2011 - A Year in Highlights

We've been thanking a lot for the last few years, there were just so much gifts that God has granted to us, and we can definitely see ourselves developed more and more in so many ways. In 2010 we're thankful we were able to bought our first car and our (small) apartment, upgraded my iPhone, attended my first Jakarta Fashion Week (and won 2nd place on a JFW competition held by Femina magazine). Then in 2011 hubby K got a new promising job (!), we bought a new camera, and hubby's turn to upgrade his iPhone ;)

Well of course there were other personal achievements as well as some down moments or things that we failed to achieve during those years but surely those down moments are not to be focused on. Let's just focus on the great things we've achieved so far and learned the lessons from the bad ones. One of the perks of having a personal blog is to be able to see and look back on your years just from re-reading your old blog posts archive. I love to read my old archived posts to see what I've been up to at those times and how much our lives have changed since that. I love to see how much my blogs have developed and how much I see myself evolved comparing to where I was a year or two years ago. And it is a great feeling knowing that you actually did pretty well all these past years :)

So anyway, here are the highlights from my 2011 :

JANUARY

There weren't many exciting activities during January, except for the couple of freebies I received that month (Words to The Rescue book, Shaw Treatment travel set, Kotex package, etc). I also redeemed my Centro vouchers that I got as one of the winner of the Nikicio blog contest that I did back in December 2010. I got a free maxi dress and a multi-colored bracelet from redeeming the vouchers :) I guess it's the "new year's luck" ;) - We also supposedly go to a big family vacation to Belitung island but had to cancel because of some unavoidable matters.

( words to the rescue book, Swahili set from Shaw Treatment, Kotex package )

FEBRUARY

Then in February we went to Snowbay Watertainment at TMII and had a fabulous day trying the Hurricane over and over again (long queue but really worth it!). In my fashion blog I also participated in Jane's Annual Capsule Wardrobe Challenge via her blog The Small Fabric of My Life. I"ve been participating in this annual challenge for two years in a row ;)

The Hurricane at Snowbay

MARCH

In March me and my family went to a family trip to Surabaya, Malang, and Madura. Malang is where most of my dad's family resides. We crossed the strait from Surabaya to Madura island via the Suramadu bridge, we satisfy our stomach with a full blown Surabaya feast which famous for their Spicy Duck as well as Seafood fare. And we also visited the Batu Zoo in Malang which was clearly the highlight of our trip! 
In this month I was also invited to Artistry new product launching event, and had my first ever Coach item, hahaha! It wasn't a real bag anyway, it's just a coin purse that I won in a blog giveaway. Free Coach, yay! I'm so pathetic, I know...LOL. Oh and this month we kinda officially adopted Blackey's son and named him "Kiddo" :)

 ( From top: Batu park zoo, My face analysis from Artistry, Coach coin purse, Blackey & son: Kiddo )

APRIL

On April the world celebrate the Royal Wedding (of William & Kate), it is a history in the making. As for blogwise, I attended the Make Up Forever new campaign launching, the Council of Chefs event, and I won a free tix from twitter for the CSI: The Experience exhibit at Mall of Indonesia which was awesome because we get to be a detective and try to solve a case as a CSI agent. Me & hubby are both CSI lovers so it is such an experience for us :)

 ( MUFE new ad campaign, Council of Chefs event, CSI: The Experience )

MAY

May was hubby K's birthday but I actually forgot what we did for his birthday, and I asked him but he also didn't remember, so we probably just had a little b'day-gift shopping and a casual birthday dinner at one of our favorite restaurant, and then probably had another dinner with our family. This month I participated in the Level One Project blogging contest and although I didn't win the first prize I still won some coffee vouchers. I also started a new blog post series in this blog called "Cerita Minggu Ini" >> which was apparently K's favorite part of the blog. (Note to self: dont be lazy to keep this series on!)

what's up there, hon? is it a bird? a man? a superman?

JUNE

In June we got great news because hubby K got a new job ! The office were much closer to home, the work hour is "normal", and the offer they gave were much better than his old job so we're thankful for all of that. Blogwise, I was sent an invitation to try one of the treatments at Sunsilk Hair Studio in Grand Indonesia. I got a much needed free hair cut instead! :D We also started to look for furniture things, compare prices, and so on for the "Apt Project" blog series (because we heard news that our pad will be ready soon, but turns out the news was just a false hope).

 ( furniture hunting, Sunsilk Hair Studio, K's first day on the new job! )

 

JULY

In July I was interviewed by Smashion for my fashion blog Two Thousand Things. I was also invited to the USDA Council of Chefs second event but I failed to attend due to a very bad eye infection that I had that day. We also finally visited the site of our new pad to try to see whether the rumors are true. We did get an invitation from the developer for a grand launching event, but when we get there it wasn't fully ready to live-in. The ready-units were those that located up until level 5, our unit was in level 15 so it would still need a couple of months I guess. But that's okay, that mean we can still have time to save up to buy our furnitures and kitchen cabinets ;p Oh and we bought this cute tuxedo print onesie for our nephew's birthday, isn't it the cutest onesie or what?! ^o^

 ( Smashion interview, Future pad, Cutest onesie )

AUGUST

August was my birthday and we also forgot where we went to celebrate it so maybe just another usual shopping + dinner, but I do remember I was sick on the day of my birthday and couldn't really go anywhere, but luckily we already went out to celebrate it on the day before my actual birthday date :) This month was also the Eid Al-Fitr celebration (the most celebrated day for Muslims) where we gather with our family to celebrate it. We went to Bandung to celebrate with K's big family on the first day and then we both went back to Jakarta to celebrate with my side of the family on the 2nd day.

( Top: me on my bday. Bottom: our Eid Al Fitr in Bandung, and in Jakarta )

SEPTEMBER

In September I went to Bogor with my cousins to have a culinary trip. Bogor is only 1 1/2 hour drive from Jakarta. The weather in Bogor was fantastic and it was a nice short getaway from the hectic capitol. Blogwise, I was invited to the Guess Fall/Winter preview at one of their flag store in Grand Indonesia. Another nice surprise was K's photo was picked as semi-finalists for the XL - Instagram Photo Competition ! We went to see the photo exhibition at The Rasuna Epicentrum where his photo was displayed and they also put the semi-finalist photos into a book !! So of course we bought the book. Although he did not win but how many opportunities do you get to see your creation and name in a book ?! I'm so proud of him :D

 ( Bogor trip, Guess fashion show, K's instagram photo exhibition )

OCTOBER

I was invited to the Hermes Paris Mon Ami event in October, and October was another month for freebies too. I received so many free stuffs, such as the Snowbay package which I received in a surprise, courtesy of Snowbay management team who happens to read my blog post about my fun day at Snowbay back in february! I also received free clothes courtesy of Roxy - Quiksilver who has been a great blog partner since last year. There were also a few other clothes from my cousin that she gave to me, a creamy body mist from Etude (from my brother who gave it to my mom and then mom gave it to me). I can't believe my luck. Oh and this month I also won my first-ever bid on ebay !! I won a leopard-print earrings from Betsey Johnson for about $2.99 !!

( Hermes event, Surprise package from Snowbay, package from Roxy Batik collection )

NOVEMBER

And the luck dust probably still have it's trace up to November because K surprisingly won a door prize of an Electrolux Washing Machine during his office's outing session (!), and later on he was also given 2 vouchers @IDR100.000 for Gramedia bookstore as a thank you gift for being a part of the outing committee. Super lucky, Alhamdulillah.

In November there were also some events that I was given invitation to. And I love attending events. These events invitation mostly came from a PR rep that found me through my blogs. I still couldn't believe how lucky I am to be able to have these invitations that were usually reserved for VIPs or professional journalists, and that's all Thanks to my blog !! So keep writing your blog guys, you'll never know what opportunities may knock on your door ;) So anyway this month I attended the Fimela.com Media Gathering for their Read2Share campaign & their FimelaFest, I also attended the Wolipop's Edgy Style fashion show, the Gala Premiere for Arisan 2 the movie, and of course let's not forget the annual Jakarta Fashion Week !! I had one other event I had to cancel too :( But overall, November was quite a busy work month for me.

( From top, left to right: Gramedia vouchers, Fimela media gathering, Wolipop fashion show, Arisan 2 gala premiere, Jakarta Fashion Week )

DECEMBER

December has also been a busy month for me, not work-busy, but fun-busy (if that makes sense ;p). Although I didn't attend any event this month but I was quite busy with all the fun outings I had. On early December we went to Bandung for a day trip with our friends. The 2 hours drive and all the foods we ate, and all the places we visited were really fun! I even had a short cookie making class! We plan to do another trip again soon, maybe to Bali ? ;p - And then we also went to see a fundraising mini show with K's parents at Sultan Hotel featuring Harvey Malaiholo, a famous Indonesian singer. Near the end of the month I also get to take K to the World Circus that are playing in town, and then we went to another trip to Snowbay Watertainment Park using the free vouchers and discounts that I got from the package that Snowbay sent me in October. And then I also went to Gelanggang Samudra Ancol with my cousins and her children. Gelanggang Samudera is roughly translated as "Ocean Arena", so it's like an ocean-themed arena/park where you can watch sea animals shows, etc. And lastly we get to spent New Year's eve together with both our families. What a wonderful way to end the year.. (plus we got a new camera in early December too!).

< From top, left to right: The Cookie Making certificate ;p, Fundraising show at Sultan Hotel, Gelanggang Samudera, World Circus (pictured with Samantha the cub), Snowbay Watertainment Park, New Year's eve >

Pfiuh, and that was my highlight of 2011. If you got bored reading this I don't blame you, it's such a very long post, even I got up late to make this post until 3:00 AM. But I know I'm gonna read this post again in 2013 and looked back to see how much our life has changed us.
As I was having quite many fun places to experience in 2011 so I'm hoping for much more fun and adventurous places to visit in 2012. If you would like to see my 2010 highlights and achievements you can read it in my fashion blog Two Thousand Things.

And although we had adopted Kiddo as our 3rd cat but right now at the beginning of this year we think we might say good bye to one of our cat, Ucil. He has been sick for the last month because he's old. He turns so skinny and looks really tired even though he still eat normally. His hairs were falling out and when he sleeps he seems like a very tired old man. Poor Ucil. The last time we saw him was at new year's eve, right under the dinner table. And after that we never saw him again until this moment. God bless his warm and kind heart...