I am a double agent...

Sort of.

Well, there's proof of it in my past. I was doing a Communication degree while I worked at a sex shop.

I worked for the coolest New Zealand iced tea company while I made sock monkeys.

And now, I work for the number one magazine in Malaysia while I...dream up new ways to lead a double life.

Where to from here?

xoxo
Miss Deb

No more waiting...

I've held off from posting because I feel like I should be writing something epic, something life-changing but the truth is, the act of beginning is what I found the hardest. I wasn't sure what topic I should talk about or whether what I had to say was worth saying.

To heck with all that now because I've had an epiphany, I'd rather start and maybe screw up along the way than not start at all. I'd rather say something than be silent and I'd rather do something than sit down waiting for something to happen to me. Yes, all cliches but yes, all true nonetheless.

So here, my first post in over a year, here I am. No more editing, censoring and trying to be what I think other people want me to be.

Cheers to more days like this, when we all decide that excessive waiting is not the answer. Doing is.

Talk again soon,
Debs

KL hails monkey arrival...

Or at least that's what the headlines should read since this hit the stands....
(Please overlook my sweaty gumby look, I'd already been jumping around in excitement for a while by then)


Remember the article I was telling you guys about a while back? Well the lovely people of IM magazine weren't slacking off, they just saved it for their crafty issue! No scanner at home so these will have to do for now! What a spread...thanks IM! See the online version here.

Baby sailor monkey does the intro...


Wee plug for Kraftbomb, Cross Street and Discovery Camp..


Surely a new sock monkey on stairs record...


Couldn't leave out the culprit of my craft obsession - my mum!


And lastly, go forth and multiply my freaky toe sock creation...Muahahaha...(queue frankenstein music!)



Another big thanks to IM and viva la sock monkey revolution!

xoxo
Miss Deb

May issue of CLEO

Yeeyah!

This is my first issue!! As you can probably tell from my expression tee hee hee...

Will have to post scanned copies of my columns and articles asap but just wanted to share the excitement!

Big hugs to everyone who knew I had it in me before I did, you are loved!
Miss Debs

This Saturday...

Hello everybody,

This post may be a little disjointed as I've been awake since 5am! I had a photo shoot to do for my feature story so we had to get in when the girls were training. We've got a gap til the last shoot at 6pm so I'm laxing with the boys at the studio. I've just had a huge lunch of Unagi Kimchi Omelette so I'm feeling quite drowsy. I've already selected the photos from this morning's shoot but I don't have the concentration to work on the copy yet. Oh well!

What else is new? I'm poorly. Things have been mad busy at work so it's not surprised that the exhaustion reared its ugly head in the form of a snotty nose and a frog in my throat. I had mad dreams last night because I couldn't breathe properly but Dean was nice enough to let me use his awesome pillow so I did get some sleep. Am hoping the hectic schedules will ease up a little but no sign of that happening on the horizon! The difference now compared to my time at acorn is that I want to have more energy so that I can keep going and going!

Anyway, gonna chill and watch some AFC before 6pm!

Big hugs to all!
Miss Debs

Bachelors, Speed Dates, Dance Rehearsals, oh my!

Hello my pretties,

It's been ages! I do apologize for my absence. My world currently consists of all things CLEO so I'm such a nana, in bed by 10pm when I can and working my behind off the rest of the time.

It's been awesome. Am loving the people I get to call my colleagues, they are just as crazy as I am so it's like I've found my tribe! There's often lots of chatter and laughter coming from our cubicle as well as interesting story swapping and food sharing.

The writing bit has been tough but good. I think having to produce usable copy at the drop of a hat is terribly challenging but I'm hoping it'll get easier. Am doing 4 advertorials for this issue and hoping to do 2 feature stories as well, oh and of course, there's the 5 monthly columns I have to do. Now can you see why I haven't been blogging???

On top of that, April is the month of CLEO's Most Eligible Bachelors!


We just had the speed date event yesterday which was a blast. Most of the guys have been super easy to deal with but of course there's the occasional whiney one that needs a good smacking hahaha. Still hilarious to get to hang with them and help them out when the pressure's on. The finale is at the end of this month so we've still got dance rehearsals going on and a heck of a lot more work to do!

Aside from the work front, all is well in Deb and Dean world. We just had a good friend of ours visit, not under the most positive circumstances but it was still a treat to have a slice of NZ in our home. Thank goodness she brought real chocolate and Marmite! Oh and my mum's coming to visit while Dean's away, which means there's lots of sewing and shopping to be had! Life has significantly changed since my stint with unemployment, no more sleep-ins or time-killing by the pool. Its all go go go from here on out. BUT, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Hugs and kisses,
Miss Deb

Jobs and kisses...

Sorry for the lack of posts my little bunnies! Work has been crazy busy. There's so much new information to absorb that I come home mentally exhausted and am sound asleep in my nana jammies by 10pm. I'm in my second week now and I think I'm slowly getting the hang of things and hoping to time manage a bit better so nobody has to suffer without their deb-fix.

Lots of exciting stuff going on, I'm learning about tearsheets and job bags and today I get to go 'shopping' for clothes for this weekend's photo shoot.

Got to run, I've got a few more things to suss before we head out to the shops. So, I'll leave you with a delectable wearable that I'm dying to get my mits on!

Straight from Chocolate Town USA, I give you the Silver Hershey kiss Necklace:


xox
Miss Deb

Something for 'this' weekend maybe?

Have I died and gone to bag heaven? This is adorable.

Overnight bag - vintage travel design

A beautiful overnight bag with ‘Something for the Weekend’ embroidered on the poppered front pocket. The bag also has two pretty charms: a metal plane and a pvc postage stamp embossed with ‘travel in style’. A handy zipped inner pocket and phone pocket help keep your valuables safe.

Kudos to the lovely Megan from Charade for this fabulous find!

I've got a thing for maps, and old school envelopes and this vintage shape of bag...SO this is perfect!

I will have you...one day soon!
Miss Deb

While I'm at it, I think I'll have the entire vintage travel series please! Look at these...found after I'd finished the post...squeal, love the cheeky inscriptions too!!

Alma..

This is so beautifully tragic!

Alma from Rodrigo Blaas on Vimeo.

Written and Directed by: Rodrigo Blaas
Produced by: Cecile Hokes
Music: Mastretta
Art Director: Alfonso Blaas
Lighting Supervisor: Jonatan Catalán
Character Technical Supervisor: Jaime Maestro
Character Design: Bolhem Bouchiba, Carlos Grangel,
Sergio Pablos, Santi Agustí
Animation: Daniel Peixe, ManueBover, Remi Hueso
Sound Design: Tom Myers and David Hughes
Post Production Coordinator: David Heras
Special Thanks: Keytoon, Next Limit, UserT38

Full credits: almashortfilm.com

Caught in a daydream...

This week has been so surreal...much like this creation by Ninja vs Penguin.

It doesn't feel like my last week of freedom and yet thoughts of Monday release the swarm of butterflies in my tummy. I've decided to tidy the house and organize my wardrobe before the chaos starts but so far, I've only mustered enough drive for the cleaning part. It's like I'm walking around in a daze...

It's been one of those weeks that so much has happened it feels like a month's gone by - we got into a car accident the other day (don't worry, nobody was hurt) and my parents came home from holiday to find the family broken into. Sigh...I know it all happened for a reason but because I've been feeling anxious about it all that now it's sorted I'm feeling numb today and tired. Boo...this is lame...

Think I'll go for a swim to clear my head!

Hugs,
Miss Deb

Made me smile...

Hello chickadees,

I've had a nightmare couple of days but I was reading one of my favourite blogs - by the gorgeous Sarah Von and came across this...


If you want to learn more about this delectable functional work of art, you can go here.

xoxo
Miss Deb

I am this happy...

And it feels like the excitement is going to explode out of my body!

I got the CLEO job I was hoping and wishing and praying for!!

It sort of happened all at once yesterday...

I got 2 calls for 2 interviews - one for a copywriter position and the other for a youth camp leader position so I was thinking to myself, this is nice. Especially after my last post haha...

Then in the afternoon, I got a call from the magazine. When the call ended, I screamed and jumped around like a mad person for a bit before I regained composure to call the boy.

I am so so so stoked. I know it's going to be hard and a bit of an uphill climb at first but I finally feel, for the first time in a long while, that I'm headed in the right direction. I know this because I lay awake smiling last night while I was lulled by a montage of my thoughts, images and ideas for the job doing a happy line dance together in my head..

Mmmm, this is good.
Miss Deb

Be gone all you obstacles!

So, why has the blog river run dry despite the fact that my iBaby is up and running?

Hit by a nasty cold - check
The kind that makes you feel like someone emptied your brains out and refilled it with cotton wool. Ugh! It was the worse timing ever because I was almost through my exercise 'threshold'! It's frustrating but I guess I know I've almost done it once, so when I try again I'll be just that little bit closer.

Popped my hip out of place - check
Before you freak out, please know that I am on the mend now. I've been to the chiropractor twice and I've got one last appointment on Friday. Now, if you move your attention to the diagram above...my S1 was the bit that popped out of place. It's the attaching bit to your hip and the bit of your spine that's closest to your behind when your sitting. I still don't know how I did it but I just happen to notice a hard bump on my lower back and it hurt when I tried to squish it away like you would a knot or pinched nerve. I found out what was really poking out when I was at the doctors and he reckons it was caused gradually by bad sitting posture...so our couch is the culprit...yeah yea yeah, and me for sitting there for long periods of time. My spine has been snapped and cracked back into place now and I even had some sort of electric pulses and a special physio ultrasound thingy done to me to help the torn tissue heal faster. Ah, chiropractic care, you've done it again!

Dang it, when it rains it sorta pours though doesn't it. I was just telling the boychum the other day that I was feeling a whole lot better about our new life here...then I get hit by one uphill climb after another. Good news is, once all the uphill bits are over, what's left? The view from the top and the easy fun ride down! So bye bye tough stuff and hello good times!

Which part of the 'hill' are you at right now? :)

Gentle hugs for now..
Miss Deb

It's ALIVE!

Unfortunately we were unable to retrieve anything off the hard drive but thankfully my last back up was in January. Funnily enough though, my most productive 3 weeks were between then and now so not a speck of those articles or photos from my birthday were saved! Alas, such is life. Everything happens for a reason right?!

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know I'm back. Terribly brain dead from getting my laptop back to the way I like it so goodbye for now!

Catch ya
Miss Deb

Fried hard drive...

This is the reason for my abrupt silence. I heard little clicking noises coming out of my MacBook before my Safari crashed. I shut down the computer and when I tried to turn it back on an icon of a folder with a question mark popped up and blinked at me.

So, after some first aid from Dean's IT man at work, I've found that I fried yet another hard drive. And guess what? My last back-up was a while ago. So, if we fail to temporarily resuscitate the hard drive I will have lost all my recent photos and a couple of my articles too. What a bummer! I find writing something the second time round lacks a certain oomph factor...oh well!

I'm typing this up on the boychum's netbook. It has the tiniest keyboard that even I find cramped and I have little hands. How does he do it?

Well I better run, back up your computers now people!

Miss Deb

Wrap up of the week..

A thousand apologies for the lack of post this week! Here's why:

Monday was a public holiday but I started working on my article about green living that suits the Malaysian lifestyle.

Tuesday I put the finishing touches on that article and got to have dinner with our lovely friend Michelle.

Wednesday I emailed 2 magazines regarding freelance writing work - Expat Lifestyle and Blu Inc (the people who do Marie Claire, Shape and a bunch of other magazines here). I also started working on an article about me and my sock monkeys for a Malaysian indie magazine called I.M.

Thursday I got in touch with the editor of Cleo to see what's the latest with that prospective job and she'll be deciding by the end of the month. Keep them fingers cross for me, won't you?! I also sent through the sock monkey article to I.M. and I think they're going to publish it! I also started working on an article about my experience of growing up, leaving then returning to Malaysia for MANZA magazine. Quite a few people have expressed an interest in that story.

Today, I'm sleepy, at about 3 am last night, the fire alarm in our condo building went off! So I hope to have a relaxed one and keep working on that last article and think up a few more topics I'd like to write about in the coming week. All suggestions are welcome! There's also some thought of re-branding for my blog.

I managed to hit the pool every day this week too.

Will keep you posted, lovelies! Hope you had a good week.
Miss Deb

An orange muffin day...

So people, I finished my 'test' article for CLEO and sent it off this morning, here's hoping it gets a gold star!

After the gym I decided it was time to break out some of the baking goodies I got for my birthday...


This is essentially what I'm like in the kitchen. :)

Anyhoo, I was lucky enough to get 3 mixing bowls in the end, a spatula, a measuring cup, an oven mit and all sorts of other non-baking items. So being unemployed and all, I didn't exactly want to make an extravagant 3 tier cake or anything so like anybody who's still plagued with student economics I first had a look at what I had lurking in the fridge. Then I had a look online and found this awesome basic muffin recipe. Here it is with my changes:

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
Zest of 3 oranges
1 cup milk (I used the juice from the oranges and added milk to make it up to 1 cup)
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C).
Stir together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar (and grate in orange zest, as soon as you hit the white bit of the skin move on to a new spot ok? Or else they'll be bitter) in a large bowl.

Make a well in the center. In a small bowl or 2 cup measuring cup, beat egg with a fork. Stir in milk and oil. Pour all at once into the well in the flour mixture.

Mix quickly and lightly with a fork until moistened, but do not beat. (As you know, the key to a good fluffy soft muffin is minimal stirring) The batter will be lumpy.

Pour the batter into paper lined muffin pan cups. (If you have a non-stick muffin tin you don't have to bother with the muffin cups and always half fill or else you'll encounter the overflowing muffin effect)

Bake for 25 minutes, or until golden.

Other Variations: Blueberry Muffins: Add 1 cup fresh blueberries. Raisin Muffins: Add 1 cup finely chopped raisins. Date Muffins: Add 1 cup finely chopped dates. Cheese Muffins: Fold in 1 cup grated sharp yellow cheese. Bacon Muffins: Fold 1/4 cup crisp cooked bacon, broken into bits.

Now you should know that I have a citrus phobia, so cutting and juicing and zesting the orange was huge. I didn't think I was going to actually eat any but they smelled so good when I took them out of the oven. So I took a mouthful only to realize they tasted fabulous too. It's not too sweet so if you have a sweet tooth you might want to dust it with a little icing sugar but I swear the more you chew the flavours and the sweetness come through. YUM!

Wanna see?



Mmmm...nom nom nom!

xoxo
Miss Deb

The life of leisure...

Hello puppies...how's it hanging?

Yes, jobhunting is well, going. I have a few things in the mix that I hope to hear back from this week. Meanwhile, in my spare time, I have been going to the gym, sewing sock monkeys, watching movies while stuffing monkeys and reading lots. I wanted to share a few books and a lovely movie I watched today.

There's a library at MANZA (Malaysian, Australian, New Zealand Association) House which I visited recently. If you don't know this already, I'm a huge fan of libraries and borrowing instead of buying books. I've yet to find a public library nearby to where we live. The great thing about the MANZA library is that most of the books were donated by expats traveling around like us, so I am pleased to report that it is a treasure trove.
I finished Backpack by Emily Barr which I think is a must read for people who've travelled around Asia. It is a bit of a thriller too so don't read it while you are traveling alone if you scare easily like me. I could really relate to her experiences, not the 'charlie' withdrawals but the misconception of some travel destinations in Asia. Her skewed view of her relationship with Tom tugged at my heart strings, do we all have to go through the same thing? I guess so...

Also, finished Lolly Winston's Sophie's Bakery for the Broken Hearted. Now that lady can write! It was an absolute pleasure to read...and extremely relatable and very funny. I highly recommend this one to anybody who loves books about falling over and finding yourself. It was a little like Eat, Pray, Love minus the zen wisdom. Looking forward to reading more stuff by her!

And lastly, I watched Julie and Julia this afternoon. A beautiful movie about learning to cook French cuisine and the cathartic nature of cooking. I loved it, Meryl Streep is adorable in it and Amy Adams wasn't too bad either, I can't say I'm usually a big fan of hers. Watch it, but if you're not convinced, think about this: Passion. Ambition. Butter. Do you have what it takes?

Our lovely friend Michelle's birthday bash is this evening. She doesn't know this yet but she's getting her very own sock monkey tonight. Yay! Happy Birthday, love!
Speaking of birthdays, yes, I know I still owe you a post on mine...I haven't forgotten, let's just say it's taken me a little while to recover. Tee hee hee!

Talk soon and I hope you're having a howdy-do-dee day!
Miss Deb

Reveling in a good day...

Aaah, I liked today.

This morning I made myself go to the gym even though my brain came up with half a dozen reasons for why I shouldn't. I defeated that silly voice and plan on making it disappear altogether one day.

At lunch time, I was so anxious about the upcoming interview but it was impossible to let it get me down with the number of supportive messages flooding my Facebook page wishing me luck and sending me warm fuzzies.

This afternoon I headed to an interview an hour earlier fearing I'd get lost along the way. I didn't get lost but I had some time to relax and collect my thoughts beforehand. By the time, I stepped into the office I was as cool as a popsicle and the adrenalin in my body was starting to wear off a little so I didn't babble like a crazy person or go too far off topic. I think I made a good impression but more importantly, I feel like I was totally myself and not a shell of the person I think they want me to be. It's nice to feel real and for it to be okay.

When I stepped out of the elevator afterwards, I was greeted by a torrential storm. How was I going to flag a taxi without becoming a drowned rat? A taxi just happened to drive up to the front of the foyer, I asked if he was waiting for someone and he said yes. So I went back to staring at the rain from inside the building, willing it to stop so I could go home. 2 minutes later, the same taxi man came in to ask me where I was headed, I told him and he drove me there.

Isn't it awesome when some days feel easy? I think I'll try and look out for how easy things can be in the hopes that more days like this one come along.

What's something or someone that made your life a little easier/better today?

xoxo
Miss Deb

Back to my old tricks...

I love my mum...her sewing machine foot peddle died and came back to life, but not before she bought a spiffy spare machine as she had some sewing emergencies. So guess who inherited the NEW sewing machine...Oh yeah, baby...

And the result:



Muaahahahhaha!
Miss Deb