The Tale of Two Wedding Receptions

I'm not talking about the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. This wedding I'm going to talk about happened the day before the Royal Wedding. Read on... 

Since the day Benjo and I got back from our pilgrimage, I haven't completely adjusted to my normal schedule, haven't caught up with the laundry, barely even touched any of my business  and crafting backlogs and... I haven't lost any of the fats I gained after 13 days of eating pasta and drinking wine everyday. I was so frustrated and overwhelmed that I mindlessly just survived each minute taking care of the boys, the home, the life ... never ending chores, parent-teacher meeting, case conferences, and eating some more! Haiyooo!

I was at that emotional and mental state when Cathy my friend, asked me to make some wedding giveaways for our friend Evev and Tito who were to be married in two days! Are you kidding me? Two days ah? I said NO. Partly because I was really not in a good shape and partly because I really didn't have time.  But we all know that even in an hour, if I really wanted to do it, I could just drop surfing my instagram and do it right. hahaha.  That's the advantage if you are that gut-level with a friend. You can say no trusting that they'll understand. And she did. But then I felt guilty afterwards. hihi. 

The next day. Cathy was still very busy with the wedding details. Cakes. Giveaways. She was very active in our group chat following up with the bride about everything. And managed to settle things smoothly with very little help from the self-absorbed, fat, hormonic me. lol.  And then we found out that the cakes and the giveaways were not really needed because THERE IS A CAKE. and THERE ARE GIVEAWAYS..... ALREADY! Hmmmn... what to do with double everything?

I felt for Cathy... I admired her enthusiasm,  touched by the love she has for our friend  and somehow found myself feeling the normal feelings of a true friend ... So I rolled up my sleeves, forgot about the less than 24 hrs timetable,  and proposed a DOUBLE CELEBRATION! The original reception hosted by the organizers and another one which would be a SURPRISE for the bride!










We witnessed a simple, lovely wedding and fantastic  reception  with three other couples and their families and friends which we enjoyed so much ... and then we had an after party at my place. Cathy and I had to prepare all these before we go to the wedding venue. We couldn't have done any of these without our dear husbands' support.


I only had 2 dessert plates so I had to run to the nearest mall to buy four more and buy whatever fresh flowers were available. Happy with what I found!


By the time I was setting this up, I had no idea what food we were gonna serve. I just wanted everything to be pretty and wedding-ish :)


I had to rely on what's in my stash and nothing could make me dance for joy at that moment than finding this gold crepe paper!  And of course, that was a perfect time to bring out those coordinating throw pillows --- one of which I just saw while buying the plates, can you believe I even had time for that?


...simple calligraphy using gold Pentel brush pen




... remember I said no to make the giveaways? I think God made me say no (justify pa more hahaha!) because Cathy found these online and they are adorable! She packed some sweet treats inside and assembled each and every box by hand.




The cake.  Cathy ordered a plain white cake in fondant and I decorated it with fresh flowers. First time to do this, I had to search "how to..." from pinterest :D





... to finish the whole set up, I added our personal gifts for the couple. I hope they like it.



 This is us. Having a mini fine dining over moscato and --- since we didn't have time to cook --- FOOD PANDA! hahaha! It was such a cute party I must say. We started by playing the video montage Cathy made, a prayer and then we didn't plan what to do next but it sure was fun! If you don't zoom in to what we were eating, you wouldn't really know those were onion rings, chicken wings and potato wedges. hahhaha.






You know what they say, "What you do in love is done well"? It's true. I feel that we did well. Look at those smiles! Cheers Tito and Evev! We are very very happy you said "I DO" again. This time in front of God and the church. Love you guys! Bless the Lord for this day! Bless the Lord always!

To Cathy, success Mare! I'm glad I got the chance to turn things around after I said no to you at first. Mwah! Fist bump! Haha! 

It's a decision to love life. Every minute of it.

Today, It was just the boys and me as Daddy went biking at Pulau Ubin and Mae enjoyed a day off. Which means, WORK day for me. Ha.

The day started quite not so nicely because I was waken up by a bad dream, some negative thoughts about Kuya's mood swings lately..  and I smell PMS.  But at 41,  I am becoming so good at loving my life, no matter how hard it is sometimes that what started to be a bad day ended with a bottle of red wine and this blog post.. My day wasn't so bad after all...

I arranged flowers, washed plates, cleaned the house and I loved it. 

I baked. While I finished some backlogs for work. 

I fed the boys. I ate with them. I played with them. I loved it. 

We... I mean, I sorted toys, books, flash cards... and we all loved it. 

Yes, life may be hard at times. But it can still be beautiful, happy, colorful. If you DECIDE it to be! 

Not in the photos: 

Miguel's beat box performance

Miguel preparing Milo for Kuya

Kuya's fascination with his old photos

Wine with hubby

chat w/ team

week 6 planning

my teal manicure hahaha! 

Heavenly Father, you are my life, and to be with you is the fullness of joy and peace and life; in your loving care for me, I am never truly alone. Help me to live in the certainty of your love and presence each new day. - Praying With Saint Luke 

Wrist Corsage in 3 Steps!

You know what I love about these Tattered Pinecone and Jumbo Tattered Pinecone dies from Sizzix? Because I can use it to make not just pinecones but pretty flowers too! 

So I used it to make a wrist corsage for one of my Thoughtful Crafts customer. She wanted silver with any color for accent and I thought it would look prettier to add flowers made of white cardstock and vellum paper. 

I always start my work with a clean surface, with all the materials in mind. I don't necessarily use all of it in the end because I never plan what to do.. I just go with the flow, enjoy the trial and error process. It works for me. So here you can see I have my Bigshot machine, dies, glitter cardstock, lace, adhesive. 

It always starts with cutting my shapes. And you need to layer the 'sandwich' made of Sizzix Cutting Pad + die + material to cut + and the second cutting pad. Roll the sandwich through the machine, and get the perfectly cut die-cuts in seconds! 

Next is to roll the die-cuts to make the flowers. You can find the detailed instructions on how to do this here. 

So pretty! And the silver leaves ... love it!

So these are the wrist corsage in 3 very easy steps: 

1. Die-cut with Sizzix.

2. Roll and assemble the flower and leaves. 

3. Attach to a layer of ribbon and laces, add pearl and stickles!

Done! :) 

By the way, here's an extra story... 

The boys are here at home. All. The. Time. Because it's school holidays until January. It's impossible to concentrate haha. And since I needed to post this blog, I went into hiding in the bedroom while they were playing outside. Guess what happened next... 

They followed me. They just follow me everywhere! LOL. So if I can't run away from them, I better have selfie with them :D

Have a great weekend! - Gen 

Sizzix Sneaks + Chorizo Memories

Good morning! Let's eat :)

I think the reason why I love this food, despite knowing it is really bad and sinful is that it brings back memories. I remember sharing this with my siblings when I was young, the feeling of "wanting more but can't have more" because there were five of us who will share a dozen. My brother, Jong would be so naughty he would hide his share under his rice and let all of us finish ours and when we do, he would take it out and eat it so slowly while we all watch him. Hahaha! 

Now that we are all grown up and have families of our own, I learned to make chorizo (thanks to my highschool classmate Mae Philline for the recipe!) I can have tens of dozens of chorizos anytime I want and can only wish to share it with my siblings whom I miss very much. Life. 

Anyway.. here are some sneak peek photos of my blog post for Sizzix this month.  Go and take a look! :) 

I have a feeling I'll be posting more personal stuff more often from now on :) I miss doing that... See yah!

Yogurt Sponge Cake

I have to stop thinking about iphone 6 plus.  My iphone still works perfectly. In fact I took all these photos with my iphone and I am blogging now, in my iphone. Yeah. I'm convincing myself I don't need it. 

Anyway, I baked this delicious cupcake yesterday and a lot of you are asking for the recipe. 

So here it is. Forgive me for I have no strength to type it here so thanks to my iphone... here's the recipe from my baking book:

I swear it's yummy. My husband loved me more after he ate it. Lol! 

I still want an iphone 6 plus. Heard that Dear Husband? hahaha! 

Hello again!

... that's the collection from Carta Bella I am loving and playing with at the moment. Makes me imagine the things I love.

A relaxed day at home. With not so many fancy stuff but clean and happy with a bit of mess here and there and occasional noise courtesy of K & B. 

Or tea time with a dear friend. 

Or late night movie marathon with Benjo. 

Or just me .... with my craft supplies, my notebook and my favorite pen. 

Journaling: "The older I get, the more I realize that it's the little things that count. Praying to God that He will help me to focus less on this "world" but on things that really matter. 

Here's a layoutI made...  and a cover of a mini album which for some reason, refuses to be finished. It's been 2 years since I started this album LOL! Some things always get in the way I guess. Whatever. At least I already made the cover hahaha. 

Go and and check out the rest of the Made With Love ladies and let their awesome works inspire you enough to be able to do nothing but craft this weekend! 

 Genevive
Jeanette
Pooi
Priscilla
Sam
Yvonne

Supplies: 
paper - Carta Bella (Hello Again)
embellishments - Websters Pages, Studio Calico 

Pebbles: With Love

First of all, happy valentine to God my first love.... 

Second of all, to Benjo Rulona who still hasn't called me because he is somewhere out there earning a living for the family. Now that's true love, right? (yeah right!) hahah! I love you so much Baby, so excited for your pasalubong :D 

... thank you so much Pebbles for giving me all these and these as my prize in one of your recent contests. I  am already in love with everything Pebbles! I created these heart bags using those sweetness they sent me. Now I wish valentines day is more than just one day because I have a lot more of the goodies left...

Why not?
Everyday should be valentines day :)
To share love with our family and few true friends, to understand and be patient with some people who annoy us, to embrace life's imperfections, to be happy in the little things, to find beauty in everything... it's not that easy but we can try :)

So Happy Valentine - Tuesday everybody! Leave a comment and be my follower (from now until Friday) and I will be sharing some With Love goodies from Pebbles with you :)

tutorial: altered recipe book

Shortly before our wedding, hubby gave me this notebook. It became not just my recipe book but a record of some of my first goals as new wife, the very few menu I knew then. That time, I would often call my mother for help. This 8 year old notebook is precious. So it is just right that I jazz it up, believing that one day my children and their children will see, hold and cook with it! :)

1. Painted the covers with Studio Claudine Hellmuth semi-gloss paint in traditional tan. 

2. Stamped some fruits, food images by Hero Arts, and colored it with Copic. I also used the same stamp set to stamp spoon and fork on my project. Cutest!

3. Then I took some old papers that I kept for this purpose.  American Crafts Abode papers are just so cute!Distressed it and adhered everything on  my book. Added some flowers, MT tapes, twines and other embellishments. 

4. After arranging and pasting all the embellishments, I added alphas and wrote some sentiments. Then, I painted the whole thing with Mod Podge to seal all the tiny details. I want to make sure this book will really stand the test of time! :)

4.  When the  Mod Podge was dry, I took out my Studio Claudine Helmuth in teal, mixed a bit of water and sprinkled paint randomly over the cover using a paint brush. 

There! My very precious recipe and home-making book. Would you like to see some pages inside? It's nothing fancy. But it is one of my possessions that money can't buy :) 

*click to make it larger

Thank you for looking! And warm greetings to all of you who visit my blog :) Bless the Lord!