Hello April!

the Before & After

Hello APRIL! I’ve been pretty busy getting sidetracked by tons of things: prepping up for my sister and I’s Birthday trip down to decorating my eldest sister's brand new family home. I really love decorating no matter how tiring it is at times because like I said before, when you enjoy the things that you do, exhaustion is out of the question. Beauty always has a price, no pun intended lol. It’s been a fact that you really have to spend to beautify yourself or a house per se and that was the challenge when I volunteered to decorate my sister’s new humble abode, how to work on a small budget in a short period of time. 

burlap bedside table

Vanity table

Originally, I thought of installing DIY roman blinds to their many windows, but, when I got to my sister’s house, they already had all the curtains and brackets installed so I needed to think of other stuff to work on. I instead focused on my niece’s room because I thought it needs a lot of work due to the cramped up space and clutter. The first thing I had in mind was how to declutter the room to allow more space and of course room to breathe. I hate clutters really, so, I always declutter first in order for me to decorate ‘cuz once the space is freed up (like a clean slate) it’s a whole lot easier to decorate. Afterwards, I started re-arranging the fixtures: bed, dresser, study table, bed side table etc. I tucked everything (that are not really useful) underneath the bed to allow so much room to move. Whilst re-arranging the things in the room, I noticed this old wooden table lying around so I decided to up-cycle it by covering the top surface with burlap to conceal the badly stained part, used laces to decorate the edges, ironed the burlap to flatten it then used hot glue to hold it together. I also bought some cactus terrariums to decorate the house. 

arrangement not mine; pillow cases and carpet 

color, my pick

Door decors from Papelmeroti; I added some 

rose burlap and colored feathers though. 

Dream catcher I made from previous post. 

Glass window decals in lieu of curtains; 

white & cork board I decorated :)

Built-in storage, yes the carpenter made them :D

Last but not least, I had all the windows in the house blanketed with glass decals because drilling the walls to install curtain brackets requires a lot of patience and might plus curtains are way too costly as well compared to window decals which only cost Php94.00 for a 3 meter roll and one roll was able to cover about 3-4 windows. I love glass decals because they give your windows that stained glass feel reminiscent of windows you see in churches. My sister by the way had a built-in cabinet installed underneath the stairs to hide all the clutters and to serve as additional storage as well. 

After my work is done, I went shopping and bought this wheeled backpack for my trip and some airy clothes as well. I’m not going to check in any luggage this time around for my trip to Vietnam to save me time waiting in the luggage carousel that’s why my sister and I both bought this Raccini™ wheeled backpacks for our second carry on bag. It’s just really ergonomic that you could just carry it or use the wheels/trolley. I love dual purpose stuff, they just make life so much easier. Oh btw, these wheeled backpack only cost Php1,190 in Robinson's (50% off I think) which is cheap yet it looks like your regular Jansport™  backpack except it's less than half the price.

another one of my diy projects--my cosmic jute
nautical ball, isn't she lovely?

name tags for your pets

Before I wrap this bloggie up, our pets finally have name tags yey! We passed by Groovin' Tags™ in SM Megamall couple of days ago and found these cute tags on display so we picked the ones that suits each and every one of our pets, waited 30 minutes and there you go, cute and colorful tags for your furry family. These babies just cost Php50 a piece.

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In God's Time

First of, let me welcome the month of November feeling thankful and blessed.

I can say its been a lucky year so far because we sold our house to its now rightful owner before the year come to a close. No one said it would be easy of course 'cuz it took five grueling years before someone finally took notice, was interested and eventually bought it. A lot of changes happened along the way and mostly painstakingly difficult. But then, God listened to our woes and prayers, he granted what we've been yearning for, a move to a new house eventually, to start anew. It was bittersweet but life goes on. Life is a constant change. I thanked my dearly departed Mom of course because this wouldn't have happened without her guidance, and above all, God, he made all things possible. As an adage goes “Patience comes to those who wait” and things will eventually fall into place at the right time or the most apt thing to say is in God's perfect time.

my ever reliable drilling equipment

Moving on, I got so busy decorating the house and all, bought new fixtures etc, etc. My sissies and I found this furniture shop that sells really affordable fixtures. Buying furniture is such a good de-stressing activity. I just love beautifying our new house. I actually love decorating because it brings out the creativity in me and when you have tons of ideas there's no stopping! I was so squeamish to hang our decors on the wall so we bought this impact drilling equipment at the nearest handyman store. At first, it was kind of difficult to wrap my head around the thought of operating that darn drilling equipment but after reading through the not so comprehensive instruction manual, I was able to successfully drill over fifteen holes (mostly by trial and error) which now holds roughly that many wall decors, mirrors, a wall clock, and the most difficult of them all, a towel holder. Drilling on really thick tiled bathroom walls is such a pain. It wasn't as easy as I thought. Nevertheless, I now seriously enjoy drilling the walls no matter how heavy the drilling equipment is after seeing the finished products. The effort and exhaustion is just all worth it. Who says drilling is a man's job? I don't think so. All you have to have is patience for it, an eye shield for the cement particles, an apron with pocket for screws/hooks and a surgical mask so you won't inhale the dust. Last but not least, clean up your own mess if you don't wanna get scolded!

he's better off asleep actually because
he does a lot of crazy things awake :D

I love our new home, it's peaceful and just minutes away from the central district. Let me also share that my cat now sleeps in my room more often because I think he's still scared to get lost in the woods nearby so he'd rather be a homebody kitty. I can't wait to venture into working from home as well because I already got tired of working in the confides of the office and endure the ever worsening traffic jams. I want to have time for lot of other things right now, especially traveling, blogging, baking, and my list goes on.

I'm off to visit my Mom's Columbarium tomorrow. I miss her and I wanna talk to her in silence, bring her flowers. Just early today, I heard the door bell rang twice and there's no one outside. I can't say it's grounded because I fixed our door bell myself and it's working perfectly. I guess she's just paying our new home a visit, trying to test the door bell perhaps since I always have doubts that I indeed fixed it LOL. Well, it's the 1^st of November what to expect? A lot of wandering souls yonder. Let's just offer them prayers. Nothing to be scared of. I am more scared of Burglars than ghosts. Just saying.

It's 54 days to go before Christmas. Have you decorated your Christmas tree yet? I did. My cat hasn't played with a single Christmas balls yet, I am crossing my fingers.

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