Taking a breather

These past few months, I've been feeling overwhelmed by things I want and need to do that I end up just staring into nothingness and thinking what needed to be done first. My life has been incredibly fantastic these days. It's just a pity I can't document everything and just trust memory to not fail me. I'm living my life now, guys. Offline. It's actually awesome.

In the mean time, you can find me on Instagram. It's more or less updated with photos of my cat's latest shenanigans.

We'll see each other again, comrades.

Kat

playing with color

Watercolor has always been one of my favorite mediums. I love how delicate the colors are and how they bleed into each other and into the paper. It's just  beautiful.

I had a chance to take a beginner's class with Valerie Chua, one of my favorite local artists. I remember feeling I'm the odd girl in our table  because everybody was an artist of some sort and I'm just a hobbyist. I told them I'm a nurse. Somebody actually asked me, "sooooo... what are you doing here...?" I mentally rolled my eyes at him.

Anyway, I learned a lot from that class. Valerie was really patient. I just realized that this medium requires patience because you don't exactly see the end result right away. You usually have to wait for the paint to dry. You can't be too OC with it.

I didn't pick up the brush again for a long time after that. I don't even remember why but it's probably because I picked up another craft or something. But recently, I remembered and so I picked up a pad of watercolor paper from National Bookstore and started practicing again.

Basically, this is what you'll be needing:

1. Watercolor pad
          - for practice, you can use the cheaper 200 gsm pads. This is around 150 php. I really love this pad because it's thick enough so as not to wrinkle when you paint and it has 2 kinds of textures: rough and smooth.

2. Watercolor

          - I'm currently using Prang. If you go to National Bookstore, you'll see 2 kinds of watercolors: the ones like Prang and then the tube types. I haven't tried the tubes, though. I like the practicing with the Prang pans. It's just like the ones we used to paint with when we were kids. 

3. Paintbrush

        - I apologize I can't be technical and tell you the name of the brush or the number based on the size. I kind of just felt the brushes and just selected small, medium, and large. These are Berkeleys and they're cheap (around 33 php to 150php, depending on the size).

4. Water and small mixing plate

          - I use this ceramic cup I have because I want to keep the brushes there when I'm not using them. For the mixing plate, you can use Prang's cover or a small plastic plate. As you can see, the Prang that I have only has 8  basic colors. You need the mixing plate so you can create or discover more colors from these 8. It was my favorite part of my practice. Don'f forget to write down the combinations that you discovered!

If you're interested in taking up watercolor, you can check out Alessa Lanot's workshops. I think she has several craft workshops scheduled this summer. Most of the materials found in this post were from  National Bookstore. 

Have fun creating! :)

alone but never lonely

It was my Me Time again yesterday. The boyfriend let me wander off on my own so I hauled my sleepy ass down to Alabang Town Center.

I just saw how different the place is now. It is slowly turning into a mini Bonifacio High Street of the south. They've added restaurants and shops there, making the place less outdated. About time, right? The town center had been there for ages.

It's pretty festive there yesterday, being Easter Sunday.

I started writing this blog post yesterday in a coffee shop, while watching people. I had to tune out the white noise though so I blasted my eardrums with Amanda Palmer music. Anyway, the splurge of the day award goes to this gem right here:

A hardbound collection of T.S. Eliot's poems and plays! Originally priced at 1,215 php, I pointed out that it has cosmetic damage so they gave me a 20% discount on it. New price: 972 php.

(Are you writing this down? Because you should. That's a life lesson right there. Boom. You're welcome.)

I'm really not OC when it comes to books. Mine all have been dogeared because I don't trust bookmarks. But you always have to look for newer copies and if they don't have one, then that treasure is yours for less! I've been looking for an Eliot book for ages so this is just an awesome find.

Also... You all know how much of a notebook hoarder I am, right? Wellllll... Ok just look at this for a second before you tut-tut:

I mean, how can you not get one. They're all so very pretty. No, no, of course I don't need it. I just wanted one. Because it's purrrrrty. I know, it's all id in this body. No superego. At. All. Oh look, mini me's!!!!!

Anywaaaaayyyyy, a few bucks short but happy, I decided to go home. Here's the downside of commuting to ATC. You have to ride a jeep to Festival mall and walk to the vans that will take you home. It didn't end up too bad because I got this...

The whole process took less than 20 minutes. The stamp itself was done in 5 minutes! I was so happy (and a little broke) that I didn't buy that Daenarys Targaryen vinyl toy I saw. I got this bespectacled cat instead for 320 php. Woot!

Maybe you're thinking, "that poor girl has no friends she had to go on her own...." Don't feel sorry for me guys! :) There's this line in one of Amanda Palmer's new songs which says, "I like being alone with people. Yes, that's how I like it." That's when I realized that there are other people like me. I like being alone with people around me. We're a weird bunch I know, but who isn't.

Till the next adventure comrades!!

weekend date

Does anybody here still celebrate monthsaries? No? Ok, I see a few hesitant hands. Don't be shy! Because we certainly are not. Heh.

This sunday we went to the Powerplant Mall for our monthsary. How many months, you ask. Well, we jusf had our 6th year anniversary so multiply that by 12 then add 2.  I can't even remember hahaha! We've been celebrating for 6 years so it's hard to keep up. Anywaaaaaayyy...

We were famished so we entered the first restaurant we saw, which happened to be Mamou Too! I love the place. It's just really inviting. Plus the manager was cute and she led us to our table. The menu looks exquisite so we had a hard time deciding what to eat. We settled for more familiar food: I got Salmon Benedict and boyfriend got Pappy's Toast.

Pappy's Toast looks like a variation of the eggs benedict. According to cute manger's story, this is what Mamou serves her husband for breakfast. Awesome waking up to salmon for breakfast, right? And they were sooooo good. I really love salmon. The staff was also really helpful. They provided us with everything with need promptly. We are most definitely going back here.

Having not much money (lol), we just wandered aimlessly, staying mostly at Fully Booked, Muji, National Bookstore, and at Press where we stayed for coffee and chitchat. I bought a few stuff from National Bookstore for rubbercut stamping (look out for a blog post on that). And while I was doing that, lucky lucky boyfriend found this bag...

UNKNOWN PLEASURES!!!!!!!!

I don't know whefe he got this but he said he got the last 2 bags. Lol hoarder. 

Can I just humblebrag for a second? I just realized this yesterday. I am really thankful that we're able to do things like these during the weekends. These are the things that I look forward too every after work week. The days are too short, yes. But I think it's really up to you how you spend your short 2 day vacation from work. And with dates like this, I can face the new week with a smile on my face. Yay!

PS: As I write this post, Clementine is beside me sleeping and occasionally asking for tummy rubs. I am really itchy sweetheart, but I love you so much my allergies can go f*** themselves. I missed you baby kitty...

a very pleasant surprise

I seriously didn't expect this to come out on Valentine's day itself...

Boyfriend and I got featured in Craft MNL's Gallery of Craft-Supportive Significant Others! 

 

Clickity-click here to view the entire post. I showed this to the boyfriend and he laughed. Hahahaha! Geez, I'm a cheeseball. 

 

Thank you, Marielle!! xoxo