Inspiration came from a love named Janah

This morning while I was smothering myself with my new sunblock, I got a much needed hello from Janah telling me she read my post about our house project.
Janah is an interior designer who worked with me once when we renovated our house in Manila. She worked with my favorite uncle when he was renovating his house. She worked with my aunt when she was renovating hers. In short, Janah's a family friend, and a very good friend to me. We've gone on adventures a couple of times and I love her to death. She's a creative inspiration. She's fun and quirky and. I dunno. I love her.

After almost a year of construction, I've already lost my sense of creativity in this project. I am guilty of settling for convenience and safe instead of getting well sourced items and design. My mom's so square, she doesn't get me. And Ariel, our interior designer for this project, I love him too and he's great and he works wonders to address beauty and function but he doesn't understand yellow chandeliers and orange chairs like Janah does. I take it this way: Ariel would give me french vanilla ice cream for a room, Janah would give me magenta cherries to top my ice cream.

So anyway, here's a few new things that I'm pegging for the house.

This wire chandelier is amazing!  I can't believe I missed this. Suddenly all my light fixtures are boring and statement-less. I love this. I think I'll get huge one for the guest house. Nevermind cleaning issues. It's too pretty to be ignored.

Wire Chandelier

This I thought of last week but the people I cureently work with don't agree. Now I'm convinced that I can pull this off. Mustard yellow and royal blue headboards with captione for the guest rooms. I like this peg, minus all the black. I'll see if I could work on that same pattern for both rooms.

I never knew what to do with the attic until I saw this photo. Too beautiful. I'm turning it into a craft room that looks exactly like this. I just don't know why Audrey Hepburn looks like she's wearing a pirate's hat in that photo. 

Craft Room

I don't know where to get this and I am convinced that I am capable of making my own version of this for Iris' room. She'll feel like a baby staring at a butterfly mobile every day and every night for the rest of her life.

I originally wanted a B&W family photo wall with plain black frames, but Janah told me to try to mix classic and modern frames in one wall. I saw this and I'm not too sure if I'll be able to pull it off. I'm now thinking of mixing photos and paintings done by family members since I have some of my works still kept somewhere and Victor's been painting recently. Im still not sure where to put it though. 

Photo Wall

I'm obsessing over my soon to be koi pond. I want it to look as vintage as possible. None of that minimalist zen garden feel. We've already agreed with trellises. Now I just have to convince them to make it round. My grandma will love this.

I need to find vintage Vogue magazines. I need more pictures like this:

I wish I lived in this era.

 Last but not the lest, I'm turning my closet into this:

HAAAAH! Just kiddiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!!! :) I'll get punished for a closet like this. haha!

Flor's Garden

Last Friday, Aids and I went up to Antipolo with the guy who takes care of his farm to attend a seminar about natural farming. The seminar was basically about the idea of WHY natural farming and its basic techniques good for small to medium scale farms. 

It was held in Flor's garden, a small, humble Bohol Bee Farm-like garden in Antipolo. Not so hard to find. We left Manila round 6:30 and arrived at around 7:30 without traffic.

The place was sort of on the side of the hill with a nice view of bamboo forests and mahogany forests and other kinds of forests. :| 

This is their function room.

The walls on the other side of the room (which is behind the camera) were of orchid nets. The wind blew so hard and the air was perfectly cool most of the day.  We could hear the leaves of trees, the wind, water flowing and crickets all over the place. It was hard not to feel sleepy.

Aids and I were talking about how it would be nice to just lie down in the middle of that nowhere and sleep the whole day. We're both fans of the buhay probinsya.

They served this during lunch: 

Reminds me of Bee Farm. This time I'm not scared to eat flowers anymore. But it took me a long time to dig into my salad plate. It was too pretty. The salad dressing was divine. I had harass Tita Flor, the farm owner for the recipe. Will share it here next time. 

The owner of the farm was an advocate of natural farming. The part of the garden that was open to public was sort of an educational one, with demonstrations on natural farming basics. Aids told me that his farm was way better than the garden. I have yet to see his farm to believe it. 

Plant beds with organic soil

Vermiculture: Worm management

This is irrelevant but I'll post it anyway since they're so cute and fluffy: 

Organically raised chicks.

They had a no smell pig. Really. The sign said "NO SMELL PIG" and when you try, there really isn't any smell! How lovely. I wish becky had no smell and no poop. I wish she had a smaller tummy and a smaller appetite.

NO SMELL PIG

The place was perfect for the seminar, really. I learned a lot and I was telling my mom I'd bring her there one of these days. If you're into farming or gardening or any of that sort, it wouldn't really hurt to travel to Flor's to learn a little of this and that.

The Organic Side of Me

My friend and newest farming buddy Adrien called me this morning to ask me if I wanted to attend a seminar regarding organic farming. I was too busy to ask him about the details so i vaguely gave him a yes and asked him to email me the course outline for the 2-day seminar. After an hour, my very dependable blackberry received an outline on natural farming. Basically, it's all about inputs and techniques on farming for beginners. Includes soil management, seed and seedling treatment, nutritive cycle periods, etc, etc.

Not many would believe that I'm into planting and farming and all about the bukid life. As my brother Oliver would put it, I am a city girl stuck in the province. I don't think it's completely correct, though I should understand the context in which he told me those words. We were out on the farm that day and I wore my new Plueys, carried my cutest umbrella and screamed when i got my flowing skirt caught on dried bush twigs. So yup, he had every right to judge me at that moment.

So anyway, after reading the course outline Aids sent me, I immediately confirmed my slot and told him to reserve another because I planned to invite my cousin to attend with us. I wasn't able to ask him the venue of the seminar until later in the evening. He sent me a text saying it will be held in Flor's Garden Rizal. I googled.  Click to see Flor's Garden

I can't believe it. It looks like my dream farm! A little of this and a little of that. An ornamental garden and a tea garden and a small aviary and an herb garden and a small fish pond and a nursery and free range chickens and pot bellied pigs and a cafe and a large orchard. THIS IS MY GOAL. I've been wanting to visit other farms in Batangas to learn get ideas on farm layouts but I never had a time. So I'm really looking forward for this seminar. Hopefully I learn a lot of new things and get new ideas on how to cultivate my own farm. :)

This, ladies and gentlemen, is Farmville Live.