The house, the birds and the bees.

It took me two weekends to complete the look of our new place. We are blessed with 'just-the-right size' this time and its incredibly perfect for the four of us (me, hubby and our two kitties). The TV area is now a snugly corner for MN and I to cuddle up and watch movie. When the TV is not on, it quickly becomes a cozy nook for playing catch-up with reading.

We have quite a huge lawn with banana trees planted at a corner. Our kitties are extremely pleased to have room to lie around on the grass. Its big enough that we managed to pull off a birthday party for mom which fitted 20 happy people lounging around outside. There's also roses. And pine trees that guarded the house. We wake up to birds singing everyday.

MN and I decided to not have internet connection at home. We wanna have more real quality time together instead of spending it online.

Its a pretty romantic place.

A super long hiatus.

I can't believe that my last update was in July. It has been a terribly long hiatus and so I owe you a deep apology and many thanks for changing the links for me.

Oh wow. Many things had happened the past months of August and October. I dont think I need to blog it in, mundane business really, but all I can tell you is that life has been totally challenging and definitely interesting. Yea, I do notice that I've been repeating the same phrase in the manner of a mantra but life is...well, like that.

The months that I went missing was spent entirely at home with my family, entertaining the business of life. It came as a shocking to me when I decided to quit the job that I love so much. Now I don't know if I can explain the leap I made. It's like jumping off to another planet.

I actually could never picture myself not doing anything other than being a blardy workaholic. I eat, breathe and poop work.

But at some point, certain things took an abrupt turn and suddenly I'm a housewife. The beat changes, the air smells fresher. It's a big change that I forced myself to swallow but its all worth it. I thank God everyday that He has given me the chance to concentrate on my family and I spent the whole Ramadhan at home cooking, borak with my mom and browsing through bazaar ramadhan with MN. I can never regret this decision.

I took a long, deep rest. I hibernate.

I would love to say that I'm easing my way back into the swing of things now that we've moved in to the new place. Eka and Nadiah came over and hang out earlier on. Its great to have them around as neighbors. Especially now that we are officially family, the bond seems to be stronger.They helped us out a lot when we first moved in and we're really growing into this new place. Its really serene and just totally beautiful. The security is pretty tight and it gets really quiet by the day. Neighbors wave hello from their porch with a cuppa in hand, some young teens play basketball every other night and kids cycle around without worry. A great place to start a family actually. We have cat-neighbors too and our two tabbies seem to enjoy their company every evening.

I was offered the position of a copywriter with a Japanese agency and for a self-taught like me, the offer came in as a huge news. I passed the second interview, Alhamdullilah, and is now waiting for their final answer. I was competing with five other professional copywriters during the first round and honestly, real ad agency scares the shit out of me. But I suppose, after all these years working my butt off, I do deserve someting worth straining my eyeballs for.

The damp, drizzly november of the soul.

I am at a point where every single thing needs to be calculated carefully. Figures for a fiscal year. There is nothing surprising in this, I suppose. 

Am scheduled to move in to a new place comes September. Not that big, cosy enough for two with a small patio, only that its at the front. There’s an area on the second floor with timber flooring where I imagine MN at his table, me lying on the couch reading or rocking my baby to sleep. 

I can’t wait to decorate. We’re going DIY again and this time, we hunt back alleys for obscured treasures that camouflage itself within the lane. Used and secondhand stuff is also on the list, we're hunting garage sales and wanna do our creative restore-the-items project. Reuse, restore, reduce. Its (half) eco-friendly I may say. One simple step, a giant leap? Trying to simplify life as much as possible and become less materialistic. 

There’s also a teak store nearby my office that we love which sells good, reasonably-priced teak paraphernalia. We’re eyeing for oodles of old, classic bookshelves - those with dark paint and amazing sturdiness. We’re so lucky to receive a thoughtful gift from a few friends who had given us Ikea vouchers as a wedding gift which is going to be put on a good buy. I shall write more about this once we get the house done, with pictures, yes.

Christian wrote to me, ‘right now you are suffering through what american author Herman Melville called "the damp, drizzly november of the soul". I would like to acknowledge that coz the tough really gets going for me right now. But nothing can dampen my spirit as long as I know I have Him and him by my side. And it's a sunny July for me still.

We’re off for honeymoon next week and I’m hoping for clouds to stay puffy and sky remains blue. For Ishmael, as Melville had aptly put in his book; getting to sea cured his blues. Me? I just want to let the days take me by the hand.

Happy Wednesday! Don't forget to close your eyes and dream :)

p/s I've spotted a few new frequent readers. Thank you! 

i dream of english.

I love my new workplace. My desk is facing a huge window and the view out here is super nice on rainy days. The raindrops on the screen looks like tiny little diamonds. A few friends had popped around once in a while to do lunch. I had it with MN, Matt and Adi yesterday. Not much of good food places but i'm adjusting to it.

And today, i can see white fluffy clouds outside the window waving at me. Sun rays play peek-a-boo, sometimes she tried to touch the tip of my finger when i hand out my palm. Cute thing.

The first half of the week was filled with good stuff. Momma Bear sent me a few really inspiring emails and her chirpy 'hello, how are you?' really made my day. I think she's one really cool future mom-in-law. *chuckled* We talked a lot about scrapbooking and its good to see her being passionate with her handmade cards. His dad is a pretty amazing soul himself. We had dinners and he'll talk about art and ballroom dancing. When he said 'i'll look around for the Beatles' (vintage) album for you' my heart just flutters. We went handcycling a few weeks ago and he let me tried archery too. Something i really miss doing.

I have been out and about the neighbourhood with MN to do our little house-hunting. We weighed the pros and cons 'is this area safe for us to live?' 'there's a school nearby where our kids can go' and things like that. We found a house we really like in the neighbourhood we love. The house is really airy with big rooms, huge spaces for storage, and i totally love the nostalgic feeling attached to it. There's a room- i think used to be occupied by the owner's little kid, which have a cute vintage lamp with cartoons from the 70s.

Still on a renovation, we cant deny that the house is an absolute stunner; so well loved and cared for. It is exactly like what we want: a house full of love. But the price cost us a major bomb. After much consultation with my family and a few of our friends, we decided to let the dream house go. Sadly.

Call me spoilt, but i'm so used to live in a big house with big rooms and big kitchen and big hall. Oh, and a big yard. Our old family house in Muar was designed by my late dad (including some furnitures) and relatives all over will come down from KL and JB to chill on our greeny yard. I remembered ours was the only house surrounded with palm trees. The place could fit at least ten cars easily (well, our current house can still fit in the same number but ten viva's lah :P ) as my parents hated the idea of people parking along the road.

MN and i shared the same taste: we love vintage. We love anything nostalgic and retro. We cared more for the feeling. What we had as a child- how we grew up, how our parents taught us, the kinda house we were brought up in; we want to imply it to our life, and insya Allah, our kids. Its so much fun to know our family are alike in a way. We were taught to appreciate the simplest of things, to love music and art and to always be grateful with whatever we have.

Oh, i'm so dreamy right now. I can already imagine how our house would be like. LOL. I love the simple English look with soft pastel colors but MN totally beat me up when it comes to decorating the house as i think he has better taste than mine. I can sense that we have to tolerate a lot after we get married. LOL. I'll have the wall in light blue and white-english-style wood cupboards and MN can keep his plasma TV and couch. LOL.


Cut out of Ikea's catalogue :P

Check out the doors' finishing and the thick oak cupboard!

Maybe we can settle for this look to keep MN happy :P

If we have a daughter, we're so gonna have this in her room!

Lovely!

Imagine there's a beach outside!

My dream TV cabinet at Ikea. Check out the price....phew!

I so love the blue shade of the wall. And the cute hanging lamp. Mmm.

Eeee....cantik sangat! Suka lah! Most of the pictures here are found at my fav site :)))



And i found this tres cool vintage lunchbox somewhere on the net while interior-surfing.