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. 

The Dilemma of A Misunderstood Being

Hello dear humans

Somehow in my planet which apparently doesn't seem nor feel like Earth,

Being an only child feels like a crime

Especially among your friends living in a house filled with numerous annoying specimens called siblings.

I am not condemning anyone nor am I justifying how majestic and innocent  holier than thou only childs are.

I am sharing a thought, an opinion on how people generally see an only child .

The things I,  a Blogger and Only Child experienced

1. YOU ARE BLOODY PRIVILEGED.

I am really pissed when some people think I can afford everything just because I get more than the usual kid next door.

It's called good shopping tactics during sales.

2. YOU ARE ONLY TWO DIMENSIONAL.

Life happens to everyone, some learn earlier the harshness of reality due to circumstances while others will only learn it much later.

The main idea is understand that everyone will eventually grow in depth when both the good and bad occurs in each of our lives.

Do not assume an only child doesn't understand your hardships with your siblings etc etc.

3. YOU ARE SPOILED

Yes, we are because our parents only have one kid to pour out their love to, you can't blame us.

We will eventually grow up and understand that money grows on trees but it only belongs to the government,banks and rich  sly douchebags 

4.YOU ARE IMMATURE

Really now? I have seen and met immature people whom have to suffer the annoyance of siblings day and night.

My Conclusion:

Humans are flawed, and we each need to remember this from time to time. We need people to point out our flaws so it can be corrected. Never deem yourself superior over anyone.

Your achievements academically, socially and intellectually are not your true value.

Open your minds and heart. Be understanding. Learn from experience and the people around you.

Listen to their stories, let them listen to yours and from there upgrade to level 1000 in life.

Everyone have unspoken problems.

Don't judge the outside and the surfaces of their insides.

“How would your life be different if…You stopped making negative judgmental assumptions about people you encounter? Let today be the day…You look for the good in everyone you meet and respect their journey.” 

Steve Maraboli

“If someone isn't what others want them to be, the others become angry. Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.” 

 Paulo Coelho

Freedom is an Ilusion

Freedom

the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint.

Words brought actions into play

In between those two words are thoughts.

It is thoughts that slowly blooms into actions.

There are two sides to it.

One adds kerosene to a fire and another consists of random thoughts.

When you were a child, let's say a child from a loving middle class family, 

you enjoyed what little freedom you had.

All the stupid things and words 

Did and said

was forgivable.

Life hadn't taught you that words have consequences.

Actions are elicited by words. 

Hence, I see words far superior than actions as it is, 

the power to awaken both the bad and good emotions humanly possible.

From the words of our mouths,to the emotions it gave rise,

Comes the actions.

When you grew up, became like any adolescent who proclaimed love for the opposite sex,

tried every sexual desires and curiosity buried deep within,

Had your first love, which broke your fragile young naive heart, 

Remember he or she broke it with words?

When you are an adult, heart heavy with regrets, past  lost opportunities and lost loves.

You feel constrained, shackled and restrained in your actions,words,opinions and thoughts.

Life becomes a list of debts, despair,broken relationships, failed dreams,faltered dreams,disappointments,insults,insinuations,oppression,depression,secrets,desperation,exasperation,lies,and deceit. 

Have we ever felt freedom?

Being 18 and free to do almost everything

Is not true freedom,

I once thought this is freedom, hanging out with friends, drinking a bit here and there (nothing severe or wild),

getting piercings my parents didn't know about 

was freedom.

I thought having a licence which entitled you to the freedom of driving to your hearts content was freedom

It never was freedom

You had to work to pay for petrol

Pay the road tax and toll.

Freedom of trade is precisely freedom of trade and no other freedom because within it the nature of the trade develops unhindered according to the inner rules of its life. Freedom of the courts is freedom of the courts if they follow their own inherent laws of right and not those of some other sphere, such as religion. Every particular sphere of freedom is the freedom of a particular sphere, just as every particular mode of life is the mode of life of a particular nature.

Karl Marx

Quoting from Marx, the topic freedom is a difficult one as to him there is freedom which only lies within a certain group or organisation or workplace.

Yet, I can't seem to completely agree with him. Even within each sphere therein lies the freedom to operate however they want according to their own personal profits.

What about the freedom of an individual?

My country is a hub for human trafficking

Tell me what is freedom?

Do women have freedom?
Do children have freedom?

Is there freedom to live out your lives ?

I do not see freedom in countries filled with political turmoils, constrained by religion and male chauvinist cultures.

Reality hinders freedom 

Yet, people hinder each others' freedom even further.

I may speak of freedom but I do understand that with complete freedom ,chaos exists.

Sometimes, its not freedom of the life we live .

The restrictive life.

We can attain freedom of the heart, our soul.

Are we freed from our past?

I am not

Hence, I may have the freedom to act,speak and think but there is nothing I could change about my past.
Freedom is an Illusion.


I want to redeem my past with the present which will alter the future.
The thing about the past are the memories that brought joy,sorrow,disappointments and worst of them all is helplessness.
You would carve out your own heart just to ask for forgiveness and to change the past.
I am on a journey to attain freedom of my soul.
To correct my past regrets, to forgive myself and forgive the pain others inflict on me.


If I succeed, then to me that's my freedom.
Maybe to others, freedom is the escapism from the iron grip of politics,politicians and the people who clamped down on their wings to fly in the blue sky.



In truth, the only thing in life that enjoys freedom is Love.

A Sophisticated Lady Must Have Culinary Skills!

How to Be a Sophisticated Lady

(p.s. This is utter bullshit by NaomiNaoko but good usable bullshit)

I come from an all girls high school  which automatically gets girls like us into a mental category of "prim and proper possible lesbian girls" in a dude's mind.

When guys meet us, especially ones which are drop dead gorgeous with every perfection of their dream Barbie girl, they assume we can cook, be all womanly and sophisticated.

Let's laugh together.

We tend to act like we have 10 brothers before our birth. Not exactly gentle.

An apt example would be me.

I am a clumsy fool who can't cook.

Lived as I was until I turned 19 and felt---------- heck, I need to be more womanly.

Exude that sophisticated , not overpowering but subtle sexiness every confident woman owns.

Here in lies my journey into burning some vegetables, over adding salt, sugar and wine into my dishes.

Couple of times I almost tripped myself on the kitchen floor. Couple more I almost dropped my bowls.

If someone took a video of me cutting my vegetables, let's laugh together again.

Thought I am looking more like Masterchef Australia each day.

I am more of  'Unexpectedly clumsy chef '

My ego got hurt by  my Masterchef Grandma.

In a way, the perspicacity of her remarks will teach me not only to be a good cook,but a highly tolerant person towards insinuating people.

I will cook my following meal, solo. Without the grandma eagle eyeing my cooking style.

This is my grand master plan :

To learn and change profoundly for the better good of myself.To move forward and never look back and live in the present. I must achieve this once my newly short hair grows out back to Sleeping Beauty length and before my parents pack me away for university.

The following are the vegetarian dishes I choose to cook over the weekend.

I will take pictures of the outcome.For now, let's preview what I will cook.

Yes, I am ambitious but I also won't give in to negativity.

Being in an all girls school specifically mine, we are trained to go after dreams in life. We won't back down.

Plus, I really need to mature into a sophisticated lady with good culinary skills.

I doubt there are any guys  like my dad who would accept a lazy rough wifey.

The essence of my being and character are still there but self improvements never hurt.

Ingredients for cooking Western food are very expensive, so choose receipes within your budget and capabilities.

Thank you weak buying power of  Malaysian Ringgit.

I plan to calm my nerves, increase level of swag-ness by playing my favourite playlists in the kitchen as I cook.

Preview of my playlist

1. II Mundo -Jimmy Fontana

2.Riptide-Vane Joy

3. La Valse d'Amelie - Yann Tiersen

4.Sur le fil -Yann Tiersen

5.Naomi - Yann Tiersen (Cascade Street )

6.J'y suis jamais allè - Yann Tiersen