Ramblings of a Mami of Two

...is quite possibly the 2nd most time-consuming craft project I had ever taken on after Kimi's felt ABC book.  The idea came after my friends, Ain and Bibah (who goes by Beba post-SMSS) started talking about making busy books for their little ones.  I initially wasn't interested because I didn't know what they were talking about. It finally caught on when I found out that that's a whole lot of crafting in there!  I was on board just like that.  But then it wasn't an easy project, not at all. Being a perfectionist (I was diagnosed as one, but really I don't think I am, at all), I made a book out of used papers, making mind map of the book - concept, what kind of skills I want to teach from the book, and what kind of activities would achieve that.  Pinterest helped a lot. I spent hours of hours day dreaming of what the final book would look like, browsing through one after another pins and boards on pinterest. Really, that site is a poison to your...

Some time ago I came across this messenger bag tutorial and I thought how cool would it be to make one for Hadi with an ultraman appliqué and all. That was before I realised he won't be using it much so I made one for my niece instead.  So the ultraman appliqué pattern that I drew has been sitting in my sewing box since forever, waiting for the right project. Just last weekend I noticed that Hadi drinks a lot of water and I thought a water bottle holder would be a cool thing to make.  And I did. And it was cool, but would be way cooler if I had made the strap a little bit longer that he could wear it crossbody-style.  Anyways. He took it with him to bed the first day I gave it to him and he totally forgot about it the next day.  Mehhhh. If you're wondering why all of my projects are using black fabric, that's because 7 years ago Ach wanted to get me into a business that he had thought of and he bought a roll of black velvet-like to get me start...

In my last entry I told you that I like personalised stuff, stuff that tells stories. Charm bracelets do exactly that. They tell stories that only the owners can tell.  Earlier last year I stumbled upon Pandora & Thomas Sabo, and I fell in love with both ever since. I imagine each charm to represent something special in my life. They will look like ordinary charms to you but to me, they are more than just charms. They are stories. The reason I did not get them was because they are too expensive. Tooo expensive for a cheapskate like me. Fortunately, dear husband tau perangai aku and gave me one for my 29th birthday. I was happy. He gave me the "starter kit"; the bracelet, 2 spacers and 1 charm. Dia kata, the rest isi sendiri.  Baiklah! Sebelum cari my charms, I must first set the criteria: Since ada 3 column (2 spacers), my charms must fall in either one of these three categories: family, for family stories. One for each family member, signi...

I have always been a very sentimental person. I don't show my emotions on a daily basis but seriously, I am sentimental, to the point that it gets mental sometimes.  I adore scrapbooks - I keep things that may seem meaningless to others but tells  a thousand stories for me - I keep movie stubs for most of the movies I'd watched with Ach in RPI, I still have a piece of a Fall leaf from Prospect Park, when Ach and I did nothing but baring-baring on the grass, back in Fall 2004. I still have that piece of  receipt on which  Ach wrote "New York Spring 2003".  I am a sucker for personalised, handmade cards and craft projects - they show how much you care about someone, well enough to spend some time designing the cards. Bila ada celebrations coming up, I would be busy thinking what kind of card am I going to make. Beaded? Quilled? Felt? What design? What is the celebration? What does he like? What do I want to tell in the cards? I'll incorporate all of th...

Oih that is one tak creative title. I made new sarung tilam for kimi, for his daycare use. The mattress was purchased when he was a day old and it's still being used now. Either anak aku yang tak membesar or the mattress is a big one. The kain sarung was bought from nagoya at RM12/m kot. Then I sew on KIMI felt applique onto it, sama macam previous projects . The whole thingy took me 9 hours kot muaahahaha. You see, this is one of those projects that you are eager to start, lepas tu i started to regret at cutting out "K". Itu belum lagi trace pakai benang hijau and jahit onto the kain. Rasa macam endless. Each letter took me 1hr to trace, cut, jahit benang hijau and jahit atas kain. Regardless, I am very happy with the final outcome: If you look at the picture, the letter M was sewn a bit lopsided... I was disappointed tapi eventually I think it made the whole thingy looked personalised and a bit more comel. Orait. Satu project siap. Next! p.s: In case ...

Kawan nak ucapkan selamat datang kepada tahun 2012 . Sepanjang tahun ini, kawan akan jangkakan banyak perubahan akan berlaku pada kami, Kimi mula bersekolah, kami pindah ke rumah baru dan beberapa lagi plan kami untuk 2012 yang sebahagiannya Ajan ada tulis di post sebelum ini. Di awal-awal tahun ni, ramai yang mencari-cari kalendar tahun 2012. Walaupun semua kita dah ada kalender iOS atau Android ditangan, bagi kawan perlu juga fizikal kalendar, sama ada yang atas meja atau gantung di dinding. Setengah-setengah orang kalendar ni perlu untuk buat plan, untuk lihat waktu solat, untuk tengok jadual lumba kuda, jadi deco. Tapi bagi kawan senang ada kalendar macam ni untuk coret-coret dan letak reminder . Tahun ni, kawan dah design kan kalendar untuk kami sekeluarga. Kalendar tahun ni kawan letakkan ayat yang Kimi pernah cakap sepanjang tahun 2011, kebanyakkannya buat kami sekeluarga pecah perut. Macam contohnya dia pernah kata, " Kimi good boy, Kimi tak jahat macam girl ",...

The blogosphere is pretty quiet nowadays… the links on my daily read feed only change every two or three days. Or is it just me? Oh well, nevermind. I’ve always been into crafting. I’ve done a couple of craft projects in the past, appliques for Kimi’s rompers, Kimi's felt mobile ,  his felt ABC book , our third anniversary booklet . Now I’m past the felt phase… because I’ve found quilling. It’s totally addictive yo. I keep finding occasions just to have reason to quill ( bunyi macam orang nerd. I always have nerdy hobbies ). Since I was not born creative, I had to google “quilling patterns, quilling cards” and just copied other ppl’s design sebab nak design sendiri tak reti. You see, quilling is just like drawing, only harder because you have to translate drawings into blocks of shapes. So, tiru orang punya lagi senang. Takpe, bukan aku jual pun those cards. So far, I’ve done 4 projects, actually 5 but I didn’t give one to anybody so it doesn’t count. My very first q...

Last weekend, all of a sudden, I had this urge to sew an apron for Kimi. Why apron? Because he loves to help me in the kitchen. Am I worried? A little. But, Jamie Oliver's a great cook isn't he? And he looks normal too. Besides, I needed to sew something and apron was simple enough for a first timer. I started snipping off at 9 p.m Sunday, using the only kain that mak would allow me to cut ( it's actually an old, faded and badly stained kain alas meja ). Two and a half hours ( and a messed-up sekoci in mak's vintage SINGER sewing machine ) later, Kimi was already parading his apron, while pretending to cook natik dowen for Ach. Ahhh... what a pretty sight. Kimi playing pretend-cooking, I mean. Not the apron. Mommy nak matan ape? Btw, the apron fits him perfectly! Fine, it's from a piece of alas meja and the seams are all senget benget macam ular kena palu, but still! My first sewing project. I am gila proud of myself. I even sew a little pocket in front, for...

Being me, I like to give Ach handmade cards. Quite unfortunate for Ach, since I am the least artistic person he will ever meet, he would have to settle with sloppy handmade cards. Hihihi. So our anniversary gave me another opportunity to make one of those cards. Initially I wanted to make either beaded cards or quilled cards , tapi both projects sound too difficult and time-consuming. FYI, I had done both cards and oo em ji I wouldn't wanna do it again. Then I decided to make a felt card. Then ding dong ding dong I decided to make an anniversary story booklet instead of a card, and I'd use felt for the cover. I am brilliant  I tell yah. Next challenge is how to tell our story in few pages. Since I am not the world's best artist, kimi prolly draws better than I do, I have decided to use existing Love is... strips that would fit into my storyline. Gigih ni aku cari satu-satu and edit dekat photoshop. I hope they don't take legal action against me.  Lepas dah jump...

I've read somewhere that I'm supposed to buy Kimi stuff that will boost his creativity. Playdoh is on top of my list but those in Toy's R Us are very expensive lah! But worry not, I have found the perfect recipe for home made play doh that wont burn a kawah comet in your pocket. It doesn't take long to make too. So here goes: Ingredients 1 cup white flour 1/2 cup salt 2 tablespoon cream of tartar (find it in the spice section) 1 tablespoon oil 1 cup water food coloring Methods Mix first 4 ingredients in a pan. Add water and mix well. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, for 3 – 5 minutes. Dough will become difficult to stir and form a “clump”. Remove from stove and knead for 5 minutes–add food coloring during kneading process. Play dough will keep for a long time stored in a covered plastic container or plastic sandwich. The amount of doh is just perfect, tiap2 warna ada cukup doh for kimi to play with. I find the texture and elasticity of the doh...

Masa tengah gila shopping baju baby dulu, Ach and I main belasah je beli semua onesies , tshirts, and pants yang kitorang rasa cute. I mean, we were two excited first-time parents, semua benda pun kitorang rasa cute. Macam allergic tengok shops like Brands Outlet or FOS Kids.Asal nampak je mesti masuk, dah tu mesti beli. Kalau keluar shopping nak cari baju Mommy, alih2 baju mommy tade baju kimi gak tambah lagi satu. Or tiga. Udahnya in the end, Kimi's clothes bertimbun2 memang lagi banyak dari baju aku, sampai tak terpakai2 pun. The only reason tak pakai is because those baju are onesies, which were very adorable on Kimi when he was still a baby. But Kimi kan dah almost 2 years now, jadi I don't like to dress him in onesies anymore. I think onesies are cute on infants, not toddlers. Not even when worn with pants outside. Skema ish ish. Jadinya I have quite a couple of new onesies yang cantik, nak pakai macam skema, tak pakai sayang. Thanks to TinyDecor , I had turned his ones...

Finally!!!! My little project for Kimi is complete. After almost a year!! Ooo yeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhh!! ( do the chicken dance ) Remember our little felt DIY project last year? After that one was completed, I felt like I was good at it, so I thought of another project. It was an ambitious one. I wanted to make a felt ABC book for Kimi. (OMG! Gasp! Ketuk dahi!) Ach, being a darling as always, brought me to Ampang Park to get all the materials we needed. I remember kimi cenonet aje that time. Tidur aje all the time. Senang betul bawak dia jalan time tu. The following weeks (and months) I worked on the project. It was pretty simple actually, but the whole process was leceh: - i printed out the alphabets on paper - i cut out the alphabets and traced em on the felts - i cut the felt alphabets out - i sew the felt alphabets on rectangle felts - then i sew the felt pieces together as pages of the book - then i made the covers - finally i slid ribbons to bind the book. - then i am done. Yep ...

Todays entry is on two felt DIY projects ach and I did for Kimi. Awww.... so cool. Project #1: Kimi's mobile The idea struck us when we were in Ikea's feeding room and there was this cute felt mobile on the nappy change desk or whatever you call it. Before we knew it we were already buying colorful felts at this quilting shop @ Ampang Park. The first thing we did was decide what shapes we wanted for the mobile. I wanted the shapes to represent all things boyish, but most important of all they must be really easy to draw. Muahaha this mommy is really bad at drawing ok? The simpler the better. Finally we decided on 4 things, a soccer ball, water melon, car, and rabbit. Hahahahaha not sure how the melon ended there. All the drawing was done by Ach . Very precise with all the grid on the drawing! Then we cut the shapes, pieces by pieces, and traced them back on the felts. And there are 2 pieces of each mobile, front-and-back. It doesn't sound as complicated as it sounds, reall...