Christmas '17 Whereabouts

Before anything else let me just greet everyone a happy hohoho! I had a great Christmas because I got to spend it with the whole fambam. We  had dinner at around 8:00PM but stayed up until midnight to open presents then slept afterwards because of food coma lol. Prepping for Christmas dinner (Noche Buena) was a lot of work, from the table setting down to cooking but it was all worth it, 'tis the season to be merry e? 

Festive diy Noche Buena table
setting.

We had a little exchange gift thingy to cap off Christmas eve and we were all happy with what we got. As for myself, I received a kawaii notebook along with a pack of plastic containers for my baking supplies plus a cute cat mug I've been yearning to have from my sissies. But, what made me really ecstatic was how festive our dinner table and little buffet corner turned out. I made those little red Christmas tree food picks of each and every item on the menu just to give our buffet corner that Christmassy feel. I also printed out a menu card I placed on a photo clip holder to detail every food item just for kicks and it turned out pretty cool as well like a real buffet corner. I just love organizing and making things not just functional but aesthetically pleasing and quirky at the same time. My niece loved the whole ensemble and of course the food. We did not have that over the top quantity of food for Noche Buena because aside from that’s gluttony, we’re not big eaters anyways and it’s just the six of us so it was really a dinner set up for a small family. Staying up until midnight was quite a challenge though but for the spirit of Christmas, we endured sleepiness through hours of movie marathon! Trust me, I think we got all Christmas movies covered. Check out the video below for our DIY Christmas dinner table setting.👇🏼

What's bakin'?

A day before Christmas...

These sleepers are oh so

cute and comfy! Waiting for

midnight to open our prezzies.

My biggest present though was from my Dad because he bought a brand new electric oven a day before Christmas yay! Not that I asked for it, I never wanted one actually since I'm all set making my skillet cookies. Speaking of which, making skillet cookies was fun although extremely exhausting because you cannot leave them on the pan for too long or you’ll burn them as opposed to ovens, it’s timed so the risk of burning baked food is very minimal and is mostly human error because this rarely happens if you follow the recipe religiously. It was quite a challenge for me though as far as baking time and cookie recipes are concerned because the recipes I rummaged online are meant for skillet cooking and not oven baking so I had to recast the cooking time, temperature and everything else because I was looking at a very big picture skillet cookie recipes won’t work with electric ovens just to find myself wrong. After wasting tons of baking supplies, I realized one very important thing,  reducing the oven temperature by many degrees depending on the cookie recipe worked wonders and solved my baking dilemma, another eureka moment for me.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas 🎶

My best sellers: Matcha & Red Velvet 
holiday cookies.

I hated ovens because the La Germania gas range & oven my family had when I was in high school (ages ago) almost burnt majority of my eyebrows after I lit it with a candle for a stupid reason (that’s how old ovens work before), I turned the propane tank cylinder too high not wary about the might’ve been, yeah I was kid who just wanted to bake an orange chiffon cake lol. My eyebrows grew back of course although I came into a realizaton baking isn’t for me aside from the cost of baking supplies could already get you a decent box of cake. Anyways, about two years ago I rekindled my interest with baking out of boredom and thought what other creative ways to cook a batter of pancake. I started experimenting with crushed Oreo cookies, flour and whatevs in my attempt to come up with cookies n’ cream anything and it turned out into something pretty good, I made a cookies n’ cream rice cake from scratch! However, the move to our new house dissipated my interest in making no bake stuff again because I got sidetracked with DIY home decor projects in my resolve to beautify our new house. I focused on interior decorating for another year until boredom hits me again and to make this long story short, I decided to make cookies without the need to use an oven because I find the whole pre-baking process too tedious and ingredient measurement too technical aside from we no longer have an oven since the one we had before turned too old and rusty and collected dusts ’til it was no longer useful. Anyways, I’m now friends with the new electric oven because it has made my life a whole lot easier since It has cut down my working hours plus it helps a ton as far as my cookie biz is concerned. 

Curiosity can kill a cat...and

stubbornness. He was so 

famished and exhausted when

 he got home. Bad kitty.

Holiday season feels... 

I love my cat mug. And oh excuse

 Dielle the photo bomber doggie. 😆

Christmas Morning.
On the other hand, my sisters and I were worried sick a day before  Christmas because our cat sneaked outside (our Dad let him out actually) and failed to come home until Christmas morning. It was a first since he's technically an indoor cat and we seldom let him out unless he sneaks out so I spent almost the whole 24 hours worrying where he went and what happened to him until one of my sibs went out in the neighbourhood to walk one of our dogs and there she heard a cat crying somewhere and couldn't decipher where it's coming from but most likely it's our cat. I wandered into the backyard and heard a cat's wail about few meters yonder and that's when I decided to tag one of our dogs along to head me to right direction and there I found our cat trapped inside a neighbour's backyard surrounded by tall walls (and I mean 20-30 feet) and it's an abandoned house so no one is there to let the cat out unless he leaps 20 feet high. To sum it up, the rescue was a success when one of my Dad's friends scared off the cat, he jumped off and let himself out on his own unharmed, geez. And that's the reason why I never let the cat out because he's been into a lot of trouble. It's quite a challenge keeping him indoors because he used to be a stray cat we fortunately found but that's an entirely different story.

Moving on, I spearheaded we have another exchange gift come New Year’s Eve just for kicks again and also to keep us awake in welcoming the new year. But, this time around we must stick with the Php50-200 gift budget per head since it’s a last minute thing lol. And again, we’ll do the buffet scheme this coming NYE because Noche Buena turned out pretty well so why not do it again for Media Noche? As an end not, less is always more and I mean less food is more because this season is note just all about food and gifts, it’s all about togetherness. What best way to spend the holiday season than with the fambam yeah?

All Is Calm, All Is Bright.

diy Christmas dinner table setting

All is calm, all is bright....

It’s literally just 8 days to go before Christmas and I think my work is already done decking the house for the holidays. My sibs and I already bought stuff for our Christmas dinner table set up and I guess we’re all set. We bought a new Christmas wreath since our theme this year is gold and green and the old one we got isn’t very gold and isn’t very green neither. Ah, shopping for Christmas decors is quite stressful really because the cost for everything sky rockets when it’s last minute, business as usual.

Moving on, my skillet cookies are doing really well and I have been getting a lot of orders for the pack of 6s thus made me quite busy which I think is attributed to the fact that first, it is very affordable and second people nowadays would rather gift homemade stuff for Christmas than those readily available gift packs you can buy at the mall because it feels more personal and thoughtful that way plus anything homemade exudes that ‘labor of love’ vibe. I’ve been yearning to make one of those diy soaps and bath bombs for a long time now because I personally believe they are excellent gift ideas but finding the materials for them though is quite effortful so I’ll put that thought on hold for now, who knows it might take flight someday. 

the moon overhead...

Anyways, my sister and I are finally done with our a moon lamp which is our last DIY project for this year. I decided we come up with a little tutorial video as well (check out the video below). Since it’s a diy project we decided to make it as inexpensive as possible and as a result we bought a monochromatic blinking lights instead of the white LED lights as it’s quite pricey. The lights we used just cost less than P200 versus the white LED lights which roughly cost P500 and the rest of the materials such as the dishwashing sponge and card board cost nothing since we have them offhand. We pretty much just spent on string lights and cheap tissues & acrylic paints which only cost less than P40.00 a piece (or less than a dolllar). Overall, this project only costs us less than P300 (less than $6.00) which was really cheap and all worth it. The cost for a real moon lamp by the way is P700-2,000 ($14-40.00) depending on the size. I really love how this project turned out.

Please like and subscribe to my sissy's channel here.

Baby It's Cold Outside

It’s 14 days to go before Christmas and baby it sure is getting cold outside. 

Entrepreneur mode on.

As for me I have been pretty busy selling my skillet cookies and coined a term for them ’holiday skillet cookies’ which was obviously derived from the holiday season. I started selling them last week (red velvet and matcha flavor) in small quantities and so far the response was good that I have them now in strawberry and ube (purple yam).  I make cookies plus an online craft store on the side, how convenient is that? This is what I love about the holiday season, a great opportunity for small time/scale business which you can manage at your own time, convenience and does not require huge capital to begin with. Let me share that I do not have formal training as far as baking is concerned, I just had one baking class back in high school and that’s it, everything else I learned from my friends, Google, Pinterest and Youtube lol. I mean who doesn’t right? Everything that you want and need to know is pretty much on social media, you just have to be more creative in twitching them to make them your own. You also need to be passionate in every endeavor you put yourself into because the end result can be really amazing. 

This rainbow spaghetti is oh so perfect
this holiday season care of
@rock-a-bye-baby.

Nuninoo..

My sister and I re-arranged our room for the nth time and she’s looking to dispose our cloud lamp because it has already collected dust since it’s been around for over a year. She's looking to replace it with a ‘moon lamp’ which is now quite popular.

Salt Lamp..
I have been yearning to get myself a ‘salt lamp’ because of its

moon lamp photo: https://www.pinterest.com/nextdealshop/
salt lamp photo: https://www.pinterest.com/brit/

good benefits (may improve air quality by generating negative ions, hygroscopic quality as it removes mold from air as well etc.) however, the cost is pretty unreasonable for me that’s why I still haven’t got one yet. Seriously, I used to be an impulsive buyer but I guess turning stingy comes with age lol. Well, let’s just say you get wiser as you get older to simply put. Although I haven’t retired the idea of getting a salt lamp someday maybe after the holiday season or when the price of commodities starts to drop like hell (smirk). I hope this country will also have one of those ‘Black Friday' sale moments someday (except the part where buyers violently nudge each other just to get their hands on the most coveted stuff on sale whatever that is).

To wrap this up, I’m excited for Christmas and what the new year holds. I can’t believe it’s just three weeks before we bid 2017 adieu. I hope 2018 would be much more exciting. But, for the time being, let me savor 2017 first.  

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

Welcome December. It’s 21 days to go before Christmas and time flew by so fast, another year is about to go by. I have already carefully wrapped and kept those Christmas presents somewhere safe to veer away from peeking eyes. This year, I’ll do it differently, I will be home for both Christmas and New Year’s Eve unlike the previous years. Time, you cannot enslave me anymore. Work, you cannot drag me anymore. I will be home for the holidays.

Seareniabay Café

Moving on, my sister and I’s quest in finding the best ‘hole in the wall’ cafés in town is still not over yet. Yesterday, we decided to check out this fairly new ‘mermaid themed’ café called Seareniabay located at the town's outskirts. The last café we went to was a ‘unicorn themed’ one and so far our niece is enjoying the whimsical gastronomic experience that's why we thought it’s time to discover another hidden gem in the city of pines. My sister was the one who learned about Seareniabay Café in search for quirky and eccentric places to dine and take instagram worthy pictures at the same time. Their business hours are from 11:00AM-8:00PM daily (except Tuesdays 9:00AM-8:00PM, Monday-CLOSED). As far as I know the café just opened last October and is the first mermaid themed café in town. The place was quite challenging to find because their signage isn’t that big to easily spot. We're on the verge of giving up and just call the whole thing off since the cabbie driver couldn’t locate it thank goodness my sister was able to at least take note of the landmark she rummaged online prior to our visit. Seareniabay Café is right across Palawan Pawnshop and once you see the pawnshop, just alight or park somewhere close.

Dine like a mermaid 🧜‍♀️

The ambiance inside is definitely very 'under the sea-ish' as expected, the huge and colorful mermaid artwork on the wall will draw you in perhaps out of curiosity. They also have mason jar decors on every table half filled with sea shells wrapped in jute twine macramé, colorful clam shell napkin holders and shimmery sequined throw pillows for that nautical vibe to complete the whole ensemble. You may also hold a little photo shoot in a corner decked in a mermaid tail blankie if you feel like it. If you may ask what about the food, we'll get there of course.

For starters we had their Nachos topped with corn kernels and other veggies (chilli con carne and sour cream dip), Cookies & Cream and Choco Strawberry shakes. The sour and cream dip was good but the chilli con carne was a little dry. The Nachos were really soft and breaks easily making it difficult to scoop up the chopped veggies which was a miss in my opinion. The chopped veggies were really fresh though, very crunchy. What I loved most though more than the food was the way they serve their beverages, they use these cute mermaid tail mugs and disco ball cups, how sleek is that?  For the main course we had their Ningyo's Chicken Teriyaki and Barnacle’s Peppered Beef. The Chicken Teriyaki was very salty instead of sweet which is typical of Teriyaki dishes. The serving was good enough to stuff you which was very affordable for Php99.00 (roughly $2) per bowl. I really love their food presentation, the garnish and all, very aesthetically pleasing. The iced tea was overwhelmingly sweet as well that’s why I had to wait for the ice cubes to melt first to enjoy my drink but nevertheless the customer service was excellent. The food landed our table after a reasonable wait time and the server was really courteous, he even provided the wifi password before we asked for it and also advised us onset that the mermaid tail blankets are free for use. 

If you’re going to ask me how much your budget should be I would say at least Php200 ($4.00) per person, you can already get yourself a good serving of rice bowl meal for Php99.00 (with iced tea) plus anything for less than hundred peso for dessert like a milk shake or a cup cake perhaps. Sadly though there weren’t that many cupcakes on display during our visit probably ‘cuz they do not anticipate an influx of customers since it was a Sunday (maybe) and most items on the menu weren’t available neither such as the waffles. One of the other setback though was the location because it’s really quite challenging to find (you may try using a GPS or Waze) plus the traffic flow. Last Sunday it was between moderate to heavy because of the ongoing road repairs. If you’re looking to come by on a week day be as early as 11:00AM to enjoy the place otherwise Sunday morning would be perfect if you want to avoid the crowd. We went there on a Sunday and we were the only customers the whole time. Overall, we had a great time at Seareniabay Café because of how quirky and cute the place was plus the food are very affordable and instagram worthy as well so be prepared to take a lot of pictures. To see more of Seareniabay Café please watch the video I made below. 👇🏼

hohoho! 🎅🏻

my sister's diy holiday
coffee table set-up
@rock-a-bye-baby

DIY Christmas Decor

Having an old pine tree in the backyard always has its perks. Others would pay for a  bunch of pine cones whilst I just collect them from our backyard because they fall from the tree anyways. I have already collected a bunch of them last year and turned them into little home decors. Pine cones really look good if you have wooden fixtures at home, they exude this rustic and shabby chic vibe. Few days ago I collected about four of them and only one pine cone was open so I had to dip them in equal parts of vinegar and hot water first to clean and at the same time force open them. However, the heat from the water and the sun was insufficient so I shoved them in the microwave oven and that eventually did the trick. It was also very satisfying to see the pine cones gradually open (it felt like watching a stop-motion film lol). Anyways, I just spray painted them and attached them to the twine using hot glue as soon as the paint was dry (pine cones are very absorbent by the way). I used an old Santa Claus head from a piece of headband my niece disemboweled by cutting off its hat, I’m sorry If I made that sound so gruesome lol. The Santa is made from felt materials so it was pretty easy to put together. Afterwards, I used a chalkboard marker and drew white lines on the edges of each of the pine cones to give them that snow effect since I don’t have any white acrylic paint readily available.

Materials: 

• pine tree twigs
• pine cones
• jute twine
• hot glue
• gold spray paint
• white chalkboard marker
• any old Christmas decor 

related post:

And Then Its November

Holidaze

🍪   Skillet Cookie Recipe 🍪
sorry I forgot which website I got
this recipe from 😖

🍪  skillet cookies 🍪

I have been pretty busy with my newfound hobby—making skillet cookies.

I've been yearning to make one of those no bake cookies for a long time now but I never really took it seriously until one day I decided to give it a whirl since I just stocked up on my baking supplies and thought if I fail at least I tried lol. I stumbled upon this YouTube video on how to make skillet/no bake cookies and thought the ingredients were pretty simple aside from it's not so time consuming to make so I went ahead and prepped my ingredients, tossed the cookie dough on the skillet and  I was surprised with the quality, it's almost comparable to those baked ones and I thought that it’s a kind of alchemy. I'll share the recipe here and you can twitch it without changing the measurements. For instance, I was able to make chocolate chip cookies using the same recipe just by adding cocoa (and m&ms as toppings before the cookies totally hardens) yet the chewiness did not change that much. I also added rainbow sprinkles at one point to the cookie dough to make the cookies colorful and appealing instead of just the chocolate morsels. 

I made an attempt to make a technicolor swirl cookie as well using the exact same recipe but I wasn't happy with the outcome only because I did not chill the dough first for two hours while I should've that's why it wasn't solid enough come cutting time geez. I admit, my swirl Christmas cookie failed miserably that's why I just decided to melt whatever is left off of my chocolate morsels and slathered them on top of the cookies, added some rainbow sprinkles problem solved. 

e-Bay mishaps...

it ain't Christmas without a tree 👆🏼

Moving on, I already picked up all my eBay parcels from the post office few days ago and I'm glad they made it on time for Christmas yay! However, I must admit I made a grave mistake for not thoroughly checking the product description first before I went ahead and made my payment. One of the items I bought on eBay was this 3D looking throw pillow I put on my ‘watch list’ on a whim, paid for it because I’m running out of gift ideas then three weeks later I was surprised when I got my hands on the parcel because it was really small for a throw pillow. I thought at first it was just one of those really flimsy packed pillows that expands once opened but, after opening the parcel I was dumbfounded when I found out it was just a pillow case and not a throw pillow wtf. The second item I just picked up from the p.o was this emoji face pillow I bought for my niece for Christmas which (again) I thought was the size of another throw pillow and was aghast when I found it was the size of a plushie! Anyways, I just laughed it out, rushed online shopping always has its downsides.



The most classic eBay mishap I know was from my sister when she bought a night lamp for our niece and was apprehensive when she collected a pouch from the post office because the lamp she bought (for a really cheap price) was the size of a pinky. To make the long story short she ended up buying a ‘real’ night lamp from the hardware store.😆  We’re not new to online shopping and in fact we’ve been shopping online for roughly a decade now and I must admit I will still recommend to shop from a physical store over e-commerce websites because nothings beats the 'shop and go' scheme, just make sure to avoid the holiday rush by shopping ahead of the season. Anyhow, it's 29 days to go before Christmas, time flies.

Quirky 2018 Planner

We’re halfway through November and I still haven’t figured out what book to read next or maybe I’m just not in the mood to read lately ‘cuz I’ve been busy re-editing/re-uploading videos on Youtube. I’m so stoked with this website called Canva lately because of their awesome video thumbnail templates for YouTube. Canva also have loads of templates to choose from to make your life a whole lot easier.

2018 Planner...
Anyhow, my gift just came in through mail yesterday yay! My sister ordered couple of those Tita Witty 2018 Planners to take advantage of the free shipping deal they have online and also as a Christmas present for me since she’s not sure if her ‘actual’ present (the one she bought on eBay) will turn up on time. Actually, some of my eBay parcels are also at risk of not making it on time for Christmas because of the influx of online orders (coming from both here and abroad). I think the safest time of the year to  start shopping for Christmas prezzies would be before October or halfway through the year to give the parcels enough time to travel across countries. I know Divisoria is every pinoy’s shopping haven for affordable finds but I just don’t have the patience (and might) to travel to divi just to find stuff to buy if there’s Japan Home or Daiso etc. anyways lol.

Going back to the Tita Witty Planner, I used to own one back in 2015 (Witty Will Save The World's "Relax, Puso Lang Yan Malayo sa Bituka"Planner 2015) which I bought sometime around 2014 for Php520 and it’s just awesome the price hasn’t changed 2-3 years later. I also love how quirky and colorful they are that’s why I always look forward to their new release pretty much every year. Last month, they just released another planner called “Sana Payat na Lang Ako, Payat pa Rin, Payat na Lang Ulit” and other Wishes Planner 2018 (the one I received from my sister). It’s just exciting to own one of their planners because it’s always filled to the brim content wise plus the free sticker (how cool is that?) The concept for the planner is obviously carefully thought out and took many months to plan and make (a work of art).

If you’re interested in purchasing one you may check out their Instagram account @titawitty the link is on their bio. They also offer free shipping on orders P500 and above.  Here's a little sneak peek of Tita Witty's Witty Will Save The World “Sana Payat na Lang Ako, Payat pa Rin, Payat na Lang Ulit” and other Wishes Planner 2018👇🏼   

If you like my videos please hit like & subscribe! 👍🏼

#GirlBoss

Nasty Gal, founded by Sophia Amoruso started as a small eBay store that sells vintage clothes and accessories (under the name Nasty Gal Vintage) to earning nearly $100 million in sales within a span of six years. The success of Nasty Gal also paved way to #GIRLBOSS, Sophia’s autobiography which accounts how she became a successful entrepreneur.

About the author.

Sophia Amoruso was diagnosed with ADD (attention deficit disorder) and depression during her adolescent years which was the reason why she dropped out from school and began homeschooling. Her first job as a teenager was at Subway (sandwiches) and many other jobs thereafter which were just short-lived. At 23, she started selling stuff on eBay and her first sale was a book she stole. Sophia is an artistic young adult with a flair for photography and fashion which later on worked to her advantage. She took thrifting to a whole new level.  She was a one-woman-business at first and did everything from styling her models down to packing and shipping her items. One of the most expensive stuff she sold on eBay was an original Chanel jacket she sold for $2500. Sophia’s ladder to success wasn’t easy because as her career on eBay is beginning to take flight, other eBay sellers, possibly envious of her success, conspired and reported her for violating eBay policies.

Nasty Gal’s success and downfall.

Sophia claimed she left eBay because as per policy they do not allow sellers (like herself) to leave a negative feedback against buyers no matter how unfair some customers are. To make matters worse, other eBay sellers accused her of ‘shill-bidding’ (that she was allegedly in ‘cahoots’ with another eBay seller to manipulate her product’s bidding price) and also for adding external links to her eBay site  which is another violation of eBay policies (although other sellers were also guilty of such practice). Sophia denied these allegations though.  Her disappointments with eBay also served as an impetus for her to launch her own website called Nasty Gal. It was a risky move but since she already gained a huge following (through her avid customers who followed her when she left eBay) she went ahead bravely launched her very own e-Commerce site. 

Nasty Gal became a huge success for many years because Sophia worked her ass off to build her empire considering she doesn’t have any formal business background just 100% passion. Nasty Gal’s revenue sky rocketed from $223,000 (2008) to almost $23 million in 2011 which landed her as one of the richest self-made women in the world by Forbes last year. It wasn’t really an easy path because Sophia started out her young adult life broke and hopped from one job to another and at one point worked at the San Francisco's Academy of Arts University just to get a health insurance and have her hernia treated. Sophia quit her job at the Academy thereafter to follow her heart’s desire, to be her own boss by selling vintage items on eBay since she despised the idea of working for corporations. However, the company filed for bankruptcy last February and Boohoo Group bought Nasty Gal for $20 million. According to analysts, Nasty Gal’s downfall were attributed to lack in product quality which then led to customer dissatisfaction and heavy spending in advertising and marketing.

Girlboss on Netflix.

I was really squeamish to know what happened to Nasty Gal after I finished the book so I scoured Google and was shocked when I found out that Sophia already stepped down as CEO last February. I also found out that Netflix even had a series based on the book however, due to Nasty Gal’s insolvency, Netflix had to cancel the show and eventually only lasted for one season. I thought the show was alright though except they portrayed Sophia like a sociopath or some girl with anger issues lol. 

SO, what’s my take on the book? 

I thought it’s very inspiring and quite addicting to read (except the business stuff during the latter part when Nasty Gal is gradually becoming a corporation). it’s very interesting as well how Sophia worked her way up from being a one-woman-company to a millionaire. I learned so many things about the book from personal finance, feminism, to being a non-conformist, to doing something that you’re passionate about down to the magic of mind-power and optimism just to name a few. Anyways, let me share some of my favorite excerpts from the book:

Sophia Amoruso
photo from Google

“Abandon anything about your life and habits that might be holding you back. Learn to create your own opportunities. Know that there is no finish line; fortune favors action. Race balls-out toward the extraordinary life that you’ve always dreamed of, or still haven’t had time to dream up. And prepare to have a hell of a lot of fun along the way."

“Chaos magic is the idea that a particular set of beliefs serves as an active force in the world. In other words, we choose what and how we believe, and our beliefs are tools that we then use to make things happen . . . or not.”

“I also think you can end up ignoring, and even losing, the positive things in your life by focusing too much on the negative. That’s a huge drain, as well as a waste of time”

Ah oh, I particularly like the part when Sophia spoke for all the “introverts” (myself included). She also cited that psychologists now believe that social media is a really valuable tool which allows introverts to convey and communicate in their own terms. Here are some of the things that Sophia mentioned about introverts which resonated to me:

“A lot of the world’s great artists, thinkers, and even businesspeople are and were introverts (Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, and J. K. Rowling, to name a few), so in no way does being an introvert doom you into a life in the shadows.”

“Introverts are naturally more sensitive because they don’t need a ton of dopamine, the “feel-good” neurotransmitter that your brain produces in response to positive stimuli. 

“There’s a certain freedom to being an outsider. You do what you want, say what you want, and move on when you’ve worn out your welcome.”

(so true 👆🏼)

As of last August, Sophia Amoruso was reported to have raised $1.2 million to grow Girlboss Media, her new venture. Girlboss Media include an editorial website, Girlboss.com, and an email newsletter to promote the website content which focuses on personal finance, beauty and fitness.

And Then Its November

It’s 51 days to go before Christmas and my eBay haul is still ongoing. I already picked up one of my parcels last week from the post office and I’m still waiting for a few more to turn up possibly before the end of this month or the latest, early next month. I hope someday the turnaround time for goods purchased abroad will be cut short to just a couple of weeks instead of 1-2 months. I'm also not happy with the fees currently being imposed by the post office for imported goods because it totally defeats the purpose of 'free postage' from international sellers. I often buy stuff on eBay because of how affordable they are just to be charged a hefty P112 ($2USD and some change) at the post office per parcel (yes it is hefty because the parcels I bought online only cost less than five bucks a piece lol).  if you’re going to ask me why I still buy stuff overseas my answer is simple—I enjoy cashless shopping and eBay is a haven for quirky and eccentric finds that’s all. 

~All Saints and Souls Day.

November won't be complete without All Saints and All Souls' day as it is the only time of the year where everyone gets the chance to visit their dearly departed ones since it is a non-working holiday. I am thankful that my Mom's urn is nestled inside a columbarium since it's never crowded there compared to cemeteries and we get to frequently visit her. It's also convenient that the columbarium is housed at the back of the church which made it even more accessible. I know not everyone in a country like the Philippines is open to the idea of cremation and majority still prefer to lay their loved ones to rest inside a casket, all in one piece which I totally understand considering the cost of cremation and niches nowadays. However, the thought that you could visit your departed loved ones all year round is always worth it. 

~Halloween School Break.

Moving on, since school is out, my sibs and I decided to take our niece to interesting grub spots in the city of Pines to take advantage of her break from school. We just would like to scour pretty much all the holes in the wall the city has to offer just for kicks and also to pretty much round up all the freak shake spots in town and see which ones are worth coming back to. 

Ze Creamery

Is the home of monster burgers and freak shakes located in Baguio's outskirts. It's not easy to locate if you're not a local though because it's not along the road. We skirted Legarda road twice before we found it and the best landmark would be V Hotel since it's pretty much just across.

The café is housed at the ground level of what looks to be a condominium building in Bukaneg St., Legarda. They do not have many parking slots available and we're just lucky to chance upon one during our visit. Ze Creamery isn't as spacious which is why their social media accounts indicates that a reservation must be made first prior to your visit otherwise they won't be able to accommodate everyone. We sat near the entrance door during our visit because that's the only space left able to accommodate all four of us which was quite an awkward spot. I have already checked out their menu online beforehand that's why we pretty much already have an idea what to order. 

Since we already grabbed lunch prior, we just had their monster fries which I think is just good for two pax, couple of baby freak shakes and two regular sized freak shakes.  I loved their monster fries though, the dip was oh so good. Their baby freak shakes are literally baby sized which I definitely recommend if you have a child in tow. Their freak shakes are definitely Instagram worthy as expected, the presentation was not sloppy compared to other freak shakes we've tried where the melting ice cream drips all over the mason jar. The good thing about Ze Creamery, they serve their freak shakes before they even start melting. The red velvet freak shake I had looks more like a dessert ordered off from a four star hotel's menu, very aesthetically pleasing. Taste-wise it wasn't as sweet and is just on the alright level, not really to die for. My niece though wasn't happy with her strawberry shortcake baby freak shake because the sweetness was overwhelming. 

If you're looking to visit Ze Creamery I  highly suggest be an early bird (before lunchtime at least) since they open at 10AM. Any (rainy) week day would be the best time to visit them because generally most establishments are like ghost town in Baguio few hours after they open so a reservation won't be necessary. We just decided to swing by a little past 10AM yet it was almost a full house since it was All Saints Day. 

The Unicorn Dream Café

Our house almost caught fire the night before due to a single unattended candle my sister lit for All Souls Day but thank God we doused the fire on time and still managed to swing by at the Unicorn Café as planned.

The Unicorn Café is located walks away from The Coffee Library in Upper Bonifacio. It was peculiar though why it's even called 'Upper' considering it's downhill. Anyways, the whole café is unicorn themed from the walls, stuft toys, headbands, throw pillows down to their food menu. I also read somewhere the café is fairly new since they just opened few months ago yet they're making noise in such a short period of time probably it's 'cuz their theme is very unique. My niece couldn't contain her happiness and was giddy and all the moment she set foot inside the colorful café what more when she tasted the food. Since we visited few days after halloween, the staff gave my niece couple of freebies (a pack of candies and a pink balloon with 'happy halloween' on it). We even teased her we didn't know it's her birthday that day lol.  

the whole unicorn syndrome stick
with me thus inspired me to make
  these homemade rainbow pancakes
topped with rainbow sprinkles. 

We arrived at around eleven past in the morning and we were the only ones there that time that's why we were able to unabashedly snap some photos. We took pictures for a good ten minutes before we placed our orders and the service was surprisingly swift for three tediously decorated freak shakes. We had their 'premium freak shakes' a.k.a 'monster freak shakes' and they were all good. The 'Unicorn Scratch' freak shake btw is to die for. We also tried their colorful group Nachos (which in my gauge is good enough for 3-4 pax), we had a hard time devouring the whole plate. It took me a while though to finish my jar because the sugar from the candy toppings alone will send you to sugar coma lol. The donut which helped hold all the candy toppings together was sweet enough to sort of neutralize everything. Overall, The Unicorn Dream Café by far serves the best freak shakes I've had in the summer capital of the PH. Annnnd, before I end this blog, I made a YouTube video compilation of some of Baguio's best food joints and freak shakes haven.  

Scariest Horror Movies Of All Time

Happy Halloween! I’m actually running out of horror movies to watch these days because there’s just too many of them  yet only 2 out 10 is scary enough most of the time to cause me sleepless nights. Anyways as promised, here goes my random list of the most scary movies I’ve seen so far and I’m looking forward to add more titles to this list.

1. The Haunted (1991) - It was mid 1980’s when the Smurl family moved to their Victorian family home in Pittston, Pennsylvania and found it is home to many poltergeists. I first watched this movie when I was in grade school or early high school as far as I recall and it scared me to my wits. 
2. The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005) - a failed exorcism resulted to the death of a young lady from a devout Catholic family named Emily Rose.  The movie delved on whether or not Emily died because she wasn’t given the appropriate medical treatment she required or if she was really possessed by demonic spirits. 
3. The Exorcist (1973) - The movie that made Linda Blair famous. The Exorcist is all about a nice young girl who suddenly started  acting strange and manifested behaviors similar to that of being possessed by demonic spirits. 
4. The Others (2001) - A woman and her two kids is being haunted by ghosts in their massive mansion. 
5. The Sixth Sense (1999) - The movie is all about a little boy’s scary encounters with ghosts. 
6. 13 Ghosts (2001) - A man lost his wife from a fire inherited riches from his estranged wealthy uncle. One of which is a huge glass house with trapped souls of the most demented ghosts. 
7. The Eye (2002) HK - 20 year old violinist named Mun from Hong Kong after an eye transplant started seeing ghosts and inexplicable figures tasked to accompany the spirits of those who are about to die. 
8. Crimson Peak (2015) - “beware of Crimson Peak” a warning from Edith’s ghost mother which only made sense many years later after she married a man his father isn’t very fond of. 
9. The Conjuring 1 (2013); The Conjuring 2 (2016) - The Perrons and their five daughters moved into a desolate farmhouse inhabited by poltergeists. 
10. Annabelle (2014) -  This is a subtle version of Chucky. Mia received a porcelain doll as present from his husband because they’re expecting a baby, little did they know the doll is inhabited by an evil spirit. 
11. It (2017) - Pennywise, a bloodthirsty, shape-shifting clown/demon that sprouts from the sewer every 27 years to terrorize the town's children. 
12. Insidious (2010); Insidious Chapter 2 (2013); Insidious Chapter 3 (2015) - it’s a movie sequel about different cases and encounters with poltergeists. 
13. The Crucifixion (2017) - a failed exorcism resulted to a death of a nun. 
14. Yoga (2009) S. Korea - a group of women went to a yoga institute longing to find inner peace or achieve “Kundalini” but they all found something dreadful in the end. 
15. Muoi (2007) S. Korea - a Korean journalist flew to Vietnam to write a book about “Muoi” little did she know Muoi’s portrait is cursed. 
16. Alone/Fad (2007) Thai - Ploy is being haunted by the vengeful spirit of her twin sister Pim. 
17. Dark Water (2002) Japanese - a woman in the middle of divorce rented a ramshackle apartment with her little girl. They found out the apartment is being haunted by a little girl's ghost. 
18. Ring (1998) Japanese - Who doesn’t know Sadako right? a videotape filled with nightmarish images leads to a phone call foretelling the viewer's death in exactly seven days. (wikipedia)
19. Phone/Hanggul (2002) S. Korea - A successful family man had an affair with a high school girl, his wife found out and killed her husband’s young mistress. The murdered school girl became an angry ghost and began haunting their daughter.
20. Constantine (2005) - John, a man who vanquishes demons helped in the investigation of a woman’s identical twin's suicide and later on became immersed in the supernatural world.
21. Drag Me To hell (2009) - a young woman who works at the bank is squeamish to get promoted declined an old woman another extension to her loan, she was cursed by the old lady for putting her to shame.
22. The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016) - A body of a young woman was taken to a man and his son’s funeral home and they found out that the corpse cannot be disemboweled because the woman’s body is protected by a curse.
23. Shutter (2004) Thai - a photographer is being haunted by a ghost of his former fling. 
24. The Other Side of The Door (2016) - A couple who owns an antique business in India lost their son to a car accident. The mother, guilty over the death of her son resorted to black magic to be able to communicate with him.
25. The Boy (2016) - an old couple hired a young woman as nanny, the nanny found out that the boy she’ll be caring for is not actually human but a doll. 
26. Train to Busan (2016) S. Korea - Seoul was infected by a virus which turns every one who gets bitten into a zombie. Unfortunately, an infected individual snuck into the train headed to Busan and all hell broke lose. 
27. 4bia/Phobia (2008) Thai - The movie is divided into 4 parts: Loneliness, Deadly Charm, The Man in the Middle & Flight 244.
28. Dek Hor/ The Dorm (2006) Thai - a middle school boy was sent to a dormitory by her cheating father and later on became friends with a ghost of a former student. 
29. Interview with the Vampire (2004) - A bicentennial vampire recounts his story to a biographer. 
30. Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) - vampire couple named Eve and Adam (yes indeed) are rich vampires who often travels from one country to another and thrives with the living. 
31. Thirst (2009) S. Korea  - A priest died after he was infected with Emmanuel Virus (EV) and a blood transfusion sent him back to life as a vampire. 
32. Let the Right One In (2009) | Swedish romantic horror film - a vampire young girl became friends with a little boy who’s being bullied in school. 
33. Pride and Prejudice & Zombies (2016) - a plague turned vast number of human population to zombies. Zombie slayers Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth set their differences aside to combat the living dead. 
34. Warm Bodies (2013) - A plague turned majority of the human population to zombies. A zombie named “R” fell in love (at first sight) with a human. R was cured along with many others and turned human again. 
35. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) | British-American musical period horror film directed by Tim Burton - Sweeney Todd’s wife and baby daughter were taken by a powerful Judge, fifteen years later he came back to get his revenge. The film is very gothic with a lot of singing involved.
36. Beetlejuice (1988) -  a comedy/horror/gothic/musical film about a mischievous ghost named Beetlejuice. Lydia, a teenage girl and her family moved in to the house still inhabited by the spirits of a couple who died prematurely. This movie isn’t really scary, I just added it to this list because it’s a pretty cool movie with quirky supernatural creatures.
37. The Corpse Bride (2005) | British-American stop-motion-animated musical fantasy film - Victoria, a murdered ghost bride in a tattered wedding gown is persistent to marry Victor (who’s due to marry Victoria through an arranged marriage) because she was killed before she got to marry her beloved after they eloped.  
38. Coraline (2009) | American 3D stop-motion dark fantasy horror film by Henry Selick - Coraline and her old parents recently moved to the Pink Apartments. While roaming around the house Coraline discovered a small door which leads to an alternate world where everything is pretty much the same except it’s a lot more colorful and her parents have button eyes. The movie is an adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s book of the same title. 
39. Sleepy Hallow (1999) | American Gothic supernatural horror film directed by Tim Burton - a headless horseman sends a bloody rampage on Sleepy Hollow. 
40. Frankenweenie (2012) American 3D stop-motion-animated fantasy horror comedy film directed by Tim Burton - A little boy lost his dog Sparky after it was hit by a car. A Science experiment though successfully revived the dog but it’s never the same anymore. 

Moving on, since today is Halloween, my sibs and I decided to deck our house for the occasion to give it that horror house vibe. I even created a Spotify playlists to complete the whole ensemble lol. Happy trick or treating folks!

Franken-tastic

Halloween is coming up so I guess it’s just fitting to talk about scary stuff such as movies.


A haunted house in Winchester...

Winchester: The House That Ghosts Built is not due to hit the theaters until February next year 2018 and I can’t wait. I’ve read about the Winchester house long before and I never thought a movie will be brewing many years later. Winchester: The House That Ghosts Built is based on a true story about one of the most haunted places in the world, the Winchester house located in northern California and I find the trailer is scary enough to entice horror movie fans like myself. I do not know the full  story behind the Winchester house but as far as I know it was inhabited by malevolent spirits and the owner wanted to confuse them that’s why she had stairs built leading nowhere and tons of doors oddly constructed serving no purpose. I think I might’ve seen it on TV (Ripley’s Believe It Or Not as far as I can remember) and I was perplexed because the house was massive, what a waste of space and money to turn it into something totally unusable. I still cannot wrap my head around the concept up until now really because spirits levitate in the first place and is able to pass through walls so the idea of confusing them is useless. Anyways, I’m just squeamish to know how the movie will turn out. 

Speaking of horror movies, I’m thinking of making a dedicated blog to list down my favorite horror movies/recommended horror flicks of all time. For now let me share a couple of my faves. 

THE CRUCIFIXION (2017)

British-Romanian Horror Film
(True Story)
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Father Dmitru and the four nuns present were sentenced seven years in prison for the death of a nun after a failed exorcism in Romania. This movie reminds me of this equally scary flick The Exorcism of Emily Rose which also resulted to the death of a person. The nun became depressed after seeing one of the elderly priests committed suicide by jumping off the monastery’s rooftop and later on started behaving oddly (talking in tongues, talking to no one etc.) reminiscent of a person being possessed by evil spirits. She died during an exorcism ritual which then led to the priest’s incarceration for murder. 

Nicole Rawlins, a journalist, who also happened to be a skeptic and an atheist flew all the way to Romania to investigate on the murder. Nicole, while investigating the sensational case also experienced creepy and peculiar things which she herself found inexplicable. She became acquainted with Father Anton who told her she’s very susceptible to demonic possession because she doesn’t have faith in God which will serve as her only ammunition against evil spirits. True enough Nicole was  possessed by an evil spirit and Father Anton did a successful exorcism ritual on her.

The movie ended with Nicole looking at a photo of her and possibly her sister before she leave Romania (which made me conclude could be the possible reason why she became a skeptic, something tragic might’ve happened in the past which triggered her pessimism although this is  just my assumption since the ending was quite a cliffhanger). The Crucifixion by far is one of the best horror movies I’ve seen in a while after countless nonsense Hollywood horror movies in such a long period of time. It was dark and non-pretentious creepy. It did not lurk behind scary movie trailers just to be disappointed in the end once you see the actual film. Not as scary as Insiduous but it’s worth watching. To check out the real story behind this movie please go here.

***

The Others (2001)

Spanish-American supernatural gothic horror film
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 

• Nicole Kidman as Grace Stewart - a devout catholic; mother of Anne & Nicholas
• Alakina Mann as Anne Stewart
• James Bentley as Nicholas Stewart
• Fionnula Flanagan as Bertha Mills 
• Elaine Cassidy as Lydia
• Eric Sykes as Edmund Tuttle

The story began post WWII, Grace hired Bertha Mills, Lydia and Edmund as helpers in her humongous house. During the tour of the house Bertha was perplexed why Grace demand all the doors shut/locked one after the other and all curtains drawn. According to Grace her kids Anne and Nicholas are badly allergic to sunlight thus explains why she wants all curtains drawn because they are having rashes once exposed to sun beams. Grace, a devout Catholic, home-schooled and teaches both her kids herself. Grace’s husband is a soldier who hasn’t come home in years. 

Anne often scares Nicholas because she’s fond of telling stories about ghosts and as punishment Grace would often ask her to read the bible for misbehaving. Anne also often talks about Victor, a ghost of a little boy who wants them to leave because he claims his family own the house which Grace of course would often dismiss until series of peculiar things started happening which drove her crazy such as strange noises, doors left ajar, music from the piano even if there's no one there etc. The final straw which jarred Grace’s sanity was when her kids woke up one day with all the curtains dismantled. Grace ended up firing all of her helpers because no one would like to take accountability for what happened. 

Fast forward,  I was under the impression the whole time that Grace, her kids and her helpers were amongst the living just to be jolted in the end to find they already perished from Tuberculosis and that ‘the others’ pertains to them being the ghosts who exist alongside the living. I also found that Victor (the little boy Anne is pertaining to) was the son of the new house owners. Bertha in the end also divulged to Grace she’s been waiting for the chance to tell her about what happened but she was afraid Grace won’t accept the truth so she just let things unfold on its own. The film ended wth Victor’s family leaving and the house will be eventually ‘for sale’ again.

I thought this film was brilliant because it was written from a ghost’s perspective which is not very common since most scary movies are written from the accounts of the living which is often biased.  What also made the film scary was when it incorporated non-fiction stuff to it such as veracity of those creepy post mortem photographs during the Victorian era. I also read before out of curiosity at one point with post mortem photography that, such dreadful photographs cost a fortune (sounds  even more dingbat to me).  Anyways, The Others scared me to my wits as much as The Sixth Sense. 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️  - highly recommended

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️      - somewhat highly recommended

⭐️⭐️⭐️          - it was alright.

⭐️⭐️              - nah.
⭐️                  - waste of time.