Christmas 2011

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So, my loves, what did you do over the holidays?

As for me, the last few days were just filled with love and joy. This Christmas is extra special for Abet and me because it’s our first Christmas as a married couple, which means we have three families to spend the holidays with: his family, my family, and our own little family of two.

Last December 23, my family visited Abet and me the first time. I was so happy to have them all there, to have them see our home and meet our dogs (Phoebe comes with us whenever we spend weekends at my parents’).

Ooops, my dad is watafez in this photo. Sorry Papi, it’s the only one I have.We missed my brother Momon, who’s spending the holidays in the US with his in-laws. The curtains don’t match our home, I know. Those are my mother-in-law’s, we haven’t bought our own yet.

Moving on, Christmas Eve was spent at my in-laws’ house (which is just a minute away from our home, and that’s by foot). My brother-in-law Obet made us all wear red so he can take family portraits.

The only red piece of clothing I owned was a pambahay shirt, that had to do.

Christmas Day was at my parents’ house. This year’s celebration was very austere compared to what we’re used to, partly because Momon isn’t here to celebrate with us, and partly because now is not the time for grand celebrations, not after what happened to our beloved Cagayan de Oro which we used to call home. My parents donated to Sendong, therefore, just a simple Christmas celebration this year.

We had pansit and roasted chicken for Christmas lunch, but those weren’t your ordinary chickens. My dad and my brothers bought three native chickens a couple of days before, and those were slaughtered, stuffed silly with lemongrass, and roasted for our holiday meal.

You should have seen our backyard sink, it was gruesome. Thank you Aringkingking, Nokma, and Macmashaw for sacrificing your lives in order for us to have a feast. Yes, they had names. Burp.

Anyway, since Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were spent with our families, Abet and I started our own tradition. We will have our Christmas celebration, just the two of us in our home, the day after Christmas. December 26 will be Mr. & Mrs. Mesa’s Christmas Celebration Day. December 26 is when we’ll have a nice homemade candlelit dinner and that’s when we’ll open the presents under our tree.

For dinner, we made pesto spaghetti (using store-bought pesto) and we made fried chicken for the first time. Abet bought white wine. For dessert, we had fresh fruits dipped in melted Toblerone. Abet brewed a pot of Starbucks Christmas Blend coffee (now only P87.50 at 30% off, good for 8 cups!!!) to enjoy while we opened our presents. It was such a fun, memorable evening, I’m so glad we started this little tradition, and I can’t wait for next year (the food should be much better then).

I ate so much in the last week and will continue to eat a lot until next week, I’ll need to go back to Bikram when 2012 comes in (but not until I get a new yoga mat since I can’t find my current one). I have a lot of exercise to do to make up for all the food I’m stuffing my face with. I’ll worry about that in a few days, but in the meantime, I’m enjoying the time–and the food–with the people I love the most.

I hope you all had good Christmases spent with family, everyone! Stay safe this New Year!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

The Chic-Boy caterpillar issue is NOT FAKE

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Chic-Boy Scandal

I’m sure you’ve read about the girl who found a caterpillar in her kang-kong dish at Chic-Boy Timog. It’s already gone viral on Facebook, prompting Chic-Boy to issue a statement that this is the handiwork of their desperate competitors, and that they are going to file a libel case against the author. You can read about the brouhaha here.

I know the girl involved. Sigrid is a friend and is someone I respect as an artist and as a person. The caterpillar issue is not fake, nor is it a smear campaign, sabotage, or demolition job by its competitors as what Chic-Boy is saying. This is a real customer experience.

Chic-Boy underestimated the power of a sincere apology. They could just have apologized and acknowledged their mistake. They could have taken this as an opportunity to review and improve their food handling procedures. Their reaction was just plain defensive.

I used to be a big fan of Chic-Boy, especially the Jupiter branch, my friends and family can attest to this. But until all this turns out well for Sigrid, no more Chic-Boy for me.

 

Handyman Abet

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One of the things I discovered about my new husband is that he likes to do home improvement stuff around our house. Whether it’s assembling, hanging, installing, screwing, or drilling that needs to be done, he’ll eagerly do it. He even wants to repaint our home himself. I’m glad that he enjoys doing all these things since I can’t be counted on to do them.

Abet now considers Ace Hardware as a new happy place. I won’t be surprised if he asks me for power tools or concrete blades for Christmas.

Sleep Issues

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I’ve now recovered from being under the weather last week (does that mean I’m over the weather? *hyuk*hyuk*), but now I’m having problems with sleeping properly. I was so sick last week–I was like an RV in bad need of motorhome repair–that I practically dozed off for days. Now my sleeping pattern is screwed. I’m awake all night and fall asleep at random hours during the day. This is probably what jet lag feels like.

I hope my Circadian rhythm gets back on track. I’m not very productive when my own body can’t even follow a schedule.

We have a tree!

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We finally have a Christmas tree over here at Casa Mesa. Our very first Christmas tree together! *yipee* It’s a bit late, I know, but you know what they say: better late than never.

We didn’t want to spend too much on the tree since it’s just the two of us in our home. We’ll just upgrade once we have offspring. For now, we set a meager budget of P1000 for our Christmas tree. That one above us only P518. Amazing, right? We got the tree itself for P200 at Divisoria. I couldn’t believe the price tag when I saw it, the tree is almost 4 feet tall. It’s so cheap, even for Divi standards, and the quality is not bad, no damage or anything. The decor added up to P318: poinsettias at P168/dozen, 3 dozen balls at P40/dozen, and two strands of garlands at P15 each. The Starbucks ornament was an impulse buy last Christmas, it will serve as our ‘star’ in the meantime.

We’re going to have to do without Christmas lights because of Phoebe. I’ll have to add more ornaments because you can’t get any more boring than red and gold poinsettias and balls. I still have P482 left to spend, I’m thinking of getting candy canes and berries.

Phoebe thinks that the Christmas tree is one big giant toy:

She also thinks that the gifts are her bed:

Now that we have our tree, it’s really beginning to look a lot like Christmas in our home.

Is your tree up already?

Sick as a dog

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Fever, colds and a sore throat, plus dysmenorrhea and period diarrhea.

This isn’t one of my best days. I missed meeting with my brother before he leaves for the US (and his Army Navy treat), a charity activity, and my company’s Christmas party, which I’ve been looking forward to for weeks.

On the bright side, I have a handsome nurse (my husband stayed home), I can drink all the Royal Tru-Orange I want, and my dad sent me load because I’m sick (maybe to update them of my condition, I don’t know). Oh, and I slept like a log for what seemed like days that I now feel good enough to use the computer, except that I still have a jacket on.

Tomorrow should be much better.

PS. I don’t understand the expression ‘sick as a dog.’ I have three dogs, and my boys don’t get sick ever.

Vibrams

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I’ve never disliked any kind of footwear as much as I dislike these:

Vibram Five Fingers. They’re supposed to be really good for your feet. My marathon-running brother Joe thinks that they’re the best thing to happen since sliced bread. He has nothing but praises for them that he managed to convince my dad and my two other brothers to get a pair each.

Joe won yet another pair in a contest, which automatically went to Abet.

Abet loves his Vibrams. I can’t stand them.

Now, I’m all for comfy footwear, and I would never sacrifice comfort over style like a lot of women I know, but I’m also all for nice-looking shoes. You won’t catch me dead in these.

Each pair costs upwards of P4,000, so that’s more than P20,000 worth of Vibrams right there. I could have bought at least 20 beautiful shoes with that much money. Or a couple of michael kors watches. Oh, well. I guess as long as my family is happy, I’ll let them be, that was their money anyway, and Abet’s was free.

How about you, what do you think of Vibrams? Yay or nay?

The couple that quits smoking together

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Our love story started with four magic words: “Excuse me, pwedeng makisindi?”

It was November 24, 2005, Thursday, at the side entrance of the Cultural Center of the Philippines. I couldn’t find my tiny black lighter inside my giant Nine West bag with the million pockets, so I asked for a light from the guy smoking beside me. To cut a long story short, guy-smoking-beside-me and I are now married.

Abet and I had been heavy smokers during our boyfriend-girlfriend years, much to my mother’s chagrin. We did realize that all that smoking could not be good for us — especially once we have kids — so we decided to quit once we’re married.

I’m pleased to announce that we haven’t been smoking since we tied the knot more than a month ago. I quit cold turkey — the best way to go, IMHO — while Abet weaned himself by using electronic cigarettes months before our wedding. He’s off e-cigs now as well, I don’t think he’ll be looking into cigar humidors anytime.

Smoking has already done its part to bring us together, we no longer need it. I’m so glad Abet and I did this for ourselves. It’s still a struggle, there are times when we’re tempted to light up, and we’ve fallen off the proverbial wagon once (after a big fight, mwehehe). But we’re on the right track, and we’re determined to keep ourselves smoke-free moving forward. I’m sure my mother is glad.

Look, Ma, no cigarettes!

I need my own computer!

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I really, truly, seriously need to have my own computer now. I don’t know how I’m managing working from home without having my own computer to work on.

Since I got married, I’ve been using Abet’s laptop to work. It can be quite an inconvenience on days when he has to take his laptop with him, and I’m left with nothing to use. We have to take turns with it when he has to do some work at home. And when his nephew Ycko comes over to spend the night (we “borrow” him on weekends), that makes three of us sharing one laptop since Ycko likes to play games and browse the internet (maybe to look at Lecteurs MP3 online, I don’t know).

There’s an old desktop computer at my parents’ house that no one’s using, I think I’m going to have to get that since a new computer or laptop is not in our budget right now. Maybe we’ll get one for me early next year, I make my living on a computer at home, after all.

Phoebe & Josie

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I learned from Meow by Kate that our first cat, Uma, is a calico cat — a black-white-orange cat which is automatically female. Our second cat, Sophie, happens to be a calico cat as well.

When I moved out from my parents’ house, Abet and I planned on getting a cat of our own. Naturally, I wanted a calico cat like the two kitty-girls I left at my parents.’ I asked my friends and on Facebook if anyone has a black-white-orange kitten I could adopt, but I didn’t get anything. We decided that we’ll just pick up whatever stray kitten we’ll find on the street — calico or not — or get a Siamese kitten for my birthday in December, whichever comes first.

Fortunately, this little furball found her way on the street near Abet’s mother’s house two Sundays ago:

Yep, I got my calico cat after all! Abet and his nephew Ycko found her near their gate, and after Abet confirmed with the neighbors that she didn’t belong to anyone in the area, she was mine. We named her Phoebe after my favorite F.R.I.E.N.D.S. character, and also because when we got her, she was “smelly cat, smelly cat.”

She was so small then. I assume she was month old at the time. Look at how tiny she was (with a tube of lipstick for size reference):

Abet and I are absolutely smitten with her. He would never admit it, but he’s just so in love with our Phoebe.

Phoebe likes my husband more than she likes me. She sleeps in our room — in our bed — and she snuggles beside Abet, not me.

In the 9 days since we got her, she has almost doubled in size, she knows how to go to the bathroom to wie-wie and pou-pou, she can climb up and down our stairs, and she now gets along with her Kuya Django, our Labrador Retriever.

We’re taking her to my parents’ house this weekend so she can meet her big sisters Uma and Sophie.

In other news, we were supposed to have a fourth calico, Josie:

My siblings found her on the street last Saturday. Her eyes were still closed when they found her, just like Uma when Momon picked her up. Sadly, Josie didn’t make it. She passed away yesterday. My sister May is devastated. She told me earlier that they already had plans for her. I’m sure they were planning on buying her treats and kitty items and putting her in the pockets of their nursing uniforms med school uniforms like they did with Uma when she was younger:

RIP, Josie. I guess for now, Phoebe is our bunso. I hope my siblings find another new kitten, and while I’m sure they’ll pick up any stray kitten that comes their way, I hope it’s going to be another calico cat.

Wives should always be lovers too.

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There’s this song entitled Wives and Lovers by my Lolo Frank (that’s Frank Sinatra to you) that I’ve taken to heart even before I got married:

Hey, little girl, comb your hair, fix your make-up,
soon he will open the door,
Don’t think because there’s a ring on your finger,
you needn’t try any more.
For wives should always be lovers too…

As a housewife* with no help, I’m on the fast track to losyang-dom. It’s so easy to let go when you’re in this situation. This is why I’ve become more vain than I have ever been in my entire life. This is why I ditched all my “bacon” pambahay undies (which I loved, huhu) and got myself all new underwear right after the wedding. This is why I take long, leisurely baths with all the works (body scrub, hair treatment, etc) daily. This is why I’m obsessed about moisturizing my face and applying shea butter body lotion and slathering my feet and hands with hand and foot cream. This is why I wear cologne and lipgloss even when I’m just at home.

I’m already living with that one person I want to impress the most, and I try my best to make sure that he’ll love coming home to me every day.

*I do have a job, but I work from home

 

 

One month.

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If I get married, I want to be very married. -Audrey Hepburn

Abet and I have been very married for a month now, and I couldn’t be happier. :) It’s even more than what I hoped and imagined married life to be. Looking forward to many more months, years, and decades of ‘very married-ness’ ahead!

A Chocolate-y Wedding

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Almost all of my friends know what a great big chocoholic I am. Seriously, I eat more of the stuff than anyone I know. I just had to have chocolate elements at our wedding to make it even more ‘me.’

My number one choice for our wedding favors were purple M&M’s. In fact, I couldn’t come up with a second choice. Our main issue with having personalized M&M’s was that shipping would cost as much as the candy; they had to be ordered from the US since they’re not available here. Fortunately, Abet’s Tita Carol came home from California for our wedding, she was able to bring the chocolate with her. I got to have the favors I wanted. We got dark purple, light purple, and white shimmer chocolates.

As with a lot of things in our wedding, these M&M’s were a labor of love. Abet and I bought 150 of these glass jars in Tabora St. in Divisoria, where the restaurant supplies are, for P6 apiece. Abet’s 8-year old nephew Ycko did quality control on the bottles to make sure each one was undamaged. Their help Aling Baby washed every single one. My now mother-in-law tied them with purple ribbons. Tita Carol arrived early in the morning on the day of our wedding, Abet’s relatives were packing chocolates at dawn on our wedding day.

Our coordinators placed them on each guest’s setting, they doubled as table decor as well.

The M&M’s were a big hit, we had people asking us where we got purple M&M’s. Too bad Abet and I were not able to get some for ourselves.

Our escort cards were two-finger Kit-Kat bars. This was my labor of love. I got the idea when I saw a site offering personalized Hershey’s bars. I wanted to use plum or purple wrapping paper, but I couldn’t find any, so I printed my own. I Google-d “damask,” found a pattern I liked, Picnik-ed it into the color I want, made a tile pattern, and cropped out a Kit-Kat wrapper-sized image. I made 150 of those. I bought 3 boxes of Kit-Kats and wrapped them all myself.

The guest’s names were just printed out on bond paper, my sister May helped me cut and stick them onto the wrappers. My siblings alphabetized the chocolates so our coordinators won’t have a hard time arranging them on our registration table.

We gave our principal sponsors, secondary sponsors, bridesmaids and groomsmen chocolate truffles from Truffettes de France.

These came in insulated packaging with dry ice. We had 17 of these paper bags, my brother and my sister-in-law packed them on the day of the wedding.

For our commentator, singers, and ceremony musicians–all of them Abet’s friends–we gave them tokens of Almond Roca which I’m currently addicted to, and chocolate cookies from Marks & Spencer.

Why such packaging? These are “brown paper packages tied up with string,” mwehehe! I’m such a nerd!

Oh, we also had a chocolate fountain, too. It was a freebie from our caterer, K by Cunanan, for booking at the bridal fair.

When it comes to my wedding, the more chocolate, the better.

*first picture by my brother-in-law Obet, the rest are raw images from Mimi+Karl

Birthday Makeup Wishlist

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It’s that time of the year again when I start thinking about what I want to get for my birthday next month. When I mentally tried to make a list of birthday present ideas, I realized that all I want to get this year are makeup.

And so, I’m making another birthday wishlist for this year. I find that whenever I make these lists, I end up with a lot of the things I want. It’s like if I put it out there, the universe hears me, and–in the words of Coelho–conspires to help me get them.

Here goes:

  • Bobbi Brown Shimmer Bricks in Nectar and Rose Shimmer

 I asked my friend Carrot who works at Estée Lauder to recommend what to get from Bobbi Brown, she recommended these. I’ve been lemming for these ever since.

  • Anything Bobbi Brown, actually. I don’t own any Bobbi Brown yet.
  • Wong Kar Wai for Shu Uemura Holiday Limited Edition White Recovery Brightening Cleansing Oil (what a mouthful!)

Okay, so this is just the Shu brightening cleansing oil in special limited edition packaging, but what the heck, I love Wong Kar Wai’s films, and my current bottle bought last July is running out soon.

  • Shu Uemura Rouge Unlimited Lipstick

Any color, since I don’t own a single one, and I hear that these are better than MAC.

  • Also, anything Shu Uemura. Except for the eyelash curler because I already have three of those.
  • NARS bronzer in Laguna

The contour powder of my Dollface contour kit shattered, I need to replace it. It’s either this or the MAC Mineralize Skinfinish in Dark.

  • NARS lipstick in Schiap

I’ve wanted this since March when my makeup teacher wore it. I had to ask her what she was wearing.

  • Lots and lots of MAC lipsticks

I have a thing for lipsticks, obviously. I already have enough eyeshadows for now. I just love MAC lipsticks and I can’t have enough.

    • MAC brushes (187, 239, 168, 208)

I have one MAC brush, the 217 blending brush, and I love it to death. I want more, next on my brushes-to-get list are these four.

  • Portable makeup studio and director’s chair

Ah, yes, these are what I really, really want. For when I go pro in the future. I already know where I’ll set these up in our home. My husband has promised me these, it’s just a matter of when we’ll be able to afford them, hehe.

So there, universe. These are what I want. Help me get them, pretty please?

Our First Duet

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 Abet had this bright idea to have a first duet instead of the traditional first dance — him on guitar, me on cello. It’s mainly because he absolutely refuses to dance. I didn’t want to do it at first because our musical skills are not at par. Abet is a national champion (he won the NAMCYA for guitar in 2005), while I studied cello until Suzuki Book 3 (a children’s method). He practices six hours per day while I practice… once every six months. :P But then again, why not?  I haven’t seen it done before, most of my friends have never heard me play, and it will be oh-so Abet and Dea, so uniquely us. After all, it was music that brought us together.

I chose the piece we played, Salut d’Amour, op. 12 by British composer Sir Edward Elgar. It means ‘greeting of love.’ It’s a piece originally for piano and violin which Abet arranged (and super-simplified to Dea-level) for guitar and cello.

I was nervous about it, but Abet told me to just enjoy the moment, and I did. Even as I heard my notes go flat and my strings screech against my bow, I enjoyed it. I had fun, can you tell?

I am so glad that we got to do this. Our duet is one of my favorite wedding moments. I’ll forever cherish this comment left by my friend Bunny on my Facebook:

Most of the time that you were playing, I was watching how Abet looked so admiringly at you – and not at his guitar. Ikaw na, Dea. Ikaw na. =D

May this be the start of a lifetime of making beautiful music together.

*first 3 photos from my friend Maedeleine Chua’s Facebook, last photo by Mimi+Karl

DIY Frame

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Three years before my wedding, I started following wedding blogs and websites to get ideas for my own, and at one point I came across a display frame of a list of famous love teams with the couple’s names included. I forgot where I saw it and I wasn’t able save the image, but I did get a mental picture of it. It seemed easy enough to make, and I’ve never seen it done locally. I had to have one at my wedding.

My mother, my siblings, and I chose the couples to include in my frame:

Abet had only one contribution: Scarlett & Rhett, because Gone With The Wind is one of his favorite movies of all time.

I had the image printed on 12″x16″ paper at a photo store for only P135. The text is 10″x12″ with a border of an inch on all sides. I got a 12″x16″ frame from SM Department Store for P250. Easy peasy.

Here’s my finished project:

I had this displayed at our registration area. We got compliments on it. I also noticed our photographers and videographers shooting it during the preparations, I’m sure this will show up in our prep photos.

I’m happy with this little DIY project. Big impact with minimum effort and expense. This will now be displayed in our home, at the top of the stairs. Just another daily reminder of that special day.