Minimalism - Mug

F 1/20 F5.6  ISO200 exposure mode: manual /

My first attempt on trying to catch the smoke out of my tea mug. I know, I need to use a different lens to capture it clearly But I couldn't find my box of lenses after our moved. That's a pity! yet, I am quite satisfied with this result because of the black background that I am aiming.

 I would like to try taking more minimalist pictures for sure. Perhaps, the simplicity of the subject and the calming effects make it worth looking.

What do you think?

So, next time when your tea time gets boring grab your camera and start shooting randomly. Boredom gone in an instant. 

Morning sky

What an amazing #sunrise when I woke up this #morning. Life's is great!  @indayfel

A photo posted by @polished_ai on Mar 30, 2016 at 6:27am PDT

When you woke up from several days of being and feeling pained and you saw this wonderful canvass in the sky.
Life's amazingly still great!

The greater your trial, the greater your victory!

Spring of 2015/Poland

Too often, people only believe what they want to believe. 

The greater your trial, the greater your victory. 

In life you will face disappointments and face adversity when your desires and dreams don't follow through. You choose to settle when things don't go as plan. Allowing one disappointment to affect your entire attitude and choose to live defeated, depressed, upset, and miserable. That's not God's plan. You have to get up! If all you're doing is praying and not doing something, you're wasting time and nothing is going to change or be given to you. The mountain can only be moved by faith not by sitting. You have to make up in your mind that " I shall live and not die..." I'm getting up out of this. I'm determined I'm going to press on. I'm going to fight my way through declaring His promises over my life while walking by faith and know that it's not the end because I know I'm walking into another thing God has in store for me.

Photo challenge: March/2015 / Week 10

Been challenging myself lately again and get back to shooting to get inspiration around.  The photo a day challenge is hosted by the inspiring blog of Fat Mum Slim . And just giving a lot of mums around the world that perks of happiness with things around and with the daily grind at home and at work. That includes me.

Dusting off my camera and open my eyes and heart for inspiration... are you with me? Let's do this!

moving forward...

fir tree

Here I am. Staring at a blank wall infront of me. thinking. contemplating. It is frosty outside yet the sun is out. Waiting for my tea to sip in.... a lot of questions in mind..actually random questions.  What to do? where to go next? What to do first? a lot of plans here and there....  To be honest, these are keeping me a bit insane.I am merely under the state of homesickness. I hate December months...I am such not a fan of Christmas holidays. If you are living far from home..you will understand me why. Although I am getting used to it now.  

Sometimes I am in the state of oblivion. at times, sick , bored and tired of the monotonous life here.  Sometimes I wonder if I really fit in to this world and the culture. Sometimes I find the answers within..and most of ten, I DON'T! Pretty obscure and nonsense. 

Alright, alright.... I do want to sound melodramatic. What I'm trying to say is that, I am still foraging in the deepest corners of my brain what to write and how to make this blog alive again. I find that blogging lately bores me. My entries are boring....purely nothing! There is no much motivation to it.. it is more of random and no sense of passion. Although, I am still figuring out as I go on with this blog. 

Most friends happens to bump into my blog encourages me to write more of my personal experiences living here in Poland and of course my interest in the field of arts.  Lately, they miss that side of me... the me, that can unselfishly share what I have and what I experienced. In all honesty, I miss that side of me as well. The passion is there , but the motivation isn't there anymore. I've come to realized there is so much things going on lately with me personally that I have to reconcile first and foremost. Before dragging myself back into the limelight of my passion.  When will I learn and be in the moment anyway? I consider myself always been blessed in life when it comes to opportunities to grow and that I am thankful. It is in this way that I feel like I needed to move forward.  As I wrote a letter to myself and last letter to my dad few months back, that I have to move forward and continue believing on things that I know I can do better.  My friends are right...I've lost that passion lately..I miss that old self. They miss the Ai in me. Now, this is me. Moving forward and trying to get better each day. And hopefully I could blog more honestly again with my thoughts in mind and a heart with so much passion for everything.  For now, let me say.......I am at my ME TIME! - figuring out how to make this blog alive again and hopefully share things I know while living here in Poland. 

The next blog entries, I promised are all about  moving forward............blogging to the next level.

Opps..my tea is ready! 

In pensive mood :-)

xxAi

week in pictures

discovering...

 

He challenges me, and makes me reconsider what I’ve always taken as given. I want us to grow together and honestly believe we can help each other to become better than we are today. That, quite simply, we will be happier together, despite the difficulties we may face as a consequence. He's teaching me to live with feeling, something I am truly grateful for. Still have a challenging thing to face. What the rest of life has in store for us remains a mystery, but I look forward to discovering it together as it comes.

....just like this flower, ready to face the world to discover its mystery.

Dear Winter

 

Dear Winter,

   I don't need you anymore! please go away and find your way out of my life! I need & been longing the warmth of Mr. Sunshine. I know I'm always complaining but hey! It's because you've extended your stay again. Aren't your tired of pouring snow? Yes, I find it magical but I don't like its coldness. Can't you understand that I am tired of you?

                                                                                                   Ms. Sunshine lady

Spring dress

Dreaming of spring...... so I end up sewing this dress on a very cold snowy day. 

When weather sucks, Keep calm and sew on!

Vintage lacey ribbon from my MIL

 

Zipper is black in colour for I have no other time to buy a white one and I wanted to finish the project in one day.

I can't wait for real spring to come.  Probably, would be my Easter dress too!

alright. 

:-")

Note:
I bought the floral fabric at Piegatex Tkaniny, a fabric shop near my city. About 8km from the place where I live. I blogged their shop here. I chose the shop for it's closest to home and I like to touch and feel the  fabrics before buying.
Facebook page here.

Star like blue flower

I want to see more colours!

And!

Been awhile not posting about a sewing projects and stuffs. I promise! Tomorrow I would be posting one.

Snow

Winter vacation will be over soon. And yet snow ain't stopping for some days now. I like snow but I don't like its cold. 

*sigh!

Life in Pictures & recipes

1. Walking uphill to see the whole view of our small village.

2. Getting colder when the sun is about to set. So, i have to cover my whole head and a bit of my face. It was a wonderful walk anyway uphill.

3. I love this boy to death. This is one clear picture of him. It is hard to take picture of my little boy either he don't like it or just want to make fun when seeing that camera is eyeing on him.

4. They like to make silly poses.

5. I chopped his bangs. Obviously, I didn't cut it straight.

6. My first attempt to bake 'PAN DE COCO' one of my favorite pastry/bread in the Philippines with coconut flake filling. (recipe is at the bottom)

6. Chocolate Moist Cake i baked last weekend. (recipe at the bottom)

7. stir-fry vegetable with sauteed shrimp paste.

8. Trying to warm my feet for cold season is now here.

RECIPES:

PAN DE COCO ( COCO BREAD)

You need for the dough:
yeast (1 pack instant, i used 7g )
3 cups flour
3 tbsps. cooking oil
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup warm water

How to:
empty the packet of yeast in a cup of warm water, put 1 tsp. sugar. Set aside for 15mins. IN a separate bowl, prepare 3 cups flour, 1/2 cup sugar and 3 tbsps. cooking oil. Then mix the prepared yeast and knead the flour for 30-45 mins.

for the coconut flake filling:
1 pack sweetene coconut flakes (7 oz.)
5 tbsp. brown sugar
2 tbsp. water

* put sugar and water in a pot until caramelized. Add sweetened coconut flakes. Mix until sugar is evenly distributed. (if you want it sweeter just add sugar.)

After leaving the dough for 1 hour, you can divide it into 10 pcs. Put the filling and leave prepared dough for 30 mins. covered with cloth. Bake it in 350*F /180*C for 15 mins. 

Enjoy!

CHOCOLATE MOIST CAKE

You need:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 cup sugar

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup dilluted milk

1 cup boiling water

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon iodized salt

2 pcs. eggs

 How to:

Mix all dry ingredients and make a well and add the rest of the ingredients. Beat b electric mixer fro 3-4 minutes. Pour in a lined round pan 9x1'' or 9x1.5''

Bake at 350*F for 25-30mins or until done. Toothpick comes out clean when tested.

For frosting/filling

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1 1/2 cup evaporated milk

1 1/3 cup cornstarch

1 cup white sugar

2 tbsps. butter

2 tsp. vanilla 

* mix all and strain. Cook in a double boiler or in slow fire and stirring constantly.

But in the picture i only use TOFFEE frosting / filling.

8 egg yolks

1 can condensed milk

1 tsp. vanilla

2 tsp. coffee powder

 how to:

-add eggs, milk, coffee powder and vanilla. beat on medium speed of electric mixer for 2 mins. 

-cook the filling until thick and spreading consistency is right.

-spread in filling in between cakes.

Enjoy!

* The chocolate moist cake was adapted from the blog of angelspice77-rai.blogspot.com

Recent addiction

Recently.....

 I am addicted making sarubobo plush from Mairuru. She's a wonderful Japanese blogger who made all things by hand sewing. Isn't it wonderful?

Made this owl from another Japanese crafter, moonstitches. towturial HERE .

 

And addicted editing pictures using pixlr-o-matic.com

I know a lot are into instagram for iphones and ipad users but if your not an apple users you can still tasted the same addiction. :-) 

Have a nice week!

12:12 Foto challenge (faces)

 I love to take pictures of my kids face. And Hubby, took that picture of me and my daughter. So this is my entry for 12:12 Foto Challenge.- Faces. 

More Foto challenge  here!

12 themes in 12 months in 2012 faces {gesichter}
Old faces, young faces, pretty faces, interesting faces, faces in nature, friendly faces, mean faces, fake faces, doll faces, puppet faces, this month is all about faces, faces, faces.

Spring love

 Spring is finally here! hurray! I love spring, it's a mosaic of colors. It is so rejunevating too after long months of cold winter. Grrrr!

I could see that the tulips in the garden are blossoming and ready to be in full bloom very soon. I am enjoying the sunny weather too these days. So been out most of the time at home. Which means as well, more reason to sew and do some crafty things. Yehey! 

Been sewing since yesterday for a spring dress.  I am not done yet since children are  so demanding a lot of my time playing outdoors. So, of course I have to focus on them and do the sewing thing when they are sleeping or when hubby is home. 

There are things I wanted to do this week and the weeks to come. I have list of spring things to do this spring. 

First, i want to paint again the wall in the living room and the kitchen wall.

2nd, been thinking of what to decorate in my living room wall. Good thing though, while blog hopping yesterday I happen to know from Disney of RUFFLES AND STUFF about this wall decor tutorial. It was really lovely and pretty which what i really wanted to do.

 

tks for the lovey tutorial Disney. 

3rd, been dying to have this kind of bicycle. I hope hubby will grant my wish.

source: http://weheartit.com/entry/8000524

4th, this flower headband is also in my list of spring projects.

 

source: weheartit.com

5th, i was inspired by this dress. So i am sewing somewhat the same dress since yesterday. hoping to finish this one today.

 

6th,  can't wait to see such lovely colors of flowers anywhere.

 

7th, I'm also so giddy to try this leather accessory tutorial of Delia creates.  Perfect accessory for this spring and summertime. She has a lot of other wonderful tutorial too in her site.

 

8th,  take a lot of pictures when the sun is up all day long anywhere and whatever subjects.

 

source

9th,  reminds me too, that lately i am addicted to this site of a japanese documenting her levitation photos.

source : yowayowacamer.com

10th, and of course do a lot of spring cleaning. * sigh!

so, those are my list of spring things i needed to do and what i love this week.

Enjoy spring everyone :-D

Pictures!

I am not dreaming of autumn but just sharing the recent photos i edited.

Definitely i am dreaming of strawberries and can't wait for springtime.