good morning churros!

what could be better than churros, cafe con leche and conversations with a good friend sharing some good news? one fine cold december morning, i had just that with lyra! she is pregnant with their first child and is so giddy with excitement about it! i am too! babies are soo much a blessing! so are friends and churros ;)

oh happy days!

yesterday, the 21st of December 2010, i received good news! i got accepted for a job at a betting company! thank you God! I love you God! my arms are wide open to receive more blessings oh Lord, my God! You are awesome Lord! Magnificent! the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords! thank you :)

flea market finds: vintage fabric swatches

i saw them before. they were gorgeous! eye-catching with big, bold flower prints. but i wasnt sure what to do with them. when i finally saw the endless possibilities i could do with them, i knew i had to go back. and so i did. they are vintage Liberty of London fabric swatches. perfect for my birdies.
the one below is huge and is from John Wilman. i could totally see these as a chair cover :Dmy other find is a nice metal candle holder with dreamy rose patterns. i plan to spray paint them white :) ohhh-la-la-la

featured place in Gib: St. Michael's Cave and a christmas charity concert

i really didnt know what i want this christmas so i just asked the mister if we could go to a christmas concert and listen to carols. he said of course and off we go! one of the reasons i picked this concert was because this was inside st. michael's cave, a very famous cave inside the Rock that sometimes serve as a venue for such events.the Rotary Club of Gibraltar sponsored this charity concert in aid of the Gibraltar Regiment Fund and the Calpe House Fund. so no wonder its infused with a bit of military music aside from the wonderful, wonderful carols the Gibraltar National Choir sang. the music was magical! the drum display was out of this world too! we loved every minute of it!we took photos with the renowned pianist Aaron Monteverde. what a talented man! i swear his fingers floated above the piano keys!also present was a 12-yr-old singing prodigy, Kate McCullough, who sang a very beautiful "Time To Say Goodbye" by Andrea Boccelli. we met her outside while we were waiting for the show to start and we chatted a bit about my camera which suddenly took darker pictures than normal. little did we know at that time that she was one of the performers :D
so after the show we asked if we can have a photo taken with her :D she's such a darling girl! definitely going places with a voice like that :D good luck Kate!
during the intervals, some people took out wine and food (like sausages!) and just enjoyed themselves while singing along the carols being played :D what a fun time!

owl envy

because of this fascination with owls, i am having the itch over this new find. arent they just spanking lovely? they would totally look good in our new house! i am hoping and praying they will still be there when Marks and Spencer will have their after-Christmas sale :)

o, christmas tree!

to jumpstart the christmas season, we bought a tree :) nothing fancy. just an 180cm tall, ordinary fake tree. its our first Christmas on our own so we start on a blank slate. bought some trimmings here and there. nothing expensive either. we will eventually get to the point of adding new trimmings every year to this tree. for now, were having an animal-themed boho christmas where everything is inexpensive or handmade by me :) well, almost everything.i dont know about you but i am strongly feeling the need to spend less money on things this season and far more quality time taking short trips with the mister. i dont even know what i want this christmas. but enough of that. since the mister has a fondness for his mother's cat Diva, i bought a stuffed, knitted trimming of a smiling cream-colored one. she's so cute!when it comes to decorating this season, im working mostly with what ive got, trying to create something fresh and new, but not spend money on things i dont need. the tree costs 15euros in Carrefour, the little paper angels i bought in a Scandinavian shop in Spain for 1.95 euros for a pack of 10, the blue and silver balls are thrifted for 1euro for a pack of 5, and the blue stars and silver icicles are from Saverland for £1 for a pack of 5. the pack of 140 blue rice lights are from a Chinese shop in Spain for 17euros.

DIY:decorating with branches

do you remember the handmade turquoise and poppy wreath i made a few months ago? (i know, way too advanced to be making christmas decorations!) well, he will finally be hung tomorrow on our front door(i can't wait!). since then i've made tons of other DIY stuff for our christmas decorations (have i told you am all over the place when it comes to ideas?) and i just can't wait to put them up :)
one of the things i really, really, REALLY wanted to do is to make a simple branch decoration, which can be used all year-round. i've been seeing these simple branches in interior design magazines and blogs and they look ultra dramatic and yet so subtle without looking tacky. they easily complement any style.
they are so dizzily easy to make too! just take a branch and plonk them on to a nice vase. in my case, i had to drag the mister up the Rock to look for some dead branches and i had to handpaint all the white seed pearls i bought at the flea with the mister's paint and glue-gunned them to the branches :D (he's so handy hehe)
for the branch to stand upright, i had to put a chunk of oasis (floral foam) inside the vase and then covered it with moss. i had bought some bird decor in Spain previously and the mister thought of putting one on a branch. voila! we now have a christmas robin!

the flavors of home

as I've said before, I am not an indoor kind of person. my feet will itch if I've not gone out for sometime. i hate being cooped up inside the house for too long. point made. I dragged the mister one day to go driving just for the hell of it and suggested we go visit a small town in Spain (near Gib) where they reputedly have a store selling Filipino foodstuff. we werent disappointed :)the store is managed by a Filipina named Josie and she even gave me her number in case there is something else I needed to buy :) i was so happy to see a familiar face that i bought a huge lot of Lucky Me pancit canton and the ultimate lifesaver SkyFlakes crackers in garlic! (oh, well a few of the onion and chives as well)

DIY:there are no two snowflakes alike

im dreaming of a bright christmas this year with an animal-themed (mostly birds, really) christmas tree and ever so subtle blue rice lights. i wanted a festive atmosphere without compromising on style. and i really dont want my decorations to look like everybody else's :( i wanted it to be unique, inexpensive but stylish, warm and homey. now, in contrast to that idea, inside our home we have doors made with dark wood. my dilemma therefore is how to use them without overpowering my "colorful and festive" theme. the answer: paper snowflakes!this one above is hung on our kitchen doorthis one is on the hallway door on the livingroom doorif you look closely, ive incorporated our initials to the design (hanging on our bedroom door)i just created this one with no thought on what will come out. this is now hanging on our bathroom doorthis one is a 3D one on our den

things that make you go hhmmm

hhhmmm.... am not even sure this is a word but that was the first thing i did (or said?) in my mind when i saw these adult-themed stuff BHS has on their christmas-y shelves right next to the chocolate golf balls and princess tiaras.
i mean, i understand that people give gag gifts on christmas and all but i've always assumed they would be tucked in a special corner or something away from the curious eyes of children. and moreso really if they are adult-themed!
i admit i laughed when i first saw these but if you think really hard, its very inapproriate :(
i personally would not buy these stuff especially in Gib where everyone knows everybody else!

simply the best

really, the simple things in life give me the most joy, the deepest happiness and the adrenaline rush that comes along with it just cant be copied. ever. their beauty is timeless.
the simple things never fail to surprise me. even if i have seen a million other things like it. somehow, they have a certain uniqueness that is extraordinary.
the simple things... like listening to the rush of the water in a stream. watching the light play with the shadows made by the dancing leaves above proud but nameless, beautiful trees.the simple things...like the smell of the earth, the different shades of brown which is so hard to copy in real life. and who knows what deep, dark, lovely secrets this black wrought iron bench have listened to everyday (if only he could speak, wed have juicy and endless conversations!)
flowers need no introductions. they make themselves known without saying a single word.

"come dine with me" in Gibraltar

its no ordinary dinner, really. not because of the food, nor of the ambiance, nor of who our guests were but because we want to see the extraordinary in the ordinary. the mister whipped up his own recipe of moussaka which he promptly called "its not moussaka", his own french onion soup as well as dessert which was chocolate creme brulee. now the sugar on top was a bit thicker than normal but i assure you it was all a labor of 100% love.to complement his food, i came up with a very simple table setting thats high on impact but low on pricing ;) (1) dinner plates, BHS £4/each
(2) lime green salad plates, IKEA, forgot the price
(3) white soup bowls, BIA, £1.30/each
(4) drinking glasses, IKEA, 2.40euros/each
(5) wine glasses and champagne flutes, Saverland, .65p/each
(6) polka dot table napkins, clearanced at BHS, £4 for 4
(7) ecru placemats, Tex HomeTextile, 2euros for a set of 2
(8) blue flagon, IKEA, forgot the price
(9) blue earthenware jar by Joan Ives, flea market find, 5euros
(10)glass vase, Morrisons, clearanced at .49p
(11)pearl seed branches, carboot find, .50p each stem
(12)stainless steel napkin rings, thrift shop find, £2 for a set of 6
(13)cutlery, BIA, £24 for a set of 16 (spoons, forks, knives, teaspoons)

flea market finds:my lovely horsey

when you only have your mind for company and you dont want a single iota of evil to get in there, you tend to use your imagination more (in a good way of course) and ideas come ebbing like the tide and you want to catch them before they disappear forever. wonderful ideas of course!
in my wanderings, i very often come across things that are too beautiful to pass up but i just cant take home with me. i practice tremendous (gargantuan to be precise) restraint in my thrifting. sometimes though, i realized that the things i leave behind i would need for another project. so i go back and hope to God its still there.
that is the case with this beautiful bohemian horse.now, we all love the new holiday decorations that pottery barn has come up. animal-themed bohemian christmas trimmings that are just sooooo cute but also way beyond my budget :( but, but, but.... this particular horsey below is one such trimming and reminded me a lot of the beautiful black and gold horsey above that i left behind in one of my favorite thrift shops. immediately i prayed he's still there and thank God he still was! i quickly snatched him up and told him i will never let him go. ever.

loot's a hoot

remember my distressed owl that i bought at a recent carboot sale?
well, a little TLC and here he is now :) good as gold! am so proud of him :)

flea market finds:hootin' and tootin'

first of all i am soooo excited to share with you once again my finds for this week :) second of all i actually made one of these babies new again! what i mean by that is: i just gave it some extra love and now its as good as new :) for 50p, these pearl seeds are perfect for a white christmas!
am loving this elephant dessert forks (perfect for posh olives!) theyre Spanish silver and heavy!and now one of my most treasured possessions! a teeny-weeny hand-carved wooden owl! (have i ever mentioned that i am loving owls at the moment? tee-hee!)now this baby right here is heavy (and distressed)! ill show u how i upgraded him next time :)

car-boot stuff

of course i couldnt resist another carboot sale and this one was organized by the spouses of the royal military here in Gib. everything was cheap and as always i exercised restraint in case i get carried away and buy everything on sight! hehe
aliens are out to invade us! these are perfect for a sci-fi geek :)had to laugh with these bad boys and to think the seller was a sweet old lady hehe
i know, i know its too cute :) but had to resist :(cute and cuddly what else can i say!

there's art and then there's also bad art

found myself at the Gibraltar Art Gallery last saturday and saw the latest of what art in Gibraltar can offer. there were hits and misses of course but judge for yourself. the painting below might impress some people or offend a lot. i think it would probably have made a much more thought-provoking impact if the monkey himself was holding the gun to his head. whatchathink?a headless pole-dancing blow-up doll (or some such)? bad art, i say... this could've been executed "properly" (no offence to the tuxedoed monkey)love the colors, but it lacks oomphone thing i like about this one is i want to get a hold of the typepress lettters myself!this is such a safe and timid painting that it doesnt push the boundaries for me