at home, in duluth

We arrived very late in Duluth, MN...our hotel was really nice...it overlooks the lake and it was a 2 bed-rooms apartment.  The next day we went to Steph's house...they've done a bit of painting and David has been busy making benches (for the wedding ceremony)...he's been making a few furniture for the house as well...like the table...the little stool and a few re-upholstery works.  Their rented house was very photogenic...I suppose the white paint makes it look pretty :).  Duluth is a pretty little town, with beautiful lake...too bad we didn't have enough time to explore it.  Maybe next time?? :)  Oooo I went to Duluth Pack and bought this beautiful canvas bag with leather handle...made in Duluth with a lifetime warranty :).  Love it.

xoxo,
www.liaspace.com

melbourne's cafe

After Brisbane, we visited Melbourne and stayed at my sister's tiny apartment :D....all 7 of us (mom, dad, 4 of us and my lil sis).  Though cramp, we all had fun and loved each other's company (specially when the children are asleep hehehehe).  Whilst my parents, my sister and my parents' friends went to The Great Ocean Road to see the 12 apostles (7 now???)...The four of us took our time and had brekkie at Three Bags Full in Abbotsford...WE LOVED IT THERE!  My egg benedict came out beautifully and ooohhh sooo fresh :)...the chai was really nice too, though a bit on the heavy side :).

From here, we thought we should try one of the best coffee place in Melbourne (so the locals say....), we went and try St. Ali and we TOTALLY understand why this place won the hearts of so many people :). The coffee was nice and my cuppa chai was PERFECT :).  I fell in love with St. Ali :)...we are yet to try Cumulus...but it could wait till our next visit to the number 1 livable city in the world :D.

xoxo, www.liaspace.com

pulang kampung

Helloooo...I know it's awfully late...but to those who celebrated Idul Fitri...I'd like to wish you all a Blessed Idul Fitri :)...We went to Australia (again :p) during the Idul Fitri's holiday....we first arrived in Brisbane, the Misfits' kampung...they were born there, after all :D...It was a bit sad seeing all the familiar streets, places and surrounding...sad because we no longer have a house to go back to...My parents decided to rent out the house, since none of us are living in Brisbane any longer...it's sad being an outsider in your own "home"...but we managed to have fun...I went to my friend's COOL shop that was just open on the 25th of August in South Bank called Scrumptious Reads, a must place to go if you're around the area...I'll post some pictures of her paper cups-shop-installation!

We also took an afternoon at the Lone Pine's Koala Sanctuary...as expected, Big M was so excited..she petted the kangaroos and insisted on taking a picture with a Koala...Lil M was the total opposite of Big M :) but they both had a blast :).  We were like tourists in Brisbane...the next day we walked to South Bank, stopped by fresh food market...bought some delishh cakes and nuts, then took the Brisbane Eye.  I love Brisbane...it will always be my home :)

xoxo,
www.liaspace.com

bali = haven and haven = bali

I sneaked a little holiday in the beginning of this month, since my youngest sister has been nagging us to go to the Island of the Gods :).  It was a short but fun trip...with two of my aunties, and her grandsons.  Misfits were overjoyed...Big M loooves her Koko Nicholas...she followed him everywhere....even rebellious at times...they fought, they played, they had fun....I was happy :).  The hubby stayed home...it was basically an all girls trip (with the exception of my nephews hehehe).

xoxo,
www.liaspace.com

they were princesses

for a day, at least...and they had so much fun!!!!  I'm so glad I did the make up package for them...after all, they're not going to be little princesses forever and I hope this will give them very fond childhood memories :).  

Princess Belle cried in the beginning, but enjoyed the whole session in the end.  Princess Aurora has always been happy from the beginning.  They were stars for a day...all eyes were on them...there were quite a few people asking to get pictures with them! There was even one incident when I've positioned them nicely at Tinker Bell's flowers and was ready to take some shots...when suddenly a bunch of Malaysian strangers took their positions and posed away....once they were gone...the princesses refused to be photographed :(....all my little hard work went to waste :D...

Princesses in the making :D

My two little Princesses

Top: people asking to take pictures with them. Bottom: The Malaysian group I was telling
you about hahahahahahha :) so funny

xoxo,
www.liaspace.com

magically hot, humid and tiring....

But it was definitely my two little princesses' happiest days (literally) :).  We just got back last week from Hong Kong for a family holiday with my parents.  The first few nights we spent at Causewaybay and had a lot of good foods....I told my husband if I live in Hong Kong for too long, I'm sure I'll die soon due to over eating :D.  The last two nights we spent at Disney Hotel, it was a total chaos every morning until around noon, we couldn't get into our room until after 3pm.  It was magically expensive for sure :)...everything adds up, here...plus the shopping!  But it sure was a magical experience for the children....they had children kimonos, slippers and even their amenities are packed with the seven dwarves...their carpets had silhouette of mickey, minnie, goofy, donald, daisy and pluto.

Fun day 1 at Disney.  Little misfit cried when she was riding the cup :)

Breakfast with characters and fun day 2 at Disneyland

I will need to go back to sewing real soon...I just have to finish up a bunch of things I left behind at work (headache) and plus, Big M's birthday is coming soon, too! arghghghghghgh

xoxo, 

www.liaspace.com

trip to a mine...

My last job trip was special :) because I got to ride the helicopter up to Tembagapura.  I've been there a couple of times but this is the first time I went up on a helicopter and the first time I arrived at the new Mozes Kilangin Airport :D. 

That's an actual tire of a small loader...yes, there are bigger ones :D

At a future development site

our ride ;)

xoxo,
www.liaspace.com

photogenic day

I was just checking my memory cards and found these pictures I took in Melbourne last January.  I really really like how the pictures turned out.  They're really beautiful...I feel like making a picture book for the kids...One of these days I really should make them a book each...

These photos were taken nearby my sister's apartment in Toorak.  The next day they went to this park, they met Peter Alexander!!! YES! THE PETER ALEXANDER :) and my sister was star struck, only to realize who he was after he walked away with his dogs :).

This matchbox is so cute.  I got it from Crumpler :)

xoxo,
www.liaspace.com

short trip

Last week I had to attend International Furniture Fair in Singapore with my Dad, in the end we decided to bring along my mom and the 2 little misfits and since hubby can't come along, I took the nanny with us.  We went to Singapore zoo and the kids had a blast!  It was so much fun and big M was so excited, when she arrived, she said "O my Gosh...O my Gosh...!!!".  Too bad it was raining the other half of the day.  Little Misfit was too scared playing at the pool.  

lil Misfit was a bit stressed out with the kangaroo

Sneaking a little swim before leaving for the airport

xoxo,
www.liaspace.com

last day of stencil screen printing

what a day....I woke up around 6 am and found lil misfit a bit warm...my heart sank :(...she's down with fever...arghghghghgh but no other symptoms, most probably the 5 days fever virus again :'(!  So I was late to our last class, but luckily, it hasn't started yet.  

We learned swiss repeat today and it was so very interesting and definitely something I will definitely try in the future :)...but I'll most probably using autoCAD instead of cutting and pasting :p...my hands are sore from drawing, copying, cutting all those d*#n little flowers and triangles, and pressing the squeegee up and down.  I decided not to make the circle on the flowers...now that it's done, I kinda regret it...ow well...at least this time around, my pattern is not as horrifying as my first attempt last week :D.  

I definitely love the class and would recommend anyone interested in stencil screen printing to sign up :)...It was so fun and didn't even realize we were 1 hour behind schedule by the time we were done.  10.30am -5.00pm felt like an hour (literally).  I wanted to take more pictures but was too occupied to do anything else.  Lara was an excellent teacher and a lovely person.  Thank you for the insight and lesson...I had fun :)

the stencil, during and after exacto knife and cutter...phew

my fabric (on the left), beautiful fabrics by other students (on the right)
see here for more pictures

my painstaking stencil

unpleasant looking me last week, doing my unpleasant print :p, the picture
was taken by harvest textile

xoxo,
www.liaspace.com

the monsters went crazy...

My lil monsters loooove Melbourne...well, there were some occasions when they wanted to go home because they miss their beds :) but apart from that, they love it here.  What I love about the city is the tremendous amount of parks everywhere.  It's free and entertaining :).  We also went to Melbourne Aquarium and they had a blast there.  We took the train and trams last Sunday and they loved it...now, the lil one keeps asking to ride the tram every time we pass one :(.  We're planning on going to a zoo on Monday, should be fun for them :).

Park @ Glen Iris

Park @ Glen Iris

@ train and park in the city

Melbourne Aquarium

xoxo,
www.liaspace.com

stencil screen printing class

yep...I'm currently in the wonderful city of Melbourne :) with the girls and hubby...hence the lack of posting :p...I took the screen printing class by harvest textile, it is a 2 days course, conducted every Saturdays (last week's and this week's).  We left Jakarta on a Friday night and arrived Melbourne one hour delayed on Saturday morning, so I was about 1.5 hours late to class.  It was fun, though I was hoping there will be "emulsion" type screen printing.  I love love love their studio...how I wish I have a place like that :).  It makes screen printing so much easier...big long tables, lots of screen frames, abundance fabric paints (you can mix colors to your heart's content), big screen cleaning area and drying rack.  I wish I have a studio like this :).  My screened fabric didn't turn out well, though...I misunderstood the whole concept and tried being smart...my design involved in precise printing on top of the previous layer...it was a total disaster :)...hahahahahaha....ow wellllll....Lara, the teacher was really nice and would give wonderful suggestions to everyone :).

my failed print :(

the printing studio

the class room

xoxo,
www.liaspace.com

sirih-sirihan snack recipe

Last weekend, my family was invited to come to our family friend's villa at Tapos.  Truly a beautiful eco friendly villa.  We were served plenty of interesting foods.  The most interesting of them all was this little snack you wrap using popohan leaves.  They are soooooo delicious!!! Here are the ingredients...

1. Dried small fish cracker

2. Shaved coconuts, heated on a pan until the edges are browned

3. Dried Shrimp (heated on pan)

4. Onions chopped into little pieces

5. Peanuts (roasted)

6. Young ginger, cut into little pieces

7. Chili paste: chili + tamarind juice + shrimp paste + brown sugar (Gula Merah) then cooked until thickened

8. Cut fresh chili

9. lime cut into small pieces and lemongrass cut into small pieces

The leaves are called popohan, they're readily available in Indonesian supermarkets :).  Can't think of a substitute, though :)...you wrap all the ingredients into the leave and eat :)! Enjoy!!!

xoxo,
www.liaspace.com

mothers gone wild....

We had a BLAST last weekend.  My friend Chia threw a birthday party in Singapore...me and 10 other gals had sooooo much fun.  On the first night, we ate at this really nice restaurant called Ember at Hotel 1929, but I didn't take any pictures, since there was a photographer with us :).  The second day was spent at a nice restaurant called White Rabbit....we had a nice brunch there :).  Dinner was at a Spanish restaurant and we spent a few minutes at ku de ta...we were disappointed by the horrible service, so we ended up leaving the place, since our drinks took way too long to come.  We then surprised the birthday girl with mmm what might be a G Cup boobies ;).  Happy Birthday, Chia! Thanks for inviting me over :) It was FUN and memorable :)

Brunch at White Rabbit each person got a goody bag consisted of personalized
face blank cards and tags.

Happy Birthday to YOUUUUU....happy birthday to youuuu...happy birthday....happy birthday
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOUUUUUUU

Chia and her luscious G CUP

The gals minus 2 people :(

xoxo,
www.liaspace.com

amalfi and surrounding

Today has been hectic...as a matter of fact, this past week has been hectic...but we've finally done with our goody bags order and today I did some tutorials for tabloid Nova (via amesh).  I hope Astrid and Agus enjoyed their time...coz I certainly did a lot of mistakes today and hence they had to wait longer :p...sorry, peeps!  Here are some pics I've been wanting to post...Amalfi and surrounding area.

After Capri, we went to Sorrento on hydrofoil, which took only around 40 minutes...not bad..then on the first day we arrived, we drove the beautiful Amalfi Coast...it was breathtaking...We rented a small manual car and we had a few little mishaps :p...hehehe...we first went to Positano...a small town by the seashore...there was only one way in and out...and Misfit was sleeping...so we didn't really explore the place.  We then went to Amalfi but couldn't get parking so we decided to go to Ravello, a beautiful small city by the mountain...There was a beautiful villa there with breathtaking view.

On our way back, we managed to get a parking spot at Amalfi and had a beautiful dinner there :).  Oooo I love the Amalfi Coast... A lot...

xoxo, www.liaspace.com

the island of capri

It was too bad we arrived in Capri at night.  There was only an afternoon flight from Paris to Napoli and then we took the cab to the ferry's dock.  From Napoli, it took about 1.5 hours to reach Capri.  In the morning we had breakfast at the hotel with the breathtaking view of the famous rocks.  We went to Capri Center and took the funiculaire down the hill to Marina Grande.  We decided to have a private boat tour around Capri Island...too bad the blue grotto was closed today due to high tides :(.

Misfit was certainly having the time of her life.  She looooved the boat!  The boat driver, Mr. Gennaro was very kind and took several pictures of us.  I love family pictures :D...so hard to take a picture of all of us together.

The roads in Capri are soooo small...the buses are smaller than the standard busses.  The streets are similar to Indonesia's small alleyways :).  Driving here is definitely not for the faint of hearts.

We had a really nice lunch at Anacapri...look at those beautiful oysters....yuuuummmm

This is the hotel we stayed...Hotel Weber Ambassador...quite nice :)

We took a stroll down the beach from the hotel...I looove Capri...it's truly beautiful...a magnificent island :).  One day, I shall visit this beautiful place again...Ciao...

xoxo,
www.liaspace.com