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A Fresh Start

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Late last year, I was so fortunate to have been featured by Common Room PH in their Meet the Maker series on YouTube. I had the chance to really rave about journaling and how it has helped me appreciate life more through the years. I also shared tips on how to keep a creative journal and make a healthy, life-enriching habit out of it. Talking about journaling for that video made me realize just how much this practice lights me up. I still love it after all this time and may have even grown to appreciate it much more than before! This intense appreciation for journaling is what drives Read More

December Daily: Keeping Christmas New

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It's that time of year again and I'm pretty excited to set up and start another December Daily journal! It's one of those little Christmas traditions I've set for myself which allows me to navigate the season with a little bit more intention. It's a practice that allows me to find a more personal meaning in all the festivities, gift-giving, tinsel and lights, so that I'm not mindlessly going through the motions, doing things a certain way just because it's how Christmases have always been done. My December Daily journals help make every Christmas season mean something new and different each Read More

Thrive and Trove Yard

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The girls and I were very fortunate to have been invited to the opening party of a new creative space and craft shop in Marikina City called TATY. That stands for Thrive And Trove Yard! Formerly known as Woak PH on Instagram, TATY is essentially a kids' maker studio that promotes skill-building activities and provides space for children to navigate risk as well as develop grit in art and making. You don't see a lot of kids' learning spaces in Manila where they are allowed to use real tools and do actual carpentry work. But in TATY, children as young as three are taught to handle hammers Read More

Brava, Girls!

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My daughters, Summer and Jo, started taking ballet classes last August. But last week, they attended their final session. They've decided to try and explore other things for now. Even so, I was actually surprised to see them enjoy ballet as much as they did. I really didn't expect it. They enjoyed it so much that we even signed them up for a second round of classes! While their two month ballet stint has ended for now, I was really happy and proud to have seen them flourish in a learning environment that was completely foreign to them and also witness, to my amazement, their subdued, Read More

Stamp Story Sale!

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Last month I was finally able to release and sell the first batch of stamps from my 100 rubberstamp project from 2020. I'm feeling quite relieved because selling these babies have always been part of the plan. I knew in my heart of hearts they are meant to be let go and made available to those who can get creative with them. A lot of work goes into selling these stamps, in my opinion, simply because I refuse to sell them as is. The process includes mounting each of them on wood, testing their stamping quality, pricing them, actively promoting them on my personal page, packaging them Read More

Jo Paints

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Jo, my youngest daughter, lost interest in painting early this year. As a result, I also held back on giving her painting projects for a time. Remember a couple of years back when the girls and I did various painting projects almost weekly? We stopped doing that almost completely as I let them explore their other interests, like Roblox and make up. But recently, when Jo learned her cousins have been taking up acrylic painting, she told me she also wanted to try. We checked out YouTube for some acrylic painting tutorials (there are tons!) and I let her pick the designs she wanted to work on. Read More

Looking Back 2019

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2019, the year before the pandemic, was a pretty eventful year. It was the year we let go of Kendo Creative (a small cafe and art hub we ran in Cubao), the year I went on a solo trip to Taipei, the year we went on many mini road trips as a family! A few months ago, I finally finished putting together my 2019 Project Life album. This is my sixth "year in highlights" album to date and maybe my last for now. I have been documenting our years in this pocket page system since 2014 when Jo was but an itty bitty newborn! It has been a lot of fun to make and my family seems to always enjoy Read More

100 Playful Abstracts

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2021 was a particularly unique year to our family. And it wasn't only because of the pandemic but also because we lived a large part of the year in the town province of San Juan, La Union. What was meant to be a two-week visit to surftown for my birthday almost immediately transitioned to Kayo and I apartment-hunting and very spontaneously deciding to settle indefinitely. We thought it was a good way for us to get out of the harrowing conditions in Manila and at the same time, give our children a more healthy and carefree environment. So we did. And we have been living in La Union for ten Read More

Valentine Crafts!

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Three days to go before Valentines day! If you are looking for last-minute craft projects to do on your own or with your kids in celebration of the occasion, I have put together five easy but lovely Valentine projects you can try at home! GET LIT Give life to plain candles by wrapping them up in leaf fossils, dried flowers or other decorative plants. Give them away as gifts or use them as a table centerpiece for your Valentines dinner at home. Who says staying at home for V-Day can't be romantic? Watch this video for the step-by-step! BLOOMING BOXES Old boxes can also be put to Read More

Travel Album 2018-2019

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During last year's lengthy lockdown , I delighted in looking through older family photos, specially those of our wanderings and travels. Tapping through thousands of shots became an escape and also a source of joy. I love photographs and their ability to transport me back to places I once visited and experiences I once had. This beloved quarantine past time led to me finally compiling three trips worth of photos and precious memorabilia into a hefty pocket-page travel album! The trips I documented are from 2018-2019 when I went to a "no kids trip" with Kayo to Hong Kong (2018) and to Read More