blessed

i look at this, my favorite-turned-useless shoe, and i think: "how unlucky can i get. i make a run for the toilet earlier this evening and i end up with a ruined shoe. yep - the straps in front split into 2! did i mention this is one of my favorite pair of shoes? ah well.

i let it pass. there are certainly plenty of things to be thankful for.
* last night, SA girls got together for the first time to scrap and chill out, and of course, to eat! :)



indulged in yummy pizzas, spicy nachos with sour cream (heaven!) a handful of scrumptious cuppy cakes by Tin and some more from Sonja's (courtesy of Mia!) and some wine to boot!

how can you not be fueled to work after that?? haha! i was able to complete a mini + several pages using the September kit and then Mia, our host for the evening, gave out some scrappy goodies :)

* today, my first-born turned 9!!! ack! can you believe that? i have a 9-year old already! how did that happen? time does fly. i'm glad that she isn't all that much of a fuss - she didn't demand for a party (despite the fact that most of her classmates and friends had one this year), and she certainly didn't demand that I be with her on her special day!

Haha!! Yes - on my daughter's birthday, I went to Rockwell to party with Scrapbukan which turned 4 this year. Bumped into some friends and met a few new ones.

* Got to alter a journal which, under ordinary circumstances, i wouldn't do! (it didn't turn out to be everybody's favorite, but I love it! hehehe!)
can you guess which one mine is? *cough* 11! *cough*

* Got to team up with Geng to work on a team challenge and we won!!!!!!!




* Got a stamp I've always wanted for a steal (half off!)


* Got a stamp which CH raffled off! YAY!!


* Received a cute tool bag as a party favor


*****

so G and I didn't throw a party for our girl, but because my mom had been invited to a kiddie party, she asked me to just bring the kids over to her house so she could take them with her to the Makati Sports Club. 5:45PM - I was done with my scrappy party and I called my mom to tell her I was on my way to pick the kids up. Unfortunately, they weren't done yet so I had to find a parking space. Just my luck, a spot was available a building across from the Makati Sports Club, exactly where G and I parked last time we were there to witness Mela's induction as Zonta President this year - but I digress. I get out of the car and try to lock it for something like 5 minutes but it wouldn't. i called G and then my mom to tell them that the car wouldn't lock and that I've decided to just wait in the car until they were done partying. anyways, somebody else seemed to be doing the same thing in the car just behind me. I got back into the car and turned the ignition only to realize that I had left the aircon on. I switched it off and decided to give my car alarm another try. Of course, I didn't see the relevance in this, but hey, I didn't really relish just waiting and stewing in the car. Wonder of wonders, it worked. I quickly got out of the car and crossed over to Makati Sports.

It was already dark and nearly 7 when we were done with the party. It was drizzling so I asked the kids to just wait for me along the driveway while I went and got the car. I was planning to just make a dash for it, but I noticed that the security guard had an umbrella in hand so I decided to borrow it.

A diplomatic car was parallel parking just in front of my car and I had half the mind to ask the girl behind the wheel if maybe she wanted to wait until after I got out of my space, but I didn't bother. Other than the girl in the car, I noticed that the street was deserted - at least, the guy waiting in the car behind me when I got there earlier was gone but there was an empty car in its stead.

After some fumbling with my car remote control (it acted up again for a split second), I got into the car, leaned over to the passenger seat to set my bag down and then to put the wet umbrella away from me. From out of the blue, I felt a guy nudging my butt with his butt, and all of a sudden there he was, sitting in the car beside me urgently saying, "tabi ka jan, tabi ka jan" (move over, move over). I felt like it was all a dream and this somebody trying to sit beside me was perhaps somebody I knew, trying to play a trick on me! I looked and realized this somebody wasn't somebody I knew and I remember myself asking him: "sino ka??? " (who are you?) and consequently, I vehemently pushed him away while saying "alis ka jan, alis ka jan!! AAAAGH!" (go away, go away!). As soon as I've let out that loud grunt, I noticed that he was holding onto a gun and wondered what I was supposed to do next, but for some reason, he upped and left! He walked very briskly towards the opposite direction and I instinctively reached for the door and locked myself in. i steeled myself as I was shaking for a few minutes and then breathed a sigh of relief and thanksgiving. YIKES! :o I never really thought somebody could get accosted that way until it happened to me.

In hindsight, I can't bear to think what might've happened had there been two of them sandwiching me into the car!! I can't even fathom where I drew the strength from to push that stranger away when I did. Truly, God's hand was at work earlier this evening.

more than that, as I recounted my experience to the kids I had in tow, I heard Nikki giving her cousins and her brother a very short doctrine class on the last things (heaven and hell, mortal and venial sins, with a bit of the 10 commandments thrown in). hearing her talk about these things just gave me a warm feeling of thanksgiving that as early as now, in her own small way, she knows how to do apostolate work.

Of course, in honor of Nikki's birthday, my small family went shopping for a gift and then had dinner at Brazil! Happy Birthday, baby doll! May you continue to grow in wisdom and in grace.

we love you and always remember how your brother Ian adores you so - he just had to announce to everyone he met today that it was your birthday and that you were 9! :D

DDD #26

Challenge for the week is to lift a page from Top Designer's Class 1 gallery. This is definitely a doable challenge considering there are many awesome pages in there! :)

I picked this page by Amanda Stanford and here's my version:


materials: Bad Girls September kit, Label Tulip stamp, Dymo, Zig pen, Versafine ink pad

class 2

is all about mixing patterns bearing in mind 4 design principles:

principle 1 - drawing the color palette from the photo itself

principle 2 - gallon, quart and pint: may be used in terms of colors or as in the case of this class, large, medium and small patterns. the large being the 'signature' pattern, it has to be the one that grabs attention.

principle 3 - vary patterns. as a rule of thumb, similar patterns, even if they are of different scales, should be avoided as it will look too busy and cluttered.

Principle 4 - Play! As Emilie Ahern says, there's no right or wrong in scrapbooking. Experiement with mixing patterns and see what mix YOU like. Play with whimsical papers and designs that fit your theme. Play with colors in embellishments and trims. Sometimes you can break all of the rules and LOVE the result. Try a few different things until you get the feel for mixing patterns and you'll be hooked in no time!

Here is my take on this fun class:


TFL!

to scrapbook or not to scrapbook?

that is the question.

hmmm.

i busied myself rearranging and yes, purging! (finally!) some of my scrapbook supplies and storage systems, and then my son, Ian, popped into my scrap area (a.k.a. his room) and exclaimed how messy i was being.



out of the blue, i jokingly told him that i was going to throw out all of my scrapbook supplies to rid myself of the mess. to this he answered: "huh? why???"

i told him that i have had enough of the mess and that i was going to stop doing any more scrapbook pages. with a sad note in his voice, he said he didn't want me to stop. of course i had to ask him why.

very matter-of-fact, he said: "if you do, then i won't have new pages in my scrapbook anymore"

ladies, i'm guessing, whether our kids say it out loud or not, our pages are appreciated :)

keep scrapping!

happy weekend :)

Top Designer

it's that time of the year again, when Bad Girls Kits hosts Top Designer - a 6-week series of awesome classes and challenges. Even though I didn't make it past week 4 last year, I made sure I 'enrolled' again this year :)

1st class/challenge is all about layering perspectives by Cari Fennell - ack! this is my major problem area! lol! despite the fact that Miss Cari's class was very informative, I found myself delaying my homework submission until the very last minute. A "my dog ate my homework" excuse is simply unacceptable (you don't want to get yourself into detention!) so I found myself working on a page earlier today.

Just as Miss Cari advised - enjoy the whole process - I did :) and things just fell into place (or so I hope!)



Truth be told, the major reason for my delay was the fact that I couldn't find just the right photos. Last night, after hastily editing several, I finally decided on some of Nikki's photos from a trip to a beach in Bacolod. Another reason was finding just the right quotation. I fell asleep in front of my computer just searching for one -- I think I may have stumbled on just the one by Judith Wright - can't go wrong with this, huh? :)

You are about to begin the hero’s journey.
Travel well on the quest.
A life of More is your birthright.
Know the vast resource that reside in you
and are provided for you in the world.





Materials: Bad Girls august kit - that which cost me much angst, just getting it picked up from the Pasay City PO! (heaven forbid i get another parcel routed over there!)

Good luck to those who submit their pages!

DDD #25

Latest DDD challenge is for us to use up our Prima stash - so... digging into my fresh pack of Prima papers, I decided to scrap some really old photos - from when I was still pregnant with Ian. More where that came from! yikes!!

the only non-Prima goodies on this page are the Hambly and Lil Davis rub ons + the pen I used to journal with.

Decided to work on this a little early as I am going on a weekend escapade with a friend! yay! can't wait to pack up my suitcase!

Have a great weekend, everyone! :)

week 3

the last batch of challenges were posted last week and i just had to do them all, lol!

art inspiration- the challenge was for us to draw inspiration from this piece of art

and so I decided to play :)

supplies: Bazzill cardstock, MM acrylic paint, Basic Grey and Fontwerks stamps, Versafine ink pad, AC alphas, Dymo label

up next was a challenge to bring on the bling so i brought it ;)

I applied glimmer mist to the background page and then used other bling-y stuff: Prima say it in crystals and AC alphas
other supplies: Bazzill, Basic Grey stamp, Brilliance ink pad

i had to double my effort for the next challenge as I am truly musically challenged through and through. lol!

first off, i really can't carry a tune - even if you ask all the members of my family! eek! and secondly, i can never think of a song to associate my pages with. a light bulb flickered as i was visiting a blog with a playlist (can't remember whose it is, though, but thanks so much for the inspiration!) i heard a version of Mariah Carey's always be my baby song and ta-da! uhm, it's not so much the lyrics but the title i wanted to use :)


supplies: Bad Girls May kit + Prima flower, Heidi Swapp bling, MM acrylic paint, Lil Davis alpha rub ons

this last challenge was added to the roster as some girls thought it odd that there were only 3 challenges posted for the week and just had to ask for more! (i think i might have been one of those girls, lol!) so, we were thrown the mother lode of all challenges: a 2-page sketch! ack! i almost never do 2-pagers these days for some reason... so this really topped the cake! it's sad... considering i started scrapbooking with the best intentions of doing only 2-page LOs. times change, indeed!



supplies: Bazzill cardstock, Scenic Route and Pink Paislee papers, Pink Paislee die cuts, Catslife Press stamp, Stazon ink, KI Memories alpha stickers

other challenges going on last week:
Rewind - to give a chance to some girls who weren't able to complete previous challenges, or just a chance for the others who have done so, to rack up more points :)

since i've already managed to do all of the previous weeks' challenges, i went for the challenge i love doing best - designer knock off :)
i picked a page by Tina Aszmus
and came up with this

supplies: label tulip january kit (i think) + MM tiny alphas

just for good measure, the last hurrah challenge was posted a day before the last day of the contest - we simply had to pick a page from the gallery. I picked one by Zeldadog and lifted away

supplies: Studio Azul december kit + Scenic Route paper

then over at Bad Girls, the DDD challenge for this week was to scrap something we're looking forward to this September
I had to really think about this one, but in the end, I kept it simple (as usual! ha!)

supplies: Studio Calico (i forget which month) + Fontwerks stamp, Versafine ink pad