because life is too wonderful to keep all the stories yourself.

the colors of autumn.

2012-02-25T10:58:00.000-08:00

Mother nature are the super-artists of all who create most of the beautiful artworks ever. Like i've been mention before, this is my first time to experience autumn in here and it was gorgeous!

Many times i read in some fairytale or books talking about how pretty is the autumn color. I never imagined i can see it until now.

Here's some of the pictures i took to share for you all :D

Enjoy! ; )

What i've learned 24022012.

2012-02-24T04:50:00.000-08:00

Some week ago, i have an urge to eat chinese potsticker ( jiao zi ). I want to make it myself but get scared of failing it.

Then i push myself at last to make it, and it turns out well and nicely even the look of it not so promising i think, here's the evidence ;

The taste are pretty same with what i remember when i still in Indonesia. I really happy that i tried it, it's not too hard actually, i will make more of this later.

#Life, is the same.

We always afraid to do new things for the first time, after you try it and experience it yourself, you eventually gain more courage to do it more and making it better.

Learning from your mistake in the past and move on into new challenges.

Sometimes we scared at first before even try it because see or hear other people said it is hard. But until you try it yourself, how do you know if it really hard? who know if it really easy?

It's like when you open one door,

the other will open also for us.

nailart addict.

2012-01-09T06:51:00.000-08:00

Much of all my obsessions and addictions i got, this is so far one of the tricky addiction i have.

It's always hard to do this for my right hand even though i'm quite used to it, i need to wear mask to prevent my nosey-allergy, need time to wait ( for them to dry ) and try not damaging them by touching and doing stuff, and most annoying part is you *accidentally* break them after all your hard work!

Having a cooking hobby are not a good idea pairing with nail art hobby. You tend to break them somehow, most of the time get a cut when chopping foods. House chores also break them even though you already try as careful as you can ( or is it just me :p ).

Thats why now i don't grow my fingernails too long anymore. Actually it's not that bad with short nails ( yes i'm comforting myself, lol ) they can be look sexy also depend on how you make the design.

Here's are some of my nail art that i made this past year, probably i won't have this longer nails again.

This year christmas design, i love this China Glaze Red-Pumps look on the nail. Too bad my camera can't show too much of the sparkle. In the reality it have more glittery-sparkle looking. I bought this one and fell in love with it ; for my chinese-theme engagement party which suit my red-gold cheong-sam dress.

Kitty design!

i'm using some gel paint pen for making this. It took some time and hard to apply. I think this was my first time painting something on my nails.

The polkadots design are the most easiest to make and it looks cute, i don't think you will be bored with this design. I'm using the dotting tools, although you can just use any tools you have currently. Just be creative with it :D

So far this is the most *complicated* time-consuming design. But the outcome are satisfying don't you think?

Mostly, making the gradient effect are annoying, i need to use sponge for it and be patient. I'm trying to make a fresh-lemonade-lemon-ice effect for this one.

While most of the nail lacquer's bottle usually have normal design, this one i think is the most creative from most of all brand ; the Nfu-Oh. They transform the a boring bottle into a women's sexy-bust like :D

This brand have a lot of unique colors. Like the glittering effect for this one can make a *mermaid-scales* effect ( Nfu-Oh 52 ). One of my favorite also, although hard to apply if you didn't use any base color first because of the translucent liquid. Applying this into scale effect might take 4-5 layering for me.

5 simply heaven for me : 06122011

2011-12-06T06:53:00.001-08:00

Today is the Finnish independence day so almost all the shops and public places closed. It's a nice experience also for seeing the first snow today. It still not huge snow, but it's still great to see all turns white here. My partner said it was quite warm and unusual this year since it should be already snowing more and more colder.

So, let's continue shall we to the list?

1. it's beginning to look like christmas, my first time seeing the real winter!well, the beginning of it. I really can't wait for more :D

2. heart-pattern-by-tires, i'm surprise when i saw this in the parking lot. It was made by the car tires accidentally. how cute is it? :D

3. lappish ( lapland's ) bread, or they call it rieska ; this is new for me. I think it looks like a indian pita bread or mexican tortilla. This was made from potato ( perunarieska ; peruna means potato ). It was really nice with the tomato-basil-shallots-salad i made. :D

4. game addict this month ; dungeon defenders, we can't stop playing this everyday! we even stayed overnight just to play this. I even got a dream about it quite many times, still playing this in my dream, OMG. It was fun that my partner is a *serious* gamer also like me. For all gamers out there, try this game for sure. It was super-awesome!

5. big-bad-(but tasty)salmon, this maybe sound exaggerating but this is my first time handling such a big salmon to clean and cook. It was awkward and puzzling, took quite time to do it but the end result are *tempting* so i need to bear with it...lol ;D

greenery babies.

2011-12-04T13:39:00.000-08:00

Now its almost winter so there's no way you can plant anything ( except if you want to torture them to death-freeze ) outside the balcony. So i bring this awesome babies inside.

Why I want to keep this babies?

For me, it give you tons of benefits ;

like *relaxing* mood to see them around, they are cute, pretty, unique ( like this venus flytrap of mine ), a bad-ass as it cleaning the air inside ( yes, they happily do it for you ) and you can even get source of foods ( like fruits, herbs, veggies ).

For now i keep myself only an indoor plants. The nice things about them, they don't need extra-hard care that you need to struggle with. Next year in spring i will try to keep more *harder* plants outside. I'm thinking of making some small veggies garden for fun.

oh my, aren't they are such an awesome buddies to keep? ; )

guilty pleasure ; most dangerous food in the world.

2011-11-28T12:54:00.000-08:00

It must be bacon, at least in my world...pure, simply, bacon!

forgive my sudden-joyous speech, if there's something in the world that really dangerous to eat are these bacony stuff. Almost all food can be taste wonderful to combine with this streaky one. I *try* to rarely buy this because i know it was-not-so-good-for-your-health, admittedly.

Other food that i though it is dangerous also, is cheese. Melted cheese especially are always *kick* your taste out.

How about if we combined that all in one package?

it turns out to be this ;
a homemade all you can stuff burger! plus soft boiled runny egg as a bonus ; )

Well i know its not a healthiest things to indulge, but not too often its ok. Just make sure to put a LOT of veggies as a companion please.

°picture : hmmmmmm...bacon...

sushi party girls.

2011-11-16T02:52:00.000-08:00

Once upon a day, there's 3 girls who works in the same company.

They always work together as a team of designers and when they not working they have fun time hanging out for culinary adventure ( other things like shopping and more eating, of course ).

°picture : trivia ; somehow they always spent +/- 150 thousand for 3 of them

Some people told them they were look alike and though they are sisters. They have a different style and taste, but somehow they can still enjoying doing things together. One of them love drawing a lot, the other love fashion and socialize, and the last one love travelling and cooking

The last sister always making breakfast for the other, especially japanese foodie like sushi. Everybody know that she'd be happy to make something for them and always put a lot of effort to do it. She like to experimenting on anything ( who know she'd probably make the other some guinea pig for her cooking...whoopsie :p ) like making this cutie crabby-style-sushi ;

This are typical-normal-breakfast for them in the morning. A full set of fancy sushi, along with the wasabi, sushi soy sauce and set of hot tea plus 3 doggies that always waiting ( looking with puppy eyes-mode ) for some snacky-snack dropped.

Currently they separated by situation, each of them choose a different way for life. It's a really sad situation to be. But a day later when they can met again ( corrected ; a must :p ) it will be the same like the ways they usually do ; culinary adventures, shopping, gossiping, etc.

After all they are soul sisters.

The end, for now...or should i say, to be continued : )

5 simply heaven for me : 11112011

2011-11-11T11:26:00.001-08:00

Wow i just notice it its 11-11-11 today, it's a really unique eh? Many couples do their wedding today so they can get a *lucky* date. My mom said she got 4 invitation for today and more of my friends complaining they even got more, lol ; )

back to the post ; p

1. christmas comes early , we bought a hanging christmas lamp for living room and get a christmas calendar from a girls scouts. Pretty!

2. dottie angel book, finally arrived! i fell in love at first sight when one of blogger showed this in their post. I love how detailed they put the design and using lot of whimsical stuff. Just lovely.

3. pack of cutie dried mushroom, my parents in law dried the mushroom we picked and it was awesome to have this for whole year ahead. They will *poof-ing* out when you put them in water. My partner *jokingly* said in the wild they will pop out from the ground with ploop-ing sound after the rain! ; )

4. strawberry plant, strawberry plant to keep indoor from my partner's dad, i hope this baby will thrive here so we can get a tiny-weenie-berries later.

5. recreating famous painting, doing american gothic painting with my partner! We took photo first then he did the repainting on it. it turns out really nicely don't you think? make me want to recreating of other famous painting also ;D

you know your designers bored if.

2011-11-04T03:10:00.000-07:00

They started to take A LOT OF crazy-hangky-pangky-random-photos with any objects and anything available. Even if it not available they still CAN make it ( hail to Photoshop ).

well after all they are designers anyway... :p

warm greetings from Jarvelä.

2011-11-03T03:28:00.000-07:00

A very warm invitation from my partner's auntie came to us a couple week before, asked us if we can come to their home in other city. It was a really exciting and lovely invitation for us.

After some arrangement to make, last Saturday we went to Jarvelä to visit them. It took about 1 hour to reach here from Helsinki with local train. It was a country side, peaceful and serene place. It was a lovely moment to share with, meet new relatives, looking at photos album ( she showed me Tibet trip! it was breathtaking ), laughing, eating wonderful home cooking, and even though some of them didn't talk in same language we can still share the moments together, how awesome is that?

Sometimes i was sad because i still can't speak their language ( well "Rome wasn't build in one day" anyway ). But human are wonderful creature to begin with. Even we don't speak same language, a genuine kindness, smile, and caring act are always a winner. I still remember my dad in law, talking Finnish with a girl who talked in Indonesian, asking for some photos taken together but "strangely" they can still laughed together and have fun.

it was heartwarming.

Some random though, just realized a thing that there is a true-real-life cooking dash person here ( yes! that time-management-game-that-make-you-crazy ). I was surprise how people work, like one of my partner's auntie who is a cook, she manage a canteen for about 50 people everyday ALONE! suddenly the picture from that game playing in my mind...LOL... O___o

Anyway, I want to share some photos that i took from lake there.

enjoy!

5 simply heaven for me : 28102011

2011-10-28T06:12:00.000-07:00

1. autumn color, my first autumn in here! the trees have a really pretty color :D

2. noodle, my comfy foodie, easy to make just anything . from easy to hard one.

3. small library, dream come true ; small library and comfy small bed to read.

4. glögi, it's my first time trying glögi and they taste wonderful, heart warming. oh, and we found a really nice glögi glass in recycle shop. What a nice find!

5. kitchen green shelf, added more green and more cute glass bottle also there.

°picture : the colorful autumn

°picture : noodle noodle...hmmmm

°picture : comfy to the maximum

°picture : starry glögi glass

°picture : kitchen green shelf

bringing the forest inside.

2011-10-27T01:36:00.000-07:00

Our bedroom seems pretty boring and plain. I was wondering what to do with it until i found this cute DIY tutorial here.

Birch tree ( it's called koivu here ) are one of the many tree in Finland, i said, why not bringing this also inside? and we still have quite lot of the paints left.

°picture : masking tape

°picture : masking tape and tape mess!

We started working by making the sketch on paper, and transfer it with pencil in to the wall. The most painful and really long process its the mask-taping it. Took more longer than I expected that i realized that I made the design way more complicated...LOL...

After we painted over the tape, and remove it, we still need to paint some of area with hand painting so its more nicer and neat. I love this process because i can freely paint it what i want.

But in the end the hard work paid off : )

We even add the cat and arctic fox silhouette! it's my signature with my partner :D

°picture : with Hayden my teddy :p

°picture : the outcome :D

guilty pleasure ; quote17102011.

2011-10-27T00:53:00.000-07:00

"I am not a glutton; I am an explorer of food."

- Erma Bombeck -

°picture : sakura meat pie

°picture : homemade apple pie with heavy cinnamon

comfort food.

2011-10-18T04:26:00.000-07:00

What's your comfort food?

Have you ever been nostalgic, or feel homey, or sentimental with some type of foods?
It's called comfort food if you ever felt like this.

In my case, *noodle* is one of which remind me of my homeland.

It is strange how some humble, simple food can bring you back to some moment that you cherish.They make you relax and comfortable.

°picture : fried noodle with sunny side up

'shroom obsession.

2011-10-17T03:22:00.000-07:00

Mushroom is one of my *new* obsession since a long time ago when my friend in Japan upload a really nice mushroom photo in his Facebook.

Somehow it's really looks *cute* and beautiful in my eyes.

They are awesome creature, they can be really small, really big, strange, many shapes, and colorful. Especially the *umbrella* look that amazed me the most.

How can they get that shape? and the way they flock together, its like coming from some fantasy fairy kingdom. Probably the fairies are the one who create them, using them for umbrella or for chair, maybe something for hat also? my imagination goes wild ; )

When i moved here to Finland, i'm more than happy to find a lot of mushrooms everywhere, with forest also in my apartment's backyard, i felt like the most happiest mushroom-obsessed person in the world.

And yeah, that included the most well-known mushroom all time ; Mario brother's mushroom, yay!

*be careful though, they seems colorful and nice but they are extra poisonous....why the colorful one in creatures usually the dangerous one eh?...no matter, they look cute though...just don't try to eat it LOL*

pesto-pancake-salmon-salad.

2011-09-30T02:51:00.000-07:00

Doing a lot of trial and error are really good practice. Especially in cooking.

Some of the attempt will bring you disaster-even-dog-won't-eat-it and sometimes like...heavenly.

I think I know why Japanese cooking anime or manga have that bizarre outrageous expression when someone taking a really *extra-good* cooking. I did feel almost like that sometimes when eating nice foods.

Like today's trial and error gave me a really nice outcome.

°picture : hmmmmm, pesto pancake

cooking for pleasure.

2011-09-29T02:53:00.000-07:00

Every people have their own place where they can express themselves and have a peace in mind. Bedroom, work room, library, maybe bathroom ( well some people, honestly ) etc.

Kitchen, is one of my place to be.

i live for eating, it is the root of my love for cooking. I usually get lost myself when it come to cooking, a self-indulgence and stress relief believe it or not.

I'm not an expert for it, nor a i can say i'm really good at it. Cooking is for fun to me, to mix all kind of ingredients and herbs, try new things, experimenting, it must be enjoyed not a must to do.

A nice clean kitchen is a must. It's the same with when you taking a bath you have to do it everyday so you stay clean and nice. I don't think you want to take it just once a week right? you'll be a threat for other people.

Picky is one word for me also when it come to decorating and adding utensils.
A bright one near windows, and lots of indoor plants will add plus point in it, who wants to stay whole time if the place is scary looking room with stains everywhere, dark, damp, and looks eerie. I don't think so.

This week my partner do some installment in the kitchen. A place to hang the utensils, more spices rack, and shelf for more plants near the table. And guess what, he did it all by himself, i really happy and proud of you! :D

Not to forget a cute apron for cooking! how can it be more cuter than polkadot-laced apron for it...there's no any cuter apron than this!*dance* :D

fireflies.

2011-09-28T05:57:00.000-07:00

You would not believe your eyes. If ten million fireflies lit up the world as I fell asleep.

'Cause they'd fill the open air and leave teardrops everywhere.
You'd think me rude but I would just stand and stare.

'Cause I'd get a thousand hugs from ten thousand lightning bugs. As they tried to teach me how to dance.

A foxtrot above my head. A sock hop beneath my bed. A disco ball is just hanging by a thread.

Leave my door open just a crack
(Please take me away from here)
'Cause I feel like such an insomniac

(Please take me away from here)
Why do I tire of counting sheep

(Please take me away from here)
When I'm far too tired to fall asleep

To ten million fireflies. I'm weird 'cause I hate goodbyes. I got misty eyes as they said farewell.
But I'll know where several are. If my dreams get real bizarre. 'Cause I saved a few and I keep them in a jar.

I'd like to make myself believe. That planet Earth turns slowly.
It's hard to say that I'd rather stay. Awake when I'm asleep.
'Cause everything is never as it seems when I fall asleep.

It's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep.
Because my dreams are bursting at the seams.

Fireflies by Owlcity

For once in my life, i want to go somewhere where you can see thousand fireflies at night. It's one of my dreams. I wonder where on earth now we can find this kind a place?

i wish...

°picture : sunjar

5 simply heaven for me : 26092011

2011-09-26T02:48:00.000-07:00

1. smoked salmon, i really adore salmon ( not a cooked one though )

2. spaghetti, hail to the one who invented it! they are so awesome, tasty and easy to deal with anything ; )

3. plants, they never failed to bring your room more brighter and fresh. I'm going to add installment shelf later for put more of this baby.

4. bookshelf, i want to have this as a small library and now i have it thanks to my partner... :D

5. my cooking books, this is my first time i can use it here and cook for real.

°picture : spaghetti with smoked salmon ; simply heaven.

°picture : my simple dining table.

°picture : bookshelf with comfy bed for lazying reading.

°picture : cooking book, and first Nigella lawson and Jamie Oliver's books.

life with carnivora-plantea-mario's-longtimenemies.

2011-09-22T04:38:00.000-07:00

I always adore this strange-odd carnivore plants.

I dream of having a garden or house full of this beautiful plants ( just hope my partner ok with it :p ), probably scary for some people.

So, strangely enough, i don't think i will find this plants in Finland ( well because this is tropical plants ). Surprisingly many of stores have this tiny creatures that always used by movie as a really big-badd-asses plant that eat anything.

Let me tell you one thing, be thankful because the real legendary-man-eating plant are really small and even tiny. It won't hurt you, well it's a nightmare for small insects. Deep condolences for them.

Anyway, this is my first venus flytrap ever. I worried at first it'll die fast because its a tropical plants, and now i want to keep it in the area of one of the most coldest region!

some said its more hard to keep than a pitcher plants, the other family of the carnivore party.

Nuff' said, this is my baby-venus ;

°picture : my first venus flytrap.

For 1-2 weeks first, its still thrive in my apartment. Need to move it for couple times to a really sunny bright area in the room. It said they need moist also, so i usually water it every morning and at night.

Suddenly at one morning I found this little baby...have a new baby!...I mean "trap" ( the scary looking teethy-one its called trap, yes, the one for catch the victims and eat it slowly ).

°picture : the newly trap, haven't open yet.

°picture : venus's trap , good for crushing victims alive.

OK, i will be honest. If you in any chance have this baby at your house, i doubt you never try to see how this baby *eating*...i bet you once or more want to feed them also and see its action. Like, who don't want to see the legendary-man-eating plants in action in the real life?

I found some little spider in my apartment, and i'm so sorry lil' guy, but i need to feed my baby away. So i get it and pluck it to one of the trap, they happily crushed it....

**don't ever feed them with insects that are more larger than the trap, or feed them meat or anything than insects. you will kill your plants it right away if you do!**

Now, this is the remaining of the spider after a couple days it digest it ;

°picture : just having some snack

simple invention.

2011-09-21T05:04:00.000-07:00

Wondering why sometimes peoples struggling with hard and complicated ideas that in facts, just a tiny, simple idea can help you a lot.

this is one example that peoples in other country should copy this *awesome* simple Finnish dry-rack-shelf, or they called it *dish draining closet* invented by Maiju Gebhard

you don't have to worry about the wet dishes in shelf, no need fancy drying machine, no need to wipe it with cloth.

How they do it?

easy.

just make *hole* under the shelf rack and install it right on top of the sink.

I don't think i ever see this in other country than Finland.

°picture : own shelf-apartment, Finland.