Have you ever had the chance to prepare your own frozen yogurt parfait? Or to doodle in a water bottle with your most memorable summer experience?
I am about to share with you one of the best summer I have. It may not be done on a beach setting or any out-of-town getaway but it was such a fulfilling thing to do especially, for an ice cream and yogurt fanatic like me and for finding again that long-lost artist within me.
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| photo courtesy of ilovebdj.com |
Held last May 23, 2015, bellas gathered together at Red Mango Philippines Katipunan Branch for the BDJ Passion Series with the theme "#SummerCreations" as spearheaded by none other than Belle De Jour Power Planner in partnership with Red Mango Philippines and Sharpie.
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| The Tarpaulin Banner of the Event Poster as posted at the entrance door to Red Mango Katipunan, just beside the registration booth. |
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The ilovebdj.com Tarpaulin Poster also posted at the entrance, beside the registration booth.
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| Sharpie and Red Mango Philippines as the main partners for the BDJ Passion Series: #SummerCreations |
The event registration started at 1 pm and the programme proper was at 1:30 and it run for three (3) culminating fun hours of arts and crafts.
Below is the list of what I had created as well as gained from this special event:
MY #SUMMERCREATIONS
***I learned new things from their speakers***
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| Ms. Sherikah Tan-Man-Tiong, owner of Red Mango Philippines |
What I salute with Belle De Jour is that bellas had the chance to meet and learn from different shop owners and this time its Ms. Sherikah Tan-Man-Tiong of Red Mango Philippines (I did a little research on Ms. Sherikah's surname and I am hopeful that google is right.. hihi).
Though I am a regular customer of Red Mango Robinsons Place Ermita, I never knew that it originally came from Korea.
As per, Ms. Sherikah, their first branch was at Trinoma and as of this year, they have a total of 9 branches, 7 in Metro Manila while 1 in Cebu and Davao respectively.
She also discussed to us the
benefits and advantages of their FROYO (frozen yogurt) which are as follows:
- It is all natural: No artificial flavors and preservatives.
- It is non-fat therefore it has lower calorie and compared to milk (which is thicker in consistency and has more sugar content), yogurt has higher milk because of its thinner consistency.
- With yogurt having higher milk content this means higher calcium content which can add up in bone calcium once taken/ingested.
- Yogurt has enzymes that can aid in digestion and can therefore can be recommended to those with irritable bowel movement or with lactose intolerance.
- It has good bacteria or probiotics.
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| Ms. Beam Mariano, the main speaker of the event, an artist, stylist and art director. |
Ms Beam, to be honest is now on top of my favorite speakers that Belle De Jour Power Planner had. It's as if this jolly girl was born out of a box of positive energy. It is not just evidenced by her lively voice but you can see it in her eyes and it radiates from her to everyone.
She enthusiastically discussed to us how to make our own parfait with basic tips in food styling and how to doodle on a cup or on a bottle.
Here are the tips and steps as per Ms. Beam on parfait creation:
- Step 1: At the bottom of the parfait, container, add sliced fruits preferably the brightly colored ones.
- Avoid putting dark colored food components at the bottom because when you take photos the shadow were under it and the dark color adds to the shadow and appearance of them when photo is taken will not be emphasized)
- Show the best side of the fruit like the skin of a strawberry or the kiwi pattern.
- Step 2: Layer it with yogurt:
- You can use a spoon to carefully add dollops of yogurt inside the cup
- Step 3: Incorporate layers of granola, corn flakes or nuts to give your parfait that surprise crunch.
- Step 4: Add another layer of fruits and toppings
- You might want to dry out the fruits a little on a tissue to remove the extra moisture that might drip to the bottom of the cup.
- Step 5: Top it off with yogurt or whipped cream. Try to get that perfect curly peak!
- Step 6: Add festive garnishes: sprinkles, chocolate syrup, caramel sauce or wafer sticks.
- Play with colors, flavors but always remember to pay attention as well to the weight of the toppings. You can put the heavier toppings at the bottom to not cause any dripping or change on the look of your parfait due to the falling off of the components to the bottom. Remember yogurt is easy melting.
Beam's advises on doodling a cup or a bottle.
- There's nothing to worry if one feels like he is not artistic: just play with your imagination and doodle what you like.
- There's no limit in doodling.
- Just enjoy the craft.
***I created first new memories: creating, designing, preparing and naming my own Red Mango Parfait***
I was able to create my own parfait for the very first time and thanks to Red Mango for the generosity and letting us inside the Red Mango counter.
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| Oh! Those appealing and yummy toppings of Red Mango |
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| Red Mango provided us a guide on how to make our parfait and naming it. Here's the list of what my parfait looked liked. But on the top instead of the special K, I replaced it with cheesecake after Ms. Sherikah verified that we can include cheesecake on our list. |
It did sound easy and exciting thing to do but because I am a clumsy type of person I felt afraid I would make a mess and true to my identity, I somehow spilled some cereals ehehe but through the encouraging advises of the Red Mango Crew who assisted me (I was able to thank her but unfortunately did not get her name.. my bad!) and thoughts from Ms. Beam on parfait preparation, I got really inspired and excited in creating one. I believed I had a great job.
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| Red Mango crew advising me how to spread the cereals as the first layer of my parfait. |
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| On the middle layer of my parfait, I put bananas on top of the strawberries and here the crew was the one slicing them from the fresh bananas. |
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| The final touches of my parfait |
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| And tadaa! Presenting my Berry Xtallicious Graham Tower Parfait |
***I was able to unleashed the long-lost artist in me thru the bottle doodling activity with Sharpie***
Ms Beam, asked us to draw the most memorable summer we had, and I drew our first out of town as a family which happened last May 16 to 17 at Nano Beach Resort in Calatagan, Batangas. I believed that the fun memory I had on beach with my beau and my month old patootie is worth sharing.
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| My water bottle courtesy of Red Mango |
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| At this side, I drew a boy who represents my beau |
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| Here is a drawing of my baby while still in a rubber floater. |
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| And this is me. |
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A coconut tree by the beach with flowers beside it.
Other details on my doodle/drawing are the clouds, the sun and the birds flying over the sea with mountain view from the seashore that has starfishes on the sands. |
***I got to bond with my old friends and new ones and plus I finally meet the face behind the name Michiko (Mich) of BDJ***
Being an active bella, I agree with their previous even host Janeena Chan, that Belle De Jour is like a sorority of fun, empowered women coming from different ages and walks of life. Through BDJ events I made new friends and they serves as bonding and catching up time with my old pals.
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| Bellas waiting for the start of the event proper. |
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| A shameless selfie before the event started. |
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| Another bonding moment with bff Beatrix Sy |
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| My seat number as #15, the BDJ event invite card,the free Sharpie pens and of course the pink ribbon which is a trademark of Belle De Jour. |
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Finally, I met the face behind the name Mich of BDJ Team. I got a little conscious when she read my name at the registration area. She said "So you are Krystaline! You're the one emailing and submitting contest entry the most!". And she's right, I've been active on online contest lately especially on BDJ's pages. They are my stress relievers and win or lose I find them amusing.
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| Mich of BDJ as the host for the day |
***I have additional freebies/loots/winnings haul***
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| My takeaway loots. |
The main loot/remembrance of the event is the super cute Red Mango bowl and their 6 swirly years
discount card and each bella were given the Sharpie pens from the doodling activity.
Since I won the best doodled bottle I got a sharpie bag with a strawberry body butter care of Strip, Browhaus complimentary complete workout voucher. 500 pesos worth of Red Mango GC.
I went home as a happy kiddo! Yebah! ^_^
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--Lovelots--
xtal
Twitter: @enilatsyrk
Instagram: @xtallicious
