The Cumulus Scarf: Pre-Ondoy Post

Wednesday, October 28, 2009 Jonette 5 Comments

... Or the Cotton Candy Cumulus Scarf, as renamed by Clair.

Here's the second scarf Clair commissioned me to make for her. I understand that one of the scarves is now keeping a good friend of hers quite warm in the US. Glad to hear that -- it's always nice to know that the things you create make not not just one person, but two people, happy. :)

Sweet 26 Almighty!

Tuesday, October 27, 2009 Jonette 3 Comments

Happy birthday to me a long time ago. It's been 10 days since I turned 26, and Life as always happens while you make plans.

The best things about my birthday, in no particular order:

1. Four days of rest (sort of). I took the liberty of going on leave on my birthday and the day before -- the dates would be October 15 and 16, Thursday and Friday respectively. Follow that up with Saturday and Sunday. 


2. Dinner with my dad, grandmother and brother in Cyma. I'm glad I listened to my office pals on this one. I don't really get to see my dad and my folks often, and so I was totally looking forward to this. Cyma had very good Greek and vegetarian food to offer, and by god did we love it. My dad's meatless moussaka looked mighty interesting, and the stuffed grape leaves were lusciously savory. (Wow, pine nuts and rice!) I fully recommend getting the bottomless lemonade -- you can never go wrong with freshly-squeezed lemon juice. Seriously. 


3. Being woken up to cuddles from James. My boyfriend came home to me on Friday morning, with a number of sweet gifts in tow: A lucky Mikuru gashopon capsule toy (I say lucky because he got the exact toy I wanted on the first try), a fresh deck of Magic: The Gathering playing cards from the Zendikar expansion (to replace the others that got swept away by the flood), and a boxful of silvanas -- my favorite!  We spent the rest of the day chillaxing: a few games to test our new decks out, having a simple meal of chicken sopas and rice, and watching anime together. 


4. Sometime in the day, I snuck out to buy cake and iced tea -- the iced tea was to accompany the pizza for dinner (yebba! Horray for Domino's!), and the cake was for distributing to folks within the compound. That's the cake above. It was the only Strawberry Fudge number, the lonely lolita in a sea of teddy boy chocolates and mochas. So I promptly took her home, cut her up, and shared the spoils, and gobbled her up. Yum. (Note to self: Never ever sneak out again, at least without James knowing. It's liable to give him a fright and send him searching the streets for me.) 


5. Making the box of silvanas last until the end of the next week. Mmmm. 


6. Getting the house's repairs started. Finally! Through the kindness of my workmate Irl and his wife Ditas, they recommended their carpenter to me, and I do feel I have struck gold with him. Mang Julio is super-efficient, honest, and never fails to amaze us with his skills. I'm just glad James knows how to talk shop with him, because I'd be lost with all the carpentry jargon! Awesome non-leaky roof coming up! After that, there's the getting the bathrom door un-warped and setting it flush against the jamb, then the pipes and getting the loo a proper lever-flush. (Okay, so it's really not within those four rest days, but c'mon! That's like an achievement for me.) 



7.  Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan. The other girls can keep their glittering vampires. My fantasy involves clankers and beasties and steam. Lots of steam.   


8. Making plans for the first floor renovation. Now, I'm thinking of turning the first floor into something closer to an atelier/informal entertainment spot rather than a traditional lounge with couches and all. First three items that come to mind: 

• A large, sturdy wooden table that can serve as an all around working surface -- food preparation, textile cutting, sewing space, you name it. I'd also want it to serve as a dining table, and I'd want it strong enough to support a full grown man. 
• Bring my mother's Indian silk carpet down, set it in the living room, and that where we entertain our guests. Pillows are a must. And yet, the biggest (and possibly most expensive) one of all -- 
• Murals on the walls. I'm not talking about a thin strip across the middle, I'm talking about large, loud and crazy, cover-the-entire-wall-and-possibly-the-fixtures-too murals. The sunshine yellow my mother chose for the walls are already chipping and peeling all over, and it's driving me nuts! I'm thinking of wire dress forms, Giant octopi, and bright colors. James has already expressed that "yes, I will look at you weird if you paint a giant octopus on your wall." Hee. 

In my country, everyone's a hero.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009 Jonette 0 Comments

"My gang mates were the most influential thing in my life," says Fajardo, who joined a gang when he was in sixth grade. "We were pressured to join."

He's not alone. In the Philippines, teenage membership in urban gangs has surged to an estimated 130,000 in the past 10 years, according to the Preda Foundation, a local human rights charity.

"I thought I'd get stuck in that situation and that my life would never improve," recalls Fajardo. "I would probably be in jail right now, most likely a drug addict -- if I hadn't met Efren."

Read the full story here.

Webbie Spotlight: Sita Sings the Blues

Thursday, October 15, 2009 Jonette 0 Comments

If you have an hour to spare, watch the video below. It will not have been spent in vain.




For more, head to its website.

Reproduction Victorian Maiden Regimental Stripe Skirt :Epilogue (pre-Ondoy overdue post)

Tuesday, October 13, 2009 Jonette 2 Comments

To read Part 1, head here.

tighten it up! (pre-Ondoy overdue post)

Tuesday, October 13, 2009 Jonette 0 Comments

... or Ye Gods! I've finally tightened the dem thing!


As per Clair's  suggestion (and weeks and weeks of self-prodding), I finally managed to get it together and tighten the petticoat's waistline. Here's the Before product. The one above's the After.





Here's the button and loop closure I made for the petticoat. I found I had some pretty pink ribbon, and did what I could with it. Ha!

Pundar Part 2, and as other small happy things

Tuesday, October 13, 2009 Jonette 0 Comments

Aaaaaah.


Last Sunday, James and I managed to get some hardcore home shopping done. James is fantastic: he managed to find all the items we needed -- metal polish, three types of screwdrivers, rust remover and lubricant, lock-and-key doorknob, heavy-duty sliding-door lock, and a three-layer television-and-whatnots rack -- all in the hardware store, of the best quality our money could buy (and wow on the quality!), and in under 20 minutes. The man knows his stuff and is amazing. (and I'm squeeing because he's mine. ^_^*) We even had enough time to goof off with some of the tools "in case of zombie attack", haha.

So there: most mini-indoor household concerns are over and done with, and now there's just cleaning up and segregating the DVDs, jump-starting the refrigerator back to working condition, fixing the soaked kitchen cupboards (whose bases are currently in danger of giving way -- yikes!), as well as having the roof looked at and ultimately fixed.

Piece of cake.


So, Monday afternoon, after getting our home affairs in order, we left for early lunch at Dell's (at Eastwood City's Citiwalk avenue),  a cafeteria resto near my workplace. We love eating at places like these: the food was cheap, the ambiance and presentation was fun, and the food was surprisingly very good. ^_^*

What did we have? a cup of fried rice and a viand each -- he took creamy fish fillet, I took sizzling sisig--, coconut juice & a slice of Sansrival cake for him, and sago't gulaman & a sylvana for me, all under the tidy price of P355.00 (that's $7.80 or €5.92. Good for two very hungry people. Ha!) Alas, alas, the Razon's just next door had just opened, and we were too full to even accommodate a serving of halo-halo between us. Why do you teas us so? One day, Razon's, one day.

I love our date lunches. It's the joy of discovering cool, affordable, and delicious places to eat, and the afterglow of a meal well enjoyed. We managed to haul ourselves out of our seats, and walked off the food (or was it waddled?) our way to the taxi bay to see each other off. Ah, happy. <3

I've currently set to work on knitting myself a scarf (yes, this time, it'll be for me) in the DMC Senso Harlequin thread I picked up from the Dreams Yarshoppe in Glorietta 5 in Makati. It's going to be a simple Feather-and-Fan, Feather-and-Fan, Feather-and-Fan, then knit-one-purl-two pattern, then end with rows of Feather-and-Fan again. This should be over and done quickly.

Another officemate of mine wants to have these babies crocheted for his lovely lady, and they are awesome-rad. Which reminds me... Clair and I really must get around to our knitting date so we can hopefully work up our way to this. Then there's also these. (To heck with Stephenie Meyer, I just want to make these arm-warmers!)

Oowoowoowoowoowoo.

Pundar

Thursday, October 08, 2009 Jonette 0 Comments

Pundar: To invest. 
Yesterday, I went out early afternoon to go shopping for a new washing machine and a rice cooker before heading in for work. Well, more like having brunch, shopping for appliances, and picking up fresh kitty litter for Tweed.

I am very happy to say that the new 7-kilogram capacity washing machine and rice cooker will be delivered to the house this coming Saturday. I'm thrilled with the thought of finally moving forward after Ondoy,  and I'm thankful for generous, selfless help from unexpected quarters.

Danielle, Roger, thank you. No words can express my joy and gratitude. I can now proudly say you are truly a part of my home. :)

Help has come form almost every unexpected quarter: my company, my past learners, my high school batchmates, my online friends -- all unbidden, unasked for. I am overwhelmed, and truly grateful.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I do miss crocheting and knitting. Yarnwork keeps me grounded and at ease.

Webbie Spotlight: A True Story of Buoyancy and Bliss

Tuesday, October 06, 2009 Jonette 0 Comments

"...under the worst conditions imaginable, you can choose to be buoyant. You can find your bliss." 

Hi everyone. We survived.

Thursday, October 01, 2009 Jonette 2 Comments

James, Ate Osang and I survived a weekend at the mercy of Typhoon Ketsana/Ondoy. Those were two of the worst days we'd ever experienced this year.

I mean, I've grown used to floods in our subdivision at this time of year. Every August to September, we'd always be ready to haul the appliances up to the second floor, turn the sofa sets into puzzle pieces atop the dining table to keep them away from the waters. We'd bring up the rice cooker, canned goods, instant noodles, the gas range, even the dog. Living in Cainta does that to you.

Man, those were good times.

It was the first time I'd seen a flood of this caliber. The water had been knee-deep out in the streets by 6am, and we'd gotten so used to this we thought it'd never reach our doorstep at this rate. By 10am, the water stalked right beneath the sliding door of our apartment, and in 15 minutes, we found ourselves in knee-deep water. Indoors.

A few more hours, the water had reached two feet inside. A few more, and the water had covered the entire first floor, cold, greasy, and slick with mud.

we managed to save the electronic items: the PC, the freshly-repaired LCD, the television set, the PS2 and the DVD player. The phone went beneath the roiling water, and the cabinet-seats, the refrigerator, and the gas range went swimming.

I rescued the sewing machine from the dining/crafting table and placed it in its case atop my 4-foot textile bin. a few hours later, the water had shook the bin with enough force to send the sewing machine toppling.

That hurt. A lot.

Two days of waiting, huddling for warmth, sharing and killing boredom. and now we are fine.


It's great to be alive.

For now, the yarn's all muddy, colors have run, textiles are good as gone, and the sewing machine needs looking at, but hey, we're alive!

I am immensely thankful to loving family members and friends who have worried about us, checked on us, and done everything in their power to lend a kind word and a helping hand. Words cannot express how much all this has meant to us.

I've had some plans in mind for the past few months -- making a huge step toward crafting professionally, taking it one step at a time -- but the typhoon changed all that. It's a rather difficult thing to swallow, but perhaps it is not a complete end to it all. I'll try to think of it as a ... rest period. Or a benevolent delay. Often, these sorts of things turn out for the best.


My office-buddy and good friend Justin sent me this song because it reminded him so much of everyone who got caught up in Ondoy's wrath. It made him shed a manly tear. I think this song is lovely.

Here's to us: the brave, the strong, the self-giving. Here's to us who have survived this storm and who continue to brave the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. We have persevered, and we shall continue to persevere, because that's what we were put on this earth to be. Here's to rebuilding our lives with our own hands, and here's to helping a brother out.

Here's to us. Here's to life.