28 December 2006

Silent night

I had cooked up some new, fun things to write about. But as I stare at the blank screen and the incessant blinking of the cursor, I couldn't help but think of the many sad things that have happened recently.

Pyro has passed away. Part of his battle against cancer was televised in "Wish ko Lang", with his dream of seeing the wrestler Batista coming true.

Tito Rolly also experienced the loss of loved ones recently. I remember Tito Rolly as the jolly guy who called out my name in our blogger's Christmas party many Decembers ago as I entered the restaurant, unsure if I will push through with joining the party. He made me feel welcome. I'm sure I cannot truly comprehend what he must be going through right now.

My condolences and prayers.

19 December 2006

A new house!

If I were to have a house built, it would have a high ceiling with a loft. I nearly realized that dream when we started building our house at Crystal Cave. Alas, we underestimated the labor cost and the house went unfinished. I hope I can continue it real soon.

At any rate, we had a business-related event that had us doing a contract signing, and we did it in the model unit of their condo. It was really nice. The space was maximized and due to the high ceiling, it looked so roomy. We couldn't help but have a couple of shots taken.
Cheers to my new pad! (I can dream, can't I?) That's fellow blogger Follen at the left. And at the right is our guest who wishes to remain anonymous. Eh?
This is a section of the living room. I like! But an essential component is missing... where's the TV?!
This is the upstairs bedroom. This loft has a really nice bathroom here and a smaller one downstairs.

All this opulence had us thinking we were part of a royal Spanish family. harhar! Here's our portrait without the smiles. Yes, we laughed heartily after this shoot.

13 December 2006

Gift wrap

In this age of electronic greeting cards and instant gift bags, why take the hassle of wrapping the gifts one by one? Why not ask the department store to wrap it for you?

In this hustle-bustle life we live in, stopping to smell the flowers seem like a luxury. But there's something to uniquely-wrapped gifts that say "hey, I took time to wrap my gift because you're special to me". So if you want your gift to stand out from the rest no matter how simple it is, it only takes a bit of imagination and believe me, wrapping not as difficult as it seems.

For this year's bunch of gifts for friends, my wife and I bought some nice christmas trinkets and table decor. Good thing we bought these when we saw them last October because when we went back, they were gone!

To wrap these dainty little things, I bought the following:
- Cellophane paper (pink for the girls, blue for the boys)
- japanese paper
- curly ribbons
A pair of scissors and stapler also helps.

Instructions:
- spread out the cellophane paper. place the gift item in the middle. Make sure all four corners will overlap the item.
- cut the cellophane paper, then cut a sheet of japanese paper equal to or larger than the cellophane paper. Approximate. No ruler required.
- Put the japanese paper over the cellophane paper. Put the item in the middle, and raise all corners of the papers. Squeeze the part where the item gets covered.
- Take a couple of these curly ribbons and tie on the squeezed part.
- I made custom gift tags (see previous blog post). Write the name of the recipient on the gift tag, and staple onto cellophane paper.

Ta-daa! Customized gift wrap. You can do the same with rectangular boxes.
I also bought a tree ornament to use on gifts but I can't find them. Me and my forgetfulness. Anyways, with a little creativity, you can make your gifts really special.
Merry Christmas!

08 December 2006

Electronic Surgery

Allow me to share with you something that I will call a "thought experiment."

A couple of days back, I edited one of our family photos to use as customized tags for our christmas gifts. While staring at our photos, I noticed just how tired we looked, what with the dark things going on under our eyes.
So I experimented a bit with Photoshop and lightened those dark areas.

I think I erased too much though. Har har. I blurred the background a bit to put in our Christmas message there. It was a hasty job really, and when I separated the background from us, the cut was a bit rough so I added a shadow to soften up the edges a bit.
Anyways, I had a meeting with a supplier the following day. As I stared at her explaining their products and services, my mind went blank. I looked at her face and saw the rather dark eyebags and some skin blemishes. I imagined having her face on the computer screen and then I clicked the healing brush tool and tried to lighten up the dark portions. And then I moved on to the blemishes.... I wondered how long it will take me to touch-up the photo.

And then I snapped back to reality when she asked me a question and I had to ask her to repeat her question. Hmmm... I wonder if this also happens often to those digital artists doing digital surgery on actors and actresses to make them look good on screen. Hah!

Happy weekend everyone!

06 December 2006

December flowers

Our Christmas tree is up! Actually, we just let Halloween pass by and then we already took out our Christmas tree.
The photo above is one of the few photos I was able to save from my 6630 before it got stolen. *sniff*

Have I mentioned before that we moved house again in Baguio City? Well, it was a nice change actually. There's a playground outside the house (though it's cemented but it's nice just the same), it's a bit far from the road so it's relatively quiet, and there's a bit of land where I can plant!

Here's the plot of land when we moved in ...
And after. I planted roses and ostrich feather-like plants here, and bought some anthuriums. I love the place because butterflies would occasionally drop by and flutter around the plants. It's a sight you never get to see everyday.
December is also a very nice time for sunflowers. It's the time when they get into full bloom mode and follow the sun as it travels across the sky.

Here's a photo of the view outside the house when we moved in last November ...
And here's what it looks like just last weekend.
Sunflowers!

So here's to a meaningful December to all of us, and may your surroundings be filled with flowers and butterflies!
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