This is Where We're Gonna Dine

I am giddy excited to see the progress of our new home. My adoration and respect for my dear husband to finally completed our new house. He is the sole designer and project manager and I proudly say he finance the project on his own.

Remember that brick wall I showed you in my first post. Now it is considerably 90% complete along with the floor and ceiling. 

Our future dining room, captured from the living room. Love, love, love the brick wall along with the pendant light and the black door at the back. Please excuse the mat and tools rack on the right, working is still under progress

The brick wall for dining room backdrop. The pendant light was a nice feature and give a homey ambiance to the cold brick

The brick wall goes all the way to the wall on the second floor. My husband applied clear coating to sealed the brick wall surface.

Again, excuse the poor quality of the images since we took them around 10 PM. The place is quite a mess during the day since there are still a few workers working on the house. By taking the images at night, my husband would like to show me the ambiance with the lights on which if I imagined correctly, he has done a remarkable job and we are so proud of him.

Another thing I would like show are the details on the black door at the back and the kitchen at the right side of the dining room. But then again, they alone each deserves a different post themselves.

Sneak peek of the upcoming post, my love on our back door and kitchen

Baby Richelle's Pink Owl

As I have posted earlier here, we have to plan what are we going to give our relatives and friends when Baby No. 2 turns 1 month. Although there is a traditional standard to what were supposed to be give, we choose a more functional gift, something that can be use for quite sometime.

With Baby No. 1, we gave a medium-sized white towel with pink ballerina shoes embroidery. My sister-in-law's friend made these for us. 

The white towel covered in pink tulle fabric with pink ribbons on top 

A white towel with pink ballerina shoes with Baby No.1's name on top

For Baby No. 2, I thought I had the luxury of choosing a wide range of souvenirs. It turned out I underestimate the product lead time. I thought I can get small souvenirs like these

Unfortunately, either the site does not ship internationally, or the shipping and taxes cost more that the items itself, or the product lead time plus the estimated delivery date takes more than 30 days, I found myself considering our local resources. 

I surfed the net high and low and I found this:

I contacted them by email and following up by Blackberry and this nice young lady named Nini guided me through the whole process of ordering. The fact that ones I was interested in takes one month to assemble due to the availability of the boxes leads me to a pink owl theme Nini has designed for the souvenir. It consist of a mug and a fancy owl packaging.

Honestly I have to say I love the way these babies look. They are just lovely for a one-month-celebration. And Nini perhaps already made my life easier by setting the theme for Richelle's first birthday next year. Don't you think it is just lovely if Richelle's first birthday theme matches her one month celebration gift? 

A Little Change of Plan

I have posted earlier the water dispenser I wish to purchase and the comparison I made. You can read it here. 

Last night my husband assessed our inventory and we realized that we already have two units of fridge. The new one certainly goes to the kitchen and the old one goes to the second floor. We have not yet determined whether we wanted to put the old fridge in the kids room or we want to have it in ours. We bought that fridge right after I gave birth to my eldest daughter. Its main purpose is to store my expressed milk and after 6 months, I also store the baby food there too. 

Anyway, I am preparing to buy a smaller unit of water dispenser and this is the comparison I made so far. 

The table has more items because I found that there were more option from local brand with a very reasonable price for top loading water dispenser. I actually would like to compare more than what I already put in the table but I don't want to confuse myself in the end so I settle with these five options. Can you guess which one I am aiming for?

And Today I Decided to Buy This

When you deal with domestic helpers, it is no wonder that you will face some silly domestic conflict. Mine starts a couple of days ago and in order to settle this ridiculous matter, today I bring home this baby.

www.philips.co.my - Philips HD1172

Again, this is a buying with impulse, because I need it right away and we were happen to be going to a mall where they have an electronic & appliances store. 

I bought it merely because the others looks too colorful for my taste and it looks like they were all made of plastic. This one has a graphite plastic handle which made the total look is forgivable. I bought it for IDR 220,500

www.philips.co.my - Philips HD1172

If you check to this site, the product feature is described as follows:

Easy gliding on all fabrics

• Non-stick sole-plate coating - The soleplate of your Philips iron is coated with a special non-stick layer for good gliding performance on all fabrics.

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Reaches into tricky areas

• Button groove speeds up ironing along buttons and seams - The button groove makes ironing along buttons and seams fast and easy.
• Pointed tip for ironing tricky areas - The uniquely pointed tip allows you to iron even the hardest to reach areas.

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Full control

• Iron temperature-ready light - Indicator light goes off when the required ironing temperature has been reached.

When I was in the store trying to make up my mind, the other one I was also considering is one from Electrolux. 

www.electrolux.co.id - EDI 120

This one is cheaper IDR 204,000 but I really cannot get over the blue plastic plate which is not any better from the rest of the iron the store is displaying. Even the steam iron which cost double from the one I bought comes in those plastic look. These household manufacturers better come up with a better product design in the future, don't you think?

Colorful plastic  dry iron, I can not get over the look. Seriously?