Hello Again!

So after taking a 3 months break of this whole blogging world, I am finally back. So many things had happened since January. For example, in February I was hospitalized for five days, I'm no longer 17-last month I turned 18 and despite the fact that my father was not in town, I have to admit it was quite a delightful birthday-, and the big thing is, I'm happy to announce that national examination is now finally just a memory since it already happened. And that is why I can be here again today. Even though I didn't study all the time (I really did not), taking some time to wrote something here would just make me feel guilty.

Anyway, no more school for me (hopefully). Yeah sure I'll have to go to courses everyday and study and study and study even harder to get into the university I want, but I've refused to start studying during this one week break that I'm pretty sure I'm not gonna have anymore in quite a while. And so, I made this list of the things I want to do this week.

So far, I've done half of those things. Let's see. I've been watching a lot of movies since day 1 of this break. I've tried to make chocolate lava and it was quite a success. I went to a theme park which called Dufan on Thursday with five friends of mine. And yes, I've done some shopping during this break. I know that I still have four more things to do but I'm pretty happy with what I've done. Hopefully I'll finish this to-do-list soon.

At first I wanted to share you a story about my visit to Dufan with my friends and maybe show you a couple of pictures, but I have to get ready to go to my sister's house so..... maybe later. Bye!

Chocolate Fudge Brownies

Hello! It's December 30th here right now. Only 1 hour away from the last day in 2011. I'm not saying that is has been a tough year (even though it kinda is) but I'm just hoping 2012 is going to be better. Waaay better.

Anyway, last sunday, when some of you were celebrating christmas, me and my family celebrated my nephew's fifth birthday. It wasn't a big celebration, just a simple dinner with our close family at one of our favorite middle east cuisine restaurants. And since it was a birthday, it wouldn't be complete without any cakes. So my sister asked me to make a chocolate fudge brownies I've made a couple of times before. I found the recipe a couple months ago and since the first time I made it, many people had come to me and say 'please make that cake again!'. So then i made it.

It might not look pretty. After all I'm no pâtissier so pardon me if my food presentation is not good. But hey, at least it tastes super delicious. I just can't stop eating it. Here I'm gonna give you a warning. Don't you ever make it when you're on a diet. It would just ruin everything because a small slice of this brownies wouldn't be enough.

Dark Chocolate Fudge Brownies
(Adapted from The Flourishing Foodie)

Ingredients
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, unsalted
2 1/4 cups white granulated sugar*
4 large eggs
1 1/4 cups Dutch cocoa powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups white unbleached flour
2 cups 60% bittersweet chocolate chips**


* You can just make it on your own with caster sugar and a high speed blender, and maybe the other blenders would work just fine too.


** One for the dough and one for the topping. I used 100 grams of sweet choco chips for the dough (1 cup is about 175 grams) since I couldn't fine the 60% bittersweet one here anywhere, and it worked just fine.

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.

2. Line a 9x13" baking pan with tin foil. Fold the tin foil over the edges of the pan, so it will be easier to remove the brownies. *

3. In a saucepan on low-medium heat, melt the butter and sugar until the sugar has melted and the mixture has become translucent. Continue to stir ensuring the sugar does not burn to the bottom of the pan.

4. In a large bowl, beat the eggs, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, and vanilla with a hand mixer. Don't worry if the mixture becomes hard and pasty, this is normal. Add in the butter/sugar mixture and continue to beat for 2 -3 minutes until there are no lumps of cocoa powder and the mixture resembles a soupy liquid.

5. Add the flour and stir the mixture with a spatula until the flour has combined and there are no more white lumps. Add 1 cup of chocolate chips and stir.

6. Pour the batter into the baking pan and place in the oven on the middle rack. Bake for 30 minutes. If you prefer your brownies more dense and less gooey, bake for 35 - 40 minutes.

7. Remove the brownies from the oven and pour the remaining 1 cup of chocolate chips on top of the brownies. Let the chips melt and then spread them around with a knife. Let the brownies cool for 30 minutes and then serve warm with a glass of soy or regular milk.

Sleepless Nights

It's kinda hard to believe. Finally, after struggling for a couple weeks in this mean place people usually call school, here I am. You might think after being away so long now I'm gonna have a lot of stories to share with you. And yeah I do have a looot of stories and thoughts, but if pointless things about how tired I am of school things don't count, then I have nothing. Well almost nothing (since it's pretty obvious I'm gonna share something with you guys right now).

I just had my two-weeks-final-exams. I don't know how long it usually takes in your place, but in my hometown, two weeks is quite a long time. It has some benefits actually. While some other students in other schools take two until three tests per day, we only take two maximum so it basically gives us more time to study and focus. But still, some of us had sleepless nights. Or at least not sleeping until 2 in the morning and already has to get up at 4.30. This kind of days are the ones that make me feel thankful of all the songs in one of my playlists. And yep, that's the thing that I wanna talk about here. I'm calling it 'Sleepless Nights' playlist.

The songs in this playlist are the ones who've been my best friends during my crazy nights. They're slow enough to keep you relax and focus yet upbeat enough to keep you up at night. There are a lot of them. But here, I'm just gonna write 15 favorites of mine.

1. Bombay Bicycle Club - Always Like This

2. Blueboy - Always There

3. Remy Zero - Fair

4. Band of Horses - The Funeral

5. Phoenix - If I Ever Feel Better

6. The Weakerthans - Left and Leaving

7. Frou Frou - Let Go

8. The Summer Set - Old Mexico

9. Arctic Monkeys - Reckless Serenade

10. Andrew Bird - Sovay

11. Belle & Sebastian - Step Into My Office, Baby

12. Iron & Wine - Such Great Heights

13. The Summer Set - Where Are You Now

14. Tegan and Sara - Where Does The Good Go

15. Bonnie Somerville - Winding Road

Whether you're facing your final exams, finishing your projects, or just anything that makes you have to be awake until late night, listen to these songs. If you don't have this kind of playlist, then these 15 songs can be a good start. If you already have one, then they will be a great addition. It would be great too if you can share with me your favorite songs that's best listened at night or just simply anything - don't even have to be songs- that usually can keep you up at night.

I hope you enjoy this playlist.

Let's Just Say This Post is Untitled

Hello everyone! Another long gap between my last post and this. And again, it's because of school things. But now, here I am and I'm gonna tell you some of the things that's been going on in my life, or my brain. Here they are :

1. Final exams

Yes I've been having final exams since 3 weeks ago until next week. Yep, you got it right. It means 4 weeks of final exams. 4 weeks of reading big and heavy text books. 4 weeks of losing sleep. But don't worry, there are some days off between the tests, like today (that's why I can finally get in touch with you again).

2. Post-Concert Depression Syndrome

I've told you about the ARTTM-HM-TDF concert before. And yes it's been 16 days after that day and I still have PCDS. This is mostly because the band members are so nice to us, Indonesians. For example, David from TDF made his first tattoo here, why? He said, because he wanted to remember that night. A Rocket to The Moon also posted a video of their trip to Jakarta and it's just so sweet. You can check it out here. But the sweetest thing ever had come from Halvo, the bassist of ARTTM. Why? Last night my friend posted this link from tumblr. And when I opened it, it was this....

I mean, uyhwdbsjncjchkasjkhdsdsjdnsd that is just too sweet :")

3. The Yearbook

It has finally printed and distributed. I'm so proud to be a part of it. Well done my friends :)

4. The Way It Was

That's the title of Parachute's new album, and I'm soo in love with it. All the songs in it are just so addictive. Check out their Something to Believe In and You and Me music video if you haven't already!

I guess those are all the things you've missed. Yes, there are nothing important or interesting in my life so far since it has been so flat and boring lately. Oh yeah, I also need that cruel-yet-important-thing-called-money. ASAP!!!! There are so many things I want to buy, but I just don't have the money. Well, there are so much money in the world while there are so little in my pocket *sigh*

Hope you all have a wonderful day!

Wednesday Wishes (1)

Had you ever feel so happy when you were in school and the bell rang telling you that it was time for you to go home? And not just some other go-homes, because you'd have days off for the next eight days. Yes it happened to me just yesterday. My friends and I felt so happy then we went to buy some dvds and grabbed lunch. After that, we went to one of my friends' house and watch two dvds in a row, go 'eew' on the first movie and 'aaw' on the second one (well, the first movie we watched was I Love You, Philip Morris which is a story about a gay couple, while the second movie was Crazy Little Thing Called Love, a sweet romantic comedy Thailand movie) until it was late and we all went home.

Yes, as I mentioned above, I'm having eight days off, starting from this day, because my senior are having their final exams. Best of luck for them. Anyway, what would you do if you were me? Go on a vacation with your friends, hang out at some cool and new places in town, shop like there's no tomorrow? I might as well say that usually, but not this time. I've been spending this day doing some simple stuffs. This morning, I read this book titled Pretties, which is the second book of Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld. Then, after that, I watched How I Met Your Mother. It's only 1 pm when I started writing this, but I've already watched 12 episodes today, isn't that crazy, and you might say, boring?

Well it's not for me. You see, I go to this school which is the best public school in town, even in my country, and it drives me crazy. It makes me busy all the time with all of the things inside it. I barely have enough time to just have a lazy day, watch tons of dvds in a day, and relax like I don't have any problem at all. So when it comes to holiday, one thing I really want to do is just relax, watch dvds, read some magazines, and sleep. Well of course doing some crazy and fun things all teenagers do will be fun too. I'm actually thinking about doing it tomorrow or the day after tomorrow or...

Okay, I think it's best if we just move on to another topic. You might be bored about that whole relaxing at home thing. You might as well skipped some parts. So, to stop you from leaving this page, I will share with you one of my newest obsession right now that's becoming the point of my Wednesday Wishes post (which is a series created by Brooke at Bright Wishes), which is.....

White Dresses

Well I know it's not a new trend or something, but isn't that a good thing? It's not new but many people still wear it. It means, white dress has never been out of date. It's so simple yet so sweet and lovely. You can wear it anytime, anywhere, with anything, in every occasion, and it will still look good. Here are some of the lovely white dresses I found on the internet

White Sheer Sleeve Shift Dress at Topshop



Retro Swing Dress at Forever21



Studio Tunic at Zara

Single Dazzle and Threesome at Tendencies

And that is how I do my first Wednesday Wishes post. :)

PS : I was thinking about doing a mix and match post, but I'm saving it for a Friday's Fancies post I will do this Friday. Yes it's a series that {av} from (long distance loving) has done and i want to participate in it.

PPS : Yes, that's a little spoiler about what I'll have on the next post. Just make sure you all will come back that time and see :)

These Websites Make My Bad Mood Goes

School's been driving me crazy. Not because of the subjects, assignments, teachers, and so on (even though those things do add my stress level), but it's because of the government had changed the system of the way to apply to university. They changed it a couple months ago actually, but now I'm freaking out because many teachers (in school and even in my course) are talking about it.

To make me feel better, I want to make something. So, when I got home this Friday (which means the last day of school this week, yaay!), I looked for great websites providing some recipes, DIY things, art stuffs, and so on. I found so many of it, but these two are my favorite.

1. Ming Makes Cupcakes

I really love this website. Ming gives us good pictures and simple how-to(s) that even people who were actually not interested on baking at the first place, would want to do it after seeing this website. There are 33 cupcake recipes and they all look so yummy. This website also provides 6 cookie recipes and 3 savoury recipes. And I'm pretty sure these numbers will keep on growing as soon as Ming finds another recipes.

2. Papercrave

Paper cravings. Yes I always love this thing. And one thing I really love about this website is because of its gift wrap ideas. These are the samples :

Father's Day Shirt & Bow Tie and Grocery Bag Gorgeous

So what do guys think? Do you have any favorite websites for recipes, DIY things or art stuffs? Tell me about it! :)

P.S : I just found this online store named Yozo Craft and I really love it, especially its charms. And the best of all is, the charms are cheap and free shipping!! For example, this cute and unique set of Lovely Little Scissors only costs US$1.60

Uuh if only I have a credit card, I'm pretty sure I would buy so many things there. You all have to check it out!

Blessings

There is a memory in my heart today

That passing years cannot take away

An empty space no one can fill

I love you still and always will

The tears in my eyes, I can wipe away

But the ache in my heart still always stay

- Achmad Bakrie -

I was supposed to bring a biography book of a famous Indonesian person last Wednesday. But then I forgot to bring one. Silly me. Thank God there are some biography books in my school's library so I borrowed one. The book that I borrowed is about Achmad Bakrie. I haven't heard about him before. Turns out, he is the father of that famous Afrizal Bakrie. What surprised me is the fact that Achmad Bakrie loved to write some poems, and I think his poems are beautiful.

So anyway, this week has been one gloomy-no spirit-feels like crying week. But even in the most difficult times of your life, you can still find some good things. Here are some positive things from my week so far :
1. I've been trying to forgive myself better than before. I think you wont be able to live happily if you still think about yourself as a girl-who-has-too-many-faults.
2. It shows me that us, students in 8 shs, are a real family. We support each other, we console each other, we try to make each other smile, because we are one. Together, better, stronger!
3. I have the best of best friends anyone can ever ask for. On Tuesday, since it was a holiday, I went to PIM with two of them, which are Nadea and Nisa. We talked and they made me feel better and happier. After that, Nadea and I went to watch No Strings Attached and Nisa watched another movie with her bf. Wanna know my opinion about the movie? Here it is : Ashton Kutcher is so handsome and hot and cute and Natalie Portman makes me jealous. Hahaha
4. I've been trying to ignore some negative thoughts that people said. I think my life is complicated enough to even care about those things. I want to bring some positive energy to everyone.
5. I feel blessed because I am still alive and surrounded by so many lovely people. Including my blog friends :)

Behance

Sorry for the long gap between this post and the previous one. Well, it actually happens often but this time, I really feel bad because Elis Smirnoff from love me, Jaded said "you ought to blog more often woman!!!". So so sorry. But I promise, if I do have spare time, I will def post something here.

Anyway, yesterday me and my friends joined IDS (International Design School) High Year Book Competition #2.

Too bad we didn't win. But well, it's okay, it really got me to think about my school year book more. So while we were waiting for the relults, we went to Starbucks because we actually wanted to use its free wifi and searched for some cover ideas. We ended up finding so many cool graphic designs, and I want to share some of them with you guys here

Letterform for the Ephemeral by Amandine Alessandra. This is so cool right?

Write a Bike by Juri Zaech. Well I now, it is not year book cover material (mostly pictures I post here are not either), but it's still cute, right?



Type Treat by Alex Beltechi. This one looks so... um delicious hahahha



Super Happy Times by Jordan Metcalf. If only I can draw like these.

Well to be honest, there are still many many cool designs I found, but I think if I keep on posting it, it will take you too long to open my page. So, in case you are interested, you can find this kind of design here. Hope you like it :)

P.S : Thank you so much for your supports on my last post. I feel really glad :D

Currently

Craving for 'Thirteen Reasons Why' book. This is about a set of audiotapes sent by a girl named Hannah Baker, who just commited suicide. Two weeks after that incident, Clay Jensen, Hannah's classmate and a boy who once had a crush on her, returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers cassette tapes recorded by Hannah. On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he’ll find out how he made the list.

There are some quotes from this book I really like, but these two are my favorite.

"You don’t know what goes on in anyone’s life but your own. And when you mess with one part of a person’s life, you’re not messing with just that part. Unfortunately, you can’t be that precise and selective. When you mess with one part of a person’s life, you’re messing with their entire life. Everything. . . affects everything."

"If you hear a song that makes you cry and you don't want to cry anymore, you don't listen to that song anymore. But you can't get away from yourself. You can't decide not to see yourself anymore. You can't decide to turn off the noise in your head."

I really am craving for this book. According to the reviews I read on Goodreads, this book is like one of the most quality Young Adult book.

In love with He is We. It's an indie-pop group- well actually it only consists of two people, Rachel Taylor and Trevor Kelly. They are so amazing, really. I can't stop listening to their songs lately. Check them out on their purevolume page. It's recommended to all of you who love sweet-and-cute-acoustic music.

Feeling so low because I heard that in order to get into FSRD ITB (a design faculty in ITB, one of the best university in Indonesia) this year - and I'm pretty sure it also occurs for the next 3 years or so - we have to take social program, or at least study social studies, karena masuknya lewat jalur IPS, jadi materi yang diujikan adalah pelajaran IPS!! Helloo, I'm a student in science program, which means I have to study both science and social studies if I want to make it to FSRD ITB. For more info, click here. Kenapa USM harus dihapus sekarang sih? :'(

A Quick Post

Woaah I haven't posted anything for such a long long time -__- Hmm ga ada apa-apa juga sih di kehidupan gue. Gitu-gitu doang. Paling menghabiskan beberapa minggu ini dengan buka puasa bareng temen. But still I want to write something here so I'm writing this quick post here. Well, ga cepet juga sih bikinnya tapi ini menyangkut tema yang cepat tanpa pemikiran panjang lebar. So here it is... 5 things that I want to tell you all.

1. It's holiday now, but I have many many assignments to do. Dan bahkan hari pertama masuk nanti langsung TF math materi peluang. Hadooh. AND I HAVEN'T STUDIED ANYTHING OR DONE ANY ASSIGNMENTS YET -___-

2. I'm 16, and I still love Camp Rock 2. Hahaha gapapa ah abisnya itu emang guilty pleasure banget. Secara disitu ada Nick, Joe, dan Kevin Jonas gitu, masa gue ga nonton film pacar dan calon ipar sendiri? :p haha

Ini nih cover album OSTnya. Suka banget sama lagu-lagunya terutama Introducing Me yang dinyanyiin sama Nick Jonas. Itu unyu cunguddh :3 Tapi ga suka banget sama ceweknya (diperankan oleh Chloe Bridges). Aaah Nick deserves someone better!!!

There she is. Chloe, Demi, and Alex. AAAH I'm sorry Chloe but I don't like you....

3. Kemarin itu bukber biling. Nah gue, riri, fira, nisa, lea, jeber, dan adel mau nonton Vampires Suck dulu di FX. Kami harusnya ketemu di smabel jam 11 dan nonton yang jam 12.15. But I arrived there at 11.45. I was late. I thought. Tapi kenyataannya... gue dateng hampir bareng sama jeber. Dan belum ada yang lain -__- Dan akhirnya, kami baru pergi dari smabel jam setengah 2 dan nonton yang jam 15.55.

Filmnya selesai sekitar jam 17.10. Lea and Jeber tetep mau pergi ke bukpus biling. But instead of getting stucked in the traffic on our way there, Nisa, Fira, Riri, Adel, and I, decided we'll just walk to Sency untuk buka puasa (ya secara kalo mau buka di fx makan dimana? Mahal semua -__-)

Maaf ya teman-teman biliiing! :'(

4. Menurut gue, Matt Lanter walaupun udah dipermak dengan make up tebel dan hairspray and other "gay" things, dia tetep ganteng :3 ahaha tapi beda banget sih dia yang di 90210 dan di film parodi konyol ini.

Bisa nebak kan pasti di foto mana dia berperan sebagai Liam Court di 90210 dan mana yang dia berperan sebagai Edward Sullen di Vampires Suck? haha :p

5. Ramadhan month is almost over and it's time for me to say welcome to

IDUL FITRI!!

Mohon maaf lahir batin ya semua!! :)