tad bit of everything: 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: