In and Out

Hello Blogosphere! I"m back after leaving this poor blog alone for what seems like nearly a year!!! (Has it been.......?)

Anyway, hello, I'm back again. I hope I haven't missed out on too much even if the real world had moved, well at least mine has... and SIGNIFICANTLY!

I've again started a new job but something that is different is that I have moved out of my home of 5 years, and moved into a new one.  I have been in the process of changing it up, even if it is a rental, by giving it a lick of paint and new furniture.  I just wish that the landlord was a little more involved and allow us to take out the furniture that is left here, which frankly is...... well, it is not our style. And it is sadly old. Really old. Like, 1970s old.  But hey, no complaints. It is a lovely new apartment up on the 8th floor, and we have a gorgeous balcony, and wind... wow is there lovely wind! Especially when it is raining :)

Because we have a balcony, I've started to build us a small little balcony garden. It's just a few plants NOW, but it will soon hopefully, be flowering and smelling the way I'm imagining it to be.

That is my toes and my humble basil, chive and lavender plants.

Slowly, slowly things are coming together.  :)

There is another piece of news that I am DYIIIIING to write about but.....

I think I will wait til next time to tell my news to cyberspace.  I still want to keep the secret a little longer ;)

It's nice to be back, and as always, I am so sorry I left in the first place. I won't do that again...

HAPPY HOLIDAYS! :)

Happy holidays everyone! The however many people that read this! :)

As I type, all I'm thinking about is how lovely it is FINALLY to have some cold air coming in for this tropical country. 

I have recently fallen in love with Instagram and have been taking pictures all over the place.  Here are some of them ;)

This is my lovely boyfriend. He took me to my favorite steak house for Christmas eve lunch :)

This is me eating a load of foie gras. SO bad, yet SOOO GOOD.

 

These are my dorkats. The one top is my boy, Panthro and the one in the bottom is my girl, Katara.

I decided to paint my toenails red to get all Christmasy. And put up my feet ;)

And I painted my nails too. This got a lot of comments on my Facebook, with people thinking my boyfriend proposed. He hasn't.

Ok so this, I love. Fantastic white Christmas :)

I love these pictures of the sky and space.

And to get ready for next year! :) Get these awesome calendars!

Anyway, back to being horizontal and hanging out with your love ones! :)  HAPPY HOLIDAYS! :D

Sunday in December

Today I made chocolate chip cookies. Today was the Sunday that I woke up feeling changed.  I ticked off another concert off my musical bucket list when I saw Sir Elton John last night here in Manila!

It was awesome!! And may I say, even as a fan, I completely forgot just how many songs he had!  He almost went to three hours and he's what? 67?  Fantastic.  Had the best time! :)  Sadly I was in the nosebleed seats so no real pictures to speak of :( But he sang "Candle in the Wind", "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" and "Rocket Man" back to back which made me cry like a little little girl.  Someone was nice enough to put it up in youtube.  Here it is :) 

Today, apart from making the cookies, I've just been home, looking through the different blogs and putting a culinary challenge to myself, of what I can make that can last the week.

So far, I've gotten, STEW, CHILI, and RAGU BOLOGNESE and some other Filipino dishes like adobo which is my fave and I need to refresh myself with.  I used to be able to make such a kickass one :)  If there's anyone out there reading this, please feel free to send me any suggestions or indeed, RECIPES! :) It would be appreciated very much! And thank you in advance.. :)

Anyway, some things I saw online today that caught my interest, apart from all the recipes I've been reading!

I would really like to get one of these rings:

This is cute for my initials (my initials are ARM... which makes me ineligible to have married Brad Pitt)

Black triangle ring

And a cute one with little dots and a small diamond :)

Love this MUG

This picture is my reminder of a stamp I need to have made :)

 

I really and truly want this robe. Actually there's a scarf too. It's so pretty.

I must remember this.  It is hard to live in with someone.  It is inevitable that you fight and there are some days that you will piss each other off.  This is a great article on how to combat that :)

I love this living room! It is super minimalist and the colors are beautifully muted.

A downloadable 2013 calendar! :)

What brilliantly WHIMSICAL pictures! :)

I would love to have this. I just need lavender!

I would love to try and make this.

I WILL try to make THIS deep dark chocolate.

Another Christmas idea! :) Based on the high I am on today as I've successfully made my first batch of cookies, this seems like a doable idea :)

What a great dining room!

Great natural stuff for your skin!  Who knew it was all in your food bin?

I need to pull up my boot straps and get ready for the up coming Monday in a few hours :)  Here's the hope that this week will turn out more productive than the last couple of weeks. I must also find time to start doing my articles and find my Christmas party dress! 

Fingers crossed.

For now I will leave you with one of my favorite songs of Sir Elton :)

Sunday Musings

Tonight I have had more than enough food in my gullet. I am of enough mind to sit and read and write an entry. Anyway, some things I found interesting on the web tonight.

I absolutely love this. LOVE THIS. 

I love these earrings, even more so if they were emeralds ;)

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CAPES CAPES CAPES CAPES! :)

It is nice little gifts for the men in your life.

I love this dwelling. I wouldn't mind if I had something like this for myself.

What a dress. Valentino is wonderful.

Love this page.

I am loving all these cozy spaces!

And one last thing, this dress is incredible.

Now to look forward to the week ahead. Here's hoping for the best! :)

My life as of Wednesday the 14th

So the whole day today was gloomy.  For someone living in a tropical country, that is saying something.  Oh but I love the gloom! I love that feeling that all you want to do is creep under the covers, grab a flashlight, put music on repeat and read that book that has been silently dogging your peripheral vision for the last few weeks. 

I want a day that didn't go by so quickly.  

I'm slowly figuring out soundcloud, mixcloud and 8track. I love them all because of the diversity of the music that can be found.  Anyway, on soundcloud I finally uploaded my first track. It's not MINE per se, it is from the Soundtrack of  Pride and Prejudice (2005).  So now, as you read my blog, you can have a little track for your listening pleasure :)

  Dawn by Drummergirl2578

Ah well, moving on. I read this article today and it touched my heart strings as a coffee lover.  Not that I will be getting any of her gear soon (come on now...) but I will do what she says, to basically grind fresh, and right before using, and to try to use more of the dripper, like the Vietnamese use, which incidentally, is my absolute favorite way of making coffee.

 As art goes, I am simply in love with Alphonse Mucha (read up here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphonse_Mucha).  This blog entry reminded me just how much :) He had a lovely beard too, if I do say so myself.

Though we do not particularly celebrate Thanksgiving here in the Philippines, we do however love turkey and all the trimmings.  These are some recipes that even if it isn't Thanksgiving, I think I will try my hand at :)

I love all the jewelry here! The fragile and fine look of the pieces make it all the more enticing to me.

These bookcases are crazy. I'm not sure I can keep one without having a small heart attack every time I walk by.

Great tips to keep a nice pretty fridge.

I don't know if I would give people bulbs of onions, but I do think this is a fantastic idea. 

This just blew my mind. And made me hungry.    I mean, LOOK AT IT: http://www.natalieluder.ch/shop.htm

Another thing that blew my mind, was THESE little 3D figurines.  Oh my word. I want this.

Seems like an awesome thing to do, with or without kids :)

And because I am of the paranoid disposition, THIS IS AWESOME AND PERFECT for me. HAHAHA!  I think I'll look to have one made locally.

Lastly, FANTASTIC PICTURES :) 

So far, not a bad hump day.  Hope all is well wherever you're hailing from :)

Vision Board: Travel

I've decided that the more I send it out to the Universe, the more it has the chance to come true :)  So here we go, places I want to go to and see.

1) Egypt - mostly because of the history factor.  Of course the pyramids....

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...but I would love to see the temples of Abu Simbel (to read up on them click HERE)

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2) Greece - There has always been a soft spot in my heart for Greece because of the myths I used to love as a child and the food when I first started eating it.  Oh and the olive oil. And ouzo.  I love this :) 

 Look at the Pantheon.

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And I would love to go to Athens, because Athena was and is my favorite deity.  Next would be Poseidon.

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3) Turkey - This one is easy. I want to see where Troy is.

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Troy's Walls :)

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4) Estonia - It is supposed to be gorgeous there... 

 

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 ...and I've always just wanted to see Tallinn the capital.  Look at how beautiful it is.

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5) Prague - This is because it is the gateway to Eastern Europe.  And the vodka.

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6) Beijing - Again, a little obvious but the Forbidden City and its history is a fascination of mine...

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And the Great Wall.

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7) Laos - I have just never been there and I've been to Vietnam and Cambodia already.  It is the last place in South East Asia I haven't seen yet. 

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I want to see this!! It looks fantastic :)

8) Iceland - Reykjavik I heard is lovely.  Also the whole aesthetic of the Netherlands makes me happy.  

 

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9) Finland - I've just always wanted to go to Helsinki.  Also, I want to see the aurora borealis (Learn about the Northern Lights HERE).  I heard that they have a fantastic summer music festivals too.

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10) Russia - I would love to go here because of my personal fascination over the last Czar and Czarina, vodka and caviar. :)

And I would like to see the Moscow Cathedral.

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Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!! :)

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Friday afternoon

This is the Friday afternoon of the first long weekend we have this month. Yes, we have TWO.  And not only do we have TWO, they are BACK TO BACK.  So next week is also another long (I think it is actually even a long-er) weekend. YAY!!! :) 

So here I am, picking up where I've slacked off with you my poor, unread blog and I'm here to give you some necessary attention :)

Saw the usually fantastic stuff online today that I want to share! :)  Here we go :) Oh and as I write, here is a little SOUNDTRACK for you to listen to, if you feel so inclined :)

I know that somewhere in my city (Manila, Philippines), I can do this...  Though when I will need a sweatshirt, considering it doesn't get colder than 25 degrees Celsius, is beyond me. I know! I can do this to tshirts :)

Hilarious "theory" :) 

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I am technically not a fan of table cloths, but I think I may do this DIY one for the cats, like a little curtain for the litter area. 

I love how these bookshelves go into  the wall. I'm still trying to think if this is how I want mine. Maybe in a bigger space and not this current apartment.

For those really bad days.

I wish we could do things like these here in Manila.

I have a feeling I will be using THIS SITE A WHOLE LOT.

Pretty cool unfinished art.

When I have kids, I have a feeling that I will do my own version of this :)  Pretty neat :)

A brief history on Human Communication :)

I want to do this to whatever house/apartment/condo I am in, which is to set apart a space, whoever small, just to BE. These are great examples of that.

AND! These stamp-like wall rollers are giving me ideas too of what I can do in my own home :) OR you can just go straight into their website, http://the-painted-house.co.uk/

I WANT THIS SKIRT SO MUCH I COULD CRY.

Ok and these leggings too :) hehehhe :)

Fun Halloween stuff :)

I am loving this HOUSE PLAN, but maybe not the same exact stuff... and not the same colour definitely.

And THIS is just an overall great reminder :)

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This weekend, I am planning to bank articles and do some research on a secret project I'm doing.  I owe my tito this for a very long time.  But next weekend, I'm going on a baking spree. I haven't been able to do ANY baking in a long time, so this will be fun.  

I also need to start brain storming on what to write about in the other blog with the boyfie. 

Until then my dear blog :)  *hug*