Hello there...

...it has been a  long while since I posted anything here.

Real life has been busy and everything online that is not work related has taken the backseat. We are still adjusting with the addition in the family but I realized that it should inspire me to blog more.

So for starters, let me tell you busy life makes you love list and planners. I know, it's almost the end of the year and I just got myself a cute handy planner. But you see, the good thing about those being sold out there is that they are DIYs and perpetual. Which means one can start anytime of the year!

Here's my colorful planner and some craft tools:

Sticky notes, colored paper tapes, colored pens and school  planner

I love almost everything on white but sometimes I indulge myself specially on planners.

Colorful = inspiration.

By the way, Christmas is just around the corner. Do you already have a list of gift? I will be preparing mine soon.

DIY Obsessions

With our homeownership still on hold (we are paying for the lot first, plus we are considering the expenses of having a new baby) it still did not stop me from looking for DIYs and other interior designs that comes up in the web. Below is another inspiration that I want in our house someday (for G's plan, someday is two years from now):

I love it! White subway tiles, window on sink, closed cupboard (we are currently living in a state of clutter visible to everyone with our mixed open/close cupboard system), a pantry on the side and stainless steel counter! Husband and I have been talking about considering stainless steel (or SS) counters that are sold to restaurants (we always passes by a shop that sells/displays ready to install SS counters) because we believe that hygiene-wise, they are the best option. You have to believe me about the hygiene part because the hubs works in a food company and I worked for one before too!

Above is their less-empty photo. By the way, the owner of this photo did their kitchen DIY. I am not sure if we can do that (labor is less expensive than buying our own materials and equipment to do DIY) but you might be interested to know how they did it on their own.

Are you DIY'ng something lately? Have a great week. I am still resting because I am still coughing badly. I will probably be going back to work tomorrow once I feel a whole lot better.

photo credits: The Home Project

Decorating with Green and Red Theme for Christmas

It's already past midnight here, I know. I have been busy catching up with the workload. Whoever claims that working in the government is the easiest, they are either the lazy ones or they never worked for any government agency at all. I have worked for two government agencies and even here at my new office where there are just 200 employees, I am overloaded (and underpaid? well, compared to what the private counterpart of my position). That's why I am still up, preparing for my trip tomorrow.

I have lots of photos for you, especially the DIYs that we have done so far for the christmas season and recipes but don't have much time to transfer photos from my camera's memory. When I get back, blogging will be on the top of my list.

For now, here are my favorite desserts (two flavors, of course):

yogurt with strawberry syrup

yogurt with choco syrup

We live in a small town and having access to this kind of sweet treat is a big deal already ( because yogurt is not an organic in this country. ice cream and ice candy, yes but yogurt is still a bit new to the general population so its a store for this one is something that you don't see much in small, rural area)

For DIY inspirations, here are some ideas from the web:

1. tree planters for small christmas tree: you can buy a $1 worth tree planter from the garden store + spray paint.

via

2. garland for the christmas tree(not the venetian star topper) : if you will look closely, they used buttons (white ones) instead of the usual ribbon/garland type on the tree. The venetian star can be DIYed as well (but that is another story)

via

or you can go for a green and red books display for this season. That way, you can design using books that you already have. or anything green and red design that you have will do. You can display them around.

Cheap DIY Wreath for Christmas

We (I) have been busy with the decorations.
This is one of the many things I have done in the house.
It was easy and cheap because there are lots of stuff to choose from.
I bought the materials from the local dry/wet market.
The salesgirl offered the cheaper, not assembled wreath materials, but I told her I prefer the one already shaped into a wreath since it was relatively cheap and will save me time.
Then I bought the other three decor for around $1.

Here is the breakdown cost:

$1 = 43 pesos (you can do the math, but basically its around $2 in all)

After 5 minutes, here's my DIY wreath on our front door:

I did not use any glue since the ornaments have a wire that you can twist at the back and you're all set.
It's an easy-peasy ornamental wreath, making the holiday preparation stress-free.

Linking this to:  

ShabbyNest 

DIY Showoff 

Chic on A Shoe String Decorating

House of Hepworths

Happy Hour Projects
The ShabbyCreekCottage

DIY: Old Furniture + Spray Paint = New Bookshelf

My first major DIY is this: an old shelf that is a staple on old houses from the 70's.

This is courtesy of my MIL. So it cost me nothing.

BEFORE

 AFTER

 Our new place's wall  was painted white and my goal is to introduce pops of colors through furniture. For this project, I have chosen a spray paint color of sky blue. It cost me less than $2 (99pesos) for the can of  paint, nothing more

Here's how I did it: 

1. I wiped it with a damp rug and let it dry for at least 30 minutes. It was a sunny day on this part of the globe so drying is not a problem. 
2. Then I started on spraying the entire thing.I am lazy and the materials for DIY are not available ( MIL do not DIY) so I did not sand or primed it. I just sprayed. The husband even joined the fun! 
3. I left it to dry for few minutes.

Warning though, you have to do it outside where ventilation is good because spray paint really smells. 

I did not distress it because there are sides where the brown paint seems to shows off, giving it the distress look  that I want (another bonus for me).

I had fun doing this project because its my dream to recycle/reuse something. and it cost me $2 for a brNS new looking furniture!

I will be linking this to the following Linky Party :

1. Today's Creative Blog

2. My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

 3. The DIY Showoff
4.Coastal Charm 
5. Tuesday Time Out

Going Do-It-Yourself

It's good to know that we will have our own place before the year2012 starts. And I can finally incorporate my own style on our new home. For my first two projects of DIY here are the plans:


1. Re-upholster an old sofa.


    Sources:

• Sofa: MIL's old rose-colored sofa
• Fabric: I have been eyeing Ukay-ukays (Goodwill version of PI). There are several stores near the market that opens only during Saturday. Or a new fabric from Divisoria.
• Paint: Will buy (I don't have stash of paint somewhere since we are starting on clean slate. No accumulated things for us).
• Instructions: Little Green Notebook, Design Sponge and Apartment Therapy. They seems to have posted instructions about re-upholster at almost the same time {though AT has referred to Little Green Notebooks DIY that lead me to the blog}. Below are snapshots of their works:

 both made the project look I easy to make. Something that I have to decide once I started the project.

2.  DIY Curtain {Print Using Stencil}

     Sources:

• Curtain: Thrift Stores or Fabric Stores whichever cost lower. On thrift stores, I am hoping to buy old bed sheets. On Fabric stores, I am eyeing plain, cheap fabrics.
• Paint: Will buy
• Instructions: Apartment Therapy, here and here.

These are the pictures from AT:

the projects look easy to do, I hope they are. :D

White and Wood for My Kitchen

We are trying to fix the things that went wrong last month. So even if it seems that our home ownership is postponed, we are looking forward at the rental of our first new house. It is probably a small one {honestly, we have seen a vacant space near our in laws house} but we are still excited. Because I am scared of clutter, I asked my friends and relatives to skip the dinner wares when planning for their gift on our wedding. I am glad I did because they will probably not have survived a year.

Inspired with our ongoing plans, I went blog surfing of course. Although not a blog, I often visit Etsy. Even if there are only few selling their stuff at our local Etsy here. Here are the beautiful things I found:



jar



stoneware covered casserole

ceramic plates

potential DIY bench?



don't you love them white and wood?

DIY Inspirations

I caught some bug two weeks ago but it did not stop me from reporting to work and blog hopping for things that can inspire our "put on hold" home.

Here are the things that I might ask a local carpenter to do for me {since pottery barn and other stores like these are not yet available here in our town}:

clean lines, wood + white drawers underneath = love. found here.

photo credit

The white sofa is my all time favorite. I will probably reupholster MIL's rose-colored sofa to white. The wicker baskets are cheap buys here. I remember buying something like that when I was in college for a P100 ($2).

dining table from Target

I love white and wood. Finding that dining table available here locally and affordable would make me one lucky homeowner.

My aim is to have less cluttered house, living in the conditions that we have right now. We are not sure when will that happen but I know its gonna be soon.

Inspiration of the Day: Stamping (DIY)

I love crafting. Although time is scarce these days because of the new job and other things that keeps me busy, bloghopping is still my favorite past time. Today, this one caught my interest:

Hand Carved Stamp Tutorials!

hop on to Genine's blog.

That is where I found the photo and tutorial.

This is going to my to-do project list for sure.

and another discovery from her blog: Craft Gawker.

How did I miss that site? It has the best diy that are doable for people like me. 

Go on, visit the site and do some craft like this one:

fabric lanterns found through Craft Gawker.

found original photo here

Coffee, Cookies and Creative Juice

If you read this blog, you will notice some changes. 

My target of changing jobs by the start of April is a work in progress. Sending out application letters and resume has been a difficult decision but a task that I have been trying to squeeze in everyday. 

I am not referring to day job alone. Plan B is to become a stay-at-home wife and online-based writer. So this is the cause of the series of additions in my blog.

The most obvious change is the header. 

 If you know me, you will probably guessed it right.

I did not use any software or complicated applications. 

That header was created using Microsoft Powerpoint application and the clip arts are from Microsoft as well.

It was not  difficult to create the theme as well. 

It takes time to come up with a color scheme though. 

That is the hardest part of creating the banner. The rest is just a matter of saving it {I used Microsoft 2007} as a jpeg or png file.

I am tempted to promise a tutorial but there are too many promises that were never delivered by yours truly. 

So no promises of any tutorial here.

Hope you are having a great Friday. 

{I will blog later about the other blog renovations done here}

Time Fly Fast!

I am on a mission. 

As the February started there are several issues that I have to deal with. 

One of them is my career. 

Although my status is still on the waiting side, the date of my last working day with the company has been decided. 

Two months from now, new challenges and environment is a welcome buddy. 

With the decision over holding on to a particular job been settled, I am on the roll to depersonalized my office space and remove all my things out of there. 

My target date of complete clean office {no personal things that would not fit my purse} is until the end of month. 

It means returning all gadgets to the office as well,like USB and portable HD. 

And since we expect some financial changes for this new stage in my life this blog will be more active as I realized its use for times like this. 

 Today, there are changes on this blog.

I changed layout.

Added Feeds and used Feedburner. I even maximize all of its feature. 

{I will be writing a full post about tweaking blogs for better traffic later} 

For tomorrow, here are the things that I have to do:

1. Finished the " Favorite Links " page
2. Add this blog to Technorati
3. Grocery Day 
4. Financial /Home Management Organization
5. Credit Card Payment

That's for a busy Sunday. 

We will be attending the Sunday service and will probably visit the organic market near the lake later. 

Have a Blessed Sunday.

Drawing on a Friday and some Decluttering Activities

My interest is a mix of art and science. 

Today, while resting from decluttering activities {it's more of removing papers that will be candidate for the shredder from my boxes under the office table} it downed on me that it is the best time to start with my drawing lessons online. 

Actually, it has long been decided that I will be taking online lessons but my memory failed me again and even if I have searched all of the computers in the house, there is not trace of the drawing website that provides the exact lessons that I want. 

Today, I found it. 

And I will get myself listed this very minute. 

On the blogging world, I want to do a project like this on our home-to-be:

from here and here.

It's been an emotional week but with the great people who are showing their love and care, this week is still a great week with minor challenges. 

Projections of 2011 on Wednesday

This is going to be a very busy day for us all here in the office. 

Today is our planning workshop for the remaining months of the year. 

To keep my busy mind from getting too much stress here is my supposed to be örganizer/planner notebook. 

I did say homemade, right? 

Please excuse the blurry smartphone photo.

 without rings or bind, I am yet to decide if it will be ring bind or those three rings used on this

a closer view of the tabs

this is the reason why lazybug caught up with me. 

Last year I was invited to judge a costume party for one of the friendly agencies that we have few projects and they gave me this as a token. 

The perfect size of planner that I have  been looking for. 

Just small enough to fit into my handbag. 

But big enough to have this:

yes, that is a calculator. 

I love its functionality because it can always be pulled out whenever I am doing some shopping.

I wont take credit on the 2011 planner. I downloaded the pages from here and changed the cover with a design of my choice but still incorporating the tree/bird design.

I am linking this on What Ever Goes Wednesday link party

Opps, I think since we are on Philippine time it is too early for Wednesday Link party for me.  I did add mine anyway.

Sometimes I Can Not Help It (And a giveaway of Pinterest Invites!)

It's Wednesday. 

Everyone is busy coping with so many things during the middle of the week. 

And I had two meetings yesterday, the first one is so hilarious that I was still talking about it until today. 

A funny story that I will remember for the rest of my life. 

And I learned some lessons as well. Few lessons that I will always remember. 

First is you will appreciate your superiors professionalism when you meet people from the same level of career position who blew their top and their reputation in the process. 
I understood respectability yesterday.
And I learned to accept my arrogant superior the way he is. He is a mild case.
Yesterday, I saw the worst.
And I don't want to work alongside people with attitude. 

Second lesson learned is that you can't force respect. Especially if you bad mouth them when they are not around. They will just laugh behind your back. 

Now, back to the blogging world.

Have you heard of Pinterest? Because if you do,why didn't you inform me and most of all why did you not send me an invite? 

Anyway, I found a blogger who is giving invites and since it is so difficult to find in my computer's history who is that blogger, I am paying it forward hoping that I am doing what she intends me to do.

I have five invites that can be given away if you ask for it. 

You can email or comment on this post if you are interested. 

Pinterest allows you to pin/bookmark (sort of) things that you see in the internet.
You get to have your own account and it is some sort of social network-like with a bookmarking/catalogue capabilities.
Even if you are not on your computer, you can access those websites or blogs that you bookmarked (and intend to read when you have time)

via

{Note: When I started the post, I am supposed to have some links here for future projects but since I already have a pinterest account there is no need to post them here.}

Have a great Wednesday.

I Am Still Here

I added few more links on the sidebar for those who are interested on having their kiddie party. Life here is a mix of slow pace, cold weather and longer sleeping hours.

I started skipping rice since last week and have lost some weight. I ate mostly apple, papaya and oatmeal cookies. No photos of my progress, it makes me cringe just thinking about the weight I gained in the past few months.

I promised  photos from my travel to Cebu but unfortunately, we arrived few hours before the speaking engagement and got only an hour to fix our hair and shirt. I met up with a long time girlfriend who is based there and had an hour of catching up with her. Then I took my 5am flight the next day. So there is no sightseeing for me.

How's your New Year? 

I already labeled some of our things for the moving out and hope to get enough funds for the paint jobs. I will be flying back to Cebu on February to spend more time with my friend there. I will not break my promise, there will be photos!

I have been playing with some posters and came up with this. I wont be taking credit for the words but I did the layout and stuff. :D I am hoping to do something art worthwhile. So here goes...

You can download and print it if you want to hang it somewhere. Or you can email me if you want the pdf version.

This is a good week so far. 

Have a great Wednesday.

Project Prospects

I had a crazy week. The workload is heavy but somehow it still made me feel like I have never done them before. Two months away from the job (commitment-wise, if you catch my drift) makes same job exhausting once you go full time again. I can not blog that much so I am posting prospects for projects at home.

On the good news, we were able to get the house and lot. We are now on the process of looking for funds to add for the initial down payment (we do not want to wipe out our savings and our loan will not cover the down payment). I will be posting photos of the house this weekend.

Here are the new links:

1. easy to do tutorials (for beginners):

{via Mr&Mrs.Phillips}

2. More on for little kid (boys) craft and nesting

{via CookCleanCraft}

3. Inspiration and tutorials

{via MadeByJenn}

4. MadebyJenn made a camera strap that I want to do and she got the tutorial from {PriddyCreations}

{photo via PriddyCreations}

There you have it. Hope you will enjoy your weekend. Have a great Friday.

Wings on December

Sometimes I wish magic is real. I am referring to wands, beaded bag with undetectable extension charm (pictured below) and other magic that will make life easier. Whining is what I do when things get so busy around here and my mind seems to freeze and would just stop working.

Hermione and her beaded purse/bag

My point is, December is a busy month because of the holiday season: gifts, shopping, menu, reunions and different parties.

But aside from the holiday, work like a clockwork, will always be busiest during this month. 

People are asking for accomplishment reports, meetings that were never done the entire year but only just now, and new activities that seems to have waited an entire eleven months before they decided to make their appearance.

That's why I am asking for a magical December. Where everyone can get what they want and be happy. 

Now, for the more serious stuff, I have to make few updates on our home-ownership status. I am crossing my fingers and hoping that we will be allowed to convert our lot purchase agreement into a house and lot agreement because we realized that although we are paid to process and make plans as our careers, it does not apply to us on personal life. We, despite our experience in our jobs on organizing and negotiating and coming up with solutions that requires a lot of paper processing, can not even get a building permit without losing our temper because of red tape. Last Saturday, I gave up to the idea that the house plan that I have paid for (around $360) will probably get dust and shelved forever. 

I have seen the chosen house, took photos and hope to post them here. Now, with the hope that it will be given to us, here are the new ideas that I think will help us make it cozy and less-mass produced:

1. will keep this on my stash for the smaller rooms

     

 

photo via {letteredcottage}

2. Decorchicks's Molding ideas that turned into a fake wainscot. I really love this idea because the new house look too plain with just paint on them but we will probably unable to afford a real molding and wainscot once we started paying for the mortgage.

the Molding

the beautiful "wainscot"after some paint job

she got the idea here where Joy used laminates for their "fake"  board-and-batten like this one:

image from Joy's blog, you can see tutorial there.
 

there are other inspirations out there but I might have to limit my entry for now. I will be posting some other DIY soon so that bloggers like me who are on a tight budget can still make their home presentable.

Weekend Fun +Work Week's Activities

I had the most relaxing weekend and although my mind is still on its slumber stage from too much work last semester, it is more than ready to function on its current state of capacity.

A Total Quality Control Management training workshop was offered and I grabbed the opportunity to learn more about management. And I learned two things: 

1. I need to review my statistics (for my own career's sake); and

2. TQM is not for everybody. 

I will tell you about it on another post. 

Last Friday I attended a Round Table discussion on the progress of renewable energy in the country and it is one of those things that excites me. ( I will discuss this also on another blog)  It made me think of something about my future home-ownership wish list: 

I want a solar panel on my roof! Regardless of the investment! I am crossing my finger for a subsidy from the government on this one. 

Sometime this week, I had this snack. One of the many sweet things that I love:

 

You can drool if you want. I wont stop you. I am hungry myself. But I just finished my warm milk and it is impractical to start on sugar at this hour. 

By the way, I used basic ingredients. 

Local too. 

If you are from the PI and have no idea that there are big marsh mallows on supermarket, I am informing you now that there are "for bonfire" sizes. 

If your supermarket does not offer them, go to the nearest 7-11 convenient store.

They have the biggest marshmallows I ever found in the PI. 

Expect a higher price though, compared to the one from the supermarket.  

 

I also did some organizing. Found out that five minutes of your time can make a big difference. like this one:

Before:

  

five minutes later. 

 

 We had so any stuff on the table. Glad to put them back on their proper places. Nothing actually belongs on that table except the laptop. We are just too lazy to clean it up.

and for the weekend activity...I was able to convince someone to bake some cookies. teehee! 

But not after he melted the white chocolate the wrong way. 

We had a lumpy white chocolate that should be used for our own version of Reese's peanut cupcake.

 I was able to convince him to bake cookies so that we can use the lumpy white chocolate. 

He agreed and I think he is pretty proud that he did because we were able to push that old oven to work. And finally, it did cooperate.

I was able to fire it up to 350degrees! 

We had a chewy, tasty chocolate cookies. 

It was a drop cookies and I insisted on using my bento cutters on them to give it a little art.

They look huge on the photos (compared to those locally sold cookies). 

And they are really huge! 

About the size of the palm of my hand. 

Imagine how big does a 5'1" woman is. You can do the math.

And tonight, I found this kitchen. I fell in love with it and I know that this is the one that I will try to replicate on our home.

{image from here}

 I am not sure if its allowed to copy the photo from her header. 

But I did anyway. 

Hope linking back is good enough to give due credit. 

I can't lose this photo on my cluttered file again. That's why its on this blog. So that it is easier to look for it when I need it. 

don't you love those open shelves? I love them so much. and they are easy to reach as well.

Hope you had a great week too. 

I have lots of things to do like joining meme. Yes, will start with that one too. but for now, I need to sleep.