There are a few design styles that I love and one of them is Feminine Vintage or Classic Romantic. I love the vintage romantic style with it's classic feminine feel. To me, it brings back memories of the glamorous golden old days, when everything is much simpler, and where women and men dress accordingly, and everything is done by the social rules ;p

It's a very girly design style so your husband probably wouldn't love it as much as you do, LOL. But here are some classic romantic style that would goes great on the vanity table:

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All the photos above are from Pinterest (I just love that website to gain ideas and inspirations), and you can click the photo source link that I put below each photo to go straight to the original source of the photos above.

You might notice that my inspirations above also include a little bling here and there for a glamour feel. I'm just an ordinary girl who love her blings ;)
Speaking of blings, a wedding ring is an ultimate bling. If you're in the market for a beautiful wedding ring you can check out this website below..

Create your own engagement ring with Modern Design Inc. - 5 star service, great prices. 
It's like having your own personal jeweler.

Toodles,

Hostess Gift Ideas

I had a little bit of spare time yesterday and created this gift ideas set on Polyvore. I love giving gifts and enjoy trying to find the perfect gift for each receiver. I also love unique gift ideas that should be useful and enjoyable by the receiver, not just those boring blah stuffs that people don't really use at all (and usually would ends up in a drawer for years) ;p

Here's some gift ideas for a hostess, let's say you were invited to a house warming party and you're confused on what to give to the hostess. If I were invited to one, I would bring any of these gifts below to help the hostess celebrate their new house ;)

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Cost Plus World Market Ginger Jar Tea Towels, Set of 3
298.725 IDR - worldmarket.com

Cost Plus World Market Orange, Yellow and White Take-Out Box...
49.735 IDR - worldmarket.com

Cat Salt Pepper Set
241.075 IDR - culturelabel.com

Pier One Wildflower Measuring Spoons
149.015 IDR - pier1.com

Linea Homespun Dotty Biscuit Jar
180.805 IDR - houseoffraser.co.uk

CuteTools! 12701 Wine Opener, Blue Floral
169.445 IDR - casa.com

Casablanca Lanterns - Mint
49.735 IDR - zgallerie.com

I did another house-warming party gift ideas post last year, you can CLICK HERE to see it but it was more into the pricier ones, so I decided to do a more affordable version again here ;p

I hope you like my selections. Which one would you choose?

 

App of the Week: Virtual Makeover via HomeStyler

I recently had a lot of fun with an iPad app called HomeStyler which is a home designing app where you could browse for decor inspirations, see some lookbook and designs from the professionals, or you could even create your own decorating design!

You know interior designing is one of my passion, right? My dad is an architect so I am accustomed to seeing and reading interior magazines since I was a child. He always had a pile of interior magazines and design books on his office and I love flipping those magazines and borrowing them to my bedroom ;p

I guess that's where my passion for interior design started to grow. I still love browsing for interior design photos until now. So if there's any app about interior or home designing on my gadget, I would download them immediately ;p

So as I told you above, in this HomeStyler app we could create our own home decor style aside from browsing interior photos in it. I made a couple of room designs that I managed to create out of the app. Here's a BEFORE & AFTER photo of a living room that I designed:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

It's my first design so please bear with my newbie skills, LOL. I'm thinking of a coastal theme design when I decorated this living room. That's why I had the wall paint that resemble a seafoam green, a sand colored floor and furnitures, and a shell-inspired lamp and small knick-knacks. I also kept the room sleek and towards the clean look because I want to achieve a semi-formal type of a living room.

Now let's see my next try-out design which is a city apartment bedroom:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I was thinking of another sleek and clean look for this one. A modern sleek-looking design that's perfect for an apartment bedroom in a high rise building. I also chose a neutral color theme in this room to go with the sleek look I'm looking for.

So what do you think of my decorating style? LOL. I know this is pretty standard and nothing special, it's totally a newbie style ;p But the app still has limited option of furniture and knick-knacks so this is what I came up with in the end. I like them though, especially the bedroom :p

So if you like interior design and you have an ipad you might want to check out HomeStyler. They have a website where you could also design a room via their website, so I think it's pretty cool ;)

Another interior design app that I like is Houzz, but in Houzz you can only browse for interior photos and you could not make your own design like HomeStyler does, but Houzz sure do have lots of photos collection and the photos are all in high resolutions so it's always nice to browse it for ideas and inspirations. I use Houzz a lot for my Apt Project inspirations.

What are your favorite home design apps?

 

Apt Project: Bathroom tiles

Ngomongin kamar mandi, nggak jauh dari labil. Awalnya pengen kamar mandi yang bertema"ocean" atau pantai/laut semacam gitu lah. Jadi tadinya udah mulai koleksi barang2 kamar mandi yang serba biru. Mulai dari keset kamar mandi warna biru, tempat sampah kecil warna biru, sikat kamar mandi warna biru, pokoknya mulai ngumpulin yang warna biru lah sesuai tema.

Eh tapi belakangan pas udah mulai renovasi, tiba-tiba ganti haluan, pengen kamar mandi nuansa hitam putih gara-gara sering lihat gambar / contoh desain interior di website maupun di aplikasi houzz favorit eyke ;) 

Pas lihat gambar ubin kotak-kotak hitam putih kayanya lucu juga nih buat di ruangan kecil alias kamar mandi. Biar nggak kaya papan catur banget maka disusunnya secara diagonal jadi sudutnya miring. Kurang lebih seperti contoh gambar di bawah ini lah:

Lalu dimulailah itu yang namanya hunting ubin hitam-putih untuk kamar mandi. Buset yang namanya cari ubin kamar mandi hitam putih ternyata tidak semudah yang dikira. Ubin warna hitam dan putih polos sih banyak tapi kebanyakan permukaannya licin jadi nggak cocok untuk lantai kamar mandi. Kalau untuk kamar mandi itu cocoknya lantai yang ada teksturnya, jadi nggak licin dan mengurangi kemungkinan terpeleset. Kalau yang permukaannya licin itu lebih cocok untuk living room, kamar tidur, dll..

Nah itu nyari keramik hitam dan putih polos bertekstur susahnyaaaa... ampe keliling banyak toko di beberapa lokasi berlainan tetap nggak dapat juga. Minta tolong titip sama si mandor minta cariin di sawangan eh nggak nemu juga dia. Kebanyakan adanya yang permukaannya licin, katanya. 

Pas kita lagi hunting dan nemu ada yang cocok eh taunya itu model tahun jebot dan udah nggak diproduksi lagi :( Trus sempet nemu juga di Dunia Bangunan tapi sayangnya ukuran per satuan kotaknya besar, dan kalau kita potong lagi jadi kotak-kotak kecil agak susah dan ribet. Akhirnya setelah beberapa kali bolak-balik ke Pinangsia, ke BJ Home, dll akhirnya kita nyerah juga. Walaupun kita gak berhasil menemukan pilihan yang benar-benar cocok tapi kita menemukan keramik hitam-putih bertekstur yang size nya kecil (20x20):

ini yang kita mau tapi ukurannya kegedean:

dan ini pilihan kedua kita yang akhirnya kita beli:

(hehe maaf gambarnya terbalik)

Ini sebenarnya bukan pilihan utama kita, tapi berhubung kita gak nemu juga yang benar-benar pas jadi akhirnya kita memutuskan untuk membeli si pilihan kedua ini. Kita dapetin ini di Dunia Bangunan. Buat yang belum tau atau mungkin lagi nyari keramik untuk lantai, saya merekomendasikan Dunia Bangunan :) Ini lain sama Depo Bangunan ya walaupun namanya mirip hehe. 

Dunia Bangunan ini letaknya di BSD Serpong, bangunannya besar kok dan rata-rata orang sana pasti pada tau Dunia Bangunan. Ini kaya semacam supermarket tapi isinya keramik semua hehe Satu lantai luas dan panjang layaknya supermarket, full sama berbagai macam tumpukan pilihan keramik, dari yang ukuran besar sampai yang kecil, dari yang granit sampai yang model KW 1, KW 2 dll... Saya juga baru tau kalo keramik itu ada juga versi KW nya kaya tas hahaha

Jadi buat yang lagi cari-cari keramik bisa kesini deh, kayanya hampir segala macam merk ada semua disini. Dan petugas2nya juga nampak sigap dan bisa diajak konsultasi karena mereka memang nampaknya tau tentang keramik, jadi kalau nanya sama mereka puas deh, apalagi buat yang newbie kaya saya dan suami ;p 

Kaya gini nih penampakan si supermarket keramik alias Dunia Bangunan di BSD:

Jadi, sekarang kamar mandi hitam-putih saya sudah jadi ^___^

Bye-bye tema ocean, say Hello to black & white! hehehe #labil

Oiya, tapi ternyata pas si keramiknya mau dipasang kata si mandor berhubung ukuran kamar mandi yang super tiny dan letak toilet dll yang bikin kagok jadi agak susah kalau mau dipasang secara diagonal. Ya sudahlah, namanya juga eyke newbie yah, gak ngerti juga apa bener begitu atau si mandornya aja yang males karena ribet, jadi akhirnya ga jadi deh dipasang diagonal. Jadinya dipasang kotak-kotak biasa aja ala papan catur hehe
But it turns out pretty nice though. Yang penting kan hasil akhirnya, dan setelah lihat hasil akhirnya, we both love it :D

Kalau mau ngintip lantai kamar mandi kami, ini teaser nya hehe Foto ini diambil sebelum si kamar mandi full didandanin. Kalau sekarang sih udah selesai didandanin, tapi foto hasil akhirnya nanti aja ya. Sekarang teaser nya aja dulu ya hehe.. ;p

See you on my next Apt project post!

 

Apt Project: Wallpapers & Cat Dinding

Maaf banget kalau lagi-lagi janji saya untuk sering posting disini terabaikan (again! fufufu...). Jangankan posting disini, posting di blog utama saya aja <Two Thousand Things> lagi jarang banget huhuhu.. Ini semua dikarenakan saya lagi sibuk bin rempong ngurusin yang namanya renovasi dan persiapan pindahan.

Iyaaa.... Akhirnya saat-nya pun tiba niihh! Hohoho..

Akhirnya saya dan hubby bakal menempati tempat baru kami sebentar lagi hehehe 

Sekedar update: 

Kita serah terima unit sekitar akhir tahun lalu, tapi karena keterbatasan dana jadinya kita nggak langsung pindah. Karena untuk dapat ditinggali si unit perlu sedikit renovasi dan juga harus diisi furniture dan sebagainya jadi beberapa bulan pertama kita nabung kelas berat dan terpaksa belum bisa pindah. Akhirnya setelah beberapa bulan lewat eh ada rejeki buat mulai renovasi :D Sebenarnya tabungan-nya belum banyak tapi kita nekat aja start renovasi + nyicil beli barang sambil jalan ;p

Eh Alhamdulillah taunya seiring berjalannya proses renovasi tiba-tiba kita suka dapet aja rejeki tambahan. Kerjaan freelance saya lancar, bayarannya juga lancar. Hubby K naik gaji (Alhamdulillah). Nggak lama kemudian saya juga malah dapat tambahan kerjaan freelance baru, jadi translator untuk sebuah wedding magazine ;) Alhamdulillah.

Intinya, kalau kita memang berniat sungguh-sungguh dan berdoa sama yang diatas, insya ALLAH doa kita dikabulkan. Saya berdoa agar semua proses pindahan ini berjalan lancar dan Alhamdulillah selalu ada aja jalannya biar lancar. Thank you my Dear God..

So anyway, sekarang makanya kita lagi sibuk-sibuknya ngurus renovasi dan pindahan. Dari 2 minggu lalu kita kerjaannya ngubek-ngubek toko, pasar, mall, sampai browsing terus menerus demi cari info barang yang kita mau. Pindahan itu ternyata nggak gampang ya bok. Banyak banget printilannya yang musti diurusin hehehe Saya sampai puyeng dan jadi emosi tingkat tinggi mulu gara-gara stress ngurusin renov + pindahan huhuhu...

Sekarang ini ceritanya persiapan pindahan udah sekitar 90%. Yang belum dapet itu tinggal dispenser air minum yang (pengen-nya) bottom loading, sama kaca kamar mandi. (sama meja rias, meja kerja, meja samping tempat tidur, lemari baju, rak sepatu, rak drawer buat storage) ;p

Minggu kemarin kita akhirnya sepakat sama pilihan wallpaper. Rencananya kita mau pake wallpaper dikombinasi sama cat untuk di living room. Setelah tiga kali bolak-balik minta ketemu si mandor buat ngeliat buku sample wallpaper, akhirnya kita berdua setuju sama corak di bawah ini, yaitu kombinasi wallpaper polos abu2 + wallpaper corak dengan warna abu2 yang sama:

Sisanya akan di cat dengan warna abu2 yang senada. Nah pas udah dapet pilihan wallpaper-nya baru kita keliling nyari cat. Pas lagi nyari keramik ke BJ Home di BSD kita sekalian liat-liat cat karena disitu lumayan lengkap juga kayanya pilihan cat-nya secara ada banyak banget rak isi cat berbagai merk di bagian belakang toko. 

Setelah konsultasi sama petugas di bagian cat (di toko-toko seperti BJ Home atau Mitra 10 biasanya memang ada meja khusus konsultasi - mungkin supaya customer gak bingung milih cat yang bermacam ragam disitu). Konsultasi ini gratis kok, cuma tadinya saya sempet curiga si mas petugas bakalan "menggiring" saya untuk memilih merk cat tertentu. Saya awalnya mencari yang merk Vinylex karena itu sesuai pesanan mandor saya. Si mas petugas lalu memberikan kami brosur pilihan warna Vinylex yang sangat terbatas (hanya satu lembar brosur). Lalu setelah si mas petugas menanyakan perihal warna yang kami cari dan bagaimana bentuk ruang atau warna lainnya di dalam ruang tersebut, kami bilang bahwa kami mencari nuansa warna abu-abu.

Lalu ketika saya bilang "sampel Vinylex warna abu-abu cuma ini mas?" Si mas petugas langsung menyodorkan plat sampel warna lain dengan banyak pilihan warna abu-abu (tanpa menyebutkan merk nya), lalu menyarankan warna abu-abu yang pas buat pilihan kami. Mungkin karena waktu itu konsentrasi kami sudah menurun karena sudah malam dan seharian muter2, jadinya kurang konsen sehingga berfikir bahwa sampel yang ditunjukkan pada kami itu masih merk Vinylex (sesuai pertanyaan saya). Kami pun memutuskan warna Supernova sebagai pilihan karena warna tersebut memang cocok dengan pilihan kami dan bukan atas paksaan si mas-nya hehe

Setelah itu kami masih ingin membeli cat warna putih untuk ruangan lain. Si mas menawarkan merk Lenkote yang kata dia lebih murah harganya untuk cat warna putih, namun kualitasnya bagus, setara dengan Dulux. Karena lebih murah kami pun meng-iyakan.

Setelah membayar dan sampai rumah, beberapa hari kemudian saya mengeluarkan semua struk belanjaan yang saya simpan karena saya mau membuat progress report sekaligus catatan pengeluaran biaya renovasi. Nah di struk tersebut saya baru lihat bahwa ternyata cat yang kami beli dua-duanya itu merk Lenkote. Yang warna abu-abu bukan merk Vinylex seperti dugaan kami melainkan merk Lenkote. 

Sebenarnya saya nggak terlalu ambil pusing karena toh harganya juga masih masuk akal dan tidak terlalu mahal. Lagipula kata ibu saya Lenkote termasuk bagus kualitasnya dan kalau untuk cat mending pilih yang bagus daripada nanti cepat kusam, katanya. Jadi saya nggak merasa dirugikan sih, hanya saja saya menyayangkan si petugas yang (menurut pendapat saya) secara halus telah  "menggiring" kami untuk membeli cat merk tertentu (yang mungkin dia akan dapat bonus apabila berhasil menjual merk tersebut) hehe.. Ini namanya negative thinking. Jangan ditiru. ;p

Ini hanya sekedar catatan pribadi saya saja sih, hehehe Jadi sekedar saran, kalau memang kalian mau beli cat di tempat serupa dan sudah tau apa yang dimau (merk maupun warna), langsung bilang aja ke mas nya. Kalau perlu, browsing dulu di internet untuk lihat nama / kode warna nya dan langsung minta yang sama. Kecuali kalau masih blank, nggak ada salahnya nanya-nanya dulu, konsultasi sambil lihat pilihan-pilihan warna yang tersedia. Jangan lupa kalau perlu minta sample warna segala merk yang ada ;p

Untuk catatan pribadi saya (kalau di tahun-tahun yang akan datang mau re-paint our walls), berikut cat yang kita pilih:

- Cat merk Lenkote "No Odor Emulsion" warna Supernova (abu-abu). 

- Cat merk Lenkote Super Silk Emulsion warna putih.

 Sekian.

My Working Table Necessities

I basically work from home. I do freelance jobs from my computer at home, and I also blogged a lot because blogging is part of my job ;p So I literally spent my days in front of the computer for at least 8 hours a day!

I have a small working space in my bedroom, that's where I put on my computer and all of the essentials right beside it. When I looked at a corner in my work table, I realized that I have such random essentials for work-must-haves, LOL.

Okay, let me tell you about my work table. 

It's not really a table but a single drawer with short legs. I used the top surface for putting on my laptop and knick knacks (notebooks, stationary, etc). Aside from all those notes and journals that I kept on my desk for writing important tasks, I filled the drawer with all my files, past work thingies, calculator, bank's remote key, as well as brochures / press release and work sheets for my recent jobs or recent blogging necessities.

Right beside my laptop is a small corner with random essential things such as these:

Those are all my necessities which I need when I'm working in front of my laptop. You can see that there's a calendar on the right, and then in front of it is a pretty box that I just bought and haven't opened yet because I'm afraid it would get dirty, LOL. So it's just standing there for my inspiration ;)

You can also see that there's a kitty cat phone holder and then at the back is a Goofy glass which I used to store my pens and pencils (and a ruler). You can also see that there is a set of cow print pencils + eraser at the front. I forgot why it's there when I photographed it, it's usually stands inside the goofy jar with all the pens and pencils.

So here is the normal look of the corner without the cow-print pencils set:

I moved the cow-print pencils set into the glass jar where they belong. You can also see my current favorite pen there inside the glass, the one where I talked about here.

On the other side of the table I put on another desk calendar (just because I don't know where else to put it ;p). It's a very pretty calendar that I got from the L'Occitane event several months ago:
 

As I mentioned above, I spent my days in front of my laptop for at least 8 hours a day non-stop. I only stopped for meals. I also mostly worked at night and my air con is always on at night time, and that's why I always need a hand cream and a lip balm near me. I have quite a few of hand creams and lip balms all around the house and car because I can't stand dry hands and dry lips. So I gotta have them close ;)

I also like to snack in front of my laptop and I'm always make sure that my hands are clean before snacking. So that's why I got a hand sanitizer in this corner too ;p

I know those three items are not your usual work essentials but they are to me ^o^

Here's a close up of my essentials: Hand Sanitizer Gel, Hand Cream, Lip Balm, Mobile Phone in standing position so I can see who's calling or texting me while I'm in front of my laptop ;p

Note:  

I'm using The Body Shop Satsuma Hand Cleanse Gel, Garden of Love White Rose Hand Cream, Made From Earth Citrus Fresh Organic Lip Balm.

Hotel Review : Aston Marina Ancol + [Places We Go]

Last February me and my family went to stay at the Aston Marina Hotel for a weekend. Aston Marina is located near the Ancol beach (but it's not located inside the Ancol area), in fact it is located within walking distance to the main Ancol gate.

Before checking in to the hotel, we went to the Ancol area first to have a late lunch at Le Bridge, the restaurant that's located off the shore.

We have to walk on a long boardwalk to get there, but walking the boardwalk is of course a lot of fun because of the beautiful view of the calm sea and the vast sky behind it. We were there in the afternoon so the sun was not very hot up there. The restaurant itself has a unique circular building, the food and drinks were okay, nothing really special in taste but they were all generally okay.

I haven't been to the beach for quite a while so it was nice to see the sands and sea for a change. This short getaway is also what we need in the middle of our busy daily life with works and so on. I'm glad to still be able to gather with my family and spent some quality time together. 

When we were young we would almost feel hesitant to go out with our parents because we would prefer to hang out with our friends, right? But at this age, when you grow older you started to realize how precious the time is, and you would be happy to be able to spend quality time with your parents and the rest of your family >>> I'm talking like an old lady here, sigh.. does this mean I'm old??

By the way, I love boardwalk photos because they give gorgeous background, and with just a little bit of editing the photos can turn out great! Maybe that's why this site is popular for a pre-wedding photo spot ;p

Do you like my editing?

And this is Le Bridge, the restaurant at the middle of the long boardwalk off the shore. From here we can see the limitless sea and the big ships at far. The boardwalk does not stop here, it continues to the deeper area of the sea and then made a circle back to the shore, so it is a pretty long boardwalk if you decided to walk on it ;p But through this boardwalk you can go to the middle of the sea and then circled back to the shore with the boardwalk trails.

the resto:

the boardwalk:

After an afternoon at the Ancol beach, we signed out and go straight to the hotel just outside of Ancol's main gate. The Aston Marina Ancol hotel is unique because it is part hotel and part apartment. So the whole area is consisted of 3 or 4 tall buildings, and one of them have been turned into a hotel while the other three buildings remain private apartments. The swimming pool for the hotel is located in different area from the apartment's pool so visitors of the hotel can enjoy their own pool without having to be disturbed by the apartment residents and vice versa.

Because it was originally an apartment building so the rooms in this hotel is more like a mini apartment, equipped with kitchen and living/dining room. Maybe this is what they called a condotel??

(sorry for the already messy room ;p)

the view from our terrace:

The night view was fantastic.
The morning view was also fabulous, we can see the sea and big ships set sails far above the city border.

the pool:

I also love the pool terrace. The swimming pool is located at the 7th floor (if I'm not mistaken, because I forgot) so it has a city view of it's own. The pool area is quite small but they decorate it pretty nicely so although I didn't swim but I pretty much enjoyed sitting at the rattan bench facing the pool with the lush green surrounding all over me.

Because the pool is located on a higher floor so it was quite windy and the wind makes the swimmers shivers easily, LOL (yeah, that's you bro and hubs!) ;p

You'll see below that the harsh wind kept shoving my bangs on to my face, LOL. I had to hold my hair in order to take a proper photograph or else my face would be covered with hairs due to the wind ;p

Overall, we have a pleasant stay here in Ancol Aston Marina and would recommend it to anybody whose looking for a family hotel in that area. Just remember that this hotel is located outside Ancol (marina) but it's just near the main gate of Ancol. This hotel is also close to Mangga Dua (the famous shopping area in Jakarta).

My next plan is to spend a night in one of the hotel inside Ancol area so it would be easier for us to enjoy all the facilities Ancol has to offer. Ancol is still one of my favorite local / Jakarta holiday spot because it is the closest beach we had and it is a really different view from the tall buildings of Jakarta. It is also really nice to be able to get away from all the hectic daily life once in a while :)

See you on my next post!