Im taking a little break from reviewing to immerse myself in art therapy. These past few days have been high strung what with being public relations people (AKA tour guides), reviewing for a board exam and to top it all off --down with the flu. Hubby and i have been keeping long nights and stressful days which is why i find that some #arttherapy is needed. Ive decided to bust out my new holbein watercolor set. Yes guys i have graduated to a full-on "artist" set of watercolors becauase i was forever getting annoyed with how prang would dry up sticky--making my papers clump up--or that ants seemed to love them making my storage its own ant hill. Holbein is so much more pigmented (which is probably why its so much more expensive) because with just a tiny dollop i am able to paint a lot. Colors are also more vibrant and dont get watered down so easily. What i am not happy though is that i was only able to buy them in the tube form and not in the pan--which translates to me having to get a mixing palette. But aside from this i am extemely happy with the purchase. For my test piece i decided to make a watercolor wreath. I dont know why but laurels and wreaths are all the rage now in the "mod" art scene. I see it all over Pinterest and my IG feed. So why not go with the flow and create one of my own? It was a relatively easy process, i just google-image what a wreath looked like and draw inspiration from the photos. The process was more for my brain to relax with the easy strokes and no-brainer painting. The finish product came together beautifully and i topped it off with my "claim word" for the day:HOPE. So there. Enjoy!
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Sorry for the title (Pitutoy=little penis) but that is exactly what my friend and I thought when we first got a hold of these pens. Ever since I can remember I have been a sucker for wonderfully functional pens. During college I stuck to the LEONE brand because aside from being a cheaper version to the Pilot, the ink flowed so easily making note-taking a breeze! Now that I am older and have rekindled the love for modern calligraphy my love for pens have matured to include more unique kinds. And another inclusion to my love list, thanks to my hoarding-enabler Imma Frias, is the Pilot Petite Fude Brush Pens. Do not underestimate it's tiny size, this compact brush pen is not only unbelievably functional it comes in an array of colors and is refillable! Meaning, I can tote 8 different colors for my "artistic" needs and it won't take so much space in my already crowded purse! I ordered my pens from Pens Galore (IG: @pensgaloreph) who carries so many other calligraphy utensils you wouldn't think you'd need but you MUST HAVE. Prior to meeting the petite pens I was over-the-moon with Zig Cocoiro Pens. Don't get me wrong I still am, it's just that you have to break them in first in order to get them to write the way you want. But with the Pilot Pens just load up the ink cartridge and you're good to go! Incidentally the Pilot pens don't just come in the Fude (Brush) variety but in the Fountain Pen and Felt Pen ones as well. Utilizing the same cartridge innovation the other Petite Pens are compact and refillable as well. Just for fun I even videoed myself loading the inks into the pen body. Boy, it was a snap you just have to wait for a few seconds and you're good to go! Writing with these pens are beautiful because the brush end is uber-flexible! You get your swirls, thicks and thins with minimal effort. Which means you can go on writing for hours!! The first petite pen I got was a gift from Imma and I almost finished the cartridge ink in one evening because I just kept writing all over my clairfontane pad! I couldn't not put it down! Here are some videos of the pen loading.
I am over the moon with these writing pens and have been using them every day since they were delivered at my doorstep. Maybe #Pilot would give me freebies for this totally unsolicited positive review of their beautiful creations.
But this is it for now, I'm going to continue fiddling with my Pitutoy pens! Our family has always bonded over food. And the one thing that I will forever associate with my grandfather is his Bacalao dish. The clamor for this is so monumental that my uncles & aunts (and us grandkids) fight over who can get the most servings. Bacalao for us is served every Holy Week, especially on Good Friday and Black Saturday. It has become tradition that we beg my grandpapa,Papajoelouis, to make it every year and our vacation to Legazpi will not be complete without it. Now that he is getting older the dish is harder to make because (1) with worsening eyesight it is harder to debone the fish and (2) he forgets the recipe. Believe me Ive tried coercing it from him but it might be so secret that what he tells me doesn't seem to taste as good as his final product. Luckily I was able to find a recipe that is somewhat similar and with a little tweaks my uncles and aunt say it tastes just as good!! What will u need? 1. Salted (daing) labahita -500 g 2. Olive oil for frying and seasoning -1/3 c 3. Garlic (chopped) -1/3c 4. Potatoes (chopped and sliced circularly) -4 big pcs 5. Garbanzos - 2 cans 6. Tomato sauce (200g) and paste (3tbsp) 7. Bell pepper (sliced into strips)-4pcs 8. Olives (optional) First soak the fish overnight to remove most of the salt. Then dredge in a little flour and fry with olive oil. Afterwards drain and wait for it to cool. Once cooled you can debone the fish. In a pan saute the garlic, add the garbanzos followed by the tomato sauce and paste. Afterwards add the chopped potatoes, bell peppers and olives. Cover and simmer for about 15 minutes. While this is happening you can fry the circularly sliced potatoes. We will use this as toppings once we plate the Bacalao. After the 15 minutes is up you can add the deboned fish. Stir every once in a while for about 5 minutes. Once the time is up you can plate the dish!! Place all of the Bacalao in a pyrex dish and arrange the fried potatoes on top. Tadah serve while hot on a bowl of heaping rice! What i love about this is that it gets better every time you reheat the Bacalao. Yummmm!!! For my birthday weekend I decided to attend a workshop by Abbey Sy. Luckily the stars have aligned allowing me to be 1 of only 12 slots Fully Booked opened for their Alabang session. Abbey's classes get full fast!I was even wait listed and perhaps God was being extra generous he freed up a spot for me. Class started a little past two and I was a bit intimidated by my classmates. They all looked so artsy that I wondered if I'd be the most kulelat (suckiest) of them all. The reg fee covered snacks and worshop materials. Aside from learning from the teacher another thing that draws me to these kinds of workshops are all the freebies they give to attendees. This was no exception. Check out what I got! So much stuff!! The 2 things that totally made my hoarding self shout for joy were the micron pens and the dot pad. The pens alone are so hard to find and always go out of stock. The dot pad is by Clairfontane and isn't exactly cheap! So to get these and more just really made my day! Class started by going through Abbey's workshop booklet that outlines different terminologies, details of font kinds and even tips on hot to make your works of art POP! Our first try was a drill about writing one word in different font styles: serif, sans serif, script and decorative. Time allowed me to do 2 words: forever & adventure. Relatively easy I finished after a few minutes. Meanwhile Abbey lends us her literature wealth by passing around different books we could get inspiration from for our final product. My first try at it wasn't stellar but I began to get a hang of what it means to letter. The process,as Abbey, mentioned isnt just visually artistic it is also scientific. You have to hierarchically categorize the words in a phrase by giving importance to those you want to initially highlight. For the class' final activity I picked the quote: you are my dream come true. I didnt know how i wanted to lay this out but drew inspiration from the books Abbey had. In the end, the final product looked like this. Not bad for a virgin attempt right?? Armed with this new knowledge (and awesome tools) i am looking forward to practicing this newfound skill. My fascination in the flesh! My previous blog post was all about how I wanted to DIY a Midori for myself: a Fauxdori! This spawned countless pinterest searches and dreaming of ways how I could finally make my own leather-bound journal just coz I was being cheap and didn't want to shell out Php3,000 for the original. (At the same time, I wanted to learn something new.) Thus meet my DIY Fauxdori!!! My DIY started from the inside-out. I made the notebook fillers first and really enjoyed customizing my inserts for my needs. (I have also done research on bullet journaling which might be a topic for future blogging!) My previous blog ended on how I needed to find genuine leather for the cover as well as an elastic band. Luckily my husband's wanderlust led him to a hole-in-the-wall shoe repair shop that had big sheets of leather. They didn't want to sell us such a small piece at first but in the end they capitulated to my husband's charm. I went there today with a sample filler and had the entire thing measured. After 30 minutes I had my raw cover. Sidenote: they also have other leather colors and you can even request for a lining. But i like the raw finish on this one so decided to leave it bare. I was also able to find an eyelet punch and setter in National Bookstore for PHp340.00. Lucky me because it was the last piece there---and falling apart at that! Good thing I snapped it up before someone else could. For the elastic cord it comes at about Php25/yard here in sewing supply shops and it only came in black. I'm fine with that. I'll look for other colors another time. So with a complete set of necessary tools I went about punching my leather and setting up my fauxdori! Look at the photos below to see the process. |
Who is sab_adventures?I have always wanted to write. This will now be a creative outlet-- home to all my arts and crafts. So feel free to browse around my everyday adventures. Interests
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November 2016
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