...more on princess d.i.y...

...a few more pics to share from the superheroes & princesses d.i.y....

these were ilaika's "masterpieces" from the party & i found them in her princess bag. she had saved them to bring to school!

a trip down memory lane...us three in singapore circa 2007...

zain put this comic strip together back when ilaika was still a baby. it was just after our first trip as a family of three. ilaika was barely four months old & we had decided to take a break in singapore for a few days. she cried & screamed throughout the whole holiday, except when we were in the hotel room. the pic of her in that baby onesie - will work for milk - makes me laugh everytime.

clockwise from top left:

at a singaporean wet market that zain dragged us to using his gps (hobby of the month that month)...apparently they had the best char kueh teow in town...it took us an hour to get there, only to find out it was closed on that day!

mini me & me in our pj's in hilton singapore. she was so tiny back then & always had that look on her face...

zain & ilaika back in kl. she had an obsession with the tv remote...she still does except now she actually knows how to use it!

i bought this onesie in singapore & it was so fitting as ilaika had been part of a tv commercial just a month before! look how happy she was to be in the hotel room...

superheroes & princesses d.i.y.

i usually bake my biscuits & decorate them in the comfort of my mum's large kitchen. however, a friend of mine had a special request for her kids' birthday party; it was her son's 4th & her daughter's 2nd. as she wanted something more interactive for the lil superheroes & princesses, i pre-baked the biscuits, packed my decorating kit & anxiously brought them over to her house. we set up a table amidst the party chaos and let the kids have a go at decorating their own biscuits.

we filled up squeezy plastic bottles with icing, gave them the "stickers" which i designed & printed the week before...all edible of course ;) and also provided them with colourful sprinkles.

my own princess ilaika was of course, the most excited of them all. having seen me prepare these at home, she's been itching for a whole week to get her hands on these tempting goodies! unsurprisingly, she was the first guest at the sweet stuff booth...

the other pretty princesses & handsome heroes churned out real works of art too ;) unfortunately, i was so tied up with managing the booth and making sure the kids peeled off the plastic sheet behind the stickers (!) that i didn't get to take many pics of their masterpieces. here are a couple i managed to snap...

quite a few of the kids weren't interested in decorating the biscuits, especially the older boys...and it was a shame to have them go to waste, so i decided to decorate all the biscuits i had brought. mini me & i had a blast with this but the poor thing konked out at the party, before all the biscuits were completed!

luckily for me, i had other ever willing helpers who were oh-so-excited to be allowed to decorate more than just one biscuit!

before i end this post, i have to thank aida for  her support and for insisting i bake the biscuits even though she's an even more talented chef than me. i really enjoyed myself & hope super-idris & princess qaisara did too!

it's a boy!

before you get all gooey & excited, allow me to clarify -- no, i'm not expecting another baby. despite the constant "so when's your next one" hints, i think i shall stay away from that subject for at least a few more months. selfish as it may sound, i am not quite ready for yet another bout of sleepless nights & feeling like a dairy cow! this, of course, is a completely different story altogether...one that i shall save for another day...

a couple i just recently came to know, has just been blessed with an angelic baby boy. mind you, his mother will beg to differ that he is only angelic in the presence of other people and is quite a little monster behind closed doors - something many mums will be able to relate to!

this little angel will be a month old soon and his lovely mum has asked me to design some biscuits & matching invites for his naming ceremony. i've only ever made invites for myself & ilaika's parties but never for anyone else. hence, i had quite a bit of fun with my power point* & mac book pro these past few days. 

* yes, am still using power point...i SO have to start using a "proper" design software soon!

i started with a blank "canvas" and two boyish colours - blue & brown. it turns out the mum is like me - we both prefer our invites to be not so kiddish. however, i couldn't completely ignore the fact that this was an event for a baby...so i still had to include childlike elements into the theme. i used some digital scrapbooking ideas -- added some stripes, a few circles & a couple of buttons...here's the initial design i came up with:

- front -

 

- back -

it's no mona lisa but i was kinda proud of this. not bad for a newbie, me thinks ;)

thankfully, the mum liked it too. we made a few changes here & there, added the baby's pic & sent it off for print. i'll share more when the invites & biscuits are ready...