Tea anyone?

We had tea on our new porch today. I made marble cake and bubur pulut hitam. The kids loved the cake although I forgot to put baking powder in it. The bubur was my first ever attempt - it turned out good. I used my new Galaxy Note 2 for the above picture. All cushion covers above are homemade. The china are mixed some came from charity shop, some were our wedding gift from a hamper given to us. I bought the napkin during our holiday in Venice. And the tray was my mother's. It was old and battered - I actually spray painted 'Let's Bake' words on it, meant for a wall sign. The tea was bought when we had our holiday in Cameron Highland. It's been sitting in our cupboard waiting to be used.
All in all, nice food, nice day.. as the Brits would have said it.. it was LOVELY... Salam maal hijrah!

Wish List - DSLR Camera

My old camera died on me last weekend. It was already giving so much problem and finally gave away when my son poke his finger onto the lens trying to force it to open. I checked with a shop today about the repair but I think saving it won't be worth the cost. So I looked around and that guy recommended this....

It is Olympus Pen  E-PL3. Well, I don't know much about photography jargon but what he showed me made me drool... He snapped a picture of my hubby - he looked good (but of course my husband said he is always handsome, yeah, yeah ... rolling eyes). The guy snapped my daughter jumping, everything was clear meaning that the speed was good. The only down side is that it is expensive. We just spent a fortune on our porch reno. And I need to purchase another lens to be able to do all the pretty things. I told the guy 'I'll sleep on it'.  

I always wanted a proper camera to take nicer pictures for the blog. My instinct tells me that I might get it - my birthday is on Sunday. That if my husband gets all the signals right... finger crescent!

Should I?

Inspirational home libraries... Should I or shouldn't I? 

  

Time to audit..

Love books? checked. Love reading? checked. Wall space for the shelves? checked. Rustic ladder? checked. Books? half checked. Time to pile some more books. I think I have already exceeded the income tax deduction for this year.  

Images:

http://www.designerbase.co

http://www.shelterness.com

Google Image

So Frenchy...

I wish my house is big enough... love the simplicity, the clean lines of the pool, the muscular tree trunk, the shaded sitting area, the window shutters, the deck chairs, the rustic yet neat atmosphere.. LOVE..

Image: http://greigedesign.blogspot.com

Beautiful Bali

Bought flight tickets today. It would have been a few hundreds cheaper if not because of broadband glitch last night. Never mind... at least the accommodation is 'free'.. We are coming soon...   

Pics from:
http://www.communitybackstage.com/communities/bali-community/
embassyofindonesia.org

Paper Dolls - Making connections with my daughter

My daughter is quite upset whenever she loses her baby teeth. To coax her, I invented a reward program that she will get a present for every lost tooth. I feel that this way is better than the tooth fairy story which a little babyish and contradicts to our beliefs.

She lost a tooth last week. Due to my tight schedule, I had not been able to fulfill my promise (she had been bugging me ever since) until today. So We I was excited when I saw paper dolls in Subang Parade flea market. I can't believe they are still around. I told my daughter that I used to play with them a lot when I was little. That was really one of the few treats which my parents could afford for me. I told my daughter that my friends and I used to write a cross (x) behind the dolls' necks as we believed that they would come alive at night if otherwise. 'That's so silly', she said.

The paper was quite thin so after a while the necks would get flimsy and bent. I used to fix them with cellophane tape! The paper doll used to cost about 50 cents each, I think. Today it is sold for RM1 each, which is not bad. I bought 4 pieces for my daughter. That is a really cheap losing tooth present. Daughter and mother are happy. At home, while helping her cutting the dolls out of the paper, my husband said 'you bought that so that you could play, didn't you?'. Nostalgia... de javu...

Vintage paper doll.

I didn't know they have man dolls.

Sources:
Image 2: clinical with a dash of idealism
Image 3: black watch

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!