Country Cottage Arts

Monday, 31 May 2010


This is the picture of the galvanised white mail box with roses as done by Sue of TeratakAntique in my class. Very eye-catching, cheery and colourful.

This picture below was done by Mrs Teh, whom I met at Aniza's class.  It's a cute stool and the vegetable and  gardener motif was too good not to put it  in my blog for others to see.  Mrs Teh was quite happy to let me take pictures and I did tell her that I'd upload it in my blog ....  incidently, it hasn't been completed yet but I simply couldn't resist.........





Happy painting


Lakshmi

Saturday, 29 May 2010


This is the galvanised green mail box from Darmo Cottage owner, Puan Zaleha.  The hydrangeas are painted on both sides of the mailbox.

This is the other side of the mail box.  The mailbox comes in solid colours of dark green, postbox red and white.  As far as I can tell, they are good quality stuff and I would recommend them to anyone who wants to fit their home with a genuine US Mail  official sized mailbox. 

  Incidentally, "US Mail " is embossed on the cover and according to   Puan Zaleha, it is indeed done for the US market.   I'm happy with mine.








Looks pretty good to me, the final finished painted mailbox.


Lakshmi

Sunday, 23 May 2010


I have so far painted 7 window panels of the old 'kampung' (village) type, three of which was done for Darmo Cottage of Banting.  The item below is the 3rd one with a dark olive green background.  It is hung in Darmo Cottage's outlet at Tesco, Bukit Tinggi.  Darmo Cottage sells a variety of English inspired decorative items, furniture, tea sets, etc., etc at reasonable prices.  

Their latest offering of galvanised and coated mail box is a real good buy for the English inspired home decorator. It comes in 3 colours - white, red and green.  I have just finished painting two of them and they look absolutely great.  The pics will be updated in a day or two.


Have a great start to another beautiful week. 


Lakshmi

 Saturday, 22 May 2010


The last few days had been very packed and it was compounded by my computer having a downtime.  It's the weirdest thing, when my kids use the PC, its in tip top condition but when I finally find the time late at night to do my thingy, it just goes kaput !    Believe it or not, I had just finished typing my latest  blog detail when the whole blighted page disappeared ! Urgghh, it's just too much to take...........

On the family side, my husband was not too happy with the Thomas Cup results and kept screaming at the players - armchair critics usually go hyper and my husband was no exception.... (sigh) not a great way to have started the week,  he's not a great fan of Lin Dan, for sure........


(Without prejudice )

On the local news, I fell off my chair when I read about our infamous lawmaker and lawbreaker MP Bung Mokthar and his polygamous rendevous with a local starlet ,Zizie Ezette ( phew, what a name !) The picture of him plastered all over the local dailies showed him in his ever arrogant self  with a nauseating publicity seeking smile which  made me puke......................., really bad.   Honestly, I don't , for the life of me, understand how his constituency voted  him to be their MP.  Geez, they must  have voted  when there was an electricity shortage and everything was pitch black......................

That brazen uncouth lout was fully aware that he had broken the law when he entered into a polygamous marriage and his  " I'm an MP and no one can touch me "  look was so obvious.  His equally infamous and polygamous Zizie Ezette 's smile matched his perfectly .......... what a pair !

The most hilarious comment  came from the  Syariah Judge and I quote the STAR "  They have many fans.  Both are icons "   Duh ?  Icons ?  It's laughable... the Judge obviously  didn't understand the meaning of the word .  And to make it worse, his sentencing of the MP  to 1 month's jail was considered    meting out strict punishment .  Let me get this right,  you wreck the lives of two existing families/ kids included, all  in the name of lust, you are an MP elected and paid for by the public at large,   you took an oath in Parliament to uphold the law of the country yet you willfully defy  the law to suit your own circumstances,  and the presiding judge calls you an icon .... hello,  am I missing something here.................?

Of course, our ever 'crusading ' Women Family N Community Development Minister Shahrizat Jalil had to have her  2 cents worth of " hailed the judgment as a huge moral victory for long suffering first wives " crap of a speech. ( STAR 20 May 2010

At times like this, I just wish that my good friend, Tengku Norashikin could have a heart to heart talk with the Minister and explain to the honourable Women, Family N Community Dev Minister, what a woman's family and her dignity is all about.

Over to you Shikin.......................


Lakshmi
 
 Ps: As readers would know by now, this is written from the viewpoint of a woman, a wife and a mother.

Thursday, 13 May 2010

I painted several items for Ina.  The cutlery box is one of them.   The lace ribbon border was broderie anglaise.

The kettle below is another. Watermelons, strawberries, lemons, cherries , pear  and red-currant bunches completes the picture.

Sunday, 9 April 2010



Mothers' Day comes and goes every year.  Hotels and eateries will be packed to the brim and all manner of presents and treats will be dished out to the fortunate and happy mums who are fortunate enough to have loving kids.    I guess my kids too will do something similar . 


Frankly, however, I've passed that stage of wanting all those flowers and chocolates and cakes and lunches, etc.  That was what I sorely wanted up until when I was forty something.  When I needed acknowledgments, confirmation and tokens from my kids of their love (and perhaps devotion?) for the 'sacrifice' that I, as a mother, was  supposed to have done and still do for my children.

Funnily, I don't need those tokens of affection  any more and if they are too busy with their  young lives and friends, it's okay by me.  I think I've grown out of the 'mother complex' and have become more confident of myself as a mother .  I don't need their affirmations  to know that they love me.  They will always  love me, no matter where they are and  without a doubt, they also know that I'd sacrifice my life them.  All mothers do.  It's the way mothers are, I think  and that is because I'm seeing life through my lens.... ( although  after reading the recent headline news of murdering mothers, I'm not too sure)

I've come to finally realise that  the ' sacrifice' the mother is supposed to do  is actually the  responsibility and obligation on the part of the mother to look after the child.   It is simply the mothers  duty to look after the child and  cater to the child's  basic physical and emotional needs  until the child is old enough to look after him/herself.   There's no sacrifice involved here at all .  If we are intelligent enough to bring a child into this world. we should be equally intelligent enough to look after the child, isn't it?.  As Jackie O quoted " If you bungle raising your children, I don't think whatever else you do matters very much "  We shouldn't have this mentality of ' sacrificing our lives for our children'  idea in our heads. I think it   distorts the special  bond of the mother and child.

And so, it has finally dawned on me that what I've done is just put into practice  my responsibility and obligation ( as any mother would )  to bring up my  children to the best of my ability. There was  no room or space for any 'sacrifice' on my part. The children are gifts of God and I have been  lucky enough to have  known and felt their love and affection for me  all these time.  I still do.  And this is one of the greatest blessings from God that I have received. 

So, if they forgot to buy me chocolates, it's okay;  can't take me out for lunch, it's okay; don't have enough money to buy me flowers, it's okay;  I don't really need their tokens of affection to prove their love for me anymore  but if they do want to give me, I'm not complaining either !

Life is actually simple .  It's only as complicating as how we want it to be......


Happy Mother's Day, everyone


Lakshmi

Friday, 7 May 2010


I recently finished this birdhouse like tissue box holder.  Of course, it was roses.  In fact, it was roses, roses, roses all the way  the whole week !

And this is the tool box, guess again....... with views of both sides.........

3 May 2010


I finally managed to learn, after a long and arduous process, how to download the pictures on my blog.  It really tested my patience as well as my daughter's  for I had to write down every click and step on an exercise book so that I would  not have to ask her again ( beg her again, more likely ! ).

At times like these, I feel so ancient and obsolete .  My kids keep saying, ( when asking to repeat the steps a bit more slowly ) how easy it is and   " Oh, Mummy, it's so difficult to teach these things, you know, even a 10 year old can learn this  in a minute ".  And all I could say to hide my inability at moments like this is "  Oh yeah? A ten year is supposed to shut up and listen to her Mummy, not make  smart alec comments !. God !. it's soooooo   frustrating at times to be a parent.................

Kids always thinks they are smarter than their parents, don't they ?

Anyway, below are some of the pictures that I clicked away at my good friend and ' art terrorist ' Rashidah's house.  As I wrote earlier, the batteries couldn't handle her brilliant artwork and most of them couldn't be seen clearly, except for  2 or 3.......

The pictures don't do much justice to her beautiful work.  Rashidah dear, so sorry for the  amateurish pictures. Hope to see you again and take more pics...... This time, you click for me ya ?



Lakshmi

1  May 2010




The other  day, I made a short tour to the 'pasar malam' night market at Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur.  I had just finished buying some fruits and made a stop at the biscuit stall.  While my biscuits were being packed, a foreign lady with a 2 year  old in tow, stopped by the stall .   The child looked at me and I smiled at her   She was so waif like with curly hair and large brown eyes  The mother looked at the pre- packed biscuits , chose one  and in halting Malay, asked the seller  how much each cost.  The seller told her it was RM3.00 and the lady, after a slight pause, put   the biscuits back  into  the box.   I was sorely tempted to pay for the biscuits but was not too sure whether I should, for I didn't want  her to think that I was doing it out of pity.  After all, , everyone has their pride too and God Forbid,  I certainly didn't want to offend her dignity in public..... but  I soo really wished I could  have just paid  for her though.....

While these thoughts were going in my mind, ( 'to be do or not to be do , perhaps? ) her  two year old spotted a colourful packet of smarties like chocolate and took the brightly coloured foil disc  in her hand.  The mother quickly grabbed it off  her  tiny fingers and put it back into the box.  The child started to wail as any normal toddler would. The mother admonished the child and carried her off on her shoulder, trying to quieten  the child.  The child continued  wailing, turned her head to me and wailed even  more loudly !  The  mother kept on  walking, oblivious to the child's cry. I looked at the child and my heart  almost broke.   I was already itching to pay for it even earlier  and this was simply too much for me to take.... ....  I grabbed the foil disc, told the seller that I'd pay for the chocolates too, ran towards the child as fast as my  legs could  carry and gave it to her in the hand. .  She stopped crying.  And the passers by looked when I ran.  I felt so conscious.  Imagine them looking at a 52 year old woman with a teenage son in tow , running pell mell in a night market street with a chocolate disc in hand !  Totally, totally embarrassing........ but I simply had to do it.  The child's face said it all.  It was a ' wow' moment for me.

Oh, and I also tried to walk back  coolly,  pretended not to see any of the onlookers on my way back to the biscuit seller, who was very busy translating the episode in Chinese to her Chinese customers........


My second encounter was with the 'nasi lemak' seller in Shah Alam itself, Section 9, to be precise.  ' Nasi lemak' is actually my most favoured dish and this young man , Alif, who mans the stall located  near   the Secret Recipe outlet, , is the type every mother would be proud of ! Hardworking, polite,with a  pleasant  disposition and   pleasing manners.  Alif  puts up his stall every evening, rain or shine and  he'll usually talk to me about his growing up days as a 10 year old  in the kampung.  A very nice young man who makes an honest living with an honest days' work. A pity I don't see many other young man of  the same calibre.  Since I buy 'nasi lemak'  practically  4 days out of  7, I meet him quite often .

On my recent visit, as I was buying 12 large packets ( no, I don't eat all of them myself, they were  for my son's  school mates  too ) ,a  middle aged motherly Malay lady stood there waiting for her single order.  It was drizzling quite heavily and the lady had no shelter, no umbrella and she wanted just 1 packet of nasi lemak..... As I was paying for my food, I asked Alif   quietly to   include hers in my bill too . I  scooted  off as soon as I  received the change .

The lady didn't look destitute to me and I wasn't doing it for any self glory either,( how much glory can you expect for a packet of food anyway ?). Nor did I do it for her to convey her thanks to me.  It was just a  bond,  from one mother to another, one woman to another and one human to another.  Nothing more  


Have a beautiful day


Lakshmi