Yarn Shopping in Baguio

My family went to Baguio last weekend for the Holy Week. We left Manila on Friday, thinking traffic might be better then, since most people already left on Thursday. But it was still a 6-hour road trip to Baguio (On a good day, you can reach Baguio in 5 hours I think). We saw a lot of these when we passed Tarlac:

I will not post photos of those other guys who beat their backs bloody with some sort of whip. The images might be disturbing for some and I try to keep my blog with a GP rating (General Patronage). And when I say we passed a lot... I do mean a LOT. Like every few kilometers, the entire time we passed through Tarlac.

Anyway, when we finally did reach Baguio, we did the usual stuff tourists do:

For P15, I was able to sample Baguio's strawberry-flavored taho. It was delicious!

We were supposed to go strawberry-picking at the strawberry farm but it rained a few minutes after this photo was taken so we passed on this activity.

We visited Tam-Awan Village in Benguet. After all the times I visited Baguio, this is my first time to visit this place. It was COLD. See the fog? We could barely see the road in front of us on our way here and my mom kept asking the driver to turn back... Only, there really was no space for us to turn back on the steep, twisting roads.

For P100 (approx $2.50), I had a local artist do a sketch of Andrea. The finished sketch doesn't look a lot like her, but you have to give the artist credit for trying considering Andrea was moving and talking and squirming for the 20 minutes she was being sketched *sigh*

Since it was Andrea's first time here, we took her boating.

Someone had a lot of fun shopping...

...and playing dress-up.

And though we were all tired, only one certain small person had the space to put her feet up in the cramped van.

And since we were there, I decided to pay a visit to this place I keep reading about: Hangar Market. It's supposed to be the place to buy yarn in Baguio City. Hangar Market is a building located at Hill Street, and it's near the Baguio Public Market. One small tip if you plan to go there... parking anywhere near Hangar Market is non-existent. Our van had to park illegally outside another building some distance away. So if you are coming from another hotel... walk. Or take a cab.

Anyway, I wasn't able to take pictures. It was starting to rain and we didn't have an umbrella, and our mom was rushing us so my sister and I had to run from the van to the nearest entrance to Hangar Market, which was called Vegetable Alley. From this alley, we went straight until we saw the stairs to our right. My sister said that she saw the yarn stall featured on TV and it was on the 2nd floor. Good thing she told me that. The market was quite big and I had no idea exactly where the yarn stall was. Up to this point, all I saw around us were vegetables.

Up the stairs we went and there it was... YARN. A lot of yarn. In huge plastic bags piled on top of each other. I was a little disappointed with the price. The guy there told me it's P300 per kilo or P30 for 100 grams. It cost more than the yarn being sold at that bodega in Pasig. I was at that yarn bodega in Pasig a couple of months ago and yarn was being sold at P250 per kilo... well... after sizing me up in my office attire, the guy there told me it was P280 per kilo, but others who went there said it's only P250 per kilo.

Anyway, since I was there already, and since there were more colors available here than the one in Pasig from my last visit, I decided to buy anyway. I just grabbed balls of yarn in the colors I wanted and piled them on the weighing scale. This is still cheaper than buying yarn at the mall. The yarn being sold here are not labeled and each ball is not the same length. I'm not exactly certain but I think I was able to get yarns of weight 2 and 3. The guys selling them calls them 'ply'. They kept telling me it's 2-ply or 3-ply (you know, like tissue) and upon closer inspection, I think they are referring to the number of strands of thread twisted to make the yarn. Anyway, those I got are thinner than the standard weight 4 Red Heart or Monaco yarn you can get at the mall.

My new yarn stash

That big bag, plus the 4 balls my sister got, cost us P900. Not bad... Not bad at all! Considering 2 of those balls are what those guys at the stall were calling "velvet" yarn. They are like this soft and fuzzy yarn and those 2 big balls only cost me P77 total. To illustrate how big each ball of yarn is... I made Andrea pose beside my plastic bag:

And all this yarn got me excited to start crocheting again! I actually have an unfinished blouse I started in December... and an unfinished cape I started a month ago... maybe I'll finally get to finish those.

I have a few other crochet projects finished after that mushroom hat. I made a couple of pom-pom hats, without using a pattern, for Andrea and my niece for our trip to Baguio (only we don't have pictures of them wearing them... aaarrgh! I'll just make them pose for me this weekend), and a couple of simple dresses for Barbie and Dora from some leftover yarn I had. Pictures of those some time soon.

EPILOGUE: We left Baguio on Sunday afternoon... the trip back took us a good 8 and a half hours. 

Guest Posting at Mine for the Making with my Vintage Style Eggs

I'm guest posting today at Mine for the Making as part of Kara's Spring Fling. I'm posting a tutorial on how to make this...

Vintage Style Easter Egg

... and a few other designs. If you haven't seen it yet, head on over at Mine for the Making to check it out.

Click here to go to the tutorial.

And check out the other cool Spring ideas from the other guest bloggers too! It's all about Spring this week at Mine for the Making.

I am linking up to the following link parties:

Joining the Easter challenge at the CSI project

Easter Party Link-up at Someday Crafts | Handmade Tuesdays at Ladybug Blessings | Show and Tell at Blue Cricket Designs | Your Whims Wednesday at My Girlish Whims | Tuesdays To-Do at Blackberry Vine | We Did It Wednesday at Sew Much Ado | The Sunday Showcase Party at Under The Table And Dreaming | Linking Party at Passionately Artistic | Wednesday Link Party at Tea Rose Home | Whatever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts | Wicked Awesome Wednesday at Handy Man, Crafty Woman | Get Your Brag On at Gluesticks | Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Chic Cottage | Creative Juice Thursday at Momnivore's Dilemma | A Crafty Soiree at Katie's Nesting Spot | Commercial Break Thursday at suzy's Artsy Craftsy Sitcom | Friday Favorites with Inspiring Creations | Catch a Glimpse at A Glimpse Inside | Thrifty Thursday Blog Hop at Saved By Love Creations | Thrilling Thursday at Paisley Passions | Feature Yourself Friday at Fingerprints on the Fridge | Weekend Wrap-up Party at Tatertots and Jello | Strut Your Stuff at Saturday Mornings |

My Silly Bee

In case you noticed her... there's a bee posed at the foot of my Easter Egg Tree on my previous post. I made the bee a few weeks ago, before I started on all my other Easter decor. A few weeks ago... I had all these plastic eggs.. and all these materials and I was in the mood for some serious crafting...

...but I had no idea what to do. I had 'crafter's block'... you know, something like writer's block. I ran out of ideas. So I put all my stuff away and decided to make the beds in our bedroom instead. I noticed the bee in my daughter's pillow case looks like an egg. Without any other idea, I decided to try making a bee using one of my  yellow plastic eggs.

So I prepared these materials:

• A small yellow plastic egg
• Plastic eyes
• 2 strips of black felt, around 0.5 inch wide. Each piece need to be long enough to go around the egg.
• A small piece of gray felt
• 4 small beads (not shown in the photo)
• a glue gun
• felt marker

Step 1: Glue the black felt around your egg. Cut off any excess felt.

Step 2: Glue the other strip of felt around your yellow egg. No photo but you should have something like a yellow-and-black-striped egg.

Step 3: Take your gray felt and cut 4-petal shapes. I didn't use a template. I did trial and error to get them the size I want for my bee's wings.

Step 4: Glue the 4 petal-shaped felt to the egg, position them like the wings of a bee.

Step 5: Glue the plastic eyes on one end of the egg... I used the wider end of the egg for the face, and pointed end will be the sting end.

Step 6: Glue 2 small beads on top of each eye. And then glue 2 more beads on top of those beads. Wait for the photo.. you will see what I mean.

Step 7: Using the felt marker... draw the mouth.

I glued a thin stip of felt on top of the 4 wing-shapes to hide the edges.

She looks a little unhappy... I was actually aiming for 'clueless', like I was feeling at the time, but I didn't know how to draw a mouth to make her look 'clueless'. She looked a little out of place there so I decided to perch her on my lamp so she can be near the flowers:

I was checking Martha Stewart's site a few days ago and saw she has a project like this too.. making animals from eggs. She posted tutorials on how to make a few more animals from eggs. This is simple enough to be a kid's craft project. Maybe when Andrea is a little older, we can try this together and we can make happier-looking bees :)

I got over my crafter's block a few days after I made my bee :) The table with the lamp and flowers has been re-decorated with my painted jars here. And those flowers, they have been cut up to decorate my moss projects and my Easter Egg Tree and my wreath (yeah... I've been cutting up this bunch and now it's all gone).

EDITED 2011-04-14:

Amy from One Artsy Mama tried this project with her 2-year old. Isn't it cool to be able to craft with your kid? I wish Andrea was old enough for us to do stuff like this too. They also made other cute animals from plastic eggs like this chick and this rabbit:

Sooo cute! She posted the tutorial for these 2 cuties at her site so be sure to check them out!

Click here to visit her tutorial. 

I am linking up to the following parties:

Inspire Me Monday at Singing Three Little Birds | Tuesday Party at Running with Glitter | Tutorial Tuesday with Hope Studios | Get Your Craft On at Today's Creative Blog | Show and Tell at Blue Cricket Designs | Your Whims Wednesday at My Girlish Whims | Tuesdays To-Do at Blackberry Vine | We Did It Wednesday at Sew Much Ado | The Sunday Showcase Party at Under The Table And Dreaming | Linking Party at Passionately Artistic | Wednesday Link Party at Tea Rose Home | Whatever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts | Wicked Awesome Wednesday at Handy Man, Crafty Woman | Get Your Brag On at Gluesticks | Creative Juice Thursday at Momnivore's Dilemma | A Crafty Soiree at Katie's Nesting Spot | Commercial Break Thursday at suzy's Artsy Craftsy Sitcom | Friday Favorites with Inspiring Creations | Catch a Glimpse at A Glimpse Inside | Thrifty Thursday Blog Hop at Saved By Love Creations | Thrilling Thursday at Paisley Passions | Feature Yourself Friday at Fingerprints on the Fridge | Finished on the 15th at Favecrafts | Weekend Wrap-up Party at Tatertots and Jello | 

'Happy' Easter Egg Tree

Before I start talking about my project for today, I just want to share that I was finally able to schedule a trip to the salon to get a haircut yesterday. Hoo-ray for me! With so many things to do all the time, I find it hard to take 2-hours off for a trip to the salon. I think the last time I went was sometime last year?

They blow dried my hair straight after the haircut. I am missing my straightened hair :( My hair is back to its naturally wavy and frizzy state today. Before I had Andrea, I used to get hair rebonding treatment every 6 months. The treatment takes 4-6 hours, and after that, you get really straight and shiny hair. My last treatment was before I got pregnant, so that would be around late 2008. *Sigh*

Ok enough of the hair, let's get on with my project. I see a lot of egg topiary and egg tree projects around. I wanted to make a topiary. but I have no idea how or where to get supplies in my area even if I did. What I did have was 4 packs of plastic eggs in 3 sizes: 2 packs of the small ones, 1 pack of the medium-sized ones and a pack of the big ones. I thought about it and came up with a simple idea to 'build' my own egg tree.

I used a 1.5 inch strip of cardboard, and around... hmmm... 20 plastic eggs I think (I used 2 packs... one pack has around 14 eggs but I had a few unused eggs after my project). Oh, and a glue gun. And some plastic flowers.

Step 1: I glued both sides of my cardboard together to form a circle. This will form the base of my tree. But err... I wish I can tell you what size circle you need, but it will really depend on how many eggs you plan to use for your base, and how big the eggs are.

I will tell you how I figured out the size for mine though.. trial and error. You make your circle, place it on top of a rug and position the eggs around it (I think I used 9 eggs for my base). The eggs need to completely encircle the cardboard base. When it didn't during my first few tries, I simply tore open the circle, adjusted the size and glued again.

Step 2. Start gluing the eggs to your base until the cardboard is surrounded by the first layer of eggs.

Step 3. Glue eggs on top of your first layer, forming a smaller circle. Here's where it gets difficult. The second layer may not be positioned as perfectly as the first. There will be uneven gaps, but I didn't mind too much.

Step 4: Keep gluing eggs until you have a few more layers. As I said, there will be uneven gaps between some eggs but as long as the overall shape looks conical, it should be fine.

Step 5. Cover up the gaps... I used pearls on some gaps... and then cut some fabric leaves and stems from plastic flowers I had and inserted them on the gaps.

Here are all my Easter projects decorating our entryway. My egg tree pops out because of all the colors. Good thing I chose not to paint the eggs. I'm calling it my "Happy" Easter Egg tree because it's so colorful it makes me smile every time I go past it. Andrea likes it too, and yeah, I let her play with it. I made sure I glued the eggs really well and so far, it has survived 2 play sessions with my 1-year-old ;)

Notice those eggs on the left? I'm guest posting over at Mine for the Making on Tuesday as part of Kara's Spring Fling event and I will be talking about them. Wanna see more cool Spring projects? Hop over to Mine for the Making! Click button below to join the fun :)

I am linking up to the following link parties:

Joining the Easter Challenge at the CSI project

Easter Party Link-up at Someday Crafts | Weekend Wrap-up Party at Tatertots and Jello | Free for All at Young and Crafty | Sew Crafty Saturday at Wildflowers and Whimsy | Strut Your Stuff at Saturday Mornings | Think Pink Sundays at Flamingo Toes | K.I.S.S. at the Tattered Tag | Sundae Scoop at I Heart Naptime | CraftOManiac Monday at CraftOManiac | Just Something I Whipped Up at The Girl Creative | Making Monday Marvelous at C.R.A.F.T. | Motivate Me Monday at Keeping it Simple | A Round Tuit at Creating My Way to Success | Feature Yourself Friday at Fingerprints on the Fridge | DIY Project Parade at The DIY Showoff | Market Yourself Monday at Sumo's Sweet Stuff | Craft Couture Monday at Craft Couture | Made By You Monday at Skip To My Lou | Made With Love Monday at Sew Chatty | Make it For Less Monday at Simply Cadence | Inspire Me Monday at Singing Three Little Birds | Tuesday Party at Running with Glitter | Get Your Craft On at Today's Creative Blog | Tutorial Tuesday with Hope Studios | Handmade Tuesdays at Ladybug Blessings | Show and Tell at Blue Cricket Designs | Your Whims Wednesday at My Girlish Whims | Tuesdays To-Do at Blackberry Vine | We Did It Wednesday at Sew Much Ado | The Sunday Showcase Party at Under The Table And Dreaming | Linking Party at Passionately Artistic | Wednesday Link Party at Tea Rose Home | Whatever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts | Wicked Awesome Wednesday at Handy Man, Crafty Woman | Get Your Brag On at Gluesticks | Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Chic Cottage | Creative Juice Thursday at Momnivore's Dilemma | A Crafty Soiree at Katie's Nesting Spot | Commercial Break Thursday at suzy's Artsy Craftsy Sitcom | Friday Favorites with Inspiring Creations | Catch a Glimpse at A Glimpse Inside | Thrifty Thursday Blog Hop at Saved By Love Creations | Thrilling Thursday at Paisley Passions | Feature Yourself Friday at Fingerprints on the Fridge | Finished on the 15th at Favecrafts |

Decorating for Lent with Moss

I know I'm a little late with Lent decor since Lent started a few weeks ago. But I was home sick yesterday (and today) so I had a little time to try a project that has been on my to-do list for a while:

Moss-covered cardboard cross, framed.

I got this idea from a tutorial by Hannah and Bryan. I added flowers to mine because it looked a little plain when I stuck it to the frame and hung it on our wall.

Since I had left over moss, I decided to try another project. See I've been seeing a lot of nest projects around and I'm really envious. We don't have a lot of stores here offering craft items so I can't get my hands on one of those nests to use for a project. So I decided to make my own using materials I had on hand: my daughter's old flower girl basket from the wedding we attended last February.

The flowers are long gone and I just had the empty basket lying around. I removed the handle and sprayed it with a spray adhesive (I used 3M Spray Mount) to make sure the moss will stick, and then covered the inside with moss. After I was happy with how it looked, I sprayed adhesive again over the moss to set the arrangement and to make sure I don't get moss falling from the nest and being blown by the wind around the house.

Here's my nest:

I scattered a few flowers to make it look pretty. These are the same flowers I used on the cross and they all came from the same bunch of plastic flowers that I've had for a while. The eggs are made of marble rock. They are being sold along with other vase fillers at the mall and I got a pack of 6 eggs for about $2. They come in different marble patterns though my pack has 4 of these yellow marble ones.

I didn't cover the outside of the basket with moss because I was getting tired and wanted to go back to sleep :) So if you peek under the nest, it looks like this:

Ssshhh... :)

Maybe I'll fix it next time I get a little free time.

I have more Easter projects coming this week and next week so please drop by my blog again to check them out.

I linked up to the following parties:

Joining the Easter challenge at the CSI project

Whatever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts | Wednesday Link Party at Tea Rose Home | Get Your Brag On at Gluesticks | Strut Your Stuff at Somewhat Simple | Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Chic Cottage | Thrifty Thursday at Saved By Love Creations | Catch a Glimpse Thursday at A Glimpse Inside | I Thrilled on Thursday at Paisley Passions |