Christmas with the Family

Our Christmas dinner is a little bit more casual than those of our western counterparts. At least it is in my family. We don't really dress up. We dress up for Christmas mass on Christmas eve, but for the family gathering for dinner on Christmas, we come in comfortable clothing because... well...

the "kids" after playing a game that involved blowing on some flour

 ... things can get a little dirty. And I will post no other photos of what these kids did... they might not talk to me anymore :)

Elements from My Golden Christmas by Valentina's Creations, Template by Seatrout Scraps

I made this layout for Scrapbook-bytes Template Challenge for December 2012. Due to Scrappity-Doo-Dah's closing by January 1 *sniff* I've been hunting for a new scrapping home. Scrapbook-bytes looks promising since they have some of my favorite challenges. I also opened a new gallery over at Gotta Pixel, though it's still a little empty.

Looking forward to some great scrapping and crafting in 2013!

Sugarplum Sparkles

What could be more awesome than a collaboration between 2 of my favorite designers?

THE KIT:

THE TEMPLATES:

THE CLUSTERS:

Dagi's Temptations and designs by Mandy King have teamed up to bring you a unique collab! Celebrate winter and shine up your holiday layouts with Sugarplum Sparkle. The entire collection includes a page kit, template set (12x12) and set of clusters. Each piece of the collab is available for individual purchase or you can save some money and grab the bundle! 

Exclusive at Scrappity-Doo-Dah.

Store: Mandy King

Store: Dagi's Temp-tations

MY LAYOUT:

This is "Andrea Vs. The Nativity". And so far, the score is 2 broken angels... I debated about getting new angels but ended up just gluing them together. Smart choice, as I keep finding those angels posing as Barbie's friends when Andrea is playing. 

Merry and Bright Card Templates by Dagi's Temp-tations

A few more days before Christmas and it's time to rush rush rush those gifts and Christmas cards! To help you with your personal Christmas Card projects, check out these new templates from Dagi's Temp-tations:

 

This set includes 4 layered card templates size 5x7, 300 dpi. Includes PSD, PNG, TIFF, and PAGE (without shadows so that you can add your own) formats. Resize easily for smaller cards. For personal use, S4H/S4O friendly, CT friendly.

Available here:

Scrappity-Doo-Dah

Scrap Takeout

Here is a card I made using one of the templates:

Elements from: Christmas Quilt by Barbara Ryan, Christmas CU Mix sets by Cajoline Scraps

Where's Papa Smurf? (Christmas Edition)

Tree time!!

In keeping with my annual tradition, we set up our tree during our 4-day long weekend to commemorate All Saint's Day. Though my tree looks pretty much the same as last year's...

View last year's post here.

... I added a few things to make it interesting for Andrea.

Can you find her little friends? :)

I wanted to incorporate her toys in our tree and she has plenty of those small toy figures. I was choosing between the toy figures and the toy fruits because those are the stuff she has plenty of. I was having a hard time putting the plastic fruits on the tree though, and my husband kept telling me they don't look "Christmassy". So toy figures it is!

I was only able to 'perch' a few of them on the tree before she decided she wanted to pluck them one by one *sigh*. Only Papa Smurf and Tigger and a few of Dora's animal friends are left. I have to go hunting for the Disney Fairies, the other Smurfs and the other McDonald's Happy Meal toys so I can put them back on the tree.

Christmas in July: My 1st Christmas

So last week, Andrea came home with her school notebook, where her teacher provides us parent's with a weekly update of what our children are studying in school. According to the weekly update... for this week, they will be studying about babies... what babies do, what stuff babies use... and that they (Andrea's class) are not babies anymore...

Um... come again???

But... but... she IS still my baby!!! Waaaaahhh!!

*sniff* *sniff*

It seems only a few months ago that we were celebrating our first Christmas, and she was still so small.

Elements from: Country Christmas by Sunny Day Scraps, Royal Wedding Alpha by Trixie Scraps, Template by Scrapping with Liz

I just had an annoying realization about this photo... I gained more weight since then, and my husband, for some reason lost a lot of weight since then. How come????

I used Sunny Day Scraps' Country Christmas kit for this layout.

A cute Christmas kit in soft country colors that will go well with the family's Christmas photos. This kit has 40 elements (PNG), and 13 papers (JPEG), all done in 300 dpi to ensure print quality.

Available here:

Berry Sweet Scraps

Be sure to check out other Christmas kits by Sunny Day Scraps (images are linked):

It's Christmas in July at Berry Sweet Scraps!

Should I start the Christmas shopping panic now??? Haha!

(But seriously, I should...)

Sunny Day Scraps has some Christmas kits to make fun Christmas layouts.

Elements from: Northpole kit by Sunny Day Scraps

I used Sunny Day Scraps' North Pole kit for this layout:

Experience the Christmas Magic at the North Pole! This is the perfect kit for those cute layouts of children/grandchildren.

"North Pole" is a larget kit with 55 elements (in PNG) and 20 papers (in JPEG), all done at 300 dpi for good print resolution.

Available here:

Berry Sweet Scraps

Be sure to check out other Christmas kits by Sunny Day Scraps (images are linked):

Slow down 2012! - Part 1

Happy new year friends, guests and everyone who happens to browse over!

It's the 3rd day of January and I have a TON of stuff to catch up on. Vacation is OVER, I'm back and  and it's time to go back to WORK. And back to work I've been since yesterday. I have so many things to share I don't know there to start. 

Let's start with what this blog is all about... a project!

I made a bubble skirt for Andrea shortly before we left for vacation and she wore it on Christmas Eve. This is actually a clothes upcycle project. It was made from an old pair of slacks (yes... I used to have shiny navy blue slacks). I cut off the lower part of both legs, removed the side seams, sewed all sides together to form a tube, gathered the top and bottom before attaching to the skirt lining.

*sigh*

It's been a while since I posted a tutorial and one of these days, I swear I will surprise you with one :)

We spent Christmas eve at my husband's aunt's house, where we spend it every year. 

 His aunt's house is right in front of the Catholic church where everyone in his family attends mass. The church was packed on Christmas eve.

The streets were busy too.

After mass we had our Christmas dinner, Noche Buena, and then exchanged gifts with the cousins. I didn't get a proper photo of the dinner table because I was too busy running after my little girl (which pretty much describes my whole vacation... me running after that little girl).

I planned to finish a crochet project over vacation but we got a little busy and I totally forgot all about it. Anyway, more on our vacation in the next few days and what better way to celebrate the new year than to have a GIVEAWAY right?? RIGHT! I'll be announcing the details soon so stay tuned!

Sharing my 'Home for the Holidays'

Just wanted to let you know that I'm guest posting over at Amy's blog, One Artsy Mama, today for her Our Home for the Holidays series. I will be sharing about our family's tradition for Christmas eve.

So head on over there if you want to know how we celebrate Christmas eve here in the Philippines

Wishing Christ's blessing for all of you this Christmas. Merry Christmas!

Decorative Thumbtack Christmas Ball

Finally! A craft project (albeit a very simple one).

So while I was stuck at home suffering from food poisoning yesterday (sigh... long story), I managed to finish my gold Christmas ball.

Here it is, sitting on top of the vase I "borrowed" indefinitely from my grandmother. I used EXACTLY 600 thumbtacks for this project. I know because, each box contains 100 tacks and I used 6 boxes.So the finished ball is a little heavy.

I used to see this project a lot around blog land a few months ago. There is a tutorial for this over at Landee See, Landee Do. I have to admire those who did more than one... this takes patience! Imagine carefully tacking each thumbtack 600 times! Though I guess others used smaller styrofoam balls.

Here's a photo of the ball while it was still in progress.

After I finished... er... I actually didn't know what to do with it. I initially wanted to stick a fabric poinsettia flower on top of the ball but it wasn't looking quite right (and it messes with the balance of the ball) so I scrapped the idea and covered the entire styrofoam ball with thumb tacks.

For now, I added it to my little ensemble on top of the shoe cabinet on our entryway.

I have some more Christmas DIY items on my list and maybe I'll find another place for it soon (sometime before Christmas, I hope).

Next on my list: WREATH! Stay tuned!

It's November... therefore...

It's November, and in our household, that means it's officially Christmas!!!.

We had a 4-day weekend last week. November 1 is All Saint's Day and it's Filipino tradition to go home to their provinces to visit their dearly departed in the cemetery. Since November 1 was a Tuesday, October 31 (Monday) was also declared as a special holiday to give people more time to travel to their provinces.

Though we didn't go to the cemetery to visit my grandfather (cemeteries get so crowded around November 1 so we visit my grandfather's grave on other days), our weekend was busy too. I finally got around to visiting my dad in the province. My long overdue trip was supposed to happen last June for his birthday. But we were besieged by typhoon after typhoon since then and the area we will be passing to get there was flooded most of the time so we had to postpone our trip several times.

My daughter and my niece enjoyed seeing the "Bahay Kubo" (nipa hut) which they often sing about, in the yard at my dad's house.  And they got to play with cousin Mikki too, who they seldom see. By the way, Mikki is 4 months younger than Andrea but she's almost the same height and built. Should I be worried about Andrea?

We just stayed for a few hours. We arrived around noon time and travelled back to Manila in the evening. 

I also managed to put up our Christmas tree too!

It looks kind of like it did last year. I didn't want to spend money on new decor this year so I used the ones I had last year. The only difference this year is, I used some of Andrea's teddy bears to decorate the tree. One of my aunts gave her a set of Christmas teddy bears from Costco last year. There were 8 bears in the set and they were small enough. They're the perfect touch to give our tree something new. 

I haven't gotten around to the other decor yet. I have a few craft projects planned and hopefully... I can get them done BEFORE Christmas :) 

Hope you guys had a great weekend too!

Christmas Vacation Photos

The day before we returned to Manila, my sister-in-law and her husband took me and my husband for a short trip to a dive resort in Saranggani: Lemlunay Resort. Nope, we did not go diving. We only stayed there for a few hours so we only used the pool. Our camera lens broken the previous day, I only used my camera phone (Nokia N95) to take these photos.

They have cabin rooms for rent for guests who are staying the night.

They have an infinity pool.

I saw a lot of cactus trees like this one growing around this resort.

I think this cactus is really pretty.

We left Andrea at her grandmother's house. For one we left too early (around 6AM). Another thing, she was still recovering from her hospital stay. Yep, my precious princess got sick and had to be confined at the hospital for a few days because she was dehydrated. According to the doctor there, she had gastro-enteritis... which was weird because we completed our Rotavirus shots which was supposed to prevent that.

this just breaks my heart everytime I see it :(

Watching her cry in pain as they were putting the IV on her was probably the most painful most difficult thing I ever had to experience in my life. Much more painful than giving birth to her. To add to my worries... we were far from home... and far from the pediatrician we trust. Andrea got better though. We were at the hospital for 3 days and was released on December 24... in time to celebrate Christmas Eve with our family.

Christmas starts in November

I once heard that the Philippines has the longest celebration for Christmas. Some people start preparations when the "-ber" months arrive. For me, it sort of starts in November.

As a child, I remember that it was my mom's tradition to start putting up the Christmas tree and other Christmas decorations on November 1 (Looking back, I think my mom's reasons were practical... it was a non-working holiday, she doesn't have work... I used to think that's just how it was supposed to be). This practice went on until we got older and I started to be responsible for putting up the Christmas tree at our house. But when I moved out and had my own household, I forgot the tradition. I usually put up the Christmas tree when I feel like it. Last year, while Metro Manila and nearby areas were being ravaged by Typhoon Ondoy, I was obliviously putting up my Christmas tree. That was September.

This year is a little different. I have a little girl now and I want her to have the same magical experience I had as a child during Christmas time: Christmas tree, Christmas socks, "Santa", church service on Christmas eve, waking up midnight of Christmas eve to check what "Santa" left for me on my Christmas sock, to open gifts together and to have Noche Buena. I thought all families celebrated Christmas this way because it was the only way I have ever known. I want Andrea to have that too... and more, if possible.

So to start, we put up our Christmas tree on October 31 - November 1. Andrea sort of helped :)


And this is our tree after we were done:

I got lucky this year. My mom bought a new fiber-optic Christmas tree and decided not to decorate too much. I got to "borrow" (indefinitely, hehe) her ornaments. Most of the nice stuff on my tree are hers: the gold twigs, the ribbon, the gold filigree leaves, the gold pine cones. MG and I knew nothing much about Christmas trees when we got ours... we got a really big one, and later found out it costs a lot to decorate a big tree. Thanks to the additions from my mom, our tree this year looks... well... full :)

And since this is all for Andrea... she is allowed to play with the tree... pick Christmas balls, pull the ribbon, pull the leaves. Even if it means I have to stay up extra hours at night to put it back together again so it will look nice again when she sees it in the morning.