Maternity Dress

Being pregnant means I will need to stash my closet with maternity dresses. Maternity dress does not come cheap these days.  I got myself some new ones while my sister gave me some old ones.  At 7 months pregnancy, I finally got my hands in sewing a maternity dress for myself.

Got the fabric from Kamdar, Mid Valley.  The fabric is not colorful, as opposed to my hb and MIL comments that I look radiant in sharp and colorful clothes.  But the fabric is soft and feminine and I liked it. 

The dress was completed in just one day.  This is the result :

Front

Back





I was rather pleased with the result.  Thought of wearing it to the ANC check up the very next day.  However, changed my mind at the last minute in order to let the dress being washed.  It turned out that I was hospitalised after the ANC check up and delivered my baby 4 days later.   So now, the dress is hanging in my closet, not worn even once!

Tie back Dress

A new dress that I made for my girls. 

The fabric is very soft and I am very pleased with the result.   The girls looked pretty in it and the tie back ribbon makes it suitable for both my girls.   Hb likes this dress a lot too and thought that it is a branded hand me down dress given by my sister. 

Fulfilling a Childhood Dream...

Growing up in a Christian family, my house had always been decorated according to the yuletide every year.  We had fake snow, fake baby Jesus and even a fake stable for decorations.  The only thing lacking was a christmas tree.  Thus, it was my childhood dream to have a christmas tree at home. 

This dream does not materialised till 3 days ago.  Bought a tree and had so much fun making ornaments for it.  Nevertheless, it brought back a lot of childhood memories. 

I let my girls hang the ornaments and they were so happy that they kept dancing after putting up each ornament.  It is satisfaction in itself to see them so happy.  I myself is no less contented.  Nowadays I enjoy myself looking at the christmas tree every night with its lights on.   Now what we are lacking is some christmas carols....

Cappuccino Cupcakes

Baked some cappuccino cupcakes today.  Got the recipe from the book 'Bake-a-Boo'.  The recipe said that it can made up to 12 cupcakes but I managed to get only 9 out of this recipe.

Ingredients :

1 cup self raising flour (sifted)
1/2 cup golden castor sugar
125g butter
1 1/4 tsp vanilla essence
1tbsp + 1/4tsp instant coffee granules
2 large eggs


Method :

1) Beat butter till light and fluffy
2) Add in sugar and beat till just mixed.  Add in eggs one after another followed by the vanilla essence. 
3) Fold in flour and instant coffee granules
4) Pour batter into paper cups and bake for 20 mins in a preheated oven at 200 deg C


The cupcakes turned out fine and yummy.  However, I try not to indulge too much after all they are cakes with lots of butter and sugar.  The kids love it though.

Focaccia Bread

My sister recently recommended a website for me http://www.laurainthekitchen.com/    This website has galore of recipes and videos.  It is in this website that I came across the recipe and the video for focaccia bread.   It seems easy enough to do.  So I wasted no time at all in trying it out.

Following the recipe step by step, I found that it is indeed very easy to make the focaccia bread.  Only thing is, I do not have a mixer and had to knead the dough by hands.  Boy!  It was hard work and by the the time the dough is done, my arms are already in pain.  

The focaccia bread turned out fine and may I say, they are all gone in just one day!  I am so pleased with the result.  Now that I have 'mastered' the recipe for focaccia bread, I wonder if it is a good idea to invest in a mixer as I foresee that I will be making many more focaccias in the future.  No more kneading dough by hands then..

My Focaccia Bread

New 'Zara' Dress

It is most fortunate for me to have two beautiful daughters.  I can dress them up and never feel bored in doing so.  Perhaps my girls do not even know or appreciate just how well dressed they are, but a compliment or two from friends and relatives doesn't hurt either.

Having recently acquired a brand new Brother NV50 sewing machine, I am all eager to sew for my girls again.  I said 'again' as my sewing has gone 'cold' lately due to the terrible morning sickness that I have been having.   I had in mind the similar pattern of a beautiful Zara dress which I bought for the girls lately.  So there I go, measuring and cutting and sewing.  Funny thing is my girls reenact my action of measuring their bodies with whatever they can find, string, ribbon, etc.  It amused all of us to see them do that.  It just shows how much our action affects children.

The Zara dress was completed in just one day.  May I say I am impressed with the NV50 for edge finishing.  Not quite like a serger, but good enough.  I chosed to use the fabric that I bought from the morning market in my hometown some time ago.  Fabrics sold there are dirt cheap.  Only RM3 per meter. 

Original Zara Dress

So, here's the dress.  My maid and MIL said it look nicer than the original Zara dress.  More body, they said.  Whether or not they are just being polite, I am most willing to accept their compliment at its face value.   :D

My own creation of the  'Zara Dress'

Kindle 3 as Companion

With the bouts of contractions as the pregnancy progresses, the dr thinks it would be safer for me to get warded in the hospital for bed rest and observation.  So here I am, in the maternity ward. 

Staying in the ward would be like prison to some.  However, I came prepared this time round.  I have my laptop, broadband internet as well as my e book reader, the Amazon Kindle 3 with me.

The Kindle is really God send.  I have hundreds of e books saved in it, which is really not that much compared to those avid book readers.  My collection is growing though.  In average, I finished up a book in just one morning in the ward.  So having hundreds of books in my Kindle is really a blessing.  Whenever I think of a book that I would like reading, I will search the internet for the digital version.   Free e books of course.  There are tons of websites that offer free ebooks.  My favourites are gigapedia and freebookspot.

There is also this text to speech feature in the Kindle for those who prefer to have the e books read to them.  I have never used this function though as I don't take audio books kindly.

With the Kindle, I can plug on the earphones and listen to songs while reading as it also comes with mp3 player.  The Kindle has speakers but for the benefit of other felllow patients in the ward, the earphones offers privacy and silence.  

When tired of reading, I switched to playing games that I have saved in the Kindle.   The Kindle 3 also comes with wifi and web browser for those internet surfing at the spur of the moment.  However, the hospital does not offer free wifi and I have my laptop and broadband internet with me anyway.

Mine is the Kindle 3 which has a black and white screen and keypads.  Amazon has since came up with the touch screen version of Kindle.  Its latest product, the tablet named Kindle Fire is set to be launched soon.  The Kindle Fire is an interesting gadget with just a fraction of the price of that of an I Pad or any other tablets in the market currently.  Perhaps I can consider getting the Kindle Fire after all.

Tuna Pizza

Making pizza has been a life long ambition of mine.  I said ambition as I have always like and tried to make pizza, but unfortunately, without any success.  With my sister being bitten by the cooking and baking bug lately, I am determined to pick up making pizza again.

Having all the ingredients ready at hand, I prepared the dough first.  For some unknown reason, my pizza dough turned out beautifully this time.  Not wanting to invest a lot in my first pizza, I just put in some tomato sauce, canned pineapples and tuna (in brine) and topped it with cheese.  My pizza dough is too much and I was able to make a 9" and a 13" pizzas with it.  Both pizzas turned out beautifully.  They looked so tempting that I have cut and taken a slice from the 9" pizza before realising that I have not taken any picture.

They taste good too!  My niece finished up the whole 9" pizza in one afternoon, all by herself! 



13" Tuna Pizza



9" Tuna Pizza

Needless to say, this will be the start of many many pizza making in the future!

Soybean Milk Maker

I have always been a soybean milk lover and took it a lot especially when I was breastfeeding as I found that it was able to increase my breast milk supply.  However, those commercially bought are either too sweet or they are just too expensive.  So, thanks to a friend of mine, I was given a brand new Empress soybean milk maker.  It is retailed at Cosway for RM200+ so needless to say, I was delighted when this friend of mine offered me hers FOC.  Many many thanks!

The Empress soybean milk maker is really easy to use.  I just need to soak the soybeans overnight (it was stated at the recipe book that soaking for min 6 hours will be sufficient).  The very next day, the soaked soybeans are ready to be grinded into soybean milk.  I have made a few batches and prefer to add in some black beans to the soybeans.  Adding some screwpine (pandan) leaves also give the milk a very nice aroma.  I like mine unsweetened, thus did not put any sugar in it.   The results?  The soybean (+ black beans) milk is yummy!

Empress Soybean Milk Maker and Soybean Milk

The okara, or what is left of the soybean can be made into delicious and nutritious food.  My maid fried it with some sliced carrot, sliced onions, flour and seasonings.  The resulted cake is just as yummy as the soybean milk.

Okara

Fried Okara

NV50: My New Sewing Machine

Sewing has been my new found hobby since I had the girls.  I enjoy sewing clothes for them and full of pride when my girls are wearing the clothes that I sewn.  Of course, the occasional praises and admirations from relatives also helped boost my interest in sewing.   My interest in this hobby extended towards me willing to spend a day at the Nippori Textile Town in Tokyo, sourcing for nice and cheap fabric rather than going sightseeing at the Land of the Rising Sun.

All these while, my sewings were done using a cheap electrical sewing machine that I bought from Carrefourre.  Been eyeing the Brother NV50 sewing machine for a long time and it has been a constant internal struggle for me on whether or not to buy the NV50.  So, following the announcement of the PM to give half month bonus to civil servant just before Raya, I was seen enjoying myself at the sewing machine shop and later, carrying the box containing the NV50 into my car.

It would not be exaggerating to say that I do not know what a sewing machine is till I tried on the NV50.  Oh my!  It is so quiet and I can just let the fabric glides by without really doing much.  There are numerous stitching patterns to choose from.  The thing I like about the NV50 is that it can also do the edge finishing, quite similar to a serger.  No more trips to the serger for me. 

I have since finished 2 pretty dresses for the girls and intend to sew more in the days to come.  Is NV50 a sound investment, even if it is just for hobby?  A definite YES!

P1 for Internet Connection??

Having desperately in need of a mobile broadband service, I have stumbled into the P1 wimax which offers their Wiggy Plan at RM59 per month without any contract.  P1 claims to be the fastest internet connection provider with their 4G technology.

After much consideration and having spoken to their sales representative who assured me that my area is under full P1 coverage, I signed up for the Wiggy 59 plan.  I was all excited to get connected to the cyberworld.  To my dissappointment, it took me hours to get connected.  During those hours, I made endless phone calls to P1 technical support.  To my dismay, I was told that the modem or the dongler as it is called for the Wiggy 59 is good only for open spaces and not to be used inside buildings.  I was stunned!   That is to say that I can't use P1 I subscribed anywhere as I am not going to be at any open space and will be inside a building whenever I need to access the internet!

Needless to say, I returned the modem to P1 the very next day and terminated my subscription.  If ever I need to get connected to the internet in the middle of a football field, then I'll give P1 a try again.  Other than that,  NEVER!!