#to:day

[abbeysy]

Worldwide Instameet 10

Last weekend's Worldwide Instameet was definitely something.

I remember posting my first crappy looking Instagram photo (with a Rise filter and a border, what even) two years ago. Clueless of how powerful Instagram was back then, I eventually learned the ropes of good photography and editing (partially thanks to my Advertising course) over the course of time. And I think for the most part, getting Instagram to add me to their list of Suggested Users definitely compelled and inspired me to take my photography seriously.

And I'm glad it's not only me that has a crazy OC attitude with Instagram content - I've met these people at the meet, and it's nice to know how much importance we all take into when it comes to mobile photography.

It was my first time to attend a meet, and it was held at the Pinto Art Museum in Antipolo. Actually, I was a bit hesitant to go but thanks to Aleyn's persuasion, I spontaneously agreed to tag along. 

And I'm glad I did. The place is amazing. The paintings and works of art displayed were breathtakingly beautiful - and one of the artists was there to explain some of the pieces, which was really awesome. The museum-lover and photographer in me was extremely happy.

Except for my awkwardness and introvertedness, it was nice to finally meet some Instagram users and know their real names and see how they shoot in real life. There were quite a lot of attendees, and I wish I could have been more sociable (forever shy, sorry) -- but maybe next time, hopefully.

I am extremely grateful to have spent the day with Jelito, Kay (nice to meet you Kay!) and Aleyn - it wouldn't have been as fun if it weren't for them. Got to catch up with Raniel as well and (finally) meet Karl, who is super talented as well.

Ended our meet with a take-away from The Barista Box: espresso + milk. These students are so passionate with their craft and I am super amazed. The coffee was undeniably A+, too!

I was too excited that I ended up doing my Daykeeper entry about the meet that same night!

Thank you to Purveyr for organizing this meet, and I'm definitely looking forward to more of these in the future. Glad that our Instagram community here in the Philippines is growing!

[chyunz]

You know what's funny? I'm attracted to your flaws instead of your feature. Well that's a bonus.

[abbeysy]

DesignHerStory Pop-Up Bazaar

Funny how the DesignHerStory Pop-Up Bazaar came about. Arriane and I met up a few Sundays ago for the Local Edition shoot, and she was mentioning about the "creative lifestyle bloggers" of our generation - how we never came up with a community or event that would celebrate us bloggers. Let's just say we felt that if the fashion blogger community's been booming over the past years, we figured that our community of creatives should, too - and that's where this event was born.

Two weeks later, we got to coordinate with art and lifestyle bloggers and decided on giving a talk on Creativity and Productivity as well. I admit, the standards were raised when more than 70 people signed up for our 15 slot talk!

Anyway, I wasn't able to take lots of photos because I had to deal with selling but here are some of the highlights last September 14th at the DesignHerStory Bazaar.

photo by Local Edition

The event was at Local Edition, which was perfect because the vibe of the cafe is very neighborly and intimate. Plus points for the A+ coffee as well.

It is also coincidental that I did the chalkboard installation for Purveyr last week. Seeing it mounted is the best feeling ever.

photo by Arriane

My take on the talk geared towards creativity with the concept of "Always Be Creating" (ABC = Abbey Sy, yup, lol). It still amazes me how people are inspired with what I do. I really don't consider myself worthy but I'm very, very honored to be sharing my experiences to others. 

Thank you to our attendees and we hope you learned a thing or two!

The bazaar started right after our talk. Suddenly, so many people!

My booth - I sold a lot of old trinkets, notebooks and pre-loved clothes (I'm so glad most of them got sold!). I also sold my #madebyabc merch. 

And of course, being the art geek I am, I went around and shopped too ~

I super love Jamie's booth! Her talent is amazing.

And I am still fangirling over the fact that Reese & I are now friends. Her work has always inspired me way back when I was still starting out!

The highlight of this event was definitely seeing some of my favorite people! It was nice seeing you Mikka, Jessie and Mansy! And also, hello to my readers - it was so nice to meet you all despite my awkwardness in real life, haha!

Group photo with all the bloggers: Camie, Jamie, Jeline, Arriane, Reese & Maine.

Thank you to the DesignHerStory team for organizing this event! More soon please - I definitely had an A+ Sunday!

[abbeysy]

Share the Love Workshop

Sharing a photodiary of our workshop (which was two weeks ago, wow) with photos ℅ our resident Love, Type photographer Ber, Kawaii Philippines representative for the day (and my fellow Capricorn girl / super good friend) Kaila and Share Movement Managing Director (and our collaborator) Jam. :)

To be honest, I had a hard time plotting this project out (I'm just extremely relieved we are a team working on this) in my schedule because it entailed a lot of meetings, planning sessions and basically all stressful things in one. 

Initially this was planned to be last June (before I left for my trip) but due to time constraints, we decided to push it back to September - which I think was much better because we had more time to prepare and do concrete actions to take this workshop to the next level. 

Our first workshop was okay. I mean it wasn't super successful (I blame the venue for this, mostly, and being very unprepared) but I personally didn't think it was good enough (you know my standards). So we really set the bar high on this one - and to our surprise, 80+ people signed up!

Extra effort this time around as we got to do kits and name tags for our students!

We raffled off goodies too. Thanks to Marvin of Chief Clothing for these shirts!

Cutest addition to our goodie bags were these Keybies from The Keybie Cafe.

Our lootbags were filled with lots of freebies thanks to Hodge Podge, Sunday Paper, Keybie Cafe & Abbey Sy (well, me, lol). 

We started off with Jam talking about how Share Movement started, and how collaborating with others has helped them raise funds for Joseph Feeding Mission.

Then, it was teaching time!

Den & I have been friends since who knows when (actually, the day we were born) so this was pretty easy for us. We taught the students the basics of hand lettering - from types of type, layouting, and other tips and tricks for beginners.

Snacks were served thanks to Heston the Happy Monster's yummy pies.

Our batch this time around was pretty talented. Most of them didn't have to call us and were silently working on their pieces.

(Praise my photogenic arm party-filled right hand, lol)

Teacher duties!

After two hours or so of mentoring, the students did their DIY activity and had a photo op on our wall - which we really spent doing just for photo ops (because!).

Class photo! :) 

The representatives for When in Manila who covered the event - thank you guys for coming!

Many thanks also to Ber & Kaila for helping out! I appreciate it. Support group forever <3

Thank you also to AJ of Sunday Paper for dropping by! It was really nice meeting you and we can't thank you enough for your willingness to collaborate with us.

Share the Love team. Claps for us for pulling this off! 

We were able to donate to Joseph Feeding Mission from the proceeds of our workshop, and we were more than willing to share our blessings for the benefit of others.

This is me on a rare occurrence - signing autographs, lol! Thank you Nicole for the support. I appreciate it. :)

Many thanks also to the TROMS volunteers who willingly extended their hand to help us out that day! We are more than grateful.

I have to say, our second run was so much better and we were so overwhelmed with the feedback (thank you, students!). Thank you very much to our sponsors, media partners and collaborators who were more than willing to help us organize this event for a cause. Here's to more future workshops soon! :)

[abbeysy]

Holiday Happenings

I haven't been properly updating my To:day posts so here's one from yesterday - which I spent working.

Honestly, I am going insane with both my day job and freelance work - this whole freelance thing is freaking me out and testing my patience. A LOT. I cannot even begin to describe my feels.

But being the very go-getter self I am (and for being Type A), here I am trying to get by.

Okay, fine, not completely work. I spent the morning fixing some parts of my space. Someone's shooting here next Monday for a tv segment (there goes another camera shy phase of yours truly) so I have to keep my area clean.

The thing is, though, I tend to keep even the most useless things - but then again, it doesn't seem useless when it becomes something as valuable as, say, Bianca G's coffee treat on our first meeting last Monday!

I will admit I'm no celebrity fangirl but really, getting a message from Bianca a few weeks back for a project is something I never ever saw coming. Either way, what's it about - you'll find out pretty soon. :)

So my desk is polluted with all this mess and sometimes I need to calm down before getting down to the nitty gritty cleaning work (every single day).

Yesterday, I had to work on personal stuff, some side projects, major projects - basically all projects - and plan out the rest of August and September.

I'm going to DIY a huge project calendar and even if I'm short of time, I will *try* to make it look good. I'll show pictures soon once it's up.

Here's one of the projects I worked on yesterday (for LeBunny Bleu). I still have deadlines for other Quirks deliverables as well so I'm d-e-a-d. 

That, and I'm currently coming up with a new line of designs (good news - I'm joining lots of bazaars in the coming months!) so things are going pretty crazy. I'm also collaborating with a few other people (SO EXCITED THOUGH) so yeah, more on that soon.

After all the insanity and arm pain from lettering, I spent 30 minutes lying in bed and doing some leisure reading. This is hearth magazine's lovely back cover.

And I spent the night with my best friends over dinner. <3

Okay, it's not so bad for a holiday. I'd rather stay here at home and work than legitimately go to the office and work (because that utilizes the left side aka the weak part of my brain), haha.

How was your holiday yesterday? Glad to know the long weekend's coming up for us Filipinos! Have an awesome one. :)

Abbey

[abbeysy]

Hey Kessy Craft Gathering // August 17, 2014 Brought my sister along last Sunday’s craft workshop at the Hey Kessy studio! I was super in a wreck last weekend because of deadlines and this was definitely a fun way to unwind and cap the weekend off. We painted on clay plates and had a swap with fellow crafters! It was also great to finally meet some of the people I follow on Instagram, haha. Congrats to Mansy for finally opening a physical Hey Kessy store! I super love the shop interiors and the new items they carry aside from washi tapes (they have mod podge, chalk pens and much more!) plus the studio inside makes me want to hold workshops there - soon. :) I posted a project before and one of them is actually for a collab I’m doing with Hey Kessy (can you guess?) so more on that soon! Hope everyone’s having a great midweek - and yay for tomorrow’s holiday break (in Manila)! :)

[abbeysy]

Lettering in LeBunny Bleu

Teaching has always been something I dreamed of doing ever since my passion for lettering escalated so much over the past year. I have always wanted to somehow give back to people by sharing what I know to others.

I've taught in alternative classes, organized a workshop with friends, and recently, I was more than humbled to hold a special lettering class for LeBunny Bleu, a worldwide shoe brand catering to stylish young girls. 

The fun catch here is that you have to be in LeBunny Bleu shoes to be a part of the workshop (aside from reserving a slot). Everyone was wearing really cute shoes!

I started briefing the students about the super basic things they need to know about lettering. I honestly had no background (I was self-taught) so I made it easier for them by coming up with a concrete and informative lesson plan and guide to accompany them while they practice their work.

The students were really good for beginners, considering some of them just started to letter that day!

Ate Maria is the one doing lettering for store announcements, and I'm glad she also picked up some tips from the workshop! :-)

I always like to give a final project (so teacher of me to lol) and for this, we came up with various lettering styles with quotes involving shoes and fashion.

Class picture with the participants. Such a fun experience teaching these girls!

I owe so much to my bosses (who also manage Quirks!) for giving me opportunities like these. Thank you, Michelle & Zerline for trusting me to conduct this workshop for LeBunny Bleu! :)

Students with their lovely typography pieces!

It was sort of a mini meet-up as well 'cause some of the students are readers of my blog! Always fun to get to interact with my readers. :-)

There might be a part two to this when I return from my trip but hopefully we'll get to update you guys! Here's to maximizing my *knowledge* while I still can, lol.

I'm having 2 workshops this September and hopefully a few more before the year ends, so I'll let you guys in on that soon. :)

[abbeysy]

Wanderland 2014

Photo diary from last weekend at Wanderland Music Festival, aka one of the best events that has happened this year so far. :-)

I didn't really intend to go to Wanderland this year (I've always wanted to though) but I was fortunate enough to have gotten the opportunity to (thanks to this) so why not? I knew a bit of the musicians performing (Royal Concept is my fave from the lineup of artists) and did some research (ahem Spotify playlist) prior plus I know how ~hipster~ music festivals like these are (a la Coachella), so it was really going to be an exciting day.

Finally reunited with the art buddies! <3

I think I spent the first two hours taking pictures for Instagram while the sun was still up, lol. Super loved the chill vibes of the place.

With the college best friend/clingy friend, Erika <3

Hipster-ing with the manager lol (almost got into a driving accident before heading to Wanderland so super thanks to this guy for helping me avoid it whew)

So proud of my talented friend Ber for being one of the official Wanderland photographers! <3

I met Marian - finally (after 4 years)! She's one of my first few Tumblr friends (along with Mary) so it's really nice to finally meet her in person. <3

AdCreate friends :-)

Live art by some of the best local artists

One of the signages I did for the event. Sadly, only a few were used from the ones we made. :-( Nevertheless, painting it was quite a fun experience!

Feelings explosion when The Paper Kites played Bloom. <3

With Mare (of Shutter Panda Photography) and Mary (who coded my blog)! :-)

Side note: Got to meet The Drums too! First in line with my friends. #perks

Self-imposed fangirl duties with these people when The Royal Concept performed their set. <3

I wasn't able to finish The Drums but we got to hear a bit of their set. This is so weird of me but I would rather set aside time to separate from a huge crowd (introvert much) to hang out and talk - which is why I spent most of the night chilling at the back area where it was peaceful and crowd-free. It was nice. I definitely missed a lot of people and catching up is always a good thing. 

So much love for amazing music, good vibes and the best company. I'm still on the "moving on" phase because nights like these are definitely one for the books - also because people like me suffer from post concert depression a lot, lol. It was definitely a Saturday well spent. <3