Scrapbooking helps me to release my tense.

By:

Marini Mohd Thaib

Everyone has hobbies. Most of us choose a simple hobby to kill the time like watching movie, reading, baking, cooking and so on but many people also choose an artsy thing as a hobby like drawing, painting, crafting and etc.  Scrapbooking is my new hobby right now other than reading. Reading will be my number one hobby, nothing can beat that. 

I am not a creative person (although many people tell me so)… I am not even talented in drawing and painting so it is hard for me actually to scrapbooking. What I can tell about myself when it goes into artsy thing, I am quite good with combining scrap papers into something very nice and I call it as a scrapbooking. It is all about making messy with pattern or colored papers and come out with a cool designs and decorations.

Nothing has to be perfect when scrapbooking, you can do whatever you want to do. Well, scrapbook is from scrap papers after all. When I was young, I like to keep pattern and colored papers even though it was a small piece of paper. I love to collect recycle wrapping papers also. I started to collect cheap embellishments when I was in secondary school. However, I am starting doing scrapbooking recently but why now? It is because the time has come for me to show my ability to scrapbooking. Last time, I didn’t have enough money to buy art materials because they are so expensive. My art collections were so lame. So I have decided to have a good and quality art materials so I have started buying these things such as Big Shot (so expensive…RM500) , dies (also very expensive…a small die is almost RM100), pattern paper, stamping, chipboard embellishments, charms and etc. However, I am still looking for the cheaper materials too. I have a friend; she always buys the art supplies via online. She has been spent thousands to buy those things. For me, buying the Big Shot and die cuts will be the most expensive art supplies that I ever bought. Other than that, I will keep looking for the cheaper one. Moreover, I love doing “DIY embellishments” to cut the cost. The finishing is not so smooth but I am happy with it. I want to emphasize here, my husband is not really support my hobby, so I need to spend my own money to buy these art supplies. Well, recently he shows the interest of supporting my hobby. Maybe he had realized that this hobby can give me happiness. Hahaha.

I have interest in card making when I was young. The designs of my cards were so simple by using stickers and colored paper only. I gave to my best friends my handmade cards at every of their birthday.  I have tried scrapbooking twice (3 years ago) but I didn’t continue it because I didn’t have a nice embellishments but I have decided to scrapbooking one day so I have started to collect embellishments a few years ago and the time to accomplish my dreams has come. Now, I am doing my scrapbooking a few weeks ago. I have finished decorating 9 pages already.

Why I want to scrapbooking so much? This is my passionate. That’s why I love scrapbooking. I am doing this for my satisfaction so I don’t really care if people don’t feel my decoration is nice as long as it is nice in my eyes, it is enough for me. (But people keep complimenting my design in FB.hehe). For the past of couple weeks, my mind was lingered about how to decorate my page, what color should I use, what embellishment I need to use, how to put all the decoration in one place and so on. As I look at the examples of scrapbooking design in the internet and books, my heart is pounding and I can’t wait to finish up my first scrapbook but I cannot proceed to finish it because I do not have a printer in my house. That is one big obstacle that I face. We really need a printer when we want to scrapbooking. As my idea pouring out from my head, it is so ashamed that I cannot complete the design which I have in my mind. Luckily, my husband has colored printer at his office but I prefer to use color jet printer in my office. The color is more sharp and bright. So every time I have an idea, I have to make sure myself to sketch it on paper then I need to figure out the DIY printed embellishments and I have to wait for the next day to print the design at the office. So, it takes time.

When I am scrapbooking, I feel free. I do not feel any tense. I love to see my desk get messy with artsy things. For me, that is an ultimate satisfaction. I can be more creative when doing this activity. It can make my brain works too while generating the idea so scrapbooking is also one of the brain activities. I will keep doing this scrapbooking until I am old. Who knows, I can do business in scrapbooking one day. Furthermore, someone has booked one scrapbook from me. I will try to make sure this hobby becomes my side income one day.

Pen off.

My Masterpiece...

By:

Marini Mohd Thaib

I have a few things that I want to show you... My passion towards art - scrap booking, doodling and quilling. I am quite lazy right now to explain in details. I will update the detail version very soon. Just enjoy my photos !

 My first attempt of card design

My first attempt of scrap booking

 My new scrapbook cover page

 My Travel Journal cover page

Design of my scrap booking

 Cover page of my diary

 Cover page of my diary

I made this for a friend

 I made this for a friend 

My first birthday card designed with quilling

Sold this to a friend - my first sale

My favorite quilling design

My first attempt of doodling. I felt amazing

Some of my doodlings. The other doodlings are not been captured

I am working on my first scrapbook now... Will show you the finish product soon.

Thanks for viewing...

What about UNO?

By Marini Mohd Thaib

Let me tell you something about this card game. I learned to play this card game a few years ago.  For the first time I played this game, I felt in love with the excitement when playing this game especially when playing with our close family members or friends…the laughing… the way we wants to avoid other players to win…the smiling face every time we win the game…and of course the feeling of our heart pounding every time we say “UNO Card” because we know other players will plan to draw any “Draw +2” or “Draw +4” type of card to us.

                I always play UNO with my officemates every time we have a free time especially in a semester break because we have nothing to do in the office…and of course we are doing something wrong because we are not suppose to play UNO during working hour. Well, we know that but we still do it. Sometimes, I feel so guilty and I played in fear…scared if our boss caught us while playing it. In fact our boss caught us once when he was looking for me. I felt so embarrassed at that time. I met him after that and I apology in behalf of my friends who was still playing UNO. Luckily my boss didn’t scold us and he said “It’s ok, working so hard is not good, we cannot be serious all the time so we must release our tense”…fuh…I feel so grateful…of course I must feel grateful because he still gave me higher marks for my SKT although he knew that I played it  a lot. Thank you boss!

                We play UNO everyday recently.  Well, I can say that I am addicted to this game. If I have to choose, I will choose playing UNO all day rather than sitting at my desk surfing the internet. I don’t say that I have nothing else to do but I feel so bored when thinking about doing administrative tasks.  I can’t wait for the new semester to come because I can spend my time by teaching. So, to kill time I play UNO with my friends. It seems that everyone is enjoying playing it. We play UNO noisily although we know our boss is in the office and he can hear us making noises.  It is so funny when suddenly we hear someone knocks the door and everyone is keep silence because we are so worry if that person is our boss…and of course that person is not our boss but one of our friends who wants to join us in that “happy room”.

                We play UNO for hours without realizing that we get salary from this “job”.  So, please don’t follow this bad habit. My point is this card game can give joy to me. Whenever I stressed out, playing UNO is one of the ways to release tense. Forget the smart phone which we can get so much pleasure from it, just give me a deck of UNO card…and of course with the players (usually my officemates) and I can be a happy person in just a second.

                Yes…I love to play UNO card.

 Pen off.

Believe in yourself

By:

Marini

Dear my beloved students,

                This is a letter to you from the bottom of my heart. I am not a motivator, I don’t know how to make a sweet sentence to soothe you but I will use my life experience to touch your heart. As a teacher, I see a lot of my students’ behavior in my classes. Some of you are good in character and some of you are a little bit naughty. I don’t really care about your behavior because I believe that all of you are a good person. I believe that and you should believe that too.

                Some of my students approached me personally and told me their problems especially problem in their studies.  They told me how hard for them to survive just to obtain the diploma certificate.  Let me tell you something. Your journey is still far away. There are a lot of obstacles you have to face ahead you. Whatever problems that you face, you have to face them with a strong heart. You are still young. There are a lot of things you need to archive in your life so what you need is…believe in yourself. You can do whatever you want to do. You can be whatever you want to be. There is a potential inside you to be whatever you want to be, all the energy to do whatever you want to do. Though there is a time it may seem too difficult to continue, just hold on to your dream. One morning you will awake to realize that you are the person you dreamt of, doing what you wanted to do.

                Simply believe in yourself. Be yourself. Follow your heart. Ask yourself what you want to archive in your life and keep looking to that dream. After all, room for improvement is always our biggest room.  Don’t afraid to make mistakes. Doing mistakes is always being our good teacher and with that experience we can be a better person each and every day.

                I am what I am now simply because I believe in myself. I came from a not-so-rich family (but no so poor)… I have a lot of family problems but not a broken family. How do I want tell you my story? It is quite private. I don’t really feel comfortable talking about my family, my past. It is just enough for you to know that it was a hard time for me to grow in this family.   I had a determination to change my life style. So I studied so hard and I pass all the examinations with flying colors. As I grow older, I had challenged myself to archive my dreams…to be a teacher. I faced a lot of obstacles especially my family problems but I survive until now. I followed my dreams and here I am…teaching all of you. 

                Yes, I believe that every one of us has our own problems but we have to find our inner strength. Build up the motivation within ourselves. Keep telling ourselves that we can do anything. After all, mind is so powerful.  I wish you all the best. May Allah lead you to achieve your dreams and always follow your heart.

  Arios…

 

Clinelle Purifying Toner for Oily Skin – My Personal Review

By:

Marini

Picture:credit to Google

                I have an oily skin. Very super duper oily. The condition of my face seems like you-can-fry-an-egg-with-that-oil-collected-from-your-skin. Huargh... I am not comfortable with this. I lack of confidence level and I hate the feel of grease on my face. I have tried tons of products to reduce the oil. You just name it..EVERYTHING. It is so embarrassing every time there is grease on your face. If you take my photo, you can see my face shining like a thunder. Haha. Actually I want to share with you all the products that I had tried before but I cannot remember most of them. Let past be the past. Let’s focus on what I am using right now and I can say that, it is pretty good.

                I went to a pharmacy and I asked the pharmacist the best product to reduce my oil. Asking the pharmacists is good rather than asking the promoters at Guardians or Watson (or any beauty counter) because pharmacists will try to help us but the promoters are trying to sell their products for commission. My aim is to reduce the oil not to get rid of it because oily face is not giving you any harm. I just want to increase my confidence level. After all, the oil on our face can give natural moisture to our skin. So, the pharmacist told me to try Clinelle Purifying Toner. At that time, I didn’t give any hope. The feeling is like it is just only another person promoting another product to me but the result is still the same.

                Well, I was wrong. After I tried this product in a week, I can feel the difference. I realized that it reduces the oil on my face. I can prove it to you. The photo shown below is the condition of a blotting paper after ONE HOUR I put on my make-up without using Clinelle Purifying Toner. In fact, I have to use this paper every hour to make sure that my face is not shining. (I always bring along the blotting paper everywhere I go. It’s like my oxygen, I cannot live without it). If you can see, the oil is dispersed fully on that paper. Yuck! Yar I know, it is disgusting. Can you imagine that… My friends always feel gross every time I wipe my blotting paper on my face. That’s why now I will use the paper when there are no people around me. 

                Ok, the next picture shows the blotting paper after 4 HOURS I put on my make-up with using Clinelle Purifying Toner. Can you see the difference? Amazing right? I am so happy. I know…I know…the oil is still there but it is decreasing, right? What a big difference… instead of removing the oil every hour (it is equal to 8 sheets of paper per day- I just use it in day time only), now I just use the blotting paper only twice a day.  

                    So if you are struggling with an oily skin, I highly recommend you this product. Try it yourself. You will feel the difference. Now, I use the Clinelle Moisturizer For Oily Skin along with the toner. It’s great too. Happy trying…. Arios.

My Cycling Experience

By:

Marini

                Yesterday (12^th October 2014) , I was entered a Fun Ride Cycling event organized by students of Sultan Idris Shah Polytechnic. I am not going to write about the chronology of the event but I want to focus on how I feel towards this precious experience. The distance supposed to be 76km but the police traffic changed the route in last minute so the distance became 90km. The entire cyclists didn’t aware of this change because nobody told us. We knew about the total distance when we arrived at the starting point. Yes… it was 90km.

                Let me tell you something… 90km is a very long distance. The standard distance for cycling event is only 50km. It was crazy. It supposed to call as an Endurance Ride rather than the Fun Ride. Hahahaha. Now, I will tell you what I felt about my journey. For your information, I never attempt this kind of thing. I hate marathon so much. This is my first attempt. I feel so confident to join this event because I have been practiced cycling 20km every day in 4 months. So 76km is ok for me, at least that what was I thought before.

                For the first 15km I already felt hurt on my leg but I don’t feel tired. We stop at the first check point. I gained strength and I was eager to start the journey. After a few minutes we arrived at Sungai Haji Dorani Homestay(distance from the starting point is about 35km). I was so happy because I did it with only one stop and that was my longest distance after all. We took rest about half an hour. It was 10.30 am when we started heading back to poly. I expected that we used the same route to get back but we were ushered by the “marshal” (the leader of the route lead by a police car) using the different road. At first, I felt ok with that.

                The sun was started to shine so brightly. I can feel the heat. I felt so hot until I had a headache but I still have strength to continue cycle. After a few kilometers we stop at the bus stop because we saw our friends took a rest there. It was so hot after all, so we need a shade place to cool down our body temperature. Then, we started cycle again. I was still felt steady although my legs were sore.

                However, at the distance of 74km, I started to feel hurt at my waist, butt and legs. I felt like I didn’t want to continue this ride. We were cycled against the wind. The wind was so strong. No matter how hard I cycled, I couldn’t feel my bicycle moving. That was the big challenge for us as a cyclist to cycle against the wind. I can see a lot of cyclists were heading back to the starting point with lorries. My husband was asking me if I wanted to join them. I refused to do that. I wanted to take this as a challenge. I wanted it to be my personal achievement. If I can do this, I can do anything. I felt the victory when I saw people gave themselves up. It meant that I can beat them.

                There was a moment I felt want to stop cycled so badly. I cannot feel my legs anymore but I didn’t feel like to faint so I believe that I still can do it. My husband was there…supported me. Although he was not mentioning any motivational words but I knew he was supporting me with his own way. I wanted to prove to myself that I am a fat person but I still can do a great thing like this.

                We arrived at the last check point. I refilled my tumblers. There were a few cyclists. We had a brief chit chat. There were two old men…Chinese and Malay men(their age is about 60++) . What amazed me was that they were so much older than me and they were still tough. So , I told to myself “if they can do it, I can do it too”. So, we continued our journey. It was another 12 km to go. I felt a little bit refresh after took a rest at the last check point but suddenly the same exhausted feeling came back. I felt I couldn’t move on anymore. I was telling to myself “you can do it Mar, oh yes, you can do it” and with that mantra I push myself over my own limitation. When we arrived at Parit Baru I was so excited because I realized the finish line is just around the corner. I built my inner strength and I continued until the end of our journey.

                I cannot describe my feelings when we arrived at the finish line. We were greeted by the secretariats. They gave me a medal. At that time, I can feel all the exhaustion was gone, I felt happy instead. This is my own victory. After all, I was not the last person arrived at the finish line. Hehe.

                In conclusion, I learnt a lot of things during this ride:

1)    Don’t ever feel give up every time you feel disappointed. Push yourselves towards your dreams.         You can do everything you want to do.

2)  Everything is in your mind. Your body is telling you that you cannot do it anymore but mentally         you still can do it. You have to set your mind up. Mind is so powerful.

3)   We need someone to encourage us to do the great things. Find somebody who will be by your side      whenever you need them. 

4)   Have fun…because life is too short to live in pathetic way. Do something great in your life, do      something new in your life. Then, you will feel your life is so meaningful.

5) Determination is important. without it, we will not obtain the victory.

That’s all for now. Get your butt away from your seat. Do something physically challenging to stay healthy.

These are some of the pictures. Enjoy!

How I reduce my saddle sore while cycling

By:

Marini

 
 (picture source) http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/article/health-six-steps-for-bottom-bliss-17449/

             

   In my previous entry I was writing about my new passion, cycling.  However I didn’t mention at all about my bad experience while cycling – butt sore or saddle sore. Every day I will cycle about 20km. The longest path was 32km. So, can you imagine how I felt, cycling with saddle sore. Within two months I have to bear with this feeling. I tried so many ways to reduce my butt sore. I ‘googled’ a few websites on this matter and I tried a few tips. I need to find ways to solve this problem ASAP because I don’t want to make this as a reason for me to stop doing this activity.  Lastly, I had my own solution to help me cycle with fun.  Here what I did to solve my problem.

First try

I bought different saddle…a bigger one. Still hurt!

Second try

I used double seat pads. Well, again..still hurt!

Third try

I wore a short with a well-designed pad + double seat pad. Urrgh, nothing was changed.

Fourth try

I used a flat pillow + double seat pad. I used this method more than a month. It was ok although I felt the pain too but at least it reduced my pain. However, I had to endure embarrassment while cycling with this pillow. I knew that people were laughing at me but I don’t care. I want to cycle and I will do anything to keep doing this activity.

My last try

I removed the flat pillow and I replaced it with a small pillow. I attached it inside the seat pad. So people will not laughing at me anymore. I use this method now and I feel comfortable. My pain is reduced and I cycle with enthusiasm.  

So, that's what I did to reduce my saddle sore. Different people will experience different difficulty but for me, I have very the "mengada bontot"...hahaha.  

I need to train harder because I would like to enter “Fun Ride” program. The distance will be 76km. Wish me luck!