Baja + Red Mango

JM and I watched "Up" last night and we had dinner at Baja, which serves Mexican food. I also tried out Red Mango at last!

Baja's located on the third floor of Greenbelt 3, near Capriciosa. We don't recall which restaurant or fast food or bistro it was that we wanted to try out but Baja was near the ticket booth so it made the decision easier for us.

We ordered fries and burritos. I don't recall the names of the food we ate. (Now I wish I took the receipt home with me.) Anyhow, the pictures will have to suffice for now.

Supreme Fries was served first, along with our drinks: orange juice for me, Sprite for JM. The fries were awesome! Definitely not soggy! A big plus for me. They also didn't taste like sweet potato, which is a very good thing. Fast food fries taste like sweet potato every so often.



Look at all those tomato bits, onion bits, guacamole, sour cream and cheese! I love potatoes a lot so this was something I loved. I could come back to Baja even just for these fries. :D I swear, that platter of fries was something JM and I both loved last night.

JM ordered a siding of chili con carne. But it was more of chili beef. There was little to none of beans. Oh well. But it tasted ok to me.



My order was a Baja grilled chicken burrito without the rice. I was really trying to make sure that I had space for Red Mango's frozen yogurt so I decided to hold off the rice. The chicken was tasty actually. :) And I really loved how the Mexican hot sauce just went along well with it, the sour cream and guacamole. The nachos and salsa on the side were an extra treat for me.



JM's food came last. And when it got to our table, we knew why. The Super Grande Burrito was true to its name.



He didn't know how to eat it. In my case, my burrito was of a normal size so I could still bite it off like you normally will. But the one he got was really huge. No other word for it. He settled for the fork, knife and spoon method. (LOL)



Slicing a bit off from the burrito reveals that it is one heck of a packed burrito. Whoever prepared it is amazing! All that rice, meat, beans and leafy veggies took some effort! And JM was one happy man eating that burrito. ;)

The burrito I ordered was PhP 255 and JM's grande burrito was PhP 355. Both are well worth our money and they sure satisfied our appetites and taste buds. In JM's case, he even brought home part of the burrito because he got so full with it already.

I was ready for Red Mango after we left Baja. After all, it was something I really have been looking forward to after all the raves I've been hearing.

My co-worker recommended the green tea frozen yogurt to me. And because of that, I know that I had to add mochi and red beans to it. A small cup of green tea frozen yogurt + those two toppings cost me PhP115 but it was heaven in a cup!



This picture could never do justice to how delicious and delightful this combination really is. Yummy! Too bad JM was so full of burrito he couldn't even try to taste this heavenly delight. Red Mango's frozen yogurt is something I'd definitely go back for every once in a while. I even told JM that I'd consider setting aside budget for this every month. I loved it so much. ♥

Baja and Red Mango are both in Greenbelt 3 so if you're going there for a movie, try and taste the food they offer. :)

Lunch at Talking Tongues

This was quite some time ago. Sorry I haven't been posting. But it's not like a lot of people read this blog anyway. :P So yeah, JM and I found Talking Tongues one lunch time that we went to Z's in Salcedo Village in Makati. Talking Tongues is along San Agustin Street, in between Leviste and Valero. Talking Tongues replaced Han Kang, a Korean resto.



Talking Tongues serves Chinese Indonesian food. We think that he owner is probably Indonesian because she asked me if I was one. (Being Filipino, we are usually mistaken for being Indonesian, Thai, Chinese, etc.) We ordered our food and she asked us if we wanted our food spicy. Of course we said yes! So we sat down on one of the tables while waiting for our food. Looks like they prepare things as they were ordered so it took a while. We looked at the decorations of the place and the uniforms the staff sort of reminded me of Banana Leaf's staff uniform. The place was colorful with the yellow, purple and blue stuff and furniture. There were even some kind of figures on display. I think it's to emphasize that they serve Chinese Indonesian cuisine.

It was actually hard to decide on what to eat, considering that everything on the menu seemed interesting. It doesn't help that seeing all those food being served to their customers when we arrived looked great and smelled like it. Ah food. We really hoped to eat them and get satisfied in the end.


This is what the placed looked like.

The food



JM's food was some kind of spicy fried rice dish with egg on top of it. The barbequed chicken was the viand. But really, I think that the rice itself was ok already. There were also pickled cucumbers on the side. We sure were glad to ask for spicy food because we got what we asked for. And there was even hot sauce on the table for those who wanted it extra spicy. As you can see from the picture, the rice looked like it had a lot of spices when it was prepared.



At first I was thinking that maybe my food will end up bland because of the light color. It wasn't as red as JM's rice. But I was wrong. It was actually quite spicy. :D Adding the hot sauce made me think that the dish I ordered was some kind of a traitor. Just striking when you least know it. But that's ok. :D Spicy is good!



The fried dumplings were a bit 'meh' for my taste. And not so meaty either. I could have eaten dumplings elsewhere. But the rice dishes were really terrific and I wish that I could have eaten a whole lot more.

I'd gladly go back to Talking Tongues some other day. I hope to bring some friends there some time too. :)

I ordered two things: the spicy fried rice with bit of dried fish and egg plus fried dumplings.

Jonette's lovely creations: skirt, petti, scarves

I've asked my crafting buddy, Jonette, to make me some scarves (because she can knit!), a petti and 2 skirts. I already got my scarves and my striped skirt from her but I haven't taken pictures yet because I am a shamelessly lazy cat ;_; And I don't have my own digital camera. So let me show you her work. Good thing she posted a lot of pictures on Facebook XD

[caption id="attachment_149" align="alignright" width="225" caption="red x grey scarf with checkerboard-like texture"][/caption]

The first scarf really looked so cute even in the pictures. :) I was excited as she was telling me of its progress. This scarf is not only cute; it is also warm and soft. The yarn she used was good. I could wear this on the days that I wear black or grey. (My usual colorsXD)

[caption id="attachment_148" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="Cotton Candy Cumulus"][/caption] This is the second scarf and it's really awesome because of how soft it is. I love the yarn she used because of the colors that suddenly just show up, like bits of the powder used in making cotton candy. And the texture does remind me of cumulus clouds! I really must take close-up/detail shots of this scarf she made for me. See? Isn't she awesome? :D

[caption id="attachment_151" align="alignright" width="225" caption="puffy petticoat!"][/caption]

This is still with Jonette so she could use it as reference for the second skirt she's making me. :) After all, if this petti is going underneath the skirt, she might as well know how it would look like with it! :D I tried it on when we met up a couple of weekends ago and it was nice and puffy! I love it :D It's a bit loose on me but there are always pins to help me wear it haha. I think she mentioned adjusting it. But seriously, it's nice and puffy :D

[caption id="attachment_152" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="lulu - the skirt inspired by the VM regimental stripe skirt "][/caption]

This is the first skirt she gave to me. :) I saw the pictures of the cloth she saw in Divisoria and I just loved the stripes on this one so much that I had to simply ask her to make me this nice skirt. I don't regret it one bit because it fits comfortably on me.

Jonette is really dedicated to her craft and I am so happy that she indulged me with my requests. If you think that she's really awesome, please drop by her blog, The Hobby Horse and show some love.

PS: All photos on this blog entry are from Jonette's Facebook albums and blog.
Lulu - first skirt commission
First scarf commencement
Cotton Candy Cumulus

Black and white love on Polyvore

bxw by happyeclair featuring Juicy Couture bags

It was Ryan who told me about Polyvore earlier. From there you could record the combinations of clothes, shoes and accessories you love. In my case, I have saved this black and white combination because it's something I would like to wear and somehow, I think I could pull it off. Not that I'd be buying all these brands. Something that resembles the styles of these items happens to be enough for me.

I put in too many hats. Yeah, I know. It's just that I couldn't decide on which one to use. XD

Music Time: Let's Listen to Up Dharma Down

I've liked Up Dharma Down since I saw their video "Pag-agos" on tv. I was very intrigued because I didn't see any credits during the first time I saw it. Until the day that no one told me it was Up Dharma Down, I had no idea. "Pag-agos" was interesting not only because of that, but it was the singing, the lyrics and the overall feel of the song that got me hooked.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYtxN2BmkPg&hl=en&fs=1&]

After that I started hearing their other songs on the radio too. I think that from Fragmented, their first album, I heard "Maybe," "We Give in Sometimes" and "Oo" :) The last one seemed to be quite popular. Must be because a whole lot of people could easily relate with the lyrics of the song. A song talking about a person's love story. Not necessarily a happy one at that.

FlipNote: Omnomnomnom

http://flipnote.hatena.com/js/flipplayer_s.swf

I made this last Friday on FlipNote. It was just so fun using FlipNote. I don't regret upgrading my DSi to the latest firmware because of the fun I have with FlipNote. I hope that they release other applications like it on the DSWare Shop. :)

Green skirt for Chibitalia cosplay

What my skirt looks like in front.


The back view of the green skirt.


This is my first time to make a skirt with a curved hemline. It's more difficult to sew because I had to stop at certain points to make sure the stitches curve. There was also a whole of cloth involved in the process because I followed the guide I saw on the EGL community on how to make a flared skirt.

New things I learned:

• Iron settings. My cloth had to be ironed with a setting of at least '4' on it. I think that's quite hot, literally. If it's not hot enough, the fold won't stay at all. I tried it with the hem and failed. I think it was because I used the wrong setting. It was too cool so it kept unfolding. When I sewed the waistaband it wasn't too bad anymore.


• How to put the zipper foot. I think what we got on our Brother XL 2230 is a general zipper foot. I will take pictures of it next time. The zipper foot we have at home didn't look like any of those on the videos I found online. So I had to read the manual. I had to put the zipper foot on while reading the manual because I couldn't understand it. My imagination wasn't enough. Anyhow, it works!


• How to use the zipper foot. Because it looked different from the online tutorials I saw, I had to figure it out with the help of the manual. Again, I must take pictures so people will understand what I want to say about the zipper foot.


• Cutting makes an entire difference. There was one piece which I cut smaller than the rest. So it affected how I was going to make them all fit at the waist. Also I should've cut the waistband piece first because it was a rectangular piece compared to the rest.


• I learned that I have yet to learn how to determine which is the wrong side and the right side of the cloth. And that I should mark them accordingly. Plain cloth such as this and tetoron make me confused as to which side is right and which side is wrong.

Because of this list of things I learned, I now have a better idea of what kinds of projects I want to make so I could improve. I know I still have my apron, blouse, petticoat and bloomers to make but I'd spend Friday and Saturday for most of them. I might outsource the blouse though. It's just too difficult for me.

I want to make another skirt. Maybe out of a certain pair of old jeans or something. Also, a skort is tempting. Really. I used to have skirt/skort. Its zipper in front made it into a skirt. That skirt/skort was something I had when I was 10 or 11 years old. Should be interesting to make one this time around.

Practice flipnote

http://flipnote.hatena.com/js/flipplayer_s.swf

My Dolls Need More Love

I haven't been playing with my Pinky:St dolls as much as I used to. For one thing, my table at the office is always a mess. And I mean it. Cables everywhere! There are also bigger toys on my desk: The dancing cow that some friends gave me on my birthday, the teddy bear speakers from JM, the first Manikako doll I sewed, the cute doll Joshua gave me and Krauser II. I miss my cute little dolls though.

At home, my sister has played with the dolls in a comic she submitted for a contest. It was cute! I wish I could post it here but I'd have to ask her permission. I've got so many dolls already after a year of collecting frantically. Haha. I was really looking at Ebay listings and buying regularly. But I haven't collected everything yet as some are not very interesting to me and some are very rare and expensive.

Haaay. I really should play with them more often because I really think that they can't stay in the boxes forever. I am still thinking about the newer dolls, if I should still get them because they are cute. But if I can't play with them and show them the love they deserve, it won't be nice. :(

I plan to take their pictures again soon. Must think of ideas so that my dolls will really have fun too. XD

My Sewing Projects

Here are some things I want to make.

In Progress:

• Chibitalia skirt - Start date: 08 August 2009

Done:

Wishlist:

• Chibitalia blouse


• Chibitalia apron


• a reversible bag


• a flared skirt


• a wrap-around skirt


• drawstring pants


• drive-in pants/thai pants


• pajamas


• curtains for my room


• pillowcases


• change the collars on my tees


• plushies

Promod: My New Favorite Shop

I've always liked looking at the display of Promod, Trucco and Warehouse in Greenbelt 5. (I work in Legazpi Village and it's really that often that I get to pass by this mall.) Anyhow, I know that Promod has a lot of pretty items when I went inside the Trinoma branch but it was the time I accompanied a friend. This time I went there because I knew there is a sale and I was looking for a basic black top with long sleeves. Aside from the sale items, I checked out their accessories. I really like them! The items I would possibly go back for:

• Black flower earrings


• Retro watch necklace


• Facetted black earrings


• Necklace with a black sequin bow pendant

I saw in the catalog that they have a necklace with scissors pendant. This is something I'd really love to have.

So far, their accessories aren't cheap but they are not too expensive either. Some of them even look like they could be used for steampunk, Victorian and lolita fashion aside from the regular streetwear that's why I really like them. Their sale period in Greenbelt 5 is supposed to end on the 15th. I hope we get our salaries early by one day so I could go back for an item or two. XD

Shopping for Lolita Fashion in the Philippines

There are no brands here in the Philippines so local lolitas must be resourceful. Some of them who have been making clothes and accessories for themselves seem to have opened online shops, knowing that there are kindred spirits who share their interests. I've bought some products from some of them already and I'm glad to have their products because they are not only pretty, they are well-made. There are also clothes being sold in malls and vintage stores that look victorian enough for lolita fashion so that you could coordinate them well and be happy with what you get within reach.

Shopping on Multiply

a commissioned skirt. from OneFreeKiss.

RIP, Cory Aquino

She has inspired so many of us. Let's hope that we will carry on whatever we learned from her.

Sewing Projects I Want to Make

Here are some things I want to make this year:

• Chibitalia skirt


• Chibitalia blouse


• Chibitalia apron


• a reversible bag


• a flared skirt


• a wrap-around skirt


• drawstring pants


• drive-in pants/thai pants


• pajamas


• curtains for my room


• pillowcases


• change the collars on my tees


• plushies

That's quite a lot but I really want to do at least half of those on the list. I didn't put many blouses on my list because I think that pants are going to be difficult as they are. But I have to finish the Chibitalia cosplay by end of August in preparation for Cosplaymania. :) Not that I will enter a competition, but my sister and I want to costrip.:)

Crafting Buddy: Jonette

These days I've been busy crafting at home. I guess that's because the weather is not friendly enough for going out and taking pictures. I am sad that I can't bring out my cameras much these days. :( But now that I have a sewing machine at home, I am more inspired to try out sewing and as you can see, I already did that :D I sewed my first skirt using flocked cotton cloth.

Since last year, I've been chatting a lot with Oui and Jonette about Lolita fashion. I love talking about it with them because our ages aren't too far apart. We're also not exactly the small and petite kind of women so we have similar dilemmas when it comes to wearing Lolita fashion. Throughout those times, I've gotten really interested in sewing my own clothes. However, I just started learning how to sew with a sewing machine a couple of weeks ago so that's not possible at the moment. Jonette has been sewing and has been influential in this hobby of mine. She has sewn some really cute skirts already and she even made a tricorn hat for a party she went to.

I was glad that Jonette agreed to make me super scarves (a funky one and a cute one), skirts (one inspired by the Regimental Stripes skirt of Victorian Maiden) and a petticoat. :) I really believe in her crafting skills because she's got a creative mind and hands that never seem to stop practicing. When we chat, she shares her ideas a lot. And she even taught me a way to sew a gathered skirt. (I thought I might mess it up so I did something simpler for my first skirt.) She's also nice and is very generous in giving hints, as well sharing links via Plurk. I love the way she thinks: she doesn't believe in being selfish about her knowledge and skills. And for me, that's awesome.

Jonette has her own dreams and I want to support her as a friend, even if we mainly just talk online. She is a crafting buddy and a confidante and a source of inspiration.