Offline blues

It's been a few days now since the PC at my house went "crazy" and had to be sent for repairs. Feeling a little sad about that.....not just because I couldn't connect with my friends and customers easily at the comfort of my own home, but also because I couldn't do work easily as well....huhuhuhu......and every time I want to check my mails, I have to go to the internet cafe.....how boring!

As you know, my work kinda depends a lot on the PC.....printer and bla bla bla......so without those darling equipments, gadgets or whatever you call them....I'm a little lost.....not used to doing work without them....so now I have to learn to do things without them.... for a while....just a while.....hopefully it takes a while to repair it.......it better not take too long!!!!!!!!! (going a little crazy here hahahahahah).

Not sure if you all are aware......because of the load of work I've been getting since early this year, I've been neglecting my health as well.....so I guess I'm also taking this opportunity to take a little break from work for a while.....and since the PC is out....it all works out! hahaha! what a coincidence huh??? oh well!

I've been meaning to take this leave for quite sometime now and I guess now is the perfect timing to do so.....plan to go back to my hometown once all my pending orders are done.....hmmmm.....when when when????????????? soon I hope!!!

Adios amigos!

What I hate most.......

I wasn't able to eat anything tonight after having a stressful conversation with my customer this evening. My hands were shaking not because of hunger but because I was very upset. I just froze there and tears flowed like river.

I never thought I would have to be in this situation again after learning the hard truth a couple of years ago. I thought I was smart enough now after going through similar experiences before. Thinking perhaps I can protect myself from getting fooled again. Boy was I wrong.....

If there is one thing I can't stand is people who take advantage of the artist's hard work. We work hard day and night figuring out how to make our artwork better.....we do a lot of research and brainstorming for new ideas. Then we see our ideas and hard work get taken away by these thieves. It's ok to love our ideas....it's ok that you want to buy the artwork.....but please don't claim that it's yours just because you bought it from me. If I knew in the beginning that the plan was to use my artwork for their project, I wouldn't have done or taken the order in the first place. I'm sorry but that's me. That's how I work. I don't appreciate people claiming my work as theirs and putting their logo on it. It's not like I work for them....I'm not their employee.....I don't get paid monthly to do designs for them....

And what I hate the most is when my customer said that I should have told her about my logo.....that I should have told her that all my artwork has logos on them. I think that goes without saying!! Most artists I know put their logos or brand name on all their artworks.....that's how it works. Too bad that she has no idea about all this. Too bad that she had a hard time taking my logo off my handmade cards. It's just too bad!

Just when I'm starting to feel happy again....and motivated to create... I get this news slapped on my face. All of this trouble for both sides could have been prevented if only she was honest to me in the first place...... :(

An old eraser given a new life.....

Believe it or not, my aunt took the trouble to find her old eraser just so that I can practice my skills in rubber stamp carving! hahaha! So here it is, the old eraser (a Faber Castell brand).....at the mercy of my lino cutter hahaha....LOL!

I was thinking hard about what design I would do on this little eraser.....which is by the way only about the size of my thumb! As I was looking for ideas.....I thought of making a house and a small tree beside it....so that I can use it to make a card for a new home. I have never made a card like that before and was thinking of doing so for quite some time now......so I went ahead with the idea. :) I used a ball point pen to draw the little house and tree....

Here it is after I have dug out the outer part of the drawing....kinda tricky there....especially the area between the house and the tree. I was afraid that I might cut too much and eventually loose part of the roof! hahaha!

Ok....that is the bamboo stick.....I sharpened the ends and use it to drill tiny holes in the tree.....I want it to look like as if the tree has some fruits on it hahaha.....so funny!!! I even drilled a hole on the front door of the house....can you see it??? LOL! ;)

Not sure if you notice this......but you can see from the original drawing to the end result that the house and the tree seem a little smaller......that's because I have accidentally made tones of mistakes and had to amend them....so as a result, they became smaller.....oh well! Lesson learned! :D

So here it is.....tadaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!! My second rubber stamp! :)

Roti tissue rupanya....

Happy Labour Day to all!! Hari ni hari buruh.....so kira cuti la juga for me walaupun kerja sendiri hahaha.......tapi lepaih balik rumah sambung balik wat kerja hahaha cuti menda tu! Cuti separuh je.....

Keluar jalan2 hari ni.......pagi2 pergi makan tosei and roti canai hehehe.....toseinyer sedap gak....tapi tak sesedap tosei kat Restaurant Rasyid di Ampang hehehehe.......so kat restorant baru dekat rumah ni.....Restaurant Nasi Kandar Kayu....fuyooo.....roti canai dia sebijik macam roti canai kat Alor Setar....macam tak percaya ja, at last ada gak roti canai kat KL ni yang sedap hahaha........selama ni asyik jumpa roti canai yang macam plastik ja....hhaha....leper dan liat! eiiiiiii! So apa lagi??? Lepaih ni boleh la pi sana makan lagi roti canai tu hahaha......

Yang memeranjatkan masa kami singgah kat restaurant tu is that ada satu menu kat restaurant tu yang agak peliks la for me......tergezut gak melihatnya......tak pasti la pulak apa nama item tu dalam menu........anyways ada la satu family ni order item tu.......nampak macam roti canai tapi panjang giler roti canai tu.....errrmmmm panjang ke tinggi??? hahaha.....masa mamak tu bawa roti tu....nampak tinggi la sebab cara dia pegang roti tu dalam keadaan menegak! So....bila sampai kat meja makan....dia terpaksa letak roti tu di atas 3 pinggan besar ( pinggan yang bentuk macam daun pisang tuuuu ) .....haaaa....korang boleh imagine tak??? Betapa besar and panjangnya roti tu......nampak very crispy and ada gula bertaburan di atasnya. Adik2 tu dok pikir canna la nak makan roti tu......fuyoooo....ada adik sorang tu siap gigit2 roti tu hahaha macam tikus la pulak cara dia makan hahaha......dia tak guna tangan masa makan roti tu.....it was so funny hahaha......geli hati nengok gelagat diaorang.....I wish I had my camera masa tu.....leh la ambik gambar! LOL! Nak mampus ambik gambar diaorang....sure kena marah!

My aunty tu teringin nak order roti tu next time kami ke sana......tapi I bangkang.....sebab rasanya kalau besar macam tu, tak larat nak makan babe!.....at least kalau 3 or 4 orang ok la nak habiskan roti tu......and satu lagi....roti tu ada gula.....sure sweet semacam jer....tak best lah.....I suka my roti canai with dhall hahaha........cerewet gila la pulak aku ni....tiba2 je hahaha.....selalunya aku ni bantai jer apa pun yang free ahahahaha..........errrmmm tengoklah canna nanti.....sebenarnya malu nak order sebab sure kami akan jadi center of attraction kat kedai tu hahaha....semua pakat tengok nanti.....nanti nak makan pun tak reti.....jadi blur je hahaha......kelakar2...... :D

Sakit perut

Tak tau la kenapa sakit perut sangat hari ni huhuhu.........masuk keluar tandas entah berapa kali ntah.......badan rasa sengal2 habis......lupa pulak apa remedy nya.....dulu dah penah sakit perut teruk macam ni and I berjaya mengubat diri sendiri......tapi hari ni dari pagi sampai ke petang tak ingat apa bendanya......then sebelum magrib tadi baru teringat....rupanya penawarnya ialah teh O tanpa gula. hahaha......

Badan pula rasa macam nak demam......agaknya sebab dok tidor lewat tiap2 hari......kheja bagai nak rak....tak siap2 juga hahaha.....oh tidak tidak....ada yang dah siap huhuhu......tapi yang menunggu pun banyak lagi. Letih juga buat kheja camni....ingatkan dapat rehat selalu, rupanya kheja tiap2 hari, takdak cuti......so kalau nak cuti, kheja kena cuba siapkan cepat2.....then baru dapat free time skit untuk nak lepak. huhuhuhu......

Caucincau.....

No electricity for two hours!

It happened around 2.20 pm today.....I was in the middle of a short nap on my lazy chair.......and suddenly I noticed that the fan above me stopped moving. Oh God! Why oh why.......the hot weather was already killing me and now no electricity????!!!! At first I thought perhaps I didn't pay the bill......so I went to check the electric bill just to be sure.....laaaaaaa paid already la!! Then???? What??? Geram betul!

Luckily after two hours of torture......the electricity came back.....and the ceiling fan started working again.....trying it's level best to cool me down......sigh......I seriously need to get another fan for my house.....the ones available are overworked and desperately in need of a holiday from keeping their master cool hahaha.......

Get a new fan......I must! hahaha!

Chicken sausage with onions

Another recipe for the lazy and no energy people like me hahahaha........I got so hungry today....and I checked my fridge and saw nothing available to cook except for these chicken sausages. So I took them out, chopped them up to smaller sizes and sauteed them with some chopped up onions and olive oil.

I must say it tasted quite nice......probably because there were a lot of onions in it. (or perhaps because I was so HUNGRY????) hahahahah! I added a little dash of black pepper, hot chili sauce (Lingam's brand) and when it was all cooked I ate it with a few slices of Gardenia's wholemeal bread. Yum -O!

Carving a stamp...first time!

I got this gift from an angel in Maine hehehe......I got a lot more gifts that she packed up in a box but this particular gift here, the Speedball carving tool set is my most favorite! Maybe because it was something that I've been aiming at buying for a long time now. Suddenly, one fine day.....there it was, in my own hands.....unbelievable!

I wanted to play with it as soon as I can! So I did! Tried my hand at carving a motif on the rubber or eraser today hehehe..... I did my first rubber stamp and it was for my aunt......carved out the name NORMS......which stands for Norma Mohd Salleh.....heheh......NOR for Norma, M for Mohd and S for Salleh.. :)

Never thought that it would be so hard......maybe I was too ambitious! I should try a simpler motif next time round........need to buy some cheap erasers to do my experiments.....hahaha.....for beginners like me, I know I'm bound to make a tone of mistakes....so why waste the good erasers......use the cheap ones first! hahaha!

I'm just super excited about the whole experience. I never thought I would be doing this new craft this year.....wanted to do it for the longest time, and especially when I received a book about rubber stamping from the same angel some time ago hehee......AND a couple of weeks ago I stumbled upon a Malaysian blogger who carves out her own rubber stamps and sells them online too! I felt so inspired to do it......I love carving and have carved out designs on wood before. But that was so long ago when I was in my teens. And the wood block was so much larger. A lot of space to work with. It's a bit different in technique....although at some point, there are some similarity in it.

But when it comes to erasers.....it's a lot softer, breaks easily and I have to be gentle with it. I get so excited about getting it done fast.....a little impatient no? hahaha......just can't wait to stamp it! Thats all! hahaha! I just have to give myself more time to get the hang of it. I hope to do more designs on rubber and play more with my new tools. Wish me luck! :)

Cinta, Jodoh dan Perkahwinan

Got my most anticipated book of the year today.......can't wait to read it!!! I first knew about it about a week ago after watching the program Nasi Lemak Kopi O. on TV9.....the author was interviewed by the beautiful Farrah Diba.....eh betul ke spelling nama dia ni hahah....nasib ler.....anyways, this guy Eddy Rosyadie is the author and he was telling about things that really relates to what I've been searching for all these years......the answers to all my questions.....errrmmm almost all of it haha...

It's such an interesting book to read......a lot of details on what love is all about and it gives us some guidance on how to find your true love......hmmm.....I wonder if it will work for me........will have to read the whole book to find out! Will definitely write a review about it once I'm done reading it. :) Till then!

Wahab's Cendol

*Photograph of the cendol taken with my camera phone....not too clear huhuhu...

This is my second time eating this tasty cendol at Mr Wahab's small little stall in Setapak Jaya.....the stall is opposite the lake......Again I could see there were so many people lining up to get a taste of this delicious cold dessert and to eat some pasembor (rojak), mee ayam, mee rojak and other delicious meals found there.

The one I had before was just plain cendol........but this time around I thought of adding the red beans....the beans were quite small in size though....I was thinking it might be bigger like the ones we usually get when eating ABC.....huhuhu.....(my expectations were too high hahaha).

The cendol itself was a bit salty for my taste.....the coconut milk was fresh (yum yum!) .....but the ice was not finely scraped.....so there were chunks of ice in the cendol that I had to chew it a bit hehehehe! I prefer the smoothly scraped ice better than this one......because I love it when the ice just melts in the mouth and blends in with the cendol and coconut milk and gula melaka (it's a natural sugar hehehe).

Rating.......I would give.......8/10..... :) Almost perfect.... LOL!