Papemelroti Beauty in a Box and here's someone I'd like you to meet.

Papemelroti is a well-known specialty store in the Philippines that sells paper products and knick knacks. Its name is practically synonymous to country-style crafts. This store has always had a special place in my heart since I was in grade school and avidly collected stationery (admit it, you've gone through that phase, too). It was also one of my go-to places for emergency gifts/tokens of affection for years.

I was at one of their stores recently with my sister recently because she was looking for cutesy local products to send in a love package to her friends abroad and I got this:

It says: Beauty in a Box- Easy & natural ways to shine using homemade remedies.

It's a small craft box which contains a stack of cards roughly the size of your standard Post-It note. The cards contain miscellaneous beauty tips, DIY treatments, recipes and the like.

Sample cards. Clockwise from top left: tip for deodorizing any strong stench, remedies for tired eyes, goodbye crow's feet, for shiny hair, and fresh breath fast. There's more where these came from. The stack's pretty thick. I think I'll scan them and share them with you as I give them a try.

A lot of the tips seem interesting and easy enough to try at least once but there are also a few that feels like too much work. Mind you, some of the cards also contain stuff that's basically common knowledge especially to you beauty experts. For instance, there were quite a few cards about ACV. I'm no beauty guru, but I'm not stranger to the benefits of ACV, either. All in all, this is PHP 40 (less than 1 USD) well-spent. For non-beauty enthusiasts, they also have other themes of this box like Psalms, Bible verses, quotes, other Inspirational stuff, etc. There's a box for everyone!

***

Everyone, meet the Store Kitteh:

My friend and I were closing up our (still budding) shop the other night when I saw this kitteh crossing the street to a vacant lot beside the building where our shop was. It was so small that I feared for its life, so I checked the lot if the mommy kitteh were there but it wasn't so I took it home.

When I looked at it more closely, I could see that its eyes were still milky so I'm guessing it's really really young and its eyes were not completely open yet. My sister gave me a can of Fancy Feast cat food (pictured, so if you're familiar with the brand and how small that can is, you'll have an idea how small Store Kitteh is) for it the night I took it home. I was planning to just give it some milk because like I said it was so small I didn't think it could eat real food yet. Boy was I wrong. The cat gobbled it up and even made "om nom nom" noises. It must have been starving. I tried to give it dry cat food, too, and even though it tried to eat the dry food, her teeth must not have been strong enough for it yet,

I don't need to be told that my house is not the place for a practically newborn kitten (We have overly excitable dogs) so what I do is I take the kitten with me back to the shop and let it out where I can see it, in case it decides to go home or its mom comes back but at night I take it back home with me. I use a shoebox to transport it, and the system has worked for three nights so far.

(Personally, I think Store Kitteh has brought us luck at the shop. I consider it our living Maneki Neko. As of now, the business partner still needs further "convincing." Haha.)

Thanks for dropping by!