balik kampung

Hai folks! I'm home!
So nice to be home again, especially my big family gathering here, in my house. Hari Raya Aidil Fitr reaching soon. Four more days to go, aww Ramadhan will take off from us :(
It feels peaceful to be here, but then I'm always thinking bout my skipped classes, hummm. I got no choice. :'(


After Raya I should work hardily on classes and finishing up all the assignments. Brrr that is my real life.. :P

I bought a lot pairs of shoes for auntties, mom, and boutique's customer, hehe..

VINCCI!

Everyone loves it. =_=

I half-dead belanja for them, so heavy. Haha.

There are 37 pairs, Tracy said.

And I need to buy another new luggage for them.

look at my luggage.

Both of my luggage worth the weight 28kg O_o

Luckily I booked additional baggage the day before.

Arrived in Makassar, I directly go to iftar (buka puasa) with aunty and others.

Seafood! But too bad, I forgot take pic, because im in hunger already.

Morning the next day, I ride back to Palopo with Citra my cousin, Aunty(my mother's sister) and my uncle, her husband. They from Jakarta.

8 hrs journey!!! X_X

plus the trans road got repairing. X_X

But the journey not feel that bad because we rode a nice car. Woahahaha..

Blacky Alphy ;)

Ang-Pao!

EEEEEEE, its not just in CNY we got AngPao,

Raya also we have Ang-Pao,

This is the pic when I helping my aunty to fill the angpao with newly printed money.

(Freshly from the bank because my uncle is one of the general director of bank institution in indonesia)

I like to smell the newly printed money :P

our ang-pao envelopes special for Raya :)

Ok. Thats I have today!

I will back soon with another new updates!

Its not Provence...but its pretty.

Coffee with a view

I can't believe we are going to be heading to Provence in 2 weeks. 

I really do feel like the 

luckiest woman, wife and mother alive right now. 

Madeleine and I have been out 

doing a bit of shopping for the trip. 

We will be spending a week in Switzerland before Provence, so its tricky trying to figure out what clothes to pack. I follow several blogs of women who live somewhere in Paris and Provence. They post such beautiful striking photos. I am always dreaming of being somewhere equally as sensational and exotic. I do love my home though, but I am 

constantly dreaming. 

Here is the view I wake up to every morning. 

First the sky starts out a sweet, hazy, pink color. It gradually changes into a pinkish-orange before the sun peeps over the red brick wall in the back yard. 

The yard is such a cute space, very cozy and sweetly landscaped. I'm not a gardener by any means but since moving into this house this year, I have planted a few flowering plants in the yard that have actually bloomed pretty flowers (and they are all still alive at the end of the summer). Anyway, as I am dreaming of far away spectacular places that I either will visit soon or that I dream of visiting... I just wanted to show my own little corner of the world and that I am happy to be just right here too.

A dear old friend...

Good Morning Saturday!  Nothing makes a morning start off better than setting eyes on my dear old friend.  

This Italian coffee maker brews 

the most delicious 

cup of coffee twice daily in our house on weekends.

Patrick and I bought this shiny coffee device while on a trip to Florence, Italy years ago.  We probably bought it because it was so cute and quirky.  

It was so different from the standard American coffee maker.  

However, we soon realized, it makes the most delicious cups of coffee.  You can hear it beginning to 
gurgle 
and hiss 
as the flame below brings the water in the bottom section to a rolling boil.  

Then there is a pronounced change in sound as the coffee tumbles noisily out of the little spout at the top right under the lid.  

It spits and dribbles the most delicious smelling blend of coffee at just the right strength of richness.  

At present, 

we are really into the Starbuck's brand "Pike's Place".  Its a nice strong and smooth flavor without a heavy bite in the after taste.

 We pour a little steamy milk and add a dash of sugar and 

hmmmmmm... 

what a time to spend with a dear old friend.

It only makes 2 cups at a time, 

mind you, 

but being that there are only 2 coffee drinkers in this household, 

that works.

Have a wonderful Saturday morning in September...

Smoothies!

Ok, so I hate to admit my failure, but the RAW diet isn't for me. It is insane. I have decided that my path to get there begins with slowly adjusting what I normally eat. For example, instead of munching on cheese-its all day at home, I have replaced it with a yummy fruit smoothie. It tastes better, and actually fills me up. Here are a couple that I've made this week.

This one was made with Strawberries, Bananas & some Vanilla Yogurt...So yummy I ate it two days in a row!

This one was even BETTER! Strawberries, Peaches, Mangoes!  To. Die. For.  And I'm not lying when I say that these were Alcohol Free! Haha.  Today I am going to try, Banana, Kiwi, and Peach..& taking a pitcher with us to the beach to see the surf competition. I am also working on my normal food portion size which is difficult considering I LOVE to eat...but I'm feeling good about it.

A Quiet Little Corner

Hi everyone, Its Saturday morning, and today is filled with BCOW(Beach Cottage On Wheels), now to be known as Gracie (that's right she finally has a name). Tell you more on that later. Today is build out day (basically all the molding and anything else that requires carpentry is going to happen today). So that will keep me busy.

This morning while drinking coffee I felt like a small project (just what I need another project). So I looked around the house and decided this space needed something. I thought a quiet corner.

So I cleaned off the top of this dresser, and the memo board. I put out these zinc candleholders and silver tray (which I already had). Moved my French pig, and Walmart radio over (I know the evil empire, but I love some of their stuff and you can't beat their prices).
Wa La a little inspirational corner, play a little music, light a few candles. Also a few inspirational bits on the memo board, and a great place to walk by and feel relaxed for a sec.

The dresser has its own story, as black does not usually fall into my palette. I designed and had this piece built for a local shop, black did fall into her palette. So after a year of no orders (plenty of interest), I decided to pull all the pieces. After some debate with myself (I know you do the same thing too), I decided not to paint it and to put it here. Sometimes you have to throw a zinger, this is mine.

And a little white rose to top everything off.

Ok now I'm getting back to work. I hope this corner relaxes me even for a sec today.

Have a good weekend.

See everyone next time......