Christmas 2012

I spent my Christmas in Laguna with my family :)

My youngest bro and cousins are now taller than me!

We had chicken bbq, lechon kawali, pasta, suman and buko salad.

I ate buko salad at around 6PM and pasta at 9PM. By the tme of Noche Buena, I'm already full I did not eat any. 

The next day 25th, mom cooked pansit sotanghon, ham and pasta. 

And from Mike, on the 26th,

 I ate a lot of Mernel's cake! 

I can't believe I ate a huge amount of sweets and chocolates this month!

I don't have photos of all of my gifts, I received clothes, beauty products and chocolates.

One of the chocolates I managed to take a photo before it's gone, Truffles :) 

I received this as a gift packed with ice.

And some December Photos...

I only have a few photos from my phone as I am busy doing some work at home and when I wanted to have a break, I just stared at our 4 cute puppies! New addition to our little furry family!

1. Rurouni Kenshin tickets 2. I bought Whisk again 3. Red Mango 

4. Starbucks 5. Sharetea milktea 6. Marks&Spencer Chocolates

1. Starbucks with Robin name 2. Yabu 3.Crukitchen fudge = (yummy!) 

4. Sleeping puppies 5. Russian Cookie House (taste like polvoron) 

6. Two Pups in the box, (the other 2 don't like the box)

I'll get back to bloghopping after the holidays :)

-=jewel=-

Eco-Friendly Gifts

I'm supposed to share this before Christmas :/ but then if you like to give eco-friendly gifts, not only for holidays, hope this helps. ^_^

I bought some of my Christmas gifts from Human Nature and Gkonomics

via

HumanNature also sell wrappers thus making it hassle free to give goodness gifts. :)

I did a bit of craft for my Gkonomics gifts , I wrapped them in a brown bag wrapper (reused from grocery bags) and added HeyKessy washi tapes I won from Etallasa. 

eco friendly ang peg!

I forgot to take a photo before I wrapped the silver wristlet, the photo above is the silver clutch. They are made from recycled doy packs (amazing!) and the quality is good!  Check out their products here. 

I hope to discover more eco-friendly and locally available products  from social enterprises and give them as gifts. By supporting these social enterprises, we help in sustaining a livelihood for their partner communities. :)

"When Human Nature was born in 2008, we envisioned it to flourish as one of 

the country's leading social enterprises. This meant our primary goal would be to use business 

to build a better Filipino society, especially for the poor, by operating a sustainable business that primarily benefited our country. We founded the company on three core principles; 

to be Pro-Philippines, Pro-Poor and Pro-Environment." - from HumanNature website

"GKonomics is building a new generation of producers.

Our mission is to build a culture of productivity in GK communities by helping build social enterprises that will make the Philippines a country of world-class products and services that does not leave the poor behind." - from Gkonomics fb page

-=jewel=-

Sumo Sam Megamall

Hope you all had a fab Christmas :)
I have lots of things in mind I want to blog I dunno where to start :/
Let me share first one of our dine out this month

mike's treat! :)

my Las Vegas Roll

The staff said the Las Vegas Roll is like California Roll but topped with cream cheese. ummm, the cheese taste like kraft eden cheese :/

Gyoza

mike's Sizzling Beef 

Then Starbucks treat too! (OA queue at Starbucks! almost an hour?? whew!)

Thanks for the treat!

-=jewel=-

Celebrations Part 2

Dec 16 = Mom's Bday Celebration
My only contribution is the Chewy Jr. cream puffs (bottom right pic below)
I claimed 2 boxes from my ensogo vouchers :)

Yabu treat with officemates last Friday Dec 21 :)

I had their Vegetarian Katsu set which consist of breaded potato, tofu, eggplant, onion and carrots

The cabbage with sesame dressing is enough to make me full seriously. I think I was able to eat only 3 pcs of the veggie-katsu. (nakakaumay kasi) I shared the others and I still have left overs!

Caffe Benne 

Later that evening, we met up with our friends at Eastwood City at Caffe Bene, pretty place!  We didn't order anything :/ Thanks to JB's brownies.

And then before heading home, mike's treat :)

Cashier: "Name po?"

Me: "Robin"

Cashier: "Ano po?"

Me: "Robin po" (pigil tawa)

Cashier: "I'll repeat your order... one venti peppermint mocha Ms. Robin?"

I'm thinking what name to say next time we visit Starbucks lolz!
I should force mike to say "Sherlock" teehee!

Few hours before noche buena! Merry Christmas!

-=jewel=-

Chelsea Podium and Summer Palace Shangrila

Long time no blog!

the past week has been manic esp. with the holiday rush, traffic and work deadline.
It also includes wrapping gifts and braving the mall with lots of people.

I have also a lot of dine outs with friends and colleagues as expected, that's why I'm eating greens so
 I won't feel guilty stuffing myself silly. (my Whisk Lemon Tarragon ran out already!)

I thought I put in one post all the eat outs/reunions I had with colleagues /friends but on the second thought I'll divide it in two. :)

Chelsea, Podium

Complimentary bread with garlic :)

Pretty vintage poster at the comfort room

This one is goood, five cheese pizza

Summer Palace Shangrila 

I only had a few snaps...  they ordered peking duck (cooked 2 ways), steamed fish, crabs, le mien noodles, taro and beef, for dessert we had mango pudding and shanghai pancake

choosing veggies

I think  I've been  successful in being mindful of portions when dining out (have you?) :)  Congrats to myself hehe

celebrations part 2 up next! and will be catching up with the blogs I missed...

It's 24th already!

-=jewel=-

Movie Review: Rurouni Kenshin

epic face accdg to my lil bro lolz

We were able to watch the live action film last Saturday. 

mike bought our tix last Friday online via smcinema website and printed the email 

additional P20 for convenience charge

Saturday came and we were surprised by the long lines at the ticket counter, 

but all we need to do is to scan this 

in this machine ( there were only 2 persons in the line that time)

and voila it printed our tickets, amazing! #firsttimers 

So how's the movie? 

As a Samurai X fan I would say, they brought back an anime character to life! (Ang galing 2x) \(^.^)/

I was able to see again Kenshin's stance and fighting style. I love sword battle scenes which looks like a very long and hard choreo, the sounds, the effects, lighting and there were no awkward anime-ish pause unlike other japanese movie I've seen. (ang sarap ulit ulitin!) 

 I always like Megumi even in the anime and in this movie it is realistically played by Aoi Yu. I'm just a bit bothered by Sano's darker skin? but that doesn't affect my overall rating for this movie.

And oh, watching it in front row with subtitle is absolutely ok naman pala. 

We decided to stay and finished the credits even it is in japanese lolz. It ended with an applause from the audience. :)

The good news is that it is  extended in some SM Cinemas until Dec 18!

this stance *sigh*

via

-=jewel=-

Whisk

Hello Weekend!

Another week of eating salads at work - with salad dressing this time :)

I discovered " Whisk" last weekend when we went to Eastwood City (my favorite place!)

The lady was very nice to let me taste all of their products :)  

I decided to buy their Lemon Tarragon Vinaigrette.

And I'm hooked! I even add it on sandwiches and it is goooood! (pwamis!)

Check out Whisk on facebook :) They are at Eastwood (every Sat-Sun this December)

Whisk Pricelist

Eastwood Mall is now Christmassy!

-=jewel=-

Hello December

Some of my instagram pics: (http://instagram.com/madjewelled) 

 1st row: my new parisian shoes, shawl and belgian chocolates gift from the secret santa we played, my group from work had our earlier Christmas party yesterday. I have amazing and kind colleagues, work is hard  but I'm surrounded by really nice people so I am loving it :)

2nd row: nips, i dont remember the last time i had this; our christmas tree is up, silver this time; and bayani brew from human nature, a really good tasting ready to drink tea with a taste of pandan and calamansi-all natural :)

3rd row: nyu at 3 mos old, just bok and his kuya deo ( bok is turning one year old) he's a grown up now

4th row: owl and collar necklace from hallohallomall free when u register. Amazing!  Register here to get free stuff! ^_^

and also Ehje's peanut butter i won from bazaar (I was in front of the announcer when they are looking for someone with polka dots on the clothes and someone told me my necktie (see ootd pic below) has polka dots so there hihi)

at St James Bazaar yesterday

my simple ootd hehe 

as for  December plans, hmmm I'm a sad panda when

plans didn't get push through so i just let things happen on their own for the moment.
Let's see what December brings and wishing we all have a wonderful December!

via

^_^

-=jewel=-