Nest, London

Some eye-candy for you from Nest, a lovely local yarn shop. Hands down the best yarn shop I've been to in London so far...

Beautiful display on the window, and outside a cosy little potted garden, with this little yellow bench that the kids could hang out at while Mommy shopped..

rows upon rows of gorgeous yarn...

the look of joy on my face! Why? not only were the yarns all yummy, they were affordable! I came out with a rather big bag of precious woolies..

pretty knick knacks..

comfy seating area if you feel like knitting..

and more space at the back for courses..

the shop is owned by a mother and daughter team, and when we were there the daughter and her husband was there...they were wonderful and helpful..and the husband is a muslim..

the kids surprisingly had a fun time too, out in the garden. Normally when we go to a yarn shop, within a couple minutes of arriving they would be begging (read: screaming to) me to go home. But this time they found bees, and ladybirds and butterflies at the garden...

and they decided to set up camp! I had over an hour of blissful yarn time and even then, they still refused to leave. We literally had to drag them out of there...

awesome, awesome shop...about an hour by public transport from my house though..if not, i probably would go there again (and again...). If you're a yarn lover in London, please take time to go to this lovely shop...

Adam's embroidery

I was browsing through Soulemama's book - the Creative Family, when I came across a picture of her 3 year old son doing embroidery. I showed the picture to Adam. It didn't look like he was paying any attention, he was doing something else at the time. 10 mins later, he came back to me, saying he wants to do 'knitting' and pointing to the book. 'Aaah, you want to do embroidery?' 'Yes!' he said.

I already had all the simple tools on hand. An embroidery loop, some big nearly blunt needles, cotton embroidery threads in many colours and blue linen (emphasis on the blue as its favourite colour and always held his attention no matter what the activity).

He chose what colours he wanted, i threaded the floss and made a knot and he did the rest. Very quickly, I might add. He was very excited at the prospect of choosing his own colours and mixing it up. He said he was making lots of Xs.

I didn't even have to show him how to work the needle. I was surprised that he already knew how to. I did have to watch for the floss getting caught with the fabric etc...he asked for help when this happened, but mostly I just watched and took pictures...

Knitting might be a bit hard to master at this age but embroidery is pretty simple and gives them a feeling of satisfaction at the finished product.

When finished he said 'Perfect', and it is. I have it framed now, ready to be hung.

of course there's the whole floss shredding part which is half the fun...

this little one didn't want to be left out...so she 'knitted' while adam worked on his needlework..hehe...

Disneyland, Paris

I know it's a bit late but here are some photos from the trip.

This is the hotel we stayed at, the Dream Castle hotel. It didn't look like much from outside, but it's the best family hotel we've ever been to. Adam loved it so much.

Why wouldn't he? How awesome are these wooden bunk beds? He often climbed up there to 'Adam's bedroom' to play games.

My handsome boys at a retail outlet near the hotel.

Hellooo Disneyland!!! Adam says it's Mickey Mouse's Clubhouse and he really really enjoyed himself there.

one of my fav photo..hehe

We chose Disneyland for our anniversary trip for many reasons - the kids will love it, it was near to London, just a short train ride away, and also there is another special reason. Many years ago at this very bench at Disneyland Main Square, somebody said three very important words for the first time...

accompanied by three little flowers picked right off the yard here.

don't laugh. we were young once, you know :)

Adam and Monster

during the Main Parade, we were lucky to get a good spot at the last minute (the whole sidewalks were crowded) and was selected with some other kids to join some dancing with the parade casts. I was quite surprised to see him happily joined in and danced.

Alhamdulillah...we had the most wonderful family time...

and the best part? the look of happiness on their faces. You can't put a price on that.

there is one setback though...since we've been back...Adam keep saying 'Let's go to Mickey Mouse house mom...i don't like Big Ben house....' oh dear...every time we look at the pictures, he started telling all the stories about Disneyland trip. He remembers every detail.

Chicken Soup

Upon being presented with with his lunch, a simple chicken soup with rice, Adam asked;

"Mommy cook for me soup?"

I said " Yes Adam..."

He replied "Wow, this is nice! thank you Mama cook my soup...."

Aah...the pure, sincere, appreciation from a child. I am most humbled to be its recipient day in day out. Reminds me never to takes things for granted.

5th year Anniversary Trip @ Disneyland Paris

Now where's my high school french when I need it?

Two sides of a coin

The past couple of days we have had two rather surprising news regarding our family's public exposure.

The first I consider a very rude awakening. I have always run this blog in a carefree manner, trusting of mutual respect and understanding. But this incident have made feel that perhaps I should've been more cautious. A friend (thank you dear!) alerted me to this parenting seminar, organised by UTM, which uses the picture of myself with my two children.

Four buntings already hung at UTM's main entrance

Two banners already hung inside UTM

Brochures about to be circulated

I called the organisers to enquire about this. Obviously I have no connection to this, and they have used the picture for their benefit without our consent. The graphic design team member that I spoke to first tried to deny it saying 'No we didn't do any posters...' and then proceeded to tell me that she has checked with UTM legal and there is no Akta saying that they cannot just pull pictures out of the internet. I told them I wasn't going to sue or anything, it just would've been nice if they has left me a message saying they would like to use this picture for this purpose. I mean, that's just common sense, isn't it? You are using pictures of children. The parents deserve to know what it'll be used for. In the end they apologised and sent me a formal apology letter afterwards to my email. I felt like it was too little too late, since they already hung huge banners and buntings with pictures of my children without my knowing.

I don't know why..I just find it so upsetting...afterall, they're using it for a good cause. If the they had approached me before they used the picture, I would've reacted very differently. I would've been very proud to help them and give consent for them to use it. Maybe I'd even promote it for them and encourage my friends to go.

They didn't give me chance to consider it, to look the picture over - was i appropriately dressed? Were my children? Were they in a compromising act? etc. They're using it for a parenting course. They should've known a parent's first instinct is to protect their children.

Anyway, at least they apologised....

The other incident that also happened in the past few days was very similar but my reaction was the opposite side of the coin. Another friend (thank you!) found a picture of Adam in the UK Sunday Times.

This picture was purchased by Sunday Times from a photography agency called Getty Images. Getty Images sells pictures on behalf of my husband (and loads of other people too). So my husband has in fact sold his first picture!(internationally!) Congratulations bang!

Let's get grow

I've been thinking about growing herbs this year at the early spring. But so far, we have proved to be highly unsuccessful planting-wise. I was beginning to think we have 'red hands'. I'm serious, every time we grow something, they die. One time, a potted herb died within a couple hours of being brought in the house - yes, they literally wilted and die.

The recent planting occur quite by accident. We were going out to the GP and Adam didn't want to come. So to entice him I said 'Adam, how about we went to the shop and get some seeds to grow on our way back?' At this prompting, he immediately got up and get ready. All the way there he kept saying 'Nak grow! nak grow! Dad let's get grow first ok?'

I made sure Adam does all the work. My husband and I might have red hands, who knows, maybe Adam's hands are green right? Anyway he didn't need any motivating, he was more than happy to do it 'myself!' as he said.

sowing the seeds....

watering the seeds...

Adam was rather proud of his work. Every few minutes he came to check to see if it's grown. Needless to say he was frustrated that first day. He said 'It's not worked!'. Insofar, his only idea of growing came from reading and playing games whereby the seeds appeared immediately after watering. So naturally he expected it to be quick. This is the perfect opportunity for him to learn what real growing is like.

Luckily we planted a few days before our Mallorca trip. So on the day that we arrived, when we checked on those seeds..

hey what's that?

The seedling have grown! Adam was most surprised and excited...so was I, quite honestly :)

Mallorca pictures

We spent a week in Mallorca, a beautiful island in Spain. I was glad I opted for the no-chaos, relaxing, sun-soaking beach holiday, somewhat typical for British holidaymakers. We were all a little unwell, Adam especially so, so the lazy days at the beach were most welcomed.

(I warn you this entry is picture heavy!)

The beach in front of our hotel was spectacular. The long white sandy beach and stunning blue water stretches for miles.

My poor baby was sickly for probably half of the week. In the above picture, he asked for a cuddle, and a few minutes later exploded with vomit all over his feet and shoes. His mood swings rapidly from happy to poorly. But he didn't throw one tantrum all week. The lovely owner of the restaurant that we frequented said that 'he's an angel!' (to which he replied 'No, I'm just Adam')

This pretty little angelic looking girl however....hehe...grew soooooo much cheekier in Spain! I swear, even her hair started curling upwards in a haphazard manner making her look so much cheekier! Gosh, she didn't stop moving for one second! She jumped off chairs and sofas and tables, climbed up dining tables and scatter food all over the floor, bang her head on everything. The same lovely lady at the restaurant commented to me with a smile 'You must be very tired' while indicating to Mia. She even suggested once with a wink 'Maybe we can find her a long rope, then tie her to the chair...'

But while Adam was being unwell, I was glad that she was being herself..

After a while Adam recovered and started to enjoy himself...what a relief..

Did I mention how beautiful the beach was...? It reminded me of the beautiful waters of Terengganu islands. I am really looking forward to take my kids there when we go back..

Here we were at the jetty, enjoying the view. You can see through the water all the way around. Adam was looking through the cracks in the wood.

One of the days Adam asked to go on a boat. So we went. On the way we saw these beautiful cliffs with the odd goats climbing about. Subhanallah isn't it amazing? How do the goats live so high up there? One wrong foot forward and they would plunge deep down into the water and jagged rocks.

We arrived by the boat to this lovely beach - Formento Beach.

It has plenty of rocks and seaweed. Adam enjoyed himself immensely. I tried to restrain myself from telling him 'Dangerous! Don't climb up there!' but he balanced himself walking round the rocks better than I did. He went exploring, finding little pools and claiming them as his 'river house'. We went back on the boat with him kicking and screaming, not wanting to leave.

Another day we went to the local market in Alcudia Old Town. The market was very lovely, and located around this beautiful old fortress..

I finished this little cardigan for Mia while we were there. It was still unblocked but the yarn is so beautiful and lovely, it didn't matter. The pattern is by EZ and came so quick, I think it will be my go to baby cardigan from now on. Even in hot weather, the cardigan is lightweight and the open lace pattern pattern makes it quite an airy wear. It looks lovely over summer dresses on a breezy day.

Most of our days were spent like this - rolling about in the sand, or getting wet in the water. Such bliss! Alhamdulillah....

You will notice that the birthday boy, the photographer, isn't in any of the photographs...I do hope he enjoyed this birthday trip....

London, home sweet home

As much as we love travelling, it is such a nice feeling to realise we also love to be back home again. I looked back dreamily at the blissful time we just had in Mallorca, but I feel so calm and grateful to be home.

We arrived at 4am last night. As the cab pulled into the main entrance, Adam scanned around and exclaimed; 'Oh! This is OUR HOUSE! Big Ben! (the landmark for London in his beloved Atlas) I can play games...I can play car.....blablabla (more things he wants to do)'

That is exactly how I felt too. Well I don't exactly want to play car, but..you know what I mean :)

I'll be back with pictures soon....