Day 14 of 365 grateful days project.


"I'm grateful for seeing my mother's surprised face as I went home from Carrefour with Michelle bringing an electric oven as her birthday gift."


Her jaw literally dropped.


Her own traditional oven had been broken a long time ago. She never said she wanted an oven but I could tell from the look of her face when she was staying at my place last year that she'd like to have one. But being as she is, she'll never ask you that. So Vincent and I agreed to buy her this electric oven, I think even better than mine, as her birthday present. I know that her birthday is tomorrow but I want the oven to be used tomorrow on her birthday.


I took Michelle to Carrefour to buy it and she asked me, "This oven is from me too, right, Tante Carla? I don't have money to buy Grandma anything."


I laughed and said yes. "You can tell Oma that the oven is from Tante Carla, Om Vincent and you."


Last year she had a piggy bank which she diligently filled every time she had coins. On my mum's birthday last year, she gave her the full piggy bank. She's such a sweet kid. :)
7:14 am
Day 13 of 365 grateful days project.


"I'm grateful for being in Surabaya for my Mum's birthday (Wednesday)."


It has been a while since go back to my hometown. I remember the last one being in July last year. And this time of the year is perfect to be back home with Mum and family. I needed a break from the routines and the usual look of my working space. Yes, I know I was on a short vacation with boyfriend last weekend, but I'm in need of more and more changes. And it's so good to see my mother, brother and niece again! All the loudness, all the expressive laughs, all the yelling and swearing; THAT is Surabaya, my friends.


As soon as I saw Michelle opening the gate of the house for me, gone away all the stress I've carried from the projects. As soon as I got my mom to kiss me, gone away all the annoyed feelings I had on the plane on the way here. I haven't told you? I was flying with the SMALLEST aircraft I've ever been, which took twice the time to fly from Denpasar to Surabaya, and there was this 5-year-old girl who kept crying at the airplane whom I was desiring to KILL! I also wanted to kick her parents (mother, especially) who thought that talking about POOP $ was what was going to comfort the child. Damn.


But it's all forgotten now. Yes, I'm still working hard while in Surabaya. My brother gives me his modem to work to make me stay longer here. But I'm working with a good feeling. 


So yes, it's good to be home. :)
2:59 am
Day 12 of 365 grateful days project.


"I'm grateful for being busy on Sundays."


Some people might wonder why I should be. But that's the reality of my freelance work. Most of the projects require to be finished by the end of the week. That's why I'm the most frantic on Saturdays and Sundays than Mondays. For a weird reason, I like this fact because when every body else starts working their arse off on Mondays, I may be having a pedicure, massage or hair spa treatments. And it's good to have the salon all for myself! :D
9:00 am
Day 11 of 365 grateful days project.


"I'm grateful that Scotty McCreery wins the American Idol Season 10."


Okay, he was not the first contestant I wanted to win badly. But he was one of my favorites. I still wished Casey had won the whole thing, or Haley. But hey, this is an idol contest. Not everyone has the same taste and not everyone understands and appreciates their music. Still, all in all, I think this season has the best contestants ever. They are very different and they stand out in what they do. I really enjoyed watching every American Idol show this year. And I was not alone watching it. Vincent never missed a show either! He'd go back home early from work so that he could watch it in time. And he was proud that Scotty won. He already liked him since they just arrived in Hollywood. :)





Anyway, well done, Scotty!
11:51 pm
Day 10 of 365 grateful days project.


"I'm grateful to have developed a fondness of cats, after spending my 30 years of life not getting used to one."


Not sure why I should be grateful of that, but the fact that we enjoy the existence of one more living creature in this world makes us look at the world better, too. And it feels warmer and more like home.


This cute kitty was one of the three little kittens that lived in Adi Assri Cottages where we were staying during our last vacation. If we weren't going snorkelling or swimming at the pool, we would be playing with the kitties. This female little cat in particular loved Vincent. She loved climbing through his chest and stayed there begging for his attention. :P
11:01 am
Day 9 of 365 grateful days project.


"I'm grateful to have met a company owner today to discuss the possibility of me designing a magazine ad for them."


It's been a while since I did a paid designing project for a client, so I'm terribly excited for this project! There are mixed feelings of anxiety, excitement and love of what I will be doing. However, the deadline is within 2 weeks; which is fine for the act of graphic designing itself, but very tight for building the concept of the design I like and most importantly THEY like. The possible concepts have even leaked into my dreams!


Anyway, I hope to get it in time. I have to make it simple, yet communicating loudly. Isn't it funny how hard it is to think simple with our so-very complicated mind?
12:35 am
Day 8 of 365 grateful days project.


"I'm grateful to have at least 1 nice photo from the underwater shots Vincent took when we went snorkeling."


I had the disposable underwater film developed today. And though I did expect to have 27 nice photos coming out of it, I guess one nice photo is still good enough than nothing at all. Nobody had told me that the disposable camera sucked in quality; and if only my stupid toenail wasn't broken that I would be strong enough to snorkel myself without having to hold on Vincent's hand, I wouldn't give the camera to him. He said that he couldn't see the viewfinder well with snorkel on. I think he was just not used to it. But he did take some great shots if only the camera's quality is a bit better.


I tried to play a little bit on Photoshop but it's hard. However, in small resolution, the result doesn't look that bad. And at least now I get to have an underwater photo to put on my Facebook profile picture. Hahaha...


Here goes...
Me

Me and Vincent

Menjangan sea garden

School of fish
Next time, I'll just buy this waterproof DSLR case for my camera. It'd save a lot of money because I'd be using digital camera; and the quality will be so much improved too! Can't wait for our next snorkeling trip!
7:26 am
Day 7 of 365 grateful days project.


"I'm grateful for being back home; to my normal bed, to the TV, to Mc Donald's, and to snuggling with the kitty."


Don't get me wrong. Menjangan was awesome. I've seen one of the best sea gardens, my first school of fish, several blue starfish, some tiny clown fish, a sea cucumber (great colours but feels weird to touch) and other fishes I could normally see only on National Geographic or Animal Planet. 


And on the land, I saw a beautiful stag; which sparked a debate between me and Vincent as he insisted that the term deer was only to describe the female one. I told him that I believed that "deer" was a neutral term; with doe as the female deer and stag as the male one. But of course, being us, this debate was dragged into half an hour one with Vincent googling on his iPhone as we were posing in front of the Ganesh statue. 
And it appeared that in French there are two terms only: the male deer (referred to stag in English) and the female deer (referred to deer in English, instead of doe).


Back to the main point of this post, it feels good to be home. No matter how nice it is the place you are visiting, nothing is nicer to be in the very place you are most comfortable being in, the one that you call home.
6:03 pm
Day 6 of 365 grateful days project.



"I'm grateful for not doing anything; just enjoying the lovely sea, swimming with the fishes, admiring the coral reefs, applying sun block on my skin, eating seafood, laughing with Vincent, dipping in salty water, being on an uninhabited island surrounded by deer...."


Life is great.
6:46 am
Day 5 of 365 grateful days project..

"I'm grateful that we are leaving today for Menjangan Island for a short 3-day trip to celebrate our 3rd year anniversary."

It has been ages since I had a vacation the last time and it has also been more than a year that Vincent and I took a vacation together. I'm close to being burnt out by the piles of projects I'm doing now and I can really use this vacation to rejuvenate my body and mind.

YAYYYY!!!
7:03 am
Day 4 of 365 grateful days project..


"I'm grateful to have a great boyfriend who I have been with for 3 years exactly today." 


It hasn't always been rainbows and butterflies all the time, but it has been the longest and the best moments I've ever shared with someone. I love you, mon chéri.
7:58 am
Day 3 of 365 grateful days project.

"I'm grateful for my kitty, Mouche, and how she fills in when the loneliness strikes in."

I'm pretty sure she is grateful, too, for having me and Vincent to take care of her and love her. She might not be the cutest cat in the world and her introvert-ness is ridiculous, but we can see that she trusts us and is happy to be with us.
These are the Easter eggs I designed last month.
It pictures the days when we are old.
Left to right: Me, Vincent and Mouche.
6:56 am
Day 2 of 365 grateful days project.


"I'm grateful for the projects I'm working on this year."

They are the things I like doing: photography, writing about designs/photography/photoshop (see my articles in ZoomPSD.com), copywriting and translating for hotels (not exactly fun but it makes nice income) and above all, with all those I am still able to maintain my social and personal life. Yes, life is great!
12:33 am
I've been feeling very blessed lately. Everything (well, almost) works out well and that plays a significant role in keeping my mood and happiness level high. So I'm thinking to have this 365 grateful days project, where I should write down (or type down) here what makes me happy or blessed today.

From the various 365 days projects that people do, be it photography, handycrafts, etc. I see that people find significant progress within themselves or their skills. Me, I just don't trust myself to be able to be that discipline. My interests keep fluctuating and it's very hard sometimes to just focus on one thing for a few hours, leave alone the whole year. But I'm willing to try. Though my first try wouldn't be on photography since it can easily turn me down just to think that I have to transfer the photos from the camera to the computer every day, fuss and get confused where I put the card reader the last time, then do a slight editing to the photo I'm going to post. So I'll just stick to the simple one line grateful project. I figure by the end of the project, I can be more discipline and used to post a blog every day and most importantly, be more positive in seeing things in life. Even in the darkest days, there should be one good thing to be grateful about. And this one good thing is often missed and clouded by the unfortunate event we might be dealing with. If only we can just see it and be grateful about it, pretty sure the day won't feel that heavy.

So my first grateful day is:

"I'm grateful that I find a way to make me realise that I should be grateful of my life every day."
7:54 am
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