Bonding with Food & Drink

One of life's pleasures I enjoy the most is catching up with friends over food and drink. 

It's one of the best parts of going home.

 

There's nothing better than a nice iced mocha while you catch up with a girlfriend on a hot afternoon.

Except maybe also being able to appreciate the quirkiness around every corner in Penang. 

Spot the blue heart?

All those desserts!!! Definitely want to come back again, preferably not right after a heavy meal so I can try these. 

These were taken at siTigun on Nagore road.

Moodboard: Modern Rustic Guest Room

After having so much fun creating the baby room moodboard, I just had to make one for the new guest room too.

For this design, I decided to set myself a little challenge - minimum cost and maximum reuse of furnishings and decor I already own. That included set of Mum's old curtains she insisted I use. A  once-over of the apartment and I quickly identified the items I had to reuse:

1. Mum's set of beige curtains (notice how this is the first item on the list)
2. White chest of drawers
3. Bluish-white queen size bed
4. White side table
5. The Ikea rug we bought real cheap a long time back but still sitting in the storeroom wrapped in its original packaging.

So, the task was to design the room by reusing all these items. Put together, I was left with a beige, gray and blue colour scheme and quite a predicament.  I hadn't the faintest idea how I was going to tie those colours together. Naturally, I looked to Pinterest for inspiration - and then browsed around for something I could get my hands on locally.

Surprisingly, it was Ikea that came to my rescue. They have a set of quilt covers which is primarily brown-beige and gray with turquoise accents. 

image source

That would instantly pull together the beige and grays I was struggling to match and also dictate the accent colour of the room - turquoise! Incidentally, I have a pair of turquoise owls in my stash of decor and bang, I had my fundamental room design!

To add a little interest I'll be looking to add a few accent pieces....a turquoise chair, mirror with metal frame (not sure if I'll be able to find a similar one) and a rattan laundry basket. Finally, I included the set of paintings and a wooden based table lamp, also from my existing stash. Out of the 12 items on the moodboard, I already have 8 of them.

Taa-daa... mission to design a guest room with minimum cost and maximum reuse accomplished!

Moodboard: Light & Cheery Girl's Room

After lots and lots of delay, the renovations on the kitchen are finally underway at the new house. It's been months of negotiations, paperwork for extension approvals, insurances, building permits....i.e. stress and headache. We're not nearly done, after building there will come more paperwork, inspections and I don't know what else. The unpleasant side of renovation. Sigh...

Last week I decided I needed a break form the tiring renovation stuff and skipped ahead to a bit of fun. I stated planning out my daughter Kitty's bedroom. Kitty's still too young to choose so mummy gets to make all the decorating decisions for now!

My vision was an all white room with pops of colour, not too pink princess but still feminine. All movable furniture, nothing built-in and nothing too expensive so that when Kitty grows up decides she want to make decorating decisions of her own, the entire room can be easily changed.

Putting the board together has made my upcoming shopping trip easy. I now already have an accurate estimate of the cost. More importantly, having seen everything placed together, I won't have to second guess myself when actually going out to buy the furniture and choosing textiles for the room.


The satisfaction of completing my very first moodboard for the house (albeit some struggle with Adobe Photoshop and all) was very rewarding. It was a great decision to take a break from the heavy stuff and work on something dear I love and enjoy. Now I'm itching to put together a moodboard for the guest bedroom too.

This little project just brought back my enthusiasm to get the house done. Hurray!

Quiet Time, It’s A Luxury These Days

Took a day off from the office for a much needed ‘quiet’ day to myself. 

The hubby has left to drop baby off before heading in to work and I have just finished my morning yoga. The plan for the rest of the morning is to sit down with a huge cup of hot chocolate and enjoy flipping through Abigail Ahern's Decorating With Style and some magazines.

There's a stack of books I’ve been wanting to read; Jeffery Deaver's The Broken Window, Elenor Brown's The Weird Sisters and Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In. Perhaps watch some telly over lunch, hmm… Sex and the City? Love Actually? Oooh, I know… Under the Tuscan Sun!!

Then maybe take an afternoon nap before I head to the pool for a few laps in the evening before dinner. If I’m lucky I’ll get the entire pool to myself.

It’s going to be a heavenly day….

Breakfast for Two at 67 Coffee Mansion

It was one of those rare days when the hubby and I had no errands planned...and so, we decided to treat ourselves to a leisurely breakfast at 67 Coffee Mansion. The cafe is housed in a pre-war bungalow on Irving Road (just off Macalister/Anson Road).

The parking was relatively easy. Plenty of parking along the road and we were able to get a spot just a short distance from the cafe.We were the first customers at the shop when we arrived about 15 minutes after opening time.

After placing our orders for 2 Belgium Chocolate Sticks (yes, Belgium. That's what they called it on the menu), a Mushy Piggy and a Pork & Roll at the counter, we sat down at a table by the door and took their cute decor.

 

"I love this wall decor with the words spelled out using coffee beans. So cute and so true!

We thought the way the Belgium Chocolate Stick was served was cute. Stirring the chocolate block into the steaming hot cup of milk was fun and to our delight, it dissolved easily.

Soon, we could smell the wonderful aroma of bacon frying coming from the kitchen and shortly after our food came.

The Mushy Piggy...cute name for Eggs Benedict.

Pork & Roll.Yum...

The food was good although they seemed like rather small portions for us to big eaters. We managed to have a quiet and enjoyable meal before other customers started to file in - there seemed to be more of a lunch crowd. Overall I'd say the place is worth a visit and I'm personally keen to go back and try their main courses and desserts for lunch or dinner.

Happiness is to enjoy the little things in life.

Gifts: Live Learn Laugh

Farewells are always a little bittersweet. But when you know the person in question is heading towards better things, the best thing to do is to wish them well and, of course, give them a kick-ass farewell gift. 

  

Decided to do something a little different this time What you see here is the envelope instead of the card itself. 

Live. Learn. Laugh. Kind of sums up the friendship. 

Here's my card on the inside. A hopefully useful reminder while a new day-to-day routine is being developed. :)

So, what was my kick ass gift?

This super cute travel journal from Typo, RM 75.

Spent a good half hour just browsing all the designs they have. Mostly because I was struggling not to get one for myself, too! So pretty, I just want to quit my job and travel for a year just so I have an excuse to use one of these.

But no, I just got the one. And gave it to someone who will actually have use for it in the immediate future. Yay!

Weekend Project: Quick & Easy Magnet Update

Last weekend as I sat looking at the inspiration board hanging in front of my desk, some old magnets (I've had since my school days) caught my eye. I suddenly had the impulse to give the boring and tired looking magnets an update. I decided I wanted a little "bling".

Blah to Bling in under 15 minutes!

My little craft project took me less than 15 minutes to complete. Here's how.... evenly spread craft glue over the magnet, sprinkle a generous amount of glitter flakes to cover the entire surface and let dry. Finally, seal the giltter onto the magnet with some nail polish top coat. My old bottle of top coat didn't work so well on the nails but I found great use for it for crafting!

Easy peasy!

Quote of the Month: August 2014

When I picked up the violin again for the first time in six months.