Silvia worked as a graphic designer until she started working on her true passion: illustrating. Her illustrations can certainly be defined as kawaii and I think she has been inspired by designers like Meomi and Tokidoki. Nonetheless Silvia developed her own style and the characters and soft colour tones make the pictures stand out. Bukubuku is really worth a visit!

P.S. Please come back tomorrow, I will have a small giveaway of cute wallets / coin purses

Since a couple of months the iPhone is my little companion. I use it regularly to search for information, relax with a game, read an ebook etc. I thought it would be nice to share some of my favourite apps with you.

Ninja Honda Karate
Very original game which reminds me of 8-bit video games. You play as Karate Alberto Honda and have to hit coins and mushrooms that come your way, much like a rhythm game. If you tap the coin in time with the music, the giant hero at the background -for instance a panda- will perform karate moves to save the world.
Itunes | $0.99 *promotional price only this weekend*

OvenBreak Free
There’s just something about this game that makes me want to play it over and over. Maybe it’s the cute gingerbread man. You have to help him escape from the oven and collect jelly beans along the way.  Spell the word “freedom” through the Alphabet Jelly to replenish life. The Candy Cane swing takes a little practise: first tap Jump and then Slide, I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it.
Itunes | free

MeowBox
The MeowBox holds 4 common cat sounds: Meow, Growl & Hiss, Distressed, Pur. This sometimes comes in handy when one of our cats is meowing for attention and I’m too busy to see if they want attention, food or want to go outside. I’ll simply tap Meow or Distressed and they’ll go looking for “the other cat”.
Itunes | free

TumiNeko
Also known as Mew Mew Tower. This is a very simple but addictive game where you get to stack cats. Try to make your tower as high as possible, before it collapses.
Itunes | $1.99 | website

Tweetie 2
My favourite iPhone Twitter client. Very easy to use and it can hold multiple accounts.
Itunes | $1.99 | website

2Do Lite
This lite version can only display 3 “calendars”, but that’s good enough for me. I’ve divided them into Home, Work and Someday. 2Do is a very handy to do list and I think the best part of it is that you can strike through completed tasks (with your finger), there’s something rewarding in this. The interface is also very well done.
Itunes | free | website

Hi Blythe
Features information on Blythe, a complete list of releases so far, useful links and last but not least the opportunity to create a collection of your Blythes dolls. You can enter the price and time of purchase and upload your own picture. Still not content with your collection? Create a wishlist to see which ones you’d like to add.
Itunes | free | website

GoodReader
Let’s you read large PDF files, but also supports other formats like .xls and.txt. Because of the easy navigation, I use this Reader as an actual eBook reader. Through a Wifi connection you can transfer files from your computer to this iPhone app.
Itunes | $0.99 | website

MoneyBook
Easy to use app to track and manage your finances. Great tool for former shopaholics -like myself- by keeping track of your expenses, you’re less likely to spend it on not-so-useful items. Also displays very nice looking statistics, so you know on what area you spend most money.
Itunes | $2.99 | website

Momento
Momento is more than a simple pocket diary, it can also store your Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and Last.fm entries. It’s so nice to see my Twitter stream organized in a calendar view, now I can actually find older tweets. If you don’t feel like writing, you can add another moment, like a picture, place or friend.
Itunes | $2.99 | website

So what is your favourite app?

I guess it’s officially way too late to wish people a happy new year by this time, so I will skip that But I do hope that this year will be a good one and that the people in Haiti will receive the proper care (I still can’t figure out why they didn’t parachute drop food and water sooner, but that’s a whole other story).

Before I start this post; if you haven’t seen Avatar yet, go see it! I suspect that the movie hides some sort of subliminal message making you want to see it over and over again, but it’s definitely worth it. I’ve seen snippets of Avatar on TV and personally I thought the movie sucked. Until my hubby told me it was a great experience. So last Monday -during the most depressing day of the year- I skipped work (yay for being self employed) and we went to an IMAX theater together with a friend. The 3D experience is just amazing and the whole Avatar world was mesmerizing. I’ve heard that people felt depressed because Pandora doesn’t really exist and now I can understand why. After seeing the movie, it will linger in your head for days and the “real” world might seem a bit disappointing.

Okay, back to the non Na’vi life. To start with my good resolutions I read personal development blogs and the book “The Power of Less”. And because free stuff is the best I can recommend reading the Ebook “Thriving on Less” and Zen Habits if you like to slow things down. It has certainly helped me to control my e-mail behaviour, which makes life a little less complicated, some tips:

1. Turn of your automatic e-mail notifications, it will only interfere with what you’re doing.
2. Make a small signature consisting of 4-5 lines with your valediction, name, website and 1 telephone number.
3. Don’t check your e-mail first thing in the morning, but start on a task first.
4. Try to check your e-mail only twice a day, for instance at 11.00 AM and 16.00 PM (before you sign off). Stop hitting that refresh button
5. If you can answer an e-mail withing 2 minutes, do it! Don’t let it sit in your inbox.
6. After you’ve answered an e-mail delete it, or archive it in an appropriate folder. For instance I make folders for each client.
7. Unsubscribe from newsletters and notifications or apply a filter to it, so it won’t make it to your inbox.

Also I’m still trying to not work during evenings, although this can be tricky when I have a lot of assignments to finish. I’m still hoping to launch a new blog someday filled with long and super interesting articles to attract millions of visitors and m$ney, but that’s just me talking to the universe for now.
Because I like the minimalism concept and the book Into the Wild I also made a new resolution: downsizing my possessions, so far I’ve sold or donated:

• 6 computer games, 4 will be relisted on eBay
• 15 books
• 10 clothing items - I actually bought NEW clothes last year
• 2 blankets - covered in so much cat hair that it would kill an allergic person
• 5 Blythe dolls - still in the process of selling those

I really enjoyed the process of purging stuff. Still I have to clean some areas, but hey 2010 is not over yet. Also I can only admire people who dare to take on the 100 Thing Challenge. I’m sure I’ll never get there. But still it’s an improvement. Especially when you take into consideration that my mother is not far away from being a hoarder    Talking about hoarders, this documentary was quite shocking.