I have plenty of “those dresses”—gowns, outfits and ensembles that all make my breath catch in my throat—filed away in my mind. More than mere frocks, they’re works of art, and all make me wish I were a seamstress.  After seeing a “That Dress” dress, I sometimes go home and have imaginary conversations with my sewing machine: “Hey old pal, old chum, do you think maybe we can try, you and I, to sew something more than circle skirts and aprons?” (Heehee. Fact is, I can’t even sew a decent zipper!)

I’ve already written a post on That Dress in Atonement, and now adding a new one to the list. This one’s the white number that Julia Flyte (played by Hayley Atwell) sashays in at her coming-out party in Brideshead Revisited, which I saw last Saturday.

Look at all this detail—the chiffon creation has hand-beaded swallows on the bodice! Are you drooling? Because I did. I was trying not to squeal out loud in the theater. (Pics from movie’s official site here.)

Julia Flyte’s character hails from a world of sprawling homes, summers in Italy and aristocratic sensibilities, so it’s no surprise that she has gorgeous outfits like these.

It doesn’t hurt the movie that I already have a fondness for vintage wardrobe. The costume designer is Eimer Ni Mhaoldomhnaigh, who is a genius in my book.

Brideshead is based on the novel by Evelyn Waugh (who I found out is actually a man—Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh!) I was reeling when I came out from the movie, much for the movie itself as for the beautiful sets, scenery and costumes. Go see it! If the chance to explore a study in human behavior in 1920’s England doesn’t convince you to, be shallow like me and go for the pretty dresses and for scenes of the breathtaking Brideshead estate. And oh yes, for Matthew Goode. I loved him in Chasing Liberty. (No snickers! He’s really cute!)

Official website, with even more juicy tidbits on the props and wardrobe, HERE.

Hello cooks, craftsters, eaters and friends!

I’ll be taking a blogging break for about three weeks or so. I know, that’s a long time! But there’s A LOT of batter in my mixing bowl, so to speak, so just let me get through the next weeks, and I’ll be back in two shakes of a lamb’s tail.

In the meantime, I leave you with pictures of birthday cakes I’ve made pre-GWAC (Girl With A Curl). Back then, I kept thinking I needed a place to share these. I now have this blog, and you! Hope these have you (virtually) happily munching away ‘till my next post.

Here we go!

Simeen’s Starburst Cake (Pound Cake With Pink Fondant)

The Story: My friend Simeen is a Starburst candy addict. A peculiar habit of hers is picking out all the pink ones and keeping those for herself; she shares the rest! I thought it would be great to surprise her with big pink cake that looked like an actual pink-wrapped Starburst. This was my first (and so far only) time with fondant. (YES, the fondant was pre-made. Teehee.)

Jen’s Piggy Cake (Traditional White Birthday Cake With Buttercream)

The Story: Jen loves pigs. She is known to harbor a preponderance of porcine bric-a-brac in her apartment. She has a pig wallet. A pig apron.  A pig small vacuum cleaner, even. So fine, she can have a cake shaped like a pig on her birthday, too! This was a basic round cake (Magnolia Bakery’s recipe) and two cupcakes for the ears and nose (ears were two halves of a cupcake). I used different candy to finish off the piggy face. Oink, oink!

Connie’s Birthday Cake (Carrot Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting)

The Story: This was one of the trickiest cakes I’ve had to make, because Connie’s birthday is at the height of summer, and cream cheese frosting melts easily. I remember having to stick this in the fridge a couple of times before it set properly, all the time cursing the heat in the apartment. The baby carrots were made from store-bought (at least I admit it!) marzipan that I tinted orange and shaped by hand. The green “leaves” were from snipped parsley stalks!

Sara’s Birthday Cake (German Chocolate Cake)

The Story: Sometimes, I use covert tactics to find out what my friends’ favorite types of cakes are. I ask them casually months before, and file the answer away so I can surprise them with it on their birthday. I sometimes think they know that I’ll ask, and they pretend to not know why when I do, haha! But for her birthday, my friend Sara came right up to me and said, “Look, let’s not beat around the bush. I would love a German Chocolate Cake on my birthday.” And a German Chocolate Cake, art-directed by my brother and executed by me, was exactly what she got.

Jaxon’s 1st Birthday Cake (Yellow Cake With Buttercream)

The Story: Jaxon is my godchild. I love him. That’s the story! (Waves were made with buttercream through a star tip, figures were from a baking supply store, and sand was crushed Nilla wafers.)

Whew!

The cakes you see above were all first-time attempts, inspired by ideas on the net, from my cookbooks, and the spirit of the people I made them for. (I’ve never been to culinary school, save for a very basic Wilton cake-decorating class.) I hope you enjoyed taking virtual bites of these, and that they inspire your attempts as well.

See you in three weeks, all. Stay curly!

I had to laugh when I read about the movie Namets! (which means “Yum!” in Ilonggo, a Filipino dialect), soon to be debuted at Cinemalaya 2008. The chuckles are because I just wrote a post on a feast in the making for an upcoming all-American holiday. Just as I pictured how my Peach Pie’s crust is going to turn out, the trailer below fed my hungry (and homesick) eyes with images of native pastries lovingly done by hand in Negros, where I grew up. How truly strange and wonderful to be a baker from both worlds.:)

Carla Gomez of the Visayan Daily Star says this of the movie. (Here’s the full article.)

“It’s the most Negrense film that I have ever known.”

That is how Negrense director Jay Abello yesterday described the movie, “Namets!,” that he is currently filming in Negros Occidental.

The main character of the film is the food of Negros Occidental, it is filmed entirely in the province, more than 70 percent of its cast and crew are Negrenses, and the dialog is in Ilonggo, Abello said.

“Namets! is a colorful celebration of food as well as love, and the love of food above all, which is central to being Negrosanon, and being Filipino,” Palanca Award winner Vicente Groyon, who wrote the script, said.

“Every region in the Philippines has a cuisine unique to it, and the island of Negros is no exception. Forget your diet if you’re planning to visit – from piaya to chicken inasal to guapple pie to kinilaw, Negrosanon food is irresistible,” Groyon said.

If any of you catch this, let me know if it’s worth seeing.

Argh. What I wouldn’t give for chicken inasal right about now!

Neither crafty nor cook-y, but definitely all sorts of curly. I just had to post.

I almost died laughing. This made me remember the crazies at the ad agency I used to work for in Manila. Instead of singing, “We just wanna, we just wannaaa…” from Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, they’d belt out “Medyas ni Juana, medyas ni Juanaaaa…”:)

Vi, maybe we should do this. Partners tayo, we can do a tango. Tee hee.

Even though my favorite chef Dale fell by the wayside in the race to become Top Chef, I couldn’t be happier for Stephanie.

I was giggling during last night’s finale because she kept saying, “ My pound cake’s crap,” over and over again, and she had this agitated/frustrated/silently panicked look on her face, one that I recognize because I’ve been in that state myself during baking! I thought to myself: “Oh, that’s not a very attractive expression to wear around the kitchen!” Haha.

Stephanie Izard is the first female Top Chef. The curls did it, I tell you. Curls=kitchen powah.

Congratulations to Stephanie, who I some day hope to meet. Along with Dale, please. Teehee.

I actually liked the bird in her hair.

…of my Curly Universe!

It’s been a little over a week since my last post, eek!

My curls and I have been swamped with many (wonderful) things, hence the absence. But, those post-less days made me nervous and edgy. Is there are term for that in the blogosphere? Post withdrawal? No-post malaise? Post-less anxiety? Teehee.

Since my last post:

1) I became a kid again by sliding down a bouncer with my niece at her fabulous birthday party. (More on the cupcakes I baked and all the fun at this Scooby Doo-themed celeb later!)

2) A new post at work made me rediscover the old-school charm of red China Markers.

3) I’ve gotten new crafty books and am jumping out of my skin to bake and sew from these wonderfully written resources:

4) I undertook the gargantuan task of reorganizing my closet. Took two days, lots of hard decisions about parting with certain things and lots of plastic bins and labels. I can now make full use of my shoes after storing each pair in containers like this.

And patiently labeling each one with the type and color of each pair (i.e. Heels: Blk Strappy; Sneaks: Nvy Stripe and so on) with a labeler like this from Dymo.

A bit much? Teehee, I DO have my curly quirks! (But seriously, I owe my closet’s full functionality to that labeler. Thanks to Ana for lending it to me!)

5) Despite the strange weather, Summer is announcing itself through nature’s colorful telegram: jacarandas in full bloom along our street. I never really liked purple, but these are practically pretty. I want to borrow the colors for a sweet-little-something-sewn.

6) On an un-crafty note, and because Sex And The City opening weekend is just a few days away, I saw Charlotte’s Mr. Harry Goldenblatt (Evan Handler) in Father’s Office in Culver City last Friday! I wanted to say something, but was too shy.

That’s been my week. Looking forward to more posts, blog-hopping, hopefully joining contests, answering memes and everything else possible, just to prevent another bout of post-less anxiety!

Hello again to all, and welcome back to me.