A Homemaker’s Diary

I hope whoever stumbled upon my blog will notice the announcement I have above all the blog entries about my 2 craft classes - bunga dip and decoupage which will be held in March 2010.

I’m sure not many know what is decoupage. I got many email and even a phone call from radio station asking me what is decoupage. I wonder do these people ever heard about Google?..haha!

Nevertheless, to make my life easier I just answer that it is an art of “gunting” and “tampal” - (cut and paste). The word decoupage actually comes from the French word “decouper” - meaning to cut. The Italians referred to it as arte povero, poor man’s art. In the olden days those who couldn’t afford to hire an artist to decorate their furniture will resort to get the almost same effects with cut-outs pasted on and covered with multiple coats of varnish or lacquer.

Nowadays, there are many women who love English style home decor. They are usually the one who came to my decoupage classes previously with the intention to come out with their own unique English theme decoupage items. Some even take decoupage orders from others or conduct class on their own now.

Oh, you don’t even have to know how to paint and draw as all the motifs you can find printed on the paper napkins. There are also choices like wrapping paper, magazine cut out, decoupage paper and labels but they will use different techniques and mediums to be pasted and preserved on the surface you choose.

I will teach you the basic techniques which you can learn within 2 hours. Even the most “tak berseni” people can do it, I promise! Come and join my decoupage class this 14 March 2010. Seats are limited!

I noticed that many people came to this blog looking for bunga dip, gubahan hantaran and bunga pahar…(at least from the analytics I got from Blog Stats and Nuffnang)

So since I will be conducting kelas bunga dip this coming March, I might as well show what you will learn if you join the class.

At the end of that 3-hour session, you will go home with this 2 type of bunga telur - one stalk of bunga pahar, complete with ribbon and net telur and another is bunga dulang mini which once you know the basic techniques on how to do it, you can add on as many bunga kecil, daun and bunga ros as you want to be a standard size of bunga dulang to be put by the side of your gubahan hantaran.

I will teach you how to assemble bunga dulang and even tie your bunga telur to the batang lidi..(you’ll be surprised to learn that not all people have the basic idea on how to do a proper bunga telur..hehe!)

Here is a close up picture of my demo bunga dulang mini. Check out that bunga kecil, you can turn that into corsage or decoration for guest favors.

Come and join my March class, seats are still available. Even if you never do a single craftwork before, I guarantee that you will be able to bring home your own handmade bunga dip after the class is over

(I have to backdate this entry since the sticky doesn’t work)

I am not sure whether I have shared this picture of bottles before. Maybe in another blog I have or in the forum..isk! BTW, the left bottle was done using decoupage techniques. I ordered the Christmas paper napkin from UK since the seller sold them in a set of 20 different pieces for Christmas theme. So I chose the motif with musical notes and stocking for this bottle.

The right bottle was done using Pebeo glass painting set. It was such a challenge since that was the first time I did glass painting as a project..(other than the one piece I have done during the formal lesson)

For those who do decoupage, if the theme and style suits you, you can try applying glitter glue on top of the motifs to make it more prominent and have the extra bling. This one was done using Plaid Glitter. But personally I prefer Jo Sonja Opal Dust as the tiny light-reflecting, opal coloured particles create glitter effects that suits my eyes..heh!

Remember the entry I wrote about Planet Pulse? And I promised to tell if my withdrawal from PayPal to my Maybank account is successful.

I withdrew some amount last Friday and I checked today, the money is already in..(which means it only takes 3 working days to process). No additional charges whatsoever from Maybank.

If the amount you want to withdraw from PayPal is more than RM400, you will not be charged a single cent. But in my case since the amount is less than RM400, Paypal deducted RM3 and the balance after deduction and forex calculation will then be credited into the local bank account which I have registered with Paypal.

I will accumulate more USD in my PayPal since now I know for sure that there is much easy way to get money in MYR. Last time I have to use Al Rajhi Visa Debit to take out the money from PayPal.

I was having a conversation online with a friend about her plan to buy a house. In Malaysia, people usually buy houses that have been built by developers so we have less choice to choose what type of house plans we desire. Unless we are really rich, can afford to buy vacant plot and pay for contractors to erect the house of our dream, we are doomed to buy whatever designs that the real estate developers come out with..huhu!

I was browsing through the website of HousePlansandMore.com. I wish one day when we have enormous amount of money, we could have something like this cottage in a quiet area.

They have so many cabin plans to choose from. You can even estimate the cost to build such house by inputting the zip code (available in USA only!) And with their Cost Estimator feature, you can also locate the house floor plans within your budget.

They also have so many styles to choose from - ranch, Tudor, Victorian, contemporary and many more. Check out their list of qualified builders. With their Builder’s Advantage program, builders get to receive discounts, free plan books and many benefits.

If you are building your own home, what features would you put as a must? I am all into large family area, 6 bedrooms with attached bathroom, and a kitchen fit for a cooking master. What about you?