Design Folder

Dutch Design Week is the kind of event that makes you go all home TV shopping and say... "But wait! There's more! It's an inexhaustible treasure trove of inspiration, and it was hard to select just a few things to blog about for the posts that I did here and on MangoJuiced.

That's why when the kind folks at Design Folder invited me to blog a couple of guest posts on DDW, I couldn't pass up the opportunity. In this week's guest post, I focused on home furnishings and lighting that are great examples of the Dutch knack for curiosity, simplicity and playfulness in design.

Check out my roundup of home furnishings and lighting from DDW at Design Folder, and be sure to check back for another post from me soon!

Design Folder is all about design—from the latest in architecture and interior design to the trendiest furniture and interior accessories. 

Design Folder is a Manila-based website dedicated to sharing design ideas and inspirations through its different sections such as Space Matters (interior design and architecture), Conscious Living (green design), Spacelift (makeovers), Design Speak (styles and themes), Design Trail (travel), DIY (design-it-yourself) and more. Every post is geared towards helping readers spruce up their lives by improving their own little space. 

Friday night in Istanbul

Every city has an iconic avenue, a vital artery through which the lifeblood of the city flows. Paris has its Champs Elysees, Barcelona its Las Ramblas, and Singapore its Orchard Road. What Istanbul has, is Istiklal Caddesi. 

That's precisely where Marlon and I found ourselves on our first evening in Istanbul. We were far too tired to do much more than take an evening stroll, after getting up at 3am to leave Cappadocia and traveling the entire morning. On our way there, dozens of Turkish flags hung up for the Victory Day national holiday waved us on. 

You know things are about to get interesting when you see public art like this, at the south end of Istiklal Caddesi just minutes from our apartment. 

We hit the first bend in the road with a slight downward slope. Looking down at Istiklal Caddesi from that gentle hill, two things immediately came to mind. "Madness!" was the first. What followed next, I had no words for at the time. But now I know what it was: it felt like home. And this shows you why.

Cat country

Upon our arrival in Istanbul, Marlon and I were both delighted and relieved to find not only a lovely apartment in a fantastic location, but the cutest, most endearing welcoming committee ever. Say hello to Georgie and Bavaria!

Georgie and Bavaria belong to Suzan, our fantastic Airbnb host in Istanbul. My personal theory is that cats are an indicator of a great apartment and a thoughtful host; I was definitely right this time.

Black-and-motley Georgie was the most affectionate cat ever, purring and cozying up to us literally from the moment we walked in the door. (Note: hire her to give Rogue some coaching.) She even climbed into bed for a cuddle on our last morning... just like Rogue would if we were at home! As you can see, she had lots of bonding moments with Marlon. Bavaria was more reticent, but being deaf and very old, that was easy to forgive.

Turkey is cat country. There are big, beautiful, fluffy cats everywhere—the type that would be pet store material in Manila. Being the crazy cat lady that I am, I couldn't resist snapping pictures of the cats I saw. Coo over the cuteness, after the jump!

MangoJuiced: Getting gezellig

G-E-Z-E-L-L-I-G. When I first arrived last January, I had no idea what it was but heard it all the time. Now, almost one year later, I completely understand.

So, what on earth is gezellig? And why is it the one thing you absolutely must have to survive a cold Dutch winter? Find out in this week's post on MangoJuiced!

MangoJuiced is a webzine for anything and everything that interests women—from fashion and family, to pop culture and beauty, to travel and lifestyle. Follow MangoJuiced on Twitter and Facebook... and don't forget to check back in for a new post from me every week!

Welkom Sinterklaas!

Santa who? In the Netherlands, this season is all about Sinterklaas. Forget December 25th. Here, the day for gift-giving is the 5th of December, because that's when Sinterklaas—Sint Nikolaas, or Saint Nicholas—comes to bring gifts to good children. 

In mid-November, Sinterklaas arrives in town via steamboat from Spain (!) and is welcomed with a huge parade. Public transport in the center of Amsterdam shuts down as what seems like every child in Amsterdam (and their parents) flock to the streets to welcome their beloved Sinterklaas. 

Tradition dictates that on the evening of Sinterklaas' arrival, children must put a shoe in front of the fireplace with a carrot or hay as a treat for Sinterklaas' white horse. The next morning, they'll find a present in their shoes from Sinterklaas.

Here comes the man himself... after the jump!

Just a girl

Now that I'm done with Cappadocia, I can move on to blogging about Istanbul! But before that, I thought I'd take a breather to put up the fashion illustration I finished last week in watercolor class.

Penny has been pushing me to let to go of my nitty-gritty details and learn a faster, looser style that uses more brushwork than drawing. One of the ways to do that is to copy a work done in that style. I chose this piece to study because I've always been interested in fashion illustration, and I was getting a little bored with landscapes.

I had lots of fun with this girl, and she taught me a lot! I learned simply by looking at this piece and analyzing how it's done (how the colors are mixed and how layers are built up), before attempting it myself. She didn't take too much time at all, and I felt very relaxed and free painting her. I'm looking forward to doing more of her kind, and applying the style to my own original illustrations. 

A taste of Turkey

My past experience of Turkish food in the past can be summed up in three words: fast, greasy and cheap. In Cappadocia, I became reacquainted with this cuisine in what was a long-overdue "proper" introduction. It turns out that whatever version of Turkish cuisine has made it out of the country and become ubiquitous around Europe are but pale fast-food shadows of the real thing.

Care for a sampling? Let's eat!

Top row: At Cafe Safak in the center of Goreme, the owner Ali's mother makes a competition-winning lentil soup (warm, hearty and cheap!); a refreshing cucumber, tomato and onion side salad; pide, Turkish-style pizza with cheese and sausage. Bottom row: "Pottery" kebap, a meat stew (your choice beef, chicken or lamb) slow-cooked in a terracotta pot that's broken at the table; chicken kebap fresh from the pot, served with rice; tangy pickled beet slaw; local red wine from Cappadocia.

The Turkish are a people after my own heart. They love their sweets and so do I! Thanks to the Turkish sweet tooth, meals always ended with a variety of delectable pastries. I chose to wash mine down with the omnipresent çay, or Turkish tea, while Marlon opted for very strong (too strong for me!), almost mud-thick Turkish coffee.

Top row: Sweet and chewy borek, a layered and baked (or fried) phyllo pastry that seems to be the Turkish national snack (it's everywhere!), best with a glass of warm Turkish tea. Bottom row: Marlon enjoying his manly coffee with delicate bites of baklava.

I thought it was going to be easy to stick to my low/no-carb diet while in Turkey. ("They eat a lot of kebabs right? Grilled meat? I should be fine!") As you can see, I was way off the mark... but quite happy to be wrong!

Panoramas, peaks and pigeon poop

On our last day in Cappadocia, Marlon and I signed up for a day tour through our hotel. The tours are pretty standard (with a standard color-code system) throughout all the various tour agencies in Goreme. We opted for one that would take us to sites that were further from Goreme and would thus require the use of a car.

Our first stop was a nearby lookout point with a beautiful panorama of Goreme. Remember the flat-top mountain in the distance from our hot-air balloon ride?

Then we drove about thirty minutes to the ancient underground city of Derinkuyu. Built in the 8th century B.C. and enlarged in the Byzantine era, Derinkuyu was an underground refuge where entire towns, complete with their livestock and possessions, could weather enemy invasions. Though its series of chambers, tunnels and stairs extend eleven stories into the ground, only 10 percent of it is accessible to the public today.

Confession time: I'm claustrophobic. I braved the first room on the first level, but after attempting to walk further in I knew I couldn't handle it. So I stepped out and decreed Marlon our official representative and photographer.

We worked up our appetites for lunch with a hike through the truly stunning Ihlara Valley. A 16-km gorge cut deep into the mountainous landscape, we hiked only about a fourth of the way through it (4km, which took about an hour to an hour and a half). Four kilometers was not too bad at all. Remember, I like hiking now!



Hike along with me, after the jump!

See it, do it

I just found a collage that I made at the beginning of spring, when I first started getting back into my creative groove. I was done with it, but not quite.. until I saw these tiny hot air balloons in a magazine ad and decided to toss them into the mix at the very last minute.

Six months later...

Coincidence? Or is it just what happens when you put something out into the universe? You tell me. I'm just glad it worked out this way. As R. Kelly sings: "If I can see it, then I can do it!"

Take a hike

As a leisure activity, hiking has never appealed to me. For one thing, as I've said before, I'm not the biggest fan of walking. Also, Southeast Asia (particularly the Philippines) is not the easiest place to go traipsing into the wild. It's always too hot, humid and sticky, mosquitoes and insects abound, and then there's things like the NPA (which is the kind of thing parents warn you about on a field trip to Mount Makiling.)

My impression is that hiking is a rather dreary activity. What's so fun about trudging on and on for hours? Why would anyone want to walk that much? 

After a sunset hike through the stunning scenery of Cappadocia, I now know why.

How Cappadocia converted me, after the jump:

MangoJuiced!

I'm happy to announce that I'm now blogging at MangoJuiced.com!

Thanks to my ex-colleague-turned blogfriend Iggy of Plus Size Fasyon Mudra, who also blogs for MangoJuiced, for hooking me up with Yayie Esguerra-Co of the MangoJuiced team. Iggy's fashion posts are always fun, so be sure to check them out too!

For my first post at MangoJuiced, I put together my favorite finds from Dutch Design Week (yes, there's more!) in a fun little multiple-choice quiz. I like to think of it as a virtual shopping trip through Dutch Design Week.

Like the idea of shopping without spending? Then pop on over to MangoJuiced for the full post... and have fun!

MangoJuiced is a webzine for anything and everything that interests women—from fashion and family, to pop culture and beauty, to travel and lifestyle. Follow MangoJuiced on Twitter and Facebook... and don't forget to check back in for a new post from me every week!

Sanctuary

After catching up on sleep post-balloon flight, Marlon and I took a ten-minute walk out of Goreme town proper to see the Goreme Open-Air Museum, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

I'm not the biggest fan of walking, but there is a lot to see along the way, from spiky alien foliage to the cutest little tag-along pups to camel rides (and the quirky signs advertising them).



The open-air museum is a sprawling monastery complex built by early Orthodox Christians between the 8th and 12th centuries.

Exploring the site takes about three hours at a leisurely pace. You can't exactly speed through it since there is a lot of uphill walking and climbing involved.



Like most everything in Cappadocia, these churches, refectories and monasteries were hewn out of rock, taking advantage of the natural shelter afforded by these caves.

It's not just the raw beauty of these rock formations that makes this place a treasure...



 ... but also how they represent a rare successful collaboration between man and Mother Nature. These caves have served as natural vaults for the paintings and decorations made by the early Christian monks, keeping them safe for centuries. (Given the region's bloody and tumultuous history, I'd say they did a pretty good job.)

Inside these rock walls is a truly special site: the Dark Church. For an extra 8 TL (which is well worth it), the stunning frescoes within (some damaged, many still vivid) take you back to what it was like to be a Christian in the 12th century. No photos are allowed inside so this is as far as I can take you.

For a Catholic like myself, the experience was like stepping into an alternate universe (or have I been watching too much Fringe?), a could-have-been. Though we share the same central figures and events as the Orthodox Church, I noticed that the frescoes placed heavy emphasis on saints we barely know—St. Basil and St. George are two of the most important ones.

It made me wonder what history would have been like if the two churches had never parted ways. What would I believe today? Would it have been better for all of us? I guess we'll never really know; the beauty of a place like Goreme is that it helps us imagine, ask, and wonder.

Yabadabadoo!

Walking around the town of Goreme, I noticed that the Flintstones were a pretty common reference. There were Flintstones cafes, Flintstones hostels, even a Flintstones handicraft workshop.

It's not without good reason. Cappadocia is famous for the cave homes that have been built into its otherworldly landscape. I have a friend who is notorious for having blurted out, while driving along the potholed roads of Kamuning, Quezon City: "Where are we? Are we on the moon or something?" A town like Goreme is the perfect place to ask such a question.

Residents of Goreme, and similar towns in Cappadocia, are real-life Flintstones—they've turned caves into homes. And with the tourism boom, many of those homes have been converted into hotels.

A cave hotel is the place to stay in Cappadocia. Unless your life is an adventure novel (hello, Hunger Games), how many times in your life will you ever have the chance to sleep in a cave?

Come into our cozy cave dwelling, after the jump!

Up, up and away

I knew Marlon and I were going to arrive in Goreme past midnight. I also knew that we would have to be picked up at the hotel before dawn. So I knew there was more than a slight chance that I would look back at my 30th birthday pictures and think that I looked like the biggest living eyebag that ever walked this earth. But I knew, more than anything, that I wanted this to be the first thing I did upon turning 30.

So I went for it. My first hot-air balloon flight! And because there are times when even pictures are not enough, I made a video so you could all come along for the ride.

I was stumped for a soundtrack until my wonderful friend Jeline sent me a link to "One Day Like This" by Elbow. It's awesome to have friends who have great taste in music. Thanks Jeliney!

Oh, and I think it's so cool that the date of my 30th birthday is printed right on my flight certificate.

Some notes on the flight after the jump:

Suspense

It's way past time I started blogging about my trip to Turkey. Yesterday I started drafting a post about the very first thing I did on my 30th birthday, which also happened to be my very first morning in Turkey. But I realized it was just not working as a blog post: too many words and too many photos.

So I'm working on something a little more special for the blog. In the meantime, I leave you with a hint of suspense. 

Marlon and I arrived in Goreme, in the central Anatolian region of Cappadocia, at midnight. It took a flight from Istanbul and an hour-long road trip in near pitch-darkness. And when we got there, this was all we could see from the doorstep of our hotel room. Spooky.

Ano ang nasa dakong paroon? Like we did, you'll have to wait till the next morning to find out. 

A (birthday) gift that keeps on giving

My wonderful husband has once again proved that he knows me so well. How? By getting me a birthday gift that I absolutely love.

Want to know what Marlon's gift was? I'll give you three clues. These three pictures all have something to do with it.

Any guesses? See if you're right after the jump!

When graduates create

Another event I didn't want to miss at Dutch Design Week was the graduation show by the students of the Design Academy Eindhoven. At the entrance, each visitor was given a yellow arrow sticker and invited to vote for their favorite design by placing the sticker on a voting wall at the end of the exhibit.

With so many creative ideas on display, choosing a favorite was tough! Plus I dropped my sticker, so Marlon and I only had one vote between the two of us. Still, even having two stickers to vote with would not have made the choice much easier. 

Now, if I had five stickers, that would be have been so much easier. So I'll just pretend I had five stickers, and award them to my five favorite projects right here on my blog. Problem solved! 

Check them out after the jump:

Dutch Design Week

It was one year ago when the possibility of moving to the Netherlands finally became real for Marlon and myself. I distinctly remember that it was Dutch Design Week (DDW) then. Back then, I was giddy at the prospect of simply being able to attend DDW and surround myself with so much creativity. Marlon calls this event one of the deal sweeteners that helped us decide to go for it. To think we're not even in the design industry!

So even if we were going to be out of town for most of the week, it was important not to miss it entirely. Thus an entire Sunday was devoted to trekking south to Eindhoven, the home of Dutch Design Week.

It's hard to capture such a huge experience in one blog post. But I thought hard about the five things that stood out the most about my visit to DDW. And here they are, in no particular order, after the jump: