Travel Tuesday: Ben Cab Museum (Baguio Weekend with My Girls Pt II)

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Leave me inside a museum and I can spend the rest of my day there. As much as I want to be a painter, a sculptor, or those sorts, well I am not, I simply appreciate art. I look on their masterpieces and wonder how they come up with such! Ang tataba ng utak nila! They are so talented and their imaginations are so eclectic that they come up with such magnum opus!

Anyway, for the second part of my Baguio weekend with my lovelies, it will be about our admiration inside Ben Cab Museum. It’s the much talked about museum in the summer capital of the Philippines. I highly recommend taking the extra mile going to this place even if you do not appreciate art that much. The place in itself is a good unwinding from the usual unwinding up there. O diba labo ko ba? But on a more serious note, it’s a good veering away from the customary Baguio vacation. Apart from the different art installations, the place in itself is relaxing – its beautiful garden offers a restful mood. Plus, Café Sabel is a bonus! We enjoyed our lunch there, too!

I first chanced upon a few of Ben Cab’s works in one (or two??) of the art exhibits in The Museum of my alma mater. If I remember correctly, it was shortly after he was given the National Artist for Visual Arts award. His works are known for being contemporary.

Below are a few snaps (not in the best quality as I downloaded this from my Facebook album; apparently I was not able to back up the raw and original photos in my hard drive boo!) Some are candid shots of us! The four of us together can NOT get serious inside places like this, or anywhere pala hahaha! Hope these photos would make you want to go there. Let’s always support Filipino works and artists!

Since BenCab museum is sort of in a secluded area in Baguio, having Café Sabel was something sharp of an idea. We found the menu pricey for the usual choices but it was not bad at all!

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Book Comment: God Never Blinks

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Title: God Never Blinks

Author: Regina Brett
No. of pages:256
Published: 13th April, 2010
Read: February 2, 2015
★★

Already an internet phenomenon, these wise and insightful lessons by popular newspaper columnist and Pulitzer Prize finalist Regina Brett will make you see the possibilities in your life in a whole new way.

When Regina Brett turned 50, she wrote a column on the 50 lessons life had taught her. She reflected on all she had learned through becoming a single parent, looking for love in all the wrong places, working on her relationship with God, battling cancer and making peace with a difficult childhood. It became one of the most popular columns ever published in the newspaper, and since then the 50 lessons have been emailed to hundreds of thousands of people. Brett now takes the 50 lessons and expounds on them in essays that are deeply personal. From "Don't take yourself too seriously-Nobody else does" to "Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift," these lessons will strike a chord with anyone who has ever gone through tough times--and haven't we all?

I had high expectations reading this book and so I got a tad disappointed. Yes, it is helpful, insightful and I had a lot of fragment takeaways from the different chapters; but it's not compelling and moving enough for me and did not stir much emotions unlike some books of the same line I have previously read. It's still a good read and maybe I would still revisit chapters of this book from time to time. I like how it is really positive and occasionally heartwarming. This is highly recommended for people who maybe experiencing difficulties right now. It's just that I have read better books that I gave that rating.

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January @mSheng12 Instagram and Realizations

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Half-way through February as you know we only have 28 days this month. Ang bilis bilis bilis talaga ng panahon pag nagtatrabaho ka, when you enjoy your life, when you have "monthly reporting" which is a constant reminder of day 1 day 2 day 3 etc, when you are able to do the things you like to do. Mag-March na naman! Ackkk! Know what, I still have my own inggit phase when I see people and I feel like they have accomplished more than I did, travelled to places I want to go to and I am stuck because I do not have enough resources, I feel like mas madali buhay nila, bla bla bla. Don't you feel that, too? But I believe and I feel thankful that the Spirit of the Lord is continuously working in me that despite that feeling, I see the beauty of my unique life. Life has always been unfair in our own eyes! But we do not see from our Creator's view and we do not see what is behind each facade a person carries. With these, it is just rightful to be thankful and be contented with what we are and what we have, but still pushing forward and upward to achieve things that we want with just the right pace and not racing with anyone. And always always seek God's guidance and thanking Him in between. I guess this thought played a major role in my January. Tama na ang self-pity mga kapatid. In my case I didn't know that in my self-pitying, there are actually people who want to be in my very shoes, sadly causing envy in them. So yung mga bagay na akala natin "ito lang" are great things for others. It's a reminder to ALWAYS BE THANKFUL!!! 

The above photos are snaps posted in my Instagram @msheng12. January is always a big month for me, as it's LuRie's anniversary; and then my annual fasting. Most of the photos are from such events. Plus! It's a very good feeling to see my writing published. Kahit sa tabi-tabi lang haha!

Anyway, February has been really busy at work and sadly I needed to decline Miss Merie rush clients, tamang offsetting lang. But so far so goooood! Hope yours is too. :)

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Travel Tuesday: Baguio Weekend with my Girls Pt I

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Oh hey another backlog, long overdue post! And yes, it's once again Baguio! I highly recommend this place for a quick weekend escape -- the cool weather plus sights and the variety of food choices! I am almost certain that I'll be back again soon. I have known of a coffee shop must-try and I wouldn't mind going back just to experience it. Haha! Moving on, would you believe that with two decades of friendship, this was our very first time to go out-of-town, with just us four??? Imagine our glee when we finally went to Baguio July of last year!! I just love these girls it was a weekend very well-spent with them!

Julie must be the one who have frequented this city the most. While I and Beng were here during one of our Girl Scout campings waaayyyyy baaacckkkk then. I was just here May of last year. With Kaye, she's a Baguio virgin and that is one thing we have to consider in touring around. :) We arrived really early, like, past 3AM early haha! (Oh btw great thanks and special mention to my loving boss amo, Luke, for purchasing our tickets ahead for us! Last minute we are hahaha!) And since we are definite that our booked BnB wouldn't accommodate us just yet, we opted for a few hours stay in one of the transient houses near the Victory Liner terminal to catc with our sleeping. It wasn't hard at all to look for a transient house. Guides would just approach you without you needing to ask them. Plus flyers are available on one booth, too.

Waking up at 7am we headed for our first stop - breakfast at Cafe by the Ruins! By now, this cafe rings loud. A lot said that it's a must stop when in Baguio. I couldn't blame them. They have delectable breakfast selection. Their place, maybe due to its popularity, get really crowded. (But as of this writing, they just opened a new branch somewhere along Session Road). We had a really satisfying breakfast, enough to fuel us up to our next stop. 

Burnham Park is just a few minutes walk away from the cafe, so we dropped by for the sake of Kaye, the Baguio first-timer. Nyahaha! We were so excited for our BnB booking so we didn't stay for long. Just a few snaps for our remembrance and for Kaye hahahaha!

We strolled along the well-known Session Road and also dropped by SM Baguio to buy some stuff.

And then we were in Forest House!! Our accommodation of choice had made us really excited even weeks prior when we booked it online. It was so cozy! The staff were fairly welcoming. We were greeted with sweet welcome drinks. We enjoyed that fact that we felt like we owned the full basement area. Our room, Yuri, is the sole room on the lowest part of Forest House. I'll write more of our stay here in the coming posts for this series. For a fourth of that weekend spent, we were already enjoying our stay. 

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January Eat-Outs

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The first month of this year didn't fail me. Below are some eat-outs for the just-ended January.

Solo eat out at my favorite Mary Grace. Their carbonara always satisfies me. Merely looking at this photo already gives me the craving. I remember that day being busy at work, I was alone and so after work before heading home, I decided to reward myself with this.

January 15 - had dinner with Chat at Toby's Estate in Salcedo. It was a sumptuous treat and tried their dutch eggs and linguine. I finally tasted their Gibraltar (the off-menu drink but everybody knows about it haha). I liked it!

 January 22 - Happy birthday Anna! It was an Italian menu treat at Amici.

January 24 - Cafe Breton with these girls! It was super fun and I missed them a lot! They were the last batch of trainees I handled and they played a significant role in my life. Nakssss! Haha! It's always fun being with them. Hayyyy and now they let go of their "comfort zone" and only one remains. 

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Miss Merie on Instagram: January

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This year, I wish to talk and blog more about my designer side aka Miss Merie side. In all honesty, I am still not confident enough to claim the job title "fashion designer". It actually gives me the creeps just thinking of calling myself such, as I feel so unworthy -- because I know I am so trivial in that world; I feel so tiny and I certainly believe that I have a very very long way to go. But the good thing is I have taken some steps farther into reaching that destination. So sige na nga pwede na siguro fashion designer. Pero 'wag masyadong malakas ah haha! 

A year into venturing into this dream of mine, I have been granted a lot of opportunities and I even had my FIRST EVER MISS MERIE bride just December of last year! With full entourage as well!! EEEP!! Just thinking about it still gives me that giddy feeling! Also, I was able to design a number of long dresses, release a humble summer collection, release a holiday collection through a collaboration and build/open my own fashion studio-slash-office or simply my headquarters (claiming big things will arise from this).

So anyway, the above photos are the designs/products and proud clients I had last month. The group of four photos above are some of the custom pieces for clients. Yes, since I am still on the early stage of my fashion career, I try to be open on different pieces from simple tops to long dresses, as long as I can design them!

From top to bottom: Chat Tacazon wearing two pieces from our Concrete Et Garden collection for a wedding; Dr. Iza Ramirez wearing a maid-of-honor dress for her sister's wedding; Tita Jean Bustos wearing a principal sponsor dress. That apple green accented gown is actually a favorite. I really like how it turned out.

The very bottom photo is a design sketch for a client. I can't wait to see this come to life!

I keep my Instagram account updated of my Miss Merie endeavor so follow me maybe?? Haha! My personal account is @mSheng12 and specifically @missmerie_online for more fashion-related posts from everywhere. 

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