Any idea???

I'm not really sure what this plant is.....it started growing in our garden on it's own for quite a few weeks now. It's gotten big! hehehe! I'm thinking it could be a pumpkin tree from the looks of it. I think the birds must have dropped the seed on the ground and it grew by itself hehehe.....

This is a close up of the buds....can you see it??? I can't wait to see it blossom!! I wonder what it is......could it be a pumpkin tree? Or what? Any ideas people?? I would only know what it is in a few weeks time. :)

Wire wrapped blue Agate

I received a gift in the mail today from my dear pal from USA. I didn't even realize that the postman came over to the house because I was busy taking a shower at the time hahahaha......so he slip it in between the gate of the house. My dear friend alarmed me about it when she came over to send me some goodies to eat that she and her Mom bought from the market. Luckily she came over and told me about it otherwise I didn't even know the package was even there! LOL!

So quickly I went inside after that and opened it........tadaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!! Wow! It is a wire wrapped blue Agate ornament. I love the color so much!!! I was thinking of what to do with it......kept looking around my studio, and thinking of where to hang it. But then, I thought to myself.....if I took out the small bell hanging from it....and find me a leather string......I can actually wear it the blue Agate!!! It will be like a big pendant! hehehe! What do you think??? I think it will be so cool! hehehe! LOVE IT!!! Thank you dear CC for this lovely gift!!

A trip to the post office

Today I thought to myself.............................why not.......why don't I cycle to the post office whenever I have to do the deliveries for my customers. Yeah.....why not??? It's not that far from my Mom's house anyways. It will be a great exercise for me too. I hate to bother my Mom and borrow her car whenever I need to go there.

So that's what I did this morning.....I cycled there, post the cards and manage to cycle back home safely. I felt so proud of myself for being able to do that. hahahhaha......sounds weird but for me it felt like how it was when I was a teenager. I went everywhere with my old bike. So it was great to be able to do that again with this new one.

One thing great about living in Alor Setar is that, it's a small town. So, if you want to go to town....it's like so near! Believe me, you can get there from my Mom's house in about 10 to 15 minutes by car! You can never do that if you are staying in Kuala Lumpur.......with all the traffic jams and such. It's terrible there. But here......there is a sense of calmness. It's not crowded here.......so I felt safe to cycle around here.

I don't know.....after all, it's only my first time cycling to the post office. Never done this before. So who knows what it will be like the next time right? But as far as today goes, I'm so loving it!!!! :)

Exhausted.....

I think probably this week has been one of those weeks that left me feeling so exhausted. Working from early morning till late nights every day. The funny thing is I barely lost any weight in the process.....didn't gain any either...thank God for that! LOL! But one thing for sure, I've been pretty discipline with my work and have not been wasting time online as much as I used to. I made sure I get my work done as it is supposed to and it's great! It's great that I managed to do it.

I can't believe how time flies so fast! Next week is the last week of January!!! Yikes! I guess next week I'll be even busier than ever because there is just so much of work pending and I also have to prepare for the next blog giveaway which is on the 1st of February. I still have not made up my mind on what or which card design I'll be giving away. It's so exciting to do this.....wish I had done this earlier hehehe....it's so great to surprise people with gifts. I kept thinking if I should actually show the gifts first or show it later when the giveaway comes to an end. The mystery adds the excitement don't you think? But showing it in the beginning gives a lot of excitement too......hmmmm decisions decisions hahahahaha.......either way, both are equally exciting to me! It also depends on how fast I can get the gifts done. If I can get them done earlier, then perhaps I'll show them in the blog at the beginning of the giveaway....if not, then they will just have to wait till the end of it! LOL!

The weather here in Alor Setar is killing me! It's so hot these days! No rain.....errrmmm....well, there were a couple of times when the rain did drop a little bit here and there. It's just not enough to bring down the heat. By 9.00 am, it gets so freakin' hot, you just wanna stay indoors most of the day. It's so uncomfortable to work when it's so hot. I'm trying not to on the air conditioner too often. But sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to be able to function well around the house....hahahaha. :)))

Death of my favourite craft punch

My most favourite craft punch, my tiny 6 petal flower craft punch......yang paling banyak berjasa dalam business aku nih....tiba2 jer decided to die today.....nasib baik sempat siapkan tugasan sebelum dia mati....tried to save it....but, looks like there is no hope after all.....huhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhu......... :((((((((((((( I was finishing up this pop up flowers when it suddenly broke....luckily I managed to punch out the last flower before it died. Gosh....what a way to die......

I bought this craft punch years ago....when I was first trying out to be a handmade card designer :P. I bought the cheapest one I could find and if you make cards yourself you would know that the smallest one is usually the least expensive on the rack. It is of good quality, but since it's been over used over the years, I guess it just decided to stop working.

If anybody knows me well, they would tell you that I would still keep it even though it's broken.....that's how much I treasure my stuff....ehehehehe......because I always think that someday I might find a way or a solution to repair it. LOL!

Ikan dalam kolah lama

Malas nak speaking English hari ni.....nak speaking separuh jer boleh? ehehehehe.....well, actually I wanted to share here today photos of one of the containers where my Mom keeps her pet fish. There are lots of them in there....mostly guppies and sword tails.... You know why? Because those types of fish are dirt cheap to buy and they are great for putting in containers such as this where she puts her water plants in. This way, there won't be any mosquito eggs or larvae in it because the small fish will eat them up! :) So we are safe from mosquitoes!

I like watching the fish in the water container swim....and eat and eat and eat.....so free....free of any care in the world....no problems whatsoever......just keep swimming...just keep swimming....just keep swimming hehehehe.....LOL!

Jus belimbing buloh

 

Long long time ago my late grandmother gave my Mom this particular fruit tree for her to plant at her house. I'm not sure what we call this fruit tree in English or it's scientific name, but in Malay, the fruit is called "belimbing buloh". It is a kind of starfruit I think....but it's just smaller in size...about the size of your thumb. :) The fruit tree is now really tall and bears fruit all year long. I'm reckon the tree is more than 20 years old.

Since last year I think, my Mom has been making fruit juices from this lovely fruit and it tastes so wonderful.....so refreshing. I had my first taste of it today and my goodness I think it'll be one of my favorite fruit juice now....hehehe! I also love watermelon juice.....and I'm thinking that we should plant it soon in our garden so that we can have fresh watermelons in our own back yard. There was a time when we did plant it and managed to get more than 10 watermelons from one single watermelon tree. Cool huh? It was a good experience though hehehe.....

The photo above shows what "belimbing buloh" looks like before they were blended and made into fruit juice. My Mom loves to add some "asam ko" in the fruit juice so that it doesn't taste so sour. The "asam ko" has a salty taste and it's actually a dried sour fruit that is covered with salt. Once added in the fruit juice the "asam ko" will balance up the sour taste. :)

It's a great drink to have during this hot weather. So refreshing especially if taken cold. :))))

Cucumber and tomato salad

This is probably one of my favorite salad these days. My Mom's recipe....hehehe......she loves making this for our lunch. We would eat it with brown/white rice and grilled fish.

The recipe is simple really.....one large cucumber, 3 medium sized tomatoes, 2 medium size onions, 1 small sized chili, 5 heap teaspoon of sugar, one level teaspoon of salt and about 2 or 3 tablespoonful of apple cider vinegar.

Yummmmmmmmmmmyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!! ;)))

Chocolat Wrapper

Recently I was introduced to this lovely website that does chocolate wrappers for weddings, birthdays, custom design, holidays, special occasions and business. This lovely business offers unique chocolate wrapper designs and prints not found anywhere else. The owner (Miss Fida), herself wanted to exchange links with me which I was so happy to do so hehehe! Especially since I love her website a lot. :)

The chocolates are handmade by her own relative. So all she is does is wrap the handmade chocolates and do the design on the wrapper to make them look special. I have seen her designs and I do think they are very beautiful....elegant and modern too. There are designs available at her website that are suitable for everyone's need. You can even have the wrapper custom made according to your preference. You can also have your own photo printed on it too! Isn't that so cool?? It would be lovely especially for occasions such as engagements or weddings and even for birthdays.

The size of the chocolate bar is 12cm x 3.5cm. The flavors that are available are Cappuccino, Hazel Nut, Almond Nut, Milk Bar & Mix Nuts.

This home business is located in Cheras. :) Here are the contact details of this "yummy" business ehehehe! Do visit her website today!

CHOCOLAT WRAPPER
Phone: (012) 648 0610
Fax: (603) 9076 0977
http://www.chocolatwrapper.com/

Hot Milo and wholewheat crackers...

My happy food changes from time to time depending on my mood. But this is one of my happy food since I was small. A mug of hot Milo and some wholewheat crackers. :) I would dunk the crackers in the hot Milo and just let them soak all the chocolaty flavors....yummy!! Sometimes I would just break the crackers in half and soak them in the mug until they get all mushy. Then I would scoop them up with my spoon and eat them. I would do the same thing with other drinks like hot coffee or tea. Its like a comfort food as well I guess. And this is how I enjoy them. By dunking the crackers in it. I wonder if anyone out there loves to do the same thing....hehehehe :))))

Handmade felt fridge magnets

Oh gosh! I'm just super excited! I've just received the handmade felt fridge magnets I ordered last week. I ordered them from this lovely lady (Fawa), who makes fridge magnets using fabric (Felt). She's a school teacher but she makes these lovely fridge magnets during her spare time. I first saw them from her the photos she uploaded in her Facebook album. There were so many cute fridge magnets that she made and I was attracted to the one she made that looks like a Clown Fish. It was orange and white in color. So cute!!! I was also interested Owls....but she has never made any yet. So I requested two fridge magnet Owls from her. One "lady" Owl and one "gentleman" Owl...hehehe! So that's how I got those two cute little Owl magnets! I just love them! They are so cute!!! I was thinking maybe these fridge magnets are really small in size....but when I got them today, I realized that these magnets are quite big. Really worth every penny!! ;)

Check out more of her felt fridge magnets designs at this blog : Di Sini Hatiku

My first blog giveaway

I wanted to do a blog giveaway for quite a while now......been thinking of what to give. I just realized that there were a lot of things I can part with here. Looking through the stuff I have in my studio here and inspired by what my friends from overseas have taught me over the years, I now have a great idea of what I can give. I have handmade cards, embellishments, tons of ribbons too....oh yeah, there were plenty to give. :)

Do check out my card blog if you are interested to participate. I wrote there in the blog giveaway post that whoever is interested to participate to write down for me in the comment area, which card design from my blog that they love the most. I'm really hoping that when I finally get a winner for my first blog giveaway, that I can give that person his or her most favorite handmade card together with some other cards and embellishments. Hope I can really do that....but if I don't have the time to do so, then I'll just giveaway the cards that I have already prepared. Wish me luck ya.....I want to make it really nice for the winner. :))))

The blog giveaway starts on 1.01.2010 and ends at midnight on 9.01.2010.

Go to my card blog to participate! :
Lin Handmade Greetings Card
http://azlina-lin.blogspot.com/

Time For Dreams - Lang Lang and Schiller

The first day of 2010! Wow...I guess ready or not, here we are in the new year. New beginnings. A new fresh start for everyone. Most definitely for me as well. I'd like to share with everyone this song by Lang Lang and Schiller called "Time For Dreams". I first knew of Lang Lang from The Oprah Winfrey Show. He played the piano live on stage and his performance was so amazing.....I've never seen a pianist play quite like that. It was so awesome! Gave me goosebumps! :) I started to search for more of Lang Lang's music in Youtube. I found this one which I love so much right now and I feel it's quite suitable for the new year. Have a listen......it sounds like fusion to me.....I can hear the mix of Chinese musical instruments and melody in it. Lovely....makes me wanna dance to it too hhehe...