It’s our first Christmas as husband and wife, and I love that we get to start our own Christmas traditions. Last year, I had some instax photographs up on my Christmas tree, and this year, we thought we’d do the same. We picked some of our favorite photographs from the wedding and the honeymoon and printed them out with our Polaroid Pogo. It’s a cute little project, something we hope we can keep on doing for years to come.

On another note, I know it has been a challenge for our country to celebrate Christmas this year when Cagayan de Oro and Iligan City are still under the state of calamity. We don’t have a television at home, and quite honestly, my husband and I have only seen and heard so much. I know we’ll never really have a clear picture of what’s happening out there, but our family feels somehow involved. My eldest brother is there since last week; as part of his job, he’s with the ABS-CBN Engineering Crew which covers the relief operations there. It’s our first Christmas Day without him, probably even New Year too. Ergo, we had to let go of certain Christmas traditions this year to make way for my brother to be where he’s needed more.

I look at Ate Imy (my sister-in-law) and Isaac and I imagine how difficult it must be for them to celebrate Christmas without Kuya. But then I think about the thousands of families in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan who lost their loved ones and friends over the flash flood, and how devastating Christmas and New Year must be like for them. As I stare at our Christmas tree here at home, my heart goes out to the victims of Sendong who lost their homes and didn’t get the chance to put up their trees this year. At the time of this writing, the death toll has reached about 1,500. This is even more tragic than Ondoy.

Suddenly, no personal issues or problems are too big.

It’s easy to question the goodness of God at a time like this, but words from the Bible pop up like bright stars in the dark sky: “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:9) God sees everything in a bigger perspective, and as far as His grand scheme of things is concerned, everything happens for a reason and for our own good. His ways are higher, we only have to be still and know that He is God (Psalm 46:10)—and believe that with all our hearts.

For the rest of us who are not in the center of this tragedy and are watching this from a distance, it’s our chance to help and make a difference. I’m not directly connected with any relief efforts for Sendong, but I think the surest way for our donations to reach Cagayan de Oro and Iligan is through Red Cross. We have 2 more days left before 2011 ends, let’s make it count.

In You’ve Got Mail, when Kathleen Kelly’s book shop was starting to lose sales after Fox Books opened within the block, she confidently shrugged off the concerns of her worried employees and simply said, “They’re new, it’s a novelty. It’ll all shake out. Meanwhile, I’m putting up more twinkle lights.”

I love that scene. I love how Kathleen said that line as if putting up those lights was more important than worrying about her business. We all could use some of that attitude, don’t you think? (:

Last week, I woke up from a quick nap to the sight of this beauty *points to the picture*. We were supposed to do this together, but the husband thought he’d surprise me so he went ahead putting the Christmas lights up while I was sleeping. A word to husbands out there: big or small gestures like this are very much appreciated. Never get tired surprising your wives with kindness, rest assured, your act of love will be returned tenfolds. ♥

x o x o

Here’s some linkworthy stuff to start the week:

+ Interesting thoughts on making disciples by Laura Hamilton. I agree with her, Christianity does involve a bold, unashamed declaration of faith, rather than a quiet commitment you keep to yourself.

+ I cried like a loser, watching this Coca-Cola OFW Project. Good job, Coca-Cola! You make me want to buy boxes of Coke and give them away for Christmas.

+ Alie Edward’s December Daily hybrid journal project makes me wish I have time and skills to do one of my own. Paislee Press and Paper Relics are doing it too. I started scrapbooking (again) lately, I just don’t think I can do it with the same passion and commitment as these ladies here. At least not yet. Maybe someday. (;

+ Pentatonix won the Sing Off last week. I love this video I found in Youtube, a montage of all their performances this season. We still watch them at home until now.

+ I love how Seth Godin’s blogs transcend both business and life. He may be using marketing terms like “products” and “customers” and “services” or may be directly referring to entrepreneurial principles in his posts, but for all we know, he’s actually imparting to us important life lessons on achieving real-life breakthrough one step at a time. Oh, and he’s got some interesting thoughts about Christmas lights, too! This guy thinks about everything! LOL.

+ I’ve been thinking about this SEO and Online Marketing industry I happened to have been exposed to for the past 6-7 years, and I thought, even though I don’t really see myself doing this forever, perhaps I shouldn’t give up on it just yet.

+ Lastly, you might want to help Wikipedia, since, you know, we’ve all somehow benefited from it at one point or another.

Here’s to starting, and ending, the week right! (:

Last night, we put up the Christmas tree at home. We started putting up Christmas lights at the veranda, too, last week, getting the place ready for some Christmas parties and get-togethers. It’s our first ever Christmas together since we met 12 years ago, and I’m kinda giddy about celebrating it with him! I used to think that Christmas is the saddest of all holidays (I had my share of depressing blog posts, IKR), but this year is bound to be so much different from all the other Christmasses we’ve had apart. Sweeter, and happier, for sure.

So I had my brother deliver to me the old tree I’ve had since 2009. We deliberated on buying a bigger tree this year, but we thought we’d save the money for a much-needed, much-awaited Christmas present we want to give ourselves instead. Besides, this little Christmas tree is perfect for our little home, for now. The idea of using Instax photographs as ornaments came about last year, and we thought we’d do it again this year.

This could be the start of our very own Christmas tree tradition or something, putting up photos on the tree like a timeline, representing milestones and beautiful memories of the year that was. I’m all for traditions these days, especially now that I’m starting new ones with Bud.

I’m excited to post more photos, for some reason. I think Christmas looks really pretty in photographs because of the Christmas lights. (:

And so our fairy tale wedding was over. It’s going to be the quickest day of your life, one of our Ninongs said. And he was right. We said goodbye to single life, boxed up my gown and his coat, went off to a quiet honeymoon just within the city (we reserved the out-of-town getaway for later), and the spotlight started moving slowly away from us, leaving us in our own little world.

Coming back from our honeymoon, we spent the rest of the week moving into our humble apartment, which soon became our very first home. Home. I just love the sound of that. 

Moving in is actually not a new thing for me. I’ve been apartment-hopping for years and I’ve had this love-hate relationship with packing and unpacking for as long as I can remember. But this time.. this time, it’s different. This time, I have someone carrying and unpacking boxes with me. This time, I’m not alone anymore.

Blue. Lots of blue. But of course we had to take our wedding motif home. (:

I absolutely enjoyed this time of our life together—cleaning up, unpacking our stuff, shopping at home depots, moving furniture around, making our own house rules, and seeing everything come together and fall into place. It’s a tedious task, but seeing the result of our hardwork was truly worth it all.

Now, coming home and spending time at home are my favorite times of day. Although our apartment was trespassed a few weeks ago and our most priced material possessions were stolen, nothing could take away the warmth and the love that our home is made of. The fact remains true, that God did not only bless us with a beautiful wedding, He also blessed us with a beautiful home. (:

So.. before I give in to the temptation of ending this with “and they lived happily ever after” (No? Too late?), allow me to sign this project off by sending some link love to our awesome wedding suppliers:

• Catering, theme styling, flowers: Josiah’s Catering
• Wedding rings: Matus Jewellery
• Videography: Marvin Barbarona - Check out our beautiful SDE video here ;)
• Photography: Ed Roderick Canuto of Exquisite Photography; Shiela & Jorem Catilo; Arthur Trinidad; and special thanks to our brothers Nathanael Sanchez & Jonathan Canuto for their own, unofficial coverage.
• Wedding cake: The Treatbox
• Wedding invites and souvenirs: DIY

30-day Challenge, Round 2, over and out! (:

1. Last week, we took in 3 stray cats off our street. They were just too small and we couldn’t bear the thought of leaving them as we were passing through Thursday morning. They’re about 4 weeks old, we learned, thanks to Google. We feed them milk using medicine droppers and keep them in a shoebox.

I can’t remember ever wanting cats my whole life but so far, the experience has made me know David’s soft side a little bit more. Oh you should see how serious he is taking care of them! I tell him he’s becoming emotionally attached (and how adorable I think that is), which, of course, he denies.

2. My husband and I led Praise & Worship in church today. Standing up there together to lead a congregation of worshippers is a real joy (and an answered prayer), I still can’t get over how blessed I am.

3. Later in the evening, we opened our doors to a bunch of hungry friends from church and had an awesome time eating, and watching a cheesy tagalog film, and just hanging out. They brought some Chooks-to-go, I cooked tuna sisig, David played host.

As the day ended, I sat on the couch with my husband and we talked about how we spent the whole day extending ourselves to others and what a blessing it had been to us. “I’m so glad I married you,” he whispered. And I need not say it then but I know he knows that’s exactly what I feel too.

True enough, the twinkling lights, fake poinsettias, and instax photographs made a whole lot of difference to my mood. I took the old Christmas tree from out of its box, and put up the embellishments in less than an hour. Instant pick-me-upper! :)

Notice the difference from last year’s Christmas tree? :) Here’s something you can do with your instax this Christmas!

Photo dump:

The sight of the twinkling lights, and my loved ones, is sooo making me tear up! *sigh*

..like a shoebox of photographs with sepia tone lovin’.

Forgive me for overusing that line from a Jack Johnson song all over my social channels, it’s been playing in my head the whole week, no thanks to you! :P

Anyway, hey hey. I’m alive! I know I said I’d post a blog as soon as I’ve settled back home, but September came and overwhelmed the life out of me, and blogging *here* was the first thing that got pushed down the bottom of my list. Although that doesn’t mean I haven’t been typing my heart away elsewhere, I have! Actually, I have been journalling nonstop, unable to keep my thoughts to myself. Somewhere in Tumblr, in case you’re curious, just because Tumblr strikes me as the social blogging platform where mush and cheese are very much accepted, appreciated even. LOL.

Obligatory explanations out of the way, I’m here to post some photos! To start with, can I just say I’m in looove with my blue walls and the sight of polaroids and instax photos all over my room? <3

I wasn’t sure where to put these polaroids (600). I used to just keep them in a box, but they’re way too pretty to be kept in the dark. So I got this photo holder from Ikea courtesy of my friend Olivia, but I have to screw it on the wall and I still haven’t found time to drill holes, pff. Ergo, I resorted to just putting the photos up with (ta-da!) magic tape, for now. I kinda love how it turned out. :)

Ohh, I just looove this side of my desk. <3

LOL. Isaac was in my room the other day, and I was in the mood to take photos. Haha check out the result of our little pictorial. :)) Mehh, I hope he knows that one Polaroid sheet costs about 250 pesos. That means, this failed photo session just costed me P500! Isaac you are sooo kyot!

And yay more instax on my cork board, too! Can’t get enough of these instant film photographs! (You want? Visit Polaroid Philippines yo!)

One last thing, the guy in the photos? Ask and I shall make kwento. <3

Okay that’s it. Ta! :)

It’s going to be one super busy and stressful week. I still have a lot of packing to do, calls to make, transfers to schedule, bills to settle, loadss of cleaning up, last minute shopping, changing ISP, aghhh. I just want this week over and done with already!

But I’m going to hold on to this picture in my head, my room waiting for me back home. And Mommy’s cooking. And Isaac being in the room just above mine. And being around human beings again! And yayy someone’s coming home soon too! <3 And and annnnnd, September is here can you believe it?!

Dude. Things are sooo looking up. :)

But I’m going to contain my excitement and go through my loooong to-do list now. Be back once I’ve settled back in.

Imagine how I drooled over the 2011 Ikea catalog that came out just recently (Thanks to Mariel for the blog alert!). I have yet to get my hands on the real glossy thing (I’m counting on you, Mae, for my copy!!), but I’m enjoying the online version in the meantime.

I like looking at home office inspirations as I have been working from home for almost 2 years now. I always believe that one’s working environment affects productivity big time, one of the reasons why I rented an apartment with an extra room I can convert to a work space. These are some of the my favorite home office layouts in the Ikea Catalog:

When I discussed with my mother that I’m coming back home, we talked about constructing a home office for me–not a bedroom–thinking that I could just squat in her room. But upon realizing that I have too many clothes and shoes and stuff to fit in her extra closet space and cabinets, we decided that the home office would now double as a bed room with a huge closet that can house all my clutter as well.

I love Ikea’s organized closets, but since we don’t have Ikea here in the Philippines, my Mom and I had a floor-to-ceiling closet custom-made back home that looks pretty much like this:

And of course I already said that I want my walls painted blue, and I want it vibrant/dark blue, not pale (because pale just won’t work with the dusty and polluted Manila air). Also, I want vibrant accent colors everywhere, pretty much like this room right here:

Finally, I love their new collection of blue furniture! I don’t think I ever noticed these blue stuff before!

Why don’t we have Ikea here in the Philippines again?

We do have Five Corners as the next best alternative, they import several Ikea pieces to sell here in Manila, I actually bought a couple of items from them in the past. But nothing still beats the real mall-size Ikea showrooms and warehouses that other countries enjoy. I remember my trips to Sydney, Los Angeles and New York included visits to Ikea, yeah, like a tourist.

We may be in Asia, alright, but why do China and Singapore have Ikea and we don’t??

Someone please explain this injustice to me.