Have yourself a merry little christmas :D

Christmas is my favorite holiday - best food, Christmas songs playing almost everywhere, Christmas decors and shopping for gifts! Aaand, I am happy to announce that Christmas shopping is officially done! I actually started getting gifts in October and still, I only finished 6 days before Christmas! The mall was extremely crowded yesterday and I just hate having to shop like that. Nonetheless, I was ecstatic to finally cross out the very last name on my Christmas list.

Besides gift-giving and lovely weather, these are what I look forward to most during the Christmas season!

Rich and really hot chocolate with marshmallows (they melt the second they're dropped on the drink and I prefer it that way) I dissolve cacao balls in boiling water and to make it more rich, I add semisweet chocolate chips, cinnamon, and lotsaaa sugar. I know I can make it anytime but this drink is just so Christmas-y. And they're just so amazing to have during cool rainy days like today. :)

Bibingkas are available all year round in some restaurants /stalls but I prefer to eat them only during Christmas. I eat them with red eggs and quezo de bola, the ones on top are never enough!

Putobumbong is my favorite. With lost of butter and sugar!

I don't know, but brownies are also a staple in our household during Christmas. Sooo, I baked them! It turned out fine (I didn't like when I tried it while it was still warm, for some reason it is better after it has been cooled overnight oorrrr maybe it's just me haha!). I love that the crust is so shiny and crisp but the brownie itself is very chewy. This recipe has chocolate chips so theres molten chocolate bits here and there so each bite is surprising! But I'm not completely satisfied with the turnout though, while baking, I ran out of vanilla extract (it didn't help that it was 1 in the morning!) so I decided to use almond extract as a substitute- and that stuff is so potent! I have to remind myself to use less of it the next time.

6 days before Christmas and I am soo looking forward to it! Can we skip work until after new year, please? :)

Cooking is such sweet sorrow!

Women in my family are such bad cooks! Including *ehem* me. I tried cooking once or twice when I was younger and what I made were barely edible (but come to think of it, so was my baking). So I wanted to give cooking another try now that I'm older and ta-da! it turned out fine! I cooked pork ribs in dijon sauce with herbed potatoes as a side dish (i even took out our good china just for this momentous event!).

And of course, I made dessert!

It's a red velvet cupcake!

And my friend made yema with the unused egg yolks

AND THAT WAS MY SUNDAY LUNCH! I was already too tired to enjoy eating but I had so much fun baking and cooking that it doesn't even matter. I ended the day watching Easy A but I watched so many previews that I already knew the story and most of the punchlines. haha! It was great nonetheless and I just love Ema Stone!

Graveyard cupcakes!

Baking is seriously an obsession for me! I celebrated my birthday last week and since a lot of the online recipe sites had the Halloween theme going on, I decided to make graveyard cupcakes! I just followed the basic chocolate cupcake recipe from cupcakeblog.com and the design instructions from allrecipes.com. My little cousin, Andoy helped me bake the first batch and he did almost everything for the second batch! And he also designed most of the cupcakes himself! It was cute, he had so much fun and was proclaiming himself the head chef!

I was so excited about the cupcakes, that I totally forgot that I was planning to bake a real cake! I was kinda bummed but my officemates, Reuel and Sunny gave me cakes the following Monday so my birthday was still complete!

Baking is quite easy especially since there are step by step recipes that we could follow online. But I am slowly learning techniques and little tweaks I can do to improve the recipe on my own! I have a long way to go but seriously, thank god for online recipes with reviews, ratings and comments!

My cousin took pictures of the finished product.

Fresh out of the oven! <3

With frosting

I loved the frosting! But I think I should've chilled it for like 3mins so that it would fully take the shape of the nozzle that I used, it was just too soft already.

GRAVEYARD CUPCAKES !! <3

I used red writing gel for the words. I was supposed to dip the graham cracker (tombstone) in white chocolate with gray food color (which I didn't have time to make)but it turned out okay, right?

I'm planning to make something more elegant next time. I want to use the same chocolate cupcake recipe (or maybe vanilla) but with strawberry frosting which would have more texture. It would look and taste exquisite!

Time to buy a new nozzle (or a set)!! 'til my next project!! <3

Pinkie and Pixie

Here are my two babies! Pinkie and Pixie! :)

My mom calls them by different names although their real-document names are Happy and Max. They have around 5 nicknames each - poor dogs! must be having an identity crisis! My favorites are Pinkie and Pixie because they rhyme!

This is Pixie! He's a 4 year-old Irish Setter. He loves long cold baths, furry/stuffed toys and playdates!

He may look huge and scary, but in person he's extremely gay and happy! he loves people and enthusiastically runs toward any person who enters our gate, and I mean ANYONE. haha He isn't a very good guard dog actually but he looks scary already since he is HUGE so I guess he doesn't really have to be mean because no one would dare go near him anyway!

Pinkie is an 8 year-old cross between a Shitzu and Maltese. He likes apples, cheese, squeaky/noisy toys, having his hair brushed and air-conditioned rooms!

I couldn't find a nice picture of him! his hair here is at an odd length and I think he hasn't taken a bath yet also:| haha His real name is Happy, but he isn't a very happy dog! He dislikes children and visitors! But he is very loyal. He's also around 5 times smarter thank Pixie, he knows when he did something wrong -like steal food or pee inside the house- and uses his cuteness to his advantage... or he hides.

So those are my two pets! They're a great addition to the family! and I absolutely love them!

polyvore :D

Find me on Polyvore

Polyvore is sooo fuun!

I decided to create these sets just for fun:) it isn't anything out of the ordinary but i like it!

There are some really classic pieces but i think that the other items give it a twist :)

I don't think that there are really strict rules when it comes to fashion. There are dos and don'ts but not everything applies to everyone :) There are specific guidelines which apply to certain body types/ shapes. However, i've seen girls who have broken these rules and still look amazing! i say, experiment, be confident, dress however you want and be who ever you want to be! <3>

*i like polyvore.com:) other cool sites i like are : seaofshoes.com, postsecret.com, cracked.com... uhm, that's it!

Graduation ROADTRIP!!!

Just before graduation, we went on a roadtrip to the north! we went to La Union, Baguio and Sagada. I had a blast! We went to a beach in La Union, almost all the tourist spots in Baguio and we went caving in Sagada :) I can't even focus on one province because there are a lot of interesting activities we did in each one.

Who doesn't love BAGUIO?

These are Kat and Sunny! On their horsies! just like John Lloyd and Bea!=)))

We wanted to have a bonfire at Rules' bonfire place and make smores. unfortunately, it rained :( so we used their fireplace instead! they have a chimney! imagine, a house with a chimney IN THE PHILIPPINES! :) cool!

LADIES! kayla and gaila with rules' sister, april-rockin her full bangs

pretty place

presenting The Fedora 4 : sunny, cesar, hans and rules!

This is eskimo Rules! on the way to Sagada:)

And the adorable Kadishaaa <3>

lotsalovin going on ;)

SAGADA is such a lovely lovely province!

CAVING: Hans and Gail (aka the eloping couple:P)going through one of the 'holes' :)

Do I still need to explain why I fell in love with Sagada? <3 span="span">

Everybody!

Some parts were extremely scary! but it was definitely an adventure! the water was ice cold here!

It is really really pretty outside the caves too! tall trees beautiful landscapes and cool weather, oh i love sagada!

There are hanging coffins there but theyre too tiny to see in the pictures! People in Sagada still practice some pre-Christian traditions like placing the coffins on cliffs/inside caves instead of burying them (hanging coffins).

*Sagada also has a rich textile industry (it's a shame, i dont have a picture of their woven fabrics)

* All pictures are by Hans Fausto

Right after the La Union- Sagada- Baguio roadtrip with my blockmates, I went to Vigan! I stayed at the Baluarte. It is this extremely huge mansion owned by the Singson family - there's a zoo there too! they have tigers, a camel, ponies, monkeys and other animals one finds in zoos;) It was extremely hot there (especially compared to Baguio and Sagada) so I stayed in the room the whole morning and went out only during the night. They also have the best local/street food there! I couldnt eat enough of their bibingka, okoy, longganisa and their empanada! I had a fever so I wasnt able to do a lot of the things that I wanted to like learn pottery, visit the museums and go to the nearby beach but it was fun nonetheless!

Horse-drawn carriages + ancestral houses + old stone churches +cobbled paths = VIGAN 's beautiful, romantic streets :)

This is the street where the ancestral houses are. Some have been turned to restaurants/museums/stores :D i absolutely adore this place!

I finished the whole box in one night!!! This is their bibingka (rice cake), quite different from what we have here in Manila during Christmas season (they have it all year round too!).

The stores are filled with colorful native products! I was like a kid in a candy store :)

Oh! hey speak Ilocano there! i think that it's a beautiful language, i'd like to learn it some time :D

AGYAMAN NAK! :D

Bye Ading! :)

That was my North Luzon Trip! <3 div="div">

i have a blog!

I graduated from college about two weeks ago and i'm at a loose end. I decided to start a blog so i could learn how to articulate my ideas and express them well and also just to be able to write about stuff that i find interesting! :D I'm not an experienced writer so i'd appreciate any feedback :P

gracias!