Summer home improvement - 1

Finally summer is here after the super rainy-flooding period,
however this summer is kinda having a mood swing,
sometimes it will be really sunny and hot like in Singapore,
sometimes it will be rainy and cold like autumn...
Since its our first summer in the new home,
we try our best to use often our little terrace..

First of all,
i finally bought a lying chair for the husband and a big umbrella,
and it gave a more "holiday" feeling to our terrace.
I can totally understand how if you live once in a home with terrace/garden/balcony,
your future homes will need to have the same,
is truly nice to have a little outdoor area for home!

Secondly, 
Husband started his new "hobby" to gardening,
he is kind of forced to save the plants we have.
Well, i like to water plants and admire them,
but when it comes to dealing with soil with bugs in them, 
i am definitely not interested.
I dont know is it the dust from car or the bakery chimney above us,
our terrace'q floor gets dirty really fast,
so i bought a watering pipes to easily water plants and clean floor
woah, sound like we have a big garden huh...
anyway, roses left by the previous owner are growing very fine...

Summer is usually the time people take holidays 

and the time to repair or improve their home.

For me, im just itchy backside and wanted to change things at home,

there are plenty of things i can fix eg peeling paint...

but im just interested to decorate the home aka spending money.

Since husband bought me a new sewing maching,

we decided to bring out an old study table that i hid in our storage cave,

to put in our geek corner to be my sewing corner,

and we had the crazy idea to refinish the wooden table

that is supposedly older than husband and with scribbles from young sisters in law.

We do not have the professional sanding tools,

so it was quite a painful experience to sand the table with sand paper,

but i think husband is very proud of  the final product!

i admit, husband did more than me for the table..haha

We still have an old wooden dining table,

but i dont think we will refinish it soon...

Maybe i watching too many house selling tv programme,

or im crazy, or im bored, 

but Im trying to do or find something to occupy the upper walls of our small living room

I feel there are enough stuff on the floor 

that kinda lacks tall or long stuff to bring lengthen the room vision.

okay, i dont know the right way to say it.

I love industrial home design but husband felt its too cold and lack homely feel,

now i dont know what is our living room design concept,

and i just want to buy or do things to change...

arrgh...

My first attempt was i saw these table mates having 50% off

and i have an old long frame in the storage cave,
so i decided to cut the mats and pretend they are old tiles in a frame!
it looks good, but didnt really fit into the living room
and ends up in the bedroom...

I guess there will be more home improvements coming soon!!!

apartment improvement

Our apartment may be small
A simple 2 room apartment
But still comfortable for 2
Especially after reading and hearing
About tiny parisian apartments
With shared bathroom and no cooking area
So im grateful 
for our attached kitchen and bathroom

Since husband stayed here for 6 years
Is a typical bachelor pad
So I started the slow process to convert it
Into a couple home
With diy tricks and projects

From invisible bookcases
To rearrangement of furniture
The biggest spending and project will be
building the new wardrobe, cabinet, cupboard!

Wardrobe is the main focus
Because we only have a 1m wardrobe to share
With 80% filled with husband stuff...
While most of my clothes were hanging 
on a rack
Can imagine how messy it was!

For weeks, We have been searching online for 
an affordable bigger wardrobe
But many times disappointed 
When the prices were too high
Or sold out

In the end,
I made the decision
To buy everything from ikea!

We spent a weekend to build all
And gave the bedroom a new look
Definitely a lot better witg more storage space
No more messy corners of stuff!

With all the new furniture

The room looks brighter with the white

Compared to the yellow walls

I guess the apartnent "renovation" 

Can stop for now....

The day before the wedding

So came the day before the wedding
All was packed 
We were ready to leave the appartment
The future father in law was to help us send more stuff to the dinner venue
But we were late, missed the train 
And had to delay them..
Not a good start
But things went off as planned
With slight delay.

Then came the crazy time
On trying to secure the bears 
So that we can tie them to the bear
The outcome was not perfect
But it was too late to do anything else
Cant go florist to do alternative flowers to car
Since it was valentines day

Then was a mad rush to meet fiance cousin
But his grandparents and aunt were around
So we had a quick drink
Which helped to calm my nerves

Due to the delay and time spent
We had to postpone our vday dinner reservations
But also came up the option to have dinner with the family

Then was another episode of madness
To secure the bears onto the car
I was really unhappy with the outcome
Because the bears looked strangled
And was thinking to have them removed
But everyone was trying so hard
That doesnt seems like an option

I had a time out from car decorations
And went outside with aven
This is when i broke down
Maybe is the wedding anxiety
Or stress
Or how i have not check in hotel
I felt everything was not going well
And tomorrow wont be fine
Aven has to try to clam the bride-to-be down

I didnt see the outcome of the car
But fiance rest assured that is fine
We finally checked in the hotel
Because i insisted to do so before dinner
Thereafter i declined the family dinner

Fiance suggested to go for a walk
And it gave us time to speak
Furthee calmed me down
We ended up with macdonalds for vday dinner
But i apreciated the alone time with him
And received my vday present!

Finally the time came for us to leave
I went back hotel feeling better
And he went for a drink with his cousin

I didnt plan on my bridal hairstyle
So i decided to braid my hair to sleep
And hope that it will be curly tomorrow

I had been trying to skype with my family
The whole day but they were busy
Finally at 230am i managed to skype with them
And it made me felt a lot better

So i went to bed at 3am
As the bride-to-be with 2 braided buns 

To be continued...

wedding car

it was difficult to decide for the wedding car
we didnt want to rent a car
so we decided for the cousin car
then came the realiation that is a 2-doors car
not really bride-friendly
but i guess we stick with it

so to decorate the car
the florist decoration were not really impressive
unlike singapore
they looked more like a bouquet of flowers on the car
and the bouquet looks like what you present to a guest of honor
or present presentation style
and non v-day price was euro100!

so we were for a long serach of bears and ribbons
we finally found the bears and ribbons
but now i need figure out 
how to ensure they dont flew away on the expressway..
hmmm..

oh the store-owner told us that we bought
Scott and Sarah..
how cute is that?


 

 

Our wedding invitation cards

After the many virtual discussion 
with the invitation card printers
our invitation cards are finally ready
and sent out!

The print came out as how we visualised it
so its great
and everyone received them now!

Pic credit: Audrey

Our DIY wedding preparations

Being unemployed and want to personalise our wedding
also, to reduce wedding spending
we came up with ideas to DIY wedding stuff
eg Make my own hair and makeup for the day
to making videos, table decorations..

Sometimes i do feel the pressure
Not really that confident in my creative arts
but fiance is nice to always assure that what im doing is nice
just that it can be stressful to create things on my own
especially when i dont know where to buy things i need

Since we are requesting guests to give angbaos for the wedding
we need a gift box for the guests
again, it was difficult to find a box we like
so is DIY time!

It was crazy to draw with my fingers' injuries
but quite pleased with the end results!

Bisous..

Wedding Invitations

It started with my idea to create our own invitation card
so that it can be personalise
i created a email version to be sent out to our guests 
to book the date

Which was not too difficult
just microsoft words & PDF
a few versions were created
and we chose this

Translated:
18.07.12 - He stole her heart
31.05.13 - And popped the question
15.02.14 - So, she stole his last name

After we confirmed our wedding venue
the fiance had the idea
for me to draw our invitation card
finally, it is in process of printing...

 


 















However, the photo seems grey
despite our attempts to take a better photo of it
like holding 2 lights
under the window etc etc
that i toyed with the crazy idea to draw all the invitation cards
lucky the fiance is still dane to send it for print
hopefully the hardcopy will be fine..