Coffee Project

June 1, 2016August 7, 20201 Comment

The coffee shop that I always pass by to and from work has finally opened – and its the prettiest coffee shop I’ve even been to! This is the Coffee Project at Vista place (also known as Wil tower):

Flower chandeliers ♥.

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Definitely me. HAHA.

Long black. Vietnamese coffee. Salted caramel cheesecake. Croissant.

The visual merchandising here is on point. They have so many floral displays! These will be useful if I’ll ever get to do another art tambay with my friends. Coffee is good. The salted caramel is creamy and yummy ♥. I’ll try their other drinks soon!

Coffee Project on Facebook.

Davao 2016

May 31, 2016August 7, 2020Leave a comment

We celebrated our 8th Anniversary in Davao! So happy that I got to travel again with him for the 3rd time this year. ♥ Again, the main reason for our travels is for the food. My cousin’s family kept on mentioning that Davao has the best seafood. Is it really? Image heavy post ahead!

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Breakfast at NAIA 3. I think this is a new food court. Glad that they’re improving the facilities bit by bit.

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Lunch at Hukad, SM Lanang. Love the pendant light! I think its inspired from Puso rice?

Guess how much this is? Baked scallops for 150php!

The waiter suggested this dessert to us. Delicious!

That night, we decided to eat at my cousin’s family’s highly recommended place: Ahfat. After googling its location, we discovered that Ahfat 1, 2 and 3 are located at the same complex HAHAHA. We ate at Ahfat 2. Here are some of the stuff that we ordered:

Seafood hotpot for 250php! SO CHEAP. Filled with sea cucumber and various seafood. ♥

Inggo ordered this Bacon roll out of curiosity. Surprisingly good!

Slipper lobster!

We attempted to visit the Aldevinco Pasalubong Center after. Sadly, it closes at 8pm. But we discovered that there’s a night market nearby. The Roxas Night Market is just a few blocks away from the pasalubong center. There are ukay ukay, bags, and food stalls. Got to try genuine gelato for only 35php for 2 scoops! I didn’t get a clear picture but it was so good!

Freshly cooked buchi for 3pcs / 30php! They had choco, ube, and monggo filling. We both loved this ♥.

Buko and Avocado shake priced at 50php.

We went to the night market twice. This is the famed Mang Danny’s durian ice cream. 6 scoops for 30php I think? We braved the long line for this.

A discovery like this is what makes wandering so much fun. Traveling without any expectations is better than being disappointed. I’m glad that it’s the same for him. ♥ We went back to the hotel after that to rest. What they say about the taxi drivers are also true. They’re all honest and actually grateful when you let them keep the change. Kudos also to the help desk of Red Planet for answering my questions in their app.

For our second day, we went up to the mountains to visit Malagos Garden Resort and the Philippine Eagle Center. With the help of google and the Red Planet staff, we opted to commute rather than ride the taxi. Saved us a lot of money!

Lunch at Malagos Garden Resort. They were renovating so we got 50% off their entrance fee. Lucky!

Tuna sashimi for 150php.

Why did we go here? I heard that this place won awards internationally for their chocolate. This one is their hot chocolate. A bit bitter, and fruity.

We found this funny.

There’s a bird sanctuary inside the resort. You could feed the love birds! ♥

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I find birds funny looking. Look at the lower right bird! Parang ready mang-aaway HAHAHA.

We then went to Philippine Eagle Center after. It’s located inside the Davao City Water District. Entrance fee for the Water District is 5php, while for the PEC is 150php. Worth it since you’re contributing to the conservation of our national bird.

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After PEC, we took a habal habal back to Calinan and rode a van that will take us back to Davao City. We decided to try out the Crab Buffet somewhere in Roxas street.

Before.

After.

Blugre coffee the next day. They’re famous for their durian coffee.

What I bought for myself from the Malagos farm. Chocolate tablea for hot chocolate cravings!

Airline – My aunt taught me that its cheaper to buy airline tickets months before your flight. If there’s a seat sale, grab it since its a good deal already. So for the tickets, we got it for 50% off during a seat sale of one of the airlines here in the Philippines.

Hotel – As for the hotel, well, we booked one a month before our trip HAHA. There are a lot of choices of hotels in Davao with a reasonable price. We chose Red Planet as our hotel. Good price, comfortable room with the basics (bed, hot/cold shower, AC). We found the app pretty useful too.

How to commute to Malagos Garden Resort & Philippine Eagle Center:

Take a cab/jeep to Bangkerohan. (Taxi can take you straight to Malagos, need to negotiate though).
Ride a van to Calinan for 40php. (Travel time around 30-45mins)
Take a tricycle to Malagos for 10php / Habal habal for 20php.

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Looking forward to our next adventure! ♥

Monologue (Dec-April)

May 3, 2016August 7, 2020Leave a comment

For the past few weeks, I’ve been bringing around my Monologue soft sketch almost everywhere so I could sketch or paint whenever I have free time. Well, it worked, HAHA. Although my backpack is a bit heavier now since I also bring my Prang set, I don’t mind since I can paint anytime and anywhere. ♥ So here are my artworks from December 2015 to April 2016.

Left: obviously tried typography and failing AHAHA / Right: First artwork. I love the bloom effects.

Left: Living room interior sketch without using a ruler HUHU / Right: So colorful. *u*

I did this during our stay at Dive & Trek, Batangas. ♥

I didn’t like the artwork that I did on this page. So I covered it with some loose Canson paper artworks and washi tape.Still in the water / lily / girl phase.

Left: First try with my Craft doodle waterbrush ♥ / Right: First time to try out the Craft doodle waterbrush care of Jean.

Left: I still don’t know what to do with her / Right: Referenced from a photo. Used my Reeves watercolor pan set.

Referenced from photo. Used Prang on this one.

Overall, I’m quite satisfied with the Monologue notebook. I actually like the bloom effect on some artworks. The paper buckles with wet on wet technique, but since this is just for practice, I don’t mind that much. The A5 one is the right size for me. One complaint though is that the price of this brand now is ridiculous due to the increasing demand here in the Philippines. I bought mine for around 330php last November 2015. When I checked last month the price was at 470php. The bigger size (A4? I think) I got for 300php years ago, now it’s 700+php. Sigh!

Do you know any online sellers for this? I’d love to hoard this notebook, but with reasonable price.

Dive & Trek Batangas

April 17, 2016August 7, 20201 Comment

Last month, me, Inggo & my cousin’s family went to Batangas for the Holy week weekend. We went to Dive & Trek resort at Bauan, Batangas. This is a good resort to learn the basics of diving and getting your certification. But none of us did that HAHAHA. My aunt selected this resort due to the house reef just in front of the resort. So our routine during this vacation was : Eat, Swim, Eat, Draw, Swim, Draw, Eat. ♥

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My cousin (left) drawing, my seat in the middle with my watercolor stuff, my Beloved (right) trying to connect to the wifi HAHA.

Sunsets are the best. ♥

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A different kind of art tambay. ♥

I brought my Monologue notebook, Prang watercolor set, Mixing palette, and a water container with me. The day before the trip, I did a lot of lineart at the office :)) I managed to finish some of them during this trip. I love this kind of art tambay! Great view, conversations, and companions with an iced cold coffee. ♥ We only did this when it’s too sunny to swim or the waves are too strong.

I would definitely go back here! All the staff were accommodating, friendly, as well as environmentally conscious. We learned a lot about this resort and their love for nature from their stories. They take care of giant clams, you know! You could actually see them during low tide when you snorkel (we didn’t though! UGHH that’s one of the reasons why I want to go back) Oh and their house reef ♥ There were so many fish in different shapes and sizes. We swam until we got all wrinkly. Swam in deep waters without life vests (but accompanied with a floating donut thing for safety). They have unlimited coffee, tea, and milo all day! So imagine how many cups of coffee I had everyday HAHA. Food was delicious and overflowing ♥ Their rooms were simple: aircon, bed, hot&cold water, you know, the necessities. I heard that some were iffy with the rooms (how it’s not nice, etc). But uh, you came to a DIVE resort, to DIVE (or snorkel for us) all day. Meep.

I wish for more days like this.

Shangri-La Boracay 2015

April 9, 2016August 7, 2020Leave a comment

In the conceptualization phase of my blog, the categories that I want to write about were: Adventure, Art, and Interior Design. I’ve already made posts for the first two, but none for the last one. Finally, after 4 months of “blogging”, I’ve compiled some photos related to ID!

Shangri-La, Boracay.

I already went and blogged about Boracay at thychronicles – the inactive blog that I made with college friends. You can read more about that here, here & here. But on my second trip, I took more photos with my phone and edited it on VSCOcam. Honestly, I liked my phone shots better than the photos I took with a DSLR. It looked a lot more uniformed. So I thought I’d share it here.

The reception area.

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Hallway / Waiting area for the van to D’Mall.

Beach 1

Beach 2 with a lot more activities.

Reception area at Vintana.

Vintana at night. It’s a buffet in the morning.

Decor. This is where they place their bread selections in their breakfast buffet.

Beautiful pendant light.

I love the design of Shangri-La, Boracay. They used local materials (capiz shells, wood carvings), Philippine-inspired accessories and furniture for the interior and architecture of the place. I hope I get the chance to go back here again!

Note: Trip is sponsored by my aunt. I’m the fourth wheel to their family. Haha. Just want to give credit to that.

Twenty six.

April 5, 2016August 7, 2020Leave a comment

I just turned another year older as of writing. ♥ And I won’t go to work later for the reason that I just want to be happy on my birthday. (Sigh!) Here’s an artwork that I did for a watercolor group. Quickly doodled on my Monologue soft sketch book. They’re a cheaper alternative to Moleskine, around 300-350php. (edit: I found out that they’re around 470php now! Grr!) A lot of PH artists recommend this notebook, so I bought one out of curiosity (and when I finally found a store that has stock). After using it for a couple of artworks, I love it! I want to hoard more. ♥

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2015 Watercolor Summary 2

March 29, 2016August 7, 2020Leave a comment

Hello! I just got back from an out of town trip with my family and my Inggo. We went to Batangas again this year. Anyway… I’m really excited to show here the last part of my 2015 watercolor summary. All of them are bouquets / flower arrangements because I wanted to challenge myself. Happy to say that it paid off!

This was gifted to my RO guildmate as a house warming present for his cafe. I heard he liked sunflowers.

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I really love the way I did the white flower. This was challenging!

I had a legit reason to use white poster paint here! I used it for the baby’s breath flowers hahaha.

Tried again to loosen my strokes. Happy with this. ♥

Also love this. ♥

I did this when I was sad one day due to an event I cannot control. Painting sunflowers is therapeutic for me.

I did this at a cafe! (a.k.a. the first time I brought my watercolor set outside)

This was done at Mithi Maginhawa. I met Jean there.

And done! This compilation shows that a little bit of patience goes a long way in watercolor. I could really see the improvement on my artworks. And I hope that this will inspire you to keep on making art. 🙂

Now what to write about next? Cheers.

2015 Watercolor Summary 1

March 21, 2016August 7, 20201 Comment

2015 was a good year to me as an artist. (I can’t believe I’m writing that hahaha.) I had the time to make a lot of art. I was very, very happy albeit costly. On this post, let me show you the first few months of my rediscovery of watercolor using flowers as my subjects. Most are referenced from Pinterest. I decided to cut the summary into two as it’s too image heavy for one post.

My first attempt at watercolor again after college. This was done on my Moleskine watercolor notebook.

Second attempt on my Moleskine notebook. Since I was too impatient, I decided to finish it off with white speckles using poster paint.

Since Moleskine was too small for me. I switched to the 180gsm Berkeley paper. Struggling with waterlily. Huhu.

This was made during one of the firsts watercolor tambay at my cousin’s place. I was the one who taught her the basics even though I’m not so sure myself HAHA.

One of the first artworks that I love. It shows how careless and free my strokes are. ♥ (Back in college, some block mates used to tease me about my careless/free/loose strokes. It doesn’t look good with interior renderings, they said. I got conscious a bit and tried to change that.) But right now, I love it ♥.

Tried to use more water here.

The red rose is symbolic for me. It was the emblem used for our guild during my Ragnarok days. ♥ Fenrir server represent!

This took too much time. Looking at it now, I want to redo it! But back then, I felt accomplished finishing this detailed piece.

Okay. Too much red everywhere HAHA. And that background color!

Okay, that was fun. Some things I noticed:

I didn’t have the patience yet.
I kept on using poster paint for white speckles.
Too much water on some parts.
Some color combinations didn’t go well HAHAHA.

This was just February to April. I’m happy to say that I’ve improved after that. Part 2 coming soon!

Cheers.

Sunflowers

March 14, 2016May 4, 2017Leave a comment

A few days after the previous post, I managed to squeeze some time after work to finish this watercolor piece:

Finally! ♥ I now need to buy a replacement charger for my digicam for clearer pics. I took that shot with my Zenfone 5. It looks a bit dull, no? When its actually bright and happy in real life. Hope that follows through with my design life now.

Cheers.

Time & Instagram

March 8, 2016May 4, 20171 Comment

Have you read this quote from other bloggers before? “I’m sorry I’m too busy to blog, but please follow me on my instagram, I update more often there!“. As for me, I can’t even give that as a reason HAHAHA. I feel guilty for not posting as much as I want to here. But no, I’m still not giving up! I just need time to draw. Life is too busy due to overtime at work almost everyday, sigh. But that is not a reason to stop and try to do a little art everyday, no?

Back in the early days of my IG account, I posted my lineart drawings. Mostly anime-ish, pencil / pen line art and sometimes rendered with markers. You know, quick sketches that you could do easily every night. I read somewhere it’s better to keep continuously making art so you won’t lose your momentum. I should do that again sometime. As for now… let me reminisce.

Well. I stopped because I noticed that I was drawing the same girl with bangs facing front, hahaha. But it’s better than nothing, no? Again. I promise that I’ll make more time for art. So I could post it online and document my progress.

Cheers.