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Who wore it better?

After knitting a very long scarf that I didn’t like very much, I finally completed a knitting project that I actually like. I found a pattern for this knit headband/neck warmer on Pinterest and thought it would be a nice way to learn new techniques, like increasing and decreasing stitches. It’s not perfect, but it’s been getting a lot of use, and I’m happy with the color.

Now, my question is: who wore it better? Me or Rogue?

P.S. I’m frowning because I attempted to take this in a narrow cobblestoned alley that suddenly turned into a wind tunnel. Narrow alleys here have a way of doing that in the winter.

4 Comments
Posted on February 10, 2012
Category: Creative Projects · Labels: knitting, projects, Rogue, winter

MangoJuiced: Style steals from an Istanbul apartment

I stayed in this Istanbul apartment last October—and I loved it so much, I “stole” something to take home with me. Can you guess what it is?

Go style stealing with me in this week’s post on MangoJuiced. And leave a comment to congratulate me on my newfound sewing skills. Consider that your hint!

MangoJuiced is a webzine for anything and everything that interests women—from fashion and family, to pop culture and beauty, to travel and lifestyle. Follow MangoJuiced on Twitter and Facebook… and don’t forget to check back in for a new post from me every week!

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Posted on January 24, 2012
Category: Creative Projects, Wanderlust · Labels: home, Istanbul, MangoJuiced, projects, sewing, Turkey

New year, new pages

Last fall, I enrolled in Blogging Your Way, a blogging e-course by Holly Becker of Decor8 and Leslie Shewring of A Creative Mint. The four-week course was packed with information and inspiration; months later I’m still digesting everything! It sparked ideas for new projects, new directions and even a new blog (stay tuned!), but also made me think about this old blog in a new way.

When I started blogging seven years ago, the blogosphere was very different. A blog was an online journal, a diary. If you had a lot to rant about in real life, your blog would be full of rants. If you had nothing going on in your life, your blog would be full of meaningless blather. The average blogger didn’t give much thought to presentation and promotion back then. It was always about what you had to say.

Things have changed. Today, blogs are carefully curated, prepared, promoted—ironically enough, whether or not you even create your own original content. There are simply things you need to do, that I hadn’t been doing. Some things make perfect sense to me; other things, like reblogging and reposting, just… don’t (yet).

So consider this a bit of housekeeping that’s been long overdue. I’ve put some new things in place, first of which is the About page. Even if you’ve been reading my blog for a long time and feel you know me pretty well, read it anyway! You just might find out a few things you don’t already know about me. Like what the heck a Currystrumpet is, for example.

It was hard to write an About page for myself! To describe myself as a “lifestyle” blog or a “travel” blog would have been very neat and handy, but I don’t think I quite fit into either of those categories. Still, I’ve written something I’m happy with, and that I think sums up me and my blog pretty well. Holler if you agree!

It was fun choosing a picture. This was taken shortly after my 30th birthday, in Istanbul. Our host Suzan had this gorgeous traditional Maltese balcony with a leather wing chair that just screamed to be posed in.

The second new addition is the Welcome note on the right-hand column, essentially a shorter version of the About page. Below it, you’ll now find links to my Twitter and Pinterest accounts. Follow away!

Finally, I’ve organized my Blogroll and moved it to a separate page. I’ve realized that I have a) so many fun and interesting friends who blog, and b) great blogs that I’ve discovered but kept to myself. So starting this January, I will feature one blog per month from my Blogroll as my “blog of the month.” Just sharing the love, y’all.

Do you like the new About page and the “blog of the month” idea? What kind of things do you want to see more of on this blog in the New Year? Hit the comments and let me know.

5 Comments
Posted on January 17, 2012
Category: Creative Projects · Labels: blogging, New Year

Going green

I’m such a Christmas junkie that I put our home through not one, but two phases of Christmas decorating. I started out with dried and plastic decorations, some of which were brought over with us from Singapore. With a little creativity and red polka-dot ribbon, dried and plastic was fine.

But the moment December hit, every flower shop on the corner sprouted greens. Christmas greens. Reds and greens, actually, and more. From pine to mistletoe to holly to blackberries, all those things I’ve only read about in books plus more that I couldn’t even name.

Suddenly, all this abundance of freshness changed my feelings towards plastic. So I redecorated.

Before and after #1: the wreath on my front door. I started with a rustic-looking bare twig wreath, dressed up with plastic holly and some ribbon. In December, I tied boughs of fresh pine around the form. It looks a little like a shaggy green monster, but I like it. (I have to… I made it!)

Before and after #2: my dining table centerpiece. My Pinay friend Jec gave me a great idea: to fill a rustic-looking tray with candles and pinecones. Two weeks later, I replaced some of the pinecones and with fresh pine and berries. When I cut the pine into smaller pieces, the sap from the branches left an absolutely divine scent on my hands that is nothing—nothing!—like those pine air fresheners we see dangling from the rearview mirror of taxis in Manila.

We hung a real pine wreath in our living room, where it probably sends smug, mocking vibes over to our fake pine Christmas tree. Over the kitchen door went a bunch of various greens and berries that were pre… um, pre-bunched? So all I had to do was tie a nice bow over it and hang it on an S-hook. One last stray bough of pine also got the bow treatment before going up over the door to the balcony.

And in front of the window, spare pinecones and a large spray of red berries. I wish I knew what these are called, because I just love them. On gloomy days (and there are many), that pop of bright red against the gray outdoors makes me feel a little bit better.

Don’t you just love the freshness? I just might never go back to plastic again!

1 Comment
Posted on December 16, 2011
Category: Creative Projects, House & Spouse · Labels: Christmas, color, home

Ornament obsession

As I’ve blogged about in this week’s post on MangoJuiced, I’ve gotten over the whole matchy-matchy Christmas tree. I’ve started migrating the red-and-gold ornaments that we bought in Landmark for our first Christmas to other places, like our dining room chandelier and this tabletop lamp.

What’s made me reconsider our Christmas tree? I’ve made a few Canadian and American friends for whom the addition of one new, special ornament to the tree every year is part of the family holiday tradition. No themed trees, no matching sets—just a collection where every piece was chosen because it was pretty and special in itself.

The idea of carefully selecting and slowly building up a collection of cherished ornaments has started to really appeal to me. Somehow, it fits in perfectly with the wearing-off of our newlywed excitement. That’s not a bad thing, by the way—after four years, I’ve simply realized that Marlon and I are going to be together for a long, long time. That means many, many Christmases together… and lots of time to collect ornaments.

These are some of the ones we chose to jumpstart our new, non-matchy collection. The only thing our ornaments should match are the memories we’ve made around them. I know I’ll always remember these as being from our first Christmas in Amsterdam.

I got the “antique” mirrored star and porcelain bird at the Osdorp Tuincentrum, a mind-bogglingly huge garden warehouse turned Christmas emporium where we shopped for our decorations. The clear glass ball with the feather (which reminds me of the final scene from Labyrinth) is from De Bijenkorf, Amsterdam’s oldest department store.

The floral ball reminds me of India, and the red ornament is actually a capiz chesa from… the Philippines! I was elated to find both in a fair trade boutique in Haarlem. The black bauble was Marlon’s choice, and I have to admit it looks pretty cool.

A blown glass owl, a tiny delicate winged horse, an odd little Santa gnome, and Santa baking in his kitchen: these are the ornaments we bought on our visit to the Christmas markets in Cologne, Germany. The German Christmas markets are like the Disneylands of Christmas and deserve a separate post all together! So many beautiful hand-blown and hand-carved ornaments there made it excruciatingly hard to choose, but we managed to keep it down to these.

Which of the new ornaments do you like best? And do you have any special ornaments in your family? I’d love to know!

2 Comments
Posted on December 16, 2011
Category: Creative Projects, House & Spouse · Labels: Christmas, home, shopping

Christmas chandelier

Remember the wineglass chandelier that we got in April?

It recently became the target of my Christmas decorating frenzy. I had something in mind, but before I could put my idea to work, all the wineglasses had to come off. Yes, all 36 of them.

While the glasses received their first wash in months, I strung up a few new ornaments: a set of four very shiny silver ones from Ikea, as well as some fresh picks from De Bijenkorf. All of the ornaments I chose were either silver, gold, transparent or some kind of combination of the three. All the better to let through, or reflect, the light from the central bulb.

Marlon and I couldn’t resist taking a few pictures while working. Shiny things are just too much fun to play with.

After throwing in a few of our pre-loved ornaments to fill in the gaps, and draping some faux greens over the top, our chandelier revamp was complete.

Voila! Presenting our Christmas chandelier.

Just looking at it all lit up in the evening gives me the warm-and-fuzzies.

It’s just as pretty in the daytime.

I’ll be sad to take it down after the holidays. But for now, I’ll enjoy it as much as I can.

2 Comments
Posted on December 16, 2011
Category: Creative Projects, House & Spouse · Labels: Christmas, home, inspired, projects

Watercolor Christmas cards

Success! I’ve mailed out my Christmas cards for the year. Yes, I’m one of those people that still sends out Christmas cards via snail mail. It’s usually a struggle to get them out on time, but this year I managed my to do it!

I knew I wanted to make my own cards this year. And I knew I wanted to combine watercolors with hand lettering. So I set out my watercolors, tore out a few pages from my watercolor sketch pad, and played around with them one rainy afternoon. These were some of the cards I came up with. Apologies for the bad lighting, Amsterdam has been immersed in this weak gray gloom all week.

Yes, the designs are pretty simple and it’s a very small batch of cards (plus a couple that I didn’t photograph). But each one is unique and is made with love and care. Which one do you like best?

Oh, and I also made the envelopes myself, as all the cards are odd sizes. I used this festive Japanese washi tape with polka dots (my current obsession) to seal the envelopes.

And now my cards are winging their way to Belgium, the UK and Singapore. Fly swift, my pretties, and spread the Christmas cheer!

7 Comments
Posted on December 14, 2011
Category: Creative Projects · Labels: Christmas, projects, watercolor

My TEDxAmsterdam experience

Do you watch TED talks online? I do, and I love them. So in the months leading up to our big move, I was thrilled to find out about TEDxAmsterdam. Just like attending Dutch Design Week, getting involved in TEDxAmsterdam was something that I had my eye on from afar. I told myself: when I get there, I’m going to do that.

“That” meant applying for a spot on the volunteers’ team in July, via a short form on the TEDxAms website, and hearing back from Salmaan, the head of the volunteers’ team, three weeks before the big event on November 25.

“That”meant showing up at Amsterdam’s Stadsschouwburg (city theater) a week before the event to meet the volunteers, be briefed on our tasks and take a tour of the theater. I love the performing arts and the Stadsschouwburg (yes, I stumble a bit when I type that), dating back to 1894, is one of Amsterdam’s oldest performing arts venues. I loved being able to go backstage and all around this historic building.

“That” meant getting my own TEDxAmsterdam t-shirt to wear on the day of the event. Yay for swag!

Photo courtesy of Mariana Oud

“That” meant packing away my happy smiley Filipino self for a few hours to man the doors of the main hall, where over 300 guests (including VIPs) would be seated, and channel the door bitch I never knew I had within me. I thought being an usherette (or hoofdzaal, as they say in Dutch) would be the perfect use of my genetic impulse for friendliness and hospitality. Boy, was I wrong.

Between people trying to sneak in with wineglasses or food, people trying to sneak in where they weren’t allowed to sit, people trying to worm their way in after the sessions had started, I had to steel myself to just say NO! It meant being firm, not listening to people wheedling, bargaining and throwing their (perceived) weight around, and possibly even being (gasp) disliked. But you know what? It was worth it.

Read why, after the jump!

I got to see some inspiring talks and watch some amazing musical performances. I got to see the view from the stage that only the speakers see, toy with a camera that Nat Geo and Discovery use to shoot their footage, and gawk at a real (uncannily human) android.

And I got to meet a lot of really great people. For a person starting a new life in a new country, this was the best part of my TEDxAmsterdam experience. It was intimidating and at times frustrating being the only person there who didn’t speak Dutch. Sure, I’ve learned een beetje (a bit) over the past few months, but trying to follow animated conversations with the language skills of a one year-old can really mess with your head.

I know I probably looked like I was frowning a lot, because I was always concentrating hard on trying to understand what people were saying. There were times I would just have to grit my teeth and wait for an opportunity to jump into the conversation—thankfully, usually because another volunteer would gently remind everyone that we had an English speaker in the room.

But the times when I did get to join in the backstage conversations… well, those were some of the most inspiring and enjoyable moments of my whole day. If working harder at Dutch is what it takes to plug into life here, befriend people like these, and tap into a wellspring of people who are positive, passionate, smart and interesting, then I want to do it. Because I’m going to be here for a while.

Photo courtesy of Salmaan Sana

Talking to people from the volunteers’ team really took me back to what I love most about being in a different country: meeting people, and seeing that there’s more than one way to live your life. Through the people I’ve met on my travels, I’ve learned that we don’t have to do things just the way we were brought up to do, or live the way we’re told to. I don’t reject my upbringing at all, but I love the freedom and inspiration that one can gain from seeing the many different ways people around the world live their lives.

That was my TEDxAmsterdam: more than just ideas worth sharing, an experience worth repeating.

2 Comments
Posted on December 12, 2011
Category: Creative Projects, Life in Amsterdam · Labels: TEDxAmsterdam

MangoJuiced: Fave talks from TEDxAmsterdam

Searching for inspiration? TED has it in spades—that’s why I’ve been watching TED talks online for two years, and why I volunteered for TEDxAmsterdam. This is the volunteers’ team onstage at the end of this year’s conference: can you find me on the extreme left?

Photo: Jan-Jaap Heine/TEDxAmsterdam on Flickr

This week on MangoJuiced, I share three of my favorite talks from TEDxAmsterdam. I’ll blog about my experience behind the scenes—or more appropriately, in front of the doors—very soon. In the meantime, click over to MangoJuiced for the talks and the full post… and enjoy!

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Posted on December 5, 2011
Category: Creative Projects, Life in Amsterdam · Labels: inspired, MangoJuiced, TEDxAmsterdam

Design Folder

Dutch Design Week is the kind of event that makes you go all home TV shopping and say… “But wait! There’s more! It’s an inexhaustible treasure trove of inspiration, and it was hard to select just a few things to blog about for the posts that I did here and on MangoJuiced.

That’s why when the kind folks at Design Folder invited me to blog a couple of guest posts on DDW, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. In this week’s guest post, I focused on home furnishings and lighting that are great examples of the Dutch knack for curiosity, simplicity and playfulness in design.

Check out my roundup of home furnishings and lighting from DDW at Design Folder, and be sure to check back for another post from me soon!

Design Folder is all about design—from the latest in architecture and interior design to the trendiest furniture and interior accessories.

Design Folder is a Manila-based website dedicated to sharing design ideas and inspirations through its different sections such as Space Matters (interior design and architecture), Conscious Living (green design), Spacelift (makeovers), Design Speak (styles and themes), Design Trail (travel), DIY (design-it-yourself) and more. Every post is geared towards helping readers spruce up their lives by improving their own little space.