The Gazebo Makeover

I last wrote about our gazebo here. Back then, our gazebo was purely a place for us to place our outdoor furniture. Obviously we furnished it with the basic necessities i.e. a fan and lights. But that was just it! It didn't feel homely at all.

In an effort to make the gazebo more cozy with a class of luxury, we decided to embark on a mini makeover project. Inspired by the beautiful purple flowers growing just by our gazebo, we adopted a purple theme for the area.

Our ever flowering purple flowers by the gazebo.

To give it a touch of style, we started by sourcing for a carpet. We initially wanted a Moroccan designed rug, but we hunted everywhere - IKEA, Spotlight and even online. But we couldn't find a suitable rug that we could easily fold over for storage in case it rains. Everything was either not to our liking, or to our liking but just way way way too expensive. In the end, I suggested to Hubby for us to just recycle an existing purple motif carpet that we had in the house. Since it was going to stay outside in the rain or shine, why bother splurging so much? Hence we ended up purchasing a new carpet to replace the recycled carpet, which went to our guest bedroom downstairs. And we brought the purple carpet outside... Takdelah rasa ralat sangat if it gets destroyed over the years, kan?

Recognize the purple carpet?

Our willow tree leaves giving the area a tad sense of privacy.

For a touch of elegance, we added some purple pillows and even a purple throw to the seats. It matched the carpet beautifully!! Hubby even found an old painting in our attic, which complemented the whole look. So far so good - zero money spent!

Surprisingly, the painting matched the whole purple affair!

A place of comfort in the garden.

We love relaxing in the gazebo, enjoying the peace and quiet with a cup of tea/coffee. Kids enjoy playing there too!

Next up, despite the carpet being recycled, we simply couldn't leave it exposed to the rain. Nanti bau masam! We resorted to rolling it up and bringing it indoors during the weekdays. But it was no easy feat - berat ok! Hence we collectively agreed to source for some outdoor blinds to cover the open sides, to prevent the rain from coming in.

Initially we wanted to just go for IKEA blinds, but in the end we calculated just a slight top up to custom it to size. So glad we decided to go custom, especially since we needed a slanting blind for one of the sides (far end in above photo).

Last but not least, in order to give it a bit of rustic feel to match the wood decking flooring, we sourced for these beautiful lovebird storage seats and repurposed them into flower beds! We also planted more of those purple flowers in honour of the theme we chose. And every morning the flowers would bloom without fail - such a pretty and soothing sight.

Storage seats from IKEA, repurposed into flower beds!

So happy that the gazebo is now the main garden feature. Since it is so cosy, it is fully utilized both during the day and night. On weekend mornings, we'll have our breakfast or brunch outdoors. Some nights, we would setup our image projector and watch a movie on the big screen. We also use the area to entertain our guests with an outdoor BBQ, or even a romantic supper for two after the kids have gone to bed.

That's it for our gazebo makeover! We're happy and content with our outdoor space now (well at least until we find another spot to revamp yet again) *chuckles*

Bye Bye Trees

Last weekend was a particularly sad one. After months and months of deliberating, we decided to cut down our two beloved Buchida trees.

We loved those trees. They were big, strong and beautiful and most importantly they provided ample shade for our home. Our mornings were comfortable for outdoor breakfasts. Our afternoons were shady for football and lazing around in the gazebo. We even hung a swing on one of the branches.

On the flip side, the shady trees were causing the grass right underneath to die. Due to that, there are ugly patches of visible soil in the garden. We tried replanting new plots of grass but they inevitably die. The roots were also protruding from the ground, so it became a tripping hazard for the kids whenever they run around in the garden. But last, but definitely not least - and the sole reason for the decision, was the fact that the roots have encroached underneath the structure of our house. We can literally see it going in! Even the roots of the tree furthest from the house had extended underneath our wood decking.

I can't predict what the roots will do to our home in the future. But better safe than sorry. So we decided to take the plunge and chop them both down. *cries*

Those trees shielded our master bedroom from direct sunlight, and masked the structure of the pencawang elektrik.

Can you see the patches of soil right underneath those trees?

My garden looked so mystical, especially when combined with the beautiful overhanging branches from the willow tree.

Now that the trees are no longer there, I can certainly feel a significant change in temperature inside the house. We no longer have the trees to shield our living hall from the afternoon sun. We definitely need new trees, pronto!

However, we need to wait a few weeks before we can start planting new ones. Just in case the racun pokok that we poured on the bark contaminates the new trees. As for the leftover roots, that will take half a year or more to reput well enough for us to pull them out. Well that, or we hire an excavator to dig them out. Might as well dig a massive hole and make a swimming pool terus. *one can always dream*

You can see the PE very clearly now. *sigh*

My garden looks so empty, macam baru pindah rumah pulak.

Anyway, I hope we made the right decision, and that the new trees we will plant will provide the same shade that we've enjoyed before. *nervous laughter* Until then, I'm praying for cool and rainy days to keep us comfortable! Wish us luck!

Hello Weekend!

Can you tell that I'm procrastinating from my Paris stories?? Too many pictures to sort, too many stories to tell. Blurrggghhh.

Tomorrow is the start of a new weekend but I am still not over last weekend. Last weekend was absolutely awesome. Why? Because Hubby and I acted as if we had just recently gotten hitched. *chuckles*

Before you start getting kinky ideas, let me clarify. The kids decided demanded that they wanted to sleep at their grandparents, and incidentally it was also my helper's week off. Do the math, who's left?? Just the two of us! (Reminds me so much of the Will Smith song.)

Oh we made so much plans and we were super productive too! Without the kids in our hair, everything was done much much faster. First thing on the list, date night! We started with a scrumptious dinner at Beard Brother's BBQ. If you've never heard of the place, I strongly suggest that you give it a try. Hubby is a big fan of beef and when I told him that the beef ribs are smoked for 20 hours, he was sold. We were lucky too, cos we got the last beef ribs and briskets (lamb was sold out). As soon as they served us, they put up the sold out sign! When we sat down to eat, we were surprised to see plastic cutleries. How-lah to eat beef ribs with plastic knifes??? Well, we were pleasantly surprised. The beef was soooo tender that the plastic knife practically glided through the meat.

Date night!

Beef ribs and briskets. We didn't even bother with the sauce; the beef was scrumptious on its own!

Can you see the logs that they use to smoke the beef?

Next, a midnight movie! We haven't done a midnight movie in yearsssss. Because the kids usually wait up for us, we don't like keeping them (and our helper) waiting. But watching a movie together with the knowledge that no one was waiting for us, was sooooo liberating. After the movie, it was close to 3am. We cracked our heads trying to think of a place to lepak but we both came up empty. We even tried driving around a few places which we hoped would still be open, but everything was closed. In the end we drove home and enjoyed some quiet time together.

The next day we woke up late, and decided to embark on yet another house improvement project that has been hanging in our heads for quite a while. Hubby wants to revamp the gazebo! So off we went to IKEA. Shopping was such a breeze without the kids to slow us down. After IKEA, we went shopping at the Sungai Buloh nursery. And by afternoon, we started gardening! Such efficient use of time!

I'm still salivating over those meatballs.

An afternoon of gardening.

We had a good dinner close to home and then retired for the night. The next morning, we woke up early and decided to cycle to the clubhouse for breakfast! If the kids are around we usually have to wait for them to wake up and then drag them on their bikes which ultimately just slows us down. Despite that, we started to miss the kids sorely. To the point that we started talking about the kids and their antics during breakfast!

Spent the rest of the day spring cleaning the house, and then yet another trip to IKEA for some last minute items. Came home and put the finishing touches on the gazebo. It's nearly there, save for the outdoor blinds. But I'll save the photos for another blogpost.

Not quite there yet, but hopefully soon enough!

Night rolled in and we went to my in-laws to pick up the kids. Imagine our surprise to find them not home! Sempat lagi squeeze another excursion out despite knowing that we would be coming by to pick them up. When they finally arrived, Ian refused to come home. After much much much coaxing, he finally agreed to go home to "get a fresh pair of clothes". #tipusunat *chuckles*

Here's to more quiet weekends with Hubby in the future!

The Outdoor Gazebo

And so I promised myself that I wouldn't post any other stories before I made the time to write about our outdoor gazebo. So here I am, trying to fulfill that promise.

The need for an outdoor gazebo was purely because we needed a place to put our garden furniture. With the patio converted as a dining area, we couldn't just leave our garden furniture in the rain and shine, right? And of course, the patio is oh-so-convenient whenever we host people over; that's where I put my buffet table during BBQs, dessert table during parties, and last but not least, situlah tempat the men lepak whenever the ladies are in the house gossiping.

So as mentioned in the previous post, we finally agreed to chop down our lush pokok kemboja and sacrifice the greenest plot of grass in the garden, for an outdoor gazebo. Before we made the decision, we considered so many other options - at the corner depan rumah, beside the porch... but it just didn't feel right. At the end of the day I'm really glad that we decided to take the plunge. It really is the best spot for an outdoor gazebo.

Right smack at the end of our garden. We also increased the height of our outdoor walls, to give the gazebo more privacy.

Our outdoor furniture fitted perfectly in the nook. Also, I love the squared recess of the wood decking - just the right size for a BBQ set!

The outdoor gazebo came with its fair share of drama too. Hubby wanted to minimize the budget by just having a simple cement slab as the base. I on the other hand, wanted wood decking to match the wood decking outside our new dining hall. Of course, my influencing skills won hands down. *giggles*

Hubby also didn't want a fan for the gazebo, because we had a lot of electrical problems at the patio previously, due to leaking rain water. But how can you have a gazebo without a fan, right? Can't depend purely on wind effect, kan? Also, we initially wanted a clear roof for the outdoor gazebo, but they wrongly installed a brownish roof instead. It turned out to be a good mistake, because we loved how the brown matched the matte black structure. And, can you believe that I measured the distance between the two wall lights, to fit my dessert table? #kiasumuch

The view from my helper's room. She joked that she now has her own private hosting area, as the wood decking from her room directly leads to the outdoor gazebo.

A few months after we settled in post renovation, our hands itched for some form of water feature in the garden. Furthermore, our pet tortoises (Squirtle, Blastoise and Wartotle) have outgrown their aquarium and needed a bigger space. (Hubby's alasan here.) After a few days of scouting around, we brought home... a pond!!!!! Totally Hubby's fault. Hubby has always been a fish person. I'm more of a cat person, as you can actually play with cats. Fish? What can you do with fish???

Well Hubby claims that having a water feature and watching fish swimming brings a calming effect after a long day. Uhuh... yeah right. Shopping gives me the same calming effect, darling! *chuckles*

The water feature just beside the outdoor gazebo.

Calming effect, eh?

Koi fish! My favourite is the one with the orange head and black spots. The tortoises are nowhere to be seen... probably hiding somewhere.

Our white garden set contrasts beautifully with the wood decking outside our dining hall. Also acts as our favourite breakfast spot in the garden.

Right smack outside our dining hall. You can also hear the water feature from the family hall.

And that brings me to the end of my renovation posts. InsyaAllah, we are ready for Eid! :)

Cassava

The afternoon rain has been quite torrential nowadays. Just two days ago I was waiting to pick Aiden up from school, and it started raining cats and dogs. From inside the car I had to crawl from the front seat to the back and pried the back seat open just to get access to my spare shoes and umbrella in the boot. Even with the umbrella, Aiden and I were both soaked to the skin!

Due to the constant heavy rain, the pokok ubi kayu in my quaint kebun at the back of my house, jatuh merebah bumi. I was so sad, because I didn't even get the chance to get a photo of it when it was all tall, mighty and strong. It was nearly twice my height!

But, it was certainly a great life experience for Aiden. In his science subject at school, he is starting to learn about 'tumbuhan', so I took the opportunity to introduce to Aiden how potatoes and cassavas/tapioca are harvested from the ground.

(Truthfully, it was my first experience too! #citygirlfail)

Visiting tempat kejadian. Siap sinsing seluar! Looking cute with his muka baru bangun tido.

Aiden trying to dig out a cassava, which was too hard to dig out of the ground.

Aiden was so excited when I told him that we could make desserts from the root and savory dishes from the leaves.

We managed to amass quite a huge pile of ubi kayu, and there was no way we were going to be able to finish everything ourselves. So we bagged some into individual plastic bags and distributed them to the neighbours. That was this morning. Well in the afternoon, so many ubi kayu based desserts turned up at my door step! *giggles* Thanks to them, we feasted on baked tapioca cake (bingka ubi) and talam ubi kayu for dinner.

That is certainly one huge pile of ubi kayu!

A bouquet of pucuk ubi.

Meanwhile, my maid made a special tapioca dish that is popular at her kampung. She shredded the ubi kayu, sweetened it with gula melaka, steamed it to cook and served it with shredded white coconut. Aiden really loved it. I jokingly asked whether he wanted to bring it to school for recess, and he eagerly agreed. I laughed my head off! Mummy pun tak pernah bawak ubi kayu pegi sekolah, Aiden! Sorry, but I felt that the whole situation was quite amusing! *chuckles*

Aiden's recess - sorted!

My Thriving Backyard Kebun!

In this post, I dreamt about having my own herb garden.

Well, my backyard is no longer a herb garden... it is actually a full blown kebun! My family and neighbours have been constantly contributing to the patch, hence we now have quite a diverse variety of plants. Before I delve into the various plants, let me explain how my backyard kebun looks like.

Here's a super old post about my love-hate relationship with the pencawang elektrik, affectionately known as the PE. My house was meant to be a corner semi-d, but I guess the PE 'bungalow' ruined the whole idea. So instead of being the last house on the street, the PE beat us to it. However, we decided to look at the bright side of things - technically the land behind the PE (beside our house) becomes ours, lah kan?

So here's how our adopted land currently looks like:

We lined every wall/fence available with plants.

Even the walkway wasn't spared - we planted pokok buah on this patch. Also we divided our pokok buluh (from before we revamped our garden) into small shrubs and planted them all along the walkway to provide shade to the house.

From left to right - petai, nanas, kelapa, pucuk ubi, daun kunyit, serai, limau kasturi, belimbing buluh, daun limat purut, kari, cili, daun kaduk. As for the fence on the right (not seen in picture) - daun kesum, kuchai, pegaga, daun ketumbar, daun pandan and pisang.

Let's start with my pride and joy, courtesy of my aunt's garden. When I first planted this pucuk ubi (with red stems), it was just an inch tall.

Look at how it is thriving... even taller than Ian now! Endless supply for my favourite tempoyak daun kayu! The daun kunyit looks good too!

Another key ingredient for tempoyak daun kayu- daun kaduk! On the left was when we first started. On the right was about a month ago.

Now's it's starting to spread out!

When we first bought the bendi plant, it was small and then attacked by bugs. But surprisingly, we've managed to reap three rounds of bendi so far! Usually they end up in my curry dishes. Picture on the right is the latest picture, check out that cute baby bendi hiding beside the fully grown one!

On the left, freshly planted pokok cili. On the right - we now have at least 10 biji cili, just waiting to be picked.

A close up - here's a stupid question. How do you know if it's pokok cili merah or hijau??

On the left, leftover kepala nanas from the sweetest pineapples I have ever tasted, courtesy of my in-laws. On the right, look at how big they have grown. In the right corner of the picture, is my petite pokok petai. Berapa tahun lagi la nak dapat hasil tuh...

Limau kasturi. On the right, fresh new leaves have began to emerge. By its side, more pucuk ubi... but this one has white stems (instead of the earlier red stems). Anyone knows the difference?

Pokok belimbing buluh, my daun limau purut that keeps being attacked by belalang, and my legendary pokok kari.

See how much our daun kesum and pegaga have grown? I actually had to plant the daun pegaga in the flower bed to prevent it from taking over the ground. However, the daun ketumbar had to be moved into the garden shade cos it was too hot outside.

Pretty kuchai flowers. But these things are taking ages to grow!

Daun pandan and pokok pisang, from before we revamped our garden.

Our fruit trees - ciku and mangga.

Anyway, I am still looking for bunga kantan, ulam raja and pucuk pegaga (the one that can be eaten... the one I currently have is for making juice). Anyone knows where I can get these?

My barefoot mini gardener, who loves to accompany me while I tend to my kebun.