Franco Turns 1!

It isn't everyday your one-and-only nephew turns 1!  For Franco's farm-tastic party, I made barn buntings!  Well, I did it with a bit of help from Lex, and a really helpful stranger.

And here's the finished workshop drying over at the Craft MNL workshop.

So I made this design with the original intention of having it laser cut onto light blue and red pieces of paper.  My sister-in-law is an interior designer, and so she had his color-themed party all set up.  Thing is, I ran into a bit of trouble with having the paper either lasercut or plotter-ed.  So I went to the next best thing--screen printing!

The screen printing spread on the left, and Jeric, a really nice stranger who happened to be there (and who also happened to have 15 years of commercial screen printing experience on his belt).

I did the drill: prepared my design, and sent it over to Andrei and Sheina of Hocus (with my profuse apologies for having a last-minute screen burning request).  They had the screen ready in no time though, and so Lex bought some red textile paint, I cut up some extra canvas I had, and we were ready to roll.

As I prepped the table and laid out the stuff, a stranger who had been spray painting outside happened to settle on our half-door.  Feeling a bit self-conscious (as I'm hardly a pro at screen printing), I started up a bit of conversation.  Turns out the stranger's name was Jeric, and he had been helping out at his family's screen printing business for quite a long time already.  And being the helpful person that he is, he gave Lex and I some pointers that turned out some pretty nice prints.

At the farm at Hahndorf.  Franco's buntings are strung up on the side.

So fast-forward to Franco's party.  :-)  It started out to be a cold and rainy day, but it soon got brighter and sunnier.

The goodie bags Shar prepared, and the toy balloons Eleanor brought (that were awesomely shaped by some of Franco's guests).

Mum prepared her special pancit (cellophane noodle dish), and poses with Clarisse on the left.  A view of the open field facing the shed at the Hahndorf Farm.

Hahndorf is about a 20-minute drive from my brother's area in Adelaide.  It's a German settlement with a main avenue lined with quaint shops.  I loved the fact that Franco's party was at a farm!  The kids had an awesome time with the animal show, and getting up close to our furry (and woolly and feathery) friends!

The birthday boy in a semi-serious moment on the left.  And on the right, Franco poses with Daddy and the tiny pony!

Geez.  The thought of my older brother having a little boy who just turned one is kind of...nostalgic.  He's such a happy baby too (my nephew, not my brother), so Mart and Shar are doing a fantastic job of raising such an adorable little boy.  :-)

"Happy 1st Birthday Franco" spelled out on the most amazing tasting lemon tarts I've ever, ever had.  And a snapshot of inside the barn, in the area where the chickens run around.

Birthday cupcakes on the left, and on the right--our woolly friends huddle to stay warm.  The lambs are such cuties!

Mum swipes a lemon tart from the tray, not knowing they spelled out Franco's birthday greeting (those lemon tarts were that good).  And Franco leans in to his cupcake candle as Mart and Shar blow out the flame.

Franco's guests spend time with our feathered friends on the left, Eleanor and Tom after marathon barbecuing on the right.

It was an awesome way of turning 1.  And I'm really happy that the family was nearly complete, and in attendance for it.  Later that evening, we Skyped with Dad and Lex in Manila.

Dad saying hello, and Franco telling Lolo "I'm 1!".

Handmade goodies can make an occasion quite lovely, but it's the love that weaves the occasion into one that imprints itself onto your ♥.

Yay, Home!

It's been a while!  Finally, the little voice in my head telling me I'm neglecting this blog is appeased.  Now I've got loads to tell and share, and it'll be quite a challenge putting everything down as everything goes on around me.  :-)

I just got back a few days ago from a family trip to the land down under, with a stopover in Singapore for a few days before heading back home sweet home.  It was my nephew's first birthday, so the family was nearly complete at his cute farmtastic party!  I got some help doing some screen printed buntings for that, and I'll post photos of that soon.

All in all, it was quite the whirlwind preparing for the trip, and a balancing act between work and actually being in the trip, trying not to come off as too much of a party pooper, while genuinely enjoying the time I had with my family.

Here are some snapshots from the trip.  Loads more to follow, including going nuts in Spotlight, spinning silk at Craft NSW, awesome eats, and amusing oddities.  Plus of course my nephew's adorable photos.  :-)

From Manila to Sydney.  The photo on the left is the home sweet home pic.  I got the reflectorized letters from Typo.  Gad, I kinda went nuts in there, too.

At Cleland Wildlife Park!  We got to pet the koalas.  Mom even got to hug one!

Communing with nature.  Eleanor and the koala.  Mart hand-feeds a kangaroo!

Family portraits at the airport, and Mom and Dad being kinda funny at the Changi airport.

And away they go.

Hmmm.  My first sale on Etsy.

And off they go.

My first set of handpainted cake toppers go to a lovely Filipino couple in New Jersey.  Just to make it extra-special, I sewed two pouches (loving my sewing machine!) for these two to be kept in.  And because it took me a while to put everything together, I'm slipping into the package this lovely brooch/bracelet made of canvas, cotton lace and pearl.

I'm a fan of multi-functional jewelry.

I first prototyped this type of brooch/bracelet when I was designing something with my older sister in mind.  She's allergic to metals (though she seems to be okay with gold--quite the high-end allergy, if you don't consider fabric, wood and other non-metal alternatives)--her skin gets all red and blistery when in contact with them.  So to minimize metal contact, I prepared a bracelet with a strap made of wooden beads, topped with a canvas flower, that when detached from the strap can be used as a brooch.  There's still a bit of metal contact (the brooch clasp), but at least it isn't all that much.

So for Meliza, who ordered the cake toppers off of my Etsy shop, I made the bracelet/brooch above.  My first prototype of this kind had a smaller flower, but a friend suggested having a bigger one, creating more of a statement piece.

Personalized pouches.  Love.

And here are the heat transfer-printed pouch bags I made with my trusty sewing machine!

And off they go tomorrow on yet another adventure.  Awww.  I got kind of attached to this cake topper couple.  Sniff.  They'll be lovely additions though to someone's wedding memories, which I think is a beautiful thing.

Craft Soiree!

A sampling of the awesome crafters that converged at Pipino over a week ago.

A belated, belated post.  As I'm getting the hang of managing my workload, my need to make stuff, and organizing workshops (plus a little work-life balance), I suppose a little documentation via more consistent posts here wouldn't hurt.  :-)

The weekend before last saw about 17 crafters converge at Pipino Vegetarian Restaurant for Life After Breakfast's first craft soiree!  :-)  It was wonderful!  The food, the vibe, meeting different crafters and marveling at all of the cool stuff everyone else does!  I think that fateful event sowed the seeds for future collaborations.  Exciting stuff.

It was also like Christmas!  Everyone brought something to exchange, so we came home with tote bags full of goodies!  Drumroll, please.

A delight for the eyes and for the tummy!

Okay, the item on the left never made it to my tote bag, because I ate it right away.  Um, I ate both of them.  Right away.  Hehe.  Thus, a picture pre-consumption.  This was a red velvet cupcake from Macy's Fields!  It was yummy.  The items on the right all came in a happily wrapped package prepared by Lorra of Stars for Dreams.  A notebook she drew on herself, a postcard and a bookmark she designed!

Prettiness all around.

The item to the left is a silver clay charm with my initial on it, handcrafted by Alessa herself.  Yay, we might be having silver clay workshops at Craft MNL, too!  Watch out for that.  The folder-full of lovely stationery on the right flew all the way in from Davao, in the artistic hands of April, who is behind Artisan Paperie.

A friendly reminder, and a load of friendly loot!

Wiji of the Curious Studio hand-lettered the postcards she gave away that afternoon, while the stash on the right is (1) an assortment of rings and a moustache necklace from Nikki of Junk Studio,  (2) a handmade wallet by Pat (whose demo of 20-ways-to-wear-a-skirt I sorely missed), (3) a coffee cozy by Kaye, (4) tiny clay charms by Anna, (5) a cute cross-stitch kit from DMC, (6) a box sample (with earrings inside) from Kilusan, a box manufacturing company based in Makati, (7) a pair of earrings from dyosaimma.  Numbers below for those without links.  

Different materials, different skills.  All craft.

The assortment on the left begins with (1) an acrylic cutout pendant from Wiji also, (2) a felt toy kit from Beam of Artwine (love her felt bouquets, too!), (3) washi tape and funky cotton rope from Mansy, (4) a pretty friendship bracelet from Mikko (I also bought the Friendship Bracelet book too!), and (5) more washi tapes from Joanne of the Quaint Desk!  And on the right, a screenprinted surfer girl tote bag from Noelle (with printed goodies inside), and personalized crayons from Koko!

Whew.  That was a feast for the eyes, for the tummy, and for every craft-gratifying pore muscle I've got.  

I strung up the buntings from Quaint Desk at Craft MNL!  And here's Nikki and Alessa.

We also had bracelet-making with DMC after the craft exchange!  Although my creation ended up being NOT a bracelet...

...but mismatched earrings!  These later evolved with rivets.

I was also happy to see some of the crafters wearing the little fishie earrings I made (perhaps because I wasn't able to package them properly too, boohoo).  But it was nice seeing the fish floating about.

I must admit though that Koko's dimple steals the show.

Yay!  Here's to more craft gatherings!  :-)  This handmade adventure just got bigger.

*****

Kilusan Box Mfg. Company
+63917.8486880


dyosaimma
+63917.5863408

Fish-inspired!

Fish-inspired.

The past couple of weeks have been crazy busy with the my regular communications design load and the opening workshops at Craft MNL.

So there went my NaPoWriMo attempt.  :-(  I'll still be posting poems nevertheless.

This Saturday, I'm really excited for the craft soiree organized by Alessa!  We're supposed to bring 15 craft items to give away, and at first I was totally torn between heat transfer prints and flower accessories.  In the end, the fish won out!  Palm-leaf weaving inspired, these little fish are fun accessories.  Will still be sneaking in crafting more of these in between deadlines!