Found this sweet passage on a box of perfume I received.
philosophy: consider the opportunity to love the greatest of all blessings. the love you give is the love you get and it i all good no matter where love takes you. let the ability to love another belong to you forever and ever because real love stories never end.
I finally bought me a new sketchbook!
Well, it isn't exactly a sketchbook because I couldn't find any decent sketchbooks, just sketchpads - it's a hardbound journal with good paper and a magnetic close-flap. It was kinda pricey but I love it.
I haven't been drawing in a while and my skills have gone all rusty so I thought it would be good for me to start again. Having a good-quality drawing book will help me sustain that.
I was partially inspired by this site. I hope to fill my book with interesting, postable drawings. I'm more of a pencils person, though I'd like to get the hang of sketching with markers and watercolors. I'll get re-acquainted with my inks after I get a bit more confident with my pencils.
Pepper (foreground) and Davey (background) checking out the new bunny apartment.
I was musing this morning about how digital tech has made the art of photography so much easier and thus more enjoyable.
For one, it's much less time-consuming.
For another, you could immediately see your capture in the LDC-equivalent of the viewfinder, in just a second after you clicked your cam. It is certified true through-the-lens viewing. You don't have to wait until printing while tensely hoping that you got the right balance of light and color. You could view it right then and there, and have a retake immediately if you decide that you don't quite like how it turned out.
Gone are the days of trial-and-error bracketing. Thanks to the new digital viewfinder, you more or less have an idea of where to start after the first shot. No more need for a wide bracket. You no longer need to consume time on several permutations of f-stops and shutters in the hope of getting just the right exposure.
It's just as well if you don't have a light-meter. For that matter, you don't really need a light-meter anymore.
It's ultimately easier on the money. You don't need to buy several rolls of film with various speeds because the ISO-equivalent is easily simulated with the turn of the DSLR's dial. You don't need to purchase different grades of photo paper that create different contrasts, because contrast can be adjusted on the camera's settings too.
You don't need to spend several thousands on converting your extra room into a darkroom, no need for its numerous trappings - panels, electricals, plumbing, fireproofing ... enlargers tables pans chemicals canisters darkboxes curtains equipment ... Because there's no messy darkroom processing. No need for the tricky step of prying the roll with a pair of pliers in a dark box and winding the film around the coil, relying solely on touch, nor the time-consuming process of shaking-and-slamming a chemical-filled metal canister while anxiously hoping you have no kinks, sticks or bubbles in there.
No need for the meticulous methods with the enlarger - no contact prints, no test strips, none of the endless adjusting just to get the print right. No need to wait for the fixing and drying.
The digital "darkroom" is so much more convenient - plug cable to USB port and download. Contrast and color correction is a piece of cake. No need for testing various lengths of exposure against various enlarger f-stops against three different kinds of photo paper. Placing borders and watermarks - even fancy ones - is a cinch with Photoshop. You no longer have to cut cardboard for the borders or make an acetate overlay.
And when you want to create a special effect on your capture, you don't need to waste time and expensive photo paper experimenting, because you can just click on the various filters and styles on Photoshop, and easily undo if it isn't quite what you want.
Printing is just a few clicks of a mouse. Just install your photo-quality paper of choice into a good printer, click here, click there, and voila! For that matter, you don't even need to make prints. You can easily share your photos by uploading them on your site or FB account.
Digital photography is so easy, that anyone can be a "photographer" these days (That's not exactly a good thing though :p ) . But lemme just say not everyone can be an artistic photographer.
I've been wanting to go to Sonya's Garden for a long time, and I finally got to do it last week with the Hubby's family. On our way to Batangas, we stopped by Sonya's for lunch and it was utter bliss. Here are some of my favorite captures from that daytrip.
I love the lush, natural greenery nestling the entire site. It provides a relaxing atmosphere that distracts you from the stressors of day-to-day existece.
I love the scent of herbs, flowers and honey and the sound of birds that waft through the air.
I love that there are fresh flowers all around, some of them oversized. Some of them I don't see in the city anymore.
I love the architecture and interior of the bed and breakfast.
I love the 19th-century Fil-Spanish style combined with early 20th-century Art Nouveau. It gives off a romantic, slightly surreal ambience.
I love the oversized windows that let the sunlight and scented air in, even the diaphanous white curtains they are trimmed with. I love the crisp, white linens, the fresh flower arrangements, the glass chandeliers and the knicknacks and reading materials purposely choreographed to create a place like a home.
I love how things were cleverly repurposed - wineglass bases in the stained glass windows, old wood beams that have survived termite attacks and have been reincarnated as flooring or paneling, antique calesa chasis as benches, colored perfume bottles as windchimes, authentic capis latticework panels as sliding windows.
I love how everything is shabby-chic yet pristine and uncluttered.
I love the bathrooms and washrooms with the beach-mimic baths, charmigly furnished with organic soap and rosewater. Not a single inch of mildew or stains anywhere.
I love the restaurant snuggled in the middle of the greenery.
I love the menu. The dalandan juice with mint leaves. The bread and kesong puti. The salad with fresh-picked greens from the very garden, including rose petals. The make-your-own-sauce pasta. The tarragon tea (I never knew tarragon could be made into tea)
I love the serene feeling it left in me.
I mean, actual fishing - real fish. I don't mean the other kind(s) of fishing (because those aren't exactly new skills).
On day two of our trip to Batangas, the Hubby and I spent a whole block of daytime on a decent-sized boat with his Uncle J and our brother-in-law D. Good thing I brought sunblock. Well, not that i needed it much; it was cloudy and cool the whole day, and we had sufficient shade on board. Uncle J taught us - uh, me (I was the only first-timer there actually) how to put together a line and cast it. The knotting business was kinda tricky since it required a special kind of knot, but I caught on quickly and had my line ready promptly.
And oh, I got my fingers and arm nicked a couple of times by those nasty little hooks.
Things were uneventful at first, but picked up pace when we got to reel in some. It was pretty exciting to see an occupied hook after another. I caught three serving-sized threadfin bream or bisugo. I was surprised to see that live bisugo are a bright orange and patinum, with neon-yellow streaks (no kidding, NEON). I've only seen them cooked or cleaned before, and I never thought they were this pretty when fresh. (I also caught two small, yellow fish, but they don't really count since I put the first one back, and I used the second one as bait since the hook went through its eye already anyway).
Fishing turned out to be a lot more fun and a lot less complicated than I thought it would be. It would have been more fulfilling if we started our day earlier (my bad - got up late and delayed the whole schedule), but it was nonetheless a satisfying experience. I mean, even with the nausea and lightheadedness that lasted until bedtime.
My bunny Pepper got tired of his usual play space so he ventured into that hollow under the dressing table. At the end of the day I noticed that he left two slightly-yellowed sheets of paper on the floor, something I assumed he yanked out from under there. The corners were chewed out. Upon inspection, I realized that those were figure drawings I made as a college student - some stuff I forgot about in the past years. As when a window opens to let in light, I remembered some other stuff that should be under there with the old sketches - old watercolor drawings, technical plates, a plastic drawing board. A whole lot of photographs.
Photographs.
I decided to dig out the photographs and see what they bring back.
I inspected them one by one -the dog-eared, dust-mottled, faded prints. I let my mind venture into its storage area to pull out whatever i could remember about each image. I tried to clean them up and took photos of them with the borrowed DSLR, aiming to make digital copies. I downloaded into the laptop and tried restoring them via Photoshop but most of them are beyond bringing back to their original clarity - unless of course I slaved for hours and days on end with the brush and clone tools, but I didn't want to do that.
I shelved that project after getting bored with all the tweaking.
Then a few days ago, a Facebook contact posted photos of us and some common friends, circa 1998. The people tagged in the photos had fun tagging other people, as well as reminiscing what they can about the time the pictures were taken. Of course we couldn't help observing weight gain, weight loss, the awkward '90s hairstyles ...
Then other friends posted other old photos, and the fun multiplied. I wanted to add to the reminiscing, so I returned to the to-be-restored old images in my hard drive and worked on them (I tried not to be obsessive so I would finish fast; I just did what was necessary to improve on the color and contrast and removed the big stains). Pretty soon I had my own nostalgic photos to pool into the fun. I must have had around a hundred images of friends from several different circles. I just put them all in one album and tagged who i could.
I received comments almost immediately. Reminisce here, reminisce there - it was fun. Pretty soon my friends tagged our common friends who weren't my FB contacts, so I easily got to reconnect with them by clicking their "add as a friend" button.
It was fascinating - and funny - how we remembered trivial things about the captured events. What was amusing is how people remembered details about each other, and even bothered to remember. That was kind of touching. We had a blast chatting away and making fun of each other. It was a catching up of sorts.
Even if I haven't even seen or contacted most of them in a decade or more, it felt like we never really moved apart - with the familiarity we addressed each other, the unabashed fun-poking, the humor not to take offense at the childish comments and the incriminating photos. It reminded me that - though I've quite isolated myself from most of them - I've had some real friends in the past who still care somewhat about the friendship we shared back when ... whenever that was.
But I guess that was the whole point, right? ^_^
This week on Girls Talk, it's about Fave Gift!
My most beloved gifts received ever (so far) are my two bunny-wabbits, Davey and Pepper.
I received them summer last year as a no-reason-at-all-gift from one of my favorite boys, G (assisted by another one of my favorite boys, K). The bunnies must have been 2 to 4 weeks old then.
They're HUUUUGE now at age one year and a half, around 2.5 kilos each.
I can't really say I'm an animal lover, but loving a furry friend is a cheerer-upper, a stress-reducer and a lesson in unselfishness. I'm really glad they came into my life.
This meme is hosted by Girls Rule.
It's been a year or so that I think I forgot such a product ever existed. Go figure. I've been using mascara since I was a college kid so it isn't really a stranger to me. But I really can't remember why i stopped brushing gook on my lashes. It's not even that i didn't have any - in fact I realize that I've had had two half-consumed year-old tubes in my makeup stash.
When my sister-in-law arrived from the 'States the other week, she had with her an assortment of makeup samples - including tubes and tubes of mascara. When i saw the sleek little packages, I imagined how it would feel like to put on some of that gook on my lashes . . .
So anyway, I got dibs on the mascara. When I got to being alone, I though of brushing some onto my lashes - just for fun. Itfeltsoooonice. And I looked so nice. I picked up my forgotten eyelash curler (that may need to be replaced, haha) and dolled my peepers away.
So I tell myself I will be using mascara every time i leave the house from now on. At least until the next time I forget that such a product exists.
This past weekend was a sweet one.
First of all, I attended a wedding.
I generally like weddings because they give me a reason to girl up more excessively than usual, and I get my paws on some free yummy food. This particular wedding was of the Hubby's second younger sister to her significant-other-for-three-years.
Secondly, the Hubby's brother flew in from Singapore, and sister #1 and her hubby flew in from the U.S. just to be at this wedding. I thought that was an extremely sweet and special surprise for the bride and groom. Besides that, it was quite refreshing to see them again.
Of course I also appreciate the pasalubongs I got from the balikbayans. :)
Thirdly, this wedding was held at the beach.
I loooove the beach. And this beach we were at was a clean, pretty one that i happen to like - the light-sand Laiya in San Juan, Batangas. We stayed in one of the nicest resorts.
Just a few months ago when the Hubby and I spent a few days at another establishment in the same stretch of beach. I would walk along the sand and look at the other resorts. I stopped by this particular one and mused about staying in it next time. Well, I got my wish.
Fourthly, this wedding was one of the nicest ones I've ever been to. The bride and the groom obviously spent a lot for this, but it was well worth the cheer and the memories. The ceremony was held right there on the sand, facing the stretch of sea.
The reception followed right there beside the makeshift outdoor chapel. There were these creative flower arrangements garnished with vegetables.
The guests took part in launching these fire-lanterns that shone as beautiful orange orbs in the sky.
The buffet was wonderful, the food voluminous. There was a non-cheesy video presentation. Then they had a live band to come in and entertain the guests.
And of course, the cake - the cake was in the form of a sandcastle, with little sand-bucket cakes for giveaways.
Fifthly, i had a rad time snapping photos with the cam. I took over 200 raw ones. It's not that often that i get to go out of town, and i really love having the opportunity to take shots of things other than the same old same old city things.
Lastly, it was the first time in years that the Hubby and I got to do something different while somewhere different on a Sunday. It was quite a treat, quite a treat.
