Abaca Baking Company

One January day, I found myself checking out one of the branches of Abaca Baking Company, a coffee shop with impressive branding and style. I went to the Banilad branch at Crossroads. As much as I love coffee and places that serve them, I don't get to go to a lot of the new trending ones because I don't like traveling to big cities in the country. I like to stay in the Duma area and neighboring towns.
One thing I look out for when I first go inside a coffee place is the feeling I get when I first step inside. If there's this nice coffee aroma, that's a good sign. This one in particular looked promising from the outside. The black and white signage, minimalist black-framed windows and a peek at what's inside. Some yummy pastries parading on the counter. I go in and yes, the smell of coffee greets me and didn't disappoint.
There are a number of abstract art displayed on the walls, main color theme is black and white with elements of ink illustrations, doodles or drawings. It's seen on the pastry liners and paper cups and paper bags. Also cannot be missed on the metal stools and merchandise packaging.
The door of their toilet is black with a charming white doodle of a sleeping fox which I totally love. Tables and chairs are nicely done and naturally distressed (they don't look shiny and new which is great). The white/tan wooden tables were my favorite. They actually made the entire experience better for me, plus seeing the black window beside it. Instagram worthy? YAZ! And I will commend the staff, they have a lot of staff to attend to your needs, are happy and cheerful and really, just looking all happy to serve!
But all this eye candy does not come cheap. Food comes at an expense, steeper than the usual meal. But safe to say, it's also good. I came with a full stomach so that helped me order less. I only had dessert and coffee. But I'm sure you'll love it here especially if you get to taste more of the items in their menu. They have a number of choices not just for coffee and pastry but for heavier meals and snacks. They have twenty branches all across Cebu so you'll never miss it!

Gray Turns Seven

Gray's birthday party was a little different from the usual ones I covered. The theme was FIFA world cup and what a great idea to have a mini football field inside the party venue. Some actual footballs and balloon footballs were provided to entertain the kids. There was a lot of running back and forth and ball kicking in all directions.

A friend of Gray's parents stood as coach for the mini tournaments. There were four teams, colored singlets were provided for the players to wear during the game. They did some warm up and had total of two elimination games and one championship game. They even had a tropy and pretend medals for the winners! You can tell the kids were exhausted but really enjoyed their time!

Coordination and styling: Purple Parasol Events
Cake and sweets: Isabel Sagarbarria of Sans Rival Cakes and Pastries

FIFA pillowcases for souvenirs

Gray and his older brother Forty

Photobooth moments

Trophy and medals for the champions!

White team, the Champs!

Bricks Hotel Murals

I'm automatically drawn to murals so this is mainly the reason I came to Bricks Hotel located along Rizal Boulevard just opposite the "Tempurahan" area. It occupies the old CAP building. They retained the structure but changed the interior into this New York City loft type of theme, which I also really liked. It looks semi-industrial, something that's becoming a trend in local shops. Lighting was nice and warm. There were about 3 to 4 murals on the ground level where you'll find the restaurant and reception area.

My friend and I tried out some food at the resto. Not the best in my opinion. They have only one type of coffee which was a bummer. I'd wish they had a few more options because they had nice light coming in from the outside, so coffee would be the best thing to order if you're not looking for a heavy meal.

Some snaps from my visit.

Tiny Humans - Summer

I'm not very "chatty" when I take pictures or when I'm working. Of course I talk when I give out posing instructions but normally I am just the serious type. I'd like to be able to make jokes and make my subjects at ease but most of the time, it's a challenge for me to be more open. With kids though, I don't have to try so hard. They're usually very active and goofy and they make genuine reactions and facial expressions especially when there are also other kids around. That's why it's easier to take spontaneous shots of children because you don't have to tell them to do a certain pose and they give out really good faces to capture.

Summer is KC's little brother. He likes to run around topless both inside the house and out in the yard. I personally like those bouncy little curls. When he saw that I was taking pictures, he just bumped up his energy and went running more, made this tough face so many countless times and sometimes he would stop and open his eyes and look at you very curiously. I showed him his pictures on the camera and he started to tap on the screen ("no Summer, no touch screen!").

Here, his mother was putting on him some clothes because as cold as the weather in Valencia is, he doesn't seem to be bothered with it because he plays around outside with no shirt on!

KC - All grown up

This is KC. She's actually a bit camera-shy but she can pull off a good "eye contact" with my camera. I especially loved her long hair and lashes and the moments we captured when she laughed at her mother's jokes while we were taking her pictures. That helped a lot since I don't have an arsenal of jokes to crack to make my subjects smile or laugh. That's always a struggle on my part. We occasionally paused shooting when some of their neighbors passed by or when her father came out to look because she was too shy to have photos taken while people are looking. We shot these just outside their house and a nearby garden, on a gloomy day with very little sunshine to work with.

I am also revisiting portraits and my love for cinematic black and white — bringing back some of that grainy goodness!

P.S. Last year, I also took photos of her. If you want to see those shots, you can click here.

Watercolor Calligraphy Workshop - Dumaguete | Jan 2019

This week I held two calligraphy workshops to help out a family in financial need to pay hospital bills. I was thankful that someone offered to host a bigger venue since I initially set these two sessions to we held as walk-in at coffee shops only.

I wasn't able to take a photo of my Monday class so I have one group shot here. It's not a big group but it's enough for a painting and calligraphy class like this. We held it at Quiet Space Dumaguete just across Coco Grande Hotel. The place will also host other passion projects, just leave me a comment for the contact info or you can visit their place just near SU Campus. It's very acccessible.

Siit for Ourselves

The plan to go to Siit in the municipality of Siaton was one of those that we never really planned but decided to push through since all four of us Jean, Kai and GB were on vacay mood when the year started. We're very thankful for GB's hubby, Ian, who was with us to drive a vehicle to Siit Barangay road, the path going to Antulang. Travel time was about an hour. We parked the car under a young mango tree and started our mini-hike to Turtle Island.

The path we chose was one of two ways you can get to the island. Another way was from a jump of point and you have to cross a short distance of water (about 3 minutes) to get to the other side. Ours didn't require any boat ride. Instead, we walked around to reach the destination.

We surely would have complete our hike in about thirty minutes but since we found a lot of spots to take photos, well, it took us about an hour more or less. The sun was hot but it was fun.

This was the view that greeted us when we started the hike.

A tamarind tree was well-shaped and had a very inviting shade.

A white cow made a nice subject with it.

Most of the path was just flat ground, no elevation. Thank goodness!

We'd occasionally find some flowery trees like this.

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.