Lazy Sunday : Strolling at a park nearby my new office

Nabil's FIRST Report Card Day

Actually, it was my FIRST too.

The teacher gave a good remark on Nabil and we were quite relieved, knowing how playful he could be at home. We need to double the effort to make sure Nabil could read, write, draw, colour and speak in English well before he enter Standard One next year. (Sarah, my niece, on the right was having a fever that time)

Nabil bought some books and some plastic springs for his brothers, using my money, of course. How thoughtful.

Happy Father's Day

All 12 of us celebrated Father's Day (for three superb fathers in our big family) at Middle East Restaurant : Sawarabina @ Titiwangsa. Yummy. The kids were having fun with the masks and bubbles.

(Sawarabina means We grew up together in Syrian - as being told by the cashier)

Ultraman

It is getting hard when Nazran thinks he is really an Ultraman whenever he put on the mask. It was weird when he seems not interested with bubbles like everyone else (at the back) does.

He ran here and there, kicked (and of course, fell down a few times after "being kicked" by an invisible monster), shoot everyone who are in his way fighting forces of evil on earth.

And boy oh boy, he was getting very serious when he bumped into another boy with an Ultraman mask! He just felt the urge to fight because there cant be two identical Ultramans on earth!! The other one must be a poser and has to be destroyed!!

I dont capture the rest of the drama (where he shoot the boy - Ultraman-style) because I was laughing out loud and I couldnt hold the camera still.

Angkat!!!

Designer in the making

When Mama got a lot of work to do...

I dont mind clearing up the mess, as long as I can do my work peacefully, for a couple of hours.

Moving in : Part 10 - TV Area

Our TV Area have a very special natural daylight that penetrates through a transparent roof tile. I love it so much because we don't have to switch on the light inside the house during the day. BUT it is bright alright and we need to apply sunscreen to watch TV in our own house. LOL.

I pity the children who always find a way to avoid the glaring hot sunlight, and the heat - which hit directly on the sofa in front of the TV. Yes, it is HOT especially between 12.01pm to 2.30pm. They have choices whether to sit on the floor or other sofa or the other part of the sofa, but, the middle part of this sofa is the best spot for watching TV. We fought for it all the times. LOL. Sometimes they wear their caps and some other times, they uses umbrella while watching TV. Dramatic, yes?

This will help you to get the better picture of the HOT SPOT in our TV area.

We did a lot of sketches of all possible solutions and we end up with the simplest, fastest [and cheapest] measure, for the time being. We hang three huge Japanese rice paper lanterns. The lanterns diffuse [and absorb] the sunlight and solve the problem that was haunting the kids for quite a while. It look nice too.

We were thinking to hang a few smaller RED lantern to make it more outstanding. For the time being, the lanterns are sort of blend with the wall and ceiling.

More on our MOVING IN Adventures! Click here.

Moving in : Part 09 - Moving stuff with a lorry

I would like to thank a very nice neighbour of ours - ARIL, a 20yo gentleman who live across the street - for always been there for us. He helped us a lot in clearing out the house since April, taking care of our kids, paint some part of the house, be the first one to arrive whenever I had an encounter with ugly pests (and scream) and recently, he rented a lorry, drove it and move all furniture from my parent's to our new habitat, together with us. He never complaint. In fact he sings for us all the time.

This was the kids' first ride on a lorry. They were extremely excited. First trip - carry Atuk's sofa, a few cupboards and book shelves to our new habitat. Only 2km apart.

Although they are handful most of the time but they are very helpful when it comes to teamwork. (They were carrying their book shelves).

Second trip - carry quite a number of potted plants to Atuk's house. Nabil sat with his favourite Abang Aril, while others remained at the back of the lorry with the plants.

Third trip - another sofa and other small stuff. Atuk also gave us a huge frame of Quranic verses as a present. Nazreen joined Nabil and Aril at the front. The rest traveled by car.

It was tiring. We slept for the rest of the day. This was the most tiring moving in work so far, but we were satisfied to do all the work ourselves (of course with some help from Aril).

More on our MOVING IN Adventures! Click here.

Moving in : Part 08 - Kitchen morph

Kitchen morph.

I will blog about one small portion of the kitchen for the time being. There are tremendous amount of work to be done before I can utilise the whole kitchen.

Last time it was apple green.

Last weekend, Aril turned it into grey. He did it in 2 days.

Then, papa hang the old blind taken from my dad's stack of old stuff (that he wanted to throw away). The size it just right to cover two bathroom windows located in the middle of the house. We wanted to paint it white, but suddenly we fell in love with its soft gradient and old rustic look. It gives the wall character. Later, this space will be papa's workstation. The old dining table will be shifted somewhere else. Or will be replaced by white dining table set by IKEA (you wish!).
















More on our MOVING IN Adventures! Click here.

Moving Out - Artist & Masterpiece

When we started moving out from my parent's house, my dad decided to re-paint the whole living room and change the furniture set from modern to Italian set (of course, the old sofa goes to our new habitat - in kitchen and TV area :p).

He painted the whole house a couple of times before - he enjoyed painting like I do - BUT, there are some artists in the house who couldn't get their artistic hands off the wall. I had a chance to capture the artists' photos with their masterpieces before their grandfather apply a fresh coat of paint on it.

Moving in : Part 07 - Red carpet

We went to IKEA again. I need some fabric for our sofa, cushions and table runner. The kids... they keep playing 500 Days of Summer in IKEA, like the other day (here). I was running everywhere because they were sitting, rolling on the floor, lying on the sofa, SLEEPING on the bed (like, real DEEP SLEEP - imagine that!) and getting excited when they found a television... Luckily I put on my pair of crocs that day.

Finally they behaved themselves when I assigned them one trolley each. I don't need to chase them around after that. Thanks for being so thoughtful, IKEA.

And, at last, we bought THE red carpet that we've been contemplating for about one month. We intentionally bought the small one, because any bigger will make our living room seems cramped. Nazreen pulled out his reading sofa to the living room because he said it matches the colour of the new carpet.
















More on our MOVING IN Adventures! Click here.

Red bean bag

I bought red fabric to make panel curtain for our new habitat. But it ends up as a bean bag because the fabric is so damn stretchy, i can't resist. I only took one hour to cut the fabric and sew it together. But papa took more than one hour to fill in the beans with the help of red bean bag superheroes, of course. There were five of them but we manage to capture only ONE photo.

(Nazreen and Nazran were busy collecting the beans on the floor / under the sofa)

I need to buy another 2 bags of bean to fill the bean bag.

Good find : (all) under RM20

for our new life at our new habitat. We just love cute stuff.

How I/we pulled off World Habitat Day 2010's gimmick

Thanks to all. I really appreciate your help! Now the whole world knows how great you guys are!

Nazran and kain pelekat

I've made a mini kain pelekat for Nazran using remaining fabric from my Grameen projects (will blog about it whenever I feel like it). He likes it very much that he wants to wear it everyday.

Kangaroo is delicious

When I told my friends that I've visited Australia a few times, some of them will be like... "Have you ever tried kangaroo?"

As a matter of fact, I DID. No. 17 on the menu. Love it!

just kidding (here).

Fire & Rescue Team

Yup. I was in the Fire & Rescue team last time. It was a thrilling experience with oil spill fire, leaking gas pipes (which leads to fire), scuba diving, cutting cars to save accident vics and my favourite, went into the sewer (and BA gallery) with the bulky breathing apparatus. Oh yes, so claustrophobic but yet so exciting. I was 3-months pregnant that time but I didnt know.

Leaking gas fire on the oil platform.

The first one to go inside the tank. Ready? *splash*

They were busy cutting car and we were busy giving the best pose.

With my team mate who is the lead singer for Nitrus (a local band), the one sitting with the helmet on.

We were just finished putting off massive fire inside the chamber. Hot. Heavy suit. I need air.

Be kind to the firemen, people! Their job is really tough!