think about it.

birthday registry

Regardless how old I am, or at least for as long as I will remember, I will have a birthday wishlist. I mean, isn’t it easier to tell people what you want, instead of them guessing and sometimes getting stuffs you may not want and don’t use? Quite wasteful, right?

Its like a registry, so you can keep track of what was gifted. In fact, I actually purchased some items myself, as part of my resolution to care for myself better.

Actually its an ongoing list lah.

This year, I aim to have the following items:

1)      Too Faced White Chocolate Bar eyeshadow

2)      Too Faced White Peach eyeshadow

3)      Too Faced Just Peachy Mattes eyeshadow

4)      Too Faced Sweet Peach eyeshadow

5)      Bodyshop Peppermint Feet Care

6)      Sand & Sky Pink Clay mask

7)      Laneige Sleeping Mask

8)      Benefit Bad Girl Mascara

9)    SF Egyptian Dress Blue

10)  Lulu Al Hadad Kaftan

11)  Nusheennura Marble Long Dress

12)  Desigual Bag

13)  Unicorn cake

14)  Mermaid cake

15)  Ondeh-Ondeh cake

16)  Teh Tarik cake

17)  Macaron

18)  HP

19)  Laptop

20)  Fossil Rose-Gold watch

21)  Lang Leav - Love & Misadventure // Lullabies // Memories // The Universe Of Us // Sad Girls // Sea of Strangers

22)  Rupi Kaur – Milk & Honey // The Sun and Her Flowers

23)  Jojo Moyes – Honeymoon in Paris // The Girl You Left Behind // The One Plus One // Paris for One

24)  Cecilia Ahern - One Hundred Names // How to Fall in Love // The Year I Met You // The Marble Collector

25)  #88lovelife – Volumes 1 + 2 + 3

26)  Origami books/kits

27)  Hand Lettering books/kits

Of course there’s other stuffs I bought that’s not in this wishlist, like the UD All Nighter Spray and Australis Primer. I hope I could stick to this list and get these collections.

Else, there's always next year's wishlist, insya Allah ;p 

Self-Me First.

This year I started my iG with my #birthdaybuys from Times Bookstore.

Gosh that place is becoming a puaka place. I went there pretty much every day after sending Sara to school. Its like my heaven on earth.

Ok I digressed.

For this year’s resolutions, I sort of decided on many themes, one being Self Care. It means I want to attempt stuffs that I never did before and try to care for myself more than previous years. While I love my family and home, I realized I also needed to find time for myself. It doesn’t matter if I do not turn out as a professional. I want to at least be able to say, “Oh yes, Ive tried that”. 
Self Care is also about caring more and better for my skin and health, hopefully. Lately Ive gotten dry sensitive skin etc. I thought I should at least care for my body; its the only Ive got. 

So I started with a Creative Lettering and Origami kit sets. Like I captioned, I would like to think that I have time. Lol. Who are we kidding right.

Below are my 2018 Resolutions/To Attempt List of things to do:

1)      Creative Hand Lettering/Modern Calligraphy
I got my kits from Times Bookstore. Initially I just wanted to own the kits, but as time went by, I realized that typography skills and service is increasing in the market. Hence why not try my hand at it? I also printed some free printouts from online to enhance my go at letterings. I would love to go professional with it. But that’s unlikely to happen as there’s a lot in the market now. I might just do for my own people and events. We’ll just go along.

2)      Origami/Paper Quilling/Paper folding
One of my childhood dreams is to bond over origami with my children. Lets see how that goes. My girl cant even sit still for five minutes. Hahahh. Well at least I have a couple of books to guide me, and I can try to fold more that just the number cube.
I hadn’t tried quilling though. Still searching for books or online guides for me to kick off this craft. Given that I already have a few kits in hand, quilling may even be brought forward to next year. Hehh.

3)      Coloring
My #semangatlimaminit hobby then. It was so sad I stopped coloring in 2016, partly due to health. The books are almost turning yellow! I had to dust and sun them. Now I’m bringing this hobby back into my life.

4)      Art Jamming
I am reserving this session with my dear friend for our belated birthdays. I hope this materialises. We hadn’t met for a while and I miss her. And I want to spend time with her by doing something, instead of just chatting our money at Coffee Bean or something. I saw a few coupons on Fave, and found more online. So we’ll wait for this to really happen.
 

5)      Blog

I’m trying! It’s hard with two kids and trying to post something. The most is I usually pen groceries and bills lists. When I tried to write something, Sara would come over and insist to sit on my laps and write something too. That girl! Hahahh. So far I think I’m not bad for a #motheroftwo. Some blogs that I used to frequent or either dead or inactive. Chet!

6)      Baking
I did this last year. I stopped after being pregnant with Adam. Yes, I do want to start again, once again at my availability. This time I wanted to be specific with what I want to bake or attend class. I have a few on my mind, it’s just a matter of finding time and having excess money to pay for the baking courses.

7)      3-Year Reflections and Thoughts
I bought the diary from Typo. The best evuhh! It’s a journal of 365 days with 30 questions repeated for every month, for three years! And you get to read what happened last year when you do this year’s entry! How cool is that. It’s like FB Memories, on paper.

8)      Exercise
Oh why am I so ambitious. I am upset that the stomach is still flabby! So upset that I pinterested flat abs exercises (damn you, planks!) and some celebs with abs for motivation. Yes, Britney is one of them. I need to go down to my pre pregnancy weight, but its taking a long time because I am in no hurry to flatten the stomach and I still enjoy junk foods around.

9)      Memorise 4 Qul + Yasin + Doa Qunut Im not a preacher, don’t intend to be one. I don’t impose. Im not a good Muslimah, yet I always try to be one. I memorised Al-Ikhlas, Al Falaq and An Nas, so Im left with Al Kafirun. I know I have to push myself to memorize Yasin and Qunut properly. Its about being a good example to my children. Pray for me on this one.



10)   Proper Use of Make Up
Suddenly there's a interest in cosmetics. Hahahh. Not that I want to smack my face with thick make ups, but at least I want to learn to apply proper make up. You know, primer, highlighter, concealer, etc. At least make my face up properly. Hehh. I sorta have the tools, but I have no idea how to use them. So yeah, learning and applying, slowly.


11)   Homeschooling
No, I don’t mean to quit my job to homeschool the children. Heck we may not even study. I mean I want to teach the kids when I’m with them, on weekends or long holidays. Maybe print early childhood learning guides for them to learn through playing. So far I have printed alphabets, shapes, numbers and animal flashcards for Sara. Just needed to find some corner in the house as a noticeboard.

Now that I have listed the resolutions, it felt like a lot! Im really being ambitious. Hahahha.

Of course I don’t expect instant ability or professional work coming out of me. I would like to pace myself, gradually upgrade myself as time goes by. Its only February anyway! I have a whole year for these, right?

The list hadn’t include my #kitchengoals. Or #livingroomgoals. Or #bookshelfgoals. Or any other #goals. And I already think it’s a lot.

#prayforme lol

not important.

you know, 

when you are disappointed time and time again, 

when you are used time and time again, 

you just begin to observe more, 

and look around more, 

and analyse more, 

and think much more. 

and you start to realise where you stand 

on how important you are to that someone 

on how much of a priority you are 

on how much you mean to that someone 

all the way right down to the very beginning

that you never actually meant to be that important

that you are important 

only when you fit the box 

only when you are needed for something 

only when you are used for something

and then you are no longer valuable 

and then you are no longer necessary 

and then you are no longer important

and you start to realise where you stand 

all the way right down to the very beginning

that you were never actually meant to be of any importance.

fly high.

cause even the impossible

is easy when we got each other; 

one day we're gonna get so high

:: Lighthouse Family - High ::

this song was on Spotify earlier, and it reminded me why i truly enjoy this track a lot.
texted abz, dedicating this track to him, to which he replied "awww, so sweet."
haiiiii, baru tahu ke bang?

that aside, High made me recount the ups and downs of the past year, and life in general. abz and i had made it this far and we have so much more to go. thinking about our future worries me a lot, for i don't deal well with uncertainties and i'm a heavy unnecessary thinker. i reckon no matter how bad times could be, as long as we've got each other, we could pretty much sail through the storms together. prolly not smoothly all the time, but we'll manage. thats how we're supposed to get by, yes? by managing.

true to its lyrics,
at the end of the day, remember the way; we stayed close to till the end, we'll remember it was me and you.

dear hubz, lets go get 'em good.

hello 2015.

if there's anything that i want for 2015 and onwards, its definitely:

we could be somewhere up there, but we may be wobbling to hold firm. we could hit rock bottom and that will likely test our beliefs. this quote, i believe, speaks for itself in times of highs and lows.

therefore, i ask for all the goodness that life could possibly bring and all the determination to outlast the not-so-awesome moments that will come by.

like i said before, i could only ask for a stronger heart.
this time, i'll add mind, body and soul to that.

and ever, who knew?

it dawned on me that those practices which i (sometimes sulkily) had been doing at home, were actually preparations for this life ahead.

it could be gestures as simple as basuh tangan dan muka lepas bangun dari tidur 
to advices such as jangan beli dari pasar gini tapi lebih elok beli kat pasar gitu
to home/household practices dapur biar kemas jangan sampai berselerak
to duties such as "cadar katil kau bila nak tukar?!"
to ... ... ... almost anything.

who knew, that all those practices and duties that our parents taught us and made us learn and do, would come in handy and useful when we have our own family to take care of.

gotta admit that some days then, i do took my parents and their duties for granted :(

of all advices that my mom and dad gave prior to #projecthun up till now,
for some reason, one advice stayed well rooted in my mind -

"semua kain baju (which of course includes inner garments) kau - kau basuh sendiri, sidai sendiri, angkat sendiri, lipat sendiri."

this, i hope to hold tight to my duties.

yours is your own.

what i've learnt from from observing life-changing moments such as vacations, pregnancy and births, getting own's houses etc,
especially weddings since its a once-in-a-lifetime affair,
and perhaps you ought to as well, is that,

to each moment is your own fortune.  

lain orang, lain rezeki nya k. 

like how you would.

i came across this on Kak Raudha's wordpress, and thought its a beautiful reminder for me.

hopefully it's one for you too.

"We forget sadness when happiness arrives, and easily forgets happy times when something upsets us. Its really helpful to come across a reminder which goes something like this: 
'Pray and speak to Allah even more in good times, just like how you were in distress.'"

-Ustaz Noor Deros.

amazing al-kitab.

i am not one who'd post/preach about religious stuffs.
but this got me mind-blown, and i hope it got u too.