Hanan's First Drawing!

Hye! I survived my final exam pheww! Now am recuperating from all those sleepless nights, when I practically abused my poor body with too much coffee lol

And look at what we discovered last night? Hanan's very own first drawing! If you wonder, they are stick figures of our family, dad, mom, big sis Aisha & little Hanan :D 

We were so amazed with this coz Hanan had never drawn before, only doodles. But this time, each figure is drawn the same way, like there's a system: two round eyes, a mouth, two long legs and hands wide open! Exactly the same way, very confidently drawn & she only varies the height of the little people.

The little miss in action. And it is now confirmed that both my girls are left-handed...You see, hubby and me are not, but both my parents are left-handed. This means that this trait actually skipped a generation :)

Just so that I won't leave you without a sewing related stuff, this is a simple long sleeve top I sewed for Aisha before we go to the library, to study, last week. Yup, this time both mother and daughter were having final exams in the same week, you could just imagine the stress level in the house lol. This photos were taken very early in the morning, and my lovely Aisha still looks sleepy with eye-bags and all...she studied so, so hard, I pray for her success, as always...

Ruffle Pants & Dresses To Tame My Fear of The Finals

I tell myself I have to post one last entry before I go on a 2 weeks hiatus as my final exam is approaching. I can't believe how fast time flies, I felt like just yesterday I enrolled for my MBA and in a week time, my fate for this semester will be sealed! Pheww...a part of me is actually glad that 4 subjects is over and done with as I know I can only strive ahead, no point looking back lol

I sewed this simple ruffle pants for little miss Hanan. She is SO in love with the pants mainly because I used this cute MM print.....and until today, she still calls hearts "Losh" a.k.a Love :D 

This one is a simple dress I made as a birthday gift for my little neighbor, baby Rania, who's celebrating her 1st birthday today. I wish I could get a photo of her in it. She's the cutest, cheekiest little princess!

And these are an assorted of pretty dresses ordered by a lovely customer, Sham. Hope you like them dear and thank you for your order :)

Last, but not least, a note to you who might wonder how do I manage all these? Motherhood, sewing and studying? Honestly, I have no idea lol! I'd be lying if I say it's all a piece of cake. No way! The stress overwhelms me at times. But I try to take it easy...I tell myself I'm studying to learn new things everyday, not to push for straight A's. I already have a good, steady job, an MBA is definitely a confidence booster but in my line of work, it is not a tool to climb the "corporate" ladder (you see, I am not working in a corporation lol). 

At the end of the day, as I always confided to hubby, I wanna prove to my little girls that if mommy can do it, they can too! :)

So next 2 weeks I'll be sitting for my final exams four papers - Managerial Economics, Operations Management, Accounting for Decision Makers and Organisational Behavior. Tsk. I am actually not good with exams. I wish the whole program is based on Case Studies or Presentations. Now, that is where I can excel, I love presentations believe it or not.

Ok gotta go drown myself in books. Not a stitch till the exam is over.

Pray for my success my friends? Thank you :)

Domestic Diva - 10.10.10

A very dear friend of mine came to the house for Eid and saw this Domestic Diva panel and fell head over heels in love with it. I can totally understand the feeling lol...This gorgeous line by Emily Taylor is everything retro & domestic & so much more that only a woman would appreciate.

So I was pleasantly surprised when she called last week asking me to make something simple using the panel as a birthday gift for her mom, which coincidentally falls on 10th of October. Today, 10.10.10, only happens once in a lifetime she said. 

I kept it simple. As she wanted the whole panel, I just used the whole cut + a stripey backing + polkadot binding. I then simply quilted the panel print squares using for the first time my walking foot.

I really am a novice quilter. And my machine, oh my...it's just not made for quilting I guess. Very small arm and narrow space to work the bulky quilt sandwich through. Took some muscling around to quilt the whole squares.

Am not sure how she'd use it though, perhaps as a wall hanging? I really hope she likes it anyway. Personally, I love the colors, brown, green and red, such strong retro vibes!

Cathy Dress/Top

I made this girly ruffle top for Hanan way back in June and realised I have not blogged about it even after I've made a few more for custom orders. It is my favorite pattern because only 4 pieces of fabric to sew, very easy! I used the beautiful Cathy Dress pattern available HERE.

The dress version would add loads to the girly look but Hanan's gotta wear hers with leggings here after I accidentaly made a shorter version :P. The best thing is this dress is so versatile, can be layered with tshirt underneath for cooler days and worn just as it is in our hot climate. It is also a great grow-with-me dress as the elastic neckline allows for that. Besides most girls grows taller instead of wider, just in the case of my girls :) 

The back view. And if you notice all the deco tapes I used to embellish my pics here (obviously I need to escape from my insanely hectic life this morning lol), well all inspired from this ultra cool blog I stumbled upon few months back. Katrina from puglypixel is the artist, lovely, lovely work, hugely talented!

I got tons of orders to complete and final exam is approaching too. Anxiety creeps in but I am holding it all together with the aim of not a stitch of sewing one week before exam. For those who have placed orders, you  gals are amazing, thank you for your patience :)

Have a beautiful, creative day peeps *hugs*

Aisha's First Craft Book

I found this book at MPH on our weekly bookstore trip. My girls love bookstore trips coz I usually allow them to choose 1 or 2 books to bring home. I set aside quite a large sum monthly for books as I think instilling book loving culture in my children is top priority. So, when Aisha saw this book she immediately flipped through it and I could see that familiar awe on her face...that inspired look...I could never not buy this one for her. There is no author but the book is published by Parragon UK and costs only RM29.90.

Inside, loads of goodies! There is a Sewing Kit Envelope with ribbons, embroidery thread, felt squares & mini sewing kit. There are also many pages of useful how to's such as color picker & applique techniques.

And loads of cute projects! Aisha is almost 10 yo now, and she's lovin' all the creativity on display.

So which project you want to make first? I asked her.

The easiest one, mommy, she said.

She pointed to this one. I thought oh okay my girl is growing up she wants to keep mom & dad out of her room now *sniff* but I encouraged her anyway..go ahead dear take whatever you need from mommy's studio to make the project...

And the result?

She actually made it to hang on my sewing studio doorknob! Awwww.....my heart just melted when I saw it this morning...the sewing will improve with lots of practice, but the fact that she shows interest and determination and inspired to sew plus actually completed a project, is a great achievement already. This is one of the moments that make me think how wonderful motherhood is. I'm a proud momma! :)

New Look Again

I fiddled around with my blog today, wanting to use the new Blogger template features. A simple text header, tabs on top with an overall Teal colored theme. And to complete the look, the text font is now customised! Yes, I won a custom blog text font giveaway by Designer Blogs and Lauren, one of the designers helped installed the new fonts. I love it, thank you Lauren!

Have you seen their work? They are amazing! I could spend hours browsing their portfolio, dreaming for a fully customised blog makeover. Knowing me, I get bored very easily, thus the need to update, upgrade and improve. Oh it will happen one day, right now I'm loving the current theme :)