Mariko - my little pacemaker

Ending the 2014 with a bang. Hopefully, my girl will keep me on track for next year's runs.

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The Kitchen dog series - Synchronized sleeping II from the bedroom

Mariko hosts her dog house tour 2014

It's been almost four years since our last house tour. Much have changed around the house. I was so much smaller and mischievous then. Now, I'm all grown up. This is me looking demure on my long cushion last year. Momma and I found this on the roadside while we were doing our evening walk. Later that night, we pulled our car next to it and bundled it home! We got it upholstered with some leftover fabric. Voila, it's spanking new again. This is the best roadside find we have made so far that could fit into our car. There is more dog hair in our house nowadays, for sure.... with the arrival of my goldie playmate, Dori. So, please excuse her fur....it was for a good cause.

 

The wall colours have been neutralised from the earthy greens with burnt orange when we first moved in but the bones are still the same. Our current wall colour palate is now like this:

 

 

 

We had new cushion covers made from some lovely stripy Barefoot fabric purchased from momma's trip to Sri Lanka. Momma wished she had bought more and kept some stocks.



 

For the wall colour, momma took a long time before taking the lunge for a dash of pinky mauve. Due to her lack of courage to go full blast, it was painted on the little section to the bedrooms. She thinks she'll be braver next time.





 

 

Momma has somewhat given up hope on ever having carpets permanently laid out at home because we kids have so much fun rolling on them. So nowadays, it's just bare floors. The walls are kept simple with a painting of our favourite palate of colours.

The floral fabric were from Laura Ashley on discount - the only affordable time to buy stuff from them. Our owl cushion is from a lovely little shop on Etsy. The first time momma put it on the coach, I was barking at it for some time because I thought the bird was real! Momma is dreaming of getting another one because she believes things are best in pairs. She has showed great willpower so far.

Our study has been converted into a sewing room. The book shelves behind is beginning to overflow with books. Now she has finally found a complete set of vintage Childcraft (the exact edition from her childhood days... no less), she has to make room for after she makes a trip to London to pick it up!

Momma hopes to do some serious sewing in the coming years to pay for our food and shelter. For starters, she needed a vintage Eames armchair to sit on while working on her sewing machine. Inspired by her time of surfing on Etsy, she is more appreciative of all things handmade now that she has laboured on her own toy. The Y-leg table was a good FB find which is yet to be refurbished. Momma is thinking of placing her oil paints and palates on it until she figures out whether she can refurbish  it herself.

Speaking about art and décor, momma had a phase of painting Godzilla-like creatures, which turned out looking more like brachiosaurus. A miscalculated step that this harmless plant-eating was killed in this painting.

 

 

And, she bought a couple more baby elephants while she was in Sri Lanka to add to her herd. Mother elephant was from her childhood home. She must be half century old now. Momma loves terrariums but do not have green fingers to put living plants in them yet. She says that every new year, she'll change the scene in her terrarium. Maybe next year, there will be air plants in it.

 

Momma's time is mostly spent here in front of her notebook in the study. This U-shaped leg dining table was another find which she bought at a steal. But, the formica top ended up costing as much as the table itself! It's a good thing she has erased all purchase cost memories and feels better about it now. I'm usually stationed under the table if I am not on one of the coaches in the living room. 

When guests come over, they usually congregate around the kitchen table. It's the closest place to the food. The walls are now charcoal black - a brave decision as momma always thinks the kitchen lacks windows. The dark shade blended well with the mosaic and added more depth into the room and made it look spacious. It turned out to be a good move after all.

 

For us, when the carpets are out for special occasions, we will be hanging out on our indoor lawn. Momma's a-moment-of-weakness vintage Hvidt day bed is off-limits to me. She reckons when she's old and grey, she will need to sell all her furniture to pay for the roof over our heads. She'd be left with her day bed.... where she can sit and sleep on. At least, she will live in style and grace in her golden years.

 



 

Four years ago, I bit a big hole into the patio cushion during my teething phase. It was fun. Momma have since got them reupholstered and now, I have to mind where I sink my teeth into around the house. Missing the days we could get away with anything.

 

 



 



Bathing time

Unfortunately, nobody likes to bathe

Dori visits Hassan

Dori visited her former carer today. Some photos from her visit :D

Photos in February

Look mummy.....no more balls!

We made the decision to get Ruki neutered before CNY for health reasons. No baby Rukis :((

 

 

 

 

Ruki after surgery

 



Still pretty much my boy....only thing different that he's shooting blanks....but he doesn't know it. :D

CNY selfies

 

Chinese New Year

You know it's CNY when there's butter cookies.

Going to grandma's

Grandma says to offer thanks at the altar

Helping yourself with cookies from the altar. The butter cookies were mysteriously missing after a while.

The best place to be is the kitchen. Free foods.

Road to recovery

When Ruki is sick, he likes to sleep on the bed. That is the only time he would sleep on the bed....though recently, I caught him napping on the bed in the morning while waiting for me to get up :D

The first two days, he didn't have much energy to walk to the kitchen. He had to be served from wherever he was lying pathetically. The sign of recovery was when he managed to make it to the kitchen for his meals.

 





Back to the vet

Ruki's condition did not get better after the first visit. It seems that he was not his usual happy self. Reminded me of this. So, we had a follow up visit two days later. Ruki was tested and he had tick fever :((

 

EVERBODY had to be checked. Cousin Mentos (cat head in foreground) was there on an unrelated matter - a little scratch under his eye a.k.a. owner paranoia.



Dori was whining as they took he blood for test. Brave Riko was at her side giving her encouragements. Surprising to watch Riko being so brave as she hates going to the vet. :D



When Ruki met Mentos

We walked over to visit cousin Mentos after our visit to the vet. It was an interesting first meet.

 

 

 

Ruki got slapped by Mentos. So, he decided it was more fun to play with cousin Bowser.