Valen’s Vanity Square

With the electricity rates going up very soon, we all have to tighten our belts even further!

I can no longer afford to have the laptop powered on for 12 hours a day. This means that I have to get really efficient and have work done with the laptop during the daytime, and thus, no more dilly-dallying between the internet and serious work, hehe.

As much as I like the living room to be well lit at night even if it’s just watching TV, I think I have to ‘comply’ with some save-electricity movement and only have the wall lights on. Well, may be we should just use candles at night, haha! Besides saving electricity, we could create a romantic ambiance within the house.

Imagine how these candles placed at different corners of the house would set a romantic mood for two?

The candles shown above are from www.quickcandles.com.

Our TV rack was bought from IKEA and has been with us for 4 years now. (Jeez, I’m saying this like it’s our pet dog. :P)

It looks modern and contemporary, but it also collects dust as it is an open rack. Dust on the CDs and the DVD player, too. So, too bad for it, this TV rack will not be sitting in our living room of our new house. We will try to find a corner for it though.

We shall get a TV rack with doors to keep dust away and things neatly organized. Something simple will do.

[Wanted to show a photo of the TV rack I like here, but the Wordpress add-image function just ain't working!]

Fortunately we won’t need audio racks because we don’t have any of those super high-tech home audio systems that only the rich can afford. That means one item less to spend money on (and the cash can be used to buy my dream oven, hehe).

We still haven’t heard any news about the CF for our house from the developer, but hubby and I have started browsing interior design magazines and discussing the possible interior concepts we like our new house to have this time.

Hubby would like to have a bathtub in the master bedroom’s bathroom. The thought of being able to soak away work stress in a bathtub filled with refreshing bubbles and foams is nice, but the price to pay to build one is certainly not.

Alternatively, we can buy one of those traditional wooden bathtubs. I suppose this option is relatively cheaper. I don’t know why, hubby seems to like the idea of soaking in a wooden bathtub with herbal solution.

May be when we are older (and richer), we will consider one of those hydro air therapy walk in tubs, like the one below.

This type of tub is used not only for bathing, but also water treatment that is claimed to be beneficial to health, such as reduces arthritis pain, eases muscle strain and improves blood circulation. The design of a walk in tub is actually safer for the elderly.

As for now, if our budget doesn’t allow us to have a bathtub, we will probably just install a glass shower screen, which is much easier to clean compared to a bathtub!

Highly functional.

Sleek and lavish in style.

You let me experience what luxury is all about.

One look at you makes me want to touch you and feel you. While you may feel cold at first touch, but as my hands glide across your smooth and spotless body, I know you’ll make my best companion ever… in the kitchen.

Hey, what do you think I’m blabbering about here? Of course it’s one of the Blanco sinks!

Choosing a sink that looks great and is highly functional is important for a woman, right? After all, that’s the place where we’re going to wash the dishes for the rest of our life, haha!

Air-conditioned room, big screen LCD, DVD player, surround sound system with a subwoofer that shakes even the roof of your neighbors – yes, these are what a home theater is made of. Make yourself a bowl of popcorn, switch off the light and get cozy up on the couch, and hey, don’t you feel like you’re watching a movie in a mini cinema?

However, you still feel that something is missing that makes this almost-perfect entertainment experience, err, not so perfect.

Has it ever come across your mind that, perhaps, it’s the lighting factor? Noticed how wall sconces (light fixtures) in cinemas subtly emanate soft lighting in the dark, creating a soothing ambience for your movie-watching pleasure?

Right, that’s it. That’s the missing factor – home theater lighting.

You can now create the perfect movie-watching experience by installing some wall sconces in your home theater room. They can be as simple and plain as this:

Or, a slightly more artistic one such as this mosaic wall sconce:

Why not have some fun with quirky lightings, such as this popcorn wall sconce? It would make every thing so ‘cinema-ish’, haha!

With all that, I bet your house (or rather your home theater room) would become the next hot spot in the neighborhood.

Everyone loves to have a garden in their homes, where they can enjoy breathing fresh air in the morning or watching the sunset with their love ones. I too love that idea. But other than in the morning and evening, it’s impossible to engage in any garden activities at other times of the day. You know how hot or wet our weather can be in Malaysia.

Unless I am staying in the Cameron Highlands, then I don’t mind doing gardening or reading a book in the garden at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. Imagine – cool weather, scenic green surroundings, plus sounds of the Nature – how can one not spend more time outdoor in Cameron Highlands?

If I had a small house with garden in Cameron Highlands (here I go daydreaming again…), I would place a table and some chairs there so that I could spend an afternoon reading books while eating scones and drinking English Tea, haha!

To uplift the way my garden looks, I would place some wacky garden decor all around. Something like the hanging hatching chicks and turtle planter below would make a garden livelier, don’t you think?

These ‘animals’ certainly would make my garden the perfect place to daydream myself into la la land, haha!

Garden decor images from gardenfun.com