ME DAY...

NEW YEAR, NEW HOME...

* pictured here is the aftermath of our small new year's eve gathering at the new serene home, the first of our house parties with hopefully many more to come...

CONVERSATIONS WITH ILAIKA...re: leaving the tv on...

ilaika : mummy, you keep telling me to switch off the tv when i'm not watching it...why is your tv on?

me : oh i just stepped out of my room to get my cup of coffee...

ilaika : weeeeelllll, i just got up to poo and I switched off my tv!

me : oh, SOR-REEEEE....(with a silent ARRRGHHHH!!)

CONVERSATIONS WITH ILAIKA...in the car park...

cinomonyet sees the reserved lot with the wheelchair symbol and asks, "what's this picture for?" to which i answered, "it's a special parking lot just for people with wheelchairs, like your great grandmother."

she gives me a puzzled look and says, "oh but what if someone comes by and steals the wheelchair...??"

HELLOOOO...ANYBODY THERE?

surprise surprise, look who's back? ;p

well, i didn't go anywhere, really. i've just been bogged down with all sorts. not that it's a valid excuse but it's scary how life just passes by and before one knows it, it's been five months since the last blog post! honestly, if you were to ask me what i've been up too, i wouldn't even know how to respond and that's the scary part because i haven't been up to much and yet i have. does that make any sense whatsoever? sigh...let me attempt to fill you in...if you're still up for reading my blog...

having recently left the pr world of kl's hospitality industry, izreen is now on a soul searching mission to uncover her life purpose and rediscover her passions. 

and that's how the fancy-schmancy official statement would have read if there ever was one! as mentioned here and here, i finally took the plunge and tendered my resignation. it's been five months since my last day of work and i've loved every minute of it. the honest truth is i've just been going with the flow; taking in one day at a time, enjoying the simple pleasures of my life as it is right now. when i say simple, i really mean simple ie school runs, long lunches, mindless reading, afternoon naps, week day shopping etc etc etc ;)

before i resigned however, i did promise to spend the first few months of unemployment figuring out what was next for me. i vowed to work out a proper business plan to make sure i was headed in the right direction as at that time, mel and i were just taking in any order that came along, whether it was for parties, cookies, cupcakes, party packs and so on. but alas, things don't always go as planned. in my defense, i did a wee bit of research here and there but before i had made any real progress, zain & i made an even bigger commitment...we bought our very first property! 

and so we agreed that from now until we make the big move, my main focus was to be our brand new home. as excited as i was to take up a new project, it was with a heavy heart that i decided to stop taking orders for both parties and baking. it just wasn't fair to commit to others when i myself was uncertain of my direction in life. of course, being in between a half packed-up home and an empty one, wasn't exactly the most conducive and convenient environment to work in ;O 

ironically, the moment i announce to the universe that i'm taking a break, i get enquiries every other day! i sincerely do apologise to every single person who's request and orders i've had to turn down but really, it is for the best given the circumstances...

so now, i have two to three months to design, renovate, decorate and move...daunting! but oh so exciting ;)

i'll keep you posted on our house project as we go along and i'll also bring this blog up to date with the last few parties we organised. so do stick around...i promise you i will...

OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW...

at the end of every year,  zain and i put ourselves and the entire household through an exercise of abundance...out with the old, to make space for the new. half way through, my sinus was acting up and the house was upside down, but with every bit of clutter and junk i threw out, i felt a sense of relief and oddly, mental clarity...

and so it was this exercise of abundance that inspired me to revamp this blog. with the new year and promises of an exciting (and hopefully rewarding!) future ahead, what better time than now ;)

i've decided that minimalist is the way to go so i deleted the pink background and changed the header to reflect my current mood and perhaps reflection of my life (click here for the original header design by my style backgrounds...lots of other lovely freebies too!) and this is the new 2011 look...

a lil more grown up, a lil bit rustic, a lil bit prettier...not too clean yet not too bare and splashes of the colours i love...

DREAM A LITTLE DREAM...

as i count the days towards the end of an era (well, my days in full time employment to be precise), i find myself looking fwd to the simplest in things like taking ilaika to ballet classes, baking in the day, reading a book and cooking family dinners...(god knows it's been ages since i did the last two!)

for someone who has had her whole life planned out every step of the way, this is an odd and unfamiliar territory and a lil daunting too, these emotions i'm experiencing...and yet i welcome them with open arms. for the first time in my life, i have nothing concrete planned for the near future. the only plan that's certain is the impending last day at work. beyond that, only time will tell...

the world is my oyster i suppose. am looking forward to doing nothing and everything ;) there's so much that i'd like to do and there's no better time than now. 

perhaps tho, in the first month of unemployment, i might just indulge in being a taitai...!

for those close to me, they know only too well that i've been dreaming of this little dream for a long long time, years even! hence it was fitting that zain gave me this lovely tiffany notes pendant for my birthday...yes, it's my birthday ;)

dream a little dream? yes, perhaps it is time to live MY little dream...

YAY ME...

i came across a facebook app that puts together a person's status updates for the past year and summarises them in a word cloud. here's mine...

no surprises that ilaika came up a lot in most of my updates. monday morning blues and work had more than their fair share too.

well, i have a good feeling that those dreaded work blues will stay behind in 2010 and not tag along to haunt me in 2011....because...yes, i have good news! i finally did it -  i finally turned in that letter i drafted years ago...

yes peeps, i finally resigned! and what's next, i hear you ask? well, that's another story altogether ;)

for now, all i can say is - yay me!

OUR WISH FOR YOU...

did you know...?

(click here or the para below for the original webpage)

" Origami was invented in China around 100AD. The word origami simply means "paper folding". Japan was in the habit of adopting interesting parts of the Chinese culture, and took on the craft of origami around 600AD. It is Japanese origami which has become a world famous cultural emblem. 

As in many societies, paper was a luxury item, created by hand and used only for important, long lasting purposes. When origami was first brought to Japan, only the rich practiced the art of folding paper into shapes. The shape creation was a way of adding special meaning to what the paper held on it or in it.

For love notes, origami was doubly special. First, the origami shape itself could represent a message. The selection of color and shape help conveyed the true emotions of the writer. Second, origami is an intricate art. If the love note was intercepted, it would be unlikely that the reader could perfectly refold the shape. So the origami love note was very secure - it could not be read by the wrong person without the recipient knowing it.

From its inception, origami has held an honored place in ceremonies that were of great importance. Origami was used at births, weddings, and funerals to help commemorate the occasion in a unique, hand-crafted manner. The origami figures would be treasured by participants for years afterwards. "

(click here or the para below for the original webpage)

" One of the first books published on Origami was "How to Fold 1,000 Cranes", released in the late 1700s. It is no coincidence that the crane was chosen as the subject for the book. For thousands of years the Japanese culture has treasured the crane as a symbol of honor and loyalty. The crane symbol is used on many Japanese heraldic devices and is a theme in many famous works of art.

The crane is a majestic bird which mates for life and is extremely loyal to its partner. The bird is strong, graceful and beautiful. Because of the great importance of the crane, the Japanese people feel that a person who folds 1,000 cranes will be granted his or her greatest wish. "

as a child, i loved origami...i can't quite recall if it was the pretty paper that our japanese friends used or just the art itself that attracted me. whatever the reason, i fondly recall my mum folding lil bits of paper followed by my excitement in discovering the figure that unfolded...or folded, so to speak! i also recall asking her to unfold the paper just so i could try and fold it back into the figure she had folded just moments earlier.

a few weeks ago, i chanced upon an origami set at a local bookstore. it reminded me of my childhood days and so i bought a set for ilaika, thinking that i could introduce the art to her, just as my mum did for me. 

and she loved it!

the crane was and still is my favourite. so it was no surprise that the crane was also the first piece i chose to fold for ilaika.

we didn't fold a thousand cranes but hey, we don't ask for very much ;) our dreams are of love and happiness (and perhaps in ilaika's case, a year's supply of froyo!) 

we hope these two will be enough to grant us our little but meaningful dreams and wishes for this coming year and we wish the same for you...

spreading a lil cheer cos christmas time is near...

ho ho ho, we trimmed the tree ;)




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

a weekend of parties w {fluffandstuff}, handmadekl & girls...

had a great weekend, which began with a {fluffandstuff} toy story 3 party on saturday morning. will be posting the pics up as soon as we get them together, but here's a sneak peek for now...

the boys are back in town!
our gift was a framed poster of the three birthday boys with their toy story friends ;)

on sunday, ilaika & i attended the handmadeKL craft party which i mentioned here. kudos to murni for the amazing effort to get us all together and for putting in so much thought to the lil things that made so much difference...

 this was our little corner. darling murni placed us at a comfy table, with enough space for us (ie ilaika) to make a mess and not bother anyone else ;) murni also took the trouble to print out everyone's names and personally chose images that she thought we might want to use. above were my "equipment" - mini curved scissors and a brush which were both provided by murni. ilaika was well-prepared...

 ...and brought her own tools...!

 my wondermilk cupcake which ilaika gladly devoured! 
murni made the toppers for everyone too.

 this was the end result - our lovely tea light decoupage!

ilaika & i had such a great morning getting crafty together ;) too bad we had to rush off before everyone else as i had a waffles & pancake date at 1pm. from what i understand, the craft party went on for another hour or so with games and a treasure hunt too! oh well, hopefully, we'll get to stay longer at the next craft party.

after such a busy morning with ilaika, i was so ready to drop her off at home and meet up with the girls, which is exactly what i did ;) 

i was off to the pink sage to have my waffles...

...and then to damansara heights for what turned out to be a lovely sunday afternoon vino party with three girlfriends and two bottles of prosecco...

at home later that nite, i lit the vanilla scented tea light and showed ilaika what it was for. here's how it looked...

it was a great weekend indeed!

an afternoon with play-doh!

i wrote this post in february but couldn't upload the pics at that time so i saved it as a draft. it completely slipped my mind until yesterday, when ilaika asked for her play-doh...

....d'oh!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

after writing the previous post on my countdown to ilaika's 3rd birthday, i was reminded of the many lovely presents she received from our family & friends for her 2nd birthday. i wanted her to appreciate each and every one, so i didn't allow her to play with them all at once...

hence, every few weekends for the past few months, she's been allowed one new gift. there were a few however, which i kept aside as i felt she was still too young to play with them. some of these were play-doh sets. i think she had three in total!

as a child, i loved playing with plasticine and play-doh but now that i've a child of my own, i dread the mess it would leave behind! nevertheless, i reminded myself today that i shouldn't let this selfishness deny her of some play-doh fun.

much to her delight, i finally opened the huge set that she's been eyeing since her 2nd birthday...

...i was amazed at how complete the set was...

...i don't recall having these fancy schmancy "play-doh gadgets" when i was growing up!

...ta-daaa! ice-cream for mummy, apparently...

...from ice-cream to brolly...

...hard at work...

...i made her scrape every lil bit out ;p

...the lil artist contemplating what to do next...

i'm glad i took the play-doh out for ilaika to play with cos she loves it SO much. now, if only i can figure out how too keep all the different colours apart....

almost three going on thirty...

i first used a lilypie ticker when i was expecting ilaika. it was exciting to keep track of the pregnancy  and the lil quotes indicating development stages were fun to read. i remember eagerly looking forward to each weekly quote (or was it daily? i can't quite recall now...) and counting down to the day when our little angel would bless our lives. 

a few years on and i'm still using lilypie as a milestone of our daughter's life. however, it's been sometime since i actually took notice of it...until this morning, when i briefly glanced at it and realised how quickly the days and months have gone by...

my baby is 2 years, 11 months and a day old...which means she'll be three in less than a month!

- look at how "grown up" my baby looks here -

oh dear. 

oh dearie me indeed. i have less than a month to plan her birthday party. somehow, she's already talking about it and yet, i haven't gotten around to planning anything. so i thought...no problem - just choose a theme and then i can go about with the invites etc. as simple as that...

on the contrary, it was far from simple as i couldn't even come up with a theme. so i started putting together a list of things she loves which led to this post. here's some sharing on ilaika's recent and current obsessions...

- her picture phone...inherited when mummy dearest upgraded to the 3GS -

- her battered crocs -

* picture courtesy of sandra.

 

- dora...the "flavour of the day" changes between dora, princesses, hi-five, barney & hello kitty -

* picture courtesy of sandra.

- her daddy's xbox guitar...inherited when mummy bought daddy a logitech guitar for xmas -

* picture courtesy of sandra.

- her mini drum set...my musically inclined baby takes after daddy & also loves singing & dancing -

* picture courtesy of sandra.

- bubbles -

* picture courtesy of sandra.

 

- more bubbles! and of course, swimming in our lovely pool...or any pool for that matter -

* picture courtesy of sandra.

 - jungle gym -

- play-doh -

- biscuits & baking with mummy -

when i asked her what theme she wanted for her birthday, she said dora.

and then the day after that, it was princess.

and then fairies.

and then swimming.

and then dora-turns-princess-goes-swimming!

oh-em-gee...help...!

as i'm editing this post, i realise how very lucky we are to be a part of ilaika's life. of course at times, she may be a spoilt annoying monster and lil cheeky monkey but she's also a very good girl, who's loving, chirpy, hilarious and  smart. i'm proud of the milestones she has reached thus far and even though i think of her as my baby, there are times i forget that she's barely three...for she's very independent and just cannot stop talking...her nanny commented just the other day that ilaika's three going on 30 ;)

- her love for princesses, balloons & anything pink -

sugar for my honey...

for valentine's day this year, i have no sweets for my sweet but i do have sugar for my honey ;) well....to be more precise...vanilla butter and dark chocolate biscuits topped with sugar icing!

i made these biscuits as a trial run for samplers and then came across this pic on wikipedia:

it's a valentine's day postcard crica 1910. doesn't she look like she's carrying a jumbo of my biscuits?   ;)

the year of the tiger & edible cny gr-rrr-eetings...

for me, chinese new year comes with fond memories of ang pow packets, crispy thin love letters in milo tins and the much dreaded lion dance. yes, as a child (and actually, even now!), i would freeze at the first gong indicating the start of a lion dance. i'm not exactly sure what it is that freaks me out so badly...perhaps it's the large blinking eyes and the loud drums, cymbals and gongs or perhaps just the possibility of the "lion" approaching me! odd, i know.

this fear aside, the chinese new year also brings to mind pink cherry blossoms, pretty lanterns, fire crackers and fortune cookies...all of which were the inspiration* behind these crunchy edible greetings which i'm giving out this year in place of an actual greeting card...

* click here for the original cherry blossom image that makes up the background of this biscuit's edible sheet. it's a lovely blog on everyday celebrations!

 

 

and of course, in conjunction with the year of the tiger, i just could not resist this cute lil thing...which really looks more like a cat to me but i'm told it's supposed to be a tiger ;)

* some of the background images of these edible sheets were images taken off the net...

bubble, bubble, toil & trouble...and a wee bit of park babble...

* interesting fact to share: did you know that the quote "bubble, bubble, toil & trouble" is actually from duck tales, and not macbeth? the original quote from macbeth is "double, double toil and trouble!"

i'm not really a nature-loving person in the sense that i hate to be out in the sun and usually try to stay away from situations where i'm most likely to break into sweat! this sunday morning, however, was an exception. it was a lovely morning and the weather was absolutely gorgeous with clear blue skies made even brighter by warm rays of the morning sun.

in the spirit of christmas and the holiday season, i decided to join my aunt who had planned to take her kids and ilaika out to the park. i was also curious to see this park in particular as i'd driven past the area once and was very impressed with the development in general. 

Desa ParkCity is a beautiful development with picturesque landscapes and broad, tree-lined pedestrian walkways; a simple luxury that is unfortunately rare in KL. each small "township" (residential neighbourhood) is a gated community of its own and in the heart of these townships is The Waterfront, the "town centre". it's not quite the town centre  that onewould imagine by the given term. it's more of a small community shopping block which brought to mind the community areas found in smaller towns outside of Central London. 

The Waterfront is complete with ample parking spaces, grocery store, atm facilities, pet shop, restaurants, cafes and some interesting looking shops. it even has a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf outlet and a branch of one of my favourite japanese restaurants, Rakuzen - both of these overlook The Central Park which lies just behind the shopping block.

and this was where we spent a good part of the morning. The Central Park was not like any other park i've seen in KL. there were no  brightly coloured slides and swings normally found at other playgrounds. instead, there were odd minimalist steel contraptions which looked futuristic and did not  appear very inviting at first glance. of course, it didn't help that all the contraptions were of dull greys  and blues. thankfully, looks can be deceiving...somehow the kids figured out how to use these contraptions; some were pretty straightforward and loads of fun...

...but others involved a little bit more trial and error!

this being said, i would assume that the target audience would be slightly older kids for ilaika wasn't too impress with the whole minimalist concept...

...and she was much happier playing with her bubbles...

our sunday park adventure was unfortunately cut short by some bubble trouble...ilaika, in her excitement, fell on her knees whilst trying to catch a bubble. lots of sad tears  accompanied by shrieks of pain (mostly drama at the sight of a teeny weeny drop of blood) and a few cuts and bruises later, the poor thing didn't even squeak a protest when we decided to call it a day. all tired out, she fell asleep almost as soon as we got in the van! honestly, i did too, as soon as we got home!