DIY Cupcake Tower

We love to celebrate and entertain. And sometimes, what we need aren't just available or is just too expensive. So then came DIY. 

Here's a simple, fast, from scratch, fully-illustrated HOW TO:

(All units are in inches and dimensions of round materials are diameters)

Materials:

     Styro blocks (available in educational supplies shop or baking materials; 

                 I used 1 pc 12x2 as base, and 3 pcs each of 6x2, 5x2 3x2)

                 *I used the 3x2 blocks to hold Tinkerbell. You don't need it if you need the tower only. 

                 You can also use soup cans or juice cans (not empty!) so it's more stable, but not disposable.

     Cake boards (Here, I used 16, 12 and 9 inch diameters)

     Gift wrap or cardstock to cover the center columns

     Ribbon or Lace

     Decorative materials

     Pencils

     Glue gun and sticks

     Cutter

     Scissors

     Ruler, Preferably a triangle

     Optional: Compass

In this tutorial, I am making a 3-tier tower for a Tinkerbell-themed, 24-pc-cupcake set so I choose the sizes above, color green for my wrap and ribbons, and some foam leaves and bugs for my decor.

I based my methods from annies-eats.com and did a few tweaks in my favor.

Money Matters

I have just been to a wealth management talk by Mr. Rex Mendoza, President & CEO of Philam Life and a financial adviser. A lot of eye-openers and hard truths, there were.

I will talk about it, yes, but I swear I cannot pass it on with such vigor and enthusiasm as the speaker's. So I beg your pardon. Anyhow, my hidden agenda is that I hope you will thirst more for information that the next time he will be speaking here in Cebu, you'll be taking the front row seats armed with paper and pen.

And I just want to share this to you. Because I want you to be in abundance as well. It is like happiness in the saying "Happiness is like perfume - you can't pass in on to others without having some for yourself". And so I want you to pass it on too, like a nasty cold. So then we could happily sniff and sneeze together.

Alright. Let's talk about life and money.

Alkansi siya. Alkansiya in short.

[1] "Suffer now and enjoy later OR enjoy now and suffer later" While we are young, capable and agressive, do the most of it. Save and invest while the budget is healthy. So when we are old, quite incapable and weak, we can go slow and live on what we have saved and invested when we were young.

I have attended a separate business talk, and one achiever excitedly commented "Why do you sleep? You'll have plenty of it when you die!" So work hard now, work double time because when our knees start to ache, no matter how much we NEED to work, we can't.

It all begins with a choice

Do you want to be healthier? Choose fruits and vegetables.

Do you want to earn more? Choose to have a side income.

Do you want to meet more people? Choose to get out of your room.

Do you want to be happy? Choose to be.

IT ALL BEGINS WITH A CHOICE.

Choose to make a difference in other people's lives.

But before the choice is acceptance. 

Accept that you are unhealthy, financially-challenged, having less friends and unhappy.

It is from acceptance that we shed off that pride to take in what reality is telling us,

kitchen tada's

We grew up with a mom whose career was her family. So everyday, we were served with fresh food, I get to cry while chopping the onions, experiment in the kitchen, and, the chore I hate most, do the dishes.

So naturally, mama's hands (and face, and feet, and everything of her) are all in the kitchen when she cooks. And though we (my elder sister and I) are Chemical Engineers, you can't look down on ma, she has a great wisdom of her own, as she too knows the explanations of kitchen occurrences and she does a lot of experimenting on her own. Okay, we are guilty. We teach her why the water boils (vapor pressure thinga majig) , why salt and oil is added when cooking the pasta (colligative properties) and why tenderizing meat with a fork in the boiling pot works (oooh, interesting?).

Love thyself

"Love thyself.  If no one, who else will? If you won't, no one else will."

Do not allow yourself to pity you. 

The world does not benefit nor rejoice on your putting yourself down. 

YOU are your most valuable thing. 

Before anything else, it must be yourself. 

To love yourself above others is never selfish.

How many times have you told yourself you are careless or stupid? 

Just because you tipped the glass and spilled the milk, doesn't mean you are stupid. 

Just because you didn't catch the falling crumb, doesn't mean you are a klutz.

 Some things just happen - only gravity is to blame. 

fr-brrr-ozen yogurt

Yogurt. It is a fermented dairy product from milk. 

Technically, fermentation is the process of chemical conversion with the use of microorganisms. Microorganisms are not necessarily bad. Bacteria is not necessarily bad - they're just like us, some are good, some are evil. 

In yogurt, the microorganisms are from the genus lactobacillus. Lacto, from lactose and bacillus, which means rod-shaped. Putting them together, they are rod-shaped bacteria which convert milk (majority lactose) to lactic acid. Lactic acid makes the yogurt tart. Expired milk has high lactic acid, so it's tart. WAIT. Can expired milk be called yogurt? NO. You can't tell if it's the "good bacteria" that's making it tart.

Is it good for you? YES and YES. No.1: Lactobacillus is a naturally-occuring microorganism in the human stomach. They are in the line of defense when infection attacks. So when the enemy is plenty, there's also plenty of casualties in our army. So why not recruit more troops? No.2: It is friendlier than milk. If you're lactose-intolerant, this one's for you. Since the microorganisms started the chewing for you, you'll have a little left to digest. No.3: Since it's from milk, it's got the calcium! And there is still a lot more. 

YO-GO BOY frozen yogurt

So what's froyo? Frozen yogurt means literally as it is spelled - it's super cooled yogurt. It's sweeter because

hello, earth!

"pixies are generally mischievous, short of stature and attractively childlike"

original photo credit: John Dickson Batten via wikipedia.org
digital edit via Corel Photopaint

howdy. 

the lair came into existence with the first thought of having a place to put down almost anything - from an idea, an experience, a helpful tip to troubleshooting your machine. just about anything. 

be wary, however, that this is not a serious blog. this is more of  a literary and idea compilation, a little window to view life in a new perspective, a hodgepodge of thoughts and activities and most especially, an outlet. 

uncork your bottle, unfold your wings, sing, dance and laugh your heart out