REVAMP HOUSE TIME!

Now that the first week of Ramadhan has passed, it's time to 'get up' and work!
By that, I mean, no complaining of being weak or whatsoever.

And by 'work' I mean spring cleaning of our homes.
Honestly, I don't even know where to start. Gasps!

Mr E: Your wardrobe. You are invading my space oi.
Me: Aiya, this one wait la. People when come visiting, they don't spot check our cupboards whaaaaaattttttt.

They will confirm plus chop shake their heads when they see this on the walls.
(Pictures below!)

So FIRST thing is: WE NEED TO PAINT THE HOUSE.
(Especially areas that have been invaded big time by Nyla.)

Her room.
Dearest Nyla, as much as I know how damn proud you are of your art works, you don't anyhow paste leh your drawings on the wall. See now when we take those beautifullll drawings off the wall, got white spots liao. :(







Our balcony actually needs the most work.
The wall needs to be painted big time.

Somebody ah anyhow park her bicycle leaving marks on the wall one!!!!!

I'm thinking of painting it another colour. As much as white makes the home looks spacious, white is a very scary mary colour. Hard to maintain.
I cannot handcuff Nyla at home right.
So, I really am looking forward to choosing the paint colours!

Still at the topic of balcony...I just posted about it on Facebook actually an hour ago.
My flooring is actually the 'sickest'.
Maciam kena earthquake. :(

My HDB flat is more than 20 years old....Whenever it rains, my balcony will surely be flooded one.
And you know that WATER+ LAMINATED FLOORING= Oh Oh.


See the unsightly gaps. :(

Man, E and I regretted big time.
Thing is we used different brands of laminated flooring for our indoor and outdoor.

This is our indoor one.

Pretty right?
Not only that, 3 years on and it still feels and looks brand new.
Sharing is caring so here is the brand of the flooring: Kronotex

Anyway, both of us are now exploring our options.
Either we opt for
1)Kronotex
2) outdoor wood that can stand the test of water
3) we go for the rough surfaced good ol tiles.

This weekend, we are going to do abit of shopping.

Nyla: Mommy ask that dancing guy in white jacket to help la.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
That advert on Suria I tell you.....
really HAHAHAHAHAHAAHHA hor?

The Excluzif Satin Ponchos

Such a versatile piece of clothing The Excluzif Poncho is.....







.....that Mom and I have decided to retain our Excluzif Poncho pattern for our Eid Collection this year.
Our fabric choice for the ponchos is Satin considering satin is usually the fabric of choice for special occasions...like Hari Raya. :)

Yesterday evening was the shootout of these Excluzif Satin Ponchos (Raya edition)

A collaboration between 2 people I admire very much for their passion in all things fashion as well as photography.
Gratitude to Tina (make up/styling) and Adrian (photography/styling)
Happening people la you both. I'm their Facebook stalker because I love looking at their photo albums. :p You wanna view, just click on their names!

Not forgetting my Minah Saleh model, Jessica Gabrielli.
Such a beauty. Macam Cindy Crawford. Fuh!!!

The babe totally rocked the ethnic look of The Excluzif Satin ponchos.

Thank you so much again everybody!

Featured today will be 5 colours.
*Should you have another colour in mind, just let me know. The fabric person I am in touch with has like a million colours so yeah, you just say what colour, and I'll make your wish come true.

That being said, Selamat Menyambut Bulan Ramadhan ya!



Maroon


Gold



Ice Pink


Midnight Blue


Emerald Green

What I did was I ransacked my wardrobe and only took out the 'kains' and matching matching the satin ponchos with the kains.
Save money! :)

If you like what you see, email me at nuraesman@gmail.com
A piece of The Excluzif Satin Poncho is $45.
Fits S-XL. :)

See you at my mailbox hons!

PSLE Oral Workshop 2012

For the THIRD year running, Jenn and I are back for the PSLE CRASH COURSE honeys!

As mentioned on facebook, I’ve received quite a few enquiries from you regarding oral communication workshop. PSLE oral exam is happening on 17 -18 August (gasp! Less than a month from now.) and so the exam jitters have begun!

Ok.

BREATHE.

It’s not all that scary. In fact, Jenn and I have done a bit of data analysis. Look at the chart below. The ultimate killer, for most students, is composition writing (highlighted in blue), which has a weightage of 27.5% of the English paper. On the other hand, Listening Comprehension and Oral Examination makes up 25% of the total marks. Almost the same weightage as composition.

Sooooo….it stands to reason that we use the latter as a strategy to make up for the possible loss of marks in composition writing. So you see, it’s not doomsday. We just have to work smart and reassure our kids it can be done.

Parents, do the following sound familiar?

“But… Nura, my son just cannot talk like that lah..”

You’re not alone, but we need to correct certain things yeah.. First, “my son just cannot talk like that lah..” is a self-fulfilling prophecy that we need to get rid of. If you think your kiddo can’t do it, chances are, he/she probably can’t. There are always strategies to solve a problem. Don’t give up on them. Your kids need you to believe in them.

“I have tried teaching my daughter not to be shy.. to speak louder...make eye contact… no confidence leh.. How ah Jenn?

This is a common problem parents and classroom teachers face. Truth is, in conservative Asian society, even we adults have trouble making eye contact and speaking up. How can we expect our children to do otherwise? Maciam unfair right? Jenn and I have come up with strategies for that.

One workshop won’t TRANSFORM you kiddo into (NAME A CONFIDENT FAMOUS KID??perhaps COnnie from Britain got talent?), but the strategy is to FAKE IT TIL YOU MAKE IT, i.e, we create the illusion of eye contact, projection of voice, confidence etc. during the examination.

We’ll also teach your kids things to say while “buying time” to think of answers. In fact, parents, have problems making presentations at work/talking to your bosses?

You may benefit from these strategies yourselves! hehehhe.

“Yeah..I told him to skip the difficult words in the reading passage… told him to make up stories if he doesn’t know anything about the conversation topic.”

In our experience of teaching and coaching, we sometimes find well-meaning advice to be more harmful than useful.

In the upcoming workshop, we’ll share what to and what not to do.

Our kiddos don’t have to speak with a twang or a slang to portray themselves as confident communicators, or to get that 30 marks. It is possible.

All it takes is a little bit of practice and lots of illusions.

Let’s work the magic!

Ps: If your kid is in P4, 5 or 6, feel free to sign up. The earlier you start them off, the easier it will be for them when it comes to PSLE. We will share some tips on Listening Comprehension at the end of the workshop as well. Don’t hesitate to ask us any other questions related to English during the Q&A session.

Workshop: Confident Communicators Workshop (for P4, 5 and 6*)

*Priority sign up will be given to Primary 6

Investment: only $65 a pair! (Yes, you AND your child!)

Date: 28 July 2012 (Saturday)

Time: 2pm – 4pm

Venue: Onepeople.sg (Braddell MRT station) Harmony Room 1

We have decided to limit the workshop to 15 people to encourage more interaction so my apologies if it’s full.

Email me at nuraesman@gmail.com

Looking forward to seeing you and your kids! :)

We're so gonna have a super duper time, this I assure!

My brother's pearls of wisdom

So, I promise to do everything possible to provide my clients with a solution that will meet their needs.
In other words, I must be competent and constantly keep abreast of changing conditions in the real estate industry.

And then, I remember my brother's pearls of wisdom...
"Kin, when you teach, you teach your kids from your heart right?
Same thing here. Your clients don't care what you know UNTIL they know that you actually care."
These words I will always hold close to my heart.


If you're wondering which brother dispensed the advice, it's the one on the left. My Bah.
Duh...

Ok I'll take that back cos the one on the right will be bringing Nyla out for dinner since I have viewing later in the evening.
Peace, Jambi! :p

I will be around Bukit Panjang later.
If you are a resident there and thinking of renting or selling your property, do call me at 97248866 for FREE non-obligatory consultation k!

My first EXCLUSIVE sale!

Oh how I miss sitting in front of the laptop and just type away here.
Nyla went to school early today as she had volleyball practice (ye ye orh la dia tu) and I didn't have to send her because E also wanted to leave for work around the same time. So yeay.

What's my story so far?
The usual.
I still conduct tuition during the weekend.
However I will not be accepting new tutees this year. Sorry Sorry Strawberry. :(

And now that I am occupied with my real estate career, my mom is taking her well deserved break from the sewing. Great timing since she also has plenty of studying to do. She did very well for her recent exams.

Ain't a surprise because she has been really studying hard.
That plus the fact that she's doing her diploma with my aunty so it's very fun for her.

As for real estate, man it has been a very interesting journey filled with highs and lows.
One moment you're so happy because you're about to close a deal...and then WHAM BAM, hopes dashed just like that and you feel like crap.

And when I am feeling down it's the mother I turn to straightaway.
"MAAAAAAAAAA! &*&%#^$#**&%#@^@!"

And Mothers always says the right things.
"No matter how hard you try, if you're not fated to have something, you won't. You can never fight fate." (Of course she said this in Malay la. I translate for you)

And usually, after every storm, the rainbow will appear.
The past 2 weeks, I have closed the chapters for Yishun....Strathmore...and West Coast (remember I was looking for a unit to house some marine workers a week ago, I managed to get a unit! This one gotta thank Papa J for the lead. His friend owns the marine company.)
All praises to Allah!
Anyway we still need to look for more available units for rent in the West area, so if you have any, let me know!

Unfortunately, Nyla was very sad whenever I closed a deal.
This girl usually tags along for my viewing so she has sort of 'bonded' with the places.

"Mommy, I will miss the lovebirds at Sengkang.."


"Mommy, I will miss the roti prata at Yishun..."

"Mommy I will miss the playground at Strathmore..."

Emo la this girl.

Just as I was getting the hang of doing rentals, I received a call from my JJC schoolmate whose family would like to engage me as her salesperson with regards to selling her 4rm HDB flat. So yeap, moving out of my comfort zone yet again.
Here it is peeps!
My first ever exclusive sale.

And as usual, I'll loudhail to my close real estate agent friends about the listings I have secured. Never mind that we are not from the same agency.



And I get especially excited when I see possible matches like this one below. A bonus that the agent was my RIA coursemate! Very funny and down to earth chap.




Yeap, Alvin and I have a 'date' later in the evening.
If we manage to close the deal later, HURRAH but should we not, one thing's for sure, just keep trying lor!
The harder we work, the luckier we get.

Have a terrific Tuesday ya all! :)

Constipated Again

I am indebted to this sister of mine.
Haryani Othman is her name.
She played a part in getting Nyla's first book, The Big Good Wolf to be 'out there'.

When people do good to you, it's only right that you repay their kindness mah.
2 years ago, E and I caught, Constipated starring the talented Haryani of course.

Tomorrow, E and I will be heading to Esplanade with our friends to catch the sequel!



Come la together gether and be entertained. :)
Tickets at SISTIC.

Haryani, can't wait to see you in action hunneh! Mwaah.