Marimo

After hearing my cousin rave about it and googling it late at night, I knew I HAD to get one.
I can hear you guys muttering, "Great, what did you buy now?!"
Marimo's are little balls of algae and takes little effort to maintain. I've killed many orchids so I'm crossing my fingers that this one survives. The only upkeep is replacing the water every week or so with cold tap water. Easy right?

This one was supposed to be for Amado but he said his desk at work is cluttered

and wouldn't have room for it so I guess it's staying on my desk at home.

The set came boxed up and separated like this.

It was pretty easy to put together. Just dump the sand in the tiny aquarium and fill it up with cold tap water. It'll be a little cloudy at first but just keep the water running until it clears up as instructed in the manual.

One thing that I learned was to rinse the shells first and soak them in a separate container.

Make sure the shells are filled with water before dropping it in the aquarium or else they'd end up

floating around and its hard to fish them out from the tiny opening. 

I purchased mine from PinkSerissa on Etsy.

I'll see how this little guy works out first but I'm definitely considering getting another one.

Malaya Project : Diane Abapo (Video)

Jump on over to Malaya Project to check the new video featuring Diane Abapo.
You can also view her feature here.

Moleskine + MILK Photobook

Browsing through Flipbook (one of the best apps on iOS), I found out Moleskine was launching a new product with a photo book company. I've always loved their notebooks. I have a few in different sizes that I carry depending on how big my bag is that week/day. There's just something about jotting down notes with a pen and paper that I like more than just clicking away on a computer or a phone.

I also don't have any of my work printed besides Malaya Project images that we use for galleries and one 4x6 photo of Juku, Kami and Amado "begging".

I decided to put together a book for the last wedding that I did.  At least now I have a book to show clients as sample of my work.

I ordered a 20 page book which took me longer to fill than I expected. I went back and forth selecting the images I wanted to use to tell the story. The images has to fit correctly in the template so some crops did not work as nice as the original format. I took my time and I think worked on the book for at least 5 days. 

I'm really happy with the result.

Like the notebooks, the photo books also has a pocket at the back.

I guess a good place to store the discs for the images.

Pre-ordering included a free lined notebook.

Le Pliage Cuir

Well guess who's off the bag ban. Yes, I put myself on a bag ban last year.

Saw this while we were in New York and didn't to let him go.

We left the store on 30 Rock and I could not sleep a wink that night.

Well, maybe because our flight was cancelled and I was on the phone til 3am with Virgin America trying to reschedule. But while on that long hold, I was browsing through the web and oogled at photos of the bag.

The color did it for me. Gun Metal.

Simple, lightweight and leather.

Can't ask for anything more.

I love how the bag's look changes depending on how its carried.

Everything that I carry, minus my camera since I was obviously using it to take the photos. 

Oh and Makoy snagged this for me even before we flew out to visit him.

Jack Spade was having a huge sale so I couldn't pass up.

I wanted something to use for formal occasions. So folks, start inviting me to formal stuff!

New York Part 3

The day before Hurricane Sandy hit the city and got us stuck indoors, we took advantage of the somewhat ok weather and continued venturing around the city. We started off at Grand Central.

Massive place! And the Apple Store! lol

Yeah I know, awkward. Just let me be.

Aries!

Our tour guide/host, Makoy.

Love this market area in Grand Central.

We came back later on that week to cure Amado's cannoli fix. The place he originally wanted to go to was closed due to the hurricane.

Of all places to go to and buy ginger for Arroz Caldo, this is where we ended up.
I wanted to cook something while cooped up at Makoy's place during the hurricane.

Shhhhhhhhh....

Little Italy or as Makoy refers to as "Tourist Trap". Which happens to be next to Chinatown where again, we had some ice cream after some soup dumplings from Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao (another must visit place that was on Amado's list).

After fueling up with some lattes and completing what was on our souvenirs list, we made our way to Brooklyn. Walking the bridge wasn't so bad. Yeah it was packed with tourists, bikers yelling "heads up" and people annoyingly stopping in the middle of the walkway to take photos, oh that was us, but for me Brooklyn was so worth it. DapperLou.com painted such a great imagery of what Brooklyn is all about and I totally understood it when we were there, even if it was during night time.

Brooklyn is <3>

If we were to move to the East Coast, it would have to be to Brooklyn.

New York pizza was also on Amado's list so we made our way to Grimaldi's.

The line for this pizzeria was pretty long but it's worth waiting in line for.

(Amado's photos: pizza, pizza)

Yey, another picture of us together!
Makoy was uneasy using my camera. I guess I make it sound so complicated when giving instructions on how to use it. I think it turned out great though.

I feel bad when I see people taking photos in front of an amazing cityscape at night and end up disappointed with the outcome. Using the on-camera flash specially if the camera is at a great distance from you is pretty much pointless. You'll just end up with a flat and dark photo.

Just have your subjects use their phones, turn the phone's camera on video mode, turn the flash on and point it (angled) at their faces. It might seem tacky at first but I think it looks better. 

30 Rock

We didn't get to go ice skating at the Rockefeller Center :(
Amado, next time?

Amado, Chic and Makoy at Central Park before we convinced her into buying a bag.

Things that I didn't get to capture but luckily Amado was always Instagram ready:
Magnolia Bakery, The Mansion Diner, Dunkin Donuts, Gray's Papaya
(please don't judge us, I'm well aware that all we did was eat)

Thanks again Makoy for making our vacation hassle free by giving us a place to stay and taking us around.
The hurricane made it a very eventful trip and we still enjoyed it.