My friends and colleagues recently went to the Fully Booked flag ship store at Serendra on a book buying spree for the university library. We had 1 million pesos to spend. Ooh what a treat to be spending that much money on books. It was like being in a contest only, we don’t get to bring home what we buy. No matter, it was still exhilarating to spend someone else’s money. A-hee-hee!

Our host, Ms.Nimpha suggested we have an afternoon snack before we went on our book shopping frenzy, so we did!

This was what we’ve amassed after 20 minutes of running around in a frenzy in the trade book section floor of the book store.

Two of my favorite shelves on the trade books floor.

I had found some treasures on my own…

Picture book by paper cutting artist, Rob Ryan.

Here are some excerpts from it…

The Worlds of Amano. A compilation of works by, Yoshitaka Amano, one of my favorite artists. Have a look at his works and see why.

Some pages from the book The World of Amano.

Happiness!

Now off to bed I go to face a week of grading final exams and plates.

I joined an international moleskine exchange, Moly_X_43. We were to think up our own themes, render that in the first 4 pages of the japanese album moleskine and send it to the next in line on the mail route.

This is what arrived last week. I only had time to pick it up from the post office yesterday.

Now back to work on school stuff so I can finish it all and be free to do my entries in two weeks.

Happiness!

The semester is almost over. We’re down to the last week of class and then its final exam week.
This means my free time will be spent on grading exam papers and plates (art works of students).

Last year I felt desperate and helpless. Around this time of the year last year was when John and I became a couple so this year I am a bit calmer and more organized and of course, happier.

Speaking of happy stuff, here’s a portrait that a student made of me.

The text reads, “Hellur?” Its my favorite quip in reaction to my students when they are being difficult. Now its a nickname I bet they call me behind my back. A-hee-hee!

Happiness!

My prince and I had wanted a ring to symbolize our love and we wanted something that would be fitting to the magical way we met and fell in love.

We met through flickr. He commented on one of my shrines…

Eternal Love
and I checked out his art and commented back on one of his works…

Love
which turned out to be an image I dreamed about the previous year.

We started to email about each other’s work and when we became a couple we both recalled about the dream we had of each other before we met.

He had a dream about an asian woman and painted the image…

She Sleeps
and I had a dream about a man named John with golden brown hair, cream colored skin that smelled like freshly baked bread and had a kind sweet voice.

When we saw Christina Jenning’s Incredible Journey rings, we knew that was the ring for us. So I wrote her and told her our story. She was thrilled to make the ring for us. We’ve become friends through the process. She sent the rings to John (who is in WV) and along with it sent a surprise for me.

Incredibly the earrings matched the bracelet John got for me the previous month.

Here are the rings. John took a photo of them and I made this mosaic so I can share it all with you.

Soon I’ll post a photo of the rings on our finger when John and I finally get together. You see I’m half way around the world from him, just as he thought I’d be before he met me. He’s in WV and I’m in Manila.

Happiness!

I had a bit of time to kill while waiting for my ride to a colleague’s birthday party last night so asked the waiter for a clean plate’s mat and drew this. I continued to work at it later that night and finished it this morning.

I haven’t had time to do any art stuff lately and this was like a shot in the arm for me.

This is what I had for diner that night…

Pasta Margherita, Grilled Veggie Panini, Brewed Mint Ice Tea…

Tiramisu and Coffee. Happiness!

I joined a new flickr group last week and I bought my first moly for the molyX43.

Its all very exciting for me.

Happiness!

1. Rainy Afternoon Meryenda, 2. Amici’s Pizza Margherita, 3. Fetuccini Al Pesto di Amici, 4. Gelato di Amici, 5. Dolci di Amici: Brazo De Mercedes, 6. Dolci di Amici: torta di cioccolato, 7. Dolci di Amici: Blanco Y Negro Profiterole, 8. Dolci di Amici, 9. halo-halo, 10. Lonely Dinner, 11. Mushroom & Asparagus Sandwich, 12. Mushroom Congee, 13. Cinnamon Spice Scones for Ma’m Oro, 14. The Spread, 15. Mango Bravo Cake, 16. Banana Cream Cheese Cake from Mocha Blends, 17. Butterscotch Brownies’ Innards, 18. Chunky Veggie Soup, 19. Garlic Mushroom & Basil Pesto, 20. Raspberry Scones, 21. Rainy Day Meal, 22. Chopsuey & Pinakbet Kit, 23. Peach Scones, 24. Radish Cake Meal, 25. Vegan Pho from PhoHoa, Quezon Ave., Q.C.

Made with BigHuge Labs Mosaic maker.

A friend had this Nina Ricci bracelet with some parts and links broken. She hated throwing them away because she loved them. She requested I turn it into a necklace for her. I forgot to take a before photo but here’s how it turned out.

Click on the photo and mouse over it to see the detail notes on it that explains the process.

I had fun making it. It was a welcome respite to do something creative for a change. I’ve been swamped with prelim exam papers and plates (art works of students) to grade all week. I actually still have a lot more of it to accomplish but its Sunday and I thought I’d indulge myself in doing something that was fun to do.

I’m off to the grocers to buy food and ingredients for scones and dishes for the rest of the week.

Happiness!

The asthma’s bad today. Everything seems to be a blur, and breathing takes so much energy because it feels like my lungs have been placed between the pages of this gigantic thick book to be pressed and dried for use in someone’s collage.

I have been sleeping most of the day waking up only because I get these flashes of hot sweat. Its not fun being sick and its even less fun when your wracked up in guilt for being absent from your classes. My apologies to my Thursday classes: Ad4-3, 4-4, 4-8 and 2-1.

Making this self-p and writing this post helped to take my mind off and I feel well enough to hit the publish button. Its effect has begun to wear off though so off to bed I go again.

I finally had the chance to make a cover for my macbook. I’ve been working on this for the past two nights. I used the leg of an old worn out jeans as the base, fabric glue to stick the fabric cutouts, some rhinestones, old buttons and hand stitchery.

I added the sequins tonight. The photo of it on my macbook was taken yesterday before the additional embellishment.

Here’s how it looks like on my laptop.

Happiness!

I stayed up all night for several days to finish it all.

I went to the exhibit venue after 2 hours of sleep. Here they being installed by the museum staff.

Finally, the fruit of my labor is now ready to face the world.

Opening cocktails was at 5:30 PM, yesterday.

See the rest of the exhibit here.

My friend Alma took this photo of me with my 2 girls.

Happiness!