building the house, turning it into a home: baby steps go a long way

I am so happy to announce! That we finally made progress with the house! Same goes for the construction! Which is paint and stairs away! Oh, and windows and doors and kitchen and bathroom installation. But other than that! Just paint and stairs away! So excited to see the house alive! And so excited to create our home! (Because we all know a house isn't home -- and all that)



(Here are photos from Saturday's visit.)

Last Saturday, we officially adopted this baby. Only in white and blue chevron pattern.

It was from Mandaue Foam, which holds the most affordable stuff for the house. This baby damaged our wallets in the amount of PHP9,000, or more or less USD225. Originally, we wanted this baby in white, the fabric was soft, and it had peacock feathers the size of my hands, only longer because of the tail. It was eye-catching, breath-taking piece. But then we noticed how easily it stains (OMG I remember my son when he stayed in with my SILs for 2 weeks or so, and he had ruined their beautiful sofa!), so we immediately threw that option away and chose another pattern. That is! The chevron with a sort of burlap texture, which is perfect, not only for our theme (i.e. nautical x nature), but also for the kids, since it made cleaning a lot easier.


(Here's the baby in peacock feathers print. Lovely, isn't it?)

We also got ourselves a 3-door cabinet for PHP5,650 or USD141.25, and a 7-feet tall Christmas tree for PHP1,850 or USD46.25. But the tree was on sale, a 25% discount. I wanted a small tree for the kids (I want them to be able to reach up and put or fix the star), but the husband convinced me they'd grow taller in a swift, and it would save us money to invest when that happens. We are rooting for "The White Christmas" as this year's theme, just to mention.

Then, we went to a "wood" shop and asked for a quotation. We are deciding on whether or not we should get (just) the wood, or let them do their job and just pay for the labor fee and whatnot. It will save us probably PHP2,000 to 3,000 (or USD50 to 70) if we go the DIY route. BUT! It probably won't look as "finished" as it would, since we don't have the right equipments (sander and such). We also have to consider the costs if we'll buy our own brushes, sand paper, paint, and gloss finish (or something). Still a big decision to make! Well, at least we've decided on designs. We want wooden crates for the coffee table, wooden planks for the dining table, and wooden pallets for the bed frame and headboard.

Here are price ranges that we got from the shop. Pallets are PHP180 or USD45 per piece. These still need dusting and paint. Wooden crates are PHP250 just for the wood, not yet assembled, and no paint, not yet sanded. While planks sell for PHP50 or USD1.25 each. For the dining chairs though, we are sure we'll hunt for two thrifted chairs, which is still in progress. But I had found us a wooden (I think it was mahogany) steering wheel mirror for PHP150 or USD3.75, and a wicker suitcase for PHP450 or USD11.25; both will DEFINITELY be in our house. Also, a few wicker baskets (at PHP250 to 500 each -- USD6.25 to 12.5) and a wooden toy box (PHP1,160 or USD29). Husband thinks we should get the box for the coffee table, rather than building our own. I don't know; the crates look amazing, but it would definitely save us money and time (and energy).



(Source: 1, 2, 3 and 4: These are not the actual items, by the way, but they look close to what we're going to have.)

I am extremely anxious, in a good way, to have everything come together. Especially that Christmas is just around the corner. Hopefully, we can be consistent with the plan and deliver, if not very well, then at least decent.

we need more love letters

To the somebodies of our world,

You are loved. You are beautiful.
You are worthy of everything you desire, even when our crazy culture has so many ways to convince you you're not.
In all your struggles, you are NEVER alone.
Your dreams are worth pursuing,
so be brave and take the first step towards that one things that you've always wanted to do.
Life is too short to not start living your dreams.
Taking a risk is terrifying I know.
Here's a dose of courage to take the leap.
You can do it!
With so much love from my heart to yours ♡

-Source: anon from www.moreloveletters.com

From the website's About Us page:

ONCE UPON A TIME

In October 2010, Hannah Brencher began writing & leaving love letters all over New York City to ward off the loneliness and depression that ambushed her after graduating from college. Knee-deep in student loans and desperate to know her “place in this world,” Brencher’s letter writing efforts grew a platform on her blog after she made a promise to the internet: If you emailed her a snail mail address, she would write you a love letter. No questions asked.

One year and 400 love letters later, The World Needs More Love Letters was born. Founded in September 2011, More Love Letters is a community of over 20,000 passionate individuals from across 49 different countries who take to leaving love letters all over their communities and mailing letters to strangers in need. More Love Letters also runs a Campus Cursive Branch for college students & a Kids’ Cursive Branch for children.

OUR MISSION

The World Needs More Love Letters is an organization lifting, empowering, and mobilizing individuals through tangible acts of love.

OUR LOVE LETTER TO YOU

The world doesn’t need another website. It doesn’t need another app or a network.

What it needs is really basic. Simple. Bare-boned.& often forgotten in the race to get followers, likes & status.

LOVE. Pure, old-fashioned, never goes out of style Love. Ridiculous, oozing, cannot pack this thang into 140-characters kind of love. Fearless, bold, unstoppable love.

AND THAT’S WHERE WE COME IN, SUGAR.

We’re going to tell you that we leave love letters all over the world for others to be blessed by. We’re going to ask you to help us contribute to Love Letter Bundles for people you’ll probably never meet but psstt…. they need your words & wisdom today. We’re going to invite you to nominate someone you know for a Love Letter Bundle.

You are going to think we are a bit crazy. A tad loopy… But let’s be honest, you’ve been looking for a website that leaks love all this time.

FAIR WARNING, WE COULD CARE LESS ABOUT LOVE LETTERS.

We’re only interested in you. The cracked parts of your own story & how you can use them to lift someone else. It’s about how each of us can morph our lives into love letters… lamps… lanterns… to light the paths of others who needs kindness and love today.

It’s official. Now, more than ever, the world needs more love letters. So get involved. Check out the current letter requests. Join our subscriber list to never miss a beat.

Your cursive means the world to us.
WITH CROSSED t’s & DOTTED i’s.

The More Love Letters Team

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Basically, you leave an anonymous note, just a quick power letter, with a wish that it will brighten someone's day. Found love letters are posted, although not all, but it is inspiring when you read someone's story of how much a little letter had helped. It really -- it just makes you feel good about the world and life in general. I had already left a note, and planning to do more and as regular as possible, and hopefully, I can read my love letters from the website.

this weekend we will...

This will be quick. There's not much that's happened recently, aside from the usual pile of work, the usual "waking up in the morning" disaster, and the usual {and very personal} obesity frustrations. And to add to that, one thing remained constant, since the post before this; WE ARE MOVING IN TO OUR NEW AND FINALLY OUR OWN HOUSE IN A MONTH. Sorry, uppercase... I'm not shouting though. Just virtually screaming the excitement I am trying so hard to contain! I had shared our plans for the house. Mostly, DIYs, which only got me even more excited (if that's possible). So just to update...

Last weekend went fine but sadly, not as productive as I wanted it to be. We went to just one thrift shop, and then straight to our house (i.e. still under construction). I was okay with it seeing how much the house has improved -- I even had found chairs and a really nice basket (I will be back for you guys!). The rest of it was terrible as it all went to a "disgreement" with someone from the Engineering/Construction Department of the Camella Homes. We had found out that they gave us the wrong structural plan -- it has windows, but it shouldn't have windows -- and long story short, he was too "humble" to say sorry for the mistake. Anyway, enough of that. Or probably in another post.

I finally had sort of convinced my husband that a DIY dining table is pretty much doable. Thanks to Stylizimo, Elsie, Rachel, and Emma. Also, I am so glad to have found someone who did the "mixing and matching" of thrifted dining chairs, BECAUSE! That is totally what I will be doing! (Thank you Elsie!) I already have two chairs on my list, but I'm still hunting, because PHP1,000 or USD25 for a thrifted chair seems too much.

Tomorrow, we are scheduled for a trip to different lumber companies. I also had forced him into saying yes to going to a junk shop, of sorts. Because, I hope this won't sound as crazy, but I had seen an old door, and windows that I would want for the house! Originally, our plan is to use a door for the dining table, but I'm starting to get attached to palettes and planks. Fortunately, we're still in the premature stage of planning, so no final whatsoever on that. Not yet.

To be honest, I am not entirely confident to create, considering how much of a beginner we both are. But I consider myself very lucky that my husband has patiently listened, and has tried so hard to understand what I had been sharing with him for how many months now. And even more lucky that he has actually agreed with my ideas despite them sounding crazy and almost impossible. To summarize, I am just really happy and excited for what this weekend has to offer. And I am hoping I can muster all the willingness to wake up earlier than normal to get as many things done as possible.




(Source: http://www.abeautifulmess.com/2012/12/elsies-.html)

making our home: the planning

vagary (n.) ˈveɪg(ə)ri/
1. an unexpected and inexplicable change in a situation or in someone's behaviour.

It is an awkward blend of pity and wonder how quickly I change my position on, well, every question there is to answer.

Lately, I've been contemplating on whether to host a kiddie or a laid back party with friends to celebrate my daughter's first birthday. While it is tradition to have kids around, there are factors that we are considering, i.e. A) venue; B) theme; and C) which deserves to be in uppercase, BUDGET. The village where we'll be staying has a great outdoor garden of sorts, which is large enough to invite everyone, and by everyone I mean friends, relatives, and neighbors (just the kids -- sorry moms and dads). But given the fact that we're in the Philippines, even if it's summer, there might be rain. While I'm thrilled for a picnic, the other option is to get them all inside our house, which would mean I can only invite 20 people or so. We have an amazing front/side yard, but again, weather can't be trusted. I don't want to effort much -- setting up tables and stuff-- and end up squeezing everything into the living room.

I'm also concerned about the theme 'Whimsical Woodland' being too 'dark' for a first birthday party. My taste in colors is biased. Shouldn't it be colorful and be all sunshine and rainbows? Instead, here I am liking every single wheel of muted neutrals. On a related note, two days before her birthday is my birthday, so it can be a 2-in-1 party, that is for me, a good excuse to cutting costs. We can push the fun with the kids a month later, since it will be my son's third birthday then. But again, traditions. First birthdays kind of need children. ("We are children! You know. Young at heart?" This is me whining.) I am also thinking of throwing a Christmas party for our friends and Godparents of our kids, but we're also going to have a housewarming/blessing celebratory lunch or dinner, so I still don't know. But! First things first.

This month, hubby and I will start hunting stuff for the house. We have an amazing allowable amount of PHP30,000 or US$750 to spend (sarcastic). I am so going for the thrifted vintage stuff, but the husband, eeeeh. I was trying to lure him in to saying yes; I wanted to get us a secondhand sofa and secondhand dining room chairs. I've been showing him stuff all over the net about refabbing furniture. But he still hasn't totally agreed. But at least I got him to schedule a trip to 'Japan Supplies' type of flea markets. Also, I've been eying on a particular wood shop, so we'll be visiting that as well. To give an idea, and help me stick to the plan and decorate/stay cohesive, here is our, or should I say my so-partial home decor shopping list.

• Secondhand sofa which will pay a trip to the upholstery to get re-covered in a muted dark brown
• Seven cheap white throw pillows, in which three will meet with a marker and handmade stamps (to decorate with a poem that is hand-written, and coral colored bows and teal colored anchors), and the other four pillows will be covered in loud fabric (diy pillow cover, anyone?)
• Trunk vs wooden fruit crates for the coffee/center table
• Diy shelves, which will be in white (but husband is saying no -- *tears*)
• Thrifted baskets for storage (we have plenty of toys) -- or Diy rope baskets (inspiration: this)
• Diy faux fur rug
• Thrifted frames and porcelains to decorate the walls -- or pretty teapots/teacups/plateware; I want giant close-up, like really face only pictures of my kids in the living room
• Wire baskets or rack for the kitchen (to hang stuff)
• Thrifted door (believe it or not) to transform into a dining table
• White chairs for the dining room
• Large mirror, still for the dining room, which will be decorated with fake flowers (as seen from this post)
• A tiny part of the wall will serve as a divider, so we'll fill it with polaroid photo gallery
• Diy flutter curtains and tree branch curtain rod
• Diy inspirational words out of cardboard
• Diy bean bag chairs
• Diy picture clock
• Diy wood photo transfers (I want to create wooden blocks to make into a puzzle for the center table)

Honestly didn't know it will be that long. And that's just for the dining, kitchen, and living rooms! We still have the bathroom and master bedroom (the other bedroom will stay plain for now) to fill. I have diy dream catchers and pillows for the bedroom, wooden pallets as bed frame and headboard, and lot other stuff. I should probably write them down. I am afraid everything will get messy. And by messy, I mean buying things that are not needed. Tight budget tight budget tight budget.

We'll move in next month, which should give us enough time to decorate for Christmas. Also, diy gifts. Lately, I've been obsessed with handmade jewelries, specifically rings. It will be our first Christmas in our own nest, so we've decided to greet the 25th with just us, with our two kids. Though I don't know about breaking traditions; it is expected to sit with the relatives from my husband's side, and exchange gifts soon as the clock hits twelve. I am hoping to goodness they won't take it badly. We'll be visiting relatives and/or accepting guests anyway so...

Here's to hoping!

life recently in pictures

Or more appropriately.
In little Tumblr images with the hashtag #quotes.

4x4

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four quotes I'm wishing isn't true or is easier to follow.




four quotes that are true and (I'm extremely grateful that it) will always be.

HTML/Javascript: Make all your tables sortable

In my field of uhmm.. "expertise", it is normal to receive user requirements that are.. excuse me for using the term... "demanding". They would remind me that I (the technology) should always adjust to what they want. And I will probably forever be like, well okay totally can do that! I am a programmer by the way. But no, I'm no geek. Well, a bit, but not like those from (or some place as big as) Google. Those "people" (if they still are) who I admire A LOT. You see, admittedly, I'm a lazy arse. And when I "receive" a certain request, I tend to "Google" than "create" a solution on my own. So imagine the help I get from this bunch of geniuses all over the net! Including this.

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MAKE ALL YOUR TABLES SORTABLE by Stuart Langridge.

I am just going to mention a few lines from the article, because yes, my arse really is that lazy.

"
if you saw that table in a client-side application, you'd expect to be able to click on the headers and have the table sort, would you not? I know it always annoys me when you can't. A fair few web applications do allow this; most of them, which are pulling this data by submitting a SQL query to a relational database (an environment eminently suited to tabular data) implement this by resubmitting the whole page with something like ordercolumn=4 in the URL, and then adding an ORDER BY clause to their SQL query to return the data from the DB ordered by the specified column.

Resubmit the page? Just to sort data we already have? I'm sure we can do better than that.

Now, how to use it. To make a table of your choice sortable, there are three steps:

1. Download the Javascript library
2. Include the Javascript library, by putting a link to it in the HEAD of your page
3. Mark your table as a sortable one by giving it a class of "sortable"

"

It was pretty easy, that I was so amazed, that I had to share. Thus this post.
Tadah! And that's it. Let me end this with a quick note to Mr. Langridge.

TO STUART,

THANK YOU FOR BEING THE BRAIN BEHIND OUR LAZY ARSES.
JUST.
THANK YOU.

LOVE, ONE OF THE LAZY ARSES.

torchlight pieces

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For some reason, I feel extra lazy today. Must have something to do with the officemate who just wouldn't stop talking and making jokes about my and my husband's sex life. Pet peeve. Anyway, here is something to turn the tables. Hopefully.

I came upon Torchlight, thanks to Creature Comforts, along with the other featured indie shops. I was happy to find myself in a totally whimsical and lovely state of mind. Their items are full of mystery and wonder, there is no way I can't be pulled in. My favorite would be their Dream Circles Collection. But they also offer Bags & Wallets, Bracelets, Dream Catchers, Earrings, Necklaces, Rings; all in an equally enchanting quality. You may also shop by category: Spring 2014, Alchemist, Inner Mystic, Mountain, Dreaming,Vintage.