Getting started

Me : Ookaay.. holiday over.

Friend : Serious? Thought its just around the corner.

Me : Yup.. yup.. Its public holiday on 30 and 31 May

Friend : Then?

Me : My "annual leave" of being away from my sewing machines

Friend : Hhhmmmm... not again!

Me : (sheepishhh grin) Not bags, baju kurung

Friend : Again?? (eyes rolling)


Life was hectic since September, all about daily works and no play. All works and no play makes jack a dull boy. Classic phrase - definitely true.

Dearie friends, cheer me up on this journey of reconnection into crafting world.

EID Mubarak

From Home to home, and heart to heart,

From one place to another

The warmth and joy of EID,

Brings us closer to each other.

Eid Mubarak!

* Image and wishes are from Alhabib's Blog 

Iklan Puasa BERNAS

Masa bulan Puasa ni banyak syarikat yang buat iklan kat TV. Ada yang ucap selamat berpuasa, ada yang bagi mesej membina macam yang Petronas selalu buat. Ada juga yang 2+1 - ucap selamat campur promo produk dan syarikat sekali, memang cost effective.

Pernah tak tengok iklan BERNAS yang ada budak laki selalu kena buli, masa makan nasi dah habis tu? Kesian kan? Kat hujung ikla tu ada pula ayat " setiap 10kg beras yang anda beli, 25gm akan didermakan pada anak yatim". Lepas ni beli la beras keluaran BERNAS - beli untuk keperluan + beramal.

Konsep ni dah lama United Nations World Food Programme buat. Empat tahun lepas saya dah buat entri - ada kat sini. Kalau nak beramal sambil belajar vocab English secara percuma, boleh buat kat web ni:

Free Rice

Ada ke lelaki kaki novel?

Sebagai pembukaan, entri ni bukan nak buat provokasi. Nak buat macam mana, tu la tajuk yang terlintas dalam kepala. Tiba-tiba je hari ni nak buat entri pasal membaca dan lelaki. Dalam Bahasa Melayu pula tu. Sebab? Tiada sebab utama, terasa nak memartabatkan Bahasa Melayu - walaupun bukan dalam bahasa yang 'betul' dan tatabahasa yang sempurna. Sebab? Bak kata Edward de Bono, hari ni saya tengah pakai topi warna merah (feelings and emotion) ~ Rujukan: Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono


Topik ni muncul sebab ayat seorang kawan lelaki masa tengah "mengulangkaji" novel Versus oleh Hlovate : "Rajinnye awak ni membaca, saya tak de la nak membaca, lagi-lagi novel, tengok tv lagi best". Lelaki memang macm ni ke? Agaknya la, membaca kan sinonim ngan perempuan je. Tapi... tak semua lelaki 'malas' membaca, walaupun sebahagian besarnya memang malas nak membaca. Yang rajin tu termasuk dalam pembaca tegar ataupun pembaca santai.


Biasanya perempuan je yang kena label kaki novel ni. Sekarang ni lelaki pun boleh dilabel kaki novel tau. Tak tipu... kalau tak caya, cuba tengok keratan akhbar Penangan Chiklit (<= klick saya) yang disiarkan oleh Berita Harian. Betul kan? Lelaki pun dah mula baca novel, cam Fairuz yang baca karya Kang Abik yang sarat dan Ramlee Awang Murshid yang suspens. Lagi? Budu Masin yang baca novel Hlovate  ngan Syud yang popular dikalangan wanita. Tak kisah la... Hlovate tu cintan-cintun Islamik siap ada terjemahan Quran lagi. Bagus kan? Lagi? Ben Ashaari - cam dia confess: dulu baca cerita seram, sekarang baca novel jiwang. Selain diorang bertiga tu, pembaca tegar yang saya kenal - Azwan Ismail (yang ada skandal hari tu..). Dia ni boleh layan buku Hamka ngan sastera melayu.

Alang-alang cerita pasal membaca ni, siapa yang suka buku free boleh jenguk Bookcrossing atau post pasal Running Book ni. Nak cerita juga pengalaman dapat satu kotak besar penuh ngan buku dari US. Terkejut sangat-sangat, rezeki yang tak disangka, semua buku best, ada Sandra Brown, Jack Higgins, Grisham, yang ingat tajuk je - Do you hear me when you cry? Orang yang hantar tu minta alamat konon nak RABCK (Random Act of Bookcrossing Kindness) - ingatkan sebuah je, rupanya sekotak!

SELAMAT MEMBACA!

It's Rates PG-13

What a coincidence! I've posted about film rating yesterday, and I found a "creative" article uses film rating terminology and brownie. Interesting I say. A little excerpt:

Two teenagers asked their father if they could go to the theater to watch a movie that all their friends had seen. After reading some reviews about the movie on the Internet, he denied their request.

“Ah dad, why not?” they complained. “It’s rated PG-13, and we’re both older than thirteen!

“Dad replied: “Because that movie contains nudity and portrays immorality as being normal and acceptable behavior.”

“But dad, those are just very small parts of the movie! That’s what our friends who’ve seen it have told us. The movie is two hours long and those scenes are just a few minutes of the total film! It’s based on a true story and good triumphs over evil, and there are other redeeming themes like courage and self-sacrifice. Even the movie review websites say that!” 

Click here => It's Rated PG-13! for the full article. Hope you enjoy it, I did very much.

Film rating??

Film rating is not my thing. Maybe its due to I don't bother about rating or simply because I am not a movie lunatic. Rating of G and PG are familiar to me, but PG-13, R, NC-17 its gives me a bit frown on the forehead (ouch! bad for my complexion!). A little sharing today, for more info. on film rating - it can be found in Motion Picture Association of America <= click me  T__T

Ramadhan Kareem

May this Ramadhan be a month of blessings, 

a month full of forgiveness and guidances 

for you and your family

Selamat melaknasakan ibadah puasa, semoga kebaikan dan keberkatan Ramadhan bersama kita. Artikel tentang Ramadhan ada di sini:

I LUV ISLAM


Mungkin kita sudah sudah tahu dan acapkali membacanya, tidak rugi untuk membaca lagi sebagai peringatan pada kita, manusia yang selalu lupa.

Dapatkan Mesej Bergambar di Sini

For the better

Alhamdulilah, a sister has started her journey to be a god muslimah, wife and mom. May 4LL1 always be with her. Barakallahfik. This one of the best heart pouring entries I ever read:

Every girl wants to be a beauty.  Every girls loves beauty things. Same goes to me. I always want to look good in everything that I do, everything that I wear and everywhere that I go. I want people to see me with words of "Wow, she's gorgeous!" or "Wow, she's beautiful!". Since that, I try to grab every single opportunity that comes into my life. As I love photography, I take a first step to be a talent. I love being the subjects for each photo that had been taken. Then I start to adore this field so much. I move from title of the talent to become the one who walk on the stage for several awesome fashion shows where people stare at me with an amazing looks and keep asking me 'Can I get your numbers please?". Oh I love to be a part of the stories behind the show and the photo shoot as well. It is such a great memories which I will never forget until my last breathe.

To read more, please click HERE

Show us the straight way. The way of those on whom You bestowed Your Grace, those whose (portion) is not wrath, and who go not astray (1: 6 and 7)-(Al-Fatihah: 6 and 7). For this entry, and for the first time since I'm blogging, I am offering a copy of:

Title: The Meaning of The Holy Quran - Complete Translation with selected notes
By: Abdullah Yusuf Ali.
Publisher: The Islamic Foundation, UK
ISBN: 0-86037-371-1

Kindly post a comment for me to contact for your mailing address.

Feature Article: The Ultimate Technique To Getting Organized And Staying that Way!

Lets look into this situation: You are going to work on a project, patterns, fabrics, colors... you can even picture  how the final product going to look like. Sewing machine, fabrics, thread and needles and notions are available, works started. Oooppsssss!!! Where is the measuring tape? Searching... searching... not in box 1, maybe in container 2, none.. hope in bag 3... Ever been in this situation? I did.

Its time to get organized. We knew organization is important, we knew its basic common sense. Yet, it is not practiced.  Its a wonder I kept my office desk unclustered, my dressing table unscattered. Maybe its just me, lack of discipline. I found this interesting article   The Ultimate Technique To Getting Organized And Staying that Way!,  need to work more on item 5 - SUSTAIN in my sewing or crafty life!

Have a fabulous weekend. I definitely will with Harvest public holiday on Monday and Tuesday, an extended weekend. Yeay!!

Bertudung vs Tak Bertudung

As Salam. Dah dekat seahun tak update blog ni. Bukan sebab tiada topik untuk entri tapi malas nak menulis, lebih suka browsing dan baca blog orang. Hasil dari 'jalan-jalan' tengok 'pemandangan', terjumpa blog The Best Side of Me yang saya rasa agak dangkal dengan entri Carutan untuk Minah Bertudung Urban. 

Sekadar pendapat, bukan niat untuk mengutuk:

• Lovesuks a.k.a. penulis blog tidak perlu merendahkan semua wanita bertudung secara am. Kesimpulan selepas membaca entri tersebut, it seems like Lovesuks marahkan sesorang. Jangan sebab nyamuk seekor, kelambu dibakar. 
• Para komentar tu tak perlu nak back-up penulis tu dengan alasan kalau nak menegur biar berhemah. Awal-awal lagi penulis tu dah kata "aku nak kutuk, bukan nak nasihat, bukan nak ceramah agama, aku memang nak KUTUK"
• Bangganya penulis ni tempah tiket nak masuk neraka. A'uzubillah. Kalau nak marah, nak menulis,biar berlapik, timbang buruk baik, jangan main sebut je. Takut masa kita sebut "see you in hell" tu terbuka pintu langit, termakbul apa yg disebut

Dalam beratus-ratus komen bagi "Carutan untuk Minah Bertusung Urban", saya suka yang kat bawah ni.

ururulesmungkin ade pahala untuk effort kot.. pahala untuk niat nak tutup aurat. heheheheh!
mcm aku dgr tazkirah zohor semalam.. "semayang jemaah ngn semayang sorang2 kat mesjid. pahala jemaah 27:1 kepade yg semayang sorang. 

tapi effort nak pegi masjid tuh pun ade pahale jugak. effort amik air semayang. pahala niat"
pastuh ustaz tu pandang kat saf pompuan dan dia sambung
"same la ngn effort ngn niat nak tutup aurat" (mutter mutter) "tapi kan bagus tutup aurat je terus.. dapat semua pahala.. campur effort skali"

ngeh ngeh ngeh! terase tak kau?

Sekurang-kurangnya, yang pakai tudung urban tu berusaha untuk tutup separuh dari aurat yg ada. Lama-lama insya'allah boleh tutup semuanya.

 May Allah bless.

More to go

On going project: Embroidery on towel. 30 pieces done, more to go... my machine is working overtime.... What's it for? Who is Ezzureen? To be informed in two weeks time.

Tissue Cover

This tissue cover is made from my pile of scrap. A very quick project to finish. Can sell? Hmm... I'll do the costing and pricing (mimicking an accountant.. *smile*)

Too much?

Its a relief that school holiday is over. Its not because that I don't enjoy the company of those school kids, I'm glad that "wedding fever" is over. School holiday means school is closed for few weeks, kids stay at home, people spent time with family travelling, and.. the list goes on. Not to forget, school holiday also means lots and lots of wedding invitation, lots of food and lots of door gift received. Isn't that nice? Yes! This is one of the door gift I received, a nicely assemble and decorated hankerchief:  

What happened if you received lots and lots of hankerchief? For the past 18 months, we (me, mom and dad) had collected 80 pieces! Too much? Of course. This is what I did: sew 2 pieces together and turn them into kitchen towel!

Experiment

During the weekend, I found two colours of 1/2 meters each of red and gold organza among my stash. As I am in the middle of relearning how to use my embroidery machine, I tried to experiment using the  organza. I say, not bad! (rolling eyes). See here:

The background was satin with foam underneath, quilted with simple straight lines. Why do I choose foam instead of batting? Put the blame to this town I'm living in. I've been searching high and low for a week to every craft shops, none of them sell batting! Maybe I should stock-up, advertise and sell.. TADAAA… business opportunity!

I am not sure what this piece is going to be turned into. Let it sit in a corner while I am away out of town. Ehheemm... that's my shadow at the bottom left corner...

Quotable Quotes

Treasure I found while reading:

You've got to be original,

because if you like someone else,

what do they need you for?

~ Benedette Peters

Cover Girl

My compliments to Krista Bremer on her fantastic article, comparing her experiences with her daughter decision to wear headscarf.


Nine years ago, I danced my newborn daughter around my North Carolina living room to the music of Free to Be...You and Me, the '70s children's classic whose every lyric about tolerance and gender equality I had memorized as a girl growing up in California. My Libyan-born husband, Ismail, sat with her for hours on our screened porch, swaying back and forth on a creaky metal rocker and singing old Arabic folk songs, and took her to a Muslim sheikh who chanted a prayer for long life into her tiny, velvety ear. She had espresso eyes and lush black lashes like her father's, and her milky-brown skin darkened quickly in the summer sun. We named her Aliya, which means "exalted" in Arabic, and agreed we would raise her to choose what she identified with most from our dramatically different backgrounds.

I secretly felt smug about this agreement—confident that she would favor my comfortable American lifestyle over his modest Muslim upbringing. Ismail's parents live in a squat stone house down a winding dirt alley outside Tripoli. Its walls are bare except for passages from the Qur'an engraved onto wood, its floors empty but for thin cushions that double as bedding at night. My parents live in a sprawling home in Santa Fe with a three-car garage, hundreds of channels on the flat-screen TV, organic food in the refrigerator, and a closetful of toys for the grandchildren. I imagined Aliya embracing shopping trips to Whole Foods and the stack of presents under the Christmas tree, while still fully appreciating the melodic sound of Arabic, the honey-soaked baklava Ismail makes from scratch, the intricate henna tattoos her aunt drew on her feet when we visited Libya. Not once did I imagine her falling for the head covering worn by Muslim girls as an expression of modesty.

Last summer we were celebrating the end of Ramadan with our Muslim community at a festival in the parking lot behind our local mosque. Children bounced in inflatable fun houses while their parents sat beneath a plastic tarp nearby, shooing flies from plates of curried chicken, golden rice, and baklava.

Aliya and I wandered past rows of vendors selling prayer mats, henna tattoos, and Muslim clothing. When we reached a table displaying head coverings, Aliya turned to me and pleaded, "Please, Mom—can I have one?"

To read the entire article, please click here : Cover Girl

Weekend Project

After so much trouble of "losing few sewing skills" I managed to sucessfully (huh???) compeleted this bag last weekend. It was poorly done: poor adjustment on the embroidery placement, where its not on the center and too far at the bottom. I also inserted slider of the zipper on the wrong side - its on the left instead of the right.

I realised the bag was a bit bare after I took its picture, transfered to my computer and looked at this photo. Lucky me, I found few leftover of beads from my previous project and started to emblish. The new look is here:

By the way, this bag goes to Jannah, a friend of mine as her birthday present. I'm glad she likes it despite of its imperfection. Jannah, happy birthday and thanks for liking the bag!

Inserting slider onto open-ended zip (continuous zip)

Arrgghh! Why it is so difficult to insert slider onto open-ended zip? I spent half a day trying to do it without any luck. I decided googled and found this amazing video. Thanks Phillip for sharing.

Lost of skills

By looking into this blog, you know that I've been doing nothing crafty for the past two years. Both of my sewing machine collected dust, I misplaced my fabric spray, open-ended zipper and its slider. Last two weeks I met a friend who is on machine embroidery, after a little chat, I say she had successfully "persuade" me to start sewing again. Yes, that's I what I did during the weekend. Unfortunately, instead of giving  pleasure and satisfaction as sewing always do, it was full of frustration.

I made lots of silly mistakes, sprayed too much fabric spray on batting, i put wrong side together when preparing piping, unsuccessful attaching slider to open-ended zipper (continuous zipper), the list continues.. bla..bla.. bla.. 

Conclusion: I lost my skills... or maybe I just little bit forgotten.. hahah!

Crochet and Life Wisdom

I happened to find a very endearing, full of wisdom and inspiring article shared in The Reporter.  A lady learned life wisdom through her experience of learning to crochet from her mother at 7. Worth reading. Here are some quote from the article, should you interested to read more, please click here.

From time to time, my yarn would get snarled. Mom would patiently and good-naturedly untangle the knots. Through her patience, I found out: "The best things in life take time." Great aspirations or works don't happen overnight. Thus, when the going is slow, have a positive attitude and with patience stay focused, working while you expectantly wait.

Once, I remember crocheting a square for the blanket that turned out all wrong. Mom unstitched some of the yarn and explained we all have times of failures and setbacks. However, she reminded, that's how we learn. She suggested that I start again. With that, I knew, "The big picture of your life is greater than one or two mistakes." Hence, start fresh today!

A Good Start

Better late than never. HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010.

For the past 19 days of 2010, I've:

• Jan 1 (Fri) : Chose to be a potato coach at home, enjoying the holiday
• Jan 2 (Sat): Enrolled into sewing class, start immediately
• Jan 3 (Sun): Attended sewing class - theories, theories and more theories
• Jan 4 - 8 (Mon-Fri) : What else? Worked, worked and worked with reading in between
• Jan 9-10 (Sat-Sun): Attended sewing class. Started sewing. Hhmm... its been almost one and a half year my sewing machine collecting dust. My poor baby!
• Jan 11-15 (Mon-Fri): Again, worked, worked and reading and... Facebook
• Jan 16-17 (Sat-Sun): Attended sewing class. First portion of project completed. Yay!
• Jan 18-19 (Mon-Tue): Again, worked and worked. Of course reading, completed 3 issues of Newsweek, 1 issue of Malaysian Business and still reading "One For My Baby" by Tony Parsons.

A good start isn't it? I definitely think so.

Blog revisited

I have not been writing and updating this blog

Yes, I am not being fair to this blog

Yes, I am neglecting this blog

And Yes, I had let laziness controlled me.

Yes, There are stories and experiences to write about.

Yes, I will start writing regularly

Yes, I don't care if no one is reading

And Yes, I appreciates who does.

Have you heard anyone saying: "this is the only profession which doesn't allows creativity" and "this is a romantic profession"?. I didn't until recently. Can you guess what profession is this? The answer is in the next few post. Stay tune!

Quotes from Reading

More to share, quotes to be pondered:

A goal without an action plan is a daydream

~ Dr. Nathaniel Branden

We do not sing because we are happy, we are happy because we sing

~ William James

I totally agree on the action plan. How can we achieve a goal without an action plan? But, how many of us really spend our time wondering, pondering, think and act towards achieving our goal? Me? Sometimes I prefer simply by following how life flows...

"We are happy because we sing". I say: depends.. I know a person who sad because she sing. Of course, the song is a sad one!

Quotes From Reading

No stitching at all. Not that I do not want to, its more to I do not willing to allocate my time. I simply could not stop stitching once started! However, I didn't waste my time or become "idle"..... time spent with reading. Here are quotes from reading which I found worth sharing:

Whatever we learn to do, we laern by actually doing it; men come to be builders, for instance, by building, and harp players by playing the harp. In the same way, by doing just acts we come to be just: By doing self-controlled acts, we come to be self-controlled; and by doing brave acts,we become brave

~ Aristotle

Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awresomely simple, that's creativity

~ Charles Mingus

Yum.. Yum..

Its been month since I "visited" this blog and other blogs that usually inspired or amused me in reading. Today, I found an amusing phrase:

Yahoo!! High blood pressure, here I come!

written by Paul in The Heart of Paul

It still makes grinning while I'm writing this. Yeah.. It's really make my day! I'm sorry Paul, should this entry hurt your feeling. It is not far, far, far from intended. It's true! I'm willing to pay for a cup of coffee - of course during my next trip to KL. Oopppsss... However, I prefer salted fish rather than tempoyak to go with my tapioca leaves. And of course, a little of shrimp paste!

Labuan International Sea Challenge 2009

Labuan International Sea Challenge 2009 will be held between 28 April 209 to 3 May 2009. Please click on the following URL for further details.

Tourism Malaysia

Enquiries on IGFA Labuan International Game Fishing Tournament could also be direced to:

Patrick, Ling, Ratna

Once again, the Labuan International Sea Challenge (LISC) will be held in April this year. As an annual event for the past 10 years, I couldn't understand as to why this event fail to position itself as a "brand" or "tourism product" of Labuan. There are only small portion of Malaysian who are aware of this event: mostly events' participants, journalists and those involves directly or indirectly with the LISC's organization. My point is, Royal Pahang Internatioal Billfish Competition and Monsoon Cup didn't take 10 years to be known domestically and internationally.

The Best Poem

This poem was nominated by UN as the best poem of 2006, Written by an African Kid

When I born, I black

When I grow up, I black

When I go in Sun, I black

When I scared, I black

When I sick, I black

And when I die, I still black

And you white fellow

When you born, you pink

When you grow up, you white

When you go in sun, you red

When you cold, you blue

When you scared, you yellow

When you sick, you green

And when you die, you gray

And you calling me colored?

Lazy and Distracted

What am I doing here?

Blogging..

where in the first place I should revise my notes for exam this evening.

Worst still, my crochet and embroidery WIPs are worst distraction.

I should pack and move them elsewhere!

Blessing in a Blanket

An inspiring story. Enjoy.

The Baby Blanket

By Winona Smith

It was a spring Saturday, and though many activities clamored for my attention, I had chosen this time to sit and crochet, an activity I enjoyed but had once thought impossible.

Most of the time I don’t mind being a “lefty” - - I’m quite proud of it, actually. But I admit, it did cause me a few problems three years ago, when I wanted to help out with a project at church.

We were invited to crochet baby blankets, which would be donated to a local crisis pregnancy center at Christmas. I wanted to participate but I knew nothing about how to crochet, and my left-handedness didn’t help. I had trouble “thinking backwards.”

I suppose where there is a will, there is a way, because a few of the ladies got together and taught me one stitch. That’s all I needed. I learned that granny stitch, and before long I had a blanket made. I was so proud of my little accomplishment and it seemed, inexplicably, so important, that I made quite a few more that same year. I even included in each blanket, as a note of encouragement, a poem I had written that read:

Little girls are sweet in their ruffles all
pink.

Little boys in overalls look divine.

But no matter which one the Lord gives to you,

A better “Mom” he never could find.

For more story, click here: Baby Blanket

Tea Coaster Exchange

Tea Coaster Exchange requires the participants to handamde coasters of 6 in a sets. These are coasters I received from my partner, Janet and the organizer, Usha.

Janet's stitched a bright and colorful granny squares. I loves all of her color combination. I myself never have thought navy blue, light green and bright pink could complement each other!She also so kind to stitch a corsage for me.

As an organizer, Usha was so thoughtful to stitch the pink snowflake coasters for all participants in this Exchange. Million thanks!

My partner Jess in Australia leave a comment in my Here in My Home :

Hi Ratna,

I got back from 2 weeks holidays yest and foound the tea coasters package waiting for me! As I couldn't find your email I asked Nik to pass on my thanks, but then remembered you've got a blog. Great colours, such neat work, and pretty fabric you included. Will use fab as a table centrepiece. Many thanks, and hope you are in good health.

Jess, Melb

I'm glad she likes the coasters and the red fabric I included. By the way, the fabric is called Pua Kumbu, handwoven by native in Sarawak, Malaysia.