Umaisarah

Correction, correction. My chair not very very valuable lah ....buy cheap, cheap tt's why the wood turn moldy after a few years' use coz they never varnish and dry it up properly. But the wood is still good since it's teak. Paid $275 per chair to varnish and upholster it. Similar chairs with that kind of upholstery will set me back at least $300 I think.

You don't need to get those built-in oven. You can get a stand-alone convection oven. Baby Belling ovens are supposed to be very good for cookies, cakes, muffins etc. Not so sure abt grilling and roasting though. If you don't hv a microwave oven yet, or intend to upsize your current one, then you consider getting a multi-function oven, which can microwave, grill, bake, roast, etc. Make sure it uses convection heat, rather than microwave for all the other non-microwave functions. I hardly ever use microwave, except to reheat food

And I bought plants! But can't upload pics of my mini garden right now coz I exceeded my Flickr monthly bandwidth so gotta wait till next month!

Hubby gave me a surprise when I came home on Thursday. He did a little rearrangement of the sofa, I didn't notice it until my daughter asked me if I noticed anything different abt the living room From this To this It does make the living room appear more spacious but watching TV will be a pain in the neck, literally. So everyone's fighting over the little armchair now And that two-seater bench is going to go to the balcony, so looks like I can save some $$ buying outdoor furniture for now.

Chairs Yes, these are the same chairs Dining set from a different angle.

My dining set is finally here! In all the excitement over AFC, I forgot to post it in my blog Table turned out beautifully So all that waiting and hand-wrangling was worth the wait The chairs were unrecognisable but I'm quite scared that it'll dirty easily coz the fabric's white. Already after less than a week got stain here and there. Part of the joining of the upholstery could have been better but overall I'm happy with the price I paid for the work. Here are before and after pics!

I dun watch Iron Chef regulaly (found it to be too dramatic ) but the one I watched was the Jap version. Do they have the US version? Apparently it's huge over there. The host is Padma Lakshmi whom I oso caught occasionally at AFC and DTV. Very classy and pretty lady

Not sure if he's a proper chef but he cooks on the show. I think I saw the show on AFC or was it Discovery Travel & Living? . I also not sure when the show's on. Happen to switch channels and there he was! Kerala is in South India, home to houseboat cruises.....

Wanted to post it at my thread but am bringing it here. You know what, I recently saw some episodes of Coconut Coast and was so enchanted by the place that I'm now inspired to visit Kerala during the Dec hols! The host is this effiminate chef called Reza who speaks with a very crisp British accent. He reminds me of Kumar (without the Singlish), the way he flourishes his hands while talking.

aiyah, no problem to discuss AFC here lah. Natural Living mah...anything that comes naturally...

Hi Matrix! Sorry totally missed your post. Mine is a fairly new-ish condo. TOPed in Sep I think. Yah, the bedrooms all have bay windows which is what we like also, even tho it takes up space That's the trend nowadays, that or floor-to-ceiling windows. Even HDB has jumped on the bandwagon. All the DBSS flats sold by pte developers have same design, at least the ones we saw for The Peak and the one in Bishan has bay windows and balconies too.

It's a multi-function so when it's grill, roast and bake, it doesn't use micro waves, but the conventional heating element. If you like steamed food and going for healthy lifestyle, then worth it to get lah. But if you only do the occasional steaming, then mbe can get those cheap ones. But maybe the one you eyeing is multi-function also? Usually these expensive ovens come with free lessons and cookbook, shd take advantage of them.

The National microwave that's been in my family for 10 years? It's a multi-function so it can bake, grill, and roast too. And the result is as good, if not better than those built-in ones. In fact, my helper prefer to use the microwave rather than the built-in back at my old place.

Back to the gardening topic, how do I ask the administrators to pin a topic on posting balcony garden pictures on RT? Or can I start the thread myself? Not that I hv any garden pics to share doing online research on balcony gardening right now and found this good article which appeared in ST abt 2 years back. Balcony Garden

Laura Calder - is the one who does French Cooking at Home? I dun like her, leh... maybe cuz I find the way she talks very funny...do you notice when she talks, she grits her teeth? AFC got some nice shows, and some duds. I actually like Chopped, but keep seeing reruns. Dun think they have new shows. I want to like Restaurant Makeovers but tt Russian or East European guy who does the hacking and renovation just puts me off cuz he's such a famewhore, yucks. I watch Chef At Home just to look at his kitchen, and pantry, heh heh Yep, my fave is still Jamie, his new show is done at his own home, and its just so inspirational to watch him cook produce from his own garden. and his recipes are so simple to follow, not sure if its tasty though, I always find it amusing to watch these Chefs go 'oooh, delicious' when they taste their own food, like what Jamie does

Here's my dream: Michael Smith's Pantry (just love his walk-in pantry in Chef at Home) Jamie Oliver's Garden (fresh veggies all year long) Anna Olson's ovens (in 'Sugar', I feel like I've added 10 kgs just watching her make the desserts) Jamie Oliver (again)'s kitchen island (stove, sink, chopping board all rolled into one!) Nigella's Curves (oooh, I hv that already, hah hah )

hee hee, funny I'm actually quite mad at my ID cuz she didn't even consider this simple point. She knows I've got young kids in the house but yet she didn't modify the design to suit them. She really really took wholesale my sketchup and only did minor modifications. I feel like filing away all the hard edges but it will spoil the laminate

Just sharing a useful resource on plants and gardening since we're on the subject. Nparks have an online plant reference database with info on most plants which can be found in Singapore and the region. What's cool about it is that you can search for 'Plants for beginners' so if you're a real noob about gardening like me, this is really useful. For each plant, they will state if its suitable for indoors, can be grown in pots or containers, what kind of shade and watering it needs, etc etc. Check out FloraWeb. I hv already shortlisted some plants for discussion with the Chief Gardening Officer (ie Hubby).

The planter and living room balcony get the full morning sun until about 5 pm when the light and heat shifts to the bedroom area. Hope that's enough. My helper and I are already planning to plant cili padi, curry leaves, mint leaves, coriander leaves, pandan leaves, what-have-you leaves in the planter no need to go market anymore, heh heh.

Nice plants! Where did you get them? Katong Flower Shop is right by my door step but not sure if they hv the plants I want. I'm looking for sunflowers, a few variety of orchids, mock tomatoes, etc etc. Actually I hv the opposite of a green thumb (a brown thumb??), so most likely my helper will be taking care of the plants!

Thank you, thank you! Yah, it's nice to look at but in terms of being practical, well...not so much. You can't let the light come through for obvious reasons (unless your bathroom faces the forest but then again the animals may be watching, hee hee ). Most of the time, the blinds are drawn and closed. At least with vertical blinds you can open it a little bit. I hope to put some plants but am not sure if it will give enough camouflage.

You mean it looks messier No lah, yours look very live in with all your personal touches. Very warm and cozy. I haven't put in any photos or anything personal in our house yet. My husband refuses to drill anything in the house so I hvn't yet put up our paintings and family photos, but I'm trying to slowly make him come around. How can we not drill anything???? even the bidet spray in the toilet he uses a suction cup to hang them, haiz.....

Just came back from visiting your house. Got room for one more armchair I think, in the space between your dining and living (see first picture). But cannot get too bulky. You can try a vintage designer replica or the real deal. Will match nicely with the rest of your decor. Very bohemian chic. I like...

Thanks, thanks! Finally glad all reno and headache almost over....now the headache is to pay all the bills

Do you know that Ikea doesn't sell that single sofa bed anymore?? We searched for it high and low at both Ikea outlets. In the end, found it on ebay and bought it 2nd hand for $175. R u referring to the leather armchair? I think I hv too many chairs in the living room but I don't want to give any of the furn away so hv to fit them in somehow. End up my living room is filled to the brim with stuff!