A Homemaker’s Diary

Still on the subject of bunga dip, for the past 5 years or so that I have been conducting kelas bunga dip, many participants who came for the class were mostly eager to make bunga telur and bunga dulang for gubahan hantaran or as bunga pahar to be put on the side of their pelamin.

(This bunga dulang dip – the mini size version was done during last class by one of the participants)

A few managed to do so and shared their creations with me. I am always proud to see how they have utilized the knowledge they got from my short 3-hour lesson. Of course if you want to make such a delicate looking and detailed creation, you have to experiment more and practise more.

But for someone who suka-suka and want to see something made from their own two hands (especially during their own wedding or engagement), I would say that was good enough.

One thing I love the most during class is the opportunity to see how people use their creativity. Rather than simply tiru cara cikgu buat bulat-bulat, some are brave and imaginative to use whatever size of beads/pearls available to embellish the middle of the bunga dip. Check out the big, bright yellow pearls she used in the picture above..hehe!

Well, eventhough I never made it as cikgu sekolah (I applied KPLI many times) but here I am as a cikgu kelas bunga telur..haha!

Entri ini akan ditulis dalam Bahasa Melayu dan English rojak**

I noticed a lot of viewers yang datang ke blog ni, cari pasal gubahan hantaran, cara buat bunga dip, gambar bunga telur dan sebagainya.

I realized not many people are willing to share cara-cara buat bunga dip online. I for once don’t have the facilities utk ambik video or gambar step by step utk buat bunga dip ni. It takes a lot of effort and time to do such thing.

This is one of the latest pictures taken during March class. For those who are interested to learn cara-cara buat bunga pahar dan bunga dulang utk gubahan hantaran, the class for April is still available. Of course you can learn through books and magazine.

If you buy Alaf 21, Variasi Gubahan Pengantin or Variasi Hiasan Hantaran books, you will see how the author shows step by step technique to do all kind of bunga telur (bunga dip, bunga sabun, bunga organza) and bunga dulang as hiasan for hantaran.

Even the magazine Pesona Pengantin shares such buat sendiri techniques, but of course not as elaborate and detailed if you learn on hands in class.

Personally I feel that not all people can learn through books and online learning methods. For those, I will advise you to find a teacher or someone who is willing to teach and guide you along the way.

Bought this A5 size notebook from Daiso quite a long time ago. I almost forgot about its existence until I found it stacked under a bunch of my crafty stuff in the craft room. Last Sunday, while having some solitary moment in the room, I came out with the idea to alter the front cover of the notebook.

Inspired by a button crazy video by twopeasinabucket, I decided to use my collection of Prima flowers as the main embellishments. The Mod Podge I bought about 2 years ago was used to glue the scrapbook patterned paper and the flowers.

Very happy indeed with the outcome 🙂

Sometimes during day time when I have to attend to email or other matters that require my attention, I resort to letting my son play on his own. At times I do feel guilty of not joining him in his play, but I know he has to learn that Mama has work to do and he has to be independent, be self-directed and self-sufficient.

Fortunately I am not a rigid person when it comes to neatness. Some days I can live and sleep in the same room with the mess of toys you see above. And of course in order to instill some value of neatness and tidiness (I don’t want his wife to blame me for bringing up another messy man into this world), I will ask my son to clean up the toys from the floor (which could only last for 1-2 days the most)..haha!

Taken from kidshealth.org:

For children 12-36 months old, current National Association for Sports and Physical Education (NASPE) guidelines recommend this much daily activity:

*at least 30 minutes of structured physical activity (adult-led)
*at least 60 minutes unstructured physical activity (free play)

As a general rule, toddlers shouldn’t be inactive for more than 1 hour at a time, except for sleeping. That’s a lot of work for parents and caregivers, but a lot of much-needed activity for toddlers.

I am sharing this bit taken from babiestoday.com:

In today’s overscheduled society, it seems we’ve forgotten that children can and do learn on their own, and they can do it through play. After all, we’ve progressed from one end of the spectrum to the other – from the days of carefree, unstructured play to carefully scheduling, organizing, and managing children’s every game. If we hadn’t experienced the former ourselves, we might not believe such a lifestyle ever existed – that children really managed without constant adult intervention. But they did. We did.

Because we lay around and imagined creatures in the clouds, we now have the imagination to prepare a meal from a refrigerator full of leftovers. Because we mastered turning cartwheels and climbing trees, we have the confidence to tackle tennis or technology. We invented games when there was nobody to play with and learned resourcefulness and how to handle solitude. We invented games with our friends, creating and re-creating the rules, and learned the fine arts of sharing, cooperation, conflict resolution, negotiation and perspective taking. Because the lives of today’s children are so structured, and because I’ve seen free play disappearing from the landscape of childhood, I worry that today’s children have too few opportunities to acquire these important life skills.

So parents, let your children play freely.

For those looking for activity to do with your kids during school holiday, come to Putrajaya to see the hot air balloons. I read that the event will be held from 17th march till 20th March from 7am to 9pm, Monumen Alaf Baru, Precint 2.

I think it’s the usual spot where they do Floria every year. My first thought when I read about this year’s hot air balloon fiesta is to go on the RM10 5-minute ride. But after reading other blogs, apparently you have to queue as early as 5am to go on the first ride at 7am. Well, too bad, I’m not going to do that.

Maybe I should go on the helicopter ride. The official site MyBalloonFiesta says the ticket is RM130 per person..hehe! Since I will be around Putrajaya on the 19th, I hope I will get the chance to snap some pictures of the hot air balloon, if it’s not raining, that is..heh!