Grassdoe

Don't you ever wish you could live in a place where you can just marvel at nature everyday? I love being surrounded by nature & my paternal family's traditional kampung (or kampong) in Malaysia is one of my favourite places to visit.

Fundamentally, I relish the idea of not having to consume processed food & mass produced unhealthy poultry, while getting unlimited access to fresh, crisp & clean air. Oh, how divine?

This blog by photographer Jonathan Levitt has given me every sound reason to want this so much more! It documents the wonderful, healthy & natural lifestyle that comes with living on a farm blanketed by nature. Walking through the woods, swimming in the sea, spending all your time with the people you love, having a BBQ.. What i wouldn't do for a life like this.
And whoever said you can't do all that without looking cool?

sfgirlbybay

Sfgirlbybay is one of my favourite blogs & i won't hesitate to label it 'immensely inspirational' for the lot of us who are nuts about interior design. Here's sharing with you some of my favourite finds. Will let the pictures do the talking or else i risk sounding too gushy about my mad love for this blog!

If you guessed it right, i'm a coward when it comes to colours & this gravely upsets me. Don't get me wrong, i do love colours (who doesn't?) but when we get into the topic of the bold, the bright & the gaudy, i typically freak out. To add hurt to the injury, i awfully adore white. So i tend towards the soft & the pastel.

I'm not worrying too much now. Of late, i've been on a mission to educate myself about colours & i can already feel myself coming out of my shell bit by bit everyday. With the help of my favourite blogs of course.

meet Elfe!

Happy first day of a new month and week guys! Just wanted to share the beautiful artworks of my talented friend, who doubles as my activist soulmate tackling issues like gender discrimination and animal cruelty, please meet the very charming, Elfe.

I’ve told Elfe countless times that I will adorn my own apartment (when that comes) with a variety of her paintings. Oh and I’ll throw in a bonus- she’s fantastic to work with!

You can commission Elfe to paint and know she’ll have it done beautifully (for a budding artist, she’s shipped her work all the way to Australia and fast going beyond).

Show her some love over at her blog or contact her to see more of her work and don’t forget to show young local artists some love along the way.

a fairytale treehouse honeymoon

When my girls and i get together, we sometimes chat about our girly dreams and as you may have already expect, we've talked about our dream honeymoon a million times over. Whatever they may be, i'm pretty sure you haven't heard of a treehouse honeymoon? One that's tucked in what looks like a magical forest?

This is Treehouse Point in Washington, isn't it so beautiful? Think about all that you can possibly do together! Stargazing, exploring the woods, enjoying the therapeutic sounds of nocturnal wildlife at night.. A lengthy list of adventures. What a place!

I'm giving myself a little more time to stare at these pictures and dream before running off to prepare for a looooong day tomorrow.

Happy Wednesday!

(via a cup of jo)

a rocking black & white house

My loves, ever wondered who lives in these black & white colonial houses you often see around? Or what it looks like on the inside? Last week, my bestfriend shared this spectacular house tour of Mark Seeger's home, an American expat who chose this alternative opposing the 'traditional expat lifestyle of a condo and 42 inch LCD TV on the wall'. It's fascinating that in the beginning, this beauty had neither floor nor roof and had been vacant for close to a decade. Just in case you're not in awe yet, here's the catch- he rebuilt this baby.. himself. Feast your eyes..

That outdoor shower and dining table is insane. Hope your Tuesday is to!

(more from where that came from: desire to inspire)

WAR IS OVER! (IF YOU WANT IT)

Print & display in your window, school, workplace, car & elsewhere over the holiday season, and send as postcards to your friends.

If you don't see your language here, then send us your translation of
WAR IS OVER!
IF YOU WANT IT
Happy Christmas from John & Yoko
so we can make a poster for your language.

The enchanting Yoko Ono calls for a peaceful protest every Christmas and i'm in this year. For some time now, i've been on a hunt for budget-friendly gifts and ideas this Christmas but nothing quite does it like this nostalgic print.

This is in Bahasa Indonesia. Is it any different in malay?

Dear John & Yoko,
Your love will pave the way for peace in the world, someday. Thank you for believing. Imagine peace.

the benevolent postcard society

Have you heard of them or seen their lovely blog?

"The society is a postcard exchange and art project in one, the aim of the Benevolent Postcard Society is to bring a smile to its members through the random exchange of postcards from September 2009 to September 2010. At the beginning of each month, members send a cheerful, amusing, inspiring, pretty or quirky postcard to each other — either handmade or readymade. At the end of the year, all the postcards exchanged will be collected and published as a book, the final result of a year's sharing of good karma through random acts of kindness."

Isn't this the most inspiring project? I admit, i have a not-too-strange fascination with receiving mails, be it cards or letters and especially if it is handwritten and posted from a reasonable distance. Do you like posting and receiving mails? I know a number of people who do. Shall we try this together for the new year and circulate positive energies and good karma to each other?

sunday suppers

Just recently discovered: Sunday Suppers which immediately became my no. 1 favourite 'read'. If you're ready for the beautiful Karen Mordechai's photography and mouth watering food, go give the link a click. Don't forget to get inspired by some gorgeous setting for your next dinner party!

Love Karen's photography? See much more over here.

the new revolution?

“I suspect that many of the great
cultural shifts that prepare the way for political change are
largely aesthetic.”
J. G. Ballard

My two cents, aesthetic IS the new revolution is it not? Everything else in between wouldn't cut through the all obvious except to give it a different kind of form or to only beat around the bush. No?

Cool is still 'in' and so is botox, bad tv and the-so-called 'art' of today.

Yet another good read by adbusters.

today,

Just how fierce is this chic? (polkdots-vodkashots)

Oh, i've just gotten a new shade of blonde. I was excited but it's taking a strange turn now that i'm no longer feeling it. Not to say that I won't change my mind but i might just go with something else before i board that flight. Hmm, I didn't think i've changed so much? I thought wrong then.

It took only a blink and Yas comes around riding his little vintage motorbike. T'was love at first sight, for the both of us. But surely, it's going to need some degree of dexterity to put this bad boy together and give it a life, a fire of some sort.

And randomly, this is a good read.

for when i settle in

Probably the best bedroom to sleep in and have breakfast in bed. And that parked commuter bike is so genius. I've always, always had a thing for simple, white, VERY puffy linen sheets. This lazy self will stay in bed all day, i can be quite a bear.

If i raise enough money sometime soon, i might just go on a hunt for them. Part of a few installations i'm thinking of for my new room when i start living on campus. I'm off to dream a little more.

(via my favourite blogger, JO)

en pointe

(by noraini)

My old pal rang me up while i was in my stupor one morning and asked if he could borrow my pointe shoes. You bet i was shocked. His sweet girlfriend has a project that she's working on and needs it for the shoot she was doing. I had no second thoughts about it and check out the end product! They were so sweet to have bothered sending me a copy (i've met many people who don't, sadly).

So pretty hey?

I had the shivers when i first saw it. It sums up my relationship with dance very, very accurately. And ironically, it's only incidental. Like the song 'Killing Me Softly'. This is starting to sound dramatic and i'm chuckling already. See you on the morrow, my loves!

Will you be my valentine forever?

Previously on V'day..

The cutest brownie/sweets bags ever! It would've packed those cookies you made for your sweetheart most perfectly. I'd take on this gift idea any day by just changing the template. (via Armelle)

In case you're not much of a baker.. try this,

(via madebygirl)

To those of us who are in love or still brooding about being single, this is the best gift for us, serving as a reminder for we often forget to love ourselves before we do someone else. I am learning how to love me and you should too. Just the way you are, of course. (via ali loves curtis)

Me, I had dinner with my bestfriends to celebrate 7 or more years of friendship and went dancing the night away to DJ Solarstone (to be worshipped!) with the rest of my loves. It was fabulous, all of it!

And to the person who amazes me with his love daily,

Will you be my valentine (and camp-out buddy) forever?

(le love)

city of love/god

You guys, how was the lunar new year? I got the rest much needed and had a teeny weeny party over at Angus' crazy rocking apartment in the heart of town. So pretty i almost moved in. I have pictures to share. Also, watched City of God, which is a brilliant film based on a true story.

Thanks so much for your well wishes about my taking a break. I have the sweetest readers.

By the way, what's going on this Valentine's Day? Me and Yas hasn't spoken about it at all. On the second thought, I think we did, very briefly though. Which only means one thing, neither of us have got a clever idea up our sleeves and is too afraid to say so or, one or both of us has an idea and is getting sneaky about it. I'm getting butterflies already.

Again, Valentine's Day isn't just for us with a partner. I am spending the lovely 14th with my girlfriends and will toast to our many, many, many years of friendship. I have an amazing friendship with 4 of my girls.

Eeek! I'm all mush right now. Better be going and in the meantime, have a peek at the explosive works of Irene Suchoki. This series, 'Paris: City of Love', is my favourite. Came across and marveled while surfing for my V'day surprise. Enjoy!

all that jazz

Gasp! I feel like gathering a bunch of random girlfriends and watch Theo Crocker in action at this jazz club in town (i never knew it existed!). What dyou think? Shall we?

If no one wants to come and all else fails, i'm so going with Dad. Can't think of a bigger jazz fan.

family business

I just melted and ooze from watching this animation done by my mad creative cousin mimi out of her daughter's artwork.

Daughter's artwork+mom's animation+dad wrote the song+folks' band played it=awwww.

I can't help but to be such a girly girl about these things. Le sigh.

all things breakfast

Remember the blog i featured called Simply Breakfast? Well, it's sad but Jen (the blogger and photographer) is putting an end to it by this year. So we'll have to bid it goodbye and enjoy what's left of it before the arrival of '09. However, she's not leaving just like that. Jen's releasing her second book. You can have a preview of it here and read her farewell post here. I'm going to make sure that i have a copy for myself.

Just the other day, i had an 'amibitiously planned' day (I'm sorry we're doing a few 'recalls' this time round). That morning, i missed out on breakfast and the run altogether because what wasn't surprising happened and happens all the time, i woke up a quarter to noon and rushed out to grab lunch with Yuki and Sue.

En route, I was still feeling like breakfast and hoping they'd pick a spot where there's at least a sandwich. Just to give in to that crave. So we were headed for Cedele. I've never been there so while my eyes were darting all over the menu, i learnt that..

They've an ALL DAY BREAKFAST MENU. Hallelujah.

So if you're looking to have breakfast at dinner (please tell me i'm not the only one), this is my suggestion for you.

p.s Here's hoping you enjoyed the cold afternoon, i spent most of it snuggling in bed, napping and keeping warm.