It's just not a Hawaiian vacation without a dip in its lovely beaches. Waikiki beach is darn so famous but it isn't as pristine as that in Kailua. We wanted to go Northshore but we just had the famous shaved ice at where else... Matsumoto's. yay! And we didn't bring spare clothes. Boo!
Now I'm going to sound incoherent, why the heck are we then here at China man's? See, Ace's cousin landed a cameo role as a Chinese soldier for Last Resort. Yeppers! You read that right... Last Resort, the series about a submarine blah blah blah... Which airs in AXN back home. So they filmed near here, we wanted to take a glimpse of the filming, sadly it was on another part of this beach, so what better way to douse our disappointment... Frolic in the beach!
Li mo love! Back home we call it kanot kanot. I love it when it is added to inabraw or pinakbet. I learned a new recipe though, it could be pickled or made into a salad. Any other way.... I find it ridiculously addictive!
Young and carefree. Sigh! How time flies so fast... He is actually now going seven. My little one, my little piece of heaven on earth.
Looking at the photo above makes me feel nostalgic... If we could give the world in a silver platter, we would little one.
Even in Hawaiian shores, he couldn't forget his crush. Oh no, Ace! A loves C! Uh oh! Major Uh oh!
I think two nights before this we had the tsunami scare. We were playing tennis at ala moana and BBQ-ing with family, we were warned that a tsunami was coming. Seriously, sirens and policemen everywhere. Ava was crying and terrified. I thought he'd never want to go near a beach again. But then, how wonderful the heavens are... He played in the beach alone... With just us at the shorelines.
Do you wonder Ace, what he was whispering to me? There are only two you could choose from, whispering endearments or spelling T-O-Y please. Teehee!
Alright, that is Aloha from the three of us. Wouldn't it be nice to have a beachfront home. Sigh!
Aside from the lovely stores in my itinerary, the swap meet is on top of it. It is quite the only place I could think of that could be my treasure trove for vintage finds.
Some may cringe that this is so Pinoy-ish but what the heck, I am Pinoy, proud to be one... and oh well... Sigh!
Years back, I always find a lame excuse of not burning my skin at the swap meet... But now that we do lovely parties, it is such a delight to be scouring stall per stall, truck per truck for one of a kind pieces, once treasure to others, now my treasure.
We got Ava's chair oops I mean luggage at just 3bucks... Now what do you know. It will look great with our vintage themed parties. And the camera Ava's tinkering with is also another steal. Price undisclosed. Teehee!
Look here mommy! Sigh!
We're actually at a store selling veggies. You don't really get to miss Pinas when you're here... Well except for the dirt cheap prices we have in there as compared to veggies in here.
Our loot! Quite pleased. Very pleased. Oh and one more thing, the swap meet is the only place where I can haggle and not pay taxes. Teehee!
While waiting for Ace from an errand... I might as well use this moment of silence and nothingness to write about today's lovely cake.
This was ordered in short notice. Hold on... don't shoot just yet. We do accommodate short notice orders as long as it is doable within the time frame and we don't have a neck deep list of cakes to bake. It's nothing personal really.
Look at the cattleya, very very pretty. I too can make orchids, but not as nice as Ace's. He works on them with utmost patience. If only I had even a fraction of that virtue.
Perched prettily. Sigh!
When working on gum paste flowers, I sometimes wish that we had formal schooling for this. I still feel mediocre as compared to the works of Judy Uson or Ron Ben Israel. Oh my, their flowers are just sooo lovely, seriously... You wouldn't dare eat them. For you might think they are real. Yes, they are that good!
Oops... I hear the car. Ace is back. Enjoy the rest of the weekend folks!
I'm close to whipping myself already for lagging in my posts this month. How ironic is it that when the parties and cakes were piling up, I could squeeze blogging. Now that the schedule is not as crazy, I am seriously behind. Which reminds me, I need to blog about the party we just did last weekend. Sigh!
Well you can blame it on this.
Photo by Pat Dy
And my crazy need to arrange everything before we go Haweewee-ing! Teehee! I went through my list like ten times. You can never be thorough enough... I fear that I might miss on something. I had to list the materials I need to scour there, stuff I need to get when we get back, things that staff will be doing when we're away... blah blah blah blah blah. Oh no! Someone has a bad bout of Hotel Transylvania hangover.
So going back to the culprit of this... aside from the Hotel Transylvania hangover, I am still in cloud 9 because of the cake's cameo in Bride and Breakfast. Bride and breakfast is one of the loveliest wedding blogs in the face of the earth. So you can just imagine how ecstatic I was when the lovely bride, sent me a message saying "Kumusta naman?" along with the link.
I'm going to sound redundant after you have read the link on the wedding at Bride and Breakfast blog but i'm going to do it anyway. Most of her suppliers were Pinoys. Yay!
Well, this post is a month late. September was just crazy as I was. My birthday was the month starter of all craziness of September. Unlike parties of clients which we do, believe me... as much as I'd want to... we do not put so much thought on the parties we throw for ourselves. It's more likely we do what comes to mind at the last minute. I like to think of doing things for us au naturel. Second nature.
My birthday invite
So when Ace and I decided... did I really decide with him? Tee hee! Going back... when I decided (more like it) that we are throwing a celebration... I made myself an invite. Why not right? Yes, its true that when we do parties, I secretly yearn to do one for any of us too. My invite was nothing extraordinary. It's very me though. A friend said, when she received the invite... she felt as if I was talking to her. Exactly my point. She said she could just imagine me saying those lines. Tee hee!
Months before my birthday, on a wedding we were styling, I chanced to hear Audrey Adora of Synergy sing. I thought it was the radio on play. Her voice is sooooo lovely. Forgive me but somehow from all the events we've been doing my vocabulary runs from lovely, divine and so forth. How do you describe a good singer? Good or nice wouldn't do justice. Sigh! Her diction? Perfect! So right then and there I booked her, without any plans yet of throwing a party.
I invited just a few handful. Those closest to my heart. Not to offend anyone for the hush hush and all... but we intended to celebrate it with a bigger crowd after... but then again... September was crazy.
Ferina of Ferina Albano Photography took these lovely photos and she did this video too. When I saw the video, all I could see was happy faces laughing and smiling. Exactly the way I wanted the folks I invited to be. Thank you so much F! Mind you...she was a guest... I did not hire her. And yet, she gifted me with these memories I can go back to anytime my heart yearns to reminisce.
I wanted a cake bar... I ended up with this. I've been pestering the staff and Ace that I wanted 5 cakes for my party. They wouldn't relent, reminding me it was not cost efficient to order 5 cakes from us. Sigh!
So, yes, shoot me! I did order other cakes from someone else other than us. I'll come clean, I ask mother goose to get them for me. Tee hee!
Mother Goose and Little One
The food was catered by La Preciosa. Manong Flor, the captain waiter who I love and came to serve us that night said that Tita Pam personally cooked the food. No wonder, the food was so good, the guests couldn't help but do a second serving and couldn't stop raving about it after. Ava, I believe had five plates for that night!
Seafood rice
Chicken pastel
Seafood gumbo
Herbed chicken
Vegetable au gratin
Fish steaks in lemon
Oh gee! While doing the captions of the food and while looking at them, it's as if their flavors were inching their way in my senses. I got hungry!
Audrey Adora of Synergy
I'm not going tire broadcasting to the whole wide world that Audrey is sooo good. Well, only for those who love jazz. I love jazz! I love anything soothing. I guess I've truly aged. Yay!
I may have forgotten to thank the people closest to my heart who came. New friends, I admire and value... old friends, who I seriously can't live without, my mother goose and Lola Doc, my bestfriend Meliza who went to great lengths just to catch it before the clock struck 12. To my Ace and Ava, my little piece of heaven on earth. And to the heavens, for making life worth living and everything within reach. I am blessed and very thankful.
The other half of the husband and wife crazy creative design duo behind Ava's Cakes and Events. Floral and Event Stylist. Cake Artist. Pursuer of nothing but loveliness. Supermom to Ava. Big boss of Boss Ace.
