We've Moved!

I'm sorry I have been missing for weeks. I'm happy to announce this good news ... we finally moved to a new house! It's a rent, much smaller than where we used to live but defintely something we can call our "own". 

The past weeks have been alloted to packing and unpacking our things from my in laws house to our place. I never thought it'll be so stressful!!! Most of our things are still on boxes ... not because we don't have time to organize them but because we don't have enough cabinets to store them hehehe. I only realized how little we own when I started packing them. And realized too that most of our things are basically documents, magazines and books. We don't have so many appliances and furnitures hehehe. When we moved to my inlaws' house, it was newly built and fully furnished and so we never had the chance to buy our own stuff. Now it seems that we are a newly married couple starting from scratch. The Lord has been blessing us tremendously. He has been sending people who has been generously helping us in our home. We are more than grateful to friends and family especially my parents, Jeff's aunts and lola and my aunt too for all the help.

Moving must have been one of the most important decisions we've made in our lives. It's something we have longed to do for the past 6 years of our married life. And though I regret having to do this after 6 long years, I'm so happy that finally it came through this month! 

We love being on our own. Our place is near our business and Ethan's school! Ethan has been adjusting very well. He's so excited about decorating for Halloween and Christmas.

Since we've moved, I cannot scrap yet (no space) and check my email regularly. We still don't have internet connection and we're really hoping our application for PLST DSL will be approved the soonest. If you're looking for me or you need anything from me, I suggest you send me a text message instead as I cannot find time to go to an internet cafe often.

I'll find time again to post layouts I made before we've moved, mostly are Daisy Bucket layouts. I haven't worked on my other DT stints. I'm so sorry. I promise to be back, hopefully soon.

Thanks!

-Pia

Scrappin' Moms at Ruffa and Ai!

I've just watched myself on TV! I never had the chance with my previous guestings because they are always aired live and because I don't have cable TV bwahahaha! In fairness, 4 minutes and 5 seconds isn't bad at all, probably one of the longest TV exposure Scrappin'Moms had! I was surprised to see that they didn't edit nor cut short our TV exposure. I love it that my layouts were shown in TV (ScrappinMoms, did you see yourselves too?).

The taping was held August 14, 2009. Now you know they don't air live hehehe. Anyway, I was told about this TV guesting the night before ... maybe 9 or 10 in the evening. Talk about showbiz hehehe! Anyway, none of the Scrappin' Moms will be available the next day so I was thinking if this will be worth the gas and the effort to go to ABS CBN, considering it's always a pro bono thing. Besides, Ethan has school test the next day and I was too busy reviewing him that night. But Jeff reassured me I can go if I want to and he'll take care of Ethan the next day. So, I called Arlene and told her if she wanted to come with me. She agreed (and this is the best decision since she literally made everything easy for the two of us). I slept at almost 2 am, trying to prepare for the guesting. I haven't mentioned that I didn't have any idea what will happen or what will be the topic of the discussion. When I talked to Belle of Working Mom Magazine at 11pm (WM are our contact persons for this guesting), she said it'll be about memory keeping, that's it!

The next day, Jeff dropped me off to Arlene's house in Alabang. When I arrived at Arlene's house, my jaw dropped as I saw the Town and Country - of all the cars she picked this one. We almost had everything in the car - tools, pps, embellishments, shadow box frames, printed copies of sketches, food, water, make up etc.! She even brought with her two assistants! Told you she made life easy for us and I'm thankful she was with me.

As I met with Marie (Belle wasn't there) at 12nn., we proceed to the dressing room. I was able to talk to the TV writer and to my surprise found out that the topic for this episode is "reunions and friendships"!!! The Star Circle Quest Batch - Sandra, Roxanne, Melissa and Joross will have an instant reunion in their show. Ok, so I wanted to panic ... because I wasn't ready ... who was, anyway?! She told me that I have to prepare a half done layout so that I can do demo about it.

Me, Arlene and Marie Aquino (Marketing, ABS CBN Publishing)

I had to look on the layouts I brought with me ... anything about friendships, I thought. Good thing I brought my layouts about Scrappin' Moms and about Jeff's friends. Unfortunately, I don't have any picture for the demo. I chose one photo of Ethan and convinced myself this will do.

It took almost 4 hours of waiting before we were called. For the last 4 hours, I can hear my tummy already (I hardly ate anything because I was doing my layout for the show), I was feeling really cold (if you've been to ABS you would know what I mean), I was memorizing my lines (they didn't give me any script whatsoever so I had to come up with my own and be ready in case the hosts asks me questions). Marie told me to mention about Working Mom Magazine, sort of this way, "for more featured articles on bonding activities with your friends, kids, grab a copy of Working Mom Magazine". And yes you bet that's the one I forgot!!!!!!!!! I felt I was doomed and I was so embarassed when I went down the stage and looked at Marie. I have to call every one I know from WM just to apologize for my mistake!

Anyway, the guesting turned out well (except for the one I mentioned). I don't have problems with speaking in public, buti na lang makapal mukha ko hehehe. I explained a little about memory keeping, the words that came out from my mouth is already obscure to my memory. hehehe. I taught Sanadra a little on scrapbooking, I was giving her the letters and the buttons but she would hesitate everytime I tell her she can place them anywhere she wants to. To top it all, I was able to promote Scrappin' Moms and the upcoming Scrapfest! Arlene though didn't get to talk because when the PA asked us who's going to do the demo and explain, Arlene pointed to me. I was given a lapel but I was thinking she should've been given one also because she was also a guest.

Off air, Ruffa talked to me coz she wanted a scrapbook album for herself. I'm keeping my fingers crossed because it'll be good for Scrappin' Moms. Also, Roxanne approached me for my number. She's a nice girl and very beautiful. I had to tell her I was starstruck. Back then when she was still in SCQ, she was my bet and I've always liked her pretty face.

The layout I did during the show. Sandara placed the heart, some of the buttons, and the letter stickers. At home, I altered it a bit hehehe. I added word stickers, the journaling and a few more elements. (Based on a sketch by Becky Fleck)

It felt good to be able to see myself in TV again. I'm glad that I was able to show my layouts and tell the audience about this wonderful hobby. I hope that many will be encouraged to scrap and our community of scrappers will grow tremendously. Most of all, I 'm happy that I was able to represent Scrappin' Moms. I hope one day (you know this Liza) we will be given a break we deserve ; D

Thanks to Working Mom Magazine and to Arlene for coming along with me!

-Pia

Claudine Barreto

I was in my teen years when I used to watch Claudine Barreto in the famous show, "Ang TV". A show aired at 4pm as I fondly remember it. I was a fan back then and I never thought that I'd be privileged to scrap Claudine's photos now. It's truly an honor. My only wish is that I get to meet and talk to her and maybe Ms. Kris Aquino too! It is such an irony that I get to see their personal family photos but I never had any connection with them!

I was asked by Star Studio Magazine to do this scrapbook album as a gift for Claudine's birthday. I did this a day before her actual birthday celebration at ASAP. I printed Claudine's photos that evening and told myself that I would finish the 10 layouts for her that same evening too . Unfortunately, I was very tired when I came home past midnight and thought that I'd rest for awhile. I had the shock of my life when I realized I overslept and woke up at about 5am! The album has to be brought to ABS CBN late afternoon that day.

So, I had to scrap ala "Studio Azul's Scrapbook Buffet", 10 layouts within 5 hours atleast! I started at 5:15am and finished at almost 1pm (I had to do several mommy duties in between so I actually didn't scrap all those hours!) My hands were already shaking because of panic and pressure! It was one of those moments I never want to be in again hehehe ...

I was able to deliver the album past 5pm at ABS. It was raining hard that day (may bagyo yata if I'm not mistaken). Since Jeff has a photo coverage that day, I had to commute with Ethan from Cavite to Quezon City!

I'm sorry the photos didn't do justice to Claudine and her family's photos. The photos were taken inside the car a few minutes before I finally gave the album to Sheila of ABS CBN Publishing. It was the best that I can do that time.

Thanks!

-Pia

National Language Month and a New Layout

I'm back. We have been very busy (and still busy) in the household. Hopefully, we can move to our new place soon. And hopefully too (with the help of your prayers) we'll be able to surpass everything that we are going through right now.

Anyway, since I've been away for almost a week. Here are some updates:

To celebrate the National Language Month, last Aug. 17, Monday was the Filipino Costume Parade at Rosemont School. Incidentally, Rosemont is also celebrating it's 23rd Anniversary! So after the parade, students were given "Sorbetes" as a treat.

Ethan wore a Barong Tagalog during the parade. Hopefully, I can come up with a better Filipiniana attire next year because this is the 2nd year that Ethan wore his Barong hehehe.

Ethan with Amanda

JK-D with Teachers Yohan and Noemi. I don't think we will ever be able to take a class picture where all of the kids are smiling or atleast looking at the camera hehehe.

On another note, today, my box from Daisy Bucket has arrived!!! It has been months since the last time I received a box full of goodies. Thanks Cassandra!

Anyway, since I was too excited to play with my new stuff, I was able to make a quick layout this afternoon. Pardon the photo, it has been raining here and I couldn't take a decent picture of my layout. Hopefully, tomorrow will be sunny so I can take photos of my other 2 layouts that I recently finished during our 2 TV guestings (separate posts on this!)

I used Posh Posies - Groovy and Mod and Beautiful Day - Kite papers and rub ons for this layout. It's a pretty simple one, no techniques ... just plain white space. I liked it this way!

This is Ethan while playing with his camera (it’s a real one but we didn’t put film on it). Since he was so used to seeing Jeff with his SLR, he pretends that his camera has an LCD screen too! Everytime he presses the shutter, he will take a look at the picture he took, although there isn’t really a screen to look at hehehe! I love that he uses his imagination to play.

other materials used for this layout: buttons, Heidi Swapp letter chipboard, Scenic Route chipboard and Zig pen

Photography by Jeff Lopez

-Pia