secret

Rough translation:

Secret

Let me tell you a secret, my friendThe sweetest thing you'll achieve from the courage to dream

...is the incredible experiences

...on your journey in getting there

Book quote from Maryamah Karpov by Andrea Hirata; the final book from the Laskar Pelangi (the Rainbow Troops) tetralogy.
Images from the movie, Laskar Pelangi (the Rainbow Troops). Flickr page here.
I read the books while I was in Indonesia, but unfortunately just missed out on the movie. It looks beautiful, and -if anything like the book- inspirational. Wishing for the DVD to come out... or that it somehow makes its way to a festival or arthouse cinema in Melbourne. Who knows.

And just because, here's the video for the soundtrack - with clips from the movie, and subtitles too. I personally love it, and hope you can enjoy it too.

childhood friends

New oval buttons/ badges of the cutest kids now available in my Etsy shop!
Only $4

You like? :)

xo

don't sneeze on match point

A few readers may remember this post many months ago when I got my Australian Open tickets. Well earlier this week I made use of one of them, and I had such a blast ...despite it being insanely hot (at least 35*C+), and me still fighting some sniffles. My biggest fear was if I accidentally sneezed or coughed during match point! (Thank goodness that never happened). The heat was close to unbearable, so tree shades and water fountains became my best friend. I'm not one of those people who's comfortable wearing a tank top and little shorts in hot weather, so it was a light pastel top and skirt for me. Perhaps I should've worn blue to match the court? naah...

I have become a tennis fan (nerd! hah) within the past year, so going to my first Grand Slam, and seeing loads of big-name tennis stars within meters away was beyond exciting! Highlights included hearing the french player, Alize Cornet, yell "oooh la la!"during her game (french people really do say that!) , and getting Andy Murray to sign my program.. who looks far better in person, not the grumpy sod he appears to be in the media.
Totally worth the slight sun burn in the end. Will definitely be slapping on a lot more sunscreen next time I go (tomorrow!).

mixed berries

They say to have lots of fruit when you're sick. I wonder if wearing a berries-inspired outfit works too?

My search for the perfect purple tights has finally come to an end. After seeing ones that were too expensive, too small, or just too ugly, I found these at the bottom of a jumbled sales bin, the only ones left, in my size, and it was just over $2. Yum!!

One of my new years resolution is for every new clothing I buy, something is going to charity. I started doing this during most of last year, and I want to try and keep it up. The stuff that goes to charity can be anything (not having to be another piece of clothing) so I guess that will make it a tad easier. I'm thinking it'll be a good way to give back to the charity/op shops, as well as to de-clutter my stuff!

not all here

I arrived back in Melbourne yesterday, although I do feel half of me is either still in Indonesia or taking it's time to get here. I caught an awful cold just before I left and it's still lingering right now. Ever had a blocked nose while having to go on a 6 hour flight? (That's excluding the transit time). Not fun. So I've been staying in the apartment, avoiding the 39C heat, half-unpacking, watching the tennis, and going through all the images I took.

So here I share with you some of the things I enjoyed very much during my time home:


...and this was one of my favourite ads. You have to watch this. The kid's facial expression is too cute!

drawn to you

These are some dove orchids that were in bloom a couple of days ago in our back garden.
I took loads of pictures that morning with my mum's camera, which I found to be FAR better than my own in taking close up shots. My mum took the first photo earlier in the morning - I love the contrasting dark background.
The last picture is my favourite. While I was focusing on the bees flying around the flowers (you can see one tucking into the orchid on the far left.), a butterfly suddenly hopped right in front of me! As if it were posing just for me.

Enlarge if you wish.

a glimpse

Sorry for the lack of recent posting/commenting. I've already mentioned before about the slow internet connection, and I guess that's one thing I'm not going to miss when I leave. Thank you to everyone who left a comment in the last post - and again, I'm so sorry if I haven't commented back! I promise I will once time is back on my side!

I'm still not looking forward to leaving, but something recently changed my perspective on my previously-large woes. Something happened to someone very dear to me that made my own problems seem somewhat insignificant. I know I'm sounding very vague, but I'm sure you understand if I cannot go into details here. After all, this blog is meant to be a generous serving of craft, fashion, and art... with just a dash of personal stuff on the side. Not too much. Besides, I would bore you with that.

That said, here is a glimpse of some (oval!) badges and a camera pendant I had made - coming very soon to my Etsy shop.

I have gotten into a habit of buying postcards of vintage advertisements.. or as we say, tempo doeloe postcards. This is just some of the latest bunch. The ads date back to the 1920s... I'm sure some are even older. The spelling of Indonesian words and sentence structures were very different in those days, and there was still a lot of Dutch influence. Flipping through these images and words is like exploring a completely different and fascinating world. These pictures deserve a place in our school history books. It sure would've made me enjoy history for a change!

Tag and Crafts

I have been tagged by the sweet BlueRing. The rules are as follows:
1. Go to the 4th folder in your computer where you store yourpictures.
2. Pick the 4th picture in that folder.
3. Explain the picture.
4. Tag 4 people to do the same!

So here is the chosen picture:

It's one of my earliest "Much Love" rings from 2 years ago. Actually, "Much Love" wasn't even born yet because it took me a long time to decide on the name. You can probably tell that the use of love-heart cabochons heavily inspired the name choice. I emailed this to my friend Ainslie to get her opinion and she was the one who introduced me to Etsy. That's when it all began, I guess.

Now I will tag:

1. Daisychaindreams

2. Strawberry Kisses

3. Una Bella Vita

4. Petrushka's Closet

In other crafty news, I've managed to get my hands on some more potential craft supplies:

- These bright yellow flowers my mum made many years ago (the camera does the colour no justice!). I found a big pile of them in the corner of a closet. They're pretty big, they fit right in the palm of my hand. I'm thinking brooches, maybe even necklaces..

- A stash of goodies I bought at an accessories supplies store. I went a bit crazy in there, buying all sorts of trinkets that I'm not even sure what to do with yet.

- Old scrabble tiles. This is all the letters left inside - I have no idea what happened to all the others. I'm thinking kitsch rings or earrings.

I've also discovered a place that makes stuff like badges and key chains from digital images. The price doesn't seem that much different from the badge/button-making places in Melbourne, but the one here has more variety and they do the printing (and editing, if we want) for us. My only problem is deciding what to make! I've been playing with designs on Photoshop, and hopefully I'll have something within the next few days.