My Bucket of Scrap

he's finally here!

2007-03-15T09:49:00.000+08:00

ROLAND THOMAS PELAYO ESGUERRA III

"TREY"

Born on March 5, 2007

at 1:40pm

Asian Hospital and Medical Center

Weighing 6 lbs 2 oz

Measuring 51 cms

how awful am i?!

2006-08-23T21:24:00.000+08:00

Updating this blog seems to be becoming a monthly thing for me. Bad blogger! Bad blogger! I really should post here more often, and I'm sorry I haven't. So many things have happened, and now I don't know where the hell to start.

Ok. As of today, I am 13 weeks and 3 days pregnant already. Passed the first trimester, and Peanut is doing good. Yay!!! The first trimester wasn't as bad as how I've seen or read others to have experienced it. I hardly had any morning sickness, although there are a few times when a certain smell just makes me gag. I know that is something that I should be thankful for. And believe me, I am!

I guess you could say that the biggest thing about my pregnancy now is that I have gestational diabetes. Yep. What normally would've been a possible occurrence on a woman's 25th to 28th week of pregnancy has become a reality for me at 2 months. When I went for my first prenatal checkup with my OB, she had asked for my history, of course. Since my dad is diabetic, she had asked me to go for an oral glucose challenge test. Dang, I hate that test! That orange drink they make you take is real icky. Obviously, I "failed" the challenge test, which prompted my OB to refer me to an endocrinologist. Then my endocrinologist made me go through an oral glucose tolerance test this time. That was worse! More of that icky orange drink, but I had to fast the day before and I had to stay in the hospital for 3 hours because they had to take my blood every hour. Terrible, terrible, terrible! And again, obviously, I "failed" that test too. Well, I didn't do THAT bad. I failed 2 out of the 4 blood tests, and of the two I failed, I only missed the mark by a point or two. Until today, I'm not sure whether that's good, or if that totally sucked.

Anyhoo, to make a long story short, I have a mild case of gestational diabetes. I'm on a strict diet which does not include any sugar. Aaack!!! No cake, no candy, no muffins, no chocolate. For a time, I've also had to check my blood sugar before every meal and an hour every after -- which meant I had to prick my finger 6 times a day. When my endocrinologist was quite satisfied that I was sticking to my diet religiously, I'm now down to pricking my finger 3 times a day. Ah, the simple pleasures in life. LOL! So there. It sucks, really. But looking at the big picture, it's a teeny tiny small price to pay for our Peanut.

We went for our monthly checkup last Saturday, and everything's pretty good. We tried to check for Peanut's heartbeat using that Doppler device, but we weren't able to find it yet. I was worried for a bit, but our OB assured us that it wasn't unusual not to hear it on the 3rd month, and she promised that we would hear it in our next monthly checkup. I was thinking of having an ultrasound just to be sure that Peanut's ok, but Mr. S convinced me not to worry too much and to have faith on our doctor's assurances.

I haven't been able to scrap as much as I'd like, and it bums me out sometimes. I did manage to turn in my kits for RAKScraps (which I will have to show you guys soon) and do my sponsor layouts and article for the August newsletter (which is awesome, by the way! LOL!). But I do have some photos of Chloe and stuff I want to make for Peanut's album that I can't seem to find the time for. I'm not allowed to scrap at night when I get home from work (Mr. S is turning into a real nag! LOL!!!), so that leaves the weekend. But then there are doctor's appointments, trainings that I have to run (yes, on weekends!), and what seems to be my never-ending lethargicness. In fact, I recently just made one of the hardest decisions I've had to do. Because of so many things happening right now, I had to step down from Robin's creative team. I absolutely loooved working with her designs and she is such a super person, and it really broke my heart to leave.

So right now, I've really just been concentrating on keeping myself and Peanut healthy, putting in my hours at work, and of course, RAKScraps. I can't totally be without digiscrapping, ya know, and RAKScraps is home for me and so that has to stay. Some things are just non negotiable. LOL!

Ok, it's almost snooze time for me. I will leave you with one page I did manage to finish for Peanut's album. Ciao, bellas!

Credits:
Robin Carlton and Paula Duncan's Creme de Menthe kit at SSD; metal plate and green gingham bow by Katie Pertiet at DD; stitching by Ronna Penner
Font: ChopinScript, VT Portable Remington

Journaling reads: Attempting to write down how I felt when I realized I was pregnant with you is much harder than I had anticipated. How do you capture such joy into words? Your daddy and I have been trying for a year, and although we tried not to pressure ourselves too much, telling ourselves that the time together was good for us (and it was!), the sheer desire to hold you in our arms was just too great. But one day, the heavens managed to smile down on your daddy and I, and so here we are...pregnant and absolutely in bliss. You aren't even out in the world yet, and already so many people are excited to meet you - your grandparents, your uncles and aunts, and even your cousin Chloe is excited to play with you. But no one is more excited to meet you than your daddy and I.
Sometimes, when I'm by myself, I find myself constantly touching my barely there baby bump, and talking to you. It is kinda silly because I know you can't hear me yet, but still - it makes me happy when I share stories with you. Even your dad is such a silly goose! Do you know that before he leaves for work every morning and before we go to bed at night, he gives you your special kiss? It's a simple raspberry on my tummy, but it makes your mommy laugh. We both think you enjoy it too.
Oh, we really can't wait till we are finally able to hold you in our arms, and we can be a family! But until then, our little Peanut, stay safe, be strong, and know that you are much much loved by your daddy and mommy.

at last, time to post!

2006-07-19T19:07:00.000+08:00

I don't even know where to begin. I think saying THANK YOU to everyone who left their well wishes in my previous post is a good start. You guys are just the sweetest, and all your messages just gave me the warm fuzzies. Thank you! Thank you!

Remember my grandfolks' diamond wedding anniversary? It was on the same night that we found out. And T-Wan, if you're reading this...No, I didn't sing. LOL!!! I managed to get myself out of that sticky situation. My mom ended up being too busy organizing everything, and I had asked a good friend to sing instead.

Things have been sooo amazing since we found out we were pregnant. I was on Day 40 of my cycle when we finally decided to take an EPT. My cycle is really wierd, and with my longest cycle at 39 days, I figured that Day 40 would be THE day to take the test. I didn't really think I was pregnant, but of course, as each day passed, I couldn't help but keep hoping. But I didn't really feel any different, and I still had PMS -- cramps, tender b00bs, etc. I was also really stressed that week, and I figured that's the cause of the deley.

Anyhoo, it turned out to be the day of my grandfolks' wedding anniversary. It was also the day before Mr. S left for the US for some work stuff. Might as well know what's going on before he leaves. On the way home from the wedding, Mr. S and I passed by the drugstore where I told him to buy 3 packs. LOL!!! Hell, I wanted to be sure I did it correctly! We told ourselves that we would do it when we woke up the next day, since I read that it was best to use first morning urine to test. But when we got home, I was so restless. I mean, I had the EPT in my hand!!! It was like getting a birthday gift a week before your birthday. You just HAVE TO open the gift! And so we decided to take the test that night.

I remember reading the instructions over and over again. I had all the stuff I needed to do the test. With a final squeeze of the hand, Mr. S sent me off to the bathroom to do my thing. I remember entering the bathroom with a little bit of trepidation and a little bit of excitement. And when finally, two pink lines appeared, I went blank. Two lines??? What did two lines mean?!?! LOL!!! And when I finally emerged from the bathroom, Mr. S was waiting for me with an expectant look on his face. And to finally say "We're pregnant!"....was just bliss. Ok, so after that, I was squealing like a pig, but that's hardly romantic, so I'm leaving that out of my story. LOL!!!!

After getting a positive on our ept, I didn't feel any different at all and it was hard to believe I actually was pregnant. I had no morning sickness at all. My b00bs hardly felt tender. Oh, but I was extremely sleepy all the time. When all you have are two pink lines to prove you're pregnant, and especially when you want it SOOOO bad, sometimes you tend to doubt, you know? I mean, what if the ept was wrong? But when we went for our first TV ultrasound last July 16 and finally saw OUR BABY, there was no denying it. We were truly pregnant. *sigh* God is good.

You want to see our little Peanut?

Isn't he a cutie? And doesn't he look like me? LOL!!! I keep telling Mr. S that he has my nose. And of course, Mr. S keeps telling me I'm brain-damaged. LOL!!!! We call him Peanut, because he's about as big as a peanut in his first baby pics. And if you noticed, I keep saying he or him or his. We're hoping for a boy, but will be happy with any healthy baby that is given to us. But it wouldn't hurt to give little hints eh? LOL!

I've also been blessed that Mr. S is such a sweet and supportive tub of lard. If I was spoiled before, I am even more so now. HARHARHARHARHAR!!! About two weeks ago, I felt like eating green mangoes and told him so, and without even blinking an eye, he went out at 8pm to get me some. Last week, I felt like eating guavas, and when I got home from work, I already had two. Yesterday, I was watching the telly and saw this lady eating a hotdog sandwich, so I said I wanted one. And sure enough, he went out and got me a Jolly hotdog. Then when I woke up this morning, I told him I wanted McDonald's big breakfast, and off he went to get it for me. Is he the sweetest or what?!?! Of course, he tells me I'm a spoiled pregnant woman, and I keep telling him he has more than 6 months to go. LOL!!! But he's even sweeter when he talks to Peanut. Ok, so he is talking to my barely there baby bump, but the thought is sweet. And so he does say silly stuff like how he hopes Peanut doesn't get his mom's fat ass, but yeah....it is sweet. Dysfunctional maybe, but sweet nonetheless.

If there is one thing I can and will complain about, it is that I have been forbidden to wear my purty, purty shoes. As you guys know, I loooove my shoes. But all my shoes have practically 3-inch high heels. Since finding out we were pregnant, everyone (and I mean, EVERY ONE!) has been giving me the third degree about my shoes. And so now, all my beeeeyoootiful shoes are in storage. *sniff* *sniff* Ok, so I did get to go shoe shopping (I have no flats at all!) but do you know how "fun" it is to shop for flats?!?! It's as exciting as a loaf of bread, I tell ya. I was able to buy 3 flats, and they will have to do for the next 6-7 months.

Before I go, I'd like to share a page I finally finished. It's my first baby page, and I'm so excited because it will go into a baby album that I'm making for Peanut. Again, many many thanks to everyone who sent their well wishes, and I will try and continue to update you on Peanut's growth. Hmmm...I may have to change Peanut's name as we go farther along on this pregnancy too. LOL!!!

Ciao, bellas!!!

Credits:
ABC Baby from Robin Carlton & Christy Lyle's Expecting Sweet Stuff collection at SSD
binder clip by Katie Pertiet at DD, notebook paper by Tia Bennett at DD, staples by SP
Font: VT Portable Remington

i'm aliveand celebrating life!

2006-07-16T11:50:00.000+08:00

More news to come! Mr. S is nagging me away from the puter. LOL!!!

yummy post!

2006-06-13T22:45:00.001+08:00

I had just come from Melinda's blog where she posted two recipe cards. Yum, yum, yummm!!! I was able to join the nightowls chat yesterday at RAKScraps since it was a holiday here, and Melinda and I agreed to share our recipes of scrumptuous homemade goodies! I am going to have to try that banana choco chip cookie recipe she shared. Gosh, my mouth is watering just thinking about it. LOL! If you're already as hungry as I am, head on over to her blog to grab the recipe cards.

And as promised, I'm sharing mine as well. I have two recipes to share. The first one is for lemon poppyseed loaf. I remember finding the recipe on the net maybe 5 years ago, and loved it when I baked it. Can't remember where I found it though, and I can't even find it when I Google'd it. Anyhoo, I did make some modifications to it because I didn't want it too sweet. And I also took out the glaze. And I cut down a little on the vegetable oil. During the holiday season, I sell baked goodies and this is one of my bestsellers!

Credits:
everything from Mo Jackson's Dorothy's Kitchen
Font: VT Portable Remington

Then this next one is a coffee choco chip cookie recipe a dear friend of mine shared with me. I did put a teeny tiny bit more coffee, and it just gives off that perfect aroma when it's baking. We had a few more leftover from the weekend since Chloe wasn't allowed to eat the cookies with coffee. She did manage to practically finish the entire jar of oatmeal choco chip! LOL! Anyhoo, I took these photos today, and I used a more graphic style to the layout to complement the photo.

And yes, I took that bite on the cookie. LOL!

Credits:
Fonts are Century Gothic and 2peas Rubber Ducky

I uploaded the full 300dpi layouts (and credits) in yousendit in case you guys want a copy. Here's the link. And enjoy the deeeeliciousness!!!

By the way, I'm now going to have to revamp the blog. I guess a lot more of you are getting the fuzzy weirdo fonts. Oh well. I'll set up a mirror blog where I'll fiddle with the template so that when it's all set, I just have to transfer it so there's none of that awkward phase where my blog looks like a real bucket of crap - no "S" there! LOL!!!

Ok, so I guess that's it for tonight. Ciao, bellas!

breathing freely now

2006-06-12T22:04:00.000+08:00

I am so pleased with myself I could chortle like a babe. LOL!!! I have been extremely busy the past few days, like I told you, but I finished all that I had to do and I met all my deadlines. Woot! Woot!

I managed to finish 3 layouts for the RAKScraps sponsors which will go in the June newsletter. I managed to finish the layout for the Your Photo 5 Ways winner this month. I managed to finish my June mega kit contribution. I managed to write up my article for the newsletter. AND AND AND!!! I even managed to scrap 2 pages today for a secret little project that I have no business telling you about. LOL!

The frustrating thing about it is that I can't even show anyone what I've done. Thank goodness the RAKScraps newsletter is coming out in a few days, so at least I get to share the layouts I've done that will appear there. Whew. But then I also still have a few things I need to do, but I have at least until the end of the month to finish them.

Oh, I have a question for ya. I got comments from Mrs.Miles and t-wan that the font on my blog is hard to read. How many of you have this problem? Yikes! The strange thing is that it looks ok on my puter, and it looks ok on Mr. S's laptop and puter, and it also looks ok on my puter in the office. But then I tried it last night on my brother's laptop and the fonts do look wierd. Ack!!! I'm probably going to have to change my blog template if that's the case. Although I know a teeny bit about html (I did fix up this blog and my 2 previous blogs), it's just such a pain to go through it again. Crap. Anyhoo, maybe a makeover is what I need eh?

My grandfolks wedding is in less than 2 weeks. I haven't even fitted my dress yet, and I really hope it looks ok. I hope the dressmaker was able to put in the magic b00bs I requested. LOL!!! My mom has been convincing me to sing a song for my grandfolks during the reception. Hellooooo?!?! Is she crazy?! I gotta admit that I like to sing, but any singing I do is pretty much confined within the four walls of our bathroom. Or within the confines of my car. In front of about 200 people?! Insane, I tell ya.

The day after the wedding, Mr. S leaves for the US. He'll be gone for almost 2 weeks, and I'm bummed out. I really don't like it when he leaves. The other night, I asked Mr. S if he was excited about leaving. He said he was, and I was teasing him about being happy that I would be thousands of miles apart. Actually, he's just happy because he gets to live the hotel life and he gets to go shopping. LOL! He'll be there until the 4th of July, and I know that there are good sales then. Woohoo! I'm already thinking of stuff he can buy for me. Oh, and he also brings home my brand spanking new laptop!!! YAY!!! I'm trying to find a really purrrty and girly laptop bag to go with it too. Gotta look snazzy carrying it around, ya know? LOL!

Alright, that's it for tonight, bellas. It's back to work tomorrow for me, and gotta be there early. I hope y'all had a fab weekend! Ciao!

wanted: breathing space

2006-06-07T23:32:00.000+08:00

Just popping in for a quick hello. And to at least let you guys know that I'm alive. Too much to do and so little time. Been there, done that eh? Yeah, well as it turns out, you may have been there and have done that, but you will often find yourself there again and doing it all over again too.

Work's been busy (like, when did that change?!), but life outside of work's been just as busy too. I have quite a number of things due for RAKScraps, and so I've been trying to make a dent on that. So far, I've made a very teeny tiny dent. LOL!!! And I haven't even started on my June mega kit contribution which is supposed to be due by the 11th. Yikes! I hope Kim, the whip-cracker, isn't reading this...LOL!!! I swear, I'm going to tie myself to my puter chair this weekend and work on it. And I still have to do my article for June's newsletter. Ack!!!

I did manage to make a page just for the sake of fun (and sanity...)! I spent quite a bit of time on this layout. I think I went through so many color schemes before finally being happy with the one I chose. But now that it's done, I'm happy. LOL!!!

Credits:
all papers from Jen Wilson's Sweet Candy (Worn Comfort collection) at SBB; vintage stamp, metal plate, gingham ribbons/bows, tie fasteners and catalogue alphas - all by Katie Pertiet at DesignerDigitals; tie and key by Jackie Eckles at DesignerDigitals; flower from Bears Blossom N Beads by Christy Lyle at SSD; screw by Ashley Olson; dragonfly from Bellissima kit by Carrie Stephens; pin and tag by Gina Cabrera from DWD cd
Font: Festus

Ok, my popping's done. I'm gonna catch some Zzzzs now. I hope your week is going great, bellas. Smile!!!

warning: blabber ahead

2006-05-31T22:12:00.000+08:00

After three days, I'm blogging again. Hey, I'm improving! LOL!!! No new layouts to share yet, but lots of blabber ahead.

First off, I survived the business review yesterday! The three hour review did turn out to be a five hour ordeal, but I live! LOL!!! Seriously, it went really well and I am soooo glad. There were a lot of great discussions and despite its meaning a lot of work ahead, I don't mind. I really feel that the action items we've discussed are worth it, and I'm quite excited to start on them. But maaannn, it took us five hours!!! I could feel my butt start to numb halfway through! LOL!!!

The past few days have been very good as far as my hiring is concerned though. From my previously reported 12, I now have 18 people! Woot! Woot! But what's really bumming me out is that as I hire and hire and hire, people are resigning as well. It's a never ending cycle. Vicious, really! If there is one thing about my job that I don't like, it's really the recruitment. Give me training every day and I'm fine, but recruitment can really suck. Especially in my department. It literally never ends. *sigh* I did have one interview this morning that I really enjoyed. The guy was very articulate, very perky, very positive. Those are the types of interviews I love to do because I'm simply conversing with the person and I tend to find out a lot of things from there. Later on, I found out that he was gay. I shouldn't be surprised really. I really get along with gay people, and I think they're such fun people to hang out with. Anyhoo, I did hire him, in case you'd like to know for whatever reason. LOL!

Hey, I told you about my appointment with my ob-gyne last week, right? Anyhoo, I'm really happy about the results of my check up. We did a transvag1nal ultrasound to check my ovaries and eggs and stuff, and all is good. Whew. I tell ya, it wasn't a pleasant experience (duh!) and it's not something I'd like to do regularly. I'm not going to go into all the gory details, so don't you worry. I think it's just enough that you know that the factory is fully functional and working overtime! ROFLMBO!!!! *sigh* I crack me up sometimes...

Oh, I did take on some additional "work" at RAKScraps. For the next few months, I'll be working with the Sponsor team and so I'll be making layouts using kits from the fabulous sponsors of the month. So cool!!! The sponsors for June are MissMint, d2D, and Erika Tenney. I can't wait till the weekend so I can scrap!!! I was thinking about taking a permanent position, but knowing how toxic my work can be, I didn't want to risk committing myself to something I won't be able to give my 100% to. Anyhoo, I'll see how it goes. I'm also looking for some CT calls out there, in case I go that route. We'll see.

I did some digi-shopping again. Somebody take my credit cards away from me! But then again, I've memorized all my card numbers. LOL!!! Bought myself quite a number of goodies over at Designer Digitals again. Love, love, LOVE their stuff! I also bought some digiscrapping books at ideabooks4u, and had them shipped to my relatives in the US. They're coming home in trickles over the next few weeks for the wedding anniversary of my grandfolks, so they're bringing my books along. Even though ideabooks4u ships worldwide, this is a cheaper alternative. LOL!!! I got myself Designing with Digital, Designing with Type, Freestyle, and Digital Scrapbooking 5. Can't wait till they get here!

It's funny but I got quite a number of comments about my pearls with the Creative Me layout that I posted. LOL!!! Ok, one thing you should know about me is that I LOOOOVE pearls. I wear pearls practically everyday. The two-strand that I'm wearing in that layout is my absolute favorite, and I wear that the most often. But otherwise, I'd have my pearl stud earrings, and I also bought this fabulous 5-strand which I should show you sometime. LOL! Of course, there's the single strand, and I have a Y pearl necklace too. Oh, and I have this set of 10 pearl bracelets that is just gorgeous when worn with a little black dress. So there. I love pearls. LOL!!!

Anyhoo, I'm off to bed. Hope the week is going great for y'all. G'night, bellas!

a change of style...of sorts

2006-05-28T23:11:00.000+08:00

Guess who's back in the scrapping saddle again?!?! LOL!!! I have been productive, I tell ya. I'm so happy with the pages I've cranked out the past few days AND I finished (and love!) my June prize kit for RAKScraps. Woot! Woot! Ok, now before I start showing you what I've done, lemme just blabber on for a few more moments.

This week's going to be a killer at work, I reckon. I feel like I have ten million deliverables due, and I'm just all over the place...dazed and confused. I also have a business review with our director on Tuesday from 3pm-6pm. Three whole freaking hours!!! Dang, just the thought is enough to get my large intestines all twisted up. Now we know that just isn't good!

On the homefront, Mr. S and I had planned on watching a movie last Saturday night. We haven't watched The Da Vinci Code yet, and I was pleasantly surprised when chubby-hubs said we'd go. He rarely wants to get out of the house on weekends, and I'm always the one dragging him away from his puter. What a nerd. LOL!!! Anyhoo, we checked the schedules and decided on watching the 7pm show. We got to the movie house about ten minutes before, then they told us that the 7pm was sold out, and they were selling tickets only for the 10pm show. WTF?!?! So we decided to have dinner at Friday's first. But then after eating what seemed like a truckload of french fries, and with still 2 hours to go before showtime, we decided to head on home. LOL!!! Hey, we tried!

We had lunch at my in laws today. It was my dad-in-law's birthday last Thursday, and my mom-in-law's today so there was a joint celeb. It was so fun because Mr. S's baby sister planned a surprise costume party. My mom-in-law loooves to watch local and Korean soaps, so we were supposed to dress as any character from her favorite soaps. LOL!!! Let me just tell you, it was a hoot!!! I didn't bring my camera so I don't have photos to show, but I know my sisters-in-law took some so I'll have to get copies.

I also had my car serviced today. Something has been lighting up on the dashboard, and it's either the brakes or the oil. Or something else. LOL!!! Well, suffice it to say that it must be important, so I had to bring it to the...umm...car place. Teehee! Mr. S gets really frustrated with me because I know nothing about my car except to drive it. And I have to admit, it's true. Hahaha! But don't get me started on talking about my driving. I tell you, I'm a maniac on wheels. LOL!!!

Ok, on to scrappy stuff!!! First, let me show you my June prize kit for RAKScraps...Loops-a-licious!

Isn't it cute?!?! I just adore how it turned out, and I hope y'all like it too. I had way too much fun making it. I just love the loops, and because it reminded me of candy, I thought the name was befitting. So if you like it, come on over to RAKScraps and join in on all the fun! And if you missed out on any of my past kits, most of them are now available at the Day Old Donuts at Scrapdish. All proceeds are used to maintain RAKScraps, and we all *heart* RAKScraps! LOL!!!

Oh! I did manage to make a page using my own stuff!!! I told you I've never done that before, but I decided to use my Schweetschtuff kit for the scraplift challenge for Robin's sweetNsassy team. This is a scraplift of Tracie's laughter layout at 2peas. Here, lookee!

Credits:
Everything from my own Schweetschtuff kit, now available at Scrapdish!
It's in the Day Old Donuts to help out RAKScraps!

Lately, I've been changing my scrapping style a little bit. I've really been admiring some layouts I've seen at some sites and have been trying my hand at doing it. What can I say, but I totally totally LOVE it! It's more freestyle, I think, but I still put some clean lines on them. Ok, lemme show you the pages I've done the past few days using this style.

Credits:
Amy Knepper's Baby Blanket Collection-Girl at Scrapdish
staples and polkadot bow by Ronna Penner at SBE; string by Jackie Eckles at DD; chipboard alpha by Dani Mogstad
Fonts: Chelpress, Elegant

Credits:
Michelle Coleman's Simply Spring mini kit (blog freebie) for all papers and the charm
pink ribbon by Jackie Eckles at DD; pin by Fernlili; artstitches by Fhung Lie at SBB; bookplate by Shabby Princess; brushstrokes by Meredith Fenwick at SBB; paint splatters by Katie Pertiet at DD; Atomic Cupcake for the chipboard action on the alpha
Fonts: Festus, VT Portable Remington, Times New Roman

I dunno, but I really like it. What do you guys think? And I get really challenged to find the elements from all over the place. I used to work with mostly just one kit for a layout, and usually just use a lot of papers and ribbons. But I'm going out of my comfort zone and having fun! I love getting all the little knick knacks and putting them together. I think that's what's more important, eh?

And with that, I shall say goodnight! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend, and I wish you a fabulous week ahead. Ciao, bellas!

a whole lot of blabber

2006-05-24T20:22:00.000+08:00

After my Chloe weekend, I miss the little ragamuffin now. The house seems too quiet. And too clean. LOL!!! You should've seen our room when she was here, what will all her toys and stuff all over the place. You know one thing I learned over the weekend though? I am an absolute moron in baby talk. I don't always understand what she's saying. Is this normal? Because I'm thinking, what if it's my kid, and he gives me a whole lot of gibberish and I don't understand? Hell, he could very well be saying "Oh Mom, I just stuck a marble up my nose and can't quite breathe right now, and I have a date with a ten year old hottie tonight so don't wait up." I could just stare at him and say ok without even realizing what I said ok to. That's exactly what happened when Chloe was here. She'd say what I think was a statement, and there was clearly a request for a response by the way the statement was said and by the way she looked at me afterwards. And I was...well...lost! So I said yes. LOL!!! She seemed happy with the response anyway, so there. I may have agreed to eating gummy bears with my toes, and I'd be clueless.

As far as work is concerned, it's still killing me. Remember the measly five people I've hired? Well, I've added twelve more. But the hiring just keeps on going. And going. And going. I was invited to go to Taiwan in mid-June for the rollout of the training we did before, but I had to decline the request. I was dying to say yes, but I felt that what I did was the right choice. I didn't even bother to ask my supervisor if I could go, as I know I have too much on my plate right now, and maybe all throughout June. I still have to fill my hiring requirements, then I'll be training some new supervisors, then I have to design a new training program to address some service issues. Yep, that's a full plate alright.

And speaking of travelling, Mr. S is leaving me. Not for good, of course. LOL!!! His company is sending him to the US sometime soon. He was supposed to leave on the last week of June, but I think his project is being pushed forward so there may be a chance he's leaving in two weeks or something. Boohoohoo! I don't really like it when he's away on his biz trips. I'm not used to being a bachelorette anymore. I may end up scrapping up a storm while he's away. Not that that's a bad thing. LOL! I know I should spend time with some of my older friends that I haven't seen in ages. Maybe I can do that. I'm worried though that he may be away at the time of my grandfolks' wedding anniversary. I'd have no date!!! LOL! Hmmm, maybe Chloe and I can be partners.

Lately, I've been on a scrapping rut. After Schweetschtuff and the page I did for my friend, I haven't been feeling my creative juices flowing. For Robin's team, we're scraplifting Tracie (tkradtke) and I am totally in awe of her photos! Wow! I think I'm too awed to create a page, but I'll have to sit down on that one and finish my page. I also haven't finished my June prize for RAKScraps, and it's due this Thursday. Kim's already brought out the whip and we're shaking in our boots. LOL!!! I did have one paper finished up until Sunday, then Monday night I was able to do three more papers and a really cute element too. Then last night, I got another paper done and several other elements. I really like how it turned out. You know how you start something without really knowing how it's gonna turn out? Well, that's how I started with this kit, but I'm really happy with how it developed. Mr. S saw me making an element last night and even he found it cute. Teehee! Still want to add maybe one or two more elements though. This one's gonna be a photo finish, I think. LOL! Then I also have to think of an article for the newsletter. *sigh* Cloning sounds like a perfect idea right now.

Got some more sad news at RAKScraps over the weekend. AmyK has resigned from the team, and she will be terribly, terribly missed. She's got a lot of exciting changes going on right now, so that is her first priority, and we all understand. But understanding doesn't make it easy eh? I won her Baby Blanket Collection kit at the RAKScraps gallery mixer early this month, and I was thrilled! I've been dying to get that kit of hers, and so I just need my scrapping mojo back in groove and dish out something with it.

Do you realize how frustrating it is to see a GORGEOUS kit, have the money to buy it, but still NOT be able to? I go through that frustration so often that the feeling becomes natural. Routine. Just like taking a poop. There are so many uber talented designers out there, and I just drool over their kits. However, most sites where these designers sell don't accept any other form of payment other than PayPal. And since PayPal is not supported in my country, I can only drool. I'm not sure if groveling will take me anywhere, and I've never tried it, so that's uncharted waters. My digi-shopping sprees have been limited to SBB, SBE, 2peas, DD and very recently...The Shabby Shoppe! **insert angels singing here** Hallelujah!!! I was beyond ecstatic when I found out that the Shabby Shoppe is already accepting credit cards. I do get loads of gorgeous stuff from the other sites I mentioned, but kits from the Princess herself are...well...priceless. But still, there are beautiful kits over at Scrapdish (did you see the latest mega kit of Jeanine, Jen and Krista?! Wowzers!), The Sweet Shoppe, TDC, Scrap Artist, etc etc etc. *sigh* But like I said, it's routine. Poop.

Wow, well I'm a blabbermouth today. LOL!!! Ok, gotta go finish my June prize AND finish my scraplift of Tracie. Ciao, bellas!

my chloe weekend

2006-05-20T16:28:00.000+08:00

Whew, the weekend is upon us once again. Can you believe May is half gone, and June is just around the corner. June!!! Which means half the year is over. Wow, huh? Before we know it, we're shopping for Christmas.

I haven't been able to spend much time on my puter since Thursday. Chloe has been staying with us and so I've been spending a lot of time with her. The kid is a bundle of energy, and I can't keep up. LOL!!! The first night she was here, she kept me up until 2am (and I had work the next day!). Then when she finally fell asleep, she woke up again at 4am and kept me awake till 530am. Oh man, I felt like a zombie at work! I must've consumed at least 4 cups of coffee. And of course, I watched Little Mermaid about a gazillion times, it seems. And you know where Ariel sings Part of Your World? Chloe HAS TO sing it over and over and over again. We almost never finish the entire the movie because she makes me rewind that part again and again. LOL! I was torn between being amused and frustrated.

The fact that Chloe's been with us for a few days has given me somewhat of a perspective about how it is to be a parent. She was always clamoring for me, and it was difficult to do anything else but watch her and do what she wants us to do. Am I really ready for this? But when she looks at me with those big eyes of hers and calls me "Tata Tin", I just melt. Tata is her way of saying "Tita", which means aunt in Filipino. *sigh* Mr. S and I figure that we'll be awful parents, because we just couldn't say no to anything she said. LOL! I swear, I have newfound respect for all mothers out there.

I have an appointment with my ob-gyne on Friday. Time to spread my legs again. LOL!!! I hate that. Are you ever so comfortable with another person (spouses and other halves not included) that you can just hop on that examination bed and put your feet on those stirrups that seem to be miles apart? Yeah, I'm sure it's nothing to the ob-gyne, but hell, it's my privy parts being exposed, not hers! I'm always so uncomfortable, and I always feel the need to be talking. About anything. "So, doc, what do you think about blah blah"......"Yeah, I always thought blah blah"......"But what about blah blah"......so all the time I'm babbling about who knows what. LOL! My doctor must hate me. When she comes in and sees her list of patients to see that day, she'll probably spot my name and say "Oh damn, it's that small woman that never stops talking again!" LOL!!!

Got tagged by sweetie TracyB!

5 things in my fridge:
Uh oh....lots of leftovers (LOL!), chocolates, milk, eggs, chocolate milk. Jeez, how unexciting is my fridge?!

5 things in my car:
Just five?!?! LOL!!! I can practically live in my car. Ok, so I've got tons of receipts that I just know I need to throw out. An extra pair of shoes. Lots of training binders and folders. A hairbrush. And a pen.

5 things in my bag:
Just five?!?! LOL!!! Ok, now this is worse than my car. Everyone complains about how heavy my bag is. Sunglasses. Makeup kit. Perfume. Lots of plain rubber bands for my hair. And tons of receipts that date back who knows when. LOL!!! I'm such a pig.

5 things on my DVR or video player:
Grey's Anatomy. House. Wedding Crashers. Sex and the City. Oh, and Little Mermaid. I did tell you Chloe was here. Teehee!

5 things in my wardrobe:
Just five?!?! ROFLMBO!!! I've been behaving myself the past few weeks and haven't really been shopping. But now that Tracy's reminded me, I think I gotta go buy something. LOL! Ok, so I've got tons of shoes in there...so that should account for the five things. Teehee! I have a lot of white shirts, which I love to pair with my scruffed up low rise Levi's. Can never have enough white shirts. I also have tank tops in practically all colors. And several pashminas. I have a thing for pashminas. When I went to Singapore, I found this little store that sold such beautiful pashminas and at such a cool price. I love that I can pair it with jeans on casual Fridays and even work them with my usual office attire.

Well, it's almost 2am here, so I'm heading off to bed. I'd like to share my latest page with you before I go. A dear friend of mine had seen my pages, loved them, and asked me to make one of her and her hubby. I showed this to her last Thursday and she absolutely loved it!

Credits:
bg pp by Gina Miller at SBB, other pp by Jen Wilson from her Worn Comfort CD at SBB
yellow stitching and staples by Ronna Penner at SBE
lace by Kate Teague at DD, messy stitching and hobo flower by Katie Pertiet at DD
string by Jackie Eckles at DD, tag by Denise Docherty at spaceraven
colorfull corners by Shabby Princess
Fonts: Century Gothic

G'night, bellas! Smoochies!

just nonsense schtuff really

2006-05-15T20:37:00.000+08:00

WOWZERS! I don't think I've ever had so many visitors and/or comments here on my blog. I guess you bellas DO like my kit...LOL!!! Well, I'm glad you did and I'm looking forward to seeing your layouts with it. Then if the warm fuzzies continue, I might decide to pull another freebie out from my magician's hat for ya. No telling when though. Teehee! I have to start working on my prize for June over at RAKScraps. Lovely color palette that Melinda suggested! Can't wait to work on that one.

You know, it's weird, but I can never seem to scrap using my own stuff. I know it's probably good for me to do that so my stuff gets seen in galleries where I post, but I don't know. I get stuck, for some reason. Totally strange.

Early this evening, I was browsing the forums at this site that shall remain anonymous. LOL!!! Don't ya love the mystery?! Anyhoo, I got WAAAAAY engrossed in what I was reading. It was like some cheesy novel I just couldn't put down! Ok, so someone posts their opinion about something, and before you know it, things are getting mean and personal and a tad spiteful. LOL!!! And it's funny because I was going like..."Ooooh, that was a nasty comment!" then I'd read on and then I'd go "Oh man, scrapperX is not going to like that!" and then I'd read on and go "Whoa, good point there, scrapperY! I wonder what scrapperZ will say about that!" I couldn't get enough of it! And of course you know that even as I am writing this post, I have another window open to that forum so I know what the hell is happening...LOL!!! What started out as a tiny comment has mutated into a humongous evil monster with 5 eyes, green slime and all other nasty stuff. *sigh* But it's sad, really. The digi community is one of the friendliest out there, and these things happening are like little ugly scabs you just want to take out. And so I realize yet again why I *heart* RAKScraps. =)

Ok, we're moving on.

Do you guys have any weird little habits that no one else seems to understand except maybe your bestfriend who you sloppily ate papaya with while watching yourselves in the bathroom mirror when you were kids? Ok, now I'm not saying that I actually did THAT absolutely disgusting thing with MY bestfriend Ella, but just hypothetically speaking. Really. Teehee! Take me, for example (I mean, who else would volunteer...). You know how you adjust the volume of the telly or the car radio, right? And you go up from 1 to whatever number really suits your ears? I can never leave it at 13. Strange, but I feel it's unlucky to leave the volume of my telly or my radio at 13. I mean, you'll never know, right? The telly could break down, then how would I watch Grey's or House??? Or the car radio could have a meltdown and I'd be stuck in traffic listening to my own breathing. Scary stuff, I tell ya. So it has to be either 12 or I go a little bit deaf at 14. I'm sure you guys have your own weird thing. Life if sweeter with the weird things around, isn't it?

Oh, Chloe did the cutest thing the other weekend! Her mom is the one who clued me in on this. So she asked Chloe to say "Romeo". Then Chloe said "Meeyow-meeyow!" Then her mom asks her what the cat said, and Chloe says "Meeyow-meeyow!" LOL!!!!! Too stinkin' cute!!! I just ADORE how kids can never seem to pronounce their Rs! I must've asked Chloe to say Romeo, and what the cat said, about ten times that afternoon. Poor kid! LOL!!!

Well, I'm sleepy. I'm heading off to bed, bellas. G'night, and don't let the bed bugs bite! LOL!!!

happy mom's day!and yes...a freebie!

2006-05-14T14:51:00.000+08:00

Happy Mother's Day to everyone!!! Have you greeted your mom already? So how are you guys celebrating today? My brothers are unable to come visit us today, so I think we're getting together next weekend instead. Mr. S and I had lunch with his family today, and it was so good. His uncle makes the best paella EVER!!! Then tonight, I'm ordering food so that my mom doesn't have to cook. LOL! I have no culinary skills (except for baking!), so I have to resort to ordering.

The weekend's almost over. In my side of the world, at least. *sigh* You know how it seems that weekends are getting shorter and shorter? Maybe it has to do with the fact that I spend most of it sleeping. LOL!!! Before I know it, I wake up and the hours have just flown by. I seriously don't want to go to work tomorrow, and I hate knowing that I just have to because there is just too much to do.

The past few days has brought me some sad news. First, Chris Daughtry is out of the American Idol. WTF?! Seriously. I don't know what the crap happened, because Chris' last performance was amazing. I think the world is shocked, and so I'm doing a boycott. I refuse to watch AI now. It's just too sad. I don't really think much of Taylor. Elliot is...well...Elliot. Katharine is ok. I hope she wins. Just tell me what happens in the end, ok? But I read in the papers that Chris already has a record contract or something. Good for him, because he certainly deserves it!

Another sad news I received is that Tania has taken a break from designing, and so she had to let go of her creative team. I got all weepy when I read her email, and I know that I'll terribly miss working with her designs. I understand her decision, and I truly admire her for her strength and courage. T, if you're reading this, hats off to you, bella! Love ya, girlie!

To perk us all up, I finished a new kit! LOL!!! I've been working with the color palette for a few weeks now. I'd prepare a paper one day, or an element on another day. Now I have a full kit, and I love how it turned out! Anyhoo, I figured it would be nice to have the kit out today, being Mother's day and all. The kit is all feminine and sweet, and I even put in a mom charm in there. Here's my Schweetschtuff!

So you likey??? Now this'll only be available as long as the links are active (which are at the end of my post so you have no choice but to read it till the end...hehe!) No extensions! LOL! Afterwhich, it'll go to the Day Old Donuts section of Scrapdish so we can have a little moolah for RAKScraps. If anyone buys it, at least. LOL!!! Now leave me a comment if you download, bellas! I'd love to hear what you guys think of it.

The kit includes:
7 patterned papers
5 solid papers
6 journal tabs
4 buttons
4 bows
3 ribbons
2 buckles
1 string of charms
1 white stitching
1 mom charm
1 pink flower

Finally, here are the links. I put two sets in there, but they are for the same kit, so please just download once. =)

Paperpak link1
Paperpak link2
Elements link1
Elements link2

Alright, enjoy the rest of your weekend, and to all moms out there....SMOOCHIES!!!

frustrated...and other things

2006-05-10T22:17:00.000+08:00

I am just about ready to throw in the towel. I hope you don't mind my starting my post with a rant, but I am so frustrated right now. I have been working my a$$ of since last week so that I have the 20+ people hired and ready to go by next week, right? You know how many I have as of today? 5. F - I - V - E. Five!!! I don't know what the crap is going on but these applicants I'm getting are just sooo...never mind. And the thing is, I don't even get to interview so much because they don't even pass the exam! Good grief! It's a frigging IQ test, for crying out loud! Ok. I'm shutting up. On to better things...

I digi-shopped majorly today. LOL!!! Well, I did say I was moving on to better things, right? You know me...whenever I find myself in a rut, I turn to retail therapy. I don't know what's gotten over me but I am on a Designer Digitals frenzy lately. Just over the weekend, I bought 2 stuff from there. I knew it wasn't enough, so I hopped on over there today and put 11 other stuff in my cart. LOL!!! Mostly elements, brushes and stamps. Yummy stuff!!! Look for them in my upcoming pages.

Speaking of pages, I absolutely ADORE the latest one I did. Which of course, I will show you in just a bit. LOL! My mom and I visited Chloe's grandma last Sunday, because she was making our dresses for the upcoming diamond wedding anniversary of my grandfolks (more on that in a bit too!). So anyhoo, when we got there, Chloe was watching Little Mermaid for the millionth time, I think. She's memorized practically all the lines! I say practically because she's only 2 1/2 years old, so she can't really speak in complete sentences yet, but she sure sounds like she knows what she's saying. LOL! What a cute-ums! But can I just tell you that I've watched Little Mermaid maybe a couple hundred times so I also know all the lines? And I don't mean just the songs, but the entire dialogue. Yeah, pathetic, I know! But see how you know that Chloe and I are related? I swear, this kid and I have a bond stronger than blood! LOL!!! There was one time when Chloe was here, and we had a shared moment of insanity. Seriously! We were both lying on the bed, and for some reason known only to us (although I still wonder, until now...), we were laughing like crazy. And I mean crazy! Like hyena crazy! We'd stop for a moment but when we'd look at each other, we'd laugh all over again. *sigh* I will remember that moment for the rest of my life.

I've been rambling. I was telling you about the latest page I did and I went on to other things. Jeez. Anyhoo, I got these awesome shots of Chloe and I can't wait to make pages out of 'em. Here's the latest one I made.

Credits:
Robin Carlton's Manda Manda Bo Banda kit at SSD
bg pp by Gina Miller at SBB, stitching by Ronna Penner at SBE, lace by Kate Teague at DD
Fonts: Downcome, CAC Leslie, AppleScruffs

I totally LOVE it! Isn't Chloe an absolute angel??? I caught her in one of her "quiet" moods, and believe me, that doesn't happen often. I loved the kit that Robin made, and I love putting all the elements together. See the lace? Isn't it gorgeous? Yeah, got that Designer Digitals! Good stuff, baby!!!

Ok, so I mentioned that my grandfolks are celebrating their diamond wedding anniversary this June. Isn't that just awesome?! Wow. They're both 91 years old, but both still so strong. In fact, my gramps still drives sometimes. It practically gives his kids an instant heart attack, but he's quite stubborn so he gets his way. LOL! Our relatives are flying in from everywhere to celebrate the occasion, so you know it's a big thing. Anyhoo, I had to have a dress made since we will all be walking down the aisle as one HUUUUGE entourage. I've been surfing and found this dress.

I just fell in love with it! So elegant and classy! Just one problem though...it needs b00bs and b00bs I don't have. LOL!!! I told the dressmaker to make a similar design but to give me magic b00bs, and my idiot of a brother says I wouldn't need magic...because I need a miracle. Creep. LOL!!!

Alright, I gotta go. I'm trying to work on a kit right now. Maybe something for Mother's day, and I'd like to give it as a RAK. We'll see. I hope I get to finish it by then. LOL! Ok, I'm really shutting up now.

Hope you're all spreading the love, bellas! Ciao!

we're all good

2006-05-02T23:07:00.000+08:00

Blogger's being cranky. I'm trying to view my homepage, and I don't see my banner and my entire sidebar. Crap. All the links to what would've been my bloghopping frenzy are there, and now I'm stuck. Yeah, I should have them in my bookmarks, but I'm lazy and I always bloghop from my blog. I figure it's a good start. I know I can also check the forums and see the links to their blogs, but again, I'm lazy. LOL!

Mr. S is out for the evening with his friends. I miss the tub of lard already, and I have difficulty sleeping when I don't feel his fat beside me. The bed is too big with just me on it. And speaking of Mr. S, we're all good now. hehe! I've been doing a lot of thinking, and I really hate not paying him any attention, so I declared a truce last Friday night. Ok, so maybe it has something to do with the fact that he's buying me a new laptop as his anniversary present. LOL!!!!! Am I a sucker or what?!?! Ok, don't answer that. I gotta admit...I can be bought. HAHAHAHAHA!!! No, but seriously, I thought long and hard about what I was doing. I just didn't feel right feeling that way days before our anniversary. Chubby-hubby has his faults, but he does make up for it in some other way. He may not have a romantic bone in his body, nor can he cough up a surprise even if his life depended on it. But that's the way he is and I knew that even before, and I guess I have to make him realize that I need those things sometimes. Compromise, right? Yeah, I distinctly remember learning that from Sesame Street.

To celebrate our anniversary, Tubby did take me out on a dinner date at a resto I loved. We went to Good Earth, which is a Chinese resto, and they have the most deeeelicious seared tuna sashimi on the face of the planet. LOL! We ordered a feast!!! Aside from the seared tuna sashimi, we ordered lobster balls, fried wanton, prawns with garlic sauce, scallops with asparagus spears, and their special fried rice. Yummmmmy!!! By the time we were done (we only had a few spoonfuls of rice left as proof that we'd been there!), we were so full that I was sure we had to be carted out of the place. LOL! Then we headed on to Starbucks to finish off the meal with a good brew. Aaaahhh...that was an orgasmic delight!

Hey, wanna know what I got Mr. S? I got him four presents! First, I got him this cute Nike shirt that said "I scored last night!" on the front, then some football league at the back. LOL! I thought it was too funny, and I knew I had to get it for Tubs. Then I got him a pair of cool cargo shorts, which he loves to wear. Then I got him a pair of casual pants in a fab color. And lastly, I got him a really nice polo shirt at Ralph Lauren. It was so funny cause I gave him the gifts one at a time. When he woke up, I greeted him, gave him a kiss, and handed gift #1. When he went to have breakfast, gift #2 was waiting for him on the dining table. Then when he headed to the kitchen to get himself a Coke (yes, first thing in the morning!), gift #3 was waiting there too. Then after breakfast, I waited for him in our room and handed him gift #4 which was hiding under the bed. Fun!!! I was almost more excited than he was about the gifts. LOL!!!

So although the anniversary has come and gone, I'm still working on the album I wanted to make. How's that for timely, huh? Heehee! But I love making pages from our wedding photos. Here's the second one I did.

Credits:
Robin Carlton's She kit at Sweet Shoppe Designs
Font: Marydale

This is a scraplift of Gail's (Ju Bean) Cool Hat layout at 2peas. The SweetNSassy team of Robin have an ongoing challenge right now, where we scraplift each other every week. Last week, we were lifting Gail's work, and her pages are sooo amazing. She works with a lot of white space, and I love her style.

This next layout I did is the most challenging I've done. Ever. This week, we're scraplifting Peta (little possum) and when I saw her album, I was floored! Lots of gorgeous stuff in there, but what struck me was how honest her pages were. I'm sure you've noticed that I don't do a whole lot of journaling in my pages. Well, I decided to lift Peta's work not just in design, but in journaling as well. Here's my lift of her I Believe In a Better Way layout at 2peas.

Credits:
Tania Cordova's Sun Showers kit at Scrapdish and Digital Freebies
Font: Antique Typewriter

I think the journaling says everything already, so I'll leave it at that.

Well, I gotta hit the sack. I'll leave you with my latest layout of Chloe. May her sweetness find its way into your day, bellas!

Credits:
Lynnie Smith's Sweet Georgie kit at Younique Photos, and Nancie Rowe Janitz's alpha shmootzy brushes at ScrapArtist
Font: Century Gothic

love is certainly all around

2006-04-27T20:27:00.000+08:00

Sometimes, it really amazes me how wonderful the digital community is. Take today for example. Didja know that today is Admin Professionals Day? Ok, certainly not in my country but somewhere in the world it is, and that's my point. We decided to celebrate the day, and what better way to do so than by honoring the absolutely wonderful admin team of RAKScraps! It was just awesome! Kim (vkimmycat) organized everything, and she got some of the creative team members to design kits so we can have one megakit, and we were all being sneaky about it so that the admin would be surprised. LOL!!! 'Twas so fun, and sweet thank you messages for the admin were just pouring from everywhere! Wow.

Ok, lemme show you the fabulous megakit...

Isn't it super??? And here's my contribution...

*sigh* I totally love RAKScraps. Lately, there's been not-so-good news on piracy and nasty emails being sent to such sweet people, and so today was a soothing balm to that ouchie. One of the members also made a terribly sweet card, thanking the elements team for the mega kits. Then there was a thread started by one other member thanking the RAKScraps team for such a wonderful site. Love is certainly all around over there, and I love it!

Enough sentimental mush! Lately, I've been quite obsessed with making digital bows and knots. In my past kits, I had to scan in a ribbon I made, but I was so hell-bent on making my own. LOL! I'm quite pleased with how they turned out, and I think it looks real, right? Yeah, it could do with some improvement so I gotta practice some more. hehe! I made this charm with the knotted ribbon from scratch, so quite proud of it, and it's in the megakit for the admin. Oh, by the way, if you want the kit, we're going to be donating it to Scrapdish so that we can use the proceeds to maintain RAKScraps. So if you have moolah to spare, please feel free to browse the Day Old Donuts section and splurge! LOL!!! You can find some of my stuff there too, so spread the love, ok?

Work has been driving me crazy lately, and will most likely send me to the looney bin in the next two weeks. We're increasing our capacity, which means I have to hire 25 people in two weeks. In two frigging weeks!!! I honestly don't know how I will manage without losing all my hair, but with our country business manager breathing down my neck, I have to pull it off. Then I also have to plan an anti-burnout party for our entire unit (which is about 220 people), then I also have to rollout another regional program by next week. Holy crap. Wish me luck, won't ya? I sure as hell need it.

Things aren't all roses with me and the tub of lard. I am, as you know, referring to my husband. Well, let me put it this way. Things aren't all roses with ME, but he seems oblivious to everything, so he's apparently just fine and dandy. *sigh* I refuse to make plans for our anniversary after his unenthusiastic response, and it doesn't seem to matter to him. I don't know. I'm going out tomorrow with my girlfriends at work, and I'm buying him an anniversary present. Will he even get me one? Again, I don't know. Maybe I'm being too melodramatic, and I know I tend to do that sometimes. This is bumming me out, so I'm changing topics. I like Mish's suggestion though in my previous post. If he doesn't get enthusiastic, I'll just kick him. LOL!!!

Hey, didja notice my blog's new look? I've had the old banner for sooo long and I felt the need to redecorate. I should do something about my avatar too. I've looked that way since February, for crying out loud. Audra has an ongoing avi challenge, and I am definitely doing that tonight. I need a change of wardrobe.

And THAT is my cue to end this post. Off to work on my avi. G'night, and please continue to spread the love, bellas!

gratitude

2006-04-25T22:32:00.000+08:00

First off, I want to say THANK YOU for all the sweet comments everyone left on my previous post. You cannot even begin to imagine how touched and thankful I am for your words of support and comfort. What's even more amazing is that I haven't even "met" some of you, and yet, you leave me such kind words. Some of you have also managed to become friends I've come to cherish. Wow. Again, my sincere and heartfelt thanks.

A lot were surprised that I wrote something so...brutally honest. It felt good to let the words out. Can't really allow it to fester inside, and there are times when writing is better than talking to someone. It just lets me be. No pretensions. No judgment. Just me. I feel better now, and the positive side of me is ready to face the battle head on again. Gimme more S.E.X, that's what I say!!! LOL!!! See? I'm the eternal optimist.

Ok, we're moving on...

So Mr. S and I are celebrating our first year anniversary on Sunday. I've told you guys about that, right? The weekend extravaganza? Yeah, well I'm a little bit peeved with the tubby right now. It's just that I feel like I'm the only one who's excited and the only one making all these plans. He just keeps saying yes to whatever I suggest. Now normally, that would be a good thing. LOL!!! I don't know. Maybe I'm just being hormonal.

Anyhoo, despite the peevishness, I decided to make a mini album to celebrate the occasion. I'm really such a sucker. LOL!!! I was going through our wedding photos, and I got all sentimental. What a wuss, huh? *sigh* It was such a beautiful wedding, really. Absolutely beautiful. Here's the first page I did.

Credits:
Jen Wilson's Apple Blossom kit from her Seasonal Scraps CD at SBB
Fonts: Vintage Typewriter, Century Gothic

I just looove how it turned out! I was torn between making the photo a stark contrast to the papers or making it soft and tinted. Obviously, soft and tinted won. I used several layers and various blending modes to come up with the photo on the layout, and I think it works beautifully with Jen's papers.

I think I'd better hit the sack. I have an 8am breakfast meeting tomorrow, so I need my beauty sleep. I leave you with a layout of the adorable Chloe. G'night, bellas!

Credits:
Robin Carlton & Christy Lyle's double scoop kit Bears Blossoms n Beads at Sweet Shoppe Designs
Fonts: Jane Austen, Cheltpress, Century Gothic

a serious dose of life

2006-04-16T16:03:00.000+08:00

I'm not sure why, but it just hit me today, and I knew I had to write about it. "Had to" being the operative words. The urge to write was so strong and so I find myself tapping away at my keyboard now.

A few days ago, I seriously thought I was pregnant. I was 5 days delayed, and although my cycle isn't something you can nail down to the day, I was beyond the threshold. I can't explain how I felt. I tried keeping it to myself for various reasons. Suprising my husband and our families if it was positive. Not wanting to disappoint them should it turn out negative. But I suppose, deep down, I also did not want to disappoint myself. Oftentimes, when I find myself starting to daydream about being pregnant and all, I'd admonish myself for such silly thoughts. I'd bring myself back to reality by reminding myself that I may actually not be pregnant. But as each day passed, it just became harder and harder not to think so. It became harder and harder not to hope. Not to dream. I found myself creating scenarios in my head...like how we'd tell our parents, how we'd tell our friends.

By the time I was 5 days delayed, Mr. S had already noticed that I didn't have my period yet. He had asked me if I thought we were pregnant. I tried and played it casual by just shrugging my head and saying I didn't know. But again, there was hope inside of me. So much hope. That night, before going to bed, I told myself that we'd get a pregnancy test the next day.

I woke up in the middle of that very night. I had cramps. Bad ones. The kind that you get on your first day. And I knew that I didn't have to buy a pregnancy test. I'm not sure if this was God's way of letting me know, so that I didn't have to go through the disappointment of a negative pregnancy test. Nonetheless, it didn't dim the pain of reality. Not one bit.

Yes, I know. It will come in His time. But knowing that doesn't make it any easier, does it? I still feel the pain. I still feel the longing. I am, after all, human. But I am also strong. So from now until His time, I will remain and continue to be hopeful.

One day....

catching up again!

2006-04-14T23:56:00.000+08:00

I've been staring at my monitor for a good five minutes. I haven't written anything in here for such a long time that I think I've forgotten how to. LOL! Isn't that silly? I think I'm suffering from blogger's block.

Anyhoo, I'm home!!! Obviously. LOL!!! I got home Thursday night last week, then we had our company outing over the weekend, so I'm finally able to settle down this week. Whew.

Well, Malaysia and Indonesia was such an amazing experience! Hmmmm...actually, the training program was the amazing experience since I hardly saw the two countries. LOL!!! Yeah, it was one of those trips again where the only part of the country I see is the one from my hotel room window. Ok, so maybe not THAT bad, but I didn't really get a chance to go around. But professionally, WOW. It was the pilot rollout of the training we previously designed, and it was such a huge hit! I've met so many outstanding people, and working alongside country business managers and senior managers was such a high! I'm hoping that I can tag along when this program is rolled out in the other countries in Asia Pacific, because really, it's just so enriching.

On the homefront, Mr. S and I will be celebrating our first year anniversary end of this month. Woohoooo!!! I can't believe it's been a year already. I've been annoying Mr. S for pretty much an entire year now. LOL!!! And he lives! I married an amazing man, I tell ya. We were thinking of taking a trip, but we decided to push it back to maybe September so we can save up for it. Instead, Mr. S and I are checking in a hotel for a weekend extravaganza! hahahahahaha!!! We were talking about it a few nights ago, like how much we love hotels. The huge and fluffy pillows, the soft and fluffy sheets, the think and fluffy robes...lots of fluffy stuff...hahaha! Room service. Hot water 24 hours a day. The free toiletries. Ooooh ooooh! And the best part we love is that we can make an absolute mess, leave it, and by the time we're back, everything is spic and span again. Aaaaahh, I really love hotels. LOL!!!

I took a 2-day leave from the office, so I was out Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday and Friday are holidays, so that gives us a looong weekend. Thank goodness, because I know I need the rest and the scrapping time! I haven't scrapped in 2 weeks, and I finally cranked out a page today. Woohoooo!!! Before I went on my trip, I finished most of my assignments so lemme show you my pre-trip stuff first.

Credits:
Robin Carlton's PBJ kit at Sweet Shoppe Designs
Fonts: Kravitz, AL Sandra

Credits:
Tania Cordova's Ribbit Ribbit kit at Scrapdish and Digital Freebies
Fonts: Engebrechte, Marydale, Century Gothic

Credits:
Lynnie Smith's Twine Meadows Collection at Younique Photos and SBE
Fonts: Chachie, BlackJack

Isn't Chloe just the cutest?!?! I took these photos when we celebrated her daddy's birthday and we all had dinner here at home. She's such a character! Totally love her to pieces!!! The page with the polaroids is a good friend of mine, Gian. I took those photos at work, and I just kept snapping while he made those goofy poses. Teehee!

And here's the page I finished today...

Credits:
Robin Carlton's Closer to Heaven kit at Sweet Shoppe Designs
Fonts: Century Gothic, Vintage Typewriter

And that's not all because I also managed to finish a kit today!!!

This is Forest Nymph, and the kit will be a prize in one of the challenges or chats next month over at RAKScraps, so hop on over there and get in on all the fun! Remember my Tubby Hubby kit? It was used as a prize for the Easter egg hunt which Deb posted, and everyone had such a ball looking for those darn tokens! Some people even sent me private messages, saying how much fun they had and how much they love the kit. *sigh* Warm fuzzies galore!!!

Ooooh, ooooh, ooooh!!! If you've seen my past kits and missed out on getting them, you can actually head on over to Scrapdish to buy them! Nope, I'm not selling...YET!...but I donated them to the Day Old Donuts section of the store so that all the proceeds will be used to maintain RAKScraps. I have 2 kits in there so far, but I'll be sending over the rest this weekend, I hope. Hell, I'm not even really sure if people will actually buy my kits! LOL!!! But hey, it's the thought that counts, right? Teehee!

Ok, I think I gotta hit the sack soon. We're spending the day with Mr. S's folks tomorrow in Tagaytay (which is about an hour and a half drive), and we have to be there by breakfast. Yikes.

Take care, bellas!

shooing the chickens, etc

2006-03-26T14:22:00.000+08:00

I know I'm a few days late, but good news like this cannot be NOT blogged about...

Chicken Little is out of the running for American Idol!!! Woohooooo!!! Finally, if I may say. I have been praying for weeks to get the guy out of there, and the people up above have decided to grant my wish. Honestly, I was surprised he got the boot that week. I was expecting Bucky to go, since his performance was really so-so. And though it pains me to say this, I thought Chicken Little was better than Bucky that night. BUT BUT BUT!!! That is not to say that I am not happy with the results, because I am ecstatic! Yessss!!!! Bucky's gonna go next, I reckon, unless Lisa bungles it up next week. So do you guys like Taylor? I know that loads of people like him, and Randy and Paula just lap up his performance, but I don't really see what the big deal is about. Simon is right, ya know. It is a singing contest, not a dancing contest. And c'mon, as far as dancing goes, he's not even doing a good job of it. Oh well.

But did you see the performance of Chris? OH. MY. LORDY. I swear, that man is good enough to eat!!! He just keeps getting more and more delicious every week. Oh, and he has found residence on my desktop too. LOL!!! I think I've found true love, people.

Remember in my last post where I said that I hope things'll stay normal for a bit longer? Well, it ain't going to longer than Tuesday because I am leaving again. Yep. Found out last Tuesday, got approved last Wednesday, and booked on Thursday. I know I'm in for another terribly terribly busy time, but I'm quite excited actually. We're finally rolling out that training program that we designed, and so I'll be in Malaysia for 5 days, then heading straight to Indonesia for another 5 days. And looking at my itinerary, there is absolutely no time to do anything else but work. Again, I am going to countries which I will end up not seeing. LOL!!!

That being said, I am rushing on some of my assignments. I already finished my April mega kit contribution for RAKScraps, and the April prize too, so as far as designing goes, I'm all set. But I have 4 layouts to finish, and an article to research on for the RAKScraps newsletter. Isn't it crappy how life gets in the way of scrapping?

Here's the April prize kit I made. When I was thinking of a name for the kit, I asked Mr. S for some help. He told me to name the kit after him, and so I did. LOL!!! Presenting...Tubby Hubby!

It'll be one of the prizes to be given away in April, so if you'd like have it, head on over to the site and join the challenges! It'll be fun, and there'll be prizes galore!

On the homefront, things are going real good. Lately, I've been thinking of scrapping our wedding photos since our first year anniversary is coming up in April. Can you believe that?! One year! Wow. It's amazing how chubby hubs has gotten through one year with me. Unscathed, it seems. I still like to bug him every night before going to sleep. He's gotten a bit used to it, and he likes to tell his sisters about our nightly "quality time" conversations. LOL!!!

Friday last week was the anniversary of Mr. S's folks, and we all went to this 50s bar/resto where a band plays...um...50s music. I had a real good time and was happily jiggling to the music! I guess it helped that my folks exposed me to this type of music, so I was able to relate. My dear darling husband, on the other hand, slept. SLEPT! In the bar. Where a band was playing rock n' roll music. At full blast. Imagine my surprise when I turned to look at my husband and saw him sitting on his chair, arms crossed, and sleeping! How rude! LOL!!! Anyhoo, I had to nudge him awake and so I ended up with a cranky husband the rest of the night. Sheesh. What a brat.

Ok, I gotta get back to work. And since my flight is early on Tuesday, I may have to start packing tonight as well. I'm not sure if I'll have time to pop in for the next 10 days, but in case I don't get to, you guys have a fabulous week, alright?

Ciao, bellas!

one man show

2006-03-19T22:32:00.000+08:00

I think my ass grew over the weekend.

LOL!!!

Now that wasn't a very nice opening statement. I was thinking of something to describe my weekend, and that was what came to mind. I spent the entire weekend in front of my puter, but I am so thrilled because I managed to do an ATC (artist trading card) swap with Melinda, a layout for the RAKScraps night owl challenge using Tania's Berthoud & Blues kit, another layout for Tania using A Little Twitterpatted kit, a layout for Robin using The Egg kit, AND I finished my April prize kit. Talk about productive eh? LOL! But since being in front of my puter means I'm sitting on my ass all day, I seriously think it grew. Damn. Anyhoo, I have a hankering for showing off today, so in a while, I will show you all of the abovementioned finished tasks.

I still have a few assignments to do, but I'm beginning to feel like it's getting manageable. Whew! Now if only things stay this normal for a little bit longer...

Awriiiight, so on with my one-man show!

Credits:
Tania Cordova's A Little Twitterpatted kit at Digital Freebies and Scrapdish
Font: Times New Roman

Credits:
Robin Carlton's The Egg kit at Sweet Shoppe Designs
Fonts: Establo, Ink Burrow

Credits:
Tania Cordova's Berthoud & Blues kit at Digital Freebies and Scrapdish
Fonts: Times New Roman, Century Gothic

I was going to show you the latest kit I made, which is a prize for one of the events in April on RAKScraps, but I'm not sure if I'm allowed to show it already. So instead, I'm going to show you a closeup of my contribution to the March mega kit. Four links have been handed out, so go get your butts over to the site ok?

So that ends my one-man show. I hope your weekend was as productive as mine was, and have a great week ahead won't ya? Smoochies!!!

catching up

2006-03-16T22:33:00.000+08:00

Ok, so I'm slowly catching up. It's going very very slowly, but yes, I do believe I'm catching up. But before I start to tell you what I've been up to since I got back from Singapore, lemme just share a bit more about my trip.

I've already told you to the work part of it, which was just really overwhelming. I went through my previous post again and got tired just reading about it. LOL! I did get some questions about what shoes I brought home from Sing. hee! You guys just know me so well eh? Well, let me tell you, I came home with nary a shoe stowed in my luggage. Alas, there was no shoe moment for me in Singapore. It's sad, really, and I did look. Hell, I even saw two of my own pairs of shoes on display at Nine West over there! But being the trooper that I am, and knowing that I deserved the retail therapy after the hellish week I had, I more than made up for it by buying myself new clothes. And I also spread the good fortune to my folks and Mr. S by buying them new clothes too. Damn, I just looove shopping! And yep, overworked my credit card again. *sigh*

Oh, I forgot to tell you. The weekend before I left for Sing? Well...um...I bought myself a new pair of shoes. Again. I just couldn't help it! Mr. S and I had dinner out with some of my relatives, and we got there early, so I told Mr. S that we look around the mall. I mean, who would've known that Nine West would have a sale there, right? And I saw this fantastic pointy shoes in a camel shade I didn't have, and it was 70 frigging percent off!!! Who in their right mind would pass up a steal like that?!?! LOL!!! Ok, so that's 4 pairs in 6 weeks. I should definitely stay away from the mall eh? Yeah, right...

So, any of you guys watch American Idol? Isn't Chris Daughtry just sizzling HOT? I swear, he is good enough to lick all over like a popsicle! LOL!!! Everytime he starts to sing, I get this goofy grin on my face. Worse than a groupie, I tell ya! But man, he is just SO DAMN HOT!!! I was really surprised with the bottom 3 today though. Oh, well not completely surprised. I mean, I knew Melissa would fry. I mean, c'mon! You forget the lyrics of the song in front of Stevie Wonder AND THEN decide to forget it again in front of the entire telly-watching population?! That just really nailed her coffin. But Ace? And Lisa? My jaw dropped when they were called. And Ace had the most adorable poor puppy dog look on his face when he was onstage, waiting for his verdict. I wanted to run up to him and give him a hug. But can somebody please get Kevin outta there? I have been praying for weeks for Chicken Little to get booted out. I don't think I can stand another performance from the guy. And don't you think he's getting a bit too cocky for his own good? I seriously think that HE thinks he's really a sex symbol. Helloooo?!?!

Anyhoo, before I left for Singapore, I've been busy designing a few things for RAKScraps, and I'm quite proud of one of the kits I made.

I named it Cool Melons because the colors reminded me of...well...melons. And how cool they are. LOL!!! I was uber thrilled when I got a message from Robin saying that they were using my kit as the freebie for the newsletter chat. Wow! It sure gave me the warm fuzzies!

And because I'm a showoff, here's the kit I made for RAK week. I named it Citrus Berries.

And here's my contribution to the February mega kit.

I've been having a ball designing, and it makes me all sorts of happy when others say how much they like the kits, and especially when I see layouts done with my kits. Such an amazing feeling! Warm fuzzies galore!!! Have you seen the preview of the March mega kit yet? Wowzers!!! Head on over to RAKScraps and check it out! I think Jeanine is releasing the kit tomorrow. And while you're there, join in on all the fun stuff happening! I'm presently working on another kit which will be given away in April, and the paint chip for April's mega kit is out too, and it's sooo fun!!!

I also managed to scrap a few pages! Woohoooo!!! Much as I love designing, I can never really let go of making layouts. Here's one that I made for Maybelle.

Credits:
Lynnie Smith's Tattered Tales kit at Younique Photos
Fonts: Arriere Garde, Festus, Century Gothic

She was chosen as this month's winner in the Your Photo 5 Ways, where 5 members of the RAKScraps creative team will make layouts using her photos. I just love making pages for other people, and scrapping photos of her cutie patootie son was such fun!

Now this is one I made of Chloe. It's a bit of an old photo, taken last December. But I loved how it turned out, and the soft colors in this kit were so pretty!

Credits:
Robin Carlton & MandaBean's double scoop kit Isn't She Lovely at Sweet Shoppe Designs
Fonts: Century Gothic
So is that catching up or what?!? LOL!!! I hope to be able to do more layouts over the weekend. I have some awesome photos of Chloe which I took last weekend, and my mind is bursting with ideas.

Hope you guys are having a fantastic week so far! Friday is just around the corner, so there is reason to smile. LOL! Ciao, bellas!

drowning

2006-03-09T21:05:00.000+08:00

That, in a word, describes how I am feeling right now.

I'm back from Singapore, and it was like I was never there. Seriously! I only saw the city for maybe a total of 7 hours. I was there for 8 days, 6 of which I spent working myself to the bone, and I feel that I worked the equivalent of 12 days. I don't recall ever having worked so hard in my entire career. Our days started at 9am, and at best, we'd end at midnight. One time we ended at 2am. Another time, we ended at 1am. Maannn, that was tough! Lunch was always brought in, which meant that we literally locked ourselves in and worked right through lunch. Dinner was whenever the thought of eating would actually enter our frazzled minds. On our first day at work there, our dinner was at midnight. I'm telling you, I lost even more brain cells when I was in Singapore. I'm talking millions here.

But, being the optimist that I am, there were great things I took home from that trip. I learned SO MUCH from our regional training director, and looking at what we've accomplished in the 6 days we worked, I can just burst with pride. It was an amazing experience, and given the chance to do it again, I am quite sure that my answer would be yes.

There's so much I want to say about my Singapore trip, but there is just too much to do. Work has piled up, and on top of that are my deliverables from this regional project. Then there are my scrapping stuff that I have to do. I managed to finish my RAKScraps mega kit contribution for March, so at least that's one thing off my hands. But I have two new kits from Robin that I must get working on, plus one for Tania, plus two more for Lynnie. And I have to start posting in the forums over at RAKScraps too, which I totally missed doing while I away!

*sigh*

I am drowning. And I don't even know how to swim. LOL!!!

barely alive, folks

2006-02-20T22:17:00.000+08:00

What a week! Whew!!!

I was literally slaving away last week. My brain reached levels of friedness that it has never reached in its 31 years of life. I was tested to my limits! But I live to tell the tale, my friends. Possibly with a few thousand lost brain cells, but I live nonetheless.

Just so you know what I've been doing in the training convention, we were designing a training deck that is supposed to be rolled out in the entire region. It's a HUUUUGE project, and one I should be glad I'm part of, but maaannnn...I am so fcuking tired. By Thursday last week, I was sniffling and coughing and wheezing. Our days ended usually at about past midnight, and to cap off the week, we ended Friday at 230 in the morning. Or rather, we ended on saturday at 230 in the morning. And so I spent most of the weekend in bed nursing a flu. What a bummer. AND to think that the training deck is not yet even finished. Still lots of polishing and cleaning up to do.

I thought I would be able to catch up this week, what with my recruitment goals and other training programs to run. But this morning, I got news from my boss that our regional training head wanted me to go to singapore to work on the training deck. So all those things that happened to me last week? It's going to repeat itself. In Singapore. *sigh* On one hand i'm excited that I'm heading to Sing, but on the other hand, knowing what's waiting for me there, I'm not even sure I have time to enjoy it. But then again, I'm excited to see my friends in Sing like Pazette and Ro and Jacq. I just hope I have time to see them. LOL!!!

Anyhoo, my flight out is on Sunday. I'll be there for a week, which means I'm going to have to work on some of my "homework" before I leave on sunday. I have 1 layout to do for Tania, 2 for Lynnie, and 1 for Robin. Oh, and my RAKScraps mega kit contribution for March! Jeanine already posted the color palette for March and it looks sooo fun! Where oh where will i find the time?!?! LOL!!! Enough with my melodramatic bull. Hell, I need to scrap to de-stress!

And you know what else? I totally missed RAK Week. Gardemit!!! I maybe peeked in a few times and saw all the fun everyone was having, but that was it. Didn't even get to participate in the challenges. *sigh* That is just so sad. Well, I did manage to send out a RAK for everyone. I designed a kit for RAK week, and I'm glad a lot of people like it. I wish I could show you but Blogger is being the biggest prick of the day and won't cough up the links. So just head on over to RAKScraps ok? It'll only be available there until February 25.

Ok, gotta go. I'm totally drained, and it's only Monday.

Hmmmm....maybe this calls for a new pair of shoes...

LOL!!! Ciao, bellas!

***As proof of the loss of thousands of brain cells last week, I had to completely edit this post because I wrote the entire thing in small caps. And I'm obsessive-compulsive that way. I will not be able to sleep knowing that the start of all my sentences and all my letter I's and all my proper nouns were in small caps. Ok, now I can really go and sleep....

he certainly knows how to please

2006-02-11T17:36:00.000+08:00

Sometimes it just hits me why I love this husband of mine.

Since mid January, I've been bugging Mr. S to give me flowers for Valentine's day (or V-day as I prefer to call it). And not just flowers, but I mean FLOWERS! Gargantuan bouquets with balloons and chocolates and all that crap. Yeah, I'm a sucker for those things. For years, I have had to endure seeing bouquets and vases of a wide assortment of flowers get delivered to the office, and the awwww-s and the ooooohh-s and the aaahhh-s. I was one of those awww-ing and oooh-ing and aaahhh-ing over other people's flowers. I figured, this was our first V-day as hubby and wife, so I was entitled to FLOWERS. It was pretty much mandatory, I guess. LOL!!!

So anyhoo, I just found out last week that I will be in a training convention next week, so I won't be at the office on V-day. The first time that I can finally join the ranks of those being awww-ed at and ooohh-ed at and aaaahh-ed at, and the opportunity is taken away from me. Life is truly unfair sometimes. So I told Mr. S a few days ago not to have FLOWERS delivered at the office anymore because I wouldn't be there to gloat anyway. I was, of course, assuming that he would do his husbandly duties and actually send me FLOWERS.

Then I took out the big guns...With my best performance to date, and armed with my poor adorable puppy dog look, I asked Mr. S if he still has plans on giving me something for V-day. Unbeknownst to what lies ahead, he asked me what I wanted. Aha! I knew I was slowly reeling in my prey. With a flutter of my eyelashes and putting the puppy dog look on overdrive, I innocently said "Shoessss..."

A moment of silence.
And he said, "Oh, ok fine. Let's buy it on the weekend."

Hook, line and sinker, folks! LOL!!! Such a sweetheart!

My chubby-hubs took me out yesterday for an early V-day lunch date. By going early, it means we avoid the throngs of couples out celebrating V-day too. And it also gives us time to go around the mall to shop for our V-day gifts. teehee! So I got myself another new pair of shoes from Nine West...and it looks sooo chic! Perfect for the office, I say. But Mr. S didn't go home empty handed either. I dragged the man over to Ralph Lauren to get himself a new shirt. See? Happiness thrives in this family. LOL!!!

I've been working on a couple of kits the past few weeks. Since I got on the element team at RAKScraps, designing has totally taken a life of its own. I did manage to make a few layouts still, which is good. If Blogger will be a good little kid and give me my links, I should be able to show you my layouts. It's been a snotty little bugger since yesterday. But anyhoo, I already finished my contribution to the February mega kit. I've also seen the previews of what the other designers have done, and it is looking faaaaabulous!!! I can't wait till its release on the 15th. Oh, and hey, it's RAK week next week! Lots of stuff happening at RAKScraps, so get your butt on over there and join in, won't ya? I also managed to make another kit as a freebie for RAK week, and it's too cute!

Oooookay, so Blogger's being a real a$$wipe and won't post my photos. And I badly wanted to show you my shoes...LOL!!!

But, I'm poofed. I'm hitting the sack. I'm not sure if I can get online in the next few days as I'm sure the training convention will totally fry my brain. So in case I don't get to my puter, happy hearts day to y'all!!!

Spread the love, bellas! Ciao!

i made it! i made it!

2006-02-04T11:35:00.000+08:00

Check this out...

WOOHOOOOO!!!! The news is finally out! Actually, the announcement was made yesterday, but I only had time to blog today. I got the email last Jan 28, but was told to shut my mouth about it until the big announcement. LOL!!! Can you just imagine how much torture that was?!?! But I did promise not to blab about it, or else I'd have to string up Mr. S by his toes. I am beyond excited, to say the least! I'm in the company of such awesome people, and really, I just love RAKScraps. I'm already trying to work on something for the February mega kit, so watch out for that!

Woot!!! I've been tagged by Jeanine and Jeannie and Audra. How many of these are going around?! LOL!

WHAT WERE YOU DOING 10 YEARS AGO?
I was completely enjoying being a bum. LOL!!! I had just graduated from college in December '95, and I didn't go looking for a job until November/December of '96, I think. I figure my brain needed to rest. hee! So what was I doing 10 years ago? Shopping, partying, drinking, going on trips with friends, etc. etc. *sigh* Those were the days...

WHAT WERE YOU DOING 1 YEAR AGO?
I was planning my wedding. This was two months prior to the big day, so you can imagine how frazzled I was. I think that we were working on our invitations and church requirements that time. Oh, and hair and makeup trials for me. I had so much fun planning our wedding, despite all the stress. I can't even believe we've been married for almost a year now. Amazing.

5 FAVORITE SNACKS:
honey glazed donuts
popcorn
cheese flavored potato ridges
McDonald's twister fries and rootbeer float combo
nachos and salsa

5 SONGS TO WHICH YOU KNOW ALL THE LYRICS:
Oh wow...I'm such a sucker for songs despite the absence of talent.
Angel by Sarah McLachlan
Breathless by The Corrs (and pretty much all their other songs)
My Hump (my friends at the office can attest to this...LOL!!!)
all the songs from Little Mermaid
Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice (LOL!!! I was in highschool when this song was such a hit, and the lyrics just stayed with me no matter how I try to forget them.)

5 BAD HABITS:
I drink too much coffee.
I'm an impulsive shopper.
I cropdust when I fart. LOL!!!
I lie to Mr. S about how much I spend when I shop.
I'm a professional crammer.

5 THINGS YOU LIKE DOING:
singing
digiscrapping (both making layouts and designing)
annoying Mr. S
shopping!!!
laughing (LOL!!! See?)

5 THINGS YOU WOULD NEVER BUY, WEAR OR GET AGAIN:
coffee from Mocha Blends (eewwww...)
frosted blue or green eyeshadow (makes me look like a tramp)
a mediocre (read as cheap) processor for my puter
the brand escapes me now, but it was this copper colored hair dye that turned my hair positively orange...but I'll recognize that box when I see it!
a red and blue plaid dress with shoulder pads the size of an island (and I thought I looked sooo cool...)

5 FAVORITE TOYS:
my Canon digital rebel XT
my Wacom tablet
my puter
Guesstures (had a hoot playing it with friends yesterday!)
my puter

5 TAGS:
Ummm...can I be a rebel and not tag? LOL!!! But hey, if you read this and you want to do it, please feel free.

I've managed to post some more of my latest layouts, and so I wanted to show them off here as well.

Credits:
Robin Carlton & MandaBean's OMGosh! double up kit at Sweet Shoppe Designs
Font: AL Sandra
I absolutely LOVE this layout! First off, I love this photo of Chloe. Truly bellissima! I snapped this shot while she was counting some coins her mom had given her to play with. This is when she was counting "twenty-three...twenty-four...eleven..." LOL!!! So adorable!

Here's another one I took of Chloe. Does she look like she's picking her nose? LOL!!! But she's really such a sweet patootie.

Credits:
Robin Carlton's Emily 2.0 kit at Sweet Shoppe Designs
Background paper by Gina Miller, stitching by Ronna Penner, fotoframe by Anna Aspnes
Fonts: Petra Script, 3 grammes 5

And finally, I haven't posted this in any online gallery yet but I plan on doing so tonight.

Credits:
Robin Carlton & MandaBean's Love-O-Saurus kit at Sweet Shoppe Designs
Fonts: 2peas Heart's Delight
Too cute!!! It's such a fun kit, and it just worked perfectly with this photo of Chloe. Doesn't she have the cutest smile you've ever seen? LOL! Yeah, I'm biased. I know.

Well, I gotta go back to working on my mega kit contribution (woot! woot!), so I'm signing off. Oh, but before I forget...my Sex-and-the-City-ish shoes? I wore them to work yesterday. They ARE comfy. And I am famous. LOL!!!

Ciao, bellas! Enjoy your weekend!

retail therapy part 2

2006-02-01T22:11:00.000+08:00

I had a weird day today.

At 8am this morning, one of the guys at the office received an sms message saying that this guy we worked with got into a vehicular accident and that his car was totaled. Given that he's had about 5 previous accidents, it was really no big deal at the office. We knew he'd be back at work the next day. About an hour later though, we got another sms saying that he passed away.

Shock. Denial. Grief. We were calling hospitals and relatives to confirm the sms message, and people were crying. I was crying. Buckets. BIG buckets.

Funny thing was, no one else seemed to know anything. To make a long story short, it all turned out to be one really sick joke of the guy's friends. A practical joke. A prank. Can you believe that?!?! Who in their right fcuking mind would do this kind of thing??? Totally sick, man. May the fleas of a million camels land upon his armpits and multiply. Just remembering it totally pisses me off, so I'm staying off the subject.

So anyhoo, THAT started my day. The rest was pretty anticlimactic. A lot of work. A lot of stress. A really bitchy woman from another department who can't seem to grasp facts even when they're laid out for the whole world to see. And so I ended the day by doing the one thing that I knew was guaranteed to turn things around in a quick 180 degrees...

More retail therapy. LOL!!!

Bought myself a really bee-yooo-tiful pair of sexy shoes from Nine West. It's so Sex-and-the-city-ish!!! Actually, I saw the pair last weekend (when I had my retail therapy part 1) but didn't buy it despite the shoe moment. But I couldn't get it out of my mind since then, and I thought that it would be the perfect pick-me-up after the shitty day I had. Oh, but hey, this is a legally bought shoe...meaning Mr. S knows I bought them. Remember the 3-inch black pointy shoes I bought 2 weeks ago? Mr. S doesn't know about them. LOL!!! I hid them in the trunk of my car after I bought it, and just brought it in when he was busy working on his puter. That was maybe 3 days after. LOL!!! Am I bad??? Ok, don't answer that. It was meant to be a rhetorical question anyway. And besides, all's well that ends well. I'm happy. I stay sane. I don't drive my chubby-hubby insane. There's balance in the world. Yin and yang. Luke and Darth. Peanut butter and jelly.

I am sitting on five layouts that I haven't showed you guys yet, and only one has been posted on the digi sites I frequent (did that just a few minutes ago). Man, the latest ones I've been cranking out are soooo cool...if I do say so myself. LOL!!! Have you gone and checked out Sweet Shoppe Designs??? Grand opening TODAY!!! If you haven't been there, I give you permission to stop reading and head on over there. But do come back and read the rest of my mindless blabber, please? Ok, you can go now.

So are you back? LOL!!! I'm such a silly geezer tonight. Must still be riding on the high of my recent shoe acquisition. So didja love the stuff there??? Absolutely yummy stuff eh? I have been working with Robin's latest kits for SSD for a few weeks, and have been DYING to show off my layouts. With the site now open, I finally get to post these babies one at a time.

Credits:
Robin Carlton's Tootsie POP! kit at Sweet Shoppe Designs
Font: SP Love Life

Well I'm sleepy. I'm off to bed. 'Twas a really long day.
Ciao, bellas! Smoochies!!!

the magic of retail therapy

2006-01-28T23:16:00.000+08:00

Where do I begin?

Alright, first off, my hard drive died on me. Yeah, it's a new puter but that hard drive came from the old puter. I don't really know what happened except one day, I just couldn't access the drive anymore. Windows also wasn't detecting it when it booted. It's not my main drive, but it is where I keep all my digi stuff and all my photos. Isn't that just terrible?!?! I nearly died! It's a good thing I backed up most of my stuff when I got the new puter last month. But the sad story doesn't end there. Aside from losing the latest stuff I got and the photos I took over the weekend (aargh!!!), it turns out that one of the zip files of my kits is corrupted. So all my kits from designers N-R are gone. Vamoosh. Somebody stab me with a spoon!

I went to one of those magic guys who can do...ummm...magic stuff with puters. He said he could try to open up the hard drive, get the data, and transfer it to another hard drive. Now that sounded like a mighty fine idea to me, and who the hell cares how he'll do that and if it really is possible. But when he told me how much it was going to cost...bejeezus!!! Soooo, I live with the stuff I have and just figure out a way to live.

It amazes me how great people are in the digi world. When I lost most of my stuff, I emailed the designers of my creative teams to ask if I could re-download their stuff, and their responses have been nothing but sweet! I also sent a message over at ScrapArtist if I could re-download the orders I had. I wasn't expecting that my request would be granted, but I was sincerely touched by Nancie's fast response. Before I could even start to grovel at her feet, my downloads have been updated and I now have my Nancie stash in place. Amazing people in the digi world, I tell you! Such a wonderful community, and I totally love it!!!

Anyhoo, to console myself, I went out today to buy myself a 200G hard drive. Then I thought that I needed more consoling so I got myself a Wacom Graphire4 tablet. Then I thought that I needed even more consoling so I got myself a bluetooth usb thingamajiggy. Then I thought that Mr. S needed to commiserate so I bought him a pair of jeans. LOL!!! Now that's what I call a much needed retail therapy.

Speaking of Mr. S's jeans, do you know how much these freaking things are?!?! Ok, so they are RL jeans, but the last time I bought him a similar pair they were only half the price of what I paid today! When the lady at the counter told me how much my total bill was (with just one pair of jeans!), I literally paused and stared at her for a good 10 seconds. I think I even had my mouth open. But I regained my composure, smiled and said sure thing! Like I wasn't on my way to poverty. Later, I told Mr. S that he's going to have to find another brand of jeans to wear. Or live with the pair I bought for the next ten years or so.

Hey, have you guys seen the latest issue of DMM yet??? I got my complimentary copy a few days ago and saw my first ever published layout. WOWZERS!!! So if you haven't seen it yet, go over to their site and subscribe. It's only $4.99 but packed with good stuff!

Well, I gotta go. I've got a lot of work to do. Need to figure out a foolproof backup system for my files. Need to get that system into place and actually back up. Need to extract backed up files to my new hard drive. Need to re-download lost kits. Then I need to make new layouts for my creative teams.

Ciao, bellas! Smoochies!!!

bonus, shopping, lens and a freebie!

2006-01-23T21:45:00.000+08:00

Today was a looong day. But hey, it was a fantastic loooong day! Had to stay late at the office today to finish a report, but I also got my HUGE bonus today!!! Woohoooo!!! I'm not poor, I'm not poor!!! LOL!!! Man, it feels so fcuking great to know that I can pay my bills AND still shop. teehee!

Speaking of shopping, I got 7 grand poorer over the weekend. I spent Saturday at the mall with my friends, and I just couldn't help myself. First off, there was a sale at Mango and I just had to have this ultra cool black shirt with vintage cowboy tags on it (there's a photo somewhere below this post...). Then I saw this fabulously classic and elegant black 3-inch stiletto pumps at Nine West that is really a must in every woman's shoe wardrobe. Oh perfection!!! It was definitely a shoe moment. Know what I mean? A shoe moment is that point when you put your foot in the shoe, and BAM! It fits. It is just right. It is pure bliss. You had to have it. It was meant for you. Something like a shoe orgasm. Anyhoo, I was trying to recall what else I bought, and realized that it was really just those two things. And those two things already set me off by 7 grand?! Shit. But I have no regrets. It was a much needed retail therapy, so my mental health is in stable condition.

Then I finally got my Canon 50mm 1.8 lens last weekend! Oh wow, it is just amazing!!! I will let my photos speak for themselves...

I totally LOVE it!!! And isn't Chloe such a cute patootie?!?! And such a smart little kid too. Obviously takes after her aunt. She's already memorized her alphabet and she can count all the way to 24 before she goes back to 11. LOL!!! As usual, the minute she saw us last weekend, she was all smiles and saying "Hiiiii!" in her singsong voice. Too stinkin' cute!!!

Sunday night was the birthday dinner of my sister in law, and they planned a surprise cowboy party for her, in honor of Brokeback Mountain. LOL! I sooo enjoy these things so I had to dress the part. Check me out!

Authentic enough? LOL!!! And I wore my new ultra chic shirt from Mango. I couldn't find a cowboy hat in the mall, so I had to make one myself. Not bad eh? My mother in law says I have talent. LOL!

Ok, and lastly, before I head off to bed, I finally got some freebies done. I already posted this over at RAKScraps yesterday. It should also be available at YouniquePhotos sometime soon since I emailed these to Lynnie earlier today.

Bling blings seem to be the latest thing in digiscrapping (and flowers!) so I happily joined the bandwagon and made these. The petals and the gems are interchangeable, or you can use just the gems or just the petals. You can download these jeweled petals HERE. Oh, and just 5 more days before the element team members for RAKScraps are announced. Please please please!!! ~~I promise not to buy any new shoes this year if I get in the team.~~ I promise to be good!!! LOL!!!

Alright, I'm off to bed. I hope you guys had a fab weekend! G'night!!! Smoochies!!!

3 tags for 4s...and an outpour!

2006-01-18T21:11:00.000+08:00

Got tagged by Leslie, Audra and Robin. These things pressure me. LOL!!! But they're so much fun!

Here goes...

Four jobs you've had in your life:
customer service officer
customer service supervisor
training & recruitment manager
ummm...wife??? LOL!!!
Can you believe I've been working for the same company since I got out of college?!

Four movies you would watch over and over:
Notting Hill
The Princess Bride
Serendipity
Sleepless in Seattle
The Notebook
Ok, I know I put 5, but can you tell how sappy I am? I'm such a hopeless and/or pathetic romantic.

Four places you have lived:
Marinduque, PH - was born here
San Juan, PH - moved here when I was 4
Paranaque City, PH - moved here when I was 6
Yep, just 3. And I'm staying put. Not budging an inch.

Four TV shows you love to watch:
House - because Hugh Laurie is a god and I would gladly shower rose petals in his path
Sex and the City - my bible on video
One Tree Hill - only because I drool over Chad Michael Murray who is such a FINE specimen of testosterone. I have absolutely no idea what the show is about!
Desperate Housewives

Four places you have been on vacation:
Boracay
Puerto Galera
Brisbane, Australia
hmmm...
Holy shit! I don't frigging go on vacation?!?!

Four websites you visit daily:
RAKScraps
dooce.com
friends' blogs
Gmail

Four of your favorite foods:
fried chicken
shrimp - it doesn't matter how it's cooked. if it's shrimp, i'll gladly eat it.
tiramisu
pesto

Four places you would rather be right now:
Hugh Laurie's bed
Chad Michael Murray's bed
In Manolo Blahnik's private studio with a million dollars to spend on his shoes
Bungee jumping in Costa Rica

Four bloggers you are tagging:
Can I be selfish and not tag? LOL! It's gotta stop at some point, so I am being that point.

I found out two days ago from my dear friend Grace that Hugh Laurie won the Golden Globe for best actor in a drama television series. Wooohooooo!!! Oh yeah, baby!!! I've been all over the web, looking for pictures and video clips. I feel like a crazed stalker. LOL!!! *sigh* But he is such a dreamboat...

Here he is, the other love of my life, just as he was about to accept his Golden Globe! LOL!!!

Oh, can I just say that I am absolutely THRILLED by the response I've been getting after I offered Sweet Chloe kit?! Holy crap!!! Thank you sooo much for all the wonderful things everyone's said about my kits! I've been getting private messages and emails, AND I've had two more offers to sell on their sites! Can you believe that?!?! BIGGERWOWZERSFROMHEAVENSABOVE!!! When it rains, it totally pours! LOL! But, but, BUT! I'm sticking to my earlier decision. I need more experience, and I'm really really really hoping that I get in the RAKScraps element team because it is the perfect opportunity. Just 9 more days....

It's going to be a busy weekend for me, so I may not have time to make a new kit. I'm going to the mall with my friends on Saturday, then there's lunch at my brother's house on Sunday, and then there's a birthday dinner for my sister-in-law. But I still might have a little something for you anyway...not a kit, but just a few elements that are so stinkin' cute!

Ok, lemme go work on those elements now so I can have it ready by the weekend. I'll have links for it over at RAKScraps and YouniquePhotos and here at my blog too. I hope everyone's having a great week, so far! Smoochies y'all!!!

a thanks, and a funny story

2006-01-16T20:36:00.000+08:00

Wow. Can I just pop in to say that I am totally floored by your comments??? I could kiss each and every one of you! Thank you so SO much for your kind words about my work (in both scrapping and designing) and for your encouragement. Talhey's comment made me laugh out loud. Chloe and pearls...aww yeah, that's me, baby! LOL!!! But seriously, THANK YOU SO MUCH! And for that, I'll try and come up with another little something for you this weekend. hee!

By the way, Lynnie also featured my Sweet Chloe kit in YouniquePhotos. So if those yousendit links expire, you can head on over to her site and get it too. It's in the freebies section. Aside from this kit, the Photoshop brushes I made from ages ago is also available. So while you're there, you may want to take on the first challenge in the site. Create a layout sharing your love story and you have a chance to win a GC in the store. Cool!

Speaking of Lynnie, I made another layout last night, and I used her Unforgettable kit. It had some really unique elements, and I made what I think is a very striking layout in its simplicity.

Credits:
Lynnie Smith's Unforgettable kit at YouniquePhotos
Font: Laine Day SH, Century Gothic

On the homefront, I have a funny story. You see, I like to annoy my husband. And I'm always on the lookout for more ways of annoying him. I believe it keeps the spark in our marriage. And the thing is, I like doing these annoying things before going to bed or just as he is about to enter sleep oblivion. Ok, from hereon, read this with an open mind. You are about to find out how strange I can be.

One thing I like to do is have our husband-wife quality time talk. When we're both under the covers, and he's found his warm spot on the bed, I bombard him with my wifely questions. So how was your day today, baby? What did you do? Didja have a lot of meetings? What was your meeting about? Is that a new project? Where did you guys have lunch? Was it any good? And so forth and so on. This annoys Mr. S like hell, but the funny thing is that he keeps answering. Then at some point I get bored and I tell him to keep quiet cause I'm trying to sleep. LOL!!!

Another thing I like to do is engage my husband is my nightly water ritual. Don't worry, there's nothing tribal or voodooish about it. So anyhoo, the way it happens is Mr. S is already in bed. He's all snuggled up under the covers and is warm and toasty and sleepy. Then I come in (from digiscrapping in the other room, most likely), turn off the lights, and join him under the covers. After a few moments of silence, I will then say that I'm terribly thirsty and would love some water. He'll then grumble and complain, and I'll put on my best puppy dog face, and in the end, he will get up and get me water. Then I'll take over his warm spot on the bed. LOL!!! But isn't he a sweetie???

And lastly, and this is by far the best among my annoy-ploys, just when Mr. S is about to step into sleep oblivion, I like to very veeeerrrrrryyyy sloooooowwwwwlyyyy put my little pinkie finger in his nose.

G'night, and don't let the bed bugs bite!

change can be good......it's a matter of attitude

2006-01-15T19:52:00.000+08:00

This week has been all about change. Whew! Where do I start?

Things have been shaking at the office since Monday. There was a HUGE announcement made, and everyone's scurrying about as though there's a Jen Wilson sale going on. Oh, didja hear about that? She had a (supposed) one-day sale, and because the entire digi world flocked to SBB to buy her awesome stuff, the store crashed. LOL!!! That was just friggin' funny! Imagine being THAT great that you manage to crash a site. Wow. So she had to extend her sale, and I managed to get $30 poorer. Yes, I am weak. LOL!

So anyhoo, I'm rambling. What was I talking about before that? Oh yeah. The office announcement. It was HUGE, I tell ya. And you know how it is when things change. People just have a natural tendency to panic. I had my own concerns, but I asked the right people...people who had answers...and realized that everything's fine and dandy. Quite exciting, in fact. I hope everyone else realizes that too. For their own good. That's when I realized that it's really all about attitude. *sigh* I can't wait till all the furor dies down.

Hey hey hey, there's an element team call over at RAKScraps! Woohoooo!!! It's another one of those changes I'm talking about since I'm thinking of applying. Oh wait...I already applied. LOL!!! Composed my email this morning, attached some of my designs, and with fingers crossed, hit the SEND button. Announcement will be made on the 28th, so I don't know how I will manage till then. LOL! It's a huge step for me because as an element team member, you will have to design for the monthly mega kits and the freebie prizes. I don't have much experience in designing, but I love the site and would absolutely KILL to get on the team. LOL! But I was truly tickled pink when Jeanine sent me a private message, just to be sure that I saw the call for an element team. How sweet is that?! Anyhoo, I hope my stuff is good enough to get on the team.

Speaking of designing, and maybe just to test my designing abilities too, I made another kit. I got inspired by some gift wrapper I saw in a bookstore last week, and made this...

Totally love how it turned out, but is it good enough??? LOL!!! It has 12 patterned or textured papers, 4 metal flower elements, 4 epoxies, 4 pearls, 1 pearl strand, 3 ribbons, 1 stapled ribbon and 1 flower cutout. Lemme know what you guys think. Even if you don't digiscrap, do you like the designs? The patterns? And if you do like it and you're a digiscrapper, you can download it here.

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say this, so let's keep it partly confidential by not naming names. LOL!!! I got an email from a designer, and she offered me a position as a PAID designer on her site. WOWZERSFROMHEAVENABOVE!!! Such a sweet, sweet lady and her confidence in me just blows me away! However...I feel that I am not yet ready to take THAT big a step. I mean, who would buy my stuff?!?! LOL!!! But just receiving that email offer, I am frigging grinning from ear to ear. Who knows? Maybe IF I get on the RAKScraps element team, then I'd get enough experience to one day sell my stuff. In the meantime, I'm all for learning more and more and more. So expect more freebies here in the meantime.

Here's a page I was able to finish last Thursday. I used Lynnie's Pardesha Pink kit, which is just perfect for girly pages.

Credits
Lynnie Smith's Pardesha Pink kit at YouniquePhotos
Ribbon from Ronna Penner's Ribbonshop Vol. 1
stitching from Ronna Penner's decorative stitching I
chipboard effect by Atomic Cupcake
Fonts: Times and Times Again, Lainie DaySH, Century Gothic

And with that, I'm heading off to bed. It's back to work tomorrow. Goodnight, y'all! Smoochies!!!!

sometimes i wonder...

2006-01-10T21:37:00.000+08:00

...why I married this man. I'm talking about Mr. S, of course.

I was sitting here, happily bloghopping and checking out photography sites. In he comes, asking for a kiss. Sweet, right? Yeah, well the story isn't done yet. And don't worry, because I am not about to gross you out with a blow by blow narration of our declarations of love. So I kissed him, then as he was about to leave, I decided to ask him, "So why'd you come in here? You missed me, didn't you? You wanted to see my pretty face, didn't you?"

And without batting an eyelash, my dear husband turned to me and said, "Actually, I needed to poop and you were my motivation."

Somebody PLEASE enlighten me.

a week into 2006

2006-01-08T16:30:00.000+08:00

A week in the new year has gone by. Can you believe that? Pretty soon, it'll be Christmas again. LOL!!! Ok, so maybe not THAT fast. How has 2006 been for you, so far?

First off, I wanted to say thanks to those who offered help on the recovery of the wedding photos I idiotically erased. The bad news is that they seemed to have vanished into thin air. Seriously. I downloaded these magic recovery files and although I see some of the files I previously deleted (some even older than the wedding photos!), they are just not there. You're probably asking WTF I did anyway, right? LOL! Hell, even I'm wondering! People at the office have been asking to see the photos, and when I tell them I deleted it, they look at me like I'm kidding. Then when they realize I am serious, they look at me like I'm the biggest idiot of 2005.

I also want to say thanks to those who wished me luck on my biggest endeavor for 2006. It's the biggest endeavor of my life, actually. Yes, I am sure that I will enjoy myself while making a baby. I will make sure that I do. I also plan to keep trying even after I get a positive result, and will probably only stop when the doctors tell me to. LOL!!! I'm reminded of this email I received about some interesting facts. Like didja know that pigs have orgasms that last for 30 minutes? 30 WHOLE FRIGGING MINUTES!!! See, it pays to snort and wallow in mud.

BIG NEWS! BIG NEWS! Before I burst my bladder with excitement here, let me just share with you that I got my biggest scrapbooking toot thus far. One of my layouts is going to be published in Digital Memories Magazine!!! Woohooooo!!! I finally got the courage to submit my layouts, and I sent my first one to DMM last December. I even thought that I didn't make it because I didn't hear from them until last week. But WOWZERS!!! Skippity hop hop hop!!! LOL! So please visit their site and subscribe, so you can see the layout by lil ole me in their Jan/Feb issue!

On to more good news...RAKScraps is back! Oh man, just writing that down feels sooo good. RAKScraps is back...RAKScraps is back...RAKScraps is back...RAKScraps is back...Ok, I'm stopping. The site moved servers because for quite a while, everything was going so slow. But everything is up and running now, and it's like a reunion of sorts because everyone's back and posting like crazy in the forums. LOL! I even got it on a challenge immediately, and so check out my New Year avatar on my sidebar. Fun!!!

As I am writing this post, our neighbors are having a party. And someone is singing. Terribly. Really, really terribly. They've been at it since about noon, and I've been asking God why he has to give us not just one, but three neighbors who like to sing during their parties. Judging from where the wails are coming from, I think it's the neighbors at the back who are partying up a storm. Don't get me wrong, because I'm all for parties and singing. I admit that I also like to sing, but I like to do it at the karaoke places that me and my friends like to go to. You know, where they serve liquor and have soundproof rooms. And where it's perfectly legal to make an ass of yourself while singing I Will Survive.

Oh, here are some layouts of Chloe that I've done. For this one, I used Tania's Lil Miss Molly kit, available at Digital Freebies. Isn't it such a cute kit??? I loved all the yellows with a bit of the blues, and it was just perfect for this photo of Chloe I had taken when she was here on my birthday!

Credits:
Tania Cordova's Lil Miss Molly kit at Digital Freebies
Leaves brush by Devon Coker at Adobe Studio Exchange
Font: Carpenter

Chloe is growing up sooo fast. Everytime she comes for a visit, I am amazed by the changes. She also spent Christmas eve here, did I tell you that? I gotta admire the energy on that kid. She didn't sleep a wink the entire eve, and even when they left at 2am, she was still bubbling with energy. Whatever that kid is on, it works even better than what the energizer bunny is taking. Oh, the funniest thing happened when we went to hear mass that night. We were all standing outside, trying to be very quiet because after all, there was a mass going on. My dear husband decided to buy Chloe a balloon though, and when I handed it to her, she suddenly shouted "WOW, BAWOOOOON!!!" I could feel the eyes of hundreds of people boring into my back. LOL!!! What a hoot!

Oh my lord, somebody please get a gun and shoot whatever is singing...

And this here's the latest one I did, and I used Tania's Posh Tots kit also available at Digital Freebies. Love, love, LOVE the colors on this kit! And the papers are too delicious!

Credits:
Tania Cordova's Posh Tots kit at Digital Freebies
Nancie Rowe Janitz's alpha shmootzy stamps
Fonts: Kids, Vintage Typewriter

The layout is a scraplift of Robin's Standing Still layout. Isn't Chloe such a sweetie? Yeah, I know, I'm a biased aunt. LOL!

I've been on a House marathon these past few days. Sometimes with popcorn, most times with just my ass on a warm and toasty spot on the bed. Aaaah, life is blissful in its simplicity. I'm now seriously thinking of sending an email to Hugh Laurie and professing my undying devotion. I am smitten, I tell you. Big time!

Alright, much as I'd love to stay and chat (how one-sided is this chat??? LOL!), I have work to do. Start of year always means performance appraisal time, so I gotta finish the ones for my training officers.

Oh. And the neighbors are still singing. If you could call it that. I may need to pop a few pills tonight if I plan on going to sleep. LOL! G'night, y'all!!!

Happy New Year to one and all!!!

2006-01-01T18:45:00.000+08:00

LOL! I'm not really sure why, but I've been saying that since the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve. Complete with the sweep of an arm. Even my mom thinks I'm nuts. But hey, really...Happy New Year to one and all!!! *arm sweeping* LOL!

I was thinking of writing about the year that has just passed. 2005 was such a wonderful year for me! I guess what really stands out to me is that it is the year I got married to my Mr. S. After six ~~long and agonizing~~ years, I have finally become Mrs. S...and wow, what a ride it has been! I am totally loving being a wife to my husband, and married life is definitely something I'd recommend to all my friends. LOL! But I also discovered my other "loves" this year...such as digiscrapping and photography. Looking back, 2005 has given me everything I've wanted ~~except for maybe 10 new pairs of shoes.~~ A fantastic husband, a supportive and loving family, a great career, 2 awesome hobbies which I seem to be good at (with a new puter and a new camera to boot!), deepened friendships, and loads of new ones.

So what does 2006 have in store for me? Who knows, really. But I am looking forward to making it an even better year than last! Oh. But you wanna know what my ultimate goal for 2006 is? Have a baby. Yep. There it is. Out in the open. I'm telling you, 2006 is THE baby making year! What fun! LOL!!! But seriously, Mr. S and I are excited to have one of our own. 2005 was our year, with each of us pampering ourselves with our own hobbies and stuff. We enter 2006 poor as paupers, but happy with all our new toys. LOL! But this new year, it'll be for the little S. I'm telling you...it's baby making or bust!

Wanna know a really stupid thing I did? It's so stupid I could cry. I told you about that wedding I went to, right? Where I said I took tons of awesome photos? Well, the photos were awesome. I already moved them from my camera to my puter, filed it in a folder and all that. Then I burned some photos in DVDs already, since it was taking up a bit of unnecessary space. Then I figured I'd erase them already since they're in the DVD. Well, as it turns out, I deleted the wedding phots WHICH WERE NOT ON THE DVD. And to make matters worse, I also deleted the photos I took last Christmas. So the only photos I have of the wedding are the ones in my previous post. Aaaarrrgh!!!! What an absolute ninny.

I need something to write about so I forget all about what an idiot I can be. OH! I am now using my brand spankin' new puter!!! Have I told you that? Hmmm, I don't think so. Man, it is soooo fast! I absolutely LOVE it! I asked Mr. S about the specs so I could brag about it, but it's all Greek to me so I've forgotten all about it. LOL! It's not yet totally complete though, because I also asked Mr. S to get me a tablet, a bluetooth thingamajiggy, and a webcam. AND he also promised to get me a new lens for my Rebel. Isn't my porky such a sweetie??? Just gotta love all that fat. LOL!!!! I want to get the 50mm with a 1.8 aperture! I've been reading the boards in some sites, and everyone's got rave reviews with this lens.

And since we're on the subject anyway, lemme share some of my recent photos with you.

Finally, here's me...wishing you all a FANTABULOUS 2006! Smoochies!!!

ok, my husband took the photo, so pardon how to have to search in the dark for me. LOL!

just checking in

2005-12-30T11:27:00.000+08:00

Aaaah...there is nothing better than waking up late and knowing that I don't have to rush to the office. Bliss!!! Today is day 2 of a 4-day weekend here, and I don't plan on doing anything else but eat, scrap and sleep. Yes, I plan to live the life of a digiscrapping pig.

I attended the wedding of a dear friend, Alvin, yesterday. Drove myself miles and miles away for about an hour and a half, and take note that I did that ALONE. One one hand, I'm quite proud of myself. I've never driven myself that far before, so Alvin had better love me for coming to his wedding. LOL!!! One the other hand, I was (and still am!) peeved at Mr. S for not coming with me. I had told him about this wedding since last week, but he had to go plan this meeting schmeeting with his friends. Whatever. So really, it was part love for Alvin and part pride and pigheadedness that I did it.

But hey, don't get me wrong because I loved that I went. It was a beautiful wedding, and I also discovered that Alvin is such a sweet crybaby. LOL! He cried when they showed a video his bestfriend did, he cried when his baby sister gave a speech, he cried when his bestman gave a toast, he cried when his mom gave a speech. And those are the only ones I caught! LOL! But really, it was a sweet wedding and I wish Alvin and Michele the best. Here's a lovely photo I took of the couple.

Aren't they sweet? The wedding was held in Tagaytay, which is a such a picturesque venue. I had a great time taking photos too, and I realized I definitely must buy a Speedlite for my camera.

Here's a photo I took of the view from the reception venue. I didn't use my flash so I could capture its natural lighting.

And of course, I had someone take a photo of me. LOL! I couldn't always be behind the camera, ya know. If you look at the view behind me, you can see Taal Volcano (it's left of me). Cool!

Anyhoo, on to other things. I've been quite busy the past few nights making a mini kit for the RAKScraps members mega RAK. It started last month when Christine "hosted" a kit swap. Members created mini kits or alphas or stuff, then Christine pulled everything together to come up with a whole shebang of yummy digital goodies for all who participated! LOL!!! It must've been a nightmare to get everything organized, so a huge thanks to Christine for doing that. Since the first kit swap went so well, it seems that it's now going to be a monthly thing, but rather than collating everything, you just host your own downloadable goodies. I love the color swatch that Christine chose for this month, and I sooo love the kit I came up with. Wanna see?

Cute huh? Teehee! I uploaded the file already, so you can either head on over to RAKScraps or get it here. Wanna see the one that I made for the first swap?

Not bad eh? LOL!!! But it's so fun making kits, and for some reason, I particularly enjoy making alphas.

I was watching the telly the other night, and as I was surfing channels, I found myself watching this guy pin wooden clothespins on his face. Welcome to the Guinness Book of World Records! Do you guys watch this? It is so unbelievably...lame! Sorry if there are Guinness fans out there. Ok, so the guy gets the record for the most number of wooden clothespins on his face, but who is he up against? And WHY would you do this? And it gets even funnier...this guy is actually trying to beat a previous record. You know who held it previously? HIMSELF! Isn't the fact that he continues to hold the title a clear indication that no one in their right mind would do such a thing? Oh my lordy...

Dropped by Audra's blog yesterday and saw this. WOWZERS. Now that makes me think twice about giving birth. Holy shit, it's like giving birth to twins! AT THE SAME TIME! Amazing....

Ok, I think I'm rambling now. Hope you guys are doing good! Smoochies!!!

THANKS MUCHO!!!

2005-12-26T23:20:00.000+08:00

A huge, huge thanks and a gazillion hugs to all who greeted me on my birthday! Wowzers, you guys!!! I couldn't let my long weekend end without posting a little thank you here for y'all. Smoochies!!!

A lot of stuff has happened over the last couple of days, and I promise to tell you all about it...soon. LOL! It's back to work for me tomorrow, so I need my ZZZs. But it's just 2 days of work, then it's a 5-day weekend for me. Woohoooo!!!

But, but, BUT! I can't end this post without showing you my latest layout of Chloe. I just love how it turned out, considering I had to work with the color green. I managed to make it girly somehow, with those little flowers.

Credits:
Robin Carlton & Christy Lyle's double up kit, OHnoes! available at The DigiChick
Doodles by Angie Briggs at ScrapArtist
Fonts: Petra Script

Isn't the kit awesome? I had wanted to work with boy photos since there were some really fun papers with bugs and critters and all, but I couldn't resist scrapping the latest photos I took of my cutie patootie Chloe. Anyhoo, I looove how it turned out!

And as my finale to this post (LOL!), here's one of the photos I took this month. This is my mom, gazing at our Christmas tree. Isn't she beautiful? =)

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Looking forward to the New Year!!!

31

2005-12-21T10:34:00.000+08:00

ouch.

in between sniffles and wheezes

2005-12-13T21:05:00.000+08:00

I've been feeling a bit under the weather the past few days. It started with some sniffles. Now I'm no longer just sniffling but wheezing and coughing. I can't damn breathe, and so now I don't just sound like a frog, but a frog with colds. How terrible can that be, huh? I can't even stand to hear my own voice.

I was a bit late with my submission for Robin's kit this week. I couldn't find the right photos to scrap, but after Sunday's dinner, I am now fully armed and ready to make layouts. Here's the one I made using the double up kit by Robin and MandaBean, So Corny. Such fun colors and elements in this kit, and I sooo love the alphas!

LOL!!! Isn't that face just priceless?!? When Chloe was here last Sunday, she was prancing and playing all over the house. All of a sudden, she just stood still and became quiet. Apparently, she "had to go" in her nappies, and I am so thrilled that I captured the moment with my Rebel XT! Man, that look of concentration on her face is just too cute! Such a poopyface!

I think I forgot to tell you that I already gave the iPod to Mr. S Tuesday last week. What can I say....HE ABSOLUTELY LOVES IT! He was so surprised, and when he realized what it was, I swear, his eyes were the size of saucers. LOL! Of course, now he can't seem to live without the damn thing. I'm quite sure those earphones have managed to glue themselves to his ears. The irritating thing about it is now I find myself having to repeat everything I'm saying because he never hears me the first time. AND he hasn't even let me borrow the damn thing too! LOL!!! I've totally created a monster.

I'm having a small birthday dinner this Sunday here at home. Just immediate family, really. Mine and Mr. S's. We haven't all been together since the wedding in April, so I think this'll be good and fun. I've been thinking about what to serve, and I think I'd love a surf and turf dinner. We could have some steak, grilled prawns, stuffed squid, mashed potatoes...hmmmm...oh, and asparagus wrapped in bacon for appetizers! Yummmmm!!! And maybe tiramisu for dessert? It's a pretty heavy dinner, so maybe I could just have fresh fruits with cream. I'm going to be a total pig on Sunday! LOL!

Not feeling particularly joyed about celebrating my birthday though. I think it comes with age. I also stopped knowing my age somewhere after I turned 25. So when people ask, it turns out to be like a pop quiz for me and I literally have to count in my mind to determine what my age is. *sigh* Even gifts dwindle as you age. You notice that? It's like people think adults have less capabilities to open gifts and so they're spared the task. Oh, and don't even get me started on having a birthday that's close to Christmas! That's just the pits.

Ok, so I'm totally not feeling well and my own post is even starting to depress me. LOL! I'm wheezing my way out of here. G'night y'all!

where'd the weekend go?!(a rhetorical question)

2005-12-11T21:10:00.000+08:00

Well, well, well! I've been amiss the past few days. Haven't even had much time to hang around RAKScraps this weekend, and I miss the fun. *sigh* It's been a busy week at work, and I can't believe it's freaking Monday already tomorrow. Where did the weekend go?!?! Anyhoo, lemme tell you all about my week.

We had our office Christmas party last Wednesday night, and I had fun...surprisingly! There was a dance competition amongst the different departments, and our team was SOOOO good! Uber talented, I tell you! We cinched 3rd place, but seriously, and all biases aside, I felt that our group performed the best. Who the crap knows what's going on in the judges' minds! When we got called as 3rd place, there was a shocked silence from the audience. Now that alone is enough to tell you what we should've bagged first place. Ok, so before I get called a sour grape here, I'm moving on. LOL! Oh, and just so you know, I'm not part of the dance group. I wanted to, but my body couldn't hack it. Jeez, just the stretching alone was enough to send me into cardiac arrest.

Anyhoo, the party was fun, despite the results of the dance competition. There was a band that played after the whole program, and it was like a blast to the past! There was 80s music blaring from the speakers, and I found myself dancing ang gyrating on the dance floor. And with no influence of alcohol whatsoever! LOL!!! Man, what a hoot! So who cares that I didn't even win one of the 52 raffle prizes they gave away that night...including a home theater system! At least I know I can still dish out the moves with the rest of 'em! Ha!

I had the funniest "day-after-effects" of the party...I lost my voice. Seriously. Totally lost it. When I woke up the next day, I was as hoarse as you could ever imagine. It was sooo funny, and everyone at work was laughing at me. Hell, I couldn't even answer my own phone! Communication to me was strictly via email or sms. Or sign language. LOL!!! Things are slooowwly turning back to normal, and I now sound like a frog. Hopefully, by tomorrow, my voice will have some semblance of normality.

Can I just say that I was such a sloth yesterday? I slept at about 11pm on Friday night, and I woke up the next day at 10am. I had breakfast, then I slept again at about 11am and didn't wake up until 6pm! Yep, no lunch AND no shower. Holy shit, huh? Yeah, I can be a total pig sometimes. And it doesn't even end there. So I took a shower, then dressed in fresh jammies again. LOL!!! From jammies to jammies! And I have the gall to ask myself where the weekend went! I'm such a nut.

Today, we celebrated my mom's birthday. She's turning 56 tomorrow, but she doesn't look a day older than 40. She makes me optimistic that I will also "suffer" the same fate. I'm turning 31 in a few days (hint, hint!) but I can still pass for an 18 year old. LOL!!! Hey, it's MY blog ok? So just sit there and read.

The entire family was here tonight to celebrate, and it was so great seeing my brothers again. And of course, darling little Chloe was here too. The minute she got in the door, she had that cheeky little smile of hers and she just waved and said "Hiiiiii!" in a sing-song voice. Too cute!!! I was able to take so many fantastic shots of Chloe tonight, and I was so bummed out when my battery died on me. My fault really, for not fully charging the batt. What a dumbass. Note to self: buy an extra battery. But I still got some awesome shots, so that's ok. My battery's fully charged now, so I'll share a few photos with you in a moment.

A dear friend from Singapore made my day today. After feeling a bit ignored the past few weeks, I feel special today. Surprised, but special. Not sure if he even reads my blog. But if he does read this...thanks, Ro! Smoochies!!!

And with that, goodnight folks! Have a great week ahead!

a post with no sense. seriously.

2005-12-05T22:08:00.000+08:00

Like the new Christmas look to my blog? Teehee! I thought I'd put a festive mood in here. I've also been getting rave reviews on my avatar. LOL! It's the beard, isn't it? So I look good with a beard??? LOL!!!

Oh, I'm a brunette now. I colored my hair yesterday, and it's on the reddish and dark-brownish side. Hmmm, not sure I like it very much. I would've wanted it to be more on the reddish and light-brownish side. Oh well. I really should learn to read the labels on those things first before buying them. You know the depressing thing about it? I just realized HOW MUCH white hair I already have. Jeez, and I'm only 30! Ok, so I'm turning 31 in a few days, but still. 30 is 30. I blame each and every strand on stress. And my stress only comes from work.

Speaking of work, it's going to be hell week this week. I need to hire 10 people this week. 10 people! In 4 days! Believe me, it's no easy task. And really, interviewing applicant after applicant after applicant is not always a fun job. Sometimes I get good ones, and I actually enjoy interviewing these people. Then there are the funny ones, like the guy I interviewed who managed to unknowingly smear ink all over his nose. LOL! I get a good laugh just thinking about it again. But then again, sometimes I get really terrible ones and about 2 minutes into the interview, I already want to tear my reddish and dark-brownish hair out of their roots. *sigh* Good luck to me!

Anyhoo, I'm yawning every 3 minutes here, so I think I'll turn in. I'm too tired and I'm not really in a scrapping mood. I hope tomorrow will be better. Robin just emailed us her latest kit, which is a double up with MandaBean, and it looks too fun!!!

Let me just leave you with one of the silly photos I took last week.

BARNEY'S COUSIN?

LOL!!! This little guy sits on top of my monitor at the office. He's also about an inch tall. Cute eh?

G'night y'all! Smoochies!!!

busy bee

2005-12-04T00:15:00.000+08:00

I had a fantastic scrapping day today! Everything just seemed to come together so quickly, and in the end, I look at my creations and think, "Damn, that's fine!" LOL!!! I was able to do a 2-page layout, a layout I promised I'd make for a friend, an ATC (artist trading card), and a new avatar. AND I was able to play a bit with my Rebel and got some pretty fantastic shots. Well, of course that's really just my opinion. But then again, it is MY blog. LOL! I'm praying that Blogger isn't being cranky today and will let me post photos to show y'all. I mean, having spent almost the entire day in front of my puter, I think I deserve to show off. LOL!

I'm getting quite antsy about Christmas. I haven't shopped AT ALL. How lazy am I?! Damn, and I hate shopping during the Christmas rush. And I have to start ordering stuff from Amazon already so that my friends from far and beyond will get their gifts before Christmas. *sigh* Please tell me you haven't shopped as well and make me feel better, won't ya?

I'm finally getting Mr. S's iPod on Tuesday. See, I had it shipped to my friend's mom in the US since Amazon doesn't deliver electronics outside the US. Then the mom is arriving here on Monday, and the iPod hitched a ride. Can't wait, can't wait!!! Mr. S has been very ornery the past few days because of work. They've been making him go to work on weekends from 7am till 7pm. It really is a bummer, and he's a tired porky when he gets home. I hope the iPod does its charm and lifts his spirits a bit. Hell, for the price I paid, it had better! LOL!!! Oh, but I'm sure he'll love it!

YAY for Blogger!!! Ok, got my links now, so lemme show you some stuff I've done.

First off, here's a terribly cute layout I did of Chloe using Robin's latest kit, Lil Chick N Friends.

Credits:
Robin Carlton's Lil Chick N Friends kit at The DigiChick
Font: Pharmacy, Valentine, Vintage Typewriter

I looove this kit! The little girly faces and the animal characters are just too stinkin' cute! The photo is one I took of Chloe back in October, so that's still using my Pentax Optio S. Man, I can't wait till Chloe visits on Sunday so I can take her photos using my Rebel.

Then here's the 2-pager I did, and I used Tania's latest kit, Mod Retro. A friend of mine at the office is getting married this month, and he emailed me their engagement photos. How cool is it that the photos just matched perfectly with Tania's kit?! The colors in this kit are just gorgeous and I absolutely love how the layout turned out. This is also my take on the sketch and font challenge over at the DigiChick.

Credits:
Tania Cordova's Mod Retro kit at Digital Freebies
Font: An Unfortunate Event, Carpenter, Heather, Marydale

This next layout was a quick one! I promised a friend I'd make something for them to celebrate their anniversary. Everything just fit and I think I was done in like 15 minutes or so. And I love how it came out! I used Retrodiva's Pretty mini page kit.

Credits:
Retrodiva's Pretty mini page kit at Digital Freebies
Font: Arriere Garde

Ok, and lastly (before I head off to bed), here is what I felt was my best shot today. I am extremely proud of this one because I used my Rebel's manual settings. Woohoooo! I'm learning very slowly, but damn, such fun!!!

I have some other shots and I'm thinking whether I should post the photos here as well. Or would that bore the pants off you?? Hmmm...maybe I should just put the photos somewhere else.

Anyhoo, I'm hitting the sack. Have a great weekend!

i'm back...

2005-11-28T13:53:00.000+08:00

...and raring to go!!!

Well, the conference is finally over and done with. I am happy to say that it wasn't as bad as I initially thought it would be. So yeah, I did work my ass off every single day. Yeah, our day started early and ended late every single day. Yeah, it wasn't like I could rest at night because I still had to do my homework for the next day. But it was all good! First off, it still turned out to be an absolute gastronomical orgasm. I swear, every meal was heaven and I ate sooo much that even Mr. S commented that my ass grew in five days. LOL!!! And I've also gained so much professionally that I can't wait to go to work tomorrow and start on some of the stuff I've learned. Amazing, isn't it? But more importantly, I think, I made some really good friends over the past five days. Now I know that I can go and visit Singapore, Malaysia, China, Taiwan, Thailand, India and Indonesia and know that I have friends to see. Oh yeah, it was all good alright!

And NOW! Let me just share with y'all that Mrs. S got herself a new toy...my Canon Digital Rebel XT! Wooohooooo!!! Yep, got my baby last Thursday, and I have been tinkering with it since Friday night when I got home from the conference. Man, it is an absolute delight!!! I've always had the point-and-shoot kind of camera before, so this is my first dive into SLRs. No matter, because I am learning so much! And even on full auto mode, I am able to take fantastic shots! This morning, I tried using some of its other creative modes and it's just amazing how different the same shot comes out to.

Here are some photos I took over the weekend. You may want to click on the images so you can get a bigger picture and see its awesome clarity.

Not bad eh? LOL!!! Even Mr. S is impressed (with the camera, not with me...LOL!). Which is good because he "donated" to the Help-Mrs.S-Get-A-New-Camera fund and was critical to its early success. Now I'm setting up the Help-Mrs.S-Get-A-New-Lens fund. LOL!!! I can't wait till Chloe visits us so I can take tons of photos!

Ok, so it's back to scrapping for me. I got Tania's and Robin's latest kits and am so looking forward to making layouts again. Maybe when I get some pages done today, I could post it here for y'all.

Unless I get distracted by my new baby again. LOL!!!

i'll be gone for a week

2005-11-20T16:53:00.000+08:00

I am so not looking forward to the week ahead. I will be in a conference the entire week, and whereas I would usually welcome these times away from the office, sadly not this time. This is going to be work, work, work. And more work. Did I already say it was going to be more work? Our day starts at 8am and ends at 7pm. Every. single. day. There is also dinner with the entire group every night, and dinners like these are usually not as social as you'd like. There will definitely be talk of work throughout the evening, and it just totally ruins what would have been a gastronomical orgasm that is dinner.

And yes, it does mean absolutely no scrapping the entire week. *gasp* And most probably no net surfing as well, because I would be too brain-dead to even know how to turn on my puter. *double gasp* Can somebody just pull the plug and kill me please?

Alright, so I think that's enough melodramatics for one post. LOL!!!

YAY for Blogger!!! It has ~~finally~~ agreed to let me show off my recent layouts. I decided not to post all the layouts I had previously planned on showing, because then this post would just go on and on and on like the Energizer bunny. Although I love that fuzzy pink bunny, I would just gladly direct you to my webshots account (link in the sidebar, please) where they all are, credits included in case you'd love to go kit shopping.

Here are the latest ones I did for Robin.

Credits:
Robin Carlton's Feels Like Home kit at The DigiChick
Fonts: Sloop Script Two, Vintage Typewriter
Program used: Photoshop CS2

Robin's Feels Like Home kit is another winner! I thought this one was different from Robin's past kits, which just shows her versatility in designing. I had real fun making this layout of Chloe, and I also tinted the photo so that the entire page went well together. It's also the first time (ever!) that I used one of those tabs, and wow, I think I'll be using them quite often now. LOL!!! I'm really more of a "paper" scrapper (in the digital sense) and I use elements sparingly, unless I find some that are quite unique.

Credits:
Robin Carlton's It Girl paperpak at The DigiChick; stitching from Ronna Penner's Essential Notions: Decorative Stitching I; chipboard effect by Atomic Cupcake
Font: MA Sexy, Vintage Typewriter
Program used: Photoshop CS2

Would you just look at how adorable Chloe is in this layout?!?! She's a natural, I tell you! I used Robin's latest, which is It Girl. Loooove the colors and the patterns in this paperpak! Plus it comes with several ribbons and a couple of bows, which I just love to use!

On to more good news!!! I am yet again part of another creative team. Woohoo! I was bloghopping one night, and I headed over to Tania's (Lunafaerie) to see what was going on in her corner of the world. Lo and behold, I saw her post for a creative team call. I was emailing her faster than you could say schmuck! LOL!!! I have always admired Tania's kits, and look forward to her prizes and RAKs in RAKScraps.

So here's my first layout using Tania's kit Funky Bunches.

Credits:
Tania Cordova's Funky Bunches kit at Digital Freebies
Font: Vintage Typewriter
Program used: Photoshop CS2

Would you just look at how adorable Chloe is in this layout?!?! Ok, so I also said that in the previous layout, but c'mooonnn! She IS adorable! I remember just clicking and clicking away on my camera, when Chloe suddenly turned and ran towards me with that huge look of delight on her face. Perfect photo moment captured! And isn't Tania's kit gorgeous??? Love the color combos and the epoxy alphas!

Ooh ooh ooh!!! I can't believe I actually bounced up and down on my chair as I typed that. LOL!!! I don't want to pre-empt anything, but but BUT!!! Watch out for my next few layouts. Oh shit. I'll be in the conference this entire week! Ok, so you'll have to wait till the week after. Crap, and I was so excited to show you! Well anyhoo...I'm sooo excited because by then, I would already have....

ETA:
Oopsies! Speaking of the devil (or faerie, for that matter), got tagged by Tania. LOL!!! I'm going to add this to my post before I go to that dang conference.

2 names you go by
Tin
Mrs. S

2 parts of your heritage
Filipina
very teeny tiny Spanish (I think my toe is Spanish...)

2 things that scare you
cockroaches
not having my own kids

2 of your everyday essentials
coffee
internet access

2 things you are wearing right now
my newest pair of thongs (with little red striped ribbons...LOL!)
my trusty Levi's

2 of your favorite bands or musical artists (at the moment)
Kelly Clarkson
Green Day

2 favorite songs (at the moment)
My Humps by Black Eyed Peas
Mr. Sun by Barney (yes, the purple dinosaur...you did say at the moment)

2 things you want in a relationship (other than real love)
sense of humor
amazing sex (LOL!!!)

2 truths
I sometimes snort when I laugh.
I stole my classmate's froot loops during recess when I was in Grade 1.

2 physical things that appeal to you (in the opposite sex)
cute butt
kissable lips

2 of your favorite hobbies
digiscrapping
shopping (LOL, what a hobby!)

2 things you want really badly
get pregnant
a digital rebel XT

2 places you want to go on vacation
Boracay (nothing beats this!)
Costa Rica (i read that bungee jumping is awesome there)

2 things you want to do before you die
bungee jump
be rich (LOL!)

2 ways that you are stereotypically a dude/chick
PMS
I giggle.

2 things you are thinking about
the conference that starts tomorrow
all the work at the conference that starts tomorrow

2 stores you shop at
Nine West
Levi's

2 people i would like to see take this quiz
TracyB
Jacq

bad blogger!!! bad blogger!!!

2005-11-15T21:21:00.000+08:00

I've been neglecting my blog lately. It's been a week since I last posted something in here. Tsk...tsk...the poor thing.

Work has been driving me crazy since last week, and its timing couldn't have been worse. RAKScraps celebrated their 1st birthday last week, and there was one helluva RAK-a-bration going on! There were so many challenges and contests and chats, and LOADS of freebies!!! I didn't get to participate in a lot of the activities because of work, which is really a bummer. But still, I managed to join just three, I think, and snagged some prizes too. LOL! What's so cool is that I think I got the most awesome prize of all...a RAKScraps tee! Robin just sent me an email today that shipping it to me won't be a problem. Woohoooo!!! Can't wait to get it and show off! LOL!!!

Not much layouts being produced here. Again, work is the culprit. I get home late and brain-fried, so the creative juices have totally evaporated into thin air. I'll also be in a conference the whole of next week, so I have to make sure everything is in order with my team before I go. It looks like things are going to be real hectic for the rest of the month. *sigh* I am so in need of a holiday. A loooong one.

Ok, I gotta end this here. House is showing in a few, and I need to find a warm and toasty spot on the bed before it starts. Do any of you guys watch this show? Darnation, that Hugh Laurie totally ROCKS!!! He's such an asshole for a doctor and I love it! But jeez, if he were my doctor, I'd be torn between killing him and ravishing him on my hospital bed. LOL!!!

Again, I would've left you with some of my latest layouts, but as I've realized and learned by now, Blogger can be a real prick and decide to totally ignore my humble request to show off.

Maybe tomorrow.
Then again, maybe not.

putting a dent on the Christmas list...ok, so it's just one dent!

2005-11-07T21:28:00.000+08:00

I finally started on my Christmas shopping. HA! Well, to be totally honest really, I just bought one gift. But hey, that's one name crossed out from my Christmas list. LOL! That definitely counts for something.

I am terribly terribly excited with the first gift I bought, because it's Mr. S's Christmas gift. Oh, I just KNOW he's going to love it!!! He's been bugging me to get him one, and I keep putting him off because it is quite expensive. But I could never resist my porkchop of a hubby, so today, I finally bought it for him...

It's the new one, which has 30GB of memory and can take in 7500 songs, 20000 photos and 75 hours of video playback. Too cool!!! You think he'll mind if I give it to him, and say "Merry Christmas, Porky! Can I borrow it?" LOL! I can't wait till it gets here and I give it to him. I don't even think I can keep it from him for long. I'm so terrible at keeping surprises. Anyhoo, he will be soooo pleased! I reckon this'll give me sex every night too. BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

On to more important things...MY OWN Christmas list. hehe! I am absolutely drooling over this...

aaahhh...the Digital Rebel XT! It's name alone sends shivers up my spine. I'm trying to see if Mr. S is willing to give this to me as his Christmas gift. Who cares if it costs 3x the iPod! LOL!!! Oh but, Santa, please please please!!!

Hey, I don't think I've shared this here, but I'm part of another creative team! When it rains, it pours!!! The invitation came at a time when my puter was going berserk, so I couldn't formally accept the offer and announce it yet. But my puter has since recovered, and so I'm now officially part of Younique Photos creative team. Woohoooo!!!

I was really surprised (and pleased beyond words!) when Lynnie Smith sent me a private message at RAKScraps, saying wonderful things about my layouts and inviting me to be part of her team. Her designing style is quite different from Robin's, and this excites me because I feel that my creativity will be enhanced as I work on their different styles.

I've done several layouts using Lynnie's kits, a double up kit of Robin and MandaBean, and some other stuff that I wanted to share, but Blogger is being a pain in the ass again. Does this happen to anyone else??? I upload images, and it says it has succesfully done so, then it won't give you the tags? It's damn frustrating! WTF!?!?!

Oookay, I definitely need my ZZZZs.

incoherent yakking going on

2005-11-01T21:33:00.000+08:00

I am a pig. Seriously. You know what I did today?

When I woke up, I ate.
Then I ate some more.
Then I ate even more.
Then I slept.
When I woke up, I ate.
Then I ate again.

Now I'm here in front of my puter, and plan to sleep in a few. Holy crap! If my ass doubles itself, it's my own doing. But then you know, I don't have much of an ass to begin with, so it's doubling is probably a good thing. LOL!

I go back to work tomorrow, which is really irking me. *sigh* After the long weekend (Monday and Tuesday being declared as holidays), it's kinda silly to be going to work just for two days (Friday being declared as another holiday). I seriously hope the next two days won't be so busy at the office. Sometimes things get so hectic and it makes me want to tear my hair out of their roots.

Have any of you started on your Christmas shopping yet? It's November 1 and I haven't started on a single thing. Of course, the fact that I don't have any money now accounts for a lot. But hey, hey, HEY! Christmas bonus comes in on Thursday! Woohoooo!!! I'm thinking of being a real scrooge this year. I am seriously considering buying a new camera, so I'm planning on setting aside a big chunk of my bonus for that. We shall call it...the Help-Mrs.S-Get-A-New-Camera fund. LOL! Maybe I can get Mr. S to sponsor some funds...

Ok, I'm rambling. Incoherently. I think that's a sign that I must end this and get some sleep. Like I haven't had enough of that today.

Pig signing off...

on a digiscrapping frenzy!

2005-10-31T22:30:00.000+08:00

Wow, my creative juices got the best of me today. I think I must've spent the entire day in front of my now-functioning puter. But I'm not complaining because I love all the layouts that I created today. Man, I am sooo loving Robin's kits! Just see for yourself what I've done...

Credits:
Robin Carlton's Cassie kit (coming this Thursday at The DigiChick); stitching from Two Soon kit by Shabby Princess (recolored); inked edge overlay by Gina Miller from For The Love of Pete kit (lightened); chipboard effect by Atomic Cupcake
Font: Times New Roman

Credits:
Robin Carlton's Andy v2 kit (coming this Thursday at The DigiChick); chain ring from Little Man kit by Rachel Dickson; eyelet from Robin Carlton's Robin freebie kit at The DigiChick; ribbon from Shabby Tea Party kit by Shabby Princess (recolored); chipboard effect by Atomic Cupcake
Fonts: Times New Roman, Chemistry

Credits:
Robin Carlton's Robin kit (freebie at The DigiChick); stitching by Gina Miller from For The Love of Pete kit
Fonts: Times New Roman, My Old Remington

Credits:
Papers from Michelle McGraw's Megan's Dress kit; pink flower from Meredith Fenwick's Right There in B&W; stitching by Gina Miller from For The Love of Pete kit
Fonts: Century Gothic, Punch Label

Whew! Today was a VERY productive day eh? I guess you could say I'm back in the saddle again. My dear Mr. S got my old puter running so I could still digiscrap while waiting for the new puter. Isn't he the sweetest?! Gotta love that man! Although the puter is a wee bit slow (and drives me nuts when I use filters and texturize...), at least I'm staying sane and scrapping. But just between you and me, I think the real reason Mr. S fixed my puter is because I was driving him nuts when I wasn't digiscrapping and had too much free time on my hands. LOL!!!

Ok, so I gotta go. Mr. S and I are spending the Halloween night watching scary films in bed. It was my bright idea, and I know in the end, I'm the one who's going to regret this. LOL! But hey, it gives me an excuse to snuggle up to my porkchop of a husband. Hope your Halloween is fun!

i got to scrap! i got to scrap!

2005-10-26T00:23:00.000+08:00

Yay for me!!! Mr. S is out with his friends tonight, and so his ultra-fast puter is mine! *insert evil laugh here*

I'm so glad I got a few hours of scrapping done, and I was able to make a layout using Robin's Jennifer kit. I've always loved earth-toned kits, and when I first saw the preview of this kit, I went wowzers. Upclose, it's even more fab! I just knew I had to use it to scrap a photo of my dad, so here it is.

Isn't the kit just wonderful?! The papers are just so yummy, and the patterns are beautiful. So go grab it at The Digichick on November 3rd, ok?

Here are some of those layouts I promised to post. These were pre-mortem of my puter.

Well, I'm hitting the sack. It was a looong day at the office today, and my brain is fried. Can I just do the credits tomorrow please? I promise to do it tomorrow. Puh-leeeezz??? LOL! G'night, folks!

**edited 10.26.05 830pm**

As promised...
Credits:
DADDY
Jennifer kit by Robin Carlton at The DigiChick (available Nov 3rd); stitching by Gina Miller
Fonts: Times New Roman, Century Gothic

3 KIDS, 3 DREAMS
Autumn in NY kit by Kim Hill at CG Essentials
Fonts: Times New Roman, Monotype Corsiva

SMILE
Petalpalooza kit by Mandabean at The DigiChick
Fonts: Mutlu, Monotype Corsiva

FAMILY
Font Freebie by Gina Miller and Andie Smith at The DigiChick
Fonts: HansHand, Bluecake, Century Gothic

wallow with me in pity, won't ya?

2005-10-23T23:58:00.000+08:00

The puter has suffered a MAJOR relapse and is presently in a coma. Yep, you read it right. COMATOSE it is. It looks like one of its major organs has failed to function, and so it flat-lined this morning. It is a terrible, terrible thing to happen. Only a transplant can help it now, so Mr. S and I have been discussing whether or not to pull the plug, or keep it on the respirator. Ooookay, so that's as far as watching House is going to take me. LOL!

So what's going to happen now? This means I take an involuntary break from digiscrapping. Is there a worse fate for a digiscrapper?! Oh, the pain!!! Right now, I'm using Mr. S's laptop. Since it's office-issued, I can't really install PS on it, so I can only use it for blogging and surfing. And drooling at other people's layouts. I could use Mr. S's ultra-fast puter, which has PS7, by the way. But I married a selfish, selfish man and he refuses to let me, because he needs it for his puter games. Aaarrgh!!!

What does the future hold for this bereft digiscrapper? Well, there's light at the end of the tunnel. The hubs and I have decided to get a new puter. The new one goes to Mr. S, I get his ultra-fast puter, and the old one becomes our file server. It's going to cost us big-time, but really, we will both die if we didn't have our own puters. And DSL connection. It may take a while though, since Mr. S has to order the processor and motherboard from the US. We're looking at maybe 1-2 weeks. *gasp* So to compromise, Mr. S is going to buy a so-so (read as cheap...) motherboard just to get my old puter going until the new one arrives. It's going to be a loooong 2 weeks...

Luckily, all digiscrapping files have been backed up. In two separate locations, I might add. LOL! Can never be too sure, ya know. I was going to end this by showing you the layouts I've done pre-mortem of my puter, but blogger is being cranky and refuses to wallow with me in my pity party. I'm too lazy to go to photobucket, so you'll have to wait.

In the meantime, goodnight y'all! Hope you had a fab weekend!

Uh-oh!

2005-10-19T21:08:00.000+08:00

THANKS sooo much to all those who left comments about my being part of Robin's creative team! You guys are the best! Ella, my dearest bestfriend, I'm glad you found your way here. I miss you loads!!!

Ok, so I've gotten hold of Robin's upcoming kits and I'm telling you...they are FANTASTIC!!! I couldn't wait to play with it, and so I did! Here's my first layout using Robin's Cassie kit. It's titled "Uh-oh!"

By now, you all probably know my niece, Chloe. Well, here she is with her killer look. LOL! Isn't she just adorable?! The colors in the Cassie kit are so lovely and girly...just perfect for little girl photos! And the patterns are just too cute! There were so many other elements that I wasn't able to use, but do not fret, because I intend to make some more. LOL! So watch out for Robin's Cassie kit - she's coming on November 3rd at The DigiChick.

I was actually heading off to bed, but I just had to show off Robin's kit. And my work, of course. LOL!!! Hope y'all had a great day!

Credits:
Cassie kit by Robin Carlton (coming Nov 3rd to The DigiChick)
Font: Black Boys on Mopeds
Program used: Photoshop CS2

so excited i almost peed in my pants!

2005-10-18T18:26:00.000+08:00

Ok, so that title just came out of nowhere. But it is soooo accurately true!!! I have been holding on to this news since the weekend, and I am just bursting to tell you all about it. Now that it's official and I've gotten the go signal, come join me on my little joy ride!

I have been asked by Robin (SweetNSassyMommy) to be part of her personal creative team.

Wowowooooo!!!!

I first got Robin's private message at The DigiChick last Sunday, and I honestly couldn't believe she was referring to me. I just LOVE Robin's layouts, and her kits (showcased in her blog) are amazing! I felt honored that my layouts were noticed first off, but to actually be asked to be part of her creative team...I was speechless. Well...for about 30 seconds. Then I was squealing in excitement! LOL!!! That started a series of emails, and now, it's finally official.

Check out my little blinkie!

Too cool!!!

Alright, so let me end this post on a high note. Besides, I'm waaaay excited to go make a layout and use Robin's kits. teehee!

***addendum***
The puter is out of intensive care, and is in stable condition. Whew! The doctor is prescribing a break from digiscrapping. But hey, who follows doctor's orders, right? LOL!

in a panic

2005-10-16T20:10:00.000+08:00

Ok, my puter is undergoing a MAJOR overhaul as I write this on Mr. S's laptop. All digiscrapping is put on hold until the overhaul is finished. You know those telly shows you watch where the loved one is inside the ER, going through a major surgery, and the family is outside, nervously pacing the floor? Well, that is my life now.

For several days now, my puter has been acting strange. Not sure exactly what happened and what's going on, but it has been bothering me lately. On a number of occasions, it just suddenly hangs on me and I have to reset the puter. Sometimes, it just fails to boot and it gives me some error response. You won't believe the panic I felt!!! So after that happened, I immediately backed up my digiscrapping files. It was just then that I realized how much digiscrapping stuff I had accumulated. LOL! Well, I think my puter may have suffered a breakdown of some sort today, and so it's on an indefinite bed rest. CRAP!!!

Ok, so Mr. S is in there now, reformatting my puter. One diagnosis is that my lan card is busted, so I'll have to buy a new one tomorrow. I'm now seriously considering upgrading my motherboard, processor and memory. That's gonna cost me quite a bit though, so I'll have to sleep on that first. In the meantime, please pray for the safe recovery of my puter.

But hey, I do have some good news. Mr. S finally bought me my new scanner! Woohooooo!!! I don't know the exact model, but I'm sure that it can scan at a minimum of 1200dpi and it has 48-colour something and it's capable of OCR. LOL!!! As you can clearly see, I'm just the user. I learned those minimum requirements from Tania, so I just passed them off to Mr. S for purchasing. I got the scanner yesterday, and I've been scanning stuff left and right. LOL! But just when I'm in the mood to create layouts with my old photos, my puter goes berserk. Sigh. Life isn't fair. I have done several layouts the past few days, but haven't had time to upload them on my webshots album nor here. I promise to do that as soon as my puter has recovered.

Can you believe the weekend is over already??? It just goes by soooo fast! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

raves and rants

2005-10-10T22:15:00.000+08:00

Today was a good day. 'Twas relatively stress-free at the office, which is a relief, considering it's a Monday. I hope that's a sign of a good week to come. I'm keeping my fingers crossed on that one.

Mr. S and I just got home from dinner at my in-laws (his parents). My sis-in-law just passed the teacher's board, so it's a major toot for her. Yay Missy!!! Dinner was scrumptous, and my MIL made some really yummy spring rolls. Yum yum! For dessert, there was this absolutely sinful but absolutely diviiiine chocolate cake!!! My toes are curling just thinking about it. LOL! After dinner, we stayed for a bit and it was so fun. Mr. S has four sisters, then add me to the group, and we are one noisy and giggly group. His sisters are sooo fun to be with, and they're quite kooky too, which in my book, is a really good thing. You know, birds of the same feather blah blah blah. You know the rest. Just before we left, my MIL also gave me a bottle of tiramisu syrup which you can add to your coffee. Ooooooh!!! She sure knows how to please! I'm so glad I get along really well with my in laws. Lots of gifts and goodies! LOL!

On the other hand, everytime we get together with friends and family, everyone asks us if I'm pregnant already. And I mean EVERYONE. Every. single. one. Don't they know it's added pressure?!?! LOL! I might as well have it stamped on my forehead: "No, I'm not pregnant!" Sheesh! My egg cells are getting stressed out about it. Oh, but we are trying. I don't really want to pressure myself, but I'm really praying that we get pregnant soon. I soooo want a little S!!! Anyhoo, if it comes, it comes, right? Right. Shush, my darling egg cells, shush...

Moving on to digiscrap stuff, I was checking my mails earlier and I got a bit (an understatement!) frustrated. I receive a lot of newsletters and updates on digiscrapping, and it irks me that I see sooooo many beautiful kits that I can't buy. See, most sites only accept Paypal as their payment method, and the Philippines is not in the list of countries that is allowed on paypal. Damn. I don't know who to blame, and I want someone to blame. LOL! It's sooooo fucking frustrating!!! Arrrgh!!! Thank God for scrapbook-elements and digital freebies! At least they accept credit cards, and they have wonderful designers on their list.

Oh, I just downloaded The Font Thing (TFT) a few days ago, and now I don't know how I lived without it. LOL!!! My puter has been acting up lately, being very slow and all, and I was reading some old threads at the forums over at RAKScraps. So I only just realized that loading or installing all your fonts slows down your puter! Umm, okay, so I had like about a thousand fonts installed. hehehe! It was a lightbulb moment there (ting!), so I uninstalled all fonts except the Windows XP defaults, and it worked like a charm! My puter is much faster and so now I can download even more fonts! LOL!!! So cool!!! I give TFT my two thumbs up! I'd even give it three, if I could!

I think I'm gonna hit the sack early tonight. I've been breaking out, and I feel that I look terrible. Not good. Besides, my egg cells could use the extra hours of beauty sleep. LOL!!!

ok, so i made some more...

2005-10-09T21:10:00.000+08:00

I just couldn't help myself. So these are samples 5 and 6 now.

I tried to mix and match this time, and I took out the denim stuff just in case they feel it's not "good for the baby". LOL!

Credits:
Invite #5: bg paper from Ashely Olson's signature collection at Modscraps; polka dot ribbon by Nancie Rowe Janitz at ScrapArtist; button, daisy (recolored), lace from Ronna Penner's All Girl kit at Scrapbook-Elements; baby blocks alpha by Ronnie McCray; font: Kids
Invite #6: Ronna Penner's All Girl kit at Scrapbook-Elements; stitched quilt alpha from TLC Janna's Baby Girl kit at SBB

where can i buy more time?

2005-10-09T18:42:00.000+08:00

I've been such a lazy pig this weekend. Come to think of it, every weekend really. LOL!!! My body got so used to sleeping till noon during my vacation, and now that I'm back to work, I don't think it's fully recovered. I'm also not used to not being able to digiscrap every night. I guess I spoiled myself during my vacation, and now I have a serious case of digiscrapping withdrawal syndrome. LOL! To make matters worse, Tracy (my2boys) just came out with October's element challenge and an impromptu challenge for the admin team at RAKScraps, and Tania's color challenge for October is out too. I sooo want to do those challenges, but oh, where do I find the time!? *sigh*

I got a bit done today though. See, the sister of a friend has asked me to make birthday invites for her daughter's first birthday. Was quite pleased to be asked, really. Tickled pink, actually. LOL! I tried to start on it yesterday, but I don't know. I couldn't seem to get the creative side of my brain to work. I managed to make only one layout using Shabby Princess' Shabby Tea Party kit, but when I showed it to Mr. S, he just gave me a shrug and an ok. Crap. I thought I was in for another dry spell, but thanks to Ronna Penner, the juices are flowing.

I got Ronna's All Girl kit from Scrapbook-Elements, and it's such a pretty pretty kit. As soon as I downloaded it, I got to work immediately and produced 3 more samples. Since I didn't personally know these people that I'm making the invites for, I figure I just make several and let them choose what they like. I also showed them to Mr. S and it got me a nod of approval.

Here are the 4 samples I've made. If you notice some open spaces, I really left them there for the details of the birthday party. So what do you think?

Personally, I like the second invite. And isn't she such a cutesy patootsie???

On the homefront, my dear husband surprised me yet again last Friday night. I had just gotten home from work, and when I came in our room, I saw that he was chatting (YM) with some of his friends, and in one of his IE windows, he had my gallery at RAKScraps open. I was surprised, and so I asked him why my gallery was open. And my dear darling husband says "I showed my friends your work." Wow. I was floored. I was flabbergasted. I must've floated my way out of our room! LOL! In retrospect, I'm surprised he even knows the link to my gallery. And once again, I am reminded about why I married this wonderful man.

Ok, so it's back to digiscrapping for me. Hope your weekend is good!

Credits:
Invite #1: Shabby Princess' Shabby Tea Party kit; lace doily from Kirsten Smit's Ladies and Gentlemen kit; jeweled charm by Michelle Coleman at Second Mile Design
Invite #2: Ronna Penner's All Girl kit at Scrapbook-Elements; font: BoyzRGross
Invite #3: Ronna Penner's All Girl kit at Scrapbook-Elements; fonts: 2peas Platform Shoes, Carpenter, XBand Rough
Invite #4: Ronna Penner's All Girl kit at Scrapbook-Elements; stitched quilt alphas from TLC Janna's Baby Girl kit at SBB

sneaky post

2005-10-07T16:21:00.000+08:00

I am so sleepy. Ok, so I'm at the office right now and I just can't get myself to work. I know I have tons to do, but my brain just refuses to cooperate. Seems like it's already gotten a head start on its weekend without letting my body know, so now I'm stuck.

I can't wait to get home tonight and digiscrap. LOL! I haven't had much time to scrap the entire week, and it's frustrating me. I get home from work at about 8pm, have dinner, then I only have enough time to check my mails, browse the gallery at RAKScraps, leave some comments on the layouts, check the forums, and download stuff. Hmmm, writing that all down, I seem to do A LOT! haha! But given all that, there's just no time to sit down, let my creative juices flow, and actually create a layout.

Oh, but I did manage to make this last night.

It was Tania's (lunafaerie) birthday yesterday, and I wanted to make something for her. I loved how it turned out, despite the absence of a photo. This kit (Persimmon) by Amanda Lacey at The DigiChick is so great. I love the colors and the patterns!

Oops. My boss is on the other line. Be right back...

Ok, I'm back. And still in no mood to work.

Wednesday night, I met up with some ex-w@wies/blog friends for dinner. I was with Pebbles and Mike, Abie, Clarice, Mai and Erica, and Len. It was Mai's farewell dinner before she leaves for Sanfo tomorrow.

It is such fun getting together with these ladies!!! We were just laughing the entire night (ok, and gossiping!), and we didn't even realize how late it already was. We were the only ones left in the resto, and we were being very noisy, I think. LOL! And Mai loved the layout that I gave her!!!

Anyhoo, I gotta get back to work. I'm being all sneaky here, so I'll just finish this post when I get home. LOL!

Credits:
Persimmon Kit by Amanda Lacey at The DigiChick
Fonts: Heartland Regular, Century Gothic
Program used: Photoshop CS2
Created: 10.06.05

wowza!!!

2005-10-04T22:53:00.000+08:00

Ok, I got a major toot today! My morning was off to a bad start. My alarm clock didn't wake me up (like it's the alarm clock's fault...) and I was going to be late for work.

So I was cursing my way from our bedroom to the bathroom, when I decided to check my emails. Yes, I know I was running late and what the hell was I thinking checking my emails, right? Well I just did, ok? hehe! Anyhoo, I saw that I had a private message in RAKScraps from ChristineS. So I decided to head on over to RAKS and check what it was. Ok, again, what the hell was I thinking?! But boy, am I glad I did!!! All of a sudden, the day took a 180 degree turn for the better.

Well, ChristineS just told me that I was the Digi Pick of the Day! WOWZA!!!

Check THIS out!

My layout actually got featured by MelissaG! Sooooo cool!!! That's why I've been wearing this goofy grin the whole day. hahaha!!!

No new layouts so far, guys. Work has been keeping me busy, and I hardly have time when I get home. I'm too pooped to even try.

Oh, but hey! I couldn't resist making a new Halloween avatar. I decided to shake off the cobwebs and put on my Mrs. S(hrek) outfit. Too funny!!! There's an October avatar challenge over at RAKScraps, and the avis have been sooo hilarious! RAKS is such a fun place to hang out. Everyone is so wacky and zany!

Ok, so I'm off to bed. Hope your week has been off to a great start, guys!

for Mai

2005-10-02T21:24:00.000+08:00

After a two week hiatus from work, it's back to the grind for me beginning tomorrow. Back to the 10-12 hour workdays. That means less layouts for me. Crap.

Anyhoo, I'm meeting some friends for a farewell dinner on Wednesday. Mai is finally off to Sanfo to be with her hubby. *sigh* Love. Ain't it grand? I wanted to give her something before she left, and tadaaaaa!!!

Isn't it a beauty? Extremely proud of this one. Obviously, it's another Niecey-inspired layout. I swiped the photos from Mai's online wedding album, and I had such a difficult time choosing as there were so many beautiful shots to choose from! I can have this printed tomorrow, and ready to be handed over to Mai by Wednesday night.

Credits:
Au Natural page set by Denise Docherty at digitalamour
Photos taken by Pilar Tuason
Program used: Photoshop CS2
Created: 10.02.05

a digi-blog....a whatta what?!

2005-10-02T00:17:00.000+08:00

Well, it's a welcome-back-to-the-world-of-blogging for me. I've had 2 blogs in the past. One was pre-wedding related, the second was post-wedding related. This? Hmmm. The third, obviously. And I don't expect to write much here. Maybe a few bits once in a while when I'm feeling particularly chatty. For those of you who have read my previous blogs, you probably think that may happen quite often. teehee! But with this setup, I don't feel the pressure to be chatty, ya know?

So why a third blog then? Well, I've recently taken up a new hobby which is digital scrapbooking. I just started last June 2005, and it has totally taken over my life. Ok, so not really totally taken over, but you get my point. Any free time I have is spent digiscrapping. I now browse through magazines and greedily look at the ads, hoping to find inspiration for my next layouts. I now gorge on photos and see every moment as a possible scrapbook moment. Ok ok, so yes, it has totally taken over my life. Together with the hubby, of course. I'm just glad that he is very supportive of this new "addiction", and in fact, he got me upgraded from Photoshop 7 to CS2. What a sweet patootie! Oh, and didja notice my blog banner? hehe! Too cute!!!

So anyhoo, to celebrate the grand opening of my "digi-blog" (well that was clever!), here's the latest layout that I did. You can click on the picture for a bigger...umm...picture. I'm such an Einstein eh?

I'm quite proud of this one, and it's quite different from my usual style. Whereas my layouts would usually have clean lines, this style is inspired by the works of Niecey (Denise Docherty). I have always admired her digital designs and have always wanted to try my hand at her style. You can check out her works here. So this is my somewhat lame attempt. LOL! But I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. The sweet little girl is my niece, Chloe, by the way. She looked so pensive in this photo so I thought a Niecey-inspired layout would be perfect.

So...that's it. Enough chitty-chat. You can also check out my older layouts in my digiscrap album. Link is on the sidebar.

Credits:
Au Natural by Denise Docherty at digitalamour
Fonts: Jefferson, Century Gothic
Program used: Photoshop CS2
Created: 09.30.05