#sotm: Chic & Comfy Flats

Shoes of the Month #SOTM: 

I recently purchased two very chic and comfortable flat shoes. I almost got another heels, but I think I got too many of them already and I guess I should stop buying heels for now (Hmmf). So, I decided to buy flats instead. I think, this time, I picked right ones since I wore it already and they both are very very comfortable. The first one is the classic J.Crew's Janey flat shoes. I have been wanting this flats for quiet sometimes since I saw it on Emily Schuman's blog: Cupcakes and Cashmere. They actually have different color choices, but I picked out this classic nude color. It has an inch gold heels too, so its not literary flat. The price is pretty reasonable, it's actually $178, but I got a discount (as always, that's why I love shopping at J.Crew) for 20%.

The other one that I picked out is Gap's ballet flats. I got the calf skin ballet flats with dots. I love animal patterns! So, when I saw it online, I just thought that I have to get it. So, I did and yeah, no regret so far. Anyways, the Gap ballet flats are cheap! Its $40. If you check it out to the store, you might get something cheaper because they are starting to have in-store sale/promotions. And yes, its also super comfortable.

Get it now if you like it! 

1. Gap: Ballet Flats, shop here

                                                      

2. J.Crew: Janey Flats, shop here

 

HuggieKissie,


Misstahir

super sweet sixteen

I love to plan parties; birthday party, surprise party, bridal shower, baby shower, etc. When I was 12 years old, I already had plans for my upcoming birthdays. Yes, I am that weird when it comes to party, but I love planning it more than actually having the party itself.

As you probably already know, last October, I helped my sister to organize her Sweet 16 Birthday Party. After many consideration regarding venues around Jakarta area, we decided to have the party at the Four Seasons Hotel. There were about 120 guests at the party. There was no particular theme, however, we used my sister's favorite colors (pastel, pink, purple) to be sort of the color guidelines in decorating the venue. I designed her invitation and got it printed at my aunt's printing shop. Then, for the decoration ideas, we followed the invitation designs. I outsource the decorator because I don't have the props for decoration. I think, my sister's party went well. There were a couple of things that were missing, but as far as anything else, it was a perfect night to celebrate my sister's sweet 16 (as well as her farewell). I am going to share some of the important things you must remember when organizing your super sweet 16:

1. Decoration: keep it all the same colors

Covering the walls of the venue area is important and will help you to create the atmosphere of the party. We covered the wall with white and purple and pink cloths. We also used white tiffany chairs for the banquet and covered the table with pink table cloth. Some of the tiffany chairs are wrap with pink chiffon cloths. What we missed for the decoration is the center piece flowers! Can you believe that? There was a miss communication between our decorator and the hotel florist, so our center piece didn't appear to be as what we wanted. However, we got several lilies and used that for the center piece. I think it was better than no flower at all.

2. Photo Booth Decoration: Unique!

Don't just use printed giant banner saying "MY SWEET SIXTEEN" for the photo booth decoration! Be creative and unique about it. Decorate your photo booth corner with different matching props, flowers, ballons and tissue paper flowers. Those pink, purple flowers on the floor are tissue paper flowers. You can make it yourself its very easy. I think by having an actual decorated corner will make your photo booth prettier and "real". Having a printed giant banner board is sort of like a red carpet moment, not a photo booth corner, in my opinion. 

3. Photo Booth Props: Crazy!

Prepare several props for the photo booth; wigs, glasses, anything crazy really. Make your photo booth corner to be crazy, fun and epic. Usually when you outsource your photo booth service, you might want to design the photo template so it matches your party theme. Like, you see, how I designed the bottom part with "Sarah's Sweet Sixteen". By designing a banner than incorporate your birthday's theme, those photos will be special. It will be your sweet sixteen's memory, not just an ordinary photo.

4. Pretty Birthday Cake

Cutting the cake and blowing out candles are basically the highlight of a birthday party, right? So, having a pretty cake is a must! Don't just have your typical grandma's cake. Try to have a cake that fits the whole party (again, keep it the same theme/colors!). Look at my sister's cake, isn't it lovely? Anyways, nowadays there are a lot of cake shop in Jakarta that can create cute designs special for your birthday cake. I ordered this one at Bake and Cake, my mom found it at Facebook. Some other recommended places to order designed cake are such as Cakeddiction, Cake Et Cetera, or Guilt Desserts. You can find them on Facebook, they make pretty designed cakes. 

5. Good Music = a Must!

My family really loves good music. Having a good music at your party will create good feeling at atmosphere through out the whole party. I remembered, at my sister's party, it was all first very "normal" until the music came to play and people were just stunned by the music. From that on, they enjoyed the party even more. Do not have music that will hurts your ear through out the party. Make sure to check their performance on Youtube or something to see how those bands when they go live. At my sister's party, we had Monita Tahalea with Barry Likumahuwa and friends. They were seriously stunning, people came to me and just praised about the music choice we had for the night. Barry happened to be a friend of mine and Monita is a singer that my family really loves her voice. Their genre is Jazz and it really gives a chilling atmosphere for the party. They did a performance back at Red  White Lounge and I watched their set on Youtube and I suddenly fall in love. I recommended it to my family and yes they love the collaboration. Make sure you have good music. Other than Jazz, acoustic music is also a good choice of music for a party.

6. The Dress

My sister designed her own dress (with my mom's help, of course). She got the inspiration from Ariana Grande's type of dress, she got from the Internet. So, they went to cloths store and browsed for different types of cloths. The tailor is a family friend, which happened to tailor most of our family's dresses. Well, one thing about "the Dress", don't just get it at a store. There's a slight chance that you will wear the same thing with your guests. Design it yourself! Get it custom made just for you. If you get good choice of cloths and tailor, trust me.. it won't be that expensive to make but it will look much more gorgeous. (Hint: Sarah made her dress for less than Rp. 1,3 million).

7. The Crowd: Have Fun, Smile!

Last but not least, make sure you invite your friends! Sweet Sixteen party is where you should be having a crazy and fun night to remember; a time to celebrate! Oh, and have photographers + take good pictures.

Invitation design by me (ByMisstahir Design) 

HuggieKissie,


Misstahir

healthy choice

Hey!

I watched Iron Man 3 last weekend with my friends. I think it is a really good movie and Gwyneth Paltrow really did a good job in that movie. She looks so great, I mean with 2 kids, you gotta work real hard to get that toned body shape. So, I did a research about her after I got home and I found out that she does workout from the Tracy Anderson Method. Which, a lot of the workout videos can be found on Youtube because she created a couple of Youtube Web episodes. I started to do the arm workout along with my other workout routines. I also found out that Gwyneth Paltrow lives a healthy life and routines. I am inspired by her basically. No wonder she looks so great, despite the fact that she juggles a lot of things at once such as work, her business, and family. So, as a result of that, I decided to live healthier; I want to maintain a healthy lifestyle from now on. 

I started to experimenting on cooking healthy food. I found a lot of good recipes from the Internet, there are so many resources for that. I tried to consume a balance eating habit to keep myself healthy. I'll share some recipes later on. 

I also started to start my day always with fruits/ green juice. I experiment on combining different fruits and veggies because I want it to taste good too. 

Here's my juice (below). I sometimes change the berries with other fruits, such as Apple is good, or add Oranges. Kale is very nutritious, by combining it with other fruits, it will make your juice taste super good and just like a smoothie. I use blender instead of juicer because with blender, it will not make me easily hungry.

Kale, Half Banana, Organic Flax Seeds, Choices of Berries (Blueberry + Raspberry), Filtered Water

A few weeks back, I tried Blue Print's detox juice, the Cashew milk one. I got it from Whole Foods because I do not want to do a total detox since I am skinny already. So, since I really like the taste, and I found out that is super healthy, I tried to experiment and make my own Raw Almond milk. I watch instruction on Youtube. Its super healthy than any regular almond milk that you can find at the Supermarket. And it's really easy to make too! 

Direction:

First, I soaked the almond for at least 5 hours in the filtered water. Then, I blend it along with other ingredients. You can substitute Agave syrup with Honey. Vanilla and Cinnamon are just the ingredients that will make your milk taste better. Then, with filtered water, blend it altogether. After that, I strained it to get rid of the almond chunks. 

Organic Almond, Organic Agave Syrup, Vanilla and Cinnamon

Last but not least, I am currently on a Red Meat Vegetarian challenge. This means no burger, no ham, no spam, no italian sausages. I initially wanted to be Vegetarian but I guess its hard because I love chicken and Salmon! and those are a good resource for protein. So, yes, I decided to do not eat red meat from now on. I am gonna try to do it for 30 days first and see if I can continue or not. So far, so good though. Haha. 

I am currently still experimenting with other healthy food and I am going to share it later on with you! I think to be healthy is a choice and I am having fun doing this.

Huggie Kissie,

Misstahir

so far, so short

Hello:

I had one of the busiest month ever. Yep, April. Graduation is getting closer and closer (I think I mentioned it too much.. LOL). But yeah, as I am approaching to my Graduation day in the end June, so many things currently going on in my life besides the-already-so-much-things about school. First of, I went to NYC and Boston to visit my high school friends early in April. I enjoyed it so much! I stayed at my friend's, Glenys, apartment during my NYC trip. She's a fashion student at FIT and I got to see her super fabulous fashion works that she designed and made by herself. Awesomeness. And then, I stayed at my other friend's, Olivia, apartment when I was in Boston. I also had some kind of reunion with a lot of my high school friends. Fun times and good food! Olivia told me about this hair salon as we were walking and window shopping through the Newbury St. So, I went to the salon called the Beaucage Salon (www.beaucage.com). I actually wanted to have a haircut but not THAT short. But then, Janelle, the hair stylist, suggested if I wanted to donate my hair to this Pantene Campaign. But it should be a minimum of 8 inches long. So, yes, I just decided to donate my hair and have a super short bob hair cut. No regret, I love it! Btw, I really recommend Janelle from Beaucage Salon if you are thinking of having a hair cut in Boston. She's pretty awesome and the price is reasonable too. 

Then, in April, I also volunteered at several events that were going on in Greater Orlando area. I was a volunteer at the Orlando Film Festival and also the Florida Music Festival. Pretty awesome time to learn  to do things by actually doing. I had fun times too and I met new people in the Entertainment industry. 

My Sister, Sarah, she came all the way from Seattle and we went to Taylor Swift Concert together! My friend, Adriana, also went with us. Taylor Swift Concert was totally awesome. It was literally the only concert that I have ever been that I knew almost all lyrics of the songs. My sister and I also went to Disneyworld together and we explored the Magic Kingdom until the very last fireworks closing. We also had lunch at Tony's Italian Restaurant at Disney Magic Kingdom. Its the restaurant from The Lady and The Tramp Story! It reminded me of how I used to have the book and my mother used to read it for me. 

I got a confirmation of internship job at Voice of America- Indonesian Service and I will begin in August. I'm going to intern there for 6 months and yes, I am moving temporarily to D.C for that. That's the one exciting thing coming up in my life. Hmm, as far as now, I am currently focusing on finishing off this last term's courses as well as Final Project work to graduate. 

Lastly, I want to post some photos from the my recent photoshoot that I did with my friend, Pedro. The photoshoot took place near my house, its called the Lake Baldwin area. Beautiful place. Narsis banget, but These are my favorite shots. What do you think of my new short hair? :)

HuggieKissie,



Misstahir

KITTY ON!: Guide to Organize a Hello Kitty Bridal Shower

Hi,


As I said in my previous blog post, last November, I organized a Hello Kitty Bridal Shower for my sister/cousin's along with the other bridesmaids. My sister/cousin loves Hello Kitty so much and that is why we chose to do a bridal shower with a Pink-Hello-Kitty theme. Ever since, photos are uploaded on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter... I have got many questions from people asking me about how we did the organization, decoration and how we managed to be able to turn the normal looking dinner room to be as pink as it can be. So, I decided to share some of the stuff that we did and hopefully it can help those of you who have been wanting to organize a pink/hello kitty party. It does not have to be a bridal shower because you can apply it to any kinds of party, really and Hello Kitty seems to be a popular party theme lately. Photo Credit to Ci Joanna (The Maid of Honor) :)

1. Start with Balloons 

Get pink balloons in different sizes. Use regular size of balloons to decorate the ceiling part of the room to create a pink ambience. Use a matching color (Silver, white, or pink) for the ribbon that is attached to the balloon. Ribbons will create a festive looking for the ceiling! Then, use the larger diameter (usually 36") sized of balloons to create accent in the room. To even put more accent to the room with the theme, we got a HUGE HUGE Hello Kitty Standing balloons too! However, it only can be purchased in Party City stores in USA. Use gas/helium to fill the balloons so that it stays on the ceiling. You can contact different party balloons guy to do it for you. They will usually come to your venue and do all the balloons as you requested.

2. Dessert Table 

First, cover the table with a pink table cloth. Then you need different table decorations, such as pom poms, hello kitty photo frame, pink basket, or anything. The guide for this is basically to get ANYTHING PINK and HELLO KITTY. If you arrange those items on the table, I'm pretty sure it will look fab already. What we did, we put the bride-to-be photo on the photo frame and put it on the table along with heart-shaped candle stands. Then, we used, what supposedly be a hanging pom poms, to be a table decoration by just putting two of them on the back of every sides of the table. It will create a flower-look. We had a Bridal Shower banner and put it by the table too. Next... since it is called a Dessert Table.. you need Dessert! We got Hello Kitty Macaroons and Pink Cake pops. Depending the size of the table, you might need more desserts. We had 2 types because we had a smaller table. Make sure that all of these are in the same colors too (Pink!). Other kinds of dessert that you can use are Pink Pockey, Cotton Candies, Pink Cake, Ombre Pink Cake, Hello Kitty shaped cake, Pink cupcakes, etc. If you get a package dessert, such as pocky2, you can make a design and cover the pocky packaging so it looks Hello kitty! Get a pink or hello kitty tray also to set the different desserts on table. Dessert table is important, people! Why? Because it will be somehow the center of the event. Guest will eventually take pictures with it. So make sure that you have a super cute looking table.

3. Table Setting

Next, you need the table setting for the table decoration. Get a customized placemat. I google searched a hello kitty picture and created a design using photoshop with A3 paper size. Then, color print it on an A3 paper. Make sure to not leave out edges of the placemat with left over white paper. Then, get a pink tissue and arrange it on the table set. What we did, we had the restaurant's tissue holder but replaced the regular tissue with our pink tissue. Get a table name card to be put for each guest's with their name on it so they know where to sit. This is a good idea especially if you know that not all of your guest know one another. By arranging where they are supposed to sit, they will be able to sit next to the person they know. 

4. Flowers!

If you have a lot of budget for the event, you surely can order a flower center piece. The prices for that usually ranges between Rp. 300.000- 500.000 ($30-50) per piece, depending on how fancy you want it to be. However, we did a DIY flower center piece for the event. First, I got the Oasis (Green thingy), covered it with pink tissue paper and placed it on a basket. Then, I got different flowers and arranged it by sticking it to the Oasis. If you want your center piece to look very fancy, you get a better flowers! Such as Roses :) It will make your center piece look fancy. It also works on other cheaper kinds of flowers too though. Mine was not an expensive type of flower. Then, create a table number by printing a similar design to your placemat in a postcard size. 

5. Have fun! 

Last but not least is to have fun with the event! Get a present for the bride-to-be obviously. We got a huge Hello Kitty pillow. You can also make or bring photo props, such as mustaches, glasses, etc. In special case in organizing a bridal shower, you will also need to dress up the bride to be! That's really the fun part of the event. You can get a Hello Kitty costume, or anything to dress up your bride to be as Hello Kitty and as pink as it can be. What we did, we first gave the bride to be a Sash! Bride-to-be Sash. Then, we made a Pink veil for her. Made her to put on a Hello Kitty glasses and aprons!

Note:

If you are in Indonesia and looking for a Hello Kitty decoration or products, you can simply go to Mangga Dua. They have tons and tons of Hello Kitty products there, such as pillows, trays, dolls, etc. If you are looking for a Hello Kitty food product or snack, you can either go to Hello Kitty Cafe or order a customized product. There is a Hello Kitty house in Lippo Karawaci and a Cafe that is located in Pluit area. Different cake bakery usually take orders on Hello Kitty shaped cakes, macaroons, or cupcakes. 

Yeay! So that's it.. easy right?? 

If you have any questions about it.. well you can ask me!

Have fun decorating and organizing! 

Kitty ON!

Huggiekissie,

Misstahir