[.end.of.year.journaling.]

It's a very busy end of year for me. But at least, I can say, 2009 has been an interesting year. Tomorrow last day at work in 2009, then a long new year weekend. No I'm not going to a party. Probably some of you would prefer to hear that I'm back to creating graphics rather than about me partying hihi. Ups and downs of my life in 2009 has prevented me from having much time to sit in front of my laptop creating graphics. That sounds really baaaad, doesn't it. I always needed aloooot of time when drawing graphics, because it's been always full of fun - and rewarding - trials-and-errors ;-)

But I have one thing I'm really proud about..it's that despite the so-often-chaotic day-to-day of mine, I never gave up journaling. Sometimes only a few lines, sometimes a few pages. And I put here and there some collages from magazine cutouts. Just like any previous end-of-years, I would look at my journals again, tracking what's up and where life had taken and guided me, what has made me feel good, what has made me down. Lately I tend to write "current state of spirit:" at the beginning of each entry (describing what I feel at that time of writing) then under that line i would list anything what I did, what I read, what I ate, what I heard, etc, before that. Sometimes just by looking at the list I could instantly evaluate the process. After awhile I noticed that (for example) I would feel happier in the morning when I woke up early - or event what kind of pens that made my handwritings look better :-D

That, I have no doubt saying it now, is the kind of journal that I really like. Now that it's time to evaluate, I found it very helpful when it comes to making plans for 2010. Focus on what makes you feel good and happy. I can complain about too much work but I can focus instead on the fact that I have an exciting and rewarding job. That needs a constant practice :-)

Ah, last note, I also discovered it's so much fun creating 'impromptu' collages in the journal. Mostly my cutouts are from Country Living UK, old magazines from France, the Netherlands, Germany, and Sweden - postcards, as well as printouts from the internet, images from blogs I like. By the way, I also learned it needs a constant practice...

See you next time with new graphics soon!

[.mobile.blogging.test.]

meet my 8 month old nephew attila! :-D

happy holiday everyone! if this mobile-blogging works I will be able to post entries from almost anywhere! wish me luck, would you ;-)

in the meantime, happy new year 2010 :-))))))

::amreta::

[.walking.bliss.][.wandering.in.books.][.091126.]

The last part of Walking Bliss series this week and we’ll see about next week. I’m yearning so much for getting back to graphic journaling but who knows I’ll be able to combine it :-)

Blogging is an exciting challenge as I’m not an English native speaker and it’s a great way to practice writing in English…if done regularly, hehe.

Walking home from work yesterday, a little bit earlier, so it wasn’t dark yet. I was walking through an open field, to the shortcut that leads to the big street. The tall buildings seen here are located on the big street, not in the business district where I took the picture from and, can you spot the street food stalls in the middle?



A closer look of the food stalls



A noodle seller (thus ‘Mr Noodle’ – because I don’t know his real name) pushing his cart pass the shortcut toward the big street. I call this narrow lane ‘banana trees street’ – can you see why? :-))




After work reading, let me wander in books, and dream a little bit... (and looking forward to a Sunday brunch)

Miss Dahl’s Voluptuous Delights






Jamie at Home

[.walking.bliss.091124.]

Yesterday when I walked home in the evening, I took some pictures and on-the-spot realised that my camera didn’t really work when it’s dark. I tried the flash, I tried the night-mode. Failed. So I took pictures anyway and thanked Photoshop later :-)





Took a new shortcut and was ‘caught’ in the traffic jam. Such a narrow street, lots of big cars, and I couldn’t even get a space for walking. I got hungry as it was dinner time I happened to be stuck not far from a street food stall, selling chicken porridge. Looked yummy though. So decided to duck under the tent which was hooked on to the cart, which looked like an ‘emergency eating place’, and ordered a bowl of porridge. Surprise surprise, it was really good! Watching the traffic jam, I chatted with Mr Porridge (that’s how we call the seller of street food when we don’t know his name… Mr Porridge, Mr Fried Rice, Mr Noodle, and so on), about how he made the porridge. He was quite nice. I told them I happened to walk this street because the usual shortcut was closed for some repair. And he was like “ah, so that’s why you didn’t know that this street can be this crowded in the evening” Fifteen minutes later, happy for having had a good meal, I headed to the big street, and Mr Porridge showed me another shortcut, passing by the kampung (residential area with lots of houses, people around, children playing and narrow streets) across the street from the stall. I told him I was hunting for pictures and he seemed quite okay and didn’t mind when I took some pictures of his stall. He stations there every evening so I’ll pass by when the picture is printed.

[.walking.bliss.091123.]

I took a break from Walking-Bliss during the weekend. I got a visit. My mom. Oh, she almost made it to inspect the house where I live but my aunt managed to take her for a walk somewhere else :-)) Hehe, I wasn’t ready for mom’s inspection whatsoever. The house was not exactly a mess but recalling mom’s background as an interior design major combined with her strong Javanese philosophy about almost everything, my decorating-with-whatever-you-have interior would not be everywhere near her standard, I was pretty sure of it! :-))

But now today a new Monday has come and this morning I happily walked again through the market, and…



This fruit stall was located on the corner, at the very start of the market if you walk from where I live. I like to see the green bananas, the pink dragon fruit, the golden kelengkeng (kind of lychee, I think), the papayas and yellow-pink apples. Green, pink, yellow must be the theme of this stall :-) These exotic fruits are mostly sweet. The green banana seemed to be the kind for cooking. Fried banana, for example, is a very popular snack here.


And two side-by-side chicken stalls.



This chicken seller was actually watching me taking pictures of the fruit stall and she asked me whether I was also interested in taking picture of her stall! Oh yes, of course, with pleasure Mam… and thank you!



And then the other stall also wanted to be in my pictures as well :-) Lovely ladies!

[.walking.bliss.091120.]

Thank you Barbara for your kind notes! You're right, it's not quite easy to take pictures when walking to work through the market. There are always lots of people and I tend to be a little bit in a hurry, I just noticed that today ;-)

Anyway, the geese were out today in the open field!



And this is how Gatot Subroto Street looked like this morning, view from the bridge, and happened to be no traffic jam :-))



Tomorrow Saturday - probably it would be fun to go enjoy taking pictures in the market, no work, no hurry! Have a nice weekend everyone!

[.some pictures to illustrate yesterday’s blog.]

It seems like, since I have no more 24hr internet connection at home, I become more organized in some way. I mean, now I have to schedule when to walk, when to write, when to draw. Because only at certain times I can connect to the internet and of course it’s limited. Well, the Universe has always an interesting way of teaching you something, no?

And here are some pictures to ‘accompany’ my post on yesterday’s walk. The pictures were taken this morning though (I told you yesterday I would prepare my camera in the meantime ;-))

The cooking oil and banana leaf seller in the market. I wonder whether the stuff is not too heavy for his bike!



Morning chatters and the jamu (javanese herbal drinks) seller



The open field with a lot of banana trees behind the tall office buildings



The grass gatherer in the open field

[.walking.journal.]

Hello friends,

I hope you won't be dissapointed that this blog is not only about my graphics but I intend to use it also for journaling. I thought of creating another journal but I don't want to leave this graphic blog behind (and there's a risk of it if I did so), so here it is.



As mentioned in my earlier post – I moved temporarily to a house closer to work, all while the family house is being rebuilt. I complained about limited internet connection, the thought made me feel bad most of the day, everytime I looked at my computer. And guess what, I didn’t feel like doing anything and soon I (almost) lost energy.

Somehow there’s this little voice both laughing and angry at me. “How crazy it is that you let small thing like this ruin your day!” – and a nicer voice said “go out, go out. You loved it here once before (until that big flood in 2007 that forced me to go back living in the family house). It’s time to revisit those other little things that made your heart spring!”

“Go out,” I repeated. Oh, my lovely spirit’s reminder. What I really loved it here is that I can walk to and from work, 35 to 45 minutes depending on the pace. I need not worry about the traffic jam. I need not worry about the availability of public busses. And suddenly I felt much better.

Day 1 I walked to work in the morning, that was an instant spirit lift. I realised just a few houses behind my front door, over the used-to-be troubled river, it’s an animated traditional market I had to walk through. I noticed that the river had widened, there’s no more slum on the river banks and the market looked cleaner. And ugh, people looked happier too! Believe it or not, but I met smiling people all along the streets :-)

Then I noticed more and more interesting things on various stalls. I recognized some people and stalls from my earlier stay in the neighbourhood and some people still recognized me too. Whoohoo. Then I realized how abundant this place is with street food sellers each offering their specialties of traditional, street-style, homemade simple delicacies.

Even the noise in the market sounds pleasant. I could hear people bargaining or discussing about vegetables of the day. I didn’t mind the smell of the fish stall when I had to pass by it. The seller, a big-built man wearing apron over his large t-shirt and baggy trousers just reminded me of the fish seller in Asterix and Obelix cartoon (I don’t know why I thought of that, but it made me smile :-D). The stall next to it was displaying large rattan basket full of eggplants in their nicest violet color. Oh dear, I missed that Provençal-style grilled eggplant and ratatouille!!

I wondered whether I could really just go on without being tempted to stop by, I was so excited. I giggled all the way, even by seeing a cage full of tinted chicks (I really have no idea how they did it – I mean they are real and alive tiny chicks coloured in bright pink, neon green and shiny yellow!)

Out of the market, it’s a residential area with narrow street which leads to a shortcut passing by an open field behind a high-rise building on one of Jakarta’s main business areas. While the residential area is so crowded and you have to watch around when walking (otherwise you might bump into other people or food stalls or bikes), the open field has a complete opposite atmosphere, it’s like being in a village, quiet and serene. The walk was so blissful here. It’s the start of rainy season and a row of stepping stones is ‘miss-matchedly’ placed crossing the field, so people could walk on them and reach the exit without getting their shoes muddy. I spotted some guys gathering grass and I smelled a ‘farm’ when passing by a house with fences around. Probably there were goats inside. I saw them before, a few years ago. And I saw some geese too outside! Isn’t it amazing it’s in the middle of a huge city like Jakarta! :-))

Next, I arrived on one of Jakarta’s busiest, biggest streets. I had to cross a bridge over that big, four lanes street. Then walked through another residential area similar to the one near the market, for about 10 minutes. And voilà, I reached the business district where my work place is located. It’s another change of view, really. When the organisation where I worked moved here 10 years ago, the district had still plenty of open fields, but now, it’s plenty of tall office buildings, 5-stars hotels and shopping malls. But it’s Jakarta, and there’s always an interesting thing about it. In the area, in an open field amidst office buildings, you still can find an array of street food stalls in uniformly blue tents, a cheaper and friendly option for lunch (compared to eating places or restaurants at the shopping mall) for most locals working in this district. And in fact, there’s not only one place like this in the district and surrounding, there are a few!

Anyway, my point in this entry is, I started noticing these things again while walking. I took public bus when living at the family house, 1 hour at the fastest and I used the time for reading (that was good by the way). I focused too much on big things, but now Mother Nature called me again to be grateful for daily bliss. Now I realised how I love this walk. I turned to audio books and mood-lifting music and did a little research on walking meditation and I’m so happy about this shift. It’s a good shift! I enjoy the moment, expect to notice interesting things on the way.

This particular page about walking meditation is my favorite find (thanks, google :-)):
www.dharma-talks.com/walking_meditation.htm

To be continued in the next post about walking home from work...

(in the meantime, I’ll prepare my camera :-))

[moving]

O'dear, this blog looks like a very lazy one, no? *wink* Looking at my schedule, I will still be very busy at least until 16 December...let's say until end of this year. Now you see I'm so looking forward to a new year vacation :-)

And today I start moving to a temporary place, as the family house where I currently live is soon going to be rebuilt (yes, the house will be demolished then rebuilt into a completely new building with several rooms for rent...which the family think will be great for investment and to get passive income...)

In fact, co-housing is quite common here. And renting a room in a house is a cheaper option than renting a flat (which tend to provide 'luxurious' services).

Speaking of the temp house, it doesn't have internet connection... I think I have to accept that since it's only a temporarily place, and I can always use the (limited) mobile internet, but it's only approximately 40 minutes walk from where I work (haha, compare it now with my current daily commute, 60-90 minutes one way depending on the availability of the public transport and traffic...:o))

Anyway, haven't got the chance to rearrange my stuff, but I've got some fresh ideas and tips already for cleaning up the house :-))

From Country Living



Talk to you again soon my friends! :-))

Wallpaper: halloween

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[wallpaper: happy halloween]

Oyyoy! Two months have passed since my last post! I've been very busy at work lately. But I hope, till I can catch up with the next updates, these halloween wallpapers are not too late :-))

Click on the images, let it open on a new window then right-click and save as.

I hope you enjoy them!

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{deco flora webset}

Hello! I'm so happy that finally the Deco Flora webset is up today! I got a small accident that crushed my right finger tip sometime ago - that gave me a bit of difficulty to draw, let alone to hold the computer mouse or to type on the keyboard!

It's getting better now and you see I managed to finish drawing the Deco Flora set :o)

This collection contains over 200 background tiles (variations from 15 hues) + 169 graphics including cliparts, web-stuff, signboards, quilts, banners, etc. The set is divided in several pages each with different layout that you can copy.

If you're member you can find the set in the member area. If not, the set is also sold individually for $4.

Here are some more screen shots: