A wedding, a birthday & a funeral

There's just so much to say, but just couldn't find the time to do so and there's not so much inspiration going on the past week...not wanting to talk about it though. It's just a really though week at the office. Found myself on the verge of tears several times at work. Sigh. So much for the first week of turning 27! Hah! Leaving that aside....yup, last Saturday was my 27th birthday & it was my friend, Rosty's big day too! She tied the knot! Whoohooo! A very happy day indeed. My friends and I attended the blessing at Holy Trinity Chapel Lambir and the night reception at Rosty's place. Everything felt as if it went sooo so fast..but we enjoyed every moment of it...being part of a joyous & memorable occassion that is! It does seemed rather surreal to see her as she walked down the aisle, beaming in her beautiful wedding dress...who would ever thought that this day would come so soon! :) Here's wishing her & her hubby a happily ever after. :)

After the reception, we headed for Marina Seahorse for supper but not before stopping at my place for a piss stop...hehehe. :p During supper, my friends suprised me with a cake! Hehehe...yay! And sang the birthday song. It still didn't really hit me that I'm a year older and to tell you the truth...i'm in a bit of a denial...still. Hah! And oh, I got some really nice pressies & cards (a handmade one made by Sue as well! Looove it!) from my friends & family! Am trully blessed to have had this moment. Thank you to my friends for a great time that night and thank you to my family and friends, who are "jauh di mata tapi dekat di hati"! :D

Well, it's time to head off home. It's been a long day & an even loooonger week. I attended a funeral this morning. Subdeacon Roland's dear mother passed on earlier this week. The eulogy by SD Roland was very touching & emotional and it left me teary eyed & sniffling all the way. I have never heard anyone talked so fondly of their mom before. My heartfelt condolences to SD Roland and his family. And I do believe that his mother is in a better place now. May she rest in peace...

Show & Tell

I've made some crafts & cards after the Raya holidays last month. It's time to show them off..hehe! And each of them has a little story to tell. Here they are...

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First off is a frame I decorated as a birthday gift to my friend Jo. I stamped the words 'Dance', 'Sing', Love', 'Live'...and then handwritten the words below it. Was a bit nervous while writing them down...takut salah spelling, hehe. I decorated it with some pink lace, fabric flowers & acrylics. Love it! :) And I had that feeling again...of having second thoughts to give it away..haha.

Next is my Ice-cream card, which I made for LLC's challenge with 'Food' as the week's theme. I intended to make a cupcake but look what came out from the craft oven....ice-cream! Haha. I used felt & corrugated paper for my ice-cream & a red button to top it off. I actually stamped 'Happy Birthday' at the bottom right of the card...but it bled & got all smudged up. Aiya. The 'birthday' didn't look that happy at all. So what I did was write "Happy Birthday" and paste it onto the stamped image. Tadaa...problem solved. ;)

Lastly, is LLC's this week's challenge. The theme was 'Indian' with henna designs! An idea given by Jo. The first thing that came to my mind was saree! But decided to scrap off the idea...seems a bit difficult. I ended up drawing an elephant (as they are considered very important to the Indian culture, so it fits the Indian theme...i think) & doodled some henna like designs on it. Do you think the look henna-ish? ;)

So there....a lil 'show & tell' session from my craft world. Time to head back home. Enjoy your weekend everyone! Til then, God bless! :)

My Series of Fortunate Events

A lot have been happening in the past two weeks….whooh! :) I went back to Kuching (of course!), on Friday for the Raya holidays!

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I got a chance to visit my secondary school, SMB St. Teresa. I spent 5 years of my life there. The place has changed so much! So many wonderful memories…sigh. Met with my Chemistry teacher, Pn. Foo, as well! It’s been 10 years since I left high school…waaah.

On Saturday, I attended Bishop Aeries’s consecration service & celebration dinner with my family. The dinner was a pretty grand one with various cultural performances and the 6.45am choir also preformed several songs…very impressive! Revd. Roannie entertained us with some songs and Jerry Kamit performed as well!. Such talent!

It was indeed a blessed & memorable day! I also met my Sunday school teacher, Uncle William at the dinner reception! Wow…it really does bring back lots of memories. Makes me wonder where my Sunday school friends are now….

The next day, I stuffed myself to the max during Raya visiting. Haha…don’t dare to step on the weighing machine dah. I went out lepaking with my friends & mi familia too. Got to see my little cuzzies play sand art…haha (I think it’s the new craze for little kids. Heck even grown ups play ‘em). Found out a new hang out place called BarSaga. Pretty cool! It was indeed a great time…and always NOT enough time. I didn’t get to do one thing, though. I actually planned to watch a movie at the new MBO cinema at Spring. But tak sempat…as usual. Haiya…

By Wednesday, I’m back in Miri. Work starts loading on my table. (am procrastinating quite a bit already…hehe.) And then there’s the AYC AGM which was on Sunday. The LLC’s weekly challenge's due as well. Whooh, so much things to do! Well, am glad I managed & went through the week in one piece, haha.

On Friday, the youths…Vic, Elsa, Tim, Lydia, Shannen & myself joined Revd Alfred, SD Julius, SD Jackson & the MWF to Sg. Liam longhouse. There’s a service at the longhouse’s chapel that night which was celebrated by Revd. Alfred. It started off with a Praise & Worship session and then we’re divided into groups. Elsa, Vic, Shannen, Lydia & I handled the youth group. Our mission was to reach out to them. Revd Alfred mentioned to us that the youths there are being challenged with problems as such as drinking, gambling & smoking. We even saw some of the boys smoking at the tanju just before we started off our session!
The session was at the ruai of the longhouse. We started with an ice-breaking game. They enjoyed themselves! However, we were a bit concerned with the decibel level going a lil’ too high that it might disturb the longhouse folks…oops. The sharing session was on how to prepare for exams. They were proactive… they asked questions & responded to ours as well.

We took turn sharing & I struggled with my ‘jako Iban’..oops! as I’ve never done any sharing in Iban before and found myself searching for words or rather trying to translate my words in the midst of my sharing….haha. Nama meh penyadi… :p And lastly, before we bersurai, we prayed for them & ended the session by encouraging them & challenging them to improve themselves and do their best. After the service, we had supper at one of the longhouse folk’s bilik. They served very yummy local dishes and also durians! Haha! But, am not a fan of durians. So I just took photos of ‘em instead.

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The next day, Saturday, was another busy day…especially in preparing things for the AGM and also Family Service. (It’s the youths turn to lead in Praise & Worship). I was up & running since morning….helping out the Teenz practicing for AGM’s praise & worship session, practicing for the Family Service & then choir practice for the Miri Xmas parade. Apuu..ka luput ku..haha. I ended the day with Maggie at Chilipeppers. A nice time chillin’, releasing the stresssss & laughing out loud…literally!

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Come Sunday, we had a Family service in the morning, which is held every 4th Sunday of the month. And in the afternoon was the AYC’s AGM. We’re very impressed with the number of youths attending this year. For the past several years, we have never exceeded 40. This year, in fact 50 youths attended! Praise God! All the various youth ministries handed in their reports, which was verry good indeed. Aiseh. We also distributed our new keychains in conjunction with AYC’s 40th Anniversary….designed by Mr. Chairman himself. The meeting went smoothly & we’re encouraged by words of wisdom from Ven. Solomon Cheong, Bro. Tommy (our advisor) and Bro. Bajeng (Mr. Chariman).

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Kudos to the Praise & Worship team..Zara, Lydia, Cyril & Shannen for the great effort. It was their first time & I could see that they’re nervous but they are very brave indeed to take up the challenge. The guitarists were Daniel, Bartholomew & Melvin. Very proud of them!

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After the meeting, we had some refreshments & fellowship, as usual…di bawah pokok. :) By 5.30pm it’s time to pack up & go home.

Finally! I can let out a bigggg sigh of relief & thank God for His endless blessings & guidance. :D

Two weddings and some Raya cards

The past week or so I was crafty busy making two wedding cards ordered by my friend and ex-colleague, Marianne. One was for her childhood friend who got registered on 09.09.09 and another one for her relative in Canada (if am not mistaken). Here they are... And I also found time to make some Raya cards for my colleagues & friend. I try to make them verrry simple. I made use of the duit raya packets. They're so adorable. I just can't resist. Hehehee. The best thing about this, is that, it didn't take up much time to do! :) The cards all came together with a cake each, which Charles, my colleague, and I bought for them. Didn't get to take their picture with the cakes though...haha.

My Raya creations:

Wishing all my Muslim friends Selamat Hari Raya 2009! Happy & blessed weekend everyone! :)

p/s I'm several hours away to going back to home sweet home Kuching...yaaay! *feelin' goood*

Some like it HOT!

Here it is…..a card I made, specially requested by my friend, Jiahang, for our old buddy (haha), Ray’s birthday! He wanted the card to be naughty or in his terms “kinky”(?!). (Boys will be boys...haih) Hahaha!

I took the challenge. And challenge indeed it was. I have no idea how would this card turn out to be! I’m so used to making cards with pretty stuffs like flowers, ribbons, cute lil’ buttons and such… and now I have to switch mode! Akai. Well, after some brainstorming sessions…I “stormed” out a ‘HOT’ card. Berasap-asap palak pikir...
Well, I like the fire I made, though...hehe. It was free hand…no templates whatsoever. :) I roughed the edges of the card a bit, to give it more texture (can't really see it from the picture, though).

A tough one but I’m well pleased with it! :D Phewh!

Just crafts

Here are some of my crafty updates!

I decorated a photo frame for my mum as her birthday gift. Her birthday falls on 10th August. Instead of putting a photo in it, I typed out a poem for her. Adorned with flowers, buttons, ribbons and a strand of pink pearls. Simply lovely. :) And oh, she loved it!

Next is LLC's challenge to make a Hari Raya card...since Raya is just around the corner...one more week...another holiday..yay yay! I made an untypical (is there such word?) Raya card. Well, the only typical thing about this card is that it's grrrr...een in colour... I think I'll make some more & give 'em to my friends & colleagues. :)

Last week, LLC's challenge was to make a card for kids, given by Sue! I guess, knowing that hers is on the way, it gave her that inspiration for the challenge...hehe! I can't wait! :D Two words that came to my mind when Sue told me about the challenge was 'colourful' & 'fun'! So I came up with a beary colourful & beary fun one. Haha! ;p This is it....

That's all from me! Happy weekend all! ;)

Merdeka!

This year, I celebrated Merdeka with my family. We went to Johor Bahru, where my brother is currently studying. It has been 3 years since I last stepped foot in JB. This place used to be where I studied too. Now, my lil bro is taking over my place. I visited JB in 2006, two years after I graduated, to meet up with some friends. Such a memorable place, where I spent 4 years of my life!

As usual, just like any family trip, we spent our time shopping, sightseeing and most of all….eating! And of all the days, my dad kena gout! I guess it’s because of all the eating sessions we had! Thank God, he’s back on his feet after taking ubat.

On Saturday afternoon, we went for a youth service held by the City Harvest Church. This is where my bro, Vin worships and he is involved with the music ministry, playing the bass. I was a bit anxious on how my parents would respond to the style of worship as they are very much used to the traditional way of worshiping…hymns and all. So, it’s something that I would like to see…heehee. And to my surprise, they were clapping away & trying their best to catch up with the songs…hehe...lagu rancak bah. The sermon, was preached by Pastor Chee Kiang from Singapore. He’s very fashionable…he wears this leather jacket, jeans and has spiky hair. But underneath all that rocker outlook that he portrays, his voice is gentle and has that affectionate tone. J During Holy Communion, we were given unleavened bread. Very interesting indeed...my first time eating unleavened bread! They’re somewhat like those Jacob’s crackers, you know!

And in commemoration of the coming Merdeka Day….we sang the Merdeka song while waving our lil’ Malaysian flags. Patriotism’s in the air.

After the service, we got to know some of Vin’s friends. One of them, Berlina, turned out to be related to us, which we found out after a bit of “bertusut” session that we had! She is from the Kadazan side of our family. Small world indeed!

On Sunday, Vin & I went to Singapore. My main mission to Singapore was to go to this craft shop, Made with Love & oh… also to meet up with my friend, Prakash. Hehe. Well, I came across the blog of this craft store and was mesmerized by the pictures of the store. They have so much crafts stuffs sold there and it was mentioned in their blog, that it’s the biggest craft store in South East Asia! So I imagined that it would be verrry big. Waaaah…! But………when we reached the store….it was not as big as I imagined that it would. Oh well… But I did have fun browsing through the craft stuffs & got some stuff for myself & Sue. I couldn’t help but multiply 2.4 to all the prices of the things. Vin & Prakash became my calculator…haha! Poor boys....they had to wait quite sometime for me to be done in that store. Hahah…!

After JB & Singapore, I spent a night at Kuching…Home sweet home! And after that it’s back to Miri & work work work…bluaargh.. :p However, am just glad that I had the time to “Merdeka”, literally (haha) from my daily routine…just unwind & spend time with my family. A very good breather for me, indeed!