December 2018

It's Christmas Eve Eve. I wanted to write a gratitude post because I have truly been busy these past weeks and I don't want to forget what and why I am here and doing all these busy things in the first place.

Truly thankful for so many things but to hightlight the best ones:

+ family

It has been more than a year since I lived away from my parents house. It was a difficult but life-chaniging decision. But despite not being with my family as often as I had been before, I am so thankful for them for accepting me whenever I go visit, for showing support to my endeavors and accepting my decision to be on my own. Everything's a process so in time, I trust that all of us, especially my father can fully accept in our hearts and minds.

+ great friends

Everyone can be considered a friend, even a good friend. But a great friend is a true gift from God. This year hadn't been easy. I have only one or two people in mind who stuck by me through everything, despite -- but never left. Oh, where and what would I be now without them.

+ work and talent

For this is what sustained me and is sustaining me everyday. Many times I complain and I regret each time I realize that. Thankful that I am able to do work that I love at my own time and still have time and energy to do other kinds of work. To be blessed with skills that allow others to see beauty in the world, that make bring happiness to others in whatever way possible.

+ peace and safety

Not forgetting what a great blessing it is to be in this place, to have a home and a community and environment that is safe to go out and explore anytime; the blessing of peace between people.

Painting on woven bags

My recent curiosity for the art of decoupage lead me to doing handpainted flowers on woven bags. I loved how decoupage looks on the native round bags. I looked for plain ones online and was disappointed that the bags alone cost a lot. I decided to check out local shops for native bags as well as pouches or anything similar which can look lovely when painted on.

I found these woven bags made of tayok-tayok grass. They're cute, the size of your palm and in it can contain a phone, keys, wallet and some few other stuff. There is also a round handbag which I also love. I purchased one of those from 6200 Popup fair last September at Marketplace. I'm looking at buying some and painting on them.

This is the first bag I painted. A basic bouquet with three flowers and leaves. A bit of a challenge to paint on very rough surface. At first I thought the design wouldn't popup from the texture but it helped to outline them a bit with black paint.

I was very pleased with the first one, so I painted another.

Good morning, Dumaguete

One morning, D and I went out for breakfast to take sunrise photos. I'm not a morning person but will gladly wake up early for good company and a nice breakfast. We arrived at the boulevard and saw the usual activities: morning joggers, motorcycle and tricycle drivers pass by driving in speeds as if they had all the time of day. The sky was beginning to show some color so we both looked around for good spots to get new angles or anything that might look interesting as silhouettes.

I found a spot at Paseo Perdices and saw some cars parked with some cool reflections on the window glass.

From the boulevard, we moved to Escaño beach. We saw a boatman swimming and some flaglets near the shore. They made okay subjects to break the vast horizon full of sky.

I found a few stories in the photos below. What do you see?

And of course, breakfast at Gabby's afterwards. What a good morning.

June 1, 2016

Sunsets in Bayawan

Following our trip to Niludhan Falls, we arrived back in the city around 5:30 pm just in time to watch the sunset. I fell in love with a particular sunset the first time I visited Bayawan and promised myself I would go back to see another one.

We walked to the beach and chose to sky watch in that area near the talipapa, just a bit of walk from the homes of the residents by the beach. There was a wide clearing which offered a great wide view of the scenery.

 It started with warm colors yellow, orange and crimson

And shortly, saw blue and purple with them. What a spectrum in the sky!

 A photo with it, of course!

And quickly it's starting to fade.

"And God saw that it was good."

Thank you for the fleeting beauty.

{ Krafted } Canvas Coasters

I love fabrics like canvas. It's versatile and it has a really great retro feel to it. And it gives a really nice effect when you have a design printed on it using heat transfer. When I recently discovered a local print shop accepts custom fabric to print on, I was excited to try it right away. I first test printed on tote bags and they looked great, but later I thought I could also make coasters, too! I have a little portable sewing machine so I can do simple running stitches and come up with 4 x 4 inch coaster with my designs. I'm selling them in my shop. They'd make really cute gifts for the holidays!

The blue ones are printed canvas when I got them. I loved the chevron and tribal print that I also used them for the coasters

Niludhan Falls, Bayawan

Last April, Jean, Kai and I planned a nature trip to Sipalay. We decided to take a side trip to Bayawan City to see Niludhan Falls.

This photo showcases the beauty of the waterfall and the area around it. But sadly, there is a part on the right side that I purposely excluded from the photo. There were about three cottage-tables (unsure how to call them) and an abandoned toilet. That area looked very sad and dirty and has been clearly neglected. There were a lot of trash everywhere, it was a shame to see something like that just beside something so beautiful as this.

{ Krafted } Personalized Holiday Postcards

Here is something I have been busy with lately. Postcards! I know not many people write personal handwritten notes anymore but I do, and I'm sure there are others who would love to receive (and send out) holiday postcards. I'm happy that some of my friends gave me permission to use their photos so I can make samples. They look good with some wonderful minimalist layouts.

Some of my friends are also entrepreneurs and I thought it would be a good idea to send out postcards to their valued clients and/or customers. It's a great way to thank them for spending money on you or your products and services! It would make them feel special and appreciated, I promise!

November is here

I really do miss taking photos. Not wedding photos, but everything else. The mundane, the rain drops, the leaves on the ground, places and others. November is here and the year is coming to a close in less than sixty days! I don't know what to think. But surely I feel sad and okay at the same time. Happy? I don't think I'm there yet.

It is midnight as I write this and just finished a bit more tweaking in the layout of this blog. I have recently kept coming back to go back to writing blogs as I did a long time ago. It's been one of my longest channels of expressing myself, even if nobody else is reading.

My brain is quite tired at this time because I just finished making some test projects involving the sewing machine. Those are actually some items I plan to sell in my shop which I first had to try if I can make them myself even when orders pile up.

One more thing that's been hovering over me these past few days is how I'm easily discouraged when it comes to pricing my merchandise. It's something that's really causing me negative vibes how I feel like I need to keep defending my prices. I received a comment saying that people don't really care how you made it or if you made it yourself, or if it's original or downloaded online. That really struck a nerve. I personally think that they don't respect what I do. But then again, I remember there are others like cake artists in Dumaguete who also charge higher prices than others and people complain about how expensive they are, I hear it quite a few times. I think that's just about the same thing with mine. But see, I don't comment like that on their prices because I try and understand why they price their work that way. I may not be able to afford it but there's no need to add negative comments. If I was the person involved, I would feel offended because someone thinks I'm robbing people of their money by charging too much. Because to me, it's about how much value I put in my work, because I know that my work is worth it and is not made from a machine or a factory. I put my time and effort in the process, and there is a part of me in all of my work. There's no need to compare.

Enough about that. I promise to keep going. Even if nobody buys from me I will keep making. Dumaguete charter day is happening this month. After that, wedding season starts and I may not be able to work on crafts. I've been eating mostly takeout these days because not really up to cooking and doing groceries for now.

And lastly, there is a person I miss every day. This time last year had been great for us and not a day passed by that I didn't think about him. I say this here because I know he won't be able to read this.

Audree's Day Out

We spent an early afternoon at a Victoria's Haven Bed and Breakfast. It's a nice place to eat a good meal and enjoy quiet time with family, friends or even with yourself. It's located in Tubtubon, Sibulan, along national highway. You won't miss it while driving north, look for the large signage on the left side of the road.

They have a good space for parking vehicles found at the back of the vicinity. Entrance fee is Php100, consumable.

Watercolor Calligraphy Workshop - Dumaguete | Oct 2018

Last Sunday, I held my first calligraphy workshop open to the public. I did workshops previously for a younger but bigger group but it was sponsored by a local cooperative so that's not counted. I also held a private group at a cafe last July of last year, which was of a friend. For this session, we held it at Bo's Coffee meeting room.

This was attended by four participants. Each class can accommodate ten people at maximum. Kits were provided and I took the chance to have a little pop-up display of my on-hand items and sold them for really lower prices, much like a flash sale.

This workshop uses watercolors and a brush.

Painting miniature artworks using watercolors

I was looking for an alternative to artist's tape and found out I could use washi tape instead. I tried it out on a scrap of paper and was happy to see it worked! So I decided to do a proper painting.

I prepared a 7x5 inch ready-cut watercolor paper and made a grid of twelve blocks, 4 columns and 3 rows. I painted these landscapes and galaxy scapes, some sea scapes and one or two sunsets. It was really fun to do, as they're smaller than the usual size I work with.

After paintng, I was so excited while peeling off the tape. And well, it did not disappoint! The mini's look really great up close. Better than expected. Now I'm wondering if I can do one with flowers.

This reminds me so much of Loraine Loots' Painting for Ants which I absolutely adore. I'm so awed by her talent and her work. She paints very small round paintings of everything in great detail!

So here is my own versiono of painting tiny art. Supplies I used are listed below:

• Strathmore 500 Series Hot Press 5x7 300g/m2
• Winsor Newton Cotmanh
• Brush #3 Sekaido Round
• Brush 5/0 Camlon Pro Plata Artetje

Upcycle Idea - Used Paper Bags

Re-use take out paperbags by using the reverse side and turn them into tiny favor bags! All you need is a nice washi tape, cute sticker or gift tag, ribbons or twine and some DIY time!

You will need:

* used paper bags

* a pair of scissors

* stickers, washi tapes, gift tags

* double-sided tape or glue

* some goodies to put in the bag

Painting a floral skull using watercolors and gouache

This is a commissioned artwork to be made as a cover for a scrapbook for a group of med students. This took more time and effort than most of my previous work since I had to draw before I paint. I usually avoid drawing first if I can get away with it because the pencil strokes couldn't be erased when it's been painted over. This one's a bit more complicated to paint directly.

It's been fun to make this and a good thing that I filmed while painting because I had to redo the whole thing and resorted to graphic design tools and resources. Client had further changes after artwork was already done.

I'm posting the video at the bottom of this post if you want a preview of how I did the painting process.

Thanks for dropping by!

Supplies used:

Canson XL Watercolor paper

Winsor and Newton Cotman paint

Marie's Gouache

Silver Black Velvet #6

Painting watermelons on a bookmark using watercolors

Painting watermelon slices are so easy, even children can do it! Here I did a pattern for a bookmark. Just some eye candy to add to that nice book I'm reading.

Seen in Ilocos { Kapurpurawan Rock Formations }

Seen in Ilocos { Saud Beach }

On our way back from Pagudpod, we passed by Saud Beach known for its white sand stretching for about two kilometers. We only stayed for a few minutes but we love how it was not crowded and the beach looked very pristine.