How to Tie Dye

This is my first time to dye anything! It is so easy and fun to do! If I had known it would be that easy, I would have done it sooner because Riley has a lot of white boring tshirts. Here's how the transformation began:

First, boil water. The direction on the back of the Venus dye that I use is not clear on how much water is needed. So I just fill the kettle. While you're waiting for the water to boil, lay your tshirt flat in a surface.

There are a lot of pattern you can make but I decided on a very basic design - spiral. Put your thumb and index finger in the center of the shirt. Hold it and begin moving them in a circular motion, spiraling the shirt around the center point. 

Put rubber bands to tie it to create the spiral design on the center. You can put more rubber bands for more intricate pattern.

Dissolve one sachet of Venus Dye in the hot water. Then soak the tshirt in. Here, I dyed another piece of fabric (another project in the making!) so you can do that as long as it is not overcrowded. When the water cools down, rinse your clothing with cold water without soap or detergent. 

Lastly, hang it to dry completely. I read in some tutorial that it should be iron before to wear it so the color won't fade easily. But Riley I was so excited to see how it looks on him so no ironing happened on his shirt!

Riley's happy with it! He didn't want to take the tshirt off. 

Next time I'll try horizontal lines tie-dying. :)

Big or Small, We All Can Help!

Have you watched Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho last Saturday? Their first story features people who are affected by Super Typhoon Yolanda. Yung mga tao nagsasabi kung ligtas sila o ilan sa kamag anak nila ang namatay. May isa na nagsabi na namatay yung 2 anak nya tapos ung isa yata nawawala pa. Their story made me cry. I wept with them. I feel their grief. I was silently wiping my tears away while watching that. More than the houses demolished, and fallen trees, and properties destroyed, what's really devastating about this sad catastrophe are the lives lost along the way. :(

After watching that, I felt helpless. Gusto ko tumulong pero pano? Hindi naman ako mayaman pra mgdonate ng malaki. I can't also volunteer since my son is too small to be left without my care. You know, I always tell myself, pag ako yumaman, tutulong ako sa nangangailangan. Pero kailan pa yun kung ngaun nila kailangan ng tulong? At paano kung hindi ako yumaman? Ibig sabihin hindi na rin ako tutulong sa kapwa ko? This made me think. And made me sadder. I know prayers can help too. So that's just what I did even now - PRAY for them. Then while watching 24 Oras last Monday, Mike Enriquez mentioned "Walang tulong na maliit!" Kahit ano, kahit 10 piso lng na donation basta taos sa puso ay pagtulong pa din. I also saw those kids selling lemonade to help Yolanda's victim. It made me realize na ang dami ko pwede gawin para tumulong. At nagsimula ako sa paglilinis ng aming cabinet...

We've already donated my son's clothes and milk bottles at Bethany last September

but I still managed to rummaged few of his clothes.

After cleaning up, we (janice, ina, at eddie-boy) came up with all these usable and good conditioned clothes.

Where to Donate?

We dropped it off at Basilica Minore o sa Malolos Cathedral this afternoon. They accept all sorts of donation - water, canned goods, whatever it is that you can contribute to help. Or you can also go to the nearest LBC. They'll ship it for free:

For monetary donations, you can send it thru Red Cross. Just text the following:

REDAMOUNT to 2899 (Globe) or 4143 (Smart)

Or thru G-Cash
Text DONATEAMOUNT4-digit M-PINREDCROSS to 2882

You can donate the following denominations:
Globe: 5, 25, 100, 300, 500 or 1000
Smart: 10, 25, 50, 100, 300, 500 or 1000

Or you can deposits thru bank accounts. I think GMA Kapuso Foundation really steps up in their relief operations so here is the link on how to deposit money in their account.

It doesn't matter how small or how big your help is as long as you help from the bottom of your heart. I know our donation is not enough. So I'm still thinking of other ways to raise money. Helping them didn't make me feel better. What will make me feel better is that knowing one day, the victims of this super typhoon, will have peace and serenity in their hearts, to stand up again and to continue living. And I pray that the anguish and despair that they feel right now will make them even stronger. I know it won't be easy to rise up from this calamity. But one day, we will all get there.

Life goes on.