Sustainable Living

have you ever seen a fresh sunflower head?

Farming and Gardening Food Sustainable Living

Was so amazed by this, had to buy it to show friends and family!
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Gigantic sunflower head from Melendres farm, P500

So pretty, I just wanted to keep it on the table as a conversation piece. Even my titos and titas were gushing over it.

Seeds are ready to be eaten–They\’re blander than packaged raw sunflower seeds, and softer too. They supposedly keep for 6 months.

My dad took some seeds to try to plant– don\’t even know if that\’s the way to grow them, but wow, would be great to have these giant sunflowers (imagine how big the petals would be!) greeting you every morning… 🙂

Green communities in our midst

Green Communities Sustainable Living

I\’m deeply thankful that green communities are sprouting and becoming \”accessible\” all over the Philippines.

In Antipolo, there is an active group of Earth-conscious artists, farmers, foodies and business owners called Duyang Luntian, which spearheads environmental campaigns in their respective communities, among which is the Antipolo EarthFest 2011 this April 30 and May 1.

In Palawan, my friend Pi of of Bahay Kalipay is also birthing the Maia Earth Village.  Been waiting for these mudhouses since November–glad to already see them up and so lovely!  Will get to visit this June, also very excited for that.

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(Image from the Maia Community facebook album)

 

All this talk of green community is making me giddy for the Nuvali counterpart!   We\’ll be the urban earth community not in the mountains but right smack in the plains and fields of the city, hopefully not just to benefit ourselves but to make everyday green living something relatable and replicable for all Filipinos. 😛

Antipolo Earth Fest 2011 this weekend

Green Communities Sustainable Living

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Really excited to go to this green party!

The Antipolo EarthFest 2011
will be a weekend-long celebration of our dear Mother Earth
through arts, music, wellness and wholeness.

It will be a gathering of like-minded people and groups who are willing to share with others
their time and energies, passions and advocacy, skills, wisdom and knowledge on environmental issues
and most importantly, solutions and ways to help build a more environmentally-aware and Earth-conscious lifestyle.

Look forward to the workshops, the green booths at the marketplace and delight of delights, will finally get to visit Pinto Gallery. Yay. Organizer Irene also says Cynthia Alexander will be playing at 2pm onwards on Sunday. 🙂

The Antipolo Earth Fest blog lists the following participants so far:

Clayton Horton of Greenpath Yoga
will be honoring us with his presence and doing a couple of yoga and meditation workshops for the weekend
Bhairavi Nihiltantra & Jim Tantranuevo
will be sharing with us their passion and wisdom about Tantra Yoga, Traditional Tribal Music, Culture & Chanting, and more!
Djotay Soluta from Bahay Kalipay
will be sharing with us his Healing Music and doing a Sound Healing workshop for us
SugarLeaf
The very kind folks at SugarLeaf will be joining us that weekend for a special Earth Talk on Healthy Living & Foods That Nourish and will also be selling organic products & superfoods!
WWF Philippines
WWF Philippines will be setting up a booth to educate and inform us all about important environmental issues and ways we can be part of the solution!
Palamuti ni Autumn
— beautiful hand-crafted necklaces, earrings, bracelets and more! Plus, cute handpainted Earth bags, too! All by one of the most talented, most creative 10-year-olds we know. <3
Ubots (one of our favorites!!)
— \”Ubots are robot charms welded from \”techno detritus\” (electronic & mechanical trash). UBots is a word sliced from the Filipino word \”Abubot\”, which means small decorative stuff, accessory or trinket; It also stands for \”Upcycled Robots\”.
It is more than a charm, it is a green inititative, a creative exercise in upcycling, & an appreciation of sentimental objects.\”
Cookie Jar!
— homemade cookie treats baked with love by one of the youngest homebaker we know. At 14, she bakes yummy cakes, cookies and other baked treats in between homework and Justin Bieber Youtube videos! ;p The Cookie Jar will be setting up a banig for young ones to frost and decorate their own cookies for the weekend as well!

I checked out Palamuti ni Autumn\’s site–they have interesting items.  But I\’m especially curious about the Ubots!

More info on the Antipolo Earth Fest 2011 at www.antipoloearthfest.com, with activity schedules for the weekend, and also on the Antipolo Earth Fest 2011 facebook page.

Plants and sun pulling

Farming and Gardening Sustainable Living
Montalut 2010 (80)

Ink on Paper, 2010

Found this old doodle I made while in a detox and healing center in Palawan last August 2010.

What great imagery–the idea of plants being summoned by the sun, in a pull-push dance,  as a coming home of sorts.

Aren\’t we all coming home to the sun, sky and great beyond anyway?

Happy Easter, green friends!
xo

P.S.   Again inviting you to a special private sale this Saturday, April 30, as I launch EstelaShop.com, my new home and clothing store– our items are handpicked for their unique qualities (ex. woodblock printed fabrics in limited pieces) and are perfect for those looking for anything made with love.

easter-invite

More info on EstelaShop.com.

A windy day in Nuvali

Life in Nuvali Philippines

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Got to visit Treveia and Venare last March 27 (Sunday), and it was so windy! Possibly the windiest I\’ve ever experienced in Nuvali!

I was standing on the viewing deck of Venare and had to hurry back inside the car because I was getting sand and dirt in my eyes from the blowing winds.

Oh land of the blowing winds, you will be home soon. Very exciting.

🙂

on being busy and still at once

Life in Nuvali Philippines

Been crazy busy but just sending a short note to touch base and let you know I\’m still alive 😛

Am in Bicol now with family, and it\’s becoming very trying to be fully present to them while my mind is elsewhere, worrying about the Estela launch (it\’s my new home and clothing shop–would love for you to to visit EstelaShop.com if you have time), pending real estate transactions, and permits etc. for my house construction (yes, we\’re still in the Pre-construction phase!!  Talk about major delays, boooo! ).   Now I can relate to people needing boundaries between work and personal life— I\’d like for lots of those please!!   But no complaints. Just feel incredibly spent, and every morning I wake up feeling just as tired as the night before 🙁 My raw food diet helps tons though, so am glad for that. 🙂

Hope you get to do whatever it is that needs doing this week– whether it be for work, family, God or yourself (pwede ba all of the above? hehe).  It\’s a very solemn and powerful time to lift up whatever worries and dreams are in our hearts– let\’s create the space to reconnect and just be still.

🙂

As an aside, here\’s the poster invite to the launch of EstelaShop.com on April 30, Saturday.. Hope to see you there!

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Artist’s workspace at home

Green Design and Architecture

Was taken in by this inviting set-up in My Little Art Place, an art school in Greenhills:

My Little Art Place


Owner Ryan says the purple floor matting is made of thin blue foam, and they just have the covers made.

My Little Art Place

The tables are low and close to the ground to make it easier for kids to draw and paint on them, but even I found the whole set-up so inviting for creative work and conversation!

Yay, more ideas now for my workspace.

🙂

A peek into green Antipolo

Green Communities Green Design and Architecture Sustainable Living

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Enjoyed looking at these lovely Antipolo places with so much heart! \":)\"They\’re from the album, \”This is the Beauty of our Neighborhood\”, by Kristine Garcia, who supplies organic produce via Emporium Antipolo.  Met her at a very successful raw food workshop at Leaf Kitchen last Saturday.

She says:

There are actually three Antipolo destinations shown in these photos: Vieux Chalet, Pinto Garden Museum, & LAYA. Also in this album, we intend to show more places that you ought to check out in Antipolo.

Emporium Antipolo is an organic shop which operates as a homestore: we supply organic food provisions, basic commodities and other local, eco-friendly & healthy stuff.
You can see in the photos above a bunch of green-minded people who are working (together with more green-minded pals) to make Antipolo an Art & Wellness destination.

Seeing pics like these makes me think back to when Antipolo was on my shortlist for where to set up my home…  The south and Tagaytay eventually won over Antipolo for the breezy weather, but wow, now that I\’m seeing lots of young artist-entrepreneurs in the Antipolo neighborhood, I\’m feeling a tinge of regret that I didn\’t give Antipolo a deeper look!  And just look at those mudhouses in Pinto — exactly how i want my home to feel like– alive, organic, free form, with real traces that it was made by people\’s hands… haaaay… \":)\"

Join Kristine in her green adventures through Emporium Antipolo\’s facebook photos, where each album feels like a storybook! I love how she makes going organic so charming–just like her physical workspace below, which also sometimes serves as her daughter Katie\’s playground:

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Made with so much love. 🙂

Moodboard: Living-dining-kitchen

Green Design and Architecture

I am a big fan of the open plan living-dining-kitchen and have been finding ways to really make it work for my small house (footprint is just about 30 square meters!).

Here\’s the first 3D mock up of the ground floor I got from my architect:
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Seeing it in 3D gives a sense of how tight the space really is: the sliding doors are the border of the house; the peach walls are the perimeter fence– that area at the back will be gardened and used as a patio/outdoor room.

There won\’t be dividing walls on the ground floor– I want people to see the garden from the main door. I\’ve asked to flip the layout to have the kitchen and dining in one go, making the space more streamlined:
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Everything is movable (for some reason I\’ve always found rearranging furniture therapeutic), so these areas are likely to flip more in the future, but here\’s the general feel I hope to create for the ground floor:
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I love love love the colors in this hotel lobby sofa:
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I don\’t know how I\’ll get to pull this off, but it will happen, one way or another! 🙂

I also want to allocate an area for painting, as in this studio of Mexican artist, Diego Rivera:
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A small corner would do, but maybe it\’ll have to be in the patio area…

Images are from dwell.com and latimes.com.

Nuvali community–a birthing

Life in Nuvali Philippines
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There\’s an active thread on Nuvali on skyscrapercity.com, which has effectively attracted investors, residents, and practically anyone with a stake in Nuvali (whether current or future).  It\’s a great resource for community building, and also a testament that the Nuvali vision of creating a new city is already unfolding: like-minded people are banding together and participating even before moving into that space.

A recent request was made by doodz (thank you!)  for ideas to be suggested to Ayala management during an FGD, and the response was just overwhelming!  Will consolidate and save them for another post, but suffice it to say that the Nuvali community is ready to engage.  Yay.

It\’s also been quite a joy to feel as if I\’m already making friends with my future neighbors.

What makes a place truly home?

People.

🙂

If you\’re reading this, then it means you are part of Nuvali, whether by chance or choice.  Get involved now:

SkyscraperCity.com Nuvali thread 1
SkyscraperCity.com Nuvali thread 2
Nuvali Community facebook page
Nuvali Community on yahoogroups

Image from photos8.com

Moodboard: Front Porch

Green Design and Architecture

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I wanted the front area of my house to be a spare carport-porch, but was advised this isn\’t practical as my lot is elevated or gradient from the ground to the hip level.

Considering my lot is so small, I want to make every space count. If I don\’t find a way to make this 12-square meter frontage functional (maybe by leveling it), I just have to concede it as a purely cosmetic space. Boo.

For sure I want the front to look clean, though, so no gate, and instead of concrete flooring, I hope it can have horizontal lines of grass and pebbles/concrete for the carport, and just ground cover (possibly mani) for the landscaped area:
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