Sunday, March 18, 2012

I am LUCKY

I woke up this morning and after the usual morning routine, I checked my Facebook (I’m somewhat of an addict) and saw a notification that a few of my friends liked my status update. It turned out to be a Pixoto update. Hey! Waddayaknow, my picture won the best of the day award in Pixoto! What a way to make the day :) I was on top of the world and that didn’t cost any money :) Here’s the screenshot of the notification on my wall:


Here’s the picture that won the award:


You can view it better in Flickr.

I submitted it on Friday, 16 March 2012 and it won the award for the day. How cool is that????

It’s been a while since I’ve been out of a photo shoot mission like this. I was even tempted to skip the Hot Air Balloon Fiesta this year even though it’s happening in my own backyard. That Friday, I woke up extra early and got my gear ready. I felt a bit feverish and my throat was scratchy. I swallowed a couple of aspirins and some cough mix, put my jacket on and left the house before the sun was out.

The crowd was already building up and the hot air balloon crew were getting ready to fill the balloons with hot air when I got there. I walked till the end of the area where all the balloons were supposed to take off and parked my self there. It was still early, the air was cool and I was in a good position.

Long story short, here’s what I got for the day:


Created with flickr slideshow.


Here’s coming to the point that prompted me to blog about this. When I uploaded my pictures onto Facebook, one person commented, “...lucky you have nice photos”. I read that with mixed feelings. What do you mean, “LUCKY”? How did “LUCK” played a role in this? I wanted to say something  in response to that and recalled a quote I read somewhere a long time ago:

LUCK is PREPARATION meets OPPORTUNITY

I like to think that I was LUCKY because I came prepared and met the golden opportunity of a fantastic weather to capture the hot air balloons getting airborne. I won’t be so lucky if I don’t have a camera with me, would I? So, Luck is by design... not accidental. 

I better sign off... I think my cough mix is doing the typing now. Have a great weekend or what’s left of it... School starts tomorrow and I have a whole load of ironing to do. 


Wednesday, March 14, 2012

An overdue post on Bazaar, Bazaar and Bazaar and a Gathering of Beautiful Women

I had the most hectic 3 weeks from my last blog post (17 February) to last weekend. The first, was my solo appearance at Little Red Market on 25th February 2012; my second bazaar for the year. The following week, I had another bazaar at JayaOne on 3rd March 2012 (bazaar #3) and Subang Parade on 4th March 2012 (bazaar #4). The following week after that, I had a gathering of my crafters' group on Facebook. So, here’s the breakdown of the series of events:

Bazaar #2: Little Red Market (25th February 2012)

It took place at one of the organizer’s residence in Jalan Beka, Bukit Damansara. Beautiful home turned into a quaint crafts market. I really have to go solo for this as the event clashed with Danial’s sports day. Azrai took care of the kids after helping me load my wares into the car. I’m on my own. Anxious and sweaty. I was really pleasantly surprised by the professional and warm conduct of the organizers, Melissa and Sally. They made me feel welcomed from the moment go and throughout the market hours.  Time flew as I was having a good time at the market :) Lots of beautiful items on sale on that day too and lots of visitors stopping at my booth and exchanged pleasantries. Here’s a write up at Little Red Market’s blog.

I didn’t have my camera with me that day as I gave it to Azrai to take pictures of Danial on his sports day. But here’s a great pool of pictures during the market day in Flickr:







Created with flickr slideshow.



Bazaar #3: Crafty Market at JayaOne (3rd March 2012)


After Little Red Market, I had only a week to replenish my items for Crafty Market. I didn’t make many as I was banking on selling my FQs and half yard bundles and some craft notions. This time around we, the craft vendors were dispersed among the other vendors throughout the markets. It has its pros and cons. More traffic no doubt but the question is whether is the right people stopping by our craft booth. I missed the old airy setup that we have on the lower ground near the water feature and the camaraderie of fellow crafters. It did feel a bit isolated.  Here’s a slideshow of the day. I took a few pictures of our booth (Sew Fabby and Made by Rozi Rahman) and got a photographer friend to go crazy with my camera.






Created with flickr slideshow.










Bazaar #4: I Love Bazaar at Subang Parade (4th March 2012)


The sale at Crafty Market went surprisingly well that I had to go back and make more items for the bazaar the next day. In less than 5 hours, I made 4 Multi purpose pouches, 3 diaper keepers and 4 girl colour baby bibs. Our booth was at the end of the world near Celebrity Fitness. It’s not just the location, but the crowd was generally slow that day. Business that day was like watching wet paint on the wall  dry. I guess you can’t expect to have a great bazaar every time. There’s bound to be some lousy ones along the journey. It just adds flavor to life. Here’s some photos:








The Gathering of Beautiful Women


I just managed to catch up my breath before preparing some lucky draw gift for a get together among my craft friends in a group on Facebook. I made 3 sets coasters (a set of 4) out of MDF boards found in Daiso and some scrap fabric and Mod Podge.





We had a great time. Took home a lot of lucky draw gifts not to mention yummy and cute doorgifts too. Friendship fostered on Facebook came to life and it’s like meeting with old buddies :) One of the best moments was when the main organizer won a grand item as a token of appreciation for her effort to put things together so that the gathering could take place. Here’s another slide show of the event that took place:





Created with flickr slideshow.

Nuffnang