A Diorama and A List

December 8 - DIORAMA

One of the holiday traditions I look forward to when my sister and I were still little girls is the annual visit to C.O.D. department store in the heart of Manila. I remember a lot of people, young and old from near and far would travel to see the life-size-automated-musical-Christmas decorations built at the entire facade of the building. My Papa and Mama would bring us there at night time to better appreciate the lights and colors. I can't forget how beautiful they were and we would talk about it for days!

I can't find anything like that from our neck of the woods here in Canada but there is the annual Christmas Diorama at the Bay Shopping Mall in downtown Toronto that my hubby and I visit every year. It's not the same, but still magical anyway....

December 9 - LIST

It's the 9th of december already and I have not done any shopping yet! With so many year-end reports and presenations to finish plus the left and right dinner invitations, choir practices and personal errands, time is not my friend lately.

I manage to finish one thing though.... made the LIST and checking it twice....

I used a small craft bag for my journal and date page.

The colorful gift cards are sort of reminders where to get the gifst I want to give so I used these cards I got from shopping malls from previous year.

Hope to get shopping done pretty soon!

A scarf, random scenes and the plans

December 5 - SCARF

What a chill day! There's nothing beats a warm and soft scarf on a cold night like today....

December 6 - RANDOM

We make it a point to put up our Christmas tree a week after Thanksgiving {here in Canada, Thanksgiving falls on a second Monday of October} and keep on adding Christmas decor up until few days before Christmas. We add small things around the house that hold memories or stories from the time the tree is up until the big day....

December 7 - PLANS

I had some down time today and took the opportunity to plan the food, the drinks and the decor for our Christmas Midnight celebration which is known as NOCHE BUENA in the Philippines....

Since my hubby doesn't eat turkey, we're planning to have beef and ham as main course, Italian wine for drinks and dress up the dinner table in chocolate and white decor....

I hope you are having a great day!

A wish, a party, a blessing and some quiet time

Project "December Daily" has officially begun here in my little studio. I'm quite excited as a newbie on this very popular holiday tradion started by Ali Edwards.

December Daily documents the 25 days leading to Christmas Day. Personally, I look at it as a "my captured moment" - a time to cherish at least one event each day that can be easily forgotten in the midst of our busier than usual schedule as we eagerly await for the birth of our Lord and Savior!

The tale begins...

December 1 - WISH

Still sick and stayed in bed practically the whole day. While nursing a bad cold, I wrote

my one wish for Christmas... I wish I can embrace my dad one more time.

I miss him so much...

December 2 - PARTY

Our marketing department had a our Christmas lunch today at Canyon Creek.

It's a nice break for everyone to have glass of wine {in the middle of the day :-)}

as most of us are busy preparing for our coming off-shore

sales and marketing meeting...

December 3 - A BLESSING

Every time I count my blessings, my good friend Tracey is always on my list.

My hubby and I had early Christmas dinner with her and her family

along with some friends today.

Food, laughter, songs, stories, friendship.

Until next time Trace...

December 4 - QUIET TIME

A breather... a reflection... a time to be still...

for in silence I hear what my God is telling me...

Nature's Apple Coolers

When mother nature decided to make her own version of apple coolers,

this is what she has in mind...





The snow didn't last long {not yet anyway},

just long enough for me to capture the moment!

December Daily 2011 {foundation pages}

I gave in!

After "stalking" Ali Edward's December Daily for the last couple of years, I decided to take this project head on!!!

I don't have one of those 25-day-kit from Studio Calico but I guess I have enough materials from my stash to work on the foundation pages while I'm home nursing a fever.



To serve as my "GPS", I wrote down all our confirmed activities for the month which I expect to be the highlight of these noted dates.



and here's peek of my foundation pages....





















The 25 days of collecting memories leading to Christmas start tomorrow.
Can't wait to make this album come to life.

Toast ... Orange Juice ... Snow

I stayed home today coughing so badly in between on and off low grade fever...

no appetite but this combination somehow made me feel better...



then I saw this from my bedroom window...



it went on for two hours and left a lovely landscape...



welcome back my "flurry" friends!

Christmas is in the Air

Just Us Girls is hosting a challenge to create a set of cards with matching

packaging. Incidentally, I made 5 Christmas cards last Sunday

with one rule in mind: clean and simple.











The packaging is just a simple clear plastic embellished with

green paper and red ribbon to match the overall color scheme of the card set.



Enjoy the rest of your work week!

I have a full week ahead but I hope to squeeze in a couple of ours each day

to finish all my crafting to do list.

A Gift

It didn't take me so long to get used to making cards again after more than a year

of "craftless" nights.

As soon as I opened my ink pads, took the stamps

from their cases, and smelled the comforting scent of cardstock,

creative juices started flowing and before I knew it,

I finished 6 different designs from six-thirty to eight this morning!

I ran out of time to take photos of the cards though.

Sunday is usually reserved for church choir, a lunch date with hubby

and cooking meals good for one week

{yeah, you read it right - with our busy

schedules at work, we will end up buying take outs

every single day if we don't do the cooking on Sundays}

Anyway, back to the cards ... it felt so good to be

stamping again.

After I finished all of them,

I tied a ribbon to the stack of cards as if they are precious

gifts.



Well, they are!

A gift for me from me for finding my way back

"home"....

.... it is so nice to be back!

The Calm Before the "Storm"

I just finished sketching the designs of the Christmas cards and tags

I will start working on

tomorrow.

Before I get to stamp, cut, trim, emboss, and make a "creative" mess

on my two desks,

I want to capture the the serenity of my room.




Papers and and tools will be scattered here and

there in a few more hours.

Who cares, that's why it is called

"studio"

{defined as a room where you can make a mess and get paid}!

Blessings and Thanksgiving

Give thanks with a grateful heart for

the showers of blessings we receive day after day!

Happy Thanksgiving to all our families and friends in America ....

{inspired by one of Dawn McVey's great designs}

Jane's Not So Secret Garden

Just want to share a couple of miniature gardens decorated by my

sister....

.... aren't they gorgeous?

Can't wait to do some projects with her as soon as I'm back in

Manila!

From the Tree to Afternoon Tea

Last weekend my hubby "harvested" the last batch of apples from our grafted-dwarf-apple tree in the backyard that gave us more than three dozens of juicy and plump red and green varieties {yes, all in one tree, how cool is that}!

As much as we enjoy eating the apples raw and crunchy, it was so hard to resist not to mix it with flour, eggs, butter, brown sugar and milk to make an apple turnover cake.



With a cup of freshly brewed tea, we had an instant afternoon tea delight!

I am BACK!

When I accepted a new job a year and a half ago, I knew there will be changes in my priorities. I knew that some of the things I love like blogging and crafting will take a back seat just for a while. But weeks turned into months.

Before I knew it, months turned into a whole year of work, travel, church choir and wife duties {yes, most of the time in that order, thank God I am blessed with a very supportive hubby}!

Good thing is, I truly enjoy my day job. I feel I have accomplished a lot in a span of 16 months. The traveling, although so tiring at times, is necessary and effective tool to be more efficient in my job.

However, a recent life-changing event made me realize life is too short to totally neglect "other" things that bring so much happiness and fulfillment in my life. If I want to do it all, I just to make time for these things.

A little bit of sacrifice here and a bit of reward there, I can be ME again - wife, marketer, "crafter", daughter, choir alto, sister, blogger and more in between! The order will change on a regular basis but always complete.

God is good ... all the time!