An Egyptian Costume for a Friend!

I'm not a designer, I'm not a seamstress, but one thing is for sure: I'm a selfless friend... I find joy in sharing my little blessings with others. I feel blessed whenever I give out. I'm not stingy in giving even my time to people who are dear to me. Maybe because that's the very nature of my work, or that's just who I am. Last week Ashley asked me to make a D.I.Y. Egyptian costume he would be using for the OLFU Mr. & Ms. Tourism 2012. For three (or four?) sleepless days, Anj, Daryll and I created a costume that would fit Ashley's idea of an ancient Egyptian attire. Thank God we were able to finish it before the pageant!

From fabrics to foil, can you believe that we only spent 238 pesos (USD $5.64) for the entire costume?

Making an Egyptian headpiece drained out my right brain!

But it ain't gonna us from night till day!

During the pageant, we had to help him wear the costume:

This is the finished product, the sum of our efforts and ideas:

It was all worth the pimples!

Seeing the costume being modeled onstage took away my weariness:

And even if Ash did not win the pageant... the fun, the skills developed and the camaraderie are things that I will never forget!

To Ash, it's okay. Try again next year! Colonel Sanders failed 1,009 times before his home-made chicken became KFC... Keep in mind that, winners never quit, and quitters never win!

Guni-Guni Red Carpet Premiere

Claiming a prize from a twitter contest has never been this fun as not only I, won as a celebrity look-alike but also my boyfriend and a close friend, Anj! 

I WON!

MY BOYFRIEND WON!

and... ANJ WON!

Since we three won two tickets each for the Guni-guni Premiere Night, we tagged along another three:

Tita Maribel,  (Anj's cool mom), Darwin (my boyfriend's brother) and Mikee (Darwin's cute girlfriend).

It's so overwhelming to think that 10 percent of the 30 lucky people who won this nationwide contest are people who know each other well. Hahaha. Don't you think it was a little biased?

From left: Daryll, Me, Anj, Mikee & Tita Maribel:

Outfit: Sheer Black Long-sleeve Blouse, Yellow Polka-dot Skort, Black Belt, Cuff, Mango Envelope Clutch, Long Cuff Bangle, D.I.Y. Yellow Ombre Tassel Earrings, Black Open-toed Wedge Booties

On my boyfriend, Daryll: Blue Button-down, Denim Jacket,  Black Necktie, White Pants, Black Men's Clutch, Ballers, Black Caterpillar Boots

My D.I.Y. tassel earrings which I was about to wear at the event wasn't finished yet when these pics were taken: [Photos by Anj]

We went straight to Cinema 3 of SM Megamall only to find that the venue was moved to Cinema 9. Before even reaching the entrance of the hall where C9 is located, we witnessed quite a number of fans and movie-goers waiting for the cast to enter the venue.

Our tickets to the movie... Thank you Mr. Nico Nicomedes!

T.V. personalities & celebs who walked down the red carpet:

Kiray, Lhar Santiago:

Alex Castro, Mother Lily:

Ria Garcia, Jake Cuenca:

Empress:

The main character of the movie, Lovi Poe with her leading man, Benjamin Alves:

This is it... The moment I had been waiting for... Me walking down the red carpet!

Hahaha! As contest winners, we had to enter through this path. Sorry for the crappy pic. Daryll took this while he was walking behind me. He felt a bit shy of taking pictures while on the Red Carpet. After the scene, we were given Splash gift packs.

Dear Splash, thank you for these skin care products!

Then we entered the Cinema.

How creepy this model looked like...

The theatre was overcrowded with jolly people who made watching a horror movie feel like watching comedy. Haha! As for the movie, It was thrilling and I enjoyed watching it! Lovi Poe is indeed the queen of Pinoy horror movies! Before we got out of the cinema, we spoke in front of the T.V. camera about our short opinions of the movie. It was another first-time experience!

Awooooooohh...

D.I.Y. Project: Yellow Dye!

It was an hour before I leave home to watch the premiere night of Lovie Poe's Guni-Guni when I noticed that the white tassel earrings I was going to wear didn't match my skirt. Trying to get ahead of time, I quickly searched for that yellow acrylic paint in my honey's house... But have you ever been to that awkward moment when it won't show up the time you need it the most? It was also the moment when we had to use our resourcefulness and creativity. Good thing my boyfriend found this bottle of powdered turmeric (Luyang Dilaw) sitting over their fridge. He said turmeric is good for hair coloring, so why not try it on my tassel earrings?

D.I.Y. Project: Yellow Dye

Materials: A plastic bowl, powdered turmeric, alcohol and something to you can use for stirring (like an old toothbrush)

Instruction: Simply mix a spoonful of powdered turmeric with a little alcohol. Just make a good estimate of the amount. the less alcohol, the darker the yellow. Test the dye on a piece of fabric first.

Done! We dipped the bottom part of my tassel earrings to make 'em look ombre-fied! Please be aware that the turmeric-alcohol mixture runs high upward on the fabric so dipping only the bottom-most part can color the whole tassel earring. We had to be careful...

Now I'm ready to rock with my new tassel earrings!

Free Food Workshop Part 3: Pizza Making!

Pasta. Pesto. Puttanesca. Oh how I love Italian dishes! And though we never get to learn how to make one on our Free Food Workshop Series, what we did a couple of days ago is another "P", which was PIZZA!

Outfit: H&M Shirt, Mango Bag, Printed Leggings, Turquoise Necklace (again!), Nude Sandals

  

Every food workshop day is a fashion challenge to me, as we are all required to wear white with no arm accessories... Now I'm ready to cook!

Our young and talented cooking instructor taught us how to make dough for the pizza crust.

Then he taught us how to form a crust...

...and to fill it with self-made pizza sauce.

We copied his instructions and each of us started making our own pizza, baking them in a stove-top oven batch-by-batch.

The "thick-crust" pizza with bechamel sauce I had just created... Hahahaha!

Some of us pizza-making students (my boyfriend and I at the right) with our instructor...

Who would have known that the amateurish pizza I baked doesn't taste bad at all. So I made an effort to cook carbonara and spaghetti at my boyfriend's kitchen to pair with my pizza.

Cibo buono! Ummwahh!

D.I.Y. Project: Fringe Block Necklace [From an Old Clear Book]

Sometimes I feel like I suffer from OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) LOL! But not up to Mr. Monk's level, I just want things perfectly clean and organized. So to ease my discomfort of seeing things untidy, I clean up my cabinets once in a while. One thing I seldom do while organizing stuff is to open up my old messenger bags, which I did yesterday. As I was clearing up a bag full of unneeded papers, I found this ancient clear book I was using for marketing years ago. When I was about to place it nicely into my things-to-throw box, an idea suddenly popped out of my head again... Which leads me to detouring it to my work desk and start doing this easy but kick-ass D.I.Y. necklace!

D.I.Y. Project: Fringe Block Necklace [From an Old Clear Book]

Materials:

An old clear book (mine's got a K&N car sticker which can also mean initials of my name... coincidence!) Chain with lock, Jump Rings, Scissors, Puncher, Ruler. OPTIONAL: Pliers

Here's how to do it: (3 EASY STEPS)

1.) Cut out 24 pieces of 2cm by 8cm strips from the cover of the clear book. You can cut out more strips if you want to. (The clear book I used was grey with black as its back surface color)

2.) Poke a hole on the top end of each strip.

3.) Starting 6.5 inches from the chain's end, connect the strips to the chain using jump rings,  attaching one strip per hole of the chain. Once you're done with all of the strips, leave another 6.5 inches of the chain and remove the excess chain length. I just used my bare hands to do this step but you may use pliers if you find it hard.

Congratulations! You've just created one beautiful, durable (water-proof!) statement necklace made from a crappy old clear book:

Time to wear this and pose ala Doña:

Outfit: Our D.I.Y. Fringe Block Necklace, Nude Pink Top, Black Leggings, Studded Belt Bracelet, Grey Pointed Lace-up Flats

         

Can you imagine I only spent 26 pesos (USD 62cents) to do this necklace? 6 pesos for the chain and 20 pesos for the hundreds of pieces of jump rings (which I only used 24 pieces of 'em!)... Sometimes, it pays to be an oc-oc! (an obsessive-complusive person) LOL!