Life Changing...

Meet Baby Dyanna (as in the princess) with daddy.

Born on the 12th June 2010, 3.35kg (about 7lbs), 55cm (22.5").

Normal Delivery.

13 minutes of pushing before she popped out!

All creative endeavours are currently on hold until further notice...

Mommy is currently recuperating.

(I never expected post birth was going to be like this physically, ack!).

My little angel :-)

Mommy love you very much!

xoxoxo

Plaster 101

The significant other and I had an interesting time last night, we made a belly cast... Well, he did most of the work, I just stood there as it was applied on to me.

It took longer than I expected.

He had to be all crafty and learn how to use the plaster gauze there and then.

Lots of water was involved.

We went through 5 rolls which I cut into strips prior.

Cats got very curious to what we were doing.

Didn't realise how heavy it got as we were making the cast with me standing and I had to cradle the breast to hold it up.

Removing from body was easy, popped right off.

So now, the cast is stuffed with newspaper to support it while it fully cures, then I could sand it smooth before painting... only I have to figure out what to paint on it, can't decide...

Thanks to my friend Nadia for gifting me the kit to make it!

I have 9 days until my due date :-D

Apologies...

...for the lack of posts, other things been occupying my mind, baby especially. So baby's blog is pretty active, especially now that the day is getting nearer... whenever that is...

Me, 36 weeks!

I am now in my 37th week, the doctor had said I can give birth anytime now... within the next three weeks... Yesterday I had that 'nesting instinct' all the pregnancy info I've been reading about says will come , cleaned the house as much as I could and napped in between. This morning before heading to work I had the sudden urge to wipe down and rearrange the display cabinet upstairs, which I did.

Later, I'm heading to a tailor to make some baby stuff, at the same time decided my living room cushions need new covers as well. I have all these ideas I wanted to do, I just don't know how to do this whole sewing thing yet, I have bags and bags of materials I must use up! One of my things-I-need-to-learn-and-do. Give me a while, I'll crack it eventually.

I feel like there are deadlines looming over my head, and must do as much as I can before baby comes, because after that... I have no idea what I'll be like after that.

Have no expectations. Enjoying the moment.

What New Year Brings

Hello.

I've been away for quite some time...
Am slowly uploading pictures of past events...
Playing catch up so to speak...
Bear with me...
A huge chunk of it is thanks to this one...
Who would've guessed, not me that's for sure, I was convinced I was coming down with something and it was anything but this...

How was I suppose to know apart from being nauseous like hell, on top of that I was fasting which made it worse. I was convinced I was lacking in certain minerals or vitamins. And the fact my period was very late made me sure I was sick.

Figured before I head to the doctors I better eliminate a certain question which I'm sure they'll ask. No way I'm going to give them that satisfaction.

It was late in the day when I did the stick.

Oh...

Right...

So that's what all that nausea was about!

First trimester was spent with the toilet bowl and bed all day long, I didn't get morning sickness like most people did, my morning was great! It was after I got out of bed was when the tsunami hits. I was in no mood to do anything, although for some bizarre reason I was cooking often but not eating.

I'm in my second trimester now, and feeling better. I'm back in the studio. This year I planned big things in this space. And I only have a few months to do them in before my whole life changes again. Better start cracking...

Happy New Year Everyone!

Selamat Hari Raya or Eid Mubarak

I just love Illustrator don't you, a simple quickie to commemorate.

To celebrate the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, the whole month of Syawal is a time for celebration, to seek forgiveness from your love ones and friends, to strengthen ties, to start anew from the awareness of lessons learnt during Ramadan to be a better person. I seek forgiveness to those of you out there friends, clients, potential clients and bloggers alike for any slip ups or wrong doings that happened with and without me realising it.

On the first day of Syawal, my parents, sister and us will be having an open house, all friends are invited and families and relatives will be coming over too. Friends tend to come during the day and bulk of the relatives will come in the evening I noticed. I'm looking forward to this year, I have a whole new set of families and relatives to get to know from the husband side.

Through out the month, there will be open houses invitations. I like going because it's fun to see how people decorate their homes and the many variety of food they searve up from sweet to savoury. Chirstmas or Thanksgiving is a one day affair right, not Eid, it's a test of strength and will power to resist from indulging on all the food and come out unscath by the end of it.

I haven't been doing a lot of Raya or Eid business this time round, which is a blessing really because I don't think I would've been able to cope with so much change that had been happening in my life this year. I know this blog has been quiet of late, am still trying to get used to these life changes and not to mention a whole slew of wedding orders to finish, I got a few due in the next week or so and panic is set on simmer.... *breathing deeply slowly*

Passing In The Family

Two deaths happened in the family recently. One of my aunt, who had been suffering from diabetes and both kidneys failed for a number of years already and was swiftly taken when she developed complications with her lungs. I remembered her well when the time I came over and my uncle was showing me how he would change the drainage bag that was attached to her abdomen to remove the used fluids to put in a new one and my aunt telling me that she can only have one mug of water to drink per day and nothing more. I didn't get a chance to see her one final time before she was covered up for burial, it took the whole of the morning to prepare her body before was finally taken to the cemetary for burial.

A week later, one of my uncle passed away, the cancer finally caught up to him. Went to his house for the wake, and started tearing up as I was saying goodbye to him when I looked in the casket. Every Eid he would come over to the house, never misses a year, always looked forward to his arrival. My DH and I went to the funeral mass and the church was packed, I cried when the service started and again when we were the last to view his body and hugged my aunt and cousins for their loss. We stayed until the casket was loaded up surrounded by all the wreaths that was given to head to the cemetary.

Both days of the funeral, it was clear and bright with blue skies.

The last I saw the both of them, during my wedding. That was the last that majority of us saw the both of them, alive and smiling, surrounded by family. My late aunt who was wheelchair bound for a number of years came for every single function for the wedding when before she would decline. My late uncle who was suppose to have flown off overseas for his treatment the morning of our wedding and changed his flight just so he could attend and be with family. They both probably knew their time was ending and made the effort to come. I appreciated that they did. It saddens me to think but at least they are both at peace, no more suffering from the physical pains of their bodies. I pray that they are in god's good grace, and I shall miss them as they were kind and good people.

Moving The Studio...

I am on two weeks vacation! Well, no not really. I just took time out from work so I can move the studio from my old place to my new place. Maybe I should get a before and after picture yeah, must look for pictures of old studio, I know I have it somewhere... What I love about new studio, the windows. Lots and lots of windows! Old studio got one window, but it's totally blocked up by my shelving racks so that doesn't count. Ok, gimme a few days, I'll put up pictures next week, promise.

The Invite Card - rambling rambling...

I'm designing my wedding invites, it's more or less done. Just need to talk to the printers and look for the right paper. I'm going to fold and cut up 500 pieces of flowers. Between me, my cousin and several other people, it is possible. I just need to find the right paper, cut up into squares and fold them up into triangles.

Mom has been reminding me to keep the card simple. Just make it a regular card she said. No need for the fancy shmancy pop up she said. I'm not going to make a fancy shmancy pop up. Even I know I don't have the power to make a fancy shmancy pop up in the time that is left. My cottage factory only exist when the need arises and even then they can only do so much.

I made several mock ups. The first one, I was like, yeah, this is it. Simple, nothing to it. That was the inside, open up the card and a heart pops out, text all laid out on either side. Then I did the outer part of the card, family list, cover. Thought I was being clever with the rounding off one end of the rectangle. Then I stepped back and realised it looked like a giant silhouette of a tampon

Scratch that.

Fortunately, the fiance's invites were already done. They were lucky, the place where they're having the do is packaged with the invitations. I like the typeface it had. I went back to mine and rid of the fancy shmancy curly type I had earlier, it was just messy as there was so much text to fit in. The malay language just have too much protocol.

Following the steps of the other half I did a simple layout with an overhead fold (A4 folded in half). Arranged the text to one side leaving space for the flower. Made a mock up and it worked. There's an empty space at the top left corner and I don't know if it's something I should fill in...

I tested out the mock up and my subject, aka sister, was suitably impressed. Hence, the plan will continue. Meeting printers next week, in the mean time, will look for suitable paper for flowers. It has to be red, as the card will be on pearliest white with black print. I shall live up to my motto, make do with what's available locally and maximise on it.

There are also mini invites for the other two functions, since those will be in a smaller run, I feel that it's easier to print them out myself. And it's designed smaller still, it'll be on an A6 format. So 100 pcs = 25 print outs... (4 per sheet of A4).

and the other one 50 pcs = 13 print outs on A4.

I just need to buy a pack of scented rose print on white for about... how much did I buy for a pack of 100... less than 40 bucks that's for sure.

If I buy them 40 cents per sheet that's... 25 + 13 = 38... multiply that by 0.4 = 15.20 bucks... oh, much much cheaper... if I buy stack, I could always use the rest for other projects... will have to think about that one.

Still have to factor in how much the printing of cards is going to cost at printers and how much the sheets of red paper is going to be. I'm aiming wrapping paper, that'll be about a dollar per sheet at the most. Just need to know how many squares I can get out of a sheet. A ballpark figure of maybe 12 squares at a dollar per sheet will give me.... 40 bucks! That's a lot to spend on wrapping papers...

And if the printers are going to charge me say, $1.50 per card that's another $750 for 500 invites. Shit that's expensive... work out each invite is going to cost $1.58. And if it's the one with the extra invites that'll be $1.78. When you break it down to unit cost that's cheap.

But I haven't factored in the, will we be using envelopes? Are the envelopes thrown into the price or is that an additional price? The pizza to be ordered for the flower making crew and assembly? And the glue used for assembly, not counting time and effort put in... My cousin and I have been brain storming this, when it comes to the planning and doing, she and I are gold.

I think I can keep it well below $800.

Must take pictures of mock ups and final pieces when ready... if I remember to charge up my camera.

This is going to be fun

I'm curious, how much did your invitation cards cost?

Oh gosh, I just remembered, I have to do 50 handmade invites for a friend's wedding!  

they changed their mind, they want a guest book now...

Hunting...

I am hunting for my camera cable. Got loads of pictures but I can't offload them because I can't find my camera cable. The studio got tidied up while I was away and now I have no idea where half my stuff are.

Things I want to write about with pictures:

• My first male bookmaking participant.
• The youngest recorded bookmaking participant.
• Brunei Resources limited edition books.
• The post valentine book.
• The custom greeting card book.
• Long stitch soft cover books for next class.

That's all I can remember off the top of my head right now. I want to go diving tomorrow, but I still have a commission to finish (told client she can pick them up tomorrow) and I might be pulling an all nighter (I hope not) and if I do go diving tomorrow, I'm going to be shot from lack of sleep. So I asked my dive instructor if we can go diving next friday instead, and he said yes, yay! (my weekend is a friday and sunday, I work on saturdays)

Am addicted to playing that scrabble game, Lexulous, on facebook. I've started up games with complete strangers just so I could play.

My cat's gone missing. I hope he'd come back soon. He's back!

Got to make a visit to the framers... Done.

Post Valentine...

This year, I was busy completing a commission such that there was no time to fit in my valentine's book for the fiance. He told me to concentrate on doing the commission first and he can wait. He knows he's getting a artist book you see, because I told him last year, heh. I finished that commission 4am valentine's day morning.

Valentine was spent having a little family party, my dad's birthday falls on the day with mom few days before and my nephew before that. Three birthdays and the table was filled with cupcakes, cheese cakes, meringues, pavlovas, and pies. Fun evening it was as we organised a lucky draw. Microwave oven, dinner sets and DVD player were the most sought items that night! Everybody went home with something.

This image on the left, was something from my archives, it was back in art school, I made my own pen and was trying out a little calligraphy using paint. It was part of a translated poem from the Tao Te Ching. Took a detailed shot and played it up on Photoshop. I think I vaguely remembered how I did that...

Oh, I had a class yesterday, and an 8 years old girl was one of the student. Her finished book was so sweet! Will post about it after I'm back end of the week, I'm flying off in a few hours *wheee!!*

For Chui Hime

Happy Birthday Choo!!

You ooh-ed and aah-ed over the paper when you were over at the studio the other time...

I used the gold thread to bind it to match the gold Sanskrit writing on the paper and long stitch binding method to sew the cover and sections together. Made it all pretty like. Reminded me of the CNY mouse I gave you that you got hanging in your car.

Have a great birthday, this year is a lot of changes for you. I still think you should just become an apprentice of a dojo in the mountains so you get to sit and meditate in your gi every morning as the sun rises before your daily aikido practice ;-)

Wishing you all the best in life my dear friend.

All pictures courtesy of Chui Hime

Irony...

Just a short post amonst the chaos of life, especially the past week being Hari Raya or Eid celebration, there's a post I wanted to do but that'll be another time. Anyway, I was just reading an article about organization and my mind wandered to the current state of the studio which is pretty much a mess 90% of the time, (hence the studio was closed during the celebration because it wasn't tidy-ed up, yet during the open house I still had people who insisted on seeing it with the response of "It's a studio, of course it'll be messy"). As I said, I was gonna sort out, organize, what have yous and I still haven't. Thought I was going to do it during the fasting month since I get to go home early but this year I was just drained and end up crashing out and my productivity level was zilch for the month... Oh wait, that can't be, I made those other stuff... Hmmmmm...



I was also suppose to do the inventory for the studio and that didn't happen. I asked a friend who just did the inventory for her shop if she'd do mine and I'll pay her to do it, it was a flat out no. It was worth a shot.



I remembered buying a book something to do with decluttering and feng shui, only I don't remember where the book is (lost somewhere in studio). Another reason why I need to sort out the studio was that I'm looking for a book a friend lent and she wanted it back, it's called 'The Power Of Now'.



I got a cynical smile on my face at the moment...