Too much in my mind. To many things. Things to learn. Things to make. Things to scrub. Things to cut. Things to take. Things to borrow. Things to teach. Things that i love. Things that makes me ache. Like an electronic signage it keeps on flashing round and round in my mind.
How to stop this. I just want to sleep. Its 2am… I just want to sleep.
Our lives was never meant to be lived with hearts whole. The human heart is meant to be broken into pieces, given away to people, things and memories that we love. A piece of it is meant to whistle along a chirping bird to the tune of our grandfather’s old songs and some with the wind that rushes to our face while we ride a bike. A piece of it is meant to travel the world with our friends. A whole part was meant to be buried along in our mother’s grave. And some, given away to lovers without asking for anything in return not worrying that you won’t have anything left for yourself, for the pieces are infinite. This is me telling myself not to be afraid to Love, but I am still is not brave enough.
When Cupcakes and Kindness goes hand and hand.
Hello again! Last week have been a great week for me. Finally decided to buy my very first standard mixer to help me with my baking escapades, yey! I named her Hana D’Mixer, she is a real beauty.
Hi I’m Hana, nice to meet you all!
To practice my baking skills, I’ve decided to start the baking challenge that I’ve been wanting to do for years.
You see, a few years ago I have stumbled upon this little site that list 33 different cupcake recipes. It has great instructions and very nice pictures (that I don’t think I can live up to). This site is a real Inspiration to me, it inspires me to be a better home baker and photographer, in fact when I am sad I just go to this site and look at the pictures of cupcakes, seriously, you can taste the cupcakes though her photos.
The first cupcake in the list is the Espresso Fudge Cupcake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing. You can find the recipe here. It is a coffee-chocolate flavor cupcake with lots of chocolate chips. I can’t find espresso powder in the supermarket so i have to wing it using instant coffee powder. The recipe also calls for cocoa powder, I know I have a lot of left over from my previous bake so I did not shop for it anymore. Unsurprisingly when I am about to start baking I CANT FIND THEM. After turning our house upside down all I found were some Tablea Cacao and some cheap cocoa powder we use to make hot chocolate. I have no choice but to chop and grate the cacao chips and use it together with the cocoa powder that I found. At the end, it actually taste quite good, not what I expected, and people actually liked it! And you know what? After baking and all, I have actually found my powdered cocoa stash! Makes you wonder, were are the things when you needed them the most…
Espresso Instant Coffee Fudge with Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing
While taking pictures of my yummy creation, I got two little customers in my print shop, (I have a small print business) they are asking me to print some song lyrics. They gave me Php 2.00 for a photocopy of the lyrics that they already got, I saw the original torn and wet paper, they asked me if I can mend the lyric sheet that they have. The scrawny kids that they are I doubt that they could pay me the regular fee that I charge for editing, but I continue anyways. I felt their happiness when I gave them the new lyric sheet. After almost an hour, the lyrics boys returned, asking for another lyric print again bearing only Php 2.00, and again half an our later. I got curious and asked them if those prints are for their home work… they said no, It turns out that they sing for their past time, one jokingly teased that the other is going to audition for The Voice Philippines, I am so amused because instead of playing video games, this kids sing, children like them are hard to find these days. I remembered me and my sister also used to do this before, printing and collecting all those lyric sheets, singing together, oh the money we’ve spend on computer rentals and printing. I’ve asked them where their money came from, they said it was from going house to house collecting trash and delivering it to the designated collection spot. My respect for those kids rose up to a whole different level. I gave them both Cupcakes 🙂
So I have been neglecting this blog lately, and I am very very sorry for that. I have traveled a lot this summer and is finishing a lot of stuff that needs finishing ^-^. But now I am back and I give you —- the (long overdue) update on my little garden I’ve started last January.
As you remember the small garden is located at a small shaded part of our house, at first the plants seemed to be growing fine, but as time passed I noticed that the lettuces are not growing, I figured out that i am forgetting one crucial element in planting… The SUN. It is too late when i figured things out… the plants are dead! So I’ve decided to replant and change the location of the mini garden to a sunnier area of the house.
New location, at our back yard at the top of my father’s chicken coop.
At the new area the plants are doing much better the leaves are getting bigger and wider. I think that this is the time to add on the garden, in addition to the lettuce, I have planted some garlic, basil, tomatoes, ginger and scallions.
As weeks pass the pants seemed to be growing pretty well again, so I have decided to give them a little boost. I bought some fertilizers at the store, and you know me… sprinkled them generously at the soil… (what is with me and sprinkling stuff). After a few days the lettuces died.. and the bigger plant’s leaves turned brown… WHAT HAVE I DONE!!!!! My father said that I am not supposed to put that much fertilizers on small plants, a very small amount will do.
After two failed attempts you might probably tell me that I should stop. But no! I am not going to give up on my dream! So I tilted the soil again, this time planted lettuce seeds as the package instruct and watered them. After a few weeks give them a very little nudge of fertilizers and viola! my lettuces are ready for harvest!
Lettuce and basil plants in a basket ready for harvest.
Other plants seemed to be growing pretty well too.
Tomato plant growing steady.
Scallions are looking good.
Gingerifiic!
Garlic Fantastic!
Basil in a cup.
I am planning to add more herbs like Rosemary, mint, oregano and oh I wish I have more thyme! 😉
That is all for now, I will update you guys sooner or later ^-^. I will be posting more blog soon, I am already making a blog calendar. Yey! (oh Lord! hope I can stick to that)
DFTBA!
Dicasalarin Cove, Baler, Aurora Province.
Wandering feeds my wondering soul.
I am a hooker in progress and I am proud of it.
Who said that Crochet and Knitting are for old people? I don’t think so, I’ve been a knitter for about four years now and I am love it! Now I am “relearning” crochet (I stopped back in highschool, I got frustrated because I cant get the tension right). I still need to master some techniques but crochet and knitting are two hobbies that are worth learning.
When I was a child my mother used to bring me and my sister to a Bukid near our home. Every morning she brought us there to grace our backs with the morning sunshine and breathe some fresh air (best Hika remedy if you ask me). The smell of the Rice field and the long plots of Parsley still lingers in my nose when we got home. In the summer we play along the Pilapil, testing our balance, hoping not to fall on the cracked soil. We went there to fly kites made of ting-ting and newspapers. We also hunt for Watermelons and buy them from Tatang the farmer. Life is simple.
Sun shining over the rice fields.
Pilapil
That was twenty-three or twenty-five years ago. Now the Bukid is slowly diminishing. The infinite horizon is now bordered by houses and buildings. Now instead of vegetables or rice, they planted subdivisions, cement plants, roads, buildings and malls.
Soil over soil. Creating a causeway over the farm land to build subdivisions or buildings over.
Construction going on.
Causeway over farm land and a cement factory.
Road build over farm land.
Private property.
I don’t know the story behind the development of the farm lands into subdivisions and industrial area, it is just depressing to see a beautiful and productive lands giving way for so called progress. I know that progress is good and change is inevitable but it is not just here that this is happening, even in the provinces farm lands are developed by corporations. What will happen in the future when our country can no longer produce our own food? What will happen to our farmers? Should we just keep on exporting food from other countries to feed our ever growing population?
Poor man’s home, a farmer’s house
It just saddens me to know that this area will soon be just another grey spot in the map, concrete instead of rice fields. For me this place is an escape from the pollution of Metro Manila and now it hurts to know that it will all be gone in the future. As the song goes…
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique
And a swinging hot spot
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got til its gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
We don’t know what we’ve got till its gone.
Hooray for Ukay! Who can resist this brown leather bag from Ukay-ukay? I know I can’t.
For a Php 200.00 (originally Php 250.00, I got a Php 50.00 discount yey!) second hand bag it is a bit pricy and way over my Ukay budget but it is well worth it. No damage not even a scratch.
Been looking for my little brown bag for a while now and I think I’ve found the perfect one. My phone and earphones, a wallet, a lipstick fits in it, with enough space for another item to squeeze inside, it is a great on the go essential items bag.
Ukay-ukay or Wagwagan as other people calls it, are second hand thrift stores found around the Philippines a great place to find vintage items and second hand (sometimes new surplus) clothing.
This might be the my most favorite photo I’ve taken so far. I wonder, if this cat can talk, what would she tell me?
“People think dreams aren’t real just because they aren’t made of matter, of particles. Dreams are real. But they are made of viewpoints, of images, of memories and puns and lost hopes.”
― Neil Gaiman
A quote from my favorite author Neil Gaiman 🙂 Dreams are indeed real.
paulanopolis 