Porch cum Patio Makeover

We are finally giving our porch / patio a makeover it desperately needs. The space has been untouched since we bought the house. We should have done it earlier when we renovated the house. But we thought we could saved money by doing something with it with my magic wand. Well, the wand didn't work.

This is how the space looks like... well now with a huge pile of red earth on the driveway.  

    

Being an intermediate house, we don't have much planting space. Unlike our previous house which was really a LUXURY with its big garden. This space is really multi-purpose. What I hate the most is there is no division between car porch and the 'garden' (or tanah sekangkang kera).  Car, laundry line, shoes, water filter, cat toilet, etc. all dumped in one place. 

So, it is quite a challenge to design the tiny space which can meet all our (crazy) expectations. My hub designed the space. Mr Yap is the contractor. And me is the client (really). 

This is our design board. 

There will be a pond (filled with blackish stones at the bottom and fat gold fishes) with a fountain. The floor will use black tiles (Niro Granite) for the porch area and darkish wood-grained tiles (Niro Granite) with greyish pebble wash stones as the borders. We are thinking to erect a screen to divide the car porch from the 'garden' area, probably square boxes and painted in black or white. The screen will be planted with ivy. We hope to squeeze in a small, slow-growing tree in the lawn, possibly a guava tree. I love the color and texture of guava tree branches. We are going to put a bench (free from my mom-in-law's house) at the end of the garden. I am also going to revamp my old antique chairs, sew new cushion covers, and fill the chairs up with lots of colorful, fluffy pillows. We wanted to change our sliding door to french door but unfortunately  we don't have the budget for it. That would easily cost us another 8 thousands, I think. As it is, the bill is already piling. And Mr Yap has not yet provided us with the quotation. The most expensive stuff we have bought so far is the tiles for the car porch - they cost us RM1500! But the tiles are really nice and they've got tiny, subtle sparkly bits....  Bloody hell, they will be hidden under the car anyway... 

I am quite worried about how the transformation will turn out because I can't imagine it yet. The renovation is expensive and the scariest part is that all the fixtures are permanent. It is not easy to undo if I don't like it.  Especially the pond. What am I going to do with a huge, 2-foot deep hole in my patio? Turning it into a trench, so that my kids can play soldiers?

Wish me luck! 

What your front door says

I painted my front door blue for a reason. I was actually considering black as well.  But I thought black, although will look well with the rest of my white interiors, would be too boring, too matchy-matchy.  Instead, blue is different and fun. It adds the pop of color which I needed to make my home less clinical. The shade is not any blue, but Greek Blue!. I just made up the name. It was actually glossy Nippon paint. The inspiration came from houses in Santorini island, Greece. The houses are all painted in white which are so striking against the backdrop of the blue sea. The white and blue is a great combo and is all time classic.  

   

Santorini Island

Apparently, the color of your front door says something about the home owners.  

Red door means the home within is a vibrant place, full of life, energy, and excitement.

Purple symbolizes energy and invites good opportunities into your home. . 

Black front door projects strength, sophistication, power, and authority, indicating that the home is a inhabited by a person of substance. Yes, just look at the number.

A brown front door conveys warmth, stability, and reliability and other positive attributes. But darker brown signals a desire for privacy, even isolation.

White represents purity, virtue and serenity. 

Yellow means mental clarity, understanding, wisdom, confidence, humor... 

Green door connotes health, safety, tranquility, and harmony. 

And, my blue door means the homeowner views her home as a place of refuge -- calm, serene, and relaxing. That is so true..

Images: All from Google Image, except blue door.

References:

Five popular front door colors and what they say about you.

What does your front door say? (houzz.com)

Kate Middleton

It is quite hard not to be sucked up into the Kate fashion craze. Especially after watching the royal couple's Malaysian tour on tv.  Not that I know much about her, but I think this is my favorite of all her dresses. Very flow-y and feminine. She's pretty but I think she overdoes her eye make up which only makes her looking older than her real age.


Image: fashion.telegraph.co.uk   

I Love Rainy Days

It is only 6 in the evening. Yet it is so dark outside, a sign that thunderstorm is coming.

I love rains. But only when I am at home.

This is my idea of spending a rainy day....

being a snuggly bug on sofa under a warm, cozy blanket...

a cup of freshly-brewed coffee....

a fireplace making its soothing wood crackling sound....

with this little fur ball (or germ bag, as my hubby calls it) curling on my feet....

a good book in my hand....

or, even better, watching Mr Firth's movies....

A pure BLISS.

Unfortunately I have to return to reality. I need to cook dinner, check my kids' homework, do laundry and sweep the floor... all in an hour. Hmmm....

All images from internet.

Fashinspiration from Pride & Prejudice

Google Image

The house was still quite when I woke up this morning. I turned on the TV and Astro was showing Pride and Prejudice (Keira Knightley’s), based on Jane Austen’s (1813) novel of similar title.  I watched it before but I don’t mind watching it again.  After all, it is not that often that I got to watch something other than SpongeBob, if you know what I mean.

I was most fascinated with the pretty gowns. There was one ballroom scene where the girls were all wearing white gowns.  The fashion differences were very subtle with the use of different tones, textures and materials of whites.  I noticed that pastel colours were also used for little highlights as belts, ribbons, etc.

Google Image

Google Image

The detective in me pushed me to google further. The costumes were designed based on the fashion in 19^th century England, where the story was set.  Apparently, the ‘empire waist’ of the gowns were pushed down lower as the movie director felt that the original fashion was unflattering.  The gowns may appear simple, but they were actually quite complicated involving different layers, wraps, necklines, regency era skirt, etc etc… too much sewing jargons for me to understand.

This is another of my favourite (glad that I found the image on the net). I love the stripes and the long sleeves. I suddenly remembered that I have a similar fabric stashed in my sewing room. Well, looks like I just got another inspiration for the next dress for my daughter! She can wear this for her mengaji class or as a night gown. My worry with working with stripy fabric is lining up the stripes. The cutting has to be spot on.   

Google Image

I love this too. Heart heart the colour!

Google Image

Maybe I should sew one for myself too. But the problem is that I think this kind of gown is suited for slim,  tummy-less people. I'm sure people will start asking me 'when are you due?' if I wear one. So unfair!

I leave you with this romantic clip from the movie between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. 

"You have bewitched me, body and soul, and I love, I love, I love you. I never wish to be parted from you from this day on".  (Mr. Darcy)

Dress Me Up

I tried sewing a dress for my doter a fortnight ago. It is quite an upgrade from my past projects, i.e. cushion covers, skirts and baju kurung. It was made for my nephew's wedding but it wasn't worn as I wasn't too happy with the pink sash - felt that it was too strong for the dress. I was thinking to change it to a more toned-down material but haven't got the chance to buy it.

However, I've decided not to bother. Let's just stick with it as a reminder of my first attempt. After all, it was my doter's suggestion to match the materials together. And she had no qualms with it. The dress used 1 metre of fabric. I bought a metre of each colour from, you guess it, Nagoya last year. My original intention was to make pillow cases for Aisya but I felt the patterns are a bit too cute to be wasted as such. Total cost of the dress was just under RM15! I've cut the pink one and will try making a longer / maxi dress.

I asked Aisya what am I going to do when she grows up and if she would keep wearing my homemade dresses. She looked at me with a blank stare, trying hard not to say anything to hurt my feelings. That's a good girl... :)

Lempeng Bodo

Recently on the way to our 'canteen' (a nearby cafe where I usually get our dinners), my son complained that he was bored of eating the same food and asked me why he couldn't have nice food like kakak's (my mother-in-law's maid) cooking. Ouch! My ego as a mother was dented.  I told him that there was nothing to cook in the fridge (which is true) and promised that I'd cook something nice this weekend. The next day our fridge was still empty. So I korek our kitchen to find anything edible to cook. The only things I had were a can of sardine, frozen peas, flour, and almost rotten potatoes. There and then I got the light bulb moment - lempeng! I knew the kids would like it. To entertain them further, I got them involved in the cooking.  

Aisya helped dicing the potatoes. And Imran pan fried all the lempeng. During cooking, he asked me 'where's the pancake box'. I told him 'this is malay pancake, not the mat salleh ones'. Don't worry - no kids were harmed in the process. Their fingers are still perfectly intact!

Aisya, who is always eager when I commissioned her to do anything which involves pens and papers, wrote the recipe. 

Good job guys! Next time I'll train you to wash the dishes... :)