A special friend gave birth last October to a baby boy and this was my present to her and her lil munchkin.
Hang, ready, snap! Had to take a photo before it goes…
And off it goes…
May Allah protect you dear baby Nafez.
- Mar
- 30
- 2012
living 101
So I finally managed to finish off our living room. I kept changing my mind and the decor along the way but I knew I’ve always wanted a bright, serene room hence no wallpaper or paint was used. The furniture and decor speak for themselves. The reason why I changed it 101 times is because going from a newborn who pretty much doesn’t touch anything to having a super energetic toddler, I had to remove/reposition many decor items. They either were given away, stored in the garage or placed at a higher level. I also had to be careful to not over-do or under-do in terms of decoration. And also because most items are not brand-new-straight-from-the-stores-costing-me-a-bomb, it took me a while to source them. I did quite a bit of research and looked around second hand shops/ebay/gumtree and even managed to scavenge things found on the street. This is me and I am proud of it, I simply love recyclable materials!
Our living room is not the best shaped room for a living/lounge… very rectangular and long, which makes furniture positioning a bit tricky. If you see the before photo, two pieces of bulky furniture were placed in front of each other making the room feel tight and crowded. Of course when you have guests, that’s probably the way to go however this wasn’t our concern. We (the family) spend more time in this house so we had to make it a functional space for us to live in. We wanted the TV right in front of our comfy couch. Yes! That dark brown couch is super comfy. And sorry, I wasn’t able to fit a picture of the TV in the photo, but just imagine it sitting opposite the brown couch. Considering the living room is pretty small, we could fit 7 sitting people without it looking crowded. Woohoo, problem solved!
The old wall gas heater is not fully working and it would cost us an arm and a leg to get it replaced, so we decided to scrap that and position a light beige couch in front of it. More space saving for us! We also installed a split system heating/cooling above the fireplace and are now looking to get underfloor ducted heating throughout the house. Melbourne can get very cold in winter and one heater isn’t going to heat up a whole house!
You can find the post for this hand sewn ‘love’ cushion here. Note: I did not make the cushion cover, it came with one of the couches we bought from Gumtree.
For the mantel piece decor, I made this lovely frame with chalk writing and the post can be found here. Its very easy, just pick up a frame from a second hand store or a timber yard.
I am yet to make a post about this gorgeous timber scrap “Bismillah” art, which translates to ” In the name of Allah” in Arabic. I hope you’ve been thoroughly inspired. Its nothing glamorous, just a simple and functional space as I like to call it.
1 lovely comment
Categories: architecture/interior, before + after, décor, house 101, in my home, living/lounge
- Mar
- 29
- 2012
scones with strawberry jam and whipped cream
I’m so sorry! I’ve been procrastinating for far too long now. You could blame it on my morning sickness, Alhamdulillah I’m 6+ months pregnant now, and experienced horrible morning sickness till 4+ months. It took another month or so for me to get back into my cooking/crafting/organising mojo. I’ve got heaps of posts on standby waiting to be published and here is one for today.
Who can resist good’ol traditional baked scones with a bit of jam and whipped cream? I sure can’t! These are mouth watering and perfect for breakkie on the weekends with your loved ones.
RECIPE FOR BASIC SCONES
Adapted from Taste
Serves: 16
Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 20-25 minutesIngredients
Plain flour, for dusting
3 cups self raising flour
80 gram butter, cubed (at room temperature)
1 to 1 1/4 cups milk
strawberry jam and whipped cream, to serve
Method
1. Preheat oven to 200°C. Dust 2 flat baking trays lightly with flour.
2. Then sift the self-raising flour into a large bowl. Using your fingertips, rub butter into flour until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
3. Make a well in the centre. Add 1 cup of milk. Mix with a flat-bladed knife until mixture forms a soft dough, adding more milk if required. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Knead gently until smooth (don’t knead dough too much or scones will be tough).
4. Pat dough into a 2cm-thick round. Using a 5cm (diameter) round cutter, cut out 12 rounds. Press dough together and cut out remaining 4 rounds. Place scones onto prepared baking trays, 1cm apart. Sprinkle tops with a little plain flour.
5. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden and well risen. Transfer to a wire rack. Serve warm with strawberry jam and cream.
- Dec
- 03
- 2011
chicken soup and on being sick!
Please accept my apologies for the lack of post over the last couple of weeks, I have been sick, terribly sick- that the thought of food and consuming it, makes it even worst! Hence why I have not updated this blog. But at least I can have some hearty winter soup eventhough its summer here! So if you’ve got a few soup recipes up your sleeves, kindly do share them with me. I’m always on the lookout for more recipes!
RECIPE FOR CHICKEN SOUP WITH CABBAGE
Adapted from my stepmumServes: 4
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 1 hourIngredients
1 chicken breast, cut into small pieces
50g dried rice vermicelli
4 cups chicken stock
1/4 cup chopped spring onions (to garnish)
3 tbsp fried shallots (to garnish)
2 eggs
1/4 cabbage, shredded thinly
salt and pepper, to tasteMethod
1. Bring to a boil the chicken breast pieces in a pot of chicken stock.
2. Add in the cabbage, vermicelli and simmer for 45 minutes.
3. Crack the eggs but do not stir. Leave for 5 minutes before seasoning it with salt and pepper and the other garnishes.
4. Serve immediately while hot.
- Nov
- 21
- 2011
back entry 101
Welcome. This is the back entry to our home aka the shoe room. Yes, we go in and out through the back door. Its much easier as this is where we store all our shoes. The front entrance has not been touched yet as we still need to figure out what we want to do with it. We’ll come to that soon…the joys of renovating are never ending!
This picture was taken just after my husband started ripping out the 40 year old wallpaper (that was glued on the brick masonry wall). Sorry for the poor quality photo, it was taken with an iPhone (of course). I am pretty dissapointed that I didn’t get a photo of the wallpaper while it was still attached. This shoe room/entry reno was a spur of the moment thing. I walked out one day and realised he started ripping it off. No time to get the camera out!
A bit of scavenging from the garage and we have ourselves a wooden welcome rustic sign. Now this area has definitely brightened up 10 times more than what it was before.
Catch more glimpses of our home renovation with before and after photos, here.
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