Leisure 3: Nail Art (Cat face turned to Rat face)

For an emotionally stressful week... I have decided to sit down and color my nails.

This should be a cat but turned out to be a rat.

Hahaha

It has been a very tiring week for me (emotionally). That's why I grabbed something that would brighten up my day. Nail polish! And do some art on my nails.

It's very easy.

You need:

1. Nail colors you like (one for the base, one for the animal face design and one for the eyes and nose of the animal)
2. Dotting Tool (if you don't have one, try an unused pen. Be resourceful. Sometimes the key to a simple but lovely artwork isn't the ones you bought but with the ones you actually have.)
3. Imagination (Today, I am going to draw a cat face because I love cats.)

How to do it:

1. Put your base (blue in this case).
2. Use another color and put a dot wherever you want to put it on your nail (red in this case). Shape the face of the cat using your dotting tool or pen.
3. Put the eyes, nose and whiskers using another color.
4. Done! But my drawing is seriously funny. It doesn't look like a cat to me. (Now, I understand why my 4-year old pupil told me 4 years ago that the animal I drew under the chair was a RAT. Well, my CAT drawing really looks like a RAT. hahahaha)

Closer view

And since I want to screw up my sister's beautiful blue nails..

My sister's blue nails

I tried to offer some help by putting something on it. I just hope, it turned out well. Look at her nails closely..

All you have to do is put your base coat. Put your stars or design you like. Then sprinkle some dust of love.

And when you get bored, try doing it with your sister or your friend or mom.

Let it dry and put your top coat.

Stress management session done.

Stay positive ladies!!

(I'm also trying to be positive now. LOL)

Have fun ladies!! Have a stress free day!! Don't forget to put your comment below.. 

Love,

Cultural Show (Kalilangan Festival 2013)

Every February, General Santos City (Philippines) celebrates Kalilangan Festival. Kalilangan is from the rootword "Kalilang", a Maguindanaon word which means Celebrate.

A local Filipino weaver; weaving tapestry.

(Photo taken 25th of Feb at SM Gensan)

It is a ceremonial display of ethnic culture and tradition. It is also looking back at the history of the city and  history of the people.

series of activities

 Kulintang.

An ancient Filipino musical instrument.

Henerals playing bandurria.

Bandurria is a musical instrument Filipinos use before and even up to now in playing wonderful Filipino songs. 

 Ladies in their traditional Maguindanaon clothing.

Modern Filipina wearing traditional clothing.

Weaving.

Early Filipinos weave a lot of things, tapestry, mat, baskets, bags, blankets, clothing and even hair.

It's part of our culture. 

 Fact: Wherever you go in the Philippines, you will really see Filipinos weaving.

That's one source of income for the Filipinos.

 This is one is more complicated than the previous.

That's it for the cultural show. I haven't seen any chorale presentation. I hope you enjoyed reading and looking at the pictures. 

Have fun!!!

Don't forget to view my profile and from there, you could read my other blog about parenting.

Try paper weaving on your own. http://joneepslimwitch.blogspot.com/2013/02/paper-weaving.html

Love lots,

Leisure 2: Photography

Photography

I know I promised to show you more of the Kalilangan Festival. I will post some after this post. So, as a mom, when I get bored and I have time, I do Photography.

Here are some of my first sessions at my grandma's garden. Of course with my cousin Carol Mae Deonoso's  lovely Canon camera. So, when she's not around, I'm using my Galaxy-Note that my husband gave me as a gift. But the pictures from my Galaxy are not yet here. So, thanks to them for supporting my love for photography especially love for NATURE... and probably my insanity about pictures as well..

Please take note that the first four pics with the tiny grasshoppers are taken just at the back of our room. There's a lot of grasses there and some grasshoppers.

The next pictures are at my grandma's garden. She's got tons of flowering plants.

 Rosy periwinkle. This is reddish purple. But it has other colors like lavender, purple and white.

 Sampaguita (Philippine National Flower)
This flower smells sooooo good! It makes a good garland. Most of the time, kids outside the Catholic Churches would sell garlands and Filipinos offer the Sampaguita Wreaths to the altars.

 I don't know what flower is this.

Bandera Espanola

Another flower I don't know again. But they used to harvest the flowers and make it into garlands or flower wreaths for graduation. 

Another flower I don't know. But what's really amazing about this one is that, when you try to look at it closely, it's like the face of a FLY or a BEE.

See!! It looks like a fly or a bee. That's my hand.

The flower for garland. 

Yellow Santan. I have to share a story about this flower. When we were kids, we used to get the little flower with a stick and sip the water or juice in it. Sometimes, we used it for making necklaces, bracelets and anklets. Our grandmother always reprimand us because of plucking her santan flowers. 

Calachuchi. This is the smaller version and odorless. But don't ever pick this! Because when you do that, your hand will taste sooooooooo BITTER. My grandma would always tell me that this is the African Calachuchi. Well, there's another type of calachuchi in our school, it's as huge as a tree and the flowers are white and it smells so good. Plus that kind of calachuchi was used for making ointment before by our forefathers / native Filipino people for treating insect bites. They used the branch.

 Ginseng

 Red Santan. I really remember the bracelet and necklace making part during my childhood.

I really enjoyed my childhood. I want my son to have the same.

White Bougainvilla. This plant belongs to special plants according to my dad. Later, I found out it was true. Because the white color you can see there, is often mistaken as the flower of this plant. Honestly, it's just the leaf. There's a discoloration of its leaves. The real flower is inside those leaves and it's so tiny. The most amazing part about this flower was when we took the tiny flower, turn it upside down and put it on our tongues. Just for fun!
White isn't the only color that this plant has. It has red, yellow, pink.

Another bougainvilla. If you take a look at it carefully, you will see what I was trying to explain earlier. The pink there is just the leaf. The real flower is the tiny one inside. It's so small.

The acapulco. This one is yellow. My grandma got another color, reddish pink.

So, I don't know this flower.

I really apologize if my first shots are not as great as you often see in others' pictures.

Well, if I can't beat them with quality,

At least I can beat them with originality.

How?

Look at this last photo.

Behind this photo is a rather old looking green gate.

That's my grandma's gate!

hahahaha

I hope you had fun looking at the pictures and the stories behind each pictures. I'm sharing my nature photography at the same time sharing my childhood.

I definitely wanna read your thoughts. Don't forget to leave a comment or visit my profile and check out my other blog about parenting.

Thanks!

City Fair and Mosques Architectural Exhibit 2013

February isn't just the month of love, it is also the month of our yearly Festival here in General Santos called Kalilangan.

During Kalilangan Festival, the city are being visited by a lot of tourists from different places of the Philippines and by people from different places of the world.

Kalilangan Festival caters the tradition and culture that our city has. The local government also provided a lot of KALINGAWAN (Cebuano language or term for the word - fun) for the people.

This is the ferris wheel ride.

The dragon coaster ride. 

Jelai having her coaster ride with Anica beside her. At the back: Liza and Alexa.

 Kids with the carousel ride. The girls in front, Liza and Kurt at the back.

Another kind of ride, the elephant. That's Anica right there.

There are some rides I haven't took a photo. But the fun doesn't end with the rides. It's time for our hungry stomachs to be fed.

Just outside the city fair rides are the food stations where some of the food will be cooked in front of you like the SUGBA (Local Heneral term for the word -- grill). However, we tried a different thing. We tried local  Muslim food called PASTIL. It has rice topped with either fish or chicken pre-sauted with some spices. Traditionally this is wrapped with fresh banana leaves. But this time, we requested to serve it on plate.  It is very affordable but very delicious.

Muslims were some of the first settlers in Mindanao. Mindanao is where you can find General Santos City. They participate during Kalilangan to show the culture of Islam. 

 While waiting for the food to be served, the kids had fun.

This is the pastil.

The most interesting part is, you have to eat it with you bare hands.

-----

A few days later, my college friends and I decided to meet somewhere to catch up with each other. We found ourselves appreciating the wonderful architectural designs of our Muslim brothers for their mosques here in the Philippines.

Art Exhibit: Masjid / Mosque

With my college friends: Loraine Fillalan, Jessa Mae Bayle and Shylah Mae Dugaduga (all licensed teachers working for public schools or government schools) 

 This is the person responsible for your tour here in General Santos City during Kalilangan Festival.

 Gretchen Cumayas, Loraine Fillalan, Jonee Slimwitch, Shylah Mae Dugaduga, Jessa Mae Bayle

 Loraine, Jonee, Shy, Jessa and Leah Tahil

And that ends our tour for today. Have fun!!! There will be more to come for Kalilangan Festival.