don't have to treasure-hunt no more

special delivery today:


now i can find my shoes without digging through bags. (un)fortunately, the shoe cabinet's movable boards are a bit too low in my opinion, my sky-high heels have problems and have to adjust the shelves a bit.

i finally have a chair in my shoebox as well:


i love the button detail:

busy.

new gig = brain drain everyday. it's nice to come back to my own sanctuary after exhaustive left/right brain burns.


so this is around my headboard. what do you make of it? it's ugly like hell.

wardrobe malfunction.

a while back i posted about my fugly closet. it's hideous, but it was custom-built for my wall, and for the most part it is quite new still and has a lot of drawers for organization. i stuck with it (i kept the matching bed as well).

well, after i moved in i discovered just how poorly the thing was constructed. due to cheap materials, the boards warp instantaneously. the doors were hard to slide.

then this happened on sunday:


the door fell off the rails and almost crushed my toe!


sigh.

more stuff

i mounted my rnd clock, it looks quite neat against my very classic sofa/not so classic wall-colour.

my dining table arrived as well! the fold-out leaf opens to the back side so i can sit more people :)


it has its wood grains exposed:


über-sexy

why i hunt for bargains.

if i can buy something for $5 why pay $10?

of course, i only do it when i have time. while time is often against me, i do score great bargains then use the saved money on nicer stuff.

this leaf pot-table-protection-thingy is $10. i love $10 shops.

i bought all three at the as-is section of ikea for $40


i bought the laundry basket for $10 so i can splurge on these items:
Francfranc x Bodum coffee bodum
Francfranc x Bodum pepper mill
alessi Anna G wine bottle opener

and of course


she was lugged back to hk from toronto, yeap.

my old vanity and my new dining table are arriving tomorrow, can't wait!

"you'll eat phad thai all the time?" - G

i bought these dishes at a designer shop the other day. according to G, a lot of Thai restaurants use them. ah well. they were fairly inexpensive, the plates were $6 each, the salad bowls $13.5/$15 a pop. the two bowls i borrowed from my aunt are from Ikea.

fanny mentioned about my sponges, yes i have super cute sponges!

don't be fooled by the cute bird, she's powerful.

i'm cheap, and i rarely use chopsticks. so when my aunt gave me these wedding favours tonight:


i took birdie for a spin and scrubbed off their name and dates.

rewired

PCC-dub rewired my broadband today. the modem i used died, so they gave me a new one.

here's a view of my little kitchen :)


i can't afford to reno the kitchen, so i placed plants there instead. i splurged on some francfranc x bodum items, an alessi Anna G wine opener and matched them with some colourful sponges/towels. i will head to shanghai street tomorrow to see if i can find replacement door knobs.

starbucking

shoebox without internet, lack of dining surface and having a week off between jobs mean ritual coffee and breakfast at the Starbucks.... 15 bloody minutes away.

the problem with living in an older district is the lack of hot spots... if i drag my labtop to a congee place and hook up wi-fi with those PCCW telephone booths i'm sure they will kick me out in five minutes flat. those ladies in aprons mean business, man.

as my parting gift, my colleague remembered i loved this clock at Homeless ... and bought it for me! i am trained as a designer and anal-retentitive typographer. so it looks like i have to go buy me some blu-tac.

aside from new purchases, i LOVE old stuff. i've been "borrowing" stuff from my family:


so, cute. i use it as a step-stool to reach my ridiculously high closet rails.

this came with the apartment, it's the receiver to open the gates downstairs for visitors:


like, 1985!! look at the straight lines! the brown and beige! i made my friend wrap the whole thing with five million coats of tape before we painted to make sure it is as pristine as possible.

a week internet-deprived.

i'm writing this at a Starbucks around my old office. the disadvantage of living in an older neighbourhood in Hong Kong is the lack of hot spots. pcc-dub will install my stuff back next tuesday so until then, i will be drinking a lot of Starbucks.

living in my new space, as sparse as it is right now, is amazing. my rooster looks amazing on my walls:


here's a view of my couch and blue blue/yellow walls:


yes, i love love love love love love wooden floors. my Mormon-rejected couch works amazing with the floors.

i hate my ceiling light though, so i don't turn it on at all. it reminds me of Bart Simpson:


so my solution is simple: leave it off permanently until i find a better replacement. ignorance is bliss.

i was at ikea and i looked at a few replacements:


but now i look more and more at it, it will be too matchy-matchy with my rooster. need to hunt for better alternatives soon.

baaaah

good news: i moved into my shoebox
bad news:

1) i have no tv nor broadband yet
2) only my Mormon sofa and bed are in so far, rest of my furniture will not arrive until later this week
3) i realized i am an idiot for leaving half my stuff at my rental, will transport them later
4) i desperately need to buy a lot of stuff like bedsheets, dishes, vacuum cleaner, and other stuff

snowed

we all tried to protect our hair today when we were painting my ceiling.

i have lots to learn from Sikh men


we finished painting the place though.


this is my den/living room. my blue accent wall will be where my couch is placed against.

what i bought

the view from my room :)

ok, better pictures of my room-painting-in-progress


the beam - it's going to be pink i think

neapolitan ice cream

i started painting last night. i used to frame, mount and gesso my own canvases with house paint back in high school (Arts York, hellllll yeah!), so i figured instead of spending 7k for someone to paint my walls, i will spend 1k on good paints and do it myself. ok, i am no alchemist but thanks to the nice people at the paint shop i know how to mix latex paint with water now.

didn't bring my camera with me but i am trying to figure out what to paint at the underside of my ceiling beam. the wall is gray, and my little nook in my room is pink.


yeah, i lost track of time and was there until 12 midnight, had to catch a taxi back to my rental. like, i am starting to question did i save money or not painting on my own if i have to keep taxi-ing every night.

let the mayhem begin.

we started reno's yesterday. i hate spotlights, especially cheap ikea ones with gross matte-silver finish. Sooooooo 2000. Taking that monstrosity off and installing my rooster wall sconce on the side wall instead.

I didn't know walls in Hong Kong were real brick and mortar. Ah well, live and learn.


We also removed the gross built-in vanity and mirror from the bedroom.

I had to interview someone at 6:30 that day, and my work fuck-you heels became covered with concrete dust. Blegh.

keys.

I'm officially a homeowner :)

The apartment looks a bit different after it's emptied.