The Married Life Archives | Page 16 of 50

The IKEA Family Card and Dreams of a Kitchen & Textiles

11 May 2012 Ibyang Sanchez 2 Comments Category: Charmed Life of a Mrs, Cherished Memories, Deep Thoughts, Food, Great Finds for the Home, The Married Life

We received our IKEA Family Card yesterday and it’s one of the most gorgeous looking cards the Husband and I have encountered.

Be part of the IKEA Family to avail perks and discounts:

Free hot drinks every visit
Discounts on selected meals in the IKEA Restaurant
Exclusive discounts on lots of products
Extended 12-month return policy
10c donated to charity for every swipe
Weekly $250 IKEA gift card draw

For more details, please visit IKEA FAMILY and join for free.

We registered for an IKEA Family Card last month when we took my Mum for a visit. Everytime she’s here, we make sure to drop by IKEA in case she needs something for our home in Manila. Plus, she also loves food at IKEA.

Breakfast at IKEA is always worth waking up early too.

Since my Mum and I were sharing meals that morning, I took this opportunity to grab a slice of their Apple Pie.

The Husband had his favourite, Apricot Pastry.

Other than eat, IKEA is a place for dreaming and research. Even if we don’t really need anything at the moment, we look at the designs, showrooms and products. On our last visit, our we focused on their Kitchen showrooms. I dream of having a gorgeous but functional kitchen someday and these two showrooms below somehow are in line with my idea of a future kitchen. I took photos because one day, I might go back to these for reference.

We opened one of the corner cabinets and saw that IKEA makes use of any space available. You can place a RATIONELL Corner Base Carousel inside your kitchen cabinet so you can store your pots and pans (see photo below). The great thing about it is you swivel the two shelves for easy access to what you need.

I dream of owning this book, “Love for Textiles“. Only a few people know that I love textiles. I never dwell on this interest because I don’t have the space and I don’t have the time. For now, I’m grateful for the thought that when I was young, I had my share of exposure to the textile and fashion industry (thanks to my Dad). My love for textiles and fashion will always be a part of me but in the meantime, I heed to my other calling: writing, food and photography.

It’s always hard to leave IKEA empty-handed. We bought a few items for family in Manila and a few items for our home.

KAVALKAD Frying Pans (sent to the Phils), LEGITIM chopping board, GODTA Green Deep Plate, DINERA Deep Plate (placed underneath the green plate) and STABIL splatter screen.

RATIONELL VARIERA Shelf inserts (for better organization of our pantry), ORDNING Cutlery Stand, GALEJ Tealight Holder, BEVARA Sealing clips (shared them with my Mum & Mother-in-Law), DOKUMENT Pen Cup.

Two-week Mini Reunion

17 April 2012 Ibyang Sanchez 0 Comments Category: Charmed Life of a Mrs, Cherished Memories, The Married Life

The last two weeks of March were all about family. My Mum and my Aunt from America arrived in Sydney to spend time with my Grandma and their sisters. I called it our clan’s “mini-reunion”. For two weeks, my Mum, her mother and sisters were complete in one place. I took a few days off from work and also had a break from blogging so I can focus on family. I tagged along to anywhere they pleased so I can be with them. Compared to our reunions from the past, this one was somehow relaxed as my Mum and Aunt didn’t really want to be anywhere but Sydney. Our days were mostly spent shopping, dining and seeing friends.

I’m sharing a few highlights here because I want to remember the memorable two weeks I spent with them. Such precious moments.

One of the happiest places on earth: Arrival area of an airport. My Mum and Aunt C arrived on the same day.

Parties: Welcome lunch and dinner, My Grandma’s birthday celebrations, my Aunt’s going away dinner.

Foodtripping: Sydney Fish Market, Panarotti’s, Fuel at The Star, Phoenix Parramatta, Red Spoon, Casa Asturiana, Chef’s Gallery.

Husband and I hosted a BBQ dinner at my Aunt’s place.

The days and nights we bonded over our love for theatre, Draw Something, hanging out at a club playing pokies or just chilling at a restaurant.

Skyped with family living overseas.

Talking to my niece Sophia

Like any reunions, it all comes to an end. On Black Saturday, our Aunt from America left and even if we are used to things like this, even if we are used to living apart, goodbyes are always painful.

Nevertheless, we are truly grateful that our clan had a mini-reunion here in Sydney. It brings me joy seeing my Mum happy in the company of her mother and sisters. The good news is, my Mum is still here so I have a few more weeks to be with her.

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Five Years and Two Months

20 March 2012 Ibyang Sanchez 2 Comments Category: Charmed Life of a Mrs, Couples Reflections, Deep Thoughts, The Married Life

There is no Math or Science, no exact formula to make it work…most times it just takes a good balance, letting ourselves go with the flow without compromising the values important to us.

Sometimes there are no reasons…just a lot of understanding, giving and taking.

There are shared moments…of milestones and defeats, of dreams and what-ifs, of tears and most importantly, an abundance of laughter. We never let a day pass without making each other laugh and making each other happy is a always priority.

There are moments when we let each other be…it could be anger, disappointment, frustration or a day when things aren’t going right—whatever the reason, we listen and hope that a hug will make things better (and it does!).

There are adventures…the travels that make us learn more about the world and of each other, the challenges that help us become better people.

There are times for daydreaming…of things we want to do, places we want to go, of seeing ourselves grow old together and still holding hands.

There is so much respect…for each other’s opinions, for when we both need a bit of space, for our individual growth. We always want to bring out the best in each other.

There’s a lot of trust involved…in God, in each other, in people we hold dear.

And of course, there’s friendship and love…our great foundations in being TWOgether. Everyday and always. <3

Weekend BBQ Party with Friends

12 March 2012 Ibyang Sanchez 3 Comments Category: Charmed Life of a Mrs, Cherished Memories, The Married Life

We had summer weather last weekend so what better way to celebrate the sun and blue skies by having a BBQ party with friends. Planned an almost-all-day get together so we can all properly catch up–no special occassion, we simply just want to spend time together.

While dining out is equally precious, there’s something more special and relaxing when get-togethers are done at home where there’s no time limit and things become spontaneous. The adults can be noisy and kids can be rowdy and we can all eat like there’s no tomorrow. The party lasted for seven (7) hours and it was one of the funnest times we’ve had in a long while.

The BBQ started at 2:30PM. Some brought cooked food and some brought stuff to be cooked on the barbie.

The Husbands hovered around the big BBQ Grill and got those pork belly cooked.

On the other hand, I hung out by the smaller BBQ Grill and got busy with my Bulgogi-marinated Beef. (I’ll share the recipe later this week).

My Bulgogi only took a few minutes to grill. Once one side of the thinly-sliced beef is cooked, I flipped it over and sliced it into strips.

It should look like this once it’s done (see photo below). I served it with Kimchi.

Other than the dish I prepared, we had the grilled Pork Belly (dipped in spicy Vinegar), Pancit, Steamed Milkfish and Corned Beef Pandesal (the Pandesal was freshly-baked by one of our friends). The food lasted us till dinnertime and it was all delicious.

For dessert, we had Chocolate Crinkles (baked also by one of our friends) and Caramel Cake.

No matter what happens, we never forget to take photos, especially the Wifeys…thank God our Husbands always obliged.

Even the kids, had a special “photoshoot” session. It took a lot of “sit still” and “look at the camera, please?” to get them all together in one photograph, but we sure had a lot of laughter doing this.

Other than spending time as a family, the Wifeys and Husbands get to bond separately. The Husbands have their time to talk about their stuff and (sometimes) watch a DVD while the Wifeys happily chats away with stuff they care about too.

And always, we never seem to ran out of things to talk or laugh about. Our friendship is amazing and truly blessed. Our party ended with smiles that will last us until the next get-together.

IKEA Brekky & Shopping

8 March 2012 Ibyang Sanchez 1 Comments Category: Great Finds for the Home, The Married Life

I missed having cheap meals at IKEA so when we found a chance to have a short stopover at their Rhodes branch last Saturday, we woke up early and decided to have breakfast there.

We arrived a few minutes after 9:30AM and the IKEA food hall were becoming busier as early birds like us wanted to have breakfast first before shopping.

The Husband and I each had a plate of their Swedish Meatball Breakfast (AUD$4.95) which had 2 round hash browns, bacon, meatballs, a sausage and egg. This is the perfect cheap breakfast. I think this is the cheapest breakfast one can find in Sydney Metro.

And of course, a glass of long black coffee for me. It was my first time to try their coffee and it was so-so. I found it smooth and not as strong and rich as other coffee.

I find it appalling when people leave their plates and leftovers on the table. IKEA has a designated area where you can place your trays after eating and they have big signs for people to see. People here are supposed to look after themselves–and this is not just an IKEA thing. Just a tip if you’re travelling in Australia: never assume that someone will clean up after you eat. Have a look around if there are people cleaning tables and if you don’t see one, that’s a sign that you should clean up after eating.

Anyway, we enjoyed our IKEA brekky and yes, we were very full from all the meat we had that morning. With the little time we had (we had a lunch party to attend), we made an almost swift pass inside the store. There was no urgency to buy anything but we looked at some stuff closely such as bookshelves, bed sheets and kitchen equipments.

We’re about 25 minutes away from an IKEA store so we always have this blue IKEA bag inside the car so we’re always ready to shop!

My favourite space in store would have to be the kitchen area, particularly the storage solutions sections. We don’t buy everything but I like looking at their products because it gives me ideas on proper storage in the home.

We bought a few items: A red container storage box for our vanity area, a small cutlery organizer (for my chopsticks and Korean cutlery), spice jars, clothes pin dryer, a small lamp (for our photography) and scented candles (which I always buy whenever I’m there).

I also bought a new cream-coloured throw. We already have one but in preparation for winter, we needed a thicker throw. We were very happy to find this dotted black and white pillow cases on sale for only AUD$2.00 each. I’ve been on the lookout for pillow cases that can match a set of bed sheets I found in Myer years ago (they were on sale too!). The bed sheets and quilt cover are in shades of grey and midnight blue. When we got home, I put them side by side and it matched!

The one thing that amused us was finding a glass tea kettle. We recently bought a glass kettle (will share later) and when we saw this, we just can’t let it go. It matched our glass kettle and double wall glasses too.

A 30-minute brekky and an hour of shopping at IKEA surely made the start of Saturday a happy one.

IKEA Homebush Bay Drive
Entry via Rhodes Shopping Centre
1 Oulton Avenue
off Homebush Bay Drive
RHODES NSW 2138
Store:
Mon – Fri 10am – 9pm
Sat – Sun 9am – 7pm
Restaurant:
Mon – Fri 9:30am – 8:30pm
Sat – Sun 8:30am – 6:30pm

Now Open: IKEA Tempe
634-726 Princes Highway
Tempe NSW 2044
Store:
Monday to Friday:
10am – 9pm
Saturday & Sunday: 9am – 7pm
Restaurant:
Monday to Friday:
9:30am – 8:30pm
Saturday & Sunday: 8:30am – 6:30pm