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. 

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!
 

Moodboard: Living-on-a-High Living/Dining Room

I was awarded Ms. Moodboard by my students last Teachers' Day as I always require them to have one. I am a believer of putting all your ideas in one place. It doesn't matter if you will create a hodgepodge of an image. That's how you know if the design will work.

Someone very close to me asked me to design his one-bedroom condominium unit. As the space is small, we had to plan the space strategically. His unit is in one of the topmost floors. I have already made my schemes and I would like to show you my favorite among the two.

P.S: I am not an interior designer. I only do this for people who are very close to me. I believe in professional courtesy. If you have a place you want done and we are in no way close to each other, please contact a licensed interior designer. 


The Space

The space is a one-bedroom condominium unit located in one of the topmost floors of the building. The site is at the busiest city in the metro.

Strengths

• The bedroom has a floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the city. 
• The unit comes fully-finished once it is turned over.
• It has high ceilings.

Weaknesses

• There is no window in the living/dining/kitchen area.
• The space is small. 
• The bedroom has space for one occupant only. 

The Solution

• I reconfigured the bedroom to make it bigger and to accommodate a bigger bed and a bigger closet. 
• I designed a customized bedroom door to avoid a space-consuming standard one.
• I rearranged the recommended furniture for the living/dining area.

The Moodboard

This is what I envision the living/dining room area to look like.

• Light grellow (green+yellow) walls all over to make for a sunny room. This is essential to compensate for the lack of natural lighting.
• A wall-mounted table to act as a dining table for two. The TV will be mounted on the wall as well to save space.
• Three tall mirrors will be put on the walls to emphasize the height and to give an illusion of space.
• A two-seater sofa bed for emergency sleepovers. 
• A teal (or any striking color) pouf to give a pop of color to an otherwise very neutral room. It can also be a coffee table if you put tray on top of it or it can also be an additional seat. 
• A sunburst mirror to bounce off more lights.
• A bamboo rug to differentiate the living from the dining area. Bamboo is essential as the owner is asthmatic and may be allergic to other kinds of rug.

There's my vision for the living/dining area. I will be posting more on the bedroom soon. 

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?

Laika's things: Youji and Me crib

My ever generous family promised to sponsor our baby's crib. I was tasked to look for reviews for great cribs. We wanted something wooden (we do not want pack-and-plays as we want the crib to last a long while), something painted in light color, and something that is beautiful. Another consideration was that it should not have drop side (per US standards as there have been reports of babies getting stuck between these movable contraptions in the past).

Originally, we wanted the Youji and Me Cuddlebug Newport 3in1 Convertible Crib. 

photo from Youji and Me facebook page

But Ate insisted on buying the higher end one. So we ended up with the Youji and Me Cuddlebig Riverside 4in1 Convertible Crib

photo from Youji and Me facebook page

I was 38 weeks pregnant already when they bought it but boy-oh-boy, my mother and siblings did not disappoint! It was MASSIVE! It won't fit our sedan so they had to use the family van. We have also tried the ultimate test--Saud climbed up the crib :) And it was strong enough!

This is how it looked when we still haven't bought the mattress.

crappy photo care of the iPod touch

Doesn't it look pretty beside our red chair?And here it is after we prettified it.

photo care of my sister Minah's facebook page
Crib set (can't remember the price) and mattress from Landmark (P350)

We wanted to buy the mattress from Youji and Me but they are selling one for P4000++. We browsed my favorite department store, Landmark Trinoma, and saw something thinner and cheaper for a fraction of the price. SOLD!

39 weeks and 1 day today. Will Laika be making her appearance on September 4?

Edit: I noticed that many people get to my blog by searching for a review on Cuddlebug cribs. I would like to report that my daughter, who is 20-weeks old now, still loves this crib. She sleeps soundly at night, uses the crib as her playpen in the morning, and even practices standing up whenever she feels like it.

Like so.



She loves it that she has her own place to play on and the handrails are sturdy enough to support her six-kilo-weight. It just worries me that her hands and feet might get stuck between the rails at night and she might have difficulty getting it out. We will buy teeth guard and bumpers in the future but for now, the crib is okay in itself.

How to Design a One-Bedroom Condominium Unit

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Disclaimer: By no means am I an interior designer. But I am a decorating enthusiast. And a designer in our family=free interior decorator. It’s a win-win situation.  

When my older brother got his condominium unit in San Lorenzo Place, he assigned me to design it. It is located right in the middle of a central business district which means great views, high-rise buildings, and super expensive lot prices!

I can just imagine him, sipping his coffee right in front of his floor-to-ceiling window as he stares into the horizon. What. A. Life. Anyway, what do we have?

·      He got a 25.5 sq m one-bedroom unit. As I have mentioned, it is located in the heart of a business district. Space is precious. So we need to make use of the space wisely.

·      It is located at one of the upper floors. I think more than 30-storeys high up. Amazing view! Have I not said that enough?

·      It is fully-finished. We will make use of the same finishes. Got to use what we have.

·      Anyway, here is the floor plan provided by the developer. We will change it by the way.

 To be honest, I have never been to the site as it is still under construction although I have made my schemes. I will show it to you later.