A Mermaid is Born!

Following many requests from MB members, I have finally decided to post a step by step guide of dolls making. Been delaying this as I just did not have time and heart to lay my hands on dolls making again and it was only yesterday, out of desperation to get a unique gift for the daughter of a friend, I have finally picked up my needle and thread again. This time I will be making a mermaid.

So, the materials needed are :

felt (in beige and pink), string of beads, yarn, glue, marker pen, polyfiber, needle and thread of course!

Step 1:

Cut the felt into the shapes of the head, arms and body. It will be helpful to first cut the shape out of a piece of cardboard and trace it to the felt. DO NOT pull or stretch the felt when cutting or sewing.

The pink felt is to be cut in many pieces of circular shape.

Step 2 :

Stitch the body at the edges and fill it with polyfiber when almost done. Stitch to close the whole body.

Repeat the same for the head and arms.

Step 3 :

Arrange and stitch the scales to the body of the mermaid, starting from the tail. I used to glue the scales to the body but it gave it a very 'stiff' look, not to mention that the glue makes the mermaid smells funny.

Build up the scale to a considerable height of the body. Repeat the same to the other side.

Step 4 :

This is the part I dreaded most. Simply because I am not good at hair cutting.

In order to make the hair, wind the yarn over a book 80 times. Cut the yarn at both ends. I would recommend using a hardcover book as it makes the cutting lots easier and it won't damage your book.

Thereafter, put a yarn at the middle of the 'hair' and make a tight knot. Stitch the hair to the head at the crown. Make sure the stitches are strong. You do not want the hair falling from the doll.

Smoothen the hair and glue them in place with white glue. You can glue the whole of the back but be sure to only spread the glue at the forehead as we will need to trim the front so that the mermaid will have fringe.

Stitch the head to the body when done. In this process, the hair will get messed up (a lot!) but don't fret. You can always smoothen the hair back and glue it again when you are done. One can actually glue and trim the hair when everything is done but I prefer to trim it first as it will give you a clearer picture on how the mermaid will look like and where you should stitch to balance things out (in case the hair is lopsided).

Step 5 :



Stitch the arms to the side of the body.



Draw the eyes on a piece of paper using black marker pen and cut them out. Glue the eyes to the face of the mermaid.

Smear some red marker onto a small piece of felt and gently rub it to the cheeks of the mermaid to give her a nice rosy glow. One can always use blusher but I am not so sure of the pigment staying power.

Place the string of beads to the head of the mermaid. If the hair of the mermaid still look messy, fear not! The string of beads will help smoothen the hair in a day or two. Remember to trim the hair again after it has smoothen out or the mermaid will look like she is having a bad hair day.

Voila! A mermaid is born!!

Fish Head Noodle

I don't pretend to be an expert when it comes to food. Normally I will just eat whatever it comes to my mind without really considering the taste. So when DH and I happened to come across the fish head noodle shop featured in The Star on 19 March 2009, we decided to give it a try.

As featured in the paper, the restaurant is named Ho A Seafood Steamboat. It was 8:30am on a Sunday morning when we reached there but the restaurant is already almost full. DH ordered fish head noodle while I ordered fish paste noodle. I did not place high expections as fish noodle is not really my thing.

Although not much of expectation, nevertheless, I was dissappointed to see the noodle is those normal mi hun whereby I have always thought that fish noodle should come in those thick mi hun instead. The soup taste ok though it is not exactly excellent. DH has the same opinion. I was more dissappointed when I took a bite of my fish paste. It taste really 'fishy'. Perhaps it is my sensitive pregnancy tastebud but I couldn't bring myself to take another bite so I left all the fish paste for DH. DH gave me a bite of his fish head. It tastes much better than the fish paste. Being dissappointed with my fish paste noodle, I contented myself with enjoying the sour taste of pickles and tomatoes that are in my soup.

For RM6.50 per bowl, the noodles are a bit expensive as the taste is nothing to hoo hah about. At least for me.

Here Comes The Twins!!

Having the twins is the next best thing that ever happened to me, beaten only by having my hb. The twins were born 4 mins apart; after the membrane broke spontaneously which was followed by 2 hours labour. The pregnancy has been threaten by pre term labour as early as 26 weeks where by the cervix was dilated followed by the bulging of the membrane. An emergency cerclarge was carried out and I was put on hospital rest for 3 weeks +. Steroid was also administered to me to help the babies lungs to matured. The twins finally decided that they have waited long enough and came to this world at 29 weeks, 8 weeks prematured.

The labour was a short one, only 2 hours + compared to those horror stories I heard ofl 20 + hours of labour. Till now, I still couldn't believe that I delivered my babies via natural delivery and without epidural.

The twins were placed on my lap upon birth and all I could think of was how tiny they are. I was afrad and worried seeing the their tiny sizes, a far cry from the 2kg + full termed babies. The elder twin (Anthea) was 1.25kg and Charmaine was a mere 1.09kg. The nurses at the maternity ward assured me that babies born above 1kg are considered very good.

My babies were sent to the Special Care Nursery (SCN) upon birth and I only get to see them several hours later. Hb assured me that teh babies are well and crying. I couldn't sleep a wink that night thinking about my babies. I waited till the early hours of the day and started to sms my brother, sisters and friends, informing them about the birth of my babies. I just had to share my joy with someone. Hb on the other hand, has gone home for some much needed rest, as well as to announce the news to the family.

I was not tired despite having given birth just several hours earlier, However, my legs felt numb; as though they do not belong to me. The stitches also started to give me pain now that the pain killer has started to wear off. I almost fainted when I stood up in the bathroom trying to clean myself. Giving birth has caused much blood loss and caused my body to be weak although I did not feel the effect until I almost fainted from lack of blood. Fainting after childbirth is something nobody has told me before and I will make a mental note on this in my subsequent pregnancy and delivery.

Hb wheeled me to the SCN to visit out babies after being given the green light by the nurses at the maternity ward following the fainting episode. Babies were fine although their frail bodies were all connected to tubes and Anthea was on respiration support. Apart from looking at them, there was nothing else I could do. I miss my babies a lot upon leaving the SCN but unfortunately, no photos taking is allowed.