Have you guys entered the giveaway yet? ;)

I bought me some ribbons from Rosa Pomar. They were sold out last year, so I didn’t hesitate when they came on again!

I know it’s horrid that I don’t blog here often enough — Pikaland keeps me so busy that I can hardly can see straight sometimes. But it’s a great feeling to have, so I’m not complaining!

Taking things slow is what I’m aiming to do. I’ve been zipping around like a fly on meth (don’t ask me where I got the idea), constantly flitting from one place to another — I felt that I missed out on chunks of life that’s happening around me. So the resolution for the year, which I kept, is to take things a little slower, and to find my ground.

My last day at the office was this Monday, and boy was it difficult to say goodbye to routine. Switching off my good ol’ Powermac at work for the last time was bittersweet. Hugging colleagues and drinking in the environment which I have been bitching about became a little ritual in itself.

Now that I’ve leapt into the unknown, I’m surprised to see so many nets waiting to catch me should I fall. It’s a great feeling, and after a few weeks of nervous twitching and re-thinking (yes, there were smack-me-silly moments where I almost chickened out), I breathed a sigh of relief throughout the last week I was at work. I could only feel a calm joy coursing through my veins.

I’m pushing as hard as I can, but at the same time I’m also unwinding and unraveling parts of me that I didn’t even knew existed.

Discovery is a great feeling.

“So did you make a wish for your birthday?”

“Yup.”

“Peace and happiness for everyone? Like last year?”

“That you’ll be my wife.”

I quit my job yesterday.

I finally mustered enough courage to do it. It wasn’t a last minute decision — and it wasn’t a rash one as well. It wasn’t personal at all. It was a selfish decision, and it was one that I made for my own good.

After staying for almost two years at my company (April would be my second anniversary there), I felt that I had nothing more to give. I did the best I could — I started a regional magazine, and did a pretty darn good job, if I could say so myself. Of course, there’s always room for improvements, but this was a place where I can’t climb anymore — any higher and I would step over my boss (I was the head of the editorial department)!

Why did I quit? Well, I wanted to challenge myself out of my comfort zone, and be wiling to take calculated risks for things I believe in. I wanted to try and push myself to not accept a life where I feel like I am sleepwalking through the day. Mainly though, it was because I had nothing to lose.

I could stay on, and be the media darling of designers and architects, but I wanted something more, and I believe that my work at my company does not define who I am. It would have been an easier to stay put, but by doing so, the cost of such a decision far outweighs the good, and if I’m not careful, I risk being stuck. I can’t have that — not now anyway.

It’s a two-month notice that’ll see me working through April, but my real adventure begins in May, where I’ll be in a new environment for a while. I can’t wait to walk down the Philosopher’s Path again.

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PS: Thank you everyone for your kind remarks about Cookie – she was a little shaken, but is slowly recovering from the ordeal. And so are we!

Cheras is a town 10 kilometers away from where I am, and Mahkota Cheras is a sprawling township that is connected laterally via a main road that strings all of the development together.

We lost Cookie in this area — an area that has side-to-side pockets of residential houses along with vast grasslands and forests on its fringe. The first two times we saw her, she was on a grassy slope, and the last time we saw her, was that she skidded down — to another residential area. We knew she wouldn’t make it back up again, and therefore had moved on to a bigger area.

We panicked. She could be anywhere.

As we trudged up and down the area, we saw a carcass of a dog that made us fear for the worst (the area has seen plenty of lost dogs). We went back to the site at 10pm, and drove around, desperately searching for her under cars (she loved to crawl under there for refuge — there’s loads of other dogs around, and Cookie was defenseless with a muzzle on, and without food and water, she was getting weaker.

I couldn’t sleep a wink at all. I woke up to a thunderstorm, and my imagination running into overdrive — I worry about her being scared, alone and hungry. What if she was accosted by dogs, or worse, humans?

I went for a meeting this morning, and only went back to the site at around 12pm, and continued our search. We went all around, and by this time, although I am hopeful we will find her again, I was prepared for the worst.

The odds were clearly stacked against us — finding her was like finding a needle in a haystack, and I couldn’t bear to give up, not when she was in that condition.

We went to a secluded strip of road and continued our search, stopping to ask a security guard to see if he saw a dog with a muzzle on wandering the area. Surprisingly — because we asked a lot of people without much success — he said yes.

My dad gave him his mobile number and told him that if he were to spot her again, that he should give him a call — with a reward waiting for him. We went on our search again and settled down for a breather at about 3pm, and just as we were about to leave — my dad for home and my mom, sis and I to stay behind and search for her some more, the security guard called.

We hurried over to where he was, and he took us to her, slowly. And we could see her — hidden underneath some shrubs, still as can be. We could never have found her on our own — the area was so big, and because we could not pinpoint her exact location, the situation was horrible. And to add to that, she could not eat, bark nor defend herself, PLUS she had a big wound on her body that was set to get worse if she didn’t get medical attention.

We crouched down and called her name, but she was apprehensive — my mom shook her vitamin pillbox and cooed her name, and she started to wag a little. As my mom released her muzzle, her tail began to wag faster and harder, shoving her face in between my mom’s hands and licking her. My dad brought along food from a nearby restaurant and we laid them down where she gulped it down with a lot of water. We found her at last!

My mom was so happy because she thought she wouldn’t be able to see her again, as did I. Thirty hours of fear, hunger and loneliness — I think we almost felt the same way (hers was way worse, of course).

It sure feels good to hold her again in my arms.

Thank you for keeping us in your thoughts.

I had a flat tire this morning at 9.00am, and I found my dog Cookie had a cut wound on her side, and told my mom to call the vet.

I let my vet bundle my dog Cookie in the van with a muzzle on.

And once my dad changed my tire, I set off to work — but mom called a short while later to tell me that Cookie broke free and was lost.

I cried.

And I sped off with my dad to find her.

We did, but she ran away as soon as we got close, and as we called her name. She was still wearing the muzzle, and my heart broke when I saw her run away.

Mr T came back all the way from work and helped me in my search, and soon got a call that she was in the exact same spot where we found her the first time. We rushed over there midway through a quick lunch.

Mr T went to her, and tried to coax her, but she soon ran away too. This time faster, and more determined to get away from everyone. She slid down a small hill and she disappeared. My heart sank.

We waited, and walked through every road and residential lanes, to small pockets of hills, calling out her name, clapping our hands.

We couldn’t find her.

It’s now 9.30pm and I’m worried sick. I’ve never lost a pet before and it’s not something I’m ready for.

Please think of her for me.

My lovely and very talented pal Lynn is featured on the Nice to Meet You website! She’s a fantastic designer and it’s her first big mention too, so I’m really chuffed for her. :)

See her blog for photos from her travels to Japan recently — which reminds me, I still haven’t sorted out everything from my trip. Sigh.

I’m just starting to stretch myself a little more now, because I’ve just finished putting together another issue of the magazine. And while I don’t have that much time to saunter around to the blogs on my list, I always enjoy Kevin Cornell’s newest project, The Superest — an ongoing competition to see which drawn superhero will outwit and outpower the last. His compadre in action is Matthew Sutter, and sometimes other artists are brought in to add to the fun.

I’ll be back soon with a proper post, promise!

I’ve been putting off going on swaps because well, I didn’t have the time and I always knew about it too late (mostly the latter). So it was by sheer luck that I went to Heather’s website and found out that Lesley was doing a Pay It Forward: Craft Edition.

So I signed up!

And in honour of the tradition, I am now offering 3 readers something handmade by me — which will be secretly mailed out to you within the year.

Here are the rules:

1. anyone with a blog can join.
2. the first three people to leave a comment on this post will receive a handmade gift from me.
3. I will send your gift within 365 days.
4. in return, you have to pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

And in other news, I’ve something exciting coming up soon, and I hope to blog more about it next week. I feel terrible about not doing any new illustrations for a few weeks now, but I think it will be worth the wait. :)

Hang in there with me, will you?

——-UPDATE——
Thanks everyone for the great response! :) Now I’ll be emailing you individually to get your addresses!

Laura Jane still has 2 spots over at her blog if you’re interested. Hurry, hurry!

I admit that I haven’t been the best blogger in the past few weeks — there were things to see to, and some slacking off to be done. However, I did find many new friends and saw many new things that has made my heart soar.

I have resolutions too, for the New Year, and some on the list includes excelling at my day job (I am very proud of the new magazine that I am producing), and I will be going on a self taught course on illustration.

I’ve been late at wishing people a merry christmas, but I will certainly be waiting for the new year — right up there in the first row of my soon-to-begin class.

I’d love to thank everyone that came to my shop and sharing in my love for fabrics, and for everyone who came to tell me that my illustrations didn’t suck! I wish for the usual things too this year — peace, happiness and above all, the means to live an extraordinary life.

2008 will be a smashing year, for sure.

Happy new year, and I’ll see you again in 2008!