Infant Baju Kurung

Ok. I know I can't never get enough of baby stuffs. Call me crazy because you know what, I bought these adorable baju kurung online without much thinking and then I totally forgot about it, not until the parcel arrived at my doorstep two days later. Yes, I forgot about my own purchase which was made just a couple of days ago! How could this be? This is a chronic symptom of a shopaholic! Aaaggggggggg!!!!

Anyhoo, I think these are tooooooooooo cute to be passed on and I started adding them into my shopping cart, on the dot. Plus, they're on sale! SALE! Eventho it's not much but still, you can have them at discounted price. Hahaha. By the way, this can be a great gift-giving for my friend too who just delivered a baby girl. Hewhewhew, alasan nak shopping semata.

The tiny, compact parcel arrived, which I really couldn't recalled buying at all.

Then I realized and went gugu gaga over it. Ooooo Aaaaaa....

Oohhhhh I love love love these 1000x! Super adorable hokey. From Cetot Outlet. RM86 plus shipping.

On the other hand, we came home yesterday and saw a notice from Poslaju, requesting me to self-collect my parcel at their branch. Husband just shrugged off and didn't comment much. So the next day, I went to the collection center and picked up my parcel.

The thin parcel in a big brown envelope.

Oh yes, yet another newborn baju kurung.

This time it's flowery theme, from Kurung Babyku. RM40 including delivery.

So now, I can safely say that the baby's Raya collection is absolutely done and over. Should start concentrating for mummy's stuffs now.

House Renovation: Vendors Details (Part II)

I'm on EL this whole week because my car broke down on Tuesday morning and husband is not around to help me bring it to the workshop. So I'm sort of on 'house-arrest', seeing that I have no transport to move around. Trust me, it's not fun staying at home with nothing much to do. I was bored to death.

Okay, let's just skip that part. It's not that important anyway.

Hey, I know I promised you a second post on details of my vendors. So here you go. I guess it's all complete now. It's now time to decorate our new pod and that means, cash is rolling into the drain and I'm really broke (eventho it was just payday yesterday!) Please, please, please I'm in need of a relief donation. Huhu!

Lamps

As you know, budget is our main priority. Since we have a major renovation, that means everything needs to be replaced and the same goes to the lightings. I decided to forego the original lampu kalimantang and spent a few bucks on new soft light lamps. We browsed through Mudah and found cheaper solution for it. We bought ours at wholesale price and mind you, they are really, really cheap and the owner does give some good pointers and suggestions on the lightings. The shop has quite a few choices to your liking (as shown in pictures). Just drop by to Silver Star Wholesale Lighting Enterprise, located on the top floor in The 19 USJ Digital Mall. You can contact the owner at 014-2272368 for directions.

Furniture

Most of my furniture are from Macy. I bought them while they were on sale at the end of last year and thus it was a bargain. They're not entirely cheap nor expensive, but I was hooked on some of their design and decided to buy them eventho we weren't sure of renovating the house at that time. And I'm just glad I bought them much earlier because apparently they're no longer re-produce certain designs that we have. Phewwwwwww! My black sofa is from Macy Seri Kembangan while my bedframe and dining table set are from Macy IOI Mall. I think it's best to buy from them when they're having their major sale. Super cheap and choices are a plenty, I tell you!

Grill

We got the contact from family, where apparently most of my husband's relatives used their service whenever they want to have new grills for the house. After getting some ridiculous quotations from other vendors, we decided to hire them because they have the cheapest and most affordable rates in town. We managed to get by with only 3k to do grills the whole house, including the main gate. Isn't it cheap? You can contact Ahlim Engineering at 012-3091087 for quotation and discussion.

Astro / Streamyx Relocation

It was a headache at first when we want to find someone to move our readily installed Astro and Streamyx to the new address. So I went online and found a contact who can relocate my Astro. My husband decided to dismantle the dish by himself to save cost so we just hire a wireman to re-install our Astro at the new house. The charge is RM100 for installing the dish and RM150 for dismantling and installing the dish from your old place to your new house. You can contact Mizan at 019-2832487. As for Streamyx relocation, I just went to TM Point office in USJ Taipan (since I stayed in Subang previously) and filled up a form to apply for relocation. Within 7 working days, their assigned vendor will contact you to install the new line and you'll be charged RM30 for the service. As usual, they can be quite a slowmo at times so it's best to keep contacting them if they failed to do so after the promised period.

Hmmmm, I think that's all the details and contacts that I have so far. I can't think of anymore right now. Do let me know if I missed on anything. Will surely keep you informed and updated then. :)

B.Box - The Essential Baby Box

I guess I'm allowed to buy some non-essential items for the baby, seeing that I've completed most of the important items on my checklist. Hahaha.

I'm in love with this diaper wallet actually. A very well-known product in Australia, this nappy wallet is very practical and most importantly, fits into your handbag in a jiffy. It has a compartment to store your baby wipes, a holder to put a diaper or two and comes with a matching printed changing mat. What attracts me to this is its bright colors.

Comes in a variety of hues and prints to suit your liking.

I knew this one shop in Bangsar Village that sells B.Box items. I always love Bangsar Village, for its wide range of international baby brands. But of course, price is a bit unforgiving if you plan to buy them at the local store. So I opted to google research and decided to buy this nappy wallet online, since I don't have the will to go to the mall just to buy a nappy wallet. I've listed a few online sellers that carry this B.Box range for your easy reference too.

Mummylicious Malaysia

FAB Moms 'N' Tots

Supermak Shop

This is the one thing that I was hesitant to buy at first. But after considering its practicality for always on-the-go moms, I guess why not. And I bought one in universal color too, so it can be used for both boys and girls.

Yes, yet another parcel from Supermak Shop.

The outer view of front and back side of the box in a clear plastic packaging.

The super bright colors. I chose Retro Circles. Currently, this is the most popular print among others on the market. Comes with a matching printed changing mat.

The inside compartment of the nappy wallet. A bottom compartment to store the changing mat and a top compartment to store your nappy wipes.

I love shopping at Supermak Shop because they're always prompt in replying queries and delivery is fast. You can try to bargain on selected items too but be considerate. I give two thumbs up to Supermak Shop for their excellent service. Yeayyyyy!

House Renovation: Vendors Details (Part I)

I know you guys have been waiting for this post, right? I promised to share with you the details of my vendors once the house if completed and Alhamdulillah, the house is finally ready within 5 weeks. Now, I am happy to share these info with you for your future reference. Any price given to us by the vendors is based on mutual agreement and understanding. Please contact the vendors themselves for further discussion regarding price and quotation yeah.

Contractors
We didn't hire those professional contractors. Since we're working on a tight budget, we decided to just hire a group of freelance Indonesian workers. We have seen their previous works and were satisfied with the outcome, thus agreed to hire them to do the house after seeing that they have the most appropriate rates around. The total cost for our renovation is 38k including raw materials, paint job and some simple wiring. But be sure to prepare a written contract for both parties before you hire them. That's their requirement. Do contact Shukri at 016-2865089 for further discussion.

Kitchen Cabinet
Since we have a rather cute kitchen area, a simple and clean cabinet is my top priority. We finally stumbled upon Wira Kitchen and hired them to do the kitchen cabinet. They have several branches and we ordered our cabinets from their outlet in Puchong. Located in Puchong Jaya, right opposite IOI Mall, just above Berry's Bakery. Of course, they have several designs to choose from and what I like about Wira Kitchen is that, they'll print out an outplan of your desired kitchen with the potential price even if you just pop by to ask for quotation. The size of our kitchen cabinet is roughly around 5 1/2 ft, priced at 3k including kitchen sink, drying rack, knobs and installation. Do contact Kelvin at 010-22066780 for further discussion.

Stove
We decided to not have the built-in stove for our kitchen cabinet because it just adds up to the cost. What we did was we source for a separate stove to match our cabinet. Luckily, we found a Zanussi stove in a perfect white color to go with the white kitchen cabinet at a very affordable price. The stove comes with an electric oven (yeay, now I can start baking!) and is priced at RM1599 plus free delivery. Bought this at Ideal Electrical in Shah Alam. Do contact them at 03-55482122 for directions.

Tiles
We didn't have much time to look around for the cheapest supplier in town so we just dropped by to the nearest outlet possible, located at Jalan Puchong. Merely 3 minutes by car from our house. Hahaha. We bought a heapful of tiles for the kitchen area, bathroom/toilet and porch area. They have a selection of choice according to your budget. Please contact LS Marble & Tiles at 03-80753199 for directions.

Arm Chairs
I've received feedback and questions from readers (ceh, macam la ramai sangat yang baca blog aku ni!) regarding my two purple arm chairs. I bought them on December last year, while we're still in the midst of planning for the house. I just thought, hey why don't we buy these first while we have the cash. They were purchased at House of Khatulistiwa at Avenue@Puchong Furniture Mall, located further up from Puchong Utama. Priced at 1.7k for both chairs, including free delivery. You can change the fabric, they have several choice of colors. Please contact Faysal at 013-4121394 for more information.

I shall write more about my other vendors for lightings, bathroom accessories and furniture in the next post. For the time being, just bear with these yeah. Time for blogging is very restricted now since I've started working. :( Any questions, just give me a hello and I will try to reply you as soon as possible. Cheerios!

Headbands

The advantage of having a girl is you're allowed to accessorize your baby to the top. Hahaha!

I love seeing bald babies or little girls in a cute headband. They instantly look cute. But I don't personally like those big chunk of flower on top of the baby's head, it looks like a pile of garden is planted on the top. Hahaha please don't get offended. This is just my humble opinion.

I reckon, most headbands (online or offline) are retailed at around RM10 and above, depends on the design itself. But I found one online shop selling cute headbands at the cheapest price ever. Wheeeeeee! Eventho they're selling cheap but they don't compromise on the quality. I still think it's of a good one.

Cheap headbands from OBG Boutique. The total price for these is only RM30. Free shipping to my doorstep because apparently, one of their staff stays in the same block with me. Hehehe.

I'm sooooo happy with the headbands because they're uber pretty but I noticed the colors I chose are too girly. Then I decided to place the second order, this time with more mundane colors or at least, something to match with the outfits.

The second collection of the baby headbands. Total damage: RM25. Aaaagggggg this is cheapppppppppp!

On the other hand, the baby received yet another early Raya gift from my mom.

 A Faded Glory dress from Brands Outlet and a pair of ballerina flats from Teeny Tots. I love how this dress completes the look if worn together with the zebra headband that I purchased earlier. Wheeeeee!

Okay. Current mood: HAPPY

Pregnancy: My Daily Routine

I'm sure most of expectant mothers have almost the same routine to practice during their pregnancy, right? That includes taking prescribed medicines, drinking milk, taking healthy food and the list goes on. But what differs from one and another is what did they consume.

As for me, I reckon my daily routine is just the same with the other mothers. But I do my own initiative to supply what I think is best for my baby. That includes:

1. Drinking milk. Yes, there's a variety of milk for expecting moms out there. Be it in powder form or fresh milk. As for me, I try to suit everything within my budget without comprimising my baby's health.

I drink a glass of EnfaMama in the morning, a glass of HL fresh milk at night and a bottle of fresh goat's milk once a week.

2. Taking supplements. I've been prescribed with some supplements according to my health and needs. The doctor gave me the usual Obimin and chewable calcium tablet in orange flavor every month. Apart from that, I'm also taking Salindah homeopathy tablets as an added supplement. 

Salindah tablets are taken twice daily during morning and at night, while the other two supplements are consumed in the afternoon after meal.

Besides that, I also have my own simple routine for my well being. I don't experienced any stretch marks yet and I feel blessed. But that doesn't mean I should neglect my stretching abdomen. As a precaution method, I used Tanamera Virgin Coconut Oil in my daily routine. I love Tanamera coconut oil because it doesn't have this sickening smell. In fact, it smells fresh and sweet, and the best part is it absorbs faster into your skin without leaving you feeling all oily and sticky. I used this oil to massage my perineum area every night (when my pregnancy hits 6 months), my belly to avoid stretch marks and I also apply this whenever I have bruise or marks on my skin. It works just great so far.

Priced at RM34, you can purchase this at Tanamera outlet in Parkson Sunway Pyramid or on their website.

So what's your daily routines like?

House Renovation: Week Five (The Final Week!)

The renovation is finally done and over. Since I'm back at work now (sigh!), we could only visit and clean the house on weekends. We still have a month rental lease at our old flat, so for the time being we're going back and forth from USJ to Puchong on weekly basis to manage the new house. It's kinda sad too thinking that we just have two weeks left to stay here at the flat before we move out for good to our new home sweet home. After staying here for almost two years, for sure we have a lot of memories to cherish.

But of course, we have to move on. We're going to start a family soon with a baby coming in, and I need my very own place to call home. Alhamdulillah... It took five weeks for this major renovation to be completed. I guess this is just the right time for us to move in, before I deliver my baby in July.

Here's the compilation of pictures to feast your eyes. I will write in details about my vendors (I know a lot of you have been asking these questions), most probably next week because I'm kinda occupied with packing, cleaning and house moving right now. Urghhhhhhh I just wish I can have extra leave from work to manage this new house. Tak cukup lagi ke kau dah cuti 2 bulan selama ni cik Elly ooiiiiiiiii! Kahkahkah!

Oh, mind the messiness of my house in the pictures. We're in the midst of cleaning at that time and I was too lazy to wait until everything is spotless and clean to do some photography skills. That can wait. Maybe in another post. So just stay tuned!

Let's start with the front of the house. Everything is just simple from the gate to the grill and the wood awning. Anything that suits our budget is good. Hahaha. Interior wall is painted already. Somehow it looks a bit yellowish where initially I wish it looks more to brownish but it's okay, we can always repaint it later. Maybe after 3 years. Kehkehkeh! (kes bajet dah habis la ni...). The tiles need to be cleaned with acid so we'll leave the job to the workers. I can't smell chemicals. It's not good for me and the baby.

Let's move on further into the porch area. We're not going to park our cars inside here. They should be outside. Hahaha! We have two separate area tho. The first one (first picture) is supposed to be the parking area but we're going to leave it wide open as it is. It's fully shaded so kids can play here. In the second picture, we built a stage with 2-step stairs which leads to the main entrance. We also installed two identical hanging outdoor lamps in those areas.

Now, we're entering the living hall. I'm gonna separate it into two, one for formal and one for tv area. It's still empty because we haven't transferred our existing furniture from the flat yet. What we have now is just the new furniture bought on sale last year. That explains why we don't have curtains, carpet, wall decorations, etc yet. Those will have to wait by end of this month.

The dining hall, nothing much too. We haven't mounted the wall deco for this area. And we're still waiting for our cabinet and large mirror from Macy to complete this area. Oh, maybe some table mats and a vase of fresh flowers would do to transform the bare table. That can wait too, by end of this month. Hahaha!

The master bedroom (first picture), just have some basic furniture. Bed frame and wardrobe in dark colored wood. I was too lazy to hang the curtains since I'm too heavy now. I need help for that. The third room (second picture) is still bare. We planned to transform this area into prayer/guest/utility room, some basic furniture are still at our old flat. That too, have to wait. No pictures of the second room tho. That's the baby nursery and it's still cluttered with baby items. I just have no mood to take pictures after the camera went dead.

The first picture is our bathroom. Yes, we're just gonna leave it like that. We're still procrastinating on finishing the walls with gloss paint. The second picture is the toilet area. We have all the accessories in stainless steel to match the theme: GREY

Hahaha at this time the kitchen area is cluttered with all sorts of cleaning bottles so mind the messiness. Nothing much to add for this area. Except for the fridge and microwave oven which will be transported later together with the other furniture from our flat.

Oh yes, the clutters from the previous works are still there. We need more manpower to move those things away. Once everything is removed, then we can start cleaning this area. Yes, the metal door is finally there. Thank God!

We are so broke (I mean really reallyyyyyyyyyyyy broke!) this month so any plan for interior decoration has to be postponed to next month. We received offers from family members regarding housewarming gifts. Hahaha this is good but we have most of the major things settled. Hmmmm I guess we have to start working on the gift list anyway, I can't refuse such good offers. Inilah rezeki namanya. Alhamdulillah!

My Pregnancy Progress : 6 Months

Remember I wrote about how I lost my buku pink? Well, guess what. While I was busy packing up to move out the other day, I finally found it. Sitting right inside a file, stashed together with the other documents. Thank God I found it because it has a print out of my first scan inside. Talks about sentimental value.

The memorable buku pink, my first health book.

As usual, I went for my monthly check-up appointment last week at KK Puchong. Appointment time was at 8am and the whole procedure lasted until 12.30 in the afternoon. I spent 3 1/2 hours just for my number to be called. This time around, the nurse monitored my baby's heartbeat and I went for an ATT injection. I gained a healthy weight at 61.8kg this month. There's not much changes during my 6 months pregnancy from the last month except:

• My skin become very sensitive and itchy lately, especially around my arms, legs and belly. The worse is around my arms and the redness from constant scratching is unbearable. I didn't put on any cream. What works for me is Tanamera virgin coconut oil. The redness, itchiness and scars were gone in a few days!
• I can be very tired easily. With the extra weight, I can't walk as fast as normal people. I walk very slow (I mean veryyyyyyyy slow!) and can't stand for a long time, otherwise I'll become all sweaty and feels like fainting. Hahaha dramatic kan?
• I have a major problem to get up and walk after lying down. It's a serious problem especially at night when I have the sudden urge to pee. Seriously, my back aches like it's been flipped into two. Sometimes, I need help from my husband to lift me up. Otherwise when I'm alone most of the time, I'll just hang on to something solid to support me when I get up, slowly.
• My appetite is back to normal, but I'm still choosy at times. Well, who doesn't? And I'm sure get all excited and fuzzy feelings when it comes to desserts. I have sweet tooth, yes I know.
• I feel like my belly is too heavy sometimes and I have difficulties to move around, sleep and doing daily chores. Even sitting for some time is giving me sore too. I have to do everything in slow pace in order to keep up with my growing baby.
• My baby is very active lately, especially during early morning and later at night. I can feel her flutters around and whenever I talked to her, she's kinda responsive. But she's quiet most of the time when my husband is around. Hehehe.

Here's me at 6 months pregnant, all puffed up and I'm proud of it. Hahaha!

Alhamdulillah the baby is growing well and healthy. I just have to maintain my weight and should consume more healthy food this time around. Speaking of that, I know I have to add more greens in my daily meals. Errkkkkkkk!

JJ Cole Collections: Diapers & Wipes Caddy

I was tempted to buy diapers stacker at first, because of its many fun fabrics and practicality. Plus, you can customize your own diapers stacker to your liking and they have different sizes according to your needs. But then I realized that they do look pretty but I need something more than that. I want something to put in the diapers together with all the baby care items (diaper cream, powder, lotion, etc), all in one place and mobile.

I stumbled upon JJ Cole's diaper caddy on the net one day, and was hooked since then. Whenever I went out, I will, without fail, look for it in any departmental stores and baby outlets. Of course, I found some but the price is something to ponder on first things first. Hahaha!

They have different versions and colors available. You can choose stripes, solid colors or dots for the caddy. More can be found on its website.

Retailed at RM139, I knew for good that I don't need to waste so much on something to just put in the baby's diapers. But you know me, I will find such item at the best price whenever I've set my eyes on it. I finally bought one at My BBStore upon seeing that they're having a really good bargain during sales period.

As usual, I bought something in universal color scheme which is brown stripes. Priced at RM99, this sturdy and lightweight diapers caddy meets my expectations. Yeayyyyy!

Love the size of the caddy and the bottom compartment too! It comes with a matching changing mat, placed at the back pocket of the caddy.

I personally think this item is useful because you can stash everything in one place and it can be carried around. With its size, I think this is a really good bargain for the baby's nursery.