On Saving Electricity...

Last October, we decided to change the water heater from electricity to gas type. According to the seller and what I (assumed) know of, we are going to save about 1/3 of the bills from the electricity used.

So we spent $1450 on the whole things. New gas water heater $300, 2 new shower heads + 1 water tap (mixer) for the kitchen sink for a total $350, and the installation costs $800.

A big spent, hoping to get a nice rewards in terms of longtime savings in the electricity bills.

But it doesn't turn out well. First month, instead of going down in the bills, it spiked. A bit higher than usual. I blamed it to the usage of air-conditioners (which I think maybe we used it a bit more than the other months)

But December came, it still doesn't show any changes. I am pissed. Something's wrong here. And I just found out the culprit. My mother in-law. Yeah, she used the gas water heater without knowing that she was using it all the time. How? you might ask.

Here's how. The water heater will on when you didn't turn the tap to the most right position (first mistake, believing what she told me that she knows how to use the tap). And she always on the tap to the max/ high pressure whenever she washes clothes, which makes the water out still cold even though the heater is on.

What a waste of money...

Now, I have shown her how to 'operate' the tap properly and hopefully the bills will go down.

Remember friends, if you are changing any water heater from electricity to gas or whatever upgrade you make to save electricity, just make sure everybody in your house knows how to do the things right... Otherwise you just ended up paying more instead of less. (in my case, we assumed my inlaw knew how, and we, I mean I, had a passive aggresive attitude here)

But to be honest, although without my inlaw problem above I don't think I save a lot. Just for information the electric water heater consumption is 2300 Kw/h and compared to the gas water heater consumption is 8000 Kw/h. I am wondering why people always said gas heater is paying lesser bill.

Any thoughts??

DIY - Cardboard parking garage and roads

This time I made cardboard parking garage and roads, using a wafer box (similar to cereal boxes). It is very easy and simple to make. You only need scissors, glue, colored papers (black or grey or white will do) and some imaginations.

I got the idea from pinterest.. something like this below picture.

And this is my version. :)

What do you guys think? I know my daughter loves it. :P

Have a nice day crafting everyone!  

New Year, new shoe storage..

I have this shoe storage from IKEA the beginning of 2010 (when I first bought my house). And I have done quite a few changes to it. Start from painting it white... then put chevron white, yellow and blue striped on it...

But after a few months of neglection and all sort of things, it didn't stay pretty as I wanted too. And painting it again will take too much time and hassle for me. So I ended up with a quick and cheap fix.

 Using gift wrappers and clear plastics to cover the top of the shoe storage. It took half hour for me to do it and I know it won't last long but it really elevated the mood that I had at that moment (Christmas mood). I did this in November.

So now fast forward a month later, I am ready to change it again.
Before photo :

 as I expected  you can see the discolorations of the wrapper due to sun and rain.

 
After changing the wrapper:

 and the final result :

 Aaah.. neat and tidy.

Surely a good way to welcome the new year with a good nice looking entrance. Very neat indeed!
Even my daughter loves it.

Planner Organization

That's what my search engine words for the past few days. I've been a new planner addict nowadays. Maybe because it's been the words used often in the most of the blog posts I read recently. Anyway, I had this planner for almost a year now but it just never been used until now ( talk about compulsive buying :))

So now I've been putting some of my 'schedule' or project lists inside and start 'decorate it abit by bit.

using old calendar (2015) I cut and make dividers for my planner. I tried not to buy new stuffs (like post it notes, markers, etc) to decorate my planner since I dont know whether I will stay addicted to this or not. But for now, I just love to make it a new habit in the new year 2016 :P

    

As of now, I'm still using a standard note pages and hand written. 

Maybe in the next month, I will try to put some of it printed nicely (after I get the hang of using this planner)

my budget planning and cleaning schedule, ready to be printed. :)

Although its not as fancy or colorful as some of the bloggers but I kinda like it.

My inspirations are some of the below :

via A Bowl Full of Lemons

via Colours 'n Me

via My Purpley Life

So, do you like planner organization too ? :P

Hobby that becomes a part time income - Diaper cake

After the first try of making diaper cakes for my husband's cousin's baby boy (the dog topping diaper cake), I was asked to make one diaper cake for my sister's friend who was having a baby girl. It turned out very well and got an order from her friend's friend. And so, I've been making a diaper cake as my part time income and hobby. Here are some of my creations :

 my first creation. Took me a whole week to tweak and figure out the 'topping' for the cake. :P

this one was made for my sister's friend. 

A very simple cake for my friend's baby boy, Dash.

This piggy' cake was an order from my friend who is staying in Melbourne. She saw my post in facebook and she deciced to order it for her friend who stay here in Singapore. How cool was that. And her friends definitely surprised by it. :) 

 I think my cakes for baby girl are getting more sophisticated with each order I get. Practice makes perfect I guess :)

On the other hand, still need more practice with the cake for baby boy. Like this one for baby Austin. Defintely an improvement from 2 years ago when I just started my first diaper cake. Anyway, I love all my creations. Because no cake is the same. All made with love and patience. 

Hope I can get more orders so I can be a full time stay at home mom and earn my income from this alone. Hahaha. 

pssst... I made all these 3am in the morning, because that's when I am alone and won't be disturbed by my daughters. A very 'lack of sleep' hobby it is. :)

Thanks for reading my long post.