Now Universe, Do Your Thing!

To relate random things happened in life is one funny, interesting thing to do. Especially if it brought you to the way of happiness. Yea that one ride to even the slightest smile on your face. For me, it's the universe's way of saying, "I got your back, dude". My story on this particular matter, is this. I work as an architect, whose firm sometimes acts as architect of record for couple projects in which the main architects came from outside of Indonesia. Fortunately, I had the chance of being in those particular projects.

I have what may seem vague views, dreams, hopes, and anything-else-related-to-those-words on the city New York and San Francisco. Blame most of the reasons on tv series, and the portrayal of those cities, and add the fact that I have not been there (or even if I have, I could not recall any memory of it). But fortunately -oh yes we are very-very fortunate, I tell you people-, my friend pointed me out earlier today on this fact, two the projects I am currently still working on collaborates with architect firm from New York and also San Francisco. Wild coincidence -and wild relating skills-, am I right or what?

As my friend said, "you must now feel like a step closer to your dream, don't you?" Yes, indeed. I may be closer to anything. A dream, a vision, a house, a park, a job, a person, could be anything related to those   even vague perception. Even if this looks like I am exaggerating, the projection of those -maybe seemed like- vague thoughts and belief are even more surreal. Also in that matter, to relate everything here, in the end everything will just seem to be related to each other which sometimes doesn't seem like it made sense. But to believe in a dream -even if it's vague-, is a step closer to making sense out of it; accepting it. I believe, believing is the foundation of accepting. How can you accept something if you don't believe in it? Or so I thought - or believe.

So now I must. Ask, Believe, Receive. And then tell Universe, "Universe, do your thing!"

Wednesday Joy-ride

It has finally arrived!! So excited to meet her and watch her performance live!

Filling In What Fits

There are times when we feel like we have the need to fill those empty spaces in our hearts. It's almost like pursuing happiness, in a way we feel like we will be full if we get what we want. But it's not only once we heard the saying "sometimes what you want is not what you need", it's already written on the back of our head, supposedly. Fortunately or unfortunately, when you fill those empty spaces with what you want, most of the time, it doesn't fit, because it isn't what you need, indeed.

You thought you knew what's best for you, like you get a clue of what you need, but the truth is sometimes and perhaps most of the time, you don't. And personally, I learned my lesson today, there's nothing worse than filling yourself with what you thought was your happiness, only to find out that you're not even close to full at the end of the day. Like you're repelling happiness out of your heart.

This is a thing I've been dealing the past couple of days. And the past couple of days had been very dynamic to deal with. At the moment, I am still very much searching for what do I really need, or better more finding where what I want meets what I need.

Perhaps, we just need to stop looking, and maybe put more attention to the surroundings, on finding what fits. Or... maybe, next time you look in the mirror, always remember that happiness comes from within. :)

The Brondol

New addition to the desktop set up, a cactus!! Me and my workmate named our cactus, Brindil and mine is Brondol. It was named by the sense that we got from looking at it. Hers was tall-is like an I so it's Brindil, and mine was blobby like an O so it's Brondol.

Hope it would surely absorb any radiation from the computer monitor !! Do your work Brondol!!

D.I.Y Fever

I still got the rush to make another DIY, actually, this type/kind/style of necklace is what I want to make about a couple weeks ago, but hadn't really done it yet, until todaaaay!!! This one, I saw it first at Hello Giggles (instructions click here). Got another left over shirt, bigger than I used yesterday, so I could make this one!! 

Unfortunately, the shirt used at Hello Giggles was an no-seam side type of shirt, different than what is usually sold in Indonesia, so I had to make adjustment here and there. Fortunately, I found a mini-hand-held sewing machine on my drawer, so it could help a bit with my messy stitching.

Voila!

D.I.Y : Deal It Yourself

I was kinda upset yesterday, so I decided to jump on this D.I.Y to cheer myself up.

I was blogwalking some DIY blogs yesterday, and I found this very reasonably done statement fabric neclace here. So I thought, this could be a spice to my already dead-end-mix-and-match wardrobe. I basically just follow the instruction, though it's a bit tricky on most of the part (the accordion folding and the ribbon attachment). I was also reckless in sewing so the necklace wasn't as neat as it suppose to be but then I adjust it by covering this and that using the left-over fabrics. Pretty fly for a newbie, or should I say, long time not-sewing person.

Voila!

This Is Sad

Yesterday, I found out that Kina Grannis's coming to town. Yea right, Jakarta, for a Live & Up-Close performance. This is very rare opportunity, indeed. I was so excited, been listening to her songs again endlessly, until this afternoon.

This afternoon, I had just remember that the day Kina will be performing, is going to be the wedding day of a good-friend of mine, where I even got to be "pagar ayu", more-or less like bridesmaid (yea I also got "uniforms"), but serve more as greeting the guests at the wedding reception.

So, I tweeted my sorrow, and she replied, and it made me even more sad :(

Morning View

It's long-weekend holiday, until tomorrow. The best part of having a public holiday on Monday is that you have spent your weekends, and you still get a day off after. Don't need an "I don't like Monday" dilemma tomorrow. Besides, it's Lunar New Year, another joyous celebration, I am still thinking on what to do tomorrow.

Spent the weekend going to a villa at Puncak with friends and families from church. Turned out to be a blast. We leave home quite early at around 7 am, and arrived at the villa at around 9am. Still got plenty of time to enjoy the villa complex, have chit chat, then had lunch.

After lunch games was hilarious. We play different out of the ordinary card games, with the losing person,   will get a "scar" drawn by the winner using eyeliner!! Thanks for the moms who lend us their eyeliners! It was hilarious, looking a each other faces with lighting marks, random lines on face, and the most common "scar" the Chaplin mustache.

After dinner, we continue with a round of karaoke. We didn't stop until midnight. We sang almost every old tunes, Indonesian songs and also Popular English songs. At around midnight all the girls surrender and went to bed. I, myself, get myself a Bon Iver as my lullaby.

This morning, I wake up with an awesome view. I was really grateful to be able to experience the scenery. It's not everyday I can see mountain, greenery, flowers, listening to the sound of water. After the boys had multiple rounds of knocking each other down at the pool, we had lunch and had a very quick trip back home.

The morning view, was truly a blessing.

This Wallpaper Is My Mood Booster

Rookie

I am a rookie on flower arranging, but I love it. I had the chance to decorate my house on my brother's Siraman (it's a javanese traditional ritual shower before getting married) and yesterday's thanksgiving lunch at home. I could spend 2 hours making around 6-7 arrangements on my brother's Siraman, but unfortunately it took me almost 6 hours making 13 arrangements yesterday.

I would love to be an apprentice to a florist, should I or shouldn't I?

To be honest, I really had no idea on flower arranging. It started when flower arrangements often popped in blog/web post on d.i.y stuffs that I often walked into. When I had the chance, I want to try it. So, there I am, picking out flowers at the flowers market. On the second run, I already knew what I want. Less type of flowers, less form and more hydrangea. I love hydrangea at the moment, unfortunately, it demands a lot of water. 

I also tried on more expensive roses yesterday, to be mixed with the cheaper ones. Money talks. The more expensive ones has thicker stem, thicker but softer petals, and when it blooms, oh dear, it blooms perfectly. It took another day for it to bloom almost perfectly. 

And now I am thinking about buying a small cactus on a small pot to decorate my desktop at the office, a little green would refresh the eyes, don't ya think?

Lovestruck

I am Love struck. Mark Foster stole my heart. 

Foster The People performance was awesome. I thought they would be like just playing electronic stuff, album arrangement stuffs. Turned out they played, well, with only one album to play, they manage to play all of the songs from their freshman album with different arrangements plus 2 new songs and the cherry on top, cover version of Say It Ain't So by Weezer. It was really the cherry on top. Because I was expecting to see them perform this particular song after watching a couple performances on youtube (refer to this post). Such a blessing to be able to see one live. Hope to see Weezer play vice versa. 

I was kinda irritated though with how the sound turned out. It was almost too loud that I could go deaf (hyperbolism detected). But I love how the crowd enjoy the show and respect other audience (despite some selfish guys smoking at almost the end of the show). The stage was very dark, black, simple and subtle, in contrast, the lighting was dynamic. Which brought the performance to a different level. 

The whole band was awesome, cool performance from Pontius and Cubbie. Mark's footloose dance moves, hands down the best, though I really wish he was more talkative. And at one time, Mark Foster went down the stage to shake some hands and tried to stand on the barrier (though it looks like a though job), how I wish I was at the front row. 

Setlist Foster The People, Jakarta, January 11, 2012

Houdini

Miss You

Life On The Nickel

I Would Do Anything

Broken Jaw

Waste

Call it What You want

Don't Stop

Say It Ain't So

Helena Beat

Encore:

Ruby

Warrant 

Pumped Up Kicks

I must say Pumped Up Kicks live version, kicks more asses. You just want to dance. 

Awesomeness

For the past few months, I have been using "is awesome" as my personal message in my Blackberry Messenger profile. So, when you see my contact, it would be "Irene Hutami is awesome". 

The perks of using that personal message is that, sometimes people instead of calling me with "hey Irene" on the messenger, they call me...

"Hey Awesome"

You know what's better than being called awesome. Nothing. Yea, awesomeness attracts awesomeness and it's such an effective mood booster. Barney Stinson has taught me best. Being awesome is.. AWESOME. 

Guess what, people who called their friend awesome, must be an awesome friend too.

Saturday Mornings

I spent this morning waking up to an after rain weather. Unable to take my dog for a walk. Sigh.

And then coming across these websites, favorite ones. Finding inspirations for the mind, body, and soul.
I guess you should to :)

New Locks

Already done the new year hair cut. Yay!

It may not look closer as Rachel Nguyen like I wanted; this is because I had only started to explain the hair-dresser on how short I wanted to go, not even close to showing the pictures of Ms. Nguyen, when the hair-dresser already decide what to do with my hair. I'll just leave it to the pros, right?

Thankfully, I got the length that I wanted, not as layered as I expected, but turns out it looks more like Elizabeth Olsen's -haha I wish-. Less thick, fresh cut, not too long and not too short.

Still figuring out how to document this new look properly. I am getting on that later.

Ciao!

PS: I failed on documentation. 

2012, BRING IT ON!

picture from here

New Year Coming, New Bracelet All Set

Found these bracelet at the mall today! The old me would brace self and find strings for a little D.I.Y. But now, it's a grab and pay thing hahaha... It's pretty cheap so I bought it without second thought-ing it. Gonna wear it tomorrow! Yeay!

A More Festive Christmas Dinner

I am lucky enough to be able to go to another Christmas dinner, gathered by good-good-friends since elementary school. Our group has grown larger over the years, and this was an annual meeting for us, every christmas, exchanging christmas gifts. Hilarious christmas gifts. The first annual dinner, I got an ash-tray which I already misplaced now, and this year, I got an ethnic necklace, orange, and bold.

After eating while chit-chatting, we decided to take pictures using christmas themed attributes, unfortunately I forgot to bring any, but fortunately, Andra brought a series of fake moustaches.  Those who didn't bring any attributes, wore those fake moustaches. It was fun! We look like guys from an all boy school growing hairs and having funny-unusual hair-cuts for a boy. Well actually we look even more ridiculous than that. We look more like hobos.

Since I already had dinner, so I ordered pizzettes and caffe latte. But, to top it all, there's a large red velvet cake as dessert. Yum.

red velvet cake

little bites

le dinner table

gift exchange

moustache parade

old time band with extra moustache

Photos by : Irene Hutami

Christmas Dinner

I love going out to Christmas dinner. This year, I'm spending it with college friends and also long time lady-friends. I love the way we ate together on a long table seating across and beside each other. Wondering what are the people at the end of the table are talking about, seeing all the happy smiley face.

With my college friends, we went to Ocha & Bella. A very beautiful restaurant. Though the price is pretty choking, but I guess it's worth it, with the delicious gnocchi that I ordered making me very full and also the beer was cold and very refreshing. It was not the food that matters the most, but the togetherness in all the way.

the dinner table

Irene - Aya

the ladies

all photos by Donald Epiphanius

Soo...

this is the official Christmas greetings :), it would never be complete without the dogs!

Merry Christmas y'all!!

Bliss

I never realized, how a simple a Christmas greeting, can make you smile very easy on this very wonderfull day :)

Happy Christmas everyone, may the blessings surround us all, now and forever :)

picture from here