Rain in West Wyalong

When most people hear about Australia, they would probably imagined Uluru and the hot dry dessert in which most of this island covered with. This great country can be seen to be unpleasant sometime, and unfortunately it has been true for the farmers in the past 10 years of constant drought. But, our prayers had been answered in this special year as Greg’s parents farm has finally been getting lots and lots of rain, and it was so incredible to see everything becoming green again!

I remembered when my parents visited their farm for the first time in 2007. Everything was so dry that they were even having sandstorms! The dams were all dried up, and water supplies for the houses are very limited, even in the cities. This is a photo we took of the farm in 2007. Most of the ground is dry. The canola only grows in wet patches and it didn't grow very tall at all. (Greg also still has his crazy hair-do like a Dragon Ball kid back in the day... :p)



Greg’s parents live in a small town called West Wyalong which is North West of Canberra. They own 4.500 acres worth of land that they have been working on for a long time alongside Greg's uncle. After persevering 10 years of drought, they're finally experiencing the complete opposite and had a little too much rain for their crops this year, which is amazing to see! Crops can get 'too much' rain which will make them drown and die, but most of them had grown very well. Some crops that are closer to the house are growing as high and as big as they can get, like chickens on steroids, they almost look like something else other than what they are. The main crops that they’re growing on their farm are canola, wheat and barley with a little bit of lupins for stock food and chickpeas. You can imagine how exciting it is to see these crops reaching its potential growth once again after the farm had been dry for so long!

This is a photo of the canola seeds that developed from the canola flowers. They have very strong distict smell, and are mostly used to make vegetable oil.



... the wheat that's bursting like fireworks,



and the drooping barley.



Greg and I went to visit the farm one weekend and his dad let us ride with him on the windrower. I didn’t know what a windrower was when I got there. A windrower is basically a machine that is attached to the tractor. They're used to cut the dried, tall canola plants that are full of seeds and lie them on the ground so that when it has been cut down, the wind won’t blow all the canola seeds away. We basically went round and around the farm to windrowed the canola, and I've realized that the ride can get a bit bumpy and tricky to do. (No wonder farmers are great drivers!) When we were there it took Greg's dad 3 hours to do the last paddock. They had to do nonstop rounds of windrowing during the previous days so he had to swap with his brother every 12 hours so the tractor never stops.

This is the windrow cutting all the crops, leaving a trail of canola behind it.



This picture shows what's left of it, the canola pile, and sticks of the 'beheaded' canola... Well, they're pretty much dead anyway. :p



I wasn't there when it happened, but Greg's mum sent me a few more pictures to put up on this blog. This is a photo of the header with the draper front picking up the windrowed canola



And this is the header filling the mother bin which is filling the truck to take to the silo (a silo is basically a huge barrell where the grain is kept) with Greg's dad and a huge smile on his face! =)





I'm so amazed by this event. A lot of farmers have given up, but Greg's parents hadn't stop praying and always had patience and hope, even for 10 years! That's like, almost half my life time! We always felt the struggle but we very seldom saw them getting too caught up about it. They always keep trying to celebrate everyday in other things knowing that there's 'bigger' things other than the farm.

Congratulations mum and dad, we love you and are sooo proud of you. You totally deserve the rain. =)

xoxox

Settling in...

I have to say that it's not that easy to just put up with this much change all at once. Being married, new house, new studio, trying to make new targets…. I thought I'll have a job by now, but so far, I haven't got any call backs. I don't know... maybe it's a good thing to just enjoy my free time.

My days as a housewife have finally arrived. I wash dishes everyday, laundry every week, I try to wake up early to make Greg his sandwiches before he leaves for work and give him his daily dose of hugs when he gets back from work. I watched more tv in these 2-3 weeks then the past 2 years of my life put together. First watching loads of actual tv, and now I’m an Avatar addict (anime Avatar, not James Cameron Avatar). I'm starting to think I can bend certain elements in my dreams... Overall, our first month of married life is great! =)

Applying jobs had been rather exciting. I mean, how is it possible, that when I look online for weeks now, there’s a job opening for floristry in every state of Australia, EXCEPT Canberra??? Now I’m left to knock on people’s door. I've never had to walk into shops and ask for work in my life so it turned out to be a really good experience. I still wouldn't underestimate the first time I had to do it though. I was so nervous and scared I thought my heart was about to pop out of my chest. I've applied to 7 florists so far who told me the same thing, ‘we’re fine now, but we’ll have your resume just in case’. Think it’s time for me to apply for jobs outside floristry hey?

Regarding the house... well... I think it's getting there. We had a house inspection last week. It was quite funny because when the agent came by the house at 9:30 am, I was asleep on the couch in front of the tv! Haha! XD The house were already clean by then so I don't have any problems with it apart from being awkward. The TV is still sitting on a crate and we still don’t have a bed but The inspection was a success regardless. If you see these photos, you can see that the house has well... it's neater...

Before..



and after...



And finally... my Etsy shop. My studio is starting to take its shape slooowly, and when I start complaining to Greg that life is starting to get frustrating (usually caused by my inability to prioritize, which caused by lack of pressure to do anything) , Greg said to me, “You should set yourself some goals. What about try to make at least 1 jewelry per day?” I started on Monday, today is Thursday, and I’ve already given up. It’s my fault really, I tried to design and make 1 jewelry per day, and wire jewelry is not exactly simple and straight forward to make. Hm... need to rethink of new strategy...



This is the earrings I started on Monday, and finished on Tuesday arvo... I'm really proud and love the result! Except the earrings are facing on the same direction, so I will have to make the mirror image of this shape to pair these 2.



This is really cool that the internet is moving fast in this country. Should try to sharpen my inner journalist and blog more... :p

Mmm... Rhubarb Souffle!

In the midst of moving around funiture, applying for jobs, re-setting my Etsy shop,cleaning the house, I have been cooking quite a bit. I've never spent this much time in the kitchen. It must be an early sign to being a housewife! :p Our kitchen is tiny, but it turns out to be a neat little place to be!

The cookbooks that I've bought is coming to use. I'm a very unexperienced dumb cook but always tries to achieve higher things without knowing. Normally I just look for a recipe in a book that uses ingredients that I already have in the fridge. I thought that if I have the ingredients in the fridge, as if I won't be able to do what a recipe tells me to? And of course, I was very wrong...

So yesterday night, I was determined to make a rhubarb souffle, not really knowing what a souffle was. I just happen to have 4 unused egg whites in the fridge and the picture looked yummy in my book. Good thing Caroline came over randomly just as I was about to make it. She is such an incredible and versatile cook, and I think she had saved my stupid attempt. She told me that I'm brave wanting to tackle a souffle. Think that just made me realize, I probably shouldn't do this on my own...



I have to say the progress of making this souffle is reeeally delicious! We couldn't stop licking the rhubarb compote out of the bowl! We also made Rhubarb bellini, which is rhubarb compote stirred in with champagne while we're waiting 20 minutes for the mix to cool down

(Hm... don't you think our dessert is starting to look a bit like the picture...?)



we folded the meringue with the compote and put it on top, and it's ready to be put in the oven!



30 minutes later, this is what we get! Doesn't that just looked amazing...?! :D



As soon as Caroline pulls the tray out of the oven, it's time to eat! 3 hours of cooking, and we finished eaiting it in 10 minutes! Shouldn't take that long, but it was our first attempt so we think we did well. Afterall it was VERY yummy, everyone should try making it! It was totally worth the effort and now I finally know what a souffle really is! Yippie!



Ps: If you're curious, I got this recipe from Jamie's Oliver cookbook that I own (which is an awesome book btw) , or you can click on this link for the recipe and try it out yourself! Have fun! =)

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/fruit-recipes/rhubarb-and-custard-kinda-souffle

xox

A very big update

It’s been exactly 3 months since my last post. A lot of things had happened during those times, that I really wished I had time to blog about, but I guess it will just have to catch up eventually. So, here’s my story in a nutshell:

I have nearly finished my bridal floristry course that I mentioned about in my previous blog. Just before I had my final exam left to do, I have been granted my prospective marriage VISA and it’s time for me to move to Australia and get married! It was a very painful process to get the VISA so it was very big news when I had the green light to move over.

So I packed everything into a container and sent it to Australia. When I got there, I was living out of a suitcase for 1 and a half months and the wedding preparation had been extremely busy and stressful. I’ve been trying to do as much preparation as I can while I’m in Indonesia but lots of them need to be prepared in Australia. I was trying to design and make my own décor and flowers and I got a bit obsessive about the projects, but everyone was very supportive about my crazy ideas and we managed to pull off most of the projects. This is a photo of a bucket of origami paper roses that we made to be use as the table placement.



While that was going on, Greg and I managed to secure a house for our married life and organized our honeymoon trip to Japan. We managed to get there in the end and we visited Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka as well as visiting our friends in smaller towns at Yamanashi and Yusuhara. Here is a photo of Greg, Me, Yuka and Hoshi in front of Mt. Fuji on a clear day. =)



Hopefully I’ll be able to blog a little bit more about the things we made for the wedding because it has been a very interesting development. The wedding was a big success, everything went beautifully and the weather was perfect for our outdoor wedding venue. Our wedding video is even featured on Australia’s wedding website: www.theknot.com.au

This video is shoot during the day and is shown in the evening at reception. I think they've done an amazing job, so check it out if you can. And yes, Greg managed to play 'Left for Dead' with his groomsmans just before the ceremony.



And now here I am, sitting in my messy little home with my husband, waiting for the next big thing. Christmas is coming so getting my Etsy shop up and running again would be essential. And wow, I'm still trying to get used to their new look! It’ll be a bit of a challenge with the house still messy and we’re still trying to get furniture inside the house. We have no bed, no microwave, no studio (which will be exciting for me to set up), even our tv is still sitting on top of crates!

The next obvious dilemma for me now is to find a new job. I'm looking to work in a florist, and as far as my searching capabilities can see, there is no positions open in Canberra at the moment. So I'm picking up my courage to face my fears and knock on florist doors to simply drop my resumes in! Wish me luck!



The first photo is courtesy of silas-photo.com
The last photo is courtesy of benthomasphotos.com
The video is courtesy of papercranes.com.au

Quest for the black bouquet

My mentor Andy held a grand opening for his brand new floral school! To celebrate, he held an exhibition of floral arrangements made by everyone who are willing to put in.

What makes this event even more special is that Andy had incorporated his passion for the colour black in every aspect possible. His new studio is filled with black furniture. Him and his assistants always wear black outfits to work. So it seem natural that the theme of the exhibition would be, "Quest for the black bouquet"

It's very interesting that as a world class florist his favorite colour is seldom found in a natural floral materials. So I guess you could say that this exhibition is a step forward in completing that journey to explore the not-so-obvious possibility.

I was only signing up as a new student the day I got offered to put in a piece for the exhibition. And here is my piece:



I'm so grateful that Andy is open to combine my interest in wire jewelry and plants for this piece. This piece is made out of thick, but light aluminium wire that is wrapped with 5mm black ribbon. (Took me about 5 hours to just wrap the entire wire with ribbon). I decorate it with pearls and garnet with swarovski crystal that sits at the throat area as focal. Just before the necklace is being displayed I worked on putting the fresh baby roses and ivy leaves in incorporate the floral element. Without water, I knew the baby roses will shrivel up after being displayed for a day so I named the piece "Rose Tea Lariat"

I had no time to shop around for fabric to dress the mannequin, but the batik that's been sitting idle in my cupboard for months had proved itself to be useful! =)

Click on this link to see photos of other exhibitors:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=236186&id=522165445&l=7e3d998b96

Enjoy! =)

Still here!

I don't know if anybody reads my blog but I still feel guilty about not updating it. I'm not trying to make excuses, but there are reasons for that. The internet at home is not fast enough to update photos. When I had an office job, I used to be able to upload photos at work. I have now lost that advantage.

Admitedly, the only thing that suffers is not just this blog, but the speed in which I update my new items in shop and updating facebook photos.

To make it even worst, I have discovered from my recent trip to Shanghai that China had banned facebook, blogspot, and google. They didn't block Etsy, thank God. I think I would suffocate if they did. With that being said, I had a lot of fun in Shanghai. =)

So worst comes to worst, I often visit the closest starbucks from home to buy my tall vanilla chai latte and high speed internet.

I just want to share treasuries that have included items from my shop. They're not that new now, but I've been itching to share this and am still very honored and excited to be included by these artist.

Treasuries compiled by Sema from www.zuzusworld.etsy.com:

"Choose your Style" featuring my mountain tears earrings



"My best friends" featuring my gift box:


"Rain, rain go away" complied by www.kidsloveletters.etsy.com featuring my partly cloudy earrings:



Many thanks for you both in adding my items in! I love the look of them as always!:D

So says my shrink(s)...

It has been exactly a month since I last post on this blog, and a little over a month now since I’ve quit my graphic design job in my dad’s massive family business. I have to admit, I had been quite distracted in the past month, but I’d like to think that the time had been well spent. Since I’m completely free, I have finally discovered waking up with a full doze of sleep every night and then never seem to find enough time during the day to do the things that I wanted to with my excess energy.

So in the past month I have been going to the gym a lot more regularly and enjoying it immensely. I have also taken that bridal floristry course that I always wanted. I pay my visits to the studio every second day on average. I played with flowers, hang out with the housewives, other artists and joke around with my teacher and his assistant. I think about planning my wedding every now and then. It’s still 5 months away, but most decorations are going to be handmade, so it’s fun to take the time to do some research, practice new techniques and hunt for treasures around Jakarta. I’ve discovered supply stores that are so incredible that even Jakarta’s signature chaos, smog, rubbish and crazy traffic doesn’t stop me from wanting to go there often.

So while enjoying the good life and happy for once, I have also been seeing a shrink. My dad asked me to and I obeyed him without much curiosity. So one morning I showed up to this guy's office, still only half awake I realized that I don’t even know the name of the person I’m seeing.

It turns out my sessions with the shrink had been very helpful and relevant than I expected. He was willing to talk to me through every important facet of my life that may threaten me to stumble if I wasn’t prepared, such as premarital counseling, realizing past family problems that affects me as a person now, and career.

Career happens to be my current primary concern. We discussed about my inability to focus on one subject long enough to make a career out of that subject. My fiancé told me that in average, a person would change their career 7 times in their lifetime. Well… I'm still 24 and in the past 3 years I’have finished a music degree, worked as a florist, worked in an office, worked as a part time graphic designer and of course maintaining my Etsy shop as a jewelry maker. 5 completely different career, done in 3 years! Clearly, isn’t that a proper recipe for trouble? I begin to wonder if I may have escaped from being diagnosed with ADD, hence my inability to focus on anything.

I brought up this issue to my florist mentor, Andy. He is open to a wide range of artformsother than just flowers. His knowledge, easy going personality and non-judgemental nature made him more than just my mentor. He could easily be my ‘other’ shrink. He told me before he chose flowers as his primary medium, he also did a wide range of other things. He was formally trained in interior design, he was also trained in piano, cake decorating, hair and make up artist. He chose flowers as his medium because he saw the need for more creative flowers arrangements in Jakarta. It is something new that hadn’t been done before, and also because flowers don’t last long. Once they are arranged, they are thrown away and his job is cleared.

I brought up to him my interest in jewelry amongst others. He was very supportive to that idea for various reasons. He encouraged me to leave everything and take formal training. I wasn't so sure how to tackle that idea, but then he started talking to me passionately in what he called his ‘broken english’,

“Make sure you stick to the jewelry for AT LEAST 5 years Ok?! Don’t look to left and to right and then cheat on other things like a person cheat on their boyfriend or girlfriend! Otherwise before you know it you think you like cooking, and then you like eating and then become the person who taste food and then the person who writes about food and then becomes a journalist and bla, bla, blaaa…!!!”

Yes my dear sir, point taken. I get it. No cheating.

Now we shall see what will happen...