Chef Xpress 2

Hello, I'm back!

Been so busy with work (as usual!) and been thru a lot of emotional ride this past few days. And what a better way to unwind is to play and blog. 

Another academic year will be over in less than 2 weeks and everyone in the faculty room is rushing their last requirements, checking their exams and ELMs, and doing their grades. Graduation will be in 3 weeks and we are all moving for it. Wheew!

This second semester, STI held its Tagisan ng Talino for the students to showcase their skills and talents in their respective program interests. Lorenzo and his friends joined again this challenge for the second time. Chef Xpress is a cooking challenge where the ingredients are given on the spot and the challengers make an appetizer, main course and a dessert menu out of it. Here is their take for this year....

Chef Xpress 2... Lorenzo, Cynold and Kurt won the 1st Runner-Up for the year. The magic ingredients were porkchops and squash, and they created a salad appetizer, braised porkchop and a pannacotta dessert from it. I used here MM pps, Bazzil white cardstock, DMC threads, pps and cardstocks scraps, a Project Life card, assorted stickers, buttons, green baker's twine, and Rangers' distress inks. Colors make memory keeping more lively and worth remembering.

I am currently updating my 2024 Project Life which I'm 3 months delayed. I am STILL polishing my 2023 Project Life which needs a lot of embellishing. Backlogs can still be exciting as ever... but for now, got to do some self care again.

Happy SCRAPPING everyone and I hope you enjoy every minute of that cutting and pasting!

TFL.

Chuy turned 20!

I miss blogging! and scrapping!

Every year, I anticipate 2 major long vacations from school-- its the Holy Week and the Christmas Season. Last month was the Holy Week vacation for us Catholics. Unfortunately, I was not able to scrap much, I just updated my journals in my Project Life 2023. I have both traditional and digital scrapping assignments to be doing, I guess Mr. Mojo is not yet around!

Oh well, I have to look for that mood, this is my all time stress buster! So, I finally did Lorenzo's 20th Birthday celebration photo. My big idea again is to use scraps-- mix match paper colors, brands and patterns, use old embellishments and still paper sew, to give that Issa's signature touch. This is a simple layout, but a playful one.

Happy 20th Birthday Chuwee! My youngest Boy turned 20! I can't believe he is 20 and I am getting old. We celebrated it at Casa Rebecca's Resort in Los Banos, together with my cousin Chelle's Birthday too.

Wait, I am totally out of the brands that I used. I used DCWV metallic cardstock (this is silver, I do not know what happened in the picture?!), checkered and dotted pps, assorted embellishments like stickers, wooden buttons, staple wires, fibers, pps scraps, metals, cork arrows, and DMC threads.

I had FUN doing this page... this is soooo ME! 

Thanks for looking...'til the next page!

Welcome 2024... Thank you 2023!

Here is another year to end... 

Looking back at the past 12 months of 2023, I am both grateful and pessimistic. But in spite of all my struggles in life,  I feel I am still blessed and still have a lot to be thankful for. Sabi nga nila... laban lang!

 My Lorenzo

Chuy turned 19 in March. He graduated in Senior Highschool in July and now taking Hospitality Management program at STI College Calamba. He continues to grow BIG and I am starting to get worried about this. But I am giving him the chance to adjust to college life while still enjoying gaming and being young. He continues to cook and explore on food, that he even joined the STI's Tagisan ng Talino's Chef Xpress. It was a great experience for him for a start and I am just a proud Mom!

My Luigi

Luigi turned 30 in September.. yes and still single, but taken! I can only wish for wedding bells and happy married life in the future. My eldest deserve God's wonderful blessings because he is an obedient son, patient brother, caring apo and faithful partner. Ingat parati when you drive.

My Family

In November, my Mom and I flew to Dubai to visit my brother Louie and SIL Hayk. I had a grandiose 2-week vacation away from work!  We had Dhow Cruise and dinner, Desert Safari and Arabian Nights experience. We climbed the tallest building Burj Khalifa and had a day at the Miracle Garden full of blooms. We drove to Abu Dhabi to see the Grand Mosque and the Qasr Al Watan Palace for 2 days. And probably strolled around almost all of the big malls in Dubai. I also met my classmates Alex and Nerie, and had day of catching up. The best part is I get to travel again and be with my sibling... and missed the boys for 14 days.

I needed this vacation after all my stress for the past 4 years, I believe I deserve this one!

Our mother turned 85 this year! Her memory is very good, she still dances weekly, pray 100x a day, cooks and bakes a lot... except for an aching knee, everything is OK with her.

Me and my Life now...

I know I have to take it easy... I am 55 and starts to feels old. I was confined in June for blood transfusion and up until now, I am on medication for iron deficiency-anemia. I am still in peri-menopausal dilemma at 55.

I am still working as a Teacher and a Program Head. As much as I wanted to work, I still want to learn more and help those aspiring teachers to be of service to the young minds. I had my 3rd Program Head training in December, where I get to meet new friends and felt empowered.

But at the same time, I want to keep that work-life balance. I still scrapbook, find time to meet old friends like my high school barkada and batchmates, eat out with my boys, clean my house and sleep. I think I am pretty much complete, even without a husband.

I want to enjoy and capture life, go back to traveling and never regret anything!

To wrap up 2023... life is still a struggle, but is still joyous and happy! As Covid19 seats back in a corner, we have to still take care of ourselves and our health. There were a lot of changes after that era of pandemic, but let us adopt to it for better life. 

Life must go on, let us just keep it simple but happy and fulfilling. Let us continue to pray for hope, strength and guidance. God bless us all!

WELCOME 2024!

Better than Bear Hugs!

 As I enjoy my Christmas vacation... 

I got to do a lot of things in the house specially in my scraproom. I'm on my Day 9 out of the office, but not really out of my responsibilities, but just physically out of the limbo! I got to SCRAP again and mess around in my favorite room. These layouts I want to share were done months ago, but will be posting now. Here goes...

                                                                                                                          

Better than Bear Hugs... are layouts where I used scraps of strips. Obviously, Luigi and Chuy's hugs are better than this huge bear's hug and just loving it. I used here Bazzill cardstocks, assorted pps strips, assorted washi tapes, DMC threads, paper flowers, silk leaves, buttons, Maya Road embelishment and Ranger inks. 

Why don't you use your scraps and start playing!

Thanks for looking.

Chef Xpress

Its great to be blogging again!

After almost 3 weeks of graduation preparations in our school, the three main events were finally done successfully! Now, its time for some relaxing ME time... I went up in my scraproom today and did some journaling. I have no photo backlogs for my boys as of now and so I can take things easy.

Chef Xpress... As a Culinary Arts student, Lorenzo is eligible to join the Tagisan ng Talino's Chef Xpress Challenge. Its a three-man team and a two-hour cooking challenge where the team will be creating their own menu after seeing the ingredients and will be preparing an appetizer, a main course and a dessert within the given time. It was a first time for Lorenzo and I was so excited for him and the team. Win or loose, it was the experience that he earned! I used here AC letter pad and gingham cardstocks, assorted ribbons, buttons, DMC threads, cardstocks stickers, star brads, pearls and Tim Holtz distress yellow ink. 

Remembering my Father today, as he celebrates his 24th birthday in heaven... I know you will be proud of your apo Lucian Lorenzo Roberto, which I named after you, Dad.

Thank you Lord for a Saturday, a rest day, a crafting day and a blog day!

TFL.

 

Christmas 2022

My favorite time of the year and my favorite subject to scrap!

These have been part of my backlogs and I was able to finish it with my journaling. Christmas layouts always excites me not just because of the bright colors and the ornaments like trees, bells and Santa, but because of the truly festive season of love and hope. Making these in the summer months make me feel Christmas is coming so soon.

Christmas 2022...  Got this picture late September last year in the Ikea store in SM MOA. Occasions like this makes me miss Dodo again. Well, we went shopping instead to forget that missing part of us! I used here MM PPS, Scenic Route scraps, DMC threads, AC Thickers cardboard letters, buttons, epoxy and cardboard stickers.

I aimed to finish my backlogs and create more happy pages! Hope this inspires you to go back to your passion and mess your scrapping nooks once again.

Thanks for looking!

 

BLISS!

Roman Catholics are on holiday this week and it is Black Saturday today.

Aside from the much awaited physical rest is restoring my peace and creating life balance. Its happening now in my scraproom, where else?! Yesterday, I organized new ribbons and some Christmas ornaments my Auntie sent from the US. And I thought of using them for my new layouts (will post that soon!). Meantime, I had some finishing touches on some old pages sitting in my box and finally done for posting.

Since the pandemic, I started revisiting my boy's scrapbook albums. Dusted them, changed crumbling plastic page protectors, glued falling embellishments, labelled them by numbers and restored the albums itself. I realized Lorenzo has more albums than Luigi. So as much as I wanted to catch up with Luigi's pages, I decided to create 2 layouts per picture to make sure that the 2 boys get the same memory in their own albums.

Here goes... 

Bliss... The photo was taken at the dining lounge of the Manor Hotel in Baguio City. Just looking at my boys make me feel blissful, but a little regretful for their father, because he can no longer see them grow more. Well, I hope he will from heaven! I used here Webster Pages PPS, MM PPS, assorted cardstocks, Prima flowers, DMC threads, Tim Holtz Ranger distress inks and Idea-logy trimmings, ribbons and native twine.  

Got more to share.... TFL!