My Sanity

Modelled by En En of course, but i t's for her cousin sister X (well, it still was all the while) ... I still have many projects on going...

Below is the one completed 3 months ago, the name is Macy Top / Dress... a very fun knitting project with many possibilies of changes to the look. It can be a top for older girl or a dress for young toddler.

 
Too bad En En is not really in love with this Macy Top, maybe the wool yarn is not suitable for our climate. So, any taker??

Knitted Stuff

Completed these quite a while ago but never update to the blog...

More baby wool longies here...

Trying out crochet as well and this pair is so absorbent! Can guess what it is?

Can't stop to knit!

Currently working on a lacy baby kimono...

and a wool shorties for baby Z. Screwed up on crocheting baby booties... Hiya~

Baby Booties

Nice or not? But not mummy's work, it's MIL. Yeah... Ah Mah is a very talented in art, crafts and needlework. Mummy feels pressure but quite glad to have someone to guide in knitting or crochet. Oh, sewing too!

Mummy is going to try out crocheting a pair of baby booties. The picture above is the pattern but exclude the embroidery. Let's see whether baby Z can wear them when it's done.

First knitted baby long pants

It's a wool pants... another interest I got after addicted to cloth diapering. More details here.

Knitting works - On hold at the moment

A baby cotton vest - mistake in stitching but never have the chance to correct it yet. This is also the first knitting project with different patterns involved in the work... quite interesting and tiring to do the counting of different stitches.

This is a wool longies (long pants) for infant. Achieve the length but not even the shape yet and got to mix with yarn in different colours as this original colour is not enough for a longies...

Well, let's see how long it takes to complete them both.

Wrestle Mania!

En En loves to watch wrestling show... trust me! She's just like her Ah Kong and daddy who can watch the show till forgot to eat and sleep! Mummy also know a few famous wrestler from the wrestling show such as WWF (World Wrestling Federation) and TNA after watching with them. :P

She used the king size bed as her wrestling ring and we surrounded the bed with bolsters and pillows. Her wrestle partners? Sure will be all her pooh bears and other plush toys. She was having a great time in the ring till she noticed that we were recording down her movements. The video clip is abit long but it's funny to look at her. She's such a cute little one and we hope she's not developing into another violent baby.

I'm so into these....

You know what I mean... and I read this,

and these...





and finally I proudly annouce that I CAN KNIT!!! Even still slow... LOL




I just realized this is another way to lose weight... Paik Ling, you got me?? Keep your hands BUSY!!!

The Precious

It's been quite sometimes that I wish to blog about gemstone. There's so many things to talk about the "stone" since it become a hobby among us (hubby and I) and MIL.
The precious stone among all is still the diamond but in terms of rarity, gemstone will be much more expensive than daimond if it is in great demand.
From the view of the hardness, it ranges like the following:

1) Diamond
2) Corundum (Sapphire & Ruby)
3) Emerald

Just imagine it takes millions of years to harden deep under the ground and become one small, fine piece of precious stone. Different location consists of different type of soil and rocks and that contribute to why different stones you only can get from particular countries.

A very well-known:-
- mines for diamond - South Africa (the more the clarity the most the value)
- mines for ruby - Myanmar (pigeon blood)
- mines for sapphire - Kashmir (India, but there's none nowadays), Ceylon (Sri Lanka)both popular for its cornflower blue and royal ink
- mines for emerald - Columbia (green with tint of blue), Brazil (green with tint of yellow)

Well, sad to say there are more mines closing down nowadays as natural resources also will have the end of the day. When the demand of the gemstone get higer, apparently people start to aware of its rarity and this will always make the price goes rocket-high. There are a few points to remember if shop for colour gemstones:
1) Weight/Carat
2) Colour/hues
3) Size
4) Clarity
5) Cut/Fire
6) Origins of the stone

Different stone, different requirements and demands it will have. I like gemstone as it is so colourful and it's a wide knowledge for you to study. Besides, there are semi-precious stone which comes in variety of fantastic colours but of course they are not as valuable as the gemstone. Example of those stones are topaz, peridot, kunzite, amethys & citrine (both are crystal), tourmaline (another of my favourite), alexandrite, jade, spinel, tanzanite, and lots more.

We visited De Silva just now to have a peek on the pigeon blood rubies which cost about RM12K for less than 3 carat! Man... we are not going to buy it but we do have a nice conversation and sharing with the experts. It's a wonderful learning experience. But before you can talk about it, you must learn to appreciate gemstone and that's make the demand of gemstone rising once you learn to love it.

Overwhelm with SB

Wow... gorgoues..... nice layout.... cute embellishments..... excellent colors and contrast..... full of love & passion.... how nice the look of this end result..... huh? they have stiches and paper craft added in Scrapbooking!!!
Oh Gosh... I think I'm overwhelm with those samples from scrapbook.com gallery.... they are all very unique and pretty with lots of decorations, rich colours, just-nice contrast, beautiful art motif and so on..... Everyone is so artistic and they have their masterpiece display right here, in front of the PC with just a click away. How I wish I can be that creative but of course provided I have lots of spare time and money. It's a great way to scrap down the moments in your life of your precious one. Just anyone, anywhere and anything.
Alright, alright..... I must settle my mind and calm myself in order to take baby step in exploring scrapbooking. Everything must start out one by one especially if I'm going to add on crafting as this needs some skills though. Luckily, daddy support what I'm doing, thanks so much even it's just a spirited-support (means I buy the material on my own, sobbing...... :O( ) Well, perhaps I can add some crochet in my scrapbook.... this may take ages to come out with one that really work LOL.

Scrapbooking

Finally able to try out scrapbooking, roughly laid my idea into a finished product now. Ahem... this product is NOT FOR SALE and has copyright reserved.
Well, it's quite fun doing the cutting and drawing stuff and you need to have time along with some imagination and lots of inspirations from anything on doing this type of art work. At least, as for me, I really think so but it's too early to give any conclusion as I'm just exploring and new to scrapbooking.
There's only ONE shop that sells scrapbooking product in Penang and located at Burmah Road. It is true that you will spend money on the album and papers as they are not cheap. Look at what I'd got from the shop:

Thanks to Irene in providing tips and advice on starting out scrapbooking. I enjoy and have fun with scrapbooking!

Childhood Hobbies

Since daddy never wants to involve in this blogging thingy (I created this together with him but he only has interest to read) mummy is going to blog about daddy’s hobbies so that my children will understand more about how precious daddy’s hobbies are. Mummy really salute daddy.
When mummy first met with daddy, mummy never know that daddy has so many special hobbies. Ok, let me introduce daddy’s childhood hobbies that are still carry on even until today.

Daddy - Childhood-nowadays hobbies:
1) Old Coins – this one I was quite shock when I first knew coz to me it’s a hobby for elderly.
2) Comics – Favourite are comics from HK artist, Marvel, DC, Japanese animation are also some of his favourite. Used to have a big box of comics book but already donated out.
3) Dinosaurs – He can talk about dinosaur for the whole day and he has encyclopedia as well as CD collection of dinosaur series.
4) Cartoons – Any type of cartoons will make him glue on the sofa. Prefer Disney.
5) Kung Fu freak – theory and practical, can’t beat him.

Recently, daddy has growing interest on new items:

1) Gemstone – this one mummy also explore with daddy and grandma when preggy with En En and learn quite a lot from reading and surveys we do together. Daddy likes Sapphire and mummy like Peridot & Tourmaline.
2) Chinese Tea – not the normal type but it’s sold in pieces and quite costly.

Mummy - Childhood-nowadays hobbies:
1) Piano Music – started at 4 but stop at 6; then continue again at 11 then stop at 16; continue again at 26. If I’m not interested, I don’t think I’ll continue again
2) Nutrition & Health – won’t miss reading every bit of the information that I come across and was determined to become a nutritionist but it just doesn’t happen.
3) Keeping old mag & newspaper – especially those with nice pictures and writing
4) Cartoons – Especially from Disney, determine to get all the cartoon movies collection.
5) Kung Fu freak too! – Theory is there but practical only good for performance since I was a national wushu exponent before… haha!

Latest hobbies:

1) Gemstone – it’s great to have something similar to do with my partner
2) Crochet – learned from grandma but this really takes time as I have lots of unfinished projects
3) Photography – inspired by En En since she’s so cute
4) Bookscrapping (w/wo digital)- have idea on what to do but never start on anything yet.

On top of all, daddy’s top hobby is collecting old coins and daddy determined to pass this on to our children and grandchildren, if possible. Mummy know mummy can’t live without music. If we were living oversea, most probably daddy will be an archeologist and mummy will either be a musician or a nutritionist.

Been influenced by daddy, right now mummy also have a passion on old coins indirectly whereby mummy will keep coins that’s aged more than 20 years. Mummy know when it is passed to my children, it will have more sentimental value.

Old Sewing Machine

Suddenly feel so regret of not knowing how to use a sewing machine. It's alright for other people but not me! My family was in textile business and my mum is a very good in sewing. We have electric sewing machine back home and that was bought for business purpose too. Nowadays since my dad decided to stop the business, they sold off a few good condition sewing machines.
After I married to Penang, I never touch any sewing machine. In fact, I seldom do that even back home. So feel so bad about it since my mum and my MIL also good in sewing with sewing machine. I think a mother should know how to use the sewing machine if there's one ready at home.
Right now, what I have at home in Penang is an antique sewing machine. MIL still take care of it very well and it's still in top condition. Yup, the type that you need to use your legs to move one.
Today I finally determined to learn using the sewing machine that my MIL is using all these while and found out it's not really that difficult. I guess I'll go back and ask from my mum on more sewing skills coz I remember she saw lots of clothes goodies for me and my sisters especially pretty bags and house-hold items which made of cloths.

Obssession of Skin Care...and Cosmetics

Can't really recall since when I'm addicted to skincare and cosmetic products. I really search and survey every brands in the market and even wish that there is a website that make comparison and evaluation towards the effectiveness of those skincare on shelves. I'm not interested to be a sales person for this but I wish that I can be a wise consumer since every new product launching there are so many claims saying "mine is better, the rest in the market is outdated!"
Good news is I finally found this website 2 years ago and then after my buying guide for skincare and cosmetic is based from the research and evaluation from http://www.cosmeticscop.com. Everyone has different views towards the goodness of a skincare product but I realized it is true that expensive department store skincare item is not always the best. Go read the review and you will find out more.
I like this website because it shows you how to interpret the ingredients of the product. Turn over the product box and what we always see is a list of god-know chemical names which us, as a normal consumer has no idea about. In fact, I did try out some skin care products and cosmetics recommended from the website, be it from the drugstore or department store and found out the results are very impressive. Well, that was before I got marry and still got some spare money on hand to spend. LOL....
Right now, I slowly switch to drugstore products for skin care and cosmetic but there are alot very well formulated drugstore skincare only available in US. *Sigh* Oh yes, I mix brands and it turns out nothing wrong with this, my skin still as beautiful as before.... haha! I don't believe in using a set of same line/range skincare.
So, whenever CK has business trip to US, I'm sure will provide him my wish-list. Today I received a few SMS from my hubby who's now in Arizona and unable to find Neutrogena's item! Well, in Malaysia we only have limited range of Neutrogena products but in fact it carries the best basic face and sun care product. Yes, only can get in US... so sad. Wish I were there and I think I'll buy the whole shop.... haha!!! (Joking coz I'm broke now - approching end of month)

Photos of my Little Princess

Sometimes I feel so nervous about not having enouugh time to arrange and choose En En's hundreds... I think maybe thousands photos since birth. She a camera-baby and know how to pose when just 1 month old. Really feel like posting all her photos in my blog and yet I still never really sit down quietly to resize the photos. I think there are 80% of the collection are at least 1MB size.
Wonder whether there is any camera can auto-resize the photo after the shot? I'm not that IT savvy person even I'm in IT line, perhaps interest not there. Hehehe... My dad will knock my head if he know this since he was supporting my course fees. So, lesson learn: Choose a field that you really have passion in, if don't know find out or else don't simply further study.
Back to the topic, I think I really have to spend time to resize En En photos. She's very cute in there and I did upload some in http://www.babysites.com/sites/enenlee I wish I could do book scrapping but I know I can't coz I'm not so patient and time is not always at my side. Maybe I'm too greedy as everything that I see I also wish I can do this or that. Let's just settle and polish up whatever I'm doing now and maybe improve or learn up bit by bit from time to time. I believe in learning has no age boundaries.
Well, got to do last check on my baggage as am leaving at 10pm later for a company trip in Redang island. Sure will come back with lots of photos again... hai... more and more now....

Me, finally visited Borders

Reading is my hobby and I can spend the whole day in bookstore without tired look, but instead look afresh! Last Friday I finally able to spent almost 2 hours alone quietly in Borders at Queensbay. Being wondering outside Borders for a few times but that time was not really not my own time to browse books, thinking of my En En at the priority. I guess the same goes to every mummies out there.
I thought I was in a library and kinda like the environment, silent and peace, a great place for bookworms. I never let go any chances to read and explore new book, right now looking more for parenting books, toddler and children book, not forgetting health and nutrition and inspiration topic. I think probably one day is not enough for me as I just love to read from here and there... cooking also been influenced by MIL, but one thing never go out of date from my list is health magazines. Lately updated list is parenting magazines.... Gosh... really need to squeeze time for reading, I mean some "me" time. Been neglected for so long since having my little princess around.
Bought 4 books: Dinasaur Encyclopedia for hubby, Yoga and Pilates for myself and guess what both are very thick book but only RM19.90.... very worth! Got one for baby and one indian cooking recipe book (yummy, yummy!)I think I like Borders, will bring hubby again next time as he never been here too!