In Between

November 22, 2015 by Prisanti Leave a comment

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]’m glad that this week I’ve become a little bit more productive. I think this is the first week I’m actually crossed all things in my to-do list for a really long time. Lately, it’s harder to focus on things, as work life has been exhausting and I’m having this issue that makes me want to do many other things outside work :))

I’m kind of fall in love with designing newsletter, that I decided to activate Kawung Living Newsletter. We gathered e-mails list over the year and put a subscription box in our website, but we’ve never actually send any e-mails! :)) Now that I’m getting a hang of how newsletter works, let’s see if this will be an effective way of promoting. By the way, this Holiday Marketing Tips from MailChimp is just the best!

So, ready for a Random Round Up?

Since 2016 is running faster and faster, this is the perfect time go free calendar hunting! This beautiful simple calendar from Harley Quinn and Co. featured beautiful brush calligraphy and ink drops. You can download this for free or give $2 donation to World Animal Protection.

savethedamndate

Bought the domain SAVETHEDAMNDATE.com. There is not much on it right now, but this is a personal project that I want to make next year. If you read Pricing & Template, you read it right. Some say that you don’t need to spill too much on personal project until it really launched, but yeah, what the hell :))

jessica-jones

Jessica Jones dropped on Netflix this week! I’ve been binge-watching it this weekend and the show is just awesome~ I love Krysten Ritter! Over the years, I’ve watched her being supporting acting and cameo for many popcorn movies (The Confession of a Shopaholic, She’s out Of Your Leagues, etc.) as well as TV series (Breaking Bad, The Blacklist, etc.). She got bigger role by starring in Don’t Trust The B in Apartment 23. Now, Ritter plays a Marvel’s superhero! I mean, everybody deserves a big break and Ritter just got a great one :’) This piece is a great interview with Ritter about playing Jessica Jones. As for the series itself, I really want to rank up all TV series featured a female superhero. Since I haven’t watch Supergirl, I think I’m going to save it up for another time :P

instachaaz

A funny satiric art over pen and Post-It. Lovely!

thenostalgiamachine

And last, the best of it all. I forgot whether I’ve mentioned it before, but since it’s so awesome, it’s worth unlimited share! The Nostalgia Machine is a perfect website to visit on weekend when you-want-to-do-something-but-can’t-think-of-anything (true story). I’ve been watching to The Corrs Unplugged and Destiny’s Child Mix Video all week. Precious gem! (Hint: Year 2000 is one of the best)

That’s all for this week. Good night, precious treasures.

INSPIRATION: Art Prints

November 11, 2015 by Prisanti Leave a comment

[dropcap]K[/dropcap]alau ditanya siapa teman yang paling bikin iri, buat saya jawabannya yang sudah bisa cicil rumah (atau mungkin bayar cash, who knows?) sendiri. Salah satu alasan saya dan Liza memulai Kawung Living juga karena senang berkunjung ke toko perabotan rumah tangga. Saya yakin keinginan mengisi rumah pasti dimiliki manusia pada umumnya (yang konon katanya biayanya bahkan sama dengan harga rumah). Saya pembaca setia Living Loving dan A Beautiful Mess. Seri Happy Nest dari LL juga adalah seri yang tidak pernah saya lewatkan. Elsie & Emma, co-author ABM, juga sedang sama-sama merenovasi rumah mereka masing-masing. Jadi akhir-akhir ini, tema decor semakin sering dibahas oleh kedua blog ini. Kalau rumah di luar negeri sih nggak usah ditanya soal luas bangunan atau ‘kehijauan’-nya. Pokoknya jangan dibandingkan dengan kawasan padat penduduk di kota besar macam Jabodetabek :)) Ja-nya harus dicoret karena buat saya yang baru 4-5 tahun memulai karir, daerah Jakarta memang cuma bisa dimiliki kalangan elit saja (but who knows?).

Muji Hut (image from here)

Berbicara tentang luas dan space, kemarin saya sempat membaca artikel tentang brand MUJI yang baru saja merilis desain MUJIHUT. 3 rumah mungil yang super fungsional dan minimalis. MUJI sendiri sebelumnya sudah pernah mengeluarkan desain vertical house di tahun 2014 yang lalu. Sila berkunjung ke tautan ini untuk melihat beberapa desain rumah yang super mungil lainnya di Jepang. Jepang memang konsisten bikin kyaa-ness overload.

Karena sekarang ini saya belum mampu membeli rumah, saya mau memulai seri INSPIRATION. Isinya beberapa barang yang setipe dan menurut saya, worth sharing. Nah, tema yang mau saya bahas di seri ini mungkin kebanyakan adalah perabot rumah tangga. Kenapa judulnya bukan Imagining Future Home misalnya (haha), mungkin karena saya tidak mau menutup kemungkinan untuk tema lainnya di kemudian hari. Tema pertama yang mau saya bahas: Art Print!

Starting November

November 1, 2015 by Prisanti 1 Comment

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]t’s finally November, yeay (two more months until the end of the year)!

I spent this weekend by doing some stuffs.

supposed to be following the alphabet template, ended up writing name bands instead :))

I randomly bought the Calligraphy Starter Kit here. Watched some classes on Skillshare and turned out it’s kind of fun (as well as hard). Upstrokes supposed to be thin, and downstrokes supposed to be thick. I tried brush lettering before, and the supplies were easier to get (Yamura Ink + Lyra Brush). I must say brush lettering is harder than calligraphy. I can get a hang of using brush pen, but no hope on using brush (yet). By the way, if you’d like to try calligraphy, I recommend Bryn Chernoff’s Calligraphy I: Writing in Classic Modern Script for a total-no-clue beginner like me.

And if you noticed, I re-arranged some of the things in this blog. I made a navigation bar. At first, I want to put all categories above, but it’s getting cramped :)) So I listed main things I love the most (which is so obvious) and split the categories into two. I have fun writing the description for each categories. Try accessing the Daily categories now.

I also made a newsletter form at sidebar. Now, if anyone wants to follow this blog, you can subscribe and received this welcome e-mail at your inbox :3

finding joy designed this newsletter :)

I, myself, subscribed to a lot of newsletters. There are a stream of good websites out there and most of time, I forgot what websites I just bumped into. So, I always think subscribing to newsletter is a good option to ‘keep in touch’. Not to mention that sometimes, I get a lot of free stuffs or discount by subscribing to a newsletter :)) Choose carefully which one you follow because after a certain period, you get a hang of which one is an annoying newsletter, which one isn’t (the art of unsubscribing).

Previously, I used MailChimp to send out monthly report for the scholarship program I ran. I think MailChimp is great and versatile to use. Their ready-to-use templates is amazing, they’re more sophisticated, and there are a lot of option to personalize a mail. But then, its autoresponder feature is only available for Paid Account :( I’ve heard about MadMimi before and after series of googling ‘MailChimp vs MadMimi’, I signed up to it. Here is a good article about their comparison. The autoresponder feature (or Drip Campaigns) is available for Free Account customer and though it lacks the fancy theme/template MailChimp offered, it still works great, and just basically anything I need.

I also changed the fonts of the Post Title (like anyone would notice :P) to a Sans-Serif fonts. I love Montserrat. At first, I want to change all fonts to a Sans-Serif to look more modern and easier to read on the screen. I tested them out and it lost its previous classic looks. I usually post long paragraphs and it’s probably a better choice to use Serif fonts for now. By the way, this is a beautiful example on how to pair a Serif and Sans-Serif fonts and this one is an infographics of Serif vs Sans-Serif showdown.

how this blog looks like using a Sans-Serif

I promised myself to write more this month as a continuation of last month #28postsfor28 spirit. So, good night tomorrow’s magic.

Keliling Kamboja

October 31, 2015 by Prisanti Leave a comment

Sebenarnya, saya sama sekali tidak merencanakan untuk pergi ke luar negeri di tahun ini. Karena dananya tidak ada (hiks sedih) dan kurs dollar memang sedang melambung di kala itu. Tapi tiba-tiba, teman saya Titis berkata bahwa dia sudah punya tiket one way ke Ho Chi Minh. Then, it escalated quickly. Beberapa teman ikut membeli tiket yang sama dan grup Whatsapp khusus pun sudah dibuat. Di kesempatan lainnya, Liza bercerita kalau beliau sudah hamil beberapa minggu dan kemungkinan perjalanan ini menjadi perjalanan terakhirnya untuk beberapa tahun ke depan. Atau mungkin perjalanan terakhir kami, hiks sedih lagi :( Sayapun memutuskan untuk berangkat di saat-saat terakhir. Alhamdulillah juga, saat itu dollar turun drastis dan kami cukup bisa menghemat sejumlah uang dari perkiraan semula. Bisa dibilang, ini salah satu perjalanan saya yang paling mendadak dan minim pengetahuan.

Rute yang direncanakan adalah Jakarta – Singapore – Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam) – Phnom Penh (Kamboja) – Siem Reap (Kamboja) – Bangkok (Thailand) – Jakarta. Karena saya membeli tiket di saat-saat terakhir dan karena tidak mempunyai jatah cuti berlebih akhirnya memutuskan untuk tidak mengikuti perjalanan sampai selesai. Sehingga rute yang saya lalui cuma Jakarta – Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam) – Phnom Penh (Kamboja) – Siem Reap (Kamboja) – Jakarta.

The Odd Admiration Named Barasuara

October 14, 2015 by Prisanti Leave a comment

It was back on 2009 when Arctic Monkeys released Web Transmission. A 20 minutes performance of their then upcoming album Humbug. There was a chilling presence as each track revealed, a weird excitement, a bizarre amusement. That moment, I was sure I’ll be wanting to hear them more.

Today, the same odd admiration came to me. The layered sound and melody, the unusual song pattern, the word choices. The same chilling presence came back when I heard (and watched) Barasuara.

I might not be following the indie music scene too much here in Indonesia and my choice can only be limited to few bands like The Adams, Mocca, Sore, Float, Efek Rumah Kaca, and few others. Which most songs I believe I heard somewhere between the original soundtrack of some Indonesian movies. But Barasuara is an exception. I will quote Teguh Wicaksono’s foreword on the description on the video:

“Originally formulated as a one-man project, Iga’s decision to grant democracy to other members of Barasuara is spot on. With that line-up, making the rest of the member as additional players will be plain foolish. Already well-known bandmates Marco Steffiano, Gerald Situmorang, Asteriska Cabrini, Puti Chitara and TJ Kusuma are not only doing what they told to do, but also contribute substantial amount of power and clarity into the songs. Listening to the session, I am continuously awed by Marco’s smart, loud but tidy drumming. Producing the right sound, in the right time with the right volume is not a skill any drummer could do, especially faced with Barasuara’s steady but shifty approaches.

Songwriting is responsibly fresh, sound treatment is top-notch. Arrangement department is a nutritious delicacy for the hungry souls: you will recognise some Tinariwen juice, Sondre Lerche appetiser served with Jack White as Entree and some DD Dumbo as dessert. While the existence of backup singers in a band usually ended with question marks, the tranquility promised by Asteriska and Puti is far from ineffective, in fact they are the secret game changer of the whole Barasuara experience. Another thing that I noticed from Barasuara is they put real effort to avoid cliches. Right when you start to identify the pattern of the songs, suddenly they mutated into a different dimension, revitalised the songs for a moment before finally entering the punishing closure.”

My favorite ones are Bahas Bahasa and Sendu Melagu. Afterall, it was the exact weird excitement and bizarre amusement. I know instantly that I’ll be wanting to hear them more.

PS: Barasuara’s first album, Taifun, will be released on October 16, 2015. If you are an Apple user, pre-order here at iTunes.