Recent Posts

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Play Dress: Kyra's 'Kimono'

I made this type of modified, simplified, modernized 'KIMONO' for Maia when she was a tiny toddler in early 2009. Out of the blue, I got the itch to make one for Kyra using my Ikea CECELIA 100% cotton fabric...I love this fabric for TWO reasons: It's very good cotton with good printing, and at RM9.90/meter, I'm lovin it :D




This fabric has got birds and leaves and such all over its white background, the 1st time I tried to buy it, it was sold out for quite some time.....then I finally got hold of 4 meters... hehe....If you follow my blog, you'd notice that I've used this same fabric on the Ikea APA toy storage box/bench, and also as neck roll cover for my very old rattan rocking chair!


And if you're wondering WHY I put so many photos of Kyra in her new play dress in this post? SIMPLE. It's super hard to get a good photo of her, trust me......unlike Maia who can pose for me....Kyra's really unpredictable when it comes to photo-taking......and she's also slightly awkward when you ask her to smile for the camera! :P

So, I personally truly treasure any good shots of her....they are hard to come by...LOL!

WHAT's FOR LUNCH: Homemade Beef Patty Burger

This is what we had for lunch today....my beef patty burger! FYI, I make my own beef patties/meatballs because it's nicer :D and I know what went into the mix... :O PLUS, Kyra and Maia both love it when I whip up the beef meatball bolognaise, or, using the same 'patty mix', bake beef pizza for them....and this, "DA BURGER" would be my FIRST, and definitely won't be the last, as both of them just swallowed ONE each! :P

This is what I used/did:
*Sesame coated hi protein buns
*Fresh tomatoes, sauteed in olive oil
*Cheese slices (Cheddar)
*Eggs
*Beef patties
*A swirl of mayonnaise
*A dash of black pepper
*A sprinkle of basil (optional of course, I just love using Basil in my cooking, that's all)
*TABASCO sauce (for me, ie!)


JOEY's Beef Patty Recipe:
*Beef knuckles, ground/minced (I used food processor, very speedy!)
*Black sesame oil/ Olive oil
*Spring onions, chopped finely
*Salt to taste
*Sugar
*A lil ketchup
*A lil bit of 5-spice-powder (better known as "NGO HIANG HUN" in Hokkien, or "WU XIANG FENN" in Mandarin)
*A lil bit of thick soy sauce
*Ground black pepper
*Large yellow onions, finely chopped!

NOTE: I apologize coz I never measure the ingredients I use to make this patty....I usually just "FEEL" it.... :P


MY OWN TIME-SAVER:
I usually make pretty big batch of this, then divide into portions, have each wrapped and sealed in aluminum foil, then keep them in freezer. This way, I do not have to waste time making it each time I need some!


HAPPY TRYING!!! And do let me know if you've tried it! :D

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Our BIGGEST DIY ever!

This is a backdated post btw. We finished this project over 2 weekends, by the 2 of us, incurred a pretty minimal RM550 total bill (very 'mini' compared to the amount we'd be paying if we used professional service to do it!). For the introduction & details about it, please go HERE!

So here it is.....




I had to tack thousands of times till my palm were practically swollen! LOL! But the sense of satisfaction and achievement seeing the 4 boards all wrapped up beautifully is indescribable!


Finally, I have a hidden storage to stow away all the things that we cannot throw/donate away but have nowhere to store them in the 1st place! YAY! My wedding gown, Kyra and Maia's baby clothings, toys, stamp albums, etcetera......


I consider ourselves pretty accurate and slightly lucky coz once all 4 boards were installed, everything seems straight and good! :D You'd understand if you get hold of the boards......they are extremely heavy, and to make matters worse, the concrete wall and sides wasn't exactly level!



The finished project :D To me personally, not only this project brought together a 'collaboration' between Z and I, it's just priceless to see the older little girl at home BRAG "Daddy made this! Daddy made this!" endlessly to everyone who came to our home that week! LOL!

Now that is PRICELESS alright!


NOTE: Pardon the 2 side windows! The previous curtains are now too wide, I gotta alter em 1st...but don't have time to do that yet.....will update with new photo once that's done!



Z: How come she didn't say "mummy and daddy made this?"
Me: Well, simply and possibly coz she got too used to seeing her mummy DIY most things at home already lerrrrr..... *Chuckling away*
:]

And to my dear hubby, I really appreciate your efforts for helping me with this DIY, (you could have said NO), especially knowing that you are sooooo not a DIY person to begin with....I won't brag about you doing it the way your doter did lah...but I am just as proud! :)

PART 1: Kyra's 4th BDAY - My Next 'TASK'

Now that the Chinese New Year is almost over.....(28th Feb is the 15th and last day FYI, also called the Chap Goh Meh), my next 'job' is to throw a PINK Hello Kitty themed 4th birthday party for Kyra. It's definitely gonna be a small scaled party compared to Maia's birthday cum housewarming party, but as small as it might get, I would still like to make sure it's what she's been waiting for since many months ago! (Poor thing, I know)...LOL!

This sweet babe is not demanding, in fact, she's very forgiving and tolerable when it comes to things she wants. She's not one to cry and demand us to buy her the cooking pots set that she wants so so much for so long....she's also not one to stick and hold on to the toy at the toystore when there are other kids wanting to play!

Now it's up to me how PINK the small party will get... :O
LOL!

Of Red Lipstick And Heels...on A Kid That is!

On the 2nd day of Chinese New Year celebration, I got a wee bit disturbed seeing a 5 year old wear bright pink eye shadows on her eyes, badly UN-blended on top of that :P. But today, I read that Suri Cruise has started wearing make up (not just high heels anymore), not just any pink girly lip balm, mind you! It's SHOCKING red lipsticks + high heels on a 3 year old , otherwise a very sweet and pretty lil thing....

This photo made me wonder, if Kyra or Maia asks to use make up, would I let them? Well, the answer is NO, unless well, they are in school dance or play that is :D. I mean, they do not need enhancements of any sorts at their age IMHO. Little girls are cutest and prettiest at their most natural, and I believe it is us adults who wished we could look as good au naturel without a stroke of make up on! I know I do!


From what I have seen, lil Suri is not just playing dress up on any ONE day.....there are many shots of her wearing her (favourite, probably) silver heels in rain, wind or shine. I do honestly envy her wardrobe....coz just take a look at this green handbag (below)....isn't that soooo cute!? And I bet it costed a bomb too! The red jacket, is stylish, but I think is better suited to an older kid/teenager really......again, IMHO :P

This gold ballroom dancing heels (above) are not so bad compared to the silver unstrapped heels she wore in the other photos HONESTLY.....those who've had experience wearing heels would know.

Would I let Kyra or Maia wear heels? YES. When they play dress up in their play room. Period. FYI, I never bought a single pair of heels for them as of now.....they have 3 pairs of heeled sandals, all bought by my in laws. But luckily, they never seem to harbour any strong interest in the heels...PHEW! My own personal MAIN reason is simply, I do not want them to fall flat on their face and break their beautiful teeth!



If you look at the photo above (Suri in pink dress), you see a very pretty and sweet 3 year old, but as you scrolled down, I am sure you noticed the silver heels....it has no straps whatsoever...from experience, I think it's not easy for her to carry it off......poor girl!

Monday, February 22, 2010

Maia's 3-tiered SPRING TIME skirt :D





Maia could run so fast in this skirt...LOL! till she took a fall! :P

It's so round and fun, makes the babe wanna twirl and twirl!!!



One happy babe with one cheery 3-tiered skirt! Big sis asked me: "Mummy, where's mine?" It's coming....it's coming........

Tiger ROARing New Year @ the LEONGs

How to sum up this Chinese New Year celebration? Hmmm.......okay, for one, I wasn't feeling the bestest throughout the entire new year week! Yeap, that sucked big time....No, I wasn't sick or anything, but somehow was sooooooooo lethargic, exhausted, and sleepy....yesh, weird huh? For someone like me to be SLEEPY at all during the daytime...LOL! (FYI, I don't have the napping habit). I'd like to blame it on the super rainy weather, or as my O&G Dr said: "Sugar overload!" It brings you high up, then straight and flat down....your energy level that is! I think he could be right......

Okay, as usual, we would have family photo taken together on the 1st day before visiting other relatives' houses. On the 2nd day, it's the usual OPEN HOUSE @ Parents-In-Law's house with lion dance performance (yeap, it's the same every year since I don't know when)......

So, I shall let the photo collages below tell the story.....who doesn't like photos compared to paragraphs of words, right? :D *Click to enlarge photos*





Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Cherry Blossom Lantern

Chinese New Year 2010 (Year of the Tiger) is just 9 days away, and I have not gotten any single lantern up! The ones sold at Green Gallery that I want is RM169 each :O (yupe, crazy, rite?), so I decided to make my own using Ikea's rice paper japanese lantern @RM15.90 each!

With a RM1.00 chinese calligraphy brush, some black watercolour paint, and 2 packets of RM0.80 faux cherry blossom blooms, I started my quest.....to create MY lantern! :D
First started off with cherry blossom branch painting.......as randomly as possible.....so it looks natural!

Let the paint dry a bit (I was too lazy to wait till it totally dried off really), using hot glue gun, I attached the blooms one by one to the branches....but you have to snip off the 'butt' so it's flat enough to be glued!
Tadaaaaa!!!! All done, in less than an hour:)



Mum and dad came over to my place last nite.....Mum loved it and said she'd like the same thing.....so we'll be asking my littlest sis to get 2 such lanterns from Ikea! hehe.....

The lovely thing about it is, I don't even have to take it down after the Chinese New Year celebration is over....coz it's just another oriental lantern, it's not red nor Chinese New Year-ish like this one here! hehe...

Monday, February 1, 2010

100th POST: PLAYROOM - Revealed!

Oohh...I just realized by coincidence that this is my 100th post! Great, sooooo right to reveal something not usual :D

Remember the makeover project I had been working on to transform my dining room to playroom for the babes? I showed a lil
SNEaK PEEK previously, and mentioned it some time ago!

Here it is! Finally completed just in time for the Lunar New Year celebration! Yay!

Well, I did not really remember to snap a proper BEFORE pix of the dining room, but anyways, it's just a plain pretty bare space previously.....photo below was taken a few days before we celebrated Maia's 2nd birthday!
The biggest change would be the feature wall here.....I added candy pink, orange, dark brown and my favourite green, all are from leftovers except the pink that costed me RM27.90 for a liter and I only used 0.2liter :(
Here's the full view! Love the bright airy space, thanks for the huge 13' wide sliding doors on the left. I did not get any new items, merely reshuffled some old furniture pieces, added accessories and small touches......

Toy storages...very important feature in any kids' room! You probably would know this if you had one or two or more kids :) Even with proper and ample storages, I sometimes still hurt my feet stepping onto their small toys on the floor......Before this, their toys dominated my entire house, which was really scary! A rubble of toys! IMAGINE!
This is a super cheap feature I added, that I call the "ART LINE"....for obvious reasons!
That's Kyra's drawing, the 2 humans seen walking side by side, according to her, are Mummy and Daddy:D (Love it...cuteness!)

The old daybed that we brought back from KL, I simply love this bed...so strong and timeless! This is where they play "HOUSE" or trampoline now.... SIGH! (instead of napping!)
Matching throw pillows that I made, notice the similar green and pink and black/dark brown to the feature wall? And the napkins, tablecloth etc.....were blogged quite some time ago....







Another family portrait by Kyra....LOL! The one in black dress is ME! :D

And NOPE! Did not go over RM100 for this whole transformation, as aimed! In fact, it's just RM27.90 + RM15.90 (Ikea acrylic toy goblets and glass set)!