Saturday Sermon

Happy Weekend!

via fengshui dana

Design Inspiration #6

This brightened up my Sunday.

While I remain loyal to my pink and grey dream home, this splash of bohemian colors is, wait for it, so dreeaammmyyy!!! I love peppering statements with my favorite word - dreamy!!=) Hay! Hay! Yes girlies, we can still get kilig minus the boys, just find that one thing which will make your heart beat as intensely as the Tao of Drums.=)

Let's keep on dreaming, dreamers!!

From Poppy Talk - inspired by H&M

Design Inspiration #5

I am partial to local publications (on home design) because they are practical and easily applicable (what exactly is easily applicable??=p). But House of Fifty is an exception.
An add-on to my reading list!

Sorry, these images are only screen shots.
You can download previous and current issues here.

Awake My Soul

this is a really nice Mumford and Sons'song - perfect for the rainy Saturday

got this from Monica's blog.

How fickle my heart and how woozy my eyes
I struggle to find any truth in your lies
And now my heart stumbles on things I don't know
My weakness I feel I must finally show

Lend me your hand and we'll conquer them all
But lend me your heart and I'll just let you fall
Lend me your eyes I can change what you see
But your soul you must keep, totally free
Har har, har har
har har, har har

awake my soul...
awake my soul...

How fickle my heart and how woozy my eyes
I struggle to find any truth in your lies
And now my heart stumbles on things I don't know
My weakness I feel I must finally show
Har har, har har
har har, har har

In these bodies we will live, 
in these bodies we will die
Where you invest your love, 
you invest your life

In these bodies we will live, 
in these bodies we will die
Where you invest your love, 
you invest your life

awake my soul...
awake my soul...
awake my soul...
For you were made to meet your maker

awake my soul...
awake my soul...
awake my soul...
For you were made to meet your maker
You were made to meet your maker

Saturday Sermon

they say the whole (and profitable) idea of "self-help" is an American thing.

i must be American.

some words to cheer my Universe up.

Keep the Faith.

via Pure Nourishment

Keep Dreaming.

via KitKat

Just One of Those Days

For several days now, I have been meaning to write an entry just because this week, I had two whole nights of having the bedroom all to myself (I share it with a cousin who had gone to a soiree) and that’s a good time to write, right? A calm evening, well-kept room, generous signal from a neighbor’s wi-fi, a laptop and that rare moment of just being with myself. I just need to nail a topic.  I made two several attempts only to delete the entries halfway through. The mood is consistently un-witty, whiny, frustrated, impatient and clueless. And in both attempts, the entries started with a lame introduction - It’s one of those days…

I made a promise to keep this blog as sunshiny as possible because I owe it to the Universe to be so. That’s why I always write down that I am hot (even if it’s only 50% true – Lord, the truth DOES hurt!!) because it makes me feel good and I am claiming all the available hotness found in the Universe menu. That’s why I always write about my dream of having a pink and grey house because it makes me happy – dreams keep us going and again, I am claiming ownership of this dream. That’s why I keep a happy list – it’s an effective pick-me-upper. That’s why I exert all effort to be funny – even if I already appear corny, uncool and lame.

Today, I try to write again, only that the conditions aren’t helpful. My cousin is just several inches from me, attempting to make a conversation by asking questions, which thank God, are answerable by yes, no, a frown and a grunt – someone has to teach her how to read body language or read in between the lines. Our room is a mess - bags, books, CDs on the floor and the sorry state of rumpled sheets. It’s raining and dark outside, so it does not really help with cheering my masungit state ofmind.  Didn’t I just wish for this kind of day yesterday?  I wished for a rainy Saturday so I’ll have a good excuse to just stay on my bed, watch movies or finish a book. Didn’t I just do that? Stayed in my bed, watched Mulan (Parts 1 and2) and finished Nick Hornby’s “A Long Way Down”?  Still my mood remains consistent as how it was stated in the first paragraph: un-witty, whiny, frustrated, impatient and clueless.

Also, I have nothing to write. I have a scarce supply of stories worth sharing or even stories not worth sharing but still ought to be written for the sake of having something to write. I can write about how I have gone numb on the sorry state of MRT commuting but I remembered having written a great deal about my MRT frustration several weeks ago – and who finds reading (and writing) about third world public transport interesting anyway? I can write about how I am frustrated to be the Super Ate to my siblings, how I want to inspire them with my life or at least, provide for them. But I am a little bit sensitive on that issue now so I’ll stop. I can write about my cousin and how I seriously want to check on her pronunciation (right now, she’s reading a book out loud, for God’s sake!!), but I am no linguistics expert so I am dropping it. I can write again about my pink and grey dreams but I won’t dive in it unless I’m in my inspired mood. I can write about my work but I know there is nothing to elaborate about it so it’s useless. I like to write about the rain – but what is there to write about the rain?

It’s one of those days. Really.

Just one of those days.

Friday Sermon

work it.

via Pure Nourishment

Happy List #5

Happy Monday Universe!

PAYLESS. I cannot think about the shoe brand without associating it with noodles, Maggi's arch rival and Lucky Me's nasty competition - I grew up in my Lola Lucing's tindahan and I thought of it as funny, a shoe brand after a noodle? Haha! I visited the store last Saturday and was tempted to spend the last paper money in my wallet before suweldo time on a pretty pair of shoes designed by Christian Siriano, my favorite Project Runway winner, for Payless . I held back because the belly is more important than my feet - wait 'til next week for my comeback!!

VIP PASS. My first VIP pass!! Not really my thing, FHM's 100 sexiest? I was playing bubble pop in most parts of the show, but I must admit, Aubrey Miles is really hot!!

ADIDAS WALL. I bought for myself a girly Adidas travelling bag. I am planning for my next adventure, can't wait. I like sports stores - they give a we-can-do-it vibe, just believe.=)

DRAWER HANDLES. I found my way again in a store for homey stuff, I know, I know,this is getting repetitive - but can you blame me? It's my new found love - dreaming of my pink and grey house is my alarm clock every morning. Now I understand why mothers and tita's linger in the home section of department stores, it's therapeutic. Getting into the nitty-gritty of home building and designing is SACRED. God is in the details, they say. So now I have chopping boards,doilies, and pretty drawer handles - - I'm getting there!!! =)

watermelon images from google

WATERMELON. I am a watermelon shake fan, a watermelon shake enthusiast and a watermelon shake loyal. Believe it or not, I peddled watermelon when I was around six years old, sold this christmas-y (green and red kasi!) fruit house to house and earned Php 20/day. I did it with four other assistants, syempre, haha, I'm the master peddler and I had my watermelon minions. My kiddie friends and I did it for fun and my uncle thought then we make good marketers because our neighbors were forced to buy from us, we're irresistibly cute. Cuteness is their weakness- so we took advantage. I felt kilig when I read these lines from Mark Twain: When one has tasted watermelon, he knows what the angels eat. Watermelon addiction, justified.

To a longer happy list!=)

Friday the 13th Dreams

rough and bumpy road ahead

warrior strength required

via mindbodygreen

 - and reward after passing through the bumps

dream nurtured daily

via Suelas' wall

Happy List #4

It’s a whiny Wednesday for me and that feeling is a no-no. Karate chop the negative thoughts. Flying kick all the complaints. Summon the karate kid, the three ninjas and the Jackie Chan’s and let us turn the whiny Wednesday into wine-y Wednesday - bring on the red and the white wine. Kung may blue, yellow and rainbow-colored wine, bring them on too!! The more colorful the wine, the more sosyal it is. Move over, ex-president Joseph Estrada, I can afford more wine than you do!! Ha!  

Pause.

I am not making sense I know, and truth be told, I find it a little difficult to come up with my number four happy list now than how I easily enumerated things before. It’s one of those days. BUT I retrace my intention why I started coming up with the list in the first place – to draw in strings of happiness from an otherwise confusing, crazy, life-zapping day.

And because many say that the first step to happiness is GRATITUDE,  here is the list of things which I am grateful for, this week - my Happy List. A list far superior than the shopping list, grocery list, bucket list and the first graders’ noisy and standing list (ngeh!) – haha!

Image at the righ via Etsy

PAPER DOILIES

I saw this pretty placemat while eating in French Baker and resisted the urge to wipe off the oil from the burger - a pretty thing like this does not deserve getting dirty and soiled. Because I am the future owner of a house with pink and grey interiors, I need to have a placemat like this!!! Yes, so I have four chopping boards then a placemat – malapit nang mabuo kusina ko, kutsara na lang!!! =) Of course, I needed to research, searched high and low in the libraries, downloaded studies from Jstore, befriended the librarian but I never came close to knowing what these pretty placemats are called, buti nalang my google, 5 seconds and eureka! -  these pretty placemats are called DOILIES. A doily is a small ornamental mat, usually of lace or linen (description from free dictionary). And I’m going to have a lot of them in my future house. Yey!!

From Iceberg: Potatoes in meat sauce with chili 

POTATOES.

My ultimate comfort food.

LAY BARE

The only girly stuff that I do every month is waxing. My next visit is free!! Haha! I feel a little embarrassed to share this since it's a ritual that you're supposed to keep to yourself, I am conservative that way. But a lot of girls are doing it and I strongly recommend waxing (IF laser is out of your budget still). I've been doing it since college, and Lay Bare is my go-to waxing salon. When you see hair, it's time to lay bare!!

BOOK SALE. Again!!

My bank is right adjacent to the store so the ritual is: deposit savings, visit book store, find books, get excited, withdraw from savings, buy books - no more savings, more knowledge power!! I found another Nick Hornby book for a steal and Frances Maye's Under the Tuscan Sun (I did not get to take a picture of it because I left it in the office so A Year in the World subs first). I hope it rains this weekend, so I'll just stay on my bed the whole day and read. =)

Burnt copies of movies from Alan. =)

MOVIES.

I came to the office late one morning with swollen and puffy eyes. My colleagues were worried and thought I was going through a rough time but little did they know I stayed up late and all tearful the night before watching "Up". My eyes are not really the windows to my soul, they are the doors, no, no, the gate!! They're so big they give me away. But I like them just the way they are. 

To a longer happy list!!

Magic

simple.straightforward. downright true.
May the Universe bless us with courage to find our Magic.
Happy Tuesday!!

via Sielyn's wall

Manic Monday

Re-post from Forbes
Written by Jessica Hagy

Weird is wonderful. And it’s bankable too. 
You know who’s weird? Astronauts. Saints. Nobel Prize winners. Scientists. People with hobbies you’ve never heard of or are afraid to try. People who speak their minds. People with both problems and (gasp) solutions. People who are (enviably) not like you. Being weird means being noticeably different. It means being or doing something that makes other people stare, or laugh, applaud, or boo. And it’s something we all need to cultivate.

Your weirdness is valuable. Here’s why:

Weird has less competition.Weirdness, by its very definition, is a deviation from the norm—the opposite of a commodity. Weird makes its own markets. Weirdness makes its own rules. Weirdness provides breathing room and leverage.

Weird is less painful.
To fit inside the cookie cutter, you have to lob off a part of yourself.  It hurts less to just be authentic. Stop exhausting yourself pretending to be someone or something you’re not.

Weird is less painful.
To fit inside the cookie cutter, you have to lob off a part of yourself.  It hurts less to just be authentic. Stop exhausting yourself pretending to be someone or something you’re not.

Weirdness creates automatic notoriety.Whatever is most unique about you will become your defining trait. This is how we end up with nicknames and calling cards. And when your calling card is actually special, it’s easy for others to remember you. Wouldn’t you rather be “Amy with the trapeze company” than “Amy with a Y”?

 ************************

Let's celebrate weirdness.

Especially posted for my former colleague, Sir Deo, who said I am weird. =)

Twice.

Sunday Sermon

Got this for Php2.50 at Papemelroti.
words of wisdom from pareng Leon J. Suenens

Bare

My boss gave up on me a long time ago. The giving up is not about work though because I think I make a decent and masipag employee (hahaha!), it is about putting on make up. You see, my boss is really pretty, the kind of prettiness which make both boys and girls give her a second glance. Good thing, I am pretty too (aherm!), not on the same level of prettiness but pretty in the eyes and standards of my mother and syempre, God (and mothers know best and God is our Creator, so beat that, my fans are the most credible of all!!! cue thunder and lightning, mischievous smile and a knowing wink... - no evil laugh though, remember, God is my fan, he wouldn't like that ;-p).

My boss gave up on making me wear make-up, lipstick at the least. I will give in someday soon but the long commute, tropical heat and pollution are stronger than my will to put these cosmetics on (reasons, reasons) and two girly skills that I SHOULD know/have but DO NOT know/have are: a) cooking, b) putting on make up. I'm hopeless. But still, hot - - so puwede na!! haha!

I was waiting for a friend in SM MOA and killed time window shopping when time stood still - I was knocked off the pedestal of hotness I have occupied for as long as I can remember, there was anger, denial, bargaining then the inevitable acceptance. I humbly conceded that, though it hurts, extremely so, someone out there is hotter than me. Thank you Lord for this wonderful realization and for the lesson of humility, because there is so much hotness going on in me, too much I can no longer handle and I am sick of singing my national anthem everyday - sings I'm sexy and I know it, sabay grind ng hips, then pout ng lips. This hotness is both a gift and a curse and it's about time I pass it on. =)

This is Anne Curtis in the latest Folded and Hung promotion in her no-make-up make-up. If only my boss sees this, then she'll understand why I have been putting off applying lipstick on my kissable lips - I can not afford to exceed my current hotness meter.

Girl crushing.

Design Inspiration #4

Having options is good. Having too many of them is, however, one thing I can not handle.

For example, I went to Greenhills Mall several Saturdays ago and I froze in the middle of the narrow and shopper-filled aisle. I did not know where to start, where to go and what to look for first and I ended up going home empty handed. (akala mo profound experience, tungkol sa Greenhills lang pala, haha!) Another example, for my friends who never tire of my dream home stories and understand my craziness about it, they will not be surprised that I spent one Saturday afternoon in MC Home Depot. I am such a poser-home-owner-wannabe.(poser na nga, wannabe pa!!) I was all snobbish and feeling-rich-and-know-it-all-interior-designer scouring through shower heads, drawer handles, water closets, tiles and faucets. This shower head? Too small for my 120 sqm bathroom. This bathtub? Too simple for my taste. This faucet? Too Jurassic era, wala bang yung sensor type so I wouldn't anymore touch the handles? This handle? Looks generic, wala ba yung encrusted with diamonds? This tile? Too cheap per piece, puwede mo bang mas mahalan pa?? haha! I envy Shamcey Supsup, their endorser, because I think she had a grand time choosing home stuff here and next to Fully Booked and Forever 21, Home Depots are my go-to-places whenever my weary heart needs caressing. Woohoo!! But again, there are one too many options to choose from. A tile is not just a tile - ceramic or homogenous? 60x60 or 30x30? And the color and the design and the texture??? Buti pa sa isang multiple choice exams, options go up to a maximum of 5 only so eenie-meenie-miney-moe will work wonders but in real life, no!!! Oh ceramic tiles, why do you make my life so complicated??

BUT if there is one thing that calms me, it is the fact that I know what color-inspiration my interiors will zero in on. Pink and Grey. Subdued girliness. A happy mixture of "sad and happy". Romantic and calming. Not overpowering. Chill lang. Nothing spectacular but still dreamy. (Sorry dear friends, for this post and many more posts to come, you will forever see my favorite adjective in the world - dreamy. =p)

So I woke up this Sunday morning, with heart palpitating on the inspiration of pink and grey and calmed my thoughts with these designs and dreamy (oh yeah!) pegs.

images from Vicky Horton and Etsy 

Dear Universe,
You know the desires of my heart.
I will keep on dreaming until all of my dreams come true.

Have a happy and blessed Sunday Universe!=)

Batman

it's 30 minutes before midnight

drizzle, no stars - it is a dark night

via Pure Nourishment

Design Inspiration #3

Number 8 in my list of not-so-secret dreams written in a small notebook I bring around with me wherever I go is this: condo unit like nail-a-holic's lay out. It was one evening while witnessing the ouches and aray's of a former colleague indulging in a waxing service and hand paraffin that I drowned myself in the longing that I really, super want and desire and need a place of my own. The salon's interiors did it. It's pastel-colored walls, romantic chandelier and dreamy balcony sent me off to the i-want-a-room-just like this feeling which evolved to i-want-to-have-a-condo-just-like-this and evolved further to i-want-a-house-just-like-this - and I never looked back. It is, as of today, the most intense and earnest desire of my heart and while I concede that for now, I still can not give in to such indulgence and desire, I try to pacify my feelings by admiring spaces, interiors, furniture and everything home-related.

Sorry, these are the only decent nail-a-holic photos I can find in the net.

image from kikay exchange

image from kikay exchange

Just this evening, I was sharing with Alan that if ever I get a space of my own, I will make sure I have four sets of chopping boards - chopping board for vegetables, another board for meat products then another for fruits and last one for onions. Yes, I have chopping board plans already - intense!! haha!!=)

Another obsession I have at the moment are weddings. NO!! I have no intention of getting married, not just yet - I have a lot of plans for myself as a sexy single and it is farthest from my mind right now. But weddings are pretty. And again, dreamy. I like that adjective - dreamy. So I am a frequent visitor of brideandbreakfast and my heart flipped and turned and somersaulted when again, my home dreams (home dreams talaga!) were moved and shaken by interior images of yet again another salon featured in the site. My house will look like a salon and I do not care - suits my stressful life style, spaaaaa!!!

Ladies, drool with me. This is heaven.
The salon is called Pink Me Up Beauty Nail and Dry Bar.
My future dream home looking like a beauty nail and dry bar????
It's fine, perfectly fine, if it looks like this.

Photos by Paolo Feliciano.

Oh Universe, You are such a tease but I am inspired by things of beauty.
I can't wait to be in that "future" where I am enjoying being a queen of my castle.

Great to have a goal. =)

Tomorrow is Wednesday

hello today.

photo from Shan's wall

a beautiful reminder

via lifeafterbreakfast

I'm a Poser Surfer

THIS is happy tired. =)

in San Juan, La Union, photo by Sir Rons

Sunday Sermon

happy 2nd half of the year.

crazy is good.

via Dakila