Reminiscing…

Recently, I received several friends’ requests at the social network I am currently active. Most of the friends’ requests I received were from friends, classmates and acquaintances from way back during the time I spent 4 years of my high school in my grandma’s place in Mindanao.

While my high-school years were definitely interesting and colorful, I cannot quite help but feel melancholic about this sudden reminder of my dearly loved yet often forgotten past. Work, career, family and other personal commitments caught up with me and had kept me from visiting my grandma’s place as often as I would have wanted. In fact, I have to admit that since my grandma’s passing more than 20 years ago, I don’t really have any strong motivation to make time and re-visit the place. And so today, I would like to take some time to pause and do as I do now, reminiscing old memories….

I spent a large part of my childhood with my grandmother. Growing up in a quiet, sleepy town in Mindanao, my favorite past time as a young girl was to day dream. Guilty as charged, I did have a Cinderella complex, that is, I would actually imagine having a fairy godmother that would grant me my every whim and desire.

As the eldest grandchild, well, the only child, in my grandmother’s big two-storey house, playing alone by myself didn’t upset me. My pretend playmates in the form of a rag doll, a well-loved teddy bear and a few other prized possessions—gifts from parents and relatives, along with my very rich imagination, were my constant, pleasant companion. I remembered long hours of fun in the afternoon climbing one tree to another, even tall ones like the coconut trees that surrounded our old ancestral home. One day, I am a princess in a beautiful castle, a merchant selling candies made of clay or perhaps a hunter inside a cave. There was never a time that I felt alone or even lonely despite the lack of obvious playmate.

The few times that I did have a playmate were all in the form of our washer woman’s son and having a boy to share dolls and teddy bears with wasn’t a pleasant alternative. Too much of convincing that my doll is not a canon ball is enough for me to relinquish my right to a play date, I definitely preferred being alone than play with a semi-sadistic, snot running little tyke.

I relish the time when I can happily sing and dance amidst the rain fall, thumping on sludge of mud, with not a single care of this world. Time seemed to slow down in the province back then and yes, we do sleep right after dinner and that would be about 8 o’clock in the evening.

I vaguely remembered the night time ritual just prior to dinner of watching any one of the soap operas offered by the only 2 television stations back then. I think the TV series were entitled Flordeluna and Annaliza. I didn’t understand the show and I would always wonder why grandma and several of our neighbors and house helps would discreetly wipe off a tear punctuated with silent sobs from time to time. The puffy red eyes were always a give away after the show and my uncles who were then the classic, naughty teenagers would tease my grandma on end.

Ahh, yes, back then, it was very common for neighbors to come knocking at one’s door to borrow salt or in this case, watch a soap opera on TV. Back then, I think people were much friendlier, more open, more loving….people simply cared.

My grandma’s town is right at the middle of Davao and Butuan City. To get there, one must take a bus from either side. You will know you reached the place when you could hardly feel your butt being there. Three hours of stiff sitting with very little chance of having unshared seats that allows one to a comfortable recline, is enough to get even the most practiced sentry guard complain. Back then, there were also few air conditioned buses so the usual travels to get to the city was quite an ordeal, a sure test of patience and endurance. Being a child though, I get the exception of being able to take a nap right at my uncle’s or any seat mate’s lap for that matter. I usually doze off the whole 3 hours of travel, which is a good thing. Traveling to the city had been one of the things I look forward to as a child although each trip had been far between. Perhaps, the travel torture was too much for my adult relatives to bear.

Perhaps it has been more than 20 years since I last visited the place, saved of course for that measly 2 hours I sneaked to get to Trento a year ago. I was out on an official reconnaissance trip to Butuan City with a group from Dept. of Science and Technology and a few other fashion accessory manufacturers and exporters. Seeing that we were somehow free for the afternoon, I decided to sneak out for a quick, hurried trip to Trento. The travel going there on a bus is far longer than the actual time I got myself seated in the old sofa still currently used by my uncle’s family who now resides in my grandma’s house. My mom once joked that traveling to Trento, we only need to pay an extra P10 fare to get to heaven. I’m sure she would be amused to hear me say this now; she has indeed gone to heaven almost 3 years ago.

Reaching the place, it was like being in a stranger’s house. There had been some changes to the house yet at the same time; there were several traces of the old. Despite the alterations, I do not resent my uncle and his family for renovating the place. After all, the house was largely made of wood and after sometime, wood materials, no matter how strong, tends to wither and aged from elements. It was just proper and quite expected that some of its parts would not last past 20 years.

Nonetheless, I loved the place. It was there that I first witnessed the reddening of the sky just as the mid afternoon sun sets. It was there that I have counted the stars only to get lost by their number or their glitter or to walk the rice paddies of the sea of greens. It was for me, simply a piece of heaven on earth.

Despite the distance and time that has separated me from the place; I am pleasantly surprised to feel the familiar warmth, the tender yet firm tug the place gave on my memories of years gone by.

Little Loves

The holidays are not officially over till the Chinese says “Kung Hei Fat Choi!”. That’s Chinese for Happy New Year!

This year, we are celebrating Chinese New Year on the same day as Valentines Day—February 14, 2010!

With 2 special affairs happening on one single day, I can’t help but wonder what this day holds for us. You see, with 2 very active boys living under the same roof, every day is simply a day for new adventures for us. There is no such thing as a routine or boring moment in our household except, of course, when the boys are in school or if they are sound asleep.

As long as both are present and wide awake, we are all in high gears as if preparing for a siege about to happen anytime soon. I mean this in a good way of course :) I am always reminded of the energizer bunny commercial every time I see my little tikes doing what they do best… jumping, running and kicking around. If you have boys below the age of 10, I think you know exactly what I mean.

Mine are aged 5 and 8, and for me, this is just the perfect age for some top notch raucous! I guarantee you, between my 2 boys; they can start a riot just with their sheer combined energies.

At home, there’s simply no way of telling what might happen on any given hour of the day. It can be as consternating as our adopted feral cats scampering for dear life with my spunky little Karlo hot on its tail OR seemingly docile as mommy’s little trinkets re-born with a twist as our boys take their hands in designing, taking things apart and putting them back on in a totally different way. I must say, each time they’d do this, somehow, there seems to be extra parts that get left behind ready for a new project to be made. I don’t even know where these parts come from. If there is such a thing as multiplication of “bread and fishes” in this time and age, this is our home version.

Innocent, harmless pens get converted to rocket ships; cookie cans becomes valued treasure chests, clothes hangers to swords of knights and kings of York. Karlo would say he is the king and sometimes, the knight or even both and his older brother—Khalil gets to be the jester…Oh boy, and that’s the start of the real fight! And since I have time and time again refused to buy them toy guns, somehow they found a way to make it on their own, using papers and card boards. Origami takes a totally different meaning in our house.

Well, I’d like to think that being raised in a Christian family, Karlo is not really vent on mangling the cats. In fact, when asked why he’d chased them, he’d give you his sweet innocent look and say “I just want to play with them but they won’t have me!” Poor cats, they just can’t see past the danger of getting mobbed and run over by my 5-year old to realize his good intentions. And for my trinkets, well, I can rejoice that somehow my creative genes have wormed its way to my children. What a blessing!

With the 2 boys now able to tinker with their hands and their creative abilities starting to get apparent, no special event pass us by without getting something special from either one of them. Our recent treats were the ones they gave us last December.



Aren’t these just adorable? Whose hearts would not melt when given such symbols of love? The hours of hard work and careful attention is evident by the details they labored into each piece. My husband and I are just overwhelmed and humbled for the care and love shown through these master pieces.

And talking about love, I have included here the list of my 10 little loves which I’d like to remind myself over and over again.

They say, one can count sheep to get to sleep, I’d say, its better to count our blessings. This is in random order as I cannot quite decide which one I love the most.

1.)I love the smell of coffee that my husband brews for me almost all of my mornings.

2.)I love the feel of warm breaths as I wake up to a little jumbled mass of humanity, limbs entwined of our family of 4. The kids have their own rooms but somehow during dawn, they’d find their way into our room and into our bed.

3.)I love to tinker with my hands, creating things big and small. There is a feeling of exhilaration that I cannot quite explain seeing an object transform according to how I envision it to be.

4.)I love spending quiet time with GOD, with myself, with my family, with my closest friends, with my books and with my garden. I find it extremely important to find a place of refuge, my sanctuary when the cares and concerns weigh me down.

5.)I love getting together with friends and family specially those I have not seen for years. It’s nice to recall good old memories and then creating new ones for the future.

6.)I love getting presents specially the ones that clearly shows and represents the giver. I specially love the little gifts that my husband and children prepares for me. My husband is a genius in giving me well thought of surprises.


7.)I love challenging myself to learn new things. I remembered entering the working world not knowing how to type, much more use a computer. But then one month into a typing computer program and guess what? I learned! Sure it was hard as “old dogs are harder to teach new tricks” but this “old dog” is not beyond learning. No grand ceremonies, but I sure felt good inside.

8.)I love anything and everything beautiful and that includes music, art and fashion. I’m not really on the quest of acquiring more but I relish the opportunity to understand how society is transformed through these media. I like the idea that I have something to contribute no matter how seemingly little it may be.

9.)I love anything healthy and worthwhile, may it be in the food I eat, the products I use or the entertainment I indulged myself in. I like feeding my body and my soul with things that gives it life. I am not about to waste the gift of life and salvation that Christ, my Lord and King suffered on the cross for me.

10.)I love supporting a good cause and of standing up for issues and principles that I truly, passionately believe in.

There, I have more to include but these are on top of my list right now. And I am pretty sure that right after the Valentines Day, I have more to add. I am very much looking forward to it right now : )

Kung Hei Fat Choi and Happy Love Day everyone!!!

My Inspirations...

“What inspires you to create a design or to write about something?”

I’ve been asked this question countless times and while this seemed like a good question to ask somebody whose main source of livelihood depends heavily on art and creative work, my answer is actually not outstanding. In fact some would say, too generic.

My usual answer would be “anything”. This is not a conspiracy answer among artists, believe me, nor do I want to sound mysterious to haggle for attention. The truth is, as boring and as plain as it may sound, anything and everything inspires me.

There was a time in my teenage years when the confusion and struggles both in my school and family life prompted me to pour out my soul through my sketches. Sketches, doodles, scribbles… mostly incomprehensible - were my lifeline to sanity back then.

I remembered vaguely that I was vying for the top honors in school then and boy, people in the provinces, really takes these things so seriously. The teachers handling our class were torn between the two competing students. I remember one serious talk with one of my teacher-advisers as she detailed to me my class standing.

I garnered second in the end, but looking back, the lessons learned on struggles, survival, victories and losses are all so surreal --- worthy of a local FAMAS Award. Now if only I can get Judy Ann Santos to play my role.

Then at another time and place, one evening, heavy with my first child, I just could not get myself to sleep. Perhaps it was some crazy hormonal imbalance kicking, I found myself turning and tossing, feeling so depressed and for no reason at all.

To get me occupied and quell the strong urge to bother anyone else (poor husband!), I found myself painting in acrylic this serene and peaceful picture of a blue house. I finished this “master piece” at 4 am. I guess that was my own artistic way of pacifying the turmoil raging inside of me. I am proud to say that aside from the big heavy eye bags, and the sore achy back, no other collateral damage had been done.

When my two boys were aged 3 and 5, I considered that to be by far, the most chaotic family situation we ever had. I found solace in the scrapbooks and journals, and of little “Dear Khalil” and “Dear Karlo” notes I neatly compiled for my sons. Perhaps someday when they are old enough, they would understand through my own little chronicle of their adventures and mischief of just how uniquely special and wonderful both of them are.

In my career as fashion jewelry designer, some four years ago, I came across a client who brought us 3 pieces of designer necklaces and asked us to come up with 25 collections in one month. Our only inspirations were the 3 necklaces she left us. Talk about stress and pressure!

Pressed with a deadline, it’s amazing how much creative juices flow to come up with the most sought-after pieces. I have posted a picture of one of my favorite works borne out of that one-month creative sojourn.

So as if on cue, as if history is repeating itself, here I am again, faced with a 2 month deadline to come up with 45 collections of designer pieces to showcase in one of the major fashion jewelry tradeshows.

My inspirations for this gynormous endeavor? ….I am not looking far…I’d like to share with you some snap shots of the corner stone of my collection….my kids artworks! It’s unrestrained, unmindful, carefree, happy, expressive, head turning, and one that simply calls for attention, just exactly what I want our next collection to be.




Overall, I must say that my creative output is very much influenced by my state of mind, emotions, life situation, and maturity as an artist. And oh, I must include my understanding of my client’s needs and goals.

Nowadays, I don’t see myself doing childish doodles anymore, but like exactly what I am doing right now, writing this blog, announcing to the world just where I am and what I feel…

My Passions…

The past weeks had been a whirl of product presentations for our new line ARTIZANS Organics.

The more I talk about it and explain to people why we launched it, the more I am convinced that indeed we have made the right decision.

And as if we do not have our hands full already, we have taken the next step, to introduce our nutritional line. To me, this comes naturally as the next step.

While we take good care of the outside of our body through our personal care line--- Human Heart Nature, even more important is the need to take care of what is inside our body. After all, there is not much nice skin or hair to maintain if our body is rotting and going haywire from the inside.

There is no question on the merit of the products we are promoting. We believe that we have GOD-sent products which first and foremost are blessings to us personally as users. This small bit of ambivalence though has nothing to do the with the product line, but largely because our fashion jewelry line---still our main business, which continues to flourish despite the odds.

Now in all of these, timing is the key.

You see, while we are doing all these ARTIZANS Organics presentations, I am also in negotiation with a possible distributor who will open several high-end retail outlets in Canada and Europe for our international brand IMPRESSIONE. This lady I am in contact with is quite amazing as she is currently the General Manager of one of the most recognizable American brands of apparel that has about 1,800 stores all over the US alone. While she is very nice and accommodating, I have to keep in mind that she really knows what she is talking about. She is indeed astute and business savvy with quite an energy that I need to match.

One of the tasks I am suppose to do is to come up with at least 45 collections by September for our launching during Eastern Canada’s premier jewelry fair, the JCK Toronto.

Whoa, this is definitely not a walk in the park considering that we are not only going to launch premium but also meaningful, designer-only collections, in other words, haute couture.

While this is definitely a good project to exercise creativity and a rare chance to partner with the industry’s best, in my heart, I feel the tug to get the message out there for ARTIZANS Organics.

At night, when I think about my mom who by the way celebrated her 2nd year of passing last May, or of family and friends who are desperate for something due to an ailing love one, I know that the more people I can share and tell, the more I would feel better. Not that we claim our nutritional line to bring forth miracles and cure terminal diseases (it would be good though if it does, as some documented instances did) but what pains me most is that there is just so much lack of information. There is so much ignorance and deception brought about by the high flying marketing campaigns of the various commercial products that we see nowadays. Deprived of the chance to be heard, healthier alternative products gets pushed back down, shelved and ignored. People do not make informed decisions on the choices they make, healthwise.

Does anyone even know the sugar content in a 8 oz bottle of soft drinks? Do we know that one of the main ingredients of canned goods is sodium nitrate (yes, go ahead look at the label of the can goods in your pantry), also the ingredients used in explosives?

You see, ARTIZANS Organics has become our passion, our own little contribution to the Filipino community and possibly to the world, as our nutritional line is not limited to Philippines alone. ARTIZANS Organics is also our way of telling our children that we love them so much, we want to be responsible and take care of our bodies.

Will there be a time that I would leave fashion jewelry for good and just work full time on ARTIZANS Organics? I don’t think so.

I sleep, eat and breathe with creativity and art, something I get to exercise with fashion jewelry. To do otherwise is to die a little inside.

My barometer in making important decisions though is based on GOD’s handbook itself---the Bible.

In Proverbs 10:22, it says, "the blessing of the LORD brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it."

Right now, I have no doubt GOD wants us to continue pursuing our fashion jewelry line.

After all, through this business, we continue to be a channel of blessing to more than a 100 full time employees.

I don’t think we would have all the rare opportunities we now have, if the Master’s intention is otherwise.

But as what is written in Ecclesiastes 3:1, "there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven."

Now if you are wondering what our nutritional line is, knowing that there is so much misconception and prejudices about food supplements and alternative products, we would rather give our product a chance to be fully listened to.

We want people to get the facts straight, and for people to have a chance to ask, argue and understand.

If anyone is interested, we are open to individual or group meetings to discuss this in detail.

What we do promise is that at the end of the presentation, anyone can walk away and say “No it’s not for me”. And that’s just fine with us.

We don’t need to launch ARTIZANS Organics. We can opt to just use the products and get the benefits just for ourselves.

We really don’t have to balance our time and resources and talk to people about it, which is not an easy thing to do.

But we choose the other way, in fact, the hard way. We just felt that as we have been blessed, we too should be able to bless others as well.

To do otherwise is to act selfishly and disobediently.

Let me direct you to another article written in the Freeman by a world renowned doctor of Oriental and Western alternative medicine based in San Carlos, California.(Click Here)

There are 3 parameters that ARTIZANS Organics abide when choosing the products that it promotes:

First and foremost is the health benefit of the product.

The product we endorse should be able to stand on its own health merit alone.

The integrity of the product and the company behind it must be intact.

If the product needs glitzy and costly marketing campaigns or it needs arm twisting and convincing, then it is not worth our time and effort.

Second, that it should be affordable or within most people’s budget.

We believe that no matter how good the product is, if we are unable to buy it due to price, it is considered nothing.

Third, as much as possible it should have some type of financial benefit, a possible income generating aspect to it, something we could all use specially at this time.

My passions? Well, it is very obvious isn't it? GOD, Family, Health and Art... exactly in that order.

Right now, the 45 collections of IMPRESSIONE Premium/Haute Couture is looking good. My next articles hopefully detail how this line unfolds.

To know more about ARTIZANS Organics and our nutritional line, contact us at organics@artizans.bz or (032)4223657 or 0922-8021681.

For overseas, we can also schedule for SKYPE conference.

Artizans Organics

Promoting Health
Nurturing Environment
Building the Nation
One Person at a time!