Sharing My Home - Part 1

Ever since we started working on our house, buying furniture, adding soft furnishings and accessories, etc.. basically making our house a home, we have been asked many many times, "Where did you find that?", "How much is this?", "It must be expensive!", "Could you please get the same one for me?", "I'd love to have one too!" And I love the look on our relatives' and friends' faces when they find out how cheap/reasonable I got the stuff for :o) The only advantage I have is that I love to shop around and find the best bargains. Finding a good deal is a challenge and one that I love to take :o) Diamond style on a dime, or so they say..

So, when I was out hunting recently, I found some beautiful and really reasonably priced items and it got me to thinking, why don't I get some extra to share with you? So the following are the stuff that I have bought for my own home and I would like to share with you and please know that:

(1) I only put up the items that I would use myself in my own home (and I'm fussy when it comes to that! :o)) up for sale, so please do not worry about the quality;

(2) The items are all brand new and are in limited quantity as I only buy one or two extras to share;

(3) This is my home style, I don't expect everyone to share my taste, so only purchase if you love the items, as I lovingly choose to share them with you;

Happy shopping!

I found some beautiful gourmet bottles that were really reasonable priced. It would look beautiful in your kitchen. Can be used to fill with cooking oil, liquid soap and also sauces i.e. soya sauce, etc.

I used to eye these bottles in Metrojaya, where they used to sell them at RM49.90 each. I would pick them up off the shelves, admire them and put them back :o) hehe.. I was totally grinning from ear to ear when I found these for much cheaper :o)

Roses Gourmet Bottle

view from one side

view from another side

size: 2.25 " x 12.5 "

Price: RM25 each/ RM48 for 2

Herbs Gourmet Bottle

view from one side (lavenders, my favourite!)

view from another side

size: 2.25" x 12.5"

Price: RM25 each/RM48 for 2

If you cannot decide on which one to choose, buy both! (like I did.. hehe..)

Lookie, lookie.. they even have a matching doormat! hehe..

Doormat

size: 18" x 27"

Price: RM29.00 each

And what else did I find? These beautiful napkins to match too :o)

Napkins

Pattern A

This one comes in two sizes:

Dessert sized: 4.75" x 4.75"

Price: RM8.00 for a pack of 20 pieces

Dinner sized: 6.5" x 6.5"

Price: RM10.00 for a pack of 20 pieces

Pattern B

size: 4.25" x 8" (rare size!)

Price: RM10 for a pack of 20 pieces

Pattern C

Dinner sized : 6.5" x 6.5"

Price: RM10 for a pack of 20 pieces

Pattern D

Dinner Sized: 6.5" x 6.5"

Price: RM1o for a pack of 20 pieces

Pattern E

Dinner sized: 6.5" x 6.5"

Price: RM10 for a pack of 20 pieces

If you would like to purchase any of them, please send me a message at 019-7540000. I will confirm on whether the items are still available, the shipping fee and the account number for banking in payment. Happy shopping! Thanks.

Petals and Berries

Mum's Garden

Just thought I'd share these flowers with you..

These are my mum's Rangoon Creepers.. pretty huh?


When it comes to gardening, my mum has a green thumb.. with me, the only thing that is flourishing are my hips!!! haha..

One fine day..

Petals&Berries

Bird's Nest

When I have some luxury time to myself I love to surf the net for home decor ideas. One of the sites that I love to visit is Pottery Barn. It's a home store in the United States and they have beautiful items that I can only wish for. Firstly, they do not ship overseas and secondly and most importantly, even if they do, it's not within my range of "affordable" goods :o).

What I love doing is to replicate whatever that I fancy from what we have here locally. Recently they added on some nest stuff and I fell in love with the look..

photo: Pottery Barn

Pretty, isn't it?

photo: Pottery Barn

..this one has a variety of Orchids in it..

photo: Pottery Barn

..with lighted candles..

photo: Pottery Barn

and even as a plate charger.. awww, how sweet.. (positively drooling now..)

Would you like to see my humble version? (my much cheaper version, really :o))

I bought a nest and some baby blue hydrangeas and put it together. Just added a fancy candle for this one..

.. added some marble eggs for this one..

I even found this cute nest complete with eggs on sale, ready to be displayed :o)

It is now happily sitting on my TV cabinet..

Thank you, Pottery Barn.. for all the inspiration!

Petals & Berries

Mama Chair

as advertised on Mudah

I have been naughty. I've been online shopping again. BUT in my defence, I bought it on Mudah :o) it's about HALF the price from what I found in the shops. Yes, it is used, pre-loved if you like :o) but the previous owner has kept it real well. It was advertised as "mama chair" and I fell in love with it at first sight. It was already midnight when my eyes set upon it and I had the crazy impulse of sending a text message to the owner there and then to ask whether it's still available ..but I managed to stop myself :o) barely :o). I wrote the owner's number on a little piece 0f paper and went to bed dreaming of the chair.. heee..

I had a very busy day the next day, somehow forgot all about it and only saw it again when I surfed the net a couple of days later. I was sure someone would have already bought it by then but I decided to just try my luck. I nearly fell off my chair when the owner replied that it's still available! I quickly called hubby and arranged to view the item with the owner and the rest is history! :o)

See, it is feeling right at home.. :o) Aaaaahhhh.. (doing the happy dance..)

..and this is the other side of the buffet and hutch..

Two for the price of one.. (oh, and the lovely lady owner threw in the cushions too for free..) Proves that it does not have to be expensive to be beautiful! (if you know where to look!) :o)

Petals & Berries

Half Moon Table

I was doing my usual browsing online on mudah.my (similar to craigslist for those who are not familiar to the site) and I came across this half moon table that I have been looking for for quite some time. And the owner was selling it for only RM50!! ( I checked out some shops earlier and a brand new non-fancy half moon table easily costs about RM200 and above). And this one even had some carvings on it.

This was the picture of the table the seller uploaded on mudah.my.

The colour did not go with my decor but I figured, at that price I do not mind taking the risk of painting it. So, I contacted the seller and we agreed to meet. The seller even agreed to meet us about 3 minutes away from where we are currently staying (Just a note of caution: when purchasing from strangers, try your best to arrange for cash-on-delivery and never meet in private!). My husband and I met the seller in a crowded parking lot, did a once over of the table and it was a deal! When you get a deal like that, I suggest don't walk.. run back to your car, before the seller changes his mind :o)

So, last weekend, we spent half a day working on the table. I managed to coax my husband to make good use of his muscles and help to sand the table (I HATE sanding!). Hey, what do you know, he even sprayed on the primer for me (see how far some sweet coaxing gets you?:o)).

This is how it looks after being sanded by Mr.Muscle (hehe.. thank you, sayang!).

After waiting an hour for the primer to dry (waiting was agony!), I started painting the first coat and found out three-quarter way that I ran out of paint. That was because silly me just decided to use the left over half-can of paint from this project knowing that this was a much bigger table. And the place where I bought the paint was half an hour away, yes, I'm adventurous like that! :o) Soooo.. after another trip to the paint store (where I bought one BIG can of white paint and 3 cans of white spray paint.. why take the risk?? hehe) , I managed to finish a second coat and this is how it turned out:

Tadaa! My "new" white half moon table!

There was some water damage "bumps" on the surface of the table which we could not get rid of so I just covered it with a napkin and a doily. What do you think?

Do you like my apothecary jars which I filled with candles and seashells? I love them!

Now that I have this half moon table, I need to do something about the mirror. I see another paint job in the near future.. :o) so stay tuned!

Twigs & Feathers

Bedside Table

Our guestroom needed a bedside table. But a bedside table is waaaay down our list of priorities. So when I spotted an old, black, chipped "antique" table no longer in use at my mum's house, the lightbulb inside my head immediately went off. I have never painted furniture before, so this was my chance to try. After doing some minor convincing, my mum agreed to let me have the table (I think she was just happy that someone has taken it off her hands :o) hehe..). I quickly started working on it before she changed her mind :o).

First step, I sanded the table to get rid of the varnish and then I sprayed on a primer to ready it for painting. And here's how it looks after sanding:

Next, I used a spray paint in "Baltic White". Biiiigggg mistake. Number one, I did not like how the colour turned out (although it looked pretty good on the colour chart), number two, the drips from a spray paint is very unforgiving and if you're like me and have never owned a paint brush, you can't correct the drips. You'd do better using ye olde paint brush method. Tested and true. I know a lot of people use spray paint but it just did not work for me this time. Here is how it looks after a coat of "Baltic White", not pretty at all..

I then went out and bought a can of good old white paint and some paint brushes and voila! I lived to tell the tale :o). My white bedside table for my guestroom:

Ready to serve hot chocolate before bed and a scented candle to light and enjoy.

What I'm really happy about is that it cost me less than RM15 for the sandpaper, primer and paint, even with all the mistake!

Would you like to come over and stay a while?

Twigs & Feathers

Kitchen Sneak Peek

Hi! I'm currently working on my kitchen decor. And I love playing around with what to display on my shelves. And my fire-breathing-dragon-English-teacher would cringe if she knew, after all her hard work, I now start sentences with "And". But hey, I'm no longer in school, so there. ha!

Hmm.. my wet kitchen is still being built so I have not decided on anything yet but I know I'm having fun with all the possibilities. Would you like to have a sneak peek?

I bought the trivets on the shelves and the matching potholder and oven mitt even BEFORE we bought the house :o) And those tiny spice jars, I decorated them myself. Click here if you would like to see how I did it.

And how could I forget about my cupcakes collection. I bought some of the tins from a sweet friend of mine here.

Aren't cupcakes all the craze at the moment? I love them! Yummy!

How are these for a start? What do you think?

Twigs & Feathers