Chasing Dreams

I’m very brand-loyal. When I found the right brand of pen, you bet that’s the only brand you’d ever see me buy. Same goes with cosmetics. And laptops. And journals.

Picking up my first Peter Pauper Press journal was random. I got the first blue floral-printed journal that caught my attention from a pile of stuff at a FullyBooked counter at the start of 2011. Since then, I never bought any other brand of notebook other than PPP.

I had a total of 7 journals last year, including the one I’m writing on right now. Allow me to share photos of them because they’re just too photogenic! And they’re actually prettier in real life than the ones you see on their product catalog!

It’s difficult finding them here in Manila, so when I was in New York, I hoarded a couple of pieces from Barnes and Noble. Later on I learned that if you looked hard enough, you’d find them at some National Bookstore, Power Books and Fully Booked branches. I love them so much I started buying them not just for myself but to give to some friends as well.

To make it sweeter, I’ve so far made sure I didn’t get the same design twice. (Hover over the photos to see the captions.)

Their paper is usually plain white and finely-ruled, but once in a while you get yourself a little surprise. Some of these notebooks come with dainty little prints like these:

Cute no?

I’ve made myself visible online all these years, blogging, twitting, posting here and there; but nothing still compares to writing things down old school way—paper, ink, and heart. My journals are the keeper of my most honest thoughts and musings, my most daring prayers, and even my dried-up tears on its pages.

I love the thought that long after my blog sites are abandoned, my eyesight too blurry to see the computer screen, and my hand too shaky to type on a computer keyboard, I still have trinkets of my life preserved in a box-full of journals, which, hopefully, I’d get to hand down to my kids.

My friend Olivia and I were just talking over YM about how frequent we’ve been receiving wedding invitations from friends these days, and how many people our age are, at this point, settling down and starting their own families  — another obvious indication that we, indeed, are coming of age.

While I don’t have any plans of tying the knot just yet (and this post has got nothing to do with getting married), I admit that I like browsing through wedding blogs lately because let’s face it, weddings (excluding all the marital shenanigans that come after the wedding) — the color motifs, the photographs, the flowers, laces, and ribbons, the diamonds, the giveaways, the letterpress-ed invitations — are just so pleasurable to look at.

Check out these two unique wedding invitations that caught my attention while weddingblog-hopping. Promise me you’ll read ALL OF IT.

Hannah and Lee’s Save-the-Date (Source: A Day in May):

“Confused, she opens it to read, ‘Will You Marry Me?’. Lee is on one knee. She says yes.”

And Jill and Matt’s Wedding Invite (Source: Share Some Candy):

“(Dinner and dancing and eternity to follow)”

I’m really digging the vintage-inspired wedding effect (okay, okay, I’m digging vintage, period). I find letterpressed invitations with layouts that look like they’re from some advertisement from the 70s so chic and classy. But vintage aside, I like wedding invitations that tell a story. There’s got to be more to a wedding invite than date, time, venue, map, and seat numbers, right?

Lastly, I’m not saying go and be inspired to get married. I’m saying, go and be inspired to do something out of ordinary. ;)

x o x

UPDATE: Inspired by these two wedding invitations I posted 2 years ago, I made one for my own wedding last August. And here it is:

Our friends loved it! Meh. I’ve been waiting for my chance to do that. (:

This caught my attention big time. (Feel free to think that it’s my vintage radar at work.)

Entertainment Weekly’s July 17 Issue’s cover story featured Harry Potter’s Cast in yummy vintage get-up. At the risk of sounding sentimental, I feel like I grew up with these guys *sniff*. I’m sure you, like me, still associate Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley and Ginny Weasley to their younger versions from way back Sorcerer’s Stone. It’s interesting to see how the adorable little Hermione grew up to be kindof hawt. *girlcrush*

Here’s what’s inside the EW’s July issue, I’m glad someone took time to scan the pages.

Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Daniel Radcliffe, & Bonnie Wright

Emma Watson is looove <3

Some interesting trivia about these people:

• Rupert Grint missed a couple of days filming The Half Blood Prince because he was infected with H1N1 (swine flu). Sounds familiar, hmm.
• Emma Watson is doing a Natalie Portman and going to Columbia University to study English Literature. Beauty and brains. I think I’m in love.
• Bonnie Wright is going to film school after Harry Potter.
• Daniel Radcliffe is only 5’6 tall. In the movie, take note how shorter he is beside Rupert. Verrry noticeable, indeed.

Tonight is the second time I’m going to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. My thoughts about it, to follow.