lights on please!

Am so excited!Tak sabar nak pindah balik rumah sendiri. Living between boxes is definitely not my cuppa. I need my clothes to be properly hung in wardrobes, plates and pots in to be properly stacked in kitchen cabinets and boxes do not have to double as meja :D

Target mid December, InsyaAllah.

But first. Fixed electrical items -  Fans, aircond, lamps, switches, water-heaters dan yang sewaktu dengannya. Tebby is very much an organised person. He did a detailed list as above - what and where. The size, watt, type of bulb and all. And he drew a budget that we need to stick to.

My task?
Yang, yang ni elok letak kat tangga.
Yang, 3 gang, no?
Lampu gantung nak? Ke tak mau?
Aaaaa... yang porch tu ambik yang tu, simple. Bulat silinder aje.
Alaaaa... kipas ni lagi cantik.
Kat porch better ada wood finish.

Beli kat CIMA Lighting, literally kat belakang rumah je. Dekat, senang nak pegi beli. Senang nak tambah kalau tak cukup. Senang nak tukar kalau silap. Sebelum ni dah survey. Attended by Saiful. First time kami survey-survey je. Saiful ni gigih ikut we all dari floor ke floor walaupun tau we all tak nak beli. I guess it pays of for him sebab masa bebetul nak beli tu, we looked for him and he secured his sales :D 

OMG! Cute-ness! Nasib takde anak-anak yang tahap umur tengah gila bebenda gini. Seen at Phillips Center kat dalam CIMA tu. Now Phillips tak jual just bulb aje, dah diversify jual lampu as well. Design sumer kena dengan taste ai. Bajet aje yang tak kena. 

More Phillips. Anyway, we opted for mostly down-light. Simpler and lesser things to argue on hihi. Tempat yang tak guna downlight, we opted for simple-lines, straight cut, low maintenance design. Cam porch tu, just cylindrical kinda design. We do an open carcass/exposed beam. The structure should be the limelight. Light can take a backseat, so to speak. Tapi Yang, ai nak kipas cam ala-ala wood finish tau << sempat lagi tu. I know he reads my blogs. 

Owwwww... cuteness overdose. Seen in Phillips center at CIMA.

Designs yang kelompok belah kanan are so me. Suka! Suka! I have always believed in love at first sight when buying things. Kelompok kanan lampu barisan belakang sekali yang tengah. Suka tapi takde stok. Tukar shape square, with same design, edged with wood-finish. 

Do you dare?

We spent longer time that expected. Ingatkan dalam sejam dua dah setel. Indeed we spent 3 jam choosing lampu, water heater and kipas. Tu pun kipas KIV dulu. Need to bring along the contractor sebab ada satu part tu low ceiling, not sure which and what kind of kipas to buy. Result 3 jam tu, sakit tengkuk mendongak huhu. But happy as one part dah taken care off. Aircond dah mintak contractor carikan. Bagi specs and requirement aje.

And balik rumah, realized that ada point yang terlupa nak beli lampunya. Plus ada lampu yang tak masuk dalam bil. Adeh.. 

tiang nan sebatang

One issue with renovating house- to deal with existing beam and tiang that cannot be moved. Especially when it's an intermediate terrace. Like ours.

2 Sept 2012

Intact. Photo taken a day before renovation work commenced. Almost in its original form except dinding putih kami cat kaler chiffon and pasang grill. 

30 Sept 2012

Almost a month after. Dinding intact tapi siling dah dirobohkan. 

10 November 2012

Dinding dah roboh. See that tiang nan sebatang tu? And tepi tu ada salur paip. Memang asalnya ada kat situ dalam embedded dalam dinding simen.Tiang tu tiang support, tak boleh alih.

Amboi Adik, ambik kesempatan nampak?
Challenge - Macamana nak sorok tiang dengan salur paip tu?
 

13 November 2012

Mula-mula nak letak sederet tiang kat situ. Mind you satu tiang tu RM250! Busuk-busuk pun kena ada dalam 4 to 5 batang tiang jugak. Much cheaper option - wall up to conceal tiang and salur paip but we leave a bit of an open space. 

23 November 2012

Done. Cemented and plastered. Siling pun dah pasang. Lubang kat siling tu for aircond cassette. 

Seen from other angle after dinding dirobohkan. I suggested to wall up entirely about 6 feet belah kiri and another 6 belah kanan to balance up. Tapi Tebby lebih suka dindingkan sebelah aje. 

25 November 2012
This is how it would look.

Challenge - apa pulak nak letak kat lubang tu? Book shelves? Open pigeon-hole? Leave it be?

yellow kitty 'sewn with love' PJ bottom

Project took off!

Same day beli kain, same day terus potong and jahit *flips hair, blows nail*

But first. Pola jahitan. I was doing a PJ bottom for Kakak.. (or rather I am still on 'PJ Bottom' projects as I still have to do 3 more). I bought Kakak those beautiful knee length baju tidur that do not come with matching seluar. Seen above is pola jahitan seluar tidur.

Derhaka ilmu SRT.  (people my age went to kelas Sains Rumah Tangga during our secondary schooling, depending on the school. FYI). SRT will (supposedly) impart you with proper knowledge and skills to be good at all these ilmu rumahtangga *ahem* As for this project, it is supposed to be drawn on proper white/brown paper (I used a used-envelop), properly marked with seams and notch where-ever and when-ever appropriate (I skipped this). Then to trace using tracing paper onto the fabric Also derhaka - skipped this step. I drew straight onto the fabric using Adam's pencil. SRT has this kapur kain. Kapur kain ni akan hilang kesannya pada kain lepas basuh. 

During those days we have a kotak jahitan each. Inside - shears, jarum jahit, jarum peniti, pita ukur, tracing paper, kapur kain, tracing wheel, jidal, benang, lapik pinggang etc. Kelas SRT ada every week. Alternately between kelas jahitan and kelas masakan.Untuk kelas masakan, utensils disediakan so tak perlu ada kotak masakan with sudip senduk sudu garfu semua tu :D

singerrrr... menawan keluarga bahagia...

This project requires almost 100% straight line stitching. I was too malas to go out hantar jahit tepi kat kedai so I did double stitching. Can't remember what's the term. Kelim *something*. Supposedly kena pin kan and then jelujur dulu baru jahit. Jelujur ni jahitan tangan yang kasar-kasar. You must use benang kaler lain dari kain bila buat jelujur. I must admit it's not easy to master and comply to all these ilmu sains rumahtangga ha ha. Well, I skipped those :D Curve stitching at the crotch area only. When there's curve, kena snip to allow fabric to stretch nicely when diterbalikkan. As for jahit tepi, kalau tinggi semangat daya saing dan tinggi tahap ketabahan, buleh hand stitch juga *pingsan* Namanya ialah jahitan insang pari. Tak, I am not kidding.

A safety pin is a must in your kotak jahitan. Untuk kerja-kerja memasukkan getah kat pinggang seluar or kain. I saw my mom used this method. Kalau takde safety pin ni, dia guna sepit rambut kaler hitam tu. But sepit tends to tersangkut kat rumbai-rumbai kain nun, better guna safety pin. Anyway, SRT did not teach doing bahagian pinggang using getah, always guna pelapik yang keras tu. That, requires some calculation as to place correct measurement of lisu at the right place. Lisu ni pulak banyak kaum kerabatnya nya - lisu beriring, lisu bertentang, contohnya. Boleh jahit lisu mengadap ke dalam as well as ke luar. Selain dari nak hilangkan gelembung-gelembung, lisu pun buleh jadi hiasan tau. Too much eh? Bottomline, guna getah memang lagi senang. Anyway, ada ke PJ bottom guna zip dengan bahagian pinggang keras? Takde kan?

Done. Kakak in her home-made yellow kitty PJ bottom. Sewn with love *beams* Nampak cam senteng sebelah sebab dia terkepit seluar tu while trying to give the best pose.

While we were at it, Adam datang and insisted that I posing-posing kat mesin jahit tu. Layankan aje. So I gave him my best pose and Ummi senyum. 1,2,3....  Annndddddddd this is what came out..

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Mana Ummi Dik?
*huwa*

project: sewing #1

Dah lama tak menjarum. Masa beli kain-kain ni Tebby buat muka kelat-kelat.

You nak buat apa?
Nak jahit la.
You nak jahit semua ni?

Okay. You just wait and see.

Ihtifal 2012 @Atfal Excel

The night before.
Ummi, cikgu pesan malam ni tidur awal.
Esok bangun awal pegi sekolah.
Pukul lapan tau Ummi.

Days before.
Cikgu suruh saya pakai baju orang besar Ummi.
Cikgu suruh saya nyanyi nanti.
Ummi, nanti saya baca doa tau.
Baca doa tengok tangan tau Ummi.

 The BIG day eventually came last Saturday. He woke up extra early. Extra chirpy. Extra happy :D Dropped him off (for prepping up I guess!) at 8.00am then the rest of us went for breakfast. 9.30am the event started. I was so excited to see him on stage the first time. I made sure my bateri camera was charged to 100% :D

That's the owner of Atfal himself, welcoming everyone. Pengetua is actually wife dia but she's not well for the past one or two years. After the speech was first performance by kindergarteners age 4-6.

Adam on stage! First time. Muka blur. Searching for fimiliar faces :D

He saw us!

Baca ikrar. Bibir merah tuuuuu!

Du'a. His favourite, as he can say 'aku' without me jeling-jeling him.

This is what he meant 'pakai baju orang besar'. Ber-nasyid pulak. Ni age 4 and 5.

Kisah gembala dan biri-biri.

Biri-biri kena tangkap dah! So comel these kids.

Adam! Dah men-spiderman. He got restless after a while and menyebok tepi stage.

6-yo. Bakal memulakan primary school 2013. Moga kalian berjaya. School smart and street smart. Jadilah anak kebanggaan keluarga dan agama.

It was a small scale event. But regardless the scale, whenever there's kids, rest assured it's gonna be fun (and havoc!) Good event, good food. It ended with a makan-makan do. (ada pulut kuah durian! Sedap!)

It warms my heart seeing wajah-wajah polos dan suci these children. And to see proud faces of parents there, regardless whether or not their child is the most outstanding student or not.

Post event.
Ummi, tadi saya pakai lipstik tau.
So that explains! :D

tips (.. and tricks!)

When your child refuses to do it the conventional way of sitting and learning through books, it calls for a trick or two :D

I notice my two boys fall into that category. When Iman was about Adam's age, he was like that. Refused to sit still and learn. But I was more concerned of his social skill back then. At almost 5, he wasn't speaking yet, let alone other skill like reading and counting. But like I said many times before, tiada yang sia-sia, semua kan ada hikmahnya. I learn a lot through him. Things not on books and papers.

Adam has similar traits. He's one bouncing ball. Always on the move :D Well, Iman still is, especially when he's not hooked on this things-imagine on the net! Take away that iPad from him, he'd go jumping, running, climbing, walking around - bottomline, always on the move. But Adam has acquired those social skills appropriate for a boy his age. He speaks in clear sentences, he gets around people easily (and wraps us around his little finger as well! :P), he recites dua and short surah. Alhamdulillah.

Anyway, back to my original track. People my age sidetrack easily huh?

I decided that from the look of it, Adam is ready for a more serious reading. When my elder two are at the table doing homework or revision, he's one busy boy with books, colors and all :D And asks a lot of questions too! If Kakak books a seat on my right and Iman on my left. He has this seat beside Iman on my left :D But first things first - the foundation of reading - spelling!

I can see he's not so keen on learning spelling via books so it calls for some creativity. I also believe every child foundation years should be fun, fun and fun!

I start with the basic phonics (as per book Bacalah Sayang) - a, i, u - in small letters. Cut out the alphabet a i and u in small pieces, about four pieces for each letter. I used two different colors of card.

3 cards of different colors. Not only it was fun to play with medley of colors, at the same time boleh ajar warna as well. Adam has no problem with colors, he knows all 12 basic colors in his pencil color box. But for the fun of it, I used different colors.

The home-made flash card. Yellow on blue. Letter a i and u on each card.This is my sempoi teaching kit :D

My student! Personal and private class lagi! Gosh, my bakul of unfolded laundry back there ha ha. Prioritize! Laundry can wait, no?

Adam, mana a? Ummi nak a yang warna yellow. Tampal atas kertas biru.

Took an a and paste.

Adam, mana u?

Pasted u.

Mana u lagi?

Pasted again.

Smile.

Finish one card.

On his second card. Grey. Learning is also about repeating so I made 3 cards. 

Third card. Orange. He insisted on bubuh gam sendiri. Cikgu dah malas ha ha.

There, done. All three. Correctly pasted based on my instruction.
Pink on grey, yellow on grey.
Yellow on blue.
Yellow on orange, pink on orange.

He insisted that I take photos of him with each card that he did.

................... as well as the flash card that I used to teach him :P.. layan...

Yayy, I'm the winner.

Yes you are my dear.

Uiks, kurusnya Adik, nampak tulang rusuk.
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Oh my, my laundry back there! Prioritize ha ha.