Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Bowls, bowls

One of the crafts I wanted to dabble in before was pottery. I have all sorts of pottery books I bought years before but I've yet to try it. Watching this video makes me want to seriously take up pottery.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

I Am Floored

Photo from decor8 blog.

This is just too wild. Wow.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Juicy Strawberries

I found some really nice strawberries at the grocery store last Friday. I bought two packs, at Php 48 a pack (a little over a dollar) and ate some of the fresh, sweet berries with a bit of deep, dark muscovado sugar.
fresh strawberries
The rest, I cut up and macerated in a splash of balsamic vinegar and a teaspoon or so of white sugar, as seen in a Nigella episode. I'm planning to make a gooey, fudgy chocolate cake and top it with the macerated strawberries. Perrfect.
macerated berries f bowl of macerated berries f

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Gourdo, my Gocco

I first saw Gocco in a Flickr set of Benita Larsson, a Scandinavian designer I discovered at Apartmenttherapy. She posted a photo of her printed cards drying on the card rack and some hanging on a clothesline. I fell instantly in love with the little printing machine that could and I looked around for places I can buy the Gocco. Luckily enough, I found a distributor here in Manila (yes, here!) and I couldn't have asked for a more considerate, efficient and not to mention, well-stocked seller. When December came, my husband provided the cash to buy my Gocco, which only took an email and several text messages to process the order. Two days later, a big box arrived at my doorstep filled with Gocco goodness! Christmas for me definitely arrived early.

My Gourdo

It was after a week or so before I got to try my new gadget as I was afraid of screwing up and wasting precious supplies. I diligently studied the instruction manual, as well as other online sources and thankfully enough, my first Gocco attempt was successful!

I'm really greatful to all the online Gocco gurus for posting their generous tips, videos and instructions. For newbies in the world of Gocco, here is a list of helpful links that you can read through before using your Gocco:

1. From Etsy labs

2. My rockin' supplier

3. Great tutorial, cute felted stuff

4. Gocco homebase

5. Novelty old school video tutorial

I'm compiling my own tips and instructions -- watch out for it!

Gocco Rocks!
Gocco Rocks!

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Surfing Away

The New Year extended break had me scrounging around for things to do -- which was mostly cleaning our cluttered apartment. Aside from that, I got to trawl the interwebs for all things handmade, gawking and oohing and aahing over lovely, handmade things. Below are my top websites/resources for everything handmade:

1. Smittenkitchen - a site of all things yummy, handmade and homemade. I followed the poached egg tutorial and made a relatively passable one -- this one coming from a total egghead (hee) when it comes to poaching eggs. Excellent tutorials, photos and hilarious notes.

2. Burdastyle - My resource on everything about sewing and handmade fashion. I'm not a big sew-er, but I find the sewing tidbits really helpful and the patterns make good prints. Besides, the word "burda" is coincidentally the Filipino word for "embroidery." Sign up to access the site's full features, it's quick and free.

3. Craftzine- I love Craft magazine and most of the projects in the mag are further elaborated on the website. I'll write more about Craft in another entry. Yep, it's that good, it deserves its own entry.

4. Makezine - Make magazine is a sister mag of Craft so of course, this is a shoe-in. Make also features handmade stuff, albeit more on the industrial side. Think robots, automatons, bottle rockets, soldering irons, etc.

5. Instructables - The granddaddy of everything handmade on the internet. Here is where I watch plenty of videos, access instructions (duh) and scout for possible projects.

6. Ohjoy and Sweetpaul- for inspiration on everything beautiful and exquisite.

7. Oldschoolhandmade - need I say more? :)

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Gougeres

New Year's eve was a big flurry of activities for the Media Noche (New Year's Eve dinner). Since my husband and I decided to just stay home and watch the fireworks from our 10th floor window, we had a special 3-course Media Noche feast of Squash Soup, Surf 'n Turf with Gougeres & Asparagus sauteed in garlic butter, and a simple Fruit Salad.

I've been toying around with the idea of making Gougeres, but it always seemed to intimidate me because of its seeming complexity and the scarcity, not to mention the cost, of Gruyere here in Manila. With the spare time I had and a hunger to make something I haven't done before (pun intended), I pushed through with the Gougeres plan and bought the (luckily) available, expensive Gruyere from the nearby supermarket at almost 200 Philippine pesos/100 grams, ouchies! I did use Alain Ducasse's Gougeres recipe over at Food & Wine. It was surprisingly easy, quick and most of all, deeelicious! I cut the recipe in half and it still yielded 12 golden cheesy puffs the size of pingpong balls, more than enough Gougeres for 2 people.

I'm in love with Gruyere and it made a perfect cheese puff, but I'd like to try a tangier or spicier cheese like Pepper Jack next time.

Gougeres

Happy New Year everyone!