Library Complete

The largest area we had to work on before Sweet Home magazine came to our house was the 'family room'. R and I are calling it the Library or a lounging space. You might remember back awhile ago when I was thinking about what to do with this space in my post here. I had wanted something low to the ground for lounging. Ultimately, I decided not to go with the Ikea mattresses because the grey covers were not made to be used as upholstery so the cushions would get worn and need to be replaced too fast. I did look in Malaysia for other low to the ground type furniture, but found nothing except bean bags. I had seen a cool photo of a few bean bags here and thought that they might work for the space and create the lounging effect R and I were looking for for reading and relaxing.

I was able to find three dark brown nearly black perfect colored bean bags from Jusco in Seremban 2 and bought them up with some matching pillows. The center rug is from our Bali trip. We wanted something playful and colorful to go with the colors of the books and items on the bookshelves. The small rug in the corner is a Persian rug from R's mom on her recent visit.

I had wanted to place these two Expedit Ikea shelf units straight on the ground for a low effect so it would be at the level of the bean bags, but R and I decided on legs at the store because the shelves just looked toooo low. Even with the legs, they are fairly low and go nicely with the seating area across the room.

The other thing we desperately needed in the Library space was some kind of Curtains for the large windows. I wanted something that you couldn't see directly through, but still could make out the green and sky behind. The curtains we were hoping would cool the room down because it gets so much sun in the afternoon it is super hot there. We bought another one of those long cables to hang the curtains on with clips from Ikea and 8 panels of white curtains (forget the name of these). The photo above was right after the installation. I have since hemmed them so they flow to the floor and don't bunch at the bottom. And I also removed the clips and used those old fashion curtain pleat clips and attached the curtains higher so there is no gap showing light through where the clips used to be, also, the curtains look more 'pleated' which is the look I was going for.

A couple Persian metal mirror holders (left) and a covered metal container sit on the table base with our Kindle. By the way, Kindles still aren't easy to get in Malaysia. When we bought ours a few months back, Amazon in the US wasn't shipping US manufactured Kindles to Malaysia. We had to have someone send it to us. The few Kindles that were available in KL stores were of questionable origin (meaning possibly knock offs or the models made and distributed in countries where the product is not the same as the better US models ... I don't know R knows more about this ... ) Hopefully, they will start to sell them in Malaysia before the next model comes out. We love this one so much we can't wait to get the next version.

A few old Persian photo albums.

Lighting Around the House

Recently we were contacted by Sweet Home magazine, a magazine that features homes in Singapore, Malaysia and other Southeast Asia locations. They wanted to interview R and I as foreigners living in Malaysia and also do a photoshoot of the house for the magazine. We said yes, but the house wasn't ready for a photoshoot!!!! We had under a week to get as much done as possible before they came. One of the things most noticeable (well besides the totally empty 'family room' on the second floor) was the light fixture wiring all over the house. For the past year we have been looking for the perfect fixtures, and when we would find one, we would buy it. But, now we needed to finish so I went searching all over Seremban for lighting.

I found this simple spotlight that looked nice. Bought two for 'family room' one for the ceiling and one for the wall.

Installed on the ceiling it has a rainbow effect on the wall, which I guess works ok with our color scheme for the 'family room' or what we are calling the library.

Also decided to add one of these white spots to the dining room so it is complete. Once I get the art, I may change the lighting, but it won't be for awhile.

More Bali

Friends have asked for more photos from our trip to Bali so here they are!

Look at this great Ginger plant at a spa we went to. I can only hope the ginger plants I added by the side of the house will someday be as beautiful!

The Blue Room Lanterns and Ikat Curtain

The Blue Room is finished! Well, almost. The five Ikea lanterns I bought were installed. I think they look pretty close to what I wanted to do. I'm using energy saving bulbs from Ikea, the light seems a bit bright so I searched around for some basic low wattage light blubs. No light store in Seremban carries them!!!! but finally found 25 watt blubs at a small old hardware store near the house, they looked liked they had been sitting there for ages, but I didn't care. I came home and put them in hoping it would create a dimmer effect, but no they are exactly the same brightness as the energy savers, so I guess I'll have a dimmer installed sometime. The single platform bed is KONSMO Ikea in dark blue. Very simple and without a headboard which makes it more like a daybed in the small room. Rug on the floor is an Persian carpet R's sister sent from the middle east that is black and red with some navy blue, it fits perfectly in the space. I added a few pillows I had brought from the middle east to the bed as well, although I should search for something better. Instead of a dresser we did end up putting a small TV table, forgot to take a photo of it.

The Ikat Curtain we picked up in Bali on our recent trip. It's one large panel. I think the woman told us it is a 'king blanket'. Works great for the large windows in the room.

Pucuk Paku: Wild Fern Shoots

Once in a while I see large clumps of this frilly green at Family Store near my house in Seremban. I've been curious what to do with them and figured that they are eaten like the many other kinds of 'greens' that I find in the stores and Wet Market here in Seremban. Recently while at the store I saw a fresh carton of these great greens just begging to be bought. So I brought a bunch home and started searching online. It turns out they are Fern which makes sense because they look a bit like ferns. It seems there are various kinds of fern and they are mainly referred to as Fiddlehead Fern. Only most of the photos online and the recipes seem to call for Fiddlehead Ferns that look chunkier than the Fern I bought at Family Store. It seems that these are popular in the US, but I never saw them in New York when I lived there, ever. Nor do I remember eating them in a restaurant. Actually, the thicker swirls look pretty damn cool!

Nevertheless, I had these thin ones, and so I needed to find out how to cook them. The best way to search is to use the Malay name obtainable from the Family Store label. Here it said Pucuk Paku. I was searching recipes and actually found a blog from a guy named Sham in Kuala Lumpur who is from Negeri Sembilan (the state in which Seremban is located); his blog is a joint deal with his mother together they post traditional Malay cooking with emphasis on Negeri Sembilan style! They post a recipe for Goreng Pucuk Paku (Fried Wild Fern Shoots) here.

I thought since I was in Negeri Sembilan and had some Pucuk Paku I better use his recipe which he describes as, "This one is really an easy one. I'm not that much of a vegetable eater but this is definitely one of my favourite vegetable dish. Very Negeri Sembilan... I think lah. I think you can get the wild fern shoots from any good wet market here. Bibik did the shopping for this and also the cooking for this dish. So enjoy!"

But, I didn't have either of the anchovy ingredients so I just sauteed the fern with minced garlic, hot chili, salt and pepper in olive oil. They tasted great! R ate them right out of the pan on the stove! He called them addictive. I didn't do that good of a job at separating the thicker stems from the lightweight fern parts and so the stems were a bit too crunchy and the fern a bit over cooked. Next time I'll do better...

Christmas Palms Growing

I always drive by a house near my house here in Seremban that has the cutest small palms in the front of the yard (image above is one of the palms). They had beautiful red seeds for quite awhile. So I stopped one day and picked up some of the red seeds. After searching online I found they are are Christmas Palms (Adonidia). I planted a number of the seeds to see if they would grow. I tried a couple methods. I soaked some, soaked some and removed the red part from the seed before planting, and also planted a couple without doing anything. Oh and I also put a couple in wet paper towel and placed them in a plastic bag. All methods worked and they eventually sprouted. Strangely, the largest plant right now was one from the plastic bag method. But I guess removing the red part after soaking worked well too. I've already transplanted the small shoots once into bigger pots. I found they had already established thick roots. In the new planters, now I wait for them to get bigger before I plant them in my yard.

Blue Room Update

The other thing we managed to do before we left for our trip was to paint the Blue Room. It took a few coats of Nippon Seclusion Blue, but finally came together. The room is hard to photograph, but these images should give you an idea of the color.

The door trim and the door into the bathroom need to be painted. Reminds me that the trim on all the interior doors in the house need to be be painted. I have been procrastinating because it is oil paint and I hate working with it and also because I keep wondering if I should go with a light grey or white trim. If I go with white it will look good with all the white walls in the main part of the house, but white won't look so good here and on this small door that needs to be painted, it also won't look so good in our brown bedroom.

On my last trip to Ikea I bought five of these Vate 46cm wide lantern shades and the white Hemma fixtures that you hang them from.

My idea is that there are two electric sources already in the ceiling. One is for the fan and one is for the ceiling light that was here when we moved which we will remove. I've already asked our electrician if he can take power from these sources to make five lighted lanterns in the room as I want them to hang over the single bed/daybed we are going to put in the room. He said it can be done.

Here is a messy drawing of how it will look.

The Botanic Garden of Ubud

One of the places we visited on our trip to Bali was the Botanic Garden of Ubud. The place was empty when we went. You start up at the top entry building and walk down a series of stairs into different gardens. There is also the "Rainforest" that we attempted to walk through but after the second falling-apart-bridge literally collapsed in one section as R walked over it, we turned back. On the way out of that part of the botanic garden we noticed a sign that had been put to the side of the entrance, from the back we could read that the Rainforest was temporarily closed.

This strange tree pod was in the herbal garden, I think. Anyone know what it might be?

I love these, they kind of remind me of hostas in New York, but these were taller and on or near the water.

There was a huge orchid building with many orchid plants. Nearly every plant was not in bloom though.

Bali Trip

I've written about Air Asia's cheap flights in the past here. R and I finally had a chance to try Air Asia out. Overall, the experience wasn't that bad and because of the low airfare it made our trip to Bali very reasonable. The plane tickets were not booked during one of those very cheap Air Asia Sales, so we could have done better on the price. But who can complain for round trip tickets at 393myr each (about $125 USD).

We decided to stay only in Ubud, Bali during our seven day stay. It was good, but after a few days we found ourselves booking a driver to take us to temples and other sites outside of Ubud which was fun and a great way to see the rolling green countryside. The view above is of the rice paddy field behind our hotel.

As the trip was to be economical, we decided to stay at Nirwa Homestay where we bargained the price down to 200,000 Indonesian Rupiah (about 72myr or $23 USD) per night. You can see from the photos the place was charming, but for reasons I won't go into R and I wouldn't recommend the place. There are plenty of other places to stay that are nicer.

The terrace outside our room on the ground floor

Inside our room

The food in Ubud was pretty good compared to Malaysia, I guess because they have so many picky western visitors. We enjoyed some dishes you can't find easily around Malaysia. But, our favorite place was an organic restaurant out in the middle of the rice paddy fields (see above) it was a long walk from the main road, but actually not far from our hotel. We ate at Sari Organic almost everyday. A couple times for early dinner because it closes at 8:30pm -- you have to walk back in the non-lit rice paddy field paths and it gets very dark. When we were there it was around full moon time which meant that the place could stay open a bit later and the paths were not as dark. Actually, around full moon is a good time to go to Bali we were told by our guide because after full moon it is considered a good time for ceremonies and cremations (we saw a few of both while we were there). Anyway, food, alcohol and treats cost us -- I'm guessing -- no more than 475,000 Indonesian Rupiah (about 171myr or $54 USD) per day.

All in all, it was a great trip; we plan to keep checking the Air Asia sales and see where else we can go in Southeast Asia... the airport is close to our house and the flights aren't that long because Malaysia is centrally located!

I'll post some photos of the many unique plants we saw soon.

Dining Room Serving Ledge

Before we went to Bali the last of the new items B made for the house was installed. We opted for a simple white seven foot Serving Ledge instead of a buffet or console as the space between the wall and the table isn't that deep. I like the sleekness of it. I'll try to find something else to place on the ledge or get a few more of these great Chinese blue and white serving dishes and line them up in a row of 5 or 6.

Now all we need in the Dining Room is a spotlight for the big wall. Eventually I want to put up six traditional bird color etchings (you know the kind you see in very traditional dining rooms) only I'll add some contemporary colored mats or even do some black and white ink drawings on mats and then frame them in strong silver metal. I change my mind all the time on this, and probably will many more times because the bird etchings are with my other art in storage in the US and I won't be getting it until we go back next year.

Red Ginger Plants Planted

R and I have just returned from a trip to Indonesia. What a great break. I'll post more on Bali sometime soon. Before we left, I planted four Red Ginger Plants (Alpinia Purpurata) in the space between our house and our neighbor's near our front patio. I planted them nearly two weeks before leaving. There was rain while we were gone, but when we returned some of the leaves have turned yellow and I'm not sure if they didn't get enough water. Even with the yellow leaves, I think the plants will eventually take.