Little Things That Matter

It is the little stuff that matters in the end. 

Don't sweat the small stuff because at the end of the day they will become bigger than you'll ever know without you having to do any worrying. 

We remember people who have passed on because of the little things and little stuff that got stuck in memory. Today I was reminded of another memory of you, mommy, because of these tomato cherries. 

I was walking down the aisle of the supermarket searching for the ingredients to make salad for Sunday lunch and then I spotted the tomato cherries. In a flash, I remembered what you told me about picking these red round ones, mommy. Thanks for the lesson I will never forget, little things like how to select the sweetest cherries and avoid the sour ones.

You are sorely missed nearly four months on... The best mother-in-law one can ever hope for. RIP.

http://suesanctuary.blogspot.com/2013/03/30-days.html

http://suesanctuary.blogspot.com/2012/09/spending-last-moments-together.html

August - Decluttering Resolution

This is my 7-day resolution to declutter my home and specifically my own belongings.

I have about 7 days of relatively free work days starting tomorrow afternoon after the final exam invigilation at work. Aug 23, 2012, Thursday.

My in-laws are coming down to stay with us for a week starting today, Aug 22, 2012, Wednesday. Arriving in about 3 hours from now.

If you have been following my blog, you would have read about how blessed me and hubby are, my parents-in-law, hubby's parents are both in their 60s, and having not been idle for a single day in their life, they always keep themselves busy anywhere they go, including their sons' homes. My mother-in-law (MIL) shall take over the kitchen, usually much to the delight of her daughters-in-law, and my father-in-law (FIL) shall take over the other household chores like sweeping and mopping the floor, keeping the floor spick and span clean! He mops at least twice a day!

So with the daily mundane stuff being taken care of starting today, and my in-laws are leaving for their home again on Aug 29, 2012, Wednesday, I have exactly 7 days to do something 'productive' besides blogging and relaxing (if you can call relaxing being productive). I won't count the accompanying my in-laws to run errands and visiting government offices with them as they live in a small town and need to do their official stuff in our city, etc., shopping for groceries trips, I still have at least two hours to myself with their help, which I greatly appreciate.

You see, it's like this. Usually my time is taken up by preparing meals and cooking in the kitchen. Since at least two hours a day is taken away from my must-do-list, I resolve to spring clean my stuff and give them away to the recycling bin/charity bin which accepts used stuff which are still in good condition. I have thought about selling them off online at a fraction of the original price, that would need some effort and more time, maybe I'll save about 10 items which are still in pristine condition to 'sell' and the rest shall be given away.

My wardrobe is bursting at its seams!

So this is Sue's resolution starting tomorrow. I vow to halve my wardrobe and only keep for sale, 10 items from each category if the condition permits, and give away the rest. Once halved, my wardrobe shall have more space and I shall wear each item more frequently because with more space created, it will be easier to view just how many items I have in my wardrobe. As of now, I have two wardrobes with another double rack outside as both my wardrobes are too full, no kidding. I shall skip taking pix of my two wardrobes as it is difficult to close back the doors once open, he ce here is the pix of my make-shift-rack-turned-exposed wardrobe. I am in dire need to declutter my wardrobe (my store room is another story altogether, let's start with my wardrobe first. :)

On the upper right side of the pix below you can see a glimpse of the white steel bar, there are two white steel bars and both bars are hung fully with hangers and clothes, and this is only the outer wardrobe, not including my two proper wardrobes! I know I am messy person, guilty as charged.

I am actually humbled at the thought that with only one body, how many clothes can I actually wear in a year? How about some other women in the more unfortunate places in this world who only have two sets of clothes, one to wear and one to wash?

With this decluttering exercise, I shall also resolve to 'reduce' shopping for more clothes unnecessarily. I have made a huge achievement by NOT buying any blouse or tops or shirts from my recent trip to China! Let's see if I can keep this up this Christmas and New Year!

Up next shall be a resolution to curb my 'hoarding nature'. Let's leave my hoarder habits for another blog post. Happy Hump Day!

(P/S - Wednesday is called a Hump Day as it is the Middle of the week).

Note: I find blogging strangely therapeutic and resolutions made via blogging seems to be working so far, hence I am sharing my really messy self especially my wardrobe to 'motivate' myself to kick this messy habit of mine. The challenge is to keep it UN-messy after this resolution has been achieved! Wish me luck! Oh, don't mind the pix, hope I didn't scare anyone there! And yes, my bedroom walls are painted pink! Never too old for pink *wink*

My Baby Sister's Birthday - Happy Birthday, Wei (Abby)!

Today, Aug 5th is my baby sister's birthday.

Instead of imagining her as her present adult self, I always have this image of her chubby baby face, literally as a cute toddler in my mind whenever I think of her.

I guess this is almost as close to the 'my child will always be my baby' mentality, only I am in the elder sister's role.

A blur pix from the past when my sister was a wee baby, the cutest baby ever!!! For the record, I am the elder sister, just in case anyone missed the point. :)

My sis and I have a funny relationship. We did not really 'click' until our age gap became closer, yeah right, as if we could change the year we were born.

What I mean is: When I was talking about boys, she was still talking about dolls. Then when I entered uni, she was still in school. Then I started to work, and she was still in school. Then I got my Masters, she only entered uni. Then I got married, she was still single and still in uni. You get the drift.

It wasn't until after I get married, and she started working herself, and then she got herself a guy and started a decent relationship, that we started to really click.

Before that it was more of a one-way-spoiling relationship.

I love spoiling her with gifts. Oh, she does give me gifts as well, more so now that she's working (and after me 'complaining' it has been mostly one-way and it's high time she reciprocate accordingly now that she's working as well!)

Heck, the first present I could recall her giving me was from a thrift shop - a cute plushie mobile phone holder, she was in uni when she gave me that birthday present. Then... nada. Cards don't count. hahaha. Okay, I am not gonna record all the presents or non-presents from my sister, I am more magnanimous than that! My point is, I love showering my sister with gifts! There was one year I gave her a gift every single month leading to her birthday. Small gifts, just because.

I repeat, I love showering my sister with gifts! Once, I recalled it was the year I was getting married and our extended family came down to follow the bride during the 'actual' day reception at the groom's side - in Chinese weddings, the groom's side is considered the tradition/ceremonial and the penultimate 'recognition' a couple gets to be recognised as a socially-recognised-married couple. I digress.

That year was 2007. We have a younger girl cousin who is the youngest daughter of my aunt. Oh, if that was the incident, it should be a year before my wedding. In December 2006 or was it 2005, my aunt's family visited us and we went shopping. As usual, being females, we shopped for shoes and clothes. Then, just when I was paying at the counter, my sister casually inserted a few items of her own and told me she wanted them, I agreed to pay for them without any resistence, then she added a few more items she fancied and I did not react negatively at all. Then our cousin Samantha reacted, she exclaimed loudly: "Ah ney hor eh!!! So good!!! My elder brothers never bought anything for me so willingly!" My sister smiled sheepishly and I didn't think much about it but I felt good as I made my sister feel good about it too.

Then when I got married, naturally, my sister became my bridesmaid. Erm... Maid of Honour. As per the customs, if we are to follow tradition, the bride and the groom are supposed to bestow gifts and tokens of appreciation to the Maid of Honour. In Chinese customs, we have a very practical gift, a traditional practice of giving 'red packets' or 'red envelopes' or "Hong Bao or Angpow" with money (usually notes and not coins) inside as a form of 'blessings'. Consider it similar to gift vouchers in the Western culture.

As per my habit with my only sister, I gave her not only a token of appreciation in a red packet WITH MONEY, of course, a pair of yellow gold earrings studs in heart-shape with diamond studs (not sure if I am making sense here), and many other smaller gifts.
She kept complaning she was very tired, having to manage so many things during my two wedding receptions, and I didn't think much about that and gave her more gifts to shut her up anyway.

It was a few months later when her best friend Alicia came for a sleepover where the Maid of Honour tokens of appreciation cropped up in our conversation that my sister shut her friend up immediately when Alicia said: "But you have so many things from your sister! When I was the maid of honour for my elder sister, I got so little...." she was cut short. My sister didn't want me to know that I over-gifted her... hahaha, sis, even if you didn't stop Alicia, I won't ask for the gifts back, I gave them to you because I wanted you to have them in the first place!

Everytime I returned from any overseas trip, I would buy something for my sister. Her collection of plushies (soft toys) from me are uncountable! I even exchange 'stamps' to redeem for cute plushies and thought of her when I shop to get more stamps.

As we share almost the same dress/top size, I know how to shop for her and I remember the first top I bought her was during my first job - I was a reporter and I went to Langkawi island in my first month of starting my job. I bought two shirts - a cream and a pink one and she still wears them till today - I have been working for 10 years up to 2012, so that's how old those shirts are today!

Since then, I have bought dresses, gowns, evening gowns, maxi dresses, blouse and tops or T-Shirts for no special reason, or on special occassion or just because for my little sister. When I got my first VS brassiere from the US, I knew her size and let her try on my whole selection (shopping loot) and let her choose two from the loot. FOR FREE! VS = Victoria's Secret for those uninitiated. We don't have VS over here in our country so it was a real treat!

Okay, this is becoming a journal to chronicle my gifts to my sister!!!

AHEM ************************************************************************

Dear sister,

You are my only sister, my only birth sister anyway, and I love you dearly. If those gifts are not enough to represent my love for you, then there is still another half a lifetime (provided I live to my 60s) to make it up to you.

Happy Birthday, Wei (Abby), do know that no matter what happens you have an elder sister you can count on, no matter how sarcastic my remarks are, know that deep down, I really care and will always love you as my baby sister.

Love, Jie (Jie - pronounced jeeyay is Chinese Mandarin word for elder sis)

Pix Taken During our only brother's wedding in Nov 2011 - we wore the same shade of colour without planning beforehand, talk about sisters' intuition! She is my younger sister, so of course she looks younger, she is the one on the right, just in case you mix us up. lol

I need to start somewhere, Now and This is a good place to start - Disney World, Orlando, Florida, USA

I have been meaning to blog about my US trip, specifically our one week in Disney World, Orlando, Florida the week before Easter, end March 2012, but I just didn't know where to start.

There are so many things to talk about that one week, which we spent exclusively at Disney World alone (that's like half of our entire trip to the US), I didn't know where to begin. Nearly three months on, I still haven't blogged about it, I have only uploaded 200 photos (one album) on fb (I usually will upload EVERYTHING on fb), and random pix uploads - one here, one there, but nothing much, I have thousands of pix unsorted, and geez, where do I start?

Anyway, here I am typing away, trying to make sense of the entire trip in this blog post.

I chose the Cinderella's Castle as the pix above as it represents what Disney is well-known for - the dreams of little girls to be real life princesses, which were brought in cartoons, timeless, and I still get a bit carried away, when I try to think back of my childhood, and then I see myself in the eyes of little girls today, especially my two god daughters, Rachel and Genevie, they are complete Disney fans, same like their god mother, their mommy Sue. :-)

Hubby and I are both Disney fans. Our first visit to a Disney Park was back in 2010, when we made a trip to Hong Kong just to visit Disneyland, our three-day-trip saw us spending two days in Disneyland, we didn't even check out anything else in HK except for the Peak (formerly known as Victoria's Peak) and the famous for their egg tarts - Honolulu Cafe which was a short walk from our hotel, before we stayed in Disneyland Hotel till the end of our trip, and oh, left out our 'contact' with the airport. That's how much we adore Disney. :-)

I think you can call us hardcore Disney fans.

Geez, I still don't know where this blog post is going, this is more like a prelude of our romance with Disney than about the Disney World trip itself. Haha.

I shall end this blogpost with this pix:

Yup, the entire Disney World is about the size of San Francisco city in California. Disney World is so huge that it is about twice the size of the island of Manhattan in New York. Amazing, isn't it? Now is it any wonder why I don't know where to start? Till the next blogpost, have a magical day! (Disney's standard form of greeting - Have a Magical Day!)

I love shopping so I started a blog

As the title says, I love shopping so I decided to start a whole new blog about shopping and shopping alone!

First, for April 2012, I am offering the Coach wristlets and handbags I bought from my last US trip to fellow Malaysians, if there are no takers, I get to keep them, *glee* hahaha.

When I am not selling anything, I plan to blog about my most recent purchases, as a form of sharing with like-minded shoppers out there! A woman sure loves shopping especially when you know it's a great bargain!!!

Check out my blog:

http://shoppingshoppinglala.blogspot.com/