Scrapping in Tagaytay

Last August 5, I joined some friends for a weekend crop in cool, hilly Tagaytay. We stayed at Tin's place and enjoyed a weekend of scrapping, food tripping, happy chatting (and a lot of talks on politics and cancer), photography and just plain hanging out.

We stayed here.

We walked around the village to take photos and played on the streets like kids.

I took a blurry shot of this flower - the wind was so strong for macro photography.

I caught the funicular trip downhill.

The caretaker planted some crops on the vacant lot adjacent to the house.

We had dinner in this restaurant with beautiful lighting fixtures.

We took photos of each other...

...and stuffed ourselves with mouthwatering treats.

This is Saturday night dinner...

...and we had a guest.

I opted for ravioli in tomato sauce.

I was among the first to go to bed - few hours of sleep in the few days leading up to the weekend.

The following day, we woke up the rest of the sleeping crew and caught sleeping beauty wearing her eyeglasses in bed!

I went out to take more photos and saw this quaint chapel from afar (thanks to my zoom lens).

This is the spacious living room.

And this is the harvest from the weekend's crop.

The girls taking photos of the exhibit.

A close up of some of my projects. I took individual shots except for the two cards in the bottom right corner below which I failed to take solo shots of.

Ariel picked me up around 11am and Au took photos of us.

My favorite shot for the day.

And here are my projects - two layouts and 5 cards (only 3 are shown below).
This, I think, is my all time favorite. I used a grid design and I distressed each square before machine stitching each of them to the page.

Some of the squares have additional details.


Here is my second page, featuring one of my fave vacay photos. More stitching courtesy of Mia's lovely sewing machine.


Finally, some cards. Here I used Tin's embossing powder and Lee's Doily puncher. Beautiful!

Another card. More stitching. More embossing.

Another grid design. I used all available stitches in Mia's sewing machine here.

Have yet to take photos of two more cards. Not a bad turnout for one weekend! Not bad at all!

Had lots of fun! I think I'm getting the hang of scrapping with a group. I am actually productive. Thanks to the girls for a super fun weekend and thanks to Tin for being a very generous host.

Weekend crop with some PS friends

November 22, 2008

It's the second weekend in a row. The previous week, my colleagues from work came over to scrap at our place. This weekend, some of my PS friends drove over from all over the Metro for a weekend crop. Lee, Donna, Cookie and Nina met early for the hour drive to our Kawit abode. Bjay, who also lives in what I now call my hometown, met them at the Island Cove so they could drive together to our place. CV, Candy and Pia who were part of the original Cavite weekend croppers (early this year) didn't make it as they had obligations this weekend.

We've been planning this for ages and I was happy and excited that it finally pushed through. Lee initially "required" everyone to finish at least three layouts so they have something to show their hubbies when they get back home. I already told her it's impossible for me since I am not much of a group scrapper. I just enjoy the company and chit chat but it's unlikely that I will be able to do anything. I guess I'm exempted. I'm the host afterall.

Anyway, we made ATCs and swapped at the end of the day. Bjay got mine and I got hers. :D As predicted, I wasn't able to finish anything, save for the ATC. I worked on the mini that I started the night before at Mitch's store (Visual Creations) but I didn't progress much. Sigh.

Of course, our crop session won't be complete without food. I cooked lunch and merienda/early dinner. For lunch, we had rellenong bangus (I ordered from our suki), laing (the bestseller), oven-grilled liempo, cucumber and squid salad (same one I served the previous week). I was surprised they liked the laing. I love anything with coconut cream so laing is a regular fare at home. It's fairly easy to prepare too! I just skipped the fresh shrimps this time as Bjay is allergic - I substituted with shrimp cubes which still caused a mild reaction. Anyway, they've been asking so here's the recipe.

Saute garlic (crushed), onions (1 small minced), ginger (1 small sliced), chopped red chilis (if like me, you like it hot), 1 green finger chili (for the fragrance and flavor). Add meat/and or shrimps. For the meat, you can use ground pork (just a handful) or boiled liempo cut into small pieces). Add patis for flavor. If not using shrimp, you may want to add 1 Knorr shrimp cube. Add a cup of coconut cream and let boil. Add one pack of dried gabi leaves (I buy mine at Landmark). When leaves are wilted and the mixture is already dry, add another cup of coconut cream. Simmer until the mixture is a bit dry and oily. I also like adding dried squid (when I have stock at home) and bagoong alamang instead of shrimp cubes and patis. Total cooking time is less than 30 minutes. By the way, I use coconut cream so the laing is not watery.

I use the same recipe to cook ginataang langka, ginataang sitaw at kalabasa (with prawns or crabs!), ginataang puso ng saging, etc. So you see, I really love gata!

For our merienda/early dinner, I cooked penne in putanesca sauce. I paired it with bruschetta with fresh homemade pesto, chopped tomatoes and mozzarella cheese. I love bruschetta!

After the gang left, I worked on my mini again. I was able to finish around 11pm. I am really an introvert! I just can't get the creative juices flowing when I'm surrounded with happy chatter.

But I had so much fun! I'd like to do it again. Hopefully over the holiday break.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take a single decent photo. I actually just took photos of the ATCs. However, when I checked them out a few minutes ago, I realized they are horrible! So, just head over to http://cookieaguilar.blogspot.com/2008/11/scrappin-in-cavite.html's, Bjay's and Lee's blogs to see their own account and view some photos.

Til next time!

Scrapping with the K&I Girls

November 15, 2008

Our much awaited crop session finally happened. Ariel was still in Bangkok. I thought it was the perfect time to do our scrapping together.

It was a bit lonely being the only scrapper in the office. I tried to influence some colleagues to no avail. I persisted. And this is the fruit of my persistence. First, it was Karen. Then Aileen. Then Nollie and Aggie, though they mainly make cards. I'm patient. In good time.

Anyway, Nollie picked up Karen somewhere in Paranaque and they picked up Aileen at Blue Wave. Aggie was in Atlanta so she wasn't able to join.

They arrived past 9am, a minute or so before me. I went to the market to pick up the prawns and mussels that I ordered specially for this occasion.

I hardly scrapped. I just worked on the binder for Jessica Sprague's class. I just chatted and cooked. We had a wonderful lunch - chicken-mac soup, mussels in white wine, spicy buttered prawns, chilled squid and cucumber salad in French vinaigrette. For pm snacks/dinner, I made penne with fresh pesto and tuyo.

Here's the four of us, with our mess. Ian, Karen's hubby, took the photo.

Clockwise from me: Aileen, Nollie and Karen