Two new projects in the making!

This week, or, rather, last week, I started on a baju melayu for Aiman which I am learning to make at Epal. It is not part of my one year free lessons, but an extra class for raya.

I had to pay RM100.00 for the class and RM90.00 for the kit.

Now I know why the baju melayu cost so much. It's so difficult to just get the collar right! LOL!

I went to class on Sunday, 30th August, for 2 hours, and all I managed to do was the collar, and even that wasn't completed. I think it will take me another class, MAYBE, before I will be able to complete the collar, and God knows how many more classes before I will be able to complete the baju!

I just hope I can get it done in time for raya, not that Aiman will be wearing it for the first day of raya as our theme this year is blue.

This is as far as I got up until yesterday.

I just can’t wait to get it completed, but, it’s going to be a long way away with an uphill task of learning how to sew the pants too! I just hope that Aiman will appreciate it when it’s done.

BTW, I can’t help but started on another project last week too when I dropped by Quilt Gallery last Saturday, 22nd August. I bought the stuff for the project already and had meant to go for class last Saturday, 29th August, but I had a prior engagement already.

But, over this long extended weekend, I started on it, and it is almost 80% done. I need to go to class to learn how to put the zipper on, and to put the pieces together.

What am I making?

I am not telling yet until it is completed but, here’s sneak peek……. *wink*

Lovely roses, don't you agree? *wink*

Hopefully I will get it done come next Saturday, and then I will `show off'! *wink*

A burning lesson

My mum called me on Saturday, 29th August, to tell me that my sister had almost burnt her (my mum's) new condo when she (my sister) put a pan with oil on the stove and left to go to the toilet.

According to my mum, when my niece saw it, fire from the pan had almost risen up to the ceiling. My mum, in her panic, picked up the burning pan to bring it out to the wet kitchen, in the process, tilted the pan, pouring the hot oil on the floor, and my mum slipped and fell on the hot oil with some oil pouring on herself.

When she called me to tell me about it, she said that she felt like a burnt fried fish. Poor mum! She had gone to the clinic, and was given some pain killers to minimize the pain from the burn.

I hope she will be OK, she being at her age already, and yet having to go through such a suffering.

She said that hopefully that will be a lesson to my sister as it seems that my sister is in the habit of putting a pan on the stove and then would go about doing other things outside of the kitchen area, and thus forgetting that she has put a pan on the stove.

She has burnt my mum's pots several times already, but each time it was it an empty pan. This is the first time that my sister had actually put oil in the pan.

Take care, Ma! Love you! Hugs!

An unexpected belated birthday present!

I received a very lovely belated birthday gift from Tini and Paul on Wednesday morning. Well, rather, it arrived on Tuesday, 25th August, but I wasn't in the office on Tuesday.

Paul smsed me while I was on leave on Tuesday asking if I had received a POSLAJU package from him which he had sent on Thursday. He wanted it to be a suprise but he must have gotten worried as it should have arrived latest by Friday, it being a POSLAJU package, as I had said nothing on Friday or Monday. Either that, or, he must think that I must be really rude not to acknowledge the gift from him. Oopps! *blush* LOL!

Anyway, I am not to be blamed *grin* for not acknowledging the gift as it only arrived on Tuesday while I was away, but my assistant smsed me to say that a package had arrived for me and that he had placed it on my table in my office when I inquired about it from him on Tuesday.

So, you see, Paul, I wasn't being rude *grin*. But, I am mad with the postal clerk at my office who had failed to deliver the package to me immediately when it arrived on Friday according to records at the POSLAJU center.

Doesn't he or she knows the meaning of a POSLAJU package? I sometimes feel like shaking up the clerk at the postal counter if I could!

Anyway, back to the gift that Paul and Tini gave. It's a very lovely bag made with the sweetest fabric of english flowers and a crocheted lace.

Since I know Tini hasn't actually tried crocheting, I pressume the lovely crocheted lace was made by Paul, and Tini made the bag using the lace Paul crocheted. The combination is really awesome.

If I may add, as awesome as the couple who combined efforts to make it? *wink*

Love the maroon colour bottom for the bag.

Here's a close-up of the lovely lace. Awesome, wouldn't you agree?

Love the inside of the bag - it's so sweet! I think the bag is also reversible.

Oooohhhhh! I love everything about the bag! It's going shopping with me the next time I go shopping!

Thanks you so much, Paul and Tini! It was really unexpected!

So, my birthday lasted longer this time around with a gift arriving in August when my birthday was in June! *wink*

Thanks again! Hugs!

A new patchwork shop in Sunway Pyramid!

I told you in my last posting that after my exams were over on Saturday, 15th August, before I went home to take a much needed nap, I went over to Sunway Pyramid, to check out the new patchwork shop that had just opened there, right?

Well, I just couldn’t resist it despite being very tired and having to go home to still have some last minute preparations to do for my submissions to apply to sit for my professional exams.

I felt like I needed to let go to release my stress, and visiting a craft shop is something I know that will let me release the overwhelming stress that I have been going through the last two weeks.

I went there after lunch. By the way, digressing a bit, I treated my son and hubby to Sushi King as a way of saying thank you for being patient with me for the past two weeks. *smile*

Anna Patchwork House is a very small but cute little shop at the CP2 parking level. One look at it and it would remind you of Quilt Gallery, because the things there are pretty much what QG has, well, almost, but, of course, much less because the shop is 2/3 smaller.

No, it is not a franchise, nor is it a branch of Quilt Gallery. It is solely owned by Anna and her friend.

I was told that she runs some classes, but I did not get a chance to find out more when I was there on Saturday for the first time . I only managed to stay there for only about 10 minutes as my hubby had an appointment with a plumber and so we had to rush back home.

But, I was there again on Sunday as I needed to go to POPULAR to get some stuff for my submissions. Was I making an excuse to go there again? *wink* Ssshhh...don't let my hubby hear me say that! LOL! *wink*

So, again, I took the opportunity to drop by Anna Patchwork Shop, this time, armed with a camera as I had earlier asked Anna if I could come snap photos of the shop to put up at my blog for my friends to see who might want to know more about the shop.

I thought that It would also be a good opportunity for her to promote her shop through my blog as I know that I have many readers here who are crafters, and would be happy to know that a new patchwork shop has opened up somewhere near their area.

Unfortunately, Anna wasn't there, but, her sister was, and she kindly called Anna to ask permission from her on my behalf if I could snap the photos.

So, here's the layout.....

As you enter the shop, you will be greeted by this WELCOME patchwork sign up on the wall facing the entrance.

To the left of the WELCOME sign are shelves of very lovely cottons, which some are very familiar if you visit Quilt Gallery often.

To the right of the sign are two big pieces of quilt which I presume Anna had made them.

Below that is the cashier counter and shelves of patchwork paraphernalia and gadgets. I would have wanted to browse longer, but Aiman was getting restless.

I only managed to, or rather, I just could not resist buying at least two pieces of fabric at ½ meter each before it was time to go for dinner. Seen here is Anna’s sister cutting up the fabric I bought. Pretty pink, huh? *wink* Yup, it HAD to be PINK! LOL!

Just below the WELCOME sign are shelves filled up with craft books, but mostly are on patchwork and quilting though she does carry some cross stitch books.

I did not have the opportunty to find out more about the classes that she is offering as Anna wasn’t around. However, there was this lady there who was working on a quilt which I find very pretty.

I also saw some lovely bags she made. I might want to take a class or two there someday if I know where I can put up Aiman as I go for classes. I will have to discuss that with hubby. *wink*

In the mean time, if you read this entry and drop by her shop in the near future, do tell Anna that you read about her shop at my blog. Who knows, I might get some commission from her for doing her some free publicity. *wink*

Getting back into routine and, hopefully....on track....

It’s been more than 20 days ago that I last posted here. I went into panic mode, remember, when I was told that the PTK course was brought forward by almost two months? I blogged about it here.

After that, I just simply dropped everything that I was doing, even having to reschedule some of my project meetings to prepare for one of the paper assignments that had to be submitted at the beginning of the course, which was only 5 days after the assignments were given out.

Even after the exams were over on Saturday, 15th August, I only managed a few hours of sleep (I hardly slept during the 10 days I was preparing my assignments and attending the course) before I had to start work on finishing up preparations for my submissions to apply to sit for my professional exams, which was due latest on the 17th of August.

I had wanted to take the following Monday, 17th August, off to recover from a very stressful and intense 2 weeks, but, as I had to reschedule some of my meeting the week before, I had a very packed week the following week.

So, it was back to work for me, but, without any breaks, I feel like I was about to faint from sheer exhaustion, mentally and physically, as the first 3 days of last week, I had site visits which means that I had to use physical energy to make my rounds around the project sites.

My hubby said that seeing me all stressed out has made him stressful too. He took a day off last week to de-stress even before I, myself, could find time to de-stress! LOL!

Anyway, I must thank my hubby for being so patient with me the last two weeks. He was my `rock’ at times when I got so stressful that I could no longer think straight. He helped me get started on my paper assignment when I could no longer compute what was being asked, in my state of panic. He was there for me emotionally, even though all he did was just to sit next to me at the desk while I worked on my assignment and he, on the computer, doing his leisurely stuff or work which he brought home to keep me company late into the night.

Thank you so much, hubby, for being there for me and for being so patient. I love you!

I am just glad that the weekend is finally here. I hope to have some time to do my own things and do the household chores which some have also taken a back seat while I concentrated on my assignments and exams.

So, today, I was at Bangsar Village to run some errands, while my son attended his usual Saturday classes. After my errands were done with, I dropped by Quilt Gallery to find that the shop has gone through some renovation. Gill was not around, but Surinder was. It seems that it is a requirement by Bangsar Village that shops goes through some sort of facelift every few years.

The shop looks bigger now, and able to accommodate more students.

I plan to take one or two classes during this fasting month while I wait for Aiman to finish his Saturday activities.

I bought the materials already this morning and plan to sit down and get things organized to go for class next week, or the week after.

I need to also make a trip to Epal maybe tomorrow as I have signed up for a Baju Melayu class.

Oh, by the way, did I tell you that after my exams were over on Saturday, 15th August, before I went home to take a much needed nap, I went over to Sunway Pyramid, not only to have lunch, but also to check out the new patchwork shop that had just opened there?

Well, I did, and I will tell more in my next posting. Those into patchwork and sewing will want to know……. *wink*

Overwhelmed, torturous and stressful!

Yup! That was exactly how I felt for two weeks since 4th of August when we were briefed about the PTK course which ran from the 10th – 15th August 2009.

I was feeling overwhelmed by the fact that I had to prepare 2 assignments (one being on project management, the other on my work, target and achievements for the year thus far), one individual presentation, one group presentation, and one English public speaking on leadership in managing change, all to be done within a span of less than 10 days.

To add to that, on the first day of the course, we had to sit and watch a video of the PM’s speech and write our thoughts and comments, and what we intend to do to achieve his 1Malaysia plan, all in 1 hour, and we are expected to write at least FIVE to EIGHT PAGES, the first 3 pages being our first initial thoughts and reaction to his speech!

To top off the 5 day course crammed with assignments and presentations, we had to sit for an exam on Saturday morning, 15th August. As we were mostly busy with assignments and presentations throughout the week, our last being the group presentation on Friday morning, we only had Friday night (we had a short lecture on Friday afternoon) to study and cram everything into our overworked and over-utilized brains that easily forgets almost everything that it had read and tried to remember within a span of a few hours! LOL!

That is what happens when you are above forty. Your memory just isn’t as alert as it used to be 10 or 20 years ago. I told my hubby and some friends that I could actually see the figures and drawings that I drew the night before, but I simply could not recall what were inside the circles and arrows that I drew! LOL! I think I was running cold sweat during that 2 ½ hour exam just trying to recall what I had studied.

There was also a time that I almost wanted to cry when I could see the page in my head where the answers were but I could not recall the exact thing on that very page! I had to take a long deep breath to calm my nerves before I could finally answer the 5 questions required out of 11. I hope I did well and answered the questions correctly.

I think the organizers shouldn’t ‘torture’ us this way. *grin* We are too old for this already. LOL! Our brains are overworked. *grin* I don’t even mind doing another paper assignment rather than sit for an exam. It would have been more stressful, but, maybe not as torturous. MAYBE! *grin*

Now, all I could do is pray to Allah. I hope that I will pass all stages of the course, insyaAllah. I have to. I need to.

Oh dear! Oh dear! Oh dear!

Aiman's school was closed down yesterday due to two cases of H1N1 - a teacher in secondary school and a child in upper primary.

Luckily Aiman wasn't in school yesterday. He didn't want to go to school because he said that all he did all day was cut confettis in preparation for the school concert which was to be held today, Friday, but is now canceled.

Aiman was chirpy yesterday, but when I came home this evening, he was starting to cough and is having the sniffles though he does not have a fever. I pray to Allah that it's nothing serious. I have given him a dose of cold and cough medicine. I'll surely be monitoring him with eagles eyes over the next few days.

Going into panic mode!

I am curently in a panic mode. I just got news that the PTK exam which was originally scheduled to be held in October has been brought forward to the week after next starting from 10th to the 15th of August! Oh no!

I am not sure how prepared I will be as I have sort of programmed a lot of things aleady for the next two weeks, workwise and craftwise. I have back to back meetings everyday this coming week. I don't know where to find the time to slot in some reading work to prepare for the exams.

I don't know how prepared I will be but I do hope that I will be mentally prepared to go through it by next week. I have to. It is not a choice I have.

As if that is not enough, I also have my professional exams to prepare for which is the submission of work which is also due the week after that! Double Oh NO!

I didn't mean to leave it at the last minute, but, I had meant to take a couple of days off the week after next to concentrate on preparing for my professional exam submissions, thus why I had arranged back to back meetings all week this coming week so that after that I can leave it to my officers to take care of any other issues that may arise while I concentrate on my submissions.

Now, looks like everything is about to be turned upside down! HELP!

I pray that everything wil turn out fine and that I will do well for both my PTK and professional exam submissions.