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BIG thank you!
I was screaming (really screaming; out loud) when I read an e-mail from Blog4FT saying that I am one of 5 monthly winners of Public Category for the Blog4FT contest! My entry: – Illustrated Postcard VI – Putrajaya has won me the October prizes: Celcom Blackberry 8250 Gemini, a Celcom 3G broadband stick with free one month usage, RM150 worth of vouchers from Borders and two Air Asia tickets!
In this entry, I posted my series of illustrations titled Federal Territories Illustrated Postcard Series. I have so far 7 illustrations; 5 for Kuala Lumpur and 2 of Putrajaya and have yet to continue with one illustration for Labuan. I plan to make it 8 postcards altogether.
I would like to thank you BLOG4FT, the public as well as professional judges, namely Tan Sri Datuk Sri Elyas Omar, Tan Sri Dato Dr Lim Kok Wing, Dato’ Tony Fernandes, Dato Seri Wong Chun Wai and Encik Ahiruddin Attan (Rocky) who have made it possible for me to be in the Final! Thank you to monthly prizes sponsors: Celcom, Air Asia and The Borders Malaysia.
Congrats to all winners:
PUBLIC CATEGORY
– Spread Your Wings – reaching out – KL Bird Park by keatsthesunshinegirl
– Froggy Encounters In Gasing Hill by ~Covert_Operations78~
– Illustrated Postcard VI – Putrajaya by ME
– Faces of The City by cayenne04
– Putrajaya Agriculture Heritage Park: Nature’s Best by mylo
JUNIOR CATEGORY
– Happy Peace Day! WOO! by Minyi
– Going around Putrajaya by Smiley Aisha
– Putrajaya has it all by comelgurl
MEDIA CATEGORY
– My Bangsar by nikicheong
– Cerita kemasyhuran Bangunan Sultan Abdul Samad by AZIZUL FAHMI
– Labuan: Duniaku, Syurgaku, Wilayahku by mustapa
– The Actors Studio at Rooftop Lot 10 by sultanmuzaffar
– I Love You K.L by Razzi Rahman
I am now not posting regularly on individual post but rather concentrating on a project-based post. My entry for November is KL: A to Z Fun Things To Do & Places To Visit With Kids. You can download the flip book directly from Emilayusof @ Issuu.
I am rooting for this entry to be in the running as well.
If you like what you see, you can download for keeps or reference. If you like what you downloaded, please can you help vote for me?
Thanks heap!
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Taking time off up the tower
My body was aching and my knees hurt from the long sedentary position while working on illustrations for my book. The TV was on, the cartoons were screaming dingbodingboding, mishka mushka and other cartoony words, my son was talking non-stop and was expecting me to attend to him and answer all his questions. While figuring out answers to his questions, I remembered that I haven’t done my laundry. And then I remembered that I have typesetting amendments to make, drawings to illustrate, illustrations to draw (however you put it), yada yada yada, the list went on. My stress hormones suddenly went imbalance and before I snap, I quickly took a hit from my Delta 8 disposable pen and said to my son, ” ok, let’s go somewhere.” This is a way for me to combat the stressful work or environment. I’m not saying that home environment is stressful but I’m working from home, home is my office, so yes, sometimes it is stressful.
Even if we cannot afford to go for a good vacation, a trip to local attractions is good enough. My son had been wanting to go to KL Tower since last month and the last time we went, he was 3. He said he could not remember what was it like to be on ‘top of the world’ and in need to refresh his memory. So yesterday, up the KL Tower we went.
It was just the two of us; my husband had to go to work.
After purchasing tickets of RM66 for both of us (including pony rides, animal zone and F1 simulator), we went up the tower; straight to the observation deck.
I screamed from the top of my lung, “KL, we’re up here!!”
Well, not literally; just softly in my heart.
I snapped pictures of buildings and was like ‘whoa, this building is pretty, wah that one is awesome, ooooh what an antique building‘ and so on. From the look of Yassin’s hey-this-is-supposed-to-be-my-trip face, I know he was getting bored so I told him he could buy something before we went down.
“I want that Emperor penguin“, he pointed.
Yassin is a big fan of animals and you could see his drawings of animals that I put up in his blog.
So, off we went to the Animal Zone. Yassin was expecting Indian Rhino or Siberian Tiger…
…told him that the Animal Zone is not like Zoo Negara where big animals are kept but overall he was happy to see cute animals like marmoset, fox and albino baboon. There were snakes but I dare not take their pictures!
Later, we went for a pony ride and F1 Simulator. He was not allowed on the latter as he was 4 inches short!! But we got to take pictures anyway.
We felt renewed after the visit. I did my laundry, cleaned the house and cooked. Yassin continued with his daily routine, playing Marine Park games as well as filling his drawing pads with animal drawings. I continued with my illustrations.
And also back to figuring out answers to my son’s endless questions. But that is okay as I have 2 things off my list for the week.
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Khemy’s baby!
I went to visit Khemy last Saturday to see her newborn baby girl who was born on Hari Raya Aidil Adha! She is the cutest thing on earth! Congrats Khemy!
She has two names in mind for the baby but made me promised not to reveal until she has confirmed the name. I think both names are cute!
Here’s Yassin posing with Khemy’s eldest son, Umar, 3.
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Best Blog Award
Mama Mia awarded me with Best Blog award! Yay! Thank you for such recognition, Mama Mia!
Simple Rules to accept the award:
– Post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award and his/her blog link.
– Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you have recently discovered and think are great!Here are 15 blogs, in no particular order, that I would like to pass this award to:
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Do you have stories to tell? *
OneRedFlower Press, an imprint of Oyez!Books, is proud to host its very first picture book writing/illustrating contest. Their aim is to encourage authors and illustrators to tell Malaysian stories for Malaysian children.
They are looking for:
* Original stories set in Malaysia, with Malaysian characters, and that reference and reflect Malaysian life and culture.
* Authors and illustrators who are familiar with and love picture books, and who wish to tell stories in this format.Prize:
* Three winners will be selected for publication by OneRedFlower Press.
* The entries in all three categories will be judged collectively.
* The judges will wish to make an unbiased decision on all the entries, so please ensure that only the story title is printed on the story/illustrations.
* The closing date for all entries is 30 April 2010.
* The winners will be announced in July 2010.More information about the contest can be found at OneRedFlower‘s website and there’s a form to download.
I wanted to join the contest but unfortunately I’m not eligible. But good news is I will be the first writer/illustrator to be published by them. Haha. So excited. The book will be “My Mother’s Garden” book.
Anyway, as I haven’t updated this blog with drawings, here’s one recently done on my newly bought sketch book. Made it a journal-like.
I’m trying my hands on nature drawings. I remember Linda Tan wants to see me illustrate tree, so here’s a tree bark.
I already have about 10 quick illustrations with relevant notes in this sketch-book and will upload all in a form of flip book come middle of December. Or maybe earlier.
😀
* Linky love, anyone?
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FUNdamental @ KLPAC *
Went to visit the FUNdamental Art Exhibition at KLPAC today with my son, two nephews and blogger buddy, Yoon See.
I haven’t been to KLPAC before and the usual happened; I got lost. I took the first U-turn and later took a first turn to the left but I ended up at a school near Jalan Kovil Ulu. I didn’t see any building that could be KLPAC so I made a turn back to Balai Polis Sentul, then made a U-turn and started again. This time I ended up at Jalan Cempedak. Knowing that that could not be it, I made another turn back to Balai Polis Sentul and again, made a U-turn to start over. This time I ended up at Sekolah Rendah kebangsaan Sentul Utama! I nearly gave up and called Yoon See. With the help of Yoon See, a staff of KLPAC gave me the direction via handphone.
It was the 2nd U-turn actually.
I viewed the online map first hand before leaving home and I did not print it as I thought I could remember the map perfectly in my mind. Now I can’t really count on my 40 year-old memory, can I? Lol. I finally reached there safely after making three trips passing the Balai Polis Sentul; like the Malay saying, “Pusing pusing tang tu”*. (*Translation: Going round and round and getting nowhere)
I was amazed upon entering the beautiful park; reminds me of the ‘Emma’ movie’s beautiful garden setting. Truly a breath of fresh air getting down from the car.
The KLPAC main building is a simple but sophisticated glass building which has climbing plants to greet us.
Upon entering the building, we saw Yoon See waving at us and later went to inner side of the foyer to see the FUNdamental Exhibition.
The exhibition was what the title describes in the first three capital letters – FUN! It was truly fun to see whimsical children’s art by the artist, Numpueng. Most of her works are made up of fundamental shapes. The fun shapes aim to convey a mood of happiness and pleasure and it is evident when my son truly admires all her paintings.
This is Numpueng’s 3rd exhibition, the first was held back in 2006 while the 2nd was in 2008. The current exhibition features 31 acrylic on canvas works by her as well as two from her previous exhibitions, priced at between RM300 and RM1500 a piece. The exhibition runs until Dec 6 and may be viewed from 10am to 6.30pm daily.
Numpueng or her real name Umpaiwan Chevitanondra first began painting to decorate the walls of her now six-year-old son’s room. Numpueng is married to a local artist, Victor Chin.
My son (middle) admiring the paintings with his cousins.
Yoon See busy snapping away pictures
Now, if you are planning to go, don’t forget to print out the LOCATION MAP or else you’ll end up at Jalan Kovil Ulu or Jalan Chempedak like me. Or maybe not.
After the exhibition, we chatted and enjoyed the pretty view.
My son loves the wire-mesh furniture
Beautiful setting
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Moleskine: Oh deer