[.Irish.Blessings]

Somewhere in this blog I mentioned that I was an avid subscriber of Heartwarmers, and I still am. Today they sent an Irish Blessing prior to St Patrick’s Day which is on 17 March, and it reminds me how I was tempted to subscribe to Heartwarmers at the first place a few years ago: they had an Irish Blessing in each newsletter, both traditional and ‘modern’ blessings, and there started my Irish Blessings collection. I love Irish Blessings, such inspiring phrases, sweet words that are so light yet uplifting. This is what came with the newsletter today, certainly one of my favorites.

May God give you...
For every storm, a rainbow,
For every tear, a smile,
For every care, a promise,
And a blessing in each trial.
For every problem life sends,
A faithful friend to share,
For every sigh, a sweet song,
And an answer for each prayer.

-- Irish Blessing

[.paulo.coelho.]

Ever since i read The Alchemist, I became a big fan of Mr Paulo Coelho. I admire the way he conveys the wisdom through his writings and can you imagine what a talent he must possess to do this? And he proves to be an example of somebody who makes the most out of his privileges on this earth and share it with the world. I’m addicted to his blog, where he shared valuable lessons about life in form of short stories, quotes, or question-and-answer. some of them, often, shot straight to my heart and stuck in my head forever. I’m not exaggerating you know, but it is so true :-) and that explains why I love compiling some entries that are my favorite and stick them to my personal diary. I’m thankful for the presence of Mr Coelho on this earth. And as I reflected again, I realised I’m also thankful for being given the chance to live in the time where it is possible for me to learn from Mr Coelho through his works, even on daily basis through the internet. What a privilege. And I feel good. I feel blessed.

[.a.sunday.in.the.city.]

...earlier today at around 3 p.m.....

Here I am! On a Sunday afternoon, writing from a bustling foodcourt at the Mall Ambassador in South Jakarta. It's not my so-called ordinary day. I'm not really into eating alone at a busy foodcourt where there are so many people talking at the same time and loud music. But this morning my computer suddenly crashed and I had no choice but bringing it to the store where I bought it, to get it repaired. And it's at the Mall Ambassador.

I finally got out of the house at around noon when the rain already subsided, and couldn't help from stopping by a company building half way to the bus stop, where two cute little puppies were playing by the building's main entrance. The puppies were 8 week old, said the guard at the entrance. And they are short legged, so chubby with the cutest gaze when they look at people.

But the rain started pouring again, so I had to say "au revoir" to the puppies (wonder whether they understood...) and then rush to the the bus stop. It would take me 1,5 hour to get to the mall, so I was glad I didn't forget to bring with me the book "Digging for the Truth" from the History Channel and all the way I continued to follow Josh Bernstein's archaeological adventures until I reached my destination: "Karet" bus stop on Sudirman street.

Sudirman street, named after the legendary Indonesian hero General Sudirman, is normally on weekdays a very busy, main business street in Jakarta. But obviously it was not the case today. This is also my usual route to work, but in clear days I walk about 25 minutes to my office after getting off at Karet bus stop. When raining like this, I preferred to hop into a public transport though I knew I would miss the walk.

Arriving at the computer store in the mall, the salesman, recognising me from my previous visits asked me whether there was anything he could help. I said I had a rpbolem with my computer that I bought last october, that is shut down itself without warning nor particular reason (of course there must be a reason, I just couldn't figure it out!)

The salesman called one of technicians flocking in the repair corner, but all of them responded with a cheering choir. I would say they were so nice. I think it would really help panicking customers, who always come with their troubled computers. One technician told me to relax while checking my computer while another offered me a bottle of mineral water.

"We have to repair several components" said the technician who was checking my computer. "have you backed-up all of your files?"

"Well, no" I must admit. Now I blamed myself for not taking the time to back up my files.

"Let's see if your files can still be saved..." he asked the other technician if he knew where a disk containing data recovery program was. He found it. Then he tried it. After awhile he told me to mark the folders I wanted to save and after a click I could see my graphic files (I recognised their names, of course! :-)) being transferred to another partition in the hard disk, which is spared from error.

"We'll need around one hour to finish this" said the technician. "Your files look okay"

I thanked him and told him I'd be off for lunch and back in an hour. Somehow I was amazed how I could stay calm at that time - but still, I noticed something I always did when panic attacks: I couldn't stop munching chocolate!

So here I am now, eating at the food court. I wasn't interested in eating at one of the more quiet restaurants at the moment...and besides, I was thinking of eating Manadonese cuisine (North Sulawesi) this time. I know one food stall at the foodcourt which serves very delicious porridge a la manadonese: rice porridge with greens, corn, sweet potato, fish, and spicy hot sauce. The best in the city! And for this, at least for this time, I'd sacrifice my fondness of quiet moment while eating ;-)

[.friday.break.]

Thanks everyone for your overwhelming response to my free membership offer, which will be closed on 13 january, I’m so flattered… and certainly, for bearing with me in these chaotic rearrangement and ‘moving around’. You know, sometimes I found myself having lots of ideas, but then on the way I stumbled on so many this-and-that. Anyhow, I believe that there are always some good things that present themselves during the fall-and-get-ups. I’m so glad that I keep this quote by Janice Endique on my table, it was a tear-out from an old edition of Country Living magazine : “On the way to what you planned to happen, something even better comes along.”

It is said that if you repeat what you say all the time, it becomes your belief. Not only that I am a huge fan of nice surprises – but by experience I know that this quote is so true :o) And what is more exciting than to have friends who enthusiastically share this same ‘belief ‘?

Came to my mailbox today:

Miko, me, Jiffy, Fina. Thanks girls for being the kind of friends I mentioned above :o)

[.more.creative.space.]

Finally, my hosting subscription is upgraded and now I don’t have to worry about storing more graphics and projects in the server. Wew! :o)

Today I love: herbs price tags

[.a.little.progress.]

Finally the web sets are up in the members area. After hours and hours of uploading. And after checking them again, set by set, I could always find that a graphic, or two, or three, were missing or not properly uploaded, in each set. I noted down all these missing graphics’ file names and came back to step 1 with the FTP Commander. What a practice!

Three tall glasses of jasmine tea later, last night, I finally had the guts to send the registration page to the new member list :o)

Welcome!


This time scrappy-bloggie-pics:

Little me again, in 1979, a few days after the birth of my little sister, with her and grandma



Dad (1930-2004), Mom, and us the three sisters

[.HAPPY.2008!!!!.]

Happy New Year everyone!!!! I would like to wish you all a very happy, beautiful, exciting, creative, inspiring, lucky, full of love and nice surprises 2008!!!!



And here’s the news: though delayed, the new site is almost ready! You will see that it’s organized quite differently. I can tell you, it’s been a constant trial-and-errors in the process! But I do think that’s the exciting thing. Now I know more, and I really enjoy each moment of it.

From now on in this blog, I will also write about the new projects at Amreta’s Graphic Corner. It’s baby steps toward running my own ‘graphic shop’ :o) so here I start with two of my scrapbook-blogging pictures – 6 month old me with mom, dad and great grandma :o) such a precious memory!

[.happy.holiday!.]

The year 2007 is approaching its end...and I will take a little vacation from blogging and be back in early January. I've been a bit busier here preparing the new Amreta's Graphic Corner that is due to be ready on 2 January 2008, and some other exciting projects that include lots more trial-and-errors on the internet :-) Until then, I would like to wish everyone happy holiday and see you in a very happy, more inspiring and creative new year 2008!

[.a.crafty.talk.]

Let’s face it. I live in Jakarta. Anthropologie, IKEA, Habitat, Tracy Porter…they are all inspirations that make me hooked on the internet. Anyway so far that’s the only way I could give a feast to my eyes and a little consolation for not having these stores here. And I counted my blessings as I rearranged stacks of old magazines and clipping books that occupied so much space in my room. They are my inspiration banks. And thanks God, again, for keeping them safe from the flood last February. For they are the sweet candies to my craving soul…

My daydream was interrupted by the laughing voice of my youngest sister on the phone. “I’ve finished my latest project” she said. “Now preparing a second line, to be sold in the traditional market”

“Traditional market? (in our hometown, the cultural city of Yogyakarta)”

“Yes” her laugh was louder. “the market has this special space for selling crafts. I should give it a try”

“Well, give it a go!”

My crafty sister laughed again.

“You see, we’re both crazy about traditional crafts. You should really try to fit them in your ‘imaginary lifestyle’”

“Which means…?”

“Euh, those high stacks of magazines in your room” she pointed, “they are all international magazines, which is nice for inspiration, and that is your imaginary lifestyle”

“And….?”

“That’s the problem, It’s all imaginary and you can’t find the goods here. Why don’t you try to ‘replace’ the details with locally found crafts to create your own folkloric-influenced style?”

“Well, sister, necessity is the mother of invention”

“So?”

“I still don’t have time to come home, if you mean that I should start there in our hometown. But I can go to Chicmart and Pasaraya (a home decoration shop, and the latter is a department store with a huge section of Indonesian crafts that occupies their entire fifth floor) and start training my eyes….”

“Or to the junk market”

Hmm. I think this time I have been caught by inspiration. Through my crafty little sister. Thanks, little muffin.

My little sister Nataya aka Chacha in our childhood home, our first inspiration, where it all started...







my two sisters and a few cousins in the living room of our Javanese house



Nataya's artworks "Chachalotta"





Baby Nataya in mid 80s, already crafty



images from Chachalotta

[.three-column.blog.]

Notice what's new with this blog? *winkwink* Yes, the layout! :-)

I had, for quite sometime, been eyeing those three-column blogs, wondering how they're created, googling and trying out some templates...but much to my dissappointment, it just never worked. Should I say, I never gave up? Somehow after more googlings and checkings, I found this little tutorial that seemed clear and easy to understand. I followed the step-by-step instruction provided on the page, and youhouuu! It really worked!

You may want to check it yourself. Here's the link:

The 'original' page of the tutorial:
http://www.bloggerbuster.com/2007/07/create-three-column-blogger-template.html

The same tutorial by the same author on Zimbio:
http://www.zimbio.com/Free+Blogger+Beta+Template/articles/40/Create+three+column+Blogger+template

Thanks Amanda for your awesome tutorial!