plaid overload

Last night on the phone:
Husband: So what's this Debenhams purchase?
Me: Oh, that's just a nice dress. It's discounted naman eh. Dedmahin mo na lang, okie?
---End of investigation---
Actually, it's an addition to my addiction - plaid prints

I don't know but I am so attracted to plaid. It looks so old world. I love everything old, pero wag munang old skin. It will come on its own time :)

So what's the fuss on plaid. I will show you.

Scarf. So warm and so Christmassy

I have worn this a thousand times. Anjou told me it will fade fast because I wear it every week. :)

For our Ferrari adventure/ Desert safari, whichever comes first

Anjo has this too. This is the biggest size in the kid section. :) Iba na ang pandak!

Abi: "Oh, but you have a dress like that already!" Btw, this dress was the subject of the husband's audit last night. :)

Hindi pa naman addict sa plaid ano?

Anyway, 
My kids are growing up fast and ever since they started attending IS, I have noticed how they become "brutally frank" everyday. Like this one habang sang gabing ako ay namlamlantsa :

Anjo: I wonder if Mama goes back to the gym.
Me: Why? Am I that fat already?
Anjo: Yessss!
Abi: No. Mama is not fat. She is very fat.
Me: Grrrrrr! Batuhin kita ng plantsa dyan eh.

Sabagay, ito na nga ang ebidensya:

Hindi ko na ma i button ang cardigan ko. :( 
Ang hirap kasing mag diet eh.
Hay!

a greener and cooler home

It took months before we finally decided to buy plants. Major reason is we can't bring it to the Philippines and it's really no joke to buy plants here in the UAE. It's unbelievably expensive. Last weekend, we went to this garden center to complete our "greening" and we went home silently thinking how it was so easy to spend AED2,000 + here, where in fact we could never splurge PhP20,000 for plants if we were in the Philippines. Or if we do it will already be a grand landscape in our small yard back home. Oh well, as my husband loves to say "this is how it is to live in a desert. 

So now our home feels like a real home. It really makes a difference to see some greens around. When I look at them, I imagine inhaling fresh air instead of our airconditioning inside. Somehow, it takes me back home.

Our first plant is the bougainvillea. They were infront of our yard. Actually, I think all houses here have bougainvillea on their gates and fences, in all colors. This is ours, in our frontyard. There is a long stretch of this plant at the side of the property. 

Also I planted gumamela yesterday, just before our entrance

I hope she withstands the heat of summer next year so that I can enjoy the flowers during the winter.

This is my jasmine, a variety of this is our sampaguita. I have two and they are starting to crawl on the arch of the entrance. Like sampaguita, those tiny white flowers smell good.

I don't know how it is called, but it is for our lanai. They come in two also. So leafy and so green.

See the taller plant? It's my tomato. Let's see if I could harvest later :)

There is a smaller plant beside the tomato, the name I don't know, but I love its flowers. So I bought two for my lanai. I still need nicer pots, though.

Calamansi. The center of the universe :)

That small plant out there bears fruit already :)

Parang ginto ang calamansi dito. That's why I prefer to buy lime and lemon. But nothing compares to

our calamansi. So I planted my own :)

Look also at my flowers around the calamansi plant. They were planted when we moved in but after that cruel summer, more than half of them was gone. So we planted new ones, but still there are vacant space.

My indoor plants

A table plant which bears yellow flowers.

this is on the platform halfway to the the second floor

upon entrance inside

At the corner of the dining room

 


at the corner of the family room

So who says living in the desert is less fun than being in the tropics? You just have to find ways. Yun nga lang dagdag trabaho ang pagdidilig sa akin. But it's alright.

when you are blue

... look at the things that make you happy.

My life may seem so easy for others, in fact my husband's aunt "seriously" joked me doing nothing in the house all day but just "making paganda". She said it so funny that I never took it as an offense. It became a classic joke for me. Of course, it is definitely not true at all. Try coming to the house on weekdays and you would  see my dry skin, oily hair, dark under eye etc etc.

The past couple of days were challenging for me and my husband because of the alarming emails we got from my DJ's school. He is not performing well in two subjects and my husband has become so worried about DJ's expulsion from the school. Well, I am not into that yet you know. DJ is smart but extremely shy. It will take a lot for him to get out of his shell. So now I am constantly in touch with his two teachers just to make sure he is doing some progress.

Anyway, who says life is always a bed of roses? Maybe yes life indeed was easy in the past but not anymore now. We live in a very complicated time. But we should learn to always look at the blessed part of it. Laging meron, right? Laging dapat may tahimik sa ating buhay. A sanctuary.

So serious, eh. This morning when I woke up, I chose to start my day beautifully. I turned on our Christmas lights and played Christmas songs

 I also took time to look at the things which are making me smile nowadays, like these:

 my beautiful cups. a conversation piece, at least for me. I plan to give this as a gift to my cousin in law :)

 my essential oils and room fragrances

 My Le Parfait jars. Hope to find smaller jars also

and my Poinsettia plants. I have two real plants and two plastic. :)


and a cup of coffee.

Life is good!!!

loving right now

I am sure you have friends who are into perfume. A lot of women are actually. I can't blame them. Your scent says a lot about you. Perfume completes your OOTD right? But for the longest time I was just so honestly happy with my Johnsons baby cologne and my Bien Etre. Until I came across Penhaligon's. When I read about Penhaligon's I fell in love with it easily. Perhaps because it sounded old. But I did not buy immediately even if I was dying to have one. I needed a "justified"occasion to gift myself with this luxury. And now that it's my birth month and I could wait no more, I got myself my first Penhaligon's --- Gardenia scent.

You too will love it. If you are the kind of person who loves flower scent this is perfect for you. Or if you want to try something new, this is worth your moolah. I promise. 

This is also available in the Philippines I heard, perhaps in Rockwell or Shangri la. Enjoy!

Marc Jacobs
I told you I was done with bags right? But after I experienced pains in my back and shoulders, I decided I needed to get a small bag. I wanted a light-colored bag this time. I found this Marc Jacobs perfect, with shoulder strap and a little bit roomy inside too. School meetings, church, malls, grocery - so comfy to use as an everyday accessory.

Louis Vuitton
This was unexpected. My dear husband surprised me with this cute bag from LV.  I was ecstatic, to say the least.
I find it very flexible though because it has a gold chain which I can use when I have to go to an intimate dinner or party. The shoulder strap which I forgot to put out is for my casual "walks". It's very lightweight unlike my Neverfull (magaan din naman ang Neverfull pero nakaka stress din sa balikat pag matagal na). But the best thing about using a small bag is you learn to edit your necessities:) You cannot carry your house with this size of bag right? And it's amazing how I can actually simplify my life.

So this is it. No big celebration for me for my birthday, in fact we will be hosting my husband's HS get together in our house on that day.
I am already happy and thankful to be with my family on my birthday. :)

God Bless everyone.

It's November

We decided not to put decors for the Halloween. We were not so sure how the houses in our community celebrate Halloween so we opted to just simply let it pass. But on October 31, we found our neighbors' frontyard decorated with witches, giants spiders, cobwebs etc.. Oh! how we  suddenly missed our Laguna home. :(

Maybe next year.

This year is our first Christmas in Dubai. Of course, Christmas is downplayed here, for obvious reason. But you can still find lovely decors in some department stores and hardware (Ace). Last week, we decided on a theme and we put up our Christmas Tree.

I chose Scandinavian inspired Christmas Tree for our first Christmas here. Actually, it's a choice between the mistletoe (the traditional) and the Scandinavian. The tree we bought was as tall as our old Christmas Tree which for many years now have found a new home in my brother's house. Our Laguna house was too small for a huge tree so we gave it away. Do you see the snowman on top? We placed it there because we cannot put the last branch of the tree. We should have bought a shorter one :) 

Behind the tree is a poinsettia plant. I don't know where Ace had imported those plants, but poinsettia plants surely made me feel so home.

But before Christmas, it should be my birthday first. So I bought myself my birthday treats. What else will make a housewife happy aside from a shiatsu massage? What else but shopping!

Clothes and make up! Happiness!

Have a blessed week everyone!

Happiness Project Step 1

I brought this book from our short vacation in the Philippines.

And if there is one thing I am learning from my reading it is to tidy up my space. So I began my clutter clearing challenge by "editing" the busiest room in my house --- the kitchen.
My Fridge, what else.
My refrigerator is the messiest always. How I wish I had a bigger ref with a lot of compartments so I don't need to organize all the time.

 It was nearing weekend when I did this. I could almost hear my ref breathing now. :)

Food cabinets.

 Wow! Amazing! The good thing that came out with my cleaning? I got to make an inventory of my stocks.

Obvious bang takot maubusan ng stock ng sardinas? :)

Purefoods corned beef is not so easy to find in the supermarket near us, so we maintain at least 2 cans. Sometimes I crave for delimondo :(

Di naman halatang mahilig kami sa sinigang. Pinoy na Pinoy :)

Medyo mailap din ang Pinakurat dito sa may amin. Also Alaska. Lalo na our favorite Alpine and Milkmaid. :( Wala talaga yata dito sa UAE

If there is a product here which we have learned to adapt our taste buds with, it is this

Oreo overload. When I saw the three boxes of oreo, I realized that my children have outgrown eating these cookies already. And I kept buying :(

Hindi ko na pinakita ang chichirya cabinet. I am not into chips, my husband is. So you can imagine how he tolerates my kids. Tsk tsk tsk . Not healthy :)

My "secret" seasonings :)

The rest of the kitchen cabinets were fine so I did not touch them na.

Next project:  Ang pinakatamad kong ayusin --- Closet.