Kitchen Appliances

i've always wanted a fully functional kitchen equipped with all types of appliances. my old kitchen was excellent, i had a huge island which i used for practically everything, from unloading groceries to cutting and chopping to feeding the boys to doing arts & crafts to even getting them to take their naps on it. it was the centre of action but i didn't have time to fully utilize it, especially for cooking.

so when we moved, i tried to transform the dream into reality, have a kitchen that i would use regularly…on a daily basis. and in order to do that, the lazy me needs a lot, and i mean a lot!, of kitchen appliances. my list is probably as long as the list of furniture for the whole house. of course, not everything can be ticked off due to budget constraints, of course.

for now, i've gotten these items. and they're very helpful. i definitely want more and the space begs to be filled but for now, i'm happy with what i have.

juicer
i wanted this for so, so long. i love fruits and juices. i'm not adventurous and don't eat a lot of types of fruits but what i like, i eat in massive quantities. i'm a very basic fruit eater - apples, oranges, grapes, strawberries, grapefruits, mangoes the like. i hardly venture out of my comfort zone. the juicer i bought is being utilized for just general juices but is being utilized regardless.

i was recommended a breville juicer but i couldn't find it when i went shopping. i got myself a philips instead. its easy to use, very fast, easy to clean and assemble (except for one part) and is very clean.

toaster
my eyes lit up when i saw this 4-slice toaster. morphy richards have a range of bright and attractive coloured toasters but the 4-slice was the deciding factor. we are bread-eaters and my boys are impatient. to be able to toast 4 slices of bread at one is wonderful.

kettle
this kettle came as a matching set to the toaster. nothing significant on why i bought this other than ariff wanted red appliances for the whole kitchen.

blender
i ordered this online when i saw it was from the same range as the toaster & the kettle. i'm still waiting for it to arrive, soon, hopefully.

mixer
i was torn between the stand mixer and hand mixer. to own a kitchen aid stand mixer would be totally wow but a hand mixer would be more practical as i hardly bake or need a mixer regularly. i would love to have one to complete the toaster-kettle-blender set but they don't sell it over here. so i opted for the k-mix orange.

airfyer
10 years ago i really, really wanted a deep fryer. times changed and recently i really, really wanted an airfryer. its easy to use, good to prepare quick food for the boys, doesn't use oil, clean to use and relatively easy to clean. ok maybe the grill-net thingy isn't the easiest to clean, may become sticky but its not such a big deal when the food actually come out wonderful. fries are crispy and light and not soggy. nuggets perfectly browned (amir says they taste like mcd nuggets). fried chicken evenly cooked and comes off the bone just nice (if you use low temperature first followed with high temperature to cook the outer part).

i haven't tried it for anything else, apparently you can even bake muffins and cook curries but my main reason of buying the airfryer was to use less of the frying pan and oil and that's what i'm doing for now.

rice cooker
so this is lame. the fact that i never paid attention to rice cookers before. i got quite a few as wedding gifts and have been using them. those simple ones with silver-ish covers. kinda make me feel like i can't cook rice because there were times when they come out too watery. very malu okay, not knowing how to cook rice properly. then i decided to splurge a bit for a new rice cooker. kinda ex for a rice cooker but so far, its been lovely to use. if only it came in red. ok…still lame.

there's more on my list that i would like to get - coffee maker, food processor, new set of pots and pans, new sets of plates and bowls (are those considered kitchen appliances?).

Mini Project 1

"project!" - cher horowitz

i have a few projects on my list for the year, which i would blog about in a few days.

being away from the office is great, 1 day is definately not enough. i had a little bit of time to myself in between sending amir & asyraf to and picking them up from school, so i visited ikea and popular at ikano to get the bits and bobs for one of my mini projects.

i get easily distracted by mess. i hate things being all over the place and untidy and not in order. the boys' rooms get me in a state everytime i spend more than 2 minutes in them. so the long-awaited day off, i quickly drove myself to ikea, grabbed a few things (literally grabbed because in total i spent less than 25minutes and got so many things!).






my 1st mini project was to clear the mess in the boys' room. coming back from london, we added to the boys' toys & dvd collection. i'm not a toy collector, i do spring cleaning on the boys' toys almost on a monthly basis. we only have 4 boxes of toys but after the london trip, the 4 boxes were becoming too full and i desperately wanted to get more. their dvds were also in a messy pile on their chest of drawers. majorly irritating everytime i pass by the boys' drawers.

after an hour to myself, the room look much, much better. the massive pile of toys...
















all cleared and boxed up and labeled.
















the messy pile of dvds...

















all cleared.

i bought duvets for the boys who are now into toy story.


















i also got a couple of things not on the list - tupperwares for me and new curtains for the tv room downstairs.
















i started another project, which is to frame up pictures of the boys. i have lots of pictures of amir and asyraf but almost zilch of ariff and akmal, so its my mummy mission to put up more baby pictures around the house. i started with amir's frame and got tired so i shifted my energy to another project, ie famous amos cookies. ok, so the frame project is to be continued on another day.

Makeover - Master bedroom & Living Room

bit by bit, we're getting the project done. months after the boys' rooms are done, its daddy and mummy's turn to get a room with a new-look. firstly, the high ceilings need to go. for years we've beared the heat and sweat that comes with being in a room with high ceilings. both the master bedroom and living room had a ceiling with over 15 feet in height. our room also had 4 windows way at the top corner. its like direct entry for morning sunlight hence why we wake up at 650am every weekend and on holidays. looks nice, feels not so nice.

so plaster ceiling heads the list. with that, of course, comes painting. for our room, the main colour should be blue - hubby's and my favourite colour. i needed to find a blue that would go well with white which is the primary colour of our furnishing and finishing. then its the living room. since the sofa set is blueish grey, the feature wall should be of similar colour. i only wanted to paint 1 wall as the living room had sliding doors everywhere. painting the whole living room would be a waste.

so hubby and i planned to start the work on a friday, he was to take leave so that he can monitor the renovation work. the contractor promised that the plaster ceiling work can be done within a day. he was not kidding! but the electrical and paint work needed another day. on saturday we sent 2 boys to school and 2 boys to damansara. all in all, total work took only 12 hours (6 hours for plaster ceiling on friday and 6 hours for painting & electrical work on saturday).

the house was still full of dirt, dust and renovation leftovers. after the cleaners came by on sunday, we finally can enjoy the new rooms.

work being done on friday. thank god i wasnt around, i think i would have fainted from the sight of everything being thrown around.

our room. love the lowered ceiling...goodbye irritating small windows. even akmal gasped in delight when he saw this room. we need a new wing chair, bookshelf and a chest of drawer - all in white. waiting for macy sale. of course, we need new curtains and borders around the room. i'm thinking of pastel or light green as a contrast to the blue.

the living room. love the blue grey feature wall. i seriously want to close off the airwell, its taking up so much space and is a waste. the room needs a new carpet and new curtain. and yes...an air-cond.

our family tv area. this room needs a major makeover - the balcony needs to be closed off, plaster ceiling needs to be done and we need to have a linen closet at one unused corner. that will be next year's plan. for now, we bought new curtains to replace the thin, torn ones. that's what happens when you move into a new house when you dont have money, everything bought was of low quality and low cost.

Makeover - TV Room

while we still had extra paints left from the makeover of the boys' rooms, we thought we'd might as well continue and paint the tv room / play room downstairs. i also had to order more of the cloud mural for amir's room and airplane mural for ariff's room, so i added 3 rolls of borders for the room downstairs.

i initially recommended to zu who was going for safari theme for arsyad's playroom and it was on sale but she didnt like it (because the picture didnt do it justice) so i decided to take it instead. it was quite large, not the normal 6 inch border, and it had the 4 colours of the boys.

painting the room took only three hours. tiza recomended the people who were doing her shop. the next day, while the cleaners were around, we asked for their help to move the tv cabinets. just a simple coat of paint, surround the room with a colouful border and move the furniture around and it looks brand new. with the new furniture arrangement, the room looks more spacious. there's separate areas for toys, for the boys' school items, for us to pray and for akmal to have his susu.

hubby has yet to put up the IKEA lack shelves that i bought. i want to put 4 shelves at the end wall to put our family photos. we used to put it above the tv cabinet but it would fall behind the cabinet when the boys climb up next to the tv or bang close the door.

with that room completed, the home makeover / renovation work would be put on hold for a while. the next project would be our room (and maybe the living room as both need similar work done) and doing them requires time, effort and money, all of which we do not have in abundance at the moment. i hope we can do some work before the end of the year but i'm not putting my hopes up too high. i'm happy with the outcome of the three rooms.

the room before...














after the minor makeover...