What The...?

It's that time of the year again. No, I don't mean the holiday season folks. My boyfriend's birthday is at the end of this month and it's a big one: He's turning the big 3.0. this year! Woohooo! And I have no idea what to get him. I'm so going to die.

Thrills

This picture is was taken from a video of a ride the boyfriend and I took earlier this year. It's called the AJ Hackett G-Force X ride and we rode it TWICE, the second right after the first mad ride.

This picture is up to remind me a few things: 1. Try something new and exciting and maybe something a little scary every once in a while, 2. Life is exactly like a thrill ride (scary at first but definitely fun), 3. It's OK to scream and laugh at the same time, and finally 3. Don't let go of those safety bars.

Have a great Tuesday.

Glittery, Pretty Things

Ok, Ok, O-KAY! I really need to take pictures of my new jewelry but in the meantime, just to remind you that I CAN make jewelry, here are some pictures of my previous work.The rain here has not been very conducive to jewelry photo taking and well, rainy days always make me want to slow down, hang out at a nice, cozy cafe with a good book or my lap top and indulge in a yummy slice of warm pie or cake. Unfortunately, this being fasting month for Muslims, I just end up slowing down to an almost sloth-like pace and playing with my (fluff)Friend on Facebook. Have I mentioned that I'm addicted to Facebook?

Burn Out

I've yet to crank out the camera to show you all the glittery new things I've been working on. These last 3 - 4 months I've had to fill some large orders plus I had a major work commitment and have not had time to create any new designs, much to my chagrin. Now that I have some free time this week I've allowed myself the luxury to let my imagination and creativity run wild, making piece after piece that are totally unrelated for up to 10 solid hours at a stretch! One minute I'm making chunky, bohemian earrings and the next I'm making a demure, girly pearl necklace. It's been fun but I think I'm now suffering from creativity burn out. I sat a full hour at my work bench today, going though my design sketch book, looking at and fingering my beads and findings, and was totally uninspired! This shall pass soon (I hope) and while I wait it out, I'm going to update my neglected Facebook and watch some TV drama. How's that for sparking some imagination?

Check out some of my prior designs.
Click on the link above.

Keep it Simple

I have to admit to myself that I sometimes over think things. I tend to over analyze even the most minuscule of details and I hate to do anything without some sort of plan. And yet, I'm soooo unorganized. How the heck does that work out? Beats me.

All I know is that all my problems always tend to get very, very complicated and arriving on a solution involves some very, very messy work. So when things kinda blew up on my face a few days back I had an epiphany. Why complicate things? Keep it simple.

I now repeat it like a mantra. It helps my sanity.

I see the Light

So I had a bad week (read previous entry). However this week I see the light at the end of the tunnel... At a friend's advice, I decided to list down everything I have to do in order of importance and tick off them off as I work my way down list. At first I thought the advice was kinda corny and old-fashioned (sorry dude!) but it's actually a really sound and practical advice. Heck, now that it's on paper, it even looks like I don't have that many things to do! Wishful thinking maybe, as I'm pretty sure as the weeks go by leading to the ultimate culmination, I'll have more things to add to the list. Oh well, at least I can look forward to crossing off things in my list with glee and gusto!

In other news, I've just started a new Salsa class with the boyfriend, the buddy and the buddy's better half. I've taken a few basic Salsa classes a few years back but man, am I rusty! Watching Anita, the instructor execute a graceful turn made me wonder if I could ever do that. I almost pity the guys too as they have to learn how to lead on top of learning all the steps... not an easy feat but I have a feeling that the guys are up for the challenge. One thing I know for sure though, classes are going to be "interesting" with these goofballs.

Have a great day ahead of you!

A Bad Day

Ever felt overwhelmed and unappreciated at the same time? The sting of someone you love walking out on you? The avalanche of information threatening to flood your little noggin? The feeling of panic slowly creeping up on you with so much to do and so little time?

Ever felt all of this in a span of 24 hours? Well, I have and the bad news is: IT'S NOT OVER YET!

I think I've aged 10 years today alone -_-

Tag, you're IT!

I was tagged awhile ago by a lovely lady (check out her fabulous jewelry under the moniker Bintang) and just yesterday by dieselfire. Now, what are the chances that I'd be tagged by two people with the very same uh, tag (is that what you call it?). Anyways, I usually don't do tags but I think the universe is trying to tell me something, so here goes...

The rules are simple:
1) State 8 random facts/habits about myself on my blog;
2) Tag 8 other people by leaving a comment to that effect on their blogs; &
3) Ask them to have a look at my blog to read the rules of the Tag game.
Ok, got it? Let's start.

Fact #1/ I love animals (Except lizards. Read fact #7). I have 2 English Cocker Spaniels, 5 cats of unknown breeds and until recently, a French Lop rabbit. The rabbit just died at the old age of 7. We still miss her very much :(

Fact #2/ I help my mom to feed the stray cats and dogs in my neighborhood and I always keep cat food in my car just in case. The picture on the left is one of the strays that I feed almost everyday. He just basically stakes out my parking space and waits for me to come home every night.

Fact #3/ I'm very indecisive and an absolute procrastinator. That which can be done tomorrow will be done tomorrow. Or the next day. Or the next...

Fact #4/ I don't collect anything in particular but I have A LOT of things and I'm very, very messy. The boyfriend and I are constantly wading through my things. Shy la now. Haha.

Fact #5/ I have to read before I sleep. It helps my brain to "switch off." I'll read anything too if I can't get my hands on a book.... a brochure, shampoo bottle, anything!

Fact #6/ I adore fresh flowers. Especially the fragrant kind. Even as a student living in Australia I found a way to stretch my allowance to buy fresh flowers from the market.

Fact #7/ Lizards freak me out. Living in Asia, the common household lizards can be found almost EVERYWHERE... walking on the WALLS and on the CEILING! Ugh. They're unnatural I tell you. I don't mind chameleons or any of the pet variety actually but those nasty common household lizards make my skin crawl. Yuck.

Fact #8/ I love old sappy love/heartbreak songs. Patsy Cline, Billy Holiday, Nina Simone and such. I'm currently fixated on Edith Piaf's La Vie En Rose. Go watch the movie.

So that's my list. Can't think of anyone to tag right now but I'll be on the lookout. Catch you later lovelies.

The Usual Suspects

That's the boyfriend and these are his BFF (Best Friends Forever), or as I call them in this blog: the buddies.

One of the buddies is leaving. When? We're not too sure. Why? We're not too sure either. But last Saturday the buddies threw him a party. Anything for a party man! :P

P/S: As is my habit, I did a Wikipedia search on "Best Friends Forever" and look what I found. The things you learn on the net...

Oh my!

I want to say a huge THANK YOU to those of you who have been very patient with me while I work on your orders. A crafty gal is very, very lucky when she has such wonderful customers all of whom have impeccable tastes (grin), are truly understanding and actually care about the creative process. Thank you for your support! ^_^

Hugs and kisses,
Murni

P/S: Don't you just love the picture above? Check out the photographer who's an amazing mama and her adorable daughters here! This is one of my all time favorite picture on Flickr.

An Answer to a Comment

Ye Gads! Who would've thought a comment left on my previous post could be so thought provoking?!? Read on:

Film noir...hmm. But where's the sex, violence and mystery? ;) Or is that too hot for this blog? Heh.

I feel the same sometimes, but I like to think of my life more of like a TV series, with each year being a new season. Been counting since early 2005 (since that's when I felt things started getting more...dramatic), so its now Season 3, in 2007.

New characters introduced each year (new people meeting), cast ensemble replacements (eg friends leaving), femme fatales (are there no more "nice" girls in KL?), and all the drama. And of course, there is an anchor (maybe a trusted friend, maybe an office setting).

Season 3 seems to be starting off pretty interesting so far, this year.

However, for you, the most important question is - are you enjoying your role in the movie that is your life so far, and do you think you could write your character better, and suggest better lines to the writers, or is she an audience favourite already? :)

Or is there another life / movie you should be in?

Well Anonymous, first of all this blog was intentionally created to sell my jewelry... advertising space if you will. So yeah; sex, violence and mystery is certainly too hot for this blog. Hah!

For awhile I did keep a separate blog with all the “juicy details” of my life but I kept getting these recurring nightmares of my kid (someday) finding the blog so I stopped. Anyways, I’m not a big fan of reading other people’s angst and neuroses (although I love to reading about other's “exploits”) so I thought I might as well stop littering cyberspace… plus my kid (someday) won’t be able to find any dirt on me to blackmail me with. Told you I was neurotic.

Truth be told however, this is how far sex, violence and mystery goes in my life nowadays: Regular sex scenes between 2 people in a monogamous relationship which trust me is hot; sometimes violent although not fatal road-rage; and there’s always a mystery… even though the mystery usually revolves around the all important question in my household: which one of my dogs peed on the carpet? All this drama in my life man! Now don’t tell me that’s not film noir! :P

Anyways Anonymous, I am to certain extent enjoying my role is this movie I call my life. I do think however that I need to have a heart to heart talk with the writers about the direction this character of mine is heading. Thanks for sharing Anonymous. And most importantly, thanks for asking.

A Role of A Lifetime

Sometimes I feel like I'm the lead actress in a movie that is my life. I'm playing the role of a slightly neurotic woman who is waiting for all her childhood fantasies to come true while pretending to be a fully-functional adult who pays her bills (most of the time), is in a stable relationship (most of the time) and is responsible, articulate and creative (most of the time). It's like every other romantic comedy movie you've ever seen, with all the grittiness of film noir.

My Weekend

What a week I had last week! I finally got around to cleaning my room (well, a part of it at least), then work at the office was nuts and I had to finish this massive order of earrings (Hi Joelee! Thanks for being such a doll!), followed by a fight with the boyfriend and to top it all off, my period decided to show up 1 week earlier than usual! Thank the heavens above for this looooong glorious Pertabalan Agong/ Labour Day/ Wesak weekend. A huge sigh of relief is in order: WHEW!

Frazzled nerves have since settled and the boyfriend and I have also kissed and made up. We were at Alexis (Ampang) on Friday night with some friends for dinner and to catch a live jazz quartet featuring vocalist/pianist Rachel Guerzo. Later at home, the boyfriend and I watched The Curse of the Golden Flower on DVD (pirated) while spooning.

The very next day we were back at Alexis for some coffee and free wifi for the boyfriend after grocery shopping. I had the latest InStyle magazine to keep me entertained and was content with snuggling and bugging the boyfriend every now and then. Honestly folks, it doesn’t get much better than this.

We woke up early on Sunday morning and I made us some pancakes for breakfast. He said my pancakes are better than Dome’s but then again, we both agree they make crappy pancakes so I’m not impressed. :P

The boyfriend later went out to play golf with his buddies so I had the whole day to myself to be totally self-indulgent… But what do I do? I spend the whole afternoon taking pictures of my new jewelry and the rest of the day editing! Heh. I got to use the boyfriend’s new Ricoh Caplio camera though (with his express consent of course!) of which I totally love for its amazing Macro Zoom feature that captures amazing feature in teeny tiny detail. Being the PhotoShop freak that I am, I immediately wanted to edit the pictures but I have yet to install PhotoShop on this new laptop so I used Picasa instead, which in my opinion, didn’t quite do the job. Ah well, no big fuss. I can always edit the pictures properly later. Check out the pictures here.

Folks, hope your weekends are filled with nothing to do but relax and be lazy. Toodles!

Meet My New Babies

Ok, so I've been neglecting this blog. But guess what? I've been blessed with double happiness... My new hand phone that does everything except clean the house and walk the dogs. Nokia's N80 is pretty darn fantastic and the price is really good for all its bells and whistles. I love being able to surf the net in bed, in the loo, while waiting for hopelessly late bosses. 3G rocks!

And another baby...
Lenovo Y400 lap top. Now, before you go, "Leno-what??" please be informed that Lenovo is the company that bought over IBM. Also, it's one of the sponsors for my fav F1 racing team, McLaren! No, no, no... that's not the real reason why I bought this little baby. I just happen to think the specs were awesome for the price I was getting. Note: always buy computer related stuff after huge PC Fairs. Prices are sure to come down by a huge margin. The boyfriend bought this exact lap top late February at a pretty good price but I got RM600 knocked off the price when I bought it last week after the huge yearly KL PC Fair. Muahaha!

Anyways, I'm back and will be creating new jewelry and accessories - well, after I've played around some more with my new babies!

Thanks to all of you who've been buying PureMoon products! Love y'all to bits!

Handmade Nation

This is inspiration for all you fellow arts & crafters out there.



Check out this Indie Craft Documentary if you have the chance. It's supposed to be out real soon... Personally, I don't think it'll make its way to Malaysia but I'll keep my hopeful little fingers crossed.

Go visit the creators' blog and Flickr to get an insight to the creative process and the waves that this documentary has caused (and now I hear it's going to be made into a movie? How cool is that?!).

Qing Zhen

These pictures were from 2 weeks back when the boyfriend and I tried out this sort-of-new Chinese Muslim Restaurant at Novotel, KL. It's called Qing Zhen and they've been open since January (so they're not so new, but new to the boyfriend and I anyways. Ahaks!) and I highly recommend it to anyone who loves Chinese food with a halal twist. Do note however that most fantastic Chinese restaurants in Malaysia are halal to cater to all customers. The only thing that really makes Qing Zhen stand out is the Islamic decor which was very authentic and I can not stress this enough: really, really yummy Chinese food.

Can you imagine an affordable (MYR 35++ per person) EIGHT course meal with all your favorite food?! I almost died and went to heaven from eating so much yummies! And the scary thing was that I couldn't stop myself!! It was one good thing served after another.... *contented sigh* Do check them out if you're hankering for some good eats at somewhere new.

Qing Zhen
First Floor, Novotel Hydro Majestic Kuala Lumpur
2 Jalan Kia Peng, Kuala Lumpur
Opening Hours: Daily, lunch (noon-2.30pm); dinner (6.30pm-10.30pm)
Phone: 03-21470888

Hi There!

Say hello to my new little family of adorable Unazukins from Japan!
Get your own Unazukins at JList.com

Noticed my new banner? Hacked it out in 15 minutes because I was so sick and tired of the moudly, old banner that was just so blah! and boring. Now that I’ve figured out how to do this banner thingamajig, I’m going to have fun messing up Blogger’s templates.

Now, if only I had more time.

As you can see from the lack of updates, I’ve been a very busy woman. So much so, that I’ve had to sacrifice a big part of my life for the last 2 years: my stall at Mont Kiara’s flea market.

I guess it’s about time I move on to bigger and better things but you can’t blame me for having mixed feelings about letting go of something that has been such a fixation in my life. I use the word fixation because I was constantly thinking of new ways to display my jewelry and to attract customers; it became almost a habit to look at potential displays and to mentally sort out ways to conveniently pack it and how it’d fit with the rest of my displays. Yes, fixation is definitely an appropriate word in this context.

I officially relinquished my spot at Mont Kiara last Sunday. It was quite a novelty to wake up late on a beautiful Sunday morning and stretch in bed for a whole hour with absolutely nothing better to do than to have brunch with the boyfriend later. Although I kept getting this nagging little feeling tugging at the corner of my heart, I think I could definitely get used to lazy Sundays spent with loved ones.

If you’re worried about not being able to get any of my products, fear not as you can always contact me and view my products here, here and here. You can also order my beaded lovelies and I’ll happily ship them to you, wherever you may be. Click here for more info on how to order PureMoon products.

I have a few more things planned up my sleeve but that will have to wait as I’m very busy at the moment with my job at an event management company. All things will be revealed in good time my lovelies. Till then, hope your Sundays are blisfully lazy! ^_^

Congratulations Amin & Lina

The wedding's theme was blue if you can't tell :)

Etsy Rocks!

I have spent many, many hours happily surfing the pages of Etsy looking at all the lovely handmade things from doll house furniture to stationery and geekery plus all sorts of beaded goodies. These are just some of my favorites.



Psst! Go ahead and click on the individual thumbnails for a closer look at my favorites.

More Flickr Favorites!

If you're bored or heck, if you just feel like it: check out these awesome pictures on Flickr! Hope you're having a great day so far.

Love,
Murni

P/S: You ladies out there, go watch 300. Not only is it a fabulous film (great story - yay, Frank Miller! - great director - good on ya' Zack Snyder! - great actors - kudos to Gerard Butler and the rest!) but OMG, oh my god, OH. MY. GOD. The men are totally drool worthy! I kid you not. And I'm not one for beefcakes too! Trust me on this ladies ;)