Thank you Okinokiyo and Fashiono.my

 

I have totally forgotten I entered the giveaway until I received an email from Mai informing me that I have won the consolation prize - a 50% disc voucher on any Okinokiyo's products. I read about  Mai's entry on the giveaway and decided join, just to try my luck. The giveaway was hosted by Fashiono.my and Okinokiyo was the sponsor for the particular giveaway, Giveaway #5.

Thanks you Fashiono.my and Okinokiyo. I'll be redeeming my voucher soon.. :)

A Diehard Fan of Luxe Monologue Diary : 2009-2010-2011 & A Giveaway

I can't live without a planner. Though I'm a full time mom now, I still need to have a planner. Being a full time mom doesn't mean that life is just about the house & the kids. A mom can still do things she like but in order to do that she has to be good at multi-tasking and managing her time.  And if she has a small business at home like myself, then she needs to plan her day& work wisely. And that's were the planner comes in handy.

For the past 3 years, I have been using the Monologue Diary/Planner by Grandluxe.Nothing special about these planners though. I just love the design-simple yet functional, the colours and the layout, a week to view,simply meets my needs :). Had the shocking pink for 2009. Then the baby blue for 2010. And for 2011, it's purple.

I also found another one which I find very very chic. It's called the Fashion Diary and it comes in damask print. I just had to buy one. And.....I'm giving it away to one lucky Itsy Doodles Facebook page fan. For more info on how to win it along with a mini card holder made by yours truly, please click here.
Good Luck!

Blocked milk ducts for company over the weekend

My breast friend ;)

I can't remember when was my last post on breastfeeding... (this blog is also to document my breastfeeding journey) For the record (my record) I have now breastfeed for 1 year and 3 months (almost). A few more months to go insyaAllah. Akif still bf on demand..anytime he wishes, anywhere he wishes... Though he has taken solids, his bf sessions never seems to lessen. He still wakes up once or twice for night feedings too. He musta love mami's milk very much, huh? Hehehe..

Anyway...last friday evening, my right breast felt lumpy & hard. I goggled and found related articles to help me find cure/ solutions. Through my readings, discovered that I had blocked milk ducts. Tried feeding Akif to reduce the engorgement but he eventually refused because very little milk came out. Pumping also did not worked. Nor did hand expressing. I was kind of in phobia because I had once experienced a bad case of mastitis 7 years ago. Praying very hard that this will not turn to that.

[ A plugged (or blocked) duct is an area of the breast where milk flow is obstructed. The nipple pore may be blocked (see Milk Blister), or the obstruction may be further back in the ductal system. A plugged duct usually comes on gradually and affects only one breast ] source : Kellymom

[ The common causes for blocked @ plugged milk ducts are....engorgement or inadequate milk removal, infrequent/skipped feedings, pressure on the duct or nflammation] source : Kellymom

Came Saturday, there were still no improvement. I heat compressed, massage, pumped.. After a few rounds, I finally saw the 'plug'. Tried to remove it but could not. And it was painful too (not kidding). But milk has started to come out again so I let the expert, Akif do the job. Alhamdulillah, though has not fully recovered, the engorgement has however subsided.

So..if you have a case of blocked @ plugged milk ducts, here are what you can do..
1. To reduce / prevent engorgement
     a. Continue to bf on the affected breast
     b. Bf on the affected side first
     c. Vary baby's position at the breast
     b. Hand express @ use a pump if the baby is not willing to nurse
     c. Heat compress - Hot shower @ try using a dispo diaper - fill it hot water. If the temperature feels  
                                     right (the wet diaper), press the inside against your breast. The warm stays longer
                                     compared to wet cloths.

2. Do not fall for myths such as the unremoved breast milk has turned bad@sour if your baby is unwilling to nurse due to plugged milk ducts. No such thing! Breast milk are sterile and they stay sterile as long as they are still in the breast. Baby refusal to nurse normally could be due to many other reasons such as difficulty latching-on due to breast engorgement or low milk flow as ducts are plugged/ blocked.

Lumps or bumps should go away in a day or two. If none of the above works, you should consider consulting a certified LC or your doctor.

For a better understanding and to read more on blocked @ plugged ducts, you can go to the links below
- Breastfeeding-mom.com
- Kellymom.com
- askdrsears.com
- Loveyourbaby.com

Love note : Breast milk is best!

Hafiy's Sunhat

After 5 looong months as UFO (UnFinished prOject) , I finally got it done.*Happy* :D. Thanks to Tinihani for hosting Jom Jahit on Sunhat for this month. Though  it's a little overdue but better late than never, right? FYI, submission was due on Dec 14th hehehe..

The jeans fabric was from my old pair of jeans and the applique..was from an old t-shirt Hakimi & Hafiy used to wear. Tak sempat nak turun kat Akif sebab dah terlalu comot ;P. 

I used the pattern / tutorial by Sew Much Ado. Though it says that this sunhat can fit a 2T-3T toddler head (with head circumference of 19" or so), my 7Y old son can also wear this hat. So, Abang Kimi has also requested a sunhat him :).

Here's a picture of Hafiy and Akif in their sunhats. Akif is wearing a store bought sunhat-which used to be Hafiy's :).

What excites me the most about this hat was....I get to use my new label...Muahahahaha...

SoTinihani, here's my submission for this month Jom Jahit.

Finally.....it's here!

Itsy Doodles's new label.

Rozi of Rozi's Needlework got hers last week. And she already blogged about it here. Coincidently we ordered our labels at about the same time. So we I was expecting my label to arrive...about the same time as hers (not 4 days apart ;P ).

Anyway, am sooooo happy on how the new labels turned out. This will be for something new, soon to be available at Itsy Doodles Shop, insyaAllah. Still trying very hard to make sure things goes according to plan. It's kind of challenging though, (and hard) when you are a full time mom..and your babies and your home are your priorities. What more..it's the school holidays...I really really need to plan my work wisely ;).

By the way, this label was done by kucinpurple. Hop over to their site to get yours done today.

Love note :

Click here to view Itsy Doodles's latest creation - The Itsy Hobo Bag :)

Lunch & Appointment

Went all the way to Shah Alam for lunch yesterday. At a not so newly opened restaurant, Bouquet Garni. Amin had an appoinment with his friend, Shah who's one of the important person there (sorry, I don't know his professional position there hehehe).

The kids

The Lunch

Wide food selection

Delicious & Tasteful Food

 Kimi wanted to eat Nasi Lemak. Served with 2 pieces of fried chicken, a hard boiled egg, sambal on the side & lotsa fried anchovies, groundnut & sliced cucumber. I ordered Chicken fingers from the Kids Meal Menu. for Hafiy. Very crispy and the serving was enough for 2 small kids. For myself was the Chef's Special Pasta- Pasta served with cili padi and coconut milk gravy (ala2 masak lemak gitu)..I LOVE IT! Amin had a bowl of Soto...It was delicious. and love the super large bergedil :). Oh..as for drinks..well, forgot to take pictures of those. The kids went for Milo & Sirap Bandung. I had Pandan Ice Tea while Amin had Mango juice.

The Appointment...

...was on wallpapers for the restaurant. Wallcovering Consultation & Services -something of my husband's interest and he does it on a part time basis. These are the latest designs. Very chic & gorgeous. And affordable too.  Interested? Give me a buzz. Consultation is FOC by the way ;).

Boys and Pants

Here are my boys.
The boys are wearing the pants I made for them.

When you have boys (THREE to be exact), there are not many types of clothing you can sew for them. It is either a top or a pant as they wear tops (shirt or a t-shirt) and pants all day, every day. At this moment, I'm kinda obsessed in making pants for them (since I have not learned nor tried making shirts for boys yet hehehe). I made three 3/4 pants out of 1 meter of grey linen fabric. How great is that? Sangat2 berbaloi!

Akif in his Big Butt Baby Pants. Just a plain pant with a contrast band at the cuffs. Love the owls print :). Bought the pants pattern at made-by-rae.com. It was love at first sight when I first saw the pants she made. Super cute!

Cheeky Hafiy posing for his Mami. Hafiy's is just a simple straight forward pant.Also with owls print at the cuffs. Made it wide-leg so he will be comfortable running around, jumping up and down in it ;).

And for Hakimi, I added cargo/ bellow pockets in front for him to put his knick-knacks in. Used the fish print fabric I bought from MyBotanG for the flap & snap buttons for closure, so that whatever Kimi put inside his pockets will not fall out.

These pants are now in the laundry basket. Can't wait to wash them & put them on the kids again and again and again, LOL!

Love note : Have I told you that I love the linen fabric so much? Well, I loveee the linen fabric so much! And planning to get more yippeeee...

Happy Birthday Ma!

It's my beloved Ma's birthday today. Made a huggy ruffle pillow for her. When I saw the Ginger Tiles print from Sandi Henderson at Lovemelots, I see my mother's name printed all over it heheheh ;P. Used the Ginger Tiles for the front side and Amy Butler's Memento in Burgundy for the ruffles & for the back side of the pillow.

Ties for closure

I was inspired by the way Rozi personalises pillows for her customer (you can read about it here), so I did the same with this pillow. But since I don't  have an embroidery machine, I just used the alphabet stitches available on my machine. It may not be as pretty as if it was embroidered but I love it :D.

As for the pillow case, I fell in love with the one made by lazyorganizer.com. However, Idid not use the measurement given as this pillow is a little smaller than the normal sleeping pillow. I made this 20" x 16". Oh..and I also skipped the quilting part (as I have yet to master that ;).
 

 

And...I also made a matching birthday card for her too. Can't wait to give Ma her present. Hope she's going to love it ;).


Dearest Ma,
Happy birthday!
Kami doakan Ma  diberikan kesihatan yang baik, dipanjangkan umur, dimurahkan rezeki dan
sentiasa didalam rahmat& keberkatan Allah didunia & akhirat.
We love you Ma!

Update : This pillow is entering the Blogger's  Pillow Party for January 2011 hosted by Stitched in Color.

                 

For Mi Amour

He turned 34 on Monday. Have yet to celebrate cause we are all a little under the weather at the moment. The man himself have been whispering since yesterday as he had temporarily lost his voice. And me..as of  this morning, I have finally regained my sense of smell & taste..Alhamdulillah ( had a bad blocked nose ;P).

Back to the titled story, I made me man a wallet. He is very picky when it comes to wallets. He does not wear the normal men wallets we normally see in the market. He would always want to find something different. If he couldn't, he would rather go without one. Yup! And he has been walletless for months now. The last one he own was stolen.

I didn't know what to get him for his birthday. And since I have not sewn anything for him yet, I thought I'd make him a wallet. This was made using a denim fabric bought from Daiso. The design is similar to his last one. Can fit his phone inside too. Well, the wallet is actually more for him to put his business cards, his driving license and his MyKad. Money? Was never in the wallet.

Personalised the wallet with scraps I bought from MyBotanG. The 3 fishes represent our 3 boys while the big fish represents me-lah hahaha. It has 3 slip pockets - one at the front &one at the back for his business cards while another one is inside for his IDcards.  Added a swivel hook so mr.Hubby can hooked on his thumbdrives.

The best part about making this wallet was, it was done in a day, 2 days earlier than his birthday. I couldn't wait 2 days so...gave him the next morning. And he used it right away :).

To my dear hubby,
Happy birthday!We love you very..very .much!

Itsy Doodles 1st Giveaway Winner

Thank you all for participating in Itsy Doodles 1st giveaway and for your endless support. The result? Well....here goes....

There were 30 entries all together. and the lucky winner is...Entry No.1

Erma Jamaluddin

Congratulations Erma! And..since Erma is an Itsy Doodles customer, she will also get an extra gift along with her winning bag. Erma, I will be contacting you soon.

Look out for more giveaways and specials from Itsy Doodles in the future...

 

Scraps from NYKOLETT

Got these scraps for FREE from kak ros of NYKOLETT.
No catch..just need to make one extra what ever it is I'm going to make & send it back to her.
I already have an idea of what to make. Just need to find time to make them. I'm a slow-pow by the way. 
Got any suggestion? Shout it here in the comment box ya.

She's giving more scraps away as you read this. Drop by her blog. If you are lucky, will get some too.

Love note :
1. Today is the last day of Itsy Doodles Giveaway. All entries must be in by midnight. If you haven't joined, go here NOW! :D

2. For those who entered, make sure you already clicked on the 'LIKE' button on Itsy Doodles Facebook page.

Banana Fritters with Ice-Cream

Translated as Pisang goreng dengan Ais-krim aje pun heheheh.

My dearest mother-in-law gave the bananas through my BIL who was passing through on his way back to JB. Believe it or not, after 8 years of marriage, this was my 2nd time frying bananas. My 1st time was err...2 weeks ago? Hehehe...

 Ermm..why were these bananas not yellow? On first try 2 weeks ago it was golden yellow. Different type of pisang maybe? These are not for making fritters? Utk buat cekodok kot (Reminds me of an ex-coursemate, Leong Pooi Yee..she calls cekodok pisang, banana balls). In Johor,  cekodok are known as Jemput-Jemput :).

Back to my Pisang goreng....Used the simplest recipe to make the coating - Tepung gandum + Tepung beras. The result was..crispy & crunchy! It was from by my Aunt Shidah. And she also said..nak lagi sedap...makan dengan ais-krim. And that was what i did. Marvelously yummy!

Love note : Only 3 days left for Itsy Doodles Giveaway,. To join, click here.

I finally bought these and made these...

I have been avoiding doing patchwork before. Just because i did not have a cutter set. Yes, all this while I have been cutting the squares / rectangles for bag making using Mr. scissors. To me having a cutter was not as essential as having a scissors. You still get to cut. But it takes an extra step before you get to cut. Need to trace the measurement one by one on to your fabric before you cut. With a cutter & a grid ruler, you save time because you can measure & cut at the same time.

After much hesitation & resistance, I finally decided to go for it. And I'm very happy I made the purchase. (Thanks to my PIC who never seemed to stop convincing me that it was time for me to have one hehehe). The first thing I made was a couple of potholders for a friend's wedding. It was my first potholders too. Have always wanted to make one for myself. But haven't come around to making one yet. These potholders almost didn't make it to the wedding hehehe..

Oh..and i made a matching card to go with my gift. Love it!

I'm off to play with my cutter now. Later....

Love note : Have you join Itsy Doodles Giveaway? If you haven't, click here :)

A New Bag and A Giveaway

Have been wanting to come up with a new bag for quite a while but could not  find time to make realise the idea. Only now do I get the chance & time to sew this little beauty.  Introducing Itsy Doodles new tote bag -  The Itsy Two Way Tote...

As a token of my appreciation and saying thank you to all Itsy Doodles friends, readers, followers and fans (likers), I am having a giveaway & THIS BAG will be the prize. Yayyy!!!  In tropical print, it is great for you or even for your loved ones. And....if the winner happens to be an Itsy Doodles customer, there will be an extra mystery gift for him/ her.

More details on the bag will be posted later at Itsy Doodles Shop.

To enter, here's what you have to do

1. Become a fan (Like) of Itsy Doodles on Facebook. Click here

2. Leave a comment here (in the comment box below this post. Not on Facebook ya), stating your Facebook profile name (for me to verify) AND your email address. 

3. The giveaway is open to all Itsy Doodles fans (erm..likers?) who has a valid Malaysia address. (Yes, Malaysians who resides overseas or non Malaysians who are planning to come to Malaysia sometime soon may enter this giveaway *wink* ).

4. The giveaway starts NOW and ends at midnight Friday, 29th Oct 2010. I will pick one (1) winner randomly and make the announcement on Monday, 1st November 2010 :)

Here's a button of our giveaway. Please kindly help us get the word around by suggesting  Itsy Doodles to your friends. THANK YOU for your support. Have a wonderful day!

Pressies for my besties :)

I was invited by Nadiah, my best friend since childhood for 'kenduri doa selamat' ( a small get together feast to recite prayers -in this case, for safe journey & safe return) last friday as her parents & her mother-in-law will be leaving for Mecca soon to perform their haj . And, since the day before was her birthday, I decided to whipped up something for her - a Money Purse. I didn't make just one though. Another bf, Iman celebrated her birthday during the Eid holidays so a Money Purse is a great belated birthday gift for her too.

Initially I wanted to make & give them as Raya (Eid) presents but I was swamped with orders and datelines in Ramadan so I didn't have the time to even start. When I got the invitation, I know I have to work on them as soon as possible.So here they are..

 I don't fancy wallet (anymore). I prefer one purse like this to put all my cash in ( this can even fit small envelopes for cash management purposes ;). And a card holder to put all my cards in.

I made two more Money Purses after that. The dotted one was for a dear friend, Aofah who has been supporting my handmade ever since I started making them. She ordered with me thrice and will be ordering again soon, insyaAllah ;).  Recently I made a shout out at Facebook looking for a preloved safety gate. She answered. And to my suprised, she gave it for freeeeeee ;D. So i decided to make one for her to say thank you.

The one in damask print is for ME hehehe...This is one of the print that made me fell in love with designer cottons in the first place. I just had to make something for myself in this design. The Money Purse was a perfect choice *happy*

Love Note : To Nadiah, Iman and Aofah, if you want a matching card holder to go with the purse, you can ORDER one ya! Heheheheh

Chic Mama Tote for The Purse Week Contest

Lemon Squeezy  is having A Purse Week Contest. I thought of trying my luck with my signature bag, the Chic Mama Tote.
The Chic Mama Tote was first created based on my need of a large bag that can fit my stuffs as well as my children's. And also my babywearing gear. And most importantly, it does not look like a diaper bag (only function like one).

 To view the first Chic Mama Tote i ever sewn, here's the link.

This is one of latest Chic Mama Tote I have sewn and it is now belongs to my ex-classmates from my primary school years.  I named it Chic Mama Tote- Garden in Red. Using Michael Miller's Garden Collage for the front & side pocket simply made this bag stands out :).

Thick heavy cotton in red were used as the outer fabric & for the straps. It has 2 pockets in front and 2 pockets on the sides, all using snap buttons for closure. For top closure, this bag closes securely with magnetic button.

 

The inside of the bag were lined with Japanese cotton in polka dots. It has 4 elastic/ expandable pockets inside. Roomy for all mommy's and baby's necessities. Also comes with a key lanyard attached to the bag using cute embroidered ribbon.

The side pockets are even great for carrying milk bottles or water bottles. The sides of the bags are expandable. I, however forgot to the pictures. Below are sample pictures of how the expandable sides look like.

Sample picture

Sample picture

The Chic Mama Tote measures 10(H) x 14(W) x 5(D) inches (approx) and the handles are 20 inches long.

Wish me luck! To those of you who wants to join in the fun, hop over to Lemon Squeezy for the details. Contest ends 08/10/2010, at midnight MST.