What we did last weekend....

Last weekend was a domestic madness at home... a good one in that sense :) I started off the morning with making vegetable stock from scratch. It was wholesome goodness I tell you. I made a whole pot of the stock, cooled it, then freeze them in small batches. I did not realized that vege stock is comparable to chicken or beef stock until now. You must try. All you need is garlic, onion, celery, carrots, tomatoes, parsley and some thyme. For optimum stock, bring it to boil for 1 hour, and not more than that.

We then started to paint our bedroom. This time round, it's gonna be white with Tiffany blue focus wall. Hence the light breezy feel. The environmental friendly nerd side of me insist on Mr Paint Man's Low VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) & Low Odour paint.

Half way through painting, I left hubby to the task and made this for lunch with my vege stock of course. I must say it was yummy :PI opened the 'container' cabinet and saw this. Oh well, I ain't perfect. I got distracted and start re-organizing. Lucky hubby got to paint the room on his own.

With a strike of Eureka, I have a sudden urge to bake almond cookies.But instead, ended up drinking coke. Please note the little yellow sign behind in the kitchen says "Eat" but ironically, from certain angle it looks like "Fat". Is God trying to tell me something??

To make up to hubby for 'abandoning' him with the painting task, I made him salad with dried cranberries, tomatoes and papaya for snack. I experimented with new dressing for this sweet salad (whisked up Orange juice, lime juice, olive oil and some soya sauce). It turned out well.With our new love for Fuji apples, this Ikea CHARM apple slicer is our new found BFF. Like its namesake, it works like a charm.

Since I am re-organizing, I also clean up my dining area.Went back into the bedroom to continue painting the ceiling. Again, halfway thru, I 'left' to make Wild mushroom soup with cheese sticks for tea time. I need to feed my man.We finally finished the painting job. I give all the credits to my dear husband. Turned on some music, lighted some candles and burn some essential oil. Our nest smelled good....

I tidy up the work space. This room still need some improvements. See that desk and shelf, I am proud to say, it was our own creation and also our first hack using Vika Amon top sometime ago to accommodate our needs. And tend to my little lucky bamboo plant at the corner of the room. With the new year around the corner, I hope it brings us luck :)

Took a quick shower and we are off to have dinner with a group of friends at some good food 'chu char' place followed by 'yum char' session. It was a good productive weekend. I hope it will be even better this coming weekend... :D

Artsy Boxy

Decoupaging is my latest craze.

Before: Functional name card boxes with not much funAfter: I am liking the 'retro' feel. 2 'retro-fied' name card boxes, one for personal use and one for business use (yeah, I am organized like that).
This is where they will sit on my home office desk

Laptop Support

Very often we have been using our laptops while 'lepak-ing' on the couch. Hence, rise the need for a laptop support. Warm heat on the laps coming from the laptop is not cool (pun intended ;-P). We have been shopping around, and are planning on getting one of those that cost approximately RM100 until we came across these practical Japanese table look-alike thingy at Tesco for a fraction of the cost (RM10!).
Before: The boring ol' tableAfter: Jazzed up with beautiful printed papers and plastic lamination for water-proofing.

This little table serves nicely as laptop support with good leg room and with enough table space left for a cuppa. Alternatively, it can also serve breakfast in bed ;)

When not in use, the legs can be folded up, lean it against the wall and now its a nice one of a kind piece of art. Talk about multi-purpose at such good price:
Table: RM10
Paper: RM3

Curtain Call

I am trying to improve on our dining area. So step 1 was to re-do the window treatment. The first is a "Before" pic (I recruited semi-nude hubby to contribute some elbow grease ;)). The miserable short curtain does not do justice to the area. The door to the left leads to the utility area, which puts the window panels in an awkward asymmetrical position.

Before

Now, the "After" pic. By just elevating height of the curtain rod and expanding the curtain width to cover the door, I now created a more symmetrical room with an illusion of higher ceiling.

After

First part completed. If only the perfect marble table could arrive sooner.....

I got Labelled

Labelling and tagging has been my latest craze to snazz up and add fun to the kitchen. With some white twine and artsy paper, it is so simple yet it doesnt fail to brighten up the kitch. Besides, hubs no longer have an excuse of not knowing what is in the jar ;). Here's some pic of my "Beverage Counter" (my amateurish shot from Hub's Nikon D80...please do not judge). And here's some from the pantry cabinet.

Paint me pretty

I am very much into thrifty home improvements (aka cheap home improvements, preferably using recycled materials). I have gotten this unused horrid old photoframe from my brother.And transformed it into this shabby chic new frame. Nothing that two coats of glossy white paint can't do.
And taaadaaa.... the final result of the newly framed picture on our picture wall. Aint it pretty? ;) Note my parent's 1978 wedding photo in the background.
Cost break down:
Photoframe: Free (Contribution from Alwyn)
Paint: Free (Leftoever from earlier projects)
Score! A jiffy transformation at zero cost.