[.free.graphics.070626.]

Ow, blogging is so practical that as you see now I also use this blog for posting new free graphics. they will come more regularly i hope, just a few graphics per entry, and well, probably without theme! with my schedule right now I still find it difficult to concentrate and draw a set or collection. anyhow, I guess random graphics will be better than no new graphic at all ;-)

I start with these two graphics, I got a question whether the girl-with-violin graphic is available for download, since it doesn’t belong to any set or collection. well, actually I planned to add it to my updated spring collection, but here you get two of them for free, since the update is still on its way, and there will be a lot more of these in the collection.

Hope you enjoy the graphics :-)

[to dowload: right-click and choose 'save picture as' - and save it to your own harddisk]

[.happy.midsummer.]

It’s midsummer eve! I love this particular Swedish tradition celebrating the longest day of the year. It certainly doesn’t work at all in Jakarta where the sun always sets at around 6 p.m. all year round. But who can resist talking about a very beautiful day?

Where the sun shines at its brightest on a lush meadow, colourful flowers and cute wooden houses by a lake…


imagebank.sweden.se


imagebank.sweden.se

Girls with flower crowns and violins…


imagebank.sweden.se

Fresh sweet strawberries…


imagebank.sweden.se

Midsummer singing dan dancing…


imagebank.sweden.se

Wait, did I say that it didn’t work in Jakarta? I was fooling myself. Last year we were crazy enough, with the presence of the Swedish sailing ship Götheborg and her crew…





to have a maypole up, decorated with lots of flowers…



and everyone jumped in singing and dancing around the maypole…



Huge thanks everyone for sharing this unforgettable moment with us here last year! I think of you all this midsummer eve.

Glad midsommar! :-)

[.blue.green.grey.white.]

It looks like my mood today still doesn't go far from blue, green, grey and white. A little dash of red gives some fresh, uplifting accents here and there. And anyway, all these images are from Country Living, still my favorite source of inspiration for home decoration.

[.poem.for.dad.]

I subscribed to Heartwarmers and sometimes, the stories they delivered just really shot straight into my heart, at the very precise moments.

Just like the poem by James "Poppy" Kisner that came into my inbox today. Father's Day is coming up, and what I read in today's Heartwarmers, is exactly what I always want to say to my late dad, I just didn't know how. I owe you, Mr Kisner, thank you!

ALWAYS THERE
by James "Poppy" Kisner

What can I say about you dad that qualifies as praise?
The way you show your love for me in many different ways.
The words may not be spoken to express that love for me,
But I know dad you love me, it's in everything I see.

I see how hard you work to earn a living everyday,
And I know where the money goes when you receive your pay.
You take care of the family as you work to earn a living,
But more than monetarily you just can't stop from giving.

Unselfishly you sacrifice your time and energy,
And always when I need your help you still have time for me.
There's nothing you won't do for me if it is for my best,
Even times when it may seem that I am just a pest.

You've made me realize that I can always count on you,
That I will have your full support in anything that I do.
To know I have your backing when I have tried different things,
Gives me so much courage as I try to spread my wings.

Never have you wavered in responsibility,
Always being just exactly what a dad should be.
You have always been there for me and you know it's true,
That is why I say these words with pride "Dad I love you."

-- James "Poppy" Kisner



It's me with dad in October 1973 - I was 6 months old, one of my favorite baby pictures - both of us had those big smiles - one of my happiest days in my life.

[.mom's.batik.goodies.]

Psst. It’s a ’guerilla ad’. My mom has just started her home business, but she really wants it to be ’quiet’ until she’s 100 percent ready to launch herself into business life. The reason is, she found that her ”creating time” is still pretty much unconsistent. An artist is an artist, if you understand what I mean. She draws the designs, patterns and illustration, then her business partner makes them into batik. As the goods are all handmade, each of them is unique. Mom made tote bags, bed sheets, table cloths, wrap skirts (and probably blouses as well, but I haven’t seen one yet). So far, the marketing is done through word-of-mouth and sometimes mom gave away some samples as gifts, slowly testing the market’s interest. Still no website either – mom is still not sure about it. Hopefully she’s having a good starting-phase and that she’ll be encouraged to continue her hobby-turned-into-business activity. Because this makes her happy. I keep my fingers crossed :-)

[ my mom’s batik bags. the black and turqoise bags are from my collection, and the blue one is my friend Joanna’s ]

[.new.journal.]

When it comes to journaling, I have tendency to always recreate pages I really like from my previous journals: pictures that moved me, words that encouraged me, articles that enriched me. My latest journal’s just finished - and now I arrived to the first three pages of the new one. At home, I have the habit of keeping old magazines and, during long weekends, when I don’t play the violin, I could spend hours and hours leafing the mags and cutting images that inspire me. Then I sort them into different categories, each in one plastic box :
 living/sitting/working/hallway
 dining/kitchen
 bed/bath
 fashion/beauty
 outdoor/flowers
 details/objects/crafts
 food/recipes
 travel/places
 health
 words
 reference/unsorted

But, speaking about recreating some favorite pages from my previous journals, I have one particular entry that I really like in the last journal. It started with an ad for Princess Cruise (I don’t remember from what magazine I took it), it says ”Sometimes, you take a ship to get back to where you started”. A few days before, I received from my sister two scanned pictures of me on my first travel at age nine with Dad. They were the only pictures that could be found from that special trip. I was on a boat with Dad to Bali. Preceding those two ’findings’, actually, in June last year, I was onboard a ship - a real sailing ship, and those 3 days at sea sent me back to the memories of my first travel with Dad. Where it all started. I took a ship.

Sometimes, I’m just amazed at how the universe reminds us about the wonderful things we have in life :-)



And below is the handmade ’sequel’ of the dream home I wrote in my previous entry – this time the images are cut-outs from old magazines.

[.r.e.s.t.]

Yippi! I'm back, the projects are done, and it's a long weekend here. After having several trips and lots of work, I'd certainly like to have some rest in a clean, serene, comfortable, white with greyish blue and green home. My dream home. [images from Country Living]



Have a restful weekend and see you next week!

[.homework:.tagged.!.]

Oh là! I forgot to post my ”homework!” I got tagged by Sia last week! Yyaay!! It took me a week to finally have it up here! Better late than never, my friends...here it comes:

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Tagged rules

• Start with 7 random facts/habits about yourself

• People who are tagged have to write their 7 things on their blog

• Then choose another 7 people to get tagged and list their names

• Don't forget to leave them a comment to tell them they have been tagged and to read your blog


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7 things about me

1/
I used to hate my name; ”Amreta” is very uncommon name in Indonesia and, if you speak our language, it sounds older than old…’ancient’, that is! And other kids often made fun of it. Until, one day a friend who was studying sanskrit and hindu mythology, recognized that amreta is a variation of amrta, the ’water of life’ (mom also told me that meaning of my name), the drink that gives the gods immortality. I started my research on the internet and found stories about amreta / amrta and loved particularly this story which is related to how Garuda became the vehicle of Vishnu. Well, since then, I like my name! :-)

2/
My little sisters called me ”omeletta” – which is a much-easier-to-prounounce version of Amreta ;-)

3/
My favorite pair of shoes is my knee-length boots, and I love wearing long coats [ I wish there were such things as autumn and spring in Jakarta…;-) ]

4/
I've been wearing glasses since 1995, and just never manage wearing contact lenses.

5/
A home sweet home for me smells fresh brewed coffee and cinnamon over apple pie, and has on the table a bunch of pale-colored flowers with extravagant petals such as peonies or big roses. And the furniture are natural or painted, not vernished!

6/
I’m so curious how come that the Swedish folk song ”små grödorna” [little frogs] is so similar to Javanese folk song ”kodok ngorek” [croaking frogs]. Both songs have the same melody and talk about frogs. I never stop doing my research about it but still no clue until now :-(

7/
During my university years, I was so intensely into practicing and performing with the university’s symphony orchestra, that my classmates in French studies often joked that I was actually ’majoring in orchestra’

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And here I'm tagging (back) Sia, Lola, Meg, Jessica, Maggan, Imelda, Anna, Caroline

[.linnaeus.obsession.]

Yup, still about Mr von L, the King of Flowers. Since day 1 I'm engaged in the project to celebrate his 300th birthday, there's no way of not becoming obsessed with everything Linnaeus. Really, you're blessed if you can see even the smallest and simplest beauty in nature and science, and do good and feel good about it.

There's a particular thing I really love about flowers when it comes to design. And this love just grows as I'm more and more fascinated about Linnaeus' world. And this one, too, fascinated me:



Linnaeus' flower clock - not only that I find this clock beautiful, it's actually the result of Mr von Linné's observation of what time a flower opens and closes during the day, he arranged it in some way that it formed a kind of clock, as described in Philosophia Botanica (1751). Very pretty and clever at the same time!

Heard that in Uppsala, Sweden, where Mr von L's now burried (and the big celebration on his birthday 23 May will take place there!) there's this public floral clock. I'm so curious, just too bad that when I was there, it was in 2003 and I hadn't had enough attention for Mr von L, yet - though I did visit his garden and had a coffee there under the trees amongst the rose bushes. Certainly the fascination started there, and seems like at that point the universe had a thought for me: "beware, it's not over..!" ;-)

I'm so happy I'm not alone (oh, never in this case!) Mr von L has inspired so many people in this world. French composer Jean Françaix has composed a concerto for oboe and orchestra "L'Horloge de Flore" (the flower clock) - from its title you may guess where the inspiration came from.

This year, too, Svenskt Tenn re-launched the flora chest of drawers by Josef Frank. Karin in her blog mentioned she attended the launch..ow, I'm so jealous!

[.flower.power.]

It’s been almost a week since my last entry..aaayyy! I’ve been very busy these week, and will also next week. My current project is the anniversary of Mr Flower Power, who will turn 300 years on 23 May this year. And the whole world is celebrating his birthday. He must be a wonderful guy. Carl Linnaeus, that is, probably the most celebrated Swedish scientist, the father of taxonomy, the one responsible for flora and fauna’s classification and latin names.


Carl Linnaeus, painting by J.H.Scheffel, 1739, image from linnaeus300.com


See here: www.linnaeus2007.se and here: www.linnaeus300.com . I never knew science can be so beautiful ;-)

Well, Mr Linnaeus is also partly responsible for my madness about photographing flowers. One year ago a photo exhibition entitled ”Herbarium Amoris – a tribute to Carl Linnaeus” by Swedish photographer Edvard Koinberg was held in Jakarta, and guess, yes, I was captivated. I won’t say much about the exhibition and how I was captivated by the all the pictures because I think you’d better see yourself Edvard’s works on his website.



This is what Edvard said about his works:
"Since 1999, I have collected pictures of plants. It has become a kind of photograhic herbarium. The inspiration comes from Carl Linnaeus writings about the reproduction of plants and I have tried to approach the subject with the same curiosity and eagerness as he clearly had."



Don't forget to check if the exhibition is coming to your town, would be hard to miss it :-)

I’ll leave you now with three pictures I took at the garden café of Rosendal in Stockholm. As I mentioned above I’m mad about taking pictures of flowers... At Rosendal only, three pictures below and about 80 more here ;-)