Summer's been a breeze

Since the beginning of Summer, the family is doing good. I am getting busier everyday with looking for some partners and improving the website and connecting people. Petits Pois children is barely 5 months since its first publicly appeared. It is still a little baby.

I am more grateful as this 'little baby' grows, the children grow really well too. Sometimes I get too busy, but these children slow me down to breath some air. Looking at the photos we had on our holiday in France, it brought me some fresh inspiration for the future design.

How about you? I hope summer is a fresh air for you.

Tic Toc Tic Toc my travel time is here....

Early morning of the brand new day....

Excited to be after all, coming back to Bali for a visit. No wait, I'll be going without my babies!! How cool is that.

I'll be freaking busy prior to my departure. Preparing my designs, shopping new fabrics, printing some stuffs. Ludo is in Bali since last week for his work. It'll be just him and me and the paradise.

I am on the look out for serious workshop for stuffed dolls I designed.

Yeah yeah! And I will be working without any disturbance...

I mean seriously.

Please don't go....

I've been listening to this song over and over. The more I hear it, the better it sounds. And man, they hella good musiciens. I like it better than the original version sung by Michael Posner.

What can I say?! I love the sound of acoustic guitars...they are the simplicity but the beats touch my heart! A few more guitar classes for me until I make some noise!!!
:-)

Jump backward ....

I found her back in YouTube.

So the memory flashback did happened for a while. Enough to distract me on how much I experienced pain in my first almost-serious-kind-of-relationship. But pphheeewwwhhh, I'm glad it was over and learned really well my lesson.

It was a relationship full of crap (now I feel that way). Of course, when I was 23 years old I think Love is a big word. I listened to Gabrielle for a long time especially this particular song, and I knew I was stupid to kept it. So I let those "empty promises" from him go. It was the hardest, but hell I am truly happy now!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMff05YcJYc&feature=related

Coconut Panna cotta for February 2012

Panna cotta is a classic Italian dessert which I love. Well, I've been to Rome long time ago but I never had this before. So, my gauge for the quality may be the one I tried in Bakerzin cafe. I am still looking for the opportunity to have it in the real Italian restaurant in Singapore. 

Panna Cotta mainly made from milk, cream and gelatine. The meaning in Italian is cooked cream. My biggest challenge is getting a perfect wobble rich flavour. It is not too much gelatine because it will make it too chewy, or too little, it will be saucy on our plate. It is delicate.

But this Panna Cotta will be different from where it comes from. It will be an Asian Panna Cotta using coconut milk instead of full-cream milk. Coconut milk is a common ingredient in any Asian dishes. And I  always keep some boxes of coconut milk in the kitchen cupboard.

I think it is perfect dessert for Summer.

Homemade Coconut Panna Cotta with Raspberry sauce

400 ml coconut milk

1 1/3 cups buttermilk

1/2 cup cane sugar

1 tablespoon gelatin (powdered)

1/2 cup hot water

For Raspberry sauce

200 g fresh raspberries
1 tablespoon cane sugar

a very little salt
1 tablespoon water

Method:

1. Place coconut milk and sugar into a saucepan over low heat. Cook, Stirring for 3-5 minutes or  until sugar dissolves. Be careful not to boil it. Remove.
2. Place a hot water into a bowl and sprinkle the gelatin in it. Stir or whisk with fork until it dissolves.
3. Add the coconut milk mixed and buttermilk, stir well all together.
4. Put these mixture into small oiled ramekins or tea cups. Don't forget to grease the moulds for easier removal. Cover it with plastic. Store it in the refrigerator at least 4 hours.
5. Turn panna cotta unto a plate before serving. You may dip the moulds in the hot water and run the knife around the edge.
6. For Raspberries sauce, Dissolve the sugar and salt with the water in a small pot. Add Raspberry  and let stew for 5 min on medium low heat. Let it cool before putting onto the panna cotta.

Make it a few batches, you may store them in the fridge for at least a week.

Enjoy!

No to shark fin soup

In one afternoon, me and Ludo were invited for lunch in the finest chinese restaurant at the golf course. We were there to meet with recently deceased friend's family. Of course, it was an opportunity to catch-up with them, the wonderful Indonesian family who I used to be close with in Jakarta. It was lunch after the wake of our friend.

The dining room has a high-ceiling with huge window-glass overlooking the green golf course. The entrance was decorated with dark red and black also golden ornaments. Yes, I feel it is pretty high-class lunch. I was sitting next to Counsellor George Soraya, a wonderful man I know from Jakarta who used to be a teacher for children class.

We were served small amounts of foods and delicacies such as duck feets and sea cucumber. I barely touched anything. In my Indonesian culture, oh well, in my culture where I grew up I will not eat any feet of the animals. It is pretty grossed to just even think about it. The next course was the bowl of soup of shark's fin. Of course, I was tempted to gulp the whole bowl as I have been pushing away all the "good" delicacies they served. I was hungry but also I want to try the famous shark's fin soup, once in my life. I thought eating a bowl doesn't hurt the whole population of sharks. But I pushed it away again this course, out of respect to my deceased friend, I am not cut to eat this poor animals. So was George Soraya who is working for World Bank of Indonesia in Poverty Department. Yes, it was pretty hard when we refuse the foods when our tummy was empty.

It was more than 6 courses of foods, but each is small portion. Forgive me, I wasn't really familiar with this fine dining chinese customs. But I was expecting rice and the yummiest noodles. So I picked a couple of desserts and left the table to chat with family members and friends. Of course, I was still hungry so me and Ludo went out to get a good tomato soup soooo good at 3 pm around Raffles Place.

So I hope, the consumption of shark's fin will be reduced soon. No more restaurants serve shark's fin for chinese new year in 2012.

Vintage Robot applique for 7 year old

My godson birthday was coming near. It is on 10 December. I was extremely busy and exhausted travelling and tidy up the content of the website. It was the week where I slept practically 2-3 hours a day.

I realized that It is pretty tricky to give a present for 7 year old boy. He's probably no longer categorize as small children.

Recently, I am fascinated by Lilliput Robot which used to be manufactured in Japan. China has brought back the replica of this toy in the market again. And I just love the look. It is a bit retro, the past that determine to be in the future, the era where factory automation and the dreams of space travel existed.
Lilliput robot was ready for the adventure.

I, then, inspired to do applique of Robot on the t-shirt. You know, boys like to wear t-shirt everyday. I prefer something a little bit more personalized for any gifts, well I try. You know how much I hate buying something from famous shop, such as Toys'r'us, Disney shop, Mothercare etc. So, I bought the robot from the boutique in Cathay building where they sell vintage stuffs. 

The picture above was at the beginning before I sew all the parts. Forgive the bad photo quality, I took it from the phone camera when I was rushing to travel to Batam.

I am unable to show the result because I was rushing even going to his birthday party. I did last minute sewing and ran to get a cab with the kids. It wasn't perfect at all. It was the first time I did applique on the t-shirt and yeah, it was challenging! T-shirt is not an easy material to work with.

Well, I just hope he likes it. But I love making it. it was a learning process. 

I am going to start making another one for my son! :-)

Weekend night's dance session

Parenting changed everything. You see, we were not able to participate in "national dance party", ZoukOut 2011. It's difficult now to find time to show up on the "cool" dance floor where we used to be on Saturday night. 

At least now, we are actively participating for jungle's dance on weekend's night. 

It's Baloo's dance from Jungle Book! 

....I believe it's much more healthier :-)

About the website of Petits Pois Children collection

Voila! Although I put 10% of the products in the website, I was happy announcing it on the 12 December 2011. It is only between friends, nothing big yet. But of course I am excited to launch 80% of the products end of January.

It was the first time that I do the commercial website without any help. Yes, thanks to Wix.com which I found when I was determined to do the website myself. I was frustrated asking friends or people around to help me. Ludo wanted to help me to get a pro website designer, but they are not enthusiastic with this project. They never call me to follow up whatsoever. 

So, chosing and checking also making the website took 3 weeks. At first, I didn't quite know what I want for the look. I had to try to play around with other templates. The first two templates was not good enough, too overcrowded or too simple. But the third templates which is made for children shop e-commerce is perfect. Once I confirmed the look that I love, it took me 2 days to wrap it.

For the photography, I was asking my brother, Bayu to help me. He has a good camera that he got as a second hand and intent to re-sell it again. This powerful SLR camera can captures the good colour and lighting which make it more natural and beautiful. I was arranging and choreographing around too. 

Most of the products are for baby such as blankets and bibs. So what I put in the website only the information of the products. I have not put any price yet which I will do it under the Shop department next month onwards. So, I just want to create The Look on the collection of Petits Pois by sowcasing the products to friends and people. 

Some other photos are taken from Noelia's birthday party. I just love the way the kids' look when I snapped them in line. Some of them are with the grimace, the others are smiling and the rest is super cute.

More work to do!

The birth of Petits Pois children collection!

Voila, www.petitspoischildren.com

I was designing the website for about a week. This is the first time in my life that I did a website.

I was waiting actually, this professional guy that Ludo recommended me a few months ago. But he is just evaporate in to the sky, no news from him. Well, not even a single page he did to show me. I can't wait too long anymore. I have been hand-picking the fabrics, drawing the designs, dealing with the tailors and atelier, listing the budget, handling the pattern-makers, making some patterns, distributing to Europe and I am still a mother. So why not making a website myself? So, I did it. Yes, I did it with so much love.

My Playlist of the day!!

I never watched Grey's Anatomy, but this song was appeared in one of the episode. But I just happened to discover accidentally. Love how fresh her voice is! Yes, I love indie music.

My Playlist of the day

Paperweight by Joshua Radin and Schuyler Fisk

And yes, our baby girl going to be 4. Three weeks ago we started discussing who to invite for her birthday. We also discussed what birthday cake she prefers to have. Last weekend, I cut the hard cardbox paper from Popular book store for $1.20. I asked Noe to draw the invitation cards on her own. She used a white pen to write on the photographs cost about $1.10. I told her to close the eyes first and think about each person to invite. Put into drawings what she sees on the uniqueness of every individual. Voila! Well, I am not trying to become another 'Martha Stewart" (eeww!), but we found it is important for a child to value each person and observe well the environment. It doesn't matter if the drawings are not perfect, but the thoughts that count. So whenever she sees imperfectness, she doesn't judge it too quickly. We live in the world based on instant gratification. We always think that we can get whatever we want instantly. Kids need a bicycle we buy it, our kids feeling down and sad turn on the TV, they feel hungry there's always fast food restaurants. So I hope we are learning the process of everything.  It takes time to do create something beautiful, but it is not about the result. It is the process which includes deep thinking, skills, patients, perseverance etc. So, we have 12 cards for the price of at least S$5.

Colours

I love the style of film

The Wedding Lace 2004

I was running through all the photos of my past. I tried to save every copies in a secured place. The sweetest memory perhaps the Wedding. It is where our family and close friends made their time to attend the special day.

And yeah, I thought I have chosen a very good wedding gown. It looks like the one that Kate Middleton's wearing on her wedding. Well, it looks similar for the top part. What i love the most for my wedding gown is the soft lace all over on the outer part. I was really proud as THAT I designed it. I was sure that I didn't want to be seen so modern with tube dress style. I found the design I did it is pretty sophisticated. It still has Indonesian kebaya style but it also modern.

I would love to wear it again someday....hahaha, sure maybe for 20 years of marriage. I hope it doesn't need to alter a few parts on that dress just because I expand after 2 kids! :-)

Happy Birthday, my Raffa!

A Boy is ...

Trust with dirt on its face,
Beauty with a cut on its finger,
Wisdom with bubble gum in its hair,
and the hope of the future with
A frog in its pocket.



7 October 2011....you are a year old!

BON ANNIVERSAIRE, MON CHOU!

The most beautiful I've seen on TED.com

Miwa Matreyek's glorious visions | Video on TED.com

I'm speechless...regarde!

Miwa Matreyek's glorious visions | Video on TED.com

My Playlist of the day

Here We Go Again - Angus and Julia Stone

I am trying not to to freak out like Americans, but AWESOME! FANTASTIC!

My Summer Playlist

I can only work with the music....and now, I can really see the design of the dress. I am imagining soft flowing dress in a little girl walking bare feet in the tall green grass...the wind blows her wavy hair and she's picking up a bunch of daisies....the rays of the sun softly warm her face .... and continue