Trip to Baguio & Sagada

Mabuhay!

I hope that by this weekend, when I post my giveaway details, you will still find time to join in the fun.  The mechanics are very simple.  I just don't have the candy photo here with me.

But I want to share with you what happened after my previous post. :)

My hubby and I scheduled a trip to Sagada 2 Fridays ago to attend his cousin's wedding.  We traveled straight from Laguna to Baguio Thursday night.  

It was our first visit to my in-laws after the wedding.  I helped mama with some chores during the day and I found lots of treasures inside their house.  First, I saw a vintage American Tourister attache case that Dad no longer use.  I asked Mama if i could have it and she gave it to me! Yippeee! It was perfect for my Blythes.  

Then I also found this old olive thermos in their kitchen!   

I wonder why I haven't seen that thermos during my first visits there.

And I also got to eat on these lovely breakfast plates.

According to Mama, the plates are from Mom Yohko.  I will someday post my lovely tea cups here from Mom Yohko too. :)

Then, that Friday night, we met our bestman, A, for coffee.

He brought us to this lovely house converted into a cafe.  I have been here with some friends before when it was just a lodging house called The Blue House.  I can't recall its cafe name.  But I loooove their mocha.  The Baklavah was too sweet for my taste.

 

The place was so cozy.  I will definitely go back there. I just need to remember the name of that Cafe!

 

Then I got to watch A and Seal play poker that night.  I had a hard time catching up.  But it was fun.  Too bad we had to leave and go home by 10pm because we need to catch the earliest trip to Sagada on Saturday morning.

This was the bus that brought us to Gonogan in Mt. Province, Saturday morning.

 

The road was blocked due to landslide so we had to walk through the fields and transfer to another bus going to Sagada.  

It was my first time to cross a hanging bridge!  

 

It was a bridge made of iron but it was swaying!  Now I know why Dingdong Dantes was afraid to cross this kind of bridge in his movie with Marian Rivera.

We had to cross the river and walk through these fields to get to the other bus!

Can you see the landslide on the left?  This was a very long walk.

We arrived in Sagada an hour before the wedding.  So hubby and I went to the Echo Valley first. which is just behind the church.  I was already too exhausted by this time.  

And by the time this lovely couple said "I do," I was falling off my seat in the church.

 

After the ceremony, I got fever and cough.  I got chills that night.  Then in the morning, I challenged myself and took a shower of the ice-cold water of Sagada.  Mama totally disapproved but what's done is done, she couldn't do anything about it. :)  We went back home to Baguio on Sunday. I was glad the road was passable that time because I still had fever and was so weak.

Then, I spent my week in Baguio, lying in bed, staring at these curtains...

and these lovelies...

while totally missing this little angel...

I regained my strength by Wednesday so hubby and I traveled back to Laguna that night. We rested again on Thursday and reported back to work on Friday.  

I hope you'll understand why my giveaway details are late. :)  See you again this weekend! :)

xoxo, ails 

Blythe Giveaway Preview

Hello! Hello! Hello!

I've been uber busy with some major major things around the house that I haven't had time to take a photo of my giveaway prizes.  So I'm just giving you a peek of what's in store for my online friends who love Blythes!  Tada!!!...

The details of the giveaways will be posted next week.  I'll leave you once again, for hubby, Maria, Pepper and I are going to Baguio and Sagada this weekend! More pics and stories to come when we return.

i love you all! mwah!

xoxo, ails

Seth Alvin, Blythe travel, Coron, and crochet stuff

hello hello hello!

how have you been lovelies?

It has been 40 days since I moved to an off-line life in Laguna so here I am again, giving you loads of short updates.

I am now an aunt to this wonderful and healthy little boy, Seth Alvin.

This picture was taken on his 12th day.  He arrived in this world at 8.14 lbs. thru normal delivery.  He fills our days with sunshine. I love him sooooo much!

I've tons of news about my blythes but i'll tell you just a few.

I brought Pepper with me in Coron, Palawan.  I went there as one of the organizers of a seminar for librarians.

Pepper was with me the whole time including my trip to the enchanting island of Coron.  Unfortunately, in one of the best destinations there, Pepper fell off the limestone cliff.  i posed her, seated on a limestone rock, to have her picture taken in this postcard pic of Cayangan Lake.

 (pic taken last May 2009, on my 1st visit there)

She tumbled down the clif when i left her for a second.  :(

 (pic taken last May 2009, on my 1st visit there)

I could see her head down the cliff but i could not risk my life rescuing her.  :(  So I enclosed all my emotions in a bubble and accepted Pepper's fate.  :(
Then, a knight in a red armor came and asked me what happened.  I told him that my baby fell off the cliff.  He then scouted the area and tried looking for the best way to save Pepper.  After 15 minutes, he came back to me with my little darling.  He told me that Pepper's hair and pull string were caught by the dried branches on the cliff.  I was so thankful! Only after I had her back did I feel my knees shaking.  I barely made it down the mountain and back to our boat.  The elders in our group believed that Pepper probably saved us from being taken by the spirits of Coron.  It was a scary thought but I was so glad she came back to me with just a very minute scar on her right cheek.

During the seminar, I was able to crochet a pair of olive bikinis for Pepper with a matching hat.  Here she is after her ordeal in Cayangan.

She enjoyed the beach so much!

And here is Pepper with her saviour...

I was also able to take her photos for a story I am planning to write on my new blog for my Blythes. :)

And for another good news, I have reached 20 unique followers already! Yay! So I will be hosting a little blog candy. :)  Aaaaand another candy for my Blythe-lover friends in celebration of Pepper's second life with me! Yippeee!  I'm so excited! I hope you are too! :)

Have a great day lovelies! :)

xoxo, Ails

new life, new job, new house

Hello lovelies!

I'm so sorry I have somehow neglected to update my blog.  

Last Tuesday marked my first monthsary of being married to a sweet and wonderful husband.  It has been magical that even moving all my stuff to a new house seemed so fun.:)  A looooot of exciting things have happened since I got married.  And one of those is getting a new job.  I have been wishing for this position/job since 2001!  And as a bonus blessing,  the university also offered my hubby a job! :D 

By July 1, we will be starting our new life together in the province.  I am so glad to be (finally!) free of the fast and busy city life.  But of course, I'll be back to Manila from time to time to meet with my friends and do some shopping. :D  This weekend, we are once again moving our stuff to a new place where we are going to build our family. :D  I am so excited because there will be plenty of room there for my dolls and my craft supplies. 

I do not have new wedding pictures to share with you now but I have lots of my girls'.  And I am starting a new blog dedicated entirely for them.  :) No posts there yet so I'll share as soon as I have uploaded my first post there.

Check out more of their photos at their flickr (yes, I started their own flickr account!). :D

Have a super fun and exciting weekend lovelies!

xoxo, ails

a fun and exciting day

Hello lovelies!

Maria, Pepper and I are so excited to meet Abbey and Janice tonight!  We prepared some special gifts for Abbey.  here they are...

this woven backpack

this buhi sports/duffel bag

and

this soft pillow (2 sets - 1 satin pillow and 1 red pillowcase) to rest her head on at night.

We are so excited to give these to her.  We wrapped these in a special bag. Maria and Pepper made a simple little card for her too.

Oh dear! I can't wait!

xoxo,
Ails