Our Portable Washing Machine

Household chores take up so much of our precious time on weekends that we decided to simplify our life and just send our clothes to the laundry. This means our work and house clothes, Jared's clothes, curtains, towels and linen. If only it's not gross and improper, I would have sent our underwear, too!!!!

It was working for us until I can't find some of Jared's clothes anywhere in the house. Clothes were missing and clothes for kids don't come cheap. I was obsessing over counting the clothes, checking and double checking them to make sure we receive the same number of clothes we send.

One day at the mall, we found this tiny washing machine that would be perfect for the only spot we can think of in the house where the machine can stay. It was a decision I've never regretted. While we do need to allot time to do several loads on Saturdays, at least it's less headache for us in dealing with lost clothes at the laundromat.

These are pictures of the first time we tried the machine: little boy thought we bought the greatest invention ever. Our machine is so light I can carry this out myself when its Wash Day Saturday.

P.s.
We still send most of our clothes to the laundry shop but the help this little and inexpensive machine brought us is money very well spent. I won't even think of buying anything bigger or more expensive for the meantime since this suits us very well now.

Sprucing up the Garden

Around this time two years ago, we made a minor home improvement. We had the little patch of land we fondly call our garden landscaped.

This time, we decided it's time to make the front "lawn" a little bit more presentable. I didn't like the high maintenance blue grass or carabao grass because I know we won't have time to water them often. And cutting takes time, patience and buckets of sweat.

Concrete or paving the front is out of the question. So, the next best thing is lay some bricks and add plants in front.

The boy woke up just as the gardeners were unloading their stuff at 8 am.

First order of the day was to pull out the weeds that were threatening to eat the garden alive. =)

It only took the gardeners, around 4-5 of them, one whole day to dig and level the soil.

 

 

Lay down the bricks, fill the gaps with sand. Jared is here helping tidy up the garden.

Plant a few greens

And this itsy bitsy lawn is done

This was an ingenious addition to the garden. We had a pipe running beneath the first layer of soil, with holes in it to function as an improvised sprinkler. Now, no need to water the plants one by one. Life made easier.I love it.

 

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DIY: Regrouting our Bathroom Floor

Like with most things, this one started small.

It started with a weekend trip to Wilcon where the agenda was just to look around.

But, you cannot really just look. You have to dream, imagine, put things together, compute, then demand. =)

I saw these nice and reasonably priced matwood floors. Compared every brand available there, then called a sales associate to ask for a quotation.


When she gave me the computation, I was heart-broken to hear it would cost way more than loose change. And even with reasoning, which turned to pleading , then to threatening the husband, he alas would not relent.

And reminded me that this is the year we promised not to spend on anything major and instead save.

So we went home with a heavy heart. Sad about the bathroom, he allowed me to buy a few miscellaneous items here and there.

I equipped myself with the few tools needed to regrout the bathroom floor.

something to scrape off the grout with

I had that feeling that I had to do something house-related. Anything that will be the replacement of that supposed bedroom floor renovation.

I put my whole heart to it, and several afternoons to boot.

 

Our house was built in 2008, the year our son was born. Fairly new, still. Unfortunately, the contractor did not do a good job in the bathroom. Specifically on the grout. It made our bathroom floor look dingy and old. Even with cleaning, and scrubbing.

I finally gave up on this floor after trying out all the available commercial cleaners I can find, and after formulating a dozen or so homemade cleaning recipes.

It was doomed. It looked doomed.

Until that lightbulb idea at Wilcon.

Look at this yucky, yucky floor!

 

And here's what it looked like after I slaved it in there: scraping, scrubbing and sealing the grout. Yes the grout should be sealed for protection.

 

It's not perfect, but for my investment of just less than P300.00 (plus a lot of sweat and achy arms for days), our bathroom floor now looks, well, acceptable.

 With this recent success, I am dreaming of more beautification projects:

- spray paint the cheap looking curtain rods from silver to oil-rubbed bronze
- re-upholster our orange lounge chair, or whatver you call it
- spray paint some more ornaments a bright and happy turquoise
- re-grout the other bathroom

Wish we have more long weekends so I can accomplish the above.

Independence Night (First Time to Sleep on his Bed)

Last night was a bittersweet moment, for me at least.

It was the first night our boy declared, no make that trumpeted, his independence by declaring he will sleep on his bed.

It was my idea in the first place... to fix his room up. Get him a bed, store his toys in his own room. He's really kicking and slapping and doing all sorts of acrobatics while asleep that I fear I will wake up one day with a black eye.

While the said bed (just actually the mattress) was moved inside our room, I can't help but feel sad and sob that my little boy is really not so little anymore. We had been co-sleeping since he was a baby and his smell (no matter how sour it gets during play) comforts me. Last night as I watch him sleep on his own, I can't help but long for those kicks that come randomly at night. hehehe.

Maybe, I will return that mattress back to his room tonight.

In Love with Chairs

For a family of 3, we seriously have a lot of chairs in the house.

Our L-shaped sofa can seat maybe 7, we have an orange cleopatra chair and a green arm chair with a foot stool.

I have a striped round ottoman, a swivel chair (which I still have to refurbish), my work desk chair, and dining chairs of course. Then for Jared's room, we had a daybed made. He also has his own study chair, and a plastic monobloc I spray painted.

Okay, so what is this fascination with chairs?

Hmm, I don't know.

Maybe, being small, it makes them easy to handle, and easy to refurbish. It makes me feel like a handywoman, it fulfills my need to create (or mess things up, depending on how you look at it).
But it has a purpose: for seating, or as an accent, or a holder for things.

Recently, on a thrifting trip, I salvaged these 3 rusting chairs for P50 each (or about a $1.30)

With some patience, a good arm for scrubbing away the rust, a spray paint to transform them, I wish to turn the to something like this.

source

And this chair (which has been stripped like this for close to a year already)

To this

source

Now, if only I have 4 day weekends. =)

Happiness in a Cupcake

We've been seeing this cupcake in Pinterest for the longest time, but they look time-consuming to make. And without househelp, I was not up to the task of washing a lot of bowls and dishes this baking project would require.

But, an inspection of the cupboard yielded a Betty Crocker Angel Cake mix, which would cut the process by half. So, we took on the challenge.


All we needed to do was add water, milk and oil to the cake mix. I read, again in Pinterest, that for a richer cake mix, replace oil with melted butter and replace water with milk.

Mix, mix and mix some more.

Then the fun part begins!

Separate the mix in smaller bowls. Add drops of color....




And voila! A rainbow in your kitchen!



Layer the batter one at a time.




Remember to pose in between =)



Extend your patience and wait for it to bake. The boy was so excited he camped out in front of the oven, with a flashlight, waiting for the prescribed number of minutes for the cupcakes to bake.


Alas, it took longer than usual because the cupcakes were brimming and we churned out giant cupcakes.



Still, despite the paleness in color (use poweder or gel color mix next time--something I can't find in the market yet), now my son thinks I'm a kitchen genius who can whip out delightful things in the kitchen.


If happiness can be described by a cupcake, then we had our slice that afternoon.



Eat and enjoy!

Our Mean Ice Machine

Just before summer officially ended, my husband brought home this mean ice crusher.

It’s a big, heavy metal ,machine that crushes tube ice in seconds, turning them into flaky white ice best for halo-halo.

We’ve tried it 2x, and both times, we were amazed at how fast it could churn out ice. Too bad, the rainy days have started but I have grand plans of teaching entrepreneurial skills to my son next summer.

I’ll teach him how to sell, halo halo!

For now, we'll enjoy bits and pieces of the sun's last rays. Ahh, summer I miss you already!

Switchplate and Wall Clock Re-do

I am in an DIY mode recently.

Somehow, I just got tired of looking at our violet wall clock which is so out of place in our ever so sunny kitchen.

Didn't have anything better to do with my dingy switch plate cover, too.

But I have paper on hand and my ever-reliable home -made modge podge (watered down glue) so off to work I went. 

This is an easy afternoon craft that just takes cutting and pasting.

 From drab

To fab ( cliché!)

 

I'm loving this new happier versions of our wall clock and switch plate.