I know it's already end of January already, I just have some time to update my blog. 

2020 has been harsh but:

1. I'm in Jakarta for Chinese New Year celebration, some chance of meeting with cousins and relatives.
2. Also, meeting my sister and baby niece.
3. I have some time off and I created set of GIFs for Chinese New Year. They are pretty popular! My friend one day asked if I created the GIFs because it looks like my drawing!  
4. Next plan: to work on recipe for contest, other recipes that I made recently, comics about work/management, recent stuff I found at botanic garden, a friend asked me to draw Lakhsmi (God of prosperity) - so, I thought I want to create famous Hindu Gods as well, and to work on GIFs for other special days. There are a lot of things I need to do to keep myself busy.

Until next post.

Theydrawandcook has a handpicked design challenge, it's about Global Cuisine, where we create a food illustration or illustrated recipe of favorite foods, flavors or dishes from around the world. I submitted three (2 is still pending as for today). Here's the one approved. 

Do you need a custom Christmas Card?  I'm opening commissions up to 15 Dec 2019. Samples and rules below. Contact for sending your request, or DM through my Instagram account.

Below are the samples

This is something that I drew few years ago, using pen and watercolor.

Second exhibition that I went to is Wonderland. It's more of interactive exhibition and it feels more interesting that floating utopias. Although I think some of this installation are dedicated for children, still it's very interesting to see one. Everybody was given a map, that you can plug in to a screen, and it will give you different stories of different views (Mad hatter or Alice or Heart Queen? - I can't remember). Sadly, I only found 1 screen where you can put the map. I'm not sure if I missed others though. The most interesting part, is when you put the map and take the picture of your face, you would see yourself as a card soldier on the screen. I think it's quite cute. The last one is an interactive video where everybody were seated as if they are in tea party. How do I feel about this? It's normal. Maybe because it's too short :). Here's some of the photos, and one video.

I went to this exhibition in Art and Science Museum in Marina Bay Sands. It's basically art installation with inflatable objects. You can say big, giant balloons in different shapes. The exhibition shows a lot of information on how different inflatable objects were used. Here's some of the photos in the exhibition

It's funny sometimes when I thought about it, my flavor palates are different now when I'm younger. For example, I didn't like Earl Grey tea for the longest time because.. I thought they smell horrible, like old tea that's kept in a warehouse for a very long time. Until one day, the bubble tea shop selling earl grey milk tea - with bubbles of course. I thought, what a smooth and fragrant tea that I'm drinking. Bubble tea days are over now, well, at least I don't buy from outside shop not because not that they are not great, they are so nice that I convinced they use a lot of sugar (although I always ask for the lowest percentage. FYI, I'm cutting down some sugar, including sweet drinks, soda, ice cream, cakes.... and to replace the craving, nowadays I drink earl grey tea + milk - no sugar. 

I didn't like Pu-er tea, because well, smell and taste funny, but one day we ate heavy and oily lunch. One of my colleague brought Pu-er tea and she said it will flush down all the oiliness from your mouth, and it's true. I feel better after drinking one. 

When I was younger, I don't like herbal soup, because it's like drinking medicine, nowadays I feel a bit healthier when I drink herbal soup. 

I hate vegetable juice that my mum always make when I'm home, it contains celery, bitter gourd, bell peppers, cucumber, apple. It taste bearable with apple, but it smells horrible. Nowadays, I don't even smell it, just to think of the health benefit I will have drinking the vegetable juice. 

Is this me getting older? 

I love cooking, and baking. Well, maybe not so much baking because it needs a lot of time and patience, also cleaning up is an effort. I also love to illustrate recipes, and I put some in this link www.theydrawandcook.com/artists/lina-kartika . All the recipes there also I uploaded here, because it's easier to see them. Also, as I'm moving to new place now, I have more time to cook! I will add in more recipes as I go along. Please enjoy them, also feel free to feedback and comments! 

I've been busy because of the move to the new place, also some days after that, my parents were visiting. For a few days my mum was not feeling very well, so we didn't go out that much, and spent some time to bake sugar cookies. I thought of adding plain white fondant and color it. I thought using fondant made of marshmallows would be better, but using icing could be simpler. My kitchen was a mess after that!
So, here's all the cookies I drew.