In honor of our new president Barack Obama, who lived abroad for a brief time, I’m sharing memories from my trip to Indonesia. Most people do not think of the main Indonesia island of Java as a holiday location. It is a large, overpopulated, semi-tense Muslim island and home to the crowded capital city of Jakarta. But it is worth a visit, even if it’s only to go to the southern part of the island to see the magnificent and amazing 8th-century Buddhist temple known as Borobudur.

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So you’re fed up with the bone-chilling cold and the grey slush underfoot, but there is a bonus to the winter season and it can be found for a few more days at the Park Avenue Armory on 67th Street. Yes, the Winter Antiques Show is in full-swing, now in its 55th year, featuring furnishings and art from antiquities through the 1960s. Admission is $20 (including the catalog), and benefits the East Side Settlement. Doors open daily from noon to 8pm; noon to 6pm on Sunday and Thursday. Brave the cold and the grey slush because the show ends on Sunday.

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Have you heard of kuler? It’s designed by Adobe for graphic designers, but I think it could really aid the interior designer when it comes to picking color palettes.

The focus of this stand-alone web-based application is creating color themes. While kuler can be accessed through panels newly incorporated in CS4, it doesn’t cost anything, and it is really easy to use with or without any other Adobe products. Think paint swatches at the local hardware store on crack… 

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Something I truly honor about the arts and design, is their ability to move us, like listening to your favorite piece of music or looking at an evocative painting. With this in mind, a pilgrimage to the Gramercy Park Hotel, reimagined and unveiled by design partners Ian Schrager and Julian Schnabel in the winter of 2006, is definitely a transformative trip for design followers.

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