insta-recap

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Clockwise from top left: I started sewing labels on to my garments since last year and boy! it felt good. No more nameless garments! So I bought another set of labels from ArtsyFartsyOzark.

After spending an afternoon at my parents' farm, my family and I passed by the Chapel of Our Lady of 
Manaoag to offer few prayers. Honestly, there was a point in our family's lives that we were very involved with 
the chapel's activities particularly in choir: my brother played the piano, the other was the musical conductor, 
my sister was member of the choir and I was the kid who ran around or slept during the midnight mass. Seriously, 
I helped out set up the decor during festivities. So my family celebrated the feast with Embutido: a Filipino-style 
(steamed) meatloaf. I won't be discussing on how to make some at your home since there are so many recipes 
you can get like here.

Bottom left: I went to my phone service provider to settle my bills, as I walked in, the lady at the counter welcomed 
me with "Oh my God! You're so skinny! Do you even eat?!?" So, that was me, in my head but, in reality I calmly 
responded with "Of course, I do." But she went on and on and called herself "fat." Her male colleague 
interrupted and finally she stopped talking.   

Unfortunately, it wasn't the first time I received such comments, I had it my whole life. Mom consulted numerous pediatrician, bought countless multi-vitamin and protein supplement products just for me to help me put on weight. By the time I was 10, she gave up. To be fair to her effort and perseverance, at least a couple of her friends complimented my supple "exquisite" looking skin. High school was A LOT worst - the list criticism about my weight is longer than this. My skin will not ever going to get thicker as I would find myself hurt by these comments.

Finally, I went fabric shopping. It was very obvious that my agitated-feeling still lingers that I was picking up blue-colored fabrics. That's blue floral  saree, butterfly print blue cotton sateen, and star printed chambray fabric.

Thank you so much for reading!     
   

everything's coming up roses

I bought this fabric more than a year ago. I bought it simply because it made me smile - yes, it was love at first sight. Its a quilt-weight cotton fabric - no big deal since I made a garment with one once before.

The pattern however, has been sitting in my library since 2012. To be fair, the pattern is size 38 and has to be graded down to 3 sizes. I didn't have any idea how to do it until recently.  I made a muslin, shortened the bodice by an inch and a half and kept the length of the skirt as it is.

The bodice has a silk organza interlining and sewn the seam allowances with a catch stitch; the whole dress is lined with pink batiste cotton.

I like how my dress turned out and I like it more that I'm wearing it now at this stage of my life as I'm at my happiest.

Until then,

Happy Sewing...!

easter:: pistachio rose cupcakes

I've been browsing pinterest looking for inspiration of what to bake for Easter. The Pistachio Rose Cupcakes particularly caught my attention simply because of the its colors - to me, it looks very spring.

I tried one of the recipes I found, unfortunately it didn't turn out well. It was way too dense - I didn't know what I did wrong. As I spent some good number of days thinking what I did wrong or what went wrong, Cinnamon and Bluebelle, my two dogs, had some extra treats.

I then decided to take my chocolate cupcake recipe, replaced the cocoa powder with pistachio meal and added a couple of tablespoon of rose water. I follow cakes/cupcake recipes down to every letter (ok, I lied: I often reduce the amount of sugar) so doing that, replacing an ingredient with another, was one ballsiest move I did.

Though I am not sure if that's the way it should be done but my cupcakes turned out to be ok: not spongy but at least not dense. I went ahead to make a white chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream, pull out my buttercream roses that had been sitting in my freezer, and a bag of mini-chocolate Easter eggs and started frosting.

These turned out to be the prettiest cupcakes I ever made and I was grinning like a little girl.

Though the cupcakes itself is far from perfect and it seems to me that I'm on to a new quest: search for a perfect pistachio rose cupcake recipe.

Easter, after all, is a start of a new beginning.

Happy Easter!