Sunday, December 31, 2023

Welcome 2024... Thank you 2023!

Here is another year to end... 

Looking back at the past 12 months of 2023, I am both grateful and pessimistic. But in spite of all my struggles in life,  I feel I am still blessed and still have a lot to be thankful for. Sabi nga nila... laban lang!


 My Lorenzo
Chuy turned 19 in March. He graduated in Senior Highschool in July and now taking Hospitality Management program at STI College Calamba. He continues to grow BIG and I am starting to get worried about this. But I am giving him the chance to adjust to college life while still enjoying gaming and being young. He continues to cook and explore on food, that he even joined the STI's Tagisan ng Talino's Chef Xpress. It was a great experience for him for a start and I am just a proud Mom!




My Luigi
Luigi turned 30 in September.. yes and still single, but taken! I can only wish for wedding bells and happy married life in the future. My eldest deserve God's wonderful blessings because he is an obedient son, patient brother, caring apo and faithful partner. Ingat parati when you drive.


My Family
In November, my Mom and I flew to Dubai to visit my brother Louie and SIL Hayk. I had a grandiose 2-week vacation away from work!  We had Dhow Cruise and dinner, Desert Safari and Arabian Nights experience. We climbed the tallest building Burj Khalifa and had a day at the Miracle Garden full of blooms. We drove to Abu Dhabi to see the Grand Mosque and the Qasr Al Watan Palace for 2 days. And probably strolled around almost all of the big malls in Dubai. I also met my classmates Alex and Nerie, and had day of catching up. The best part is I get to travel again and be with my sibling... and missed the boys for 14 days.

I needed this vacation after all my stress for the past 4 years, I believe I deserve this one!






Our mother turned 85 this year! Her memory is very good, she still dances weekly, pray 100x a day, cooks and bakes a lot... except for an aching knee, everything is OK with her.


Me and my Life now...
I know I have to take it easy... I am 55 and starts to feels old. I was confined in June for blood transfusion and up until now, I am on medication for iron deficiency-anemia. I am still in peri-menopausal dilemma at 55.

I am still working as a Teacher and a Program Head. As much as I wanted to work, I still want to learn more and help those aspiring teachers to be of service to the young minds. I had my 3rd Program Head training in December, where I get to meet new friends and felt empowered.



But at the same time, I want to keep that work-life balance. I still scrapbook, find time to meet old friends like my high school barkada and batchmates, eat out with my boys, clean my house and sleep. I think I am pretty much complete, even without a husband.




I want to enjoy and capture life, go back to traveling and never regret anything!

To wrap up 2023... life is still a struggle, but is still joyous and happy! As Covid19 seats back in a corner, we have to still take care of ourselves and our health. There were a lot of changes after that era of pandemic, but let us adopt to it for better life. 

Life must go on, let us just keep it simple but happy and fulfilling. Let us continue to pray for hope, strength and guidance. God bless us all!

WELCOME 2024!

Better than Bear Hugs!

 As I enjoy my Christmas vacation... 

I got to do a lot of things in the house specially in my scraproom. I'm on my Day 9 out of the office, but not really out of my responsibilities, but just physically out of the limbo! I got to SCRAP again and mess around in my favorite room. These layouts I want to share were done months ago, but will be posting now. Here goes...
                                                                                                                          





Better than Bear Hugs... are layouts where I used scraps of strips. Obviously, Luigi and Chuy's hugs are better than this huge bear's hug and just loving it. I used here Bazzill cardstocks, assorted pps strips, assorted washi tapes, DMC threads, paper flowers, silk leaves, buttons, Maya Road embelishment and Ranger inks. 

Why don't you use your scraps and start playing!

Thanks for looking.


Saturday, July 29, 2023

Chef Xpress

Its great to be blogging again!

After almost 3 weeks of graduation preparations in our school, the three main events were finally done successfully! Now, its time for some relaxing ME time... I went up in my scraproom today and did some journaling. I have no photo backlogs for my boys as of now and so I can take things easy.





Chef Xpress... As a Culinary Arts student, Lorenzo is eligible to join the Tagisan ng Talino's Chef Xpress Challenge. Its a three-man team and a two-hour cooking challenge where the team will be creating their own menu after seeing the ingredients and will be preparing an appetizer, a main course and a dessert within the given time. It was a first time for Lorenzo and I was so excited for him and the team. Win or loose, it was the experience that he earned! I used here AC letter pad and gingham cardstocks, assorted ribbons, buttons, DMC threads, cardstocks stickers, star brads, pearls and Tim Holtz distress yellow ink. 

Remembering my Father today, as he celebrates his 24th birthday in heaven... I know you will be proud of your apo Lucian Lorenzo Roberto, which I named after you, Dad.

Thank you Lord for a Saturday, a rest day, a crafting day and a blog day!

TFL.


 

Saturday, April 8, 2023

Christmas 2022

My favorite time of the year and my favorite subject to scrap!

These have been part of my backlogs and I was able to finish it with my journaling. Christmas layouts always excites me not just because of the bright colors and the ornaments like trees, bells and Santa, but because of the truly festive season of love and hope. Making these in the summer months make me feel Christmas is coming so soon.





Christmas 2022...  Got this picture late September last year in the Ikea store in SM MOA. Occasions like this makes me miss Dodo again. Well, we went shopping instead to forget that missing part of us! I used here MM PPS, Scenic Route scraps, DMC threads, AC Thickers cardboard letters, buttons, epoxy and cardboard stickers.

I aimed to finish my backlogs and create more happy pages! Hope this inspires you to go back to your passion and mess your scrapping nooks once again.

Thanks for looking!

 

BLISS!

Roman Catholics are on holiday this week and it is Black Saturday today.

Aside from the much awaited physical rest is restoring my peace and creating life balance. Its happening now in my scraproom, where else?! Yesterday, I organized new ribbons and some Christmas ornaments my Auntie sent from the US. And I thought of using them for my new layouts (will post that soon!). Meantime, I had some finishing touches on some old pages sitting in my box and finally done for posting.

Since the pandemic, I started revisiting my boy's scrapbook albums. Dusted them, changed crumbling plastic page protectors, glued falling embellishments, labelled them by numbers and restored the albums itself. I realized Lorenzo has more albums than Luigi. So as much as I wanted to catch up with Luigi's pages, I decided to create 2 layouts per picture to make sure that the 2 boys get the same memory in their own albums.

Here goes... 





Bliss... The photo was taken at the dining lounge of the Manor Hotel in Baguio City. Just looking at my boys make me feel blissful, but a little regretful for their father, because he can no longer see them grow more. Well, I hope he will from heaven! I used here Webster Pages PPS, MM PPS, assorted cardstocks, Prima flowers, DMC threads, Tim Holtz Ranger distress inks and Idea-logy trimmings, ribbons and native twine.  

Got more to share.... TFL!


 

Friday, February 24, 2023

2022 Project Life!

Thank you for a SUDDEN changed holiday! The national holiday here in the Philippines should be tomorrow. The EDSA Revolution Day should be celebrated tomorrow but was changed by the new president. But really, thank you for this day off to rest, play in my scraproom and yes, blog!

I was able to finish my 2022 Project Life last weekend and promised myself to blog this coming weekend. Scrapbooking is still my stress buster and my coping up mechanism to face my busy life as a teacher and as single parent. I noticed that last year picked up on more memory making and happy times with my 2 boys and my family. Here goes my life...














Project Life makes me use my little scraps and little embellishments. I still do 12x12 pages, but this one excites me as well, because these are the highlights of life in a few pages. I started my 2023 Project Life, I am on time and I hope to be updated on pictures and happenings always.

Thanks for looking peeps... more creating! 

Saturday, December 31, 2022

Welcome 2023... Thank You 2022!

 A few more hours and 2022 will be history.

As I sit down and think about how 2022 went by, I felt my struggles in work, my everyday life as a teacher, my simple joys as a Mom and the blessings I continuously receive. Life is much better in 2022 because majority of us are now vaccinated, We can now go out to enjoy a bit, dine out and even travel too. The mask is still part of our daily outfits, although there are times we are no longer conscious but COVID19 is still here!

And so life must go on...

Me and Myself

The first quarter of the year was both terrible and terrifying... I got the virus! It was my first batch of thesis research and defense in my department when I thought it was just fatigue. Good thing the defense was online, I was laying down most of the time with camera off to rest. I got fever for 24 hours and a terrible cough after 3 days. Luigi stayed with me in my house, so he also caught the virus. We were isolated for 14 days and the defense continued. The terrifying part was, you do not know what will happen to you everyday! There was an all around anxiety attack. Good thing, I was able to book an online checkup with my internist, Dra. Nancy Torres and we were diagnosed with the Omicron variant. I finally calmed down and was able to rest for a few more days to complete the quarantine period.


I finally had the time and courage to do my utmost plan of home renovation. I had 2 huge clothes cabinets in the second floor of the house, redone my dinning cabinets, painted the house interior, changed a few light fixtures, changed my main and side doors and changed all my windows into sliding ones. Plus a new all-solid acacia table from Ikea topped the renovation. All done in 3 weeks and this made me super happy!







My Lorenzo
He turned 18 this year and he is on his 12th Grade taking up Culinary Art in STI College Calamba. He wanted to become a real chef someday and the best decision to do is to start with a strong foundation as early as now.... then go, COOK! He has now experienced cooking in an industry based kitchen, learned a lot of basics and now can cook on his own. Oh he got the virus as well, he got it towards the end of January, where he was isolated alone in his big room and his computer. 





My Luis
Luigi turned 29 this year. He continuous to be the most responsible son and kuya to us. He can now drive to Manila, but of course with a good navigator on his side. I wish him the best this coming new year, maybe its time to think of family and marrying?




Our Family
My brother Louie and SIL Hayk visited us in April, this was after the 2 years lockdown. We had a short get away to Baguio City and a lot of strolling around in Laguna and Manila. While mommy flew to USA in September for a-2 month vacation with my youngest brother, Jay and her sister, Auntie Linda and Uncle Bill. Mommy celebrated her 83rd birthday with good health and plenty of prayer meetings.






My Spouse
Dodo will be remembered always! I received his retirement ring this year. It will be kept safely for the two boys to remember his hard work all his productive years. It has been 2 years since he left us, but all his memories are here to stay.



My Life
At 54, I have no idea of what is still in stored for me. All I know is I have two precious boys to take care and grow old with. I am looking forward to more experiences, more challenges, more discoveries and more happiness with them. I want to slow down in work, take it easy with stress and work problems, no more PhD plans and just be a regular teacher. I just want to walk, eat and just be happy with life.






I am grateful for 2022! There should be no room for unhappy thoughts, instead, find the good things out of those experiences. I wish for more ME time on self care, mental health, scrapping time, chat with friends, good relationship with Lord and more quality time with my kids and family. My wish for myself are good health, resolved anemia, more peaceful menopause transmission and more time to walk. My wishes for my family are good health, safety and another major trip to be together again.  



God bless us all as we 
welcome 2023!