520 Giveaway by Garaeki

Assalamualaikum

Today I decided I’m going to do my first giveaway ever! It is to celebrate all 520 of you🎉 I have been wanting to do a giveaway since forever. For those who followed me from before, you must know I have been wanting to do a giveaway for when I reach 500 followers. Unfortunately, I never get a chance to do that.

So here we are, celebrating 520 of you! 520 is a slang word in Chinese that pronounce as "wu er ling" which equivalent to 我爱你 (wo ai ni) meaning I love you 💖 This giveaway is a means to spread the love for the blogger community. Let’s get to know each other more!

Furthermore, I love reading, and being a blogger is a way to read other people’s thoughts and feelings. I enjoy being here as a writer and as a reader. And I hope you are too. This giveaway is also a means to encourage you to read. Hence, the prize of this giveaway are:

I am giving away RM50 and RM20 Bookxcess gift cards to 2 of you! One of you will get RM50 and one of you will get RM20. There will be 2 winners. 

Bookxcess is a great place if you are looking to buy a variety of books at a low price. I think this is a great way for you to expand your book collection or for those who are going to start reading books, this is your chance to get it for free!

The rules are:

• Follow my accounts:
  
  Blog   &   Instagram
• Create an entry
  
  
  Title: 520 Giveaway by Garaeki
  
  
  Your entry must include:
  - The banner above with backlink to this post
  - One book recommendation or one book in your wishlist
  - Tag at least 1 blogger and let them know
  - Your Instagram username
  
  
• Leave the URL to your post in the comment section below
• The giveaway will last for a month. Starting 22 August 2020 to 22 September 2020. Winners will be announced on 23rd September.

Good luck and thank you for joining!

Disclaimer: This giveaway is not sponsored by Bookxcess. They don’t know who I am and they don’t know I am doing this. The giveaway will automatically cancel if the participants are less than 20

List of participants

1. https://nasuha-itsmyessay.blogspot.com/2020/08/520-giveaway-by-garaeki.html
2. https://njwajaff.blogspot.com/2020/08/520-giveaway-by-garaeki.html
3. https://at-tarmizi.blogspot.com/2020/08/520-giveaway-by-garaeki.html 
4. https://penselduabee.blogspot.com/2020/08/520-giveaway-by-garaeki.html 
5. https://pemudattbc.blogspot.com/2020/08/520-giveaway-by-garaeki.html 
6. https://tetikusmerah.blogspot.com/2020/08/520-giveaway-by-garaeki.html 
7. https://rasyidahsheresimpleblog.blogspot.com/2020/08/520-giveaway-by-garaeki.html 
8. https://unprivatediarytyping.blogspot.com/2020/08/520-giveaway-by-garaeki.html 
9. https://zieyaweasley.blogspot.com/2020/08/520-giveaway-by-garaeki.html 
10. https://ikashoid.blogspot.com/2020/08/520-giveaway-by-garaeki.html 
11. https://itsthesuraya.blogspot.com/2020/08/520-giveaway-by-garaeki.html 
12. https://www.farhanajafri.com/2020/08/520-giveaway-by-garaeki.html
13. https://kasihkuamani.blogspot.com/2020/08/520-giveaway-by-garaeki.html
14. https://www.thewarda.com/2020/08/520-giveaway-by-garaeki.html
15. https://biyu-behind.blogspot.com/2020/09/520-giveaway-by-garaeki.html
16. https://ema-mel0dy.blogspot.com/2020/09/520-giveaway-by-garaeki.html
17. http://www.mamapipie.com/2020/09/giveaway-by-garaeki.html
18. https://mulan-sahbanu.blogspot.com/2020/09/520-giveaway-by-garaeki.html
19. https://inilampuhijau.blogspot.com/2020/09/520-giveaway-by-garaeki.html
20. https://mijablur.com/520-giveaway-by-garaeki/
21. https://www.aienienka.com/2020/09/520-giveaway-by-garaeki.html
22. https://kyratulamira.blogspot.com/2020/09/520-giveaway-by-garaeki.html

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What have I done during quarantine?

Assalamualaikum

Since we are in the midst of a pandemic, to me this is a great time for us to try new things or do something we have been putting on hold. I am having my semester break right now. My new semester will start in early October. Almost 2 months from now. Since I finished my last semester at the end of June, I have been filling my free time doing the things I have been wanting to do but cannot find the time to do it until now. I am sure some of you are like me, using the most of our time staying at home. These are a few things I have done to fill my days.

1) Embroidery

I have been loving stitching since I was in primary school. Whenever I had a cat, I always find old t-shirts and turn them into cat’s clothes. Remembering it now, it is funny how I created the clothes. Sometimes it was too big and sometimes it was too small. The cat never like those clothes but the kid me still insist for it to wear it. Of course, just for a short amount of time. I would not dare to force a cat, knowing it would scratch me haha

Okay… we are getting off the topic now.

It was my first time trying embroidery in my life. I have always wanting to do it since I look at those talented people on Instagram doing them. It never ceases to amaze me how much patience they have, especially when doing intricate design. I bought the kit from shopee for RM 12. If you’re interested, this is the link to the product.

This is the design I have chosen:

Overview:

I finished this in 2 days. I did it day and night, whenever I feel bored looking at my phone. Overall, it was a nice experience. Only pricked my fingers 4 times! It was bleeding once but nothing serious. I give it 5/5. 100% will do it again.

2) Paint by numbers

This is also one of the Instagram influence. I always love painting even now I am still painting – I bought new watercolors the other day but that is for another post. I bought this from the same shop I bought the embroidery kit. It cost me RM15 for the whole set. Here is the link to the product. It came with canvas, three brushes, and tons of paints.

Overview: the process to finish this piece is tiring – both for my eyes and body. If you want to do this, make sure to find a place where you will be at your most comfortable, or else you are going to break 3 of your bones every day. Especially your neck area. It took me days for me to finish this. I only did it when I took a break from reading or when my phone was charging. That’s why it took a lot of time. The process was tedious but the outcome is very satisfying. I give this 4/5. If I’m going to do this again, I’ll find a design that will include a lot of different colors and not monotone as this piece is.

3) Reading

I finally am catching up with my reading material. I don’t know if I ever mention this before but in December 2018, I went to my first Big Bad Wolf event. I bought 8 books in total. You can click here to know what book I bought. Can you believe that I have read only 3 of them? I haven't continue reading the Throne of Glass series yet.

Unfortunately, I am not living in my house in Selangor. We are here at Terengganu since my dad has to transfer here. I have been living here since the start of quarantine until now. I have not been back home since January. And all my books are at home in Selangor :) when cross country was allowed, my sister came to us and that is when I asked her to bring one of my books.

Overview: I finished reading the first book in 9 days, then I bought another 2 so that I can read the whole trilogy. I bought the book from bookxcess. Very affordable if you are looking to buy I am halfway of the second book now. The story frustrates me to no end! I have to pause and take a breather because the character is so frustrating I feel like I want to choke them if they are in front of me.

Patrick Ness is one of my favourite authors. I really recommend him if you are looking to read good young adult book. I have reviewed one of his book, More than This. If you are interested in reading my review, you can click here.

Should I give a review and my thoughts on this trilogy when I finish it? Maybe I will, but we will see.

Well, this post is getting too long now. I have to stop here or else it will be never ending reading for you.

What have you done/are doing during this quarantine? Share it with me!

Until I write again,

Assalamualaikum

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Coming back?

Assalamualaikum

A year (and more) has passed since my last entry. The last post was a day before I finished my internship as a diploma student, and now I am a second-year degree student going into my third year. Oh, how time flies. It has been a long time since I last open this blog. It's always been on my mind to write something here but I've been putting it off for so long now. Now I am back?

I tweaked my blog design a little - nothing major. Terkejut sikit la blogger interface sekarang dah lain. Baru 2 minggu lepas masih macam biasa, sekarang dah lain. I think it is cleaner and better. We can preview our post in other devices too, which is good for those who have responsive blog design to check if the photo in their post fit the mobile view or not.

How are you these days? Everything is good? Have to finish your semester? How are you fitting into the new normal? Is it hard to cope with it or you are good?

Let's have a little storytime, shall we? 

I came home on Sunday, 15th March 2020. Masa tu belum PKP lagi but we got a memo that university will close for 3 weeks starting Monday, 16th March. At the moment, all I can think of was "baik duduk kat rumah 3 minggu daripada mereput kat uni." So I bought a bus ticket, gerak malam tu jugak and arrived the next day - and had the first online class later in the afternoon.

A few days after that, the prime minister announced a movement control order (MCO) that started on 18th March 2020. It was my best decision that I made in the heat of the moment to come home. We had a week break after that and then online class started. At first, I cannot accept the method of learning. I cannot give my whole attention to the lecture at all. There is always something distracting me. It has a huge gap between studying at home and in class. The vibe just does not sit right with me.

As a student, a home is where I can be as free as I want without thinking about assignments and stuff. When online class happened, I had to change my mind. It was hard at first but when I think I got a hold of it, assignments, quizzes, tests happen. Having class at home is okay but taking tests was not. I am going to stop there or else this is going to first post of 2020 and it's full of complaining. We do not want that to happen here.

I am grateful that my university had 3 weeks of exam weeks. Those are the days where there was no online class in sight, only tests for our continuous assessment since we did not have final exams. We had a fixed schedule for 3 weeks of what test we were going to have on what day. I am grateful to my classmates who are very helpful for setting up the schedule, grateful to my lecturers who were very understanding of our conditions.

<-- sorry that it's blurry, this was taken from my Instagram story. this was my schedule for those 3 weeks. every other day there's always something - either assignment submission, quiz, or test.

I am going to end this here today. It's already almost 2AM. Once I start, it's hard to stop haha I already have an idea of what my next post will be. When? I do not know but I will make sure I will write again (hopefully).

Until I write again,

Assalamualaikum

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