SONG FOR AMAL - BEAUTIFUL BOY

Lyrics:

Close your eyes,

Have no fear,

The monsters gone,

He's on the run and your daddy's here,

Beautiful,

Beautiful, beautiful,

Beautiful Boy,

Before you go to sleep,

Say a little prayer,

Every day in every way,

It's getting better and better,

Beautiful,

Beautiful, beautiful,

Beautiful Boy,

Out on the ocean sailing away,

I can hardly wait,

To see you to come of age,

But I guess we'll both,

Just have to be patient,

Yes it's a long way to go,

But in the meantime,

Before you cross the street,

Take my hand,

Life is just what happens to you,

While your busy making other plans,

Beautiful,

Beautiful, beautiful,

Beautiful Boy,

Darling,

Darling,

Darling Sean.

BALANCE

DIY BRAIDED HEADBAND

I've been wanting to make this braided headband for ages but I just couldn't find the time to find the elastic to make it. Finally, I have some fabric at home that I haven't used so I thought I could take a piece and make something out of it.

This DIY braided headband looked pretty easy to do when I found it on Smile and Wave's blog. If you want to make the same, just click here for the step-by-step tutorial. I promise you, it's really easy to make. It says to use to a sewing machine but I just sewed it manually; it wasn't too complicated.

It's always nice to make things instead of buying, don't you think? :)

APPLE SPONGE CAKE / QUATRE-QUARTS AUX POMMES

A couple of days ago I suddenly had a rush to bake and so I bought enough ingredients to make 2 cakes and 1 quiches (yeah, that happens to me once in a while!)

Like I posted before, I'm in my "apple" phase right now and so I remembered a recipe that I loved to make from when I was a teenager called Quatre-quarts aux pommes and the recipe comes from my mom's cooking bible called "La Cuisine: The Complete Book of French Cooking" by Valerie-Anne Letoile etc. Every time we've made something from this cookbook, it has always turned out delicious :)

So, here's the recipe for you guys to try out (especially since today's a Sunday!):

Apple Sponge Cake/Quatre-quarts aux pommes

300 g butter

300 g superfine (caster) sugar

300 g flour

pinch of salt

5 eggs

4 apples (I like apel malang)

vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees celsius.

2. Cream the butter, then beat in the sugar, a pinch of salt and the eggs, one at a time. Continue beating until creamy. Add a few drops of vanilla extract. Finally, fold in the flour until the mixture is smooth and well blended.

3. Pour the batter into a buttered and floured 26 cm cake pan (I used a rectangular pan), half filling it.

4. Peel and core the apples. Cut each into 8 segments and arrange on the batter in the pan.

5. Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 200 degrees celsius. Bake for 15 minutes longer. Finally reduce the temperature to 180 degrees celsius and bake for a final 50 minutes or until the blade of a knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

6. Remove the cake from the oven and leave it to cool for 5 minutes, then remove it from the pan and leave until cold.

AYO - LIFE IS REAL

Love this song, love this music video :) Isn't she gorgeous?

My sister-in-law, Sissy, put this up on her Multiply page a couple of years back and it stuck to me as a really great song and video. It just looks so relaxed and you get the cultural aspect of it being shot in an african country.

Ayo is a German born artist, with Nigerian blood. If you'd like to know more about her, visit her MySpace page.

STRAWBERRY PATCH

While I was at the JICC Open House today, I fell in love with a booth that screamed "I'm so cute!" :) There were owl bags, little girl aprons that had matryoshka dolls on them, a pencil case holder where each pencil had it's own space, and many more. Overall, I think I was amazed by the beautiful fabrics that were used :)

If you're interested to see more or order online, the designer is Strawberry Patch and you can go to their website to view all their products.

COME GET YOUR ORGANIC VEGETABLES!

Today, YUM was invited to join in the Jakarta International Community Center Open House. We were very excited to join because it meant that we could promote our work and, at the same time, introduce people to our organic vegetables. We're really proud that in our 15,000m2 of land in Cipanas, we have an amazing organic farm that grows different varieties of vegetables.

How do you like the presentation of our vegetables? I was inspired by the market stalls in France with wooden boxes and labels on small blackboards. My cousins from Santaibae Design helped make the boxes, as well as the beautiful tree that hangs the pictures of the children who need school sponsorships. Thanks Sandri & Didit!

YUM will be attending a few bazaars around the month of October so I'll keep you posted and you can come and visit us :)

PARIS ROOFTOPS

One of the coolest things about Paris has to be their rooftops!

I used to be lucky enough to live in Paris for 5 years and be able to admire the rooftops. There's something extraordinary about them, they're almost as pretty as the buildings :)

It also doesn't hurt that when Napoleon III asked Baron Haussmann to renovate Paris, he did so in a way that all the streets and buildings in Paris are aligned. Haussmann's urban planning included wide avenues and open spaces. I think that's the key to Paris' beauty.

By the way, if you're wondering about the images above, they're in Fabrice Moireau's sketchbook called "Rooftops of Paris".

[photos seen via Paris Breakfast]

APPLE CAKE

It's funny, I've been obsessing about apple pies lately and here I find an apple tea cake that looks so scrumptious I feel like making it NOW! I found this cake on the What Katie Ate blog and if you're interested to try it out too, click here for the recipe.

I don't know why but I often get small obsessions with one type of food (mostly cakes). I went through a phase where I would try one brownie recipe a week till I found the best recipe. Then the same would happen with Chocolate Chip cookie recipes. And now, I'm obsessing about Apple Pies. So far, I've made a Tarte Tatin (upside down apple pie) and Tarte Normande (with eggs and cream). Next will be this Apple Tea Cake!

MAHNA MAHNA

This song is hilarious! Every person, every age will love this

Amal and I can't stop singing this each time we see the video

:)

[ check out my YouTube page here]

HANGING ART

My son can't stop drawing and he likes to keep ALL of his drawings :) Often, his drawings are so awesome that I want to hang them up but not quite sure how. Well, I found this post in the new blog that Martha Stewart just started called The Family Room, which concentrates on Kids and Family Life.

The post was about the transformation of a wall of a little boy who loves to draw and hang his drawings :) It shows you step by step how they transformed it and it looks quite easy to do.... Now if I can only find an empty wall to do this..hhmm...

Don't you think this wall is amazing?

PHOTOBOX ENGAGEMENT

These photobox pics are adorable! It was posted by Angela on angela+ithyle blog and at first it seems like a normal photobox picture but then the boyfriend (ithyle) brings out an engagement ring box and you can see angela confused then surprised.... so sweet! (this is when all the women who read this go "I want the same thing!")

(seen via Oh Happy Day)

SPONSOR A CHILD

Many children drop out of school because their parents are unable to pay the monthly school fees, or the transport to school, or to buy the necessary schoolbooks and stationary. This is a concern because education is the way to get yourself out of poverty. It's a shame that Indonesian schools still ask for a monthly fee, payment for uniform and other expenses such as exam papers, etc. Because of this, so many parents have had to take their children out of school.

Yayasan Usaha Mulia (YUM) has a program that helps these children stay in school by finding them sponsors. Our working areas are: Jakarta, Cipanas and Central Kalimantan.

So how can you help? All you need to do is donate a yearly fee of:

Rp. 1,500,000 - to sponsor a student in Elementary School (SD)

Rp. 2,500,000 - to sponsor a child in Secondary School (SMP & SMA)

Rp. 7,500,000 - to sponsor a child living in Desa YUM Cipanas (living expenses, healthcare & school)

The photos above are children who are waiting for sponsors so they can go back to school :)

If you want to help, contact YUM Head Office to discuss what type of sponsorship you would like to help or donate via bank transfer to support our projects:

Bank Niaga Jakarta (cabang Fatmawati)

A/C Number: 917.01.00620.00.7

In the name of: Yayasan Usaha Mulia - General

Please contact YUM once you have made your transfer so we can thank you :)

LAVENDER LEMONADE

Doesn't this drink look pretty? I fell in love with it when I first saw it on Sunday Suppers blog.

Here's the recipe:

Lavender Lemonade

* 2 cups sugar
* 5 sprigs lavender (stems and buds), plus additional for garnish
* 2 cups fresh lemon juice (from about 10 lemons)
* 1/2 cup fresh lime juice (from about 4 limes)

Directions:

In a large saucepan, bring one gallon of water and the sugar to a boil. Remove from heat; add 7 lavender sprigs and lemon and lime juices. Cool to room temperature, strain, and chill. Serve on ice, with additional lavender for garnish.

I recently bought some lavender seeds and I think once I have some sprigs, I'll try this out!

DESA YUM CIPANAS

Last weekend, all the staff at Yayasan Usaha Mulia went up to Desa YUM Cipanas to have a weekend outing. Desa YUM is one of our projects and it's always a pleasure to come and see what we've been working for :)

Desa YUM used to be an orphanage but it was recently transformed into a community center so it can benefit more people from the surroundings. The children who still had family were returned back, but their schooling, transport and basic needs will be sponsored (I'll talk more about "Child Sponsorships").

What can you find at Desa YUM?

* 9 children who are either orphans or whose parents live very far away,

* a fabulous organic farm where we harvested some corn, carrots, cauliflower, etc,

* a library open to around 1000 children a month and

* a Vocational Training Center, where the youth of the surrounding villages get to learn, for free, English, sewing, computer and job-seeking skills

I had an amazing time there as well as my son, Amal, who was so happy to harvest vegetables that he wouldn't stop even though it was raining! :)

If you're interested to visit Desa YUM Cipanas, just contact Yayasan Usaha Mulia's head office and we'll be glad to let you know where it is and you can bring your family for a one-day trip to see our organic farm as well as the other projects we have.

Stay tuned for how you can help Desa YUM :)

CIPANAS

I just spent an amazing weekend in the mountains, more precisely in Cipanas about 100 km from Jakarta. I'll post more photos describing what I did in Cipanas but I thought these would give you a preview of the sceneries I found there. I could easily go there every weekend :)

OH JOY WALLPAPER

I don't know how I could ever get this because it's not sold in Indonesia, but if I ever had to choose a wallpaper for my house, it would probably be something like this. It's amazingly beautiful!

This wallpaper was designed by Joy Cho, who also blogs at Oh Joy! If you'll be traveling to the States in the near future, you can try this link to find out where to buy this.

EVERYBODY CALM DOWN, EVERYBODY CHILL

I found this on Compai blog. There's nothing to say actually, all is said :)

MEAL PLANNER

I was browsing Decor8 blog when I found a post about meal planners and this free (yes free!) meal planner to download! I just love free stuff, especially if it's cute and artsy :)

My parents have an awesome cook at home but she tends to never know what to cook. Every morning she'll ask "So what do you want to eat today?" and frankly, before I've had my coffee, I am in no mood to think about what I want to eat that day :) So I thought this would be a cute idea to think of some meals for the week and help her out.

So this is how you do it:

1. Click on this link to download the file

2. Save the file to your computer (it's about 16 MB)

3. Laminate it and frame it if you want and write with an erasable pen so you can use and re-use