Finding Inspirations: New Potted Plant and Frankie Magazine

Nature is one of the best sources of inspiration. I absolutely love gardens, flowers, and different kinds of plants. I've grown up in a house that's surrounded by fruit bearing trees, flowering shrubs and beautiful orchids. Being around nature brings me peace and ideas.

In an attempt to make my work area more 'nature inspired', I bought a little potted plant from a local mall. The store claimed that it's a self-sustaining hydro culture plant and that its a cleaner, safer and better alternative to traditional soil-based indoor plants.

It's quite pretty. The plant came with a pink ceramic pot that blends well with my study table. The plant itself is quite tiny. It's hardly bigger than my table top calendar. It needs to be watered just twice a week. The instructions say that I only need to put 2 tablespoons of water. The special water-absorbent pebbles keeps the plant alive and keeps it pest free. What a wonderful and stress free way to take care of a plant! I'm thinking of buying two or three more to put around my room.

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Magazines are a huge source of inspiration for me. I'm an artist by heart and by career choice. As such, I need a steady supply of inspiration inducing materials around me. Most of the magazines that I collect are published in Japan. But these were brought from Australia, Singapore, online stores and even from some local stores.

Even if a lot of the magazines that I own are written and published in Japan, I still do have a one or two that are in English. One of the magazines that I really love is called FRANKIE.

Frankie Magazine is an Australian based publication that tackles design, art, photography, fashion, travel, music and crafts. It's a really pretty magazine that is filled with a lot of pretty pictures and interesting stories. 

Frankie is really different from the magazines that are sold here in my country. It's more artsy and, if I dare say, a bit more tongue and cheek. The pages are filled with wonderful commentary, beautiful artworks and even some recommendations to where to buy vintage and hand made clothes or crafts.

What I love about Frankie the most are the wonderful pictures. I love how the pictures are composed and stylized. I love the feel of the magazine. The magazine itself gives off a vintage yet modern aesthetic. With its clear cut layout and zen like photos, Frankie Magazine makes me think of care free summer days spent taking pictures with a camera. 

If you can buy Frankie Magazine at your local bookstore, please do so. Its a wonderful publication and I hope that it can inspire others as much as it inspired me. 

Journal Writing and New Acquisitions

I've always loved writing on journals. There is just something therapeutic about unleashing my thoughts on a piece of paper. I started journal writing when I was in grade school. I can't remember who gave me my first journal but all I know is that I wrote on it everyday. I would write about what happened to me during school days, about my achievements and my failures. I wrote about my crushes; fictional and non-fictional. I wrote about how I wanted to punch the people who bullied me back then.

I have gone through about six journals all in all. Every one of them are kept safely in my desk. Sometimes I would read them just for laughs. Journals really do show how much a person changes through the years. I do think that I have changed for the better, although there's still a big room for improvement.

The last journal that I had used was bought two years ago when I visited my sister in Australia. I bought it at the Melbourne Airport just before I left the country. Its funny how fast time flies. Now that notebook's pages are filled with my scribbles and personal musings and it was time to buy a new one to replace the old.

I bought this notebook because I thought that it was so pretty. Pink is obviously my favorite color so its no secret as to why I loved the over all design. The pages inside were also designed with cute drawings of cats, teacups and flowers. Just perfect.

Isn't it cute?

The size of the notebook is about 5 x 7 inches. Its just the right size since I always carry a journal around in my bag. I usually write on it before I start the day or before I start on a project at work. Writing helps me to flush out all the thoughts in my head and even helps me to plan out what to post in this blog.

Speaking of blogging. I also bought something helpful yesterday.

I bought a digital camera.

I already own a NIKON D40x Digital SLR camera but I needed a smaller, more portable option to help me take pictures. My DSLR, which I had aptly named as Nori (Yes, my camera has a name. All my things have names), is such a pain to lug around even if takes fantastic pictures. I usually commute around Metro Manila so I can't bring Nori with me. Not only that, its really dangerous to bring out a big expensive camera out in the open and I'd rather not attract any attention. The only time I can use Nori is when I'm travelling in a car and I can only do that during weekends.

My new camera is just a simple point and shoot. Nothing too fancy. It's small enough to fit into a pant pocket and is really quite easy to carry around. Its a Nikon Coolpix S2500. Guess why I love this camera...

Meet Creampuff, my new Digicam!

It's pink! And it takes clear pictures.

I totally fell in love. It was also priced reasonably. I bought it only for 4,500 php. Quite a bargain if you think about it. Here are some sample pictures. I took these photos just this morning when I was on my way to the office.

Someone gave some cupcakes at my work place and it looked to cute that I just had to take a picture. And yes, it tasted as good as it looked. Yum, yum!

So that's it for now. Bye!