Happy Halloween

3 hours to go, and I'm so ready for 5:30.  The halloween festivities begin!

Wishing everyone a SPOOK-tacular Halloweeen!



Tita Cyn's trip to Lourdes

Days prior to Tita Cyn's departure for her pilgrimage to Lourdes, a series (take note, SERIES) of 101 sessions on how to operate a simple, basic Olympus C-310 digital camera took place...while having lunch, snack time at the mall, in her living room, in my room, in the kitchen, over the phone, and so forth so on.  On the day of her departure, the 101 sessions continued on via text while she lounged around at the airport's waiting area. The same hows and whys by the way. How do you turn on? Turn off? Zoom? Flash? Settings?  Nothing extraordinary, but the same ole questions over and over again. On my end, I have developed a robotic response in reply to these questions..."Turn it on then shoot! But don't forget to turn off!".  Plain, simple and extra cautious of the words I use.  Any foreign-sounding word like "white balance", "macro" would have zoomed us back to square one. And as for my reply to her question on how to zoom..."Just walk towards the object if you want a close-up, or walk away if you want a wide angle shot." There you go, Tita Cyn's 101 session with me.

Today, a month since the pilgrimage, I browse through Tita Cyn's photos and I am shocked by the fact that my impatient way of training have paid off.  Lol! Below are a few photos of the tour with no captions. I am here for the purpose of uploading (then secretly blog).  But I am dreaming that someday I experience all these.  Though questions regarding the Olympus have lessened, I am now faced with thousands of questions on how to upload photos in facebook, more so share with the whole wide world.  So the teacher in me only said, "I'll upload and give me your password!".

Here you go.

Tita Cyn and By Beaded Story's Mother's Heart necklace that was loved in Lourdes. I briefly talked about it in this blog.

And because of them, their tour and their scheduled get together next week...

I am rushing these....

 To family, relatives and friends of Tita Cyn, the full coverage of her trip will be uploaded in facebook soon.  Of course, by yours truly :)

J. Bond's birthday

Last week was J. Bond's birthday week.

On the day of his birthday, we had a mini-feast of paella and cake.

 

He worked just like on his previous birthdays. A deep embedded and solid mark of martyrdom and true dedication.  Nothing new.  At the very least, he thinks the cake was great.  I think so too.  I drooled, even if this newly discovered chocolate cake swimming in caramel sauce bought from Aggy's bakeshop is a no-no.   Health related, folks. Nothing to do with diet.  Ok fine, maybe that too.

Then came a relaxing celebration a few days after.  But first, a nostalgic story of not so long ago.

Before this blog came to life, I have long enjoyed documenting photos, memorabilias and short snippets of life's little pleasures in scrapbooks.  I prefer working with recycled paper, use multi-colored pentel pens and hand write every single page.  A  personalized approach that shares more, including striked out mistakes in grammar and spelling.

In 2004, I made this scrapbook after J. Bond and I's first visit to Antonio's in Tagaytay.  We were living in single bliss yet.  Married life happened two years after.

Luck was on our side.  This was when Antonio's was keenly strict on  their "Prior Reservations" policy.  But as fate would have brought it, we were meant to dine without any prior reservation, much more interact with the man behind Antonio's.  Here's their website.

J. Bond in a nearby pond, playing with kois.

Then, the bill.

We seriously considered Antonios as  first venue for our wedding reception.  Back in 2006, a maximum of 50 people can only be accommodated, and that included us and Bernie's string quartet. So, we opted for our 2nd choice, Sonya's Garden. Then, the story continues to this day.  My bead works, as most of you know, have been housed by Sonya's Garden's gift shop (The Country Story) for 4 years now...side-by-side with artworks of national artists.  The last I saw was an original painting by Fernando Amorsolo, safely tucked in a secret room.  

Last Friday, we celebrated J. Bond's birthday in Antonios.  Once again and like the first time, luck was on our side even with no prior reservations.  Having revived the long forgotten memory of our first visit, I must say how inspired I am with Antonio's lovelier and spacious transformation. Truly, I have fallen in love with the place for the 2nd time around.

In 2004, pavements and its parking lot were covered only by stones.  Now, it looks this way.

1) Us by the foyer. 2) Me against a beaded artwork. 3) A collage of family photos.

   

Where the koi pond used to be.

A play of prints.

Our nook by the window.

We craved and gorged on burgers instead of going for  their fine dining cuisine.   

Absolutely a feast!

My birthday is arriving pretty soon, and so is a repeat of Antonio's. Thanks J. Bond for the delightful burger and a happy relaxing day.  Happy Birthday!

P.S.  A trip to Tagaytay ain't complete without dropping off new stocks of bead necklaces. Check them out at the Country Store of Sonya's Garden.  Cheers!

The only reason why I go to the beach

In this blog, I said I look this way while at a beach. Especially La Luz.

There is a reason. I  hunt, then go nuts over these stones.

These stones serve me well as body scrub and I swear by its cleansing power.  The usual loofah do nothing except scratch, I think.  And, La Luz is stone-abundant!

So, there's no doubt of screaming my HUGE YES to La Luz trips for the reason of stone-filled bags I bring back home.  

If  the purpose is to use the stone as loofah, choose your stone well...the size should be as big as your palm for easy handling and scrubbing, and definitely a smooth surface is a must. We don't want any scratches and wounds on our skin, right?

Lately, I have been thinking of stones too much.  If I use glass, buttons, clay, chalk, wood, capiz, shells, metal as beads or pendants, then why not stones.  This surely boils from my love for La Luz stones.  All needed was my daily body contact with the stone, and of course, a dash of imagination helped a lot. 

First, I dream to pick and bring home stones from the exotic world someday.

In the meantime, here is By Beaded Story's STONE necklaces.

The stone collection will only be available at the Country Store of Sonya's Garden.  Background images in these photos are artworks of Nick Bantock printed in his trilogy Griffin and Sabine.  The series remains to be a favorite to this day, even if a former co-worker thinks of it as a psycho story.  I think of it wild and highly imaginative.