Update on my garden (episode 2)

The mulberries are growing...

lots of them.

The spinach ( that grew by itself in my garden) and cabbage is a perfect match. At least the colour matches and it's such a nice feeling just looking at the 2 of them.

My radish icicle many many days ago...

My radish icicle after a few days

See how much it grows?

My japanese cucumber...

My japanese cucumber flowers. I really pray and hope that I will see baby cucumbers soon!

 

My lotus before and after. I missed the bloom cos I was away in Singapore for 3 days.

My tomato plant growing outside my raised bed is beginning to have tiny buds too. I wonder when I can have my first tomato *sigh*

My Hong Kong Sawi

My purple king climbing bean

My Beetroot

My okras which I transferred them further apart after this picture was taken...

and my tiny Red Scarlet Radish. My dad saw this pic and he said "I thought radish grow INSIDE the soil? why is yours standing outside the soil?" *lol*

and my corns.

I like being in my garden especially at night. Cos I stay in between 2 highways, I can always hear the car sound at night. And the garden is so serene and peaceful while i check my plants and dig my soil. And my 2 dogs will be around me.

My friend asked me.. so you're into gardening now eh? so aunty la....

hahah yeah aunty but at least i plant the radish, i get radish and not other things. You know what i mean?

Got tricked by Justin ;)

We bought A paint-it-yourself kit for my ex-neighbour and I told JT, not to tell what's inside. So we went to her house and sent went down to give her the pressie and he decided he wanna stay there for a few hours. After he came back home, I asked him :

Me: So did Aunty D asked you what's inside the pressie??
JT: yeah.
Me: what did you say? did you tell her?
JT: I said I don't know.
Me: then how?
JT: then she ask again. And then I said it's a table cloth.
ME: HAH??? SERIOUSLY????
JT: yeah. I told her its a table cloth.
Me: *lol* then what she say? did she open the present?
JT: after that she never say anything. She just put the present down.

Hahhaha must be so heart broken thinking that I got her a table cloth. So this morning I called her to verify what JT told me and she said "Ah your son is so cheeky! kept saying I don't know I don't know when I asked him. And then I tried to trick him by saying "is it a towel? Is it a table cloth? And he quickly said, yeah its a table cloth. It's a blue table cloth. So today I opened and I saw and thought AIYAH i got tricked by justin!"

hehehe!

Angry bird what????

Even hot wheels has a collection of angry bird cars and angry pigs. We found them at Tesco at RM7.50. Buy 2 free 1.

Surprisingly JD asked me to take his pic with the angry bird car. :) compared to few months ago, he always refuses to take pic. And now it's terbalik cos JT refuses to take pic now :(

is it Christmas yet?

We went out with my ex-neighbour and she gave us a pack of Snow Flakes Origami set and Xmas pressie for the kids. Justin, of course (being her fav) got the biggest pressie. Our journey from my old house to my new house is like 1 min. In that ONE minute...as soon as he received the pressie..

JT: Mami, is it Christmas yet?

Me: Nope. 25th December. Many more days.

JT: Okay............ Is it christmas now?

Me: Not yet. You just asked lah.

JT: okay........ when?

Me: 25th December my dear.

JT: Okay............ Now, is it christmas.

Me: Oh my god, Justin! Not yet.

JD: Haiyoh, 25th December lah! Not yet

JT: okay.......... How about now?

ME and JD: AIYOH!!!!

(reached home)

JT: okay, now is christmas right?

Me: *slap forehead* No!

JT: you bluff me. Just now i saw decoration in the class. Got christmas tree. Means its christmas already!

Now you know why he is so excited about the present? Chocolate and Car. Both his fav.

Update on my garden (Episode 1)

I'm hopeful just like this son by Alanis Morrisette.

I'm broke but I'm happy
I'm poor but I'm kind
I'm short but I'm healthy
yeah
I'm high but I'm grounded
I'm sane but I'm overwhelmed
I'm lost but I'm hopeful baby
What it all comes down to
Is that everything's gonna be fine fine fine
'cause I've got one hand in my pocket
And the other one is giving a high five

The rain came everyday and it drown most of my plants.
I was upset of course but then I thought "plants only mah. Not like its the end of the world and I still have seeds. Start all over again lah!" although many died, 2 managed to survive.

My loyal cabbage .

My Radish Icicle.

My cherry tomato plants which I think is stunted but then I just leave them there.

And these are tomatoes as well. But I have no idea how it went or grow from there. I thought the soil was infested with bug so I throw them far far away from my veg patch. And today I found out that they are tomatoes. Weird or not? The one I really looked after is not growing much. And the one exposed to rain and sun with no proper care is growing very well. *lol*

They say the rain will stop in Jan ( angin monsoon barat daya comes in sept-dec. Luckily I didn't give everything back to my form 3 geography teacher), so I'm starting to germinate seeds now.
Ah such a joy watching the seeds growing leaves and turning into seedlings.

These are the corn seeds I got from MARDI counter during the MAHA exhibition. That is 3 days after being germinated. So cool. It's way taller now.

And these are my new seedlings. 

Top Left: japanese cucumber

Top right: Garlic that my kids brought back from mandarin class

Bottom left: The mardi Corn (posted above)

Bottom right: Spaghetti Squash

My mum laughed at me saying I wont be able to grow anything from my raised bed.

She said "DONT WASTE YOUR TIME!". 

:D we shall see eh?

Mum, the typical Chinese mum

My mum is the typical traditional chinese mother. She doesn't show much affection, that means no hug no kiss. It's always scolding, nagging, smacking and sarcasm that kills yr thought there and then.

But ever since she became a grandmother, it totally changed her. Well, towards her grandkids I mean. She hugs, kiss and then say "nevermind" and "can" to almost everything.

The other day, I brought my MacBook along to my parents house to work. Without realizing it, she added a keychain ring to my broken zipper. She said "spoil edi ma... How to open and close? I add this for you edi lah!!!!" in an angry scolding tone. Putih Putih I got scolding from her, but then I know that she loves me <3>

Are you inspired ?

I am!!

We went to MAHA not long ago and I'm in awe by just looking at the veg and fruits grown by these ppl.

Huge loofahs, pumpkin, gourds were growing everywhere.

The gourd is very THE BIG!

melon growing vertically... (yeah it looks dead but it was the 2nd last day of the event so that explains)

Veg growing out of PET bottles. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle babe!

Vertical Hydroponic farm. AMAZING!

I have never tasted Kohl Rabi before I'm just amazed with the way it was planted.

Oh cabbage.. you so nice looking!

And the pumpkin taken from very very far away. Imagine the size when it's near.

My kids has fun looking at animals. And they're quite confused with the cross breeds with goat looking like this...

Think its a mixed llama and goat. And they have super sized bulls. Weird looking goats that looked like they have wings and all. 

MAHA is really the right place to go to IF you're into agriculture. We spent the whole day at that place., walking alot and going up and down the bus and we got abit worried at the end of the day cos we went too far in and it was raining with kids , one sleeping and another one going to pengsan. But I'm glad I went and if they have it again next year, I'll bring foldable bicycle. *LOL*

DIY: DogHouse + PlayHouse (part 2)

The next day, I woke up and began hammering the walls onto the frames. My 2nd sis dropped by and she helped me to hammer some on while I saw the woods. But after sometimes I asked her to stop cos the structure is still very flimsy and since its heavier at the sides, the entire structure shakes more. :(

Another worry is that my dog refused to go into the structure. So my kids tried to persuade him and went in with him. The next day (how many days already? I lost count!) I removed the entire structure and redo them again. I KID YOU NOT. I removed the entire structure and started to hammer the walls onto the frame and then rejoined them back again with L-brackets and screws. This time the structure was much better than before. And the best part was when we found out that my dog started to rest in the half done structure.

After that, I abandoned my project for a week cos I was rushing my design project for my customer. Everyday I just walk pass my half done dog house and I get very stressed with it. First the house was half finished. I don't even know if I can finish it or it will last or not. Second, my front porch was in a mess with tools everywhere and I was worried that my dog will swallow some nails or screws. So as soon as I was done with my designing project, I went and sat in my structure and I thought this place need more ventilation.

 So the next day I removed the top part of the wall panel and exchange them with smaller wood for better ventilation. And again I went to the hardware shop and asked for roof pricing. The lady boss was abit pissed with me , with my questions and she asked me "you got big dog meh? you build the doghouse yourself ah? can meh?" So I showed her the half done structure and she laughed. And then she began to talk to me. Weird right? probably she thought that I'm a woman and I can't do serious carpentering.

So when the roof came (yeah delivered by lorry together with my other bricks for my garden) I began to put the pieces together. So happened that my SIL came so together, she + my hub + I carried the structure (heavy!!!!) to my veg patch and then I started to hammer the roof on.

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When JD came out he said "WOW! MAMI! YOU'RE A GENIUS!!!"

Cos to him, anyone that can build or create something, is a genius.

My hub came out and just looked at the doghouse and gave me a hug and said "i'm proud of you".

So why is the title called DogHouse + PlayHouse?

I was thinking, if my dog were to reject the house, then probably my kids can use it as playhouse. But since my dog accepted the house and my kids are small enough to go in and play, so it serves as 2 purpose . 

Before I started, I received many negative comments and I was in doubt "can i do it with no help?"I have always told my sons that no matter what, whether you are a boy or a girl, a person with disability, with no knowledge of something (google is always around), we cannot give up. We just got to try hard and persevere and even if we fail, at least we tried. And so I tried, and there were so many times that I wanted to give up and just take down the entire structure and make a shelf or something else with the wood. But I thought, Dang! my son saw me started the sketch, then started the frame and then built it half way. If I did not finish the project, what will they think about their mom? So, I kept going on and on and finally I did it. And I'm glad I didn't give up.

People who are good in carpentering might think that my doghouse is crappy and might not last. Hey, I agree. It sucks but at least my son thinks that I'm a genius. *LOL*

DIY: DogHouse + PlayHouse (part 1)

I went around hunting for a dog house for my dog, and my jaws dropped. Rm1.4k for a doghouse.

Although it's high quality and can last for 10years, its rather small for just one dog. I'm planning to have 2 dogs so if I were to order a house that fits 2 dogs, it's gonna cost me a BOMB.

Initially I wanted to recycle the woods from our renovation to build a doghouse. But after I tried to saw one pc of it, I gave up. It's too thick and at the end we called our construction worker to come over and help us build raised bed for my veg patch. I thought I'm just gonna scrap the doghouse idea off until one night at11pm, I found my dog wet. He saw me working at my kitchen and he accompanied me and he was soaking wet cos my kitchen door doesn't have a proper awning to block the rain. So I decided, I'm gonna build a dog house for him, myself!

So I began sourcing for wood sizes and prices on my birthday, 12th November. To start things off, i bought myself a hammer on that day. *lol*

I tell you, the people at the hardware store is pissed with me. They must be thinking this crazy woman is wasting our time. If 8ft how much? if 10 ft leh? if 12 ft leh?

After I got the measurement of the woods and the prices, I went home and began sketching the house plan. My son call it the "blue print".

And I calculated the $ involved, and again I was stunned. My initial costing came up to rm700. I was upset and was about to give up. My husband asked "Rm700, how many days to make? Is it better to just buy?"

The next day, I began sketching again. And I modified the plan and recalculated. Ah.. This time is within my budget

So the next day I went to the hardware shop and ordered the wood. It came in 8ft, 10ft and 12ft. You need to calculate the measurement and tell them exactly where to cut. I measured the wood myself (yes, cos they are not gonna be responsible if they cut it wrongly and you will waste your wood) and monitored them while they cut the wood shorter so that I can transport them home in my sedan car.

I went home and my husband was surprised that I'm serious about it. But he left me alone cos he knows that when I'm doing a project it means DND mode.(do not disturb)

I started to saw, joined and hammer the frames together. My JD came and asked "are you a Handy mummy? (after handy manny cartoon) and I said I guess so? "Can I help you mami?" Of course!

When I was done with the frame, I was quite dissappointed with it cos the frame looks flimsy.

*sigh* I thought about it that night and I thought "worst come to worst, I can reuse the wood and make something else", right?

To be continued...

You've got mail!

Just before I head out to send JD to class, I peeked into the mailbox and to my surprise, I found something.

A mail from my lil boy. He colored it earlier and went out to put it into the  mailbox for me.

I said "wow! I have a mail!" and he said "yeah! It's for you! From me! Angry bird mail!"

How cool is that?! But he doesn't know how to write much now, so perhaps maybe next time he'll know how to write my name on it :)

Building a Christmas Tree with recyclables

This is our first year celebrating Xmas at Byob Subang.

One day, my sis  sent me a visual via mms.

No wonder I saw so many green bottles hidden in a box at BYOB.

So she called me few days ago and asked me to go over and help to set up and decorate the tree.

All items used are recyclables material such as PET bottles, boxes, twines, rafia string, rubberbands, tubes cover and styrofoam packing balls.

We rushed off cos the kids need to attend a class. This is how it looks like when we left.

30mins later my sis MMS me again and she added more stuff to te Xmas tree. Yeah, how can we forget the "recycle" stickers?

I must say "great job" to my sister cos to plan this, it need alot of preparation. The PeT bottles were tied together in a formation so that it's steady and holds perfectly. To string the styrofoam Balls is another task. To collect the bottles and also the rest of the items is also another task. And she did it all by herself. Me? I just come to decorate and take picture! *lol* (halo, busy with kids lah....!)