saturday madness

like a good little girl, i have put off spending on unecessary things so that come flea market day (in a Spanish town called fuengirola), i can splurge on whatever my little heart desires :) we got there on time (had to drag the mister!) and my happiness meter was off the charts! as you can see the clouds were about ready to burst out with rain but God knew i have been patiently waiting for that day so he said not just yet :)i asked myself many times why i needed this headboard with intricate detailing but have i ever told you im a patient broad?see these elaborate gilded frames? i see them on the walls of a royal room accentuated by red damaskcamera collectors, eat your heart outi call this a spread of whateverbucher anyone?spied this lovely miniature house and just look at that trunk! i can see that as storage in a little boy or girls room :)as a mask collector, it broke my heart to walk away from this African onea bejewelled wrought-iron thingy.. potentially could be a centerpiece above a fireplace?awwww just look at that expression. reminds me of our own Paaka at home :)it was a happy day for me :) we came home so tired and hungry but id do it again in a heartbeat :) i will post my finds next time :) so excited!

all over the place

my thoughts and ideas are flying all over the place! literally! here are a list of things-to-dos i lined up for myself: (i know. call me crazy!)

(1)make super-easy halloween deco from existing stuff
(2)make more bats from old magazine pages
(3)photograph a stranger! (this is turning out to be harder than i thought *sigh*)
(4)make an owl cushy (super cute and i love owls)
(5)sort out hand-made christmas cards and send them early
(6)make more deco elves for christmas
(7)make the faux Liberty of London necklace for a friend
(8)organize dinner weekends for November
(9)purchase frames! (i have no idea why i want to buy them)
(10)purchase white spray paints (or wait until we get the house? hhhmmm)

wish me luck!

out and about

we had fun the other night having dinner with nat and sab. we havent gone out in yonkers (although i think it was just a few weeks since we were so busy planning and going on our short trips). it was chilly that night and we went to L'aziz for Indian food since our target resto, Charlie's Tavern, was fully booked. argh! i could almost taste my hongkong stir-fry!
afterwards we had drinks at the casino and tried a few slots but didnt win any :(

to fuengirola we went

we like to purposely get ourselves lost and this way, we found the most amazing sights!
reminds me of a painting by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge (of Dogs Playing Poker)i fell in love with this old carouselthis woman asked us for some loose change

flea market finds: an elephant candle

i am soooo looking forward to this big flea market in Spain that i am counting the days when we can finally visit it. this is one of those times i wish i can drive! really! but alas i am also sticking to my low carbon footprint principle so... its a big *sigh* but i am patient! (repeat to self a hundred and one times!) in the meantime, i found this adorable baby elephant candle for £2 at a charity shop here in Gib. i fell in love with her instantly! she has an almost real quality about her with dry-brushed grooves and her trunk is up which ive been told is lucky (i have no idea which culture said that)
here she is sitting ever so comfy on top of a National Geographic spread about her cousins from the north :)

its beginning to look a lot like..

CHRISTMAS! so i found this amazing idea (from reading a ton of design blogs!) about how to make your own unique christmas decorations now that its definitely getting colder here and am feeling christmas-y all of a sudden (never mind that i am totally just skimming over ideas for halloween! not too much of a fan of fake blood and anything boo-ey). i like the fact that it just needs ordinary materials (like scrap fabrics!) that you probably have lying around the house.
now, i have never been a conformist ("but you are a Gemini!" shouts the small voice in my head) so i really dont want to look like everybody else (and that includes my house design, color scheme and therefore christmas decorations!) so i decided why not turqouise and poppy for a change? and voila! really, when you set your mind to something...(if you want to make your own wreath, just email me)
am also totally loving Amy Butler and her fabric designs and creations at the moment. so much so that i created a smaller version of her Bird :) (with scrap fabrics no less!)happy! the other frame btw is of a picture i found in an old magazine :) happy!

segue to our 2nd wedding anniversary

time flies by so fast, said the mister. true, i replied. unbeknownst to him, i made a video to commemorate our 2 years together. so happily i dug deep into my writing skills as best i could and came up with a very nice, tug-at-your-heart-strings kind of presentation :)
but alas! woe is me! the website i chose wanted me to pay for my sweet creation that according to them is Premium! so with time running out, i had no choice but to put it up in facebook minus the music and the words :(
but not to fret! i can always write it in here! yay! only you dear loyal readers (imaginary or otherwise) shall be able to read what i wrote that fateful day before that damn site dropped the bomb on me! yay! blogger saves the day! (for the pics pls see my facebook page since i can't seem to post it here)
TWO Years and Counting

boy meets girl, girl meets boy
in one of Africa's most enchanting cities
girl said yes!

and then they got hungry
thats when they discovered they had a lot of things in common
like they can't imagine themselves living away from the ocean

and a lot of differences too (like heights, canned asparagus and Picasso)
nevertheless, they arranged date nights
and they laughed a lot and talked so much

and promised each other to just have a good time.. all the time
never forgetting to warm each other on cold days in cold countries
and to make PDA's in warm countries

and to always listen to the child in them and to never forget to have fun
to never let the monsters scare them because together they are invincible
to always look at things in different perspectives and to be open to new ideas

to respect other cultures because each is unique with stories to tell
to hold dear the people they love
to cherish old friends and make new ones

to always count their blessings, one by one
to just go with the flow and be positive, never complaining, never whining
because life is too beautiful and they still have miles to go

happy on their second anniversary
chris and beverly
october 2, 2008

oh my sweet guayabas!

my heart palpitated so much i needed to get out of the sun for a good few minutes before i was back to normal programming again. whew! i couldn't believe my eyes! are they or aren't they????? they are! rewind to when i was a tweener and images of my cousins and aunts taking a hike up the mountains behind our house became a silent movie of some sorts! picking these same guavas in their pink splendor was the highlight of those trips :)
sweet, succulent pink guavas selling for 3euros/kilo in the midweek market in La Linea

2nd wedding anniversary

a road trip was in order... i thought. to celebrate our 2nd wedding anniversary, we decided to get out of town and have lunch somewhere. we've never really explored the nearby places that much but i think its about time. we went to estepona and had a lovely meal and a wonderful stroll around the town. am glad the mister agreed we should do this more often :)

the naturalista

his eyes were like Santa's and he gives off such a nice aura. he is Spanish and speaks very little English. i suspect he only tells you the good stuff and keeps the bad stuff to himself. we've been to see him twice now and he is always very friendly.

stood up at the Rock Hotel

there were about 15 of us waiting.... waiting for them to arrive. but they never did. surely, they had not been delayed by the queu at the frontier. surely, nothing bad happened to them. well, turned out someone screwed up with the dates :( there goes my interview. one good thing about it though was we saw the reigning Miss Gibraltar in one of her pictorials, so we asked for a photo :) not a wasted day after all :)
with Larisa Dalli, Miss Gibraltar 2010