Posts Tagged ‘DIY’

DIY – Mother’s Day Gift – Flowers

May 12th, 2009

On the Friday before Mother’s Day, my beloved and I were discussing what to get for my mother. Eventually we decided on making her some flowers.

Mothers Day Flower

Mothers Day Flower

After shopping for some materials for our flowers, together with existing materials gathered beforehand, we sat down at the dining table at around 1pm. We decided to make three bouquets of two flowers each. Since we were busy working on making the flowers by 530pm, I did not get to take any pictures of the progress.

Mothers Day Flower

Mothers Day Flower

The materials required to make the flowers include:

  • Cardboard of the used toilet rolls
  • Poster colours
  • Paint brushes
  • Cup for the brushes
  • Pencil and eraser
  • Scissors
  • Satay sticks
  • Rubber bands
  • Coloured paper (A4 size)
  • Crumple paper / knead paper (A4 size)
  • Cellophane tape / double-sided tape
  • Ribbon
Mothers Day Flower

Mothers Day Flower

Firstly, flatten the toilet roll cardboard and draw the shape of a flower petal with a pencil. Try drawing four of the same shape on one toilet roll cardboard. Cut the flower petals along the lines drawn earlier. When done, we will have two flower petals linked together as one piece.

Next, apply the first layer of poster colour to the flower petal, colour the whole petal including the sides. At least two layers are required to hardened the petal into shape, therefore try using thicker colour when applying. After the petals are completely dry, decorate the petals to personal liking.

Mothers Day Flower

Mothers Day Flower

When done, cut the same shape of the flower petal (we can use a template which looks best for a flower petal) but paint it as a leaf. Add lines with pencil when the leaves dry. Using the satay stick, pierce through the center of the petals and the leaf (this is the reason why we have two petals linked as one) and push it towards the end. Flower petals curve upwards while the leaf curves downwards. Arrange the petals (four petals look best) to look like a flower. Staple the petals if necessary. And we are done with the flower!

Decorative Flowers

Decorative Flowers

If we were to present the flower as a bouquet instead of just displaying it in a vase, we have to wrap it up nicely. Tie the number of flowers into a bunch (in our case we tied two flowers). Wrap nicely with matching coloured paper, then another layer with a matching knead/crumple paper. Use cellophane tape/double-sided tape to hold the papers together. When done, tie a ribbon around the wrapped flower and we have a beautiful bouquet of hand made flowers.

The flowers stood out when compared with living plants

The flowers stood out when compared with living plants

My beloved and I both sat at the dining table for FIVE straight hours (we eventually got them done by 6pm) to make three bouquets of six flowers (all shown in above images). We hope that our effort translates into our sincerity and love for the people we gave the flowers to.

If you ran out of ideas on what to get for people you care or love, and real flowers would not last long, why not mak them flowers?

DIY – Black Pepper Cheese Udon

March 29th, 2009

My beloved loves food that has a cheesy flavour to it. One fine day, she came up with the idea of combining her favourite food into one dish, cheese and udon. I thought of cooking carbonara, but she has black pepper sauce in mind. Therefore we decided on cooking ‘Black Pepper Cheese Udon’.

Ingredients required:
- 50g-80g of minced meat (chicken, pork or beef)
- 2 tablespoons of black pepper sauce
- 1 slice of cheese
- 1 packet of udon noodles
- Chopped garlic

Once all the ingredients are prepared, we started cooking.

You can get one of these from supermarkets for around RM2

Available in supermarkets for around RM2/packet

Firstly, boil water in a pot for cooking the udon noodles, add a pinch of salt for flavouring. When the water boils, add in the udon noodles and let it cook for 2 minutes.

Cook for approximately 2 minutes

Cook for approximately 2 minutes

While cooking your udon noodles, heat up the wok and pour in cooking oil. Personally, I like to add a pinch of salt while heating the oil for some flavouring. Add garlic, let it cook until it begins to turn brown and add the minced meat. Stir and let the minced meat cook evenly.

Stir and let the minced meat cook evenly

Stir and let the minced meat cook evenly

Next, add in two tablespoons of black pepper sauce. Remember to keep the gas/fire low so that the meat and sauce will not get fried. Add water if neccessary.

Add 2 tablespoons of black pepper sauce

Add 2 tablespoons of black pepper sauce

Stir the minced meat and the black pepper sauce to cook evenly. It should be around 2 minutes after putting your udon noodles to cook by now. Drain the water of the udon noodles and add it to the wok of minced meat and black pepper sauce. Stir and mix the udon with the minced meat and black pepper sauce evenly. Again, keep the gas/fire low and add water if necessary so that the noodles will not stick to the wok.

Add in udon noodles

Add in udon noodles

Now it is time to add in the cheese.

Cheese...yummy

Cheese...yummy

You can either put the whole slice on top of the udon to let it melt, or tear it into small pieces so that it melts faster and more even. I took the second option.

Tear cheese in pieces and spread evenly over the udon noodles

Tear cheese in pieces and spread evenly over the udon noodles

Once the cheese is totally melt, stir the udon noodle and prepare to serve.

Black Pepper Cheese Udon

Black Pepper Cheese Udon

And here we have the ‘Black Pepper Cheese Udon’. My beloved says it tastes nice and it just turned out to be what she has expected. I think I like it too.

While I was writing this entry, my beloved commented that readers to this blog must be thinking that she is fat since she loves eating cheese. On the contrary, she is so skinny that you will find it hard to believe that she has a healthy appetite!

DIY – Fixing a broken water valve

February 28th, 2009

When I decided to write an entry on fixing my water valve, my beloved commented that it was lame. However, she is looking forward to my post, so here it is.

Last Friday, when I stepped into my bathroom, undressed, and turned the water valve knob, nothing happened! Yes, NOTHING HAPPENED! The water was supposed to flow through the valve, then into the heater, then heated water will come out of the shower head. But nothing happened!

However, since it was already almost midnight, I had to bear with the cold water from the tub, bathing in a cool weather as it was raining heavily that night, something that I have not experienced since taking that COLD shower during MID-WINTER in Melbourne a few years ago.

Therefore, I was determined to find the problem and fix it, and the next day I started by getting the spanner from the tool box and do some plumbing.

The first thing I would do is to remove the valve knob as the water has been dripping from that place when I realised that the shower is not working.

Happily with the spanner in my hand I proceed to remove the knob. The next thing that happened, is that I got wet… BECAUSE I HAVE FORGOTTEN TO TURN OFF THE MAIN WATER SUPPLY!!! So before proceeding to removing any pipes or valves, please remember to turn off the main water supply. Usually, it is found in the front yard of the house.

So, remember to TURN OFF THE MAIN WATER SUPPLY before doing any plumbing work! Another thing to remember, some water pipes are connected to the water tank located on the roof of the house, and the valve is different from the one at the front of the house. Remember to turn that off too!

After removing the valve and inspected it, I found that the rubber of the valve that stops the water from flowing to the heater has deformed and was not able to effectively stop the water flow even when the valve has been securely tightened.

The following picture illustrates how the water are supposed to flow from the main water supply (where the green arrow is pointing at) to the hole in the middle (where the red arrow is pointing at) and into the water heater. The valve, with its rubber, is supposed to stop the water from flowing into the hole. However, since the rubber is deformed, water can freely flow through thus rendering the valve knob useless.

Armed with the useless valve knob, I set out to find a replacement valve knob. Since it looks kinda old, I began to feel a little worried if I can find any replacement that can just fit in without having to remove the whole piping. If, unfortunately, that is the case, I would have to call in the REAL plumber and I have failed to Do-It-MYself. Luckily, I found one in the hardware shop and happily paid RM5 for it.

The new valve knob is a perfect fit and without further hesitation I started wrapping the white water-piping-tape around the teeth of the valve knob to avoid water from leaking from the gaps.

Before fixing the valve knob back, remember to unwind the lever (where the rubber is) to the end (widest gap allowed for water to flow through), so that when screwing the knob back in place, the rubber will not be deformed again. Remember to close the valve knob after securely fastened it, because we have to turn on the main water supply. After doing so, I happily went to turn on the main water supply, got back to the bathroom, and turned on the water tap. Nothing happened. NOTHING HAPPENED. N-o-t-h-i-n-g  h-a-p-p-e-n-e-d ! ! ! Being disappointed, I tried a few steps to find out what the problem is until I read something written on the water heater.

It says: Clean filter unit regularly. Which I do not think was the case. And that was why the water heater is not working. Because the filter was blocked and water cannot flow through it! It was a bit ironic when the part that I have fixed was to stop water from flowing through yet the problem with the water heater is that water CANNOT GET INSIDE THE HEATER!!! While laughing at the sacarsm of the situation, I began removing the filter and clean it. A lot of pebble-like dirt was removed, both from the filter and the inlet of the water heater. At the same time, I also cleaned the shower head. As my hands got so dirty, I was not able to capture any images of that.

After fixing all parts back to their original places, and with my fingers crossed, I turned knob and as soon as I see water coming out from the shower head, I can almost see celebrations going on in my head! Since the filters and shower head has been cleaned, the water flow appeared stronger than before, and I am so happy that I get to use the water heater again! (It has been raining heavily for the past few days and the water temperature was so low at night.)

And this concludes the post for DIY – Fixing a broken water valve. The lesson learnt is that I do not have to commission a plumber to fix trivial things and waste money on their services. The money spent to fix the water valve is RM5, plus the petrol cost. Also, I learnt new things and had quite some fun!

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