Today's Kindwords: Julia Child's secret of enjoying life

A passionate interest in what you do is the secret of enjoying life - whether it is helping old people or children, or making cheese or growing earthworms.
~ Julia Child, Chef

All right, friends, I can not decide which one should be the background pattern, the aqua one or the yellow-with-dots one. I love them both. So I just publish them both, so you too can choose one you like best!

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Today's Kindwords: if you want to build a ship

If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.
~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

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Today's Kindwords: all good things will be yours

Fear less, hope more, eat less, chew more, whine less, breathe more, hate less, love more, and all good things will be yours.
~ Swedish Proverb

Oh yes, I believe in this saying! :-)

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Today's Kindwords: the most beautiful flower

The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all.
~ The Emperor in "Mulan"

A very wise Emperor indeed...

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Today's Kindwords: keep it in the sunlight

Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep it in the sunlight.
~ Benjamin Franklin

I think Mr Franklin is absolutely right! :-)

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Today's Kindwords: Rise and Shine. Wake up and be Awesome. No one is youer than You!

These are the three favorite kindwords I'd like to be greeted with every morning. Yes, every.single.morning. Three of many favorite reminders that will come to this blog and greet you, too! So come back often :o)


RISE and SHINE


Wake up and BE AWESOME


Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is youer than You.
~ Dr Seuss

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Today's Kindwords: Fortune favors the bold. YES!

Fortune favors the bold.
~ Latin proverb

I love this proverb especially because it reminds me to always be brave, to just take action, and to say YES! to life - and luck will always be on my side. YES! :o)

Tell me what you think.

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Today's Kindwords: it is AWESOME to be yourself

It is AWESOME to be yourself. It is TRUE.

Have an awesome week, my friends! :-)

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Little Biz Sunday: a little space on the island of paradise. Help me with ideas for a special plan in mid April :-)

If you followed this blog, you knew I took a week off from work on new year and went to Bali  to search for my father's footsteps, to dig some memories from his youth as an artist on this island. (this post, if you missed it)

More than all those amazing stories from the 1950s and 60s, I found something further: a realization that working on my creative online business from lovely locations while having vacation is totally POSSIBLE. And it's GOOD for my wellbeing!

You see the picture above? I was working on jotting down the stories in a simple villa in Ubud, overlooking an abundance of rice fields, coconut trees and accompanied by a platoon of ducks and birds and frogs. I witnessed my creativity juice flow effortlessly and I had the best Balinese coffee and rice dishes fueling up the good times. All I needed was my precious equipment, of course. My trusted laptop and mobile internet (and since it's an old laptop, my detachable external hard disk) - and not to forget: my genius mouse (yes, I'm a mouse-girl, hence the sub-headline of Amretasgraphics: "original mousedrawn country graphics with a twist").

Do I want this again? YES! No argument.

How I loved it working in the middle of rice fields, in the nature. How I love it that it is now possible.

I have to thank the spirits who called me to Bali to walk in my father's footsteps :-) Not only that now I understand more about my father as an artist, I also understand myself. I found what has made me so me. I am very proud of my Dad. And I'm thankful that I inherited his spirits, that I live in this time where this calling is POSSIBLE.

And now let me plan a little coming-back plan. To this little space-o-mine on the island of the gods, as people say. Possibly on my birthday in the mid of April. Hey, I deserve it! :-) Should we prepare a virtual party on that weekend, my friends? *wink* Yes I want it. I'm getting ready. I want to continue my search of my dad's stories. Amretasgraphics' rebirth. The blog reorganized. People say "life begins at 40". I might be nervous, but for my upcoming 40th birthday I want to reinvent myself, my life, my hobbies-turned-into-business...and coming back to Bali for that sounds perfect to me for now. A time for myself, reconnecting with the spirits and with my Dad's genius (this 'genius' as spoken by author Elizabeth Gilbert - and it happened that this little space in Ubud is located in the same village as where she was in Eat Pray Love).

From now, that's what I have in mind. What's still boiling in my head is, what I will prepare for my website and how this will work. Currently I'm rearranging the shop, member page, this blog, and immersing myself in books and the manuals from various online courses I enrolled in (Kelly Rae Roberts, Stratejoy, Blacksburg Belle, Right Brain Business Plan, A Beautiful Mess, The Suitcase Entrepreneur, etc.).

I want to do some things special. What would they be? Any advice or idea in the comment section below would be appreciated :-)

Or help me tweet, something like:
@Amretasgraphics wants to create something special for Amreta's birthday in mid April. Help her with advice & ideas! http://bit.ly/11yn3VP

Click here to tweet!

P.S.
I made the scrapbook-style image above with Adobe Photoshop. If you like it you can download the file here in zip file and have fun with it :-) Enjoy!

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Project in preparation: My Kindwords Diary 2013

Little by little I will be adding the cards from My Kindwords Diary 2013 project, relaunched 3 days ago. This time I want the background images to be all ready first, and I will mostly use the tiles from my Deco Flora collection. I let you take a peek (see above) at what I'm working on! :o)

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My Kindwords Diary Project RELAUNCHED! :-)

Yes hurraayyy My Kindwords Diary Project is relaunched! Now that I have finished renovating the layout, color combination and found the perfect font for my logo...I can start focusing on the projects! Yay! I start now with this, an Irish Blessing. It just happens to be St Patrick's Day today, yes? Aren't I lucky! :-)

From today to 31 December 2013, please enjoy My Kindwords Diary 2013, the kindwords graphicaliciously curated by the fairies of the whimsy woodland!


May your past be a pleasant memory, your future filled with delight and mystery, your now a glorious moment, that fills your life with deep contentment.
~ Irish Blessing

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In search of my father the painter

This note was posted on Facebook a few days after my return from Bali in January 2013:

Back on my computer in Jakarta after a curious attempt to trace my father the painter’s footsteps in Bali – during the 50s and early 60s. It’s time to put together all my findings. What started as “I just want to see the village where father might have used to live”, became five days of rediscovery, with a series of lucky encounters with Big Names in the Indonesian Contemporary Arts in Bali, one clue that led to another to another, ‘site inspections’ that required certain degrees of imagination, motorbike trips in the rain, various nasi campur tasting sessions, and long talks about Balinese cultures and history with a community of local artists in the middle of rice fields, which happened to be in the very same village where Eat Pray Love was located. And a surprise reunion with my childhood ‘partner-in-crime’ Noni Andarawati. Cool, yes? ;-) Thank you Neka Museum (found Dad’s painting from 1952!); Oom Wayan Sika, Oom Made Wianta, Oom Nyoman Gunarsa and Wayan Wirawan for all the extraordinary stories – and I still can’t believe the 97 year old legendary Arie Smit still remembered very well the young Fadjar Sidik in Campuhan. And thank you especially to Gede Sayur and Luden House for supporting on-site this little project of mine. Oom Wardoyo Sugianto for the cool on-the-phone insights when I got stuck. And of course Mami Samich Faried thanks for your blessings. Little sisters Anindita ‘Dindiet’ Abdullah and Nataya Anindira, let’s go on. More pictures on the way. And next step? Thinking what would be best. Let me know what you think. Silakan kalau punya ide….


A few days later, came these encouraging replies:

  Mahyar Suryaman ~ Maestro Seni Lukis Indonesia… begitu gigih dia berjuang, begitu kuat dalam pendirian, begitu yakin dalam berkesenian.. karena semangatnya yang sungguh kita patut tauladani…

15 January at 15:18

  Suwarno Wisetrotomo Thx Amreta untuk info dan idenya. Saya merasa bangga (dan terharu) ketika menjadi kurator (bersama Anusapati) untuk pameran “MAESTRO” pada Desember 2012 lalu. Pada 2011, saya memberikan diskusi kecil di Jakarta, dengan topik “FADJAR SIDIK: PEMIKIRAN DAN KARYA2NYA”. Yap, Pak Fadjar adalah inspirator dan motivator. Ketika saya menjadi Ketua Senat Mahasiswa Fakultas Seni Rupa, Pak Fadjar adalah Pembantu Rektor III, sehingga kami terjalin pertautan komunikasi yang indah, inspiratif, kreatif, hingga akhirnya saya menekuni profesi Kurator. Doa saya untuk Pak Fadjar, semoga berbahagia “di sana” brsama NYA. Amin.

15 January at 15:24

 

  Samic Faried Amien….18 Januari nanti genap 9th meninggalnya Fes.Semoga dimaafkan segala kesalahannya dan ditempatkan di Surga Nya.amien.

15 January at 16:41

  

  KP Hardi Danuwijoyo saya banyak memakai pikiran pak fajar . bahkan hingga kini kalau aku bikin proposal; ke mentri siapa saja mesti goal. tentang faktor obyektip yng menantang manusia modern. juga tehnik melukis yng paling efektip.

15 January at 18:04

 

  Risman Marah Hari ini tanggal 17 Januari 2013, besok adalah genap 9 tahun wafatnya pak Fajar. Guruku yang menarik aku menjadi pegawai negeri di STSRI “ASRI”. Kenal beliau sewaktu masih menjadi Ketua Jurusan Seni Lukis 1971, aku cah ndeso dari Sumatra yang ingin kuliah di ASRI bertemu dengan Pak Fajar. Banyak kenangan dengan Pak Fajar, boncengan Suzuki Anyar ke Muntilan…lalu ban nggembos…

17 January at 08:08

 

   Sudarisman Soedjono  Guru seni rupa yang belum ada penggantinya. Banyak jasanya dalam pendidikan seni rupa khususnya di STSRI “Asri” Yogyakarta.

2 February at 22:10

 

Thank you everyone.

And so, this little project was born.

To be continued

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The wijayakusuma flowers at my mother's house

The Wijayakusuma flowers that bloomed at my mother's house

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Instablogging: Dali the Dala horse #001 - Jakarta

When the weather is clear, Dali the dala horse would be able to see the mountains right here from my window. Obviously not today...

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