The One About the File Labels

What do you do with newspaper clippings, downloaded Internet articles, recipe files that you acquire or collect?  A lot of times, these loose papers get stuck in the middle of the pages of a book, moonlighting as a page saver, or it gets thrown away by accident.

To organize them, I got an expanding envelope from the school supplies store...

Then I made alphabet tabs.  Yes, I'm resolving to alphabetize my clippings and other loose pages so education articles goes into "E," or that cauliflower soup recipe (while it awaits for its entry into my vintage recipe binder) goes into "C."  That way, I can look for them easily, knowing there's just one place to look for them.

And because I'm not one for boring, plain labels, I jazzed them up by using scrapbook paper as background.  Nothing like a pop of color to an otherwise boring black expanding envelope.

How fun it is to be crafty and organized! :)

The Ones Which Are Better Than Meatballs

How do you make baon-making at 4 o'clock in the morning fun?

You play with the food!!!

Hon-some almost freaked out when he opened his lunch.  Hahaha!  

Happy Midweek, everyone!

The One About New Year 2012 (What We Ate)

What we devoured with much gusto in the City of Pines...

Army Navy's Starving Sailor, Freedom Fries, and Tortilla Soup

A Korean feast at the Korean Meat Shop and Restaurant

We asked for 6 orders of pork and beef.  Then after cooking the meat, we sort of ate it shawarma-style by filling a lettuce leaf with the meat...

salad...which had a lovely hint of sesame oil

and kimchi.

Hon-some ordered rice but he refused to eat it after discovering it was black rice.  I was only too happy to eat it for him. :)

Brewed coffee, French apple pie, and chocolate lemon tart at the Hillstation Cafe in Casa Vallejo

Crispy pata at Barrio Fiesta (because it was 50% off!)

We ransacked The Manor's gift package.

Dived into The Manor's breakfast buffet...

Congee

Tuna and potato salad, Caprese salad (but they used local tomatoes), and salad greens which I partnered with crispy bacon

 

Vegetables, corned beef, garlic rice, and more bacon

A croissant and an egg white omelette.  I always asko for egg white omelettes whenever I eat in a buffet.  At home, I don't dare waste a good egg yolk.

 A waffle with very little maple syrup and loads of butter cream!  Still, it was lacking something...

Bacon!!!

Now I'm starting the new year dealing with this glutton guilt.

For stuff we did in Baguio, click here.

The One About New Year 2012 (What We Did)

For the third straight year, my family and I spent our New Year celebration in Baguio.  Hon-some was in tow this time.  Here's an account of the things we did:

We stayed at The Manor in Camp John Hay:

Checked out Casa Vallejo (Hill Station Cafe and Mt. Cloud Bookshop, too):

 

 I don't normally like ladders, but I'd climb one if it leads to books.

I still dream about this piece of furniture.

 

 Couldn't resist leaving without a few purchases. :)

Had "alone" time "together" at Starbucks:

Listened to a harpist:

Joined the New Year celebration:

With that, happy new year!  Cheers to a blockbuster 2012!

The Ones Among My Children's Book Idols

This is why I missed last night's company Christmas party...

Award-winning children's book illustrator Hubert Fucio (Si Pagong at si Matsing, Hinlalaki) and multi-awarded children's book author and TV writer Augie Rivera (Alamat ng Ampalaya, Magnificent Benito and His Two Front Teeth, Xilef, Batibot, Art Angel) came by in my MA class to talk about their work and the children's book industry.

I brought my own copies of their books to have them signed.

The first Augie Rivera book I ever read was Xilef and I was blown away by how dyslexia was shown in a children's book.  The most recent books I read that were authored by him were Alamat ng Ampalaya and Lihim ni Lea, an incredibly brave account of incest.  I particularly enjoyed listening to his stories on working in children's TV shows like the original Batibot under the Rene Villanueva.

 Hubert Fucio brought the original illustrations of Si Pagong at Si Matsing and I was struck by his attention to detail.

 

Weee!  Sooo happy! :)

 

Weekend Tidbits II

The recent weekend saw us spending a lovely staycation in the Makati area.  Some of the weekend's highlights included gorging on our favorite Greek gyro and mashed feta dip and witnessing the light and music show at the Ayala Triangle Garden.

I hope your weekend went just as lovely.  Here's to wonderful week ahead! :)

The One About My Craft Loot

Last week, I found some pocket of time to visit my favorite craft supply store downtown.  I was just about to go crazy with all the lovely supplies and the craft ideas that were starting to form in my mind when I told myself to practice some restraint and just buy the essentials.

Clockwise from left:  1. I just mentioned buying the essentials and now I'm starting with an impulse buy!  Haha!  I spotted this big paper crimper and I just couldn't resist!  No more folding paper just so it'll fit in my small crimper!  2.  Watching all those Martha Stewart shows have made me long for an X-Acto knife.  Glad to have found it finally!  3.  This has been another quest for me.  I have been searching through sewing suppliers for a rotary cutter that cuts through fabric in vain.  Now I can cut straight and non-straight lines with (almost) 100% precision!  4.  Now, I just realized I didn't find this in my downtown craft store.  I stumbled upon this set of Crayola Fabric Crayons when I went to Bulacan for work last week.  5.  Now back to my downtown craft store.  I got a set of fabric markers in basic colors.  If I had enough moolah, I would have bought all the shades!

I can't think of a way to insert this in this post but...

...I wanted to show how small my old paper crimper was so you can understand (and also so I can justify impulsively buying it!) how ecstatic I am now that I have a biggie!  You may remember that I used my baby crimper here.

I can't wait to start using them!  Till next time, lovelies!