Shawls for School

As some of you may or may not know, our friend Nonah is trying to finance her way to school.
She needs to raise at least the registration and first semester fees by November.
You can go read "help me raise my fees" to find out how much she needs and how she's planning to save up for it.

To help her along, I am launching SHAWLS FOR SCHOOL on my Barang-barang Bonda online store.

For each shawl you buy, Nonah's College Fund will get 75% of the profits.

These shawls are divine! They are 100% wool, and are lovingly hand embroidered by kashmiri hands.
They are perfect for the coming fall/winter months, or even worn off the shoulder with your sleeveless spring/summer dress. Exquisite and elegant enough even for a dinner party. It would look stunning against a black dress!
Buy it for yourself, or as a gift.

If you see something else you like on the Barang-barang Bonda store, you could also buy them, because 50% of the store's profits go to Nonah's College Fund as well :)

The store's profit is not much, but I hope it'll be enough to help her along.

Thankyou in advance for your support!

Public Service Announcement

YM hacks

Do you now that people can hack into your yahoo account?

If you start seeing strange YM messages from your YM friend asking you to click on a link or something:

1. Don't click on the link.. *duh*

2. Send them a message (email or sms or other messaging services) asking them to change their passwords a.s.a.p.!

3. Ask your friend to watch out for the same signs for your account or their YM friends.



Online Qur'an

I found a great online Qur'an site: QuranExplorer.com

It has a program that displays the qur'an and its english translation, and it has audio of the qur'an recitation, AND its english translation.

Tres cool!

Especially when you want to listen to the verses and its translation while doing something else *cough*blog*cough*.



Travel Guides

I've been pouring through Yahoo!Travel these past few days. Lots of information, but very very useful. Lotsa pictures too.

It also has a travel planner, where you can pick itineraries and add it into your 'trip' and review and adjust as you please. Makes planning much easier, especially if you're going on your own and not with a tour agency.

If you choose, you can also update the travel journal for your trip, sorta like a blog for your trip.

I wish I had found this before I went to Jakarta.. then I could've recorded everythng on time and not forget stuff like I had now.. :P



that's all for today, folks!

Super Sven

As you know, i like to watch TV.
I prefer to watch reality shows nowadays though. Not just the game/competition shows, but also the nature shows, the diy shows.
BBC has a lot of shows for the gardening enthusiasts. I'm not really good at gardening, but I like to watch how they design and build and tend to a garden. I find it very interesting and inspiring (even though out of the 3 plants I had tried to raise in the past 2 months, one of them have died).

Anyways, let me introduce you to a gardening guru that I really like:
Sven Wombwell.

I really like his style of gardening. He usually incorporates your lifestyle and he usually looks at what grows well around your area and incorporates them in your garden. His designs are usually very functional, and what I like is, they are usually very organic. It blends well into the background, i.e. your garden won't look too weird.

His website (above) doesnt have much info (very very little), but you can read and see more of his works on the website created for his book, Lifescapes.

I think he's a wonderful and thoughtful garden designer, and plus it doesnt hurt that he's very easy on the eyes. In fact, at certain times I think he looks a bit like brad.

happy surfing :)

Ummikusayang, Celebrating Motherhood the Islamic Way

Inspired by LadyVisine's question on why I do not have a Traffic Jam in my categories, I finally thought up of a reason to have it. Posts under this category would include information on websites that I like, with hopes that you guys would go and check them out. (Thus Traffic Jam, geddit?)
For the inauguration of this category, I present you my favourite website (after my family's blogs, that is)

Ummikusayang.com

I am so proud of this website/company.
The founders, Lily&Hani, were my colleagues when I was working. Lily and Hani left the company waaaaay before I did, to become Work-At-Home moms. When they first told me about their online bookstore, I was totally amazed. It's not that I had never heard of on-line shopping, nor was I dubious about the power of the internet. It's just the fact that they had actually gone and done it that wow-ed me. I mean, people dream of owning their own business all the time, but to really meet people who actually went out and pursued that dream, in such an un-conventional way (at that time) truly truly impressed me.
Ummikusayang started out as an on-line bookstore selling English Islamic books for children. That was already a niche market on its own, but the key to their success is actually network marketing and using the internet to expand that network. They joined Business Network International to meet and help other business owners. They also organize seminars to further make their company known and also to encourage other aspiring business owners to start out on their own.
But their most powerful marketing tool must be their e-group. They started the ummikusayang e-group, first among friends (like me! tee hee), as a portal to discuss various topics that concern muslim parents and as a means to advertise their activities and promotions. Through this e-group the members were inspired, encouraged, advised and entertained by the stories and experiences of fellow members. The highly informational (and more often than not, entertaining) content kept members staying, and attracted new members to join.

Since then, through their extensive network offline and online, they not only have increased their product range, they have also expanded their customer base. The ummikusayang e-group now has over 3 thousand members, most residing in malaysia, but some residing in other parts of the world (like me! tee hee) and a few even, from other nationalities. The members, irregardless of how often they post or read posts on the e-group, has developed a relationship so close with each other that whenever any of us meet up, we regard each other as instant close friends. Because of my affinity to the e-group, I buy most of my children and parenting related books from the company, and I am sure most of the members do the same.Talk about building brand loyalty!

Lily&Hani are now revered as the gurus of work-at-home moms and their seminars are often very well received by members and non members alike. I have to admit, I myself was inspired by them, and that was how I gathered the courage to start my event management company with famygirl. (sidenote: our event management company handles several of ummikusayang events).

So do you want to know what Malaysian Muslim mommies are reading to their kids? Do you want to know more about muslim parenting?
Give Ummikusayang.com a visit now!

a little k@rma

My TV doesnt get The Am@zing Race, but I caught the Ch0 brothers on the early show this morning, and I am thoroughly impressed by them. When I was reading famygirl's AR recaps, I got the impression that they were foolish to be so helpful and trusting of their advesaries, but now that I've heard their side of the story, I see where they're coming from. I envy their integrity, especially in such a competetive environment. I guess this quote by one of them says it all "Money can only go so far, but friendships last a lifetime".
It is sad, but nice-ness do not make good TV, eh?

Even if you're not a buddhist and don't believe in reincarnation and karma, I think everyone believes that your action affects others and will eventually affect you one way or another.
The Ch0 brothers have started a website called A Little Karma, where they aim to create revenue to be able to perform acts of kindness. They don't have much stuff there yet, but the 4 photos that they are currently selling are quite nice. They welcome contributions of your time and talent (and of course cash) and also ideas. If you have ideas for acts of kindness, you can tell them and when they have the funds, they'll try to perform it.
I thought it was a really cool idea.

So if you have a hankering for a little good karma, you know where to go.

the REAL domestic goddess

I was surfing for no-bake cheesecake recipes coz the one I tried to create on my own turned out to be too cheesy (not enough sugar) and too soft and I discovered her: The REAL domestic goddess.
Her site made me feel really hungry and ...urm... amateurish. *shame*

I am sure ben would be pleased to find out that she's canadian. ;)