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Albeit late, but here you go, the many greatest things that happened to me:

1. Found the rental apartment that fits in our budget after months of searching for properties, both for sell and rent. It’s been a rollercoaster ride. Ya, finding rental also gave such a headache, what’s more purchasing property. *Nightmare* We almost had an impulsive house purchase at a bad location and got ourselves in debt for the next 30 years. We found a two-floor terrace house for rent, slightly out of our budget, agreed with the landlord but he didn’t keep his promise and rent out to other instead. After many turn down, we finally found a place to call HOME for the two of us, where we began our cooking adventure, DIY home stuff, etc.
2. Managed to handle all the household chores while also work from home. Five years ago I’d be screaming for a domestic helper. Hehe. Funny how people changes!
3. Went to the concert of my teen idol. Woohoo, Dream comes true! Not long after the concert, they announced their breaking-up news after farewell tour on 2012. Oh well..
4. Still get to travel despite declaring 2011 as non-travel year. Started with Bandung on January to attend WordCamp (WordPress event), hometowns’ trip in between, 4-5 hours road trip to Cherating beach, family vacation to Singapore, year end vacation to Langkawi island – the haven for chocolate, liquor and tobacco + cigar auction . I think I’m parting away from big city/shopping trip and prefer a relaxing beach getaway. Hmm..
5. Got a Dribbble invite, yay! It’s one thing that I’ve been wanting for in 2010, but when I got it I sort of lost the excitement. Haven’t posted the screenshot of my work in progress for quite some time. Gotta pick up!
6. Stirring the direction of SWP to Freemium model. We jumped in joy when we got the first sales. It works! So glad that we walked with faith and pushed our fear aside.
7. Finally took the first step to start my long awaited personal project. It’s near completion now. Pushing my learning curve a lot.

Lesson of the year:

1. Do it now! Don’t wait for the right time because right time will never come. It’s like starting diet, we always give excuse to start it tomorrow. No time? Make time for it. In my case, I kept telling myself that this few months are the busy months (with clients’ projects) so I’ll wait til another few months to start my own project. Boohoo, that right time never comes!
2. Pay attention to details but don’t be over perfectionist, you’ll end up waste time polishing details that aren’t important.
3. Don’t judge a thing too fast before we witness/experience it.
4. It’s OK to be away from the laptop, internet and social media. Life goes on!
5. When there is too much going on and don’t know how to start/make decision, PAUSE + take a deep breath + empty mind, then lay everything out in mind and analyze from there.
6. When in doubt, have FAITH and PRAY! From finding road direction to making decision in life.

For 2012

1. Main thing is to live minimalist. Inspired by this, this, this and many other going-minimalist posts. Have the wake-up call when helping a friend in moving house. Seeing how many ‘junks’ that we can collect over the years scared me. With being minimalist, I’m hoping to spend less time in cleaning (more time to do things I love doing), spend less, and not emotionally attached to the things so I can leave/sold them away incase we have the guts to pack our luggage and move to other cities/countries.
2. Get an oven, so we can baked pizza (a friend refers to it as an expensive bread, haha) instead of PHD delivery, turkey for Thanksgiving, and cake for birthday with baking recipe from MPL.
3. Since we haven’t found a permanent house (as in buy) that we can play with; can’t do much with the apt rental and don’t have the budget to do huge decor project, so I’m thinking of starting a doll house project, inspired by this. A miniature of our dream house, diy-ing it will be much more affordable and possible.
4. Launch my long awaited project and venture into a different field. We have brainstormed several ideas, so it’s the year to release our own projects! I call it the year of planting the seed.
5. Balancing online and offline life.
6. Travel (whatelse, duh) and see the destination from different perspective, in terms of living, design, culture, foods, etc. Not just travel for shopping or going to touristy place.
7. Gain back the snap-and-shot mojo.

Owning a corner house is our dream/preference; quite ambitious consider it’s just the two of us why the heck do we need such a spacious house. Not logic, so that’s why I’m saying it’s our DREAM.

While we aren’t rushing to own a property in the near future, we are open for house hunting/viewing until we find the one that we love and fit in the budget. It’s like the journey in finding Mr.Right.

When we saw a corner double-storey house for sale, we quickly contacted the agent. As expected, the price is double from the intermediate terrace house. Way out of our budget.

Usually the real estate agents don’t bother to suggest anything after the first phone call, but not with this agent. We ended up with two house viewing, both double storey terrace house.

First house, 18ftx65ft just great for a small family, price is quite OK, love the neighborhood. Down side, don’t like the house location and the awful taste of the interior renovation.

Second house, much larger 22ftx75ft, quite modern layout, spacious, basic/as-is without awful renovation (move in condition), gated guarded neighborhood. Loving it so much I can already imagine what color to paint, how to decorate the room, what bathroom vanity to be used, what to be planted at the backyard, etc.

So many pros, I want to marry the house already. But, Alas!, reality kicks in. As much as I love it, our wallet won’t love it. Besides, 22×75 really is too much for a small family like us.

At the end of the day I was put into dilemma. One side of me would love to just settle down in a house, decorate it nicely, raise our kids there. It happens each time I read interior design/home improvement blogs or after we have house viewing.

The other side of me will decline that. Still want to experience life at other countries/cities, but often worrying about the belongings that we have now (car and furniture – leave them, sell them?).

I often get jealous (or rather admire) with people who are able to pack their entire life into one or two luggage and roam from one place to another; be it single or with family. Something that I wanna do but don’t have the guts to. Doesn’t mean this dream will be faded though.

We have a well-deserved quiet and relaxing time at Langkawi island last week. No touristy stuff, basically just free and easy. I took the time to review 2011 and make notes for 2012.

It’s all good, except that I wish I had brought the laptop along. Working while facing the sea view is on my wish list for quite a long time. Can do research, can shop online with old navy coupons, do light work.

50 minutes flight. Duty free; chocolate, liquor, tobacco. Seafoods, yummy! Sunny day with clear blue sky on December the rainy season.

One of the beaches, Cenang, somewhat looks like Legian Kuta (Bali) area though in a much smaller scale. Bring back the memory and the urge to go back to Bali again. We were staying at the town area, good for duty free shopping but far from the beaches.

It’s Christmas-Eve Eve! Time isn’t slowing down. I’ve started to do flash-back for the past year, making notes on next year plan be it personal or business. Well, put that aside, I have other thought to ponder on. No, not related to st lucia weddings or honeymoon, but more to milestone.

Recently I’m in getting in touch with an ex-colleague and he’s just graduated, going to pursue his dream job. *gasp* This means it’s been 4 years since I resigned from my first and only job (as an employee). Saying that time flies is an understatement!

In other words, I’ve been self-employed for that long as well. From a freelance graphic designer to clueless web-designer wannabe to who I am now (no exact description ).

It’s a roller-coaster ride, there are times when we’re on top of the world *woohoo* and there were shitty times as well. Nothing’s stagnant. Always revolving and moving, it’s internet and web that we’re talking about after all.

Aside from the personal growth, what I love best from self-employment is the FREEDOM that it gives.

Quoted from the recent article of Corbett Barr, titled Cash Rich.. Lifestyle Poor -> “Money is nice, but freedom is priceless“.

Freedom to work on projects that I like and say no to the one that doesn’t fit us. Freedom to work anytime anywhere, although we have a certain working hour for ourselves. Freedom to take a break when the brain stuck instead of keep on sitting at the cubicle until the end of office hour.

We get to go for grocery shopping at wet market on Monday morning. We get to cook at home which leads to more saving. We get to spend more time with our parents when they came here for a visit, instead of just dinner at night. I get to work til midnight without worrying that it’s so late & will be dangerous to go home alone. I get to sleep in a little longer when it’s raining in the morning, just need to replace the working hour. We don’t need to face awful traffic jam everyday.

With the freedom, we get to create moment and experience more stuffs in our life, which lead to stories that we can pass on to our grandchildren in the future. Ok, where does this topic going to?

Bottom line, I find myself complaining less than when I was an employee. Instead of complaining about how the office politic is, we spend our coffee time brainstorming how to improve the business, what new venture to work on, new things in the industry, etc. Using the brain for good use.

Cheers to the FREEDOM that we have~!

Yes, we sort of skip Christmas shopping and jump forward to prepare for Chinese New Year (Jan 2012).

Learn the lesson from previous CNY where we did last minute shopping (around 3 days before actual day). It doesn’t work for me, the picky lady. I ended up with a few items which I never wear, Oops!

So this time we start earlier, one month before CNY, and because there is YES (Year End Sale) too. We’re making a teeny weeny progress today. I’m contemplating to make an online purchase this time, cause there is much choices online but I can’t try them on. Not like shopping for auto repair shop software alone.

Picture of us from December this year and last year, at the same atrium of the same shopping mall. Spot the difference between now and then! Hehe.

Lesson from today shopping: want to know whether you are getting fatter/thinner? Don’t use weight scale, it’s just numbers. Go shopping, try on clothes/pants that you adore and you’ll realize which part of your body is getting larger/smaller.