puzzled

by the fact that my SC June kit somehow didn't land on my doorstep this month and ended up in the Las Pinas PO despite the fact that my address label indicated Paranaque! eek! last i heard, customs people assigned over there can get really nasty and just slap tax amounts they grab out of thin air onto people's parcels. as usual, i had G pick it up for me, and as he won't tell me how much his messenger had to pay for it, i really can't pass judgment on Las Pinas customs at this time. It was probably a modest amount as G didn't bother to pass on the cost to me! LOL! Thanks G =)

oh, but i was in for a treat! i was eyeing the picket fence add on but it got sold out on me so i had to opt for the berry picking add on instead. luckily, SC decided to put together a suitable replacement so I made arrangements to order it. when a dear friend found out, she graciously picked up the bill for it and even sent me a surprise gift - and only because i did a very minor favor for her!! thanks so much, girl! you're much too nice! =)

the latest issue

of the scrappinmoms ezine is up! check out my humble contribution here

TFL!

60 pages

yep. that's how behind i am on my scrapping!! decided to get back into gear somehow and here's what i ended up with several days ago; I only managed to find the time to add titles and journaling this weekend:
haha. several months ago, i had the mind to have these photos printed but soon after, i had a 'what-was-i-thinking-having-these-photos-printed' moment! LOL!!! well obviously, i finally decided to scrap them - gotta use up the photo stash! there's more where that came from! *groan*

thing is, i can't really say if discovering photoshop was a good or a bad thing. now, before i can even scrap a page, I get to thinking if I should be editing my photos before printing them out! and this just slows down the whole process, KWIM? instead of scrapping, i tend to sit in front of the computer tinkering with my photos (which aren't all that great, so I spend much time with them) and then I see all my recent photos and I get overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the task ahead. then i get distracted. No photos edited. No photos printed. Ergo, NO LOs DONE.

so then i decide to just scrap my previously printed out, unadulterated photos (which we know aren't all that great either) and then I'm not happy =( oh the headache of it all! how do you girls do it? how do you find the time to edit those photos into 'awesomeness' and never seem to run out of time to scrap them?

should i just stop taking photos? oh but I don't think I'd have the heart to do that.

ah well. maybe i'll try to maintain the status quo for now and just use up my 'bad' photos to get those pages done.

Here's another completed page using a couple of photos from my seemingly 'never-diminishing' pile.


another random thought. last night, as i was going through my art of doing nothing routine, i got to thinking: here i am, trying to rid myself of my photo stash and what do i end up with? even bigger piles of paper to showcase my photos on. now how do i find the storage for all of those pages and albums? hmmm... maybe i should just scrap more photos on a page like i originally set out to do (just so there'd be less pages to store) but then again, how do i get to use up my stash? aaaargh. i am in deep sh*t, i know! please just ignore me! =)

three's company

after about a couple of weeks' planning, Mia and I finally had the pleasure of meeting the lovely Leena Loh in person! She was absolutely wonderful, and the three of us had an enjoyable evening chatting and dining at Pepato, which happens to be owned by Mia's aunt.

Mia and I initially thought about taking Leena to one of the restos in Serendra, but we decided to head over to Greenbelt instead. Food was scrumptious and the drink, divine :p Credit goes to Mia for picking out the hors d'oeuvres, the desserts and the drinks! YUM!!

asparagus with cheese and barquillos with chive cream. really good choices!

since everybody decided on pasta, i went for linguine scampi. i wasn't disappointed. hmmm. i can't quite remember now, but i think i must've cleaned this plate up! LOL!!!!



ok, i don't know what these are called, but they were positively heavenly and yep, sinful :o

hmm. can you spot the uhu glue in there somewhere? haha. yep. somebody got craftly that evening *wink!*











oh and wait. here's a surprise from Leena - buttery and delicate hazelnut & black currant cookies. mmmmmm-mmm. these are very addicting. Thank you for being so thoughtful, Leena, and for taking the time to meet us. Hope to see you again soon! =)

getting crafty

i've had a sewing machine on my wish list forever. uh actually, i've wanted to own one since i started scrapbooking. for some reason, i feel that it's another one of my must-haves. hahaha! uhm, well i finally got my wish. kinda. (thanks for the tip, Nita!) it's nothing fancy, but for now, i think it'll do. yeah huh, this'll be good enough for someone who has never used a sewing machine before (read: my mom did all my home ec projects, hahaha!!! thanks, mum!)


here is my first attempt at sewing: it isn't so bad, is it?

i'd really love to have this or this in the not-so-distant future.... but maybe i should get some mileage out of my new baby first or the husband might kill me! *wink!*

care

here's what i came up with for last week's word. did you know how difficult it is to find a really nice quote about care? lol! i'm glad i stumbled upon this one - couldn't be any more true!

shopping expose

uhm ah... the things i would do for the love of scrapping and shopping. yep. i have had to get up at 430 in the morning despite having only 2 hours worth of sleep because i had to rush to the airport to pick up a box of my goodies :) unfortunately, my yaya and i have had to sit and wait and be anxious as we didn't get the box until about 730am. oh well. all's well that ends well, as they say. a box of goodies is still a box of goodies, no matter how late you get it. hehehe. of course, the faster you do, the better.

i had to go home to drop the box off and get ready for work. oh but because i was running late, i had to ignore the box =( finally managed to check and sort everything out at around 1am the following day :)

i don't know what possessed me to get 2 sets of the CK kit of the month - (school kit) by Becky Higgins but i'm guessing it's probably because this particular kit sold out really quickly the first time it came out and the only reason i have these now is because Lisa Bearnson decided to offer it again and I just had to have it. lol!


a girl's gotta have her tools. let's hear it for the scor-it mini (again!) - i think my first one turned out to be a dud so I'm giving this product another chance.


my love affair with stamps never seems to be over. there's always something that wants to be adopted *wink!* i've barely inked these and already, i'm dreaming about the newer designs in the market.


miscellaneous stuff.


idea books.


RAKs and prizes

bad girls workshop/challenges

Been looking forward to the Bad Girls Workshop but unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to do all the projects. I only managed to find the time for this class, and I only picked it because I had to do so for the DDD challenge for this week =) This is the first time I got to work on a corrugated cardboard medium for my scrapbook and I must say, it was pretty fun :) Here's what I came up with

supplies: UPS cardboard, BG May kit, lace trim (from Rachel's DDD), tissue paper from Scarlet Lime Jan kit, Tres Jolie card, K&Co 3D sticker, MM acrylic paint, Mod Podge, Zig pen

Earlier this week, I also worked on this challenge at BG. The challenge is to use a quote. I picked one by Felix Gonzalez-Torres: Above all else, it is about leaving a mark that I existed: I was here. I was hungry. I was defeated. I was happy. I was sad. I was in love. I was afraid. I was hopeful. I had an idea and I had a good purpose and that's why I made works of art.
supplies: BG May kit, Zig pen, Making Memories tiny alpha stickers

TFL and enjoy the rest of the weekend :)

YITL 22

can you guess the word for the week? =)

had to do this one right away as school will be starting in a week's time and i didn't want to have any more backlog than i already do! :o

sharing

i couldn't resist inking my latest stamp so I had to make a card =) it was just as well, as I have a tita who's celebrating her birthday soon. perfect excuse, huh?

here are also a couple of LOs among several which I submitted to Studio Azul using the yummy April kit.

being good

ok. definitely had no scrap shopping plans for yesterday. my only agenda was to attend a workshop (well, it wasn't really a workshop... it was more like a talk!) on photographing people by jay alonzo, sponsored by Filipinas Heritage Library and the Ayala Malls. It was a good talk, er, workshop, BTW. Definitely worth my 2+ hours - considering i am a neophyte in photography.

so... i got to chatting with mia the other night and before i knew it, i was making plans with her to check out a couple of LSS that have just unpacked new (and yummy, i might add) goodies!! oh to be in scrapbook heaven!

we dropped by Vivian's store first and how fun is it that she's offering 5-25% discounts on her wares! yay!!! well, like i said, i was being good and these were the only items i checked out of her store :D

then we dealt with terrible traffic and directions (oh the things we would do for the love of this craft, uhm, more like love of shopping, lol!) to Mitch's store. these were my new finds + a few items i got last weekend (thanks to the husband!)

i would've been extra good had it not been for mia telling me about some of the stuff she got which i absolutely also had to have, hehehe!!!

oh and lookie here. mia just came from HK and she got me this adooooooorable doll! :) thanks, mia! i had fun shopping and chatting with you yesterday!

bad girls

Bad girls, bad girls
Whatcha gonna do, whatcha gonna do
When they come for you

HEHE. I just received the latest Bad Girls newsletter and saw myself in there! *wink!*

This month we are heading far, far away (well, to most of us :p) and looking to Philippines saying hello to our May Bad Girl Christine Villacarlos! Christine is 38 and lives with her husband of nine years, Gerard, and their two children Nikki (8) and Ian (5). She claims she's a true Bad Girl because she "subs to the 'best-est', 'bad-est' kit club in town =)" - oh yeah - and her nick should be a testament to Bad Girl as well, being pink_lemonade and we all know what the deal is with pink and Bad Girls eh? :p

Alright - let's start with the most pressing question for the moment being: Why call yourself pink_lemonade??
Nothing really special to that name - I just love how it sounds.. and of course, I love drinking pink lemonade =)

Okay, so what do you do?
I am a Dietitian by profession but for some reason, I ended up working in the hotel industry. I was in the hotel food and beverage department for about 12 years but because I wanted to be closer to home and have more time with the kids, I switched gears and decided to try out the education sector. I got quite a surprise - I found out (too late!) that teaching could be just as demanding as being a hotelier! But I do enjoy what I do. I have been teaching Restaurant Operations to college students who are in the Hotel and Restaurant program for 4 years now.

That sounds very interesting and it's nice that you do something you enjoy :) So what about the other thing you obviously enjoy to do - scrapbooking - how did you find this hobby?
In high school, I fell in love with my classmates' scrapbooks and resolved to make my own. We would just glue down photos and all sorts of ephemera, mostly non-archival, I think. This was at a time when kraft albums were all the rage among high school girls in Manila. I took a break when I started preparing for my wedding (in the late 90s) and then decided to take it up again when my kids' photos started piling up sometime in 2006, especially after I saw gorgeous archival-safe products in the market.

So cool! And Bad Girls? How did you find us?
I chanced upon Bad Girls when Iris Babao-Uy announced she made the Design Team and then I signed up for the Bad Girls Academy. I couldn't stay away from Wendy's gorgeous kits so I took a sub not long after that.

Neat - I am glad you found us!! And Iris and Wendy are such enablers!! :D So what sizes do you scrap and what do you do with your pages?
I do mostly 12x12s. I used to be so anal about slipping them into page protectors and putting them in albums right away, but since I now tend to get more pages done in one sitting, I end up letting my pages gather dust before I do anything else with them, LOL! I am now loving the MM post-bound album for its space-saving feature but I do have my fair share of D-ring album types which I also love.

Teehee. Sounds like excellent album choices by the way :) So how do you start a page - what do you do?
I try to match the moods of my photos with my papers or vice versa. Sometimes, I use a sketch as a guide or I start working with a challenge in mind.

And describe your perfect day of scrapping..
I'd say it would be perfect if I didn't have to go to work!! HAHA! Of course, it would even be more ideal if I had lots of inspiration and all the supplies I'd need to work with.

Hehe the latter is so true - wouldn't be lovely to know exactly what you want to do and have everything you need to do it all the time?? So..do you have other hobbies?
Uhm, does scrap shopping count???

Maybe...
I also love stamping and making cards.

So tell us - how is scrapbooking in the Philippines??
Judging by the size of scrapbooking in the US, the community of scrapbookers in the Philippines is still relatively small, but it is gradually increasing. When I started scrapping, there were only a couple of stores offering scrap materials for sale, but now I am happy to announce that we have several stores to get goodies and scrap fixes from! I actually get more done when I scrap on my own, but I try to attend mini crops from time to time.

Neat! So - anything you want to tell the Bad Girls out there?
Be yourself, play by your own rules - but be respectful of others. And don't be afraid to cut up those papers! HAHA!! I used to be so scared to do anything with my pretty papers until I realized they look so much better with photos and in albums!

Haha excellent advices!! Thank you so much for being with us today Christine!! And thank you for sharing these two lovely layouts featuring previous Bad Girl kits!!