Little Loves

The holidays are not officially over till the Chinese says “Kung Hei Fat Choi!”. That’s Chinese for Happy New Year!

This year, we are celebrating Chinese New Year on the same day as Valentines Day—February 14, 2010!

With 2 special affairs happening on one single day, I can’t help but wonder what this day holds for us. You see, with 2 very active boys living under the same roof, every day is simply a day for new adventures for us. There is no such thing as a routine or boring moment in our household except, of course, when the boys are in school or if they are sound asleep.

As long as both are present and wide awake, we are all in high gears as if preparing for a siege about to happen anytime soon. I mean this in a good way of course :) I am always reminded of the energizer bunny commercial every time I see my little tikes doing what they do best… jumping, running and kicking around. If you have boys below the age of 10, I think you know exactly what I mean.

Mine are aged 5 and 8, and for me, this is just the perfect age for some top notch raucous! I guarantee you, between my 2 boys; they can start a riot just with their sheer combined energies.

At home, there’s simply no way of telling what might happen on any given hour of the day. It can be as consternating as our adopted feral cats scampering for dear life with my spunky little Karlo hot on its tail OR seemingly docile as mommy’s little trinkets re-born with a twist as our boys take their hands in designing, taking things apart and putting them back on in a totally different way. I must say, each time they’d do this, somehow, there seems to be extra parts that get left behind ready for a new project to be made. I don’t even know where these parts come from. If there is such a thing as multiplication of “bread and fishes” in this time and age, this is our home version.

Innocent, harmless pens get converted to rocket ships; cookie cans becomes valued treasure chests, clothes hangers to swords of knights and kings of York. Karlo would say he is the king and sometimes, the knight or even both and his older brother—Khalil gets to be the jester…Oh boy, and that’s the start of the real fight! And since I have time and time again refused to buy them toy guns, somehow they found a way to make it on their own, using papers and card boards. Origami takes a totally different meaning in our house.

Well, I’d like to think that being raised in a Christian family, Karlo is not really vent on mangling the cats. In fact, when asked why he’d chased them, he’d give you his sweet innocent look and say “I just want to play with them but they won’t have me!” Poor cats, they just can’t see past the danger of getting mobbed and run over by my 5-year old to realize his good intentions. And for my trinkets, well, I can rejoice that somehow my creative genes have wormed its way to my children. What a blessing!

With the 2 boys now able to tinker with their hands and their creative abilities starting to get apparent, no special event pass us by without getting something special from either one of them. Our recent treats were the ones they gave us last December.



Aren’t these just adorable? Whose hearts would not melt when given such symbols of love? The hours of hard work and careful attention is evident by the details they labored into each piece. My husband and I are just overwhelmed and humbled for the care and love shown through these master pieces.

And talking about love, I have included here the list of my 10 little loves which I’d like to remind myself over and over again.

They say, one can count sheep to get to sleep, I’d say, its better to count our blessings. This is in random order as I cannot quite decide which one I love the most.

1.)I love the smell of coffee that my husband brews for me almost all of my mornings.

2.)I love the feel of warm breaths as I wake up to a little jumbled mass of humanity, limbs entwined of our family of 4. The kids have their own rooms but somehow during dawn, they’d find their way into our room and into our bed.

3.)I love to tinker with my hands, creating things big and small. There is a feeling of exhilaration that I cannot quite explain seeing an object transform according to how I envision it to be.

4.)I love spending quiet time with GOD, with myself, with my family, with my closest friends, with my books and with my garden. I find it extremely important to find a place of refuge, my sanctuary when the cares and concerns weigh me down.

5.)I love getting together with friends and family specially those I have not seen for years. It’s nice to recall good old memories and then creating new ones for the future.

6.)I love getting presents specially the ones that clearly shows and represents the giver. I specially love the little gifts that my husband and children prepares for me. My husband is a genius in giving me well thought of surprises.


7.)I love challenging myself to learn new things. I remembered entering the working world not knowing how to type, much more use a computer. But then one month into a typing computer program and guess what? I learned! Sure it was hard as “old dogs are harder to teach new tricks” but this “old dog” is not beyond learning. No grand ceremonies, but I sure felt good inside.

8.)I love anything and everything beautiful and that includes music, art and fashion. I’m not really on the quest of acquiring more but I relish the opportunity to understand how society is transformed through these media. I like the idea that I have something to contribute no matter how seemingly little it may be.

9.)I love anything healthy and worthwhile, may it be in the food I eat, the products I use or the entertainment I indulged myself in. I like feeding my body and my soul with things that gives it life. I am not about to waste the gift of life and salvation that Christ, my Lord and King suffered on the cross for me.

10.)I love supporting a good cause and of standing up for issues and principles that I truly, passionately believe in.

There, I have more to include but these are on top of my list right now. And I am pretty sure that right after the Valentines Day, I have more to add. I am very much looking forward to it right now : )

Kung Hei Fat Choi and Happy Love Day everyone!!!

My Inspirations...

“What inspires you to create a design or to write about something?”

I’ve been asked this question countless times and while this seemed like a good question to ask somebody whose main source of livelihood depends heavily on art and creative work, my answer is actually not outstanding. In fact some would say, too generic.

My usual answer would be “anything”. This is not a conspiracy answer among artists, believe me, nor do I want to sound mysterious to haggle for attention. The truth is, as boring and as plain as it may sound, anything and everything inspires me.

There was a time in my teenage years when the confusion and struggles both in my school and family life prompted me to pour out my soul through my sketches. Sketches, doodles, scribbles… mostly incomprehensible - were my lifeline to sanity back then.

I remembered vaguely that I was vying for the top honors in school then and boy, people in the provinces, really takes these things so seriously. The teachers handling our class were torn between the two competing students. I remember one serious talk with one of my teacher-advisers as she detailed to me my class standing.

I garnered second in the end, but looking back, the lessons learned on struggles, survival, victories and losses are all so surreal --- worthy of a local FAMAS Award. Now if only I can get Judy Ann Santos to play my role.

Then at another time and place, one evening, heavy with my first child, I just could not get myself to sleep. Perhaps it was some crazy hormonal imbalance kicking, I found myself turning and tossing, feeling so depressed and for no reason at all.

To get me occupied and quell the strong urge to bother anyone else (poor husband!), I found myself painting in acrylic this serene and peaceful picture of a blue house. I finished this “master piece” at 4 am. I guess that was my own artistic way of pacifying the turmoil raging inside of me. I am proud to say that aside from the big heavy eye bags, and the sore achy back, no other collateral damage had been done.

When my two boys were aged 3 and 5, I considered that to be by far, the most chaotic family situation we ever had. I found solace in the scrapbooks and journals, and of little “Dear Khalil” and “Dear Karlo” notes I neatly compiled for my sons. Perhaps someday when they are old enough, they would understand through my own little chronicle of their adventures and mischief of just how uniquely special and wonderful both of them are.

In my career as fashion jewelry designer, some four years ago, I came across a client who brought us 3 pieces of designer necklaces and asked us to come up with 25 collections in one month. Our only inspirations were the 3 necklaces she left us. Talk about stress and pressure!

Pressed with a deadline, it’s amazing how much creative juices flow to come up with the most sought-after pieces. I have posted a picture of one of my favorite works borne out of that one-month creative sojourn.

So as if on cue, as if history is repeating itself, here I am again, faced with a 2 month deadline to come up with 45 collections of designer pieces to showcase in one of the major fashion jewelry tradeshows.

My inspirations for this gynormous endeavor? ….I am not looking far…I’d like to share with you some snap shots of the corner stone of my collection….my kids artworks! It’s unrestrained, unmindful, carefree, happy, expressive, head turning, and one that simply calls for attention, just exactly what I want our next collection to be.




Overall, I must say that my creative output is very much influenced by my state of mind, emotions, life situation, and maturity as an artist. And oh, I must include my understanding of my client’s needs and goals.

Nowadays, I don’t see myself doing childish doodles anymore, but like exactly what I am doing right now, writing this blog, announcing to the world just where I am and what I feel…

New Year Musings

The entry of the New Year---2009 is quite remarkable for me. 

First of all, it’s the first Christmas break that I didn’t stress myself too much shopping for gifts. I started doing my Christmas shopping as early as June last year. Boy, what a difference that makes comes December. I was able to spend more time just sitting back and enjoying quiet time with my family at home. It was good to miss the traffic for a while and avoid all the holiday rush.

Second, I am proud to say that I accomplished about 90% of what I wrote in my wish list of things to do. Sure, over the years, I got wiser by choosing only those achievable wishes, but that’s beside the point. 

The point is, for the first time, I was able to give myself the highest personal rating in accomplishing my “to do” list and I am ecstatic about it. 

Simple things which I deemed important but which my every day busy life has put aside, has finally gotten center stage last holiday break.

I was able to update my scrapbook (I have to print over 150 photos from my digital camera to get all the photos), gone through my closet and did a serious inventory, and last but not least, finally started this new website.

Other stuff like getting a good beauty pampering which includes a trip to my favorite saloon or finally watching the entire episode of the animation series I’ve been hoping to watch, were also some of what I achieved from my list. However, the first three (3) accomplishments I mentioned earlier were the ones I considered the greatest last December.

On updating scrapbooks---I realized that life will always dish us a mixture of good and bad experiences. It’s a cycle and it is part of living. But what makes the bad ones bearable is by acknowledging that as a cycle, it will come to pass. By looking at happy memories on our scrap books remind us that just like in the past, good times will surely come and that life is worth living. 


On going through my closet---I am a self-confessed bag lady. I mean, I have this habit of I accumulating things mostly due to sentimental reasons. My husband finds it acceptable probably even cute (or maybe not) that I keep things like my baby’s first tooth, tufts of hair from my sons’ first hair cut etc.

 However, in the matter of clothing, over the years I realized that there are just too much and too many things that I have accumulated. Prior to my cleaning, more than half of the clothes hanging in my closest has not been worn for more than 6 months, the space it’s sitting on could use some breather. 

I have finally let go of the favorite pants that are now slightly out of shape, the turquoise blue haltered blouse given by a friend that looks cute but unbefitting my personality, these, and many other caboodles.  

In a way, the whole closet cleaning became a personal fashion inventory for me. I realized that I owned quite a lot of black, white and cream colored clothes. And while I sometimes buy trendy and experimental-designed clothing, I always seemed to go for the classics.

It is quite a relief finding that after being self critical of what to keep and what not to keep, I still have a good array of decent outfits. With a critical eye, right fashion accessories, good posture and winning personality, I believe I am ready for 2009. 

I encourage all of you to do the same. New Year doesn’t necessary mean a totally whole new you or a total head to toe make over. For some, it might just mean a simple updating or of seeing the same you in a new, different light.  

HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone!!!