Planning a wedding all over again

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I’m still not over planning my dream wedding, and yet here I am again, helping plan another one.

My best buddy Jemima is getting married next year to the love of her life, Eric. She’s getting married here in Manila, and since she’s based in Chicago right now, she’ll need all the help she can get. That’s where I, her cousin Pinky, and her sister-in-law Jennirose will come in, with her sister Shelami (also in the US) at the helm.

I’ll be attending a bridal fair this weekend to check out suppliers, and I’ll be scouting for gazebos and gardens to look for possible venues for their ceremony and reception. I hope I’ll get to join in food-tastings as well.

My buddy was such a big help to me when I was planning this wedding, and I’m glad that I am given this opportunity to pay her back. I am determined to make this wedding even more beautiful than mine was.

*image from here

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Hello, bob!

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It’s been so terribly hot lately that I just want to walk around in something that has as much fabric as adult lingerie costumes, or naked, even. I also want to shave all my hair off because all this hair is just keeping me literally hot-headed. Going bald probably won’t sit well with my husband and my mother,  so I just had a nice chunk of it chopped off. And by nice chunk, I mean more than a foot of hair. Here’s what I started with:

Now, I loved my long hair. I had it for nine years. I haven’t had my hair treated ever–no hot oils, hair coloring, perming, or straightening–but it has always been good to me, always straight and soft and shiny. My husband loved my long hair, too. It was one of his favorite things about me physically. Needless to say, saying goodbye to that much hair wasn’t the easiest thing. Alas, the summer heat had decided on my hair’s fate.

All it took was a P50 haircut at the parlor beside our house for my hair to end up like this:

After almost a decade of having long hair, I now have a bob! I love it! It’s so presko! My husband loves it, too. (Whew!) This is the first time he’s seen me with short hair. I’m also loving how little time it now takes me to shampoo and dry my hair when it used to take forever.

PAG-ASA says that it’s just going to keep getting hotter in the weeks to come, I think my hair will probably get even shorter as the temperature goes up.

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My New Addiction

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*photo from here

Hi I’m Dea, and I’m a Moonleaf milk tea-a-holic.

Even before the milk tea craze, I’ve already been a milk tea addict. It started with my first bottle of MineShine in 2008 when a bottle cost P32 at 7-11. I had a bottle everyday until they jacked the price up from P32 to P40.

When Serenitea set up shop in Alabang Town Center, I started getting addicted to their Hokkaido and Okinawa tea, especially since they offered a free upsize for more than a month after they opened. They were my favorite for two years, until I discovered Moonleaf.

I first tried Moonleaf last December, when I volunteered for the Sendong relief operations at the Maginhawa branch. What attracted me first was the price–P60 for a big glass of house milk tea (+P10 for pearls, I need to have my pearls). I also liked that they had only one size and had a very basic menu. After that, I’d go to the branch in Mabini near Shopwise everytime I’d go grocery-shopping.

I discovered just last month that there’s a branch near UST, just a walking distance from my house. That’s was when the real addiction started. I can now have my milk tea as often as I want. I tried different flavors–caramel, honey, wintermelon, hakka, vanilla, and oolong so far–and I loved every single one. Don’t ask me to pick a favorite. I also love their pearls, just the right sweetness and chewiness. They also offer good customer service. I can’t bring myself to pay for Serenitea anymore, I now find the P100++ price tag too expensive (and pretentious–pwede naman palang less than 100, e).

I’m trying to limit my Moonleaf consumption now because having this too often can’t be good for my budget and my weight. I’m trying to control my addiction before I’d need to go on a non 12 step program to cure myself.

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Motivational Marbles

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I’ve been seeing a lot of these jar weight loss trackers on Pinterest (my biggest time-waster lately) and on the fitness blogs I’m following:

I’m a visual person so I find this really cool. And because I’m inggitera, I made my own. This now sits on my husband’s bookshelf:

There’s a knick-knack store down our street that sells everything from cutesy school supplies to toys like plastic model car kits, that’s where I got my marbles. I’m not going to say how many marbles are in the “pounds to go” bottle.

Yep, there are marbles in the “pounds lost” bottle. I’m starting my count from the day we got married. I’m not on any diet or weight loss program now, but Abet and I have made changes to our lifestyle that are slowly but surely making us lose weight. Since the beginning of the year, we have switched to brown rice, we’ve been doing Meatless Mondays, and we no longer drink soft drinks or iced tea on weekdays. We also no longer have snacks available in our house.

I’m starting to exercise again, and I’m going to go back to Bikram Yoga in a week or two, so I’m expecting to transfer over some more marbles in the weeks to come. I no longer feel the need to lose weight to get sexy or look good in a bikini or something like that, but I want to be fit for one very important reason: I want to have a healthy pregnancy when the time comes (we’re planning on trying to have a baby maybe late next year).

These motivational marbles would also work when I do finally get pregnant. For every pound I gain, I’ll put in a marble into a jar. After my pregnancy, any marbles I accumulate will be my “pounds to go” to get back to my pre-baby weight. Neat, eh?

I can’t wait to empty that bottle on the right. It’s a very ambitious goal, but I’m confident that I’ll be able to do this because the health of my yet-to-be-conceived baby is at stake. That’s my biggest motivation of all.

*EDIT*

Diane, owner of the pink marbles, has left a comment. Read her story over at http://www.hotmessprincess.com.

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Cats Waiting in Windows

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In her series entitled Fishbowl, San Diego-based graphic designer and photographer Rachel Bellinsky has a collection of photos of pets waiting in windows. Look at these cats, they seem to be waiting for their owners to come home.

These remind me of our little kitten who eagerly awaits by our window for our arrival. At least that’s what I like to think. (I’m no photographer, obviously.)

You may view the entire project on this Flickr page. Dog lovers, there are adorable pictures of dogs a-waiting, too.

*via

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Grocery Gripe

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One of the things that surprised me since getting married was how much a household of two (and two dogs and a cat) could spend on groceries each month. I honestly did not think that we could spend so much for our basic needs. I mean, a few toiletries, household cleaning materials, food for two, a few ‘luho’ purchases, and pet food shouldn’t cost a lot, right?

In the four months we’ve been married, we overshot our monthly grocery budget every single time. Once, I was surprised at our grocery bill that I grabbed the receipt right after it came out of the receipt printer to check if there were any errors, but no, all purchases were valid. We really did shop for all those items.

Abet and I are trying to bring down our grocery bill (all expenses, actually) so we can save more for our planned trips, and of course, to pad our nest egg for when we have a baby. I’ll need to figure out how to go to our nearest wet market and how to buy produce, meat, and fish there. Also, we have come to realize that cooking for two is not very economical and practical, especially not when there’s a carinderia right across our house that serves good, cheap, and clean food. We’ll buy our viands more often instead of cooking (I’ll still cook brown rice, which we’ve been having since the start of the year). We’ll also have to cut down on our luxury purchases, like the Finetti and deli sausages and raspberry iced tea that we love so much.

I hope Abet and I reduce our grocery expenses, we sure need all the savings we can muster.

*photo from here

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Someone almost upstaged me at my wedding…

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…and believe it or not, she was wearing a P250 ukay-ukay dress. A P250 UKAY-UKAY DRESS!

Also, believe it or not, she turns 61 today. Sixty-one, my dear friends. These are all raw images (resized for my blog), no Photoshop.

Happy birthday to my beautiful mother, who is as beautiful within as she is on the outside.

You are the most inspiring woman I know, Ma. While I pray that I look half as good as you do when I’m 61, what I’m really praying for is that I be half as good as you are as a wife and as a mother. I love you!

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Kate Spade Wedding Shoes

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Kate Spade Wedding Shoes

My wedding shoes. Champagne Kate Spade Miranda evening sandals. I’m so in love with them.

My shoes were a bit of a splurge, which I justified with the fact that I spent so little on my wedding dress, and that I can wear these over and over again. I have always loved Kate Spade, but before my shoes, the only Kate Spade item I owned was a passport holder. I figured that my wedding would be a nice occasion to gift myself with a lovely pair of shoes.

I took a gamble with these shoes by ordering them online and had them shipped via my favorite courier, Johnny Air. Waiting for the shoes to arrive was just nerve-wracking, I had a lot of thoughts going through my mind. Will they fit? Will they be as beautiful as I hoped they would be? Will they be worth the splurge? Yes, yes, and yes! When I finally slipped them on–wow! I felt like Cinderella!

My shoes were just perfect–elegant, understated, well-made (in Italy), and had a low-heel so that I wouldn’t tower over my groom. Plus, they were so comfortable, they did not hurt one bit, and I could have run in them if I wanted to.

I have yet to wear my lovely shoes again, they’ve been in storage since our wedding day. I’m just waiting for an occasion so I can take these babies out for a spin again (and to reduce cost per wear). I’m thinking of wearing them for Abet’s masteral graduation in a few months’ time. I’m sure that whenever I glance down at my feet, I’ll be taken back to our wedding day when even my shoes made me feel like a princess.

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If I ever won the lottery

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…one of the first things I’ll do is buy my husband any guitar he wants.

We were at the Cultural Center last night for the last concert of the guitar festival (Abet conducted the UST Guitar Orchestra for the first time), and there were guitar merchandise everywhere, from guitars of all price ranges to instruction books, CDs and DVDs, emg pickups (I think), and strings. There were guitars on display, and some of them cost hundreds of thousands–so much more than what I earn in a year. Oh, how I’d love for my husband to have one of those!

Now, about my Abet, he is the least materialistic, most contented, and most practical person I know. Sure, I know he’d love to have an instrument of high quality–as any serious musician would–but he understands that those guitars are way beyond what we can afford at this point. And instead of wasting his time pining for expensive guitars, he concentrates on making his current instrument produce the best sound it can.

This saddens me a bit because I know that his guitar right now is not at par with his skills. His playing is top caliber–his mentor Ruben Reyes has taught him well, and he works really hard to keep improving.

I know that Abet will get to have his nice instrument someday. He deserves it. We all know how good karma works. He’ll probably have to win it himself in some competition, there’s a much bigger chance of that happening than me winning the lotto.

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I Dieeeeee!!!

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This picture is just too cute!

I have wanted a pug for the longest time. It’s my favorite dog breed. And the more banlag (wall-eyed) they are, the more adorable they are to me.

Four of my former officemates in Shell had pugs–one had the mother while the other three bought her offspring from different litters–and I died of envy every time they would talk about or show me pictures of their pets. As much as I’d want to have a pug right now, Abet and I already have our hands full with our labrador and our beagle.

Should we decide to get another dog, I’ll make sure we’ll get a pug this time. I read that they’re good with kids. I can totally imagine my future children riding our dogs like horses. Maybe I’ll even get our kids some kiddie equestrian riding apparel. How cute would that be?

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Excited much?

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I have a confession: a big chunk of my blog-hopping time is now spent on pregnancy and parenting blogs.

I’m not pregnant and Abet and I do not have any plans of procreating in the near future (not in the next 12 months, definitely), but I can’t help but read all about pregnancy and motherhood, if only to prepare myself. Besides, there’s no dearth of inspiring local mommy bloggers in the metro, such as Dainty Mom and Topaz Mommy, to name a couple.

I think I’m just right on schedule. Consider this: I started reading wedding blogs three years before my big day, and those years of research and browsing for inspiration helped me achieve the dream wedding I have always envisioned. By reading all about motherhood–pregnancy, birthing, breastfeeding, everything–I am arming myself with knowledge so that when God’s perfect time comes for us to have our own Baby Mesa, I won’t be so lost as a first-time mother.

In the meantime, I’ll go ahead and have these mommy blogs on my Google Reader. I’ll also keep fantasizing about baby names, cute baby outfits, and even personalized room décor for kids for my future offspring.

Once I see those two lines on the pregnancy stick, I’ll be ready.

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Dea, The Bathroom Cleaner

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*Image from here

Since I became a housewife work-at-home wife, I have discovered that I actually enjoy doing housework, particularly cleaning and disinfecting our home.

Now, before you brand me as a domestic diva, let me just clarify first that this does not include organizing. I hate organizing, something my husband loves to do and is very good at, praise God. I especially cannot stand organizing our clothes/closets, that’s as much fun for me as being hooked up to ekg machines.

Anyway, my favorite chore of them all is cleaning our bathroom. I actually enjoy going down on all fours to scrub our bathroom tiles and our fixtures. I also enjoy buying cleaning products at the grocery. I now have a wide variety of brushes, sponges, cleansers, and disinfectants in my arsenal. More than anything, I enjoy the feeling of doing my business in a clean, sparkling, fresh-smelling loo.

I went home to my parents’ house earlier today and actually volunteered to clean one of their bathrooms. In fact, I told my mom that I’ll clean their bathrooms during my weekly visits home.

I guess you can say I’m addicted. Sorry, germs.

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Happy, Lovely Thursday – 20120112

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It was back to reality for us this week. We finally took our Christmas tree down, it’s back to normal at work for me, and Abet is now busy again with work, grad school, and rehearsals. The holidays are really, truly over, and it didn’t take very long for things to get crazy again.

Here are the things that are making me smile and keeping me sane this week (I’m still very much into Instagram):

Purple statice flowers on my workdesk.
I got these at Dangwa for only P20.

Our music-themed pillow cases.
The tackiness can be justified by the fact that my husband is a musician and that these are 500-threadcount.

Fish-shaped kitty food in her fishy kitty bowl.

My day and night Estée Lauder eye creams.
I feel that eye creams are now a must for me at this age.

Essie Whisper

My nail polish du jour, Essie Whisper.
I just painted this on my fingertips on a whim.

That’s it for now! Until next week!

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Colored stones make me swoon

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I love ogling jewelry online, aside from makeup, cupcakes, and cute baby animals. This is one of my favorite stress-relievers (and time-wasters). I am most attracted to colored gemstones more than anything (black titanium bracelets just don’t do it for me), and when it comes to colored gemstones, the top brand that comes to mind is Bvlgari.

I just spent a good hour browsing their website looking at stuff like these:

Oh, be still my heart.

Since these baubles go up to hundreds of thousands of pesos, I don’t think I’ll be getting anytime soon (and by anytime soon, I mean in this lifetime), so I’ll stick to drooling over these gems online.

I’ll go back to looking at cute baby animals now, there’s a much bigger chance that I’ll be able to take home one of those.

 

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