Catching up!

Not the best of circumstances, but I finally have the time to breathe a little and blog. It's near impossible to write and recall all the stories, but at least put the biggest ones here first.

Editing photos now. See you!

ENRICH, my word for the year (2014)

I know it's 2015 but before I reveal my word for 2015, here's what I have for last year. This maybe late, but I'm just so happy to say, this maybe the only time I can say I was successful at keeping my New Year's resolution.

My word for last year was Enrich. I want to enrich my life in all aspects. That includes activities to enrich the mind, body and spirit.

Last year, I've read more books that what I've pitifully read the past 3 years. Thanks in big part to National Bookstore's sale where the photos below are just part of my haul.

 

I've missed reading!

Tried my hand at painting by attending the Life After Breakfast painting class at Taal Vista Hotel.

It was made more fun because I was able to share this experience with my sister!

I dream to be like Tita Cory and paint and paint flowers. Can't believe I just did the first step!

Learned that my years of doodling is also a good creative output! Here I am with my teammates at work.

Doggie-shaped sandwiches and an Olaf inspired baon? Enter my oh-so-cute new world of bento making!

A happy Olaf baon for the little boy

Trying to make healthier eating choices to enrich the body. We finally bought the airfryer. My promise is I will use it (I have to) at least 3x a week.

Airfried yummy-ness!

Enriched my pocket ( a bit) by disposing of clothes I bought but did not or seldomly wore in an online garage sale. Seriously so convenient!

Tried my hand at designing and selling personalized, hand-stamped trinkets which actually paid for my Christmas gifts and were my Christmas gifts to family and friend as well. This is such a good strategy. This busy-ness using the hammer fulfilling orders had me glued at home on most weekends so I didn't have tie to shop. Must do this again thus year.

Designed by own canvass bag

Read this particular book in earnest

Source: amazon

Bought a nifty camera and (still) trying to take better photos.



Had plenty of photos taken to help me remember (enrich my memory?) and make our memories tangible.

And enriched relationships, especially with family.

Team Ladan is ready for 2015!  Err, well we should be since I am writing it now in mid January of 2015. =)
 

Back to the Moment with Videos

There are tons of pictures in my laptop, in my hard drive, in various USBs that I have around the house. Photos begging to be tagged, sorted and printed!

Going over them brings back so many happy memories of us as we are starting to build our family. One thing I realized is, we have only a handful of videos! While photos bring you back to a particular memory/event/place, videos really have the power to instantly transport you to that exact moment complete with facial expressions.

Since last month, I've made a promise to myself to create as many videos as I can by stringing together the photos I have in my files and combining it with what movie clip I have. I'm also starting to capture snippets of my boy more.

 

Here's to more videos and more memories captured!

Mother's Day at the Farm

Probably much to the headache of my husband, and then now including my son, Mother's Day is big deal to me. Yes, I demand attention on this day (and hmm, probably on some more days, too) and I think it it only fair to dedicate a day in a year to mothers whose entire year revolves around their family, right?

Much as I like malling, I knew every restaurant will be packed with families for the occasion. Having the Balik Bukid Fair on Mother's Day solved the dilemma of spending quality time together (my agenda) without having to spend loads of money (the husband's goal).

We've visited before and have tried all the amenities, so this was more relaxed.

Kissed by the sun.

Now, this looked like so much fun! Too bad we saw this only when we were almost leaving. Those 2 boys looked like they were having the best time of their life!

Posting this now, months after the actual event , because the next Balik Bukid should be coming up soon.

Family Photoshoot Preview

Something kept me very busy and preoccupied in the past weeks.

I was a madwoman pinning outfit posts (before I was lured by Instagram, my real first love was Pinterest), OOTD and scouring the mall and my favorite bazaars. Not that I am complaining. In my past life, maybe I did this =)

I created mood boards and pulled clothes from our closets left and right.

In my mind, I had the perfect outfits and perfect time when we would change them. I created an efficient system in my head where we don't have to look the same exactly the same in every frame. And I gave myself an advance pat in the back for thinking about every little detail.

But guess what? Plans didn't exactly turn out the way I had them planned. We forgot things, didn't consider the weather much (it was at the peak of the midday sun when we went outdoors), didn't realize how heavy the bags I packed were and we had to haul them practically across the photo shoot grounds. And we are covering a lot of space.

But guess what again. Each picture captured everything I had hoped for: our growing family, the genuine love in our eyes, the fun of being in the spotlight for the day.

We were also grateful to witness so much creativity and passion for work from great artists and the overflowing love from all families present.

I cannot think of a better way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Here's how our perfect day went.

By Studio XOXO

 

By Studio XOXO

Ruffa and Mike photography

By CasLow Photography

By Daniel Talavera

Screen cap from the Behind the scenes event video made by ZoomBox Weddings

Expect a deluge of photos in upcoming posts!

Missing out on Milestones

s

Being with my son for the past 5 days (weekend + 3 work days) made me realize how much he has grown and is now his own person. He gets frustrated easily, plays with several toys at the same time (oh, he looks like his dad but is more of me in attitude) and he is an affectionate and articulate little boy. Reviewing his pictures and making a pact to have them all printed soon, I found this from our Baguio trip with him smiling, showing the lower front tooth that fell off the early part of this year. I didn't even get to blog about that important milestone where he felt like a "big boy" now that the baby teeth are being replaced by permanent ones. Fast forward to August, he now has 3 permanent teeth, not one needing tooth extraction. Yey for cost savings and louder yey for another benefit of breastfeeding! I love you my little boy and mom's gonna miss you when I return to work.

13th!

It all started with a dress. It was a black, flowy dress with cutouts that made me feel beautiful. I had nowhere to go to that would need such an outfit.

Good thing it was July and it was the perfect excuse to celebrate our 13th year of being together. Sometimes, I feel we've been together for so long already, and yet I can still remember the day I said (or maybe texted) my sweetest yes.


The husband made the reservations, and all I had to do was show up and wear my dress.

Documenting the night failed as I forgot to bring the digicam and thus, these are phone cams that didn't really capture how nice it was at the Skydeck of Bayleaf Hotel.

from where we were seated

Nice view, serene evening. Made me forgot for a while we are at the heart of

1st try at a couple pic

2nd try. No, we didn't even attempt a 3rd

See you again, soon Bayleaf! Nice for a romantic dinner, or after office drinks. So near our offices, too.

Learning the Art of Bento Making

ENRICH is my word of the year. I am taking small steps to make sure I fulfill this goal/vision I set for myself for 2014. So, when I heard that the Bento Mommas are going down South, I immediately signed up for a crafty afternoon adventure.

I'm a work-in-progress mom (aren't we all?) and lately, I've been getting more creative in putting together my son's baon. A picky eater, he is not. It's just so terribly fulfilling and fun for me when my son says I make the coolest baon.

For a minimal workshop fee, we get to use and bring home the most essential bento stuff. Glad Kitchen provided another bagful of freebies for all the participants to take home.

I love freebies! We took home products from Glad Kitchen. Very useful stuff, indeed.

It's a very small class, and I thank our host MommanManila, for welcoming me and my son in their lovely home. You see, I didn't know anyone there, I just signed up and showed up in my desire to learn.

The Bento Mommas prepping for the afternoon

Bento Momma Kaye in action

With the Glad products, and the nifty tools in our starter kit, we were taught how to shape the rice. This is probably the only time when playing with your food isn't just allowed, it's actually encouraged.

My creation looked so promising =)

My son took a break from all the running and playing with the other kids to check up on his mom.

My 6 year old probably thinking what creature his mom created

My creation was cute until I started decorating the face.

 

We made a rabbit.  A scary one here, in my attempt to make it errr, cute. But hey, it is something I made and now I know how to shape and mold the rice, the monsters  shapes I can create are endless!

My 2nd bento creation turned out so much better! This is my bear-y nice sandwich!

After the session, we exchanged stories over merienda. Concentrating for more than two hours, even if I was putting grapes, and chicken and kiwi inside my mouth from time to time, will make you hungry. Good thing there's pasta from Mish and chicken from Marky's.The chicken was so crunchy I'm sure this is going to be something I can include in my son's lunchbox that he'll absolutely love.

And we shopped, too! What a complete experience! My son was so happy that the Star Wars set was available there. It's almost always out of stock at their online shop.

Thank you to the #Crafternoon group for  this workshop. Nice meeting you, MommanManila (not in photo) and MrsPCuyugan (right)!

The class picture

 

Photo credit to MommanManila