Love Love Love! Heart Heart Heart!

The love month ain't over yet! We had a small post v-day party at home. Thanks to the four-hour brownout which started at 6pm, the candlelight dinner buffet appeared to be extra romantic. Haha! And thanks to the camera flash, the photos turned out to be well-lighted.

I made this crepe paper curtain with heart cut outs. My sister pumped up the balloons. My brother played his instrumental love songs. And good we had a red sofa for that perfect feel of love in the air :)

It felt like a prom night only that we were not in long gowns or suits and our living room was so small to be a dance floor. So we just settled on good laughs over baked mac and tinolang manok. And instead of having prom king and queen, it was a unanimous vote for the star of the night, our little darling Caela who maybe got an extra hour of sleep that afternoon because she was at her boiling point. She enthusiastically entertained her house guests.

Then we played my super favorite game of all time - Pinoy Henyo! It doesn't require anything but a brain, man! Not the physical skills which I am so lame at. Thank goodness I have a brain! I was feeling confident at the start of the game. "I will crash every inch of intelligence left in you," was everyone's silent battle cry.  But it seemed my brain cells went to bed earlier than usual that night. Haha!

Little Caela was clapping and teasing the whole time as if she understood what was going on. She sometimes surprises me with her adultlike ways. Don't grow up too fast baby girl :)

Have a love-filled day ahead, fabulous you! :)

DIY Project: Party Hat and Bunting

I love doing things for people and I thank the Lord for giving me creative hands. Doing some crafts for my family and friends is my own little way of sharing this gift. :) But I'm not really super duper creative. Since I tend to be impatient during the process of materializing even a simple project, I do those really easy ones which of course would still appear pretty and special.

For these projects, I only did three basic steps. It's as easy as ABC PCG - Print, Cut, Glue.  I downloaded the party hat template from mrprintables. I even printed the letters for the bunting because I don't know how to letter-cut. This is what you call easy! No sweat! Haha! Check these photos out!

I made these for Rendon's semi surprise birthday party in the office. Happy birthday Rendonskie! Hope you were surprised! Hehe.

I Cancelled A Trip and Missed These Ladies

I just received an email from an airline stating that my flight to Manila from Davao tonight at maybe 8:40 will be delayed and that my new expected time of departure is 10:45 pm. It further said that they were sorry for any inconvenience it would cause me. Oh well, it just reminded me of my supposed trip this weekend which I had painfully decided to cancel a month ago. 

It was hard taking something out from my system since I had been doing that same trip for the past five years. But there were personal things to consider which made me choose to stay. I would surely miss a lot! I don't even wanna start thinking about one. But don't worry. I'm now fine. It's not a matter of life and death so there's really nothing much to worry. :) Thank you for listening reading even though I'm not fair enough in giving some information.

One thing I regret is missing the post V-day dates with two dear girlfriends. Allow me to be a cheesy gal here because I owe these two ladies some honor for being so loving friends to me.

                              

Melai. I have not seen her  personally for nearly a decade now. We've lost touch for few years when she and her family went back to Manila but thanks to Facebook we got hold of each others numbers again. Melai made me tons of love letters in high school even if it was not Valentine's Day. We exchanged letters a lot then because we didn't have cellphones. Only the richy-richy kids had those. Nokia 5110 pa uso nun. Haha! Old school kung old school. Her letters are still lovingly kept in a box in my closet.

I let her read my super teenage emote-emote journals from cover to cover in which she got the lyrics of a song she had written for me and my broken heart. The title was "Man Of My Life". I did not know about puppy love because then, it felt like forever. Aminin, you felt that way , too. She also sang very well so she taught the song to my other singer friends and by the end of the day every brokenhearted girl in the classroom was singing my song (with flowing tears and runny nose. Haha!). 

I loved the idea that the lyrics were mine. It felt so personal. I sang the song in the shower. I sang it to lull myself to sleep, when I was walking in the streets, when picking up flowers in the garden, when leaning my back against the wall just like those in music videos. :) That was how she made me feel special. She just not heard me. She understood me and made others feel me. Some even shared their puppy love stories to her asking for personalized songs, too. By the end of the week, we had a song book! Amazing!

Melai, I miss your loving words and caring hugs. I will never forget how you lifted me up when I was at my lowest and held me up even more when I was on top. I love you! :)

  

  

Mylene. I don't know if I need to say more because I've poured out my heart on this post. The day she left our humble ladies' quarter in MSU felt like she left me. It was even harder than a break up or maybe just equally hard or less hard. Ok, all letting go's are awfully hard. I don't like goodbyes. 

I still can remember her last day in the 'house'. She was packing her things when I went out of my room. We hugged each other tighter than ever. Then said our farewells and goodlucks. Then loosened our hugs because she had to finish packing. I left the 'house' first because I did not want to see her turn her back on me. When I was still a few steps away, she texted me super sweet friendly thank you's and take cares. Tears were flowing from my eyes (syempre sa eyes talaga galing ang tears. :)) Something was gripping my heart. It was so tight I could hardly breathe but I continued walking. I never turned back. Parang teleserye lang ang peg!

She is now in Manila. We have seen each other few times after that dramatic goodbye so it was just saying hello to physical distance not the emotional one.

Ate My, I always say this but I'll say it again. I'm happy and proud of all that you have become. I am so disappointed that I had to cancel this trip but we will see each other again for yet another big trip later this year. I hope we will make this yearly :) I miss your funny stories and the moment-worthy ones :)  I love you te!

To these two wonderful ladies, thank you for taking part in my very dramatic MMK-ish life story.  And forgive me for stealing your photos. Hehe. Seriously, thank you for filling up my love tank even from a distance! :)

Paint Me A Picture

We did a little home improvement by repainting the living room walls. My family conspired to produce a beautiful mess. Hehe.. The walls are all white so I suggested for a wall art to be placed on a strategic corner. After minutes of debate between the groups of conservative and imaginative, the conservatives eventually gave in to giving the wall a character. So here is the inspiration...

from Google images

And here is the final product made by my sister's husband. With me is the proudest daughter, wowed by her father's art.

My conversation with my 1 year and 7 months old niece:

Me: What's this Caela?

Caela: Twee (Translation: Tree)

Me: What are these baby?

Caela: Leebs (Translation: Leaves)

When you're an aunt of a learning-to-talk child, you become an instant interpreter. Once, Caela was trying to say a word I could not really understand. The word sounded like that of an alien's and she talked like one. I was having a hard time figuring the word out but was enumerating words which sounded like the one she was trying to say. After five words, she screamed for frustration. Haha! I wish I could learn her baby talks to understand her better. But lately, more often than not, I can get what she's saying because her speaking skills are improving as well as my understanding. :)

Are you also an aunt of an adorable child?

Braid and Breakfast

It's the month of love!!! Happy February everyone! I found a new love - HAIR BRAIDING. I'm currently at  the obsessive stage with this new love because nothing else really matters in my life but my hair braiding. I'll never be happy unless we are together everyday. I just know that our time together spells happiness. Every cell in my body screams for joy whenever I'm experiencing it. My fingers itch if I can't braid. This hobby is nearing addiction. Haha!

When I was still so much younger, I already knew I was into making others beautiful. I love everything pretty especially making pretty things. Just one random day, I bumped into a hair braiding tutorial in Youtube. I gave it a focused attention like how a child paid attention to a favorite nursery rhyme. It was my first encounter with a hair tutorial. When the video was done, I looked for my sister and experimented on her. Wow! I could do such pretty hairstyles on her. I went back on Youtube and found more tutorials. I was drooling like I just saw a plateful carbonara. If a spaghetti carbonara can be done in tons of ways, why not a person's hair which just looks like spaghetti? #Cornicks #Haha

When I'm in a crowd, I'm looking at ladies as if I'm a prospective suitor interested in getting their phone numbers. Let me just get this straight. I'm so straight. I'm a woman and I'm interested in men. But I'm also a woman who is interested in braiding another woman's hair. Haha! But I don't intend to braid everyone I meet. My precious gift is just for people precious to me. Hehe..

I am glad that there are people who are willing to embrace my ways of expressing this love. For two weeks now, this braiding hobby and Laiza's hair are in a mutualism kind of relationship. They live together in harmony - as if one can't exist without the other, both getting a fair advantage from each other's existence. Well, actually I think the major beneficiary is Laiza because she gets to be extra beautiful everyday. :) I sometimes don't get the style done nicely on first attempt. It can be a trial and error thingy and Laiza has been so patient even when she's getting few painful accidental hair pulls at times.

Here are some of the photos of Laiza's glamorous hair braid styles by a newbie hairbraider me! :)

Photos by Laiza

Every style above, I learned from Youtube. So much information and videos of just about anything (to my surprise even braiding) are flooding in the web so if you want to put a pop of extra beauty on your hair or others', watch a video and learn. Just search hair braid tutorials and be lavished with so much styles.

My niece has pretty soft curls. Even with her strong resistance, I still LOVINGLY forced the waterfall braid on her. Note: The photo may look like one of those evidences for child abuse but the resistance just lasted about 5 seconds. I was singing her favorite rhymes so her attention went on our duet and not on her hair anymore. I'm not a criminal. I'm just an avid braider. Common!

It is much easier to do the braids on others but I'm now learning to do it on myself. Did I mention I'm a DIY fan? :) Here's the only style I know for my hair as of now. Looking a bit messy but I can improve that with practice. Hehe

DIY Project: Photo Op Corner

I am a big fan of Do-It-Yourself projects. I make my own bead bracelets and necklaces. I design my own paper stationery. I make cakes and pastries. At some random times, I even sew my curtains and blouses and skirts. I am not yet a master of my sewing skill but I am working my way to that. :) In the mean time, I also do little DIY's in between like this photo op corner which I made for my brother's birthday.

Materials: crepe paper, scotch tape, foil paper, scissors, bamboo stick (optional)

I cut the crepe papers as shown below, asked my sister to letter cut the foil paper because she does that better than I do, placed the papers on the wall using the tape or you can hang them on a stick and put the stick on a wall, and I placed the letters on the crepe papers using the tape. Voila!!! It's done! I used the color silver because it's his 25th birthday. 

Can you guess his birth month? Oh yes! It's January! How could you guess that out of 12 choices? You have a gift. Maybe you could read palms and be a fortune teller. Haha!

Happy birthday to my brother who may be few years younger than me but is ten years wiser. I'm proud of you!