Dining Room Design (Edited: Take 2)

The dining room I have in mind would be simple and heavily used. HDB gave us this idea

I'd love to have my dining room look like this:

Designer

 

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Designers

I'd like to bring down half the wall of the kitchen near the shelter but still make my lower half cabinet as per normal. Dining table then placed with the width perpendicular to the wall or with enough walking space I'd like to get a table similar to the 2nd pic, a bench pressed flush against the wall with a glass topped table and central legs to give a greater illusion of space.

The turquoise walls still remain like so:

With a clear glass table kinda like this

with an easy-to-clean bench on one side

And a lighting fixture like so 

And the thing I love mostest is that the lightings can be bought right here in sg.

Living Room Ideas

As I've mentioned previously, my crazy colour palette looks something like this

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From other online sources, I know my house will b a mirror image of this

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It's tiny i know but I can dream big right? haha... SO i've decided that the house will look like this:

1. Walls coloured like this:

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Dark grey on the eastern wall where the TV is most prolly gonna be and turquoise everywhere else. I don't want things looking too formal thus the lighter colour choice. 

2. Sofa like this 

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Or if this is too big or I can't find something suitable I'll get something like this

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3. Light fixture like this

Eclectic Living Room design by Atlanta Interior Designer Niki Papadopoulos

4. Shelving to have this idea

Modern Living Room design by Other Metro Photographer Elad Gonen & Zeev Beech

Except mine would be purple where there is green, grey where there is purple and turquoise where there is grey. hahahaha.

5. Moroccan accessories like

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Turquoise on the wall, grey on the eastern wall, purple shelves, pale grey sofa, turquoise and purple pillows with gold embroidery on some, bronzy gold table lamps, kulfic basmalah on eastern wall nearer to dining area, area rug, artwork above the sofa on the western wall and a clock. I'm not happy with the clock. Will look for more.

Toodles!

Halal Eats: Barcelos Review

For our 1st yr engagement anniversary, he brought me for a simple lunch at Barcelos at vivo city.

We ordered a plate of chicken stir fry, 1/2 chicken with a side of fries (his) & grill potatoes (mine) and a can of iced tea and coke each (no more free flow).

Verdict:
- Chicken:: Good but cold inside. Not BRRRRRRRR fridge cold but just room temperature.
- Sides: Potatoes were simple and good (they had mushrooms so heh you can't go wrong there). Fries were disappointing though. I was hoping for some home made goodness but they gave me sad KFC fries.
- Chicken stir fry: I could not get one decent picture of it. It was too embarrassed to take a picture so it's not here. It was sad, salty and had more vegetables chicken and rice put together. It tastes like my 5 mins fried rice that uses the knorr chicken stock. it was SAAAAAD.

It hasn't always been like this though. When I was there a year ago, the food was going down but it wasn't too bad and they still had free flow drinks but if I compare it to the first 5 times I went just after it went halal, the food today had NOTHING compared to what it was then.

We paid $36.90 plus another $4 for drinks (no, they didnt have a set menu). It's a mid-range price to pay for sad sad food. I don't think we'll be coming back here again anytime soon.

PS: Ramen Ten at harbourfront centre is no more! BOOOOOO!

Growing your own food

My aunt was asking for reliable seed suppliers. When I remembered this video I watched on urban farming.

Can you imagine being able to grow your own food? They were able to grow their own food in about 400 sq metres of land. That's about 4 times the size of my home but still ever hopeful, I asked my best friend, google, for more information. Lo and behold. I stumbled upon this veggie pipes thing.

I thought it's a really creative way to plant your own plants considering the amount of space we have. I envision having this to grow my herbs in the service yard since I don't think it's legal to have a window box. DIY project in Dec 2014/2015 maybe. 

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All you need are:

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Literature

AVA PDF

So it IS possible to grow your own food. Just need to be a little creative. :D

My Home

So even before receiving the keys to my home, I've started going crazy with the ideas. I think I've settled on some things.

Floor Plan

Colour inspiration:

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So there's turquoise grey gold and purple! Chances are the accent wall will be grey while the living room walls are turquoise. I thought of painting the whole living room grey but it'll be too formal and I'm not too sure about the lighting...I'll throw in the other colours somewhere. So it'll be 60% turquoise 30% gold/grey 10% purple

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Check out this sexy beast of a bedroom. Purple walls, dark grey furniture for me and turquoise accents 60% purple, 30% gold-grey, 10% turquoise

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The two extra rooms will have the 60% pale grey walls, 30% turquoise and 10% purple some place

From all the rich lovely colours you would have guessed that my design theme is ALL THINGS MARRAKECH! haha. I loved the colour and life while I was there. 

Check out this luxe purple bathroom that I can never do

Mediterranean Bathroom design by Austin Moroccan Design

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So that's the idea at the moment..

Book Suggestion 5

Books are an excellent exam resource. Not allowing your child reading time when preparing for the examinations is akin to asking your child not to speak when preparing for oral examinations. Reading is important. Don't forget that what's more important is discussing what you've read.

I picked up this book just now at SK. I thought it would be boring but I was wrong. I just had to relax and give it a chance.

The Unforgotten Coat by Frank Cottrell Boyce

Synopsis: Walking to America? From Mongolia? Is that even possible? Demons? Do they really exist? Discover the journey these 3 children take as they learn about each other during that moments their lives cross.

Ham and Cheese Bread Roll

I think I'm getting the hang of things. Made another ham and cheese bun but it turned out better this time around. I changed up this recipe a little... I think I've got a winner!

Ingredients:

2 cups bread flour
1 tsp yeast
1/4 cup lukewarm water
1/2 cup lukewarm milk
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp butter
1/2 lightly whisked egg
(Conserve other half as egg wash)



Directions

1. Mix up the yeast salt and water and let it froth.
2. Mix up the sugar salt and flour in a separate bowl
3. Pour in the yeast mixture and egg followed by the milk slowly.
4. Knead for about 5 minutes.
5. Mix in the butter and REALLY have a go at kneading it
6. Leave it to rise for an hour
7. Divide into 16 small balls.
8. Fill them up and leave them on the trays for another hour
9. 180 degrees for 20 mins.. :)

Breakfast Buns

So I've been on a roll with all the bread making. I started off with the egg buns followed by the tuna buns and last night was ham and cheese. I think I'm getting the hang of things alhamdulillah!

These are my over-hard tuna buns. I think I got too excited with the kneading. I finally got the hang of it with this recipe. I was super thankful for the photos to kinda guide me along. UNFORTUNATELY, I forgot to take a picture. Maybe next time aye?

I adapted the recipe and came up with

300g Bread flour

2 tsp active yeast

100g warm water

90ml milk

1 slightly whisked egg

10g sugar

1 tsp salt

30 g softened butter

Method:

1. Mix warm water and yeast and leave aside until it bubbles

2. In another bowl, mix flour, sugar and salt

3. Form a well in the middle and pour in yeast and egg. Slowly add in milk as necessary. 

4. Once all kneaded, add in butter and knead again

5. Leave it for an hour to proof.

6. Separate into 16 portions. Leave to rise for 30 minutes

7. Fill in up with filling of choice before leaving it to rise for another 30 mins

8. Brush with egg yellow

8. Bake at 170C for 15 mins

Enjoy!