[.picture.frame.tutorial.]

Okay, a little tutorial time. We’ll start with one pre-made frame and see if you like it :-)

I particularly like this one for blogging. To make it easier, if you use the premade frame below, first of all you need to resize your picture to 800x600 pixels.

The programs you’ll need are Microsoft Paint and Power Point. So have them both open at the same time.

First step, right click this frame below and save it to your own hard disk.




On Power Point, insert the frame to the blank document (click ‘insert’ on the menu on the top, choose ‘Picture’ and ‘From File’). Normally the frame will be inserted to the middle of the page.




After that, insert your picture. If your picture’s size is 800x600 pixels, it will automatically inserted also to the middle of the page (which means to the middle of the frame as well). And it will look like this:



(it’s a picture of me and my great friend Beryl in Stockholm last year :-))


If happens that the picture is not right in the middle, you can use the ‘align’ function in Power Point, and you can also drag the picture to the side if you don’t want it to be in the middle, for example.


When you’re happy with the result, the next step is to select the whole picture then cut or copy it, then paste it to Microsoft Paint. Tips: I always have the MS Paint canvas smaller than the picture, so I won’t need to adjust the edges after pasting the picture.


That’s it, and then you can save the document in PNG format – so far I found that it is the most practical format, since BMP format would be quite heavy, and if you save it in JPG or GIF format the picture will not look so good, a bit deteriorated.






And, after pasting it to MS Paint, you can also decorate the pictures with more graphics! If you’re already member of Amreta’s Graphics, you know that you can open the websets in the browser, then right click on the graphics of your choice, click ‘copy’, and paste it on MS Paint and play with them :-) You don’t have to past it directly to the open MS Paint with the picture – you can open one more MS Paint in another window, then play with the graphics there first. Below is one example, the same picture as above, decorated with more graphics :-)




Hope you enjoy the tutorial and feel free to email me if you have question. This covers only the basic steps and certainly you can always explore your creativity and try more things. By the way, this was the results of many trials and errors so don't worry if you think it's a little bit difficult at the beginning ;-)


::ATTENTION TO MEMBERS::

If you find this fun, I will make this project the first competition for members next month. Let me know what you think :-)

[.fasting.month.]

During this fasting month my daily schedule is “tweaking” – just like when you talk about computer: “tweaking” means “making performance modifications to software or hardware”. Don’t you think it’s amusing when you think about it that way? The fact is, I have to wake up at around 3 a.m. to eat, which means, in order to have enough sleep, I’ve got to go to bed earlier. The break-fast is at around 6 p.m. which is exactly the time I finish work. Sadly it’s impossible to have the breakfast at home then. But it is the case of many people who have full time job, too – so I’m not alone :-D And eating out during the fasting month can be quite interesting. Many eating places, either street food stalls or in-building restaurants, very often serve special menus only available during this ‘season’.

Traditionally the break-fast starts with something sweet (ho-ho, that’s dessert for breakfast!), then gradually we eat ‘heavier’ meals afterward. In this case longing is good. I never find food seem more appetizing than during the fasting month! And the call for prayers at sunset, the time we can eat and drink again, sounds like the nicest music in my ears.

In my hometown Yogyakarta in Central Java, in the area where my mother and sister live in the old town, every day at around 3 p.m. along the main pedestrian street, you can find various traditional food (many of them available specially during the fasting month only) by local food sellers. When I was kid and still lived there, it was a ‘fasting month tradition’ of the area to bring out specialties of each house to the neighbourhood. I still remember, around 2 hours before the break-fast time, my mother would assigned me to ‘hunt’ for fried rice-noodle at Mrs Hud’s stall, warm guava soup at Granny Jonah’s, sweet sticky rice with coconut and palm sugar at Auntie Ani’s. The next day would be different food from different stalls. These traditional pancakes or cupcakes (mostly using palm sugar in the ingredients), black rice porridge, sweet sticky balls with palm sugar inside, banana sweet soup, boiled vegetable with kaffir-lime-leaves-scented peanut sauce…hmm yummy! I miss those food, really, especially this special time of the year. No wonder, the words about this tradition spread outside the neighbourhood and according to my mother now every day during Ramadan the main pedestrian street looks like a ‘food market’. It’s fun to hear that. Now it’s my turn to give my little sister an ‘assignment’ to hunt – not for food – but for pictures of the food market. I haven’t got any at the moment, and I guess I really need some to be posted in this blog :-D

In the meantime, I browsed for some pictures of the neighbourhood on the internet. And here they are:

These pictures are from YogYes’ website with a description about the neighbourhood.
http://www.yogyes.com/en/yogyakarta-tourism-object/places-of-interest/kauman/






These pictures I found on Flickr:

The Grand Mosque of Kauman

© Rachma Safitri. This picture is originally located here.




Typical arch entrance to the neighbourhood

© Bklanting. Original location here .

What’s so nice about this picture when I found it: see the house with green fences on the left? it’s the house where my mother and sister live! Quite interesting that I saw it on somebody’s picture on Flickr :-D

[.lovely.reminder.]

I was..so suprised when checking the gastronomy in Stockholm - Budgets and Cafés section on visitsweden.com...there on the right corner, I saw my own name - and my story about a day in Stockholm plus one picture I posted on Community of Sweden sometime ago! I got giddy, you know :-D

I guess it's kind of reminder that I have to write again now about my trips. If you're interested in traveling to Sweden, VisitSweden.com should be your first destination on the internet. And then if you want to read the stories and see the pictures by those who have been there, Community of Sweden is the right place to go. To be very honest it's been sometime since the last time I was logged in {blush}. Well, well, I love suprises, and it really is a lovely reminder :-D

[.saved.by.grace.]

Talking about a girl’s life, which is saved in a graceful way by so-called 'being inspired'.

After a couple of weeks of a sudden, unplanned pause, I finally reconciled myself with Mr Steinberg (that is the name almost invisibly written on an old piece of paper glued inside my violin), and his second best friend (that is the pianist I’ve been working with these past 13 years). Finally went again to concerts, finally argued again with the pianist about which pieces we might practice, and finally felt the happiness just by staring at a set of Red-Label Thomastik-Infeld with gold plated chrome steel E-string. My fingers would be delightedly happy. And that precious rosewood Flesch-style chinrest! Mr Steinberg obviously needs some adjustments here and there especially the bridge and most possibly the soundpost. But it is still for me a beauty.

And so I ponder. These little happiness I must have taken for granted in the past. It’s true you never know what you’ll miss until you lose them. Subsequently I just learned that sometimes you don't know what you lose until some inspirations struck, wake you up, and urge you to recollect those lost sparks. For me, these pictures of my favourite lady-virtuosos have proved their magic…


Hilary Hahn

Viviane Hagner

Anne Sophie Mutter

[.i.heart.helen's.]

Ask me who my favorite illustrator is…and no doubt I will answer that it is a difficult question! I am a fan of many illustrators, especially children-book-style illustrators, but lately I’ve been letting my eyes feast on Helen Dardik’s artwork. I love everything about it. Her illustration, her patterned designs, her paintings…and especially her colours! Helen is also an avid blogger, and it’s just gorgeous. Orange-you-lucky, it’s called. Sounds like I can relate to it. I love orange, and I feel lucky to find her blog :-)

[.my.deco.tool.]

Newsletter from Domino Magazine came in my mailbox with a notice about the new decorating tool, My Deco File – a kind of online inspiration book to save decorating ideas and images we like.

Oh, that’s what I always wanted to have!

I just signed-up and started to create my first deco-book. This weekend my priority will be re-arranging and re-organising my bedroom cum craft and study room. I love cute boxes for storage, fabrics with nice prints, and of course as I just realised – I can’t live without colours!

Idea books are the perfect place for me to store images that inspire and catch my attention. In the real life, one has to deal with limited resources and to make the best out of what is available. But ideals, as quoted by Carl Schurz, are like stars: we may not be able to reach them, but like the seafaring men on the sea, we can use them as our guides.

How practical it is now with the internet! Thank you, Domino :-)

[.nostalgic.]

Earlier today I browsed my youngest sister's photo-snaps and I love this particular picture of her with my (our) dad in the late 80s. I don't know whether it feels retro or vintage, but there are two of the people I love the most in this world in the picture, so I just love it.





Then to my surprise I found this picture of little me sitting on my dad's Beetle, also with him. I don't really remember when exactly this picture was taken, but either in 1979 or 1980. Looking at this, how can I not be nostalgic..





And below are some more photo-snaps, also by my sister, which may illustrate a bit the daily life in our hometown Yogyakarta, seen through her eyes.

Thanks Nataya!



At the Royal Palace of Yogyakarta


A corner in our house



Veggie seller on the street


Coca-cola carts and crackers tin, in a street stall


Little tin ships, from a toy seller on the street


A neighbor's cat


Out of the city

[.new.school.graphics.part.1.]

Dear friends,






Thank you for being so patient with my lousy updates lately! I think I should have been able to manage my time more efficiently :-)

The fact is, I haven't been able to finish the whole new school graphics yet, but since you've been waiting so long for this, I thought of publishing the first part of the set with letterblocks, signboards, some tiles, dividers, etc.

There will be three or four parts in all (I haven't yet divided them) - they are almost ready but there are some things that I need to give some 'retouch' here and there. You will find the bears, boys and girls, and more cliparts and more tiles and more letterblocks (I started to really like letterblocks... that's why I just keep creating some now :-)). They will be up as soon as they are ready. Check it out in the member area.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the first part :-)

Have a great day!
Amreta

[.memories.on.display.]

I’m still mentally in an extended part of my previous trip to Sweden and France… Somehow I believe that life is a trip, in any case, and at the moment I’m in a stage where I can’t stop wondering what would be the best way to keep the ‘being inspired’ feeling I got while traveling on in my everyday life. Ah, displaying those memories captured by my camera. And I found that Domino has fresh ideas that would answer my wonderings. You see, my friends, I think I know what I’m going to do this weekend now…










Images from Domino

[.gothenburg.]

I didn't go to Gothenburg when I visited Sweden last month. Normally in my previous visits, I went there to see the sailing ship - the Gotheborg, or anything related to it. But this time when I found myself traveling in Sweden the ship was docked in Gävle. So there it was my destination.

How wonderful it was to see 'my' beautiful ship again! And she was as beautiful as always. Funny how I got certain 'emotional attachment' to this ship. And certainly I'm not the only one. Certainly and obviously! :-)

During that afternoon visit I got the chance to watch the movie from the ship's voyage reliving the historic route from Gothenburg to China and back in 2005 - 2007 (the ship stopped over in Jakarta for 10 days in June 2006, that's how I got to know her) - and toward the end of the film I was somehow stunned by the song accompanying the images of the ship's homecoming in Gothenburg. Then my Swedish friends there told me that the song was "Gothenburg" by Maia Hirasawa. In this internet age you know what I did then when I got home...searching the song in YouTube :-) Not only it is a really nice song, the clip was also stunning. Well, Ms Hirasawa, you've got one more fans...