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.

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!

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? :)

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.



Happy New Year everyone!

Coraline

I stumbled upon an entry about Coraline the Movie in Heather McDougal's wonderful blog, Cabinet of Wonders. I read Neil Gaiman's blog almost everyday and I can't believe I didn't visit the Coraline site until I read Heather's blog entry. The stop-motion movie is completely handmade and the publicity campaign is just brilliant. The Coraline crew sent boxes to their favorite bloggers and mind you, these are not ordinary boxes, but unique handmade boxes full of treasures. I'd give an arm and a leg for a Coraline box. Not only that, someone wrote to Neil saying that she passed by an abandoned building with walls usually full of graffiti but one morning, the wall was covered with metal keys. Upon closer inspection, she discovered that the metal keys are Coraline keys. The head of the key is a button with "Coraline.com" etched on it. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.

Photo from Neil's blog, from Bibliogrrrl's Flickr page

A Bit Rusty

Crochet was thought to have evolved from finger lacing (or "finger crochet") made during ancient times. Although crochet's history is muddled, one can't argue how popular it has become. Every century introduced new techniques, methods and materials and today, crochet is still one of the most practiced handcrafts.

I mentioned in an earlier post that crochet is one of my favorite things to do, however, my muscle memory leaned towards the adage "use it or lose it." I totally forgot my crochet basics, so I had to consult a lot of sources (Youtube has plenty of tutorials) to refresh my memory on how to start over, and my Reader's Digest needlecraft book taught me the basic and more advanced stitches. I made some coasters as practice and we actually use them. The threads I used are absorbent and more importantly, the colors don't run. The threads are from Anchor and Coats.



They look like little cogs, don't they? Hmn...that'll be a good next project.

Crafting Away

High school for me was a a total blur -- I don't even know how I survived since what I remember the most is looking out the wooden jalousie windows into the rolling hills beside my school building and daydreaming. Until Home Ec time. Every year, Home Ec has a certain theme or craft that we have to study. I hated most sewing topics and I would even fake an illness to go to the clinic just to avoid cross-stitching for 40 minutes. My mom, a talented all-around homemaker, would do all the cross-stitching and dressmaking for me. But what I totally loved about Home Ec were crocheting and knitting. I used to sit at home and crochet useless stuff like doilies and coasters which we didn't use. My knitting project was a 2-color zippered pouch bag with heart designs and I totally loved making it. I knitted sporadically after college, making projects like my brother's hockey leg warmers that I never finished. I've had big and small crochet hooks; metal and wooden knitting needles; skeins of multi-colored yarns and threads but I never really did get around to making a major project.

Early this year, my office allowed me to work at home and this presented a great opportunity for me to take up hobbies again. As always, I gravitated to crocheting and knitting. Unfortunately, years of working in an office do nothing to hone your crafty skills so I had to look for a way to re-learn how to cast-on, do cute stitches and even to properly hold a hook or a pair of needles. A great book found its way to my hands (thanks to Booksale, my favorite 2nd-hand bookstore} and it's the Reader's Digest Complete Guide To Needlework. Surprisingly, I have learned to appreciate sewing thanks to this book, but I still do hate cross-stitching. Needless to say that this book single-handedly sparked my own internal crafts revolution and is fueled by all the wonderful art and craft projects I see on the web.

First Off

I love making things. A friend asked me one day why I make certain things when it's readily available in the shops. That got me thinking real hard -- why indeed? Because I love the feeling of handling raw materials and fashioning something beautiful/edible/useful from a seeming pile of new or old junk. I love the feeling of accomplishing and admiring something by me and by other people) that may or may not be perfect.