Good morning!! Hope you guys had a great start to the week. I'm back in China for work as of yesterday morning. But last week, I was so fortunate to be able to take a short break from work to be in Melbourne with my good friend Kim. I ended up here because her hubby is oh-so-sweet! He wanted to cheer her up as he had to be away for work for a few weeks and thought a nice surprise for her would be to give her some company in the form of ME, lol. The minute he texted me to ask if I had some free time, I was already rearranging meetings in my head! Thankfully, the timing for it fit right in between my two China trips. Allah truly is the best of planners.

This was my third time in this city, and I seriously have nothing but love for it. If I could choose a home away from home that wasn't too far from KL, Melbourne would be it. (my sister who lives in Brisbane is going to kill me once she reads this for sure)

It was an amazing four days of us just chilling, doing random things like me teaching her how to bake a Vanilla cake and her waking me up early to attend her Xtend Barre class (my muscles are still aching from that work out), coffee runs, chilling with my Kimmy at home and catching up with two other close friends there, and us driving from one brunch to another. Because when in Melbourne, you BRUNCH.

Super delicious beetroot stacks and sweet potato waffles were on the menu on this first date of ours. To many more brunch dates! :)

Two years ago, on one of my travels to Melbourne for this special wedding, I drove past a small florist up on the mountains. We stopped by in a rush to pick up some filler flowers for the wedding cake. But at the corner of my eye, I saw this very unusual type of flower. The poppy. The vibrant colours caught my attention and so did its very unconventional flower shell of mixed match shapes.

I was drawn to their wobbly looking and not to mention hairy stems (resembling unwaxed human legs, lol). As much as I wanted to grab a bunch of them, I wasn't able to at that time because I had limited cash at hand and no atm nearby to rush off to. I just knew that that day on, I would keep my eyes open to get some if I ever saw them again. Malaysia doesn't grow them, and neither do they import them in. So everywhere I traveled to, I was looking out for Poppies.

Two years later though, I was at the right place, at the right season. I finally found them at the flower market in Brisbane! Yasssss!

So if you guys have never seen or heard of Poppies before this, this is them. Let me be the first to introduce you through my snaps. Guys, say hello to Poppies. Poppies say hello to guys. :) #crazyflowerlady

Thanks for spending time to pop by here. Have a great weekend you guys!

Ni Hao! Good morning from Dongguan, China!

Was catching up on my weekly reads of BoF articles, the Revelation book (which I've mentioned once of twice about on my instagram), and papers from back home. Okay, I wasn't catching up on the papers at all. I only have a copy of it because The News Straits Time paper surprised us at Love To Dress with another amazing write up of the recently launched Fall collection. And I brought it with me to China so I could do this flat lay and read it again and again, lol.

Truth is, I always feel far from home when I come here, and so bringing familiar things from home (my books and this newspaper pull out) make me feel a bit more at ease. And a little bit of ease goes a long way when you're feeling extremely homesick.

Surely counting down the days till I board my flight home. Seven days to home. I can do this, inshaAllah. Just keep reading. :)
 

Love To Dress blouse / Zara pants / dUCk scarf

If you take a peek into my passport, you’ll see that my pages are mostly filled with stamps from the Gold coast immigration, also known as Sunshine State! Regardless of how busy things get back home or at work, I just have to make my way there at least a few times a year because my sister and the kids live there. And FaceTime every morning just doesn’t do it for us. I need to give them hugs and kisses. And my sister needs me to wash nappies.

So it baffles me that in the gazillion times I’ve traveled in and out of Brisbane, why is it that this was the first time I’ve set foot in Brisbane’s Botanic Garden?

I loved the Tropical Dome they had in there. It took my breathe away really. It's hard to describe so if you're heading to Queensland for a holiday, please add this on to your itinerary. This place is gorgeous and every little bit a perfect place to let the kids run wild. And wild they were (Abu Bakr was a brave little one crawling around thinking he could catch a bird). Although not wild enough because no one fell into the lake. Phewhhhh. Or else, this all white outfit I had on would not have been a good idea at all.

Okay, wearing all white on a day out with the kids wasn’t very smart to begin with. But I felt like challenging myself. My sister said she bet I’d leave with stains. (no money was involved, halal bet of course) And would you believe it, I left with no stains at all. I took extra precaution though during our picnic to feed the kids by strapping them into their strollers so no one runs and accidentally bumps into me with their pink strawberry yogurt. Let’s just say I felt like a champ that day. All white, with no stains. Oh, yeahhhhh.

So I’ve got just over than a month till I make my way back there again inshAllah. I can’t wait! The weather is going to be beautiful in December for a picnic out with the kids. Camellia’s of all sorts were in bloom when we were there last, and they smelt just divine. Rows and rows of them in sweet shades left me snapping away.

I'm curious which flower the Botanic Gardens will be decorated with when we go next. Tempted to google it, but I think I’m going to let it be a surprise. Come December, I shall get dressed (perhaps not in an all white outfit again), shove the kids in the car and get my sister to drive us all down there for another fun filled day.

Come quick December! :)

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Yours Truly & Nurul N.

Salam everyone! I owe you guys a huge apology really. I'm sorry I have been super mia. Minus the fact that so much is going on right now, I am in the midst of revamping the blog and adding a few other new categories. A lot has happened in the past year. A lot of good things! And so it has left me impacted, hence the want and urge to share much more with you.

It might take a little bit more time (this blog thing-y) than I expected because I decided to do this myself, rather than hire someone to do it for me. But I need to learn at some point right, and googling how to move from one blog platform to the other is a just google search away. So as blur as I am, I think I can do this!

With the new website and content shared, I hope we can connect on so many more levels. Speak to you guys again soon inshaAllah! :)