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.