A Belated Eid Greetings...

To all my muslim friends...

3R strikes again!

On May 27, 2012, Ramu Rame Ramo, a community of Bandung crafters consists of my self, Kawakib Craft, Raisy Tasthy, Pepoloco, Linda Sari and Anggraini Craft attending a high school Bazaar as a tenant. It was SMA 3's Inori Bazaar.

The Bazaar was a Japan themed bazaar. There were also band competition, dance cover competition, etc. But the most interesting competition for me was the Cosplay Contest.

According to Wikipedia, the meaning of Cosplay is: "Cosplay (コスプレ kosupure), a contraction (or portmanteau) of the English words "costume" and "play", is a Japanese subculture centered on dressing as characters from manga, anime, and video games, and, less commonly, Japanese live action television shows, Japanese movies, or Japanese pop music bands. However, in some circles, "cosplay" has been expanded to mean simply wearing a costume."

I found it interesting because these kids were serious about the costumes and they posed and acted accordingly to the characters. So serious that some costumes were made painstakingly and very detail, it so related with crafting. 

Being double now...

There are 2 reasons why I haven't updated my blog for such a long time...

1. My tweenie have become more and more attached to the fb now

2. I have a new job, an office job. So I'm doing double jobs now, office work 9 to 5, crafting afterward.

At first, I feel overwhelmed, because being a "single" parent, doing double jobs, it really is not easy. Hats off for those who've been doing this for quite a while ! Not only I feel handful, but also sad to leave my son at his grandparent's, sometimes alone at our place. For 13 years, I've been nurturing him, never leave him to anyone but hubby (and that's on veeery rare occasions!). But I have no choice...my inlaws are getting older, they often have to be treated at the hospitals because of their illness. Separated from my husband, turns out quite hard on financial, it's like funding 2 households. So I have to earn more than just what I usually get from my craft, if I want to have little money in the saving and for my son's lessons and extra activities.

A New Place (again, sigh)

As written in my previous blog, I wasn't happy with the place I lived in Bandung.

No, not because it's an old house, it's just have not enough electricity to be use by 2 families and that other family who live there wasn't happy to share the house with me and my son.

So we moved again, still in Bandung city but this time we chose a house built specifically to let the rooms for rent, located not far from my parent's. There are 24 rooms and we rent 2 rooms which available. We like it here better than the previous one, alhamdulillah, obviously because each room have its own bath, enough electricity and it's quieter here, more plants and trees too.

Love the jasmines on the yard, always smell nice each time I pass it

Unfortunately our rooms are in second floor, so that moving in was quite exhausting.

But once it's over, I can slowly settle down and quickly back to my work .

My son in front of our rooms

Insya Allah, we're gonna be here for a while, I'm tired of relocating, unless it's to move to our own or to be live together again with hubby . Amiin...

Anyway, "Gigi" hijabs are back, now only pink, light brown and black colors are still available

"Gigi" hijab, sold as a set with below matching pin

Over Due

Yeah, this is an over due post but I just think I need to share it

So, it's been almost a month now, we're living as Bandung citizens...back to my hometown, after so many years (I think since 1993).

Adapting to the new climate (it's much, much colder here than Bandar Lampung), I got 3 days of cold, but I'm fine now.

Since we moved, I've been busy surveying junior high schools for my son. He done some assessment tests in some schools and waited and prayed for whatever Allah think is the best for us. Alhamdulillah, now he's accepted in an Islamic based junior high and will start his study next week.

At the moment we're renting 2 rooms in an old house. In that house, there is other family, a young couple with 2 toddlers.

The front of the house

Our house mates

To be honest, I enjoyed our space in Bandar Lampung more. Yes, the one we're living in now is more spacious, but there are problems that forcing me to look for other place to live (that's why I still haven't settled yet, still unpacked, out of the thought that I will move again very soon). Electricity is one thing. I'd like to buy a fridge (sahur is on my mind), but I don't think the electricity in this house allow it. Until this moment, I still haven't found the right place...still looking for it...

Anyway, we're happy to be in Bandung, although there are friends we missed in Bandar Lampung. We took some last pictures of us in the hotel we used to live in, in Bandar Lampung, together with my buddy, ibu Pia. For 2 weeks hubby stayed with us, helped our relocation. We're so happy, though after two weeks, hubby had to fly back to Langkawi, Malaysia, to continue his work there.

Sweet Surprise on April 7th

It's another over due post again, this time because I've been busy doing orders and preparing for Inacraft 2011, aside from my tween just finished the school exams and thought he can rule the lappy before another exams next week, sigh...

Anyway, it was on April 7th. Early in the morning I left a message on Skype for hubby, to say "Happy Anniversary". Yep, it was our 15th anniversary. Hubby replied, thanking me for being there for him all this time and said a surprise is coming.

Later that morning, people from the hotel came, brought something in the box for me. Remembering my hubby's message, I thought, that's the surprise my hubby was talking about and the hotel people confirmed it.

I opened it after they left and what's inside brought tears to my eyes. This is what I saw:

Now tell me, how can I eat that chocolate topping with those sweet words on it?

A Bar of Chocolate

This afternoon, after school, before he went for his Sakamoto Math lesson, my son told me that he'd like to go to the nearby convenience store after the lesson, to buy something out of his own money.

I asked, what do you want to buy? He said, something. I got suspicious and asked further more.
He answered, snack and asked me back, why I kept asking. I said, I have to know whatever he want to buy, because I'm his mom, he's my responsibility, what happened if, God forbid, he turned out buying drugs?

He lightly said, " First, I'm not that self-torturing person. Second, that store doesn't sell any. Third, I don't have enough money for that."
True, so I said ok.

Good bye hotel, hello new place!

So, it's been near a month now, we are staying at the new place.
We rent a newly built, clean, 2 bed rooms space, with one sitting room, one bath room, small kitchen and a spacious shared yard. It's enough for me & my son to lived in until my son graduated from primary school, then we'll be (sigh...packing's on my mind!) move again to Bandung, West Java, my hometown.

The new place is so close to my son's school, that he walks every day to and from school.
The land owners are young, newly married couple, they're so friendly and nice.
There are some eateries, convenience store and laundry, all within 3 minutes walking distance...5 minutes walk to the mall .

The shared yard, seen from our front door. The building on the left is the land owner's house.

A little hut with a pond of timid fishes built beneath it, in a corner of the yard.

Alhamdulillah, things begin to settled down a bit (though there are still some hateful boxes, waiting to be unpacked, sigh). I enjoy the house chores, (things that I didn't really do when we were at the hotel, because they have service, lol) it's like playing house, lol... so much so that I almost forgot about my craft, lol...
Now that I'm getting use to the new routine, I'm working on a new batch of kids hijab...

Yaay, gifts...alhamdulillah!

This post is actually over due, but I only got a chance to write it down today.
A couple of weeks ago, I received two packages, one was from my lovely aunt Jia of Fauzia's art & craft and the other was from my very dear of mine, mbak Dita of Handmade Nest. Alhamdulillah!

Jia sent me a beautiful, intricate necklace with pendant which also can be wore as a brooch (double functions...my kind of things!). She sent it for an exchange of the pochette I sent her for her birthday, though I really don't expect anything from her. It's made of wire works and stone, I suspected it was quite time consuming to make. Beautiful! Love it so much, thanks Jia, muach2!

Relocating...relocating...

Sigh...nothing I hate more than relocating...
It's not about adapting to the new place and so on, what I hate is packing and unpacking!
We're such a hoarder, so many things to packed, threw away or sell...
my son's a bit reluctant because he's a young man now, he feels quite attach to his friends here.

So, yes, we are relocating. Hubby got a job abroad while I might be still in Bandar Lampung for a few months, until my son finish his primary school, but we definitely won't be staying at the hotel anymore as the end of this month. My apology to my customers, I'd probably won't make any new creations during that time, except just a couple of orders I had agreed earlier.

Mind you, the picture below is not mine, but I think that's what mine will looked like, lol

To my fellow muslims & muslimas...

Ramadhan Mubarak...
Hope we all can do our ibadah successfully, in this holy month and afterward.
I also would like to apologize, for all the mistakes I may have done to you, my dear friends.
I've never meant it and I love you all for Allah's sake.
May Allah bless us all, amiin

The Jeweller's pochette

I think nobody knows that Fauzia is actually my aunt.
She's a daughter of my grandma's cousin, so family-tree wise, I should call her auntie, but I don't, considering that she's still young, even younger than my self . I call her Jia, her childhood's nickname.

We'd been lost contact for quite a long time (with her relocated and I relocated even more often, lol, etc) and never would any of us thought that the web will someday reunited us (online, because we live in different islands now; I'm in Bandar Lampung, Sumatera and she's in Bogor, Java Island).

I was so overwhelming when one day she send me a pm and asked whether I'm the Andi Lia she knew. I was also happy to know that we both are interested in craft; mine is more about needle works (and bag designing, of course) and she's a jeweller (wireworker, beader, kawater, that's what the craft community address them self; I prefer to call them jeweller, since they create many beautiful pieces of jewelry). Since then, we often do silaturrahim, chatting or just comment on each other's postings .

A couple of months ago (if I'm not mistaken, Jia, cmiiw), she asked about my pochette that she wants to buy. She requested it to be plain, without any embellishment, but with the usual bag handle/necklace (detached from the bag, the handle can be worn as a necklace). Noticing that her birthday's coming, I decided to send it as a gift. And knowing that as a jeweller, she must be planning something special to compliments the plain pochette, I asked her to send me the "after make-over" picture of the pochette.

My Brother & His tiny shop

I have only one brother, he's a year younger than me (and still single ) and lives in our hometown, Bandung.
Because our ages difference are so close, we fought a lot when we were much younger, lol...but now we (actually since we graduated from primary school) are so close, we help each other a lot, guess because we realized that we only have one sibling, we have to count on each other.

When we were younger