Friday, July 30, 2010

Looking forward to the weekend!

I am so happy that Friday is finally here! I so looking forward to the weekend!

It's been a terribly hectic and stressful week! I come home so exhausted, the TV has been watching me almost every night this week! LOL!

I just can't wait for the end of the day where I can just kick off my heels and take it easy. I am also looking forward to tomorrow because Corine's coming down with my bag which I had made at the last bag making class. She took it back with her to Penang to have the leather straps sewn on as I am no expert in working with leather.

I am also excited as I will be doing another bag with her tomorrow for one lucky niece whose birthday is coming soon. *wink*

Anyway, before I get all excited, I had better brace myself for another stressful day today as I have two very high profile project meetings to attend today.

Today is not going to be an easy day, but, I am praying for strength and God's guidance to let me go through today with ease. Amin.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

NNC Stitching Bee in Ipoh

For the first time, NNC had its Stitching Bee outside of Kuala Lumpur. The idea was mooted during the last stitching bee by Margaret and Janet , but, unfortunately, Margaret was out of town during the time the NNC Stitching Bee was held in Ipoh. She was having a good time, enjoying herself whole heartedly in London while she attended her daughter’s graduation.

The Ipoh Stitching Bee was held on the 17th of July. It started out with about 7-8 people responding that they were coming, which was actually a good enough crowd. Unfortunately, when the day came, Mel couldn’t make it as Nigel was down with the flu, and Sabariah’s body took a toll when she was working overtime the week before. Ratna from Sabah said that she was coming, but for some reason , she never made it to the bee that day. Zarina got held back by some family commitments.

Finally, those that did make it that day were just the 4 of us – Paul, Janet, who played host for the Bee, myself and Radha who came all the way from Alor Setar.

Paul was there first at 9.45am, followed by Radha and Janet.


I arrived an hour late as we kind of woke up late due to a crisis the night before when our bathroom door suddenly locked itself and we couldn’t find the key , despite looking for it everywhere until 2.00am.

Aiman excitedly woke up at 6.00am, eager to get started on the journey to Ipoh, but we had to tell him that we might not be able to make it as we couldn’t use the bathroom until we could get to a locksmith (we have 2 other bathrooms but all our toiletries’ were in the master bedroom toilet). Aiman got up to his mini clothes rack, flipped through his clothes, and wah lah! He found the keys! LOL! *grin*

We rushed to get ready, and we were finally out the door at about 7.45am. We dropped by for breakfast at the Restoran Jejantas Sungai Buloh, hoping to get a quick meal, but, unfortunately, the service was very slow. The queue to pay and order the drinks took us almost 30 minutes! We quickly rushed through breakfast, and when Paul smsed me at 9.45 am, I was still an hour away from Ipoh.

I finally got to Starbucks at Ipoh Parade at 11.00am. Sorry, guys!

As soon as I sat down, I showed some of the works that I have been working on, though there wasn't much. But, I did pass on to Janet my blocks for the nine-patch block swap.



We didn’t stay long at Starbucks as adha had a bus to catch at 3.00pm, and thanks to me for being terribly late *blush*, we had to start on our shopping trips to some of the craft shops Janet frequents as part of the programme for this Stitching Bee.

We got into 2 cars, one driven by Janet and the other by Radha’s lovely daughter who was doing her housemanship in Alor Setar.

Before we went to the craft shops, Janet took us for a round of Tau Foo Fah at a small end lot shop.


I was amazed at the line of cars that were queuing up, waiting for their orders to be taken like a drive-through service.


I understood why though, as the tau foo fah was really delicious!


We visited two craft shops which, unfortunately I could not recall the names of the shops. They were across from each other. One shop was more into bead works and cross stitch, while the other shop carried things for weddings hantaran and other craft works.

We were not allowed to take any photographs in the shops, which was really a pity as it could have gotten them some free promotions and advertisements. I guess some people are still ignorant of the power of the internet.

At the first shop, I bought 2 meters of 14ct aida. I suddenly got bitten by the cross stitch bug again and want to work on a sampler where I had bought the chart on my trip to Melbourne more than 3 years ago. I will blog about it in my next posting.

I also bought quite a lot of DMC threads as they were cheaper than in Kuala Lumpur and I needed them for the sampler project I Intend to start on.

At the next shop, I bought a glue gun. I have been wanting to get one for quite some time, but simply could not find the time to make my way to a craft shop to get one earlier.

After the visit to the 2 shops, Radha had to part ways with us as she had a lunch date with her daughter and her friends.

After we said our goodbyes to Radha and her daughter, Janet , Paul and I decided to make our way to Nagoya as Janet said that they are having a sale. But, we decided to stop by for lunch first at Old Town White Coffee. There, my hubby and son joined us.


Shucks! My hubby just spoilt my plans to tag along with Janet and Paul to Nagoya! LOL! *wink*


We parted ways at the restaurant. I went back to our hotel (we spent the night in Ipoh for my hubby’s 21km run on Sunday) while Janet and Paul made their way to Nagoya to add more to their fabric stash! *wink*

Despite the small turnout at the Bee this time around, I am still happy that we had it. It was a change from the usual one we always had in Kuala Lumpur. Someone was even suggesting that we have another one outside of Kuala Lumpur, this time to Kuantan where Aw had just opened her own craft shop. It’ll be part of our agenda for next year, for sure! *wink*

I wish to thank Janet for hosting the Bee and for bringing us around to the craft shops. Thank you too for the delicious tau foo fah. Thank you too to Paul and Radha who came all the way from Kuala Lumpur and Alor Setar respectively for the Bee.

The next time we have it out of Kuala Lumpur, I hope we will have a bigger turnout. For the next Bee in October, however, it’s back to Kuala Lumpur! See you guys then!

Monday, July 05, 2010

A pillow for comfort

Some time ago, Paul posted at his blog on a comfort pillow he had made. He said,

People usually make these pillows or comfort blankets for children who are hospitalized to help with the 'suffering' both physically and emotionally. I thought this was a great idea for adults too, because after all we all have that little kid still in there somewhere waiting for a hug.”

I sheepishly asked if I could hug it as I felt that I needed to be comforted after having to go through all the crisis and challenges at work since the beginning of this year, and Paul answered, “Of course you can.”

Little did I know that the pillow was already on its way to me then! LOL! It was my belated birthday present from Paul! LOL! *blush*

The pillow arrived at my office about two weeks after my birthday, and here is the lovely pillow!


As usual, Paul did a great job of the embroidery work which he did by hand, unlike this writer here who now uses the embroidery machine more than by hand! LOL! Paul also did a great job of the sewing, more so now that he too has bought a sewing machine, not that his sewing was terrible before this! LOL! People, don’t read between the lines, ok? LOL! *wink*

Thanks, Paul, for the birthday present. Love it! Now I am going to give it another hug! *grin*

Saturday, July 03, 2010

Uniquely Kenari Villa!

My mum had just ventured into a business to run a guesthouse (you can read it here), and we, as in my mum herself; of course, all my siblings, cousins, relatives etc are all excited about it. I wrote about it here in my blog to promote the guesthouse, and my brothers helped set up a webpage for it. You can read about it here.

I wanted to do something for my mum’s guesthouse which will make the guesthouse special, and not like any other guesthouses you get in the country. I wanted it to have something more significant which people will know that it is uniquely Kenari Villa.

So, after much thought and ‘discussion’with Em (you know, my embroidery machine, Em? Yes, we discuss! LOL!), we decided that specially embroidered towels would make the guesthouse special.

I set about looking for some reasonably priced towels as I don’t want it to be too expensive that it will tempt guest into absconding with them as souvenirs *wink*, but neither do I want something cheap that they can’t even absorb enough water to dry you up. *grin*

I finally found some, but I could not get them in enough numbers of the same colour, and so, decided to go with 2 different colours – cream and peach. I had to do some sort of designing, though not much can be done as I do not have the embroidery design software (maybe it’s time that I get one? *wink*), and here are the results.

What do you think?

The fonts were from the machine itself, while the tendrils were part of my collection of designs that I have been buying online from Embroidery Library ever since I had Em.

I just love the fonts. I am glad that the machine came with it.

I presented the towels to my mum when we met up at a cousin’s daughter’s wedding last weekend, and I can tell that she is excited about it too! Right, Ma? *wink*

Ma, I wish you all the best in your new found business venture, and I hope that the towels are able to add that little touch of uniqueness to the guesthouse. Hugs!