This is the biggest piece of furniture (so far) we bought from Ikea - 202cm tall, not to mention very heavy too. It has 3 colors, I picked white to match with my white computer desk.
I think I'm not only in love with Ikea furnitures, I'm addicted to fix my own furnitures too!
I like it big, simple and flexible, the shelves in between are adjustable to different heights to fit files, magazines and books of different sizes.
Another thing I like about it is the nice curve fitting at the bottom of the shelf, which allow it to 'lean' against the wall without a little gap.
We weren't aware of this when we saw the display set and we thought it was a defect when we took out the pieces of planks from the box :p
It's not only a book shelf, it can be an elegant display cabinet when glass doors are fixed to it. Thinking of getting another one to be placed beside it :)
I decided to sew curtains for all the windows in my house. Meassured the length and width and bought the material from Kamdar. But for months, I only managed to complete the ones for my living hall and my room - too busy with work, life, and dogs.
When I first completed for the living hall, I got very excited (my first time sewing curtains) but when I hung it I went 'Oh no!~', it was dragging on the floor, almost could be the backdrop for photo studio. It was left dragging until I finally got some free time to alter it.
I reckon almost everything is hard to build but easy to destroy, except sewings. It took me 1/2 hour to unpick it, the re-sewing only took 10 minutes.
Yet, after first time alteration, it was still a little too long. It's either my measuring technique or sewing technique is lousy, or blame it on the tool :p The first time I used the plastic sewing measuring tape, the second time I used the retractable metal measuring tape (as I think it's more accurate as it can stay 'steady' when it's locked) and I finally got it right, yeah~
This was the only day I am a model changing many pretty dresses and stand on the platform for people to admire :)
We engaged RedBliss as our wedding photo album shooting back in February during the bridal fair in MidValley. We were only able to go for gown testing today as all the previous weekends were booked - good business huh~
We booked for the earliest time slot - 11AM, we reached even earlier, the staffs were cleaning and tidying up the place waiting for customers. I flipped through the gowns, all are so pretty, I was tempted to try all. I ended up trying on around 20 gowns to pick 5 for photo shooting and 2 for the actual day ceremony and dinner. For my package, I was allowed to choose any dresses from their collection, but only allowed to choose 1 wedding gown and 1 evening gown from the Gown for Sale section - marketing gimmick, the more you pay, the more you get to choose so called 'special' gowns. But I even had difficulty choosing (and eliminating) the 'normal' gowns upstairs .
This was the first gown I tried on. I have seen a friend of mine wore something like that and thought it was elegant. This is from the Gown for Sale section, I gave this up because I 'had' to pick another wedding gown from this section.
Another elegant gown from Gown for Sale section, but it was a little too plain for photo shooting.
After trying on so many wedding gowns, I had made my mind on: This for indoor photo shooting, wedding gown from the For Sale section. I love the exaggerated-big skirt (we call it the layered-cake skirt), with the bling-bling on the top, it's like a princess dress!
This for outdoor photo shooting. Simple and light, easy to walk/run/jump in it. I hope there will be clear blue sky during the shooting day and the blue beads around the neckline will be a pretty match with the sky.
This for actual day ceremony. I love the pink (if it's red then it will be PERFECT!) flower sewing at the bottom of the skirt, and it looks a bit like chinese traditional cheong sum, with a high hip-cut at the side. I picked this because it's easy to walk around in it, and comfortable to sit / go in and out of the car / bow for tea ceremony.
Next was to choose evening gowns, 3 for photo shooting, 1 for actual day. Choosing evening gown was confusing, so many designs, so many colors, I have to give up so many nice dresses!
This was my first choice, I love the sweet pink, the and furry little pin in the center.
This was worn by a model shooting for their 'For Sale Gown' album. The 'evil-looking' collar can be removed and the gown will look more 'decent' :p We called it the vampire gown. I love it at first sight. But it doesn't fit me well (or rather, I don't fit in well). The tailor said it can be altered but it will not look nice when close-ups. So have to give this up. The sales personnel were nice to allow me to wear it a little longer, haha).
This was one gown that made us 'Wow~' for at least 10 times.
I love that too. But I had to give it up too as I wanted this even more (I don't want to have gowns with same color that makes the album looks boring). It has 2 ways of wearing it - without the small jacket it looks like another princess dress, with the small jacket it looks so ancient-victorian, I always love it! If it wasn't because of the jacket, I wouldn't have chosen it.
So my choice of evening gown from the For Sale section was this - a mermaid gown. Again I love it's exaggerating-ness.
It was a tiring 3-hour gown testing session, hungry and thirsty, and what I've learned for gown testing were: 1. Book for the earliest time slot and reach there early, then you can pick all the nice dresses and try on it slowly. Another girl came in later than us, and I was holding most of the For Sale gowns. If we were late we might not be able to choose as many or we need to wait longer. If you are going to RedBliss too, going early makes sure that you get the bigger fitting room and big sofa set in front of it for the comfort of your partner/friend/parents that are going with you.
2. It will be a longgggggggg session, make sure you had your meal. Don't be an angry woman when trying on the gowns, everything will look bad too.
3. Bring those who have same taste in dresses to pick the gowns with you. Or you won't be able to pick any - too many people, too many comments. The girl at the next room seemed spending more time to get mutual agreement with her mother.
4. Photo taking are not allowed in most of the bridal shop during gown testing. We did it with my phone camera in a least obvious way. But the sales personnel that attended to us just pretended she didn't know, however, she warned us not to let others see or they will have a hard time controlling another group that came for gown testing too. You won't be able to take photo on your own in the fitting room as the sales personnel comes in to help to zip the dress and bring you out, and help unzip the dress in the fitting room and leave you to allow you to change - in short, there won't be a time you have a dress worn decently in the fitting room.
Anyway, it's a day you can be Amber Chia, so enjoy it!
I tried on a pair of gold color heels in Vincci and a pair of Santa Barbara heels in MidValley, then went through all shoe boutiques in The Gardens and Sunway Pyramid. Eventually, I got my pair from Lewré in One Utama.
I like the design of its embedded bling-bling in the shoe, although it's not real diamond or not even Swarovski (they do have shoes with Swarovski but I didn't buy those).
It's 3 inches high, but it is comfortable to wear and walk in.
I saw a few pairs in other boutiques too, but most of those satin shoes seemed old and stained, even it was a new pair from the box. I think I should start surveying how to take care mine.
During our Twister game last weekend, many said that this game benefits those who practices Yoga. I'm half-agreed. It's true that one needs the flexibility to stretch, and the strength to hold own body with only palms and feet on the ground. Flexibility and strength can be achieved by practicing Yoga and other exercises, and it depends on individual (some might be borned with super flexibility without practicing).
One of the pose they reminded me of is the Table Top pose (an easy version of Purvottanasana), as most of the time (in this game) this pose comes handy - placing hands in front of the body is something we used to do, but placing hands behind without sitting on the ground is something we don't usually like to do.
During my first few practices of this pose, I thought it required lots of arm strength. Now I came to realize that, the correct way (or more comfortable-for-wrist way) is to lift the body up using the hips strength. So I always remind my class to use more of the hips to lift up instead of depending only on the arms, so that it doesn't strain too much on the shoulders, elbows and wrists.
However, Twister doesn't only require these, because there will be many hands and legs coming in between blocking your way, it requires creativity too! I want to play it again~
It was meant to be a gathering of colleagues and ex-colleagues, it turned out to be more a dog event than a human event - 11 of us, with 5 dogs. We had BaiBai the Spitz, Dagger the mongrel, Jan the mongrel, Yumi the Shih Tzu and Mocha (AKA the King) the Chihuahua, a mixture of everything. Courtesy of Lydia - half of the group.
We stayed in a double storey bungalow, 4 bedrooms 3 bathrooms 1 kitchen and 1 swimming pool.
This was the second time BaiBai went to A' Famosa, Dagger's first time. But they both settled down and mixed around soon after we reached.
We mingled for a while, fed the dogs, then went out to have dinner at Tampin, bringing Mocha along.
After dinner, despite the rain, we drove south to Malacca. Food in Jonker Walk was our motivation. The rain begun to stop when we reached there. It was still drizzling a little but obviously the crowd there (and us) didn't mind. We sat down and had Cendol in one of the dessert shop, and all of us bought some food to eat along the way and some for supper. I personally went there for Abacus Beads (Suan Pan Zi).
We left Jonker Walk about an hour later. We passed by the Malacca River when we were walking towards our cars. We saw a Ferris Wheel at the other side of the river.
All were discussing whether it was the Eye of Malaysia - some said yes, some said it's too small to be the Eye of Malaysia. Anyway we gave up guessing and decided to Google about it when we come back.
We headed back to our bungalow, let the dogs out to do their final 'business' for the night, and we all gathered in the hall eating, drinking and Guitar Hero-ing. The dogs were busy walking around the house.
In pyjama, time for bed.
The next morning, BaiBai woke up (and woke me up) at 7:30 as usual. It was a pretty sunny morning, let them out at the yard and they had their satisfied morning walk.
Dagger had run off the leash once and we almost lost her, so we are very careful when we bring her out for walk. The yard of the bungalow we stayed in was fenced up with brick walls, so we were very sure and felt safe to let her loose and run about. We had a great time watching her exploring the yard :)
Dogs had all their fun, and the fun for us started after breakfast, when we wanted to pack and check out, we decided to have a game of Twister before we leave. I saw this game on TV a few times, watching others play is always fun, and it was REALLY fun when I tried it myself. We had great laughs and I think the dogs must be laughing in their hearts too. Courtesy of Lydia - Dogs: What are they doing?
Courtesy of Lydia - Trying really hard not to get kicked out of the game.
Courtesy of Lydia - Only palms and feet can touch the floor, really tiring.
Courtesy of Lydia - Everyone was laughing, those who were playing and those who were watching. I laughed my tears out while playing.
It was a great trip and I love going A' Famosa not because of the Water Park or Safari or the Cowboy Town, it's because we can have holiday with our pets :) Hope we can discover more places like this.
