Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri!

Just wanted to wish all my Muslim friends "Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri!"

It's the long weekend here in Malaysia, with Monday and Tuesday off. And we (the family) are off to Singapore for some much needed retail therapy (well, for me at least. I haven't been to Sunny Singapore since October!).

And I conveniently read on Ravelry that Spotlight has a sale on yarns..... Ooooh Plaza Singapura here I come!

Oh btw, knitting-wise, things are good. I've been productive with 1 toddler's dress for Isabelle, 1 winter cap for my sister and 1 lace camisole for myself, all completed in the past few weeks. Pictures to come!

Ta and have a good long weekend!

Piggin' Out: Monte's @ BSC

Restaurant: Monte's
Location: Level 1, Bangsar Shopping Centre (on top of WIP)

My family has patronised Monte's for many many years now. The food has always ben consistent, always familiar and of course, lip smacking good.....

Monte's reopened in July after BSC's new wing reopened post the major refurbishment. We were rather tied up that month and so were only able to check the "new" Monte's out a month later.

Good to know that other than the new decor, everything else was pretty much the same....


We love the warm buns and soft creamy butter served as you devour the menu.


But those buns cannot compare to the sinfully creamy garlic bread.


So we save the soft buns to wipe clean the sauce from the baked escargot. (I hope no one is counting the amount of butter and cream we're consuming... and this is just the starters btw.)


Something we hadn't tried before - the pan fried scallops... Doesn't look very presentable but it tastes good.


For mains, Shen had the chicken with mushroom sauce and cabbage. Pretty good.


I felt like having fish so I ordered the salmon.


Rommel had the usual steak, medium please.... For normal steaks (i.e. not wagyu or kobe), I rate Monte's the most value for money.


And Fatteh had the ostrich steak.... I can't remember how this was now which means it wasn't all that great.


Nom....

** Pictures taken with my Olympus Tough - waterproof and shockproof! Birthday present from Rommel!

Sunaina's blankie - embellished....

Sunaina decided to embellish the baby blankie I made for her baby Sanjana... We hadn't known what sex the baby was when I found out about her pregnancy so I made the blankie a gender neutral one (just in case you know).

She brought it to work one day (more than a month ago now) to show me what she'd done and here are the pictures! So lovely! I'm not very good at embellishing so I was really amazed with it...

Knit FO: Apricot bag

I made this during our Pangkor Laut trip in July... Really cute pattern from one of my Japanese crochet bag series. I now use it as my office minibag - I keep a small purse with some money in it and take it out with me during breakfast and lunch! Fits the purse, my mobile phone and my Blackberry perfectly! The yarn is acrylic I think that's made to feel like linen and was purchased from Tailor and Alteration in Hong Kong.

Knit FO: Kitteh curtain

Finally some pictures!

Here is my first attempt at crocheting curtains.... I basically took a template from cats-themed Japanese knitting book and converted it into a filet crochet pattern. Simple simple. I couldn't decide what to use to hang the curtain up. I thought about crocheting little strings to this and tie them to the rod but was running out of yarn. In the end, I went to the hardware shop and bought some plastic shower curtain rings which works much better in the bathroom compared to metal ones!

The cotton yarn I used was bought for RM2/ball from Sally who got them really cheap in Ho Chi Minh City.

Yes, I'm here

It's been a while, I know. Busy busy with work, finishing up a sector report so hopefully all goes well and it gets published soon!

I managed to sneak away for my birthday - 4 days with my family and Rommel. We headed to Phuket for some sun, sea, spa and FOOD. Pictures to come if my internet connection at home allows me to upload them! I was so annoyed a few Fridays ago when I could only upload ONE picture onto Flickr that night. Talk about ANNOYING! So many pictures and foodie stuff to blog about.... Sigh...

Knitting-wise, I've been productive (stress at work plus crappy internet at home = more knitting!).

1) I've finished my drawstring raglan which is a tad bit too big for me. I might wear it tomorrow to work and get response from my colleagues about it though.

2) I've also finished a shawl for my mom - her birthday's coming up so this will be my gift to her since she's always complaining that I never make anything for her. Really lovely gold and dark brown mix yarn - would go well with her Louis Vuitton monogramme collection!

3) I've started on a Cherry Leaf shawl (from Victorian Lace Today), using The Plucky Knitter Cashmere lace in a lovely baby blue. Pretty simple pattern to follow... So far so good!

4) I've also started a camisole for myself using 3 balls of Rowan Cashmerino in a gorgeous plum colour that my sister bought for me a while back.

Okay ta!

(Hopefully I'll post some pictures soon...)