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They Are Real – Blog Buddies

10 Aug posted by

Thank you

As a blogger, it is so exciting to get people commenting on your blog. It feels as if you’ve been heard and you all know it’s a pretty crowded place in the blogosphere.

Before moving to Tatter Scoops, my blog has gotten some regular readers mostly coming from real life friends so to venture to the world of WordPress was a bit intimidating.

Tatter Scoops is almost a year old, which by the way, I had completely forgotten about until Maryline asked!

Joining SITS was one of the best things I ever did as it opens up a whole new world, blogging land! In almost a year, I’ve visited a lot of blogs, leaving comments. Most are kind enough to visit me back but there’s some who didn’t – which is okay.

As time goes by, some of the blogs I love turned into more than just blogs. They become friends – we visited one another blogs, we leave comments that support one another, laugh with one another, even sending out virtual hugs, we chatted on Twitter and so on.

The friendships are real even when it springs out of a virtual world – the blog world…

Some of these people  have been pretty much with me since my blog started, and I want to thank them for their friendships.

Gigi from Kludgy Mom. She’s one of my first blog crush that returns the feelings. Her snarky words always entertain me and keeps me coming back for more. You will love her blog, I promise you. Her Unrequited Love post is one of my all time favorite also her Why Blogging Is Good for You piece. Her brain-child of a meme is one of my all time favorite. Who wouldn’t love to flip things off once a week?!

Kerry and Paul from The Buttler Way. They are one of the coolest, hippest couple I have ever met! Seriously…I am so jealous that these two love birds can blog together. They inspired me with so many of their posts like Embrace The Hip Mom. Kerry’s weight loss journey is super inspiring and she’s working on her book about it. Can’t wait to read it, girl!

Sian from Pumpkin and Piglet is one of my favorite girl too. This first time mum from England have a killer talent for baking and I always find myself salivating reading her recipes like  Berry Shortbread Cheesecake slice.  Oh and who can’t relate to her Supermarket Hell piece?

Natalie from Mommy of A Monster. I just love her blog and her honest take on raising cute twin girls and a toddler. With so many followers, busy blogging life and definitely busy life with her kids, I am fortunate to call her a friend she just have the super power ability to visit her online friends and leave comments love. Her Mommy Needs A Time Out will make you laugh, I swear! Having three kids under 5, she had enough experience of vacation from hell that will make you nodded.

Kate from Mommy Monologues. This girl writes beautifully with awesome drops of humor about her family and about life like her post about The Only Constant In Life Is Change. My favorite post of all time from her gotta be her love letter to the Jackhole at the restaurant that hates her baby.

Katie from Sluiter Nation. She’s a PPD warrior and survivor with a heart of gold. Her piece about being a mother to her handsome little boy and how PPD came after will put tears in your eyes. Her positivity in life is infectious.

Alicia from A Beautiful Mess. Her photography skills are super awesomeness! On one of her posts which I love, she sums motherhood perfectly with these words: “Motherhood is really the epitome of the agony and the ecstasy. There is nothing more difficult or more rewarding that you will ever experience in this life.“  Another favorite that caused so much stirs and giggles among serious discussions of course was The Controversial Wax.

Anita from Finally Woken. Her blog documented not only her journeys of living in Aberdeen, Scotland and now Perth, Australia but also other more serious like the one that she claimed to landed her in hot water, Caucasian vs Indonesian Men post. This world traveler shared her tips on Travel With Dignity which I love.  She has become such a great friend in my real life too – we have met twice.

New Discoveries

From doing 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge I got to discover fantastic new blogs too and I’m so happy I joined the challenge as it expands my blogsphere tremendously. Not only I got to learn a lot of more technical stuffs to do behind the screen to pump up my blog but I got to connect with these great bloggers:

Maryline from Franco American Dream. She’s my blog buddy from the challenge but it’s the similarities that pulled me to her blog. She’s a French girl married to her American husband, an expat with one cute baby boy in tow. See the pattern? She got to dealt with USCIS the way I did and her post about What the American Dreams means when you’re not American is something worth reading as you will see what it’s like to be an immigrant. Not only that, she wrote about the career world as well.

Gemma from Travel Diaries. This girl writes about her travel too and I’ve been enjoying my virtual trip to explore London through her posts. She introduced me to something that will comes in handy for all traveler, The Universal Packing List.I just love her blog!

Melissa from Adventuroo. Mommy to two handsome boys, this girl is the closest I ever get to an SEO expert besides her obvious photography talent! Her Momcomm Monday is a must read for bloggers – especially mommy bloggers. She gives out awesome tips like How To Improve Your Writing that’s not only helpful but in terms that I can easily digest. For some laugh go read 100 things she have learned about blogging.

Lynda from Daily Window. Her photography skills are to die for! Seriously, if you’re into photography go check out her blog plus she’s also one of SITS Community Leader. Besides sharing her photography skills knowledge, she’s also very computer savvy. Did you check out her 12 WordPress Plug-ins she can’t live without yet?

Andree from On Linden Way. NYC native now living in Europe and traveling all over the continent and Africa, she got really awesome pictures from her travels  and adventures that she shares on her blog. Not only that she also shared tips on 10 Must Have Items for Living On The Road.

These are just a few and I will share more later – so stay tuned for the second batch coming next week.

Thank you for all your support and bloggy friendships. Really, I appreciate them :)

46 Comments
Filed Under: Blogging

How I Deal With Homesickness

4 Aug posted by
Indonesian style snack

HOME SICKCreative Commons Licensephotocredit:caseywest

Was married to an American and having lived abroad, homesickness was something I had to dealt with a lot.

Technically, I had left home since I moved to Jakarta for High School when I was 15 years old so homesickness is not something that I never feel before. But when you live thousands of miles away – in another continent, homesick feels a lot stronger and here’s how I deal with them:

Communications, communications, communication…

Back then I – or sometimes Mr. X – always made sure I bought enough calling cards to call my parents on every weekend. This was before we got Vonage who gave us the best international call rates!

During the weekdays, chatting online helps too especially the video chat kinds as grandparents can see their grandson.

With how advance our communications technology these days, it is a lot more easier and cheaper to maintain communications back home.

Cooking…

Did that got you frowning? Yeah, so was I! But believe me when you feel homesick some native foods will ease that feelings at least a bit. If you lived in the middle of no where like we did back in Dothan, where there’s no Indonesian restaurant unless we drive 6 hours to Atlanta, then you will just have to do with slaving down in the kitchen yourself!

Cooking isn’t exactly my passion but to fulfill those craving for Indonesian foods, I who had never cook anything more than fried rice before – had made some pretty cool stuffs myself from recipes that I found online. Who knew I could made this:

Indonesian style snack

Sate Babi

The power of Community

There will always be communities of people from your country in just about every country unless you live in a really remote area. Yet, if you have access to the internet then it is easy to find these types of community.

My first time in Upstate, NY. Indonesian community there invited me to a gathering to celebrate Eid and that was great opportunity to meet other Indonesians. For some reasons, when you’re far away from your country you will feel this certain bonds with fellow ‘immigrants’. This at least is true for me – not for my Mr. X but that’s another topic!

Indonesian Gathering

I joined several Indonesian communities back then and made friends with lots of people. What started from online forums became real life friendships. Talking with these friends over the phone in Indonesian language also helps to ease out the homesickness.

If you live in the same town as some of your communities, do try to make the effort to join them on their events. Independence Days usually is the time where communities group held their biggest event.

Here in Jakarta, we went to American Association Halloween Party last year and it was fun as that was the first Halloween party Lil’ A had.

So, don’t underestimate the power of communities groups.

The News…

Following news from your native country also ease out the homesick feelings as you feel up to date with what’s going on there. Even catching up on TV shows from your country is easier these days.

So how do you deal with being homesick?

33 Comments
Filed Under: Mix Marriage, Travel

Weekly Roundup – 4th Week of July

26 Jul posted by

WOW…July is almost over? Hard to believe how fast the weeks has gone by.

Here are some updates from my side of the world:

  • I had join SITS in doing the ProBlogger‘s 31 Days to Build A Better Blog (31DBBB) since last Monday (July 19, 2010). Actually, I had ‘attempt’ to do this in January but never get to finish it so when the SITS girls came up with this I signed up and it’s more enjoyable to do this as a community. So far I’ve ‘met’ new fantastic bloggers through the challenge and although it’s not easy to keep up with the task especially during the weekend, I truly enjoy this challenge and hope to complete it along with so many other great SITStahs out there. Not only we get to learn many new things about building a better blog, it’s amazing to see how powerful these women can be working together as a team. Thanks SITS! It’s never too late to join in. Just click on the button below.

    • Take the Problogger Challenge with SITS and BlogFrog

  • On the job front: I had another job interview last Thursday at one of a prominent PR companies here in Jakarta. It was one something different, because although I did studied PR in college I never work as a Public Relation before and after finally admitting that I am too old by Indonesian standards to return to my previous career path as an Executive Secretary, I thought I’d finally give this PR thing a try. The company looks very promising, Love their atmosphere immediately but we shall see if I make it or not.
  • Toddlerhood wise: Now I realize why I’m not suppose to be bone stick skinny again – because let’s face it, there’s no way a skinny body can endure such roughhousing Lil’ A loves to do! With a busy Daddy who travels a lot for business, he’s left with a Mommy to take on that part. Sigh! It is fun playing roughhousing with him although my back really begs for mercy. He’s over 40 pounds so yeah…Bengay here I come!

  • Last Saturday I went on my first Photo Walk. It was a great experience – from my photography passion side but it’s also kind of sad because I got to see how poverty is still a huge problem in this country.

That's a spirit!

  • On a lighter note: Tatter Scoops is being featured on Top Mommy Blogs and I really am stoked about it. Thank you so much for you who had voted. If you haven’t can you please vote for me? Pretty please, with a cherry on top? :D

    • Top Mommy Blogs - Mom Blog Directory

Hope you had a great week and will have a better week ahead! :)

26 Comments
Filed Under: Musings

Sneezy Posts

2 May posted by

This was one of the assignment from 31 Days to Built Better Blog that I ‘failed’ to practice because at the time my blog was still quite new and yesterday it was a topic at SITS.

I just installed a new plug-in called Popularity Contest that listed my top 10 popular posts, but I have older posts that were buzzing on twitter and my facebook page although sadly there were no comments on them. Here are 5 of them:

So please do go check them out and comment away :D

10 Comments
Filed Under: Blogging

Day 1 – 31DBBB – Elevator Pitch

23 Jan posted by
elevator pitch

After finding out about 31 Days to Built a Better Blog (31DBBB) from Mama Kat, I decided to jumped in the wagon and subscribe to the fascinating yet very informative course.

Day 1 Challenge is to Create an Elevator Pitch.

What is an Elevator Pitch?

“An elevator pitch is an overview of an idea for a product, service, or project. The name reflects the fact that an elevator pitch can be delivered in the time span of an elevator ride (for example, thirty seconds or 100-150 words).” – Wikipedia

Honestly, I have never heard of Elevator Pitch until I saw it on Mama Kat’s website and I’ve been reeling my brain trying to come up with an interesting-catchy-unforgettable elevator pitch. Making the long pitch was easier and I come up with this:

Colorful scoops of a mix-marriage couple, ex-nomads, with one toddler in tow. A place where the slightly Americanized wife/mom/woman channels her mundane sometimes knotty thoughts on mommyhood, toddlerhood, living back in her home country of Indonesia (in Jakarta to be exact), occasional traveling loaded with photographs from her aperture challenged fingers.

While for the short one or some may call it the tag line it’s a bit more challenging and I had came up with this:

“Scoops on living, mommyhood, toddlerhood and everything else around the loop “

Updated on July 19, 2010:

I’ve been loving my tag line and elevator pitch but since I’m joining SITS for 31DBBB Challenge I have decided to tweak my tag line and elevator pitch:

My new tag line: Scoops on living, mommyhood, toddlerhood and everything else around the loop from an Americanized Indonesian woman

My short tag line:  Scoops from two cultures, one heart

My elevator pitch:
Indonesian by birth, American by heart, ex-nomads, with one toddler in tow. This is a place where the wife/mom/woman channels her mundane sometimes knotty thoughts on mommyhood, toddlerhood, living back in her home country of Indonesia, occasional traveling loaded with photographs from her aperture challenged fingers.

4 Comments
Filed Under: Blogging, Musings