Home Tour: Pacific place, HongKong

For last 1 month we have been living in this lovely serviced apartment. Although it is a temporary accommodation I must say I have kind of got attached to it. It is perfect in so many ways.. breathtaking views of world-famous Victoria Harbour and dynamic Central Business District , a well equipped kitchen with features like a plants and pantry, efficient and spacious storage in all rooms etc.. 

We will be moving to our own pad soon and so I will take you on my temporary home's tour today..This apartment has 2 bedrooms...I will start with the living room..

This is the living room.. Its lovely isn't it!!  I am not a big fan of L shaped sofas..never thought they are comfortable until this one.. As they have added so many big cushions even the hard to sit in corners are comfortable..The first thing that caught my eye was the framed abacus art..It is so fabulous and easy to make..one day I will make for my home as well..:)

    The other brilliant feature I like is the picture panel to hide the TV..

The dining area has two cabinets which have lovely glass vase which have lights hidden inside them..Looks lovely when you want the room to be dimly lit..

The kitchen is fabulous for a person who likes to cook..In Hong Kong space is precious and most apartments we saw ( while house hunting) had tiny kitchen ..But this one is just perfect ..The plant really add a homely touch to this home-away from-home:)

I really love this kitchen..so bright, warm,cozy and modern..

The children's room has 2 single bed and a study table.. Since my baby is just 5 months ,we use it as a play room/ reading room/Devghar ..multi purpose room:) I like how they have hidden the switches and plugs in the head board panel..

The master bedroom area is really spacious.. The storage cabinets/closets are outside the room well hidden in wooden panels..It has really thick dark curtains which helps me oops I mean the baby to sleep longer:)

 You can see more pictures in the last post I did on pillow arrangement here.. 

Apart from these features what I like and would like to incorporate sometime in my home are the rattan fine weaved dustbins( very stylish), remote controlled lights, a strand of fresh flowers and the paintings in the toilets.

Although I am excited to move to our own pad to decorate and design again, I will miss this place!!

All the pictures are taken by me except the ones without a watermark are from this property site. I thought they are way better than the iPhone pictures I took:)

Joining parties at Romantic home, a stroll thru life !!

               

How to arrange pillows on bed

Pillows on a bed serve both functional and decorative purpose.  There are different ways to arrange and organize pillows..some like them slanted..some like them stacked..but whatever your style is arranging pillows can add the necessary finshing touches to the bedroom. I saw a article in a magazine about pillow arrangement. I love how they have created a different look and feel with simple change in arrangement of pillows..





I tried different styles in our serviced apartment..The first three are using only standard pillows which I think are easily available at home..the other three are using  Euro shams and Accent pillows as well...

I used  4 standard pillows cases for this arrangement..Stacked two and other two are slanted..

For this one 3 standard pillow cases..

This one has 4 standard pillow cases ..I kept two stacked up behind in the center and then kept two slanted in front..

This one has 4 standard sized pillows and 1 accent pillow..

This is with 4 standard pillows and 2 Euro shams..

This last one is with 4 standard pillows and 2 accent pillows..



Hope you all had a lovely weekend!!

How to edit images online

By now you must have heard about this one but since I am die hard fan of their site I feel like sharing it on my blog:) I am talking about Picmonkey. Since Picnik closed down I was wondering how to watermark my images, how to edit them...The thought of learning to use Photoshop just for blogging seemed to me like a daunting task..and I find Picasaweb's interface very boring just like Google's Orkut:)

 So you can imagine my happiness when I found Picmonkey. Editing images is so much fun now!! Picmonkey is created by the Picnik team..It is free to use, easy, fast and has numerous wonderful features to edit your images..You can save them on your laptop in .jpg or .png.

Love the curly frame features..In real life I don't get any time to put on makeup but with Picmonkey I can add blush boost, reduce shine,add a lip tint, brighten my eyes, add highlights to my hair and the best of all I can get a instant weight loss:))( ahem..not that I need one:))

So what are waiting for..Go check out Picmonkey and have fun editing !!!

Father day cake

This is our first Father's day. So I made this cake for DH. The cake is chocolate walnut with chocolate frosting.  I baked it in the sunflower cake pan I had posted earlier about here. Then filled it and covered it with chocolate frosting. I used a very simple recipe to make the frosting: 1 cup cocoa powder, 50gms unsalted butter and 2 tbsp milk. 

I used ready made fondant for the cake topper. At first I wanted to make a peacock son and father. Later realized that I don't have so many colors to make the feather. So I thought I will make it some other time and occasion. For this Father's day occasion I thought of elephants would be very cute. So there they are Daddy and Son elephant!!

  After several unsuccessful attempts I was able to get the correct form. My little ones was very curious about what I am doing. So I made him sit on my lap while making the little one. It was really fun...precious moments. We will cut the cake tomorrow for breakfast..

Happy Father's day!! Have fun and a great weekend!!

Joining party at weekend wrapup party, 

made with love, Metamorphosis Monday

Floral arrangements

Today I am sharing with you some fantastic floral decorations in some of the top hotels in Singapore and Hong Kong. They are quite easy and longer lasting .. at the same time they look so elegant and extraordinary!! 

The first two are from Marina Mandarin , Singapore.

Tall oriental centerpiece

Branches

Raffia/ twine balls

Tall vase

Horizontal floral arrangement

In a tall vase put dry branches.. put some raffia balls on it.. In front of the vase keep a horizontal floral arrangement.

perfect to make a statement and also to break the monotony of the room..

Tea light centerpiece

You will need: 

A branch of rose and some extra flowers..

Glass or Tea light holder

Raffia or twine

Tie a raffia or twine around a tea light holder..Pluck the leaves and fix them around the holder. Fix the rose and some extra flowers as well..

can be perfect for centerpiece for a small table(solo) or a large table(in a row) formal dinner/function or even wedding..

The next two are from Intercontinental, HongKong

Dry floral centerpiece

You will need a cactus or succulent like lotus cactus.( I don't know what is the name of this one...if you know do let me know)

A few long leaves

pebbles

square vase

Put some pebbles at the bottom of the vase ..fill with little water and keep the cactus in it..Decorate with the leaves

will look perfect in a contemporary table setting.

 Tall roses centerpiece

You will need:

Tall vase

Bamboo

Roses with long stems

Banana leaves

First make the vase stable by supporting it with a thicker bamboo. Thread 5-7 thin bamboo in a row like fashion with a twine at the top, middle and bottom with the thicker one. Fill the vase with water. Make a bouquet of 50 roses. Cover  the stems with banana leaf. Fix them in the vase.


Next ones are from Shangri la, Hong Kong

Orchid centerpiece


You will need:


Dry branches
Test tubes
florist wire 
Orchids
pebbles and flat deep dish


Fix the branches in a row in the florist foam..Arrange pebbles over it..Fill test tubes with water and put a Orchid flower in it. Tie these to the branches at different levels with florist wire.


This will look pretty in the entrance or in front front of a plain wall.

Twin floral arrangement

You will need:

Similar looking two vase 

Hydrangeas

Long palm leaves

Fill the vase with hydrangeas and then just arrange palm leaves to create a continuous look

Floral teddy bear


For this one you will need a lot of florist foam and then shape it in a teddy shape. Keep on pushing flowers in it until you have completely filled it up. I would love to make this one for children's party or valentines day ...although not sure where to find this big sized florist foam:)




Linking to Tablescape Thursday!!

Summer cake

Summer is at its peak here.. What better way to celebrate it than to bake a cake..So I went to the mall the other day and found a beautiful sunflower shaped cake mould..I tried to resist buying it but alas I couldn't. So I went ahead and bought the rest of the ingredients.. Then waited for a perfect opportunity to bake it in the afternoon when my 4 month old went to sleep..

This is a lemon cake .. I didn't use fresh lemons and instead of butter used vegetable oil..The result was yummy!! It came out spongy and soft.

Lovely surprise for my hubby ..served it with hot chai!! 

Hope you all had a lovely weekend &

have a great week ahead!!

Linking to parties at the tablescaper and Metamorphosis Monday, Weekly Story

Frangipani Decor

It will be a week now that we moved into a serviced apartment. It is pretty neat.. I really like the design and decor of this apartment..and the view of the Hong Kong harbour is  breathtaking!! I will give a tour of this place before we move into our own pad.. 

There are two parks near by .. one is Pacific place garden(small garden) and other is the Hong Kong park.. So baby and I go for walks and strolls there.. There are lots of frangipani trees here and I love to collect them.. 

 Frangipani or Plumeria flowers are very delicate and perfect for summer decor. They don't last for long although..Enjoy them while they last..their amazing aroma and the tropical feel to it.. The best way to decorate them is to float them in a bowl of water or dip them in water in shallow bowl/vase  like I did. I put them in this shallow bowl..actually it is a ashtray but we both don't smoke so we don't need it and I think it makes a pretty good vase!!!!

After bringing them home put them in water right away or in the refrigerator or put them in a wet cloth napkin and fold it from all sides. They will last longer if it is cooler in the house..so if you are doing a decor piece with frangipani flowers for the evening then it is better to put the Aircon on.  

So you can see that the number of flowers in my little vase are increasing after each day's walk:) Now it is overflowing.. 

So I kept some in other vases..Soon I think all the empty vases and pots will be filled with flowers picked from strolls:) Such small things also help me personalize this temporary accommodation and helps us to make it feel at-home!!!!!


Have a lovely weekend!!!


Linking to these lovely parties Show and Tell Friday, Home sweet Home, Show and Tell Saturday!!!!

Art for kitchen

I found some pictures of my kitchen in the Singapore home on my laptop.. When we moved to that home I didn't like the kitchen..It was a big comprise compared to our fancy and very modern kitchen in the Switzerland home..This one had tiles from top to bottom..you know the white square ones..I call them bathroom tiles. Since I love to cook and didn't have a helper till I got pregnant I wanted the kitchen to look pretty..somewhere I can work and cook..So decided to beautify it a bit. 

I had made these Chai paintings some time back..each painting has a different cup style and on the background are words for tea around the world..some 20 different languages I think..like tea, tey,chai, cha, caj,tee etc

I bought wall decals with cherry blossoms print on it. It worked like magic. These are very durable, easy to clean and remove. I fixed a huge flowering branch with flowers dropping from it over the sink, some near the kitchen back door and one over the hob. I also put some near the switch board and the paintings.


Wall decals are easy way to beautify the walls without any damage to the walls. There are some awesome kitchen decals available in the market which will add instant spark to the room. 

I fixed some wooden birds I had bought in Madrid , cheese board from Amsterdam, some vintage tins I collect in Europe and a money plant in a recycled bottle..etc ..

After going through all this trouble to make it look better I have decided that  I will not compromise on the kitchen in the new home here in Hong Kong:))