2019

Laundry isn't much of a chore these days, because being able to run your own laundry room for your home without stressing out over if the clothes you've left hanging are blocking anyone's is a major relief (for the record, I sometimes leave mine hanging for over a week - sorry I'm busy with life ok)! Keeping the space neat and tidy has also been a huge priority of mine to help ease the mundanity of washing your clothes; and choosing the formulas you put into your laundry plays a huge part in that too.


I've just upgraded from my laundry softener to a new set sent over by Laundrin which comes in 4 different scents - this one is No. 7 which reminds me of the ocean. All Laundrin softeners are suitable for indoor drying, which basically is how I do our laundry all the time so that it doesn't get musty (fear of laundry falling is real, guys)! One thing I learnt is to never use softeners with your exercise clothes (like my precious lulus) as it removes their sweat wicking ability. Other than that, use them away for awesome smelling laundry! Laundrin's formula has added dust-repelling benefits that not only enhance comfort during wear, but also keep the clothes fresh and scented even after month's of storage.


The Classic Floral is my personal favourite scent because of how light it is. I've always taken the use of softeners as part of my laundry routine but it's interesting to note that the Laundrin softeners help to protect delicate fabrics so that your expensive clothes like my silks and chiffons to retain their shape, which in turn, prolongs their lifespan if one doesn't always have time to hand wash them. They also contain 100% plant-derived softening ingredients, protect your hands, and are gentle on sensitive skin if you do ever choose to use it to hand wash your delicates (which you can use the softeners to do too!)


I finally found the time to clean up my service yard and get all the cleaning tools in order. It truly was a mess, but having a clean and open space really makes all the difference! While we received an iron for our house warming, we kind of don't have an ironing board yet (oops). Apparently, laundry softeners make ironing clothes much easier. Laundrin has an anti-wrinkle formula that reduces the need to iron - so I guess our helper will thank us in the future!


These are the last two scents from Laundrin - Classic Fiore and Romantic Flower. It's akin to wearing perfume for our clothes and the scent is strongest when you first open up the washing machine, so it does make hanging your clothes a little more fun.

Doing the laundry is definitely much more bearable having your own home, but it's great to have a little extra oomph to elevate your fabric care game. For now, I can't wait to keep adding more useful storage to our service yard to keep it even more organised than it is now!

We've been living in the house for more than 5 months but we finally found time to have our very first lunch party - and a make-your-own-chirashi-don at that! When it comes to throwing parties at home, we try to go for pre-prepared food (like the grazing table for our house warming) that doesn't require much cooking since there's only 2 of us getting ready, and it was super manageable!


As always, Justin was in charge of food and I was in charge of decor. While it seems kind of scary to let your friends eat over your white linens, domestic life and the power of stain remover has convinced me that no stain is too stubborn if you clean wash the cloth straight away, ha!


 
The early birds helped with the prep! Always thankful for the extra hands. Throwing parties is LABOUR INTENSIEVE.

Took a day out of the house for a little staycation at KēSa House, which is located right in the heart of Keong Saik! We stayed in the Sky Room which was a lovely light filled space (but don't worry, there were automatic curtains to block the sun out if you need darkness to sleep, haha).



Work desk space and plenty of cupboards for storing your personal belongings.

It's so nice to finally be able to throw a proper party with our friends to celebrate the crazy journey we've been on to get the house done! I always have all these ideas on how I want it to look, like getting a grazing table done, and it's Justin who backs them and comes up with a plan to execute it within our budget (what would I do without him?) It really was a perfect mix of Justin's love for food and my love for styling!

In reality, our grazing table took around an hour to buy all the food from NTUC Finest, and another hour to set it all up. Of course we had to do some prep beforehand like researching different suppliers for the food we wanted (we checked out Jason's and Hubert's as well); we also had to decide on a theme - a more muted palette rather than a brighter tropical one (so no strawberries, kiwis or pineapples); and go down to Far East Flora the day before to pick up wholesale plants to style the table and house. While eucalyptus leaves are lovely and always a fail safe if you're not sure what to choose, FEF has a fantastic selection of green branches at more affordable prices than the former - I went with the buxus plant for a more wine country look.

The rule to cutting down on set up time was to buy cold cuts that were already sliced, pre-made dips (they sell them in the fridges!); pre-mixed nuts which Justin added cranberries and dates for added texture; and biodegradable, disposable cutlery for easy clean up. Even the crackers can be bought in boxes off the shelf - NTUC had an amazing variety. We had so much fun putting it together and are even thinking of ideas on how to level up the quality of ingredients for our next one!

Here's a list of the items we bought for our grazing table if you're thinking of doing one yourself! (Feeds around 40+ pax IMO, because of the leftovers. We were planning for 30 people!)

- 1.4 KG of sliced meat
- 1.2 KG of cubed sausages
- 3 loaves of bread
- 5 bowls of hummus
- 3 bowls of tzatziki
- 1 bottle of pesto
- 1 bottle of cornichons
- 1 bottle of olives
- 1 box of rosemary
- 1 wheel of brie
- 3-4 varieties of cheese
- 2 cream cheeses (dips)
- 3-4 bags of trail mix
- 1 box of cranberries
- 1 box of dates
- 5 boxes of Carr's Tablewater Crackers
- 2 boxes of breaded sticks
- 1 box of rectangular crackers
- 1 box of black crackers

All in all we spent slightly less than it would have cost to cater buffet food for the same number of people, and it looked ten times better. Plus grazing was almost like a social activity because people would come together, study the food and have chit chat over it before wandering off so it wasn't like grab your food and go, but picking the food was an activity in itself, and of course it made the party look awesome and everyone showed their appreciation which made the effort extra worth it.

We were so buzzed from this party - can't wait to share the house more with everyone :)