#ULOG # 11:The Art of Doing it Yourself

Hello my dear Steemians! I would like to share the art or doing it yourself (DIY) stuffs instead of buying them. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with shopping guys. I love shopping myself and I gather ideas from what I see and learn from it.

One of my favorite locations is the native product stores which are the favorite shopping place among tourists for souvenirs. Native handicrafts are indeed unique and raw in nature.

Say, when my Antonia’s birthday was approaching, she would think of some fairy tale characters she would impersonate. This time, she wanted to be the little ‘Moana’ so lola lulu (me) looked over her box and dig on to find the needed accessories for Moana’s necklace. Then her mom bought a headband and a stick of flowers.

That’s her mom’s long Spanish skirt, her tops and wrap from my vintage collection hahaha ...

In my case, I get ideas from those native handicrafts and make innovations from any available materials that I have and start from there. And speaking of junks, yes, I have a bunch of it at the back and more balikbayan boxes piled. They’re stuffs of this and that you know which I statched away in the box with the promise that one day I’ll make use of them. It was a very busy day for me when kids had their United Nations’ costume competition. I always love dressing them up with those fancy dresses.

Actually, I have lots of ‘unfinished business’ in there. That is the reason why I don’t want to leave my work half done because once I place them in one corner, I know we’ll meet again in years hehehe.

Remember about those trending cross stitch craze before? I only had one accomplished. It’s “The Cottage” but Adonis, The Wedding and the oldest of them all … ‘Lady of the Thread’ are still there waiting for my good mood but I surely will when time permits. It’s time consuming and I’ve only worked on them during my vacant time in the office because when am home, time seems so short.

I made use of every scrap from my bag making. I made stuffed toys out of the inner linings of leather jackets and bought additional materials in Cebu for the eyes, ribbons and foams. I made money and every stuff that I did was my masterpiece.

I used to tell my kids that you can still make money from scraps and I would show them how I made a cute wallet out of a six-inch cloth and sold it for P30 and for the scrap of scraps, I showed them that I could still make classy pot holders with embroidered strawberry, apple or carrots.

I taught them not to be ashamed to sell our products because it’s not everyday that you can find a peso coin on the street. They would carry the pot holders with their mid-fingers and sell it in the neighborhood and food stalls for P10-15 each with 50-50% sharing. Well, the buyers were our family friends so they gladly bought their offers saying they’re very proud of my kids. Their dad was a second mate officer and working overseas yet they were not spoiled brats.

My kids learned the art of crafts too. Daughter would buy stuffs for earrings and necklace at the central market in Bacolod and sell it to their boardmates and classmates together with my tote bags, slings and pouch. See, we had income generating talents!

My son was a fan of spiderman so he did his own sketch of him using his sign pen only with no erasures! He wove a spider-web like “Dream Catcher” out of an old metal drum ring and abaca string.

He loved carving too. Here, you can see tiki ashtrays out of old bamboo roots.

He was fun of doing outdoor activities like mountain trekking. He once passed by a sleek waterfalls and saw a bonsai plant clinging over a cliff and carefully got it despite the risk.

He proudly showed his ‘pasalubong’ to me. I was very glad of course. Its sturdy structure clearly showed that it has been there for years and clinging for its life.
Sad to say, it did not survived in the lowland. My son vowed never to take one again whenever he guided trekkers to Mt. Canlaon.

In memory of this plant, I placed it on my table, turned it upside down and decorated the roots with synthetic flowers. The other one with a tail-like structure was turned to a lamp holder using a light bulb.

Antonia also loved to see me sewing so she also made dresses for her Lalaloopsy doll. She also made her own pouch and little backpack.

Well, her aunt from Saudi gave her a petite sewing machine via Lazada as a birthday gift. Now, she can sew simple designs and aimed to make beautiful designs when she grow up she said.

Still a kid as she is, she hates their daily diary task in school so I did a bargain with her. The deal was that she write her diary while I sew dresses for her doll Cherry, her Lalaloopsy doll.

At last, they went to school together in uniform!

Thank you for reading guys! Have a nice day ahead and God bless us all.