The One about the Diaper Cake Tutorial

My first attempt at making diaper cakes last December. Although I was inspired by Homemade by Jill I've decided to make a tutorial for my one-tiered diaper cakes. It's really very simple and more importantly, fun to do!

Cut a big circle from a piece of sturdy cardboard or tagboard. Mine was approximately 12"-14" in diameter. This will be the base of the cake.

Next, cut a rectangle from the same sturdy cardboard or tagboard and roll it into a cylinder. The open ends have diameters of about 2".

Cut a 2" in diameter circle from the tagboard and glue it on one end of the cylinder.

Using hot glue, place the cylinder in the middle of the round tagboard. I then cut out leaves from green tissue paper and pasted them around the around the tagboard.

Next, roll the diapers one by one and secure them with white elastic bands (or clear ones) to prevent them from opening up.

Diapers all rolled up. (Sorry for the mess in the background…that's how crafting is…)

Place the diapers around the cylinder and secure with a thick elastic band. For this one-tiered cake, I used 18 diapers.

Make crepe paper roses. I made about four. Just cut a small portion from the crepe paper. Roll and twirl around to make roses.

Place the roses on the top of the cylinder (make sure to hide the cardboard) using hot glue. Use a pretty ribbon to cover the elastic band that holds all the diapers together.

Happy crafting!

The One about the Gucci Bag

A perfect example of something that I don't really need but I just have to have it. :)

The One about My New Year at The Manor

To welcome 2010, my family and I headed to cool Baguio. After about 7 hours of a butt-numbing ride, we were welcomed warmly at The Manor. I loved it there...

The weather was cool, the scent of pine trees was heavenly, and the warmth of the log cabin-esque environment was really nice.

I consider myself a foodie traveller so I was really excited to try the breakfast buffet at the Le Chef. And it did not disappoint! I went back to the buffet 7 times! Seven times!

Round 1: Egg noodle soup

Round 2: Assorted cold cuts, maki, and a salad mix celery, cherry tomatoes, olives, and feta cheese

Round 3: Garlic rice, garlic sausages, potato wedges, breakfast sausages, aubergine casserole

Round 4: Egg omelette, crispy bacon

Round 5: Waffles with whipped cream and honey

Round 6: Yogurt with peaches

Round 7: Watermelon and mangoes (Where are the mangoes? You see, I was enjoying my breakfast too much that I only remembered to take a picture of my last plate when I had gobbled up all the mangoes!)

I love the New Year Countdown Party at The Manor. The live band plays funky music then everybody just gets together at the stroke of midnight to wish each other a New Year. We position ourselves right under the fireworks and it's like stars are all around you.

Having been in Baguio several times, my family and I just decided to stay most of the time at The Manor, soaking up all its goodness, and occassionally leaving the hotel for meals outside. Other than that, it was fun lazying around the hotel, taking hot showers, watching holiday movies, soaking up the sights in the garden, and devouring their divine cheesecake!

I always say that the true test of a good cheesecake is in its plain form -- no toppings whatsoever. And The Manor's cheesecake has passed my test with flying colors!