Celebrating Friendship

Me and my email friends (Zoora and Mye) at our design studio. In 2003? I can’t remember. I snap the photo from an old album, hence the reflection.

I don’t talk much with them during my study in IIUM. One or twice a week maybe? But nowadays, we’ll be exchanging around 20-30 emails every single day. OMG, they are my best buddies online!! We talked about everything, kids, breastfeeding, recycling, family, food, fashion, green living, technology, did I mention fashion?, internet, everything and fashion. My hours spent in the office will be meaningless without them :p

I missed having people like them (and all of you, x-KAEDians!!) in my life right now. The creative, like-minded people. The one I can start conversation with.. “Do you still remember Pulau Tuba?” and have a great laugh afterwards.

My studiomates had arranged a few gatherings here and there for a stroll down memory lane but we end up chasing our kids and changing diapers most of the time. I guess, life goes on.

World Habitat Day 2010 fever

As usual, International Unit will be pretty occupied for the World Habitat Day celebration in October. I have not sleep for 3 days and for the past four weeks, I came back from my office after midnight. (lucky I've spent 6 years in architecture school where they trained us to be fully awake 24/7). Thanks to my lovely husband who brings the kids to the office to keep me company every night (I have my own room now, y'all!!). It will be our routine until 6th October 2010. Right now, I am struggling with work and non-stop makan-makan Raya invitation.

This is what I did for the past 3 hours. I called it MyHabitat. but I dont think I am going to use it for any booklet / backdrop / tag design. So, I just post it here hoping it could inspire anyone out there. Now, I need to put my thinking hat (again) and hopefully I could produce 3 or 4 backdrop & booklet designs by 6am. 3 more hours to go. Good luck to me.

(All silhouettes were Googled. Credit to the owner)

Update :

4.35am - I have completed 3 backdrop designs in less than 2 hours (well, the design of the booklet will depend on the final backdrop, so let's not wasting time designing 3 booklet options). And I later found out my MyHabitat is suitable for name tag design due to its simplicity and dynamic shape, but I am still contemplating on the colour.

OK. Good night for me. Need to wake up in 1+ hour. Zzzzz...

Update :NO. We are not going to use any of these at all. I will post the final design later. Thanks to Mala for helping me with the backdrop.

This is the actual design used for the celebration - for booklet, backdrop and newspaper article (here).

AND THIS IS THE BEST PART - UNHABITAT use my design for their promotional brochure (this entry).

I AM SO HAPPY!

Ops! TERSASUL

We found a good way to release our tense in the office! (I am PN)
(This is my board)
(This is Amylia's)
When we ran out of white board, anything else would do ;p

Nabil is preparing for the green

oh boy he's been working very hard!

Nabil's first drawing of Mama

In December 2008, Nabil (was then 3yo) drew ME.

LATTE!!

I have trouble changing the link colour (which was suddenly changed from yellow to dark blue) for this blog. After a few attempts, I decided to go for Latte background instead to compliment the dark blue. I HOPE I LIKE IT (trying...trying...)

In the mean time, I will try to change the background back to dark grey because some highlighted font would be hard to read on Latte.

Keep on reading.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Muhammad Nazreen Syazwan!

remember!

As a mother, I need to memorise a lot of stuff. My personal things, family, (nucleus and extended), my work, study, clubs, my business, my hubby’s (plus in-laws’ : anniversaries, birthdays, fav colour, u name it) and not to forget, everything related to my kids. Their bank accounts, MyKid number, insurance, education plan, class schedule, syllabus (so I know what they need to study for their exams), their fav food, colour, clothes, size and where I usually hide their magic color, my make-up set, toy guns and those golden arch toys with an irritating sound.

Recently I have to add these to my HAVE-TO-REMEMBER list :

(pic from the net)

I need higher viewership for my competition entries!

Guys, pls view these a few times…. I need the highest viewership to win the Special Award!! Anyway, for those of you who didn’t know about this…. Here you go : I joined an Innovation Challenge. We are required to produce a 3-mins video to show the best solution based on the challenge statement - “Make your organization/workplace greener by using paper clip in your solution”.

Pls view EACH VIDEO FIFTY TIMES (50x) :

Green Pledge

Green Building

Red Paper Clip

Pls pls pls.

Important note : THE VIDS ARE KINDA FUNNY, really. WE MADE THESE IN A FEW DAYS – brainstorming, storyboard, casting, shooting, editing, model-making, etc. Eh, only a few hours after office je actually. We have something else in our mind but it turn out to be different due to time constraint. Huhu.. but, as long as my staffs were having a good time, it worth it….walaupun terasa malu terlibat secara direct dan menghadapi risiko menjadi bahan lawak selama setahun di rumah.

Remember, 50x ye.

Thanks! *lol*

Family Trip

We went for this amazing family trip long time ago. Five of us. October 2009. My mum sponsored the air ticket for the kids (Thank you!). I really want to blog about this but … (ok ok same old lame reason)... I am pretty occupied with work. Anyway, here are some photos of our last day in KK.

We stayed @ Le Meridien Kota Kinabalu for 5 days 4 nights. Nice hotel with excellent service. HUGE ROOM with a DVD player, only 2-3 minutes walking distance to the famous KK seafood stalls by the sea (oh, dont get me started with the hotel review).
Nazreen has a strange chemistry with food / restaurant. He can sleep practically anywhere during a meal.


Food? Oh, HOW CAN YOU NOT LOVE THE SEAFOOD IN KK??!!



This was when the camera went crazy. Luckily it was on our way back to KL.. (cap : Nabil was enjoying his chocolate muffin – note to MAS caterer : muffin anda sangat hancur dan berterabur. Tetapi ia sangat sedap)

We have DSLR y'all!!

At last.

After two years of contemplation and after two broken compact digital cameras - one AT KLIA and another one in the flight TO KLIA - we bought a DSLR.

(there must be something very wrong with the chemistry between digital camera and KLIA....) (...and me).

Now I can take fine photos. I have more reason to blog.

Lazy Sunday : Lazy pants

Remember that evergreen musical film about this pretty postulant - the governess of the good-looking Captain's children – who dressed all seven of them in beautifully-sewn play-clothes made of old drapes? They sang and run happily on the mountainside, climbed trees along the roadside (still singing) and got kantoi by their dad afterwards? Ok ok... here is the clue :


I came across a stack of old cushion covers in the cabinet last weekend. They are so adorable and I couldnt stop myself to make these for my child :o)

Skill : Basic. Duration : 10 minutes/pair (I skip the edging part). Edging would took less than 5 minutes per pair, but to take it out from the cabinet... clear the table...look for extension wire... adjust the threads while holding Nazran - who will be jumping in joy and try to climb up the table when he see new things....that would take some times.

I believe there is nothing wrong with turning old stuff into something wearables.

Little Book of HowTos

In (this post), I wrote "As usual, I jot down the process in my Little Book of HowTos. I'll post some snapshots of the lil book later".

So, here you go (read without prejudice ye). I better publish it quickly before I feel stupid showing these to others.

(EDITED)
I've deleted my cookie recipe.

HOTEL REVIEW 03 : PULLMAN, Kuching

I went to Kuching, Sarawak in January 2010 and stayed at Pullman Hotel. A newly-launched 5-star hotel located on the hill, near to Hilton. The overall colour scheme is nicely-coordinated = a good combination of silver and white, with a dash of orange, and red. Since the furniture are very ZEN-like, it is good to be extra careful because they have sharp edges. I knocked my toe on Day Two and it bleeds like crazy. I knocked the same spot with the VERY SAME TOE again on Day 3. Ugh.

The food was GREAT. I had a little chat with the chef and he informed me that the food (and its preparation) are HALAL. A good point for those halal-conscious people like me!

Furoshiki

I always volunteered to be the one to scout around for the best farewell (or newborn) gifts for my officemates / club / circle of friends (a very good reason to go shopping with my family!!).

And I always end up wrapping [most of] them in fabric, instead of wrapping papers. Since I really love to sew, so I have tons of fabric (fat square, scraps, designers') at home. I like fabric because it is very dynamic, flexible and reusable. You can always use it or turn it into something else. (or you can give it back to me – to wrap other gifts). It is also the best way to go green. So, let's furoshiki!!

Habitat fever is here!!

I am pretty occupied with photo editing and compiling old documents for Habitat Blog - a blog about Malaysia's programmes and activities for the World Habitat Day (WHD) celebration every year since my office is the National Focal Point for United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-HABITAT) in Malaysia.

In 2010, we going to have 10 programmes/activities (and we only left with FOUR people after July!). You can read it in the blog after it being launched in July 2010. This is the slide I designed for the recent Habitat committee meeting. You can see the official WHD theme/logo for 2010 - Better City, Better Life.

Sneak peak - Habitat Blog (http://habitat.kpkt.gov.my/) - Click after 15th July 2010!

To : M A M A

beautifully-designed cushions for my pins

I just found out about Sis Mutia Azura's passion towards sewing and designers' fabrics. I heart both but I found it difficult to squeeze between career, study, family and business (trying..trying..)

We worked in the same field and she owns a Sew Retro Chic! blogshop. These are what she made me. Pin cushions. Yippie. If you like to sew, then u know how crucial it is to have pin cushions.

Nabil is into matryoshka nowadays. If the one with matryoshka gone missing, I know who's drawer to dig in! *lol*


And they have themes! Black and White Wonky Love, Bright Retro Sewing and Kawaii Japanese Matryoshka in Linen.

Her entry on these (here).

I won! I won!

No, it is not the UNESCO's Culture Count poster competition. It is a Logo Design Competition for our Corporate Club. It was held since February until 15 March 2010. The public voting for the logo and club's motto was held on the 19th.

This is my winning design. I designed this in two minutes while waiting for a document file to be transferred to my thumbdrive. Next thing I know, I turned on my laptop and email the design to the committee. Unplanned.

The winning Motto is - 1 Korporat, 1 Keluarga by Miss Irane Wiguna Idral.

KUDOS to all Corporate Club committee member for a smooth public voting and last public speaking session! With that, I pass the baton to Miss Kristin for the Emcee speech recitation session everyday.

PS : I was the coordinator for Public Speaking Session for the Corporate Club for the past 3 months. I called up two person every morning to talk on anything, for 3 minutes. Oh yes, they hated me. haha.

Arin was on Untalented Dreamer

I havent visit Nabila's blog for a while. Not until my sister told me about Arin is one of his entries (here).

Nabila is my uncle. A very young uncle perhaps. And at the age of 24, he is already a grandpa for my kids. They called him Atuk. LOL. Nabila (well, he prefer to be called Nabil now) was a chef and he is VERY GOOD in drawing cartoon characters. Thanks for the entry, pakcik!

UNESCO poster competition - I need popularity votes!!!!

Remember my post about Design 21?

There was a competition last time for one of UNESCO's programme : 2010, International Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures. I joined the competition. You know I can't say NO to any design competition....

This is the design brief : Participants of the competition are invited to express their vision and understanding of the “Rapprochement of Cultures” by designing posters that creatively emphasize the importance of exchange and dialogue among and between cultures in ensuring social cohesion and harmonious coexistence. Entrants must keep in mind the international nature of UNESCO and the celebration of the Year and avoid any reference to a particular country, region, culture or religion. (owh, you will see the element A LOT).

Public voting for this competition is now open until 22nd March 2010. There will be a prize for popular poster. However, the winner will be chosen by professional judges. You can vote for me. But you need to register first. The placement of the poster is constantly changing to give equal chance for every entry to be viewed. So, at 10am, my poster might be at page 20. But, i was told at 10.43am, mine was at page 33 and at 11.10am, it moved to page 31. I dont know where it will be next. So, KEEP SEARCHING!!!

All you need to do is search for my poster below and click [VOTE]. THANK YOU!!!























*Thanks Hazwani for being the second person to vote for me :o) And thanks Cik Ida Ilyana for spending a very LOOOOOONG time looking for my design among other 1186 entries. And finally be able to click [vote] *wink*

I done my part. If it wasn't meant for me (the prize), then it is OKAY..

My first animated A

Font : Return of Relayscript

Thanks to Naji for trusting me in creating a multimedia presentation for Dr. Aimi's wedding. If it was not for him, I wouldn't have a chance to explore animation work using Photoshop. (Surprisingly Photoshop can do animation! I didnt know that before. But I am sure you do)
















I have a very limited resources since my design desktop (worth nearly RM10k) was in "coma" for nearly 3 years. She is the best PC so far. I can construct 3D, render animation and edit videos in a very short period. But now... I just have to make do with my laptop and Photoshop unless I can get RM500 to bring the CPU back to life. (Yes, ONLY RM500).

SMS me for my account number if you want to donate RM500. tq.

(TO VIEW THE ANIMATION : Right click > Open Link in New Tab. You have to click F5 every time you want to see the animation). I didnt set it to LOOP or else the page will be too heavy to load because the animation will go on and on, non-stop.

7 March - International Children's Day of Broadcasting

Hey all!! U know I am actively involved in UNICEF. I have some UNICEF announcements to make here.

This coming Sunday (7 March 2010) is International Children's Day of Broadcasting (ICDB). The ICDB was initiated in 1991 to give exposure to the issue of children's rights. Over the years, the ICDB has become a day of celebrating young people in the media. By giving children media skills and putting their voices on air, other young people will know that they, too, can have a voice.

I, on behalf of UNICEF Malaysia, am proud to announce that to celebrate ICDB this year, a host of Malaysian TV and radio stations are standing united to honour children by way of highlighting programming by, for and about children. The theme for 2010 is "All Rights, All Children", and I have news that young people will be co-hosting some of the programmes.

I would like to invite you to tune in to these special programmes which will be aired the weekend of 6th-7th March.

As you tune in to these stations, I hope you are also reminded to tune in, and listen to the young people around you. (Yes MUMMIES and DADDIES, I am talking you)

To find out more, and for a complete list of programmes and schedules, please visit www.unicef.org/malaysia

SPECIAL HIGHLIGHT

"Jom Bersama 3R"... 3R and UNICEF celebrate International Women's Day Women's Rights: Stand up, Speak out, Take action.

Join the 3R TV hosts - Tini, Celina, Rafidah - and UNICEF for a fun action-oriented day on Saturday, 13 March to celebrate International Women’s Day 2010. This year’s theme is "Equal rights, equal opportunities: Progress for all". Register today >here<. Its free!

Hope I can make it (if we are not going to Cameron Highlands that weekend).

FREEBIE!!! - Long Acrylic Bead Necklace

(well, at least I think it is acrylic). LOL.

Again, bought this in Sarawak. A plastic full. But now it is half full (positive...positive...). I am giving away one long necklace to one lucky Garlic & Butter reader. So, if you REALLY want this, email me your cutest photo. Just the photo. You don't need to paste any poster, be my follower, publish my link, write any story, etc etc like other [lame] blog contest giveaways.

Leave your blog address in my comment box. My fashionista cousin, Cuna, will choose the winner. Yes, she knows what she's doing. (btw, how often you came across people with the name C.U.N.A?)

Just to give you the idea on its length :
(Thanks to the sexy model, Miss Kristin Shamini)

I have a lot to give : DESIGN 21 + UNESCO

(Fakri email me asking for updates)
One and only thing that keeps me occupied during lunch hour is Design 21. It is a social [DESIGN] network. Unlike any other social networks that people solely joined for networking *duh*, Design 21 is a social design network. We strongly believe social change can happen through design.

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is a partner of Design 21, together with Fellisimo. Being a social design network that has been endorsed by the UN for quite sometimes makes me truly confident that my effort and time spent for Design 21 everyday, worth it....

I learned a lot from others (I met a couple of good industrial designers there *wink*). That's the main reason WHY i haven't post anything for a while :o) LOL. Every time I logged in, I will be busy getting inspired.. until 2.00pm. Well... I will participate more in the future.

So, come on my designer friends, join Design 21! And start designing for a cause! We can make a difference.

I am also on these..

WINDOWS 7

I am using Windows 7 and it is TOTALLY COOL!! I love the sticky notes... the snipping tool... just to name a few (too few, eh?). Still exploring. Very blogging-friendly.

AM I LUCKY OR WHAT??

Last year I entered online contest by Emmagem.com + OSIM and Clarins. One on beauty-related stuff and another on green living. Both are my fortes. I don't think I stand a chance (OK, a very slim chance) because there are thousands (if not millions) people online every second and they will at least came across one of the contests by chance.

After two internetless weeks @ Borneo, I have the reason to be happy checking my emails. I won both contests. I will collect Clarins hamper after publishing this post (Yippie!) and will attend the Emmagem.com + OSIM prize giving ceremony on Friday. Alhamdulillah...

To sustain or not to sustain?

I am a member of The Designers Accord. An good organisation that gathers do gooders / good doers from all over the world :o)
I want to share some simple and witty (yet very TRUE) responses from TDA's online survey. Of course there are other great [and technical] ideas but these are the one that grabbed my attention :
WHAT 'S YOUR GREATEST SUSTAINABILITY CHALLENGE?
- Removing plastic from my life.
- Cost.
- Food packaging. In the supermarket, everything I eat is packed at least twice.
- Not using the latest material just because it is sustainable. Just use less.
- Getting middle America to actually get it!
- Depression over how much there is to do — I’m tired!
- Quoting Daniel Hebert-Moto: “it’s complicated stuff”
- Eco-friendly materials are too expensive!
- Affording it. Sustainable solutions needs to be the most economical in order to be adopted (and should be eventually).
- Training people to design and make furniture while questioning whether the world really needs any more furniture.
- Convincing people that we have spent the past 50 years making a mess, and should now spend 50 years cleaning it up.

Speaking of which, I would like to present the latest addition to toil's family - GO GWEEN!!

I am currently on these ..