Inspiration Strikes Again!

I found myself with a bit of time to blog and draw and do calligraphy these days because I am on a holiday break. I got myself inspired from different art and design blogs, but the most recent addition to my bookmark is Alessa Lanot's Life After Breakfast. She's amazing! I learned about her because I have been reading Fozzy's posts for quite some time now, and one afternoon, I was lost in her world of water colour, rubber stamps, typography, vegan food and all sorts of wonderful things that I wish I could do more of. She's only 2 years older than me and she already has her own restaurant and art workshops left and right!

She has so many awesome ideas that I got myself inspired and did some calligraphy and doodling as well. This coming year, I will live more creatively. I will find more time for my band, for the cupcake business, for running and frisbee, for travel and for art. The year ahead is brimming with so much hope and potential, the multitasking year is here, but at the same time, I will still aim for balance. Oh, and the apartment turnover will be in 2013 as well, so I am sooooo excited to get involved with interior design too! Ideas, ideas, ideas! 

Anyway, here's what I came up with last night while I was still high on dark chocolates and inspiration. I used poster paints, sakura 0 paintbrush and J Herbin nibs. :)

A mistake is a product of risk. Taking risks is sometimes alright, so long as we are willing to live with the consequences. With making mistakes, we realize our faults and we discover our strength to carry on and continue with our task. Don't be afraid to make mistakes; instead learn from them.

Ah, positivity is difficult specially when you've had your fair share of trials. But as they all say, happiness is still a choice. Let's focus on the good things in life! There is so much to be thankful for :)

Here's to more creativity, positivity and endless energy for 2013! 

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Sugar Lily Cupcakes

This project reminds me of my band KAZE. It was something that I was ready to jump into without knowing that I was slowly building a dream for it. I was lucky enough to be doing something already even before I realized that it could be something so awesome. It's brimming with potential! My sisters and I each have our own roles to play in this project -- my sister Katrina took on the main and most important role, the baker, while Ate Tetet who was the first to come up with the business idea is our main manager and accountant and I became the designer and promoter.

My mom played a big role in this too. She is the inspiration.

This whole thing started when Ate Inah began bringing homemade desserts for our Sunday Family Dinners. She started with brownies then ventured into making cupcakes later on. The kids especially loved them and so she experimented with different flavors. The idea for branding came up around October, when my eldest sister Tetet, the party planner that she is, asked Ate Inah to bake some cupcakes for Sofia's 7th birthday. The guests loved her cupcake minis with marshmallow frosting and asked where Ate Tetet ordered them. Ate Tetet launched brainstorming sessions and we finally decided to call our project "Sugar Lily". Sugar, because of course the product caters to your sweet cravings, and Lily is the nickname of our mommy (Araceli).

None of us were pink people and we didn't want the brand to be too girly. No offense to those who love pink, but if my sisters and I have a common denominator, we were more feisty than girly. Anyway, we leaned towards turquoise/sky blue and so I made a logo for it. It was the perfect color choice too, because RM Boxes had turquoise boxes readily available in the market and we wanted the logo to somehow match our boxes. I wanted the logo to be simple yet sophisticated and so I searched fonts online and checked out calligraphic borders that I can use. I came up with multiple samples, but decided on the most simple border.



We also decided on our cupcake flavors and the main factors that came into play were 1.) how well Ate Inah perfected the recipe 2.) Which flavors are the most popular today. In short, ano nga ba ang papatok at ano nga ba ang pinakamasarap na gawa ni Ate? So far, we have 5 flavors: Chocolate, Red Velvet, Vanilla, Carrot and Banana chocolate chip. The last one is a personal favorite and also my mom's favorite. Our mom isn't a fan of frosting, and the banana chocolate chip is soooooo good you don't need frosting for it at all. I was also especially fond of my sister's signature rose frosting. It's so pretty I can look at the cupcakes all day. I am used to all the prettiness now, so I am not afraid to sink my teeth into the yuminess. I heard a lot of feedback from friends that they didn't want to eat the cupcakes because they were too pretty! Haha
Facebook was our main medium for promoting our cupcakes, and so I created a page for Sugar Lily. Friends and acquaintances liked the page instantly but I was suprised that a lot of them translated to actual orders! We got orders everyday and because my sisters and I had day jobs (Ate Inah and I were I.T. Professionals, while Ate Tetet is in the Insurance/Life Pension industry) we only work on the cupcakes after office hours. This is what Ate Tetet dubbed as Birth Pains because we would be working on orders till the wee hours of the morning and it wasn't fun sometimes. We developed a certain system and we already logged our orders via excel to keep track of orders! I suddenly realized how hard it is to start a business, but at the same time, I felt so fulfilled knowing that I was working something I could call my own with my family. I am especially proud of Ate Inah, who is so dedicated with her craft. I had other extracurriculars, like the band and sports, while Ate Tetet is a working mom. I am so happy Ate Inah got into baking because it's something that she is absolutely awesome at and it was something that she really loved to do. I call this our project, not a business, because calling it a business makes it sound so official and so serious. We wanna have fun with it and see how far this could take us. But in reality it really is a business, and I am so excited with the many things that my sisters and I could do together. We're no Katherine or Sophia of DC cupcakes, and we're still really very very small. We're babies. But hey, who knows where this could lead to, right?
Planning for 2013 is on the way. My goal for the next quarter is for us to get a bigger mixer and a bigger oven!

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