My BFF's 20th Birthday! Ideas for your own Handmade gifts.

HAPPY 20TH BIRTHDAY 

HONEY BABY YZ

Here are some possible inspirations or ideas for your friends.

Trust me, you don't need to throw money around for an amazing gift.

IT'S THE THOUGHT THAT COUNTS

So, I live in the Southern part of  the banana shaped section of Malaysia, really near Singapore. Yeah, you might be wondering why suffer over getting presents for a friend when I could just get my ass over to Singapore. First, I can't freely go into Singapore without apparently my parents permission. Second, it's expensive especially when you factor in the 7% GST. 

My dilemma might seem pretty unfortunate plus I can't drive to the big city which is Kuala Lumpur ( for non-Malaysians ease of understanding) as I do not have a driving licence yet. The story behind that is pretty funny and I shall not delve into it.

  

THE JOURNEY INTO MY IDEA

Hence, I got her this bunny soft toy which I love too.

Then I envisioned the bunny holding colourful balloons at both its' bunny hands as it held a big red board which will be her birthday card.

We will both be parting ways, living a life of a university student soon at possibly either different countries or the same country. This itself, gave me the idea of printing out Google Maps of the places we will be furthering our studies.

The flower background was handmade by me too. Just use your average A4 paper, then use your water colours to randomly paint shapes of haphazard circles, the important part of this is painting dark strong parts of a colour than mixing soft delicate parts naturally with it together.This helps to create the effect of a more 3D flower since nothing has just one monotone colour. Then take a standard ballpoint pen to sketch , roughen up the flowers, thereby creating necessary shadows on its petals.

The colourful printed tapes and the old-ish ,hipster-y stickers you see were bought and collected over time by me. The brown string can be bought for RM 5 for 120 metres at Daiso.

So I made a pocket envelope photo album. It isn't hard. All you need is some coloured paper, double-sided tape, some decorations even magazine cutouts and lastly, print out pictures of important memories.

I love quotes especially from books ,hence I choose my quotes online and just wrote them with a standard black Sharpie.

I initially thought of getting her real flowers but since another friend was doing that, I just found a tutorial on how to make these big beautiful paper flowers.

This was by far the hardest part of her gift as the hot glue gun I bought was broken.

I actually had to unscrew the whole thing and try to fix it.

It was a failure , hence I came up with an easy, transportable and safe method of melting my glue sticks in the comforts of my own room. The method didn't require me to contaminate the metal pots used for cooking with glue. I was worried if it could be poisonous even if I made sure to wash it well.

After thinking it over and remembering how a woman melted her MAC lipstick on a spoon over a burning candle, I carried the same procedure out except with glue stick and a small sacrifice of getting burnt from the hot sticky glue from time to time. 

The end results of all that, sweat, brain cells, glue stick fumes and glue burns was these flowers.

Sorry, my room is very windy,thus the position of the petals are as such.

Once again, these are some of the ideas I did for my BFF. You may modify it for your own use. 

The true happiness of all these hard work is the smile I was able to make on her face.

ITS THE THOUGHT THAT COUNTS.

NOT MONEY

SPECIAL THANKS TO:

MY BFF YZ, THANK YOU FOR PUTTING UP WITH ME.

FOR THE MANY TIMES WHEN I NEEDED YOUR HELP

FOR THE TIMES THAT I WASN'T SUCH A GREAT FRIEND

FOR THE ROUGHT TIMES WE HAD

FOR UNDERSTANDING ME AND 

FOR BELIEVING AND FOR NOT GIVING UP ON US.

HERE IS TO US

I AM PARTLY EXCITED TO START UNIVERSITY

YET SAYING ALL THE GOODBYES

MADE ME THANK GOD FOR MY LIFE IN MY COUNTRY

THE PEOPLE I MET

I FELL IN LOVE WITH

GOT MY HEART BROKEN OVER

THE FRIENDS  I LOST

AND BEST OF ALL THE FAMILY AND FRIENDS WHO STOOD BY ME 

AND LOVED ME DURING THOSE LOW MOMENTS.

LET ME BE YOUR BRIDESMAID AND I SHALL BE YOURS TOO!

Love you. 

Dear February : Books Review for the Month of Love

Divulging The Mind Of Naomi

by Naominaoko

Ah February again means buying myself chocolates again.

Why did God invent the couple theory? 

I don't need a man.

Who could perform a heart transplant on me whenever a man breaks my heart?

Tired with the bullshit of those 3 words.

As a partial introvert and sorry slob that doesn't have Mr.Right in her life,

Books are my companions

It's a love hate relationship depending on certain aspects of the book.

Hence, I passed the month of February by reading  a couple of books.

This blog post will be my reviews of them

Before I got my hands on this book as I went on an Alice and Wonderland trip in my hectic library of new books I collect, I had read a couple of really boring books at the same time. Hence, I was skeptical on reading this book as well. However, I absolutely loved the first to the last pages of this book.

Alex is a boy who could see demons,he lives with his mentally ill mom and he doesn't have a father. Due to poverty and the lack of care from a distraught mother, Alex starts to see a demon called Ruen. He begun to see him on the day he was told of his father's death. Ruen became Alex's most important friend, he consumes his time, indoctrinate Alex with stories and guides Alex according to his own personal interest. Alex, on the other hand doesn't know he is used by Ruen whom, like your everyday childhood horror story about Poltergeist and possessions; wants to attain Alex's soul. I wouldn't exactly want to type out  summary of the whole book as that would be a spoiler. However, I can tell you that I thoroughly enjoyed this book along with the characters in it. 

I loved how the author wrote about Anya the psychiatrist and Alex. Both characters were given ample, supple and rich backgrounds about their pasts and how it intertwines with the present.

It was an easy read, not exactly the boring middle-school English kind of read but a good book that successfully connects the emotion of a boy ,Alex and his current misshapen situation. 

Anya was well writen too, I loved the parts about her daugther, the piano and music notes written by the ghost of her lost daughter whom had suffered immensely from schizophrenia since she was born. 

In a way, the author did a good job with the twist of the plot in the book, it got me reading until I had my ending. 

  

Patrick Ness . Who won't love this author? My first book by him which I feel in love with was When A Monster Calls. That is an extremely beautiful timepiece of a book which felt like reading words inscribed onto gold papers. Every word you indulge yourself in as you read on feels leaves you feeling that life can be magical if you looked through Patrick Ness's eyes. Hence I have bought this book , and once again I absolutely loved it. It starts of a bit slow but I applause the depth and attention to detail in the first few pages.

Its practically about a guy who wakes up in his deserted town, and finds out that he may not be entirely alone. It isnt hell nor is it purgatory but a scientific research progress that promises people a way out of pain, remembering a loss of a loved one and to live forever. This is definitely a good and interesting plot, more importantly Patrick Ness had executed the plot very well to the end. 

Herein lies the untimely kind of autobiography but not quite book about the author herself, Monica Holloway whom had faced a terrible background of broken twisted family with a tinge of father  perversion, mixed with shattered characters of her siblings and the silent mother who became the ignorant remarried mother. Before reading this book, I was in a state of anguish due to my own problems but once I read this book, man, I was ashamed. My life is like the sky, blue and sometimes grey when the day goes bad. However, Monica's life was filled with people who didn't give a shit about her problems. She lost her virginity, she hooked up with a psychotic playboy whom she thought loved her to bits with his soft sweet words and caresses. Yes, all the shit and now you throw in the bad relationships. 

I personally would recommend this book though it may not right up everyone's alley nor is it for the faint of heart, it certainly makes you love and cherish your own not so eff up family. It makes your typical arguments with your family members a normal teenager-y phase of raging hormones. 

You can learn a lot from Monica, especially how hard she tried to live and be happy when the old and new obstacles pill up on top of each other. I loved how accepting, supportive and strong-willed she is during her eldest sister's coming out of the closet moment and her mental break down after reliving her experience of father perversion and the silent mother.

Okayyyyyy, I admit I am a major Paulo Coelho fan. His writings are just so beautiful like a delicate vase made by gentle, wise and old hands of a potter. Eleven Minutes was really amazingly good.About being a dreamer only to realised you should be a realist as like is far from your dreams yet dreams can come true with patience, a lot of pain, a lot of lost love and men who comes and goes in your life. 

His words are absolutely beautiful yet true .Written like a man who had lived at an advanced age beyond his actual age, Paulo is like a wise old man whose heart had gone through many stabbings and healings overtime.

“It hurt when I lost each the various men I fell in love with. Now, though, I am convinced that no one loses anyone, because no one owns anyone.

That is the true experience of freedom: having the most important thing in the world without owning it.” 

BY THE RIVER PIEDRA I SAT DOWN AND WEPT

I wan't as fascinated by this plot as I was with Eleven Minutes however , regardless, it is still a good book with a few good things you need to be informed about life. What bore me a tad bit was the difficulty of understanding some philosophical Catholic teachings.

“Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worst kind of suffering.” 

“Love like rain, can nourish from above, drenching couples with a soaking joy. But sometimes under the angry heat of life, love dries on the surface and must nourish from below, tending to its roots keeping itself alive.” 

THE ALCHEMIST

Ok, this possibly the most hyped book by him internationally. Even my mother who gave up being an avid reader due to mere self-proclaimation of her level of laziness as she ages ; knew about this book by word of mouth just from the title. 

This book is not for the ones seeking immediate clarification, logical explanations and lightness. It is a slow paced story with interesting metaphors , in fact, the whole book is a metaphor and only if you understood the reason for being of this book, then will you realise with new fresh eyes that Paulo was describing himself, his life in metaphors and he leads you to see Robert Frost's poem The Road Not Taken which inevitably could go wrong as you journey in the middle of that road however , what you seek for in life only reveals itself at the end------surprisingly it is closer to home than you could ever imagine.

“One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.” 

“Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity.”

I have mixed feelings for this book. Overall it was a moderately good book written in a poem style however, it lack depth to me. If was a bit deeper , in terms of the main character, I would utterly love this book. 

There are however a few instances where you could find some good excerpts or quotes from her.

“And the pomegranates,/
like memories, are bittersweet/
as we huddle together,/
remembering just how good/
life used to be” 

Okay, by comparison, you get why I love Paulo Coelho so much? His writing style has so much depth that its lyrical, filled with melancholy, like a music script written by Mozart, untainted beauty, the epitome of purity and innocence even when one is being abused and raped by the world each day.

Living life.

Life

What make youths naive is the fear of taking risks. The fear of asking and knowing how to work your way to get what you want. 

I am one of those. But I have also learned that even if you failed while taking risks, its not failure. Its never failure unless you stopped picking yourself up every time you fall.

I met some people heading towards a suicidal direction. They  only think of how to make money, not just a minimum wage salary but an amount of a millionare. They have this mentality that their partners involved in the business idea are trustworthy even if it means investing your own savings into it. They only dream of owning a Maserati, Porsche, Audi, Bentley,Rolls Royce and etc. With a stack of money in hand, they could buy the world, buy women and live life. Ask yourself this, are your conscience clear once you find yourself on your deathbed a few decades down the road? Have you done things you regret, lost the person you love to materialistic things?

 Enjoy dying without any real friends and family you pushed away.

To me, I live for myself and repay those who supported me all the way. 

I want to experience everything and do what my heart tells me.

I want to be less selfish and more selfless.

I want to be willing to sacrifice my life for the greater good of others.

When you work for the life you want even if plans do not follow through always,

you can still collect every piece of happiness, disappointment, tears,laughter and moments ,then place them in a glass jar. 

Of course I do not have any rights on nagging people about how to live their life however, think of it as a blogger, your everyday human blogger ranting out her thoughts.It doesn't matter if you agree or disagree with me, what does matter is that there is a mutual understanding of respecting and accepting differing views between the blogger and reader.

I have always been a coward however, recently, I lost someone,hence I am taking more risks in life. I have nothing to lose. I need to evolve just as how caterpillars metamorphosised into butterflies. 

There are a few to-do things in my life, I may add more as the years past.

1.Paragliding in Austria,Switzerland(if there is one there) and somewhere with a beautiful beach and deep blue sea.

2.Jet-skiing

3.The roller coaster in Japan which is 90 degrees towards the ground

4.Earn enough money to travel around with friends

5. Earn enough money to bring my parents and grandparents for holidays before old age steals away their opportunity

6.To love someone again 

7.Read as many books my lifetime will allow

8.Learn as much new things, skills, languages and etc

9. Step out of my comfort zone more

10. To build a house and life together with that special someone

(this includes painting the walls of our house together, sleeping on the floor together with paint stained clothes, looking into each others eyes, kissing right there on the floor, and telling each other you are the one  I want to go on an adventure with.)

11. Do DIY stuff for the house. (furniture, interior design and etc)

12. To have the job that suits me.

13. To know what I want to do with my life

14. To be independent and responsible

15. To scream in joy with my close friends once we achieved what we dreamed of together.

16. To live in the present, let the past make me a better version of myself and let the future be.

17. To continue blogging

18.Write my own novel. Literary novel. 

19. Go to Bali and try out that ride which ejects you out in a tube.

20.Sexy body from hard work. Exercising and disciplining myself.

21.Hike my way up Nepal with Dad.

Over the month or so, I experienced more than I could have planned for. I felt fear and exhilaration for the unknown possibilities when I choose to step out of my comfort zone. I have nothing to lose.

I enjoyed the moments of being a daredevil with my friends. 

Overall, I had grown as a person. I want to grow more, enjoy everything and be grateful for the little things I take for granted.

I may not have an affirmative direction in life right now but I sense it's near. It's coming. Do not fear. Do not back out into the comfort zone again. Instead, take those toes into the region of risks, and never turn back.

Learn to Live.

How To Be Happy With Yourself

Happy With Yourself?

How?

1. Don't Overthink &Don't compare yourself with other girls(I am assuming all girls would go on autopilot comparing each other)

This is especially true when you are constantly comparing yourself with your boyfriend's friends which happen to consist of girls as well. I admit. I am guilty of doing this which leads us to criterion no.2

2.Love Yourself

 Accept , appreciate and keep being yourself. Sometimes when you lose yourself and forget there are many beautiful parts of yourself to love. You doubt that you are even remotely attractive, and the feelings are worst when you start to overthink and doubt your boyfriend

3.Do the things that makes you Passionate , Happy and Fulfilled.

For me it would be lighting my whole room with candles, playing my favourite albums on my Ipad which is normally Daisy(korean music for the highly acclaimed old korean movie) , choose any books that I had stocked up on my shelves but never got the chance to read them all in one go,

You are all set to settle down on your bed, and the reading begins.

When someone asks me to put down my book for a second so they can talk to me:

Chocolates!

Yes, indulge in chocolate snacking as you read. If you have the free time, google easy chocolate receipes and make your own signature chocolates.

The Pizza Galore 

If you are single, this is how you love yourself by enjoying time alone with the pizza

                 Pizza & Lover            

If you are like the 5% lucky ones, you can love yourself, let your lover love you and you love him in turn.

Yeah, it's nice having someone but in order for this to happen, LOVE YOURSELF FIRST!

Movie Marathon

4. Boost your morning!

I would wake up every morning listening to my favourite playlist on my Ipad, get ready for my dancing exercises or sometimes strength training. Then have a good breakfast.

My Lonely self wants a guy because.......

But to all the single ladies, its not because you aren't pretty, or fit the majority ideal type for most guys, that you are single. It's just that there is anyone that could fit your awesome hotness classy level.

Yes your life doesn't stop for any guy.In fact guys prefer you to have your own life, own friends,and to show them how unique you are as an individual.It gives them more reasons to love you.To cherish you for who you are not for the things you are not.

5. Write about your life

I would blog about it, write about my inner thoughts in my journal and i would sometimes use photography as a means of expressing myself, how i feel and to give myself more meaning inn life. Sometimes we need to take it easy.Look back at our past selves, immerse yourself with yourself.

6. Date yourself for a day.

FIND YOURSELF 

IN THE WILDERNESS 

OF LIFE

PEOPLE LEAVE, BUT IT IS YOU WHO STAYS

7. Self-improvements

Why not learn a language or two. Why not learn to harness the inner artist ,singer ,dancer,guitarist,pianist,and writer within yourself? Why not learn self-defense ? Why work and use that money to travel more either on your own or with yourself.

Both these photos are by http://painting--skies.tumblr.com/

8. Make yourself a hopeless romantic.

I love being philosophical, and I want to get into a relationship whereby I could do all the things I imagined that had happened in fictional books and movies.It may sound cliche especially since I am a girl, a woman more precisely, however, I was in love with someone but life happened.Though for that short moment, I was happy, and I felt how wonderful it was to have someone next to you. You could just stare into his eyes, think about the softness of his lips, and tell yourself  "Wow, he is mine and I am his."

1. Amy: Falling in love is a crazy thing to do. It's kind of like a form of socially acceptable insanity.

In truth my character is exactly like Mary which was played by Rachel Adams. In the movie she said her flaws were being insecure and Tim (the witty not so handsome but intellectually interesting character). 

Some say I shouldn't put my expectations too high on a relationship.

Regardless, you will be in a relationship with yourself as long as you live

9. Immerse yourself in everything.

I aim to be a cultured hipster(again rather cliche, okay let's just say I want to be my better self, a self that have immense knowledge on movies,books,art,philosophy,lifestyle and dining tastebuds of other ethnicity)

    

Albert Camus

“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” 

 Dostoevsky

"Shall the world go to hell, or shall I not have my tea? I say let the world go to hell, but I should always have my tea."

10. Forget your ex. Travel more.

You may love him to the depths of the world but if the feeling isn't mutual, MOVE ON. Don't blame yourself for the break up, don't hate yourself for it and never put yourself down just for him. You are special in your own way. There isn't a need to compare or be like other girls he hangs with. Be yourself, thank God for creating you the way you are. 

Travel more, make it your aim to travel, experience new things and see new places. You won't be a hermit and you are proving that you can live the good life single or not.

Amazing Spanish food!

This proves it! There are many things to experience and taste in the world.

The Encouragement. Be Brave.Be Fearless.

FIN

I hope you guys learned to love yourself and find someone who will love you.Truly loves past,present and future you.