TGIF outfit

Today is Fri and I tend to dress more casually than usual for the office, for instance today I wear a short sleeve shirt dress with a pony tail hair. I was browsing through the Witchery website yesterday, it was one of my favourite high street brand when I was in Australia. I love their casual yet girly style and most of their pieces are very simple but looked very neat and preppy. This outfit combination is very easy to pull of and suitable to wear to the office on Friday. The jersey dress looked simple but I would like it better if the fabric is different, for instance viscose or cotton. The big waist belt is so now and would define my waist line and make me looked, well … more curved and thinner. I saw one similar in mangdu, maybe I would grab one in beige next time I visit mangdu. The flat give the laid back feeling to this whole outfit and you can find this kind of flat from Charles & Keith or Vincci and the spotted tight add touch to the ballet flat, I had a similar tight from Marks & Spencer. I have a similar necklace like the one in the picture, which will be a nice finishing touch to the outfit, but mine was triple multistrand with a keychain, locket and heart shaped ornament. And of course, where would I be without the sunnies?

This outfit combination over here is the one I more likely to wear to the office. The combination between the black shift dress and draped sweater is just perfect. I would wear them with my Zara beige croc pumps which have a similar shape with the one in the picture. The clutch looked lovely and if I found one similar like this I would snatch it right away.

What's on my next shopping list? 1. A long sleeved grey dress and 2. Black simple cut shift dress.

The girl with the watermelon and bow

Which one suit her better? The bow or the watermelon? I reckon she looked good in both.

Summer sand

I'm not much of a Bobbi fan but my friend is crazy for the Bobbi's less is more look and she makes ponder on Bobbi website for hours and I found this beautiful Surf & Sand Palette on her website with this model picture wearing the aqua color fourth from the left on her upper lid and sand-y color 5th from the left for the lower lid. The palette looked really good, but I'm not sure I want to part with my $45 to own this palette, considering I already own aqua, blue and brown/beige eyeshadows on my collection.

The mod look

I received my Smashbox Mod Chic mini lip & eye palette in the mail today. I’m so excited to see the product that I bid on e-Bay 2 weeks ago in front of me. This is my first e-Baying experience and I’ve got a feeling that me and e-Bay will have a long harmonious relation for years to come. All I got to do is put my maximum bid on the product that I want and voila, if you don’t get outbid by someone else when the bid ends the item will be yours! But watch out, you may get outbid in the last couple of seconds. The tactic is, if you really REALLY want the item then you should put the highest amount that you’re willing to spend as the maximum bid and watch closely for the bidding when the bid nearly end. Since most of the items listed in e-Bay are listed from USA, it’s nearly impossible for me to monitor the closing of the bid because of the time differences between here and there.

Anyway I got this palette that was retail at $25 for $5 and plus $5.50 for shipping and handling. The palette was packaged inside the black & white houndstooth box, which was so mod inspired! It contained 3 neutral eye shadows of cream, coppery beige and white and a black eye shadow to create the smoky eyes or the very thick black eyeliner to complete the mod look. Inside the palette there are also 2 sheer & shiny lip glosses in Swinging and Smashing basically they’re sheer orange-y and reddish colored glosses which feel so soft on the lips and have no funny smell. In other word, as directly quoted, it contains everything you need for the perfect holiday party touchup … oh my … maybe I should plan for a holiday next! Where to?

The shoehunt

Look at these two Charles & Keith's promotional images, they are so adorable and make me starts to think about sailing in a yacht during the summer with the high heeled eyelet slingback, short sleeved jacket and short or sitting on the beach sidewalk cafe with those grey flat and oversized sunnies. The problem is that although I did buy these 2 shoes/sandals are 1. I don’t own a yacht or anywhere near owning one and 2. Beaches here suck big time, so there goes the experience of having coffee on a beach sidewalk cafe!

Oh why, oh why, so many shoes to buy but so little money (and still so many new one have only been used for one time only). What to do, what to do! Like Kelly Rowland said, I'm in dilemma, no matter what I do ... all I think about is you (the shoe!).

Despite all the agony, I’m going on a shoehunt with Erry this Friday cause Charles & Keith is having a 20% off for a purchase of 3-5 pairs of shoes if you had a C&K privilege/Citibank card.

I want, I need

1. Laura Mercier Undercover concealer or 2. Secret Camouflage concealer, whichever one works for undereye. My friends, of whom her opinion on make-up I higly valued, swears by her Laura Mercier Secret Camouflage concealer. She had a very problematic skin and it works wonder for her, so I thought, this will work for me too!

3. Charles & Keith velvet slingback peep-toe heels in black, which is not my favourite color for shoes, but this one looked so classic and perfect for formal occasion so I guess I will take it anyway.

Lastly, 4. MAC Mineralize Skinfinish in Natural-Medium, a luxurious domed face powder with minerals, slowly baked to provide a dimensional yet natural-matte finish. Provides perfect low coverage. Use to set and fix foundation or as a touch-up throughout the day.

Take a risk

I take a risk today by wearing black stocking, I never - as an adult who make her own fashion choices - wear a black stocking to the office before. Although I always wear footless stocking/tight with my dresses or mini skirt and opaque/patterned leggings during the winter, for me black stocking is on a very different level. I dont know why, but I always associate it with the word "daring". For that reason, the black stocking has been left untouched for nearly 3 years since I first bought it.

I took a chance this morning and wear it with my red peep toe shoes. I though the contrast between the black and red will make the shoes even more beautiful.

Something to cheer me up

Boo!

Running to mommy

V for Vendetta

Someone is trying to pissed me off, I'm not sure it's just a random act or it's personal. Whoever you are, I sentenced you to 5 years of bad luck. And if it's personal, I dare you to come forward! Yes I dare you, the person who messed up my friendster account!

Come out come out where ever you are ...

I love pasta

Raysa at Izzi pizza mahakam browsing the menu. Cant decide whether to have pasta or pizza?

Attention please!

What did you do during the weekend? I was playing with Raysa and got caught up with the Japanese Drama Attention, Please! Even R enjoy this Japanese Drama, he never really was a series person.

The series tells the story of Misaki Youko, a country girl who was raised by her father and 4 brothers and a singer of a punk band. She never had a single female friend in her live and she wore hand-me-down clothes from her brothers. She decided to be a flight attendant and applied to JAL because her crush Tsukasa half jokingly said that he wants to see her in a uniform. It’s a very funny and entertaining series, perfect for a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Food for babies

Raysa started to take her meals when she was 4 months, as per doctor’s recommendation we start giving her orange and apple juice along with milk cereal. Most babies will completely wean to solids when they reach 6th months old as the mother’s breast milk doesn’t have sufficient iron and nutrients for the developing baby anymore.

At the 6th months, there’s more fruit and vegetables that you can introduce to your baby. For the past 2 weeks I’ve been trying to give more varieties to her food so she will be familiar with all sorts of flavor from the very beginning. But, I’m not confident enough on what I’m doing. I still have many unanswered questions, like:

What kind of food is ok or not ok for her?
How many meals a day should she take and at what quantity?
What kind of elements does she need on her food to help her grow?

Since there are so many questions piling at the back of my mind I decided to browse for a book that has information on baby’s food. So last Saturday I went down to Kinokuniya and after several excellent books I found one that I really like, Superfood for babies and children by Annabel Karmel. What I liked about this book is that it explained the food that your baby need at different stages of her age. The book also provided a meal plan that you can use as a reference along with the recipes. Next to the recipes there’s an explanation why certain fruit/veggie/fruit is good for your baby.

So, last Sunday I was busy making meal plan based on Annabel Karmel’s book. I enjoyed this book very much it’s very useful and informative. I visit her website and join her forum so I can meet up with other mums or at the least read about their problem which can be useful when you’re encountering the same problem.

Baby R meal plan, 6th month, 2nd week

Sun, 11 Mar
Breakfast: Banana milk cereal
Lunch: Creamy apple pureé
Supper: Mixed root vegetables pureé

Mon, 12 Mar
Breakfast: Brown rice cereal
Lunch: First fruit pureé (rock melon)
Supper: First vegetable pureé (carrot)

Tue, 13 Mar
Breakfast: Green bean cereal
Lunch: Apple and pear pureé
Supper: Mixed root vegetables pureé

Wed, 14 Mar
Breakfast: Brown rice cereal
Lunch: Cream of pear pureé
Supper: Sweet vegetable pureé

Thurs, 15 Mar
Breakfast: Banana milk cereal
Lunch: Papaya or rock melon fresh fruit
Supper: First vegetable pureé (sweet potato)

Fri, 16 Mar
Breakfast: Green bean cereal
Lunch: Pear pureé
Supper: Creamy vegetable pureé

Sat, 17 Mar
Breakfast: Brown rice cereal
Lunch: Avocado & banana/rock melon
Supper: Baked sweet potato and carrot pureé

-Recipes-

First vegetable pureé (4 portions, Freezable)

350 g carrots/potatoes/sweet potatoes and swede

Peel and wash the veggies
Chop or slice into even size pieces
Steam or set over boiling water and cook until tender (15-20 min)
Puree in a blender or food processor until very smooth together with some of the cooking liquid or water from the bottom of the steamer

Mixed root vegetable pureé (6 portions, Freezable)

Carrot/potato/sweet potato/pumpkin/swede

Mix and match a selection of three root veggies. Use approximately 175 g of each
Pureé each veggies on your selection and mix them together

Sweet vegetable pureé (4 portions, Freezable)

500g butternut squash (pumpkin) or pumpkin
Peel and de-seed a squash or slice of pumpkin, then pureé the pumpkin into thin consistency

Baked sweet potato and carrot pureé (4 portions, Freezable)

1 medium sweet potato (200g)
100g carrots, peeled and sliced
2 to 3 tbsp milk
Pre heat oven to 190C
Wash and dry the sweet potato and prick all over with a fork
Bake in the oven until tender (45 min)
Steam or boil the carrots until tender (20 min)
Allow the sweet potato to cool down, then cut in half and scoop out the flesh
Pureé together with the cooked carrot and milk

Creamy vegetable pureé (2 portions)

1 tbsp baby rice
3 tbsp milk
4 tbsp vegetable puree
Mix the baby rice and milk together (follow the packet instruction) and stir into the vegetable pureé

First fruit pureé (2 portions, Freezable)

2 medium dessert apples or ripe pears, peeled and cored
2 tbsp milk or pure unsweetened apple juice
Chop the apple/pear into small, even sized pieces
Put the fruit into a heavy-based saucepan with the water, cover and cook over a low heat until tender (6-8 min for apples, 4 min for pears)
Blend the fruit into smooth pureé using some of the cooking liquid

Water and Fire

In the world of rapid technology development do people still believe in horoscopes? According to the Chinese horoscopes I was born in the year of dog. Yesterday, a guy who designed my organization’s website brought to my attention that my daughter was also born in the year of dog. According to the Chinese horoscopes, same sign within a family means good luck. I don’t really believe in this sort of stuff, but if they say good luck, then I wish for good luck!

Out of curiosity, I found this website through Google explaining all about the year of dog. The characteristics of each horoscope is affected by the five Chinese elements of Metal, Water, Wood, Fire and Earth which overlaying a 5 year cycle of characteristics on the original 12 year cycle of the Chinese signs. I’m a water dog whereas my daughter is a fire dog.

The characteristics of a Fire Dog are:

“Fire Dogs are natural leaders. Fire Dogs are popular, charismatic people, always surrounded by a group of admirers. Not only admired for their vibrant personalities, these Dogs also possess a sexual attractiveness that makes them irresistible. These people are adventurous and vivacious, yet, honest and openhearted. However, because they are so active, they are generally not the settle down type.”

Is it just a coincidence that I named her Raysa, a leader, or is it fate?

I guess I did choose the right name for her.

By the grace of god

I am thankful for everything that god has given me and for so much more that will be given to me in the future. I’ve been so fortunate in so many ways, and this morning I’ve been reminded for once again that I indeed am very fortunate. Thank you, for that he is saved by his love for tennis and decide not to fly to Yogya this morning at the very last minute. Him, that the shoulder is higher than the sky, will now share it with Raysa too.

Music of the day

I know its kinda cheesy for my likin, but I do love Korean and Japanese music! So here goes my fave soundtrack from my fave korean drama Princess Hour.

The bald white head 6 months

Happy 6th month birthday to the most beautiful baby in the world – this is not to imply anything, all parents will always think that their baby is the most beautiful/handsome one in the world, really, if you don’t believe me just check this with your parent.

Baby R is now bald, fresh from the oven bald, my dad just shave her head 2 days ago. Her head is so shiny and white but when you kissed her on top of her head it felt really itchy cause her hair starts to grow. Hopefully, she will start to grow more hair from now on!

Final day!

The Java Jazz Festival is officially over yesterday! Cannot believe I spent 3 days in a row jazzing and queuing (LOL!). Like yesterday, I was planning to come early to catch Yosuke Onuma playin but I got caught up in helping my Dad shaving Raysa’s head bald. I also missed my friend’s performance at the festival, hope he didn’t mind. Arrive at the venue at 4.30 with a cup of coffee in my hand ready for another whole day of jazzing. First up was trying my chances with Yosuke Onuma, no luck, its finished already. So we headed to Lisa Ono venue immediately, the queue is already really long! Thankfully Karin’s boss was already queuing so we can squeeze in.

15 min after the scheduled time the door open and Lisa Ono came into view with her red summer dress and long hair, all relaxed with the guitar on her lap and a glass of water and a cup of hot drink, exactly how I pictured her. The girl from Ipanema was her first song, apart from this song she also played 3 other songs from Antonio Carlos Jobim.

Her real voice is as good as she sound on her CD, clean and crisp, melodic and ethereal. Her voice portrays a summer at the beach – somewhere in Italy or Brazil perhaps - with you wearing your summer dress walking down the pier. Or you waiting for your friends for a Sunday brunch at a French Restaurant with a clean white minimalist interior and nicely folded napkins, sipping your club soda with Lisa Ono voice singing in French while gazing at the window thinking how beautiful the day is! I’m such a hopeless romantic, I really am a dreamer, when I listen to a song I will associate it with a perfect situation where the music is playing at the background.

One of the most interesting song that she played was Country Road which has been given a bossa flavor. You always had this mental image of Country Road with an annoying sound guy singing it, so it’s a bit weird when she played it and make it her own. She also performed Bengawan Solo as the closing song, if Pak Gesang was a Brazilian, maybe this is how Bengawan Solo will sound like, LOL! Apparently, Bengawan Solo was quite well known in Japan! I guess music really is a universal language, it doesn’t matter whether you understand the language or not you can still enjoy it. Like how I enjoyed Lisa Ono performance so much even though she only sang 2 song in a language I understand.

We we’re trying to catch David Benoit performance afterward, but it’s too late and we missed Reel People as well. Catch a bit of Kimiko Itoh/Yosuke Onuma/Koji Goto love their instrumentalist jazz more than the sound of Harvey Mason. Abit of Jaque Mate - which sound really blues - as well.

While waiting for Level 42 we were hoping from one stage to the other and ended up at Vikter Duplaix Project performance. The percussion player looked like Fidel Castro, seriously! Vikter Duplaix himself is a bit dreamy, he’s really funny and entertaining. He was singing freestyle where he started singing I really love Indonesia, I want a house in Indonesia, I wanna wife in Indonesia … LOL! Seriously, what’s wrong with this guy?

Level 42 pretty much sum up the nite for me, it was the last performance of the festival for me. Like expected, they were energetic and great! The only regret was that they didn’t sing my favorite song, Love in a Peaceful World, sobh sobh!

Day 2 at the Java Jazz

I was planning to come a bit early yesterday, alas i only arrived there at 6.30 greeted by the Indonesian band singing Talkin Loud from Incognito, not bad! I met Ican there at the festival and he became my partner today hoping from one stage to the next.

First on the list was Daugthers of Soul feat. Lalah Hathaway, Nona Hendryx, Indira Khan. We arrived just in time when Chaka Khan give a surprise special performance with her daughter Indira Khan and after that was Ms. Bootilicious Nona Hendryx. They’re great and sound really soulful but just not my cup of tea.

Next, we moved to Harvey Mason Trio feat. Ron Carter with special guest star Eldar. The trio was playing drum, cello and piano in a very instrumentalist jazz ever that you can imagine. They’re all great playin their thing, but a jazz piano sounds very horror-y movie feelin and kinda gives me the creep. But that does not disregard the fact that they’re great so I still gives them a thumbs up.

Finally, 30 minutes late and a long queue later I finally got to see John Scofield again. He's the guy that I’ve been wanting to see all day cause yesterday I only got to see abit of him. Like I said yesterday he sounds exactly like Purple Emerald after hours when the band just finished and people are relaxing with their coffee. I love love the sounds of the beautiful John Scofield guitar playin against the very futuristic computer sound and the beat from the drum, bass and the rhythm guitar. This probably how Linkin Park would sound like if they decided to move to the Jazz genre and added a great Guitar player. One of the song which he played after the “Where’s Coco” song feels like very tropical and tasted like Pina Colada. Ok it may sound weird that I associated musical feelin with a beverage, but its true! That’s exactly how I felt! There’s one song where the rhythm guitarist was playing a weird musical instrument named Game Boy, yeap that’s rite the game console and it was the old one – fyi, it sounds really cool and fun.

If I have to compare it this whole John Scofield experience, it is comparable to all of my Clarity Nite at Centro. Where the band members were playin their instruments at their peek feels like when the DJ were spinnin real hard and the vision impairing reflections from the disco ball were flashing all over the room and when the DJ was starting to chill and make the audience relaxed feels like when the band members plays solo and the computer sound starts to take over. And the coolness vibe from the drummer is also comparable to that coolness vibe from the oh-so-cute Chinese DJ (which I forgot his name) spinning. Its all about the nodding, the rise and fall of the shoulder as he hit the drum with the sticks and the tapping foot, it’s all oh-so-cool! The slightly lopsided hat and the oversized headphone have the same cool effect as the Nicole Ritchie’s side swept bang and oversized shades. But in reality, the drummer is not that good lookin, all the coolness is just in your head really!

I also had the chance to see Gino Vanelli playin in the Plennary Hall but he too nut my cup of tea. But Diane Schuur is surely my cup of tea in a Count Basie-ish way. She’s an excellent piano player and vocalist. She’s comparing her high-pitch out of breath singing experienced the same as after the sex experienced. I hadn’t got the chance to watch David Benoit yet cause yesterday the venue was so packed. So we moved to Marcus Miller instead, he’s a great bassist but its just that. The whole package doesn’t sound as good as John Scofield.

That’s it from now, I’ll be off to another day at the Java Jazz Festival.

Day 1 at the Java Jazz

Yesterday was Day 1 of Java Jazz, this is my second time attending the festival. The first time they had it I only went for the one day where they had Incognito and last year I was pretty much bloated and (I think) was in a hospital bed so I didn’t go. There were a lot of improvement like the food area is now placed outside the convention centre and there’s more variation, they even had Starbucks, Coffee Bean and Krispy Kreme there. The area was much more wider as well, they also used the exhibition hall this time. The artist selections are better as well. It’s not to the level where I would say it’s superb but at least there’s more International and less Indonesian artists.

I went there with Karin, and it took us quite sometimes to familiarize ourselves with the venue. We got lost couple of times but after a while we kinda find our ways around the convention centre.

The first one that we’re planning to see was actually David Benoit, but we ended up in the Plennary Hall just in time for Jeffrey Osbourne and Denice Williams. We decided to get ourselves comfortable and opted for the chair in the second floor rather than standing in front of the stage. Denice Williams is amazing, she sings so powerfully. But Jeffrey Osbourne was, wow! He really knew how to communicate to the audience well. There’s this one time where he sing the woowoo song (didn’t really knew what the real title was, but he said in the US this song was known as the woowoo song because there’s so much of woowoo-ing), where he actually went off the stage and mingle with the audiences to ask few people from the audience to woowoo. The first girl woowoo pretty good, and there’s this really blonde/white-ish haired women whose actually a singer that’s going to sing today that woowoo with Jeffrey Osbourne. He also sang an R&B classics from his favourite singer which I don’t know what its called but it sure sounds terrific. Of course he also sing the widely known song On the Wings of Love.

After that we got to see John Scofield, which I had no idea who he was but hell he sounds really good. Not him literally but the way he played his guitar fusing with the electronic noise and the bass, rhythm and the drum sounds terrific. This is what Purple Emerald (one of the bar in Melb which I used to visit) after hour sounds like. I love it, but I only stayed there for a while cause me and Karin have to move to Tompi show to meet Karin’s friends. Karin’s boss was actually the man behind the production of Tompi’s record and rumour has it that he’s gonna play with him at the show. I guess morally we owe him our applaud for giving us the free ticket. Turned out, he didn’t play at the Tompi show but at least we’re supporting the artist that he’s producing rite?

After that we had dinner and was planning to see anyone who’s available before Level 42. But just as we sat our sorry ass at Omar Sossa’s performance of Guantanamera he’s saying thank you to the audience and closing the show. And we didn’t have the chance to watch Level 42 too cause its already midnite and they’re running late and of course cause they still have their show on Sunday!

Well I might pop up there early today at around 5ish to catch John Scoffield again, I really like what he played.

I’m out now! Getting ready for the second day of the fest.

Long weekend

It's going to be a long weekend for me, I’m taking a leave for Friday and Monday cause I’m planning to see the Java Jazz Festival for the whole weekend and of course Monday is a pay off time for Raysa because I will be away during the weekend. I’m excited, I’ve got to see Level 42 (and whole bunch of other artists), but the main attraction here is still Level 42. I’ve regretted to not see James Brown back in 2005 and just toward the end of last year, the king of soul died! So Level 42, I know they’re old, better see them before they disappear into the earth – literally!

BTW Raysa is getting cuter every single day! We open ceremony of Raysa traveler stroller, and she enjoyed it so much from her very first experience in it. She fell asleep in the stroller the very first nite we’re trying it on the living room. Would post picture of her in her new stroller later next week (when I remember to bring my digicam). The stroller meant to be used for toddler because the child have to sit upright in them, but that’s the thing, Raysa enjoyed it so much because she's got to sit like an adult. She used to move so much in her other strollers, but with this one, she’s being a nice pretty baby and didn’t move as much. She even hold on to the safety belt when the ride is bumpy!

ETA, Raysa pic in her new stroller