Here’s my cart-full of cushions, cushion covers, floor mats, some kitchen accessories and dining ware and knick knacks from my favorite furniture shop, IKEA. Bought all of these yesterday morning after dropping off Cass at school. I told the hubs that since we needed to replace all our cushions with new ones, we better go to Ikea since it’s their Textile Month this August.  The total damage is over RM400 BUT thanks to Ikea, I needn’t pay a sen, save for RM5 for a packet of yummilicious, super thin and crispy ginger-almond biscuits from the food section of Ikea 😀
This coming August is an exciting as well as busy month ahead for me. First it is Alycia’s 3rd term school exam. Whenever it’s her exam, I am always the one who gets all anxious and stressed up!  It’s also my dad’s birthday and I look forward to going back to Ipoh to celebrate his birthday during the school term break. August is a whole new month where I have to learn to cope without a live-in helper as ours has just left home for good. This August also happens to be IKEA’s Textile month and I look forward to making my monthly trip to Ikea to check out some new bed spreads for the bedrooms. Recently the hubs sent my favorite bed spread to the laundry shop for cleaning. When he went to collect it a few days later, it was lost! In fact this is not the first time I lost my bed spreads at the laundry shop. Over the past 2 years, I have lost over 5 sets of my favorite bed spreads but oh well, if the old ones do not go, this will not make way for new ones to come! And now, I have an even more valid reason to make a trip to Ikea!
During my preliminary shopping at Ikea done online at the Ikea e-catalogue, I saw this BARBRO RAND multicolor padded extra soft bed spread. It caught my eyes right away when I was at the Bedroom Textiles section. Anything that’s multicolored and rainbow themed will definitely have a place in my heart. I have always loved vibrant colors as they add joie de vivre to my mood.
Swede designed extra soft BARBRO RAND multicolor bed spread. Love the bright multicolored stripes and it’s padded too.
The next item that needs a major ‘face lift’ in our home is our sofa set.  I have been eyeing on some 3-seat leather sofas cum chaise lounge from Ikea for our living room but the price is out of our budget.  While browsing Ikea’s e-Catalogue, I saw some nice cushions and throws and a light bulb moment struck! I can get a handful of vibrant colored cushion covers and throws for our sofa and voila, our stained and dull-looking sofa set would be transformed into a brand new fresh look! And I can create a new look for our sofa set as often as I desire by getting new cushion covers and throws!
EIVOR KVIST multicolour cushion @ RM59. It comes with a zip and the cover is removable for washing. When I buy cushions, my no. 1 criteria is that the covers must be removable for washing.
Valborg cushion @ RM39 only. I like the bright blue tone and most of all, it is easily removable for washing. It is yarn-dyed and the colours
are retained wash after wash.
I’m planning to get a couple of this funny lip shaped cushion. I’ll bet this lip shaped cushion will liven up the living room as well as the mood of friends who step into our living room.
Malin Band throws to line the seats of our sofa, topped up with some cushions with stylish prints cushion covers. There you go, I’ll have a transformed living room with minimal damage to our pockets!
My hubs is all geared up to rush into the Ikea store in the morning of 5 July 2012 to grab some of the best deals ever! He is one big fan of Ikea. For someone who has absolutely no patience shopping with me, he can however spend the whole morning with me at Ikea without any complaint! It is me who always had to hurry him to the checkout counter, else he can spend the whole day at Ikea! Anyway what I wanted to share with all of you Ikea fans is that Ikea is having its grand sale starting from Thursday, 5 July 2012!
If you are an IKEA FAMILY member, you have the privilege to attend the preview sale from 7am – 9:30am on Thursday, 5 July 2012! If you are not an IKEA FAMILY member yet, no worries. You can join for free! You can establish family ties with Ikea via the FAMILY kiosk at Ikea.  Upon registration, you’ll be able to enjoy lower prices on selected products in the IKEA store, including 1x free coffee and discounted meal. To enjoy the full suite of benefits, just spend RM200 within a year and be converted to a lifetime, permanent member. Easy peasy right?
Here are the benefits of being an IKEA FAMILY member:
Lifetime membership
Earn Bonus Points for store vouchers
Get 3x Bonus Points on your birthday month (from June 2012 onwards)
$ave with member prices on selected products
Enjoy free drinks and discounted FAMILY meals
Be invited to member-only events
Get inspired and first-hand information with 3 newsletters per year
For more information, do hop over to the Ikea website . At the same time, you can do some preliminary online shopping and list down on a piece of paper what you’d like to get from Ikea during the sale!
Here are some of the goodies up for grabs on 5 July 2012 only. If you are an IKEA FAMILY member, you’ll get a free breakfast for yourself and your 2 guests during the preview sale from 7am – 9am on 5 July 2012!
I am eyeing that blue swivel chair at only RM199 for my work area.  Normal price is RM499. A steal right?
When I was offered by Ikea to attend a free Swedish cooking class recently, I jumped at the opportunity to equip myself with some Swedish cooking skills. How can I say NO to such an opportunity from Ikea? Thankfully my mil was around to watch over the 2 older girls (which she had to bring along for her appointment with her friends that evening). Cass had to tag along with me to the cooking class, which Ikea and the cooking school so kindly allowed. I really enjoyed the cooking class with other bloggers, rep from Ikea and rep from the social media company that evening. All of us had so much fun having hands-on experience cooking with a well-known chef and not to mention tasting our own finished product.
For those of you who had read my earlier posts on this lucky draw to win a free Swede Cook class sponsored by Ikea, the results will be out tomorrow. If you have submitted your entries, I hope you’ll be one of the lucky few to win your way to this free Swede cook class!
Here are some of the pix that I took during the Swede cook class held at at19culinary.com :
I wish my kitchen was as spacious and fully equipped as this kitchen at http://www.at19culinary.com/, where the Swede cooking class was held.
Chef Khai explaining to us the Swede dishes that he was about to show us how to whip up…
First dish was Jansson’s Temptation. A very flavorful Swedish dish of potatoes, sauteed onions with Balsimic (black vinegar), olive oil, canned anchovies and whipping cream. In the blue Ikea bowl was canned anchovies, which was very salty — it tasted a tad like the canned fish with black beans from China.
Me at work ! We were arranging the sliced potatoes, sauteed onions and anchovies in the ramekins, layer by layer here. Then topped the dish up with some whipping cream before baking them in the oven.
Our Jansson’s Temptation just out fr the oven, bare and without the final touch and deco yet.
The easiest way to separate the egg yolk from the egg white is to scoop it up with your bare hand, which Chef Khai took just a couple of seconds to do it — no need canggih equipment or gadget! And how do you tell if the egg is fresh? The yolk will be round, intact and nice. A disintegrated / runny egg yolk means that the egg is not fresh and you won’t be able to separate it from the white with your bare hand then.
2nd dish was poached fillet of salmon with fresh salad and lemon butter sauce.
That’s how poached salmon is made. Never knew that making poached salmon ala 5-star restaurant style can be that simple!
The Jansson’s Temptation that we made, with the final touch, super delish! The packet Lingon berry drinks were courtesy of Ikea, very refreshing and tasted a tad like Ribena.
Cass enjoying her supper after impatiently waiting for me for 2 hours!
In my forthcoming shopping trip to Ikea, one of the items that is on my shopping list is a stainless steel Koncis Garlic Press. I love cooking but one of the things that turns me off big time is peeling and chopping garlic as I abhor the lingering pungent smell of garlic on my fingers! I am very tempted to buy peeled ones from supermarkets but have you noticed that those peeled garlic bulbs have a tint of brownish color and they smell foul too? So no thanks. I rather wear disposable plastic gloves and peel the garlic myself. With a garlic press, I only need to peel the skin off the garlic bulbs and then put the cloves of garlic into the garlic press and with all my might, press the pincers and see the tiny bits of pressed garlic coming out from the gadget. Easy job eh?
According to the description which I obtained from the Ikea website, the Koncis garlic press can cope with unpeeled cloves as well. Wow, that’s good news. Can’t wait to get this garlic press from Ikea soon and it’s pretty affordable at only RM25.
Oh by the way, my Swedish cooking class organized by Ikea is set for tomorrow evening! The menu for the cooking class is:
– Jansson’s Temptations (can’t wait to find out what temptation this is!)
– Poached filet of salmon with fresh salad and lemon butter sauce
– Cinnamon pancake with honeyed apple
If you too would like to attend a Swedish cooking class, you stand a chance to win a free one, courtesy of Ikea and it’s easy peasy. Just get ready your camera to snap pix of food or any picture related to food and the kitchen and email it to Ikea. Just click on this link to find out more!
Wait, there’s more! Ikea Damansara is currently having a Pretty Smart Kitchen promotion where there is a 10% rebate on a wide range of kitchen items. You can do some preliminary online shopping at Ikea to see what you’d like to get so that when you are at the Ikea store, you know what to put into your shopping cart, thus saves your precious time. I’m going to Ikea too soon!
I am super duper, uber excited! I have just been invited by Ikea to attend a free cooking class conducted by a Swedish team next week! That will be my very first cooking class and it came timely coz my mil will be leaving us again for Hong Kong for a month very soon. Without the great cook of the house, I am feeling a tad jittery as the 4 fussy eaters in the house are oh so used to being served tastefully cooked dishes everyday. I hope that after attending this Swede cooking class, I will have a rough idea on how to prepare Swede dishes and can whip up a few new dishes to whet the appetite and excite the palate of my 4 fussy pots.
Don’t be envious hor. You too stand a chance to win an invite to attend an exclusive Ikea Swede Cook Class event on 30 JUNE 2012! 10 lucky fans will be picked! And it’s easy peasy to do it too.  All you need is a camera or a mobile phone with camera function and begin snapping like mad pictures of food that you cooked, food that you ate, happy moments of you with your loved ones or friends in the kitchen, your best recipe and cooking tips. Then email the picture in jpeg format with your most creative or funny caption with your full name to social@malaysia-ikea.com. You can start to email your application from now until 14 JUNE 2012. Now’s a great time to snap pictures as it’s the school holidays and you have plenty of fun time with your family in the kitchen.
For more details,just click on this link. Have loads of fun snapping food pictures and I hope you’ll win!
In case you have no idea what picture to submit, here’s just an example. But I am sure you can snap much, much better pictures than this 😀
Hurry mummy, our saliva’s dribbling onto mah mah’s hot yoghurt walnut buns! Why let your camera eat first??
Looks good? It tastes even better. This is what my mil whipped up with some overly ripened bananas – a fluffy and cottony soft banana walnut chiffon cake with the ooomph factor!
I think I have just found my soon-to-be new mate at work! My new mate who will be seated on my lap or clawed round my neck or waist for over 10 hours a day. My new huggable mate is also bound to double up as my stress buster as it’s going to be squeezed and punched by me when I am stressed to the max by my 3 monkeys and work. Some customers and suppliers can drive you to the mad house I tell you!
On my next trip to Ikea, this cutesy VÄNNERNA LÃ…NG will be mine! I have been hunting around for a not too stiff and not too bulgy cushion for my computer table chair to give me some support ever since the nagging stiff shoulder and backache kept bugging me months ago but have not found any that I fancy. I think I have found it now! Can’t wait to squeeze it when I next go to Ikea.
VÄNNERNA LÃ…NG cushion has my 3 favorite colors on it – pink, purple and green and it’s only RM55. Good support too when reading or playing computer games.
Nice and cute?? Want to get one too? You can machine wash it and gently tumble dry it too.
Oh yea, some updates on Ikea! Ikea has just shipped in some exciting new products. You can do some preliminary online shopping at their website before making a trip there to pay for them!  This can help you save some time as you would already know what to attack when you reach Ikea 🙂
My girls love books. My hubs and I along with my mum have invested and are still investing quite a bit on books for them. They have so many books that I can find them at very nook and corner — under the beds, under my computer desk, under their pillows, inside some recycled boxes, on their study desk, on the throne top (which I absolutely hate and despite me telling Alycia not to put them there, she just never listens, aargh!!) next to the sink, you name it! I was telling hubs that we should get a new book shelf so that their books have a proper place to sit in – a one and only place for all the books to rest and no where else! So off we went to Ikea on a Thursday morning in search of our dream book shelf…
First shelf on our shopping list…
Next on our shopping list…
Next, a Billy bookcase and we got this – cheap and nice!
But when we reached home, we found out that the Billy bookcase didn’t really blend in with the other furniture, so the hubs placed it in the storeroom and used it as a shoe rack. The Billy bookcase fit into our storeroom just right and our storeroom now looks so much more neater with all the shoes sitting in the shelf neatly.
My handyman whose hobby is fixing and assembling things always finds much thrill and challenge putting pieces of wood planks together.  I am always floored to see how patient he can be spending hours assembling planks of wood together into a beautiful, perfect piece of furniture when he has zilch patience shopping with me, aargh!!!
We also got some stackable stools from Ikea as we have always ran out of chairs for guests who are at our place for dinner.
Also got some colorful hangers to hang the girls’ clothes and a set of bib-bowl-cup-spoon set.
After 4 hours of shopping, here are our 2 cart fulls of loot, causing a damage of over RM1K!
After shopping, we had a quick lunch at the Ikea cafeteria. I of course ordered my favourite meatballs and pan fried salmon.
As usual, our trip to Ikea will never be complete without an indulgence in the RM1 nett ice cream. Tell me which kid does not like slotting in a coin into the vending machine to ‘make’ her own ice cream eh? Total bliss!
So this is our March trip to Ikea. Our trip to Ikea in April will be to get the book shelf that we wanted and I’m hoping that there will be some new designs for us to choose by then.
My driver finally had the time to bring me to Ikea to claim my January cash reward last week, just 2 days before it expired. Making a trip to Ikea will now be a monthly affair for the next 11 months and I am loving it as I will get to add a new piece of furniture or accessory to my home or simply accumulate the cash reward and use the bigger amount to buy something costlier. This time, only Baby had the privilege to follow us while her 2 sisters had to stay behind as they had to wake up early for school the next day.
By the time we reached Ikea, it was already 9ish pm. With such limited time left before the store closed, we hurriedly hunted for the first thing that we had in mind, which was another piece of wooden clothes hanger for our bedroom door. Living in a condo where space is limited in our bedroom, we do not have the luxury of space to buy another cupboard, so we have to take full advantage of existing space, which was the lower part of our bedroom door. The upper part of our bedroom door has a wooden Ikea clothes hanger and I love that design, which is very Victorian and it is sturdy. So we decided to get another piece of the same wooden clothes hanger to affix it to the bottom half of the door so that we could hang more clothes on the door. Locating that particular piece of clothes hanger was no easy task as we were shopping against time. But I finally found it and was so happy!
Baby set her eyes on this chair. I would have bought it for her if we still lived in a landed house, so we had to shake our heads and pull her away.
In the end, we settled for another Mammut children stool and chose a bright lemon yellow one this time. We also bought another Mammut children chair and chose pink. With these 2 new collection of chair and stool, the girls now have 3 Mammut stools and 3 Mammut chairs. Hopefully this will end the tug of war between #2 and #3 over the existing blue and red chairs. These Mammut stools are lightweight yet sturdy and everyone loves to use them for an assortment of purposes.
The hubs also bought this stylo multi-lamp for his catering business use. The lamp cost over RM300 but it certainly adds a classy touch to the buffet table for high-end client’s functions.
A trip to Ikea will never be complete without a treat of the RM1 ice-cream for the girls. Baby had the whole ice-cream to herself. Her 2 che ches only found out just a moment ago as I was typing this and they were green with envy while Baby let out a smug giggle tee hee heee…
My baby girl now looks forward to milky time coz she gets to choose her straw. Her daddy, who is an Ikea fan-see bought a few packs of straws with X’mas inspired colors for his catering functions and I hijacked one pack for my straw-craze baby girl, who uses up to 3 straws in a day. I don’t mind as long as I don’t have to spoon feed her milk anymore! And who doesn’t like colorful straws eh? Even I like them, especially fat fat and colorful ones meant for Taiwanese bubble tea, tee hee…
Check out the white container – my Ikea fan-see hubs bought about half a dozen of them from Ikea to store our things. Yup, he is a neat freak who irritates me to my bones whenever he re-arranges my things and keeps them in new boxes and never tells me, aaaaarrgggghhh!!!
And oh yeah, the pink froggy bowl is from Ikea too. It comes with a pink sippy cup and pink froggy bib too.  Our house is full of merchandise from Ikea and my hubs can spend a whole day there without any complaint. He will be like a little boy again whenever he is at Ikea.
My cutie pie, deeply engrossed in picking her straw…
Listen up cooking buffs and for those of you who are learning to cook! Ikea @ Damansara is now running a cooking demo from 12 November through 1 January 2012.
The cooking demo will be held every Saturday and Sunday from 5 to 6pm by the kitchen co-workers at the Kitchen Showroom of Ikea, Damansara.
From 10 through 18 December 2011, the cooking demo will be by Fagor, also at the Kitchen Showroom of Ikea, Damansara.  The cooking demos are also held every Saturday and Sunday from 5 to 6pm. You can head over there to watch the demo and then to the Ikea cafe for a dinner of Svedish meatballs and chicken chop!
Who knows, maybe you will be taught how to make the famous Ikea meatballs at the cooking demo! By the way, did you know that Ikea sells close to 600,000 Svedish meatballs per month? I was informed by the Store Manager of Ikea during the Bloggers’ Ikea Tour last week.
