Shopkins, Playmobil & Smiggle

Girl was presented with Shopkins by The Grandparents sometime last year and her collection has been growing ever since. Which deserves an organiser:

This year, she could not decide between Shopkins and Playmobil so they bought her both, for her birthday present. Syukur alhamdulillah.

A few of her classmates' parents got her belated presents too and her Shopkins, Playmobil and Smiggle collection grew even bigger. Ladies, you know who you are. Thank you for being so generous!!

We personally love and have stationery crush at Smiggle since 2012. Now that there is a store at Suria KLCC, we try to practice some self-restraint and keep to budget! It is at Ramlee Mall Level 2 of Suria KLCC. 

If you are out of ideas what to present a 6 year old girl with, my bet would be either 1 of these 3, or all of them if you are feeling generous. Have fun shopping!

My Favourite Shop

I love to shop. 

My current favourite shop is Kaleidoscope in Publika. 

It is a multi-vendor dropship and has some of the most attractive designs (to me, of course!. Whimsical, playful, artsy, nonchalant and borderline quirky designs of little finds. Bags, shoes, throw pillows, stationery, cards, wrapping paper. I could browse in there for hours!

Well, I almost spent too much money there today - so I did what was wisest at that point of time.

I said I will think over my selection and return tomorrow.

Dang! I cannot stop thinking about those little treats now. Luckily this is not Chanel!

Good night, peeps. I have a shop shutter to stalk at 10am tomorrow *teehee*

Lego Table

If you are a fan of IKEA Hackers, you would have seen a few Lego Table hacks by now. 

This is ours. A simple Lack, 2 Bygel rails and some colourful Bygel buckets. We had the Grundtal stainless steel containers and cutlery stands at first but they felt heavy (and noisy when Lego pieces were being thrown back inside). 

Before:

After:

This hack has given Bean unlimited new play angles, and he explored new possibilities like never before. The Little Girl loves how accessible the "special pieces" are in plastic buckets without having to rummage through our Samla big box of bricks. Special pieces in her definition means non-brick pieces. 

The Samla transparent box tucks neatly under the Lack table when not in play, which is just awesome! Being transparent, Bean can also easily spot the Lego pieces he wants and aims for them.

We have not screwed down the Bygel rails as The Other Half is worried about damaging the fragile Lack table. He used 3M double-sided tapes instead and those strong tapes have held the weight so far. There are various weight hold grades, be sure to select 3 kg and above. 

We did not choose the Grundtal rails due to the sharper corners, preferring the smoother and rounded finish of the Bygel rails. Babyproofing!

We have not taped down the Lego green play base because we wanted some flexibility and not restrict ourselves to just Lego. After the kids have gone to school, we parents may just want a coffee table to serve the purpose it was designed for - have a hot cup of java on it!

Happy hacking and playing, my lovelies!

New Kitchen Toy

Our love for zoodles and vegetables juice has led me to this recent purchase of domestic genius from House of Presentation at IPC. No John Lewis/Lakeland/BHS trip this year, remember?

Blessed with limited and compact kitchen real estate, my "problem" has been solved with my Magimix 4200XL. Juicer/smoothie maker attachment; and a separate purchase of  citrus press complete my current need.

Conventional cheese grater, juicer, fruit press, vegetables grater, Kenwood stand mixer, blender, whisk, food processor and spiraliser begone!

Let me be realistic, if there is no electricity at home, I won't be cooking anyways so off to the donation bin go my redundant kitchen appliances and tools. I bet my former cleaning lady will be cheering tomorrow.

Alright, let's keep the precious stand mixer and juicer for now as you will never know when exigencies will call for their recommission. 

As for now, the kitchen island has been cleared for this semi-permanent feature. Pretty sight!

Next up - Thermomix? Ingredients go in, magic happens then food comes out? 

Snippets: LaundryMonster

The Little Girl victoriously applauded and excitedly exclaimed, "Wow!"

I guess she has only seen a huge mess of laundry to be ironed most of her life.

Let me just bask in this temporal Brabantia glory for the next few hours...

GST In Malaysia

Someone nudged me to say that I have been really quiet in this blog of late.

Here is what I have been up to (other than settling Bean at Playschool or paying zakat and personal income tax or washing the curtains at The Flat):

The Government has not directly educated me as an end consumer much as to the looming GST. 

When I exit the cashier at supermarkets, I do not see where I can pick up leaflets to summarise my taxable, exempted or zero-rated sundry. 

When I went for a hair trim at KLCC, the transaction was not even recorded! It was a cash transaction sans receipt! Never mind about asking for a GST info pamphlet there. PETRONAS is much better because the receipt is already GST format-compliant, bravo!

Consequently, I got anxious. Then I got proactive.

Over the last one week, I took matters into my own device quite literally to go online on the Royal Malaysian Customs Department site and check the categories of goods and services that will hit me directly first come 1 April 2015. It is structured, concise and quite informative if you have the time to "study".

*bleary eye momster mode on*

Thanks to that, I can now plan my purchases and avoid panick stock-pile. Simply because I know which items can wait (zero-rated), which "luxury" big ticket item currently not taxed will cost 6% more, and hope to see services that are currently charged 10% service charge add 5% government tax be reduced to merely an all encompassing GST of 6% (although disappointingly, most will continue with the 10% service charge add 6% GST). Those items on the exempted list, I hope will grow to a longer list and stay exempted for much longer.

*back to mengaji Customs*

Toodles, my lovelies!

Temptation

The skinny jeans whisper was loud and clear. Hasutan! Dugaan!

I tried it on, and it was a perfect fit for only RM69.90! Then, a voice inside me whispered back,"This is just not right."

So I placed the perfect pair of gray skinny jeans back into the bin and walked out of the store.

My conclusion is that every hijrah has its challenges. It is vital to set the right niat and focus on that when making choices. Syukur alhamdulillah for my minor fashion choice today. It was a small gesture, but a step closer towards taqwa. That is all that matters to me right now.

Baby steps.

Modal

Alhamdulillah, so far so good i.e. No static! 

When I first read the label, I had to Google the composition of this material inside the changing room at M&S. Modal, in my limited knowledge, means capital in Malay language *facepalm* 

Loving my new shirt...so if you are prone to getting zapped, perhaps you would like to try this out too. Happy shopping!