Pic-a-boo 601: St Patrick's Celebration in Belfast

Belfast city centre, Northern Ireland (17/03/2011).

Click the photo collage to get a better look of the images. Very year, it is getting better and better. More groups are joining the celebration despite the religious differences in Northern Ireland. There is a myth that all the snakes in Ireland vanished because St. Patrick killed them all.

Cultural Extravagance in Florence (Tuscany, Italy)

Cultural Extravagance in Florence Slideshow: Reymos’s trip to Florence, Tuscany, Italy was created by TripAdvisor. See another Florence slideshow. Create your own stunning free slideshow from your travel photos.

eTravelDiary: Featured travelsite at Blogroll

"Featured Blogs is a weekly Sunday post featuring favorite blogs from our network! We do this so we can share in the rich diversity of blogs our network has to offer by featuring some of our favorites and yours! The only requirement to be featured here is to be a member of The Travel Blogroll and be displaying The Travel Blogroll Widget on your blog.

If you are not yet a member, but you have a travel blog and would like to join us, please click here! If you have a favorite blog on The Travel Blogroll, that you would like to be featured here please leave a comment on this article and let us know your favorites! - BlogRoll"

Whats up?...merry christmas everyone!

CHRISTMAS TIME is always a busy part of the year. It is also a busy time for me to update several blogsites- from uploading of photos to online books inventory. With TripAdvisor's TripWow video application, I can now upload and share photos taken during my travels in a video format which can be downloaded or embedded in various websites, either in facebook or wordpress.

Whats up with my etraveldiary? So far, it is inspiring to share some of my recent travels both in the UK and US, including my summer vacation in the Philippines. I also joined the BLOGROLL, a site that promotes bloggers that share their travel experiences online. You can check it out using the sidebar link. It is a simple way to increase readership of my site as well as meeting new online friends.

If you just recently browsing my blogsite or maybe a previous fan who missed some of my journals, then I take this opportunity to provide you some of the highlights of whats going on in my travel site during the past weeks.

With my 5 months vacation in the US, I have posted several stories with photo collages and videos powered by TripAdvisor. Some of the interesting stories are as follows: Disneyland Adventure in Anaheim, California; Seaworld in San Diego; Napa Valley, California; and Las Vegas in Nevada. I had the chance to watch the Farmers Classics' tennis in Los Angeles when Andy Murray of Britain first joined the tournament.

During my short trips to the Philippines, I was able to explore, Boracay Island; Corregidor Island and my hometown, Sibuyan Island. Highlights of the trips will be posted very soon.

Other interesting trips include: Louvre Museum in Paris, Natural History Museum in London, and Mournes Mountains in Northern Ireland.

FINALLY, I also included my first ever attempt to do painting using instant coffee, and my passion in reading which I regularly write book reviews. Coffee Painting provides you some of the basic tips to do it (if you like) as a hobby while traveling; and my first Travel Book Review - showcasing 40 unforgettable islands to escape before you die. I'm glad that the author of the book himself wrote his comment in my post. Check it out! If you fancy of buying a new book for a gift or for personal reading, you can visit my other website, Book-Aklat-Libro to find out more about my book collection.

ENJOY browsing, have a wonderful and happy Xmas!
Oooh... I forgot to mention my first ever travel book "My Fascination with Traveling", showcasing some of my photos taken in Europe, Thailand, Canada, UK, the Philippines and other parts of Asia. I have two more travel books to be published through BLURB. Watch out for that as well.

Coffee Painting while traveling

ASIDE FROM TAKING PHOTOS, and meeting old and new friends while traveling, or even reading my favourite books through my Kindle3G, I can proudly say that I could also do my hobby in painting. This time is painting using instant coffee.

Sketching/painting is only a past time to complement my interest in photography. With photography, I can now capture my artwork and share it online.Inspired by a Filipina artist/painter, few months ago I decided to try if it will work. An ordinary sketch pad, brush, a diluted instant coffee in a small cup, I transformed my favourite subject, Trees into shiny sepia looking images.

One of the challenges to make it work is to get the right blend between water and the powdered/granuled instant coffee. The shades and textures can be controlled by the amount of water added to the coffee granules. I just use a tap water or re-use water and even the left-over from your cup to dilute the pure coffee. I also tried to use warm/hot water and it seems easier to mix the coffee granules with water providing an "old-look" effect on paper.

It is also interesting to blend or mix with other medium. For example, I tried to blend (not mix) coffee with choco powder but the latter does not provide a strong shiny brown effect on paper. I did try the Hershey's choco flavour which is quite effective despite its stickiness, it provided an added volume and luster on the surface of the subject.

Coffee painting is easy and the materials are affordable. It does not require a studio or a special place to do it. Even while sipping your favourite latte o cappuccino inside a coffee shop, with your brush and paper, you can paint instantly. While traveling, you can also use recycled plastic or aluminum cups to contain the diluted mixed coffee which is easy to dispose after use or carry them inside a backpack. Chinese brushes are quite easy to find especially in artwork shops or school supplies stores.

For an 8X12 paper size, I can normally complete my painting between 20-30 minutes, depending on the details of my subject. If I wanted a densely landscape, then it would require additional details and shades of the background.

It smells good while doing it! Have a try the aromatic experience in painting while traveling...