Homemade Birthday Gift

It's been a few days since my last post, was busy preparing the coming soon baby and other stuff. Today's post is about a birthday I gave recently to my friend, Sarita, who has a really nice blog about gifting, visit her blog here. Since she has huge thing about gift, I wanted to give her something that really special, so I had thoughts about my gift a week before her birthday and I came up with a homemade birthday gift idea.

As the title said, I wanted the gift to be made by myself, including the packaging, so I decided to make chocolate truffle for the birthday gift and I sticked toothpick with alphabetical flags that says "Happy Birthday Sarita!" Then I made the packaging with a cereal box, covered it with gift paper and I added a handmade origami ribbon for accessories. Well, actually I made them in the reverse order as I made the box first, then the flags and the last thing is the chocolate truffle :-D

Here is the box that I made:

At first I browsed for a gift box template that we can download for free from the internet, unfortunately my printer couldn't afford to print in a larger scale than A4 paper and all the templates are too small if I printed them on A4 paper. Then I found the cereal box and I thought I could make a gift box from it. Thankfully it was a success on the first attempt, because I happened to have only one cereal box :-D The hardest part is the fact that I don't have a ruler at home, so I measured everything by heart or using a small note book.

I learned how to make the origami ribbon from the tutorial in this blog. Believe me it looks complicated at first, but then once you tried it, it's not that hard.

For the flags, I designed them with Adobe Photoshop then printed them on a paper and cut through the shapes. After that I sticked the flags to the toothpicks. Here is the result:

As usual, I used the recipe of Joy of Baking to make the chocolate truffle. You could find the recipe here. To make chocolate truffle is really easy, however I've got to tell you that it's a very messy job when shaping the ball and cover it with cocoa powder. I guarantee that you'll have chocolate all over your hands and clothes :-D Here is my chocolate truffle:

I made two types of topping, the left one is using cocoa powder and the next one is using coco crunch that I've crushed into small parts. I was quite worried that the chocolate truffle would be melted on the way I delivered the gift to her. Apparently, they are quite steady and Sarita said that they were good. Yeay! I could see that she was quite happy receiving my gift, so mission is accomplished :-)

Cheers,
Indispensable Lady

PS: I didn't take picture of the chocolate truffle sticked with the flagged toothpick because I was too worry that leaving the chocolate truffle in a room temperature during photo shoot would melt the chocolate. But well you'll get my idea, right? :)

Express Your True Self

Some researches say that people personality is determined by genetics and couldn't completely change along with ages. In my opinion, the older people are, most tend to be more wiser and secure about themselves, and in consequence they would feel more freedom to express the 'real' personality of themselves once they are older. This 'real' personality might be completely different than the one we 'fake' to others when we were insecure. At least, that's what I feel about myself.

I could recalled back in the days when I was still a teenager, there were lots of pressure to be likable and cool. As seen and witnessed by many, in school, the peer pressure is so huge that kids are trying so hard to blend and afraid to be different from the crowd, unless they want to be called geek or nerd. I remembered being one of those kids. I used to use "Aku-Kamu" instead of "Gua-Elu" in conversation, because I was being told that "Gua-Elu" is kinda rude when I was in elementary school. However when I went to junior high school, everybody used it and I felt like only geek and conservative kids used "Aku-Kamu", so I tried so hard to change it into "Gua-Elu" when I talked to others. It's silly how even the smallest habit such that one should be changed just because I was too afraid to be different, right?

As time goes by, my perspective started to change eventually and I am more confident about expressing my true self. Funnily, as opposed to whom I was, now I'm proud to be unique and stand out from the crowd. I could define and show the world my real personality better and stand up for what I believe in. I guess having the secure feelings of who I really am, creates more freedom to express myself in any aspects, even in style, creativity and even in attitude. 

For style, I love simplicity and pureness and it shows in my wardrobe, accessories and even home decorations. Most of them are in white, light blue or pastel colors. Most people like the style that represents bold statement and boost luxury or elegance, but I prefer something that look modest and pure, because it represents my personality best.

Yes, I love white and blue simple outfit!

The same preference applied to my signature style in creative works in photography. I love to create a high key photos compared to low key photos. For information, high key pictures are tend to be bright, lack of shadows and contrast and it creates happy and cheerful mood, while low key pictures are the ones that more dramatic, mysterious and gothic. However, many people loves the low key pictures because they attract more attention easily compared to the high key pictures for the dramatic reason. Yet, this is my preference and I don't produce pictures just because I want them to be likable by many.

My High Key Photography Signature Portfolio

While in attitude, most of the time, I have this calm and serene personality, which unfortunately makes me sometimes uncomfortable when I am being around loud and noisy people. However I am also open to others and caring, especially to my close friends. Being an aquarius girl, also makes me independent in some way, which means I could enjoy my time alone as much as I enjoy being around with friends. I guess having interests in various kind of things (photography, traveling, writing, crafts, financial planning and stocks trading) makes me have a lot of things to do during my 'me' time. Nonetheless, people who don't know me well might think I'm a quiet, shy and loner person. Well, they could judge me anything, but this is just who I am :)

I'm even calmer during pregnancy :)

Being able to represent your personality in things that you wear or use is quite important to boost self esteem. At least when you're wearing or using something that represent yourself, you'll feel more comfortable and in consequence it will boost your confidence level. I believe it is one source of channel to express your true self to the world. Recently, you don't only have fashion to present your style, but also gadget, since most people are carrying gadgets with them everywhere nowadays. 

So what is smarter than having a gadget that matches your personality? I really think that it is a smart campaign from Sony Vaio to produce a gadget that can help people express their personality. Recently, Sony just launched Sony Vaio E14P Series, which have five type of personalities: The Extreme Power Spirit, Cool Leading Intellectual, The Precious Romantic Sensual, The Pure and Clear and Heritage Treasure Modern Vintage.

Reading the above long intro about myself, I guess you could easily determine which one of the above type that suits me best. Yep, it's The Pure and Clear! Just looking at the color and design I have fallen in love with this laptop. The combination of white and blue color and also the simple and chic design is really ME! I would love to have one for my daily notebook that I could easily carry everywhere, it's not just useful but also look stylish too!

Picture is taken from: Female Daily

So, no more be afraid to express your true self! If anyone judge you for being different, just say this to them with proud: Because it's me! It's who I am :)


Cheers,
Indispensable Lady


Notes:
For more info on Sony Vaio E14P Series, visit:
http://femaledaily.com/becauseitsme/ or http://www.sony.co.id/productcategory/it-personal-computer

Finger Food!

Who doesn't love finger food? I remembered one finger food I love to eat back home was bruschetta from Pizza Hut. In my early trimester pregnancy, I was craving for it however I cannot eat the one that sold in Pizza Hut because it contains pineapple and I don't eat pineapple during pregnancy. That's why I decided to make my own bruschetta.

After searching for the recipe on internet, I couldn't find the perfect recipe, so I modified by my own according to my taste :) Here is the recipe:

Bruschetta
Made about 15 slices of french bread

Ingredients:
French bread, cut into slices, about 1 cm thickness
1 large Sausage, cut into small pieces (or you could use smoke beef / ham)
white onion, cut into small pieces
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1/3 part of tomato, remove the pulp (the wet part), cut into small cubes
3 tablespoon of mayonnaise
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
1 tablespoon of tomato sauce
2 teaspoon of condensed milk
cheddar cheese for topping

Method:

1. Heat the oven to 150 degree Celcius.
2. Heat the olive oil in a sauce pan, add white onion and stir until fragrant
3. Add the sausage to the sauce pan, stir until cooked
4. In a separate bowl, mix the mayonnaise, lemon juice, tomato sauce and condensed milk together. Taste and add the ingredients to get the taste as you like (more sweet or more sour)
5. Add the tomato cubes, sausage and white onion to the mixture and mix them well with a spoon.
6. Put a spoonful of the mixture on top of the bread and spread the cheddar on top of it.
7. Bake for about 15 minutes with 150 degree Celcius, if the edge of the bread is not crispy enough, bake again for another 5 - 10 minutes.

I noticed that the middle part of the bread was not crispy, so perhaps if you like the whole bread to be crispy, you should bake the bread first before putting the topping. The taste is very similar to the one sold in Pizza Hut, except for the missing pineapple, so I'm pretty satisfied with them :)

Cheers,

Indispensable Lady

No Remote Control

I have a friend who don't believe so much in God because he thought that what happen in his life is totally under his control. His success is achieved because he worked so hard and committed to his job and his happiness is truly depends on what he has done instead of given by someone greater than his power. Of course I can't dictate a friend to have the same faith as mine, however I surely could disagree to his perception.

For me, what happen in my life is beyond my control. I could plan and predict, but still the end result is subjected to God's will. I used to be the kind of person who trust God but didn't surrender completely to him. I used to have everything I needed or wanted that I didn't really care about what God really wants me to do. However as life goes by, I learned that not everything that I wanted is good for me and would be given to me. And when I forced it to happen even though God had told me several times to several channels that it wasn't what I needed, it made me frustrated and unhappy. In contrary, when we surrender to what God's will, you'll be more open to other alternate things and chances, instead of pushing and punishing yourself to hard. 

I could say that with such kind of faith, I feel grateful easily. It makes me see all the blessings I have received more clearly and if I counted all of them, they are too many! That shows how good God is to me. In the end, I am more happy than I was before. Happiness is not so hard to find, after all.

I believe there are some who disagree with my way of thinking, they might say if everybody thinks the same as I do, people would be lazy, they won't work hard because they know that no matter what they do, if God don't want them to be successful, they won't turn into one. That sounds pathetic, actually. Of course, we can't just sit down and do nothing, we still need to have plans for our future and give the best that we could to our job or duty. However there are some points when you need to know when to surrender and let God do the rest. It's only a matter about balancing the effort and the faith.

There's a really good old song that reflect best of this blog post:

I Surrender

by Geoff Bullock

You're softening my heart
To the knowledge of Your love
And opening my eyes
You light the way

To love You
Words alone cannot express
All the hope that You have placed
Within me
In between each heartbeat, Lord
I surrender

I surrender to You
I surrender to You
Everything I am and ever hope to be
I surrender to You

You gently pick me up
Wash me with your love
And opening my ears
You speak the Word

Healing
Releasing all the hurts and fears
By the hope that You have placed
Within me
In between each heartbeat, Lord
I surrender

I surrender to You
I surrender to You
Everything I am and ever hope to be
I surrender to You

Cheers,

Indispensable Lady

Summer Sweet Treats

My most favorite fruit is strawberry and luckily summer is the strawberry season! We bought lots of strawberry and often make strawberry juice for late night snacks during this summer. Last week I'm thinking to make cake with strawberry just to vary the usage of strawberry and I came up with an idea to make butter cake with strawberry and cream as the topping. So I mixed up some recipes to make the cake.

Butter Cake Recipe
Ingredients:
120 gr butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
150 gr granulated sugar
2 eggs
200 gr flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
150 ml milk

Method:

1. Heat oven to 180 degree Celcius
2. Sift the flour and baking powder all together
3. Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla extract until soften and white with a mixer
4. Add eggs to the mixture and beat them well
5. Add flour and milk alternately
6. Pour into the muffin mould (3/4 part only to avoid over expansion)
7. Bake for about 30 minutes

Topping Recipe

Ingredients:

1. Heavy cream

2. Powdered sugar

3. Cut strawberries

Method

1. Beat the heavy cream and powdered sugar until reach stiff peak
2. With a spoon, put the cream on top of the cake
3. Put the strawberry on top of the cream

Here's the result:

What I love about this cake recipe is it only need 2 eggs, whereas in most cake recipe you need at least 5 eggs. I didn't mention the exact measurement for the topping cream because I only made for 12 cake, so it depends on how much cake do you make.

Happy baking!

Cheers,

Indispensable Lady

How About Some Tips?

Still continuing the latest post about Maternity Photo Shoot, I would like to give some tips for doing your own maternity photo shoot (without professional photographer, I mean).

First, determine which kind of maternity photos that you would like to have, the elegant and classic type or the natural and fun type. Just browse them through the internet, there are lots of portfolios from professional photographers who do maternity photos nowadays. I was looking at Pinterest for getting some ideas, and I think some of them are very creative and unusual. Save the photos that you like so you could 'cheat' for inspiration of pose during the photo shoot when you run out of inspirations. Yes, it happens a lot to me when doing the photo shoot that I don't know what to do next because I was running out of ideas.


Next is preparing the properties. I love doing photo shoot with properties, even when I shot for pre-wedding photos, because the properties help the model to pose and could be the thing that makes the photo more unique and pop up. For my last photo shoot, I just made the properties (the "Special Gift" sign, "It's a Boy" sign and the alphabetical cubes) with Adobe Photoshop, had them print and sticked them to a card stock. They cost me nothing :) 


On the day of photo shoot, prepared the clothes that you would like to wear, I preferred to wear white shirts or tank top and a legging as they will show more of your pregnancy shapes. Some of the pictures I found on the internet only use sheets to cover the body. I thought wearing silky or thin sheets makes the pregnant woman looks elegant in the picture. Too bad I didn't have one :-(

Don't forget to do your hair and make up as natural as possible. I believed all pregnant woman has this pregnancy glow that makes them pretty without having too much make up on. I didn't use any make up in my photo shoot as I normally don't use any in my daily life :) However, since most pregnant woman have stretch marks on their belly, perhaps you could cover the marks with foundation. I just realized that I could do this trick, just after the photo shoot. Before, I was wondering why does every photo on the internet show flawless belly, while mine looks such a mess with the red marks all over it :-D Well, since its too late for me, perhaps you could try the tips when you have your maternity photo shoot for better result :-D

Then all you have to do is begging your husband to take your photos or even better if you could have a friend to take it for both of you so your husband could also pose with you. I would love to have the picture where my husband kiss my tummy. Unfortunately we didn't have the tripod that is strong enough to hold the heavy camera and I was too exhausted during the photo shoot to arrange the photo with a timer.

One last thing, have fun and just stop anytime you feel tired during the photo shoot :)

Cheers,
Indispensable Lady

Maternity Photoshoot

Last weekend, my husband and I did our own maternity photo shoot. I had looked for several inspirations for the photo shoot on the web and I decided to make some properties so the photo shoot could be more exciting and unique. We decided to do the photo shoot in our apartment, that way I would feel more comfortable and confidence and it was so much easier to change clothes and prepare the properties if we did it in our own home.

After several hours trying to create good maternity photos, finally here are the results:

Special Gift from God

Welcoming Baby Rafa

Big Belly vs Tiny Shoes! :)

The Props!

Soon to Be Mommy

Kiss for My Little Boy

Playing with Origami Ribbon

Please do tell me what you think by posting on the comment box, I'm excited to know your comments about those photos :)

Cheers,
Indispensable Lady

PS: All photos above are taken by hubby and the concept is by me, yes we're a good combo :-p

After Second Attempt

After several months started cooking, I realized that I cook Chinese food more often than cooking Indonesian food. The reason is simple, it is so much easier and less ingredients cooking Chinese food. However, recently I was craving more for Indonesian food, which then I decided to make Siomay Bandung.

My first attempt was a disaster, the result was too thick instead of chewy, it tasted more like meatballs than siomay, even though the peanut sauce was perfect. On my second attempt, I used more tapioca starch and egg white and the siomay turned to be more chewy than the previous one. However since I used more minced chicken rather than the prawn, the taste was better the first one. I guess I should do a third attempt before getting the perfect siomay :-D

I used the recipe from Master Chef Indonesia, the recipe is as follows:

Siomay Bandung (10 pcs)

Ingredients:

Siomay

125 gr minced chicken

50 gr prawn, sliced into small pieces

2.5 tablespoon of tapioca starch

1/2 tablespoon of flour (I omitted this in my second attempt)

1/2 tablespoon of salt

1/2 teaspoon of pepper

1/2 teaspoon of sugar

1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil

10 sheets of dumpling pastry

1 egg

1 carrot, grated

Peanut Sauce

2 tablespoon of peanut butter (I used the chunky one)

1 red chili

1/2 tablespoon of dried shrimp

2 shallots

2 lime leaves

1 garlic clove

brown sugar, as necessary

salt

water

Method:

Siomay

1. Mix all the ingredients except the dumpling pastry and carrot
2. Put the mixture inside the dumpling pastry with a spoon and wrap it.
3. Sprinkle the carrot on the top
4. Steam for about 15 minutes, until well cooked

Peanut Sauce

1. Stir fry garlic, shallot and red chilli
2. Crush them with a blender along with dried shrimp, peanut butter, brown sugar, salt and water
3. Stir fry the mixture and the lime leaves until smells nice
4. Add sweet soya sauce and ketchup, according to taste.

For the siomay mixture I added the tapioca starch and egg white until the mixture is not too thick to get more chewy result, so I didn't stick to the measurement in the above recipe.

Here's the result:

Cheers,

Indispensable Lady

The Last Month

Today is the first day of the week where my daily routine is changed again. After the past few weeks my days are filled with Danish lesson and doing homework, finally I've completed and passed the module 1. Even though the teacher actually told me that I could come for the next module and stop if my time for labor is coming, I preferred to continue the next module in the upcoming year. It's quite sad though to drop the lesson since the classmates are so nice and the class is quite interesting in some way. However, with the due date approaching, I've started to experience the pregnancy side effect, which makes me think that it's a good idea to spare some time to rest and prepare for labor.

In my early third trimester, I was quite lucky since I didn't feel any kind of pregnancy side effect. I still feel as healthy as in my second trimester, perhaps sometimes I feel tired during the day, but it can be managed by taking a one hour nap. However, since I was entering the 36 weeks of pregnancy (the ninth month), my feet are swollen and sometimes the swell is making me feel uncomfortable and imbalance. Lately, I also have joint pains in my fingers. These side effects obviously affect my activities, I dropped things easily because of the joint paint in my hands and I couldn't sit or stand too long otherwise the swollen feet are getting worse.

Based on what I read on the internet, it was normal to have swollen feet during pregnancy and there are some ways that I could do to soothe the swelling:

1. Reducing salt intake
2. Drink more water
3. Place the feet higher than the heart level when lying in bed
4. Do not sit or stand too long, try to lie down every 15 minutes
5. Do not where tight pants or socks
6. Wear comfortable shoes
7. Put the feet in a cold water for a while

For me its kind of hard to reduce the salt intake since I considered that I've never put too much salt in my food, while removing salt entirely from the cooking would resulted in tasteless dishes. What I've done is counting the number of glass of water that I drink everyday, it should be 8 glasses at the minimum, and I also put the feet up whenever lying down and shower the feet with cold water whenever possible.

The joint pains in fingers are actually called Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and most women experience this during pregnancy. It most likely caused by the fluid retention and swelling that occurs during the pregnancy. What we could do to relieve the pain are as follows:

1. Do frequent hand stretching. Pulling the arms over the head helps to ease the pain.
2. Do not sleep on your hands. Use a pillow to prop up your arms
3. Shake your hands and wrist out frequently
4. Shower hands in cold water

Well, even though these side effects are uncomfortable, fortunately they said that these will be gone after the delivery, which is one more month to go. I considered myself lucky since many women experienced these in the early period of pregnancy. I started doing yoga for pregnancy today to help relax my body and prepare my body for labor.

Wish me luck,

Indispensable Lady