Coming Soon

Just like any owner of a new house, we are now trying to furnish ours. My husband already bought us some appliances like water heater, kitchen hob and its exhaust, and some other things that I don't even think I have seen yet. But I'm pretty certain that we still have a few items we need to purchase before we can actually run a household.

Since we're on a budget, I think we need to learn what is the basic home appliances we need to have so we can prioritize our purchase. I googled around and find this list from this website.

I. Major appliances 

1. Refrigerator
2. Stove or cooking range
3. Microwave
4. Laundry appliances

I opt to leave out the last two appliances which are freezer, which buying a separate freezer from a refrigerator is really not an option for us and dishwasher, which is not commonly used here. 

Here are what we bought for now :

www.samsung.com - Samsung Refrigerator RT32FARCDSA

We bought the fridge because my husband like the recessed handle and he thinks that the price still fit our budget. I personally think that I was not ready to spend that much on a fridge but since we are going to locate this fridge in a place that is noticeable from all angle in the first floor of our house, my husband, who happens to be the interior designer of our house (deh) consider that this is an appropriate choice. The recessed handle does make the fridge look more modern with its smooth metal graphite finish. 

www.samsung.com - Samsung Refrigerator RT32FARCDSA

With that baby, comes along this one :

www.electrolux.co.id - Electrolux Washing Machines EWT704S

I wish I can tell you guys that I have done deep research on those two products and both that we have purchased are the ones I see fit to our requirements and budget. No, I did not do any research at all before purchasing those two babies. For something that is considerably costly, I think I should have done better. 

That is why for my next purchase of home appliances, I made this table like this one :

Comparison table for buying guide 

Hopefully I will have the time and energy to make such comparison for other purchase we are planning to make for our house.

Brick 'n White

Remember that brick wall I showed you in my first post? I obviously got the wrong idea of what my husband would like to make out of that wall. I thought he would paint it white. It turns out that we will not stain the brick wall and just leave it in its natural color. 

So, instead of referring to the previous image reference, I try to find a more relevant images, like these ones :

www.increation.co.uk 

I like the image above mainly because the white color of the table setting because the color of the brick wall are in the same tone as the color of the table & bench. For me, the balancing factor is the white color on the door on the right and the tableware. 

www.houzz.com

I seriously considering having some furniture in white color, seeing the combination look so good in both images above. 

www.wandaelyarchitect.com

www.charlieandcodesign.com

We are still in the process of furnishing the new house so I make a mental note to myself that although it maybe tempting to have colorful dining ware, it is best that we only use plain white items in our dining room. 

www.crateandbarrel.com - Staccatao 20 Piece Dinnerware Set

www.potterybarn.com - Great White Coupe Dinnerware

I found this great post about places where you can buy dinnerware with reasonable price. I can see my self paying those places a visit in a near future. 

Richelle's Blush

As I mentioned in an earlier post, one of the focus of this blog will be my effort to keep up with memory keeping. After Baby Rachel was born, I was introduced to Becky Higgins's Project Life. Project Life is a form of scrap-booking or you may say a system of memory keeping which includes putting photos and pre-designed journal cards into plastic photo pockets. So what you need are :

www.beckyhiggins.com

For more information on Project Life, you can go here

Since my beautiful niece is now live in Singapore, I have asked her to buy Project Life Baby Edition for Richelle because obviously we cannot find the products here. 

Project Life Binder Blush Edition, Project Life Mini Kit Baby Edition for Her, Project Life Big Variety Pack A

Project Life Binder - Blush Edition

I think I will get start to prepare Richelle's Baby Book this weekend. I can put all the photo pockets into the binder and start making sketches of photos I would like to use in this binder.

Since Richelle will only use the mini kit version of Project Life Baby Edition, I think I'm going to use a baby kit I bought in one of a scrapbook store here. I bought it thinking that I'm going to need more of fancy paper or embellishment to put in Rachel's baby book. I was wrong. Rachel's Project Life binder was bulky half way finish.

Additional kit for Richelle's Project Life

My mistake with Rachel's Baby Book was I was so excited printing too many photos of her which result in a bulky binder by the time Rachel was 7 months. So I think I want to plan Richelle's in advance.

I actually love planning my Project Life when I'm choosing which photos i will use in the binder. The sketch may look something like this : 

Excuse the background photo. You can still see my sketches, right?

Going Red, Black, and White in the Future

For the not-so-successful Rachel's first birthday party, I actually set a ladybug party theme. Unfortunately, I couldn't execute it well enough. I did, however bought these following items from www.celebrationpeak.com

1. Ladybug party banner

www.celebrationpeak.com

2. Ladybug fancy high chair kit

www.celebrationpeak.com

3. Ladybug fancy plastic table cover

www.celebrationpeak.com

4. Classic Red plastic table cover

www.celebrationpeak.com

So basically, these are the decorative items that I have 

From left to right : Classic Red plastic table cover, Ladybug fancy plastic table cover, Ladybug fancy high chair kit, Ladybug party banner

I have red, black, and white items I maybe able to use for future parties. I will now google any theme that may match my existing party items.

Do you have any suggestion?

Expecting Number 2

I know that I am not writing as much as I have intent to early this year. Well, honestly, I wasn't writing that much anyway so you can have a pretty good idea what my journal looks like.

Anyway, I am giving blogging another shot because I am now 3 months due to my second baby and am starting to imagine what are the things I can do in my 3-months maternity leave.
Basically the things I would like to commit myself to:

1. Having a blog

For my blog, I would like to stick to the following topics :

(1). Decorating my new house

Tangerang, August 2013 

This is how the first floor of my new house looks like last Saturday. I'm sorry for the terrible image quality since I took this one with my phone camera.

source : www.unitdesignstudio

It would be nice to have the before picture turns into just like the image above. We have been planning to use white brick background in the living room. I hope our new living room can be at least photo-worthy.

(2). Planning and executing my baby(ies) birthday party 

I know Rachel's first birthday was not a success in terms of planning and execution. Although I have my pregnancy and our moving as the perfect excuses, I feel that I owe it to Rachel and her little sister to throw better parties in the future.

source : www.shoptinytiaraparties.com, www.glorioustreats.com, www.inacard.com, www.pinkcakebox.com

source : as mentioned above

2. Having a memory keeper

By memory keeper I mean scrapbooks. I have started one for Rachel which is still incomplete. I have been using Project Life for her baby book. You can learn more about Project Life here. 

Rachel's Project Life from her Two Moths left page along with my Project Life Baby Edition For Her Kit and Clementine Edition. In the back is my Project Life Binder Clementine Edition

Rachel's Project Life Title Page

I actually aim high for this one because of this post in Becky's blog. I always believe that I need a creative outlet for my self and Becky's product provide me just that. But having read that post, I believe that I may be serving a greater goal if I can be persistent in building memory keepers for my family. 

Project Life 2013 Clementine Edition - Title Page

As you can see, I have not yet use many from my Clementine kit. I confess, I only finished the first week of 2013. What a challenge to catch up, don't you think?

So dear readers, wish me luck on my journey here.