Finally, here it is!

Wednesday, 9 January 2008Wednesday, 24 September 2008 / LivE / 13 Comments

the original version of the shutters page plopper using Jason Gaylor’s awesome brushes!!! For those who downloaded the version I released earlier, this one has different brushwork AND it also has a slightly different, more sunshiny hue to it.

Again, many thanks to Adam Lambert-Gorwyn for his windows photo, and Jason Gaylor for giving me the go-signal to release the plopper using his brushes!

Here’s the preview (I’ve updated the photo of my dear friends, the mother-and-daughter team who were the inspiration behind this creation). Hey, Jackie, does this photo now beat the other preview in terms of cuteness? 😆

{Click on image for larger view}

Download this plopper version here.

Of DDs and LOADs

Don’t you love acronyms? teeheehee.

I missed out on posting my latest LOADs and DDs, so here they are.

Daily December No. 3 & LOAD Day 5:

I wanted to do a page that shows the culture of my country, because Christmas is such a huge event in this part of the world. (Christmas carols begin playing in September–can you imagine the pressure? 😆 –and the food! the glorious food that abounds! Every home, big and small, mansion and hut, has happy lights. We are a happy people, what can I say? 🙂

Journaling reads:

i love it when the parols begin to hang from trees and eaves. to me, nothing more warmly signals the advent of this season of joy and peace as the light shining from this truly filipino symbol of the star that shone above the manger on that first christmas night.

CREDITS:

Jessica Sprague’s lovely Daily December template PLUS Katie Pertiet’s Grid Brush, Michelle Coleman’s Topper, Monika69 – Christmas paper1, pillowgirl/E.Blust – RichXmas paper (both blended); photo of nativity scene: www.seasite.niu.edu; Flickr: Large Lit parol photo; nbk – grungy paper

LOAD Day 6:

Lately I’ve been getting into wanting to do full-photo-bleed layouts. This is what I came up with. This is my MIL. Pretty gorgeous for one who is beyond 70 years, eh?

Journaling (Quote) reads:

Beauty… when you look into a woman’s eyes and see what’s in her heart. ~ Nate Dircks

CREDITS: Jason Gaylor’s Brushes

Daily December Day 4 & LOAD Day 7:

Journaling Reads:

you said:

mom, can you gel my hair? i’m going to wear my jacket and my shades, and when my classmates see me, they’re going to say, wow, you’re sooo cool!

i said:

sure, honey, let’s do that. but you know what? it’s not your hair nor your jacket nor your shades that make you cool.

you’re cool because you’re a good boy. that’s what makes you cool, my little dude.

CREDITS:

Jessica Sprague’s fab DailyDecember Template PLUS Katie Pertiet’s Grid Brush & Stitched Chip Strip; Michelle Coleman’s Topper; the Little Dreamer Designs Jolly Jingle Collaborative Kit, from which I used Michelle’s and Misty Mareda’s papers, Jackie Eckles’ star, Emily Merritt’s sparkles (recolored), Lori Barnhurst’s brad fibers

Daily December Day 5 & LOAD Day 8:

Journaling reads:

checking out the decor in our neighborhood:

hey, mom, where’s rudolph’s red nose?

CREDITS:

Jessica Sprague’s wonderful Daily December template, Katie Pertiet’s Grid Brush, Michelle Coleman’s Topper PLUS Michelle Coleman’s Merry Little Christmas Kit items (papers & flower) and Reindeer Brush by me! 🙂

Whew! All caught up with posting my layouts this January so far! 🙂

Lookie! What a surprise!

I am so delighted! There have been 469 downloads of the Shutters Plopper (the one I released a few days ago) from the last time I checked. Will those who have used it allow me to post their layouts on my blog? Do leave me a note if you don’t allow me… silence means YES! 😆 (But if you leave me a line and say, yes, please do, I’d be even more delighted!)

Also, look what I just found on the web today? SLKozul used part of my Jolly Hollydays kit to make a birth announcement for her friends!

She did a great job, didn’t she?

So many stories, so wish to share!

There are so many stories that I wish to share, but I have to stop myself before my post runs page after page after page! I’ll be back soon, though!

Thank you so much, my dearest friends, all of you who offered prayers, well wishes, and words of advice for my Lasik operation. More stories about that soon!

In the meantime, need to work on my LOAD for Day 9 … it gets difficult as I have to put my alien act to rest for a few days (meaning, I can’t stay up till 4AM as the eyes give up and force me to lie down. Those of you who’ve worn contacts: you know how it is when you’ve kept them on for too long, and your eyes feel dry and they sting a bit? That’s how my eyes feel after a while, except this time, I can’t remove the lenses and go aaaaahhhhh! The only recourse is to sleep.

But I figure… that’s fine. Give or take a month, and I’ll be back to burning the midnight oil! 😆

Have a happy day, my sweeties! (((hugs)))

24 Hours After…

Tuesday, 8 January 2008Wednesday, 24 September 2008 / LivE / 11 Comments

and doing good. The eyes, I mean. There’s a bit of dryness, a fair amount of glare, but other than that, it’s amazing to be able to see without the glasses perched on my nose. Also a bit strange, after 34 years of wearing glasses, to suddenly not have those lenses in front of your eyes. I’m a bit afraid that I’m going to reach out to push up the glasses on the bridge of my nose (watch anyone wearing glasses for a certain period of time and you’re bound to see that almost-kneejerk habit)… except this time, I won’t have any, and I’ll end up scratching the tip of my nose just to provide some alibi for why my hand is hovering in that area in the first place.

😆

I went in today for my first post-op checkup. The verdict? 20-20 vision in the left eye, 20-15 in the right eye. (Yeah! Better than perfect!) I’m adjusting a bit due to the difference in grade, and I’m told it should stabilize, as should the glare, in about a month’s time. Yeah! So it is a bit of an effort to do work on the compy (and a bit more of a greater effort to read anything)… bless my hubby for his insight in getting me a widescreen monitor last year, not that he had any idea I’d up and get an operation within an hour of inquiring about it. 😆

So anyway, I was playing around on youtube, rewarding myself with some mindless playtime because I finally finished that article I needed to write for a big magazine (’twas so hard to trim down what I wrote as the subjects of the article were such rich material, I wanted to write down every little detail! 😀 ). And here’s what I found!

I like the melody of this song, I love Dr. McDreamy (Laurie and Tori, you hear me? 😆 ), and best of all, when I saw the beginning part of this video, I said to myself, “hey! that’s exactly how everything looked to me right after the Lasik operation!” (That view lasted the entire evening, by the way; that’s why I slept off what was left of the day and retired waaaaay earlier than my 4AM bedtime).

Oh and here’s another something I came across quite by accident, and I thought it was really really amusing. And amazing. Watch the entire thing, and see if you can guess which song it is. I’ll be pretty impressed if you guess it right before you get to the middle. 😉

Okay, I’ll be back with more in a little bit!

Busy Busy Busy Bee

Saturday, 5 January 2008Wednesday, 24 September 2008 / LivE / 5 Comments

Wow! This has been a really full day!

I had to attend to real life stuff–cleaning out storage rooms, entertaining guests, taking care of nephew and nieces who came over to play with their cousins (my boys), and other blah blah blah stuff that would probably bore you to tears so I won’t even mention it. Regular stuff that, now and then, requires us to pull ourselves away from our beloved compy, difficult though it may be. 😆

BUT! Two interesting things, before I go back to my other deadlines.

Layout Of the Day Number 4

Am so delighted that I was finally able to finish my second Daily December page layout. Thank you, LOAD, for that proverbial kick in the butt that I needed. I don’t think I would’ve been able to finish this without the challenge to spur me on and push me down the path that didn’t have the Procrastination Street sign on it. 🙂

Thank you also, my dear Noel, for nudging me to post my LOAD layout here already… I would’ve forgotten to post it here if not for your comment! {I can almost hear you saying: What would you do without me? 😆 }

So here’s my Daily December 2, my LOAD No. 4:

Journaling reads:

ah yes, how absolutely wonderful it is to wake up to the aroma of coffee brewing on these cool christmas mornings. the precious bonding moments in between sips bring far greater warmth to the heart than the heat that rises from our mugs.

CREDITS:

Jessica Sprague – Daily December Template + Katie Pertiet’s Topper, Mindy Armour’s Christmas papers, and Mindy Terasawa’s Merry & Bright Accent overlay (recolored slightly).

I am totally dependent on my Solis coffee making machine. I love that it cleans itself each time you turn it on and then again when you turn it off (loooove that I don’t have to clean it manually!!!). I love that you have the option to put in ground coffee or pour in beans (it has a built-in grinder that grinds just enough beans for a cup right before it starts brewing–I never use the ground coffee options as I prefer freshly ground beans). I love that it has a hotplate above where I can keep little espresso cups warm, so that I don’t have to drink hot coffee from a cold cup. I love that I can make myself a regular brew, an espresso, or a capuccino at the touch of a button.

Another thing I love are the two cups that my dear hubby got for us some Christmases ago. We inevitably end up teasing each other about which cup should belong to whom. I of course lay claim to the Nice with the halo and always assign the Naughty with the horns to my hubby. He is convinced it should be the other way around. In the interest of keeping peace, I will allow him his conviction. After all, being naughty adds a hint of spice to my personality, doesn’t it? (Ha! Though seriously, he really is much nicer than I am, and I probably am much naughtier than he is). 😉

I’m hoping that at the end of LOAD I would also have completed the Daily December album (and it will be my first theme album ever! Woohoo!)

I up and ran, I rocked, and I’m going to dig in deep!

With Jessica’s newest advanced course, Digi: In Deep, coming in March! Am so looking forward to this, because I looooove taking journeys with Jessica and my playground family. One always comes out of the class gaining sooooo much more than one could have dreamed possible. (Ask any of my playground sisters and they will easily attest to this).

I am also very excited about the upcoming Up & Running course (on its third run) that will be offered in January for digital scrapbooking beginners, and the advanced Now We’re Rockin’ course (on its second run) that will be offered in February. Read more about it in Jessica’s blog and on our playground! And for my friends hopping over here who have not taken either or both of those classes, take note of the sign-up period, set reminders on your calendars, join the throngs waiting for sign-up day, and come join us! It’s a journey you will take that will change your life in more ways than you can ever imagine–I kid you not. Everyone on our playground will attest to this.

Jason Gaylor rocks!

Just heard from Jason and he has allowed me to use his brushes for the shutters plopper that I created. So if you aren’t sick of the plopper yet, head on over for the original version (I’m thinking of giving it in a different shade so that it won’t be too much like the one you downloaded yesterday). That is, unless you’re sick of the plopper already? 😆

Thank you, Jason. You rock.

Resolutions, resolutions

New year, new resolutions.

In the past couple of years, I have not really attached importance to making resolutions on New Year’s Day, since I make resolutions daily. I believe in making daily resolutions because they’re easier to remember on a daily basis (have a little notebook to remind me throughout the day). Daily resolutions also make it easier for me to check my progress (did I fulfill them or did I fail today?), and it’s less of a letdown when I fall short of achieving them (hey, didn’t do too well on this one today; I’ll try again tomorrow).

But this year, I decided to experiment with having BOTH: New Year’s Resolutions and Daily Resolutions, for no other reason than to spice things up a bit (and also… because I may have masochistic tendencies that push me to keep loading my plate, even when it’s already full, if you know what I mean. 😆 )

Here are my New Year’s Resolutions:

1. Make a layout a day (LOAD has inspired me to do this. I may not succeed at it everyday, but I’d like to think that it’s the effort is what counts 😛 )

2. Lose 10-20 pounds. (I need to unload all that holiday sweetness that stayed a minute on my lips and took up residence forever on my hips). By the way… my sisters just reminded me–trust me to forget this–that my skipping meals (oops) was actually the worst thing I could do in an effort to lose weight. Apparently, when you skip a meal, your body goes into starvation mode; it says “woops, we don’t know when she’s going to shovel food into her mouth next, so let’s store all the fat we can to help her survive.” So what happens is, instead of burning calories, your body actually stores your fat to keep you warm and comfy even when you’re starving… which you are, only because you’re skipping meals.

Notice how I’m using “your body, your stored fats”… could it be an attempt for me to escape the fact that it’s my body and it’s my stored fats? 😆

3. Give out at least one freebie a week. Maybe more. (Love creating, love sharing what I create with you. Need I say more?)

4. Seriously consider finally getting that Lasik operation done on my eyes. This month. Go see the top specialist in the country on Monday. (I have always been deathly afraid of having this operation, despite the fact that two of my sisters have had it successfully, and my brother is going to have his on Monday. I am totally dependent on my sense of sight, myopic it may be, and I can imagine surviving with the loss of all the other four senses, but not the sense of sight. I would absolutely go insane without sight: how will I read? how will I scrap? how will I take photos? No eyes = No life. So I’ve stayed away from Lasik as much as I can. But… if I don’t do it now, when? When I’m too old for it to be successful? Besides, I’m thinking of how cool it would be to open my eyes in the morning without having to grope around for my glasses, no matter how cool and chic they are. 😆 Also, my sister tells me, 10 minutes after the operation, I can go back to my compy and play. How bad could that be, huh?) Cheer me on, my friends. I’ve got the resolve now, but I may not be so resolute come Monday. hehe

5. Clean and organize all the stuff in all the other storage areas. (Discard what must go and donate what is good but not used: clean out and make space… so I can hoard more stuff. 😆 ) Seriously, though: today I started with cleaning out one of the 4 storage rooms we have… and had the pure pleasure of donating and discarding. How liberating to keep only what you know must be kept, and sharing the rest, whether with the garbage collector or with needy ones!

6. Clean and organize my compy. ACDSee, we really must make friends with each other. I truly must go beyond the 10 kits I’ve organized since June. (And must delete all the useless stuff on my compy as well). This is totally daunting, considering that I have 1,100,000 GB of stuff to deal with (does that make 1.1 Tetrabytes?). SIGH. This is not going to be easy, folks. Already I’m exhausted, just thinking about it.

7. Learn some more, play some more, pray some more. (In reverse order).

8. Stop pushing things to the last minute and try doing them in advance.

I should stop here. 8 resolutions for 2008. Sounds good. Hope the results are just as good. hehe.

Okay, now I need to go… got an article to write for a big magazine that was due a week ago. Hey, that’s New Year’s Resolution No. 8 about to be fulfilled right now! Woohoo!

I’ll be back tomorrow with the other-version plopper freebie. Today, all I can offer you is some coffee. But it’s wonderful coffee (decaf for those who need it, and hot chocolate for those who don’t want caffeine), with whipped cream on top. I’ll even serve it to you in the Nice cup. 😉

Enjoy today, my sweeties! (((hugs)))

PS. Noel… the cups you want: I got them from Starbucks some years back. 😉

PS. For those who asked where they could get the awesome Scrappin’ Shoes that I wrote about yesterday: They’re adidas. I wish I could say you can find them at Target or Amazon, but… fact is, I got these from the adidas store at the mall. 🙂

Get a LOAD of this again…

Friday, 4 January 2008Wednesday, 24 September 2008 / LivE / 22 Comments

where LOAD refers to LayOut A Day! 🙂

At Stacy Julian’s Big Picture Scrapbooking, Lain is holding a Get a LOAD of This!, a January Layout-A-Day Challenge class (did I mention that it’s free? 🙂 ) which basically entails creating and uploading a layout a day for each day in January. So you end up with 31 layouts at the end of the month: not a bad start on the Creation Road right on the first month of the new year, eh? Best of all, there are no borders, no restrictions: as long as you create a layout–digital, hybrid, or paper–and you upload it every single day, you’re eligible for daily prize draws (if you upload daily) and for the grand prize draw (if you upload the entire January without missing a single day).

I know, I know. I must be masochistic, adding to an already full plate that’s overflowing. But I figured it’s the best way to stay sane while waiting for Jess to come back from her super-fabulously restful trip back home (wonder if she’s not a bit wistful for her laid-back non-techie time when she thinks about jumping back into the digital frenzy once again, haha… after all, we on her playground are like hungry little fishes waiting for the next feeding).

It’s also a fantastic way to kick my old procrastinating butt into action. Love, love, love creating layouts, but frankly, sometimes I need a shove to get going. Are you all super efficient, super prolific creators, or are you like the lesser mortals (that would be the group where I belong 😉 )?

But see, here’s the problem. While I need that shove, it has to be a real gentle shove because I’m a bit of a rebel too. Push too hard and I’ll stand my ground stubbornly. (I know. I’m trying to correct it. Must be the youngest-child syndrome, which I was for 15 years till my not-so-little-now brother came along. We’re seven kids, by the way: so I was the sixth for a pretty long time. And when there are 5 older siblings to push you around, you kind of learn how to keep your feet firmly planted in the same spot. I was a bit of a late learner, so there’s some debris left in me. 😆 )

And this is where I should say I jumped for joy when I listened to the audio welcome of Lain’s challenge-class. There is absolutely no restriction for size of layout (you want to do 6×6, fine. You want to do 8×8, fine too. 12×12, 8½x11? Fine and fine too). There’s no prompt you have to follow (no: “okay, everyone, scrap using your favorite song as journaling!”), no specific materials you need to use, no grading or ranking (prizes are given as a result of random drawing, so you don’t need to nurse any budding insecurities about your creations 😆 ) … I loooove that! Not to say that prompts don’t help, because they are awesome in terms of pushing you down a path you otherwise would not have taken, but… it’s really a personal thing for me: no stress please on the first month of the year. 🙂 hehe

Psst. If you’re interested and you haven’t signed up yet, you have till January 15th to sign up! Come join the fun! 😉

So anyway. Just to prove how weird I could be, with all this freedom, when did I create my layout for Day 2? Two hours before the posting deadline. SIGH. Slow learner. Or maybe procrastination is just a bad habit that’s hard to break. But hey, at least I got my paper passed before the bell rang, huh? 😀

Here’s what I did for the second day of January:

(Oh and you know what else is so wonderful? Doing this layout also allowed me to finally do one of Jessica’s PSF challenges that we have going on in our little playground. Lisa (who does a fab job of thinking up the next PSF for all of us to learn with) will be so proud of me! 😀 )

Journaling reads:

i look at the two of you and see my childhood come rushing back–all those languid days spent in the wonderful company of books. i think it’s totally cool that my best friends have become your best friends too.

CREDITS:

Mindy Terasawa – Lil Troublemaker paper, cardboard border (recolored), sticker, wordsticker, notecircle, frame (altered) / Katie Pertiet – Vintage Text paper / Fonts: Jane Austen, Cheltenhm BT / Photo of books: singhajay (altered)

Check Out Those Shoes

of my son… those yellow shoes. Looooove them.

He chose them himself for his 12th birthday last month, and they totally rock. They’re what I call the Scrappin’ Shoes (okay, so their real name is Adicolor by Adidas–best of all they were 50% off!)… because they remind me so much of a layout!

See, they come in this super playful sunshine-y color, and they’re made of velcro material. They come with these super fun colorful insoles, three different pairs of shoelaces that you can change according to your mood, and there are about a dozen circular “patches” that you stick on the velcro in any way you want (hence my association with scrapping… it’s like having a layout on your feet that you can change everyday!). Really: how cool is that?

And you thought there would be no freeb… 😉

Here, finally, is the Shutters Page Plopper that I promised I’d share with you. 🙂

I think it’s totally awesome that Jason Gaylor left a note on my blog to resend him the email I wrote to him, asking him if he was fine with my releasing the plopper which I used his fab brushes on. I resent the email to him, but I am still waiting for a response… as soon as he gets back to me, assuming it’s a yes 😉 , then I’ll put up the original shutters plopper that I created using his brushes.

By the time I got Jason’s note, though, I had already done some new work on the shutters plopper using hawksmont’s brushes. He’s amazing too! (I just looooove how the whole creative community is so generous and so giving!) So for now, I’m releasing the plopper that I used hawkmont’s brushes on.

Here’s what the “new” plopper looks like:

{Click on image for larger view}

PS. Don’t laugh. That’s me in the photo. Waaaay back. Ssshhhh. Let’s pretend it’s a stock photo, okay? 😉

And here’s the link to the “new” plopper that I made using hawksmont’s brushes! Hope you like it just as much as the first one! It’s a .png file, so just put your photo on the layer beneath it, add some embellishment if you wish, and voila! 😉 A quickie! 😆

Oh and PS… guess what. Since this preview is basically a layout which I completed on January 3, it has also turned into my LOAD layout for Day 3! How cool is that? 😛

Have a great day, my sweeties! More stories and more freebies coming soon!

It’s Been a While…

Wednesday, 2 January 2008Wednesday, 24 September 2008 / LivE / 16 Comments

a pretty loooong while! I looked at the date of my last post here… December 20th… that was LAST YEAR, for crying out loud! 😆 Geez, I didn’t realize it’s actually been that long!

Guess holidays really can make things so hectic that everything else not related to food and partying and food … and did I say food?… seems to fall behind. 😛

But! I’ve missed you, my dear friends! And I’m back with a vengeance so strong, you’ll probably be hoping that I stayed away longer when you see the multiple posts a day come up! hahaha.

First, the good news:

I have heard from wonderful, wonderful Adam J. Lambert-Gorwyn aka stoneraven, whose photo I used to make the shutters plopper… and he has given me permission to go ahead and release the freebie I’ve created!!! WOOHOO!!!

I have not heard from jason gaylor, though, whose japanese foliage brushes I used also on the plopper, so I may have to re-do the plopper with other brushes before I can upload it as a freebie. It will be on for a limited number of downloads, though, so be sure to check back soon! 😉

My first layout for the year!

Something funny happened today. I visited my friend Noel’s blog and I saw her layout for Lain’s L.O.A.D. class at bigpicturescrapbooking.com, which begins January 1st. It’s January 2nd in my part of the world, and I was out of town and up in the mountains for the better part of post-Christmas till New Year (so you will, I hope, find it in your hearts to forgive me for slacking off on my blog these past 10 days or so)… so I had completely forgotten about this! The funny thing is, I had mentioned to Noel that I had signed up for the LOAD class in one of our fun, fun chats between Christmas and New Year… but I had completely forgotten about it till I saw her blog! So with just a couple of hours left till the PST clock matched my time in this part of the world, I was able to complete a layout! YEAH!

Thanks, Noel, my friend, for posting your layout on your blog and mentioning the LOAD class. I would have completely forgotten about it if not for you.

And here is my very first layout for the new year!

Boys in the Hoods

Journaling below reads:

so funny that my boys have inherited my love for hoodies, but when they’re this cool, who’s complainin’?

CREDITS:

FONTS: Stoned Wash 6; SubPear / Mindy Terasawa – Groovy Boy Papers (Recolored), WordSticker & Staple / Katie Pertiet – On the Edge Flourish, WordSeal / Kim Christensen – DirtyShirt Brad & Eyelet – recolored; Spelling101- Black Inked Overlay / Jen Caputo – PaperTear Template / Brushes: smoke brush by ca-pris; Dot-Round brushes by GoGetADesign

And now… for a few mountain photos!

Love trees… I may not love the lack of dsl speed connections in the mountains, but I certainly loooove the scent of pine trees, the cool blast of wind in the face, and the trees all around!

Here’s a macro shot of the pine trees… such wonderful texture (and such fun playing with my camera!)

Speaking of macro, here’s a bug on the glass door of our villa. Looks kinda like an alien to me… my kids had a blast looking through the camera viewfinder and seeing it UP CLOSE in a big way! (Grossed them out too! Ha! Beats actual holding and handling of the bug for me! 😉 )

Loved taking texture photos, like this wooden bench here.

The wind was blowing so hard, you could actually watch the clouds move across the sky faster than an airplane would.

Here is one of the cabins… to give you a feel of the place 😛

Here’s the spa and lodge, where we check in and check out.

And for my golfing friend Joan, here’s one for you! The view of the golf course–or, more accurately, part of it. (It was really foggy and windy that day, so this is the best I could do with the photos!) 😀

I took the view of the golf course with my lens fully extended to its 200mm length… amazing! I was on top of the mountain by the spa when I took this! Gotta love my beloved lens!!! (AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm DX… the VR is great for those windy days too!)

And that’s the end of today’s film show! 😆

PS. I used Jay Arraich’s matted frames for the photos. You can get them free at his site!

I’m off to do some work on the shutters freebie… and if I don’t run out of energy, I’ll do more freebs for you! Yep, I’ve suffered from my mountain-imposed freebie-creation-diet and can’t wait to get back into feasting on design… all because I want to share more stuff with you, my sweeties!

Have a happy day, and I’ll be back soon! 😉

Happy New Year, and humongous hugs to you, my sweeties!

What was I thinking???

Tuesday, 18 December 2007Tuesday, 18 December 2007 / LivE / 6 Comments

I must have been crazy to think that I could create my Christmas gifts this season, because with 6 days to go before The Big Day, I have NOT done a single thing (except roll ideas around in my mind… does that count?) and I have not crossed out much on my holiday shopping list either.

Talk about overestimating oneself.

Anybody interesting in renting out their services? 😆

I have several unfinished Christmas freebie items which I can’t get to though I’d love to (doing the usual self-motivation thing: No, self, you may not make any freebies until you’ve got your Christmas to-do list all checked). I do hope I’ll finish soon as there’s nothing I’d love better than to finish up that last Christmas freebie kit, so keep your fingers crossed for me!

Winter Chills and Ills

Okay so it doesn’t snow where I live. But the season brings with it its fair shair of viruses. Three of my babies are sick. One worse than the rest. If he doesn’t get better today, off to the pedia we go tomorrow. I’ve been getting less than my usual 3 hours of sleep because he wakes up every hour to either throw up (uhhhm. excuse me for the graphic language), or complain that he can’t breathe, or ask for water. Poor little guy. I want to hold him and put toothpicks in my eyes to stay awake the entire time. During the day I have to nebulize him 3 to 4 times… and each time I say “Nebulize, honey?” he says “Yes!” So I know his illies are bad.

The other two babies are not so bad… thank God. But sick nevertheless. And what mom can really not worry when one of her little ducks has the slightest illness?

I Caved

Okay, so tell me I’m crazy. Call me nuts. I have NOT done a single paper-scrapped layout since I was 16 (just to give time a perspective: when I was 16, you had to use carbon paper to make multiple copies of what you were typing out on a manual typewriter, and it would be a few years before you could type <B> to get your word into a bold font on computers with green screens and pixelated fonts).

The whole underbelly of my king-sized bed is crammed with paperscrapping materials that are in their virgin state. The three shelves and scrapping tables with drawers I have? Not used. At all.

So why, why, why did I have to go and get these things at the mall when I should’ve been shopping for gifts?

Simple. There they sat on the shelf, making droopy eyes at me, calling out softly “Take me home, take me home”… how could I resist??? Poor lonely things were calling out for a home.

😆

But I can justify, actually. The Heidi Grace Designs punchboard items? Need them to make the homemade recipe box my eldest sister requested from me as her Christmas gift this season. The K&Co. little bragbook? My dad would just love it when I send him this with layouts inside (not yet created, by the way… LOL). The Fiskars squeeze punches: the corner rounder? Never mind that I have 3 corner rounder punches (and the fourth, which is the only one I’m really using, is Jessica’s corner rounder brush… loooove digital!!!). But this one is the coolest among the paper-scrapping punches I have because you can see exactly where you’re punching! The large circle squeeze punch? Well… I’ve been pining for its 3-inch big brother, but since the store didn’t have that, I had to settle for my unrequited love affair by getting this 1.5inch one. The DCWV 6×6 chipboard blanks? Hey, you never know when you’ll need them.

I wasn’t so bad, actually. I did get some shopping done. (Some being the operative word). 😉

😆

And speaking of shopping…

Here’s the latest addition to our Santa family… hubby and I couldn’t resist adding them to our 2 santas in groovy black shades (one has a guitar and the other has a sax, and both play a guitar and a sax version of Christmas songs) and the reindeer that taps his foot in total rhythmic accompaniment to the music.

See, we were hoping our two youngest boys , j (who’s turning two at the end of December) and S (who’s 3), would find these new Santas less frightening. See, the group of three jazzy folks I just described had the strangest effect on our two boys: when we turned on the music and the Santas started strumming and blowing on the sax and the reindeer started tapping, my two boys stared in disbelief and ran away.

So enter these new two: Santa on his sleigh with Rudolph behind him (though you can’t see him too well in this shot) happily bob along on the sleigh as the music plays. Then the other Santa’s legs grow and shrink as he says “ho-ho-ho!” and Jingle Bells plays in the background. He gets tall and short and tall and short.

Come to think of it, as my friend Noel said, why SHOULDN’T it be scary for the kids? A growing and shrinking Santa who can only utter repeating 2-letter syllables Ho Ho Ho… hmmmm. Words of wisdom from a dear new friend whose daughter Emma used to cry on Santa’s lap each Christmas.

😆

And what am I doing…

having the fun of my life sitting on this porch swing with you while the mountain of unwrapped gifts looms before my very eyes and the holiday shopping list is crying out “Hey, look at me! Look at me and DO something!” ???

Gotta get running!!! Six days! Six days!

Does anyone know how to freeze time? All I’m asking for is double the number of days left!

Catch you later, my sweeties!

Oh… and when I get around to doing the creations I crazily thought of making this Christmas, I am sooo sharing with you whatever it is I have… whether they’re templates or instructions. 😉

The Best Compliment

Saturday, 15 December 2007 / LivE / 7 Comments

that you’ve ever received: could you name it? Do you remember it word for word? Can you recall exactly when and where you heard it?

I want to remember this (and my friends will readily attest to how (t)RUSTY my memory is… so I decided to tell all of you so that you can remind me when I grow old and grey… or maybe even next week (which is the soonest time I may forget).

PREFACE:

My 3-year-old son S has taken to attaching himself to my body as best as he can (read: can’t go anywhere without him stuck by my side). It’s usually no big deal because he’s very light and thin and easy to lug around. 😆 However, it becomes a problem when he needs to meet with Mother Nature and do his thing, you know what I mean?

So anyway, tonight, after he did his thing (okay, I confess… he still wears diapers at night), his yaya (in English that would be nanny) tried to take him to his bathroom to get him cleaned up. Of course he put up a huge protest and well… let’s just say my heart totally melts in his tears. So I took him to my bathroom to clean him up myself. Protest over.

When we came out, my 5-year-old son J, declared proudly:

Mama, you are the very best poo-cleaner in the entire world!!!

Don’t know about you, but for me, that’s about one of the very best compliments I’ve ever received in my life.

😆

Have a nice day, my sweeties! Working on a freeb, but you know how the holidays go… will try to have it up soon! 😉

Have you ever…

Tuesday, 4 December 2007Tuesday, 4 December 2007 / LivE / 5 Comments

woken up–say, in the dead of night, or even maybe a couple of hours before the sun himself rises–to this scene?

Well. In case you have woken up to this scene, rejoice, my friend. (And if you haven’t yet and are on your way to this a few months from now, brace yourself).

Because this is how it is at my bedside pretty often, say about…hmmm… every night?

😆 😆

That’s right. But you know what? I would never trade this scene for any other in the entire world, not even if you promised me soft rays of sunshine gently creeping into the room to rest on a bed covered by a warm comforter and your most loved one beside you breathing softly.

Because, you know what? Nothing is softer than 5 hugs from 5 wonderful sons. Plus a happy husband.

😉

For the Love of…

Friday, 30 November 2007 / LivE / 2 Comments

crafts?

So my son J loves scissors. He loves paste. He loves pens and papers.

I love that he loves these things, because when his older brothers were his age, they weren’t as deft and adept with scissors. (Just an aside: isn’t it funny how those two words–deft and adept– mean nearly the same thing, and how the F can easily sound like a P with a slip of the tongue? 😆 I know, I know, I think of the weirdest things).

So my 5 year old son J can busy himself with drawing anything that his imagination can conjure. And then he cuts up these drawings. And then he pastes them on a new piece of paper. Or he takes the box packaging of whatever toy he has, cuts up the little pieces and little photos (you know, the ones that the smart toy manufacturers show at the back of the boxes so that the kids can go to their parents and say “Next time, Mom, can we get this? And this? And this too?”) . And then he sticks those cut-outs onto a piece of paper and then calls out “Anyone who wants a surprise, raise your hand and say Yea! Anyone who doesn’t want, say Nay!”

Naturally, without missing a beat (and often with just a brief glance up from our monitors) his pop and I will raise our hands and say Yea! What can we say? We’re trainable.

😆

So yes, I know my son is good with scissors.

But nothing prepared me for this:

Here, have a closer look:

Okay, so they’re roughly cut and they’ve got these little charming crayola scribbles instead of a solid paint of color. But! But! But! He’s making his own toys! He’s making his own furniture for them! He’s making stuff!!! (And that means it’s possible, just possible, that if I give him some clay, he may make things, with the side benefit of us taking less trips to the toy store! Woohoo!)

Of course, the reason I am so amused and amazed that he’s into creating is because… ahem… his mom loves creating too. And there’s nothing store-bought that can ever come close to the value of a little hand-created homemade gift… scraggly cuts, scribbles and all. 😉

Mmmmmm! 🙂 🙂 🙂

The Big Project, Launched

Thursday, 29 November 2007Wednesday, 24 September 2008 / LivE / 8 Comments

Last night we partied. And now that we have reached the end, we can finally say Amen. 😀

Our Father in the Making

After 19 years of dreaming of this photobook (not mine, but my dear friend’s), after childhood dreams of publishing a book (now that’s mine 😛 ); after about half a year’s worth of 2-hour sleeptimes and 4AM bedtimes, countless emails and cellphone text messages, flights across the country and in and out of the country (sometimes within the same day), trudging through the streets of Hong Kong trying to locate a nondescript building where our book was to come alive on paper…

After bonding over kazillions of cups of strong coffee and even stronger bonds of friendship (some old ones further strengthened and some new ones built); after innumerable edits, edits, re-edits, more edits; after learning to use Adobe InDesign in two hours so that we could beat the impending dawn deadline…

After meeting with 62 wonderful men and their families; after gaining serendipitous wisdom from what these men had to say about their experience of fatherhood; after hearing the warm, endearing stories of their children and gaining a glimpse of the private man that only each family sees and knows; after tons of laughter; after perusing countless photos spread on the studio floor as we decided on paging and layout…

We have the book. Our Father. 62 Fathers. 62 Lives. One Journey.

Here are the photos of that night. (There was an official photographer, so these are the only ones I was able to take):

Welcome to the launch!

The Launch

We had an exclusive song given to us by Martin Nievera (he wrote and sang it; we provided it on CDs attached to the book), who was one of the fathers we featured in the book. Gooselamps lit the black frame mounts from which hung the 62 jumbo portraits (3ft x 3ft) of the fathers. As the song of Martin began to play, the gooselamps turned on one by one, shining dimly first then brightening, one after the other until the entire room shone by the soft light of the 62 gooselamps. Then the doors were opened, more lights were turned on, and everyone came in to ooh and ahh at the portraits of the fathers. It was a dramatic experience (certainly more dramatic than I describe it here).

Inside

People milled about both inside and outside, freely moving from the airconditioned area of the Blue Leaf Pavilion to the beautiful garden outside where cocktails were served: lovely yummy food (one guest asked “Are these cocktails? This is real food!!!” as he surveyed the roast beef, the 3 choices of salad served in classy champagne glasses, the pasta, the multiple finger foods which included the most delectable crunchy potato skins (my personal favorite, so it gets special mention here 😛 ), and the merengue and chocolate mousse for dessert. 25 bottles of choice cabernet sauvignon were consumed, aside from ice cold water and iced tea for the non-alcoholic guzzlers.

This is where we hung out to get a breath of fresh air (and some relief for our tired feet 😛 ) There were 2 of these wonderful Ifugao-inspired huts.

Hangout