Garden Chef's Needle and Pen

In my post about my crochet marathon , I promised to write about each of the featured crochet works I made. They say promises are made to be broken but here I keep my promise. Let me start with this... My Flower Corsage   THE MAKING... For this crochet project, I used Tara Murray's pattern from Leaves and Flowers . The patterns for both flowers and leaves were very easy to follow in that both involved just a few steps. From Tara Murray's "Easy Makes Me Happy"  In making the flowers,  I enjoyed choosing and deciding which colors would make a good combination.  I also had to consider the color preferences of the persons to whom I would give the corsage. There were only 6 rounds in the making of a larger flower (4 rounds for a smaller one) so that in a very short while you are done making a number of flowers. Two-layered flowers (small and large petals)  Now for the leaves , Tara's instructions include an easy-to-foll

I'm not ashamed to admit that I learned about nail art only recently although I have seen the "half-moon" design in my mother's nails when I was still a little child. Little did I know that nail art has evolved so much through the years! Ayana, my eldest daughter, is into it. And now, I have another addition to my vocabulary-- "water marbling". I also learned about this from Ayana. Well, this is what we call learning from the younger generation. Interested to view her own creations? Here, take a look... This is her winning entry in the Caronia website promo contest for the month of January. To view the details? click here . See the next photo. This was featured in Caronia Philippines Facebook wall last February 3, 2012. And as I was saying earlier, here's her latest creation, "Water Marbling".  To take a look at her tutorial, click here .  Have you tried any of these designs for your nails? Hmmm... it mus

Reflections on a preaching of our Pastor one Sunday of June in 2010. Key verse: “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” (1 Cor 10: 13) As an introduction to his message, Pastor John mentioned something about the impossible rigors of life which he graphically illustrated using the sand sculpture “ Agony ” by Bert Adams. The word, “rigor”, plus the illustration instantly brought to my mind “rigor mortis”, a medical term which means body stiffness that occurs several hours after death as a result of the coagulation of protein in the muscles. In his exposition, he gave as an example of the rigors of life, that of Job---God’s perfect model of victory in response to intense physical, emotional and spiritual temptation, so intense to have rendered his body in total stif

This past week I chanced upon our hospital cafeteria a breakfast menu consisting of fried Galunggong with achara (pickled green papaya with carrots, ginger and onions) as side dish. I wasn't able to resist the sight of the crispy fried galunggong  which I imagined to be statuettes of somersaulting ballerinas after bathing on high heat. I ordered one serving for my lunch which I very much enjoyed, leaving a small portion which I was able to bring home for dinner. Galunggong ( big-bellied round scad or Mackerel Scad <Decapterus macarellus>) is among the very common fishes in Philippine waters and markets. It is usually considered as the index of  well-being among the Filipino common Tao in the same way that the Big Mac is used globally 1 . GG, as it is abbreviated by Filipinos  has a dark somewhat oily but tasty flesh. Seeing the heap of galunggong in the market this morning reminded me of the crispy GG I ate for lunch last week.  That gave me in an instant a bright