A Homemaker’s Diary

I ought to update this blog, though lately I don’t really have the mood to do so..ini kalo tak kerana ads Nuffnang, memang malas tahap gaban nak update..heh!

Well, I managed to complete the first day of Ramadhan, even though around noon time when I gave Milo sejuk to dear son to drink, terasa sangat la kering tekak..huhu! Plus he seems to nurse more after sahur till he woke up at 1pm..very challenging for me, padahal dah minum 2-3 gelas air mineral masa sahur.

Not to mention the amount of shouting and reprimanding that I have to do..yang panjat grille, amik selipar kat luar campak atas karpet..yang nak main bola atas tangga..aduh, sungguh mencabar. At 4:30pm tu rasa macam nak je pegi minum air kat dapor, but then sayang pulak lagi 3 jam nak berbuka.

As usual I won’t be cooking during fasting month. Kasi can la macik2 yang nak cari income lebih kat pasar ramadhan tu..haha!

Anyway, I have made decision to take a year (or maybe a year plus) break from the wedding and craft business. While taking care of the feverish son two weeks ago, I realized that it doesn’t make any sense for me to pursue whatever that I am doing at the expense of my family. My sole responsibility is to raise the son (not that I will have any other child), educate him and give him the best that only a mom could give - undivided attention, love and care. He is my greatest investment dunia dan akhirat.

In my personal view (and based on books that I read), raising a son is tougher emotionally. The make up of their mind and heart is way different from girls. I hope one day, my daughter in law will thank me for making this decision. I hope I could raise a man as sweet as Nick in the movie Picture Perfect..haha!

Happy fasting, people! I plan to buy kuih keria tomorrow..heh!

I have been bitten by the crochet bug these days…except for the few days of my down time since I got high fever and terrible sore throat after nursing dear son back to health.

This one was crocheted using DMC Babylon No. 10, which is slightly thicker than the normal thread you will use for sewing. Tell you it was such a challenge, harder than the normal thicker yarn.

Last weekend I spent some more money buying materials in Daiso - embroidery floss, felt, hair clip and even needles. Hey, you got to have needles with bigger eye so that those yarn can pass through..heh!

I have tried sewing buttons on top of all the 5 petals flowers that pass my standard..now it’s time to turn them into embellishment on cards. I have also found easy instructions to crochet butterflies and heart, would make perfect decoration on cards, tags or bookmark.

I have been spending many hours of waking time after son sleep at night, browsing through Ravelry - a community site, an organizational tool, and a yarn & pattern database for knitters and crocheters. Some of them are kind enough to share their patterns, or at least quote where they get the pattern. I mostly check out the flowers they make. I have no intention to crochet anything else like sweaters, hat or whatnot.

Well, that’s basically what I have been doing during the time I am not updating this blog, for those who wonder..heh!

Gosh! It’s been a while since I last updated this blog. Many things happened in the month of July. We went on a vacation, dear son has been sick, bla bla..and July seems to be a month we got money coming in, payment from project, income tax refund, NCD refund from the old car, Hubby got some money from his company..Alhamdulillah!

As the Hari Raya is approaching, amazingly I have no strong feeling to spend on anything, no new baju kurung raya as I won’t be wearing baju kurung as often as I could, kuih raya pon rasa macam malas nak beli (boleh tak gitu?)

The point is those kind of preparation (tempah baju, kuih raya, balang kuih, langsir raya etc) is meaningless as it is not practical. We will only wear baju kurung/baju melayu for say like 1-2 hours, and on the morning of Hari Raya, we will be eating ketupat, rendang, and whatever heavy dish like nasi, lontong and whatnot. So those kuih raya will be like penghias balang je..

Well, that’s what I feel for now la..in years to come once the son is older, if he wishes nak baju raya 3-4 pasang ke, nak kuih raya 4-5 jenis ke, I’m sure I would be happy to indulge in the spirit of Hari Raya for him..err Hubby, what say you if we go to Aquaria on the second day of Raya like last year..we make it our yearly visit..haha!

The picture above was taken while we walked to taman orkid last month. We didn’t go to Taman Bunga Raya as it was scorching hot and I was tired after walking in the bird park.

It’s funny to realize that eventhough this red hisbiscus is our bunga kebangsaan, I have been searching high and low but couldn’t find one at the recent Floria or local nursery.

They only sell the Hawaiian type, bunga raya berlapis as they called it, but not this single layer, 5 petals, humble bunga raya merah..huhu!

SIL said we should just pluck one ranting from the park, Hubby agreed as he said taman bunga raya is using duit rakyat to operate, means the money he pays to income tax every month. I disagree because I don’t want to grow pokok bunga haram in my garden..sigh!

Hopefully I will be able to find one to plant in the spirit of Independence Day this year.

Lately I have been catching up on few new things which I’ve never tried before - crafts that I am able to do with less material and less concentration. I have dabbled with tatting, and for the past few days with crochet.

Fortunately on certain days, our dear son is able to play on his own most of the time, provided I am around him. Thus I can’t do things like scrapbooking or card making since such crafts I have to use a lot of materials and have to pay more attention to details to complete those layouts.

With crochet or tatting, what I need is just a ball of yarn, a crochet needle or tatting shuttle and a small scissors. Of course the step by step I have to memorize because every time I on the PC to watch the video, it will distract my son from whatever he is doing and he will start whining and making fuss..huhu!

This is the picture of the first flower I made after learning the crochet technique on Youtube. I used the yarn I bought in Daiso for RM5 which initially meant for tatting. You won’t believe how expensive a ball of yarn could be. I was shocked to see some could be as expensive as RM70 per ball..huh!

To date I have made about 8 flowers like in the picture (of course with each newer one, I made remarkable improvement), but still for me are far from perfect. I still need to practise a lot..heh!

I intend to use all the crochet flowers I made as embellishment on my scrapbooking layout and cards later.