedding

2009-11-30T17:31:00.010+08:00

I can now heave a big sigh of relief - we have finally completed the Wedding Marathon 2009 spanning from Melbourne to Kuching, Malaysia. In just over two weeks, we have celebrated and partied till we drop literally , transported family members (about 16 members in all ) from Australia to Malaysia, and now just kicking back for a well earned rest and relaxation for the next few days.
Yes my youngest sister has finally tied the knot in both countries - Australia and Malaysia! We had loads of fun preparing for the wedding - getting ready , hair , makeup, dresses etc. The boys on the other hand were thankful that they were boys as their preparation was minimal - but when we explained that the fun was in getting ready - we were met with puzzled looks! Anyway, I won't bore you with the details, but here are some photos of the memorable event.

The Wedding in Malaysia.

Did I get any knitting done? Oh yes , but only just, I managed to finish a blue bow tie scarf (sorry no photos yet) which I gave to my sister as a present and am finishing a coral coloured bow tie scarf which I started in the plane on the way to Malaysia! As I was flying during the day this time, I had more time to knit - yay! Hopefully I can finish this up before my sister goes back home! Till then .....

Knitting gettogether

2009-11-17T20:00:00.005+08:00

What a fabulous day I had today... starting with a pampering facial, manicure and pedicure all courtesy of my sister - Thank you!!!!

Just when I thought it could not get any better, I met up with fellow knitter Jennifer and her knitting friend Shinobu for some lunch and knitting. We walked little bit from Bourke St Mall to Lonsdale St, where Cafe Giraffe is located. All I can say is that this cafe is just so worth it - to relax and knit and for its GREAT food!

Based on Jennifer's recommendation, I ordered a Sesame Chicken Noodle Salad - ohh sooo yummy sorry no photos as I was starving and the food was just sooo good! I did however took a photo of this wonderful cafe. Definitely will come back here!

We proceeded to do some knitting- Jennifer was already more than half way away on her Stefanie Japel cardigan - looking at the beautiful colour, I'm just tempted to start one in Zara too :)

Shinobu on the other hand is a newbie and has already completed 20 squares for her baby blanket - what a feat!!! She's definitely a fast learner! Here, Jennifer is teaching how to put the squares together. I just love knitting and knitting together with friends is the next best thing!

I could not resist desserts so in the end, I caved in for my usual favourite - the sticky date pudding which did not disappoint.

As always all good things must come to an end, we topped of the day with a quick visit to Clegs to shop for some row counters (what a great idea from Jennifer) and some wool sewing needle for Shinobu! I did do a quick look around to see whats new in Clegs and one thing that caught my eye was the Amy Butlers fabrics and patterns. Wow if I could sew, these items would be snapped up immediately. Till the next update!

YARN GIVEAWAY!!!!!

2009-11-10T08:30:00.005+08:00

This will be the first ever yarn giveaway for Yarnatheart, a result of cleaning out my stash. I hope when you read this, you will help let other yarn lovers know about this giveaway (FREE POSTAGE to anywhere in Australia and Malaysia). If you are not from Australia or Malaysia, just email me and we can work something out!
There will be more yarn giveaways in the near future, I promise, so stay tuned ok....

6 balls of Jo Sharp Soho DK Cotton in Eclipse (a beautiful blue a cross between navy and dark blue.)

2 balls of Cleckheaton Mohair in blackcurrant and 2 balls of Patons Creme De la Creme.

4 balls of Patons Merino Totem DK in Peacock Green.

4 balls of Peter Pan DK in a variegation of White and Blue - perfect for babies - sooo soft!

10 balls of Cleackheaton Country Silk DK in Light Green.

Back In Melbourne

2009-11-08T12:10:00.023+08:00

Here we go again - We are already in Melbourne - We took the photos after take off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Here's Ashleigh saying Good night!

While Matt wants to finish reading his Tom & Jerry comic book.

We left Kuching last week and managed to spend a great time in Genting again - I have to show you the photos of the room that we had - it was just stupendously amazing. There was a fish tank on top of our bed which is a bit disturbing but on the other side, the fish tank is a bathroom with crazy shower heads.

Take a look at this 15 shower heads - this would have been banned in Melbourne for sure!

So we are now back in Melbourne and having a lovely holiday here. The weather is just heating up and its great swimming weather. It was Matt's birthday yesterday and we spent it at home , barbecuing, swimming, cake eating, opening presents - the usual stuff. Here is what we spent our time doing yesterday :

1. Woke up and was put straight to work by birthday boy to do a movie camera from boxes, paper plates , some glue and some black paint. Luckily Ash was also there to give me a hand - as usual!

And ta daaa the finished product.

2. Swimming - because its so hot and also the kids wanted to swim.

3. And of course the birthday cupcakes which was ordered from The Little Cupcake Shop in Melbourne. The stand was kindly lent by my sister and really gave that extra oomph for displaying cupcakes! My favourite was the chocolate cupcake with mint frosting.

div>

Of course, all these leave me very little time to do anything else - ie reading or knitting. I've recently increased my pile to read and surprisingly the books are all written by women authors - funny that, it was not my intention !

Till the next update - hopefully it will be of the knitting kind :)

What have I been up to...

2009-10-28T13:57:00.006+08:00

If you've been wondering what have I been so busy with lately, let me show you the reason - and it has nothing to do with me -I'm just helping out!

My sister is getting married yay -cause I love wedding and so does Ashleigh. There's just so many things to do before I head over to Melbourne. I just hope I've got everything done. Mind you there will be 2 weddings in all (1 in Melbourne and 1 in Kuching). My sister and her fiance are doing their own vows and they have to memorise it - Very Romantic vows , makes me blush! She said I can hide behind the parasol if I do - yes you read correctly, there will be parasols involved!!!

The poem on the wedding invite for the romantically inclined :)

Granny Squares take 2...

2009-10-23T17:07:00.006+08:00

Being distracted from what I should knit/ crochet is what I do best! Here is the latest distraction. I was somewhat inspired by the number of crocheted blankets that are out in the blogsphere , one in particular really caught my fancy. Just reading her blogs makes me smile and inspires me to include as many colours as possible into one project. And so I present 7 crochet granny squares which will later be a blanket.

I love pastel colours and that is why I've chosen soft pastel muted colours for the blanket. Although I must say I'm still experimenting at this stage .

I can just look at this all day - but I'm going to make more squares - see you later!

Other crafts

2009-09-27T14:56:00.000+08:00

I am currently multi tasking with my projects. The photo on the left is the back of a bolero cardigan for Ash to wear to my sister's wedding in November this year. Its not the main outfit but its just in case if the air condition gets too cold. I bought this from Wondoflex in Malvern when I visited Melbourne in August this year. Knitted with the Sublime Baby DK , it is deliciously soft and addictive. The colour is off white to match her flower girl outfit. I hope this works out.

On the other hand, the star crochet blanket is still growing, I ran out of the blue and brown yarn that I started with and now have to experiment and use other colours. The latest colour that I've added is a medium brown , bought it on sale at Spotlight and is 100% acrylic. I must say its kind of nice to crochet with it!

Today while I was looking through my yarn bag, I came across this - this was way back when Matthew was still a baby. I used to cross stitch and had dreams of hanging this up one day. I looove cross stitch and like to look at other people's work all nicely framed! As you can see I have the bottom part to go and some black outline that needed to be done. Where's Ashleigh's I hear you say , well its still in a paper bag unopened and unstitched !!! I'm terrible :) I hope I get hers done before she turns 18!!!

In Malaysia recently we had another week long school holiday to celebrate Hari Raya Aidilfitri, we took this opportunity to go to Singapore for 4 days! We spent most of our time shopping, eating (YUM) and going to the zoo! In all we had a lovely break! We love Singapore and want to go there again! The hotel we stayed was also lovely and very central - just take the lift from our room and by the time we walk out of the hotel we are already at the shops !

This photo is taken when we were at the Singapore Zoo while on board the boat ride. I thought that I was going to be sick on it and nearly wanted to go out but the boat was already moving away from the dock!! I actually enjoyed the smooth ride - it was like riding on air!

Did I say I went shopping? Well, Ash saw this outfit at Isetan and I was a bit unsure with all the frilliness of the skirt. I liked the tshirt with pretty pink flowers though! Sigh I really must love girly stuff to allow my daughter to have this!

Newish and oldish projects

2009-09-13T17:14:00.000+08:00

Wow I have left this blog waaayyy tooo long! There's always an excuse to everything and my excuse this time is I've been away.
What have I been up to in knitting land ? Well now, let's see.... went to Melbourne late August and managed to visit most of my favourite yarn shops including the newly opened Morris and Sons in Collins St. It was beautiful and I only wished I had more time to just sit back and indulge ( browsing and actually knitting.) I was with the kids and little Ash was happy to go around and shop but I couldn't let Matt just sit there. So , in the end I bought the Sissinghurst scarf kit which I think was beautiful on the mannequin. I chose a beautiful variegated blue Noro Kureyon Sock Yarn and after a few false starts I was on my way crocheting. It feels good and looks good.

Apart from that, I have also been busy with a loongg time project - Lizzie Cardigan which I bought from Wool Baa. Its double stranded with Jo Sharp Soho Summer Cotton and using a 6.5mm needles , I am done with the back and now working on the right front. I miss the days when I could knit more a few years ago.

I also managed to visit Sydney in the past few weeks and it was absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately I didn't get to visit the yarn shop recommended by Salihan as I ran out of time. We went to the zoo and it was stunning - no wonder some people actually marry there! After visiting Sydney, we headed back to Melbourne for the rest of our holidays. Ahhh bliss - I really indulged in the coffees and cakes there!
here are some of the photos from our trips...enjoy!

Popover sundress from Sew Hip

2009-08-14T11:29:00.000+08:00

I must admit firstly I don't sew- but this pattern is really cute and I just had to have it for little Ash. So I bought this very beautiful magazine - its soo good that you feel like making every single thing in it. Unfortunately for me I dont have a sewing machine and I have no idea how to sew (mind you , lack of skill/tools have never stopped me before)! Arrgghh, this really makes me wanna learn how to sew!

I commissioned a friend's mom to sew this and voila - two beautiful dresses for Ash. There's a few fabric shops here and I think if I knew how to sew I'd be a very welcomed customer there :))

I hope she likes wearing this as much as I like seeing the dresses!

Another thing - the latest Fall Interweave Knit magazine has finally descended on my doorstep- I can't wait to sit through it and take my time to just look and dream!!! Can't wait for this weekend!

Enjoy!!!

The updates thus far...

2009-07-24T14:44:00.000+08:00

Since I last blogged, a LOT has happened , good and bad (nothing to do with knitting unfortuantely). I have managed to sneak in some knitting - not a lot - in the last few weeks mainly the Rainbow top for Ash. Others have stopped for some reason and right now I have been commissioned to crochet a Camel rather urgently as this was requested a few months ago and successfully ignored until now.
The first thing that happened about two weeks ago, was that I got admitted to the Bar to practice in Sabah and Sarawak. After 12 years, I finally am admitted in my homeland! Double yays!! I even managed to take a photo with the Chief Justice himself! Brad was there for the occasion which was great as he was there when I got admitted to practice in Victoria nearly 11 years ago, in fact he was the one who moved my admission. Sorry no photos for the Melbourne admission ceremony as they're all in Melbourne :(

Now the bad part of the story is that our house got broken into by 4 masked and armed robbers about a week ago in the early hours of Monday morning around 4am!!! It was a terrible and scary experience as they not only broke into the house by cutting the grill locks, and wooden door, they actually used a cyclinder tank gas (the one where we use to cook food from the kitchen) to break down the kids bedroom door!!! The crime rate in Kuching has gone from bad to worse. Luckily no one was injured badly however, hubby did get the majority of the blow while trying to protect everyone with his camping knife. The robbers tried to hit his hand with a baseball stick resulting in a very bruised and cut hand. Luckily again there were no broken bones!!! Thinking about it again makes me soo angry! At least they were caught on CCTV and we get to see how they carried out their "work"!

Last Monday, I received a beautiful set of Japanese crochet and knitting books from a friend I knew from waay back in Tasmania - A BIG THANK YOU KAK SHIDAH. They are just fabulous , I've never owned any Japanese craft books before so this is the first. I am totally fascinated by the charts and how easy (maybe) it looks when you summarise patterns in chart format. As I have no idea on how to read Japanese, I am yet to uncode the symbols for most of the charts. Here's a peek at the books and which ones caught my eye! Makes me just wanna knit/crochet all day - a girl can always wish!!!

I'm still knitting ....I really am...

2009-07-03T23:21:00.000+08:00

eventhough my blogging has lagged far behind. Now lets see what have I been up to..
1. Force finish my Reclamation Scarf because I dont think it would look nice if it goes any bigger.
2. Crocheted an ipod cozy because the zip on its previous case has given up on me.
3. Still ploughing along on my Rainbow Dress for Ash.
4. Thinking about (not knitting) my February Lady Sweater- I think I may have some sizing issues - gauge looks ok but as I knitted the smallest size -crazy for me on any pattern!! This is only because I'm following the measurements that was provided - so small was my size. However, I think I may be wrong on this one.
5. Picked up my clapotis again. I still have the section 3 decreases to knit.

So there you go.. busy to blog but not too busy to knit.

Reclamation Scarf by Stephanie Japel.

Please excuse my untidy hair , what's my excuse this time ... ummm bad hair day???
Yarn - Katia bought in KL. It has a good drape and knits up easily. I love how the stitch pattern look so clear with this yarn. I may knit this pattern up with another yarn, in all I just used up 2 balls of the Katia.

Ipod Cozy:

I made up the pattern with just simple double crochets and folded it in half. Double crocheted the lid and did a slip stitch to join the seams together. Now my ipod will be safe from potential scratches in my handbag.

Remember this... yup I'm still plodding along till the yarn runs out which won't be much longer. I'm loving the star look!

Hope to blog soon before too long!

Scarves

2009-06-13T14:04:00.000+08:00

These last few days have seen me busy churning out scarves for my sisters. As it is currently winter in Melbourne and apparently reallllly cold (I'm so jealous), what a great excuse for me to knit these for them.
Dolly modelling Dew's scarf....

Wid modelling her scarf....

Scarf for Wid

2009-06-09T17:34:00.000+08:00

I have just recently finished knitting up a "commissioned" scarf for my sister. She bought the yarn when we were yarn-shopping in Melbourne last year from Sunspun. Its a really nice shop filled with wonderful yarny stuff. Located at Canterbury Road in Melbourne, the neighbouring shops are also a delight! Normally my shopping trip would not be complete if I don't visit the home interior shop a few blocks down for some reeds dipped in scented oils. If you do visit Sunspun, go to the Loumik shop too for great home products.
And here's the scarf......

Anyway, these are the details for the scarf:
Pattern : designed by Sue from Sunspun
Yarn: Rowan Colourscape
Needles: 7mm
Summary: A very speedy project.

Wholemeal Raisin Bread and Yarn shop in Kuching

2009-05-21T11:27:00.000+08:00

I baked bread last night after craving for a raisin toast for a few days. As you can tell I'm quite excited by this as I actually liked the taste.

Its not too sickly sweet like the ones we can get at the bakery and there's just enough raisins to sweeten the bread naturally.

The whole process took 3 hours and a bit , mostly just waiting for the dough to rise. I used a bread machine to do everything - knead, mix, bake etc. All I did was to add the ingredients according to the order in which the recipe was written (apparently very important).
I let it cool off for the night and the next morning * voila* raisin toast with butter for breakfast.

I used a basic white bread recipe but substituted the plain flour with wholemeal and added the raisins (only a quarter cup) as I don't really like too many raisins.
On another note, a while back I pormised to take a photo of the yarn shop in Kuching which I go to for supplies. These shophouses are really, really old. I bought a few weird, quirky buttons for my yet to be finished, actually I haven't even parted the sleeves yet - February Lady Sweater , hey I've got to get something to motivate myself to the finish line - photos will be up later..
The yarn shop in Kuching has no signboard - its just below the Lazo Diamond signboard.

The street just outside the shop. The big building behind is the new DUN (Dewan Undangan Negeri).

Happy Mothers Day 2009

2009-05-10T22:42:00.000+08:00

What a day - I spent half the day sleeping off a stubborn migraine that wouldnt go away after 4 painkillers. It started on Saturday (semi-manageable) which became a full-blown one this morning. Not sure whats going on as it was only my left side that was killing me...Luckily I managed to still bring the kids out for lunch and went back to sleep at 1. After 3 hours, I woke up from what hubby refers to as the 'coma' and was glad the 2 day old crippling migraine finally went away. I still live in fear that it will strike back any moment - thats how bad it was.
As it is Mothers Day today, my children gave me their gifts that they made in school. I first received Ash's gift on Friday afternoon - she ran up to me , planted a beautiful kiss on my cheek and gave me her gift which is a paper rose in a cup.

Matt wrote me a card with his own message on it - which was so sweet of him. I receive his gift only this morning as he only wanted me to have it on Mother's Day.

On Friday, I also received the Summer Interweave knitting magazine. Some of the articles in there were quite interesting but none of the patterns really jumped out to me. If I had to knit something there, I would go for the front cover pattern as it I think its very versatile and would suit a lot of people. But there's something that I discovered about myself- I'm not really motivated if the pattern is written row by row and is more than 2 pages long with complicated instructions (I'm fussy I know). Ahh well...
Something caught my eye too, the model on the front cover seems to have 'lost' her tatoo on her right arm. I say this because the tattoo is back again in the photos inside....oopsie!

With the tatoo :

Goodies

2009-05-01T21:00:00.000+08:00

Today is Labour day in Malaysia and I really totally enjoyed staying at home all day. It was so good to not rush around and do stuff. Even the kids did not want to go out anywhere for lunch (heheh even better!!)
My mum cooked a feast for dinner today but I will show you one of my favourite - Curry Prawn. The prawns were huuuggeee! I ate two because I was too scared of the cholesterol content, but it was so good. We used curry leaves from this tree that is in the garden - it smells really good and can even ward off pesky flies because of their strong smell. Actually there are a few more stuff in the garden but I'll save it for later posts.

The prawn curry...

Oh I am so excited to show these goodies that I ordered a while ago that hubby brought back from Melbourne.
A swift winder, 2 knit kit pack from Kpixie , and two magazines from Creative knitting.

The wool winder is so good and the first to try it is Matthew. He wanted to wind all my Malabrigo yarn. There were a few kinks so I had to step in and help. The last skein was horrendous, it was so bad I had to sleep on it halfway before winding it manually into a ball and rewounding it with the winder.
As you can see Matt is having a ball with the winder... with that , I wish you a Happy Labour day!

Baking and another crochet blanket

2009-04-26T20:49:00.000+08:00

I really couldn't help myself - the star afghan crochet blanket is just calling my name. This sudden urge to crochet was totally inspired from reading a blog (which I should stop reading as everything she makes, I wanna make too) - the Cropped Crochet cardigan was a case in point ..and I cannot keep up! Its not like I even have the perfect yarn, I just saw the blanket and instantly felt like I have to crochet one right now.this.very.moment.
Yarn chosen was a peacock blue old totem dk yarn (of which I have only 2 balls) and the brown is sublime dk (3 balls in possession), which is truly a dream to touch. I haven't started worrying yet about whether I have enough yarn but its definitely at the back of my mind.
This weekend we've been busy baking cookies. This is one of Matt's favourite cookies - chocolate oatmeal. Its the one from the packet where you just add butter and an egg. The kids love to get their hands dirty and squash them to their little hearts content. At the end of it we have yummy little cookies - tastes so good when just fresh from the oven. Here I present you my little Bakers...:)

Aunty Stacey said I can lick my fingers when I finish...

Chocolate Oatmeal cookies

Arts and Crafts - Paper and Lego

2009-04-20T21:33:00.000+08:00

We are in such an arts and crafts frenzy at the moment with Ashleigh demanding that we do some sort of arts and craft nearly every day! Lucky there's school or else I will be running out of ideas very soon.
So, to give Ash her arts and crafts fix I've printed out some photos so that she could cut them out and make her very own scrap book. She loves cutting papers and pasting them. Lucky that she also loves colouring, punching shapes, and decorating to make things pretty. I'll take a photo of that scrap book one day, at the moment its very much a work in progress.
This evening I picked up an egg carton from the supermarket which will become a caterpillar very soon - once its dried from all that green paint that Ash painted on. The instructions are from this really great book "Fairy things to make and do" dont know why a caterpillar is there but its so good - I get excited just looking at all the things you can do!

Another thing that we made over the weekend - a fairy bedroom sign. Its sooo easy and most important of all fun for everyone.

Also, when we were in Singapore 2 weeks ago ,there was a lego display at the airport. It was fantastic to see how many things you can make from lego. Of course the main point was to show that wind is another alternative energy that we can use but to prove this point, they've used lego to illustrate this. All you need to do is just blow some air into the small mouthpiece and this will move the windmill which will then generate energy to make other things move/light up etc..what a great
alternative to our limited supply of oil and gas, whats not to like.

Inside the doll house:

Multiple projects and a case of startitis

2009-04-19T16:29:00.000+08:00

I dont know what it is but something is taking a lot of my time away from my creative pursuits. I just do not have enough time in the day to knit all day like I used to before - actually I dont think I have ever knitted ALL day since 7 November 2002 ( Matt's birthday!!). That said, I am casting on quite a few projects at a time - totally inspired by Vicki Square's article in the latest Interweave Knits magazine (Spring 2009)entitled "Start as many new project as you can"!!! Heheheh as if I needed an excuse but my most challenging obstacle is time....

Lately, I have been semi working on a shawl - its based on Stephanie Japel's Recalamation Scarf (very easy kntting) I think I could have worked it out but was too lazy to do it, so I bought the pattern. The idea of this scarf is to use your most precious yarn as it only requires 1 skein and knit it up as a scarf to use it luxuriously around your neck. As I dont need a scarf in this tropical weather, I thought a shawl would be more useful for when I go into airconditioned rooms. I hope this works out as I want it to be large enough to wrap around my shoulders and upper body area.

I have decided to knit the February Lady Sweater with the Mmmmalabrigo (sorry couldn't resist this) that I purchased in the Sealing Wax colourway. So far so good and I cannot wait to see how this turns out.

Lastly, I started on another Rainbow dress for Ash using a DK yarn now. So hopefully it fits her as it is the recommended yarn weight. The yarn is Patons Smoothie and is multicoloured , so I am very excited to see how this dress will turn out.
Till then Happy Knitting.

Crochet Cropped Cardigan by Monica Brown in Coral Calmer

2009-03-20T21:21:00.000+08:00

There's sooo many C's to this cardigan that I might as well call it the C cardi.
Pattern: Crochet Cropped Cardigan
Yarn: Calmer (5 balls as that was what I had)
Colour: Coral
I think the cardi could have been a little bit longer but I just ran out of yarn. This was bought a while ago from the WoolShack when they were having a sale. I cannot say enough how this yarn is superb to work with. It also wears well in Malaysia which was a pleasant surprise.
All in all, a great project to work on although it did drag on towards the last few rounds - totally my fault. After working on it for awhile , I find that I am missing my knitting - so stay tuned for the next project which is so definitely going to be a knitted one!

Taking the cardi out for a test run - so far, someone actually said they liked it...

Update on the Crochet Crop Cardigan (3C)

2009-02-14T21:35:00.000+08:00

I've never really done a proper update on any of my work in progress, and so I now present an update on my current WIP: The 3C!
Progress for some reason is quite slow but I'm perservering with the hope that this is going to be a great cardie for me to wear around here in the hot tropics.
The huge buttons are freebies from the UK Simply Knitting Magazine. Some of these knitting magazines especially the UK ones have great freebies, I'm always on the lookout for great bargains.
I have just ordered some Malabrigo yarn from Yarn and Kissess and I cannot wait to start knitting on them. Word on the street is that they're soft as butter to knit.... ooohhhh the excitement!

Fairyland

2009-02-13T15:39:00.000+08:00

Look at what I have been distracted with - We are still playing with yarn at casa Yarn@heart but of a different kind....I have been busy making fairies with yarn and pipe cleaners. Its soo much fun too and my daughter is loving it. I just have to find more pipe cleaners in Kuching!
Here are some closeup photos of the fairies in action.

On the crafting side, I have been furiously crocheting away on my 3C (Crochet crop cardigan) The pattern is super easy - I just hope attaching the fasteners and buttons would be the same too!
Hopefully I can finish this up by the end of this week...can't wait!

Adult Rainbow Dress/ Top

2009-01-24T21:23:00.000+08:00

Alas the rainbow dress that I knitted for Ashleigh was a little too big for her. When I put it on Ash actually said : "I think this is your size mummy". And so I tried it on myself and it turned out to be quite a cute top. A bit on the scratchy side ( wool and alpaca from Patons Jet), the yarn actually knitted up quite nicely. I only had 4 balls and so I had to make a decision to mix it with a Magenta Cotton Chenile yarn.
I really dont know when to wear this top as it is too thick to wear it outside and would be too chilly around the arms to wear in an airconditioned room. I might just try to wash it and see maybe it would shrink a little so that little Ash can wear it as a dress. If it still does not work, I'll just wear it as a cute top.
The Adult Rainbow dress/top"

Happy New Year !!!!

2009-01-14T23:54:00.000+08:00

I must admit, I have been very lazy updating this blog of mine, it must also be said that not a lot of knitting gets done during the christmas, new year period *sob*. With work, Matt going to school and life, there's not much time left for knitting :( Everytime I pick up the needles, I always feel guilty for not doing other things.. I hope this feeling will pass pretty soon.
I have been actively neglecting my Clapotis - I really do not know why, maybe its the silk content, the slipperiness just doesnt feel like knitting and I have been busy knitting the Rainbow Dress by Tikki.

Its soo cute that I plan on having this done before I visit Melbourne again in June this year, yay just in time for winter.
I also have my eyes on this beautiful crop cardie. As I have never crocheted a garment before ( my crochet skills have been limited to blankets and granny squares), I have my heart set on this and it looks easy enough to get away with my crochet skills or lack of. We'll see I'll try to post progress pics once in awhile.
Other than that, Matt has started Primary One last week and is doing fine so far. *Sigh* Time flies soo fast...

Back in Melbourne Part II

2008-12-16T14:10:00.000+08:00

So here we are in Melbourne and its freezing cold! It has been raining non stop for the past 2 days and nice cool breezes follow. Not that I am complaining - I love this weather only because it allows me to wear all my woollen knitted stuff. Apart from that, I don't really enjoy the cool weather anymore - and I myself am surprised by this! Photo above is taken in front of the Malvern Town Hall - after lunch at Giorgios.

So far, we have kept ourselves busy decorating the house with christmas decorations and also cleaning the crap out of it.

As you can see, we have been busy...

Ash filling up the advent calendar with more chocolates.

Here's a photo of the recent finished button cardi getting some Melbourne action!

Finally ... a finished object!

2008-12-10T21:29:00.000+08:00

Presenting the Buttons Cardigan. It fitted Ash just.. it was meant for a baby but looking at it - it will take 3 years just to wait for the baby to grow into a toddler. I think the choice of yarn and needle size was a major factor in this but hey - if Ash could wear it..it's a good thing.
The specs:
Pattern: Buttons Cardigan.
Yarn: The yummilicious Zara (so sproingy - if ever there was such a word, that is the one I would use it to describe Zara).
Balls required : 4
Needle Size: 4mm
Buttons: Bought in Kuching... a bit tacky but beggars can't be choosers.
I will be leaving for Melbourne soon and am deciding which project to bring...decision2x... stay tuned!
A gratuitious photo of Ash before she went to preschool.