Of Notes and Novelties

I love hoarding little novelty items, whether to just stash in a box or to decorate my room with. From the smallest items, such as pens, to bigger things like furniture, I always like the things I possess to be creatively designed, unique and visually pleasing.

Most of my friends know this: I absolutely love cute and one-of-a-kind stationery, diary books, journals, posts it and everything in between. If you happen to drop by my room, you’ll know what I mean! ;-)

I’ve been recently looking for some new stationery as well as novelty items to decorate my room with.

While browsing online I found some really cool and unique stationery at Zalora.

can somebody get me these, please? :p

Although most people these days use technology such as social media or text messages to communicate with one another, I still find handwritten notes to be the most meaningful and sincere. We cannot deny that it is way more intimate reading a note penned in the handwriting of someone you love than in the generic font that text messages come in. That’s why I love writing notes!  
(which reminds me, I still have to give that note I made last night to...)
 Besides, with handwritten notes, you also get to pick beautiful letter paper to write on!

hmmm, Dear Diary...

For me, a birthday note written with different colored pens on pretty letter paper (sent via snail mail at that), certainly beats that insincere birthday greeting on your Facebook wall! Haha… ;)

__________

Image credits:

zalora.com.ph

showonfire.blogspot.com

P.S.
By the way, the last note (and journal) I made was for my friend on her birthday the other week.
She said she'd take a picture of the note and I relentlessly said NO! haha :)

Ukay-Ukay Friday

 Ukay-ukay (ʊkaɪ/ʊkaɪ) Friday

.. on a Saturday! ;-)

Let me start of by sharing with you what UKAY-UKAY is. 

Ukay, in the local dialect means dig. So ukay-ukay can losely translate to digging. There are a lot of ukay-ukay stores in the Philippines. So they're like flea markets, second-hand, thrift, or bargain stores. They usually sell clothes, shoes, and bags from USA, China, or Korea. They usually pile up clothes and you dig through them to search for that perfect piece of apparel. Or, if you're lucky enough, there are those that display the clothes on hangers, but that would mean they're more expensive. 

Just to give others an idea, here are pictures from the internet.

There are other ukay-ukay areas that aren't as crazy and packed as the last photo above, but then, you get the picture ;-)

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Okay.. So yesterday I was blog hopping in search of new interesting blogs. I chanced upon Katie's blog and I'm glad I did! I enjoyed reading her blog and finding out about all her thrift finds. I myself am a thrift-store lover. I'm good at haggling too, if permitted! :) 

And now, I am joining her Guiltless Grab Friday blog hop.

My Friday started off with my mother coming home from mass. She said she dropped by an ukay-ukay store and that she bought me something for only P10.00 (1 USD = 43.00 PhP)! It was a black button down blouse. I wanted to take a picture but then she washed it right away. Now, I don't know where it is. I'll probably share it some other time.

What I'm really showing off for today is my Wish Mini Journal. I love notebooks, journals, planners, and diaries so I was so happy to spot this treasure over at the local Booksale. 

The actual look. It's a bit dirty but it's crisp and clean on the inside!

I got it for only P70.00. I think it's already out of print but if you check their website, it's still being sold at $8. One site is still even selling it for $18!

I bought a similar journal from the same publisher months ago. It was a coffee-addict's journal. :) I'm pretty sure I'm not going to write on them, and I don't know why.

I just love looking at them (and smelling them too!).

Check out the other journals I have posted about before. :D

So that's it! I'm excited for next week because I've got a lot lined up already. And I'm excited to check out the other blogs too!

Tuna Pizza

It was so hot yesterday and all I thought of was food. Maybe the heat made me hungry and bored.

And so I made a tuna pizza! I was inspired to blog about this after 2 food bloggers commented on my last post. ;-)

When I cook, I always play by my own rules. I make my own list of ingredients, and sometimes, my own measurements, so bear with me. Also, I got so excited because it would be the first time I will get to use my new (old) Cook's Notes. It's something I bought from Booksale over a month ago. It's a notebook, just that.

So here's what I made.

Presenting, my first attempt at pizza!

Tuna Pizza a la Simonette

 

Here's what you'll need (assuming you're also making one, haha!)

the dry ingredients

the wet ingredients

For the dough:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1/4 tbsp salt

80mL water

80mL fresh milk

1 tbsp cooking oil

Notice there's no yeast? I purposely used a recipe without yeast because we had none! haha :) Original recipe for the dough can be found at Easy Pizza Crusts.com. I just substituted the water with milk. Because I wanted to.

Never forget to pre-heat the oven. Set it to 400 degrees, according to the website. But I set mine to 395 degrees farenheit. Oil the pizza pan if you have one. In my case, I used our trusty Tefal pan.

Mix all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Gradually stir in the liquids.

Knead the dough. Because I had no rolling pin, I used a tall glass to flatten the dough out. See how I tried to improvise on a lot of things for this recipe?

I rolled in the edges after flattening it out. I have read somewhere that this actually helps in keeping the toppings within the pizza.

For the topping, I used my imagination (or basically what was available at home).

- Hunt's tomato ketchup sachets which I got for free from McDonald's.

Here in the Philippines, you can just go to the counter and ask for more condiments. :) They give them to you in sachets. I know they don't do that in other countries.

- canned Tuna flakes in oil, drained

- a whole tomato, sliced

- a whole onion, sliced

- a clove of garlic, diced

- cheese, grated

Just layer and you're set for baking!

I placed the cheese inside the freezer so I had trouble holding it, it was soooo cold! Which explains why there isn't that much cheese on my pizza.

Bake for 15-20 minutes depending on the thickness of your crust.

Serves about 2 people, depending on how hungry you are.

I could have finished this on my own but I saved some for my mother and brother.

The verdict.

I loved my pizza. I love pizza and I love tuna.

I should have made the crust thinner though, it would have been perfect for a thin-crust pizza.

My mother loved the crust, but hated the smell of tuna.

My brother said the crust should have been thinner, and less tomatoes and onion (he doesn't like them).

More cheese. I totally forgot about adding more before eating because I was too excited.

Eat while it's hot.

My self-rating? 8.5/10. Not bad for a first time. It just lacked some taste though (more cheese, more, more!!).

I'm trying chicken next time. Or white sauce.

But I'm also thinking of Fish in Thai sauce.. ooohhh. I'm hungry again!

Book Crush

I have a certain knack for notebooks and journals. I actually didn't notice I was into collecting them until one day a friend gave me a box of stationeries and notebooks. She then said that it would be a great addition to my collection. She really is my bestfriend because she was the first person to notice that I actually collected them, even before I myself discovered it. I unconsciously bought and collected but didn't brand myself as somebody who collects them.

Anyways, I was browsing through stacks at Booksale when I finally surrendered. I looked for a datebook from Cosmo but then they had none. I'm not even sure if Cosmo made one this year. Meanwhile, a certain spine in a pile of notebooks caught my attention. Book Crush.

I thought it was a book about crushes. I was wrong. It's actually a journal about your books! I immediately purchased it. It's not the latest edition but the idea of having one thrilled me. Even before I even got to read everything inside, I didn't mind, I just bought it :)

It's like a travel diary where you write the things you've experienced in the places you've been to. The only difference is that, you only write about the books you've read.

Author: Nancy Pearl

The pages inside are so lovely. I usually don't write anything on my notebooks so I expect not to write on this one too. As useful as this journal might be, I think I'm never writing anything inside it. It's so childish, but hey, I love it! :)