chicken rice gift wrap + crazy day

Gift wrapping is one of the many things I love doing. I collect gift wrapping papers too. And chicken rice paper  (a paper used to wrap chicken rice take-outs) is one of those. Haha! Just add some twine, washi tape, a handmade card ---  and you're good to go! 

This day is crazy. One moment I was so low about something and the next moment I was ecstatic! Kuya did something so great today! He surprised me, again. I have no words to describe how happy I am :) 

That's one of the "benefits" when you are an Autism mom.  Something "little" happens and it gives you this HEAVENLY joy and you can't stop smiling until tears join in too. Ahhh ... the silver lining! 

"The word ot the Lord is faithful and all his works to be trusted. Come let us give thanks and praise!"

recipe time!

Bonded with friends from church over these cupcakes (and the yummies they also brought) last night :) It's one of my successful batches so I'm sharing the recipe with you! Disclaimer: recipe's not mine. I also just copied it from a recipe book and saved it in my almost-10-year-old recipe notebook :P

Banana Nut Cupcakes

1 1/4 all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 bananas
1/2 cup nuts (as of now, kids won't eat anything with nuts)
5 tablespoons milk

1. Preheat oven to 375°F Thoroughly grease muffin pans or use paper liners.
2. Sift the flour and baking powder into small bowl. Set aside.
3. With an electric mixer, cream the butter or margarine and sugar. Add egg and vanilla and beat until fluffy.  Mix in the bananas. Add nuts.
4. With the mixer on low speed, beat in the flour mixture alternately with milk. Spoon into pan.  Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown.
5.  Leave to cool in the pans for 10 minutes.

Try it! :)

sending smiles your way :)

Hoping you'll send me back some!

This is the kind of day when I don't want to do anything (most, if not all women experience this once every month). Scenario: I stare at my long list of things-to-do (just stare) then I proceed to the fridge and grab some of hubby's Cadbury. Stare at my list again and go back to the fridge and grab the whole pack. I sit down in front of the laptop and surf mindlessly. Such a loser right. Pfffft! 

But I don't want to stay that way. I once said, It's fine to feel like a loser once in awhile. I just have to make sure I won't stay that way haha! One way to do it is to create envelopes. It's therapeutic I tell you! :) 

Smiley envelopes, handcut :)

Little paper bags. Recycled!

Pretty tiny 2x2" envelopes. Great for embellishing mini albums and/or gifts. 

These are up for sale at ThoughtfulCrafts, in this album.

Thank you to all who signed up for Sweetest Days workshop. I hope you all had fun as much as I did. I'm in the process of designing next month's class. Stay tuned! =) 

dewdrops love

I said it before and I'll say it again... and I might just say it again and again-- I love DEWDROPS. They are so tiny, so pretty, so useful for me to make me say my page is done :) I'm currently finishing the last few pages of my travel album and I can't help but use dewdrops in almost all the pages! 

Robin's Nest, the maker of dewdrops is having a design team call right now. While I'm serving my last two months as DT for them... but I might just get lucky and continue for one more term? 

I hope so :) 

yummy + happy

I love eating bread. I eat bread when I'm happy.  I eat bread when I'm sad. Which explains my hips (ugh!). One day, I figured, If I love eating it, I might as well love baking it. So I headed to Phoon Huat  right after dropping Miguel to school and shopped for ingredients. That night I baked my very first multi-grain wholemeal bread using this recipe from The Rowdy Baker. I recall saying my prayer  while baking, because I know, no one does it 100% perfect the first time!

But I guess sometimes one can get lucky *wink* because this turned out beautiful! Husband ate two slices even after he had dinner. Yay! And since it was mother's day the next day, I packed some few slices and shared it with my neighbors =)

I still can't get enough of this app. You may see me using it more in the coming days.. It's so easy and fun and because of it I have not been using my DSLR for posting blogs hehe... *lazy* 

Today is my sister Odessa's birthday! I pray for God's will to be always fulfilled in her life. Because that will give her ultimate happiness. This funny pic was taken last Christmas when we shopped for a Christmas tree with friends. I couldn't carry heavy things and she often teases me of having osteoporosis so she insists on carrying this uber heavy box hahaha! But more than that, she has always been there when I'm at my lowest. When I had miscarriage..  when I had to bring my son to a developmental pediatrician for evaluation (torture days!). And just like all my siblings, she's always ready to lend a helping ears when I needed to vent. Love her to bits. Happy birthday manghud!!!

fun app + book giveaway WINNER

I could'nt sleep last night thinking about my sister until I found myself playing this super fun (and really easy) iphone app by one of my favourite bloggers A Beautiful Mess. It's like scrapbooking while lying down so I played and played until the phone fell to my face. 

If yours has iOS6 and you are connected to a wifi, you can download now! Gow! 

{My apologies for announcing this really late... the winner of my book giveaway is Alice Charles. Congratulations and please PM me your mailing add here.}

even in a bad day

I was so shocked to read my father's message on my Facebook wall this morning... telling me that the band barracks where  my sister Che2 and brother-in-law Victor (and another BIL, Reinee) stay burned to ashes. They are all cops and as members of Philippine National Police - Band, that had been their home for many years which explains why my sister is so devastated right now. 

First, that's where she and her husband met. Then they got married. That place was their first home. All the gifts on their wedding day must be there (this one I need to confirm with her). Their photos. Their documents. Her SHOES (she loves shoes!). Her jewelries! I thought of these things the minute I heard about the bad news. I felt really sorry and wished I could hug her and be there for her in her great sorrow for losing all those things she has been working hard for all these years! 

But the next minute, I cried while praying, thanking God for saving my sister's life and though in a painful way, for giving her this opportunity to experience NOTHINGNESS which leads her to see and focus only on what she has right now --- people who love her and people she loves + memories + her FAITH. Things that really matter. I told her that. And I also told her to just detach from those things, for God knows what she needs. She will have everything she needs and even more.

True enough, so many people are extending their help. Some big, some little --- but the best thing about this is the thought, the communion, the peace.  I would give up what I have just to have all these intangible things ---plus the JOY in knowing that I have a God who loves me so all I have to do is relax and let Him take care of everything!

"For the mountains may depart, the hills may be shaken, but my love for you will never leave you and my covenant of peace with you will never be shaken, says the Lord who takes pity on you."

So yes, even in a bad day, God is good!!!

Eat Play Love. Cafe.

Have you heard of Eat Play Love Cafe? It's a new craft cafe along Aliwal St. that I and my scrappy friends checked out. I love it there! The place is so cozy, full of cute and fun stuff to play with, food is good and affordable. Thanks to Nur, Rui and Aida for tagging me along that day!

Eating my waffle felt like I was in my grandma's kitchen. I ate on this exact plate when I was a kid. Oh I miss my Lola.

And this cup? We had this at home back in college (where is it now by the way? I better ask my mother!) Was it just me or this really has the powers to make water taste better? lol. 

Some other cool stuff that caught my fancy...

Rui enjoying her milk tea & deciding whether she'll shrink some plastics or adopt a monster  haha! ...

The cafe's main attraction aren't those vintage and cute stuff I found but this... 

A craft area for kids and adults! How fun is that. You only pay $5.00 for two hours of unlimited arts and crafts fun using the supplies in this area. I must bring the boys here soon!

And the fun (and photo taking) continues...

It was such a perfect place to get in touch with my Made With Love ex-colleagues whom I haven't seen  since my last day of work. That meeting ignited our scrappy mojo so we decided to meet again (and hopefully scrap together) soon... yay! 

mother's day rant

If not for the fact that for some reason I haven't talked to my mother today (and it makes me very disappointed) this day would have been so good.

My boys (with Mae's help) made me a "giant card" as they call it. Last night  when hubby and I got home from the grocery and they fetched and helped us with the bags, Migs said: "when we get inside the house, you will close your eyes, and we will shout SURPRISE! HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!" and when we got inside, he did and I pretended to really be so surprised. hahahah. So I enjoyed mother's day a few hours in advance...

I'm sharing this precious artwork with my mother, MIL, sister and SIL. All the mommies in the clan are thought of! Some close-ups...

Mae earned 1000 ganda points here.  She even documented the process and sent these precious behind-the-scenes photos to me!

By the way, have your heard about the recent put-an-end-to-boring-photos campaign in Facebook? Here's my share... 

Hahaha! EPIC mother's day lunch scene. The hair. The faces. We were rushing for the Block Rosary so we never had the chance to take a better one. Thanks Mae for this jinga-juice-drinking-contest photo BWAHAHAHA! 

We can make everyday a mother's day so I will stop feeling sorry why my mother  never went online and didn't have a minute to pick up her phone today. I will stop complaining that in this special day in her honor she is extremely busy in the shoppe because people are getting married. If God allows, we will all still be here tomorrow and the next day.. and the next... and I can show her how much I am grateful to her for being my mother. 

I will say goodnight now by leaving you this song we sang with the POSAP Rosary Crusade earlier today. Loved it so much (and helped me divert my useless emotions to good ones) so I googled the chords and sang. Husband dear didn't know I was recording it. Take a glimpse of our unguarded moments :D 

Happy mother's day to all of us mommies and to all our moms! I will be back tomorrow to announce the winner of this giveaway. Ciao. 

Miguel's 5th Birthday {part two}

If there's one bit of  wisdom hubby and I tried to impart to our son's young brain when he turned 5 it's this -- birthdays aren't always PERFECT but it can still be a HAPPY BIRTHDAY.  It broke my heart when in the middle of our beach picnic (with pinwheels, sleeping bags --- and our minds set to stay at Sentosa til sunset) it rained stormed! I won't forget his terrified face seeing the cupcakes all messed up. It was at the same time so hilarious seeing him clutch Mae's slippers and a blanket trying to help us while in tears (!) as we all rush to a hiding place (in this case, it was a tram pick-up stop) but I will also forever cherish that moment when, after I talked to him about this "wisdom", he managed to enjoy the imperfection of his birthday, ate the messy cupcake and laughed as we all run under the rain! 

Here are some "perfect" photos before the storm... 

Love. This. 

Now this is the part where the kids would gather, birthday boy blows the candle, makes a wish, and everybody sings "happy birthday to you.. happy birthday to you..."

It did not happen. lol. Either they were too excited or they already felt the storm was coming. haha!

Thank you for joining Miguel on his special day, Talam, Lumauag & Verano families! :) Also to Rachel and the Cheryl and Rizza, and to Mona (who spent time with us at Coffee Bean later that day and eventually at our home where we ate and watched the Silver Lining Playbook - Miguel called it his birthday party part 3 & 4) I know it was not very convenient that day and you all had other activities in the afternoon but you still went anyway! Thanks so much!

Bahala kamo da ya basta enjoy ko --- wish it lasted more than just a couple of hours :) 

Momis, ga lumba tag angle sa aton mga bukton :D

Husband dear's way of loving me: taking my super glam pics. tsk tsk.

This one could almost pass as a perfect photo. Except for my fats. AAAHHH! 

Happy birthday my dearest Migs. I believe you know how much Mommy and Daddy and everyone love you. I thank God that this year, you learnt that life is not always perfect but you can dance and smile anyway -- as long as we have God with us. Because with Him, HAPPY isn't always the absence of trials. It is in accepting whatever happens and trusting Him knowing He knows best :) 

If mae wasn't giving me a nice pedi while im typing this post now, I would crop her out of this photo. JOKE lang! lol. 

Thanks for reading guys. It's Mother's day tomorrow and Mama Mary will grace our house for a month. What a very special Mother's day it's gonna be. 

| birthday part one | photo credits: Tito Verano & Trim Reaper |