we’ve bought the tiny parkview-apartment 3-years ago, and regretfully due to other priorities and some displaced sentiments, the 640sq feet condo-apartment had been left empty without tenants and our regular visits..

what a waste, eh?

with its strategic location in Kuala Lumpur’s Golden Triangle, 5-minutes walking distance to Petronas Twin Towers & Jalan Bukit Bintang, ready access to surrounding & happening pubs/clubs/eateries and other inner-city-amenities, security-tight building & lift-access, broadband & astro-connections, cleaning & bellboy services, etc.. we could have rented it out easily, so instantly!!

and yet, we procastinated for 3-years, mmm…

that was, until mid-apr-2010, when faced with additional monthly expenditures from our children’s education, we started looking back to this tiny gold-mine, hence immediately surrendered our door-keys to our property-agent, who got back to us after just 2-weeks with this good news: ‘i’ve got you a tenant!!’

yaayyy, we’ve got our very first tenant, a young japanese expatriate wanting to rent for 1-year, at a much higher rental than we were expecting, provided: we upgrade with additional cabinets & furnitures and fully-furnish the kitchenette and bedroom!! aaahh yes: within 2-weeks!! yes, 2 short weeks, mmm..

so there we were at the end of april-2010, excited in becoming new landlords yet apprehensive of our strict dateline.. and with the full support of my better-half and his interior-contractor-brother, i suddenly came face to face with my very first interior-designing project: doing up my own apartment for rental purposes!!! nice..

the next 2-wks were hectic (yes, no facebook! ) and plenty of running around sourcing for curtains, bedsheets, cuttleries, little accessories, kitchen-gadgets, furnitures and other loose-items, whilst my male-counterparts handled the messy/dusty built-in cabinets and other permanent fixtures.. and phew, we finalised everything 2-hours before countdown, yesss…

the tenant was happy that for the next 1-yr, he’d enjoy all the benefits of home in the comforts of a hotel-environment.. our property-agent was impressed that we’d risen up to the challenge and deliver more than she was bargaining for.. my darling hubby was satisfied that our 3-yr investment was finally giving us juicy profits..

and me??

i was exhilirated that i can finally add another feather to my cap: an interior designer, yaayyy….

thank you darling, and thank you izan..

more of rookie-photos http://www.facebook.com/pages/wwwtheceramicdesignercom/345426605331?ref=mf#!/album.php?aid=428978&id=345426605331&ref=pb

work, life, passions, interests, family, cats & friends have taken me away.. not to mention those daily morning-fixes of facebooking, ahha..

eh, did i mention ‘work’, FIRST..??? that’s so not me haha, especially after all that i’ve done the past 7-years to purposely trim-down all work-related activities, so that everything (especially WORK!!) is easier & SIMPLIFIED..

mmm..
easier, simplified, online, by simple touches of simple little buttons..

mmm..
and my wrists, hands & shoulders are ‘testimonials’ to these simple work-life..

assm hi hello my dear blog!!!

i love gardening and i love eating raw vegetables (ulam), hence, been planting & growing some local ulams near my kitchens for daily and occasional consumption… the idea of having easy and immediate access to such freshly-picked home-grown ulams whilst cooking & preparing meals had been in my head since small, and i remember trying (unsuccessfully!!) to grow watermelons in my parents 10×10feet porch-garden, mmm…

ok, ok, watermelons are not really considered an ulam, yes?? but still, this ‘edible-garden’ interest has been long nurtured, and now happily & passionately shared with my sparring-partner-in-life..

some of the ulams that have been thriving in our edible-garden are these kacang panjang, which have been fruiting well recently, without much fuss, interruptions and infections from the snails, insects, butterflies, giant-red-ants and the rest of my ‘fellow’ ulam-lovers.. and just yesterday, we managed to pick 2 handfuls of them to last us a week!! simple pleasures like these can promote healthy aging, eh..??

but aside from giving me simple-pleasures, do they really have any health-benefits?? i googled ‘khasiat kacang panjang’ yesterday, and these benefits were mentioned & listed:

1. reduces diabetic, hypertension & hypoglycemia conditions..
2. reduces fat in blood, cholesterol..
3. cleanses/enhances liver & pancreas functions..
4. increases bowel movements..
5. increases red-blood cells..
6. and some other benefits which were beyond my simple-comprehension and brief-googling..

but as always, any good things taken excessively must have some not-so-good-benefits in return, huh??

But i must do this.. I must complete my web missions.. And hopefully i’m nearing the completion of these self-imposed assignments very very soon, inshaallah..

As it is now, i’d be struggling with wordpress-blog for awhile after being comfortable with blogspot-blog, but hey, they say wordpress monetizes much better, so i’m not complaining!! I’m just hoping my shoulders & arms can carry me through these crawling stages without me having to think of running off to my acupuncturist every other day to get them treated and rested.. Aahh yes, those glucosamin tablets as my alternatives are a Godsend, alhamdulillah..

So should you spend some time browsing this new web-home and discover that certain things are not appearing so savvy, please accept my humble apologies coz the tuan-rumah is currently busy decorating and fixing these minute interior and exterior details of her new home..

But hey, thanks for dropping by, and please pass the word around that TheCeramicDesigner have moved to another web-location, hopefullly for good!! And she hopes to feature more of these glazed ceramic burners in her product ranges very very soon! May God bless you, kind-hearted souls..

this grapevine-plans of ours were mooted eversince we had some extra spaces to play around with, and our first set of grape-trees were planted along the side garden in-between our 2 side-verandahs approximately 3-years ago.. a total length of 12-feet steel climber-fence was purposely/vertically put-up to cater to the growth of our grape trees, not knowing that once the grape-shoots climbed up to the top of the fence, they’d hover on and grow around the top of the fence only, leaving the rest of the vertical-fence bare..

hence our vertical climber design was proven not to be perfectly suitable for grape-vines afterall, but we tried to make the best of the situation by constantly and manually guiding downwards the growth/movements of new shoots.. the colours and shapes of the grape-leaves were appealing to our eyes and the fact that the trees would start fruiting whenever we talked about getting rid of them, have made us decide to just let them be where they are and let them continue being a part of our garden-scapes..

on the upside of things, the sour grapes (above-photos) that they’d kept bearing over the past one year could actually make excellent substitutes for ‘belimbing besi’ in my cooking and ‘masak lemak kuning’ dishes, eh..?? mmm..

so 3-years passed by, and our grape-vines are still not some nice-looking vines at all.. ;(

so 3-years passed by, and another grapevine-idea was mooted a few months ago.. ahh yes, why not try again and grow another set of grape-trees on the rooftop garden instead..?? and this time around, instead of vertical climber-fencing, we should build horizontal flat-climbers all around the toproof gazebo, so that the grapevines would grow all around the gazebo-roof horizontally, looking like extensions of the roof..?? and when they’d start fruiting, the grapes would be dangling down for easy pickings as we passed by under the climbers to sit underneath the gazebo..?? mmm, that sounds really really nice…

so another set of steel-structures were commissioned and constructed within the next few weeks.. flat horizontal steel-climbers on 3-sides of our toproof gazebo would be strong enough to hold another set of grape-trees for many many years to come.. and we envisioned how beautiful the gazebo would look like with grape-shoots, vines and fruits growing wild, branching out and dangling down.. and we can grow, pick and eat our own fresh homegrown grapes!! heavenly eh..??

but how do we get grapes that would taste sweet?? do we just buy seedlings/trees from any garden-nurseries around town?? what type of soils should we use?? any special fertilisers needed?? what type of weather conditions should we observe..?? this is our second grapevine-attempt, therefore we must strive to be more prepared and informed, to get better and sweeter results..

so we asked around among friends, relatives and strangers.. and eventually the trees that i got over the weekend were courtesy of our weekend pasar-tani-trader abang-musa hailing all the way from perlis.. who bought them from some handicapped grape grower residing in grape-growing-state-of-perlis..

our current grape-journey in photos soon, in next posting..