It will be almost a year now since I started baking last January. I'm very pleased with the many things I've learned about it and I'm simply thankful for the opportunities God has blessed me with.
God is good!!! He gave hubby and me another year together. It was a quiet October 20th for both of us and we just stayed home while I tried to finish his fondant birthday cake -- Caramel Cake. Since I forgot to buy blue food color, I ended up creating a lavender fondant (MMF or marshmallow fondant) cake and had fun with my new Wilton cookie and fondant cutters -- haha!
they are more known for. We ordered Chessy Cheesy Chicken (for me) and Pesto Crusted Chicken -- both new recipes. The rice was a disaster (soggy) and the pesto chicken was blah! However, we are thankful for the opportunity to celebrate together in a nice resto. We just wished we ordered pasta instead.
brought the cake. Thank you Tita Doe and everyone at the office for a nice and very sweet gesture to my ver
y special hubby! 
I am halfway toward accomplishing one short-term goal -- re-paint the house! After more than six years of being bright yellow, I decided it was time to change color and go crazy!
of stock) evolved into Vivid Rose-Burger Brown-Tasty Tan. I painted our entire tiny bedroom in 4 hours (with snacks in between), and finished off the stripes on our living room's main wall. We still have shelves to install and stereo speakers to re-arrange. I will paint the rest after our Baguio festival next week.
Have 
a colorful viewing!
People have pet peeves, and it's normal. Mine usually have something to do with principles of life and common decency. One pet peeve my hubby and I often encounter is public establishments that do not give us our due change -- as in, "sukli".
Hubby and I went to one of our favorite malls, The Podium, to relax after watching a church concert. It's a higher class mall so it naturally smells better, looks better and feels better. With such standards, we expected even movie signs to be up to par. Oh well, were we mistaken!
If you're really into signs (and what they really mean), check out the book "The World's Stupidest Signs" by Michael O'Mara Books Ltd. in bookstores or at http://www.mombooks.com/html/humour.php.
Yes! My garage sale was a success -- almost everything was sold (roughly 90+%). I'm thankful to Tess, Tony and the kids for allowing me to use their "garage" for my sale last Saturday. Ria (their 6-year old daughter) kept me company the whole time and always stayed nearby whenever someone would come in and browse. She also helped me cope with my boredom during the lulls in between sales. Gian (their middle son) and his classmates, meanwhile, distributed all my 600 fliers in the village after school. Now that really helped!
Most of the stuff you see in the photos are no longer with me (thank God!). I loved it that most of the people who came were in disbelief upon seeing the items in good condition and their selling price. I sold our 36-pc dining dishes for only P100, our Black & Decker iron for P30, a set of nice glasses (6-pc) and an 8-pc cup and saucer set for P35 each, good Tupperware pitchers for P30 each, etc. A lot of items I also priced at only P1-P10!
I told hubby that that was my 5th garage sale. He said he enjoyed watching me sell our stuff, since it was the first time he saw me "in action" in a garage sale. And since I consider myself a young "veteran" in the biz (as if...), here are some pointers I learned to assure success in any garage sale:
Aside from the 600 fliers we printed and distributed, I also placed an announcement in our clubhouse bulletin board 5 days before the sale. Two weeks before the sale is too early and people will tend to forget about it; 2 days before the sale may not give people enough time to even see the annoucement or prepare for the sale. Tess also helped me with a text brigade announcement to her friends and contacts within the village 3 days before the sale. Lastly, I posted a recycled streamer announcement the day before the sale, to make sure that people who received the fliers or saw the announcement knew where to go. Remember, your garage sale is only as good as the people who come and actually buy stuff.
It was a big help that Tess' place is located on the main road, 2nd house from the school near the village entrance. I didn't even consider doing the sale in our house because the location was not "strategic". Passers-by had the chance to see the streamer, just browse around and eventually end up buying stuff. I mean, who can refuse a used pair of Reeboks for only P10?
I learned a lot about this from my stint at Cinderella's, but mostly from my personal experience shopping. I do know the psychology of product display (especially in supermarkets) and I applied it to my sale.
That's right...our comfy red sofa went straight to the dogs! Peanut claimed her "place" on the sofa the moment she came to us. She feels it's her second bed, right on my lap, that she snarls at Toepy whenever she (Toepy) gets near it.
And just when we started to relax with our breakfast, he jumped on to the sofa and tried several positions on it, as if it was the softest bed on dog-earth! We were too dumbfounded to react right away -- Beans was just too huge on the sofa, but he looked so cute!
Yes! I finally got my hair re-bonded, for the first time ever!!! Let me allay your fears, cousin Alex :-). My hair is baby soft (ahem! cough..cough..) and longer by a full inch. Plus, I didn't spend a fortune but got a certified (L'oreal) and experienced stylist to do it for me - at home! Thanks to my friends and their friends, my hair is now less of a pain and more of an asset, though my expression hardly shows it (photo taken at camp). Sigh...
each shelf until I found this Squeezed 4 U - funny name.
I know, it sounds like an ad. And you can call it that, since I totally endorse this optical shop - Star Finder -- located on the 2nd level (counting the "basement" as 1st level) of Festival Mall in Alabang (and another near BF Paranaque). We usually take the entrance with Figaro, and from there head to the left (past NB and Bayo). Just a few short steps and you'll see their sign on the right with some Korean characters. I guess it's safe to assume that it is owned by Koreans.
It was the birthday of our friend Tita Doe last July 22. To give her some smiles on her special day (actually, the day after), I baked her a banana muffin topped with chocolate frosting and sugar decor. She was the one who took the photos with her camera phone (thanks, T. Doe!). I would have wanted it to be much bigger but I was not able to get a bigger muffin cup. Anyway, I had fun doing it (after baking several batches of muffins for sale) and wrapping it up in a special muffin clear box with ribbons. I had to be very careful with it, though, since the frosting tended to stick on to the clear plastic. On her next birthday, I hope to be able to give her something "bigger" - we'll see...
I just thought I'd photograph some of the food we've had the past couple of days. Hubby and I love our version of Chinese Fried Rice. This, of course, is not unique, but it's pretty special since we usually cook this together. My arms tire easily so hubby does the heavy mixing. We got the idea from the Chinese fried rice we love to order whenever we are in Malaysia. Only this time, we made it tastier (eg. not just adding boiled chicken pieces, but actually cooking them in a barbecue marinade and then frying) and "busog sa sangkap" (fried dulong, chicken, egg, green peas, carrots and corn).
And then I baked banana muffins to try to sell at our friend's store. It turns out that our friend (Tess) sold it to our members after church
. So, they got sold out before they even reached her store.
The only "problem" with baking all these stuff is...there's none left for us! I always end up selling them so I would usually find myself hungry afterwards and looking for cookies or banana muffins. Oh well...such is life with a business...
Hubby would always say Peanut is "maka-mommy". I would agree simply because Minpins are known to be a one-person dog. Since she is a gift from hubby to me and I spend most times with her, that "one person" really has to be me.
The sweet advantage of learning to bake is that I can satisfy my cravings without having to buy stuff at the grocery. As long as I have the basics (flour, baking soda, etc.), I can bake something sweet any time. And that's what I did!
I, along with my sis and late mom, are neat freaks and feel easily queasy in damp, smelly and dirty surroundings. Well, I can almost "see" my mom turning in her grave when we got little Peanut.
I love banana bread! Since I began baking, I have been twitching and playing around with some recipes to come up with that one loaf that I really like. Well, I did it ;-)! I sold one loaf to our friend Tess (a.k.a. baking Gunea Pig) and she loved it.
It was a good day to finally take Peanut on her first trip to Tiendesitas. It's a shame that there are no other "malls" that allow pets to stroll inside with their people. She was on her best behavior and did not tug at her leash the way she usually does in other places. She also was not not bothered at all by the puppies that barked at her from their steel cages.
I told her that she would meet some "friends" there, and that she did. She met a female brindle Dachsund and eagerly approached her to do her usual "sniff at the butt". It was funny that the little Dachsund's people did not know that this was a normal thing for dogs when they want to get to know each other. While we may be turned off by butt-sniffing, it's different in the dog world. I do believe I heard the handler say "Ay, bastos." Hmmm...dog owners and wannabes out there, please do your research before even thinking of having a dog. We owe it to them to treat them right.
And then I saw the Pug of my dreams (photo at left)...a cute black Pug pup with the flattest face I've seen on this breed so far. He took to me right away and basically told me to take him home. Sigh...I had to stay several minutes more and think of a name for him.
I then saw the perfect Chowchow for my Hubby. He keeps holding on to the name "Precatoria" (ask him about it) in case he gets another dog. But after seeing the photos taken of the Chow (left), he decided that "Precatoria" didn't suit him, but a Roman name. Duh? By the way, both the Pug and the Chow cost P18k -- cough, cough!What a thrill! My hubby got to invite Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines, Reynato Puno, to speak at their Men's Conference in Tagaytay (theme was "More of Jesus"). As my hubby will blog about soon (visit his site compassionateconsiderations@wordpress.com ), Justice Puno was his "classmate" at the Haggai Institute in Singapore a few years back and was his groupmate (with all the Filipino attendees) as well. The short of it is, I tagged along on the first day of the conference just to see and hear Justice Puno speak. At the end, after the "official photos", hubby introduced me to him and as we shook hands, he pulled me forward and gave me the "beso-beso". And I was the one privileged to receive it -- just meeee!!! Oops, allow me to gloat for a while.
Unfortunately, I don't have photographical proof of that beso - just witnesses who went green with envy --haha, kidding! I will post our group photo, though, as soon as my hubby gets hold of them.
I felt a thrill because such an esteemed man is so down-to-earth! It was really a privilege to have met him, if even for a short moment. I will pray for him.
I just recently "expanded" and "professionalized" my baking operations (sounds major, huh?) by re-designing my Velvet Confections logo (to fit the new packaging and market) and re-designing its packaging. I'm also happy to announce that you can now get my Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies and Healthy Oatmeal Cookies at Ming's Garden (Silang, Cavite, en route to Tagaytay) and Rowena's, also along the road to Tagaytay. I promise you'll love it, as my husband says.
We had the pleasure of having our young friend Jomel stay with us again for one night two weekends ago. Hubby wasted no time in assigning him to cook "tinolang manok" (chicken soup with green papaya). Jomel did not hesitate at all and confidently cooked one of his masterpieces. He claimed that his tinola is to die for, since he's Kapampangan. Well, I must agree with him -- haha! At the end of the meal, hubby had to admit that Jomel's tinola was better than his. Oh well, no matter -- I like hubby's tinola too...mwah! Thanks for the treat, Joms!
I baked a caramel cake with buttercream icing for our friend Tess’s 41st birthday (oops! She may not want me to say this). I made two mid-sized cakes just as a contingency, in case one turns out funny. The caramel swirls and “flowers” were made of caramel sauce mixed with confectioner’s sugar, cooled. It was a “guess-what-will-happen” design since I wasn’t sure yet how the random caramel drippings would look. I think it looks quite artistic, if I may say so myself.
