A Homemaker’s Diary

I have been researching on the design of beadwork to do on my baju raya this year. There are many pictures from other beaders that I have saved in the hard disk. So I showed them to Hubby and asked for his opinion..his comment…
“eeii serabutnya, macam macik2..tak cantik la..batu bulat2 besar nampak pelik..” isk isk..

So since my baju raya is like color of Rangooli, I was out of ideas on how to jahit manik on it..huh! I tried combining manik pintal with labuci and it looks tak berseri (I used the leftover of beads from the time I sew Niece’s wedding attire, the beads colors do not match my baju kurung tone very well.)

I can’t use manik tabur with bunga lalang design like above since the corak on the baju kurung is not plain.

In the end I think I have to make do with manik V design like the above picture since I only have just enough round beads with 2 colors that suit the baju…(ni kes malas nak beli beads baru tapi nak jugak jahit manik kat baju raya..isk!)

I even practised beading the pyramid design like above but it just looks gloomy. Next time I should have think twice when selecting the color, corak and kain for my baju kurung raya..huhu!

(Most of these pictures were posted in bungatelur.info before, I haven’t beaded any new design to share since I have my son..isk!)

I’ve got my baju raya from tailor last Saturday. And now I am contemplating whether to sew beads on it. I have been researching several designs from other beaders online, but it seems that the design I like will need me to spend a lot of hours beading it..which won’t be a problem if I don’t have a little fella here to take care of..huhu!

Oh, the liberty of childless years, boleh suka suki buat apa yang terlintas di hati..now even the visit to the loo has to be done in split second while he’s sleeping (or in the morning, before he’s awake)

Coming back to the beading topic, I feel really tempted to jahit Swarovski on the baju raya. I think I still have some beads left from the time I tried to make bracelets a few years back. Checking out one design on Glamstarz fotopages, she used about 800 pieces of 4mm biconne..(if I were to jahit that on my baju kurung raya rasa macam tak berbaloi sebab lagi mahal beads dari harga kain..huhu!)

I think I will end up beading something simpler. I will save my Swarovski dream on something that costs 300 or more..keh! keh!

You may have tangible wealth untold;
Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold.
Richer than I you can never be —
I had a mother who read to me.

~ Strickland Gillilan

I found this poem from a blog that I stumbled upon – Elegant Word Art By Bethany. She is a mother of 5 who creates wordart to be used in digital scrapbooking. Gosh, somehow I am amazed and really don’t know how mothers like this can juggle it all between hobby, real life, family and daily responsibility..huhu! I bookmarked her blog and hopefully I will be able to indulge in such hobby soon.

It’s Ramadhan time of the year and we had a good start since yesterday. Bought all the vege, chicken, beef, shrimp and fish from pasar borong on Friday since Jusco was out of stock..made me wonder semua nak puasa ke nak raya ni? haha..maybe because it is school holiday now and people have to buy more food to feed their children and perhaps keep more supply for bersahur.

So on Saturday we grilled some beef and brought it to SIL’s house for berbuka. We went to our old housing area pasar ramadhan and bought some more food. And I made agar-agar merah and brought sebekas for berbuka, well you know the otai, basic agar-agar like the one you can expect to eat during kenduri in kampung..heh! I still have two more cups in the fridge.

Today, we decided to try pasar ramadhan near our housing area and it turned out satu lauk or main dish pon nampak tak menyelerakan for me..huhu! Hubby bought nasi ambang for his berbuka.

They actually have a lot of choices for kuih muih ( I bought cara manis, cara berlauk, vadai, bubur lambuk, rojak, tako, akok) but the rice dish..hummm..I ended up balik rumah masak singgang, budu and goreng sayur. Perhaps next time I should just buy anything since I didn’t eat that much during berbuka..macam buang tenaga pulak masak beriya-iya..huhu!

Well, that’s it for this week update. Hopefully I would be able to write every now and then next week.

These days whenever I have the chance while taking care of the little one playing on his play mat in front of the TV, I will watch National Geographic channel. Today I managed to watch about the legendary Sinbad voyage from Middle East to China. It took the captain and his crews 12 months to reach the harbour of China, did their trade with people of Tang dynasty and on the way back they vanished in Belitung area in Indonesia due to bad weather. Only recently the whole treasures were founded and sold to the government of Singapore for USD22 mil.

I was never into history but this kind of new knowledge makes me think that as a mother who will one day be asked by my son of many trivial things in life, it’s surely be beneficial..heh! Oh, the Montessori books I ordered have arrived last week. I’ve started reading a few chapters every night when the little one falls asleep (read: after 1-2am) I also found another good book about raising boys that I want to buy and read next.

On personal interest, I found a blog about clay flowers. Actually I was browsing about making dip flower using Fantasy Film (yes, people in the US have been making bunga dip since the 70’s before the liquid was banned due to toxicity..heh!) when I stumbled upon another craft blog that sells paper and clay flowers. I guess it’s about time that I venture into new realm in handmade flower making..well you know, as the book says look for New Cheese before the Old Cheese run out..hehe!

Hopefully as things are progressing, I really wish that I have more time to spend on my crafts but as of now, my son is the main priority..it won’t be long I know, the time will come when he will spread his wings and fly, gaining his independence into the wide world, leaving his Mama behind with her flowers..haha!

Gosh..it’s already August..huhu! Time flies though at times I feel like it’s forever..huhu! Soon it will be fasting month and I am still way behind with my puasa ganti, doubt that I can ganti them all this year before the coming Ramadhan..with breastfeeding, lack of time to have proper meal, sleep deprived and all, I don’t think I will have the energy to fast daily. I will try my best to have one complete month this Ramadhan anyway…but if it affects my milk supply then I won’t take the risks..huhu!

We went to Floria Putrajaya 2009 last weekend after I conducted my craft class. This year flora fest was not as grand as the previous years..huhu! But despite the hot weather, we had great time with the little one, commissioning the artist to draw a caricature of his “masam’ face, haha! Once we went inside the air-cond tent he felt much better, siap tarik bunga lagi, most of the pictures we snapped were with him busy watching the flowers..tak nak pandang the camera langsung..hehe!

Oh, we bought some jajan from the food stall – popia pintal, rempeyek mini and kerepek bawang..sedap! Next time if I want to get supply for hampers, I know where to get..heh! Oh, our son loves kuih bakar, he munched it all with all the sesame seeds…the seller at the jajan stall has samples, we were not really into kuih bakar but we did try..very tempted to buy the whole kuih bakar for him after watching him really enjoy the slice, but I know it’s sweet and full of fattening ingredients.

We went to pasar malam after that. After ages of looking for Yusuf Taiyub kurma, I finally bought a box..ceh! We also bought the kampung made tempe, wrapped in daun pisang. Hubby fried them and it tasted very fresh..but as before, our son hates tempe..masuk je mulut terus nak muntah..aittt..tak boleh kawin dgn Jawa la mcm ni, sayang…haha! NVM, I will try again in a few months time..heh!