LAUNDRY MAKEOVER

Hi Everyone.

I have not been here for ages!!! New job, new duties, being very busy lately. I do still work on my house and designes. I have already prepared design boards for my living areas but..hmm

I can not find in local shops thinks I need to finish them up. Specially coffee tables and little stools.

I might show you very, very soon one of my living area. 

Today is about my laundry and toilet. Unfortunately, I could not find pictures before make over :(. I lost them in my washing machine as I kept my mobile in the jumper pocket and washed it. Pictures are gone. forever. :D  I do hope you can imagine how bad it was. The house itself is very old and the laundry looked awful. I guess it was not painted for years, walls were covered with dusty yellowish with holes in the and the worst think ever was this "grandma" little curtains hunged on the windows. Horrible. First think, I asked my husband was: "How I am supposed to ask our guest to use the toilet when the laundry looks like from previous century?!"

What we did. We add some colours in to it. I warmed it up with little things and details and also I am going to add wooden blinds. I treated the laundry  like a regular room. With the toilet, I tried to give it  kind of a pub look. So there it is. Pictures below.

Hope you like it.

Have a great day!

Alicja.

LARGE TOASTED BREAD/BRUSCHETTA

This is one of my favourite snacks. It is a kind of open sandwich, toasted on a barbecue.What I like most about it, is a crunchy bread/loaf/ and full of flavours topping with melted cheese. I do also like serve it with some mayo and tomato souse. 

Ingredients like on photo plus prawns and thinly sliced Chorizo.

Slice the loaf and chargrill them on a barbecue until they are crisp on both sides. 

Drizzle with some good extra virgin olive oil, put ingredients on basic  brochette except spring onion. Place them in to preheated oven 220 C for about 15 minutes. Season with spring onion.

Enjoy.

Alicja

KIDS ROOM

Hello Everyone.

Next room transformation-kids room. The room is quite big, with huge robe. I did not change much in here. Just added some things like curtains, nice covers, colours to create warm and interesting space for my boys. They still share the room as they want to be together. 

This is the room before transformation.

First thing I change in here is the robe. I covered it with wallpaper. It looks very nice and is the strong, catching eye thing in here. In the robe I keep most of the toys, so boys are sliding the doors hundred times a day. It still looks like a new. I used simple wall unit and pack it up with boxes. It creates a feeling of tidiness in the room. I crocheted chair covers, sew curtains-my son has chosen the fabrics and also sew a patchwork cover with matching pillows. It still need a fresh coat of paint and a new lightning, but for now, it is enough. Pictures below. Hope you like it.

Wallpaper

Curtains

Wall Unit and Bed

Gadgets and Patchwork

Enjoy

Alicja.

EASTER SNAPSHOTS

Happy Easter!!!

Some snapshots of my family easter time this year!

Started very early in the morning. Setting up EASTER EGG HUNT .

Easter Egg Hunt and Happy Boys

 Getting Ready for Easter Breakfast

Hoping my dog is going to survive, he  has eaten so much chocolate-my boys are very generous:D 

Alicja.

VEGETABLE CURRY MASH WITH GRILLED TUNA STEAKS, PRAWNS IN CREAMY TAMARIND SAUCE AND YOGHURT RAITA

That was one of this days when I had this feeling to eat something nice but I wasn't too sure what that might be. Finally decided to go for curry but rice wasn't in my mind. If you have the same though try this recipe. It is easy to prepare and does not take long time. Have fun.

VEGETABLE CURRY MASH WITH GRILLED TUNA STEAKS, PRAWNS IN CREAMY TAMARIND SAUCE AND YOGHURT RAITA

INGREDIENTS for 4 people:

• 4 tuna steaks
• 4 large potatoes and 2 large carrots pealed and roughly diced
• 12 large raw peeled prawns
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1 cup cream
• 3 - 4 tsp tamarind paste
• 1 cup greek yoghurt
• 3 tbs butter
• ½ burbles cucumber grated and juice squeezed out
• 1 small white onion finely chopped
• 1-2 tsp curry powder
• salt, pepper, paprika
• fresh coriander or parsley for decoration
• optionally hard boiled egg

Season steaks with salt, pepper and pinch of curry. Let them sit in fridge while you prepare other things. Prepare large pot with water for potatoes and carrots. Cook them until soft, drain water and add frozen peas.While these boiling, place frying pan on medium heat and melt butter, add curry powder and stir to cook out flavours. 1 minute should be enough just be careful not to burn it. Add this mixture into pot with already cooked vegies and make mash. A dash of cream will be helpful.

In a small saucepan bring cream slowly to boil, stir in tamarind sauce and add prawns. Try to reduce sauce by boiling for few minutes. Season for flavour. You can add more tamarind paste for your liking. Should be nice and zesty.

For tuna steaks you can use either BBQ or grilling pan. Whatever suits you. I've used electric BBQ. Make sure grilling surface is hot. Place steaks on and grill for few minutes on each side.

Raita is very simple. Just mix yoghurt, onion and cucumber and season for flavours.

Decorate with some greens and sprinkle with paprika powder and done. Ready to eat.

 Enjoy.

THE SAME BACKGROUND 3 DIFFERENT ROOMS

Today, I have designed 3 different rooms. The background and placement of the furniture is the same. Which one do you like the most?

The background



ROOM 1

ROOM 2

ROOM 3


Enjoy.Alicja.

KITCHEN MAKEOVER

Today, I am going to share with you my latest work. I decided to refresh my kitchen. This reno costed me about 200$ with tools.

70$ paint

45$ wallpaper-on sale

20-30 wallpaper glue and painting tools. 

It took me two days to make it done. 5 coats of paint-after first one I was devastated:D Thought the colour would never appear as white.  But it happened. HURRAY!!!! Here are some photos of the kitchen when we moved in.

Luckily kitchen is from Ikea. As far as I remember, I have been always dreaming about country looking IKEA STAT Kitchen. I was so happy when I  had discovered I do not have to replace existing one. I just changed the front doors and handles, so now I have my dream kitchen. Almost…I still need new wooden bench top and sink with black, country looking tap. The best think about this transformation  is that it did not cost  that much-if you do not count hard work I put in to it:D
I also repainted the pantry and dishwasher doors using chalk paint. In the future I am going to buy little hatch behind the island so I can display all my nice little blue things:D  
Lets bring on some pictures :D

"Working Area"

Starting with wallpaper

Final Effects

You can see on the last photography how much difference the colour of the wall makes. I did not paint dinning area, as I am going to hang there Wallpaper and rehang my pictures. They are to high at the moment but about this transformation will be separate post:D

Hope you like it and that I inspired you just a little:P

Enjoy.
Alicja.

SIMPLY PASTA

What to cook for dinner when you don not have much time and ingredients? The answer is simple- PASTA. I love PIZZA and PASTA. I could be an Italian :DD They are so loud and expressive-saying in one word full of live. To create special Italian atmosphere there must be some Italian music.


I chose La Donna E Mobile by Luciano Pavarotti.Hope you like it:D






Ingredients:
-500g mince meat-I used beef this time
-onion-finely chopped
-garlic
-capsicum for best results one of each red,green and yellow. roughly chopped. This time I had only red.
-fresh oregano, basil roughly torn
-fresh tomatoes or can of diced tomatoes
I often add mushrooms-this time no mushrooms
-fresh basil and oregano
-chilli pepper
-pasta
- grated cheese
-spoon of oil
-half spoon of sugar
Spices
-sweet paprika-hungarian
-salt
-peper
-italian seasoning
-italian herbs


1 Cook the pasta in a large pan of boiling water according to the packet instructions.Meanwhile make the sauce.
2. Heat the oil in a large frying pan, add the onion and garlic and cook until softened. Add the mince meat, a bit of salt and fry for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until the pieces of meat are browned.
3.Stir in the capsicum and mushrooms. Add paper, salt, powder sweet hungarian paprika. Bring to the boil and cover with a lid. Cook on a low heat for about 10 min.
4. Add tomatoes, italian herbs and seasoning, fresh oregano and basil, cover and cook for another 10 minutes. Stir from time to time-can add half glass of water if necessary.  If you want it spicy add chilli pepper.
5.Just before serving add half to one spoon of sugar and adjust the seasoning.
6.Serve immediately, sprinkled with the grated cheese.




Bon Appetit.
Alicja.