Aimee Jill Fernando

My name is Aimee Jill, and I live in the Philippines.  I am a wife and mother to a six year old girl. We have dogs, a cat, a rescued bird, ducks, and chickens at our home!

I grew up in a big family.  I have nine siblings, and I am the sixth child.  As children we really enjoyed pretend play.  We used to love playing with paper dolls.  We would make the dolls, and then we would draw their houses in a notebook.  Each page would be a different part of the house, and each notebook would be a different part of the community.  I also remember playing "bahay bahayan" (a pretend game like play house), using leaves and flowers as our food that we would pretend to cook in cans.  We would use candy wrappers as money. We would make things to use in our bahay bahayan game out of scrap woods, wicker and rattan that we found in our fathers workshop.  

My father used to have a backyard business making rattan furniture, where sometimes they would also make baskets.  I really like that as children we were exposed to the many different crafts of the Philippines, such as the baskets, table runners, and the like, that come from different regions/provinces of our country.  

Today, I love making arts and crafts with my daughter, singing while playing the guitar, and spending time outdoors in nature, as this is how I feel at peace.  I especially enjoy making acrylic and watercolor paintings, and now I am also exploring digital arts/painting.  I also like working with boxes, papers, fabrics, traditional/ethnic textiles, beads, and other indigenous materials of the Philippines.  I want to teach these crafts through GLOMADO, so that I can share with the world the beauty and diversity of my country's culture.  

One of my favorite things about my country is it’s beautiful landscape.  The Philippines is an archipelago, with beautiful beaches, rivers, and mountains where I love to go hiking.  I also enjoy meeting different people from our different provinces, and learning about their specific culture, stories, arts, crafts and music.   The culture is very diverse and interesting.