Caela turns two!

As the cliche goes, "Time flies so fast." Our baby just turned two on Philippines' Independence Day. My sister and I decided for a green polka dot and stripe pool party. Mint green was on my mind while planning the party - for a feminine touch. It turned out that bookstores in Gensan have scarcity for color variations. Oh, craft stores, I wish you exist on this side of the world! But a trying hard good craft-maker is resourceful. :) Thus, we made use of whatever was available and I think everything turned out to be beautiful. Love is on the handmade details.

Customized polka dot and stripe balloons

Polka dot and stripe balloons

    I pumped the balloons using a balloon inflator sold for about Php50 in a local department store. These big balloons were sold for about Php100 per dozen, balloon sticks about Php30 per dozen. I accessorized the balloons with white polka dots and stripes using bond papers.

Bunting

    My sister made the bunting from used cartolinas and bond papers.

The Number 2

   My brother-in-law made the giant number 2 from a used styrofoam - the one from an appliance packaging. Who would have thought something good could result from an almost trash thingy. 

Cupcake toppers and monograms

    My sister is such an artist. She designed the cupcake toppers and the monograms for the loot bags. She even made those pretty ribbons.

Loot bags

   These striped yellow green loot bags were made from wall papers. The bear key holders were bought for super cheap prices.

   
Cake and cupcakes
    The cake and cupcakes were made by Caela's ninang Marian. I also made some banana muffins but failed to take a photo of them.

 

The prettiest pool in Gensan is in Gensan View Resort. It was just fitting to celebrate Caela's birthday there. They have clean pools, well maintained landscapes, photogenic venue and most of all, friendly staff. They did not give us a hard time booking them. :) I really like it when the crew of a business establishment are accommodating and extra caring. It means to me that they have good employers who don't just want put up a business for the sake but to offer excellent service.

Happy birthday our smart and pretty little one. I'm excited for the day when you can read Tata's blog and find this post. :) As of now, enjoy your water colors and colored pencils. You already know how to draw rainbows, pigs, and stars, at least in your eyes and ours. :) You also draw faces of Papsy, Nana, Mama, Papa, Tito Jan, Tito Bobet, Mommy, Ko May, and mine. We say that you're doing good at it although we only see scratches of small circles and spirals all over your crumpled bond paper. Keep up the good work baby girl. Surprise us in your next art work. You are loved! :)

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.

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!