(Originally titled, “Hold on to your (childhood) dreams,” but I realized the title was too, uh, mushy. And you know how much I hate mush. Lol.)

That part when Carl Fredricksen was flipping through the pages of his wife Ellie’s Adventure Book (right when he finally reached the Paradise Falls) — that part did it for me. For the first time, Carl found out that the empty pages he thought Ellie was reserving for the “stuff she’s (I’m) going to do” when she reached the ultimate destination of her childhood dreams, she was actually filling with photos of their life together.

That was my aww-moment, the one part in the movie that brought tears to my eyes, the scene that made me look into my life and ponder on my dreams and wonder what the pages of my book would look like when that time of my life came by.

I have a soft spot for anything that brings forth thoughts about dreams and destinations. Now give me a Disney/Pixar animation made up of dreams, places, photographs, balloons, talking dogs, and *cough* a shy little boy who fell in love with a bossy little girl (Ellie: “You don’t talk very much. I like you!“) *cough*, and I’m all there.

There’s much to say about the movie and its characters, but for this post I shall focus on Carl, the old man who hooked his house to strings of balloons. I see a great deal of myself in his character, save for his being autistic and introverted (shut up, I’m not autistic and introverted). His perseverance and stubbornness are so familiar that I feel like I’m the 26-year-old female version of him. Actually, consider yourself lucky if you’ve read that last sentence because I’m usually too stubborn to admit that I am, uh, stubborn.

So you know the story, because I’m sure you’ve seen it already. (No, wait, you haven’t seen it? Go away, you wouldn’t want to read the next sentence.) When Ellie passed away, Carl did everything in his power to make their childhood dreams come true, and went all that way to Paradise Falls only to realize that they, in fact, for so many years, were already living their dreams.

Sometimes we have to reach that one destination to appreciate that the journey was the true realization of our dreams.

I reckon that’s the beauty of chasing after your dreams (*ehem* self-plug). Sure, you need to focus on the goal (”begin with end in mind,” my Dad would often quote), work hard for it, take the plunge if you must. But you also have to keep your eyes open because surely, something amazing (like, I dunno, meeting a little boy scout who’s as stubborn as you are, or discovering a colorful Ostrich-like bird who loves chocolates, or finding the love of your life) is bound to surprise you along the way and change your life forever.

You gotta learn a thing or two from cartoons, you know.

Watch Up, if you haven’t yet. The talking dogs will blow you away. ;)

DAY THIRTYONE. Lol. Just testing. I’m not counting days anymore now. :)

Anyway, let’s do some visual blogging again, because I’m drained of words after a long day of working and talking to people. How timely it is that my random bloghop to one of my favorite blogs surprised me with something that doesn’t need a lot of words ;)

Why hello, Leslie did it again! I’m constantly amazed how she would come up with this play of colors! I feel like I want to live in her photographs! Just recently, I also posted some of her purples and blues. Today, she went for pinks, melons and peaches.

(more…)

DAY THIRTY. One last, before I call it a day, for closure’s sake. :)

There was a time in my life when I preferred separating images from words. I didn’t like putting images in my blogs and would rather keep them in one place (like, in flickr or multiply), something akin to how Sam (character played by Sean Pen in the movie I Am Sam) wanted the lima beans on his plate separated from the corn because he didn’t like seeing green and yellow together. I never really got around to understanding my autistic tendencies, ugh, but I’m just glad I’m over that stage.

Now, I feel like there’s something wrong if I blogged something without a photo in it. I love the idea of combining these two powerful art forms together to convey a message. (Someday, my message, and my art, will have more depth, just you wait!)

I thought it was nice to look back to the past month through these photographs. I mean, come on, who’s crazy enough to look back by reading through all 33 posts from that day up to now? I’m just so glad there are photos to look back to — after all, they speak in a way that no words can do (and in less amount of time as well).

So.. I think that’s it. My 30 awesome days, over and done with. I know it’s a cheesy thing to say, but to be honest, this past month has really changed me in more ways than one (uhm) six.

What’s up for me after this? Well, for one, I will continue blogging. Maybe you’ll see my pessimistic self resurfacing once again now that I’m not obligated to write about life’s awesomeness anymore, lol. And then I’d rant about my failures again (yay, I can’t wait, lol). But at least now I know better than to hit publish without realizing the silverlinings first. If only for that simple reminder — to see beauty and joy in the most everyday of places, and in the most random of things — I think the past 30 days was worth it, indeed.

Thank you, one and all, for keeping up with me.

Stay awesome. :)

Xoxo, Riz

30 Days of Awesome, 30/30.

..in 2 minutes! Yay. *panic*

Here’s how the concept of this online boutique came about, because I don’t actually have time to explain right now, LOL. :) Lesson learned: Check your schedule first before setting a major site launch. Waah, I should be somewhere right about now, and I scheduled THIS NIGHT OF ALL NIGHTS to launch my shop!!

Just a quickie, it’s raining pearl earrings in my side of the world, so tonight, to launch TheDreamerie.Com, I’ll be giving away pearl earrings over there too!

These pearl earrings are slightly smaller than the ones I gave away just recently. :)

Btw, to the girls who are supposed to receive those earrings, I’m reallyy sorry for the delay. I scheduled a trip to the post office (because I was hoping to cut costs on shipping, hehe) instead of sending them over through A21 or Fedex, but my schedule got screwed up and was not able to go so the earrings are still with me. They will all be sent before this week ends, though. Promise. :)

So, okay, if you’re into thrifting and vintage items, fly by TheDreamerie. Meanwhile, I have to ruuuun.

DAY TWENTYNINE. Remember how it was like in high school, just before graduation day? The seniors, day after their final exams, wouldn’t have classes anymore and would just come to school to rehearse for the graduation ceremony, maybe work on some last remaining requirements, but mostly spend the remaining days of high school hanging out, relaxing, and reminiscing the years that passed.

I know. That’s kinda how I felt the past few days, like graduating. Still two more posts remaining to end this 30 days, and already, I was taking a break and celebrating the end of it. That, or I really just felt like stalling. :P

Okay. Now on with my last two posts.

To say that I learned a lot of things from this little project is an understatement. Now I’m happy to say with conviction that creating a habit and developing some forms of discipline is *really* possible in a span of 30 days.

Here are some musings, which you can also consider as “tips” in case you’d like to embark on this project too.

1. 30 days is just right. There are so many numbers to choose from — 365 days, 52 weeks, 1000 awesome things, 500 days of summer (heh) — but 30 days is, IMO, just enough to be considered an achievement without making you feel obligated at some point. Sure, there were days when you’d feel you wouldn’t be able to make it, and you’d like to just drop everything off.

The first week would be spent feeling your way around. In the second week you would feel a bit of pressure, and maybe some doubts if you really can make it. Third week, you’d start to feel like you can blog with your eyes closed, as if it’s as normal as eating or washing the dishes. And in the fourth week you’d start relaxing a bit, along with feeling sentimental about ending something that somehow changed you for the better.

Overall, 30 days is just right for me. (And for you, too!) IMO, it’s perfect for those people who’ve been keeping their own blogs for years but are only updating them sporadically.
(more…)

Let me interrupt our regular programming to make way for this awesome vintage-inspired wedding I spotted over at HelloLucky’s blog. Ohh this needs no words. For the next couple of (uhm) scrolldowns, you’ll be seeing some of Hollin and Eric’s wedding photos that sent off my vintage radar full blast. I think I’m gonna dream of laces, funky vintage bridal gowns, gramophones, and floral-printed neckties tonight.

On another note, Hello Lucky’s got some of the best vintage-inspired greeting cards and wedding ideas I’ve ever seen anywhere. We may all have gotten used to digital but letterpress is back, and it sure is the way to go baby! But okay, this deserves a separate post for another time, methinks. Ta-ta! :)

30 Days of Awesome, 28+/30.

Long rant. Sorry. Didn’t mean to.

DAY TWENTYEIGHT. Confession: I had nightmares of real-life friends committing suicide during the few weeks that I was reading Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Virgin Suicides. No drama, just them doing their normal day-to-day activities with slashed #wrists. It wasn’t really creepy, mind you, it was more of funny really, but still weird.

This morning, on my desk

I’m not saying that The Virgin Suicides was so disturbing it brought me nightmares, nope. I reckon it’s really just how it is with books. Compared to watching films, reading books allows you to imagine the story yourself and create your own pictures in your head, and it just so happened that my imaginations involved my real life friends. Er.

Now movie-fying a novel is something else. Sometimes, we really have to stop comparing a book to its movie version (and vice versa) if we don’t want to disappoint ourselves.

Exhibit A: I remember reading Nicholas Sparks’ A Walk To Remember long before there were news of a film version. My high school self cried over the pages of Jamie Sullivan’s life, and I remember it well because I didn’t read a lot in high school (save for the Sweet Valley High and Love Stories phase we all had to go through) and AWTR was the first book I ever really shed tears over. The only other book I couldn’t put down in high school was Catcher in the Rye, but that’s a different story. Watching AWTR’s movie version was a disappointment, I remember clearly, because I kept comparing it to the book, and I didn’t like how the movie ended with Jamie’s death. To me, the book had a create-your-own-ending thing going on, and in my ending, Jamie survived cancer and lived a full life with Landon. In the movie, she died.

Exhibit B: It’s just like how I didn’t enjoy watching Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince the first time around. I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy these movies. It’s just that comparisons between the book and the movie are inevitable and they can make or break the movie altogether.

Now there are movies, on the other hand, that are better than their book version.
(more…)