My Book

For Christmas I got many wonderful presents, but this one in particular happens to be by far my favorite present ever.



My lovely sister surprised me completely and published my photography in a book.





I love my sister!



I started to cry when I read this on Christmas morning ... I'm such a sap ball.



"Copy written, so don't copy me..." Haha. I actually have my own book. How cool is that? Here are just a few pages from my book.












There are no words to describe how much I love and appreciate this present, and even more so my sister. I love her. I've been saying that when I graduate a want to publish my portfolio in a book, something that would look both beautiful and professional when I have interviews or merely show off my work. I'd be publishing my work soon ... hopefully.

Lastly my sister published the book in my name, she also created, ordered, and bought my book from Blurb.com.

Morning Crafting

"Woke up this morning feeling fine,
think there's something special on my mind.
Something tells me I'm into something good."


I woke up this morning to this lovely little tune in my head.
It's from some random cereal commercial that I love.



Anywho's ... I woke up nice and early to start my Saturday morning crafting and in preparation for the crafting I took out my lovely little Pooh Bear mug I bought at the Disney store last night, and opened up a new bag of my new favorite tea, Hickory Farm's Boston's French Vanilla Tea.


My project of the day is this royal blue "pretty puffs slouchy hat",
and this time I'm actually following a pattern.



Last night I started and finished this little cutesy kid-sized cap. I drew it up from my imagination and didn't follow a pattern, but it shows... I know better this time around.





On another note.. I made this cozy little sleeve for my mug last week. I made it because I hate when I grab for my tea and the mug is super hot. I've also been thinking I should made a whole bunch of these sleeves and used them for all of my other mugs and even when I go out for coffee.



It'd be cute to have this darling little thing around my Starbucks cup and though it's a really simple and small gesture, go green in which ever way possible, you know?



Lastly I was going through my blog roll today and when I went to Hazel's blogger and saw her christmas eve blog I instantly fell in love with the Yael Naim video she posted. (Hope you don't mind me posting this video on my blog Hazel,but I absolutely love it)


It's a lovely wake up / crafting song.

Happy Crafting!
And have a Merry little Weekend!

Holiday Frock for a darling dollar

Early in Noverber I blogged about the Yard Sale my church had. In that blog I also wrote about my darling little find, a cutesy little vintage shift ... did I mention I only paid a dollar for it?


Well here's the dress when I found it ... and since I got it I've never really had a place or reason to wear it, but of course the Christmas season always brings in plenty of Christmas parties.



It was the perfect opportunity to wear my holiday frock that I got for a darling dollar.







Guess who else made an appearance?



Yay for Christmas Parties and Holiday Frocks!

Banners

I was cleaning up some of my files on my computer and noticed that I had a lot of random work scattered everywhere. Here are a few banners I found, all which I made in my spare time. The first few are banners I made for my blog and the last few I made just for kicks. I used all my original photography and then fiddled with photoshop to achieve the final products.





























I'm no pro, not yet at least,
but I do believe I've come along way
since my xanga days. HAHA.

H I G H F I V E 2007

also Collection of the week {13}


For sometime I've had a little place on my blog for five of my current favorites, my "HIGH FIVE" section that is. So as the year comes to a close I've decided to put together a few more high fives from the entire year. Enjoy.

This blog shall also be a replacement for this weeks: Collection of the week. Just look at it as "my collection of favorites from the last 365 weeks".


HIGH FIVE - Books
Three weeks with my Brother by Nicholas Sparks
Five people you'll meet in heaven by Mitch Albom
Bend the Rules Sewing by Amy Karol
Dear John by Nicholas Sparks
Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer (* I actually just started this one but I love the entire Twilight series so I'd consider this a future fav. )

HIGH FIVE - Acoustic Artist
Tristan Prettyman
Ernie Halter
Tony Lucca
Colbie Caillat
Brooke Fraser


HIGH FIVE - Five lovely ladies and their music
Ingrid Michealson
Priscilla Ahn
Corinne Bailey Rae
Lily Allen
Chelsea Lee

HIGH FIVE - Shows
HEROES
Pushing Daises
Samantha Who
Pangarap Na Bituin
{just 4 favs}


HIGH FIVE - Blogs
Oh Joy!
FredFlare
Kenny Kim dot com
3191
Poppy Talk

HIGH FIVE - Youtube Channels
Happy Slip
Sigevalee
Dewi and Anthony
Marie Digby
{only 4 here also}


HIGH FIVE - Choreo
Studio One at ECDC (They kill it every year)
Lacey & Kameron - Contemporary (choreo by Mia Michaels)
omarion contest (ft. my fav. Melissa Reyes)
JP San Pedro "Last Night"
backstroke choreo by Shaun Evaristo

HIGH FIVE - Collections
The Shoe Project
Jill Bliss
Team Manila
Design Chapel
Little Odd Forest

HIGH FIVE - Songs
No one by Alicia Keys
Oh, It is love by Hellogoodbye
Droplets by Colbie Caillat and Jason Reeves
Stupid for you by Marie Digby
The way I am by Ingrid Michaelson

HIGH FIVE - Movies
Enchanted
Transformers
Hairspray
300
Music And Lyrics

Today

Today our hearts rejoice in Him

Today the light of His birth

Fills us with hope and brings peace on earth

Jesus born on this day

He is our light and salvation

Jesus born on this day

He is the King of all nations

A Blue Christmas

Tis the season for Christmas parties, and in lue of the season we hosted our first full out Christmas Party at church.

It was a total success and true holiday bliss.

But prior to the partying my family and I, with a few helping hands (3 sets of hands to be exact), decorated our seemingly boring fellowship hall and turned it into a winter wonderland.

Here are the results of decorating with the Diongzons.

















Lots of love to my sister dearest
who's creativity and ideas were the cause of this winter wonderland.
Good job sister!

Wrapper's delight

I think I enjoy wrapping presents more than I do opening them.
The gift of giving is a beautiful gift.

Perfect Presents

It seems like everybody has a Christmas list of some sort. Either a list of all things they want, or a list of the top 10 - 20 gifts to give this season. Instead I've concocted a list of gifts you can never really go wrong with, timeless gifts. The list is short and is comprised of only five things but it's a list that's great not only for Christmas and the holidays, but for any occasion.

Yesterday was a chaotic and tiring shopping day (both physically and mentally) and I wish I had thought of this little list at the start of the day, instead of thinking of it at the end of the day when all of the presents are already bought and wrapped.


The list:
Books, handmade things, music, gift cards, and socks.



Books: The sentiment of a good book will never go out of style, where as a piece of clothing might. Most people give or get really current or trendy items to add to their wardrobe this time of the year, but ever think about giving or getting books? There are millions of books out there, one to match every personality and it's a gift that will probably last more than a few seasons. It could be a simple read like a novel or a classic tale, maybe a new Bible or children's books, or maybe even a "how-to" book, which ever it may be there's something for everyone. If all else fails an empty book is a perfect solution, like a journal or a sketch book. Give thoughtfully so choose carefully with books. A bad book could be just as disastrous as one of those holiday sweaters, so make the book personal.



Handmade: Go all out and go handmade. Of course handmade probably takes more time and effort, but it surely won't go unnoticed. When you give or receive gifts you usually want it to be a personal gift, whats more personal than something you've handmade for a specific someone? But careful with the crafting, make something practical and something tasteful, there's nothing worst than taking hours to make a present, only to find out that that person doesn't really like what you've made and stores it away for the next ten years.


Music: The gift of music is and forever will be a timeless and perfect present. It could be a mix tape of a friend's 20 favorite songs, a new instrument or just a new cd, music is universal and is appreciated by all.



Gift cards: Gift cards, careful with this one, this can be a total hit or complete miss. Most of the time gift cards are like "get out of jail cards". It's either we don't know or can't find any other solutions so we leave the solution up to the people we're giving the card to. This is a lovely idea and I personally love both giving and receiving them myself but sometimes gift cards take the personality out of giving. Yes you can grab a gift card at a friend's favorite retail store and know that they'll make good use of the money on that card, but why not give a gift card with more personality? When you reach for the gift card solution try stores that are a little more creative and cohesive to an individuals personality.

Try stores more off beat, less retail, like for music lovers ... instead of a card at FYE or a generic music store like that, try a music store that caters to their specific style of music like a guitar store, or for the concert junkies try seeing if the club or cafe you always here them going to have gift certificates of some sort or pay for their next show.

For movie lovers, buy movie theatre gift cards with a purpose. What I mean by that is do more than just by a friend a movie gift card and call it a day, buy a few friends movie gift cards and "coincidentally" invite them all out to the movies one night ( the "i don't have money" excuse won't be a problem for anyone), same goes with Restaurant gift cards ... plan accordingly and you can maybe even have a movie and dinner night with a few of your favorite people all on your tab, without really feeling like it's a tab. Careful with the restaurant gift cards, they could send the wrong idea if your careless, and that applies to retail stores as well.

Also run with the whole food idea, but attack the specifics. If your boss or aunt is a chocolate connoisseur, coffee or tea connoisseur, buy a gift card from a place that specializes in these things. Like for a tea lover like my mom, TEAVANA is a darling place for here to go crazy.



Socks: Lastly socks. This one seems a bit impersonal but if you think about it's perfect for anyone 'cause everyone wears socks and need socks. Most people have incomplete pairs of socks in their drawers and you can never have to many socks so just think of it this way, most people pay little attention to the minuscule details for their lives why not take care of the minuscule details yourself. Although socks usually go unseen, the person wearing them will be grateful , especially if you get socks with personality. For the business type buy classy but darling trouser socks, or for the sporty type the choices are endless, and even for the dancer legwarmers and tights are a staple. Socks for everyone!



Hope this helps you during the gift giving times, I know jotting this down will help me next time around. I also, now know better and I've got a plan that can't fail me.

Happy gift giving!

Collection of the week {12}

Keep Calm is a lovely little collection of screen print products, with darling little sayings. With a staff of only two, Keep Calm has a lovely sense of style, simplicity and is whimsy.


Wonderful mantra.



These are a pack of buisness cards. For all the players out here's an easy way to up your game, but I see it as a cute little way to appreciate those you love. Wouldn't it be a lovely surprise to find this in your wallet or in a letter, or on a date ... on your plate, or even on the breakfast table in the morning? Brilliances in a card.



Keep Calm ladies and gentlemen.


KISS! I want this print soo bad. The KISS principle is something I try to execute with all of my work and it's a principle one of my professors swears by. Every class I'd hear him say "Keep it simple stupid" to me or one of my classmates. Simple is always the best way to go. Lets KISS and make up!

Tattoo Artist and Birthday Boys

Nathan's big 1st birthday bash was a blast. Sorry, the alliteration was totally unintentional, but it really was a blast. It was also chaotic from beginning to end.

As his ninang, I had many jobs that day and the first on the list was to take care of Nathan boy while the tables and chairs were brought in.


Next I was assigned to put together the center pieces for the tables, which essential became another one of the very many prizes of the day.




My third jobs was to work and set up the tattoo table. I was the tattoo artist of the day.


Here are a few of my clients.












By the end of the day I was juicy, and so was Lily.


Lastly, and as usual I became one of the unofficially photographers of the day. (Though they did get a hired photographer to document the day properly.. Nathan had it all)


Check out his cake. I love cake, and this one was absolutely delicious.


Mr. Broccoli made his debut at the party. And though I hate clowns, I kept a brave face on for the little ones and stood by Nathan just to make sure he was ok with Mr. Broccoli.


Sure enough Nathan boy was enjoying himself.


Nathan's lovely little Fambam.


The guest of honor. LOL.

(it's never a party with out him.. hahah)

There were many games, and many prizes ... yay for sister dearest, who's always the game master at these things. LOL.


The "game master" and I


REUNITED with my three best friend = Bliss.

One of my weaknesses: cute boys in cute blazers.


Nathan's "hungry face" .. HAHA
(The boy changed like 3 times that day .. lol)


By the way, His girlfriend came.

She has the prettiest eyes.

The daddy to be, got a little surprise in his doggy (Look close)

Welcoming Mary Perocho to: Club dSLR


Cake time!


Baby time!


After a while I couldn't help myself and decided to jump in and play with the balls while the other kids weren't looking.. then Gabby joined me.


Two of my best friends couldn't help themselves either.




We like balls.. HAHA


Later we passed out from laughter.


Then kuya Jun attacked the kid's toys as well,
only to get stuck and end up asking his daughter for help.


Preggers joined in on the tattooing fun later in the day.


And just in case you haven't heard ... It's a boy!


Mr. Broccoli's biggest fan. LOL. Kidding.

She really hates clowns.

Me and Preggers (aka DANUTS!)


At the end of the day, when all the kids were gone, and the room cleaned up ... The big kids took a few last pictures for the road.




The best group of girls you could ever ask for (Plus the two missing Cano sisters)