Pinterest Challenge: How to Make a Decoupaged Decor

Who here can remember the MTV Asia from way back with Mike Kasem as one of the VJs? If you do, high five to you because we're both old!

Now, if you're familiar with that, I want you to chant the following to the tune of Request of the day. Request of the day. Request of the day.

 I highly encourage you to sing with me. Pinterest Challenge. Pinterest Challenge. Pinterest Challenge. 

This is the time when, if Laika can already understand what's going on around her, I am sure she will be beaming with pride. She has the funniest mother in the world! *waving SARCASM flag to Sheldon Cooper*

Anyway, before we get anywhere else, I would like to say that I am a Pinner (Pinterest-er?). 

One of the images I pinned is this decoupaged letter from this site made by the Petersiks.  

I am here to challenge myself to make my own decoupaged letter. I also challenged myself into doing this without spending a dime.

First thing I did was to look for things I can use around the house. Good thing for me, somebody gave my daughter some puzzle mats, a magazine that is a freebie (a complete affront to my principle of refusing anything free if I can't find a use for it), and a glue stick (because I thought it's the least messy glue around).

This portion is brought to you by the letter B (I am such a couch potato 90's kid) which stands for Basman. I detached it from the puzzle and tear some pages from the magazine.

Here comes the fun part. Tear the pages up to the acceptable size. I learned as I went and realized that I should have cut some pieces smaller for the nooks and crannies. The bigger pieces where useful for when you are covering everything entirely. For detailing, use the small pieces. 

I went on and put glue on top of the page to create a protective seal. It's the poor man's Mod Podge (because I don't think Mod Podge is available here).

Wait for it to dry and cut the edges. Et voila! I now have my own version of decoupaged decor. Now to look for a place where I can hang this. 

This challenge is completely unofficial (Pinterest does not have anything to do about it) and is a product of imagination of a few people who wants to stop pinning and start doing. Feel free to go to the pages of the hosts to look at their own versions of this challenge: 

Sherry of Young House Love  
Katie of Bower Power Blog  
Megan of The Remodeled Life  
Michelle of Decor and the Dog  

 PS. I am contributing to this fabulous site about calendars and it would be great if you can visit through this link on my post about kitchen office ideas. 

Pops of color on the front

Ola!

I would like to share some inspirations to you through this blog and let me share my first post on this to you.

If you are like me who used to be so afraid of colors, I would like to suggest one fool-proof way to, little by little, introduce pops and bursts into your life.

Are you ready?

Here it is.

Bold-colored door.

Yes! Yummy, yummy facade :)

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 I started my love affair with colored doors when I saw Daphne Osena-Paez' door through her blog. Her red door attached to their vintage bahay na bato family home really brought tingles down my spine. Isn't it lovely?

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I can think of one person who would readily color her frontage pink. That, plus the whites make the otherwise boring bricks interesting, don't you think?

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Yellow is the winner for me. I will definitely put this in my future home. Sunshine-y yellow brings sunshine-y disposition, don't you agree?

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I'm sorry for the repetition of the color red but look at that shape! And the oil-rubbed bronze accessories seals the deal for me. Makes for one interesting door.

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I know that this is not bold-colored but it is the great combination of different colors. It helps that it also lets light in. No other words for this. Perfect for any narrow doorway.

Now that you've seen some samples, are you ready to take the leap? What color can you think of? Bonus points if, aside from making your door colored, you can also add interesting details.

Living Life to the Maximum

People think that my decision to declutter is my way of converting into a minimalist. On the contrary, doing this have made me into a maximalist--I want to use the things I have to the maximum and exhaust its potential. I have just recently adopted this lifestyle and let me tell you, this is not an easy path to take. Here's why:

1. Dilemma: I am a first time mother. An excited one at that. That means I have the tendency to shower my daughter with material things just because I think she needs them. The moment the pregnancy test showed two lines, I was in a need-to-shop-badly mode. This was aggravated by the discovery that my first child is going to be a girl--my own little doll! Imagine the amount of baby clothes I accumulated.

Lesson learned: Babies are all different, and my child--a low-maintenance one. Out of all the gifts she received during her aqeeqah, she only plays with two toys. That's it. Two toys out of all the many. The other ones, she likes to believe they are all teethers.

My action: I have requested my family to minimize the urge to shower Laika with toys. I have also stopped buying things that is not in the "need" column. Bumper pads and teething guards? Need. Cute dresses that she will most likely not enjoy? Want. After all, at her age, what she needs are non-material things.

Who needs three chairs? No one, I tell you. Although we have been using all of them most of the time. 

2. Dilemma: I am a girl. I was pre-programmed to like all things sparkling and beautiful especially if it starts with a sh- and ends with a -oes. I. Can't. Stop. Buying.

Solution: I bought a rack that can house just a dozen pairs of shoes. When I buy one pair, I have to give another pair up. This way, shoes are kept to a minimum. And I mostly stay at home now. No use owning too many when I am usually in a shirt-pants-slippers getup.

3. I love magazines. I also can't bear the thought of throwing one (as if I need to read it again or browse through one when I need inspiration. Hello, internet!).

Solution: E-subscription. This is one of the things I love about having an iPad mini. I can still enjoy magazines and books without worrying about clutter. I am no book purist. I am for reading a book even if I cannot touch book pages physically.

4. My husband is a doctor. Every time he has a convention, you can just imagine the amount of freebies he gets! I get a headache every single time I see him with ball pens, USBs and markers he doesn't even use!

Solution: I asked him to refrain from hoarding things just because it's free. One ball pen is enough. USBs are useful but who needs a lot of them? Markers? We will just buy when he needs one. I am not a snob. I just think there is no need getting things just for the sake of having one especially if it's free.

Those are just some of the things I can think of at present. What pushed me to declutter is now, I think of any space as a real estate property. When I need to throw something, I have to think of the last time I used it. There are times when I feel like I am wasting something but I am now choosing to think of it this way: The storage space that an object occupies can very well be used for something that is more useful. I can live in a smaller space but I can't because of the amount of stuff we have. Now, we have reduced the amount of our things and I can't wait to reduce it again in the future. I also disagree with the notion that you need to have a big storage space. Big storage space means more things you accumulate. At the end of the day, these things don't even get to be used. I say no to more storage, yes to proper place for everything.

Revisiting our future home's model unit

Who here is tired of hearing me say that I am a frustrated interior designer? Show of hands? None? Good.

Let's get it on with this post then :)

We will be transferring to our future house late this year and I can't wait to design our unit. Yawning now? No? Cool!

I want to walk you through my design process and the first order of business is to let you in the model unit by showing pictures.

But a side story first. How did we decide on getting this condominium unit? It was August 19, 2011, the Quezon City day (think of me as Ted Mosby ala-How-I-Met-Your-Mother), both the husband and I did not have work as it was a holiday. I had to process my visa for China that morning and he accompanied me. We did not have anything to do that afternoon and then I remembered my very good friend April's constant reminder to please, please visit their showroom in Megamall as she was one of the people to design the room. We decided to go there from Makati.

When we got there, we were amazed by the showroom. It was tastefully done and, our agent, convinced that we were buying, entertained all our questions. I want to clarify that we did not have any intention of getting a unit that day. It's just one of our hobbies as a couple to dream and look at model units, hoping that one day, we will have the ability to afford one.

That night, I was not able to sleep. I really, badly, wanted to buy a unit just because I loved the location, the price, and the design (please note that I am not carried away by showrooms. I know how to block out the furniture as I know when the unit is turned over, it will be as blank as a coupon bond).

A week later, the agent we talked to told us that the project we were considering to buy had a promo that month. We can pay for a measly 10% for 23 months. That's it! Now we can afford to buy one.

Still, we had to consider many things. And in the end, we bought one.

Phew! That's too long a story, isn't it? On with the rooms now!

 

 

Can you tell I'm super excited? Anything you're looking forward to this year? Are you just like us who will move from one side of the region to the other? 

The Young House Love Macklemore Thrift Shop Challenge

Before I begin, I just want to apologize for not having the chance to update this blog for over two weeks except for the occasional posts here and there. Life happened and Instagram came. Dub me the Latecomer as I have just discovered the beauty of this social network.

Because of that, I installed a good plug-in so you can still be updated with my life. Yes, I'm talking to you, my three loyal readers.

I have also just devised a way to organize my schedule without compromising time with family, work deadlines, personal enrichment and blog-writing (in that particular order). Allow me to explain: My day starts at 5:00 am after Laika's crying for milk, then I start pumping milk, praying, sleeping a little until husband wakes me up for breakfast. The whole morning is dedicated to Laika until she takes her morning nap and in the afternoon, I enjoy lunch with the husband (who conveniently works in the hospital right in front of our apartment), take Laika for a bath, and play with her until her afternoon nap. That's when I get some work done. Evening is for dinner, exercise time (because I really, badly need to get back to my pre-preggy weight), and then that's when another round of work is done until I sleep by 12 midnight, if I'm lucky, or 2 am, if insomnia strikes.

Phew! That's a whole lot of explaining for an I'm-sorry-I-don't-post-as-frequently-now post. That is to say I hope to be a better blogger next time. I'll be lucky to get a post done a week now but I will try.

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, where was I? Right, the Macklemore Thrift Shop Challenge. Remember my favorite bloggers, John and Sherry Petersik? Well, they are the bloggers behind Young House Love and they are the awesomest dork bloggers ever!

John and Sherry posted a Macklemore Thrift Shop Challenge in their blog and I heard myself thinking, "challenge accepted!" So I dragged my sweet husband to the nearest Thrift Shop. As in five-blocks-away-from-the-house near.

The challenge says to bring $20 and because in the Philippines, that means P814.30, I prepared myself to bring in stuff for the house.

See, I have never, for the life of me, thrifted for things for the house. Clothes, sure I have. Other than that, nada. Zero. Zilch.

On the drive there (yes, five blocks and we still brought the car. What? I don't know if we were going to buy something massive), we heard, for the first time might I say,  the Thrift Shop by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, on the car radio. True story.

When we got there, as it was after office hours, we were clearly losing natural lighting. That is to say, "sorry for the crappy photos, I did not think to set my camera to the correct settings".

As soon as we got there, the first thing that caught my attention was this beautiful cabinet made of rattan. I would marry it if I could. Sorry, Saud. Good thing for him, it costs P4000 (about $100) and that's about 5 times more expensive than what I brought. So, goodbye, gorgeous cabinet. I wonder what could have been?

I continued browsing, not even knowing what my P815 can buy. Saw a lot of things with potential. And then it happened. My husband's jaw-dropped.

Yes, that's genuine and pure awe. I stole this shot and I heard him say, "if I see a Gameboy and a Pokemon here, I am going home with them." Gotta love that despite having our own, he is still a child at heart.

Unfortunately, he found none.

I was also in dreamland as I found a place with lots and lots of furniture. I always had to remind myself that we had barely a 50-square-meter apartment.

To make the Macklemore Thrift Shop Challenge turn into a genuine Young House Love Macklemore Thrift Shop Challenge, I photographed two things in the list. Two, because I cannot bear to do silly things in front of the camera (bonus points for that?)

But! Unlike my husband, I did not go home empty-handed.

 

Two wonderfully-patterned vases for P300 each and a nice oriental tray for P200 (I haggled from P250). Oh yes! Challenge done!

And here they are in our dining table.

photo from my Instagram. Yes, I'm an addict. Get me to the rehab.Fast!

And to prettify our new kitchen stuff, we bought flowers from the nearby Dangwa. I love our neighborhood!

How was my Thrift Shopping? I had fun! Too much fun that I swore I will come back. This time, I want to sell stuff. Goodbye, clutter-in-our-house!
 

Home Office

People who are very close to me know that I am a frustrated interior designer. That explains my fascination with chairs. Anyway, that's a story for another day. What I want to share is my home office.

To keep me sane from lack of sleep, I channel my frustration by looking at interior design blogs. My computer used to be in the living room. But since giving birth, I have never spent much time there. So we had to transfer the home office in the corner of our bedroom.

My home office

I use a console table as my study. Here are my tools for blog hopping:

1. My 2-year old iMac 21.5" desktop. I love that it has a big screen and I can open many programs and work on them side by side.

2. Leftover box which hides our chargers and remote controls.

3. iPod Touch 3rd Gen for when I have to be mobile. It has been with me for three years and I still never get tired of it.

4. I do my pumping while reading so I have my breastfeeding tools with me in the study. And, yes, that's 8-oz. worth of milk for one pumping session. Thank, Mommy Treats.

5. Alarm clock to time my pumping intervals.

6. Battery-operated lamp and electric fan combo.

7. Lamp.

8. Laika's storage boxes.

9. Bright orange chair.

Being fickle-minded, I may redo this arrangement soon when I get the inspiration. What do you suggest?