Flashback Saturday: DIY Obsession

I love Do-It-Yourself stuffs. If I think I could mimic and create the things I adore most in stores, magazines or wherever in the wide network sites, I’d try to make time to do these crafts on my low days. They’re like therapy. They make me happy!

My DIY accessories started when I joined my elder and little sisters in Manila because they were both already into it those days. They like sell them and all. My elder sister January taught me how to make them pretty little earrings and bracelets and necklaces, and even until now I search for how-to-do-them videos on youtube and even by just looking into photos in sites like Pinterest, everything in Martha Stewart’s site, and other Google images. 🙂

One of my other DIY loves include the idea of putting personal touches on your own events like weddings, birthdays and other parties – like maybe a farewell party? I go crazy over beautiful and pretty dessert tables or dessert buffets. I even have a board on this at my Pinterest account because they make me smile (aside from the fact that they make me crave haha).

In connection to that, and since this is a flashback post, our ate January spent more than a month vacation just last December and when it was already time for her to go back to New Zealand, I wanted to make sure we’d do something special (aside from the many special times we spent on those days 🙂 ) and so the DIY-obsessed side of me got expose (I think). And since it was still just right after new years and we’ve like eaten around in Butuan City already, we decided to just have a little Despedida party at home. I think there were a lot of ideas playing in my mind but because of the limited time already I only managed to put up a mini dessert table (and grabbed the cakes from the fridge haha – oh and our little sister Johanna added the Toblerone touch).

Our DIY Farewell Desert Table 🙂 What do you think?

And then the feast started right after the pictorials so here’s a peak of what happened then. 🙂

Our little sister… ooops I mean Ate January :-p

Ate January with our little Joseph Julian

with Mama and Papa

with Mama and papa (serious mode)

 

Julian leading the prayer before meals *__*

And the rest is history ^_^; My big and little sisters 🙂

 

TYL Friday: Electrified!

Well hello there again my Friday! 🙂

Today, I just have to emphasize how thankful I am that God gave us the strength to always wake up each day, face our challenges, and yes with me being very careful not to be too much irritable without the electricity and all (since the fire broke last, last Sunday like two weeks almost!). Our neighbor was very generous to have helped us by having us connect to their electricity during the night just so I could sleep well with electric fan. Jerome made sure I have that, hehe. Anything else not working is okay as long as I have that. 🙂

Then come today where the electric company finally completed restoring our connection and we all got too excited and very thankful.

It’s Jerome’s Darts night out with friends so I don’t have to pout and stare in the dark waiting for him (else he’d never go anywhere na lang jud than find me like that when he comes back). I ended up watching the latest episodes of my favorites – The Vampire Diaries and Reign. I didn’t have the energy already to watch Arrow and Beauty & the Beast episodes as well as the new series I’m digging The 100 but hoping to do soon in the later days. There’s just too many of them now not to mention having to get updated with the local The Legal Wife series. 😀

Anyways. That’s just about it for today. I just feel so electrified I need to thank God for all about this week. 🙂

I hope yours was a great week too!

 

 

 

TYL Friday: Spared & Grateful

It is probably a great way to start my “come-back” blog with expressing this very grateful heart of mine. I’m hoping to only post happy and inspiring blogs from now on and I’m debuting a Thank You Lord Friday! 🙂

So here’s my probably boring story.

On the morning of Easter Sunday, I would have been sad not to spend it at the beach as we usually do with my family in Butuan after “Sugat”, but it turned out still meaningful and memorable when we decided to go to Bogo here in Cebu. Why? Jerome had a dream like more than a month ago if I remember well. He said it seemed he was visiting one of Mama Mary’s shrine or churches named after her. He remembers seeing or visiting Our Lady of the Rule (Nuestra Señora Virgen De Regla) – the one in Lapu-lapu City – but it seemed the place was in Bogo. So he searched for a Mama Mary shrine in Bogo and confirmed it was for Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal. He vowed to visit the shrine and finally realized it with me.

The place was serene and I loved that there are not yet many visitors when we got there, making it more solemn to pray. You’d have to climb the stairs. They say those were 100 steps, which make it a little sacrificial (hehe).  If you have your own car, there’s a way up at the back area for vehicles (do not ask me for directions though).

Later in the evening, a fire broke in the neighborhood where we are currently staying (Kamputhaw, Cebu City). It ate up 40 houses and leaving 1 dead. I felt frightened, irritated and sad for what happened. Frightened that if the firemen came a few minutes later that night, our house will not be a house anymore – we were one house away already from the fire. I got irritated after everything because rumor has it that the fire started because a man committed suicide – only that he took 39 more houses in his journey. But then who wouldn’t be sad to know then that he was the one who died, and for those who wouldn’t have roofs to sleep under starting that night.

I still get alarmed when I hear people shout nearby. It still feels like yesterday. But it is so true you keep learning from these events. To be mindful of your environment and to be prepared always for tragedies like this. Jerome and I felt very very grateful we were spared from it that no matter how small we provided help to his friends whose houses got burned.

My little sister Johanna gave me a very striking word of comfort that evening. Something so right we all have to care:

FIRES ARE GOD’S REMINDERS THAT WE SHOULD NOT INVEST IN WORDLY THINGS.

♥♥♥

Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Shrine in Bogo, Cebu

 

 

cheers to good mornings! ^_^

Weekly Photo Challenge: Inside | Beautiful Creatures

today i watched the movie for the second time

because i haven’t convinced my little sister to watch it and my procrastinator side just urged me to do it while eating breakfast and while cooking for tonight’s dinner too 🙂

(i’m supposed to be doing some work and other human life duties ;-P)

i have to say this movie really brought back the love for poems i had in me way back in college

nope, i do not follow or remember any poets, i just love how poems have that magical side – those lines that seem to understand what goes around INSIDE our delicate hearts [or maybe just to the very few of us 🙂 ]

the striking poem in the end was this:

there is a place in the heart that will never be filled

a space

we will know it more than ever

there is a place in the heart that will never be filled

and we will wait and wait in that space

what is really happening inside?

and this hit me real real hard in the head that i googled where it came from (although the movie did imply it already i still had to search because i am hard-headed) and voila below was somewhat a full version or something and they just removed just a little part 🙂

there is a place in the heart that will never be filled

a space

and even during the best moments

and the greatest times

times we will know it

we will know it more than ever

there is a place in the heart that will never be filled

and we will wait and wait in that space

– Charles Bukowski (a German-born American poet, novelist and short story writer.)

and i agree so much to this that i had to blog about it, don’t i? that yes there is that space always inside our hearts that we keep waiting to be filled

so watch the movie if you haven’t yet and hopefully enjoy it the way i did

and let’s together read the the book too (because i haven’t yet hehe)

and may i attempt:
that what grows inside can grow beautifully
that what goes in your mind
that what you believe in your heart
it will surely surely be
~ janice in wonderland ~

pingback: http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/09/13/photo-challenge-inside/

Daily Prompt: Bookworms | CAN

okay so this was really yesterday’s daily prompt (but maybe still today in some parts of the world 😉 ), but it caught my attention that i could say now better late than never, right?

but I’m far from our bookshelf when I read the daily prompt and the only nearest to that is this Yummy magazine my sister have – or more so a cook book for me [yeah i wanted it to pass as a book so forgive me 😉 ]

“The great thing about getting healthy is that you can start whenever you want…”

and so CAN is the word and Google gave me below image that perfectly answers all the questions lingering in my head these past few days – and surely to yours out there too, does it? 🙂

Google result source: http://scrabblesense.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/yes_you_can.png

This is very true – no matter how things get so much messed up or all in chaos, when fear starts to creep in, there’s always that encouragement that we can find in either big or small stuffs. And the real power is when we believe we can, we really CAN. 😉

i’m not a bookworm – this is just a book shot

Pingback: http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/09/14/daily-prompt-bookworm/

Late Post: Where’s the Beach?

I finally found time and an excuse to do a late post. I miss home more right after mama and papa just went back to Butuan yesterday. And when I miss everyone and everything at home, that includes trips to the beaches on weekends too. Beaches, no matter how low-profile or high-end they may be, are always great venues to bond, reconnect and keep that strong love within us.

And while I miss the beach and them, I find this time only to post our 8th anniversary mini-getaway last April. Yup, this is that late a post. 🙂

So here’s to reminiscing that quick trip to Portofino and to dreaming of going somewhere again soon.

it wasn’t a very sun-shinny day but did love the light 😉

found the right spot, right sand, right view (although i think there is only one view of the beach to be at hehe)

picture picture 1

picture picture 2 and 3 =P

then come late afternoon already and the view is still as happy-feel as it can be

i couldn’t get the wires off my shot 😉

super duper calming sight (and then we just had to take the last swim already)

Flips and Flops

My flip-flops all bailed out on me this August. I wonder if they’re really not good to last a long long time… or am I that heavy already?!

So this was last Friday – when my beloved flip-flops gave up on me, I knew I could still count on shoes 😉

Weekly Photo Challenge: Fresh

Fresh Cut.

I’ve been wearing my hair long for months now even though I can already feel their damaged tips. I am not so fond of spending time in salons alone – I only enjoyed them before with my sisters or with mom. Plus, I always get the feeling I’d spend more than I am intending to the moment I step into their doors.

It was just last week though that I got really tired of it (or of what I feel) and needed a refresher. I needed some offloading of negative vibes and I feel this is the perfect start. 🙂

And yeah, I saw this photo challenge that made it all interesting too. 😉

PS: Just don’t mind that my hair really isn’t that great to look at haha

i bake

it’s not hard to tell that i love to eat ~ my figure shows! haha but yes i do love love love to eat – i crave for tasty and mostly salty dishes and i probably could not live without desserts!

i like trying out new restaurants and dessert bars and cafés but i just used to do that with my two sisters way back in Manila ~ mejo kelangan na maging practical these days especially on my own

so to satisfy my cravings and quench my thirst for yummy desserts and drinks, i try as much as possible to do it on my own ~ learn to do it on my own that is 😉  so tadah! here’s my version of a warm brownie cup topped with my favorite Selecta ice cream and some Whittaker’s Peanut Butter squares =P

ENJOY!