Parkland, South Bank, Brisbane

Brisbane, Again and Again!

Date: 12 May 2012

About 1 year ago, my friends and I hopped on Air Asia, visited Gold Coast and Brisbane. The depressing story
here
. At that time I was 2 months pregnant. I was not sure then that I will be back.

So now, with Ju Jr. out and about, Hasben and I re-visited Parkland. It is sooo much better than the last time, because: In 2011, it was recovering from the horrible flood. All this time I was wondering what was all this construction site and swampy area about?!

We arrived in Parkland in the evening, parked our car underground ($15!! But better than taking the risk of saman), and excitedly pointing out here and there.. "Dulu kita lalu sini!"

City of Brisbane:



The boys enjoying the sunset:



Free public pool:



Street Beach:



Aquativity - If only we had out bikinis on, haha!



Aquativity at night - colourful lights on!



River cruise - we went on one of these last year:



Carvings on the Nepal Peace Pagoda:



The Pagoda and the Wheel:



Last but not least, The Wheel of Brisbane, gorgeous!



Blogging on the go!

Sofa Makeover!

From Flowery to Stripy!

Owh how I've missed sewing! It is quite hard to find hobby-time when you're busy juggling between report writing and screaming baby! But today, I successfully cleared up my timetable for some ME time (screaming baby is always in the picture, nothing much I can do about that).

What's interesting here in Toowoomba is Vinnie's - a volunteer/charity-based secondhand shop where people can donate their unwanted things, and other people (like me) can buy these things at very cheap prices. The money goes to charity. Can you see how this is a win-win-win-win situation?: Doner clears house from junks, buyer gets cheap quality items, some folks get charity money, and volunteers get satisfaction for being good people (???). We should have this sort of shops in Malaysia!

Anyways, as a good-hearted person, I like shopping at Vinnie's (seriously, because I'm a cheapskate). I bought an old sofa-bed for $20 early this year. Two small beds, stacked on top of each other = sofa! Creative right?




The only drawback is that the covers cannot be removed so I can't chuck them into the washing machine - which is important since only God knows their actual level of cleanliness, and not to mention the few rips here and there. To resolve this problem - sew new covers.

So again, back to Vinnie's for cheap bed covers and linens. Instead of buying new cloth, I decided to modify a single bed sheet into the backrest cover.



'Gainsborough' brand - is this expensive? I have just destroyed it...



3... 2... 1... Tadaaa...! Looks a bit modern don't you think? Hasben liked the flowerry granny pattern better but he has no say in this matter whatsoever... Hihi...



Blogging on the go!

My First Mother's Day!

Happy Mum's Day~

Date: 13 May 2012

I have been extremely busy lately that blogging seemed impossible! But today, I have to make an exception since it is my first Mother's Day as a mum. My kid is too small to do any heart-melting gestures so it was not really an extraordinary day. However, Hasben did something sweet on behalf of Kimi - a cute card for lil old me~! Yeaah!!

TQ dearest!~

At 1PM, we went for our first Aussie theatre - Cinderella. It was a cute play, enjoyed by me, Hasben and our Malaysian friends. Kimi? He slept halfway and tried to join the act by screaming. Overall, he behaved well so he passed the test for future cinema activities (provided he can have his milk ASAP)...

Excited we are!

 Cinderella - As told by Toby!

 The stepmom and stepsisters....

 Toby the story teller~

Cindy wearing her special shoes...

In the evening, I tried my hands on baking my first chocolate cake - so-called Mother's Day cake - which turned out dreadful! It was nearly 2 hours in the oven but the inside was still undercooked, while the outside was nearly burnt! Hah! At times like this... I really miss Secret Recipe!!

This is suppose to be a cake... in case you're wondering...

Ayat Kursi

Muslims in general are well aware of the power of Ayat Kursi. I have always preferred to have it hanged at home, not just for display purposes, but to remind the whole family to recite it at least once a day. In Malaysia, it is easy to purchase decorative writings of Ayat Kursi, or other ayats and surahs even. Here, I decided to design, print on A4 paper and frame it since I am not sure where to buy it.

I would like to share with everyone my copy of Ayat Kursi. The background is black so it will use up a lot of black ink if you're thinking of printing it =p

Wassalam...

Baby Seat Belt Cover

Safety First!

The Australian government is strict about the use of car seats. Babies travelling by cars must be placed on a car seat - securely buckled. Each seat can only accomodate 1 person, unlike in Malaysia, where we can sumbat selagi boleh as long as the door can be shut! Hihi...!

Anyways, since Kimi will be doing a lot of travelling with his kaki jalan parents, we'll need to provide a comfy car seat for him. For this small sewing project, I've made him seat belt covers to protect his neck.

Just for the record, I've only recently explored other stitch options on my sewing machine - I have found out about the other patterns you can use... So jakun! With this new knowledge (Duh... Ammature~) and using scrap cloth and an unwanted scarf for the padding:



Completed with snap buttons:



Kimi the QA and QC boy! He says, "Bolehla, kat kedai $5 je pon~"



Buckle up! Time to go...!

Blogging on the go!

Me and eBay!

Shopaholic Goes Online!

Shopping online is nothing new to me. I got carried away during pregnancy - buying cloth diapers, baby bottles, breastfeeding gadgets, baby carrier... All was blamed on hormones.

Right now, what started as casual window shopping on eBay became quite an addiction! I kept clicking on the "Next" link until the end of the search list. To make matter worst, the clicking was diverted to the "Bid" button!! And right now, I am hoping that someone outbids me on this one item because I don't feel like buying it anymore... Or is there an "unbid" button I don't know off? Aaarghh...!!!

My first eBay purchase arrived last week - a Tupperware jar openner. The seller described it as: Must have for every kitchen. If you have this, you no longer need a man in the house to open tight jar caps. When asked by Hasben, why am I wasting money on this, I confidently quoted the above.



So the time came for me to put to use this rubber thingy. I wanted to cook instant butter chicken. How I twisted and turned, but the jar lid did not pop open! My hand ached and... heart ached too. Apparently, this orange fella cannot replace a man, crap! After admitting defeat, it was time to face Hasben's smirk... And get the bloody jar to open before kuali hangit!

Blogging on the go!

Pimp My Walker!

Raised By A Frugal Mommy - A. Kimi

Date: 19 Feb 2012

After hard-core scrubbing, no more stains!

Lil Kimi is becoming increasing restless these days. He doesn't like lying around too much so I googled "when-can-baby-ride-walker" - most moms answered 4 months and others even said 3.5 months! So yesterday's Garage Sale mission was to find a cheap preloved walker for Kimi.

Luck was on our side when after nearly giving up hope, the second last house we visited had an unwanted walker for sell at $5. I was 'quite' happy. The walker didn't look too appealing. It was quite dirty and the seat had those blacky-thingy we call 'tahi lalat'... But I know, beggers can't be choosers...

Tahi lalat makes the fabric looks dirty! 

Torn plastic seat... Such an eye-sore!

At home, it was time for MTV, Pimp My Ride!!! I started scrubbing all the dirty marks until the white frame sparkled and machine washed the tahi lalat seat... But of course, tahi lalat is still there.

With my old sewing machine, and some scrap cloth, I wrapped the seat at the baby's head area. The rest of the seat was too complicated for me (not to mention too lazy to figure it out).

Cover-up the dirty looking head-rest... 

... and the torn bottom.

Now that the walker looks decent and hyginic enough, Kimi was allowed to test drive... Vroooommmm!!!