Valentine Gift Ideas

It is nearing Valentines again and you are tired of racking up your brain for giving your loved one a memorable gift. Worry no more coz here are some ideas that would surely impress your loved one. 

• Make your own card ( you can buy one if you do not have the time of making one) and put it in your hubby's/boyfriend's/special someone's car sun visor or inside his bag or cabinet or some place he always checks. He will get a nice surprise when he sees it and would be touched from your effort and message of course!
• Bake a cake have it as dessert on your Valentine's dinner. You can also cook his/her favorite dish and have a wonderful dinner at home. 
• Print your favorite photo together and frame it up. 
• Write small notes where he can find it on that day. 
• Surprise him/her with a delivery of flowers. Boys loved flowers too!
• Create your own Book of Adventures. ( This one is a favorite of all the surprises I had done!) Print few pictures of all your travel adventures, pictures together, dates, picture of you together with family and friends etc and put it in a photo album. He/she would surely loved it and you would also have fun reminiscing the memories you have together. 
• Create a photo mosaic and tag him/her on Facebook. 
• Write your message but write it in a puzzle. He/she would enjoy  figuring out the puzzle before reading your message. 
• You can also write words on pieces of paper and let him figure out what is the message. It is best though to have 1-2 sentences and not a whole paragraph. 
• If you know how to paint/draw, it is nice to paint/draw him/her and give it as a gift. 
• If you love traveling, why not surprise him/her with a short out of town trip. 
• Buy a nice massage scent/oil and give him/her a nice massage.
• Make a short video of your life together in pictures. 

A gift does not need to be expensive. What is important is the thought and sincerity we put to it. 

Easy as 1-2-3 Painting

I am a fan of deals online and I saw this DIY painting from Cashcashpinoy. It was nearing our anniversary last year and I figured that the painting would be a great gift. The kit comes with its own brushes, paints, and a pre-printed canvas. All you have to do is just apply the paint. I guess the hardest part is making sure that you do not paint outside the marked drawing. It took me about a month to finish the painting as I can only devote a portion of my time each day. Here is the finished painting:

Recipe: Own version of Truffles

Looking for a nice gift for your loved one this Valentine? How about making one? Making your own gift makes it extra special. I made a Chocolate Truffles before as an anniversary gift and he loved it. I am sharing this recipe to you guys so hoped you would love it. Spread the love and happiness!!  :) 

Ingredients:

1 pack of graham crackers

12 pieces of chocnut

1 bar butter (1/2 to 3/4 butter will do for 1 pack of graham, as long as it will stick together and can be formed as ball)

a small fruit cocktail

1/2 kg bitter / premium chocolate (I bought one from Chocolate Lovers, Cubao) 

Steps: 

1. Finely ground the graham cracker.
2. Add chocnuts, mix well. ( I used a fork to mix the chocnuts and graham crackers.) 
3. Add sliced butter ( room temperature ) mix well until butter is absorbed by the graham. 
4. Add fruit cocktail 
5. Roll graham crackers into balls, make sure to have fruits inside the graham ball. Set aside and chill in the fridge.
7. Heat chocolate over boiling water until it melted.
8. Coat rolled graham with melted chocolates. ( I used 2 teaspoons when dipping the rolled graham to easily coat the rolled graham balls.) 
9. Add toppings and design. Chill before serving. 

TIPS:

• Chilling in the freezer will give the chocolates a glossy finish. 
• I used peanuts and white chocolate for design. You can use sugar, candy sprinkles, almonds, cocoa, mallows and many others as toppings. 
• If you do not have a an icing applicator, you can put the melted white chocolate in a small plastic and make a small hole on one of the ends. 

Recipe: Chicken Pochero

Ingredients:

500 grams chicken cut into medium sizes (beef or pork can be used too)

1 cup tomato sauce

4 cloves garlic

1 medium onion

10-15 pieces baguio beans , cut into half/thirds

1 bunch bokchoy/pechay, cut into halfs/thirds

1 medium size sweet potato/ quartered

4-6 pieces saba/plantain bananas cut into 2 (fried separately)

4 cups of water

2-3 small potato

1 chicken broth cube

¼ Tbsp ground pepper

1 tsp salt (fish sauce can be used as alternative for a better taste)

1/8 tsp MSG (optional) 

STEPS:  

1.       Saute garlic and onion until golden.

2.       Add sliced chicken and stir fry until golden brown. Add salt, MSG, pepper, and pork broth cube.

3.       Add tomato sauce. Simmer for 20-35 minutes or until chicken is tender. Medium heat.

4.       Add sweet potatoes, potato, baguio beans, pechay, and fried bananas. Simmer until veggies are cooked but not overcooked, 5-10 minutes.

TIPS:

•  You can add fried chorizo as toppings.
• Add sliced tomatoes when sautéing to make it tastier.
• Garbanzos and green peas can be added as well.
• You can use cabbage instead of pechay .

What is your dream vacation?

While I was working as an SME on a work from home job, my manager asked me to write a short essay about our dream vacation. She has a task she wants us to do and was checking our writing prowess hahaha!! I always want to see the Pyramids of Egypt so this is what I wrote: 

I can feel the scorching heat of the sun, the hot dry air of the desert touching my face, parching my throat dry and playing with

my hair. I can already see the silhouette of the three triangles in front of us. Even though I have my shades on, it is hard to look far as the sand reflects the sunlight. But with all the discomforts on my week long vacation, my heart is thumping as I finally can check one of my bucket lists, to see the Pyramids of Egypt. 

The cab that we are riding will take us from Cairo to the Pyramids of Giza within an hour or more. I would prefer to ride a camel since I felt this is more romantic scene as I approach the pyramids but then it could take hours just to get there. And besides, the cab is more comfortable and I have my partner with me on this trip so I will settle for that. 

Acres and acres stretch of sand and a few minutes more, we are now in front of the pyramids. It feels surreal as you see the gigantic structure of the ancient Egyptian civilization. You can still sense the clashing of whips as slaves carry the heavy limestone up. You can see in your mind as the Egyptian pharaoh looks where his body would lie on his death hoping for a life after death. The Great Pyramid of Khufu (or Cheops), Kafhre, and Menkaura stand majestic and grand. I can only stare in awe as I absorb its beauty and grandeur. Looking at its beauty, I felt my hand being pulled and a loud buzzing sound in my ear. I closed my eyes and when I opened it back, I saw the white ceiling in my room. It was just a dream vacation after all.

How about you? What is your dream vacation?

 

Pyramids at Giza

Source of photo: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080328104302.htm

Art Attack!

Here is my second batch of edited photos. In this batch, I took some photos of "Kapitan Moy" house and an old house near it. I combined 2-3 photos of different theme/style edited via Picasa and cropped and combined it to one photo to show emphasis on some parts/objects and to add layers and variations of colors.

 For this photo, I combined "Black and White" and "Sepia" style.

 I have 3 different themes/hues on one photo and cut ,cropped, and pasted them together to add variation of hues. 

I pixellized this photo and added block cropped parts from a Black and White photo.

Frustrated Artist

They say everyone has their own frustrations in life. For me, it is to be a painter. I love looking at paintings and wishing I am good at it, but sadly, I do not have much of a talent (hahaha!!!). But now with a lot of things that you can do with computer and sites where you can edit photos like Picasa and Fotoflexer, you can live your dream to be an artist. You can create your own art work and masterpiece. All you need is just your imagination. Here are some photos I edited:

In these photos, what I did was to combine one - three photo of the same object/landscape with different settings or use pieces of different photos to look like an abstract painting.