Photos are Up!

           

Photos to share! There were so many photos taken so it was so hard to choose!!! Thanks so much to Sister Mandy who sent this award! Sending this to Bethie, Dawn, Val, Cris and Steph since they are all wonderful gal pals! The rules are: * The winner may put the logo on his or her blog * Put a link to the person you got the award from * Nominate five blogs * Put links to the blogs * Leave a message to the nominees Thanks for Cris for this above award! It's truely an honor. :D Sending this to Malou, MizzM, Cayla, Val and Mandy. Sometimes I do wonder how women manage a career and a successful homelife. I believe it would feel like how Tina Fey does it here. Love this ad. It surely is a balacing act for everyone, not only for the wife/mother, but also with everyone in the family. The husband should be willing to help make this work. Although I'm currently happy with where E and I are - happily married (no kids) couple, I know the inevitable is coming since both our folks would like to be grandparents at some point. E's quite supportive with my demanding work since he knows it pushes me to be a better person, but if a kid comes into the picture, I'm wondering if he would allow me to have such a stressful job. Heck, I wonder if I would even stay in the job if there will be risks on the kid/baby. I have a few friends who have been bedridden from Day 1 of being pregnant. I wonder how things will be... These are the things I do think about from time to tim...but recently seeing this ad, it brings about a lot more questions that E and I would need to discuss sooner or later. Speaking of babies, CL's going to be a mommy soon! You and B will surely be wonderful parents!

BIG THANKS TO THOSE WHO VOTED! Please check this out! I recently won Layout Of The Week here! I won for my layout titled, "The day started...". Thanks so much TTS and DawneC for voting my layout as Layout Of the Day to start with. :D

More news to come within the week. I'll post more by next week and hope to get some layouts out in either trad-scrap or digi-scrap. :D ********************************

Title: Have Some Fun Papers and Elements: Willow Wisp by Deanna Patterson/Shabby Scrap Designs Letters: Dotty Sticker Alpha by Deanna Patterson/Shabby Scrap Designs Font: Streamer Program: PS7.0

Back Again

It's great to be back...though I'm catching up with work again since it's audit season and this time, I'm doing it solo. I can't wait to get this audit season over! I miss my partner. :(

Ed and I LOVED our trip; in that, we did not want it to end!
Trip stories, highlights, photos will have to wait though since Ed has to burn it into a cd for uploading. We accummulated around 3,000+ pictures! I kept taking left and right since there was just so many places and sights to see. 12 days is definitely not enough for the ports we visited.
All I can say is that I enjoyed Barcelona, Livorno/Florence/Pisa and Istanbul/Kusadasi. The cruise was absolutely convenient and wonderful!

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Some new music news...
I'm all excited about DIDO's upcoming album called "Safe Trip Home". It's a brand new CD with all new songs. After a five year hiatus, it's wonderful to be listening to a follow-up to "Life For Rent". The site has provided a lot of interviews, samples of the songs like Look No Further but I'm so loving Don't Believe in Love. The local radio stations are giving the latter song a whirl and it's been featured on the latest tv show, 90210. Not bad for a CD still yet to be released.
Tracklisting:
1. don't believe in love
2. quiet times
3. never want to say it's love
4. grafton street
5. it comes and it goes
6. look no further
7. us 2 little gods
8. the day before the day
9. let's do the things we normally do
10. burnin love
11. northern skies
Another songstress coming up with some new material is Sarah McLachlan, who's is preparing for a "best of" album, titled "Closer: The Best of Sarah McLachlan", that will include 14 handpicked songs and 2 new songs written by her exclusively - U Want Me 2 and Don't Give Up On Us. Currently, one of the songs can be heard her on her MySpace website below for, U Want Me 2. As per her site - "The collection documents Sarah's spectacular career as a multi-platinum singer/songwriter, with a tracklist that journeys through hit songs, commercial breakouts, and fan favorites."
All the songs are great...lots of great choices. Too bad that Trainwreck wasn't included.
Tracklist:
1. vox
2. the path of thorns (terms)
3. into the fire
4. possession
5. hold on
6. good enough
7. building a mystery
8. sweet surrender
9. adia
10. angel
11. i will remember you
12. fallen
13. stupid
14. world on fire
15. don't give up on us - new song
16. u want me 2 -new song (Listen In)

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Got some Wedding News too...
I've been there and back but old habits really do die hard.
Like any bridal magazine whore in the past, I'm quite surprised and intrigued to have learned that there's a new Martha Stewart Weddings PHILIPPINES!!!!
I had to search around about this magazine since it's supposedly a rare one. It's not readily available in the market yet though I was able to find it at the Bufini magazine store in Glorietta 4 at P295 per copy. A really reduced price of P500 or so for the US edition as what I bought in the past.
(FYI: I bought every single one that came out from the day I got engaged in Hong Kong to a month or two before the nuptials. A real die-hard MS fan.)
As per press release, Summit Media, the local publishing house that brought Town&Country Philippnies has brought in Martha Stewart Weddings to the Philippines. Merging Martha Stewart brand's signature creativity and style, Martha Steward Weddings Philippines will take the best of the American edition and tailor it with ideas and inspiration developed especially for the Filipina bride.
As I surf the web for more information, I found a fellow blogger who was very fortunate to be invited to the magazine launch who shared photos and information, Candifier : Martha Steward Weddings Philippines Launch to the whole blogsphere. Thanks, Candifier, wherever you are!

Speaking of MS, I bumped into the Bridal Blog of Martha Stewart Weddings' Editors, which I found wonderful and orgazined per topic. Very useful, if you ask me.

On some WeddingsAtWork sisterly news, congrats to STEPH & JOEL, who got married last weekend at Tagaytay. Welcome to the married groupie, Sis Steph!

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I have some surprise to my friends and bloggers...coming soon...some published works.

This year's annual Dutdutan 2008 - Tattoo Convention came and went in a flash. It was held at A.Venue Events Hall in Makati. Please check the link for more details.
I remember the time that I went to my first ink convention. It was at Roseland, NYC ...directly across where my brother used to live. I was in NYC for the spring time with my mom visiting my brother. I wanted to go check it out and my mom was okay. She went home, just across the street, while I went in. It was totally a interesting sight. Totally interesting people from all over the place - US, Japan, Australia, etc. I got a tshirt out of it that I absolutely love! That was around May 1998, I think...I just know that I wasn't finished with my degree yet.

Gone Vacationing!

Just want to let you guys know...going on vacation tomorrow! So excited though still packing till the last home stretch.
E and I are pretty psyched! It's been so long since we went on a real vacation and heck, this is our honeymoon. :P I hope we can do all the planned activities on the cruise ship and the land tours that I booked us. :)
See you all real soon and with photos and stories to match.

On the left is my ASM family!
We have been through a lot and though some have moved on to other work/job/company/life, it was really great to be able to round everyone up on my most recent (and short) trip to HongKong. We really did partied the night/morning away, which was surely rare for pure workaholics like us. :P

Some new places that hubby and I went to...
1.) Bite Club (burgers)
Katipunan Extension
213 Katipunan Extension, Across Blue Ridge, Quezon City
~ Burgers: freshly cooked/prepared; juicy and tasty
~ Feature: the big 1 pound burger...good for sharing
~ Others: fries...fresh and crispy

~ Price: a bit pricier than Brother's Burgers but I think it's worth it!
~ Comments: currently one of my favorites for a burger. It's cheap and simple! The downside is that you need a car to get to it since it's in the middle of Katipunan Extension.

2.) La Nuova (Italian)
San Antonio Plaza, McKinley Road, Forbes Park
Makati City, Metro Manila
(02) 867-2370
~ Pasta: love everything that we have currently ordered...from the spinach ravioli with riccotta cheese to the parma ham with truffle cream sauce (?)
~ Pizza: wonderfully light, decently thin crust with loads of taste and toppings
~ Price: a bit steep but they definitely use the best quality ingredients so it's all justified in the end
~ Comments: will go again and again and again. Thanks LS with recommending this place to us. It's purely a God-send!

3.) Pepper Lunch (Japanese Steak)
Rockwell Power Plant Mall
Makati City, Metro Manila
(02) 895-6185
~ Specialty: sizzling steak meals
~ Price: good for the P200/P300 meals else I think the P600 and above doesn't justify it's worth since you can basically go to a hotel buffet (with a hotel discount card) and have better quality of meat
~ Comments: Taste was good and the novelty of cooking your meal that way you like it is nice...but the steak portion/cut quality could be better...not overly tender...to think that my mom got the most expensive steak - the rib eye steak and it was a bit tougher than expected while my steak, a bit cheaper but not by a lot was far better.
**WARNING: long long queue (wait time in the line is about 30mins, if not more) though the turn-over is quite fast (less than 20min or so). How long would it take to eat a decently slab of steak in a sizzling plate? E said that the waittime is even longer than the eating time!

Catch Up Time!

Work is a loadful since we are reaching 3Q's last stretch. Got a lot of important deadlines to meet before E & I head out for our honeymoon. Correction...it's more like "my dream cruise" since E's letting me decide on everything within reason. :D We'll be visiting the following places:

1. Barcelona, Spain
2. Marseille, France
3. Livorno (Florence/Pisa), Italy
4. Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy
5. Naples, Italy
6. Mykonos, Greece
7. Istanbul, Turkey ~ highlight
8. Kusdasi, Turkey
9. Piraeus (Athens), Greece
10. Venice, Italy

We agreed on the land/shore tours and believe me, it's a lot of sights. I hope we have enough memory card to store our pictures!
So excited to see the other side of the world!!!! Time's surely a ticking...

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KIT: Suddenly Friends by Deanna Patterson (Shabby Scrap Designs)
TEMPLATE: 12x12 Template – Simplicity by Doodleboogs(ScrapOutsideOfTheBox)
PROGRAM: PS7.0
FONT: Book Antiqua & Amazone BT
JOURNALING: Life’s most fulfilling thing for a parent is to love their little joy.

Features and Tributes

First of all, I would like to thank TeacherCarrie, who featured one of my layouts (Dog Mom) in her blog, Multi-Photo Scrapbook Layout Gallery. Thanks so much! It's truely an honor!

E and I are currently getting ready with our honeymoon to Europe...a Mediterranean cruise.
I'm doing most of the research on which land tours to book since E isn't really familiar of what would be worthwhile sights. I'm so thankful that I have a good background in the arts field since most (if not all) of the locations have important landmarks that brought about great movements in Art History. It's more or less trying to squeeze in as many places to visit as we could in a day.
I hope we decide soon so we can reserve our slots. :)

On a sadder note, gramp's (mom's side) passed away last week. He was in the hospital for three weeks to treat his pneumonia. He was also having problems breathing when he was admitted. We were all hopeful at first since he was active and communicating with us constantly but his body wasn't responding to the various antibiotics given to him to cure the pneumonia and was becoming weaker as the day progressed. He was on a respirator and couldn't eat on his own. There were a few complications in his lungs like having fluids in it like my other grams (dad's side). It was sort of deja vous for me - same hospital, same respirator...same result.
My mom told me that grandpa was unconscious for about two days before succumbing to death Thursday morning. At least, gramps didn't experience too much pain unto his next life.
I'd like to thank everyone who sent their prayers and support. My gramps was laid to rest on Sunday morning. I thank the Lord that the weather was cooperative after the many storms that came our way as of date. Someone was surely watching over us and making sure gramps had a safe and peaceful journey.

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Kit Name: Hush mini kit girl by Doodleboogs
Template: 12x12 Template – Simplicity by Doodleboogs
Program: PS7.0
Font: CK Becky
Journaling: Maxine looked so cute as a flowergirl at a recent wedding. She behaved very well and was able to walk down the aisle without a fuss. She even made some new friends aside from giving daddy a few great solo shots to remember this wonderful day!




Kit Name: Hush mini kit boy by Doodleboogs
Template: 12x12 Template – Simplicity by Doodleboogs
Program: PS7.0
Font: Civilian
Journal: Boracay 2008

Furniture Wishlist and more...

Since E and I got our own place, I've been so into furniture/design mags. As an advance bday gift, E got me a year's subscription to Elle Decoration (UK edition) and I've gotten a furniture/design wish list in the works (in my head). Of course, owning the original would like put me back a whole lot but since there are a lot of replicas being done nowadays, access to these timeless and practical pieces are not unachievable. Below are some of what I would hopefully own...as of this date. :D
This is going to be one costly house...good thing I chose one piece and section area at a time!
From left to right: Ray & Carles Eames' LCW (Lounge Chair Wood), Eileen Gray's Chrome Side Table, Isamu Noguchi's Nogochi Table, respectively.



Buon Giorno
Italian
Near Puregold Shaw Blvd
Liberty Center, Mandaluyong City
4/5
~ highly recommend the vegetable risotto...very tasty and cooked to perfection
~ got the spinach lasagna...a bit hard on the bottom side of the lasagna
~ would rather have gotten the pizza
~ beverages are so worth it since they serve is in a big tall mug...got the grape shake!

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Title: Lullaby
Kit: Dainty Delight by Deanna Patterson
Template: Free Sampler by Doodleboogs
Photo Credit: Vivian Chung Photography
Program: PS7.0
Font: Book Antiqua
Journaling (abbreviated):
by John Fuller
Sleep little baby, clean as a nut, Your fingers uncurl and your eyes are shut. Your life was ours, which is with you. Go on your journey. We go too.
Oh be our rest, our hopeful start. Turn your head to my beating heart. Sleep little baby, clean as a nut, Your fingers uncurl and your eyes are shut.

Mags mags mags

This is one doozy entry since there are lot of things to show you - published again!
Check out below :)

1.) Metro Weddings Directory 2008: WeddingAtWork Brides share stories/testimonials


In the most recent Metro Weddings Directory, some of the WatW sisters were asked to contribute some testimonials about certain suppliers. I have to thank Joshua for letting me know about this since I totally forgot all about this. :)
Ed pushed me to get it when we found out that it wasn't only one supplier testimonials but three!
My testimonials for Henry Pascual, Bridal Conservatory and The Write Impression were all published. Click on the photos above for a better look. Very honored to have been chosen for this since it was all done in a rush by Mama Benz. Deadline was the next day. Good thing that I was super happy and inspired just after my wedding that these words didn't take me so much to think of because these were honest comments about them!

2.) Peachy Juban ~ online site
One of my favorite wedding suppliers has just set-up her own website to promote her wonderfully created and scrumptious cakes ~ Peachy Juban
She was one of the suppliers that made my wedding an exciting one with her lantern cakes. She made me and my mom laugh like little girls planning for our own weddings and at the same time still impart her own "unique stylings". I looked forward to each and everyone my meetings with her during the brain-storming sessions.
She is a bit on the pricey side but I was so happy and overwhelmed with the results that it is all so "justified"! Not only was it a pure eye-candy (not an understatement), it was also so delicious that a lot of our guests requested a few take-homes.
She's a real gem that my mom found while scanning through wedding magazines that featured Manila cakers.

3.) Inquirer Golf: June 2008
More publishings, our golf team recently won the 2008 Ladies Federation Golf League. It was a pretty good run since we learned from past mistakes and how to be the best role model for the sport - win or lose. We were kind and gracious with whatever came our way.
It was a really bright, clear skies~sunny, hot day when this picture was taken. I would wear my shades till the photographer gave the signal then I would take it off. Man, I was squinting so much and it showed a lot in the numerous shots! I don't know why I didn't get my red had (that I didn't know I have) during these shoot.
Photo taken on the 9th hole of Wack Wack Golf & Country Club.
With teammates like these, who needs anyone else!

One Big Happy!!!

Got my Father's Day gift for my dad from the family. It didn't take much thinking since my dad is into the gadgets. Will spill the beans on what we got for him next week. I hope he likes it...and that it works out just fine since he bought numerous "fake ones" that failed miserably. :P

Have a great weekend, everyone!

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Title: Never Forget The Good Times
Kit: Backyard Barefoot by Deanna Patterson
Template: Table of Contents by Doodleboogs
Photo Credit: Reggie
Font: Cornerstone
Program: PS7.0
Journaling: Gumgut 2008






Title: Dog Mom
Kit: Dog Gone It Paper and Elements by Deanna Patterson
Template: Table of Contents by Doodleboogs
Photo Credit: Reggie
Font: Courier
Program: PS7.0
Journaling: Before I was a Dog Mom: I made & ate hot meals unmolested. I had unstained, unfurred clothes. I had quiet conversations on the phone, even if the doorbell rang. / Before I was a Dog Mom: I slept as late as I wanted and never worried about how late I got to bed or if I could get into my bed. / Before I was a Dog Mom: I had never been peed on, pooped on, drooled on, chewed on or pinched by puppy teeth. / Before I was a Dog Mom: I had complete control of my thoughts, my body and mind. I slept all night without sharing the covers or pillow. / Before I was a Dog Mom: I had never held a sleeping puppy just because I couldn't put it down. I had never gotten up in the middle of the night every 10 minutes to make sure all was well. I didn't know how warm it feels inside to feed a hungry puppy. I didn't know that something so small could make me feel so important. / Before I was a Dog Mom: I had never known the warmth, the joy, the love, the heartache, the wonderment or the satisfaction of being / A Dog Mom.