Archive for the 'House & Home' Category

Not long ago, there was a freak storm in my area. It damaged my porch lights. I got the electrician in to repair my lights but he said it was too troublesome. He would need to hack off one whole line of tiles in my porch to repair the damaged wiring. So, he suggested that I get solar lights. I hunted everywhere for solar lights and finally found an online supplier but the man said that his lights were very small and not suitable for my pillars.

While looking at his site, I saw that he was also selling portable solar power panels. There was a video of a lady who bought this solar panel and installed it on her roof herself. That looks quite interesting. Generating your own electricity using Solar Power is supposed to help to keep energy bills to the minimum. I wonder whether this portable DIY Portable Solar Panel will help. I would surely appreciate any way to lower my bills and help me to save over time.

I certainly need to reduce my electricity bills. It’s just been going up, up and up. Gas Prices are rising everywhere. I don’t see my utility bills coming down anytime soon. I guess it must be because of my air-condition usage. We turn it on frequently. The other problem is because I live in a terrace house. We have very little light in the house. It is so dark even during the day, we have to resort to switching on the lights all day, every day. I try to buy energy saving lamps but my electricity bills keep on rising. I would certainly appreciate any tips to reduce energy usage besides solar power. A gas and electric price product comparison site would also be useful.

Cactus Flowering Plant

I don’t have green fingers but I can grow these. They are Cactus Flowering Plants. I don’t know what they are called exactly. My sister gave them to me. All I had to do was stuck the stems into pots and they grew and grew. They can grow straight up or as a bush depending on the size and shape of your pot.

The flowers from my cactus flowering plant don’t look as good because I keep on watering them by accident! lol. I’m not supposed to water them since they’re a cactus plant. In bright sunlight the tiny pink flowers will flourish and grow beautifully.

This is the only type of flowers I can plant. The rest are all eaten up or damaged by insects because I don’t have the patience to look after them. Once, I saw someone place brightly colored cactus plants in a row. They look so beautiful. Just take a look at these cactus flowering plants images. Don’t you think they are beautiful?

Recently, I had some trouble with the wiring for my porch lights. The lights itself are still in good condition, only the wiring was affected. However, it made me feel like shopping for lights again. I haven’t shopped for lighting for my house for several years now, ever since I moved in, in fact.

I rather enjoy shopping for lights. It’s so much fun to choose the different types of lighting for different parts of the house. Lighting can really bring out the beauty and elegance of your furnishings and walls. These days there are many contemporary wall lights which I like.

I like those romantic kind, dazzling looking chandelier like styles. Those are hard to clean but I still like them. I also like my lights to face down rather than up but that’s just me. I prefer fine art lamps rather than square shaped contemporary wall sconces. However, I think its practical to have some of those around as they are easy to clean.

I think lamps can really bring out the character of a room. That is why I am tempted to go shopping for lights again. I remember in the past I had to go from shop to shop looking up and up. I had a neck pain after that. These days shopping for lights is so much easier as it can be done online. I can take my time to look too instead of being followed around by the sales person.

Should I keep my old porch lights or shop for new ones? I’m still thinking about it. What shall I do with my old one then? I wonder if the shop will accept trade ins. Probably not, I guess.

We did it at last. We finally converted our Wedding Tape from VHS to DVD. It’s about time too! We had kept our old VCR player (that is an old player that plays VHS tapes) up till now just for this purpose but never really gotten round to doing it till now. At first, I wanted to send my VHS tape to the photo shop for conversion. The man at the shop said, “Yes, you had better do it now. It will be harder and harder now to convert your old VHS memories into DVD format.” It’s almost obsolete now, we all know that and that is why he wanted to charge me RM140 for each hour of tape. Whoa…. I probably need to pay less than that for an old VCR Player.

So finally we did it and this was how we did it.

1. You will need a VCR Player and your old VHS tape (Borrow one from a friend if you don’t have one)

2. Next, you need a DVD player with a recordable function and a blank dvd disc

3. Then you will need a 3 RCA to 3 RCA Phono Cable for Audio and Video Connections color coded white, red and yellow. (Well at least, I think that’s what it’s called. It looks like a black cable wire with red, yellow and white ends on both sides. Here is a picture of the 3 RCA to 3 RCA Cable.

4. Make sure your DVD player is connected to your TV

5. Then you connect one end of the 3 RCA cable to your VCR Player’s Video and Audio Out Ports. If you are not sure, just follow the color coding and make sure you see the word “out”. Here is a view of the back of the VCR player, full view and close up view.

6. Connect the other end of the 3 RCA Cable to your DVD Audio and Video In ports. There are two audio in ports for left and right audio and one video in port. Again, you should follow the color coding and look for the words “In”

7. Make sure that both the VCR Player and DVD Player as well as the TV are all connected to power points.

8. Turn on the TV to the correct viewing channel for the DVD Player. Select the Video Source (You may have to read up your DVD manual to find out how to record from external device like the VCR  as the instructions for that may be different depending on the DVD player you are using).

9. Finally, insert the VHS tape into your VCR player and press play on the VCR player then hit record on the DVD player.

10. Last of all, my recorded DVD cannot be played on other players or the PC. I had to take some final steps to finalise. This I did by pressing Disc Menu, selecting “Finalise” and “OK”. Again the steps to this may differ if you are using different DVD players. I am using the PHILIPS DVDR 3600.

After that I have a brand new wedding DVD converted from analogue to digital format playable on any other DVD player as well as my computer.

We saved RM140 for each hour of tape and at last we have our wedding memories preservered again in a format that isn’t outdated and obsolete. Not only did we save the money, we had a lot of fun watching our wedding video over again and laughing at the memories from 10 years ago. How fast technology has evolved.

There are traditions and there are family routines. Tradition may be brought down from generation to generation but I believe that family routines can be created by your family and then enjoyed from year to year.

The kids are older now and our Chinese New Year routine has been established. Before, when they were younger, we did not have any routine but we thought that it would be very nice to have a family routine that they can look forward to each year. Now they know it well and look forward to …

1. Shopping for Chinese New Year Clothes. We limit our shopping to once a year only (unless necessary), then we go all out and have a shopping spree for Chinese New Year and everyone looks forward to having new clothes. We figured out that if you buy new clothes throughout the year, Chinese New Year would not feel any different.
2. Chinese New Year Cookies. Mummy does not bake so she will order the same cookies from the same place and when she brings them home the kids gape and go ooh and ahhh when they see the familiar cookies that they only get to eat once in a year. Then the kids will say “Please, please mummy can we eat them now?” and bad mommy will say “No, you will have to wait till Chinese New Year.”
3. Haircuts. The whole family goes to the salon and  have a haircut together. It kind of breaks the bank a little but its nice to go together. On normal days, sometimes mummy gives them home haircuts but for Chinese New Year, its off to the salon we go.
4. Chinese New Year Decorations. Now that the kids are older, they can help out. They love clipping, stringing and making homemade angpow decorations and I love listening to them work as a team in deciding where to hang each decoration. Usually, I will ask their opinion and let them decide so they can really get in the mood and contribute.
5. Spring Cleaning for Chinese New Year. Mummy gets to do most of it of course but on the eve of Chinese New Year, the kids will be roped in to wash the car and the porch. How they love the water and soap splashing fun.
6. Reunion Dinner. Usually its just the four of us because parents in law are no longer with us but we still cook up a storm anyway and everyone dons new pyjamas after dinner. Then we pack money into the red packets that will be given out as angpows and mummy and daughter will do their nails. Then mummy and daddy will give the kids their angpow and they will put it under their pillow to sleep on. Everyone stays up late and at midnight we will turn on every light in the house to welcome New Year.
7. First Day of Chinese New Year. Everyone gets up bright and early and have mee suah (vermicelli) soup then put on their brand new clothes and shoes. Then we go to the temple to watch the lion dances. At the temple, we’ll make it a point to buy the kids some inflatable helium balloons which we will let go and watch it fly in the sky later in the day. (This is not a Chinese New Year tradition, just our  very own special routine.) After that we may go visiting or just stay home to relax and pack for the next day’s journey.
8. Balik Kampung. We will usually go back to mummy’s home town from the 2nd to the 4th day of Chinese New Year. We visit mummy’s aunties and see more lion dances, we play by the beach, go to more temples, pay respects to mummy’s mummy, play fireworks by the sea and send lighted lanterns into the sky.
9. Middle of Chinese New Year. Sometimes daddy invites his friends over and mummy cooks for them and the kids get to play host and hostess to other kids.
10. Chap Goh Meh. On the 15th day of Chinese New Year or the last day of Chinese New Year, its time to meet mummy’s brothers and sisters to have a gathering or dinner and exchange angpows with all the nephews and nieces.

That’s it. We do this every year to create a routine and tradition for the kids so that they look forward to Chinese New Year and in doing so, we enjoy our Chinese New Year very much too.

Kids, when you are grown and have your own families, we hope that you will remember fondly and continue with this routine and tradition that you have grown up with.