And my birthday week is over. My boyfriend and I were supposed to celebrate my 30th birthday in Sagada, Mountain Province, then have ourselves tattooed by Whang-Od (or Fang-Od to locals) in Buscalan, Kalinga. Sadly, there were news of renewed rebel activities in Sagada (NPAs) and because I will not compromise my boyfriend's safety, I decided to cancel the trip. Sagada is my most favorite place in the country. We will just go some other time. And being a spoiled girlfriend that I am, he told me to just go yarn shopping instead. So I did! I went to Manila with two agendas: get my color cards from Monaco Manufacturing Corporation office in Quezon City and go yarn shopping in Divisoria. Off to Monaco I went. I didn't know the place, so I just looked at Google Maps and decided to just walk from Banawe, Quezon Ave. to Del Monte Ave. then to the side streets where the office is located . OMG! What a huge mistake!!! Such a long walk! I sweat a river.. But it's worth it, because I got these... I asked if I could buy threads and yarns there in bulk. I was told that they would require me to have a DTI registration and BIR form 2300. In short, I need to have a registered business to be able to do so. After QC, I went to Divisoria to scour Tabora Street. It is the street to go to if you're looking for craft supplies. The prices here are so much cheaper than in other places, i.e. online stores, because they get their supplies directly from manufacturers. Anyways, so I went there to hunt for my favorite crochet thread, Monaco Mercerized Cotton Thread and see what is the cheapest price I could find. My first stop was Michelle's Ribbon and Lace Center. This store is not in Tabora Street, but at Tutuban Mall, Ground Floor, Prime Block. It is right beside the escalators going up to the mall. At Michelle's, one ball of Monaco is P28 for both the plain colored and variegated varieties. One box (12 balls) is P300, so that would make it P25 each if you buy a dozen. You can have different colors in one box. and you get more discount if you buy in bulk. What I like about this store are:
So after Michelle's, I proceeded to Tabora Street. I asked several stores for their prices, and the lowest I saw was P290/box. Hmm.. not much difference. I wandered about some more, found several more stores selling Monaco. I noticed that there were just a few stores selling Red Heart yarns. The store I didn't like the most is the Guan Bee Commercial Inc. 841 Tabora St. They sell mostly Monaco. As in they have boxes and boxes of them. When I got there, a young Chinese lady (probably the owner's daughter) is giving directions to several helpers on how to load several boxes of Monaco balls into the truck. I asked her for Monaco Raylon and she pointed to the next window of their shop. I waited there expecting her to follow shortly to assist me. But no... helpers gone and all, and I was still standing there waiting and the lady was just there sitting pretty. When I called her attention and asked again for Monaco Raylon, she said, "Oh we only have white..". She told me that even though I could see the shelf full of different colors of Raylon. I left. Oh well, too bad for her.. because I am a good customer. Hehe.. I bought several other items before heading home. Here they are.. Yummy looking, right? :D
BF spoils me like that. :D |