Turn your hobby to job?

Many curious about how I turn my job from an engineer to a florist. Frankly, flower arrangement was not my hobby before I had the thought of start a florist business. My dream was to have a career that related to art, craft and fashion, florist shop was one of the option. I injected all the 3 elements to my new career.

Nonetheless, it was not easy and smooth at all to chase my dream. I fell down, stood up, fell down and stood up again uncountable time. And, I sacrificed my adolescent, 2 years of life without facial and gym. I bet I would look 2 years younger if i never step into this business.

This is the 7th year of my new career, it become better and better now. I start to taste the feeling of stay between my dream and real life now. Let us cross over it, if you are having difficulty chasing your dream.

"Motivation is when your dreams put on work clothes" -- Author Unknown

English afternoon tea party at home

I love old fashion and vintage style in all way. I always wish of having an English afternoon tea party at home. Tiered plates and china tea set were bought long time ago, just to wait for the day! Recently, my dream came true with the help of my sisters. We had a simple and maybe not very proper English afternoon at my house.


We had raspberry cheesecakes, blueberry cheesecakes, marble cheese cakes, tuna sandwiches, cherries and strawberries. We enhanced our tea party to a more exotic way, by adding tapioca cakes and yam cake to our food menu.


It would not be an English afternoon tea party without a pot of tea, local Cameron's Ceylon tea was the tea of the day.  Instead of traditional way, we had red wine and mojito too. Mojito were made of home plant mint and lime.  

Table setting for our simple english afternoon tea.

Garden Wedding Decoration - Lone Pine Hotel, Batu Ferringgi

Nice weather, lush garden, white sandy beach and a pair of lovely couple.... what could we ask more for a perfect garden wedding decoration?

The bride was a cute, pretty and charming little lady, pink and white were just right for her style.

Addition of ivy garlands create a dreamy fairy tale garden.

Ring pillow surrounded with white orchids.

Main flowers of the day - white roses, pink roses & white orchids

One side chair sash, pink roses and white orchids with pink organza.

Islands of romance - Maldives

I need a spoonful of beach breakaway each year, to release all the stress and escape from the reality for a while. This year we made it to a more luxurious Maldives, a truly paradise lies in the Indian ocean.

We found huge solace in a small piece of gems, Komandoo Island - one of the thousands beautiful island in Maldives.

Komandoo Island

In this small and isolated island, all the activities we did in 6 days were barely eating, drinking, snorkeling, swimming and sleeping. The sea depth was about 4 to 5 feet height within 250 meters from beach, water was very calm and clear, I never felt so much pleasure swimming in the sea. And the house reef was fantastic, with a pair of fins and dive mask, we swam amid the coral and sea creatures.

However, I enjoyed sunbathing while reading my beach books the most. Although I live in a equatorial country, but I rarely do that in my own country. I could not just sunbathing on my bikini in my own garden! Or else I might get famous among my neighborhood! :D

On sea plane from Male. Jet, set, FLY!!!!!

With hubby on sea plane, thank you so much for the romantic breakaway!

An island sighted from sea plane.

Baby shark welcome us to the island!

Crystal clear water.

Our beach villa. Every morning, we wake up with the view of glorious sunrise on the beach.

A picture taken from our verandah.

Me, posing at the back yard of the villa. :D

Water villa, going to try this next time!

Buffet restaurant.

We experienced an entire afternoon as Robinson Crusoe in this dessert island, Kuredu.

Jetty.

Slack off

It has been a busy month since end of April, brother-in-law's wedding, mother's day and the visiting of the relatives from Australia. The events and activities involved a lots of works, dinners and some outing.

After those events, I feel very sluggish, I just want to stay at home, do nothing and watch TV. If you want to throw me a party, please be a slumber party, and that would be great! My tiredness is finally recovered after a long holiday, slack off at home. I have been slacking in writing blogs, scrap-booking and even gardening.

It's time to get up and be on track again, gambateh neh!!!!!

Shopping in Japan

Japan is a shopping paradise where every fashionista covets make pilgrimages to. Most people may think Japan is one of the world's most expensive country, but perhaps it is not as notorious as it once was. The fact is, it is cheaper to travel and shopping in Japan then some countries in Europe. There are wide range of choices, from budget flea market, middle range shops to top end houses of haute couture. It would not burn your pocket if you shop wisely, and you will get many goodies from small boutiques.

Harajuku is my favorite place for shopping in Tokyo, it is so trendy and spendy. Name any brand you want, Vuitton, Prada, Gucci, Gap, Zara, Forever 21.... ect.. There are also small designer's boutiques and second hand shops. For other places in Tokyo, do not miss out the flagship stores, Uniqlo in Ginza and Muji in Marunouchi, but there are branches all over Tokyo. I get many T-shirts for myself and gifts for my brothers from Uniqlo.

Louis Vuitton, Harajuku

Sapporo was nothing compare to Tokyo for shopping, but there was a Kinokuniya book store near JR Sapporo Station. We spent an entire lovely evening there, while snowing outside. A small cafe at 2nd floor served smooth coffee, nice cakes and sanwiches. Kinokuniya has all branches all over Japan too.

I bought some scrapbook making books, scrapbooking is my new hobby and I was so happy to find these books. I get so many ideas and inspirations from these book.

Car repair day

I overslept this morning. My alarm didn't work and at the time I woke up it was already 9:30am. Stock market starts at 9:00am and I had not read any news from the internet yet. Gosh.... I got a bad bad feeling that it was going to be a bad bad day.

And yes, bingo! My shop driver called up to inform me that our goods delivery van was not in good shape. He claimed that he could not hold the break, so I asked him to send the van to a nearby workshop for check-up. Half an hour later, he called back and said that it was clutch problem and the repair cost would be around RM600.00. Well, this time my pocket is going to burst. Frankly, I do not know anything about car and not to say car repair, I always leave this kind of problem to my dad and hubby. How I wish there is a local reliable online car workshop that I can get repair estimation for price comparison purpose. After some consideration, I decided to wait for another 2 days when hubby and dad come back from KL to settle this problem.

Then, the worse thing come after i finished all my morning tasks. My car couldn't start after some tries. General knowledge, it must be battery weak. This time, I could not wait until Friday, i called hubby to get some car repair advices. Luckily, my car finally started after many tries, and I drove to a nearby car workshop for the battery replacement.

When all bad things happen, make sure you settle it with calm. The day is smooth after the two incidents ( I have to call it incident, because it was a very difficult task for me, lol!), and now I am sitting in front of my laptop, drinking coffee and writing my blog.

Snowing Sapporo - Otaru

1.3.2011 - Sapporo TV Tower

1.3.2011 - Clock Tower

2.3.2011 - Otaru Canal

2.3.2011 - Sapporo night view

3.3.2011 - Sapporo Morning

4.3.2011 - Sapporo to New Chitose Airport

Sakura & plum blossom at Shinjuku Gyoen

Shinjuku-gyoen is one of top cherry blossom viewing spot in Tokyo. The cherry just started blossom when we were there, it was early of March.

Not as famous as cherry blossom, but unique and lovely in their way. We spent hours in plum blossom viewing in Japanese Garden. We were lucky to see both cherry and plum blossom at the same time.

Me, being taken a photo by my dad as a memory of this beautiful park. This was one of the best part of the trip.

A world with no barrier - Japan

My parents and I came back from Japan few days before the earthquake and tsunami. We were shocked and it was lucky that we escaped from the havoc. I felt regret and sympathy for the destruction, as it is a place of delicious cultural, beautiful sights, shopper's paradise, glorious food, and wonderful people!

However, I was most impressed by the effort Japan had made a heaven for travelers with disabilities, a world with no barrier for the disabled people. Many buildings in Japan have access ramps and lifts, traffic lights playing melodies when it safe to cross, train platforms have raised dots and lines to provide guidance and many disabled public toilets in town. And the most importantly, they help and give priority to disable society, not only by spoken but real action. We received immediate help when we had difficulties. Japanese are remarkably conscientious, meticulous and honest. I hope and I believe Japan can recover very soon result from the characteristics. Kambateh neh!

Mom traveled in Sapporo town on wheelchair. She able to travel again after 5 years from the accident that cause her on wheelchair. Dad was so great that he pushed her all the journey, even in the blizzard. I was touched, it was not easy, really.

Valentine's day fever

Valentine's day is always the busiest day in a year for florist. This year, the business is really good and we had to work through out the night before the V-day. Without any surprise, hand bouquet inclusive of red roses, chocolates and bears is among the most popular. Bear is a new popular item add in flowers bouquet for recent years.

One of my very favorite V-day special for year 2011 is the old shanghai style couple bear hand bouquet. The couple bear wear cheongsam and we used gold as the theme color to carry out the heritage theme. Inspired by the old shanghai fashion, we also add some lace to enhance the design.

Another cute and fairytale one, a frog prince holding a diamond ring, surrounded with hydrangea and silver butterflies. It tells : "Kiss me please.... and I will turn into your Prince charming!"

I have a deep interest in hand bouquet design, it can be elegance, heritage, cute, romantic, fashionable, seductive, artistic and etc. Truthfully, I really love Valentine's day, it's not only the money making day, but it gives us a lot of space and opportunity to create plenty of variety designs.

Application for Japan Visa

Dad and I went to Consulate of Japan in Menara BHL this afternoon to summit our application for visa to Japan. We thought we had prepared all the documents as per stated in their website, but the officer told us that the documents were not sufficient. So sien... that means I need to go over again.

They requested almost all the documents to avoid any mistake, like my birth cert to prove that I am travelling with my parents, a very detail travel itinerary and even a consent letter for visa application from hubby ( as I will travel without hubby).

So it looks like I need to prepare more and I hope my documents would satisfy their requirement next round.

New Year Resolutions

2010 was a happy, prosperous, fruitful and healthy year for me. I got married, moving into a new house with my dream garden, hired a new staff, visited world expo in Shanghai, got my first iphone and most importantly, I had learned some basic financial technical analysis. However, the past is past, and I am looking forward a greater year of 2011.

In the new year, there will be 2 major objectives for me. Firstly, this will be my vacation year. Hong Kong - Hokkaido - Tokyo in March with my parents; summer Europe trip with my brother; and a long waited honeymoon to Santorini with hubby.

Secondly, it will be my career, I think it's time for me to put more effort in financial technical analysis and boost up my income from this field. Nonetheless, florist is my number 1 favorite, but I need to choose one for the sake of more guarantee income and most importantly -- freedom of time. Skilled and trustworthy worker is one of the major issue of doing florist business, or else you need to stay in the shop for the whole business hour, and that is what I really not willing to do.

Besides the two big objectives, I want to spend more precious time with hubby, parents, siblings and some good friends. I want to think in good and positive way, do more charity and laugh more. This might sound a bit naive, but these attitudes are always the correct path in life.

I hope everything goes well and this year will be my happiest ( as my promise to hubby), healthiest, most prosperous and most fruitful year ever I have!