What I did for my loves last Valentines Day:Chocolate Lollipops!!!

They’re very easy to make, you could do them everyday! You just have to prepare the following ingredients and materials (shown above):

-Chocolate Melts

-Molds

-Decorating Bags/Foil

-Lollipop Sticks

-Plastic Wrappers

-Ribbons

I bought all these (except for the ribbons) at Michaels but I’m sure they’re readily available in any baking supplies store. Then, follow these easy steps (still depends on the resources):

1. Melt the hard chocolate using a microwave oven.

2. Using the decorating bag/foil, pour the melted chocolate into the mold and insert the lollipop sticks.

3. Refrigerate the chocolates for 1 hour or until they harden.

4. Place the hardened chocolates into their individual plastic wrappers then seal/decorate them with ribbons. 

5. Finally, share them with your loved ones! Spread the love! ♡

So I have been bombarding my blog with loads of posts from my US trip and I think it’s just right that I also bombard it with travel posts from my home — the Philippines. 

Recently, my family and I visited one of our hometowns — Pangasinan. The pictures here shows our usual route every time we visit the place — Lingayen, Binmaley, Mangaldan, Dagupan and Manaoag. 

Visited lolo (Grandpa)

A small church in Lingayen with lots of bells

Our ancestral house

There’s always a dog in my travel posts. Just goes to show how much I love them. 

Sights you don’t get to see everyday in the city. Breath of fresh air.

Our usual dining place in Dagupan which is Mexican-inspired.

Peanut brittle

I love how they tried to preserve the “old house”. 

Notice that everywhere we go, there’s always an object that symbolizes the people’s religious beliefs.

Another (half) old house across the street

The Shrine of of Our Lady of the Rosary of Manaoag. I have already posted about this shrine in my old blog. We go here every year.

Outside the Shrine, there is a long line of street vendors selling food and religious stuff. 

I guess I’ll be ending my post with this picture. Next time you go out on a trip, you might want to consider going to Pangasinan. There are so many other things to do there. It’s just that we only had one day. I’d love to go island hopping in Hundred Islands someday.

By the way, Happy New Year everyone! It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life for me and I’m feeling good~ and so should you. Cheers! <3

Finally, the last installment of my USA travel posts is here. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank my family and relatives for making this dream of mine come true. Even after three months, it still feels surreal. The places I once only saw on the big screen were right before my eyes. There is no doubt it is such a beautiful country which makes me miss it sometimes. But as the saying goes, home is where the heart is and so, I choose the Philippines.

The places featured in this post are the following: United Nations Headquarters, Chinatown, Fashion Institute of Technology, Times Square, New York Botanical Garden, Macy’s, Uniqlo, Empire State Building and Koreatown. All are located in Manhattan except NY Botanical Garden, which is in Bronx.

United Nations (UN)

UN Security Council Chamber

UN General Assembly Hall

Some of the artworks in the UN building

Soup dumplings from Joe’s Shanghai (Chinatown)

Fashion Institute of Technology

Mary Poppins on Broadway

We were this close to the stage. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

My ride

NY Botanical Garden

Wooden escalator at Macy’s

Up down up down

Empire State of Mind

Koreatown

That’s a wrap! Goodbye US, for now. I hope to see you again (very) soon. *fingers crossed* Anyway, I really hope you liked my travel posts and learned something from them. ‘Til next post!

Welcome to Animalandia! This has got to be one of my favorite blog posts ever! I truly love animals. I take pictures of them whenever I get the chance to. Honestly, I want to be a wildlife photographer (aside from being an engineer, of course).

Anyway, for those who do not know, New York Aquarium is in Brooklyn. It’s also in Coney Island (see previous post). Bronx Zoo is, well, in Bronx. Hihi.

Glow in the dark

Looks like metal

Stingray

Did you find him?

“I’m the king of the woooorld!”

Penguins

Cutie patootie looking straight at me

Play time

Sea Lion

Walrus

I’m sure you know what this is.

Koi

A real angry bird!

L-O-V-E

Something’s bothering him/her.

Just so happy to see the name of our country

Deer

Tigers

Ducks

Polar bear. This is my current desktop wallpaper.

Grizzly Bear

Sleepyhead Red Panda

(Not so) Wide awake. We woke him/her up which makes me kind of guilty.

Break time! I missed Dippin’ Dots.

Lion and Lioness

Antelope

Bongo

I wanna see your peacock ♫ ♪

Zebra

The highlight of the visit! Her name is Nicki (Nicky), by the way. 

Aardvark digging

The laughing hyena is laughing at us.

They seem to be arguing about something.

Giraffe

Pink flamingos in the pool ♫ ♪

Love the colors of these frogs

I can’t remember their names. Huhu. Can you please tell me?

(Sunbathing) Seal the deal. ‘Til next post!

Let’s go to the beach each, let’s go get away ♫ ♪

We were so lucky we saw Coney Island at its prime. It’s just so sad to see the pictures of the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. The weather was so cold there (it even rained) during our visit that we had to buy sweaters just to be able to move around.