A Homemaker’s Diary

Modern decor plans are all about using space well. Each homeowner will need to think about all areas of the house and how best to make them workable. For many people, the answer lies in the details. Effective details help make the space come alive. Today’s apartment dwellings and homeowners think carefully about whatever they do. This includes the kind of flooring they choose to use. The right flooring can also help any room come alive with texture and color. When looking for flooring, many people find that a rug is the right choice for their personal needs. A rug can help create a defined space that works and allows the room to serve as a refuge when getting home after a long hard day.

Using a Rug

A rug should be used carefully in any space. This is particularly true of reindeer hide rugs. Rugs made from reindeer skin can be used in many varied ways. Some people choose to place them on floor. Doing so helps the room come alive and makes it easy to create special spaces that allow for pleasantly intimate conversation. A rug of this type can also be used in order to help set the stage for other items in there. For example, it can be easily placed on the couch or a love seat so as to help create a luxurious item for people to admire and sit on.

Where to Place the Rug

Another consideration is where to place the reindeer hide rug. Such rugs can work well in any area of the home. Many people choose to place the reindeer skin rug in the center of the room to help show it off. The rug can also be placed in a corner as part of an overall decorating scheme. One person may decide that it makes sense to use the rug to cordon off a section of the room and make it feel much cozier. The rug can also be used on the wall to help set this corner off from the rest of the space. A rug can serve as a form of decoration that melds well with other elements in the room including other throws and other pictures.

Crafting a Unified Space

Each homeowner should think about how they can create a unified space in their entire home. For some people, this means a space that has many elements. For others, a single element such as a rug can be paired with a few other upscale items to create a look that is all about the use of contemporary space. In doing so, each person can create a room that is entirely their own. When looking at the rug, keep in mind that it can work well in any part of the room including near windows as well as near a door or a terrace. The net result is a unified and coherent space that works well from every single angle. To view more animal skin rugs click here.

I have no intention to do any gardening this morning because I just had my morning shower and I just want to sit down and enjoy my cup of hot Milo. But then when I went out to water the plants I realized these two pots of jarum tujuh and bunga kertas were almost toppled to the ground.

So putting on my gardener’s hat, I tried to put those plants upright but they just can’t because of the heavy foliage. Those thorny branches from jarum tujuh somehow got tangled with the thick old branches of the bougainvillea..sigh!

So I thought since that’s how the problem looks like, I might as well prune some of the thick foliage of jarum tujuh with my big gardening scissors. After a quick pruning, the plant looks just nice but I was left with a massive junk of thorny branches.

Next I tried to tackle the problem with the bougainvillea. First in order to make it stable, I pruned most of the branches even the old one. I’ve had this bunga kertas for the past 13 years, mind you. After pruning it, I was able to move the pot around. But then I noticed that there’s a thick root coming out from underneath the pot, so no matter how I nudged the pot it keeps on leaning to one side. I have no choice but to severe the root from the soil underneath the pot. Once I was able to put the pot upright, I started to clean up all the debris.

The cleaning process took some time because the branches got tangled with money plants. As I raked the foliage, they keep on tangling more. I have to stop raking and cut all the money plants first.

It makes me realized one thing about how problem arises in life. Sometimes menial stuff happens that at first just annoy and irritate us. We get busy with life and let it festers some more. We don’t extinguish the problem from its root and soon it creates havoc.

We get tangled so bad until we get hurt from the toppling and the heavy foliage with thorns eventually scratches our soul. To be free we need to severe some connection. In order to move on and move forward, we have to let go something even if we have had it with us for so long.

That’s what I learned from my plants today. And this song lingers in my head somehow.

Entah mengapa mataku ini
Halaman orang nampak berseri
Laman sendiri berwarna warni
Tak bererti

Terlalu asyik memandang bintang
Merenung bulan tinggi di awan
Bumi dipijak
Rumput yang hijau kulupakan..

After almost a decade, the blender that comes with the food processor I have been using for cooking gone kaput. I was using it to blend ginger and garlic and when I wanted to pour the paste inside the container, the bottom part of the blender got stuck, the black rubber ring got loose and everything became a mess, a garlicky ginger mess..haha!

Actually I have been planning to buy a new blender that has a dry mill for quite some time before the garlic ginger incident happened. Since my first blender was a Panasonic, I decided to get a new one this time.

What I like best about Panasonic blender is that the jar comes with a stick that proves to be useful when you need to stir whatever you are blending. Phillips doesn’t have that stick in their blender.

I also noticed that for this blender model, the jar is one piece. You don’t have to take out the bottom and upper part of the jar when you need to clean it, thus there’s no rubber ring to be worried about. You might need a long brush like the one you use to clean bottle if you need to scrub the part below the blades.

I have also tested the dry mill. I put about 10 black peppercorn in the dry mill just to check how strong the blade could be. Almost all the peppercorn were reduced to small particles. I am yet to try grinding some other ingredients.

For this particular blender set I bought them through Lazada. With delivery charges it costs me less than RM90. Overall I am happy with my purchase. My son said the new blender is quite noisy compared to the old one we have but for me it’s OK as long as I can get the ingredients for my daily cooking blended nicely..haha!

Time really flies so fast this year. It’s almost the end of March. It’s been a while since I really sit down and write for this blog. For April, I hope I would be able to update more.

The picture of the plant above was taken last week. It is the rangoon creeper I have at home. It has grown so big that it becomes a hassle every now and then to trim the branches and prune the leaves so that it won’t go into the neighbor’s side. But every time the flowers bloom, it is such a joy to watch all the bright red and white buds, and smelling the sweet musky weird smell those flowers emit.

This year, there were days that I was so busy indoor taking care of the children and doing house chores that I didn’t even get the chance to go out and water all my plants. I miss the precious me-time I occasionally get gardening, digging the holes, putting in new plants and seeing them grow each day.

I love sowing the seeds and wait in hope for those tiny creatures of God to sprout into life. We can only strive and pray for the best outcome in every action we take in life, the same concept goes with gardening. There will be days when nothing ever grow from the seeds we sow, but it doesn’t give the excuse for us to stop trying.

Never give up. Ask question, seek out answers, search for the truth. Eventually we will find the right way to make it work.

I came across different kind of tools for soil sampling while doing research the other day. For a newbie in gardening like me, all these gadgets and technical terms sound so confusing.

Well, the reason I think to get some soil sample is because I have been trying to plant a different kind of fruit trees at this space for the past 3 years but every time it grew as tall as a few feet, it died for no apparent reason. Last year the papaya tree was already as tall as me, even started flowering when it suddenly shed all the leaves and eventually died. I even tried planting lime and lemon trees at that patch of soil but after a while they just withered and died. Perplexing, huh?

So far the only type of plants that thrive over there is the flowering type like portulaca, jasmine and ruellias. Oh, and the green herbs have been growing really well there to the extent that I have to prune them every month to avoid the area looking like a crowded bush.

From the reading I’ve done, soil sampling could help to determine the need for aeration and to select the proper fertilizer for root development. The soil sampling should be done before doing any new landscaping so that if the soil test report recommends lime, you will have enough time to apply it and have it adjust the soil pH before you can plant.

If an established area exhibits abnormal growth or plant discoloration, take a soil sample right away. You may want to submit matching plant tissue samples or separate soil samples for nematode assay. After reading this, I thought maybe this could be the main reason why the fruit trees died – because of the nematode problem. Some nematodes are beneficial, controlling grubs and other insects in the soil. Other nematodes are harmful to plants, burrowing into roots and making their way up the stems and leaves.

One of the solution for the nematodes problem is to amend the soil with plenty of organic matter prior to planting. Till or dig the organic matter several inches into the soil. The organic matter will help suppress the nematodes and keep them from causing as much damage.

Well, I have to try one of these many suggestions if I would like to go further with the fruit tree mission for the year of 2017. Will let you know if any of the solution work out. 🙂