st'ART! by Ayala Museum

One of our favorite things to do every summer has always been to finish painting a canvass or two.  Although we haven't started one yet this summer, I am thinking of doing a series that will introduce different artists, their painting styles and famous works to the kids.

For those of you inclined to immerse your kiddos into art and introduce famous painters and their different art techniques, but would want to leave the teaching to the experts, Ayala Museum has an art program that is just right for you.  Ayala Museum is one of the country's favorite and premier museums , and for the summer of 2012 they make us love them more by offering a series of art workshops for kids with their st'ART program.

Start off with a workshop that is designed to introduce techniques to modern art via the artworks of local artist, Victorio Edades.  Admission to this workshop is FREE with the museum ticket purchase.

There is also a series of art workshops that will run the entire course of summer, each Thursday.

 

Discover the artist in your child by enrolling them in this summer's hottest workshop at the Ayala Museum! Through 8 creative workshops, your child will be introduced to the techniques and movements popularized by some of the biggest names in the local and international art scene! Workshop fees are P250 per session or P2000 for all. Enroll in all 8 and get a complimentary student membership good for 1 year for your child! Classes are from 3 - 5 pm on all Thursdays of April and May.

Summer St'ART
Your first steps towards art!
at Ayala Museum
For kids ages 7 – 12

Schedule of Activites:

APRIL 4      St'ART Fernando Zobel - syringe painting
           12      St'ART Henri Matisse - drawing with scissors
           19      St'ART Andy Warhol - pop art portrait painting
           26      St'ART Jose Joya - clay art

MAY   3      St'ART Pablo Picasso - Cubism Painting
          10      St'ART HR Ocampo - collage art
          17      St'ART George Seurat - puncher pointillism
          24      St'ART Jackson Pollock - marble - action painting

Download the registration form here . For more information, please contact Carla Muñoz at 7577117 local 33 or 35 or email munoz.cd@ayalamuseum.org

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A CRAFTernoon Party

There are new things coming up for this blog. And in preparation for the exciting times ahead, the blog will be moving to a new home!  While I will still be writing about our phenomenal life, it will now have a new name. 

From now on, I will be doing all of my posting at The Phenomenal Mama

I hope you could all bookmark the new site and follow me there!

I will still be keeping this blog open so you can read all of my old posts.  But you won't miss a thing with the new blog as it will have all of the old posts, as well. 

* * * * *

Warning:  photo-heavy post.:)

B's CRAFTernoon party last weekend was over the top girly!  With kokeshi dolls, pink paper lanterns, and pink crepe paper curtains!   Blush pink, coral, watermelon, honeysuckle...  It was her birthday wish come true! 

Even the cookies are sprinkled with strawberry drops and fairy dust....

Since the birthday girl loves pistachios and dark chocolates, I also prepared cookies with white choco discs with sea-salt roasted pistachios and dark choco discs with roasted almonds.

The birthday cupcakes are another special request by the birthday girl:  Carrot cupcakes with Goji berries and dark chocolate cupcakes.  The Goji berries are a variation from the usual raisins that we find in carrot cupcakes.  Although usually used in Chinese savory dishes, it is naturally sweet and adapts itself perfectly well to B's favorite cupcake.

I enjoy preparing simple and intimate birthday parties for the kids, where most of the party decor are mostly DIY, and the guest list is whittled down to just a handful (literally - I just had her choose 10) good friends.  While I want my kids to remember their birthdays as fun events, I do not want them to associate parties with extravagance... so I always make an effort to inject their parties with DIY creativity - from the decor to the activities.

Making the crepe paper curtain was one craft party in itself!  While J and I took to our tasks seriously, B kept herself busy playing with the finished curtains, parading around with the curtains around her shoulder like a beauty pageant sash....

Setting up a DIY party, no matter how small the guest list, is always a tedious task so an extra pair of hands is always useful! The birthday banner is recycled, having used it here and here.  I just updated by printing some new graphics to make it tie-in with the rest of the theme.

And since this is all about B, she has her favorite crafts all lined up on the crafts table.  I had a craft table set-up on one end of the room, at the opposite end of the food buffet table.  The girls all had their own craft kits bundled up in a cute feline princess box.  I printed out the instructions for each craft and lalid out some samples to inspire and guide them.

I purposely wanted to show my 2 girls that our own individual creativity is boundless, and is not limited by the luxuriousness of materials.  I intentionally prepared crafts that would utilize materials that are readily available at my home: colorful board paper, craft embelishments like sequins and feathers, toilet paper rolls, magazine cut-outs, used envelopes, etc.   Do not be fooled - inspite of the materials being readily on hand, it still took quite an effort and took a LOT of my time preparing the craft kit for all ten girls.  Truly, it is a labor of LOVE!

The crafts are all carefully selected by me to maintain the kokeshi doll theme of the party, while at the same time I also wanted the crafts to be useful for the girls when they take it home.

{bookmarks made out of a printed kokeshi graphic and envelope corners}

{ hairclip and headband organizer made with toilet paper rolls and ribbons}

{kokeshi doll bookmarks fashioned from magazine cut-outs}

Here are some of the designs that the girls made

Even the boys at the party had a wonderful time doing something crafty with colored sands.

Happy Birthday, B!  Do know that you are extremely LOVED!

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Travel Light with Kipling Luggage

Yay!  It is officially summer vacation this side of the world!  Where are you off to?

For travelers who want style and convenience while traveling, you will be delighted to know that the fun in traveling starts right when you pack your Kipling Luggage. Kipling offers a colorful selection of stylish and highly-functional pieces of lightweight luggage.  

 

              Whether you’re a light or heavy packer, Kipling’s Yubin line offers a versatile and  colorful selection of stylish and highly-functional pieces of lightweight luggage, made with Kipling’s trademarked crinkled and water-repellent nylon.

            

The Yubin 76 is perfect for the heavy packer type as it can pack practically half of your wardrobe, with plenty of room to spare.  Of course, nobody wants to wear shabby clothing when going on a vacation, that’s why the Yubin 76 has adjustable packing straps for crease-free clothes. 

For short-duration trips, there’s Yubin 55 which is the lightest trolley in the market right now that is acceptable in almost all airlines worldwide!  Its 33-liter capacity is ideal for those three-day or overnight sojourns, wherever your journey takes you.

             

The Yubin 76 and Yubin 55 also have other features that make traveling convenient.  These include an all-round zip for enhanced volume and  open and zipped mesh compartments to cleverly organize your stuff!  These luggages even makes you feel safe and secure with an integrated TSA-lock and soft-grip handles complemented with easy-rolling and lightweight EVA  wheels. And of course, what could be more fun than travelling with a furry Kipling monkey ring.

 

Get a chic Kipling Yubin 55 cabin-size luggage at 75% off when you buy a Kipling Yubin 76 extra large expandable trolley bag from now until March 31, 2012.

Kipling bags and luggage are available at SM Mall of Asia, SM North EDSA The Block, SM Megamall, SM Bacolod, SM Iloilo, SM Davao, SM Cebu, Robinsons Place Ermita, Rustan’s Alabang Town Center, Rustan’s Shangri-La, Rustan’s Gateway, Landmark Makati and TriNoma.  

Visit Kipling Philippines on Facebook to find out more exciting news from the lovable monkey. 


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CAL Swim School

How is your summer shaping up? 

If you still haven't figured out what to let your kids do this summer, why not let them get active and moving- enroll them in swimming classes. 

CAL Swim School has been conducting Learn-to-Swim programs since 1999, and they have camps all over Metro Manila.  Their seasoned instructors include former and current varsity swimmers as well as licensed lifeguards.

What's more, at the end of summer the CAL kids have a mini-competition where everything is guaranteed to be fun.  The kids can showcase all the strokes they have learned and mastered over the course of the summer.  This is also a good time for the kids to asses if they would like to take things a step further and join the training camp which runs the whole year round.

For schedule and camp locations, visit the CAL Swim School webpage right here.

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DIY: Kokeshi Doll + Sock Bunny

J is currently up to her neck with projects for her arts class... she has had on her plate the following projects within the last month:  a sock bunny, an organizer made out of upcycled materials, an 8x10 acrylic self-portrait on canvass, a 16x20 abstract acrylic art on canvass.  I know she enjoys doing arts and crafts, but I pity her for being loaded with such a long list.  

I do not want to do her projects for her - even if I am sometimes very much tempted to do so.  She barely has time to study because of the rigid hours of swim training she has to put in, but I know that swimming is her way of de-stressing.  The locker room talk she has with her friends is always the best way to end her day.  

She came to me close to three weeks ago wanting to do something different for her sock bunny... so we brainstormed for ideas until it came to me, having been neck deep in making kokeshi-themed paper crafts for B's birthday, why not a kokeshi sock bunny!

 

Since she did most of the work in school, I was not able to photograph the step-by-step process of her project, nor am I privy to the instructions the teacher gave her.  I searched the web and I came to this site with a PDF of the illustrated instructions that comes very close to how she actually did it. 

I cannot provide you a photo of the finished kokeshi doll since I wasn't able to take a photo before she submitted it.  But you must indulge me for my motherly gushing when I say that the finished project is beyond cute!  So cute, in fact, it has been chosen as one of the projects to display for their school's week long HE exhibit.  Will update this post with a photo as soon as it is returned.

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Bubee Lunch Jar

As a mom to young athletes, I am always conscious about the nutritional intake of my kids.  Bacon, sausages, hotdogs, canned goods rarely, if at all, make an appearance on our dining table  I always try to serve food that is as close to the natural food source as possible.  

When J and her dad attended a nutritional seminar late last year, what the nutritionist discussed was a reinforcement that we were on the right path.  Yet, we needed to make a few alterations still.  For instance, even if the kids were eating the right kind of complex carbohydrates, we still needed to change how much of it they needed to consume, and at what time of the day. 

At the start of this year, knowing what I now know, I took it upon myself to implement a few changes starting with how to properly space the kids' meal (how much and when to eat).  And with the need to properly space their meals, come the need for an appropriate food container which can make hot foods hot, and cold foods cold for hours. 

 It is a relief and with perfect timing that the Bubee Lunch Jars were introduced to me.  One set of Bubee Lunch Jar includes two jars and a carrying pouch.  It is made of thick, food-grade stainless steel which is double layered.  It claims to keep cold foods cold and hot foods hot for up to 5 hours.  I have not tested this for hot lunch, since I only use these containers to carry their breakfast and afternoon snacks, which only takes about an hour from food prep upto the time the kids eat it.  

If I use it to hold fruits, I simply flash freeze the container by putting it inside the freezer for 10 minutes.  I also make sure that the fruits have been placed in the refrigerator prior to slicing.  When I take out the container from the freezer, I just dump all the cold, sliced fruits and then cover. 

But if you intend to use this as a container to hold their lunch, you can try pouring very hot water into the lunch jar and letting it stay for about 5-10 minutes. Then pour out the water and simply put in the hot meal, and quickly cover it. This way, your kids should get warm lunch to enjoy. 

The lids are leak-proof so there is no concern over spilled sauces or liquids.  My older kid can easily open it for herself. While my two younger ones still need assistance as their hands are too small to cover the entire lid.

With the recent concern about BPA, nothing comes into contact with plastic with these containers.  As an added bonus, they are also very easy to clean, none whatsoever of the greasiness even with just one washing - something that your helper will absolutely thank you for.:)

Moms, you will be very happy to know that this is available locally and it is cheaper than Amazon, where it retails for US$49.99.  This simply means instant savings of at least P500, and that is not even counting the shipping charges.

For product inquiries, please visit shopsueystore on e-bay.ph or Shop Around on Facebook.

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