pretty and calm

I'm more of a neutral girl when it comes to interior design and paints.

I'm more inclined with mocha, taupe, sand, gray

even in clothing I prefer blacks and grays. whereas when I was younger I love bright popping colors. hmm.. sign of aging?? noooooooo...

but I'm beginning to appreciate pastel colors that are soft and girly.

of course this is through the influence of my design partner Suzette who is overly obsessed with pastels and Parisian designs.

here are a few of my inspirations that made me all giddy with pastels.

look at the pretty colors!

 you can deny it all you want, but every girl had that pink phase 

(the love-hate relationship with the color pink)

Girl bonding: SPA TIME

A couple of weeks ago I went back to Manila to celebrate my sister's birthday. And to have some girl bonding time with my favorite cousin in the whole wide world, Janna, whose birthday happen to fall on the same week I'd be in Manila.

She wanted to try to have a nice massage after her hectic schedule and her stressful week. She is by the way a registered nurse and she works as a rescue crew (like a paramedic, I guess) and a clinic nurse at the same time. Nice huh?

Anyway, back to our bonding moment. I'm not a spa addict unlike my friends so i just knew just a couple  of Spa in Manila, and since she told me she's on a budget I asked my friend Kat for any suggestions. She gave a lot, but we decided to try NUAT THAI in Tomas Morato, Quezon City.

We were thinking of how to get there through commuting but we needed to take a lot of jeepney and bus rides to get there so we decided to take a cab.

the birthday girl and me!

Art is fun

Lang is one of the author of design street, she is in charge of the graphic arts we’ve been posting under art-e lang, She’s an HRM graduate turned graphic artist. I really didn’t saw the connection at first but when I visited one of her uncle’s place, where she also grew up, I knew why.

The place was full of artistic stuff. May it be just a simple baboo or coconut shell it becomes art.

Coconut shells carved with faces. All lined up.

Whipped cream disaster

I haven't posted for quite a while, and i'd like to apologize for that. So here's my newest entry.

I know the title is not so optimistic, but trust me there is a rainbow after the rain. Hihi..

So me and my friends, my design street friends, were suppose to be joining a some kind of a street fair here and we were going to sell cupcakes and cookies. But unfortunately the fair was cancelled. :(

I was up till three in the morning baking my contribution for the supposedly fair. Well, my fault since I started really late. I baked cherry Coke cupcakes and milky malt cupcakes which I'll be posting here really soon. I also made additional fondant topper for our chocolate cupcakes with fondant topper variety. 

I did this last so by then I was a little tired and sleepy.. 

I did the rest of the red angry bird toppers that I have prepared the day before and was ready to make the blue one since it is the easiest when I realized I took the wrong fondant bucket. The bucket contains no white fondant or blue, but only pink!

So I tried doing the new character of the angry birds which is the pink, a girl.

It was a little complicated because of the eyelids and the lashes but...

Pintrest-ing!!

I'm officially addicted!!!

I heard about Pinterest quite some time now but I haven't had time to check it out,

until yesterday! (yes just yesterday.. i'm so late..)

and since then I've been pinning non stop.. hehe

Pintest shows you what you like and makes you very inspired!

what's more, the images are linked to the source and makes you read a lot more stuff about it.

and yes I already linked my blog to Pinterest so you can now follow me through Pinterest (just click the button up there.. ) ^__^

make your own account in Pinterest here

trust me you'll love it!

enjoy! ^__^

T

High Hat Cupcake

I spent my Sunday once again with making some cupcakes!

i found this recipe  and tried it myself.

here's how:

I prepared all the ingredients

with this one I'll be needing a lot of eggs.

I sift all the dry ingredients first

then in a separate bowl I mixed all the liquid ingredients

then I mixed the liquid ingredients with the dry one

place it in cupcake trays

baked for 20 minutes

and viola!

first step done..

Now the tricky part..

I bring the sugar, water and corn syrup to a boil reaching 387 deg F

whipped the egg whites until it forms firm shiny peaks

add the syrup to the egg whites, then vanilla and continue util it cooled down a little.

scoop the mixture into a pipe bag and make coils

there.. so many...

coat the tops with melted chocolate..

and there you have it..

HIGH HAT CUPCAKES!

if you wish to try it here's the recipe from the barmy baker page:

or visit this blog site: the barmy baker

Chocolate Blackout Cake (makes 20 cupcakes, or one nice 9x12" pan o' cake)

2 cups sugar

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup cocoa powder (natural, not dutch-processed)

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup buttermilk

4 ounces melted butter

1 cup brewed coffee (I used instant espresso powder in one cup boiling water)

3 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350f

-Prepare 2 muffin tins by lining with 20 or 21 muffin liners.-This is just like making a quick bread. Sift the dry ingredients together into a mixing bowl.

-Mix together the wet ingredients, Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until combined. This will be a fairly wet batter.

-Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tins, filling until about a quarter of an inch from the top of the liner.

-Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the cakes spring back when lightly pressed with a finger.

-Remove from oven, let cool in pan about 10 minutes and then finish cooling on a rack. Place the room temperature cupcakes in the refrigerator while you make the Italian meringue. These cupcakes (or cake if you make one from this recipe) do tend to taste better the next day after the flavors have all come together.

Italian Meringue: (adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours)

1/2 cup (4 egg's worth) egg whites

1 cup sugar

1 tsp corn syrup

3/4 tsp cream of tartar

1 cup water

1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract (or if you want to flavor this with something else, feel free) 

_______________________-Place the egg whites in the bowl of an electric mixer.

-Place the sugar, water and corn syrup in a heavy bottomed saucepan with a candy thermometer placed on the side of the pan dipping into the mixture. Bring the mixture to 238F.

-When the sugar syrup is about 10 degrees away from 238F, add the cream of tartar to the egg whites and begin whipping them to firm shiny peaks. If the whites get to this state before the syrup is at 235, turn your mixer to low speed and just let them keep moving.

-Once the syrup is at 235 and your egg whites are firm and pretty, Carefully (hot sugar=ouch, I know from past experience) and slowly pour the syrup into the egg whites with the mixer running on high speed. Don't worry about any spatter on the sides of the bowl, it happens and won't effect the final product. Add the vanilla extract and continue whipping the egg whites until they cool to room temperature (I also add about 1/2 tsp salt, as I like my icing a bit salty with the sweet). Once the mixture is cool, scoop it into a pastry bag fitted with a large piping tip (or you can just use a plastic baggie with the corner cut off to pipe).

-Pipe coil mounds on top of the chilled cupcakes, mounding each high to form the marshmallow "hat". Place the cupcakes in the refrigerator and make your chocolate coating.

 til next time!

T

J.CO Donuts!!!

   

       Being in Daet makes it difficult for me to get the what's hot in the food industry coming in the Philippines.

But that cannot stop me from knowing the best of the best of the best. ^_^

I got a surprise this morning from my friend Suzette. It was an orange box with a J.CO logo on it.

I had no idea what it was, until I opened it.

(sorry about the image. I don't know what's happening I can't rotate it)

HUWOoooOOOOW!!!

the smell engulfed me right away. Its like saying "come on! gobble me up!"

Donuts! pretty colorful, full of texture donuts!!!

J.CO donuts opened at SM Megamall in Mandaluyong last March 15,

 and I just heard and taste about it just now.

 Talk about delay, but hey! It's better late than never right?

J.CO is originally from Indonesia, which first opened on June 26, 2005, since it became a hit it opened more branches going more than a 100 all over Asia!

Not only they can satisfy your taste buds they can also be healthy! yeah, healthy+donuts is not a perfect combination but yes, they do with J.CO Donuts. They gives anti-oxidants, vitamin e, protein, calcium and a lot more, because their donuts came from premium ingredients all over the world.

So let's go back to the donuts. 

(sorry for the image kinda blurry, I forgot to take a picture of each before I gobbled it all up, I just cropped them from the image above. hihi)

It was Delicious! I love the Alcapone.

Its white Belgian chocolate with crispy almonds!

Choco and strawberry caviar. 

crispy choco flavored cereal+dark choco= love

Jacky chunk.. 

chunky indeed!

Why Nut.. 

Peanut Butter! I love peanut butter+white chocolate=perfect

Forest Glam... 

Balck forest all glammed up! Yum!

And yes I quickly ran and do my research and I already have a list of what to try next, 

I would love to try the Caffe Avocado, I love Avocado but with coffee?? THIS I HAVE TO TRY!

I'll be going back to Manila for a break soon and J.CO Donuts will be on my list!

Thanks Zette!!! ^__^ Mwah!

T

 

Bagasbas version of Sloppy joe

If you get to visit Bagasbas you must try this burger in one of the hut stalls in the Bagasbas beach strip.

It would be kind of difficult to look for since they don’t have any signages outside. But I think it is known for “kila Earl” (Earl’s place), its a 2 storey kubo (nipa hut) kind of establishment just beside Khape Khool, but if you’d be looking for it at night it won’t be that difficult since it is usually jammed packed with people. It’s a party place at night.

They have this burger with this best tasting patty, with caramelized onion and generously drizzled with cheese, with coleslaw as sidings.

For only 55 pesos! Just add 15 pesos and you can add fries with it.

It’s so delicious! But kinda messy to eat tho, but I tell you, it’s worth buying!

till next food hunting!

T

Cooling off in Bagasbas

Now here in Daet, Starbucks haven’t found its niche here yet.

Sometimes when I go to Bagasbas beach, I’d just rather chill out and relax somewhere, not on the sandy beach but somewhere near where I can still enjoy the relaxing sound of the waves and the nice scene of the ocean.

I found a cool place to chill and enjoy a nice cold treat, and not to mention fit for the budget!

Khape KHool.. 

yeah the name’s kind of tacky with the ‘h’  inserts and all BUT what they serve here is what I’m after!

Ice scramble!

And not just any Ice scramble. Why? Because the usual Ice scrable is topped with the delicious powdered skimmed milk, sprinkled with little marshmallows, topped with candy sprinkles, topped with mini m&m’s kind of chocolate, topped with rice crispies then topped with whipped cream and drizzled with chocolate fudge!!! A lot of topping going on there right? And that's the regular serving!!

The best part is its only 25 pesos!! The usual 50 pesos in manila without all the toppings! Good buy right?

They also serve Iced Coffee with whipped cream, little choco chips, and choc fudge. For only 30 pesos!

If 30 pesos is too much for you..(could that be too much with that serving??) they also have something like an ice coolers, for only 5 pesos. You can choose from their flavours, rootbeer, orange, apple, and , more topped with candy sprinkles.

You cannot miss their store, because its the only one with walls painted in beach mural complete with hanging fish decors plus blue lights at night.

They also got a nice tiki bar. Cute!

my mowdewl.. hehe..

I like the bottle toppers they got up front.

CUTE!!

Now that’s chillin’!

till next chillin!

Modern Italian

I was browsing with my posts and I noticed its mostly about food..

what can I do? I'm a foodie.. hihi

anyways to give space for my Interior design passion here's what I've been up to lately..

Its a modern Italian inspired living and dining area. 

A project with my design partner Suzette Kho.

the wall needed some texture so we add wallpaper to give it drama, 

we were planning to add mirror with lattice frame on both sides of the wall, but since the client has an upcoming party and  the mirror haven't arrived yet,

we weren't able to put it up. =(

but it still looked good right? ^_^

The dining area needed a little boost, the client wanted to place a buffet table on the wall, but the space restricts it. 

So instead of a buffet table we placed a full length mirror and accessorized it with frames and ledges.

whoops.. you can see me there.. hihi..

the client wanted to place a bar in the living room, we wanted it to look sophisticated so we made use of beveled mirrors and super shiny white ducco finished cabinets.

 add a little detail with the knobs on the faux drawers.

the client was so happy!! ^__^

you can also see the earlier blog I made for our blog Design Street, and other stories too at 

http://designstreetid.blogspot.com/

till next time!

T

Bagasbas beach

One more thing that I love here in Daet is that its very near the beach, BAGASBAS beach. Just one tricycle ride away, that's about 15 mins or less from the centro.

It's nice to unwind and relax here.

see.. its very inspiring to hang out here,

I was able to sketch an idea for an up coming project..

Fine gray sand.. 

fail. trying the texture shot thingy with my cam phone. hehe

and beautiful wave that is perfect for surfing.

PTD

and skim boarding 

I was shocked one Sunday, when i went there, the beach were full of people.

 Its like I'm in Baywatch minus the hot, sexy life guards. 

Most families spend their Sundays here, having picnics, playing with their kids and of course swimming.

also every Sunday there are lots of tourist having surfing lesson in Bagasbas.

They have a package tour from Daet to Calaguas Island.

I hope I'll be posting Calaguas soon..

It was a nice change from my usual Sundays at the mall back in Manila. 

Although I miss the malls once in a while.

But being in Bagasbas makes me appreciate nature more, and how to relax and be more worry free.

CM FB

 Haay.. how I wish life could always be like this.

T