It's time to get productive

Ever since I've made my very first oil cloth bag from my own pattern last year, I've not really made anything else with oil cloth so I thought since Beatrice has especially requested for a wallet as her birthday present, I have decided to use oil cloth to try and make it.

I must say I was quite pleased with the result although the colour scheme was not 'Spring' enough for her so I agreed to make another which was more colourful. Meanwhile, another friend of mine saw the wallet and wanted me to make and sell her one.


Although it wasn't a big sum of money, I still managed to get a certain kind of satisfaction from making a small amount of money from such an enjoyable and fulfilling hobby.

Next week i'll be heading off to York to visit Beatrice and I really look forward to it as we always have a great time together on our short get-togethers.

Meanwhile, I did manage to make another wallet for her which has a more Spring look to it.

Take a look at these pictures.






- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Spring is in the air

I know that it has been a while since I updated my blog and without realising it, it is now March. How time flies. Flowers are blooming by the road side,the days are getting longer and the weather is becoming more and more pleasant!

I've been thinking about getting an iPad for a while but ever since moving into our new place, because we didn't have Internet connection I thought it was a bit of a waste. So I held out till last week.

By chance, and after three months of living in the new place, we found out that we could get Internet connection from Steve's office(at his dad's house, located at the back of our house) when we're upstairs in our bedroom!! So without much delay, I made the plunge and got myself an iPad. This is also partly because the new iPad 2 is coming out and they have brought down the price of the original iPad. And not only that, I managed to save some money by buying an Apple certified refurbished one, with 64GB memory, new outer case, new battery and the same warranty. Of course, to buy a refurbished item, you have to accept the fact that it's not brand new, it's been used and there might have been a problem with it at the first place and hopefully is now fixed. But since it is Apple certified and it comes with the same warranty, and so far, so good... I don't see any problems with buying a refurbished one because I'm really not fussed about it. And to think that it used to be well over 500pounds, I think I saved quite a bit of money on it. But if I was going home to Malaysia to visit my family any time soon, I would have waited till then because it is a lot cheaper in Malaysia. But I couldn't wait that long.

So now, when I go on a holiday, I know that I will be entertained for hours on the iPad because i had managed to download and purchase lots and lots of Chinese novels that i used to read when I was in secondary school; Japanese comics; free games and lots more! Of course I am also kind enough to share my new purchase with Steve so he occasionally gets a go on the iPad to play some games.

On another note, I can't wait for summer to come and when we can go on picnics, swimming in the sea, bike rides and have barbecues!

Fantastic!

Just to share with you how I feel today!

A project long overdue

I was highly ambitious before X'mas last year in terms of my sewing projects. I was making plans to make this for so and so, make that for such and such person... And in the end, I've only managed to complete a pair of X'mas stockings for Steve and myself.

So now, almost one and a half months after X'mas, I'm playing catching up. Tonight, I started with a simple cushion cover for the foam pad that I had planned to give Don, Steve's dad as X'mas present. From beginning till the end, the project only took me less than half an hour and the result was satisfying.

I hope Don will be pleased with it when I give that to him this Sunday. But I think I won't mention that it was meant to be a X'mas present :)
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Chinese New Year Eve

Today is Chinese New Year Eve and unfortunately I'm working. Come to think of it, even if I wasn't working, what would I be doing at home? Bumming on the couch in my PJ's watching/ flicking through some boring daytime telly. This is the time when I miss home and family the most. Listening to Chinese New Year songs on Youtube; reading blogposts from others about CNY preparations; talking on the phone to mum and listening to her tell me about her preparations -- always makes me feel a bit sad and nostalgic. This year(as with two or three previous years), due to poor planning, I wasn't able to make it home to celebrate CNY with the family. I am determined that next year, I will book my tickets early so that I can be home for Chinese New Year. Chinese New Year is not complete without all your family  members around you. And I do feel guilty come this time of year, knowing that my family will be missing me, yet again, during their reunion dinner. So having to work today really sucks, and not only that, I am working till 10pm tonight, so tripple S.U.C.K.S !!! But luckily, one of my colleagues from my evening shift is kind enough to cover for me tomorrow night so at least I can do something special then in the evening just as a small mark of celebration to usher in this year of the cute bunny rabbit.

Anyhoooo, let's move on and I shall show you in a picture sequence of what has been happening lately. I know, I know, didn't I mention at the beginning that I will put in a bit more effort in updating my blog and so far that hasn't yet materialised. You  must forgive me as ever since we've moved to the new place, we have not had the internet so that has made things a bit tricky, especially in terms of blogging after work. But, today being Chinese New Year Eve, I am in the mood to update my blog, for some strange reason.

Last year, Travelodge was doing some great deals on their room rate and one can get a room for as low as £9 per night so we booked three weekends away to three different places that we've always wanted to visit but never got round to because ordinarily it's too expensive. So the weekend before last, it was a weekend away to Brighton and we only paid 12.50 per night, for a room in the heart of the Brighton City Centre and it was brilliant. We explored the famous and cultural North Laines, went for drinks at the pub, and of course had an excellent Indian lunch at the famous Chilli Pickle restaurant and it was absolutely mind-blowing. Some pictures to show you.

Steve ordered the chicken curry dosa and it came looking like two gigantic horns on a plate and it was delicious and authentic.

I ordered fish curry thali which came with rice, dal, pickle and bread. It was a bit too hot and spicy for me but the mixture of spices in the dishes were amazing. Not too over-powerful; just the right touch. 

We spent a considerable amount of time at the Amusement park at the pier mainly because Steve was determined to win me a teddy bear from the teddy bear clawing machines. And also I was addicted to the 'coin machine' and the phrase for the day was '10p more', '10p more'... ie, if I slot in another 10p, the machine will push the coins further to the edge so that more coins will drop out. Steve had to practically drag me out of the amusement centre so that I don't lose another 20 lot of '10p more'... here's a picture of Steve working hard at those teddy bear 'clawing' machines.

We didn't get the big teddy from this machine but Steve eventually managed to get me a smaller and cuter dog from another machine. And we both left the amusement park feeling smug and contented with me hugging the doggy to my chest and looking proud (great weekend huh? lol)

In my last post, I was excited about my latest sewing project and I can now reveal that it's a beanbag for the lounge and I can tell you I am very satisfied with it. 

This picture shows the inner and the outer bag before the big operation of white fluffy bean filling into the bag.

And here's the beanbag and it's really comfortable too. ps, note to self, must start making other things too. I haven't seen my sewing machine in ages.

On a seperate subject, I have been buying honey pomelos from Lidls and they only cost a pound and it's always juicy and lovely, although the last one was a bit too sharp for me so it's still sitting in the fridge.

Not many people know about this fruit in this country and people always shy away from things they are not familiar with. People love grapefruits and this is almost like a grapefruit, but three times bigger !! So if you see a honey pomelo when you're next in Lidls, get one, and follow my example to cut it open. It's juicy, tangy and sweet.

I am very lucky to have DSC working in the office. She often surprises me with lots of goodies.

Chocolate mice, that is.

How cute are they?!?!

Okay, this concludes my non-Chinese Chinese New Year Eve post and Gong Xi Fa Chai to all and wishing you a full year of health, wealth and happiness, just like the bunny.

New Year, New Post

7 days into the new year and my last post from last year is staring back at me, almost with a fed-up expression, demanding to know when I will finally get into gear to write a brand spanking new entry for the new year.

This working week started on Tuesday, so really it was only a 4-day-week, but it felt like it's been dragging on for dayssss and I am glad that it is finally Friday today and all my muscles are beginning to loosen themselves and my 'relax' mode is about to kick in, in a few hours' time. 

Sometimes it is a challenge thinking of interesting and engaging topics to write about on the blog and at the moment, the 'fountain of ideas' in my head is as dry as the Sahara Desert.

I guess the highlight of the new year is us appreciating the new living space that we have right now. In the next post, I will put up some pictures of the house but at the moment because the weather is always so dark and gloomy I reckon any pictures taken will not look very nice at all. In the meantime, we are still collecting bits and pieces for the house to make it as nice as possible. Having said that, for reasons that I will not get into details right now, this shift is only temporary so we are trying not to go crazy with buying new things so that when we eventually have to move out, we won't have to face a new clutter, on top of the old one we already have. But I am determined not to worry about something that has yet to come and I will enjoy this moment to the maximum. It is really lovely to have my own sewing room although I haven't been in there for quite a while. However, that is all going to change soon because as I am composing this, my whole body and mind is trembling with excitement over a project that I can't wait to get started on as soon as the weekend begins!! And obviously more will be revealed about the project as the pictures of the finished project are unveiled in the next post, hopefully !!!

Oh and just a few pictures to share with you of our quiet but absolutely delicious New Year celebration at home. I love steamboat because it always reminds me of Chinese New Year with my family and also it's an excuse to prepare lots and lots of calorific fantastic array of seafood!!

 We made some siew mai for lunch on New Year's Eve.

 Firing up the gas stove to make sure that our steamboat experience will take place without a hitch.

And the selection of food that we had. We surprised ourselves by finishing quite a huge amount of it but still have enough leftovers for a quick noodle soup meal the next night. D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S !!

Okay my dears, I think this will do for a new year post from me and hopefully in the next post I will be able to upload some pictures of the house to share with you. Until then, a belated Happy New Year to you and take care.

PS: This entire post was composed with me holding the phone to my ear with my left hand while being put onhold with the Maybank2u telephone customer service and my right hand tick tack typing away. And I keep hearing this over and over again - "Sorry, all our EXECUTIVES (they certainly think very highly of themselves) are still busy. Please hold, we will attend to you shortly." They can't even be bothered with putting on some nice music to sooth the 'seething anger' that I am slowly building up within me. I don't mean to put the Malaysian service down but it really wouldn't come as a surprise to find that the EXECUTIVES are probably sitting there yakking away about what to have for dinner and decide to let the phone ring and ring and ring.... I need to make the EXECUTIVE decision about when is the best time to give up and hang up...

And Christmas is almost here...

So much has happened lately I haven't even the time nor the energy to blog about it. But looking back at my blog posts for last year, I had some Christmassy blog entries and this year, I thought I should at least make some effort to record what's been happening.

Right, first of all, we have moved into a new place temporarily and it's been hectic moving all our things over. Despite the fact that it was just moving to the back of the house, the number of trips we had to make moving things out of a room over to the new place was endless. We also took this opportunity to get rid of some of the rubbish that's been sitting around for years. And it felt good !! Although we have everything we need in the bedroom and the living room (with all the Christmas decorations up) our kitchen actually looks empty and at the moment, there are two sets of cutlery, two mugs, a bowl and some dinner plates, haha. And of course, most importantly, we bought some pots and pans but that's about it...here are some pictures taken of the new place after the snow.

 The area outside the patio door.

 The pavement outside the house.

So we managed to move almost everything eventually and we were beginning to organise everything into their proper place and starting to settle down a bit but we were also busy preparing for something else. Last Saturday, Steve and I had the opportunity to host a Christmas party at the shop for 17 of our close friends and it was bloody fantastic!! Of course Steve, being absolutely ecstatic with having that opportunity started planning his menu months beforehand and decided on a full-blown 5-course dinner with various canapes of dragon roll sushi, rare roast beef on mini yorkshire puddings, and etc. on arrival. Before the starter, guests were served an Amuse-bouche of sweet corn veloute accompanied by streaky bacon or vegetarian cornbreads (a bit like the corn muffins you get from Kenny Roger's Roasters but smaller). And then comes the starter, which was thin slices of home-cured salmon gravlax, served with asparagus tips and dressed with chives creme fraiche and leaf salad, or for those who do not like seafood, they were served home-made ravioli with roasted pine nuts and spinach. It was an absolute shame that because I was busy helping him serve up the courses, I didn't get the opportunity to take a single picture of the food. But I did manage to take a picture before the party started which I shall reveal later. And after the starters, the main course of fillet steak was served with roasted potatoes, provencal peas, red cabbage and caramelised onions in beef jus. As for the vegetarian, pan fried scallops were served instead of the fillet steak. For desserts, everyone was served an assiete of pudding which consisted of a slice of lemon tart, a slice of bread and butter pudding and a chocolate mousse (not sure if it was mousse because it was quite thick and creamy) with raspberry coulis. And the dinner didn't finish at that. Afterwards, guests were served coffee as well as home-made chocolates!! It was a really fantastic experience but of course what came at the end was loads of washing up and everybody helped to clear up as well so there wasn't much to do apart from the washing up. And I didn't really fancy the thought of having to go back there again the next day to continue with the washing up, so I whipped through all the washing up of pots and pans and glasses and plates and cutlery that night and we only had to go up to the shop the next day to do a bit of tidying up and putting the shop back to its original form. It was a great and fantastic experience and we were happy that everyone came and had a great time but quite a lot of preparations went into it. Ahh, here's the picture I took before the party started...

 As you can see, we were not short of things to drink.

This is a really nice picture taken by one of our friends. Unfortunately, she's missing from the picture.

So after that had taken place, we then started to worry about getting the last minute bits and pieces done in preparation of Christmas. For the first time in 5 years, Steve and I decided to do a Christmas stocking for each other and I happily volunteered to make ourselves two personalised Christmas stockings and I went and got all the materials from the fabric shop but I kept being delayed because my sewing room was not properly set up at the new place and all my fabric boxes and books and other paraphenelia were still lying around. So on Monday, the University was shut due to the snow and I immediately cracked on with the stocking and managed to produce something. I started doing Steve's stocking first and paid a lot of attention to details and did lots of satin stitch edging around the applique but when it came to mine, I had lost half the will and did a rather sloppy job of stitching the applique on but I am quite happy with the end results nevertheless.

Fely mentioned that Steve's stocking is larger than mine. Can you tell the difference?

Well, that's about it for now. I am quite ready for Christmas and getting more and more excited now. Not long to wait now.... 2 days before Christmas!! Yiippeeee !!

Have a really Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all.

And it's December...

A couple of posts ago, I was whining and whinging about the challenges and difficulties  that I was facing trying to complete a set of Roman blinds. I knew I could do it, but I just felt like whinging and whining about it... part and parcel of completing a project...

Anyway, the pair of Roman blinds were duly completed at 11pm the night before we had to go up to London to 'deliver the goods' and I was overcome with a sense of relief, mixed with pride and a tinge of smugness. Here are some pictures to show you their complete state,  before they were hung in their proper place.

The two greatest challenges when making them were 1. they were too big for the limited work/ sewing space that I had, seeing the fact that I only own a household sewing machine, and also the fact that my cutting/ measuring table was actually just a 110cm x 80cm dropleaf table, and 2. I didn't have a specific pattern/ instructions that I could follow. I had watched quite a few youtube videos of roman blind making and also read up on a few articles about it but I had to device my own pattern and it was a bit of a 'hit and miss' and I was so nervous the whole time about making mistakes, especially when I was cutting the pieces out because the fabric wasn't cheap.

But I did manage to complete them and thought they looked absolutely beautiful. They were not 100% perfect but I think for a first roman blind, it wasn't too bad. Of course after completing them, I then had another worry that they weren't going to fit the windows properly and as you can imagine I was worrying about it all night and all next morning until Steve's brother finally said, "Okay let's see if we can fit the blinds up then". Here's a picture to show you a comparison of the old curtain, and the new blind.

So overall, a happy me and a satisfied 'client'.

What I like about this whole sewing addiction is that you learn something new after each project and the level of satisfaction you get from completing a project no matter how big or small is so great! And I've been thinking to myself for the past few months -- sewing, where have you been all my life?!

On a separate subject, you would have probably read somewhere by now that the UK was hit by a sudden cold snap which brought along plenty of snow, even Bournemouth, a place which rarely snows, had such a thick layer of snow that we couldn't get to work for almost two days ! I took some pictures and here they are, as a nice way of ending this first post for the December month.

Time for bed now I think. It's been a longggg day.