Musings of a Mom

Old School Laundry in Kuala Lumpur

Posted on May 16, 2012 by mom2ashley

Hubby has an aunt who owns an old school laundry in Kuala Lumpur for the last 30 odd years. They wash the clothes in washing machines and they line dry the clothes on the roof of their shop. They poured their sweat into the business and it is through their sheer commitment and hard work that had put their son through to medical school in the UK. Today, their son is happily married and is currently residing in the UK. What has become of the laundry shop? Well, they are still in business. His aunt and her hubby is probably in their 80s perhaps? and they have in their employment a Cambodian girl to help them out. 2 weeks ago, we paid them a visit.

Check this out. Organized chaos?

If you see closely, they actually still use the calligraphy brush to write!

They iron clothes on tables and they use newspaper to fold the clothes and leave it in between the clothes to prevent creasing.

Hubs and his siblings used to go on the roof to play when they were kids. It is on this same roof where the clothes are being hung out to dry today. Hubs brought the kids to the roof and they were ecstatic – new experiences and all.

Love the touch of teal in this picture.

It is this same laundry shop in which hubs and his siblings used to help out at when they were kids. That’s why hubs and his brothers can iron so well! Good training I’d say!

Posted in Old School Laundry | 2 Comments

Washi Tapes

Posted on May 16, 2012 by mom2ashley

Honestly, I never heard of washi tapes until Barbara introduced to me. To those of you who don’t know what they are, washi tapes are synonymous to Japanese masking tapes. They are called washi tapes because they are made of Japanese rice paper and are used for decor or craft purposes. Now, you may already have them in your household but didn’t know that they are called washi tapes. They look like this….

I bought these at Time Bookstore – 10 for RM3.90. Washi tapes that are made of rice paper actually costs more than this but then again. Mine are made of plastic.

Anyway so what did I do with these? If you’ve read this and this and if you follow me on Pinterest, you know I love buntings.

Enough said.

I pimped my noticeboard with buntings…

And I got this idea from one of my pins on Pinterest and decided to pimp up the jam jars I had.

It adds abit more oomph to the jam jars don’t you think?

And remember how I left you all with a picture of the kids’ room in this post?

Well, I decided to spice it up a bit and made a bunting for their room as well.

The washi tape buntings look a bit small but they’d do for now.

The kids had a surprise when they came back from school and both of them loved it! yay!

It’s been a few weeks since I made the buntings for their room and I still find myself admiring it when I walk into their room everyday.

And for those of you who are too lazy to buy ‘em washi tapes and want them in soft copy, Pugly Pixel are offering free clip art tape strips from here. (P/S I take no credit for this freebie. Credits go to Pugly Pixel)

If you’ve done something with washi tapes, I’d love to see ‘em.

Posted in Buntings, Buntings, Decorating, Get Crafty!, Washi Tapes | 4 Comments

Aidan’s Ferrari F1 Birthday Party

Posted on May 15, 2012 by mom2ashley

This year, the Lil Taukeh wanted a Ferrari themed birthday party – or shall I say, I pretty much nailed down which theme to go ahead with because each time I suggest something to him, he’d say, “Yes, I want!”

Me : Superhero?

Aidan : I want!

Me : Angry Birds?

Aidan : I want!

Me : Batman?

Aidan : Yes! I want!

You get the drift….

So I decided to go ahead with a Ferrari F1 themed birthday party. I googled loads. Pinned loads and finally decided to design these.

This invitation was printed on card stock paper.

And I printed these on a A4 adhesive paper – 8 to a page, cut them and used this to seal their goodies bags.

If you want these free printables, drop me a comment with your email address and I’ll email them over to you.

From my previous post, you can tell that I am very excited about my brown-paper-bags find. It’s being used everywhere but I did not manage to find them in various sizes until recently! I got the goodies from Happy Planet at Jln Tun HS Lee – wholesale which sells all kinds of kids’ stuff! I go there every year to buy stuff for the kids’ goodies bags. Didn’t spend an arm and a leg there.

As for the cake…

… Ferrari F1 cake of course! It’s a marble cake decorated with fondant. This 2kg cake was RM350. Kinda steep but it was worth it because the everyone polished it off! Aidan went straight for the tyre and walloped it! The cake is by Tracey from Special Cakes. She made the kids’ birthday cupcakes 4 years ago. You can read about it here.

I made the mini buntings myself. Ahem! Ahem! I printed the checkered print on an adhesive paper, cut out mini parallelograms and folded them onto a piece of string (which I got from Popular bookstore) and tied each end of the string to a disposable party ware stick (got from the party section at Cold Storage) and poked each stick into a jelly candle cup which we got from a wedding dinner. If you follow me on Pinterest, you’d know I’m head over heels over buntings! They are so simple and costs next to nothing to make but the impact is huge!

We had a pool party because the birthday boy wanted to swim swim swim!

Food was catered at the venue.

The kids had so much fun in the pool – nothing else mattered. All the parents had a tough time getting their kids out of the pool!

At the end of the party, Aidan was totally knackered!

See how stoned he was ?…

Was he happy that he got his Ferrari F1 themed poolside birthday party?

YES!

Best of all, at the end of the day, he said, “Thank you for the party.“

Posted in Aidan, Aidan's First..., Birthday, Ferrari, Get Crafty!, Outings, Special Occasions, Festivals, swimming | 15 Comments

Where to Get Brown Paper Bags in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Posted on May 15, 2012 by mom2ashley

For the longest time, I have been looking around for brown paper bags – you know, the ones used at bakeries. I found it at a cake supplies shop at Taman Megah but they only came in 1 size – big enough to store a bun. Well I FINALLY found a supplier which supplies all these brown paper baggies babies!!! It’s called Syarikat Perniagaan Wakim Sdn Bhd.

Photo from here.

Photos from here.

The only down side is that they do not sell these online. So a few weeks ago, we went out in search for the shop and when we found it, I felt that we had struck gold! Yes…these things make me tick Sad. But yea…They not only supply and distribute bronw paper bags but they also supply and distribute stuff for food and beverage businesses like plastic containers, paper cups, styrofoam containers and what-have-yous.

A few years ago, when I was planning for the kids’ birthday party, I went to a craft shop at The Gardens and they were selling the brown paper bags with handles for RM3 a pop! The brown paper bag with handles which you see in the picture below (to the right) is only RM1 per bag. Better to get them from the supplier I’d say! They are wayyyy cheaper from the supplier.

What do I use these for?

Goodie Bags!

I also use them to my handmade jewelry for Mom’s Little Treasure Box’s customers and store presents in them. The possibilities are endless!

So happy with my discovery!

Posted in General | 3 Comments

Mother’s Day 2012

Posted on May 14, 2012 by mom2ashley

Every year, the kindy organizes a Mother’s Day celebration at school. There’d be singing, dancing and also arts and craft with mother and child(ren).

This year, we made a key chain together at class.

And then Aidan presented this handmade fan(?) in class. All the kids presented their handmade fan to their moms. What a thoughtful gift I thought…..since the weather has been horridly hot and humid.

Ashley on the other hand came back from school with this card and an incomplete handmade bracelet. She never got around to making the bracelet for me though but was ever so excited to pass this card to me so that she could see the expression on my face.

Hope you all had a splendid Mother’s Day!

Posted in Aidan, Ashley, Get Crafty!, Gifts, Mother's Day, Special Occasions, Festivals | 4 Comments

Friday Finds : Mother’s Day Gift Ideas

Posted on May 11, 2012 by mom2ashley

Mother’s Day is 2 days away and here are some lovely ideas I found online and have pinned them on my Pinterest boards.

1. DIY Tutorial and Free Mother’s Day Cake Mini Bunting Printable by Sugar Tot Designs.

You gotta admit – a simple cake bunting does wonders on a simple cake. Best of all, you can quickly whip up the cake bunting in 15 minutes tops.

You can download the free printable and check out the tutorial here.

2. ‘Home is Where Your Mom Is’ Free Printable by Holiday Snob.

This comes in 5 sizes so pick the size you want, print it out on card stock and pop them into an Ikea frame and voila! Quick and easy!

Download it here.

3. DIY Candy Necklace with Gumballs by I {heart} Nap Time.

There’s something about the color grey and a pop of color which always draws my attention.

You can check out the tutorial here.

4. DIY – Free Printable – Recipe card by Creature Comforts.

Print like a dozen or 2 of these on card stock, tie the stack up in a ribbon and give it to your mom.

Download the free printable here.

To all mothers and mothers-to-be out there, Happy Mother’s Day!

Posted in Free Printables, Friday Finds, Get Crafty!, Gifts, Mother's Day | 3 Comments

BYOB Green Concepts

Posted on May 11, 2012 by mom2ashley

..stands for Bring Your Own Bottle.

“Did you know, that plastics are made of precious pretroleum and it takes 400 years to fully biodegrade? And did you know that plastic bottle were created a little over than a century ago? This means that every plastic bottles ever made (apart from the few that were incinerated) still exists and are probably in landfills and oceans?”

- taken from the poster in BYOB – Subang Outlet.

Wanna know how a landfill looks like?

(Photo By D’Arcy Norman/Courtesy Flickr and taken from this article. Not a pretty site right?

At BYOB Green Concepts, you bring your own plastic bottles to get them refilled with detergents of all sorts. They also accept the extra plastic bottles that you have at your home so don’t throw them away and contribute your trash to the landfills! Get them over to any of the BYOB outlets (check the list of outlet at their Facebook page.)

Sasha is one of 3 partners who opened up a BYOB outlet at Subang. I have been saving up plastic bottles and last weekend, I lugged all my plastic bottles with my 2 kids in tow to have them filled with detergents at BYOB at Subang.

Detergents start as low as RM1.50/litre.

There are samples available so you can sniff and decide for yourself whether you like it or not.

Popcorn and soft drinks were served when we went to the Subang outlet and as you can see here, Aidan was more interested in what was in the cooler box. He was playing with the ice cubes…

So I bought over 20 litres of

- Floor detergent

- Pine gel (to wash the bathrooms)

- Dish wash liquid

- Waxed car shampoo

- Car windshield additive

- Bleach

And I only paid RM45.10 for all these.

A good deal? You bet!

Plus, you do your part in saving the environment too.

No more paying ~RM15 for a 3 litre floor detergent at the supermarket because really, you’re also paying for the cost of advertising, labels, shelf space and etc.

Find out more about BYOB Green Concepts today.

P/S I wasn’t paid to post this.

Posted in BYOB | 6 Comments

Aidan is 5!

Posted on May 10, 2012 by mom2ashley

Oh my…where do I begin? Where did all the time go?

5 years ago, we went from a family of 3 to a family of 4.

Happy birthday Aidan!

Mommy & Daddy loves you!

You complete us!

xoxo!

Posted in Aidan, Aidan's First..., Birthday, Special Occasions, Festivals | 8 Comments

Hands Free Mama

Posted on May 10, 2012 by mom2ashley

I recently discovered Hands Free Mama via a post shared in Facebook. It was the article ‘How to Miss a Childhood‘ that really gave me a wake up call!!! Like BAM!!

Rachel (Hands Free Mama) basically shared a recipe on how to miss your children’s childhood. In this day and age where every other person has a smart phone be it an Apple or Blackberry or what not, we are so caught up at accessing information at our fingertips that many a times, we often fill our waiting time by checking updates on our Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, emails and we fail to spend those precious moments engaged with our children.

I am not gonna lie.

I.Am.Guilty as charged.

I’m the sort of person that need to be plugged (to the internet). An unplugged me just doesn’t work with me.

Yes. I am THAT dependant on the internet.

Rachel has opened my eyes to what I have been missing and no, it’s never too late to start on your journey to being hands free.

Having read that article has made me conscious in my efforts to spend more quality time with my kids.

The other 2 articles which touched me to the core are as follows :

1. Six Words You Should Say Today - I did this last night. I told Ashley how I loved to hear her reading. Her smile? Priceless!

2. The Top 10 Things Children Really Want Their Parents To Do With Them

So…are you gonna start on your hands free journey?

Rachel has started a Hands Free Revolution page on Facebook. ‘Like’ it. It’s very inspirational and it brings me back into perspective when it comes to parenting and spending quality time with my kids.

Posted in Hands Free Revolution, Parenting | Leave a comment

Friday Finds : Free Printables – Wall Art and Get Organized

Posted on May 4, 2012 by mom2ashley

Friday will be dedicated to a day of sharing…Because sharing is caring right? It’s no fun to find something nice and not being able to share it

Ok, here’s a round up of some of my favorite finds for the week.

1. Free 8 x 10″ Printable – Subway Art by Simple Crafter.

I’ve always loved subway art. They’re simple yet has a vintage feel to it.

To download,

1. Head on over to Simple Crafter.

2. On the right sidebar, look for Free Printables, enter your email address and you will be able to download the full collection of the Simple Crafter’s Subway Printable Art!

2. Free 8 x 10″ Printable Art – ‘I’m Going there Someday’ by Twiddler House.

We’ve been talking about going to Disneyland , Hong Kong with the kids and we’re using that as leverage these days to get the kids to finish up their meals so that they meet most of the height criteria for the rides and yes, we do intend to bring them there….just don’t know when yet.