Rekutopia

two new things

2011-08-29T20:18:00.000+02:00

Lately I haven't got much time to sew.
But I managed to create two simple summer scarves!

The first one is made from madras fabric I got in Japan last year. I kept the edges raw and just added some lace to both ends.

The second one is a triangle scarf with pom-pom border. I might want to tie-dye this one later, though...It looks too plain as it is :)

lisboa bar

2011-07-10T19:25:00.000+02:00

Lisboa Bar - a cozy place to enjoy your original Potuguese dinner. Don't forget to make a reservation, because this place is usually very full. No wonder, judging from their delicious food!

This was my first Pastéis de Nata (Portuguese custard tart). I'm glad my friend suggested it as dessert - it was really delicious!

And by the way, this was my first espresso, too :)

manam

2011-07-09T18:59:00.000+02:00

If you want to eat Thai food in Munich, this is definitely the place. It's not like the other Thai restaurants in Germany. At Manam, you get what tastes like home-made Thai food. The place is really small, so you might want to avoid going there at peak time, but it's absolutely worth a visit.

Manam
Rosenheimer Strasse 34
81669 München

viktualienmarkt

2011-07-08T10:51:00.000+02:00

Our office in Munich is located near Viktualienmarkt, a daily food market and a square in the center of Munich. Yesterday was really sunny and I managed to take a few pictures.

By the way, Viktualienmarkt is said to be the best (and most expensive) place to buy any kind of food in Munich. I am yet to buy my lunch there ;-)

holyfields

2011-07-05T15:43:00.000+02:00

Holyfields - a new place for lunch on working days.

You get a small "Puk" device when you enter the restaurant. Then you go to a touch screen panel where you'll be led step-by-step to order your meal. Then you sit down and wait until your Puk vibrates, telling you that your meal is ready. It's as simple as that, and delicious, too!

one sunday in berlin

2011-06-26T15:40:00.001+02:00

It started with a new musical discovery. Rupert's Kitchen Orchestra has been around with these members since 5 years - why have I only found them today?! Their cool funk music will make anyone dance! Here's a sample I took (put on your headphones, else you won't hear the bass!):

Make sure you visit them on their website! Or directly to their YouTube and Facebook and Twitter! And no, they didn't pay me to promote them ;-) I got their CD - signed, too!

Then my trip outside ended with a visit to Café Krone, Oderberger Straße. Small, cozy, with delicious Bruschetta.

And how was your Sunday?

must.eat.cookies.

2011-06-23T16:57:00.000+02:00

A few days ago I created this...

...which is basically a simple cookie tin with some pretty japanese masking tapes on the lid. Since now I have this pretty cookie tin, I just have to bake some cookies...

...and now I have to stop myself from eating them.

(Pesto cookies - the recipe was from this book. Thank you, whoever invented them!)

flohmarkt am mauerpark

2011-06-19T16:04:00.004+02:00

Do you like flea markets? I love them. Today I went for the one near my place, Flohmarkt am Mauerpark. The weather was really strange, one minute the sun came up, the other minute it rained heavily. The rain didn't seem to drive the people away from the market, though. That's why I like umbrellas. We need them to become friends with rain!

I love meat way too much to convert myself into vegetarian, let alone vegan, but these people with their vegan burger almost convinced me to become vegetarian - almost ;-)

The Fernsehturm is watching over Berlin.

"Hi there, sexy!"

Everytime I go to a flea market I always need to stop myself from buying too many things. This time I only bought these...I swear I need them! ;-D

冷やし中華

2011-06-18T21:57:00.001+02:00

Though today was not so hot I still decided to make 冷やし中華 (hiyashi chuuka) for lunch today.

A sweet friend gave me the recipe ♥

冷やし中華 (chilled Chinese noodles)

Ingredients:

2 packs ramen noodles

1 egg, beaten

1/2 cucumber, julienned

2 tomatoes, quartered

1 slice cooked ham, cut into thin strips

1/4 sheet nori, cut into thin strips

Sauce:

3 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

5 tablespoons water or chicken stock

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon sesame oil

Make the sauce: mix the sauce ingredients in a saucepan, heat (not boil) and stir until the sugar dissolves. Refrigerate until cold.
Cook the ramen noodles like the instructions on the package. Drain immediately. I usually rinse the noodles with cold water until they are not sticky anymore. Refrigerate until cold.
Meanwhile, prepare the egg: heat a nonstick pan over medium heat, pour in the egg and tilt the pan to thinly coat the bottom with egg. When the egg is ready, remove from pan and slice into thin strips.
To serve: mix the noodles with sliced vegetables, egg and ham. Pour the sauce and top with sliced nori.

On really hot days you can also some ice cubes into the noodles!

Today I used paprika instead of cucumber. Of course, you can try out other vegetables, too!

Enjoy!

different city, different cars

2011-06-05T14:36:00.001+02:00

This week I found out...

...that in Berlin, a car could knock on your door, while standing upside-down...

...while in Munich, a car could easily drive on water.

ミシンさん (mr. sewing machine)

2011-05-25T21:14:00.002+02:00

Meet ミシンさん ("mishin-san"), my first sewing machine ever! Well, to be fair, he's not my first sewing machine ever, but he's definitely my first real sewing machine. Remember my little one? She can retire now (^.^)

My lovely auntie gave me this awesome machine when I went home a few weeks ago, thank you auntie! And so he came with me to Berlin in my luggage! He's not so heavy, only 5 kg - like the name says, "featherweight II". Maybe I should've called him "Sir Featherweight II", what do you think?

My BJD Junya, playing guard.

Oh, and don't ask me why, but I picture my little one as a "she", and my big one as a "he"...I know it might sound a bit sexist but I swear I had no such intention!

Big brother and little sister together ♥

hello again

2011-05-23T07:55:00.003+02:00

Hi! I'm back from a two-weeks vacation in my homeland! I'll write more about it later, and now I'll leave you with a taste of this morning's Munich, where I was staying last night.

Too bad I can't share the Munich air with you. It's fresh and a bit chilly ♥
Okay, I'll be leaving for Berlin soon, see you!

urbanears

2011-05-04T21:20:00.006+02:00

I received my URBANEARS Plattan today. It's a present I gave myself for my birthday :)

Isn't it lovely?
I love how it's stylish, has good audio quality, is multifunctional (has a microphone and a plug for another pair) and is affordable!

They come in a lot of colours!

...and a lot more! Check them out! You're bound to find one you like!
(Images of other Plattans are copyrighted to URBANEARS.)

hot pot

2011-03-23T10:07:00.002+01:00

Last night I made a Feuertopf (chinese hot pot) for dinner.

Happiness.

happy spring!

2011-03-21T11:32:00.006+01:00

March 21st - it's officially the first day of spring in Germany ♥
Happy Spring from Munich! How was your weekend?

On Saturday my boyfriend and I went to the most Berlin-like places in Munich.

We found out that Kauf Dich Glücklich is now in Munich, too.

Then we managed to get two seats inside the famous Das Neue Kubitscheck Café in Munich Westend.

On Sunday was my boyfriend's birthday and the weather was really nice. We went for lunch at Paulaner Biergarten am Nockherberg and had a walk along the Isar River afterwards.

Vanilla cream and cassis sorbet

Pebbles on the Isar River bank

I really should blog more.

giving and receiving

2010-06-13T16:02:00.006+02:00

My birthday was in April but due to many things I've just received this awesome present last week:

Washi masking tape!!!

Today I put it into use:

I forgot to take a before picture, but imagine the lid and the button of this sunglasses case were of the green colour you see on the above picture.

I managed to cover them all! No more green plastic case around :)

Also, yesterday I sewed this bib for a friend in Japan:

I used the instructions from Mai, which was easy enough, but I think I've chosen a too-thick towel material for this project...and I don't have any Sashiko threads for embroidering (not to mention that I've never done any real embroidery before), hence the rather unfriendly face of this bear - you do can tell that it's a bear, right? Right??

I hope her baby won't cry when she sees it...

food collage

2010-06-13T14:48:00.004+02:00

I love good food.

Do you know that you can use apple slicer on a pear, too?

A friend of mine gave me the recipe for this chicken fajita.

Spaghetti in taco shells - inspired by iCarly.

Mega-delicious-but-bad-for-your-figure cheese snack!

A family menu at Kanun, eaten by me and a (guy) friend
- left were only 2 chicken pieces and a bit of fries...

Yes, I love good food :)

organizing laces

2010-05-15T17:32:00.004+02:00

Oh dear, how long have I been absent?
It's due to a lot of things, but mainly because of my new job :)

This time I just want to show you how I organize my lace collections.

First, I made a bunch of these from cardstock.

Then I just wind up the lace on them, fixed with sewing pins.
Then I store them in a box.
That's it!

herz-jesu kirche

2010-03-29T12:30:00.003+02:00

Since last Sunday was Palm Sunday, I'd like to share my "German church" with you, though I went to my "Indonesian church" that day :D

It's a rather small church, and it's always full every Sunday, unlike most of other churches I've been to in Germany. Also, the people coming there are not only old people or young family with small children, but also those who look like students and young professionals.

It's always very lively there, something very rare in German churches. Going there always soothes my longing for my church in Jakarta :)

turkish market and knitting needle head cover tutorial

2010-03-26T13:22:00.009+01:00

Do you love traditional markets? I love them.
This week I had the chance to go to one of the famous turkish markets in Berlin at Maybachufer.

There were stands for fabrics, vegetables, fruits, household goods, cheese, meat, and so on. It was also rather crowded, so I couldn't take many pictures, but at least I managed to get the stuff that I needed:

A pair of size 10 (Europe) knitting needles, some sewing thread, zippers and some lace (one of them was needed for my dress). Also, I got myself some of these:

These are called "Sesamringe" (sesame rings) and is one of the most delicious bread in the world - for me, at least :) A pack of 3 rings was sold for €2,00 - cheap and yummy!

Back to my shopping goods - the knitting needles were also very cheap compared to those sold in stores, but the drawback is that they don't look as pretty. So I thought, why not cover the head with something more presentable for the eyes? And since I was in a good mood I thought I could make a tutorial as well!

You'll need:
- a pair of knitting needles
- fabric scraps
- ribbon
- batting
- sewing thread and needle
- glue

1. Cut out two circles from your fabric scraps. Mine had a diameter of 7,5 cm, since the needle heads were pretty big.

2. Do a running stitch along the circle, about 5 mm from the edge. Pull the thread lightly so the fabric forms a cap. Leave the needle on the thread, you'll need it later. You might want to try this half-finished cover on the needle head to see whether it fits.

3. Next, try out the amount of batting you'll need to cover the needle head.

4. Then stuff it into the cap.

5. Now place the whole thing on to the needle head. Last chance for adjusting the placement of the batting inside the cap before sewing everything up!

6. Wind the remaining thread tightly around the base of the cap a few times (did I tell you to use longer thread than you think was needed? well, you do...), then sew up with your favourite finishing stitch.

7. It should look like this now. Carefully trim the fraying edge if needed.

8. Glue a ribbon to cover the base. I'm sorry I couldn't take a better picture, but this is how it's supposed to look like afterwards.

Do the same to the other needle, and you're done!

I did this to my size 10 needle only, so I don't feel the need to put any label to the heads, but if you want to cover different sizes of needles you might want to label them so you can tell them apart. Use stamps, beads, buttons, embroidery, anything!

As usual, please forgive the dark pictures (my next tutorial should not be made at night!), and don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions!

my creative space - summer dress

2010-03-25T12:15:00.005+01:00

In the last few sessions of my sewing course, I had worked on a summer dress.
I didn't have a pattern for this dress, it's basically assembled from 3 rectangles and a curvy trapezium (it's rather hard to explain...). I used a gather method, so it was a lot of fabric! Also, I couldn't finish the dress in the sewing course, so I had to do the finishing at home, with my mini machine.

This was how my tiny working table looked while I attached the last lace...
...the dress was like a monster, swallowing my whole table!

The finished dress.

Surprise! It can also be worn as a skirt!

Ta-daa!

I'm happy about how it turned out. I was so worried I wouldn't be able to wear it in summer since I couldn't finish it in the sewing course. Thank goodness for my mini machine!

See more creative spaces at kootoyoo!

zur rose

2010-03-24T13:55:00.005+01:00

Oh dear, so much life, so little time to blog ;-)
Exactly a week ago I went for a solitary lunch at Zur Rose, a very nice little café near my place. I've been wanting to go there for a long time, so I was glad that I've finally have the time to, and I was not disappointed!

Like many of the cafés in Berlin, Zur Rose has a vintage interior, using unmatched vintage furnitures and vintage wallpaper.

The food is super delicious! I had some macaroni with chicken fillet and home-made tomato pesto. Unlike many other places, they don't just give you some cold bread, but ask whether you would like some and then warm them for you. They also have free water, definitely a plus in Germany, where you sometimes even have to pay €0,50 for tap water!

Zur Rose has definitely passed the test to be one of the cafés I'll keep coming back to :)

my creative space

2010-03-18T11:16:00.003+01:00

I made this bag a while ago.

It's going to be my "informal evening bag", so I wanted to give it a subtle accent.
So I browsed through my Japanese craft magazines and came up with a lace brooch.

In progress: 1st layer

In progress: 2nd layer

Now just pin it on the bag! :)

Visit more creative spaces on kootoyoo!

carbon neutral

2010-03-17T10:18:00.004+01:00

image source: kaufda.de

Just now I came across this campaign "My blog is carbon neutral" - a way for bloggers to help the environment. It started in Germany by the Mach's grün! (Make it green!) programme with the goal of reducing carbon dioxide emissions. By joining this campaign, Kaufda will plant a tree for your blog and thereby neutralise your blog’s carbon emissions for the next 50 years.

So that's the idea. Will you join us?
Every tree counts!

lomography

2010-03-15T17:57:00.005+01:00

Last Saturday I went to lomography, at Friedrichstraße 133.
Very cool shop, definitely a must for every lomography/photography fan!

Though they sell チェキ cameras on their online shop, for some reason they don't have them in the shop. But they do have the チェキ films!

Now I really can't wait to get the camera :)

lemon gift bag

2010-03-12T21:03:00.006+01:00

This is what I did for my friend Sa-Su's birthday.

This is the present, a shower gel from L'OCCITANE.

I wanted it to have a special packaging...

...so I made this simple lemon drawstring bag!

I made the bag with this mini sewing machine. Look at how small it is!
It can only sew a normal stitch, no interlocking whatsoever. Just straight through.
This is the only sewing machine I currently use until I get a "real" one someday soon :)

a long, expensive day

2010-03-07T18:04:00.005+01:00

Yesterday was a sunny day, though pretty cold.
I started what turned out to be a long, expensive day at around 13:15.
At first I went to check out a few shops in Prenzlauer Berg area, and I met this handsome guy.

Aren't you cold, honey?

After that I was going to watch Avatar with a friend, but since there was still time I went to Manolo for a glass of hot white chocolate - which is actually melted white chocolate in milk, yumm...They have cool interior:

I love glasses with this shape ♥

Then there was the movie, in 3D, which costed us €14 each...
It was the most expensive movie I've ever gone to - at least it was worth it!
Next, dinner at El Reda, a Lebanese restaurant where we had some Kubideh, one of my favourite dishes.

Last, we went for some beer at Eschenbräu brewery.

It's common to see these machines inside a brewery in Germany.

The beer coasters have picture of the brewery's owner on them :)

It was really an expensive day, but I had a good company and a lot of fun, so it was worth it!

my creative space

2010-03-04T08:32:00.003+01:00

Jo from Chubby* Hobby has inspired me to play along with My Creative Space at kootoyoo.

So here's what I've been working on lately and finally finished last night:

A fabric cover for my "everything book": it's where I noted everything I think is important for that moment: notes to self, ideas, sometimes even shopping lists...

It started with this simple MUJI notebook...

...doubled with thick cardboard for more firmness.
(I made the fabric cover a bit too small to I had to trim the paper cover a bit...)

The button on the securing elastic band is for extra cuteness :)

mouse pad tutorial

2010-03-02T17:12:00.007+01:00

This cannot really be called a tutorial since it's too easy...
And I could swear I've seen a similar tutorial somewhere, but I can't remember where...
So here you go!

You'll need:
- a mouse pad (mine is from IKEA, old and battered)
- your choice of fabric (preferably something thin and glossy, but do experiment!)
- spray glue

1. Iron your fabric - you'll want your mouse pad to be free from creases.

2. Spray the mouse pad surface with glue - do this outside/a place with good air circulation!

3. Turn the mouse pad over onto the wrong side of the fabric, making sure that there are no creases, then press down hardly.

4. Cut the fabric closely along the edge, then wait until the glue completely dry - this is an important step, no matter how much you want to use your new mouse pad already :)

And you're done!

Actually the old mouse pad belongs to my boyfriend - he forgot to take it with him to Munich. Now I'm contemplating whether to give it to him back or to keep it for myself...what do you think? :D

living things

2010-03-01T11:57:00.003+01:00

I love plants.
So I try my best not to kill them, but it doesn't always work.
Currently I have a pot of Spathiphyllum and a pot of yellow Narcissus.
Whenever the wheather allows, I take them to the kitchen to sun.

Today is very stormy because of Xynthia, and the yellow buds don't look very happy...

...also, the picture makes me notice how dirty my windowpanes are...

munich in february - part 2

2010-02-27T22:02:00.004+01:00

My boyfriend lives in an area called Olympisches Dorf ("Olympic Village"), within an Olympic Park, which was constructed for the 1972 Summer Olympics. There is a hill there, which was errected from the ruins caused by bombing destuctions during World War II. Since it was very sunny that Sunday, we decided to take a walk around the park.

I've missed such blue sky so much ♥

munich in february - part 1

2010-02-27T21:41:00.007+01:00

Like mentioned in my last post, I went to visit my boyfriend in Munich last weekend.
I managed to take a few shots of this beautiful, 2nd largest city in Germany, before my camera started acting up (it turned out that it has an LCD error and need to be taken in for repair, but that's another story).

On Saturday we went for a walk in the city, pretending to be a pair of tourists.

Odeonsplatz

Fünf Höfe

Liebfrauenkirche

Liebfrauenkirche

Marienplatz

Marienplatz

In my next post I'll show you Olympisches Dorf ("Olympic Village"), where my boyfriend lives.

bali restaurant

2010-02-23T19:45:00.006+01:00

I'm back in Berlin!
I was visiting my boyfriend in Munich last weekend. There are a lot of pictures to show, but they still need some editing, so in the meantime I'll show you something else.

Two weeks ago when my boyfriend was in Berlin we went to an Indonesian restaurant called Bali. The owners are our friends' parents. They serve traditional, non-germanized Indonesian food, so the Indonesian people here love to come there.

The atmosphere is cozy, with lots of traditional decoration and, of course, traditional music. The food is super delicious not overpriced at all.

This was my appetizers: spring roll with salad - yes, spring rolls were originated in China, but like many other countries, Indonesia has also adopted them :)

What I had: Nasi Padang. Nasi means cooked rice (we have different words for rice on the field, uncooked and cooked rice) and Padang is the capital city of West Sumatra, a province in Indonesia. Padang is famous for its hot and spicy food, and this dish was rather hot, too. Yummm...I would really like to find out how the Germans would react to this dish!

What my boyfriend had: Nasi Campur Bali. Campur can be translated as mixed, so the dish is literally called 'Balinese mixed rice'. I took a little bite from everything on his plate, and this dish was also delicious ♥

If you come to Berlin and would like to try out Indonesian food, just drop me a line. I'd love to take you here!

elastic band bookmark tutorial

2010-02-17T14:10:00.010+01:00

My fried JF turned 30 last Saturday.
This guy has such a unique taste I just can't keep up with - meaning, I adore his taste but I still have no idea what to get him as a present. Since it was his 30th birthday and I didn't want to experiment with presents, I decided to just ask him what he wanted (boring, I know). He, being a crime/thriller fan, told me to get him a particular murder mystery book. Okay, done.

But, I can't just give him a book, right?
So I was thankful when my brain got a sudden inspiration a few days before his birthday: a knife bookmark to match the murder mystery book!

It's very easy to make, but I was in the mood to make a tutorial anyway, so here goes nothing:

You'll need:
- flat elastic band
- cardboard
- thin felt sheets in white and black
- glue, scissors, pencil, black felt-tip pen

1. Tie the elastic band around the book cover like shown on the picture. Make it fit just right, don't pull too hard or too loose. (Oh, the book is not the murder mystery one :))

2. Cut off the ends close enough to the knot. Your elastic band should look like this now.

3. Next, use your drawing skill to draw your version of a convincing Rambo knife on the cardboard (I consulted Google Image for reference...)

4. Cut it out, then use it to trace another one on the cardboard. Cut this out, then you should have two identical knife-halves like shown.

5. Now glue the blade part only on to the white felt sheet. I used a glue stick (for paper), but you can try other types of glue as well. Cut along the blade, be careful at the zig-zag part...

6. Your knife-halves should look like this now.

7. Do exactly the same for the shaft part with black felt, and you should have these now.

8. It's time to assemble them together! Glue the knife-halves together layered like shown. Be careful so that the elastic band is not stretched or folded during the process. Press the knife-halves hard together, then wait until the glue dries.

9. Your knife should look like this now. You're almost done!

10. See the orange cardboard peeping between the two knife-halves? I would suggest you use a white cardboard so the knife blade would look pretty, but then you'd still see some white cardboard between the shaft parts, right? So grab the black felt-tip pen and colour the still peeping cardboard black!

Congratulations, you're done!

Sorry for the dark pictures, I was working in the middle of the night and my room is just not suitable for taking pictures at night. This is my first tutorial ever, so I hope it's easy to understand. Don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions :)

How about making different kinds of elastic band bookmark for different kinds of book theme?
The sky is your limit!

happy sewing

2010-02-15T15:38:00.008+01:00

Does sewing make you happy?
Our teacher at the sewing course told us, "Sewing can get you frustrated, make you cry, drive you crazy, but it always makes you happy!"
I've been attending the course 5x now, and I can only agree to her. Concentrating on the stitch frees me from daily thoughts and the feeling of having achieved something afterwards really makes me happy.

These are what I made in the last couple of times:

First, something that may look like a pillow - in fact, it is as cushy as a pillow.

But actually it's a super-duper padded sleeve for my Macbook!

Double-layered and stuffed with 3 layers of thick padding...
I wish I had one of these during my school time - to sleep on during boring classes!

I even made a matching drawstring bag for the charger, just for fun :)

The only problem with the sewing course is that, when using not-for-sale or just-made-up-along-the-process-kind of patterns, I never have time to note everything down. The laptop sleeve is one of those made-up-along-the-process ones, so I have no idea whether I'm able to make another just like that...But my main problem is not having my own sewing machine anyway :D

The second item is a circle skirt for the wamer weather I'm badly longing for...

To my surprise, it was very easy to make, and even a beginner like me finished it in 2 hours!

Wheeeeee!

my favourite korean

2010-02-08T18:25:00.010+01:00

There are a lot of Korean restaurants in Berlin.
One of my favourites is Arirang in Wedding.
The food is great, not too 'germanized' and the price is pretty cheap.
I went there with two friends last weekend.

I wish I knew the Korean name of this dish.
It's a marinated belly of pork grill plate, made for two persons.
There were three of us and we still had difficulty finishing it...

They have other variations of grill plate and also other dishes such as tangsuyuk and the mostly-known dolsot bibimbap (in Germany only known as 'bibimbap'). They always serve the dishes with a set of side dishes shown on the picture above. Which one you get with which dish is never clear to me, though...

My favourite is the sweet-salty potatoes. I'm desperately looking for the recipe but it's rather hard while not knowing the name. Can anyone help?

[edit]
I think I found a recipe for the potatoes side dish via Zofona - I'll need to try this out!

Glazed potatoes (Gamja Jorim)

Ingredients:
1 medium sized potato
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
60 ml water

Peel the potato and cut it into small pieces (preferably the same size). Stir-fry the potato pieces in the oil till they get a little brown. Add the water, soy sauce and corn syrup and cook everything on a high fire until the potato is done and glazed in the mixture of soy sauce and corn syrup. Turn the potatoes frequently otherwise the glaze will not fully cover all the potatoes and your side dish might get burned.

If necessary you can add some boiling water when the pan dries out before the potato is fully cooked.

2nd christmas

2010-02-06T12:34:00.008+01:00

Last year I flew to my homeland for Christmas.
I left in the middle of December, so I didn't make to exchange presents with two of my friends.
Last week we met at my place for brunch and we did the present exchange then!

First, I got these cute handmade cloud, moustache and hedgehog stamps from Sa-Su. She is graphic designer and owner of small caps, a manufactory for fine prints in Berlin. Please check out her lovely and inspiring blog as well.

Next, this adorable Dachs Dessert badge from JF. We went to the university together and he knows about my weakness for cute (but not kitschy!) things ever since. I can't get enough of these badges :)

It felt really nice to open Christmas presents in January.
Maybe we should make it a tradition from now on?

learning new things

2010-01-27T14:08:00.006+01:00

I like to learn new things.
About 4 or 5 years ago I've made my up mind to teach myself at least one new thing every year. This doesn't always happen, though, since naturally there are busy and relaxed years. This year I've decided to finally learn how to sew with sewing machine and booked a sewing course at a fabric shop called FRAU TULPE ("Mrs. Tulip").

It's a ten-days course, one day a week. Each week we should come with our own projects and the teachers then help us with them. It's more a learning-by-doing course than a stepy-by-step course, and though I found it a bit quizzical at first, I soon enjoy it very much.

The belt pictured here is one of my first projects. It was very easy to make and I got to learn several new techniques in a day. It's reversible - I made it from this and this fabric.

The badge pinned on the purple side is from Dachs Dessert. I love her works :)

6 hours of sunshine

2010-01-25T22:54:00.007+01:00

This January has been a cold and grey month.
So I was very happy when the sun came out the day before yesterday.
I guess it only came out because it was very cold (-12°C).
But since I was so happy because of the sunny weather, I went out for a walk anyway.

I missed this blue sky so much. Can you spot the moon?

Part of the Spree's water surface was frozen.

Clear, long shadow ♥

Yesterday was -14°C but the sun didn't show up.
Today was -12°C again, and the sun was shining.
Does it mean that the sun only shines when it's -12°C during Berlin's winter?
That can't be good...

In the afternoon I went to a lovely café with my favourite co-worker.
I found it a few days ago during my daily walk.
It's called Café Solvey.

Please check out their galery for more pictures.
These pictures I took just don't do them justice.
I love cafés like this - I'll try to find more!

Welcome!

2010-01-25T22:41:00.002+01:00

People call me Alex. Well, most of them.

I'm a user experience designer, or an information architect. Or maybe even a passionate housewife to-be. You see, that is yet to be decided, and I'm not in a hurry. I lived in Jakarta for 18 years before then moved to Germany. Currently I'm enjoying life in Berlin.

I like eating, sleeping, reading, taking pictures, and creating things. Especially memories. Music was my first love, but it probably won't be my last.