{a.proud.auntie!}

Oh no! It's been more than one month since my last entry!! Have you ever heard of a lazy artist before?? That sounds like me :-D Though I might have a lot of excuses but certainly there's no room for those excuses :-D

Anyway, I'm back online and I can't wait to announce to the world how excited I am to become an auntie!! Well well, life is so good so far, I'm blessed with so many wonderful kids who call me 'auntie'. But on 24 april 2009, the blessings were doubled, I'm officially an aunt. My little sister in Stuttgart, Germany, gave birth to a super cute baby boy. His name is Attila, but my super sister calls him 'superboy'. Ok ok, no protest is allowed. I can only hope that my super nephew will soon realize he has a super auntie, too *giggle*

And about the graphics...



I've been busy lately but I'll take a week off from work next week and work on the graphics (good news, I hope! :-)). After moving to the new server, I had problem accessing the member area, and after a few attempts to fix some pages, I just decided to re-arrange the whole site altogether.

So please don't be dissapointed if you find that my website is closed for a few days next week (or perhaps already this coming weekend). It will only be emptied and then replaced with the same graphics + new items, with new arrangement, for what I hope to be an easier navigation.

In the meantime this blog is always up and open. I'll be right back...

{envie: Cordelia de Castellane}

This article about Cordelia de Castellane 's Paris appartment in April '09 edition of Elle Decor really stole my heart. There's no way of denying how i love de Castellane's style...and her home. I think, there's something about colorful details against neutral background. Oh yes, just what Elle Decor's written on the title of the article: "delightful" and "eye catching". No wonder it's the cheeriest spot in town.

{envie: kim parker's home}

Honestly. I have some kind of serious obsession and envie about living in a home like Kim Parker's: tastefully colourful and where every corner is decorated with her own artwork. As quoted from her website: "a designer with an exuberant style, Parker combines her own fantastic floral prints with unconventional flea market finds, fashionable antiques, and unique modern pieces to create a vibrant, colorful look."

Now, that's what I call "personal style" :-)





Pictures courtesy of Kim Parker HOME

{love, calligraphy}

i've been pretty quiet for sometime, no? :o) yes i was busy spring cleaning, yes i was busy reading interesting books, yes i was busy at work. but yes, one more confession: i'm in love with lettering, and quietly spent a lot of time scouting calligraphy blogs and websites such as Cystal Kluge's (also her blog Tart Workshop), and my newly found love: Oh So Beautiful Paper blog. Nole is such a wonderful blogger, and her blog, like it's name, is oh so beautiful...i'm smitten, really :o)

{Cystal Kluge}

{Tart Workshop}

{Oh So Beautiful Paper}

{spring cleaning + eat, pray, love}

time for spring cleaning! a happy and busy weekend. a friend of mine told me to keep visualizing the end result, when the house is fresh clean, well organized and lovingly decorated. yummy! orange you pretty my dear home!

in a few days my website will be the target for my spring cleaning madness. oh no, probably 'madness' is not the right word but anyhow, it will be moved to a new server, and part of the work will cleaning up, getting rid of some unused files.

{for spring cleaning guidance, i follow this article on wholeliving}


in the meantime, i'm also reading elizabeth gilbert 's "eat, pray, love" - such a wonderful memoir of a wonderful writer. reading this book, i wanted to laugh, to cry, to think about my own life. made my mind travel back to my own trip to bali a few months ago. i was there for work, but i told my swedish friend marie louise that i should come back to bali for a personal trip. vacation. which would mean one step further to get to know this beautiful, very famous part of my own country. this must have something to do with culture, history, archaeology, folklore, arts, my main interests. and something to do with wellbeing too, right? mmmmh...i should book a vacation for myself right away.... but first, for now, spring cleaning to be done!

and this, video of elizabeth gilbert musing on new way to think about creativity. watch, it's brilliant!

{yellow deco: happy home}

I love colors, everywhere, yes, but today while looking at the rain, suddenly flashed in my head that some sparks of yellow in the house might turn the mood from grey to cheery. Oh, would you imagine how nice a yellow wall would be. Yellow furniture would look...just cute! And those yellow details? Flowers, napkins, frock, table lamp...what a happy home!












All inspiring pictures above from Country Living.

{yellow deco: a dash of pink}

A dash of pink somewhere in a yellow-toned room. When I stumbled upon these pictures of Jennifer and Dick Lanne's farmhouse in the New York countryside on Country Living, all I wanted was picturing myself one lovely afternoon having a cup (or many) of tea, drawing graphics in this room. Yellow is a very happy color, and even the tiniest dash of deep pink will make it even happier. Don’t you agree?

{meeting kitiya}

Yesterday. Finally. After around 9 years emailing each other. Me in Jakarta and her in Bangkok. Kitiya of Country Hobby and I met in person. In Jakarta. She’s as lovely as she always sounds in her emails. As wonderful as her artwork. There I got a special gift from Kitiya: her latest book! It’s in Thai but just by looking at the pretty pictures in the book, you’d know it’s fun to create the projects. I’m already inspired to make country boxes. Oh, why did I forget to take the picture of the book. I will upload it later today. I just couldn’t wait to post this entry :o)

{me}{kitiya}

{weekend polska}

This made me both nostalgic and happy this weekend. I watched, listened, over and over again. Frantically tried to play the tunes on my violin. Goodness. I long for [folk music in] Sweden again. Those summer evening where music was in every corner of Stockholm. The midsummer dance around a flowery maypole. Just to mention a few. I'm hooked. Yay! Happy Sunday everybody :o)


Lisa Rydberg and Gunnar Idenstam playing Grins Hans Jasspodspolska & Erik Isaks Polska.

{memories of style: a javanese life}

Have I ever told you I used to be a little javanese girl? Well, I'm still a javanese girl, it's in the blood. But I've left my hometown since 1992 to study in the capital city of Jakarta, and found a life there (oh, I mean "here") and I'm glad that from time to time, my current job gives me a project that allows me to travel and spend some days in my hometown, Yogyakarta.


And there I was, in the midst of work, glad to be home. Just like in the old days. It is nowadays a challenge to maintain a javanese house. 'Expensive' is the most common excuse that many owners of javanese houses preferred to rebuilt their once traditional to a more 'modern', simplified, minimalist houses. Somehow my parents managed to keep the javanese decor intact. The main room still has the wooden divider, painted in the same kind of green as one used to paint the decorative details at the Royal Palace of Yogyakarta. Ceilings from woven bamboo. But since I've been in Sweden several times and brought back some souvenirs, the house's now got some Swedish influence :o) Can you see it? On the table are swedish christmast goats made of straw, and hanging on the door is a Dala horse welcome sign.


Life's still more or less the same in our house, which means as interesting as those times when I was a kid. For breakfast mom bought "pecel", a mix of steamed vegetables with spicy peanut sauce. Anticipating impromptu visits by our neighbours or friends or relatives, this time I was there an array of snacks were served for tea time: banana wrapped in sweet crepes, traditional pancakes, and rice crackers. The tea is also normally sweet. I had to remind mom that I would have tea without sugar. She used to protest my 'new habit', but now it's quite okay with her :o)


It made me happy to see that the table was dressed in batik table cloth, my mom's own creation.

That day we had a visit by a 'street singer'. Mom told me the boy had been a street singer since he was a kid. My late father, during his last years until he passed away in 2004, loved the boy's performance and was very fond of him. Since then, he became a regular visitor of our house.


In the evening my little sister and I took a becak (three wheeled pedicab) ride to a traditional snack shop and we passed by the streets in the area around the royal palace. I saw again the legendary banyan trees located on the palace's south square. Went in and out the palace's area through the once upon a time 'city gates'.



Back at home. I found it interesting to spot a Swedish vintage print in a javanese setting.


Or a blanket with Swedish Dala horse prints over a set of batik bedding. A mix of two traditions :o)


That was a day in my javanese life. Now it's time to say good night...

{rosy notes: rosy shop}

There are times I play with my own imagination. In that very personal space of mine, I have a shop, or a coffee shop, and regardless of what it is, how the store looks is quite certain: roses in the front, at the entrance. How wonderful, (always in my imagination) that my customers, before entering the shop, would take time to stop and smell the roses... :-)

{picture of au nom de la rose, courtesy of zenog}

{words}

“If I had a rose for every time I thought of you, I'd be picking roses for a lifetime.” - Swedish proverb