catching up

And as much as life has been a whirlwind of sorts, I crafted these for Crochet Along:

Christmas present: tiny tea set

 (never got to post this since I did not have internet in the ranch)

Granny-Along: granny squares

(this is going to be for a little throw for a baby :-) )

And I embroidered these designs I picked up from an old embroidery book my mother had lying around the house:

This is for the cover of my 2008 planner book. I love planners :-) and I love embroidery. I am taking this opportunity being in the city this weekend to download some vintage patterns to embroider. And learn some new stitches. 

And HAPPY BIRTHDAY tO ME!!!!!

27 and a Hope Chest

I turn 27 in 15 minutes.

And what do I have to show for it? 

A diploma.

A Barangay Kagawad seat.

A husband-to-be that just read me the passage for my birthday from his copy of "Our Daily Bread" before saying goodnight.

And a wonderful flutter inside me.

Yes. My life is going according to His plan.

meringue dreams

1. Meringues au cacao, 2. mini key lime meringue cupcakes., 3. Picaday Day 3 of 365 - Meringue!, 4. Ricotta Almond Cupcakes With Citrus Meringue Frosting., 5. Lime Meringue Tartlet, 6. Lemon Meringue Pie Cupcake, 7. Lemon Meringue Pie., 8. meringue innards, 9. Meringues., 10. Apple Meringue Avant Passage au Four, 11. Meringues., 12. Meringue Variations (6/6), 13. Lemon Meringue14. Not available15. Not available16. Not available

No wedding cake. Wedding meringues sounds so much yummier. 

Small wedding. Small. Miniature even. 

And this seems like a wonderful idea for a centerpiece. Cause there are branches everywhere. And Martha Stewart has the pattern to make cherry blossoms. 

I got this photo from eco-chic weddings, a wonderful site by Emily Anderson, author of the book by the same title.

Challenges update

As if wedding planning is not time consuming enough (specially when I only have like 3 weeks to plan), here are the new themes from the crafty challenges:

1. Crochet Along - Granny Squares
2. Pincushion Challenge - Try Something New
3. The Purse Project - Recycled Linen (deadline: March 1)
4. Tie One On - Polka Dotted Lovelies (deadline: Feb 1)

And I have to get out of bed right now so I can take a shower, finish mom's dress and get rid of this flu. 

From Moderately Confused by Jeff Stahler.

Cebu B

I'm in Cebu for my cousin Chaveli's wedding.

• Downloading updates for my software whilst listening to country music downloaded from Lori on New Years.
  
• Updated my links.
• Itching to get Photoshop and Illustrator on this new baby so I can shoot and work :-( (and maybe join this?)
  
• Sewing mom's dress for the wedding. Bought the cloth in Quezon, Bukidnon. Doing beadwork on it the whole day tomorrow.
  
• Updated my zakka magazines (and yes, the National Bookstore in Ayala Mall has a wide collection at the same price of Php 85.00/each).
• Acquired a Clover Heart Yo-Yo Maker (Php 450.00 at Country Crafts, Ayala Mall)

SummerdayStudio will re-appear on 2008. With a few twists. And turns. 

And in all of this, I have my wedding coming up. SURPRISE. 

Breakfast will be served after the ceremony, a guest list of 60, and the entourage is: one best man (for me and him) and 8 flower girls. 

And have been veering towards this color palette (from Style Me Pretty):

Oh and P.S. I am wearing my mom's wedding dress.

Bacccckkk

Merry Christmas Lia.

Well.
So much has happened.
And more about to happen. And it's going to be okay with a MAC.
I am 16 always.

Happy Birthday Diego and Abuelito.

Into the woods

Yesterday I took a walk in the woods to take some photos. I brought along the three ranchhands (Omil, Bobo and Jep) to assist my shoot and help me identify some species. It was a nice day, though a bit hot. We brought a huge mirror to reflect the light since it gets pretty dark inside the forrest (and I just love mirrored light heheh).

The mirror split into two by the end of our shoot cause of the heat! Very scary. We learned a lesson: Do not carry a mirror with the mirror side facing the sun! Very stupid and dangerous. Luckily (in a broken mirror situation), the ranchhand Omil was safe from the shreds of glass that fell around him.

On our way home, we chanced upon this scene. :-) One of the cowboys had left his saddle and horse on one of the fields. I wonder where he went. Probably had a late lunch.

I have more photos that I would love to post of my past few days but the internet is quite relaxed around here. Tomorrow I'm going down to the city, I shall post then.

Bummer&Bummer's Puffer bride

our puffer bride
Originally uploaded by Rowari

The making of bummer&bummer's "Puffer Bride" is now available for viewing on my flicker :-)
This was supppper fun to make.

We went thru nearly 2 kg. of fiber-fill to create this. and lots of disassembled earrings for the headpiece. And lots of sleepless nights.

I designed the knitted top. We gave it to the model as a gift so I can't take a good photo of it. But should there be some free time, I will recreate it and rewrite the pattern and post it here as a freebie. As of the moment, the pattern is hard to understand hehehe I was just making up my own abbreviations as I went along since I had to finish it quick.

Liahavaina

Been quite a busybee lately. Just got back from Cebu for the Philusutec convention (it's a sugar industy conference, sweeeet). And the whole week last week I've been working with Burpee on prototypes for recycled wallets to be sent to Germany (with much thanks to our friend Yana for the hook-up).

I arrived yesterday morning and went straight to work on my resume and funky photo for the "Design your own Havainas Team" interview. And that is the photo above. So crazy cause the photo I brought fell out of the folder as I was walking in the mall to meet the lady in charge. Crazeee. Got the job :-) it's next month on Sept. 14-16. On the 13th they will orient us on assembly and all that. Pretty cool. And ofcourse we get to keep our one-of-a-kind pair after the project is done. I love my Havainas!!

Today I am sleeping over at my grandparent's house up in Bukidnon. I am so looking forward to that (and to take some photos of whatever my grandma has been up to).

I am still working on my design portfolio. :-( updating. updating. updating. my works are all over the place. And I can't seem to find a good printing place around here. Still searching.

California Memory: Beauty Queen

This is Mai. She was my muse in North Hollywood. A talented girl with the chameleon gene.

This shoot was done at our friend Mark's kitchen. My sister Angela did the make-up and hair. We draped this wonderful cloth around her and secured with staples. This kitchen is almost identical to my kitchen. A few months after this shoot, I moved to the unit across. Many happy memories.

CaliforniaMemory: baby doll

Taken sometime in 2005. Stocker Street. That's my sister Angela. We both worked on the make-up and I sewed the top.

At this point in my life I was a waitress at a deli in Glendale. I loved my job and was happy to have my sister over. Working on songs, doing shoots and loving California. I was 24.

Pincushion Challege: June/July SUMMERTIME

I know it's kindda late, but it was too cute to pass up. These pincushion flip-flops were fun to make. I crocheted the straps on there. The "flip" is for needles, and the "flop" is for pins. Can't wait for the next one.

Rainy days and Wednesdays

Brrrr. It is raining, raining, raining over here. Spent the afternoon trying to make candy with Angel. We have been experimenting with the strawberry juice from the processed strawberry. Experiment it was for first we took forever to let it get to the Hard Crack stage (and Angel was holding on the candy thermometer the whole time cause we couldn't clip it anywhere). When we finally got to the stage, it happened so fast that the whole thing burned in a second!

We ended up with a black hard candy that was really bitter. Nice going.

And we shall try again tomorrow on that matter.

I spent most of last night making my pincushion for the Pincushion Challenge: Summer. I didn't make it to the deadline but I will post a photo tomorrow anyway. I love this challenge because I love pincushions! Or anything fiber-filled for that matter. Oh yes. Hehehe.

Tonight I shall start on the apron for Tie One On. The July/August theme is Local Pride. Hmmmm. Bukidnon will be my town and I shall use some of the left-over brown cloth from my sisters' wedding. And probably fill it up with embroidery of sugarcane, corn, cattle, rice, vegetables, horses, goats, carabaos and trim it with the traditional Talaandig motif. Or maybe...ah whatever comes out!

Intavas cool

It's harvest time back in the farm and I am learning the obstacles of vegetable marketing. But so far so good and we have been pretty blessed with the cabbage harvest.

Been doing pre-marketing now on our fancy crops, and praying that there will be a market. I frankly giggled like a little girl when I saw our fancy potatoes:

Yummy colors...we gotta fill our plates with color!!! Ahhh someday I shall be able to walk thru the doors of my dream "trippideli market", the market of fantasy vegetables. Imagine, a market that only sells uncommon varieties in color-coded pricing. And NO PLASTIC BAGS. We would very much appreciate you bringing your market bag, or we will sell one for a really affordable price. And the bags will be pretty. And colorful. And just plain trippy!

Ohhhh someday.

SaturdayFlickrBlythe

KKaeZa_깨자
Originally uploaded by t E a R y~ㆀ

Sigh.
Director: Tim Burton
Production Design: Mark Ryden
Starring: The Blythe Girls
When will they.

SaturdayFlickrBlythe

sherbet
Originally uploaded by love&free

the dress makes me so happy and fluffy.

SaturdayFlickrBlythe

070413_01
Originally uploaded by ::Garrot::

So crisp and darling these ones. I am always amazed by the genius little big girls that play with the equally mesmerizing Blythe.

What a way to get back on the inspiration road! I am so happy to have a fast internet connection once again and enjoy all the wonderful colors brought to us by Flickr.

I cannot wait for next Saturday again.

Third World from the Sun

Greetings from the Philippines. I have been back since December 26, and life has been a whirlwind of sorts.

The most notable thing about the move would probably be that all my crafty stuff got left in California. The sewing machine almost made it home with me, but had to be taken out at the airport cause my luggage was really way to heavy. A very sad decision. I am currently using my sisters' sewing machine.

But the creations have not stopped and now that I have more or less set up some sort of working space again, it is time to get back on the blogging too. And what a different crafting environment I am now in so this will be quite an exiciting time.
I cannot wait.

Friday WIP (Work In Progress)

Aside from staring at my workspace the whole afternoon, I decided to motivate myself by making today my official Work in Progress Photo Day. The philosophy being I can take the photo and clean (I also thought of clean-up Day but it didn't sound as exciting). I am busy most of the week with school and Fridays, Sundays and Mondays are my days off so I have to manage it somehow.

I began the Irish knitting kit last night and plan on making the cardigan version (just so I can use the authentic wooden buttons! haha):

Overall I am still on track, and I am loving doing cables. Luckily mommy had taught me how to do them when she was here so I wasn't totally lost on the pattern. In a few more rows it starts working on a popcorn pattern that doesn't seem that attractive to me so I am debating about that. Maybe for the sleeves.

And the other project that I have been working on is a miniature knitted bunny for a keychain:

It has yet to be finished and I have started on making a white version of it too. This is my little train project as well. It's perfect because the needles are thin and short so I can stick it in my bag without taking much space. Which brings me to my next project of making a "train kit" pouch so it will be even more convenient to carry. Ahhhhh so many projects hahaha. It's what keeps me going after the whole week of writting papers and taking tests.

This craft blog really brings a smile to my face because it reminds me of all the things my mother makes and gets into. If we could have blogged it all (15 years worth) we would probably really see how nuts we are! But I now so excited to go back home because mom called and said that they finally have internet connection in the ranch! That is modern technology for you! Times certainly have changed.

Thrifting to cure the Flu

Ryan has been sick the past few days (he says it only happens once every 5 years) and so the house has been pretty quiet. I have been taking medicine as well cause I cannot afford to miss any classes since it is midterms. So far so good. On my walk home home from the train yesterday I saw him on the road and so I hitched a ride to go with him on his errands. And ofcourse he asked if we could pass by the Salvation Army on the way home. Thrifting always makes him feel better (and I always find something worth adding to my clutter). But yesterday was a beautiful day for I found these:

A grab bag filled with buttons, iron-on interfacings, bias tape and zippers:

An "Authentic" Irish Design knitting kit "right down to the wooden buttons":

Another grab bag filled with yarn (which luckily matched some of the yarns mommy got):

And I know I said I hated the look of platic for the teeny backyard, but I couldn't resist him:

And all that for less than $10.00 (even if I convert that to Philippine Pesos, that is still a bargain!). I am going to miss thrifting here...But who knows what the ukay-ukay will uncover! I thank God for all the wonderful people who donate to the Salvation Army.