Proton and Lonia

Posted by Mrs Imran on Aug 23, 2010
Filed Under Darwis Ichiro, I Heart & Recommend, Photography | 18 comments

I was so excited to enter Proton 25 years contest few months back, but unfortunately since Imran is an employee of Proton, I came to know that we can’t enter the contest, whadda bummer! The prize was no doubt very tempting though, RM25k cash, sape tanak kan? Haha but too bad for us. Ada la jugak try nk masuk secara haram…hahaha tapi dah haram namanya so tuhan tk restu, so plan backfire at the end.

Few days later after the contest has been closed, suddenly Proton announced internal contest for all the staffs. Even though the prize can’t be compared to RM25,000 cash money lah, tapi with competition spirit yg masih berbaki dalam diri (ehe), I pon join jerlah. Lagipon all the gambar-gambar dah siap just nk submit jer.

Notice picture of a small boy with the steering wheel? Yessssss…that’s my son Ichiro! Apparently, photo of Ichiro has been chosen to be featured at Proton main page. Wah kembang sungguh rasa hati Menang ker tak menang dunno yet lah result belum announce, but dah jadi gambar hiasan utk main page pon dah cukup seronot ok! Tak sia-sia mommy terbalik-balik dalam kereta nk amik gambar si kicik ni.

Here the picture in larger size.

Muka pemandu berhemat dimasa hadapan. Heeee. Drive carefully ok sayang.

Another great news, logo design work for my chocolate is finally finished. I’m so excited and happy with the end results. After some amendments (of course..knowing me selagi tk perfect dimataku selagi tu kene edit..hehe), here the final look of the logo. I would say that am pretty happy with Miezam service and definitely would love to recommend him to all of you especially business owner yg perlukan logo or other business stationary, do head to Miezam’s blog and be prepared to awe. Hehe. He’s a dude tapi gifted with creative fingers. All the lovely craft works pon done by him. Perempuan-perempuan yg keras tangan (like yours truly ) haruslah mengambil iktibar. Ehe.

Cute little fairy with gigi. Gigi saper tu ada cop bintang?

Ni ada some of his craft work yg I minat. I tatau apa benda ni sebenarnya, tapi tengok mcm lawa

Those yg interested, here is Miezam’s contact number. And don’t forget to check his blog ok. Tolonglah tengok blog dia…comel sangat all his creations! rugi tak tengok okkkkk.

BLOG : http://miezam.blogspot.com/

SMS to:0129227754

EMAIL:minamisensei@gmail.com

Zleqha ~ contemporary muslim clothing

Posted by Mrs Imran on Aug 18, 2010
Filed Under Feature Post, I Heart & Recommend, Shopping | 34 comments

My baju raya! Yayyyyyyy!

Yayyy! I bought my baju raya already. Finallyyyyyyyy…..and terbukti my god feeling was right, I bought a dress from Zleqha. Sbb nye I fikir-fikir, I don’t have time to browse and search for other baju on internet and maybe by the time I find the right one, it would be too late already, so tanak amik that risk. Plus there’s no certainty on size, colors, delivery and stock availability. So, I made my mind to just simply purchase one of Zleqha lovely dress (to be honest, I wanted to buy more than one!)

Noryn Aziz, wearing “my” (ehem) dress in maroon colour

I dah lama tahu Zleqha ni cuma, belum sampai seru nk beli. Zleqha specialty is more to modern contemporary muslim wear. Very nice baju-baju dia. I went to Tropicana City Mall, Petaling Jaya around noon today with my sister in law Hani. At the moment we sampai di booth Zleqha, we went ahhhhh…ooohhhh…ahhhh…santekkkkkknyer. Pastu tengok harga..terkedu sekejap pastu sambung balik..ohhhhh ahhhh…santekkkkkkk. Haha.

There are few dresses that I really like especially the polka dot dress. I would say the design is very classy vintage and it resemble design of dress worn by english lady during colonial years. If you remember my fashion illustration sketch earlier HERE, dress with empire waist or high waist is sooooo me, it favor my body shape really well and make me look slimmer & taller a bit. (tinggi itu penting…hehe)

So, when I saw this photo at Zleqha Facebook page, I just knew it that I gotto buy this dress. Apparently, faith has spoken that the dress gonna choose me to be her new master, since there’s only 1 dress with that color and size available at the booth. Memang betul-betul was meant for me. Haha perasannnn. I choose M size since I prefer the baju tu be loose a bit especially around tummy and waist area. So, senang nk bergerak, duduk, and tk panas sangat sbb ada ruang utk air ventilation. Heeee. Kalau beli S size, dia akan ngam-ngam fit lah tiada ruang utk menjadi gemuk walau sedikit. So, cane nk makan lemang nnt? Lagi satu tip from me lah yer, utk fabric especially satin or silk ker, better to buy slightly oversize sbb nnt bila u duduk or bent, baju tu tkkan jadi terlalu meregang dan menyebabkan fabric yg sensitive tu jadi tetas dan merekah. I ada baju from Forever 21, size S mmg ngam2 fit me, tp after awhile I tengok kain dia dah merekah dekat bahagian belakang sbb bila I bent dia teregang. So, itula dia simple tips dari saya

To those yg interested nk try and pegang2 baju Zleqha yg tulus-mulus, can visit their booth di Tropicana City Mall. Price range around RM300-RM1k. Better pergi, sbb Zleqha mmg takder outlet di area KL ni, so ni diaorg join Ramadhan Bazaar, so merasalah org PJ cam I nk try baju-baju dia. If not nk kene pergi Kuantan youuuu. Below details utk booth and contact number;

Venue : Tropicana City Mall, Ramadhan Bazaar ( Ground Floor)

Date : 18/8/2010 – 8/9/2010

Time : 10am – 10pm

Contact number : 013 9987066

Kak Fazlin and assistant kt booth, dok mention I lah customer pertama utk hari pertama booth dibuka today. Haha mmg I gigih pergi awal-awal, sbb saya dah tkder baju raya, kalau Zleqha pon sold out, harus I tk raya tahun ni.

Don’t forget to mention my blog yah if it happens you guys visit Zleqha booth nnt, who knows Zleqha baik hati nk grant you discount ker (tapi i tk jamin la dapat discount but since this is a paid write up for Zleqha, maybe diaorg happy la tengok respond from my readers and sempena ramadhan ni semua org hati baik-baik belaka kan? Kan Kak Fazlin kan? Hehe)

I really heart and recommend Zleqha to all. Oh btw, Zleqha is looking for a great spot for their new KL boutique.

Kak Fazlin (owner & designer Zleqha) : U tahu tak dekat area mana yg best nk bukak boutique?

Me: Oh kalau nk area best, surelah yg dekat dgn my house best….(hahaha, tidak membantu kan?)

So, kalau u guys tahu ada tempat best utk bukak boutique can suggest kt sini. I ada suggest area PJ jerlah yg I tahu. Area Jaya 33 and Jaya One not bad jugak. Then ada 32 Square nearby Masjid Bulat PJ, yg ada JM Briyani tu. Situ pon not bad juga. Banyak Shoplot baru. Kalau nk best lagi, surelah masuk mall , mcm OU ker, KLCC ker kan. Kat Taman Tun (TTDI) pon ok. Tapi Taman Tun ada Munawarah dah. So, ada suggestion do speak up yeah.  So nnt kiter ramai-ramai can buy Zleqha easily di area KL. Selamat membeli baju raya!

p/s: there’s no picture of me with my dress, sbb I need to get it alter first. Will pick up the dress from Zleqha in 2 weeks time. Ohhh love it, I always find excuses to revisit the booth. Haha. Today jer dah memancing few friends to bring me to the booth sbb Zleqha kata next week ada lagi few more designs sampai. Diaorg tk dapat nk bawak semua sekaligus katanya. Ishhh itchy to go. Saper nk pergi, can me tumpang?

Decent kampung style…

Posted by Mrs Imran on Jun 7, 2010
Filed Under Feature Post, I Heart & Recommend, Memory Lane, My "The Brand" Story, Testimonial | 24 comments

Oppss read this first : Finds out on how to win a cute dolphin fridge magnet cum bottle opener at the end of this entry. Enjoy reading!

Me wearing a cotton kurung with paisley motif in vibrant hue. Do I look like “nk pergi mengaji?” I like!

Let’s take a walk down memory lane awhile…I still remember when I was 15 years old, I used to attend KAFA class with my friend Suraya. There was one day when she came to the class wearing an exceptionally nice cotton “kurung”, I was certainly can’t take my eyes off her at that time as I envied her clothes so much, till…. I think I could cry wanting for the same kurung. Yeah you surely can’t imagine how bad I wanted for it.

Close up. Isn’t it lovely? Thanks to TextileShoppe!

What made Suraya’s “kurung” appeared so unique to me was because of the pattern, the pink flower design was remarkable pretty and none of my other friend during that time having similar motif for their kurung outfit. We are totally out of her league [I mean our kurung].  My kurung was keras, and I swear it can stand on it owns. Plus it made me appear as if I have swollen a whole lot of chicken I hate it so much, and the pattern was nothing I can proud of [bunga-bunga biasa sahaja] but I didn’t complain much because I know my mom can only afford to buy fabrics when it was on sale. Sob sob.

You can’t go wrong with cotton kurung. In fact it is so IN today. Oh btw, photo is featuring the slimmer version of me. Ehe. Still got few more kilos to shed. Alangkah slowww yerrrr. That’s quite normal, as when you are no longer “fat”, (I used to weigh 75kg during pregnancy! and that’s a record) the speed of losing weight will automatically slowing down. I still taking my Usana everyday, yes everyday except weekend. Pretty easy, just consume Usana Essentials [multivitamins] to regulate sugar blood,  Usana Nutrimeal as meal replacement and Fibergy as snack drink to add more filling effect. Voila! Slimmer you!

Another designer cotton kurung from my decent personal collection

As I grow older my passion towards cotton fabrics never fade. Never. I still heart it and  I always appreciate decent looks/style that cotton fabric creates. But now fret not! As I know where can I get those lovely prints of cotton fabric…yeah even better than Suraya’s! huhu. Am kinda obsess with designer cotton and at the moment I have 3 [yeah..3 only, but still I reckon it as an obsession..hehe] new kurung. Am thinking to make more cotton kurung so that I could wear it to the mosque during ramadhan month for terawih prayers. I plan to go for terawih but not sure who’s going to look after Ichiro then. Will see later how…hmm tapi I wanna go la like previous years.

I always adore Yasmin Ahmad films since she often portray Malay girls in most modest appearance. Yes, she chose cotton kurung over any other glam costume in her movie. At that point she actually manage to set a new standard to film in Malaysia..yes…to be more Malaysia for Malaysian. Sometimes we Malaysian need to be taught on how to be realistic uh? Take a look at these 2 posters of her movies. How pretty and lovely Sharifah Amani in cotton kurung [eventho I'm not quite agree with her dressing sometimes] and her adik Sharifah something…[I don't know her name, and plain lazy to google it] looks cute too in cotton kurung for the Mukhsin film poster. Siapa bilang gadis melayu tak menarik hati? Tiada memikat?

Picture courtesy of Sew Fantastic

Cotton fabric is pretty cool as you can also make a craft creation using it. You know…cute things like tote bag, roll-up pencil or make-up casing, sling, nursing cover and etc. Or if you know how to sew, cotton fabric also make pretty kids clothing. Basically, what I could say, you can’t go wrong with cotton. Seriously. Sometimes less is more and one of many ways to reminiscence your childhood memory is through wearing clothing made of cotton You will surely feel young at heart again and smile blissfully whenever you look at the mirror. Ahh..those child memories even though it has been left so far behind, yet you feel like  it soo close to you. Like it just happens yesterday. I can go on and on with this..haha.. so better stop berkhayal now.

I got some of my designer cotton from Etsy and some from TextileShoppe. But I think, kalau nk beli, better beli dekat textileshoppe lah, sbbnyer Etsy shipping took ages to arrive and boleh rasa mcm nk kene stroke tunggu sbb suspen. And my latest order from Etsy, tk sampai langsung…waaaaa [tapi bukan beli kain la..beli benda lain]. Rugi la..siot betul. Sekarang tgh tunggu insurance claim.

So, to those who wants to buy beautiful fabrics (especially cotton), make your way to textileshoppe.com (payment method – bank transfer) or textileshoppe.my1stop.com (payment method – bank transfer & credit card). I got one of my cotton fabric from TextileShoppe too (refer to first picture of this entry). Other than cotton, TextileShoppe carry many other type of fabrics such as silk, satin, korean silk, chiffon, crepe, jacquard and latest they also accepting pre-order for cotton materials.

Hari raya is only few months away and I guess it is about time for you to buy “kain ela” or “kain pasang” and get it send to tailor soonest possible. Save your time to scout for the fabrics by just browsing TextileShoppe online store, pick what you like, pay and just simply wait for it to arrive. Easy peasy!

Why do I recommend TextileShoppe? Here’s why…

• Store owner get her supply from everywhere across the globe especially during traveling. Hence, her stock is quite limited, rare and exclusive

• Under tight budget? Not to worry as textileshoppe.com also offer installment payment. Sweet! Boleh dapat further diskaun kalau beli banyak or regular customer pon sure boleh dpt diskaun.

• Owner of the shop adalah sgt friendly. Hehe. Besides, I think TextileShoppe price range is also quite cheap [without compromise on the quality] .

• Be the first to know about new stocks update and promotions. Register as a user of TextileShoppe website and subscribe to the newsletter.

• You can purchase as little as 0.5 metres! Just buy what you need.

• GOOD NEWS! Special for Mr & Mrs Imran blog readers, you guys can get 5% discount for your purchase by inserting promo code “mrsimran” in comment box during check out. Refer to example below;

• Another GOOD NEWS! there’s 5% discount promotion running at the moment until end of June. So, total discount that you may get by inserting “mrsimran” promo code and placing ur order before end of June is ideally 5% + 5%. Arghhh I am not that good with numbers and percentage so maybe you can just contact the seller to know further about discount. Just check the website first ok. Apa yg I tahu, bila ada promotion and discount meaning the goods are cheaper in price than usual. Kan?

Btw, I bought few souvenir from Tioman and would like to give it for free to my readers. In order to be fair to all, I would love to trade the souvenir with little favor from you guys ok. Here how it works, just simply leave your comment in the comment box and comment anything that related to this entry. Such as your verdict on buying fabric from an online shop or what is your favourite fabric, fabric that you hate the most, you can also ask good question about textileshoppe.com , what are the things that you love about textileshoppe.com , share you shopping experience with Textileshoppe and etc. Everything…simply everything. I would love to hear. 5 persons that come up with the best comment or question would have a chance to win the dolphin fridge magnet cum bottle opener. Oh yes you can comment more than once but do it within 48 hours, which means the contest will ends on 9th June, 12 midnight.

Trip to Tioman Island

Posted by Mrs Imran on May 17, 2010
Filed Under Feature Post, I Heart & Recommend, Travel | 18 comments

Sea breeze….

Well..well…well, at the moment I feel like I’m dreaming as several days ago I was still in Tioman Island for my Cuti-Cuti Malaysia vacation and then suddenly “abracadabra pooff” here I am sitting on my mom’s sofa again with computer on lap , yawning and lost count how many times I’ve been bitten by mosquitoes. Badddd mosquitoes.

Our trip to Pulau Tioman was fun and adventurous. Thanks to Sanaa and husband who are responsible in arranging our very first trip to local island. If you are looking for a good travel deal, fast service and reliable, I would highly recommend Sanaa and her husband. I did send query to few other agents [including travel agent company that I've already signed up as a member], either responds were very slow or price ain’t good are among major reasons why I didn’t choose them. To those who aren’t familiar with travel package and stuff feel free to contact Tholand Waey Holiday Sdn Bhd. They are very friendly, speedy service, reliable and competitive in price. You can look for more info by checking out their FB fan page or visit Leisure Vacation Club website. We maybe wanna consider to sign up as a member with them as my current travel agent company is really disappointing. Bila call jer asik passing-passing, then we had to repeat the story from the beginning over and over again. Begitu susah meh nk amik reservation or booking? So jangan jadi macam kiter orang, wrongly chose the travel agent and then wasted our hard earned money to pay the membership fee.

Sand beach of Pulau Tioman

Since Tioman is the first local island that we have visited thus I hardly can judge or compare with other islands in Malaysia. Journey to Tioman was not that smooth. We woke up early on Monday morning and straight heading to Mersing city by car. We reached Mersing 4 hours later and was a little early since our ferry schedule to depart around 11 am and we were practically an hour early. I was furious when the ferry delayed, wasn’t sure whether not it’s normal for the ferry to delay but seriously it really testing my patience. I hate waiting and an hour behind schedule is really unacceptable! Dah la kami sejam awal, then feri sejam lewat, 2 jam bazir kt jeti panas kepam tu. The sun was super bright and weather was somewhat burning! I was sweating like no one business. Kalau ada penghawa dingin dekat jeti tu, boleh la juga saya panjangkan kesabaran. It really wasting our time, energy and money too.

In front of deluxe suite, suitable for big family

Beach Front room. 2 katil. Tamakkan? Salah satu katil jadi meja. Hehe.

We then arrived at the island around 3pm [sigh]…1 hour delay + 2 hour journey. Since we were too exhausted, we fell asleep soon after and only woke up during dinner time. Things went pretty well after that. But we didn’t have much things to do at night. Oh by the way my husband and I stayed at Paya Beach Resort. For the first night we settled with Sea Facing room and change to Beach Front room on the next day. Beach Front room is little bit expensive than Sea Facing room [we actually wanted for it from beginning, but it has been fully booked]. So, when the management informed us that there’s one unit of Beach Front room available, we quickly upgraded our room

Food sail on a boat?

Food at Paya Beach Resort was so-so to me. It wasn’t bad or good either, but we didn’t go there for food, hence it really didn’t matter to us. Plus, I’m on diet and Imran is not a big eater, so we think the food is fine. At Paya Beach Resort, the staffs and workers are very nice and friendly, they surely made us feel like we are at home. There are also various activities that you can arrange while staying there like fishing, snorkeling, diving [PBR does have discovery dive too!], waterfall, boat tour and many more. Since we only have 1 day to join the activities, thus we chose to go snorkel in the morning and diving in the evening albeit we know that diving ain’t easy.

Aha, how I missed this moment…feel like we were just married

Our escapade trip to marine park started on second day. To be honest that was my first time to join snorkeling activity and mind you am not a good swimmer [huhu..lemas2 tu selalu ah] After trying it for the first time, I could say it’s kinda addictive! At the beginning I was bit worried, but lama-lama lepas tu, life jacket pon dah tanggal sbb nk immerse lama sket dalam air and take photo! Gambar itu penting. Lemas perkara kedua. Ehe.

I like this pic the most!

Takut hitam ker abang?

We don’t have any underwater camera but we managed to get one on loan. The camera is ancient! [well..whatever camera that still using kodax film is ancient to me] We did think to buy one, but then since we thought that we could get it much cheaper on mainland, so, we just simply rent it. Thank god we made such decision since we found out that it’s pretty hard to get the film developer, apparently they had already threw out the old skool machine, fully understood that…we are living in a digital era and there’s no room anymore for giant film developer machine anymore. Filmography dh slowly pupus. Surely soon ada digital lomo, worry not ok.

Ini muka orang yg tertelan bergelen2 air laut…

Fishhhhh yay! Ikan gigit navel Imran sbb ikan-ikan ingat itu roti crumbs. Hahaha. Merah n sakit siottt..

The camera suck big time! It’s terribly difficult to use, too big too hold in hands, difficult to focus with our snorkeling mask on, the viewfinder is rather small for my gigantic mask, every time we snap a photo..we need to roll the film, problem is sometimes we rolled it twice and sometimes once. So yg mana betul? Boleh gila ok! Dah la busy nk control breathing and balancing [plus posing with peace sign], mmg kelam kabut nak amik gambar. Terbalik terlungkup semua ada. We just pray that gambar2 tu jadi la. Haha. Wpun tidak lah mengharap sangat. Sbb we don’t even quite sure whether not we had the camera on. Haha. Entah2 lupa nk on. Isk isk. I blame it on the camera, because of it I missed the opportunity to snap photo of SHARK! Yeah a shark. Scary tak? Masa tgh snorkeling ada shark. Hihi, I was swimming with my almight to the boat actually sbb tu tk dpt amik gambar. Ehe. Not because of the camera.

Air supply. Hehe. Jangan main-main benda ni. Berat. Angkat rasa mcm nk terbenam masuk bumi. Tapi dalam air tk rasa berat. Rasa cam ada org hug belakang

Later in the evening of the second day, we decided to try the “discovery dive”. Discovery dive is for beginner who doesn’t have any diving experience [let alone license] like ehem… yours truly. Berenang pon tempang2 lagi, ada hati nk dive. Huhu. To tell you the truth, from my own opinion diving is actually easier than swimming. Why? Because you have set of equipment and you don’t need to bother about keep floating because the life jacket is attach to your body, kalau malas2 nk swim boleh arise to surface and inflate the jacket, then boleh tidur dah. Hehe. But of course things can go wrong sometimes, so masa2 oksigen habis ker apa ker…u need to have those swimming skills la. If not I tk jamin u akan selamat utk balik berhari raya. Hari raya tiba-tiba?

At the jetty, waiting for the boat

So, apa lagi eh? Third day tu dah check out, we waited for the ferry…and again it delayed. Gerammmmmm betul! Overall, we always prefer island since it’s far from metropolitan and we do enjoy nature and beach so much. For overseas travel, nanti-nanti la dulu. Since I planned to join Usana Celebration, but we have no idea where would it be nnt. So, just tunggu, kalau negara best boleh consider nk pergi. Yg I tahu ada satu tahun ni dekat Utah, US. Tapi tk confirm.

Find me a fridge please!

Oh, I bought few fridge magnets and for now would like to give one to my lucky reader. Yay! To be fair to all….I think the best is to trade the fridge magnet with your comments / questions. 5 best comments/questions will stand a chance to win the flip flop with wobbly dolphin fridge magnet [u can insert photo also]. You can comment more than once and make sure drop your comment before Tuesday ends ok.