Goodbye 2013!

If i have to summarize my 2013 in one word it will be " Family " year for us. I found out i was pregnant early this year and throughout the whole year, the topic in my life was about family, pregnancy, baby and that fucking gestational diabetic! 

But i feel extremely grateful on how God's work in my life, my marriage life and our little family. I am so amazed on God's work that is beautiful in His perfect time, and i can't thank Him enough for trusting me and Mr. with our cute little Ethan. He is such a precious gift to our little family, and amazingly - we got every single thing that we prayed for Ethan. So, mommy to be - bring your request to God for whatever you want your son to be. 

Other thing that i think will be a highlight on my 2013 is the struggle i have with breastfeeding.

 Too be honest, i did not enjoy my very first 8 weeks with lil love. I love him and often miss him when i am out of house, but i didn't enjoy my new role as mommy.

I am not happy, i am constantly worried about my breast milk supply, feeling guilty for giving lil love supplement, keep getting sick, and scared that lil love might not love me back. How silly is that? But if any of you currently in the same shoes with me, let's break through that thought and make peace with ourselves first.

First of all, and it seems to be the hot topic between new mom ; breast milk!
No doubt, breast is best! But don't ever say it to newly mom that have problem in giving their precious the breast milk.

I was blessed with a generous supply of breastmilk on my first 3 weeks after giving birth. It was a lot and i have a lot of milk supply in my freezer..and i was like any other lucky mommy, i'm gonna exclusively giving my lil love the breast milk. But not for long, i was down with a very high fever up to 39.99c - 3 fevers a week, and i lost my breastmilk supply over night. I keep thinking that the milk will come back, but after a week in a very low supply i am hoping that this is just temporary. But after 1 month, i realized..i'm no longer that lucky mommy. I was down and still is - but I finally make peace with myself that formula milk is not a poison and it's ok to supplement him on top of my breast milk.

I keep thinking how to meet his needs, but i forgot that i need to take care of mine first before his. This is selfish and i learned it in a hard way. 

Take it this way..if i take care of myself well, I will be still having my supply and i don't have to bear this guilt. The other funny fact about Ethan is he cannot latch on my boobs for milk. We went to lactation consultant and they don't know what to do with it, so i ended up feeding him with bottle and now he doesn't seems like my boobs. haha!

Ethan ever latch few times on me and i was so happy to see him feeding directly on me and i feel envy to those moms who can breastfeed directly to their baby. *next baby - i will forced him/her no matter what*

Anyway, if you happened to read my blog and currently experience the same..i want to tell you, it's ok..relax, take a deep breath, i feel you. And I need to let you know that i feel so much happier after i make peace with myself, and seeing little Ethan is happy and health. Our baby will love us back not JUST because we breastfeed them, but it's way more than that. It's our happy love and care to them.

Call this an excuse to my guilt, it works.

So, i will close my 2013 with full of grateful heart, lots of love from my lovely Mr, Arief Nuradi and my cute lil love, Ethan Arelson Nuradi, tons of hope for a brighter and hopeful 2014.

Bring it ON!

Quiz name WINNER!!

I AM SORRY for the delay!!

*i have too many excuse to write, so i don't bother*

Just before i gave birth to baby Ethan Arelson Nuradi, I opened up a quiz for fellow bloggers friend to have a guess on my then baby to be name's and no one got it right.. *ya eyalaaaah ya*

We chose the name Ethan (following my initial's) means Strong.

Arelson is the abbreviation from Arief Elrica Son.

..and nuradi of course is Le Mr's family name

5 out of 32 entry could guess the name right! and i use this random calculator to pick one winner out of 5 people who have guessed the first name right :)

CONGRATULATIONS TO DEPOT!

I will be in touch with you to arrange for the prize ;)

Thank you for the rest who have joined the quiz!

Aku masi ada kuis kuis mendatang, cuman pengumumannya ya gini deh - kapan sempet.

Maapkan akuh ^^

Baby Ethan is 2.5 months old

Lil love is 2.5 months old and now that my hormone and every pain from the pregnancy has gone, I am start to enjoy taking care of the lil love.

I enjoy snapping photo of him and showing it off in my instagram, and he got more likes than i do @_@

I seriously love his cute innocent face and sometimes even after he burped or farted darn loud, he can just showing us the " I didn't do anything " kind of face.

Mukanya tuh bener bener bisa yang " umm umm..aku ga ngapa2in barusan kok " dan biasanya gw ma Arip langsung ngakak pas liat gitu. 

So far in 2.5 months i noticed that my lil love are:

1. Allergic to mossy bites

When we were in Jakarta, my mum in law has to put him under this thingy to avoid the mossy bites.

- Nyamuk Jakarta ganas ganas ya cui, balik dari Jakarta, Ethan bentol bentol ga keruan. -

2. Cranky lil love

Whenever he is sleepy or too tired, he will start his crying on and on until he fall asleep.

ini ya bo, ampun deh gw..bisa lebay banget dia nya kalo lagi ngantuk..nangis udah kayak abis putus cinta bener, bisa sampe berderai derai aer mata..padahal cuman ngantuk. >.<'

3. Love bathing session

..and angry when you pull him out of the water.

4. Daddy's boy

Lil love is a kind of baby boy that stick to Daddy more than mummy..whenever I can't comfort him when he is feeling uneasy, I just pass it to Mr. and he somehow can calm him down.

5. Camera baby!

He is aware of camera and whenever i tried to take his photo, it's just so easy because he can somehow pose and look at the camera.

Nurun sopo ini bakat?

6. Blondie

He has light brown hair and I hope this colour will be his permanent hair colour.

Rada rada bule minggir dikit yah rambutnya Ethan ini, dan ternyata pas diusut usut..dan pas gw liat photo baby Arip..serupa tapi tak sama dengan si Ethan ini, putih lobak dan rambut pirang gajebo gini.

 7. He loves cuddling

Kalo kata orang indo, bau tangan..yang sebenernya terbukti terbukti engga sih, karena cuman orang indo aja yang ada istilah bau tangan..dan malah kalo disini susternya bilang, it's normal when baby wants to be hug.

Dan gw berprinsip, baby Ethan kecilnya ga lama..kalo emang dia mo nemplok sama gw, I will let him be.

Tapi biar kata gw menganut prinsip yok mari digendong, Baby Ethan bisa kok ditarok di swing, ditarok di ranjang buat diajak ngobrol ngobrol sampe ketiduran pas siang, dan pas malem..ditarok di baby cot nya matiin lampu..dia juga bablas aja bobo sampe tiba waktunya susu lagi.

Jadi bener ga ya ada istilah bau tangan?

My new SOMBRE - soft Ombre hair!

I am so ready to celebrate this festive season with a new hair colour!

Still with Salon De Choix, and don't forget to quote my name 

" Elrica - Pinkbuble " to enjoy 15% off for the full service.

~*~

This is the " Finally " moment i can be in touch again with hair colouring thingy, after months during my pregnancy I keep that chemical thingy away from my hair.

This time, Sharon - the director and owner of Salon de Choix creates something fun and yet still a kind of Ombre style that i can accept. You know I am not a fans of Dip n Dye ombre, nothing wrong with that, but half of my hair in purple and the other half in electric orange is soo not my style. That is why I am excited to explore another version of SOMBRE - Soft Ombre.

We decided to choose Natural soft ombre for my hair with a little twist on the colour.

Dark green and cooper.

Tadaaa!! This is the colour combination and I am sooooo loving it.

I thought I can only fit to red colour, but now..I welcome dark green!

Oh btw, the lady who did the blow dry for my hair is Tha, 

look for her if you keen to have a blow dry for going to an event. She is amazing.

This is how it look like under the sun light.

I love how subtle the dark green colour are and I am loving Sharon's cut on my hair.

It is simply gorgeous.

And also, the little highlight on my fringe in cooper colour brings out the fun in my hair!

If you keen to have this kind of hair, tell Salon de Choix staff that you keen on Sombre hair like Elrica's *ahem*

Happy holidays All!

Be happy and stay healthy :)

Food Panda!

Yellow Jellow mommies and whoever reading my blog now!

I just found a new food delivery service that is simple and seriously make the food ordering way easier than a phonecall to the restaurant.

It's FOODPANDA

Sometimes when I make a phone call to the restaurant, I ended up upset with whoever receiving the order..is either the recipients doesn't speak English well, the background noise is too loud so i have to keep repeating the order over and over again or sometimes it is just annoying to keep asking them what's on the menu, what is the special of the week and so on and so forth.

Thank goodness with foodpanda service around, I can just pick the restaurant i want, choosing the menu I like, what is their deals of the week and know exactly when they are going to deliver the food to me. Foodpanda even have the service of giving you the option of what food you can choose around you, you know when you don't know what to eat for your meal time. It happens.

All you need to do is to enter your postcode..

..and they will show you tons of restaurant list that you can choose.

I'll pick my favourite ribs restaurant - Tony Romas!

Ever since i gave birth to lil love, I pretty much have not much time to eat out at the restaurant and I always miss good food :D and ever since there is foodpanda now, I can easily enjoy my restaurant food at home and I don't have to worry the hassle I need to prepare with bringing the lil love.

I now can enjoy my ribs even with my PJ's and hair roll. :P

Take a look on my picks below, isn't convenient to see the menu through your computer, and pick every items as if you are flippin' the menu book in front of you?

And oh, if you are a kind of person that always mobile and pretty much glued to your mobile phone, go and download foodpanda apps and start enjoy the hassle free to order your restaurant food- online!

HO HO HO! Preg massage is having a festive package :)

Olla mommies and mommy to be! I wanna share something worth the share on this festive season..

It's the festive package from Preg massage :)

If you have followed my blog, you must have read my experience with Preg massage after my delivery, yes?

No? Read it HERE and HERE.

I personally feel better after the whole session and i keep encouraging people to at least give it a try on the trial session that preg massage has to offer. I think it's really beyond customer service that preg massage give a trial session without any obligation, they understand that to invest on this amount you should at least comfortable with their service. But, let me share with you on how comfortable the massage session is:

The session started with stretching to relax the muscle, and the therapist start the massage process from toe to head in a very constant and organize pressure point to relax the muscle tension. For me, the therapist would put extra pressure and longer time on my shoulder. Oh my goodness, it was good and oh man..i miss those moment. >.<'

After the whole body massage, the regime continues to head massage that helps to ease the giddiness due to lacking of sleep (new mommy, any nods for this?) and also to helps any wind trap. 

 Once it is done on the back, I was told to lay on my back and the therapist start working on the front side, same goes like the back massage, it started with stretching the goes from toe and moving upward.

My therapist put this shit looking herbal on my forehead. It feels weird and warm in the same time.
She said this is to get the wind out of my head.
Interesting.

The highlight on the front side massage is the breast massage, yes you might feel awkward at first, but who cares about bobbies when you already let the whole labour room nurses see what's between the legs *grin* hehehe. ehem, anyway.. If you are breast feeding, or having a slow breast milk circulation like i do, this breast massage is a savior act. The massage technique helps to unblock the milk duct, promotes healthy milk circulation to avoid engorgement.

Another highlight is the tummy massage!

The massage on my tummy started with hot stone as a start to relax my tummy muscle and keep the wind away, and also breaks fat tissue. Another interesting function on this tummy massage is to promotes the intestine circulation, to ease constipation and help the womb to shrink faster.

You must have heard about how good ginger for a lady after giving birth, right?
Before my therapist ends my tummy session, she applied ginger cream to keep our tummy warm.
I love it.

Then the final steps of every session is the wrapping time :)

Believe me, it works to keep your flabby tummy in place for a good 6-8 hours.
The support on my back while i was wrapped is amazing, i often feel back pain whenever I am carrying the lil love, and this wrapping helps me a lot.

So yeah, that is the whole regime of every session of the post natal detox massage I experienced from preg massage. Do stay tuned with me for more preg massage experience :)

Oh, Lil love is going to get his very first massage with preg massage as well!

I'll keep you guys updated.

You can read more testimonial on all satisfied mommies in

Preg Massage facebook

Baby Ethan one month story

OMFG!

..ini kata pembukaannya penuh attitude ya bo?

Hehehehe..intinya lil love ku sudah 1 month old lewat (ya eyaaalah..judulnya aja geto), dan sebulan ini bener bener sebulan tercepet di idup gw..dan juga sebulan tercampur aduk perasaan di dada ini,
*lebay banget ga seh?

About me

Sebulan ini juga sebulan untuk banyak hal yang pertama kali gw " do something new " di idup gw, kayak:

- ngelahirin, 

- pumping nenen - yg gw masi takjub..kok bisa kuar susu yah? jadi berasa kayak moo moo, 

-gendong newborn, 

- mandiin, gantiin popok, 

- tidur less than 4 hours a day - yang gw takjub juga..ternyata gw bisa bo..secara biasa 8 jam tidur molo aja bangun bangun berasa kurang, apalagi kalo lagi mimpiin Daniel Henney ke interupt.

- cek in jaitan dibawah dan apa bentuknya masi "normal" *halah*

- dan juga GW MALES ngaca! karena mabok ngeliatin kapan badan gw dan segala kedekilannya bakal luntur dan kembali putih bersih?!

Awal awal gw balik dr hospital, hormone lagi drop kan..aer mata gw ngalain cinderlela deh..ga ada angin ga ada ujan bisa tes tes mengalir sendiri..entah kenapa, dan kalo malem..huaaah..jangan ditanya, gw masi parno sama proses lahiran gw, jadinya saban merem gw kebayang labour room dan dong gw nangis seram, padahal semuanya udah lewat.

About baby Ethan

So far Baby Ethan being such a lovely baby, asal gassy nya dia ga muncul aja..kalo pas muncul, yaoloooo tangisan anak tiri kuar membahana dah! gw rasa kalo orang denger bisa bisa kirain gw lagi apain anak gw kale. Dan segala lagu lagu dari baby song sampe indonesia raya bisa kuar buat nenangin si baby. hahahaa..kadang berasa konyol sendiri.

So far dia belon terlalu gimana banget sih ke kita..selaen jadwal bobonya yang sesuka ati, dan kadang bikin Arip " Errggh " karena dia pulang kantor ngarep ketemu anak happy lalala ternyata ketemunya Ethan yang lagi cranky karena ngantuk, dan gw baru baca di blog nya Dina - Cerita Bendi ternyata baby bisa diatur cara tidur, yok maree Ethan kita boot camp!

Trus di 1 month old ini, Ethan baru mulai mulai 1 x 2 x senyum karena reaksi kita, bukan senyuman baby dengan Angel yang jaga dia yah. Oh oh, pernah loh sekali itu..pas malem malem gw gendong ethan abis susu, gw jalan keliling2 di ruang tamu gw yang cuman sepetak ini, trus ethan buka mata, liat ke belakang gw en senyum kayak lagi senyum sama Angel gitu. Gw dong, serem! gw bawa masuk ke kamar lagi akhirnya..hahahahhaa..

Dan oh, Sabtu kemaren itu 1 mth celebrationnya Ethan, kita rayain sambil undang2 temen temen yang drop by pas lahiran Ethan di Rumah sakit sama temen temen yang shower Ethan with gifts. Ni anak dapet kado buanyak ajeee..sampe gw bilang ke yang baru mo kasih kado untuk ga usah repot repot..kasih voucher aje mendingan. hahaha..*mak oportunis*

Trus kita pesen kue 1 bulan Ethan yang ada gambar baby bobo, dan karena tema nya jungle..jadinya ada binatang2 di sekeliling kue nya.

Untuk thank you gift nya kita pesen cookies yang personalised nama Ethan juga buat dibawa pulang sama tamu tamu :)

Sekarang enjoy the cuteness, eke mudik dulu ke jakarta :)
Yok mareee kopdar!

See yaa later aligwator!

Light smokey eyes tutorial with Urban Decay 24/7 glide on eye pencil

This is actually a long overdue make up tutorial that I did while ago; 

when I was actually 39 weeks preggie ^^

I created this look to make use of my Urban Decay 24/7 glide pencil, I love the colours and this is a idiot proof way in making the smokey eye effect, because all you need to do is just simply rub it left and right.

I started with MAC powder foundation - studio perfect NC 25

Eyebrow - Cyber colour in dark brown

Contouring kit by NYX 

This is the series of the Urban Decay glide on eye pencil that I used.

As simple as:

1.  framing your eyes with UD Zero and blend the upper liner with a firm blending brush.

2. Layer the top liner with UD-demolition

3. Double up the lower liner with UD-Mainline

And I finished up the look with Urban Decay cream blush in slight coral colour.

Done!

Hope you enjoy this simple tutorial :)

Christmas shopping with Kiehl's

Christmas is coming!!

It's time for joy, it's time for shopping and definitely it's time for giving a special something to special ones.

Again, for the Kiehl's lover out there, take a look on the Christmas special that Kieh;'s teams has to offer for you :)

Holiday sets with limited edition gifting packing (Nov – Dec) 

This holiday season, Kiehl’s brings holiday cheer to life with big, bright and colorful gift options that capture the magic of the season. Following the success of previous worldwide holiday partnerships with celebrated artists such as Kaws, Jeff Koons and Kenny Scharf, Kiehl’s proudly announces its 5th Annual Limited Edition Holiday Collection in collaboration with NYC-based artist Eric Haze. The Kiehl’s x Haze partnership is the designer’s first time working on skincare packaging.

First recognized for his contributions to the early 1980’s NYC graffiti art scene, Haze’s work is iconic, including custom album artwork and logos for The Beastie Boys, L.L. Cool J and MTV. More details are included in the press  release attached.

 Limited edition for Dec only 

 The Limited Edition Kiehl’s x Haze collection includes 2 of Kiehl’s icons, Ultra Facial Cream and Calendula Toner (limited edition only available in December). Shoppers can also choose from a wide range of gift wrapping options which has Haze’s festive designs. The holiday sets and gifting options will be available from November onwards.

New addition to Aromatic Blends Collection (Nov – Dec) 

Not only that, following the 2012 international success of Kiehl’s original Aromatic Blends^TM   range of fragrances and formula, Kiehl’s is proud to introduce an additional new scent range, Patchouli & Fresh Rose. This new scent gives patrons a robust floral fragrance selection that captures the creamy, woody scent of Patchouli and the fresh, petal-like aroma of Rose Centifolia. This will make the perfect gift for the ladies.

 Designer Store Window 

We give you more reasons to visit our stores this season. Come check out our colourful window illustrations specially designed by Fanny Gentle for Kiehl’s. Fanny Gentle is a Swedish-born artist and illustrator living in Brooklyn, NY. Her first solo show was in New York at the 31 Grand Gallery, and in 2009 she had her second solo exhibit at the Jonas Kleerup Gallery in Stockholm. Among her clients are Barneys New York, Free People, Anthropologie, and NYLON.

Available from November Onwards ^^

Happy shopping.