Weekend Tidbits: Green Pastures

Every once in a while, my mom and I leave our respective families behind (hahaha!) to bond with each other.  It's something that we have been doing since I was little.  Whenever there was a school holiday, my mom would take a leave from work and we would go to the mall and hit the bookstore.  Once we were happy with our literary purchases, we would read our books and talk about everything under the sun over steaming bowls of goto and buko juice.  Those were happy times!

Now that I'm married, my mom and I feel that more than ever, we NEED these bonding sessions badly.  And we always have fun.  Like. All. The. Time! :)  We buy check out books, buy check out clothes and shoes, and we always eat good food.

Over the weekend, in one of our bonding sojourns, we dined at the newly-opened Green Pastures at the Shangri-La Plaza Mall in its spanking new East Wing.

For starters, we had the Farmhouse Salad.  Shredded kale, chopped romaine lettuce, roast chicken, goat cheese, hard-boiled eggs, grape tomatoes, corn kernels, ripe mango cubes, and - wait for it! - BACON!  It was dressed in a honey mustard dill vinaigrette.  Very similar to the salads that Cyma is known for (understandably so because Green Pastures is also owned by Cyma's Robby Goco).

We had the Tequila Joe's Organic Beef Sloppy Cow.  Yummy. :)

Vegetarian Burger That Doesn't Suck.  Yup, that's what it's called.  And it didn't suck at all!

It was made with organic chickpea, mushrooms, leeks, celery, and eggplant with their housemade cheddar cheese in a potato bun.

As you know, I'm head over heels in love with juicing so I had this cold-pressed elixir called To Brighten.  It's a mix of watermelon, cantaloupe, coconut juice, lime, and mint.

My mom had the Pineapple Malunggay smoothie.

Happy tummies!  You can just imagine the kwentos that went with all the eating!  At the end of the day, we were already planning our next bonding day!  :)

Wednesday Nugget

Photo from here.

I'm finding today to be a good day to be bursting with dreams. :)

Wednesday Nugget

Photo from here.

Midweek inspiration, lovelies. :)

The One That's All Randomness

It's Monday again.  I spent the last weekend making things.  Check this out:

Saturday:
AM:  Woke up at around 4:30 am to prepare for the upcoming lessons in school.  Also drew up my grocery list.  Hon-some was still asleep and I remembered my high school days when I would wake up at 3:00 am to study for the day's exams.  I loved studying and working when everyone else was asleep because it was quiet and my brain was at its element.  It was nice being reacquainted with the wonders of dawn.

Had breakfast with Hon-some and did my weekend household cleaning.  Then off to the supermarket to do our groceries.

PM:  After lunch, I engaged in our (Hon-some and I) newest passion project.  Then I sewed soft toys for Playthings by Wicked Crafts.  And read a book.  I'm finishing the Chronicles of Narnia series now.

Sunday:
AM:  Woke up at 5:00 am to make unit plans for school.  Had breakfast and went to church.  Did never-ending household chores. :)

PM:  Cooked kaldereta for lunch. I brewed a new batch of the organic red kamote tops tea.  While the leaves were steeping, I continued making soft toys and brought out clothes to the laundromat.  I sewed until it was time to cook dinner.  We had chicken Parmigiana and buttered vegetables.  And then I read Narnia again.  I'm rushing to finish The Last Battle so I can read this...

My newest Fully Booked find!

I was so engaged last weekend that Hon-some pointed out that I should stop and take a rest to which I replied, "But crafting relaxes me." :)

Before going to bed last night, I looked at my hands and said a thankful prayer.  My hands make beautiful things.

I like to start my week with some inspiration.  In the middle of teaching my second graders (yes, I'm a second grade teacher now!  I love it!) addition with and without regrouping, I chanced upon this...

It's a new stack of fabric that I bought two weekends ago.  Aren't they pretty?

And to finish off this random babbling, I made this recently...

It's a sample I made for A Very Hungry Caterpillar party.  I used paper to make the caterpillar but it's really supposed to be made with pompoms to make the caterpillar 3D-ish.

Have a wonderful week ahead! :)

The One About the Bejewelled Magnets

Wicked Crafts has a new craft package!  I actually introduced this package at the Mom Pop Up event and now it's officially a part of the craft repertoire!

Shall I let the pictures do the talking? :)

Let's craft together soon! :)

Wednesday Nugget

Photo from here.

It's the midweek.  I can still do more. :)

Weekend Tidbits

The past weekend seemed to have gone by in a blur.  Still, I managed to take some snapshots of it:

Our new project. :)

Even though they weren't perfect yet, they went so well with this...

 Organic red kamote tops tea!  Learned it from school and even Hon-some likes it.  It's perfect when hot but Hon-some likes it cold.  Yup, we're still health nuts...but I have to admit, we snuck in some burgers and fried chicken somewhere in the weekend.  Teehee!

And then we met up with my family for dinner at Pages Deli at Shangri-La Mall.  Soup, sandwiches, pasta, and a tasty cheese platter.  Nix the burger! :)

I'm hoping to squeeze in some crafting next weekend.  I'm excited for Playthings by Wicked Crafts but I'm still making the first collection.  Ooohh!!  And I started a craft club in school.  More details on that soon.  Until then, have a great week, lovelies. :)

Wednesday Nugget: Consider this...

Photo from here.

Thank you, Lord.  :)

The One Who Barters for Crafts

Barter is a system of exchange wherein goods or services are traded for other goods and services without using a medium of trade such as money.  I first learned about the barter system in my history class during my elementary school years.  The system was used by the early Filipinos who traded with the Chinese before the Spanish colonized the Philippines.  Apart from bartering, gold or metal gongs were also used as medium of exchange.

In time, "progress" came into play and money is now used in all kinds of trade.  Two of my Singapore-based friends, Pia and Dindean, reintroduced me to barter when they came to visit last April.  Dindean was raving about barter and how it still exists today and, more importantly, how it can eradicate the evil that money seemingly entails (Janet Napoles suddenly comes to mind).

If you Google barter stories, you'll find how some people exchanged everyday common items like mattresses and grocery items and luckily received a car or a house in return!  While I can't quite believe yet that that kind of luck will present itself to me, my friends got me intrigued about barter and, by another kind of luck, I'm going to get to try it out. :)

Trade School Manila is an independent community that runs on barter.  People who want to teach a class can sign up.  Individuals who are interested in learning can sign up for the classes and barter for knowledge.  The teacher basically gives out a list of the goods or services he/she wants in exchange for instruction and the students pick an item or two to bring from that list.  I find it very interesting and timely, just when I was being reintroduced to it.

Photo source here

And so,  I now come to the most important part of this post (hahaha!).  I am offering a "Washi Tape Crafts" class at Trade School Manila on November 12, 2013 (Dindean's birthday!) at 6:00-8:00 pm at the Midnight Owl Cafe in Mapagkawanggawa Street in Teacher's Village.  I know it's kinda early to be blogging about this but there are only 10 slots and as of this writing, six of those slots have already been filled.  So if you want to learn how you can use washi tapes to wrap gifts, make jewelry, and create stationery, join me!  The items for barter are super easy!  Hehehe!  Click here to sign up and find out what they are.