Red Velvet Cupcakes

Ahhhh... Don't they look just gorgeous?

I was sitting at home yesterday browsing through the Internet, while a migraine slowly pounding behind my left eye, and came across some pictures of red velvet cuppies. And I thought to myself, this could be fun. So I searched for the recipe at Joy Of Baking and after making sure that I have all the ingredients, started taking out the butter and egg from the fridge to bring them down to room temperature.

Went up for solat Zohor, watched a little movie for a while then went down to the kitchen to start baking.

First I preheated the oven to 175 degrees C. Then I prepared the buttermilk. Since I didn't have any at home, I read in the web that you can make buttermilk by adding a tablespoon of white distilled vinegar or lemon juice to a cup of milk. So that's what I did and set it aside.

Here's the recipe:

1 1/4 cups (125 grams) sifted cake flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoons (10 grams) regular or Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1/4 cup (57 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cups (150 grams) granulated white sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup (120 ml) buttermilk
1 tablespoon liquid red food coloring
1/2 teaspoon white distilled vinegar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

There's also the recipe for Cream Cheese frosting but I just used the frosting left over from mom's carrot cake.

Taste was yummy and I know I'll be making more of these little devils soon!!!

Ta ta.. see you real soon!!!

Vampires Are My Thing These Days

No, I'm not talking about those sissy Cullen vampires girls are crazy about. Nor am I impressed by the werewolves from the same series. I don't do Vampire Diaries either. In short, I don't read teenage vamps or wares or any kinds of prenatural creatures.

But I do so love the adult vampire romance books from writers like Sherrilyn Kenyon, Christine Feehan, Kerrelyn Sparks, JR Ward, Lara Adrian, Lynsay Sands, Kresley Cole, Larissa Ione and Gena Showalter. These creative authors created a whole world of supernaturals; be them vampires, ware-animals, demons, harpies, valkyries, witches, wizards or angels (fallen or otherwise). I mean, I don't believe they exist in the real world. At least not in the forms that the authors created but it's so much fun to read.

Take the Dark Hunter world that Sherrilyn Kenyon created. It's based loosely on the Greek mythology. Although some characters are somewhat true to their myth like the Gods Zeus, Apollo and Artemis. However, most are a bunch of make believes.

What about the demon world of Larissa Ione's Demonica series? There are all types of demons, either human like or not, and the point of the story is that there are good demons as well as bad demons. Interesting, but so far-fetched the mind boggles. And those good demons work in a demon hospital called the Underworld General.

Then there are the vampires from Kerrelyn Sparks' Love At Stake series. Not only do the Vamps abhor killing mortals, they drink blood from bottles and they have fun Fusion blood drinks like Bleer (blood+beer), Chocolood (blood+chocolate), Blood-Lite (for the calorie conscious vamps), Blissky (blood+whisky) and the newly introduced Bloodonnay (blood+chardonnay).

I mean the imagination that these authors brought into their books are just amazing and so much fun. It's not just a typical romance book, but you are transported into a different world/realm and it's addictive. Well, I am at least. I've got every one of these authors' books and whatever I can't get from our local bookstores, I usually order from Books Depository. I just can't get enough of 'em!!

So in the last week or so, 5 of my latest 6 orders have just arrived. I've already finished 2 of them and on to the 3rd book. When I read, I'm lost in the books that people around me always complains but hey.. I don't care. It's my only guilty pleasure!!!

Cinnamon Rolls

I made cinnamon rolls today. I've been browsing on the internet looking for whichever recipe or method that is the easiest.

So I found this video which uses baking powder instead of yeast, and shortening instead of butter. I decided to try this because:

1) I've never had a good relationship with yeast. My bread making skills are sadly lacking.

2) I want to use up the extra shortening that I have in the pantry before it expires.

3) It looks real easy and quick and I only have about an hour before going out to fetch Nadiah.

Here's the recipe:

2 cups all purpose flour (sifted)

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

6 tbsp shortening

2/3 cup milk

2 tsp melted butter

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp cinnamon powder

Preheat oven at 215 degrees C.

Mix the flour, baking powder, salt, shortening and milk in a bowl. Using a fork mix them together (like you would a pie crust), incorporating the shortening into the flour.

Once the mixture has come together into a dough, roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to approximately 7" x 16" rectangular.

Brush the dough with the melted butter. Mix the sugar and cinnamon powder together and sprinkle over the buttered surface. Gently roll in the dough tightly. Cut about 1 1/2" rolls and arrange them in a muffin pan lined with paper cups.

Bake for 15 - 20 minutes.

Taste great although the texture is more cakey rather than bread-ish. Maybe I should call it Cinnamon Cakes rather than Rolls. But the taste is good and everybody loves it. So mission accomplished. It only took me about 45 minutes to complete, baking time included.

Flying With Nadiah

I have been meaning to blog about this for many months now. Mostly to share my experience and hopefully to help those who have children with autism or other disabilities, or even normal children travelling on an airplane for the first time.

Having a child on the autism spectrum can be a real challenge. But I believe that it's you, the parents, are the ones to determine how to handle the challenges. Knowledge is the key. In today's world, knowledge is at the tip of your fingers. With a bunch of typings and a click, you'll be able to get help on how to handle certain situations.

A year ago, hubby and I decided to take Nadiah on a vacation which would involve flying on an airplane. We chose Perth, Australia as it's a place where the culture, weather and atmosphere are different than Malaysia, but at the same time it has the shortest flight time which is approximately 5 hours. So we bought the tickets in September 2010 and flying out in June 2011. So that gave us 9 months to figure out how to prepare her for the flight. Plenty of time, right?

Nadiah has only been on an airplane when she was still a baby. Since then, we've only taken her on car trips around the country. So as a first step, we decided to test her on a trip to Singapore. But that meant 4 plane rides to and fro: Alor Setar - KL and KL - Singapore and back again. Each ride only takes about an hour or so. We booked tickets on Air Asia because they were cheap and should anything happens, we'll just close one eye and ignore the monetary loss. But to tell you the truth, I was sure she was going to love it.

So a week before the trip, I started taking Nadiah to the airport which is only about 10 minutes from home, just to familiarise her with the place where the airplanes land and pickup passengers. But we didn't actually see planes landing and taking off because it's a small airport and planes coming in and out are pretty limited. I don't think she has actually seen an actual airplane prior to the trip. She knows what they are but have only seen them in books, on TV or on the computer. And everyday we tell her that she is going on an airplane, making flying motions all around her to get her excited about the trip.

So the day came for our trip to Singapore. Woke up early in the morning, we told her that that is the day for our plane ride. We got to the airport and went through check in smoothly and when the plane arrived from KL, Nadiah was standing at the big window all excited. So far, so good. We decided to get on the plane last as she hates waiting in line. But what we forgot about cheap flights is the fact that we have to walk on the tarmac to the plane itself. There was no aerobridge to take us right into the plane. So as soon as we opened the door to the outside, Nadiah had a shock of her life. It was 8.30am, the sun was already shining bright and the door was facing east. With the sun in her eyes, the sight of a big giant bird thing and the loud sounds from the plane, I guess it must have seemed like a horrible monster to her. Nadiah stepped back, laid down on the floor, had her hands to her ears and screamed her lungs out. No amount of persuasion could get her to stop and sit up. She simply refused to listen, shutting everything out but her terror. Only after we managed to move her to the side of the door did she stopped screaming and crying. We tried again to persuade her to go out to the plane but she refused to budged. The airline people were getting restless and in the end we decided to cancel. We had to wait for them to get our luggage from the airplane and as soon as Nadiah saw me started walking the opposite way, she just calmly followed me back out of the waiting area.

Funny thing about Nadiah is, her response to new things are very unpredictable. If we go to a new place, we have to be aware of just about everything: sound, feel, sight. Basically what information may attack her senses. I say attack because some autistic children lack the ability to tune up or down whatever information that reach their senses. In Nadiah's case, she has very sensitive sense of hearing but only to some types of sounds. Loud booms like fire crackers or music blaring from the speakers at shopping malls are fine with her. But sounds of high pressured moving air like a giant fan or an aircond compressor or airplane engine noise, those are a no-no.

To say that I was disappointed was an understatement. I was crushed! I had hoped so much to be able to get her on the airplane that thinking of our failure threatened my tears to start running down. So I just stopped thinking about it. I ignored everything and everyone. I got a book out of my bag and started reading. I just needed some time to come to terms with what's happened. If I talk about it, I knew I won't be able to stop my tears. By then Nadiah was just fine; sitting quietly waiting for my dad to come and pick us up at the airport. When we got home, I was able to function again. But everybody was questioning how are we going to go to Perth if we can't even get Nadiah on a plane to Singapore. I can't be angry with her. That's just the way she is and I've got to accept that real fast. There was still another 8 months to go till our trip to Perth and I promised myself, by hook or by crook, dammit we are going to Perth!!

This time I started early. Like I said, knowledge is key. I may forget my own advice sometimes but I learned fast. I remembered watching a cute video of an inflight safety demo done by kids so I searched on YouTube and found it. It's so cute and it shows what the inside of a plane looks like and because they were done by kids, Nadiah was able to relate to it. This is the video:

Cute right? I also searched for videos and pictures of people getting into airplanes or what you do when you're in an airplane. Being autistic means language is a big problem for Nadiah and simply explaining to her what was what, was a waste of time. She learns and understands better visually either through still or moving pictures.

I also googled on ways to keep Nadiah occupied when on the airplane. There is a famous scrapbooker, Ali Edwards, who has an autistic son, Simon and in one of her blog posts she wrote about her preparation when travelling with her kids. I found it very helpful and what's more, there were loads of people giving suggestions and sharing their own experiences while travelling with kids in the comment section. At that time there were over 40 comments and I read every single one of them. You can read Ali's blog post HERE.

One of the suggestions that I found useful was to prepare little treats wrapped up like presents. Nadiah loves getting presents and for her, tearing off wrapping papers is the best in the world. Another suggestion was an I Spy Bag. It's like a small pillow with a clear 'window' on one side. Inside there are a number of small objects that you need to find buried in plastic beads. You'll have a card with a list of names of the objects. So you manipulate the bag/pillow until you find them all. It's a great game that keeps kids occupied.

So a month before our big trip, we decided to have another test run. This time just a plane ride to KL. We opted on Malaysia Airlines this time so that we'll be able to use the aerobridge to get into the plane. And we also decided on an evening flight. These are the things that I prepared:

• Headphones and music - I found a Barney Songs app and downloaded that into my iPhone so that Nadiah will listen to music via the headphones when getting into the airplane. That way, the music could hopefully eliminate the loud engine sound.
• Little presents - I wrapped up 5-6 little toys and books to make like presents including a box of Rocky biscuit sticks for her inflight snack.
• A laptop - uploaded with her favourite shows
• A change of clothes
• Nadiah's own backpack with her favourite toy, a notebook and a pen for her to scribble anything

While in the waiting room, I showed Nadiah the presents that she would get once she gets into the airplane. She was so excited that she actually walked right to the door wanting to get on first. We had to pull her back and make her wait a few minutes until it was time for boarding. Before boarding, I put on the headphones and plug it into the iPhone and started the music. She was so busy with pushing the buttons that she didn't even realize that she was already on the plane. And whilst waiting for all the passengers to get on, we started giving her presents one at a time. I had wrapped the presents tightly with lots of tape so that it would take her a little more time to unwrap everything. See.. the little details matter. Before long the plane was taxing on the runway and when it started to speed up for the take off, Nadiah loved that. She kept counting "3,2,1 blast off!!". I actually had tears in my eyes.. tears of happiness. Yet another hurdle that we managed to cross and I was so very proud of her.

Needless to say, the trip to Perth was a total success. We learned from the test run that Nadiah won't eat or drink anything from the flight but she would eat or drink anything that came from her backpack. As long as she has the headphones on, even if it's not plugged to anything, she's good to go. It's just having the sense of security around her ears I guess. Since the flight out to Perth was a night one, we brought along her pajamas and changed her before boarding the plane. That way she will sleep on the plane because sleeping time means changing into her PJs. She slept almost all the way and only woke up less than an hour before we reached Perth.

So that's my story that I wanted to share. I just hope that my experience will help other parents who are facing a hard time getting their children to try something new. Never ever give up. If you fail, find another way, use a different approach, talk to other parents, research and most importantly believe in yourself. Remember.. where there's a will, there's a way. Insyaallah, Allah will help those who help themselves.

Thanks for stopping by.

Beading Classes

After more than a year, I've decided to start giving beading classes again. Mostly because there has been a lot of demands in the past year. Ever since I started posting my work on my FB page, more and more of my friends hve become interested in learning the arts of beading embroidery.

To tell you the truth, I would never in a million years thought that this is where my life would take me. When I was young and still in school, I always thought I'll either be working in an accounting office somewhere or stay at home and be a mom. The latter is preferable actually :D. But staying at home wasn't as fun as I thought it would be. I needed an outlet for my creative side and beading just began as a why-not-since-there's-nothing-else-to-do kinda thing.

You see, it was actually my mom who went and took a class with Rosita Jaafar, a beading guru in KL. Mom came back and taught me 1 technique. Then she gave me a book with lots of how-tos and as they say, the rest is history. I found that my brains were clever enough to understand diagrams and why is this important? Because later on I learned that what I found very easy to understand, a whole lot of people couldn't. And that's how, and why I started giving classes. But classes started after 5-6 years after I started beading myself.

Now I feel like this is something I can do on a permanent basis. As long as there is demand for the knowledge, I know this is what I have and what I can do to generate income.

I've held classes in Alor Setar and in KL, and I dreamed of going around the country holding more classes. Soon, I hope...

Sushi

We had sushi for lunch yesterday. Homemade. Having a husband who went to Japan to study a long time ago means we eat Japanese food on a regular basis.

The best part is that from when she was little, Nadiah was introduced to eating with chopsticks and she LOVES it. Even now, whenever we eat any sort of noodle, she would insist on using chopsticks. And I have to admit that her chopsticks skills are wayyyyyy better than mine. Her finger control is just fantastic. In a way, mastering the use of chopsticks help in her fine motor skills

Back to sushi making, this time is the first time that I had to roll them sushis on my own. I have to say that my rolling was a little sloppy but the taste was great. We even made one roll for Nadiah. But hers was wasabi-less of course. So here's Nadiah with her sushi and her chopsticks

Blogger On iPhone

Hello.
I just downloaded Blogger for iPhone and trying it out. Hope it looks ok viewed on the PC.

Nadiah Speaks

Nadiah: Baba, baba. Go to swimming waterpark. Every morning, sun going up
Translation: Baba, baba. Let's go swimming at the waterpark. Tomorrow morning when the sun rises.
At age 9, this is how Nadiah speaks. Not perfect but we get the gist of it. What's important is that she is able to express herself by putting it into words. And we are able to understand her.

Love is Life

Love is life.

If you miss love,

You miss life!

Grow Up And Be A Chef

For the past few years, Nadiah would tell us that she wants to "grow up and be a doctor", exactly like what she hears in Barney. But last night when she was getting ready for bed, all of a sudden she said "Grow up and be a chef".

Me and hubby were surprised that we burst out laughing. Not because she wanted to be a chef. But that out of the blue she just blurted it out. So we started asking her what she wants to cook. She said she wanted to cook egg bread (French toast), spaghetti, cake and something else I can't remember. Basically all the things that she loves to eat.

It's so cute. And to think that when she was little we thought she might not lead a normal life. I pray to Allah that she WILL be a chef when she grows up.

gLee

Yes, admittedly I am officially a GLEEK!!! I have been running a GLEE marathon with hubby for the last two nights. Thank God for Graboid, I can download every single episode of the first season. I missed them all while if was showing on Star World and only managed to catch the season finale. Even then it was the last 15 minutes. Totally fell in love!!

I have to say that my favourite character is Kurt. I love him - the dressing, the attitude and THAT voice!! Wow!! Simply amazing! I also actually love Sue Sylvester. She can really be a nice person sometimes but her mean-ness is sometimes so OTT that it's funny! Oh and Will Schuster... *sigh* don't you just love his moves?? And what a voice!!

We've finished 10 episodes and only 12 more to go. Some of my favourite songs/moments so far are:

1. It's My Life/My Confession mash-up routine by the boys. The look on Finn's face when he started was hilarious. The guys were crazy hyper after popping some anti-depressants and they were jumping around so much.




2. The episode where they have to do a ballad. And Rachel has a crush on Mr Schu. They sang Endless Love by Lionel Richie and Diana Ross to each other and Rach has this crazy in love look in her eyes while Mr Schu has a look of horror on his face. It was hilarious!! Then what about the thoughts that was running through the other members...

Puck - "I love the days I don't wear underwear. Full commando"

Finn - "I've never realised how nice Rachel's butt is. Crap, I think Quinn knows I'm staring at it."

Kurt - "I could totally sing this to Finn. But screw him if he thinks he's taking the Diana Ross part from me."

You gotta love them!!



I'm sure there will be more scenes that I'll love,, but these two just crack me up!!

McDonald's GCB

I'm lovin' it!
Sent via BlackBerry from Maxis

Grow ye corn tree!

Nadiah insisted on getting some corn seeds to plant at home some weeks ago. So we came home and she started digging around in the flower box and planted 2 seeds.

After just 2 days, we could see something shooting out from the earth. Nadiah was SO excited, and so was I, if I do say so myself. I have never been interested in planting anything but this was kinda fun.





Then today, after about a month, this is how high the plants have grown. And one has started to bloom. Ooo.. how exciting!!! Before long Nadiah will be able to eat corns she harvested herself!! Coolness!!

Cooking With Nadiah

These last few weeks I've been so busy running around that I hardly had time to blog. It didn't help that Nadiah has also been busy wanting to cook every time she goes down to the kitchen.

One day, while driving back from school, she wanted some bananas. So hubby and I stopped by this fruit stall and got some for her. When we got home, without taking off her shoes and uniform, she grabbed the small frying pan; the one we always use to cook eggs sunny side up, and started slicing bananas into the pan. Then she gave the pan to me and said "Cook!"

And I did. I scooped a little bit of butter and added to the pan and cooked, just like she wanted it. I don't know where she gets the idea, that she HAS to cook bananas as soon as she comes home from school. They probably did some experiment or something in school. I have to ask her teacher.

I managed to snapped some pictures...



She really loved those fried bananas!!!

Two days later, she wanted to make pizza. Earlier, she insisted that I buy a pizza pan while we were out shopping. Actually she had wanted that pan for a little while now. It's just that I've been ignoring her request. Well, we've got lots of cookie sheets that work just fine for baking pizza that I just don't see the point of getting a pizza pan just for that. But that day, Baba was pushing the trolley and I had stopped at another section and Nadiah managed to wheedle Baba into buying a pizza pan. Hahaa.... SUCKERRRR!!!!

Anyway, back at home Nadiah again conned Baba into making pizza dough. But the thing is, she doesn't have any patience. As soon as Baba mixed water with flour, she decided to take over. She started kneading and had the dough sticking to her hands and arm and face. Somehow she managed to roll the dough with her rolling pin but it was nowhere near a circle. Basically her pizza dough is just flour and water. Then she got her pizza sauce out and started spreading on the pizza base and sprinkled with slices of cheese (we ran out of grated ones, so sliced did just fine). And lastly, into the oven her misshapen pizza went!!

I have pictures of course...

See that brand new pizza pan? I insisted on the waxed paper so the cleaning part would not be horrendous.

A close up before going into the oven.....


Nadiah seems to love her pizza and ate it with gusto.... after I managed to scrape some pieces from the paper, that is.

So that's bananas and pizza. She's done a lot more. Next I'll post pictures of her baking muffins and making spaghetti... if I remember to snap some pictures though...

The Time Traveler's Wife

Nadiah is not feeling well today. I took her swimming yesterday morning and now she's down with runny nose and a slight fever. That means no school for tomorrow.

While she was taking a nap today, I decided to stop all work i.e. beading and scrapping, and just enjoy a movie. I have been so busy the last couple of weeks that I hardly had any time to sit down and enjoy the telly. I just got some DVDs recently and one of them was The Time Traveler's Wife. Saw the preview some months ago and thought that it would be a good one.

And IT WAS!!! Oh wow.. it's such a sweet story but also so sad. This guy, Henry (Eric Bana), has a genetic anomaly that makes him able to time travel in a blink of an eye since he was 6 years old. The thing is, he can't control when or where he travels. One day he meets a girl, Clare (Rachael McAdams), and she seems to know all about him and has been in love with him since she was a child. Apparently, when Henry is in his 40s, he time travels to the past and popped in the meadow at the back of Clare's family estate when she was just a little girl. Over the years, he keeps coming back to the same place and she would be waiting for him and as the years go by, fell in love with him. In the present time, Henry and Clare got married and it was a lot more difficult for Clare to handle being married to a guy who keeps disappearing all the time. And when she gets pregnant, she always end up with a miscarriage because the fetus would 'disappear'. It's so sad. I bawled like a baby when Henry finds out that he will die soon and when he meets his daughter.

After almost a day, the story is still playing in my mind and I can't help mentally sighing over the love Clare and Henry feels for each other through time...

If you haven't seen it, go out and get the DVD. You won't regret it!!

Autism Awareness

Last Wednesday, I took Nadiah to KFC near our house after fetching her from NASOM. She loves going out for a bite especially to places where we have to order at the counter and get the food ourselves i.e. KFC, McDonald's. Don't even think of Pizza Hut's salad bar coz she would just scoop up just about everything just for the fun of it.

Anyway, we had finished our meal and I was getting up and telling Nadiah to go wash her hands, when a guy sat at the table next to ours with his tray of burger, a drink and Cheesy Wedges. And while she passed the table, Nadiah just casually dipped her finger in the melted cheese and licked away. I was horrified and embarrassed and started apologizing to the guy. But he was cool about it and said that it was okay. Then he asked me if she was autistic. I was really surprised but told him yes, she was. The guy said that it's totally okay because he understands very well about autism. So I asked him if he's had experienced with autistic kids and apparently he did a research on autism and that's why he understood.

The thing is, I've never met anyone in the general public who's not a parent of an autie, or someone who works in a place that deals with auties, and understands kids like Nadiah. Especially in situations like this when she disregards common courtesy and just barged her way in. See, an autie has no telling features that you take one look and know that the kid is special. So when you tell people that she is autistic and a special child , they'll take one look and starts doubting you. And especially around here, autism awareness in sadly lacking in the general public. Not a lot of people know what autism is or has even heard of it.

Incidentally, NASOM Alor Setar will be having a charity event on the 8th of May where we'll be selling tickets of RM20 each and with the ticket, you can come to the even and eat all you want. There will be lots of food and we'll be taking the opportunity to spread public awareness about autism. If you're interested in buying tickets and making donations, do let me know. The event will be taking place at WNS Homestay, from 11.30am - 4.00pm.

Then on the 21-22 May, NASOM Alor Setar will be taking part in another charity event which will be hosted by the Yayasan Sultanah Bahiyah. We'll have an information booth where people can come and ask, read and listen about autism. At the same time, we are planning on selling handmade greeting cards to raise some money. The cards will be made by some of the students, including Nadiah (oh boy, she'll have so much fun making all that mess with sticky glue), and teachers and parents.. well the latter would be me. I've asked for some immediate help for some card making stash from my scrapper friends and am so grateful for their support. Some have already started sending the stickers, flowers and embellishments to be used by the kids and some are even making cards so we can sell them straight away. I'm so lucky in my friends!!

So if you would like to help out in whatever way, do let me know. I hope in the near future more people will be made aware of what autism is and how they can help in giving these children a better life.

How To Plant A Banana Tree

Well... my very brilliant daughter does it this way. First, get a banana fruit and peel it. Then, get a butter knife and using the blunt edge, cut it into chunks. Then get a paper towel, fold it nicely and shove it down a drinking glass. Then, just drop in a few of the banana chunks, and fill it in with water.

TA-DA!!!!

Hahaa... does that sound familiar? Remember that green bean planting experiment we used to do in science classes. I guess N thinks that banana trees work the same way too. We only had to wait a few days for a green shoot to emerge from the paper towel, but N's banana tree would take forever!!

Here's were N got her idea

Ok, on another note, I received a Beautiful Blog Award from my friend, Ica. Thanks, Ica. Didn't know that I was one of your inspirations to start blogging. Feeling so honoured here :D

Now I gotta write 7 random facts about myself. I've actually posted some 16 random facts about myself already some years ago. So now I've got to squeeze my brains out for 7 more that you don't know about. Thanks, Ica *as sarcasticly as possible*.

Ok here goes:

1 - Sometimes I would go to Nadiah's school really, really early and wait under some shade just so I'll have some peace and quiet to read a book.

2 - When I was 14 my family and I went to Italy and we got stuck at the airport for 8 hrs. But boredom soon turned to excitement when the band Duran Duran was also there and I got to meet Simon Le Bon.



3 - When I was doing my A-Levels in the UK, me and my friend, Iza, lied to the house mistress saying that we had to go down to London to see the students' representative on some scholarship business. But in actual fact, we went down to watch David Copperfield Live Magic show ;D

4 - I've gone to an all girl school all my life, except in kindergarten and university.

5 - The first time I found a grey hair on my head was on my wedding day and I completely freaked out.

6 - I hate cooking main dish but love making desserts. I love eating them desserts too!!

7 - I'm a simple girl at heart when it comes to ice-cream. Most times when we go to Baskin Robbins, I would ask to try all sorts of flavour, but in the end I always get myself plain old vanilla or strawberry.

Well.. there you go... I managed to come out with 7 after all. But I'm not tagging anyone. Sorry...

When Tomorrow Is Today

Whenever Nadiah wants to go somewhere like swimming or Tesco or McDonald's, she would say "tomorrow swimming" or "tomorrow Tesco etc. What she really means is that she wants to go now, today.

I am having a hard time explaining to her the difference between tomorrow and today. I thought drawing it down of paper would help. So I sat her down, and drew in a book sort of like a time table with names of days at the top of the columns and under each school day I would write SCHOOL. And I go through with her.. Sunday, you have school. Monday, you have school and so on. And she would repeat after me. Then when we came to Friday, I wrote down SWIMMING.

Since it was Thursday, I explained to her that "Today, you went to school (we just came home from school then) and after you have dinner, sleep and wake up again, it's Friday and you can go swimming". She said, "Friday go swimming". We went through again and again from Sunday to Saturday and Nadiah seem to have grasp the meaning and settled down for the night.

So Friday morning, she woke up and the first thing she said.... "Tomorrow swimming".

"Arrghhh!!!!!"

American Idol Fever

Today was the start of American Idol Season 9. I love watching AI but honestly, I rather love watching the auditions more than the concerts. They're such good laughs especially looking at the horrified looks on Simon and Randy's faces when a particularly horrible singer takes the 'stage'.

I actually had to wrestle the remote with Nadiah because she wanted to watch Playhouse Disney now that she's watching them on TV. A few months back she would only watch PD if I recorded the shows and copy them into her pc. It's weird but we just go with the flow. Now that most of the pcs are either not working very well or not connected to the internet, she has chosen to watch TV. To the despair of my mom because Nadiah would insist on watching it in her room, depriving my mom of her Indon or Korean dramas. Not only would Nadiah keep a hold on the remote, she would also take it with her when she leveas the room. Hehee.. poor mom!!

Anyway, I hope this year AI would find someone as original as Adam Lambert or one with the beautiful voice of Danny Gokey.

Ooo... and I also can't wait to see Ellen as a judge. That would be so, so cool!! I was quite dissapointed earlier when Victoria B was there instead as a guest judge. So not her fan!! Hope Ellen makes an appearence soon.

2009 Recap and 2010 Hopes & Challenges

I hope it's not too late to wish everyone a very happy 2010. May the new year brings you happiness and blessings from the Al Mighty.

I'm trying to remember what went on over the last year. So many months seemed to have passed by in a whizz and others stayed in my mind as clear as day. So let's recap..

In January, it was Nadiah's first day of school at Superkids in a normal class room. Hubby and I were worried but she loved being in school even with hundreds of other kids and didn't mind the big number or the noise. It's just when the teacher started shouting through the microphone that she got upset. Who wouldn't??


Because of the age difference, she was at least a head taller than every kid.

In February I discovered the Dark Hunter series by Sherrilyn Kenyon and completely changed my reading genre. ASH IS THE BEST!!!

In April, the girls of Sultanah Asma School class of 1992 had two reunions. One was a karaoke nite in KL and the other was a tea party in Alor Star. It was great!! I had loads of fun at both venues catching up with old friends.




Then there was also Nadiah's 7th birthday. We had a little party at home with cake and lots of little presents for Nadiah to open. I think the best part for her was opening up presents.



In May, I won a mini album challenge for the first time. I made a heart shaped album titled 10 Things I Love About You. It's about Nadiah of course. Please click on the link to see the whole album.

Also, I was honoured to be part of the Scrapbook Showcase hosted by Scrappingville and held at the concourse of Bangsar Shopping Complex. The guest of honour was Tun Dr Siti hasmah Ali. What a day that was.

I also bought myself a new laptop.... which is currently in need of service as it's as slow as a snail *sigh*

In June, I was made a member or a design team (DT) not one but TWO international scrapbooking challenge blog. One is with a Singaporean based blog, Scrappin Kids and the other is with Twisted Sketches, an American based blog. What a major achievement that was!!

In July, I held my first SB/altered arts class in Scrappingville. It was on Perfect Pearls and I don't know if I'm right but I seem to be the only one using PP widely in Malaysia. I love PP because it's very versatile. You can use it dry or use it wet. Either way goes. I could be wrong though. But I would love to see more people use Perfect Pearls.

In August, I held my first of many Beading Classes. But the first was always the most memorable. It was held in WNS Homestay, Alor Star. 17 people turned up for the class. It was tiring but well worth the aches and pains.

In September, I realised that Nadiah had started to talk in long sentences. When she loose something of hers like her fave cat, she would say "Where's my cat? I lost my cat." or something like "My ball is all gone". Not only talking but she had also started to argue. When I tell her to go and get ready to go to school, she would say "No school. Go swimming" or "No school, go KL". And she learned the art of emotional blackmail. How? When she wants something she would come and give me a hug and say "Kiss, kiss". Usually when she wants to get out of going to school. :D I just love arguing with her.

After a few classes of beading, I was able to buy my very own DSLR camera : Canon EOS500D. Soooo proud of myself. That was in November, just after 3 months of conducting beading classes in Alor Star and KL.

December saw me being admitted into the hospital. I was down with pneumonia and was warded at Kedah Medical Center for 6 days. And let me tell you that I was never more thankful for having the forethought of getting medical insurance 4 years ago. First I had a chest X-ray done, then I had to have the water drained out of my right lungs (for which name of the procedure I do not know), then did another chest scan on the CT Scan machine thing. The latter had to be THE most painful experience I have ever had to go though. Not the scan itself but when they inserted the dye fluid into my vein. It was only a few seconds but the most painful few seconds of my life. But thue to my Leo nature, not a tear drop came rushing down. But I cried buckets when I was alone shut out in the toilet. Three days later I had to do a broncoscopy. Another not so happy experience. Right after, I threw up everything I had for breakfast (again in the toilet).

Well, that was life in 2009, albeit brief but full of good and happy moments (except for the hospital part). For this new year, I have a few hopes and challenges. I wouldn't call it resolution per se but rather challenging myself because once I put the label RESOLUTIONS.. they usually don't last very long.

So in 2010 I hope to:

- Have another baby or two..

- Be a DT with at least one manufacturing company. Preferably Prima Marketing but for a start, any would do...

and I challenged myself to making 100 scrapbook layouts and I mean strictly layouts.

Wish me luck and I really, really wish that one of the two hopes will come true!!