Little K's 恭喜发财!

Big Little K: Woow! I want one, too! Brella!

That's "Gong Hei Fatt Choi", if you don't read script like that. Like me :P Course, google makes me look smart with those Cantonese text. It means  we wish you prosperity and happiness. Quite a popular Chinese New Year greeting.



Ni hao! Ola! Aloha! Como estas!
Filipino: Mwah mwah tsup tsup!


It's that time of the year again where tikoys and moon cakes and feng shui ornaments are all about ...except in our house, it seems. I saw a mooncake tin container, but no mooncake inside. Scoured the fridge for tikoy, cooked or raw, and nada. And as for feng shui- well, our house is so jampacked with clutter, I doubt there's a square foot free to fengshuize. Yes, it's a word. My blog, my rules. I'm badass!

I know a lot of Pinoy families follow some of these Chinese tradition, I grew up in one.  Most families do it because it's what everyone else does. Their bandwagoning it (do you really wanna get started on this again? Good.). Some do it for luck because apparently, mooncake means more money - MMMM, teehee! Sorry, elementary moment :P - and Tikoy means family togetherness. Now, I didn't just make this up. I actually asked a panel of intellectuals <cough, barkada, cough>, Tsinoys to Pinoys, and that's the general consensus.



She got a bit conscious of the camera, but still adorbs!

Mooncake is 'mahal', or expensive. How so? Well, expense is relative to a person's wallet, but let's put it this way- your everyday japanese hopia is but P10.00 a piece or less. The diced hopia, probably half that price. Freshly baked ones are at P4.00-P7.00. Have you had freshly made diced hopia? Oh. Dear. Lord. They're heavenly! Swoon worthy little nuggets! Unlike commercially packaged ones from the grocer, the fresh ones make my knees buckle with just a whiff! And to take a sumptuous bite into that warm, soft, sweet little goody- ooomph! It's part of my ambrosia list, actually. If that wasn't obvious enough. Wait, what was I saying again? Yeah, moon cake = expensive. It's at least 10x a flaky japanese hopia and 20x (or more) the diced hopia. Ranging from P100.00 to P500.00, it's definitely not something your average Juan would munch on just for fun. I guess the premise behind the idea that it's eaten for a more prosperous year is that if you can afford mooncake today, hopefully you could afford to have that cake every day.

Tikoy, according to my panel, symbolizes solidarity, harmony, togetherness, and all that rainbow crap lovely things, for the most obvious reason- it's sticky. I therefore conclude that tikoy can help our stick together. Case closed. Now, don't laugh, but this actually makes sense! Doesn't it?

I wouldn't be doubting it at all, except my UncleT told me that it's actually the DUMPLING that symbolizes both wealth and harmony. This is a fact, you can google it. Those crescent shapes dumplings are a staple at Chinese New Year meals for those who are, well, Chinese. My UncleT is. And they make the dumplings as a family, all from scratch. Even the wrap. One side can be seared before serving, and they're mighty yummy!

So after that revelation, I started wondering what the mooncake and the tikoy really symbolize. Enter Wiki!



Not so fast!!!

Tikoy actually represents a better year ahead for you. It has nothing to do with the cake's stickiness, but only with how it's enunciated in its local tongue. How vain! LOL! Moon cake, on the other hand, represents longevity and harmony. The price have got nothing to do with it. :)

I can't believe I fell for the sticky tikoy bit all my life. I really thought the stickiness would rub through the family bonds haha! And we've been having tikoy since I was a babe!

 My Gramps, bless his soul, was Chinese. Even after he died, we always had tikoy this time of year, and moon cake, and, ok still NO to the feng shui part.

We burned fake Chinese money during All Soul's Day. We offered fruits to those who have passed. We DID all those, but the tradition seemed to have fizzled out somewhere between the invention of the iPhone and the obsoletion (now that's actually a  word! MerriamW would approve!) of VHS and cassette tapes. Wonder why?





Loving the props a BIT too much there, babe

Well, despite the absence of sticky sweet things, I still want to commemorate the Chinese New Year- and how else but through the Little K! (I will cry when the day comes that she stomps a little foot down and refuse to let me dress her up in silly little costumes!)

We have very poor indoor lighting at home, and no window big enough to let sufficient natural light in. Hence, I've taken a liking to doing the mini shoots outside. I'm no professional, and I don't even count as an amateur. I havent taken any bit of photography lessons, and know nothing about light temperatures and ISOs and all those gibberish. But I DO know that photos I take outside are 10 times clearer than those I take indoors.




It's a LOL moment, but darn that wind for ruining the shoot :)

<<-The problem with shooting outside is that you can't control the environment. Sure, I can drape a white background along the clothesline, but I can't tell the wind to stop swinging it around (or in this case, cause it to fall down midshoot. See photo <- ). And the sun MOVES! Who'd have thunk? I've developed a deeper appreciation for outdoor photographers since that realization.

I'd setup the white background in the morning, and as I'm prepping the Little K for the shoot, of course she chooses that time to go all cranky and whiny. Can't take pictures, then. After a couple of hours, and maybe a quick nap, she's ready to get her photos taken- but the sun has moved. And the place where I first set up the background is now blotched with random shadows from the trees.  Fail! I have 5 minutes to move it to a better location, lest the Little K becomes bored and everything goes South again. Still with me? If you're a mom, this kind of scenario's an everyday thing.




Photo edit + half asleep Kariz = NO GOOD!

Taking photos isn't an easy thing for me. Taking photos of a toddler is #$%^! But I do it because I love it, and suprisingly enough, I usually end up with one or two decent shots that other people appreciate as well :) Do note that this couple of lucky shots are probably one in fifty, and go through obsessive photoshopping on my part.





Sometimes, I find myself burning the midnight oil cleaning up photos from our home shoots. It shows in the photo is if my eyes were barely open  editing because I can't tell red from yellow anymore. I guess that's kinda like drunk driving, I wouldn't know. I don't drink, and I don't drive. So  that's MY version of drunk driving.  If you can get pass that, here are some of Kapot's Chinese New Year shoot. Hope you like 'em!



Water Snake, send me good vibes throughout the year, k?

PS: The photos can be misleading, we are certainly NOT without outtakes. In this shoot, the background actually collapsed on the Little K and the cat. She probably thought we were playing 'tent' LOL.

PPS: No children or animals were harmed during the shoot. The background DID fall, but it was light and was immediately pulled up by the Wowa.

PPPS: I'm not making light of drunk driving. I certainly don't approve of it.