Rainbow Cakes Attempt

We just celebrated my daughter's birthday last week and she asked for a rainbow cake for her birthday this time round. Well to be exact, she asked for my little pony rainbow cake. I promised her I will bake the cake for her but I know my limit (I cannot do the little pony part) so I decided a rainbow cake will do :P

I've tried making a black forest cake and cheesecake before, but never a rainbow cake. So to make sure I make it right, I practice first. For my first attempt, I used recipe that I saw online. Youtube to be exact.
Here's the link
And here's my cake...

(I can't find the original photo :( so I took this from my instagram)

I supposed the star shaped rainbow marshmellows really helped in making the cake looks really fabulous hehe...
But taste wise, it was very very very sweet... . Like eating sugar... :( So not really a success here.

My 2nd attempt....
This time round I choose rainbow sprinklers to decorate the cake. Recipe wise, well I use cake mix for a shortcut. Baking time was lesser in half from the first time round. Taste wise, it is better than the first one, although I think could be much better off :).

 the tools...

 the cake mix and 3 pans... 

  the batter..

almost done... 

 decorating time 

 let's cut the cake!

 

 tadaaa!

the picture I post on my instagram (with some color enhancement :P )

So, for the 3rd time round, which was the real birthday cake... please stay tuned... :)

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