Baby Bump!

We're 37 weeks along and we're patiently waiting for the arrival of the little one!  We're busy fixing up rooms, laundering clothes and linens, buying baby needs, rushing to check ups and doing medical tests to accommodate the little siopao who will soon change the way we live our lives forever.

Since a woman gets to experience pregnancy not too often, some women opt to have a maternity shoot done.  Mostly because this gives you captured moments as you experience nature's work at its finest. When you get to experience all the ups and downs of being perfectly pregnant and the undeniable fact that there is a growing human inside you.  And of course to show off the baby bump! 

Dear hubby was actually the one who first opened this up very early on in my pregnancy.  He has seen several samples of this shoot and he asked me if I was getting my picture taken looking like this...

from here

And yes he actually did the pose to give me an idea about what I was supposed to do.

So now at my 36th week, we finally decided to do the shoot.  We just went with an idea and did it at home.  I did my make up.  We used washi tape for styling.  My sister in law did a great job shooting us against a blank white wall.  My sister used her artistic chops to pimp my belly.  Everything was done in two hours but it was fun and it would be great story to share with the siopao when she gets older. 

We used the peek a boo baby shirt for inspiration.  But since we don't have time to source the shirt or have it printed out, we went with directly painting the design on my tummy using water based poster paint.  It washed right off as soon as I stood under the shower! I definitely won't have to guts or the straight face to do a dramatic maternity shoot but this one turned out to reflect our personalities so well.  We'll definitely welcome the baby with a lot of wisdom, understanding, love and happiness.  We know no one is ever ready to become a parent but we are sure that we will have fun and enjoy every moment, every stumble and every victory in this new journey ahead of us! :)  

A Bit of Sunshine from a Wedding

I wanted to show a bit of sunshine from our house! This is super late post since I scored the flowers from my friend's wedding.  This is one of the perks of staying up until the end of a wedding reception, you can grab the flowers from the tables as the stylists or caterers are packing up.  Most of them are more than happy to collect the flowers for you since they will just wilt and go to waste since the bride and groom's family can only take home so much of these blooms.  Just be sure not to take the vases home.  Most of the time these are not part of the wedding favors. 

 By the way, I looooove my bird vase! You can make them out at the side of the neck of the vase. I love them.  Scored again from Uniwide!

Posting before Christmas! A Halloween Party!

We have always wanted to throw a halloween party! One year we actually got to wearing costumes at home but we never got to a point where we invited other people to join in the madness.  Now that we have settled in our humble abode, there is no reason not to have an awesome halloween costume party!

First up decorations!

the most morbid kalye game ever

The show cabinet, Halloween edition!

Of course the party won't be complete without the guests! Everyone was required to wear a costume.  No costume, no entry.  It's also a good idea to have backup costumes available just in case someone tries to cheat, good thing we did not have to use the alternative outfits since everyone came prepared to party!

Chichay and Joaquin/Daniel Padilla (complete with Marty's Veggie Chicharon, Hansel 

and Lilly's Peanut Butter)

Edward Scissorhands

Juan De La Cruz and Rosario

Now appearing as Coco Martin with his Yammy cup of Nescafe Coffee!

Richard Simmons? Or a Random 80's athlete. :)

Julius Caesar

Tomb Raider Lara Croft

Vanellope Von Schweetz

Now I have to give credit where credit is due, everyone except for one other person knew about this Vanellope character during the party but now that I searched for her in the internet, I realize how much effort went into this costume.  A+ for authenticity! :)

Sakura From Street Fighter

The Fox Dancer from "What does the Fox Say?" by Ylvis

Half of the Addams Family!

Dr. Lizard from Spirderman

Vincent from Ghost Fighter

Flapper Girl from the 20's

Cheerleader Girl from ASJ :)

Fortune Teller aka Manang Bola

Anak ni Janice

ay hindi pala

Anak ni Sabel

This day would not be complete without a great group of people to hang out with!

group pic 1

group pic too

drinking pic

Family Pic

Addams Family Pic

Let's Start the Action Pic

Slasher Action Pic

Edward Scissorhands Putting the Scissorhands to Good Use Pic!

Next year we will definitely have another party but to make it even more interesting we can...

- Have a specific theme.  So that the costumes are not all over the place.

- Hold it at an airconditioned place!  So we won't be sweating bullets even if the costume requires you to be bundled up! :)

Belated Happy Puso Day!

So how did your Valentine's day go?  From my news feed on Facebook, I seem to notice that more people are feeling the looooove this year.  I think we have come to realize that love comes in all shapes and forms and romantic love is not the only reason that one should celebrate this day of hearts.  Well, it could be that, or that most of my friends have gotten over the Valentine's Day angst that is so common when one is younger.  The angst that makes one wear all black and stare grudgingly at each person who's holding a bear, a bouquet or a box of ferrero rocher chocolates (yes may brand talaga).

Since I am taking things easy around this time and hubby has to work, we celebrated Valentine's Day in a pretty low key manner we had breakfast out then...

We finally got an S and R card!

This is a big deal for me because this means I can just go there anytime I want and buy pizza on a whim. :)

Dear husband also made breakfast for me on the 15th.  He made paninis at home. Kasi "panini"ndigan niya daw kami palagi. Hahahaha That and we got a chance to eat at La Piadina again and we loved their four cheese piadina.  Love the grill marks! 

And it is always great to receive flowers, just goes to show that guys would go to great lengths to buy over priced blooms this time of the year.  I love it!

And the little one got something pretty too! 

May everyday be a Happy Puso Day!

Merry Christmas Everybody!

Doing a post about how we did the decorations for Christmas this year!  Nothing signals the start of the holiday season other than taking out box after box of decor from the storage cabinet. :)

First up, the tree. As you all know from last year, I bought the white Christmas tree of my childhood dreams but I wanted to veer away from red and blue from the previous holiday season.  Since I had a limited budget for new ornaments this year I had to resort to doing a layered tree!

I got the pink ornaments from my Mom's house since she wanted to go with the bronze and orange theme again this year.

Then of course the show cabinet is not going to be far behind.  We still picked up a lot of colors from the tree.

stuck extra santa pens together with the pink flowers in the blue vase

 I love my shiny disco balls!!!

the red bead garlands came from the tree last year

along with his and her stockings

Just in case you are wondering, how does this fair with the rest of the living room?  This is what's at the other end of the living room. Our crystal Belen (nativity scene) is at the table.

See still the same colors, blue, pink, red, silver and white.

And the same colors on the sofa tamed down by the neutral gray sofa.

I love love love this pillow. Just Php 39.75 from Uniwide!!! It gave the needed pop of holiday queer in our house.

Of course we also had a bit of Christmas outside too. I loved using Chalk Marker! Made writing on the chalk board soooo easy. A bit pricey though at 127.50 but I think you can invest in a couple of basic colors and still use regular colored chalk for the accents.  I used Uni Chalk Marker from National Bookstore.

 garland bought for Php100 at the palengke and recycled white balls from the tree last year

I took the easy route this year and used regular brown paper bags to wrap most of my gifts.  I wasn't able to buy gift wrapper at Divisoria.  These are typical called "Supot" at the palengke (market) usually at the section that sells paper cups in bulk and disposable plates and they come in different numbers (for example supot number 5, 6, 7 etc) and sizes.  I used supot number 6 this year and a bundle of 100 bags costs about Php 65! I used cut up edges from rectangular paper doilies (Php 37.50 for 100 sheets from Kyla Mae Party Needs Bacoor but they also have a branch at Divisoria) since I saw Ms. Benz of WaW and NaW use small round paper doilies for her daughter's school gifts this year.  A sheet of paper doily decorates 4 pieces of supot.

I also used washi tape to decorate bigger recycled paper bags gathered through the year and also to hold the paper doily strips in place.  I also added paper doilies to other gifts that had generic packaging just so they would look well together with other gifts and stay with the theme. :)

And then used two types of holiday washi tapes to decorate plain white boxes bought for Php 8.00 each at the local bookstore (Copenas!).  Much like how it was used in this Christmas Card.

I only wrapped the gifts for kids using free toy kingdom wrapping paper that came in with our toy sale purchases since they were in boxes or they could not fit in the brown paper bags.  So hooray for pretty but economic gift wrapping! :)

From my growing family to yours, Merry Merry Christmas!  May we all remember that Christ is the reason for the season and let us be thankful for all the gifts we receive this year, including love, health, happiness, friendship and family.