Seventeen days in South Island NZ, in less than one minute

xoxo, N

Being a Mrs

It's been a month now!

Seems like everyone's fav question is - "how's married life?"/"what's the best part of being married?" Not quite sure what people expect me to answer that. I mean, it's been just thirty days since I changed my status here? I've asked some people the same question before and when they everything feels like cloud nine and things like that it makes me roll my eyes so hard I can see my brain. lol

I won't tell ya the answer for the first question but I do have an answer for the second one. The best part about being married now is that we're staying alone in our own house!

I love how I can wake up at whatever time I want to, come home so late at night or at times choose to sleepover at my mum's or my friend's place and not come home at all. & no one can say/do anything about it. The danna doesn't restrict my movements so much so it's all fun! I've listened to a million horror stories about living with in-laws and I'm so thankful we don't have to go through any of it. PHEW

However, on the other hand, living without our parents means that I have to prepare my own meals every single day. Now that, my friends, is NO fun. I'm sure if you've read my older entries you'd know how much I hate cooking. T_T. Not that danna demands for food to be served on the table three times daily, he's cool with eating outside but I guess it's just the wife in me that wants to whip up a decent meal for my husband. For now, most of the time that means fried rice or instant noodles :p

& it's not helping when my mom asks me what I've cooked for her darling son-in-law all the time. She sends me photos of her dishes over whatsapp every.single.day. it's driving me nuts. Two days back, she decided to let me and the whole wide world know what she's having for lunch on Facebook.........

Times like this I question my life decisions and got me thinking whether or not it is really THAT great to live without my parents. T_T

xoxo, N 

Back to Reality

I'm back!!

I've sooooo much to share on my honeymoon! Oh what an adventure it has been. I spotted more rainbows, shooting stars and milky way during this trip than I ever had in my entire life! Danna and I spent many nights watching the stars at wee hours of the morning and witnessed beautiful landscapes as we explore vast wilderness in the day. We get up close and personal with lots of penguins and seals (for free!) and went hiking literally in both rain & shine! We slept in backpacker rooms, motels, even did glamping (like this!) but mostly on our foldable bed inside our small yet cosy campervan.

To sum it up, my honeymoon feels a lot like Amazing Race + Survivor + Fear Factor for me. 

Have I mentioned that I can strike off skydiving off my bucket list already? Hands down the craziest thing I've ever done. Or maybe second craziest. I'll have to put getting married as the first. ha ha ha

So anyway! 17 days went by in a flash. The days felt long but the weeks seem short. 

So glad we did this together...

...and with Fiq too! He helped with our post-wed shoots. Can't wait to view and share them all here!

xoxo, N

Bulan Madu

In less than twelve hour's time, the danna and I will be flying to..............

SO EXCITED OMGZ (&G!!^&%R*SD!@#$%^&*( !!!

We just booked out tours and some last minute activities that we want to do there. (like this!?!) & we have yet to pack a single thing still.. Procastinator + pemalas level 90000000.

Anyway, we will be back in mid Dec. Till then!

xoxo, N

Favourite highlights

This day last week, I got married. Best day of my life ever, no doubt!

Sitting high on the dais, I couldn't help but to feast my eyes on the beautiful decorations in front of me. The wedding was better than what I had expected and thank God everything went smoothly. My parents were telling me how much their friends love the venue and some were already planning to have their children's wedding there. So glad they love it as much as I do!

My darling best friend Lysa helped to record hundreds of videos from my phone cos I don't want to miss a single thing. I had a hard time selecting and putting together my favourite clips for this video cos I love them all. Then again, I love absolutely everything about my wedding!

Here are some of my favourite highlights. 

So in love with the timestamp and VHS effect despite making me look so dark here lol

I don't think I will posting about the vendor reviews till I receive the official pictures, so wait for itttt!

xoxo, N

Danna and Me

"What is a kareshi!?" is a question I receive quite a lot from my friends who read my blog.

Many years back I have a crazy obsession with the Japanese language. I learned how to read and write Hiragana and even saved all my contacts in my phone in Katakana. After I met Syahruz and he asked me THE question, I stop attending Japanese classes cos I realised that my dreams of finding a Japanese husband and migrating to Japan is not happening.......lol kidding.

So yeah, kareshi = boyfriend in Japanese

& we got married last week! ❤

So kareshi no more now. Say hello to danna! No prize for guessing correctly what it means. :D

xoxo, N

Yes to The Dress

So my leave starts today. Received a text yesterday saying that the pupils will be saying farewell to the teachers who are leaving during assembly today and that kindda make me emo for a while....T_T

Anways, I had my final outfit fitting on Monday and my my my, those dresses got me head over heels! I shrieked with a million ohmygod-I love-its by the end of the appointment. I really do love em all.

Here's a sneak peak.

All smiles and stars in my eyes the moment I set my eyes on my songket dress for the first time. 

Two more days..

xoxo, N

Ten Days

One-digit countdown starts tomorrow! 

xoxo, N

Be My Bridesmaid?

Met the bffs last week & I passed the girls their bridesmaid kit together with this pretty card..

 

At the back of the card I have personalised message for them printed in pink foil, made with love by yours truly :D

Oh and obviously I don't take no as an answer hehehe

The first thing they did as soon as they got their kit tsk tsk kids nowadays with their IG story and Snapchat segala! Hariz was busy recording everything, saying nak buat kenangan when he's away :/

Totally forgot to take a picture of what's inside the kit but here's my favorite. A collage of my fav highlights of our friendship of twelve years! I actually got teary as I was doing it, can't believe we've all grown up so much together. So many things have changed but we still stick with each other. :')

Here they are, my three beautiful bridesslavesmaids! 

Fina, whom I've known since I was six. Schoolmates in both primary and secondary school. We started off as enermies hahaha I remember how I can't stand it when she first join my clique in secondary school. We start to get close after all the lepak-after-school sessions and she was the first friend I traveled with! Someone who is always honest with her opinions and I love her for that.

Lysa, my classmate since Sec 1 and we also didn't have a good start. Only got closer when we were in secondary three and we had a tiff after he went out with this crush of mine lol lol. One of my fav travelling buddy cos just like me she screams YOLO. Someone I can ALWAYS count on when I'm down. There's plenty of times when she came down to see me at ungodly hrs just to lend me a pair of ears and shoulder to cry on ❤

Ira, my sweet darling. The first person I talked to when I was in secondary school. We were classmates throughout secondary school and even got into the same course in Poly. We were inseparable that even our friends thought we were sisters, especially with our bangs. Another friend I'm thankful to have cos I know I can just open up to her about anything and everything.

True friends are never apart, maybe in distance but never in heart. ♥♡♥♡

Love you guys!

xoxo, N

19 Days

I've no idea why guys but I've been an emotional wreck lately urghh

I cry for absolutely no reason at all and it happens just anytime and anywhere. Just this morning I was folding my parents' clothes and I can't control my tears. Right now my best friend is texting me about her sister packing her stuff to make way for the bilik pengantin and here I am flooding my bedroom with my tears.

Also for some strange reasons I told my sister to sleep in the living room and somehow find comfort sleeping alone in my room every night. With the lights off, may I add. Anyone who knows me knows how much of a scaredy-cat I am and that this is something I never had the guts to do. 

I was telling a friend about my emo story and she sent this picture.

It made me cry too. I know right, what even seh.

Is this normal or am I thinking too much?  Gah hope to get over this phase soon *wipes tears*

Ok I'm gonna go into my mom's room and hug her right meow. T_T

xoxo, N

Bachelorette Cooking Session w @ashaadn

My two girls, they're such drama queens, I tell ya.

You see, last weekend, our plan was to explore the East side cos you know, that’s where the good food are all at. But you can tell from the post title that these girls have something up their sleeves!

Since Tina was working that Saturday morning, Airah and I took a cab down to Bugis to pick her up. 

Good thing I slept thru out the journey so I won't be asking them 101 questions.

When I woke up, we were at Bedok and Tina was telling me we're here to collect her detox tea. Silly me just tagged along with zero suspicions. Plus I was already licking my lips at the thought of the cheap sushi I can have at Bedok Mall after that. Yum yum!

As soon as we reached the detox tea seller's house, she asked if we're afraid of cats and then invited us in. Standing at the door is someone familiar. Someone actually I followed on IG (@ashaadn).

Since when si Asha sells detox tea eh, I asked myself.

The girls were talking to Asha as if they’ve been friends forever. I still didn't have no idea what's going on and was whispering to Airah that I know her. Asha looked at me and chuckled.

 “So she still doesn't have a clue, eh?’

Countdown #1

I guess I can say that my wedding preparation has been a smooth journey so far. (Thank you God!) My parents are such darlings and they're really accommodative to most of my requests. Both the kareshi and I are really blessed to have their full support, despite the many snide remarks from other family members that they have to put up with.

From the start of the planning, we've set clear expectations of what we want for the wedding and we hold on strongly to it. After all, the wedding is fully paid using our hard earned money so it only makes sense that we get things done our desired way. Lucky for us, we have all the vendors that are ranked #1 in our dream-vendors list to make up the dream team, working for our dream wedding.

The past few weeks was packed with site visits and meetings with our major vendors. All went well except for one in particular......

Leap of Faith

Today at just thirty-seven days away from the wedding, we made the craziest decision ever!!

We met Comel Molek yesterday for a site visit and also to finalise the designs for our deco and just 24 hours later, we ditched them and signed up with another vendor that is relatively new in the industry.

HEHEHE

More updates in my monthly countdown entry!

xoxo, N

Saying Goodbye

I was a reluctant to share about this at first but the thought of it turning into a distant memory and fading away is a bit too much for the heart to handle so here I am writing this so that if I find myself caught in flashbacks in the future, I'll come back to this space to remind me of the good old days.

House Tour - Living Room & Kitchen

A photo posted by にな サキナ (@ngnaaa) on Sep 16, 2016 at 5:43am PDT

I posted this picture on IG recently and thought it's time to show you guys a house tour of mua crib!!

Countdown #2

My second last monthly countdown post!

Last month we received an email from our kadi with a (super long) PDF file attached regarding everything we need to know about what to do pre-nikah and during nikah.  I wonder if other kadi(s) do it as well?

Some clips of our kadi in this video below....

Yup it's Ustaz Irwan Shah, in case you don't know him!
You can see him shaking hands with the kareshi hurhur.

I've mentioned before that I'm not very particular about our kadi so the kareshi had his number one choice. When I asked what's the reason for his pick, he said cos ustaz ni pakai iPad. lol what even.

Some other stuff we're settled... and not!

WAN + IRA

If you follow Yumi Ayummi on IG, you'd have seen this beauty featured on her feed...

A photo posted by yumiayummi (@yumiayummi) on Sep 6, 2016 at 7:06am PDT

...and si extra behind her tumpang pose for the camera lol

So yar my babe Ira had her makeup trial with Yumi over at their new office last week! 

We thought it'd be such a waste to have a face dolled up like that & then just go home, so we headed down to Coney Island to take some shots with Wan. Feeling pre-wed photoshoot liddat hehe

Sucha beauty, this lady here. Both inside and out ♥

Not bad right the pictures I took? How boo, I can work with Bliss already not? LOLOL

ps: His answer was yes. As a light assistant -_-
pps: Check out his website to view a lot more beautiful pre-wed pictures! www.syahruz.com

#promoteboyfriend #ihelpedwiththewebsiteok #stillwaitingformyreward

xoxo, N

Teachers' Day!

Pretty cards designed by yours truly for my colleagues. Three terms down, just one more to go!!

xoxo, N

Renovation Week 4

It has been three weeks since the end of our renovation journey and the handover. The furniture are all in now and while editing the pictures for this entry, it kinda made me miss my spacious homey. Week 4 was all about touching up and installing the toilet accessories.

  

Panoramic view of my living room. On the left side is the kareshi's work area, which will be facing our sofa and TV.  I love my open concept kitchen so much la! Hacking my kitchen wall was my idea from the start and I'm glad we did it despite the amount of $$ we had to fork out just for that. 

Close up view of my dining area. So excited to work on our DIY project on these white walls. 

 

Right side of my kitchen.... 

 

....and the left. 

 

Thank God we were not given those ugly mosaic tiles from HDB(!!!) so decided not to do anything at all for the two toilets. (for now at least... ) I couldn't stand the red/blue stickers so I peel them all off. (btw now you know the photographer behind all my reno pics hehe) 

So there you have it, my swift home reno journey which I'm glad went very smoothly with almost zero hiccups. Post-reno is an equally exciting process cos we get to buy all the pretty things for our place and I swear it's cray cray!! I get parcels delivered to my house almost every day and I've got to hide them all from Mummy lol. 

Next, I'll be sharing my review on my ID (highly recommended =D) and once everything is settled then I'd probably do a house tour post to show you every single detail about my home sweet home so stay tuned! 

xoxo, N

Countdown #3

Tick tock tick tock:D

Wedding venue floor layout and Mood board

Finally pushed my procrastination aside and worked on my mood board for the wedding deco. I leave it up to the kareshi to choose the colour scheme cos I trust his taste! Also, partly cos I've lost the wedding prep hype after getting the house hurhurhur. Sneak peak of this 10-pages document I'm still working on.

 I've been to a number of weddings where family members refuse to give up their seats for the guests despite the DJ's announcement. So we're providing a huge space at the back of the hall specially for our families to lepak and with that I (realllllllly!!!) hope they won't hog onto the guests' seats.

Ninety-nine

Us on third date hehe. Funny how it seems like this was just yesterday and nothing much has changed  since then. & here we are today, starting on our two digits countdown to our big day, InsyaAllah =)

xoxo, N

Rosnah

Hai semua!

Hari ini saya ingin mencuba menulis dalam Bahasa Melayu pula! Kali terakhir saya menulis dalam bahasa ibunda saya ini ialah sedekad lalu jadi saya ini bukanlah arif mana pun. Kalau ada salah dari segi tatabahasa tu jangan kecam ye.

Pada hari Jumaat lepas saya berpeluang menonton sebuah monodrama di Esplanade. Ini adalah kali pertama saya ke sini untuk menyaksikan sebuah pementasan teater jadi semestinya saya berasa excited gitew lho. Menariknya, saya pergi bersama seorang yang saya langsung tidak kenal.

Sebenarnya saya adalah salah satu pembaca dan peminat setia satu blog ni. Basically si penulis tanpa nama ini akan mengupas drama-drama bersiri di saluran Suria dan quite honestly apa yang membuat saya tertarik akan blog ini adalah kata-kata lucu dan laser yang ditulisnya. Selalunya saya akan menunggu waktu makan di kerja untuk membaca entri terbaru beliau dan selalunya juga saya akan hampir terbegik makanan kerana saya sering terlaugh-out-loud. Betul tak tipu hahahah

Jadi nak dipendekkan cerita, si penulis misteri ini mengajak salah seorang pembacanya menonton monodrama Rosnah ini bersamanya dan sayalah pembaca bertuah itu. (betuah la sangat lol) Sejujurnya saya sangka penulis ini ialah seorang wanita based on tahap ke-bitchy-an beliau tetapi ternyata saya silap. Ini dah macam cerita Gossip Girl yang saya mati-mati sangkakan pompanz rupanya si Dan tu!

"Rosnah is a young Malay Muslim woman who leaves home for the first time to study in London. As she navigates her new environment with determination, she forges new connections with friends who differ from her in all respects—personality, race and religion"

Dipetik dari Esplanade.com

-malas nak translate-

Saya tidak akan kupaskan jalan ceritanya dengan lebih terperinci tapi apa yang ingin saya kongsikan disini ialah pengalaman saya berada di dalam studio itu selama satu jam. Pertama sekali saya ingin tabik spring kepada pelakon Siti K atas persembahannya yang sungguh berkesan sekali!

Bagi anda yang mungkin tidak tahu, monodrama ialah sebuah drama yang dimainkan oleh hanya satu pelakon. Terdapat lebih kurang sembilan watak yang dimainkan oleh Siti K termasuk diri beliau sendiri. Saya sangat suka cara beliau bertukar watak dengan cepat dan meyakinkan sekali!

Salah satu babak yang meninggalkan impak yang mendalam pada diri saya ialah apabila watak Rosnah membawa pulang kekasih mat sallehnya ke Singapura dan beliau diberitahu neneknya sudah meninggal dunia beberapa bulan yang lalu. Agak tersentuh perasaan saya ketika itu kerana teringatkan teman yang baru kehilangan bapanya dan sering memuatnaik status di Facebook tentang penyesalannya tidak dapat bersama bapanya ketika saat-saat terakhir beliau.

Dan semestinya air mata saya mula bertakung apabila watak Rosnah mula menangis dan berteriak! Sudahlah saya duduk di barisan hadapan, si mamat yang memainkan musik dengan gitarnya pula duduk di depan saya, lagilah saya rasa macam nak melalak! Saya cuba sedaya upaya untuk tidak mengelip mata kerana saya tahu jika saya berbuat demikian, air mata akan mencurah tak henti-henti.

Lagi satu babak yang sungguh WOW ialah apabila watak Rosnah memarahi teman havocnya Mus apabila Mus memberitahu beliau diperkosa oleh lelaki yang dibawanya pulang ke rumah. Pada masa itu penonton dapat menyaksikan bagaimana Siti K dapat memainkan kesemua tiga watak yang berbeza reaksi, pandangan dan emosi dan saya tidak sekalipun berasa keliru watak mana yang sedang dimainkan.

Impress level 99999999!!!

Oh dan juga tidak kusangka suara Siti K sooo sedap!! Antara lagu yang beliau dendangkan ialah Slumber (OAG) dan Fantasia Bulan Madu. Weeewiiit!! Beliau turut mengajak para penonton menyanyi bersama omg I just have to control la okay?! Nanti sesi karaoke yang akan datang saya nak nyanyi lagu FBM dan feeling sepuas-puasnya! Tina dan Airah please take note ya.

Pada akhir monodrama ini, saya dapat rasakan kaitannya dengan diri saya. Watak Rosnah banyak bercakap tentang "transit" dan seperti mana yang awak semua sedia maklum, saya akan melalui satu transit yang besar dalam hidup saya. Saya bakal memasuki alam rumahtangga, berpindah ke rumah baru, tinggal bersama ahli keluarga yang baru dan tidak lupa tempat pekerjaan yang baru. Tipulah saya kalau saya katakan yang saya tidak takut akan tanggungjawab yang bakal diletakkan ke atas bahu saya. Tidak lupa juga perasaan bercampur sedih untuk meninggalkan rumah serta zon keselesaan saya.

Hmmm.. tetiba rasa sedih lah pulakk......

ps: Kalau nak tahu lebih lanjut tentang pementasan Rosnah dan blog yang saya sebutkan di atas, sila klik sini.

pps: Pada mulanya saya fikir saya akan berasa janggal menulis dalam Bahasa Melayu tetapi sekarang saya rasa selesa pula! Mungkin saya akan terus menulis dalam Bahasa Melayu dalam entri yang akan datang. :D

xoxo, N

Syawal 1437H In a Nutshell

This year's Raya is no different from previous year's, which I've blogged about here.

My family chose blue for the first day and I thought of using past years' outfits. Mainly cos my family don't celebrate and go visiting so much so I don't see the need to buy a new outfit when the max number of houses I visit every year in a day is three. Also I rarely wear past years' outfit after Raya so reuse, reduce and recycle jer.

But I did buy one after all! Fifty bucks for the top and skirt (accidentally cropped here T.T) Bag was bought two years back in KL and I wore my wedges from Rubi that was on sale. Cheapskate level 999

That's my brother. His MNL face when his best-kakak-in-the-world asked for his help to take OOTDs.

The second and third day was spent at work. Boohoooz.

On the third of Syawal, I met the kareshi's family & later that night I was told we're heading out but turns out we went beraya with his friends. The number of houses we went to that night was more than the houses I visited with my family since Syawal Day 1 combined ha ha.

It was almost midnight when we reach the last house. By then my eyes were soooo heavy (my bedtime is 10pm T_T) and I've been socialising so much since morning that I've reached my limit for the day.  

Fav part of the day:

GERAMZ NAK PIJAK ROMOS SQUASH THAT FACE

Please boyfriend I nak cat at our new house pls pls 

Self-invite myself to a colleague's open house and had her take 2134 pictures of me hahaha.

Jalan raya with my girls whom I love soooo much. Look at the fat cat's expression macam MEH.

Feeling lor abeh.

Last day of Raya was spent with the BFFs. Fav part of Hari Raya is when it's over! 

And as always ada MV Raya. Next year will be an entirely different jalan raya for us, insyaAllah.

Now that we've wrapped up Raya, it's time to get back on my yoga mat!

xoxo

Renovation Week 3

So if you follow me on Instagram, you'd know by now my home reno is alr complete weeehooo! I've said this a million times to myself but I really LOVE my house and I can't wait to decorate and blog all about it. But first, the (belated) week three update!

Carpentry

My tiny wardrobe for my tiny room is up. During the planning stage, we had soooo~ many ideas for this area. You see that fugly window (for aircon ledge) sticking out of nowhere? Well initially we thought of extending the width of the wardrobe and hide it inside but that would result in a much lesser space for the room entrance, which causes inconvenience esp when shifting furniture.

So we scrap that idea and now I have to pretend it doesn't bother me..... Still learning to thou. T_T

Also, having an L-shaped wardrobe wasn't in my must-have list cos I believe just one would be enough (ha ha that's me in denial talking) After a meeting with my ID and seeing one in his office that has the same size as ours, I went back home and counted the number of hangers I have in my current wardrobe. You know, just to make sure I reaaaally need that extra space.

"One..Two...Ten...Fifteen...Nineteen...Twenty-six... Thirty-nine....sixty-seven wait wait what was I thinking OK WE DEF NEED A BIGGER SPACE"

Meh. I should've known better huh.

So the picture on the left shows my space. There's more space inside all the way to the left where I can hang longer dresses. The picture on the right belongs to the kareshi.

Lighting

We bought all our lights from Tampoi, JB many months ago. Cheap cheap good good!

Crestar Rainlite ceiling fan from Hoe Kee.

The lights we chose don't come in black so the kareshi kindly helped me spray it all. 

We saw this selling at Star Living for a price double of what we got from Tampoi.

The more I see it, the more I'm not liking the inner yellow. Is it just me or it seems like it doesn't match the kitchen. I wonder if it's too late to spray them now?

#iknowyoullreadthis #playingthehintinggame

The bar top has round edges cos according to the Mister, it's for future kids' safety. LOL I only think of round edges =  more pleasing to my eyes. 

I'm only left with the table top before my kitchen is complete! Some items that we have for now:

Blanco Naya 8.

Hob and hood from Tecno. This picture was taken days ago so you can see my table top here.

Ending this post with this picture of my boo labeling the bathroom accessories.

Thank you so much for being in charge of this whole reno process and making it all easier for me. Lucky to have such a reliable partner like you! Love you :D #nowplshelptospraykitchenlights

xoxo