Books

I came across this article about arranging bookshelves. This got me thinking on how I arrange my own books so I trooped over to the reading area and this is what I saw:

Old magazines I find interesting together with Terry, Harry, Sir David, A.S. and a snapshot from a friend's wedding...

my precious Make and Craft zines, my precious Bob Ross, Bill, Haunted (best gross-out book EVER), old organizer notebooks, button making machine, excavation toy...

Relic from a Spanish class I took, boy books, girl books, etc...


Lovely rocking zebra, colorful cocoa tin I got in a Bangkok grocery, Jules Verne and other mindprickling books...

children's books, a Wedgwood, polaroid from a friend's wedding...


my favorite Gocco print, art and science, a college class picture...

hardbound and heavier books, a wooden box from Thailand...

my Neil Gaiman shrine smooshed with project notebooks and journals -- sorry, Neil; and the box of a murano glass pen I dropped (sob)...

graphic novels, wedding candles and soon to be posted posters...

craft receptacles...

Egypt books and other what have yous...

my good friend, Sherlock and other interesting friends.

Hmm. I'm trying to be more organized, but I love how haphazard my bookshelf arrangement is; with the first couple of shelves arranged by genre and slowly getting unhinged as you go down. How about you, how do you arrange your books?

*Poladroid is love

Hibernation Over

After months of running around like a headless chicken at work and a weary week in an internet-less home, here I am, back and (hopefully) raring to put more stuff in this poor neglected blog.

It may have been quite sometime, but nothing much has changed save for some new-new stuff and new stuff from old faves:

Luxirare - she. is. amazing. I could live in her brain and swim in her creativity and eat her gorgeous food.


Eliza Frye - Still awesome as ever. Sale over at her website!



Martha Stewart - I got into her a bit late but now I understand why she's THE ultimate domestic diva.


Gastronomica Magazine - is addictive. Now if only I can find a steady supplier here in my neck of woods.


Craftzine and Makezine - My own personal wondertwins. I wish I could buy each and every issue.



Neil Gaiman's Library - W O W. Read the full feature in Shelfari.

Make-Your-Own Ceramic Letters

Found this great tutorial from Lestaret for making your own ceramic letters. For those whose hands are itching to make something this coming weekend.

Cupcake Disaster?

I don't know what came over me when I told my sister-in-law that I'll make the cupcakes for my niece's baptism party. I guess I forgot that I didn't have an electric mixer and that my electric oven can only accommodate a maximum of 12 cupcakes at a time, and that my cupcake pan's capacity is just 6. I woke up the next day barely able to lift my arm from mixing batter for 60 cupcakes.



With everything considered, it wasn't a total disaster. The cupcakes turned out nicely, a bit dense for my liking, but they were tasty little suckers. The only thing that didn't fare well was the frosting. I used the store-bought kind as I knew I'd be strapped for time, and it melted into a gooey, sticky mess come party time.



Here's my ever-reliable vanilla cupcake recipe from Chockylit (don't you miss her? I super do) who got it from Magnolia Bakery cookbook:

Vanilla Cupcakes from The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook
12 regular cupcakes / 350 degree oven

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Beat butter on high until soft, about 30 seconds.
2. Add sugar. Beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
3. Add eggs one at a time, beat for 30 seconds between each.
4. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and baking soda in a bowl.
5. Measure out milk and vanilla together.
6. Add about a fourth of the flour to the butter/sugar mixture and beat to combine.
7. Add about one third the milk/vanilla mixture and beat until combined.
8. Repeat above, alternating flour and milk and ending with the flour mixture.
9. Scoop into cupcake papers about half to three-quarters full (depending on whether you want flat or domed cupcakes).
10. Bake for 20-22 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean.

Eliza Frye, Will You Marry Me?

I am achingly enamored by Eliza Frye and her work, I want to marry her even if I'm female, straight and happily married. I can't stand looking at her work for too long because I ache with the beauty she produces -- I'm not even kidding. She sells hand-printed mini books, her paintings and other beautiful stuff. I want, I want.

Sugar Art

While I was making caramel for Creme Caramel early today, I was fascinated with how plain white sugar turned into a golden, gooey, fragrant mess at the bottom of my pan. I've always been intimidated with sugar. As a child, I got burned by hot caramel and that experience effectively kept me away from cooking sugar for a good decade or two. I found some other interesting things people do with the good ole sweet white grains:

Amazing blown sugar:


Here's a how-to for pulled sugar decor (just ignore the super old-skool soundtrack and graphics)


It seems so easy, but I'm sure it takes a lot of skill to do that.

Gold Filling

Maybe I should do this to my new (old) cracked Wedgwood plate:

Cracked plates filled with 24K gold and finished with handmade enamel flowers. More gold-filled plates and stuff over at Crackery Crockery from Ornamented Life

Invitation Madness

I've been so busy lately, I think I may have accidentally stumbled into the business of invitation printing. I bought my Gocco purely as a hobby, but I've been printing non-stop since December, mostly invitations for friends.

First one was for the birthday party of the mom of a good friend with a retro-funky theme:



I printed the text in my trusty old computer printer because I was afraid of using Gocco for text but the rest of the designs are Gocco-printed. I cut out the felt circles and affixed them with a grommet to lock the invitation flaps.


Next was my bestfriend's wedding invitation. They're fun enough to pick the photo stencil design (I was secretly hoping they'd pick that, so yaay!) and the rest, they gave me carte blanche.



I chose a scripty font for the text and gold ink -- I fearfully printed it using the Gocco this time, to great success -- on white parchment paper. This one turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself (heee).



I have another wedding invitation project in the works, I'll post it here when I'm done.

It's super fun to Gocco!

Wedgwood Love

My husband and I are currently updating our apartment and in one of my furniture-hunting expeditions, I came across this lovely, heart-shaped gem of a small plate:



It was love at first sight. This little piece was in a display cabinet by the cashier and was behind other trinkets. The color called out to me, as I'm presently in a blue-white phase. I was afraid to ask how much it was -- it looked too precious to be cheap, and in a thrift store, you know that something that's encased in glass is bound to be valuable. I was enamored enough to ask and the shopkeep immediately brought it out and quoted a price. It was priced at Php 500 (a little over $10), which I thought was expensive for a thrift shop find and I was ready to put it down and do a little sour-graping. Just when I was about to ask the owner to put it back in the cabinet, she immediately added that it's now at Php 200 (about $4) due to the largish chip at the back of the plate.



I didn't care about the chip, I whipped out my wallet and gave her the money. I love everything about the plate, inspite of the damage. Upon closer inspection, I saw that the back is embossed with the word Wedgwood. When I was younger, I was enamored by a set of Wedgwood plates that I still think of to this day but I failed convince my mom to buy the exquisite set because a) it was horrifically expensive and b) my mom had plenty of dinner sets.



I researched some more of the one I just bought and I learned that I have a Jasperware, one of Josiah Wedgwood's enduring and popular inventions. Jasperware is a type of stoneware with a matte finish with white handcrafted embellishments and features ancient Greek or Roman scenes.



Here's a video of Wedgwood craftsmen making exquisite Jasperware by hand

Leica

Strangely enough, I'm not that interested in photography. I like taking pictures neat and fast without fiddling too much with dials, meters and all the little bits you need to think of when taking a decent picture; which is everything that my point and shoot does and really well, too. A couple of months ago, my best friend, who's a photography enthusiast, posted a video clip of Wim Wenders extolling the virtues of a Leica camera. I admire Wim Wenders' visual style and seeing him use an extremely retro-looking digital camera sufficiently piqued my curiosity. That and I was really getting sick of all the ubiquitous high-tech big-ass cameras.

I read through plenty of reviews about Leica and discovered that there is a sizable cult following for the teeny camera with the red dot. Professional photographers are always awed by the Leica and would almost genuflect at its presencse and gaze reverently whenever they see it. Japanese fans would rather poke their eyes out with a fork than take their prized vintage Leica out of its shrink-wrap plastic casing (I exaggerate, but you get the picture - pun intended).

With all this hype, how could I resist digging deeper into the Leica culture? I delved deeper into this and was astounded when I learned that a Leica is almost fully handmade and yet, it's not one of those unwieldy patch-up jobs. It is a true work of mechanical art that surpasses aesthetics; it ventures down into the hard-wearing and durability zones dominated by machine made products. Surprisingly, Leica is legendary for its durability and reliability, qualities that other cameras can only wish to have. And again, the Leica is almost entirely handmade. No wonder it has that enigmatic charm and enormous mystique (as well as a hefty price tag) associated with it.

This discovery stopped me from wondering why people are so obsessive over the Leica -- it's because it's hardwired in our senses to be drawn to something that was made by hand.

Eating Asia's Num Banh-Chok

I've always believed that food made by your own hands tastes a lot better than anything otherwise. My mom is a firm believer of handmade and hand-prepared food and she'd mention that manually prepared food is superior in terms of taste, texture and quality. Of course, she'd been handling food all her life that she can actually tell the difference. For me, it's mostly romantic. Food is much more soulful when human skin touches it and I seriously think that a metaphysical part of the person preparing the food is incorporated in the finished product.

I came across this entry from Robyn of Eating Asia and I found the whole process of making something as mundane as rice noodles utterly poetic and romantic. A bit of warning - you may find the images disturbing if you're extraordinarily squeamish and/or a stickler for food hygiene.

Enjoy.

photo from eatingasia.typepad.com

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.

I Am Floored

Photo from decor8 blog.

This is just too wild. Wow.

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.

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.

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.