Another Victoria's Secrets

my bookshelf

I just re-arranged my bookshelf because a packet containing our books from the moving (that had been kept in my aunt's house in the past 1.5 years) just arrived. I needed to organize these 2 x 110cm shelf to accommodate all of these books because the book rack in front of my room is now overloaded with the rest of our so-many-books--all just mine and dad's!

You can see my passion for books from the amount of the books stacked there on my shelf. These are my most favorite books--and 90% are in English--so I have to display them above my working desk. I love just to look at them and knowing that I have them in reach whenever I need to reread or looking for some reference. I know this is kind of narcissistic, but hey--people have their own fetish and books are mine!

P.S. I feel extremely happy and proud to put my own book Gerbang Nuswantara among these fantasy/spiritual/philosophical books. Oh, that feeling!

I've been crazy about DIY projects now, especially to decorate my room, although it's already full with stuff. I'd been thinking of having a large Bali map (the beautiful island where I live now) on wall to see my next holiday destination, but never found a good enough map on store, so I decided to print the map on my own and put it on wall. This project takes up only about 2 hours in total for less than $5!

1. The first thing you need is the map. You can always buy one at bookstore or travel agency. I searched and found mine from Google and edited it a little by Adobe Photoshop. 
2. Then I set the size of A2 (about 38x60cm) and printed it on the indoor Easy Banner material. I did mine at Eka Print for only Rp27,300. This is the only actual price I paid for the whole project.
3. Glue the map to something thick and soft. It can be Styrofoam, cork, canvas, or carton. I used the carton from my new table packaging, so it added about 40-60mm dimension to my map.
4. The tricky part of playing with dimension is to cover the sides so the ugly parts won't show. Make sure you spare 1-2cm of borders before you cut your map. 
5. Put it on the desired part of your wall. I used 3M double-sided tape behind the map. It's better if you put it in a frame, but since I'm doing this on very tight budget, I'm pretty happy with the result for now.

Make the map even more fun with some marks to show the places you've been at. I didn't like the red and blue colors so I painted them with my favorites: purple/magenta and turquoise. The easiest is to use nail polish.

1. Prepare a box (or more) of push pins. 
2. Paint the plastic part of the push pin with nail polish patiently. Hold the needle part with your left fingers and spin slowly while your right hand works on the polish.
3. Let dry on used newspaper.
4. Check the pins after 10-20 minutes if there are any defect. You can add second layer now or cover it with top coat (also from nail polish).
5. The pins with your favorite color are ready for use now.

You can mark all those memorable places you had been with smile... and plan the next holiday trip to the areas with less pins!

Last Monday, just a day after my trip to Amed, I woke up quite early (8 a.m.) and went to Sanur to meet my cousin Goldi who was staying with her father and big family in Taman Agung Hotel. I met Oom Gavin and his brothers and sister and father and niece Ruby Jane. We then had a swim at the pool and at 1 p.m. Goldi and I went to this Warung Coconut Tree for lunch.


Goldi had to go back to Jakarta by 2 p.m. and I waited for Pak Tyo till 3.15 at the hotel. Pak Tyo came with black Avanza and we went to Tegallalang area, Gianyar. Tante Elvira, Mom's schoolmate, was luckily at home so I met her and her husband Pietro. I introduced them to Pak Tyo and Pak Rahmat, the property brokers for the selling of Villa Nirmala.



Then Pak Tyo, Pak Rahmat and I had early dinner at Bebek Tepi Sawah, Ubud. It was a really nice place, tho I prefer the food at Bebek Bengil. Pak Tyo dropped me back at Sanur then I took my bike to Mal Galeria, looking for printer's cartridges. I wandered about Informa and found a very cheap side table for only Rp 70,000. I bought two of the white ones, along with purple and white photo frames for only Rp 20,000-Rp 26,000 each.



Frans and his friend Gondi came by the mall before it was closed at 10 p.m. He bought some stuff for his new place and he brought all of my goods with his rental car while I drove home by bike. He then dropped my goods and I (with Ana's help) put all the pieces together right away, creating myself new spaces for printer and bedside table.


I also took another time to stick the extension cable on the wall so my floor is now free from cords. I was terribly tired that day and had to hibernate all day the next day but I love how neat things are in my room now. Thank God!

I don't know where or why I got this strong urge to be productive--perhaps because I basically didn't do anything for 1.5 months in Jakarta--that I have so many things on my to-do list now. I am currently producing the purses for my Pélopé brand, and today my printer just came by delivery from Jakarta, so I ran to the supermarket to buy the ink cartridges and both inkjet and 70g photocopy paper to start printing something cool out of it.


The printer actually came with a pallet wood packing, so instead of giving the pallet away to the delivery guy (who asked if I wanted to put them away), I cleaned it up and thinking of make use of it as the stand for my printer. Or perhaps as a bedside table--I haven't decide. I already have white paint, thinner, paint brush and sand paper. Or maybe I will decoupage it since I'm so into decoupaging now. I'll do the carpentry soon when I have spare time.


Yesterday night I went to Gramedia at Mal Galeria with Ana and we bought painting supplies (the last time I've ever touched paints and brushes was year 2007!). I bought Rotring rapido, two types of watercolor (afraid of using the paste form or even the oil paint), black China ink, some sketch paper refill and small paint brushes. Yes, I'm so going to be productive from now on. I hope you'd like it :)