CECILIO Cecilio Teves Abad is one of the low-carb-fasting (LCF) advocates who have Facebook Live videos where they talk about their LCF journey and even offer tips on how to sustain it.
Since he’s a fashion designer, he also talks about designing gowns. One Wednesday evening, he had a tutorial for pattern making where I heard these two words: dart manipulation. No, you don’t need a dartboard and dart pin for that. But you’ll need pattern paper, a tape measure, a pencil, a pair of scissors, and masking tape.
Since I send even the simplest sewing tasks to an alteration shop at SM City CDO Uptown, watching this tutorial was perhaps a waste of time, most especially because it was an advanced course for fashion designers who wanted to learn more.
Now, why did I watch the whole tutorial vid? Because it was interesting. Imagine all that effort and detail for a gown that his clients would wear for their debut, wedding, mother-of-the-bride and ninang duties, etc. And this is only for the pattern and doesn’t include the gown yet, and its beads, sequins, laces.
While reading comments that sing praises for him, Tito Cecil—he prefers to be called Tito Cecil—would jokingly say, Mga bakla kayo, mga bruha kayo, uupakan ko kayo. Haha!
He does accept students, provided they already know the basics, for one-on-one sessions. “So kung mumurahin ko kayo, one-on-one din.”
Once upon a time, I tried crochet for a high school project. Mama ended up finishing that project which began to resemble a cup coaster when it was supposed to be a coffee table centerpiece.
And then, there was the stuffed toy that I named Toni—you’ll understand why if you know my first name. I think the family’s suki dressmaker was the one who finished sewing it.
Even though I love to stay home, my homemaker skills, however, seem to focus on decluttering, and arranging my books and piggies. I’m also good at removing toxic anything now, including the ball pen that doesn’t glide smoothly on paper.
By the way, how many books on decluttering does one need to teach him how to reduce clutter? One? Ten? A hundred? Until the decluttering books are worsening the clutter? Because it seems like Marie Kondo’s books are not enough to convince me to keep only those items that spark joy. So, I bought and read Kathi Lipp’s “Clutter Free: Quick and Easy Steps to Simplifying Your Space.” And that’s in addition to the books on simplifying which I read way before Kondo began to preach about the importance of joy.
I decided not to keep “Clutter Free,” though, so my room will be, uh, seemingly clutter-free. What’s the use of reading a book on reducing clutter if I can’t get rid of it?
Yes, Kondo’s advice should be enough. But the bookworm who’s into spring cleaning will always find a reason to buy one more book on decluttering. And there’s that other favorite topic now: LCF. At least these books are not morphing into tsundoku survivors anymore.
