Moving office

Yup, I am in the midst of moving to a new office. We were given only 3 days from the 22nd of December to pack, and yesterday, Saturday, 26th December, was the moving day.

It was turning topsy turvey as there 12 floors, from 3 different locations moving all within a span of only 4 days. There were so many things that had to be moved – the files, the books, the furniture, and despite the movers providing us with 6 lorries and 15 workers, as of yesterday at midnight, the second day of the moving, they had only covered 3 floors!

I doubt it if they could complete the balance of the 8 floors today and tomorrow.

They were schedule to start on my section yesterday at 2.00pm, but as of midnight last night, they haven’t even arrived at my section!

I managed to carry some of my things using my car and my staff helped transport some of the things using his car. So, I had some of my things with me at my new office, but not enough for me to be able to get started on work by Monday.

I will probably need the rest of this coming week just to unpack and put everything in it’s place before I will actually be able to work, and probably another day of two to be on track with work.

We don’t even have a phone nor any internet connection as the contractor have yet to fully complete all the wiring work. They said that it will probably be another month or so before we will have all the lines in place. Can you imagine my working condition for the next one month?

Not only that, the Senior Officers are not allotted tables and chairs and we were told to bring the old tables and chairs from our old office. Only the junior officers and staffs are being provided with a complete set of furniture.

So, looks like I will be holding my meetings for the next few weeks on the floor and working from the floor until my old table arrives! LOL!

As of yesterday, Saturday, 26th December, while I waited for some of my things to arrive, I sat on the floor with the laptop and did some work, and went on Facebook! LOL! *grin*

You must be curious as to why am I moving office when the basic needs have not be fulfilled, right? Well, I wish our top management could answer that.

Obviously, someone had failed to plan, and someone had failed to bid for the right amount of budget for the moving. Either that, or the instructions to move out was given without anyone checking as to whether the budget was sufficient or not, or maybe it was never there to begin with.

We could not extend our stay at the old office anymore despite all the lackings in infrastructure at the new office as instructions were given out for us to move out and vacate the old premises before the end of the year, by hook or by crook.

It seems that work will start on 1st January at the old premises in preparation for the new tenant to move in.

I feel like we have just been thrown out from our own home as the old premises actually belongs to us, whereas the new tenant moving aren’t, as the building was first built for us more than 10 years ago.

It might be an old building, but it offers a lot of convenience, like a post office, a farmer’s market every Tuesday, no traffic jams going to work as it is located just at the outskirt of town, and most importantly, it was OUR BUILDING.

We will be renting the new building for a minimum of probably 3 years.

Hujan emas di negeri orang, hujan batu di negeri sendiri. Lebih baik dinegeri sendiri.

Literally translated to mean, even if there was gold rain in another country, and it only rains rock in your country, your own country is still the best place to be.

I will miss the old building and all its conveniences. The only thing I look forward to at the new building is that it is conveniently located next to the Monorail and the STAR LRT Station. A Dangerous convenience, really, as I good easily hop onto the LRT and go to Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman for a quick Stash Shopping trip on Fridays! LOL!

A rite of passage

My son is now a man….well, so to speak. At least that’s what my hubby likes to say.

It is said that when a boy goes through the berkhatan (circumcision), he is considered to be a man already. But, my son is only 9, and still very much my baby. Well, I think he will forever be my baby even when he’s 21! LOL!

Anyway, my son finally went for his berkhatan last Sunday, 20th December 2009. He did it at the Pusrawi Clinic, Section 14, Petaling Jaya.

He had been nervous about it for days before the procedure. In fact, the morning of the procedure, he actually asked me, “Mummy, bersunat kan sunat, I don’t actually have to do it, right?” LOL! Smart boy! Very smart! *grin*

He went in for the procedure at 9.15am. My mum followed us to the clinic, and when she heard my son screaming at the top of his voice, she half expected that Aiman will come out of the clinic without ever going through with the procedure! She said that the whole clinic could hear him scream! LOL! *grin*

He actually screamed not during the actual procedure, but when the doctor was administering the local anaesthetic. LOL!

While the doctor was doing the actual procedure, and the anesthetic had already taken affect, he still kept saying that it hurts, when it actual fact, he was already numb at that area. The doctor made sure of that. It was just probably fear in his head.

I sincerely hope that my son is not going to grow up being scared of every little thing. I hope that this phase will pass by…and very quickly! *grin*

Thank God, the procedure went well, but by the time it was over and done with, he was very teary eyed and we told me to wipe off his tears as we don’t want his cousin, Amirul, who was next to be circumcised, see him crying as it might scare him.

Aiman’s response? “Biarlah. Aiman nak bagi dia takut!” Oh dear!

When I told the doctor that the night before we had a Kenduri Doa Selamat and had some of his male cousins to give him some words of encouragement, the doctor said that that is the worse! LOL!

They don’t come to give you words of encouragement, but rather to scare you more! LOL!

Is that really true, Dia, of boys? Were you like that too when you or your friends and relatives were about to be circumcised – to scare them more than to give them words of encouragement?

Anyway, both boys, Aiman and Amirul, went through the procedure without much a problem. Alhamdullillah.

Seen here are photos after the procedure. Just look at the faces of the two boys! LOL!

My mum with my hubby, my nephew, Akmarul, and the two boys.

The two boys with my SIL and her family, my hubby and I.

Anyway, like I mentioned earlier, just the day before, on Saturday, we had a simple Kenduri Doa Selamat to ask Allah for His blessings and for everything to go on smoothly.

We had it at my MIL’s house as we shared the occasion with my SIL, Eina.

There was quite a lot of food spread out as you can see from the photos.

It so happened that it was also my niece, Alyssa’s birthday that day, and the next day, 20th December, was my nephew, Akmarul’s (Amirul and Alyssa’s younger brother) 5th birthday. So, my SIL, Eina decided to have a small celebration for both of them too.

You can see both Alyssa and Aklmarul cutting the birthday cake while Aiman and Amirul cut the Pulut Kuning.

My mum was here too, all the way from Kota Bharu. So were my sister, Lin, and 3 of her kids. My brother, Ayis, came with his wife, Sufia, son, Ayin, and daughter, Fatin.

Significantly missing were my SIL, Adeque and her family, who had gone on holiday, my brother Azan, who had to work, my sister, Chik, who is in Kota Bharu and couldn’t come, and, of course, my brother, NikAi, who is doing his Masters in the US.

It would have been nice if everyone could have come, but, I suppose everyone has their priorities. I am just glad that at least my mum, sister, Lin, and my brother, Ayis, were there to give Aiman moral support.

A great time making bags!

I had another great day making bags again on Friday, 18th December 2009. It was a public holiday as it was Awal Muharam, the first day of the Muslim Calendar.

We had our class at Sakura, Section 19, Subang Jaya. Corine was in town to fetch her son who was coming in from overseas, and she graciously offered to run the class for the 3 of us, Leena, Azie and myself, who were not able to finish the kits we bought during the Penang Craft Retreat last month.

We started our class as early as 10.00am. We wanted to try to get as many bags done as possible. Always the ambitious one! LOL!

Anyway, we got started as soon as we got our sewing machines set up. Leena and I worked on our hexagon bags, while Azie worked on her Four Face bag.

I did not manage to completely finish the hexagon bag but got to the stage where I could complete the rest of it at home with some tips from Corine.

I wanted to get started on my second kit, which is the Two Way bag after lunch.

Leena wanted to work on the long purse and another kit which I am not very sure what it was.

I am not sure either if Azie had another kit to work on, but, she was still working on the Four Face bag after lunch.

I had to leave by 5.30pm that day as I had a wedding to attend in Ampang, and so had to stop working on the Two Way bag at 5.00pm. I also wanted time to do some shopping at Sakura. Typical of me, huh? LOL!

When I stopped working on my Two Way bag, I only managed to go as far as putting the two front sides together.

It was slower after lunch as there were two more additional students who came in to do a lovely bag which I hope to someday learn to do too.

The place was small, and I think we, the 3 students, were already taking up all the space that Kelvin could offer. With an additional 2 more students, space was kind of tight when it came time to measure, cut and iron.

We had to take turns, and that’s precious time taken up, not that I am complaining that much, but, maybe we need to have our class in a proper classroom or an even bigger space should we want to have more than 5 students at the same time! LOL! *wink*

Dear Corine, no offence to you. You tried your best to fit in everyone, and I really appreciate it. I think that had I have all the time in the world to do the bags, I wouldn’t have felt so pressured with the space constraint. *wink*

It’s just me, I want to do so much, but time was simply not on my side.

Or, maybe, could it be that I was slow because I was already getting sleepy after lunch? LOL! Yeah, maybe that was it! LOL! *grin*

But, I do agree with Corine that the next time when she runs a class, she will only teach two bags per class - one bag design in the morning and another bag design in the afternoon, after lunch.

That way she can concentrate better and the students who are a little fast at working on the bags can help those who works slower, thus lighten Corine’s `burden’ to try to teach everyone different things at the same time.

I am already looking forward to the next class , and we might plan one for January or February, depending on Corine’s available time and when she can come to Kuala Lumpur. Can't wait!

Happy Birthday, Ayis!

Yeah, I know this posting is a little late, but, like I said in my previous posting, I have been extremely busy. *grin*

It was my brother’s birthday on 5th December, and I had wanted to surprise him with a birthday cake and maybe take him and his family out to dinner when he was supposed to come over to my house to upgrade my PC to Windows 7.

However, he called to say that he was down with a bad case of diarrhoea that very day, so my surprise birthday `party’ never materialize that day. I wondered what exactly did he have that day! *grin*

Anyway, he called the next day saying that he’d be coming later that day, and so, here he is pretending to blow out the candles (my hubby forgot to ask for the candles). LOL!

It was nothing much. We just had KFC and the cake, but I just wanted to do something for my dear brother.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Ayis! Hope your birthday had brought you a lot of good wishes and may all your good wishes come true!

Hugs and take care!

Aznique products by Em and me!

It’s been some time since I last updated on the projects that I have been doing on Em. I have been extremely busy at the office these last few weeks that I have been coming home extremely tired, mentally and physically, that I could hardly keep my eyes open even if it was only 9.00pm.

I have been doing some projects, though not much. I have in fact gone to class at Epal only once this month of December, and with my schedule, at home and at the office looking even busier, I doubt it if I will be able to find the time to go to any class this month.

Whatever leave I can take from the office, I prefer to spend the time with my son, taking him to his classes and where ever that he wants to go. I feel that I need to spend a lot more time with him. I don’t want to have to regret the times that passed that I have not been able to spend with him.

Soon, he will want to spend more time with his friends than his parents. In fact, even now, he’d rather be spending time with his cousins than us, boring parents. LOL! *grin*

Anyway, back to what I have been working together with Em the last few weeks, in support of going green and saying ‘No’ to plastic bags, here is a bag that folds neatly into a purse and can be carried with you in your handbag.

Should at any time that you need a bag when you go shopping, just unfold it, and tah dah….you have a bag!

I think this is so cool, especially when we want to encourage the public to go green to save the environment.

The material, however, is something like a rain coat, and I am not sure where I can get more of these materials to make more to sell or give away. I am thinking of trying out with canvas, and if it works, I might make many more to sell or give away.

Did I say sell? Yup! I am trying to sell some of the things I make if I can get people interested to buy. I have been spending so much money on my crafts, I think it’s time I make some money from my hobbies (notice the plural? LOL!), so that I can buy even more stash! LOL! *wink*

Remember some months ago I posted about a bag I learnt at Quilt Gallery, which is actually a praying mat? Well, at Epal, part of the Home Base Business program (a program that I got as part of buying the embroidery machine), I also learnt how to make a praying mat, but, this time, it was taught differently.

This is good, because now I can actually combine the knowledge that I got from both classes, and come up with something that best suits me and how I actually want the bag to look like.

I love the fact that the bag kit came in PINK! *wink*

The last class that I went to Epal at the beginning of December, I was taught how to embroider a `tudung’ (scarf). While doing it, I feel like pulling my hair apart and almost gave up doing it.

I had trouble matching up the embroidery, and the teacher had also failed to tell me that the pattern calls for me to flip and rotate the pattern that I ended up having the patterns upside down! Uurrghhh!

I finally completed embroidering the scarf, but, after much `cheating’, tweaking here and there, when it came to matching and aligning the motifs.

I don’t think I will ever make another tudung, and for sure, the tudung will definitely not be an item I will make to sell! LOL!

The market is already saturated with embroidered tudung already anyway, so, I might as well concentrate on things where other people have yet to try out – the niche market, so to speak, right? *wink*

Oohh! This next project I like! *grin* I can see myself doing many more of these to give away, and maybe even to sell! *wink*

Isn’t this tissue box holder so sweet? It did not take me long to make once I got the technique on how to do it. I am definitely making more of these! Any orders? *wink*

I made many pouches to give away, and here are some of what I had made and given away to my nieces and nephews.

The one that says “SARAH” and “FARHAN” went all the way to my niece and nephew in the US,.

This one that says “When we love we grow” went to my niece in Kota Bharu.

ALYYSSA will get hers this coming 19th Decenber, the day of her birthday.

I even made one for my hubby, and this time, it was a request from him. He wanted it to put in all his computer gadgets.

He wanted it to be as simple as possible though. He in fact wanted the motif to be in black, but I managed to convince him otherwise, as I told him that having the motif in black is like having no embroidery at all. He had chosen the motif himself.

I am so happy that he actually asked me to make something for him. *smile*

I love doing these pouches as I get to play around with all the beautiful embroidered patterns available on the internet. I just love playing with all the lovely coloured threads and seeing the patterns come to life!

I feel like I am colouring, but with Em is doing all the hard work! LOL!

This next piece is a must see……*wink*

My sister-in-law, Eina, made a special request to me recently. She had wanted me to cross stitch a nameplate for her 3rd child. I had cross stitched a nameplate for her two older children soon after they were born, but when the 3rd one came along, I had sort of put cross stitching on hold when I went patchwork, and now, embroidery crazy. *grin*

So, when she put in the request to me, I told her that if she wanted it in cross stitch, she might only get it when her son, Akmarul is 20! LOL! So, I asked if she would mind if the name plate is embroidered instead, especially since, at that time, I had just gotten Em, and was looking for an excuse to play with her (Em). LOL! *grin*

She totally bought the idea, and hinted that she might even want me to make another one, God willing, for her unborn child due in March. That way, the two older children wouldn’t feel jealous like Akmarul is being treated special, and Akmarul wouldn’t feel odd at getting something different from the older two children.

I was nervous, however, when I started on this project, it being my first embroidered nameplate, and at that time, I have yet to fully get acquainted with Em. Em had only come home with me for only two weeks then.

I am glad, however, that it turned out well, and my SIL said that Akmarul loves it so much and would keep looking at it and asking her, if that is really his. *smile*

That made all my efforts worthwhile. *smile*

I hope that the next one that I will make will be even better.

Keep a look out for more updates on projects soon! I have more to show!

Bags of pink!

After coming back from the retreat in Penang, I was excited to get started on the two bags which I did not manage to complete while at the retreat as there was so much to do, but so little time to do them all.

However, I never managed to even touch the bags until the evening of Hari Raya Haji as I came down with a flu and a bad case of backache on Wednesday which lasted till Raya Haji day itself.

I think it had to do with the fact that I never had the time to fully recuperate from the traveling and excitement over the last 3 days in Penang as I had to go back to work the day after I arrived on Monday evening. I needed a break to recuperate from my break! LOL!

Anyway, not wanting the long weekend to go to waste, and after feeling much better after a much needed rest on Friday evening (we did not do any visiting to any relatives’ house this Raya Haji, except to visit my in-laws and talking to my mum over the phone, due to my bad backache), I slowly picked up the bags to work on.

I managed to complete both bags – the Four Face Bag

and the Lacey Tote – just before I had to get dinner ready.

I like both bags, but I think the Lacey Tote is really sweet, especially it being in PINK, and with the lace and all!

I can imagine myself having to walk really daintily and looking demure dressed in a flowing skirt carrying this lacey tote! LOL! *wink*

The Four Face bag, on the other hand, is more like the rough tough type of bag where I could just carry it around wearing jeans and dumping everything and anything inside it! LOL!

Both bags are made from printed corduroy, and yes, they are of the same motif. I could not resist buying the pink kits even though there were many other colours, but none attracted me more than the pink bag kits. *grin* I think it was also more because I did not like the fabric combination of the other colours, even though I thought I should make one in earth tones.

I figured I could always make the bags in other colours once I have learnt the technique of making the bags. I do plan to make more of all 3 bags that I have learnt at the retreat. Corine had already asked me if I had made more bags since I came back. *smile*

BTW, here’s the kit for the Hexagon bag which I never even managed to get started on.

I also bought the tea pots and tea cup pieces which I hope to appliqué some day. Yup! SOMEDAY! LOL! So, when will that day come? *grin*

We also got upon registering for the retreat a kit for a purse, but I never got the time to learn how to assemble it. I am hoping for when Corine comes to KL next time to learn how to assemble it from her.

Oh! Have you heard that she's coming to town very very soon and she's offering to teach a bag or two? Would any of you be interested to take up the bag making class?

I will tell more later in another posting. So, keep a lookout, or, if you can't wait, leave a comment here or email me offlist. If we have enough positive response, we might just start organising a formal class.

Anyway, back to what I got at the retreat, I also bought, couldn’t resist it *grin*, 2 pieces of one meter each fabric at Corine’s shop, and two rulers from Kelvin’s shop.

The longer one is actually in metrics because I have yet to have one in metrics. All my other crafting rulers are in imperial.

I bought the square one with the hope that my squares will be more squared up. Yeah, I know, I don’t actually need to buy a square ruler to make my squares square, but, heck, I just have got to have it! LOL! *wink*

My sewing friends will understand, right? *wink*