One Crafty Pup

Hi lovely readers,

Me and hubby had been waiting patiently until my pregnancy reached 7 months to buy for our baby. 

We waited due to Chinese old wive's tales. 

Some mom to be even suggested we should wait till almost 9 months (WOW!!) I hardly imagine a pregnant woman with big belly, back pain, may leg ache have to go shopping all the baby essentials @_@

Actually, i am not a person who follow those old wive's tales. There are no medical or science explanation behind all the tales, so why bother?

We waited because we respected our family's request. And we thought, okay it was a good idea also to wait, we can do some research on what to buy for the baby, creating a list on what to buy, and where to buy. Also decided if we want to buy a brand new baby cot or buy used one. If we want to buy brand new, which brand is good and long lasting, what would be the price, will it be too expensive, do we have the budget. Same thing if we want to buy the used one: where to buy, what type of baby cot, what is the price, is it within our budget range. Everything need to be consider.

Therefore, we have a long 7 months to make a decision ^_^

Let's start on my Ikea shopping haul.

1. Our first purchase: IKEA Hensvik Cot - used cost $40

I think this was our best buy for baby cot. We bought through a website called Carousell. The seller wanting to move out, therefore they were willing to let go for $40 (Yay!!). It was an old version on Hensvik cot, which can be converted into toddler's bed (Yay!!). I have not assembly the cot, maybe later, closer to my EDD ^_^ Don't want to collect dust, hehe.

Why we decided to put baby to sleep in a cot? I had been through many motherhood/parenthood forums either from Indonesia, Singapore, USA, UK, and Europe. Asked around my friends, who already had children, is there a need to put baby to sleep in his/her own cot/crib. The answers are really diverse.

Most Asian parents mentioned, the baby will share and sleep with them on the same bed, until toddler age. I mean WOW!!! Or some just put extra single bed on the side at their bed for their baby to sleep. They said only for convenience when they need to breastfeed. There is no need to waste extra money to buy baby cot. Especially most babies will outgrow the cot very fast.

I found so many used baby cots on Singapore's website that mentioned it only been used for 2 months or sometimes they never even use the cot. Mainly reason: the baby prefer sleeping with the parents or mom only.

So, do we really need the baby cot? My answer still yes, of course. Hahaha. I believe that we all need our own privacy, not just the adults, the baby also. By putting the baby in their own cot, provide privacy for them. Baby can sleep without any disturb from the parents. For example: when mom or dad wants to get out from the bed, it may disturb the baby. Baby still sensitive to the new surroundings, they still need some adjustments, he/she could either wake up and cry and leads to lack of sleeping time. I don't think we wanted to hear if baby cries all night @_@ 

There are more reasonable reasons and even medical reasons why baby need to sleep on their own cot. Before decided, it is good to do some research ^_^

That does not mean i will left my baby alone. I did not mention that you can't share room with your baby. My baby will still sleeping with us in the same room, not bed. He will sleeping comfortably on his own cot, place next to my bed side ;) 

I found this link from Ikea US website to take a good look on the cot, once assembly: 

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70248535/

This is a diaper changing mat. It needs to be inflate before use.




To be use when converting baby cot into toddler's bed.

Oups, been busy lately between day job, Etsy, and Toyoutpost. Plus i had flu twice: on June and last week.

Now, feeling much much better and ready to blog.

I want to share my first ever participation on Indonesian President election 2014, which was held at KBRI Singapore on last Sunday, 06 July 2014. 

So so excited. Been waiting for that day to come. I have been writing some posts on my facebook account expressing my thoughts for this year President election. I am not a fan of politics, especially politics in my birth country, Indonesia, due to many corruption cases and injustice, i gave up my hope for Indonesia long time ago. However, this time i think i need to participated and expressed my feelings. Plus i was also one of the undecided voters or swing voters. The two candidates were very strong. Both have their strengths and weaknesses.

I spent 1 week before the election day to watched as many debates as possible between the two candidates. Read positives and negatives from each candidates. I even read the black campaigns from both candidates. All very fun and entertaining. And hell yeah, this year i am going to vote!!!!!

  

Now, back to work ^_^

Last week I went back to Indonesia to find Batik for my supply. Destination this time is to the city of Jogyakarta in Central Java. there are 2 spots that we visited there was the Beringharjo market and the Mirota batik (just across the street of Beringharjo). Both are located at the famous Malioboro street. it was only a short stop since we are visiting the Batik village in the neighbouring city of Surakarta (Solo) which is the center of the Batik in Central Java.

From Jogjakarta, we drove to Solo. It takes around 2-3 hours driving. You can rent a car, take public buses or take train to Solo.

Our first stop is the shopping center & a local market (Pusat Grosir Solo, Benteng Trade Center & Klewer market) which all located within walking distance to each other and also near to Kraton Surakarta. All 3 market is filled with hundred of shops selling Batik shirts and some fabric. Most local people shop there. Remember to bargain hard. If you failed, just walked away and you will find other shops. Some of the shops sells in bulks/wholesale at affordable price. Here at Klewer market i managed to find toko kain kiloan, which they sell fabrics per kilogram. And they also sells Batik fabrics in kilogram (Remember to bargain).

Here most of the Batik is machine printed and they have all sort of colours and patterns. 

You can find materials: cotton, cotton primisima and semi silk.

When you are in Solo, you have to visit Museum Batik Danar Hadi to learn more about Batik history. A must visit!!!! I learnt a lot from there. Too bad we are not allowed to use camera, due to flash that came from camera can worsen the quality of the classic collection of the Batiks. Most of the Batiks displayed inside the museum were made around year of 1900. They were made using natural ingredients. After explore and learn at the museum, the guide bring us to see inside the factory, where they do "Batik Tulis" and "Batik Cap" methods (Camera is allowed. Yes!!!!).

1st Step: Tracing of the Batik pattern onto fabric.

The process shown on above and below are for "Batik Tulis" method, which means to write, where the artisan is tracing the patterns on the fabric and add layer of wax on it.

As you can imagine that this process took allot of concentration and patience. This steps usually done by female as female referred has more patience.

Cooper stamps. You can purchase them as a souvenir at Windujenar market

Below photo shows the fabric with the wax pattern, ready for colouring.

As you can see the wax purpose is to block the colour during the next step.

 3rd Step: The colouring, where the fabric is soaked or "Celup" in colouring solutions. After soaking the fabric is rested and depends on the colour intensity needed, the soaking can be repeated. If the fabric contains multiple colour, the waxing process above is repeated.

When the colouring is done, the fabric is boiled to melt all the wax and hang dry, but not directly under the sun. Some factories are using fan.

Not yet done. After all fabrics are dried, they go through 2 times quality check.

(And yes, all done in manually)

1st Quality control check:

 2nd Quality control check:

When they found a mistake i.e. breaking patterns, even only tiny mistakes the fabric will be sent back for repair (basically repeating the steps above again for that specific area to be fixed). That is why Batik Danar Hadi is so famous, because of its quality.

We also manage to see "Colekan" method of fabric colouring. Compared to the soaking or "Celup" instead of soaking the entire fabric on each colour, the colour was applied manually by hand. The result will be different though, while "Celup" will give separation of colours. The "Colekan" method will make the colour gradated or mixed.

Wow, this post by far is the longest post ever i have written so far ^_^ i do not want to miss out any important information from the trip. Therefore, while my memories are still fresh, i prefer to write them down.

I hope you will find it useful and i will see you again.

Bye.

Let's Make Them.