ManikaManila Tiangge 2013 + People's Choice Award!

So after 10 million years, I finally have a proper blog post! XD

Last October 26, ManikaManila held its annual Tiangge (which means "bazaar" in Filipino). It's not quite a convention yet, but we're getting there! This year, the event was sponsored by popular BJD clothing brand, Doll Hearts!

Me and some of my closest friends in the hobby were among the concessionaires. I sold mostly doll accessories like scarves, necklaces, headbands and books. The books were a hit! I managed to make a good profit, which was awesome, but what was even more awesome was that I won People's Choice for the Photography Contest! YAY!

Check out that fabulous logo and website by the equally fabulous Nix!

People's Choice Award, awwyis! Miette and her friends definitely worked their magic. 8D

Me and my booth. It's a littly messy, but homey! I was going for the shabby chic look. ^^

The event was intimate, but it's showing a lot of promise. The Philippine BJD community sure is growing fast. 8D I'm super proud of my community. Great job guys! For more photos of the event, click on ahead.

WARNING: IMAGE HEAVY POST AHEAD!

A Doll Raffle for the Victims of Super Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan

Last week, the strongest typhoon to ever hit landfall came here in the Philippines and devastated the Visayas region, leaving so much death and destruction in its wake. For a clearer picture of what happened, you can go here and see for yourself.

This strikes close to my heart since I have relatives living very near the places that were severely affected by the typhoon, but thankfully they are all safe and doing okay. I'm really grateful that my friend Trisha has started a fundraiser in the form of a doll raffle to help the victims.

Taken directly from Trisha's blog:

A DOLL RAFFLE FOR THE VICTIMS OF TYPHOON YOLANDA

Typhoon Yolanda, the world’s strongest tropical cyclone to ever hit land, made landfall in the Philippines early last Friday, November 8 2013. The super typhoon with the international name Haiyan has left an unspeakable amount of devastation in its wake. The most recent news from the Department of Social Welfare and Development estimates a total of 9.5 million people affected by the typhoon, either by loss of property, livelihood, or loved ones, a number of the country’s poorest provinces ravaged directly by the typhoon.

My name is Trisha Descallar, and I am a BJD owner and enthusiast based in Manila, Philippines. My part of the country was not too terribly affected by the typhoon, but I am still, nonetheless, affected by the plight of my countrymen in Eastern Visayas.

In 2011, Typhoon Sendong hit my country, dumping one month’s worth of rain in just one night on Northern Mindanao. I was already very active in my local BJD community then, and decided to go out on a limb and combine my hobby and my desire to help in order to raise funds for relief operations. Utilizing the power of my friends and social media, that little endeavor of mine managed to raise $332 or P14,445, which was promptly turned over to Simbahan Lingkod ng Bayan, a Jesuit organization based in my school, the Ateneo de Manila University.

Now, it is 2013, and I would like to once again appeal to the generosity of my friends in the doll hobby.

DONATE TO TYPHOON YOLANDA RELIEF OPERATIONS AND GET THE CHANCE TO WIN EITHER A MYSTIC KIDS 1/4 BJD OR A LUTS TINY DELF OF YOUR CHOICE!!!
Mechanics:

0. This raffle is open internationally. The mechanics in this post are for international users. Users from the Philippines, please click here.

1. Each donation of USD 10 (ten American dollars) is the equivalent of one (1) raffle entry. There is no limit to the amount of raffle entries you can earn, so the more you give, the more chances you get of winning.

2. Make your donation directly to the Philippine Red Cross via Paypal only. Their Paypal donation page can be found here.

3. Send a screenshot of your Paypal donation receipt along with the confirmation number to trisha.descallar@yahoo.com, along with the following details:

Email Subject: DOLL RAFFLE DONATION INTERNATIONAL - [LAST NAME, FIRST NAME] 

Full Name:
Facebook URL: (write N/A if not applicable)
Tumblr URL: (write N/A if not applicable)
Shipping Address:
Cellphone Number:
Email Address:
Paypal Address:
Confirmation #: (for Paypal donations only)
Total Donation in US Dollar:
Doll of Choice:

This step is crucial for your entry to be acknowledged.
4. I will reply to your email to acknowledge your entry/ies, and assign you a raffle number. This number will be based on the chronological receipt of your message as it appears in my inbox. All entries will be replied to and acknowledged.

5. The accepting of raffle entries will close on December 13 2013, Friday, 11:59pm. Any entries received after this time will not be counted for the raffle draw.

5a. The aforementioned time is based on the Philippine timezone. Please see here for details and do the necessary conversion.

6. A winner will be selected via random.org. The winner will be posted here on this blog on or before December 15 2013, Sunday.

6a. The aforementioned time is based on the Philippine timezone. Please see here for details and do the necessary conversion. 

7. I will coordinate with the winner in private about how the prize will be ordered and received. I will post status updates here about how that process is going here on this blog as well.

The Prize:

1. The winner of the raffle can choose either one (1) Mystic Kids 1/4 or one (1) Luts Tiny Delf. Only one (1) winner will be chosen and only one (1) doll will be won.

2. The Mystic Kids 1/4 will be ordered from Alice’s Collections and the Luts Tiny Delf will be ordered from Luts.

3. The choices available for the Mystic Kids 1/4 are as follows: Victor, Caroline, Evelyn, Francis, Gene, Illy, Lillian, Natalia, and Sean. If the winner wants a Mystic Kids 1/4, these are the only choices available for the prize.

3a. The resin colors available for the Mystic Kids 1/4 are as follows: Normal Pink, Normal Yellow, White. If the winner wants a Mystic Kids 1/4, these are the only choices available for the prize.

4. The choices available for the Luts Tiny Delf are as follows: Hansel, Gretel, Louis, Alice, Peter, and Dorothy. If a winner wants a Luts Tiny Delf, these are the only choices available for the prize.

4a. The resin colors available for the Luts Tiny Delf are as follows: Real Skin Normal, Real Skin White, Real Skin Brown. If a winner wants a Luts Tiny Delf, these are the only choices available for the prize.

5. The raffle prize is only valid for the dolls mentioned in #3 and #4. The raffle prize is non-transferable and is not convertible to cash.

6. The raffle prize is absolutely only for the blank head and doll body. This does not include any options such as faceups, body blushing, clothes, special resin colors, and the like.

6a. The winner, however, can choose to add the difference for these extra options. This will be discussed with the winner once the winner is chosen.

Please help me spread the word by reblogging this post or sharing about it on Facebook. More entries means more money raised for the relief operations of the Philippine Red Cross, which will make both me and you very happy, a more entries means more chances for you to win a doll of your choice for a fraction of the cost, which will make you very happy. Everybody wins! 

Please donate and spread the news via social media if you can! Maraming salamat po!

It's the Little Things

Being a hero doesn’t mean you need to risk your life to save others. A hero is someone who does their best to make the lives of others better, even in the simplest of ways such as giving extra clothes to those who need it.

~*~

Hello! I'm alive... just incredibly busy haha! I long for the day I get to spend my time queuing blog posts. ;_; Anyway, this photo is for ManikaManila's Photo Contest. The theme is "Hero". I think I did well with what I had, but I gotta say, I may need to throw in the towel because entry #4 blew me away. @_@ My fingers are still crossed though!