Baby Batik Shirt + H&M Cardigan

One of mama's favorite look for baby M.
Very Indonesian and very handsome!
(Mama's obviously very biased. Heheheh)

Batik Family Special Occasion Outfits - 一家印尼服

Last Saturday, 11 June 11 was a special day for us.
And we chose to wear....batik! ^_^

Nothing too formal, something that can survive scorching summer heat...but still cute.


Red cotton pants for baby M, because khaki would be too matchy matchy.

A touch of red on baby M's bib too.

You like?

Indonesian Baby Carrier - Selendang Batik

If you're Indonesian, chances are...you've spent quite a bit of your childhood being carried in this Indonesian baby carrier, selendang batik.
I think I spent most of my childhood being carried in one...in fact, my old nanny carried me on her back using this selendang while cooking and had my toe burnt by the stove while doing it.
Ah...what fun!

My helper brought one selendang batik with her when she came to work for us...and it has work its magic. Its convenient, it helps us manage the baby's weight on our body, it gives us one free arm, and most importantly...little Marcus loves it! Being carried in selendang batik, he sleeps like...a baby ;)

Ah wells, he's half Indonesian after all :D

...and the batik looks good on papa SC too, eh?

You like?

Batik Rocks - Indonesian Chic

Despite being in Hong Kong, to celebrate UNESCO's decision to list Indonesian Batik to its Intangible Cultural Heritage list, today, together with fellow Indonesians everywhere, I am proud to rock my batik.

My favorite batik dress with rocker accessories.
What can I say?
Batik rocks!

Batik dress = Mal Ambassador, Jakarta
Faux leather vest = In&Out, Mongkok
Rocker-inspired belt = Zara
Ninja boots, Rocker-inspired bag, silver bangle = Fa Yuen St Market
Black leather bangle = borrowed from sous chef, from Shi Lin Market, Taipei

Stay chic, wear your batik.

Home Decor Ideas - Framed Favorite Sayings/Quotes

I had an idea of framing my and SC's favorite sayings/phrases/quotes...ideally from Chinese and Indonesian background.

I asked SC to select his favorite phrases from a Chinese book, and he selected "Genuine gold fears no fire", which perfectly reflects one of his admirable traits. He is the kind of person who doesn't fear anything or anyone, when he fights for what he believes in. As for me, I have to learn to be more fearless. I wrote it with a gold pen, with a simple border that looks somewhat like fire on a plain black A4 paper and framed it.

I tried to search for some popular Indonesian sayings to post. Maybe it was me, but I was kind of surprised to see that relatively, there aren't as many positive ones as I expected. It was rather challenging to find a favorite.

Worst one:
Hidup segan, mati tak mau = very badddd

I was considering:
- Hemat pangkal kaya = being thrifty makes you rich
- Sekali tepuk, dua lalat = one hit, two mosquitoes
but they aren't quite right...

Finally, I temporarily settled with...
Pucuk dicinta, ulam tiba = wanting something (good), but getting more than expected. Sweet, eh?

Simply printed and glued on A4 paper, framed with cheap IKEA wood frames, rested on a shelf right above my TV.

Rockin' Batik

I felt like rocking my batik top for the weekend. The top is originally a little girl's dress, but I love the silhouette, pattern and color so much, I insisted to buy it.
"Is that for your daughter/little sister, Miss?" ...errr sure!


You know I like sweet and sour, soft and hard combo, so naturally, I combined pretty batik top, feminine cardi and sweet silver heels with rock hard borrowed-from-sous-chef accessories.


I love combining stud earrings with rounded rings. The uneven finish of the silver rings gave em an instant rustic feel.

The top was indeed too short for me to be a dress, so I threw on a pair of dark blue shorts (I wish I have black).

Top = little girl's batik dress from Batik Keris, Jakarta
Cardi = Fa Yuen St Market
Belt = Zara
Shorts = Padini, Kuala Lumpur
Shoes = Vincci, Kuala Lumpur
Accessories = borrowed from sc

Ethnic Batik Chic

Comfy cotton batik frock for summer. Wore it to work, with my favorite combo: belt belt belt!
But most of all, it's great to wear something nobody else wears (hardly anyone wears batik in Hong Kong, not even the Indonesian domestic helpers ^_^), it made me feel so special.

Dress = Batik cotton dress from Mal Ambassador Jakarta
Belt and bag = H&M
Shoes = Vincci, KL
all remixed

Vintage Wong Series

My fabulous grandma.
So chic in her qibao, even after 9 kids! I wish I could fit into that dress ^_^

Does Anger Solve Everything? My First Painting Experience

It's so frustrating seeing how anger and rudeness wins. I wish everything in this world can be solve in peace and niceties.

Remember my home makeover? We asked someone to remove the existing hideous wallpapers and painted our walls, as well as adding crown moldings.

I thought I am patient and understanding, but now I realized that I am probably just have absolutely no attention to detail, not to mention a total pushover. I noticed some imperfections in the paint job and some bad joints of crown moldings. They bothered me a little, but I was prepared to let it go. I didn't plan to complain. Maybe I just wanted the place to finish faster.

SC communicated with the painter, asked him (very nicely) to fix the imperfections, and he gave us millions of excuses. Pretty much bullied us. I was prepared to just let it be. I thought, if niceties didn't work, then nothing will.

I was wrong.

SC's parents stopped over to check on the flat, and SC's dad gave the painter a huge chunk of his mind. He gave one heck of a speech, complained about everything, almost fuming with anger. The painter got defensive, voices were raised, arguments were heated. I hated confrontations and felt uncomfortable with the whole thing. What if the painter decided to throw his towels and stopped working half way? What if he did the job even more terribly than before? What if this, what if that?

The next day, magically, everything turned out better. All the paint imperfections were fixed, the bad joints of the crown moldings were replaced with good pieces. The painter was still a little grumpy, but he was doing it.

Damn. I hate it when anger rules, cos I suck at it.

On a happier note, I finally finished painting my frame! Yay! The frame was purchased separately (Rp.40.000), it's raw wood, so it didn't need much work, the Rangda (a character from an old Balinese tale) was Rp.35.000. I am sure they were overpriced, but since the lady who sold them were kind enough to tell us stories about the Balinese tale, I felt it was ok to pay a little higher.

The Rangda and the frame was put together in a frame shop for HK$40, with a pale pink cardboard background (I wanted shocking pink but he didn't have such color), and I painted the frame with a bright and pretty provence yellow shade.

It's gonna look so good on my red entrance wall.

Not Your Average Delivery Guy & My Motorcycle Traumas

Motorcycle is a significant part of Jakarta's transport.

They break through traffic deadlocks pretty easily, swarms of these can be found in Jakarta's streets, and they scare the heck outta me. I can't ride a bike, not to mention a motorcycle, but I had my share of motorcycle nightmares as a passenger.

My motorcycle traumas:
- I had an experience of being a passenger on a motorcycle from Grogol to Mangga Dua, and during the two hours ride, I pretty much buried my face on the driver's jacket, almost lost some toes, and I am sure my heart was shrunk to the size of a frozen pea.
- I was injured another time, when my friend's motorcycle hit a cement road divider. We fell, the motorcycle fell on top of my shin, and a bus passed, missed us by a few centimeters.
- I was getting ready to hop onto the passenger seat, and my friend, the driver, started to drive away. I landed flat on my butt, my skirt went up, right in front of a bunch of guys. The embarrassment? It helped shaping me into the shameless girl I am now ^_^

I loved this scene of a bunch of giant tires being delivered by a motorcycle. The way the tires were arranged ensure balance on the tiny vehicle. Quite a work of art, don't you think?

Creative Storage - Toy Truck from Javanese Dugderan

Not your ordinary storage. My sis, the ever so creative designer, uses this toy truck she got at Javanese traditional street toy fair (dugderan) in our hometown, Semarang, to store her otherwise messy piles of stationery and knick knacks.


Now those mini Hong Kong taxis and light buses she parked near the truck had to worry about being hit by a falling stapler.

I am loving the Indonesian flag. Nice touch of nationalism. The only missing thing is the typical corny dangdut inspired Indonesian bumper stickers, such as "Janda kembang" or "Rindu Dendam".

Adorably Indonesian

Is there a way to dress Indonesian, which does not involve batik?
Apparently there is. My sis bought me this super adorable sweater from a shop in Alun Alun at Grand Indonesia. They specialise in incorporating Indonesian design elements into modern apparels. Kinda pricey, but affordable when on sale.


What's so Indonesian about this sweater?

It has rabbit's ears on its hood. OK, rabbits = adorable. I get it.


It's borderline cheesy and corny, don't you think? But that's me. Corny is my middle name and my sis knows it exactly! I AM shameless enough to wear this sweater!

OK, here goes. It has a rabbit print on the chest...in a pixelized high tech kinda way. The word "terwelu", which is Javanese for rabbit is cleverly printed underneath the rabbit. Genius!!!!!

Tied a piece of lace on my hair. The lace color matches the border color of the sweater's print. I added a small plastic earring in the shape of "female" toilet sign in pink, the color duplicates that of the rabbit's inner ear.


...and I am a sucker for initials. Thus the R white plastic earring.

Top = "terwelu" rabbit sweater from Alun-alun, Grand Indonesia, a bday gift from my sis, last year
Skirt = Tiered denim skirt bought in Singapore, SGD29
Tights = Grey tights from Argyle Center, HK$29
Shoes = White "patent leather" heels from Argyle Center, HK$69
Lace ribbon = from Ki Lung St, Sham Shui Po, HK$2.5
Plastic earrings = pink female toilet sign and initial R, from Argyle Center, HK$5 for two
Bag = white quilted bag with gold chain from Argyle Center, remixed