Berry Good Buys

I went a bit over the top last week and bought stuffs that I have been wanting to buy for a long long time.

Of course it helps a great deal to get vouchers like these for being a faithful customer... (we are treating it as our Anniversary Pressie!) :D

Vouchers worth RM60.00! Once we got them, we just walked less than 10 steps to get this huge, exquisite mirror!

I only need to pay RM5.90 for this! How's that for thrifty? I wouldn't have bought it if I need to pay the full price! :D

The next day, I got some serious DIY bugs and visited Thye Huat Jalan Pintal Tali which has more varieties of DIY stuffs.

I bought this Bosch Grass Trimmer ART 23 EASYTRIM at RM168.

Right after that, I felt so guilty for spending so much. Thanks for having such a supportive hubby who put things back into perspective. Our grass cutter charges us RM40 per session, hence, we will get our ROI by the 4.2 times we use this device.

I also bought these to replace the old faucet in the kitchen.

Yes, the hyper DIY bugs in me prompted me to get down to work right after I reached home. Talk about going *a bit* over the top, now it's *a lot* over the top.

I will need to be more prepared and put things into better perspective before starting another plumbing project.

Before

After

If you are scratching your chin trying to identify the difference... well, let's just say it's now a cleaner and newer hose/tap for our water to run though, I managed to wash out the rust in the pipe as well. My shirt will no longer be wet when I wash the dishes with the new flexible hose. :D

I didn't manage to attach the valve for the water filter, as you know plumbing can be such a beast at times...

There will come a day when I put the beast down!

Total Cost for the 3 items used: RM60.50

Preparation is of Utmost Importance

Luke 14:28-32
King James Version (KJV)

²⁸For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?

²⁹Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him,

³⁰Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.

³¹Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?

³²Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace.

Small home improvements

The 3 Rs are a Huge thing recently. Plastic bags are no longer given for free in the Supermarkets, Reusable paper bags are encouraged. The State Government is encouraging the people to Reduce the use of plastics, and other non biodegradable products.

Oh yes, go Green, recycle, reduce and reuse.

We got quite into it, we even thought of composing and starting our own vegetable farm. But all great things start small.

Hence, it started my recent craze of collecting wine bottles and jam/food jars after use. I dreamed of one day transforming them to cute little things such as this.

This is definitely one of the most useful reuse of bottles. Not only they look cute and trendy, they can fit nicely into the refrigerator, car bottle holder and etc. I no longer need to worry about the quality of the water when I pour hot water or fridge them immediately. This is glass afterall, no more plastic bottles worries. :)

We got this from Ikea in January 2010. Yes, we have had this for more than a year, looks cute, doesn't it?

I finally managed to get a huge candle for it to complete the look. Afterall, what is a candle holder without a candle? ;)

No more worries if there's power cut. :)

It will also look fantastic when we get our outdoor patio done... one fine day...

Rolling up my sleeves

I have been reading many, many, many blogs on Do-It-Yourself. DIY around the house, reupholstering furniture, building a storage rack, re-doing the toilet, even building your own swimming pool! My my... these bloggers are fabulous with their hands and their brains are very tuned to it as well.

So, after all the reading... I have finally bought some things for my own DIY later. There has been water dripping from our bidet spray especially when the water pressure is high. I am going to replace the bidet spray and attach a new faucet to stop the water drips. Yes, it is not a huge project, but it is a good start. Hehe. I am very excited, I don't know why. XD

------------------------

I got home and saw that my hubby returned about the same time as me. He is very supportive of my DIY and hacking efforts. I eagerly turned off the main water source, removed the old bidet spray... only to realized I did not have any wrenches.

*Ouch*

So off to Mr. DIY to get these plumbing BFFs.

From left, pipe wrencher, adjustable wrencher and teflon tape.

Bidet spray and faucet.

And TADA! Done! I forgot to take the before picture. *Smacks head* but here is the after

After

Before

Total Cost:

Wrenchers - RM25.90

Bidet Spray and Faucet: RM26.50

Now, that's thrifty! :D

Yellow has never been more ATTRACTIVE, in fact it has gone INTERNATIONAL!

Our homeland has attracted a lot of attention (international, mind you) by being yellow, banning yellow and then hiding yellow. Even the English Queen couldn't hide her amusement about it. ;D

Anyway, instead of participating in the full-force yellow party, we have decided to protest in our home state in a slightly quieter way. Then again, we did get some attention here and there, and managed to struck a couple of conversations by wearing yellow. How can people not notice the news, when it has been so ridiculously funny? ;)

Yellow Flower

Yellow Shirts

Yellow Lunch

We went up the hill with Josh and Joy. It was fun to have a cup of tea and a piece of scone up on the hill. ;D

Recent Happenings

Recently, we attended a concert at Fort Conwallis, Rock 4 Rights. Cool people, cool music. I remember last year or so, we went cycling on Human Rights Day via the slogan Ride 4 Rights. Notice the 4-letter word in front of the 4-Rights. Indeed, we need to be reminded of the rights that we own even when doing trivial stuff like riding a bicycle and music. It is a good reminder, because human forgets easily. :)

One night last week, I prepared some Konnyaku jelly (Kiwi flavoured with Dragon Fruit). After taking one, I was up with an upset stomach for the whole night, yet the boy remained unaffected.

So the next day, I decided to eat something plainer and prepared myself what I called fruity brown rice porridge. Ermmm, the taste was bearable, I guess. :D

Steven and I weeded a portion of our garden to plant some months back, sometime around January. And I sowed some corn and kangkung seeds (all the kangkungs were killed when the grass were cut by the grass cutter we hired >_<). So, let's just stick to the corn, one corn seed managed to get germinated. The corn plant grows real speedily.

picture taken feb 8 2011

picture taken feb 12 2011

picture taken apr 7 2011

updated:

picture taken apr 19 2011

It grows real fast right? I am thinking to get a stick for support as the fruits start to grow. Oh ya, after we had our grass cut, I notice the papaya tree that we had at the slope in our backyard is no longer there. Ya, just disappeared like that (!!)

Later, our neighbour told us the top of the tree fell off to their backyard during one of the nights with heavy storm. -_-

Pepper + mint = Peppermint

I bought a pot of peppermint plant about a month ago. It looked like this. Ever since then, Steven and I have been having mint tea almost every night. Nice and fragrant! It's a great drink. Super relaxing especially after a long day at work.

How it looked like

As time goes by, the leaves got lesser and smaller. So, I decided to propagate the plant.

Now, I have two pots with another one coming. :D

Mango Snowy Dessert

I went to the bank yesterday, saw some mangoes on the way in. Coming out, I couldn't stop myself from buying a couple of mangoes. It tasted very sweet, the seller let me taste a piece. So, 3 mangoes for RM6, not bad. :D

Then I thought, I would need some sago and mango juice.

I whipped up a storm and came up with this. A simplified version of Mango Snowy dessert. *Ting!* :D

This Mango dessert is really easy to make. All you need are the below:

Ingredients
3 honey mangoes
400ml mango juice (Peelfresh or any other similar brands)
125ml evaporated milk / 3 tablespoons of milk powder in half a cup
80g sago pearls (original uses 300gm pomelo, split into small pieces)

Directions
1. Peel the mangoes and slice and cube them, scrap the remaining mango into a bowl.
2. Add the cubed mango, mango juice and milk into a few cups, then stir. [1/3 cup of mango juice, about 2-3 tablespoons (milky mango-ish colour) of milk.]
3. Add sago pearls and stir, if too thick, add a bit of cooled boiled water or more mango juice.
4. Chill before serving.

Tada!

The most satisfying moment is seeing the hubby looking at the dessert and taking a picture (!!) before globbling it down. Hehe! :D

It was a rainy day. The hubby had got work to do. So, I went to Jusco and grabbed a couple of stuff. It's nice to walk thru the isles slowly and look at things. I tried once rushing thru it, I ended up with a terrible, horrible headache.

I got this sushi set for dinner and placed them on the Japanese plates that our friends got for us! :D

I also made veggie & egg toast

and chicken mushroom soup for supper. :)

I Dreamed a Dream

Have you ever dreamed dreams? When you are asleep? When you are wide awake? How about dreams that you dream that you thought would never be achieved?

What if those dreams are achievable? If only you have dreamed hard enough and have the courage to actually step towards it?

This video is a dream of a woman who had dreams so beautiful even though she was living in hell. She sang this song so beautifully as though she was singing her life story but indeed she was. Life had not been a bed of roses for her, being shortly deprived of oxygen at birth had caused her to be a slow-learner. Being bullied and called "Susie Simple" since young. Life had not been easy for her.

This is a real life Cinderella story. A story of dreams coming true. A story of God looking after the one with lesser in life. A story of God's work. A story of an ugly duckling who was despised by the world turning into a beautiful swan. A good story indeed. I am very happy for you. You have touched the lives of millions out there. The story of Susan Boyle: I Dreamed a Dream (Les Miserables). :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnmbJzH93NU

I dreamed a dream in time gone by
When hope was high
And life worth living
I dreamed that love would never die
I dreamed that God would be forgiving
Then I was young and unafraid
And dreams were made and used and wasted
There was no ransom to be paid
No song unsung, no wine untasted

But the tigers come at night
With their voices soft as thunder
As they tear your hope apart
As they turn your dream to shame

And still I dream he'll come to me
That we will live the years together
But there are dreams that cannot be
And there are storms we cannot weather

I had a dream my life would be
So different from this hell I'm living
So different now from what it seemed
Now life has killed the dream I dreamed.

Tug of WAR

We got Evey some birthday presents for her 1st human year birthday! :D Which is about 10.5 dog years. Gosh... Evey is about a primary 4 kid now. Hehe. Just the other day when we brought Evey out for a walk, she touched nose with a male poodle. Our lil doggie has indeed grown up... sounds like it's about time for a pep talk about the world.

Drummets

A few strips of beef

A couple of boney

True to the word, she happily gobbled down the treaties in her food. It is always enjoyable to cook for an appreciative audience! She's so fast that I didn't managed to snap any pictures. Oh ya, my cooking is that terrific! :D

I played a game of tug of war with Evey.

After a few tricks... she finally got the boney...

and suddenly, she's gone!

She eloped with the boney >_<

She came back after a while, who could resist me? ;P