coat your blessings

Throughout December, I was captivated by so many different coats. 

It didn't help that the past December was oddly summer-hot. Neither did the fact that I no longer had my winter-cold office to wear coats to. 

But because I promised to be thankful here, let me recount my coat-blessings: I am thankful for all the gorgeous coat eyecandy that filled this post - they did make me smile. I am thankful for our winter-cold church that allowed me to wear a coat every Sunday morning. And I am thankful to my friends M & C for hosting our recent Tagaytay vacation that let me chill in a coat.

Especially since, on my last trip to Hong Kong, I luckily found this jacket of Olivia Palermo I had been pining for from here!

Photos from americanhoney & manilafashionobserver.

Click here for a previous post about more of Olivia Palermo's gorgeous coats.

Mommy Mondays: a new holiday eve tradition

What do you do while waiting for the Christmas or New Year's eve festivities to begin? What do you and your kids do during that time after dinner on December 24 & 31, before Noche Buena or the New Year fireworks?

During previous Christmases, I'd be frantically wrapping gifts in time for gift-giving on Christmas eve. But this year, since I had wrapped all my gifts and put them under our tree early here, I realized we didn't have a customary activity for this window of time. With nothing to do, Isabella and I googled the right lyrics to Christmas carols and didn't bungle them up like we did here. :)

After we had sung all the Christmas carols, Isabella started searching for the lyrics to Auld Lang Syne. The lyrics she googled was just of the chorus so I jumped up from my bed and popped in our DVD of the movie, New Year's Eve, and played the part where Lea Michelle started singing Auld Lang Syne. We sang along since it had subtitles.

The movie kept playing after and when it reached the closing credits where the cast partied to the song Raise Your Glass, we both started dancing. While Zac Efron danced perfectly with Michelle Pfeiffer who crazily danced in-character, we also went crazy, dancing in front of the TV and laughing at how crazily we were dancing. We even replayed the part a couple of times and kept dancing!

We both don't like to dance (Isabella prefers choreographed routines and I have two left feet here), but we had a blast dancing freestyle together while waiting for the Christmas eve festivities to begin.

I think we stumbled upon (literally too, 'coz that's how I look dancing) a fun new tradition. I'm playing the New Year's Eve DVD again tonight and will go crazy dancing again with Isabella.

Don't be fancy, just get dancey

Why so serious?

So raise your glass if you are wrong

In all the right ways

All my underdogs, we will never be, never be

Anything but loud and nitty gritty, dirty little freaks

So won't you come on and come on and

Raise. Your. Glass.

Just come on and come on and

Raise. Your. Glass.

Happy New Year's Eve everyone!

Photo from annnniegirl.

Click here for previous posts from the Mommy Mondays series. Click here and here for previous New Year posts.

style inspiration: stripes + florals

Since I went on sabbatical, I've kinda lost my shopping mojo. I was used to a constant stream of trends that were appropriate for my pretty laidback office (It wasn't a business-attire type of office). I'm not sure if I just haven't gotten in the groove of casual clothes trends yet; since my shopping mojo has been wired for office clothes for years. But I haven't come across many new trends in my current daily uniform of shorts & shirts.

So these style pegs of mixing stripes & a floral print has been really inspiring. Will definitely try this out this week. I, and probably every single one of you, have a similar striped tee from H&M (yes, the one that comes in pairs, with a plain white tee). So all I need to do is pair it with floral shorts, scarf or shoes!

Ooohh, excited, style-wise, for the week ahead!

Photos from annnniegirl.

Mommy Mondays: things I would have missed

When I was working, I didn't think I was missing much. I figured the kids were in school anyway when I was at the office. By the time I got home, they had already done the "chores" - homework, dinner, baths. And I was left with the moments that mattered - the "quality" fun bonding moments with them before bed. I thought I wasn't missing much.

But now that I'm on sabbatical and am around all day, everyday, I discovered there are things I would have missed, had I been at work.

Like seeing Noah enjoy his after-school karate class. Had I been at work, I would not have seen how much he was smiling through the session. Sure, my mom would likely have told me that his stance was really good for a beginner. She'd probably have told me that he learned to block or kick that day. But I would not have seen him beam with pride at the punch he just blocked. How his eyes danced with delight at each stance. How the corners of his mouth would turn up ever so slightly when he was pleased with his move. These things I would have missed had I been at work.

Last week was no exception. I picked up 15-year-old Isabella from school and I had to wait awhile because, as the guards had explained, "Napasarap sa paglaro!" (She was having so much fun playing!). Turns out, Isabella had been busy chasing a friend around the waiting area. I loved that that incident showed me she was still a kid. It was a side of her - that child-like side - I would have missed completely because she would be her quiet, glued-to-her-iTouch teenage self again at the house.

Had I been at work, I would have missed these subtle little things that speak volumes about my kids. Big realizations about their character from tiny observations that only a mother will notice. Yes, there are many things I would have missed had I been at work. So I am ever so grateful I am not missing them these days.

Working moms, don't fret. It isn't necessary for you to be there every minute. What I realized is the importance of observing an everyday, mundane moment. So make sure to reserve one or two of your VL (vacation leave) days for following them around on a normal day. The rest can be used for actual vacations or family trips or the necessary PTC (parent-teacher conference) or school program. But make it a point to take a day off to do nothing special and just observe your kids go through their usual day. I am certain you will witness those subtle little things that mean so, so much.

Photo from pinkwallpaper.

Click here for previous posts from the Mommy Mondays series. Watch for the downinthedots version of this post here tomorrow. 

Eeep!

I know, (Mom and my handful of friends who graciously follow my blogs, I know), I've been deliquent... Neglecting to post anything since... gosh, Halloween!

It's been pretty hectic. 

Am still trying to get used to juggling (surprisingly) so many balls and a little boy (Seriously, I don't know how I got by with all these non-work to-do's when I was working 14-hour days!). I haven't even put up our Christmas tree (Next week, I promise!).

But I've been bursting with blogpost topics the whole time.

Just haven't gotten the chance to sit down and actually write them. Soon... Slowly... Will catch up on my many overdue posts... So please keep checking for new posts, okay? And forgive me if my posts are no longer current nor life-changing & brilliant. :)

Photos from heritage & nyctaughtme.

Color Obsession: army green

 

Lately, I've been charmed by army green.

 

 

Whether it be in solids like this Emerson Fry Fall coat... 

 

 

... Or in these oh-so-military camo print.

 

 

The only army-greens I have in my non-pretend closet is a set of tapered cargo pants and a button-down shirt. Inspired by A Mischmashed Life's Mikka's fantasy closet, I am excited to add more charm to my army greens with feminine pairings.

 

 

I just loooove how Mikka dolled up the manly vest with sequin shorts, a floral skirt, a printed maxi and bling. I adoooore that stripes+floral pairing and love how the army green vest pulls off the mix of prints just beautifully! (Check out more of Mikka's expert styling here. Am so smitten with her work-looks, am feeling a tinsy-bit sad that I'm on sabbatical.) 

 

What about you? Are you just as charmed with army green?

 

Photos from acupofjo, heritage and amischmashedlife.

 

Click here for previous posts from the Color Obsession series.

Mommy Mondays: my perfectionist child

Since am focusing on motherhood now, I decided to start a new series: Mommy Mondays. I envision talking about anything and everything related to motherhood.

First up, let me talk about my perfectionist child. For the longest time, Noah went through reams and reams of paper within a few months because he would start to draw and when it wasn't perfect, he would discard the sheet of paper and reach for a new one. Using an eraser was unthinkable for him. His standards were very high too. He would get frustrated (even angry) when he couldn't draw what he wanted, the way he wanted. I remember several instances when he wanted to draw people like say, Ben 10, and he would get really upset when his drawing didn't look like a real person with 3D depth - even though, in my opinion, it did look exactly like Ben 10 and my 5-year-old drew it way better than grown-up-me ever could. At school, he wasn't satisfied with stamps of Top Effort on his worksheets. He needed to get a stamp that read Perfect.

I realized that the earliest sign of this perfectionist tendency was when he was 2, maybe 3, years old and he & his cousin were working on their Copy & Color coloring books. He got so upset when his cousin colored Oscar the Grouch orange. For him, the only correct color was green. And now that I got to thinking of early signs, I wonder if his old obsession of buttoning his sportshirts all the way up to his neck was a sign? Could it be that to him, all buttons needed to be buttoned?

Late last year, when the signs were much more obvious, I started being more conscious of my language around him. I took out the word "perfect" from my vocabulary and replaced it with "excellent". Every now and then, I told him it was okay to make mistakes and I would even make mistakes on purpose then laugh at myself. I also hid my neurotic tendencies.

And he has come a long way since then. Now, 7-year-old Noah gladly uses an eraser and is comfortable using the back of his sheet of paper. He now knows how to laugh at his mistakes and no longer gets upset with less-than-perfect test scores. He is now comfortable using non-transparent tape as you can see with all the black electric tape in his super-paper-power crafts here. His attention-to-detail is still apparent. Just now, we were viewing a home video on my laptop and he pointed out that it was "tabingi" [lopsided]. He was right, but it was very, very slightly lopsided - hardly noticeable! He also got a bit upset when I gave him one of my airplane-freebie eyemasks because his assignment notebook read "Bring a handkerchief (to be used as blindfold)". He insisted he bring a handkerchief because that's what it said in his notebook. 

Yes, more motherly molding is still required from me. But I am proud of how far he's come. After all, perfection is overrated. Excellence is awesome enough.

Photo from heritage.    

little things, big adventure

Not counting work, company benefits and co-worker friends, here are some of the little things I will miss about my old job:

1 My delight at P20 and P50 change because I immediately think, "Yay! Pang-toll!" (see related post here)

2 The happy colors in my bag from my receipt-organizing-system - I got these flat (non-gusseted) pouches from H&M. They come in seafoam green, dark salmon and cream. The green one contains receipts for reimbursement at the office like receipts from meetings at restos. The salmon one contains receipts of personal expenses. I have a cardstock divider in this pouch to separate receipts from credit card tape to get those freebies my card offers. The cream one holds my receipts for liquidation like gas and health expenses. I have to admit that I loved looking in my bag and seeing the pretty colors of my pouches.

3 The winter-cold office temperature especially during the BER months - an excuse to wear pretty coats and clothes made out of wool

4 The carpeted hallways that make it easy to wear 4-to-5-inch heels all day

5 The calming nighttime drive home along C6 - For some reason, I find the combination of the many lampposts on that highway, the absence of traffic and my iPod music playing from my car's speakers very soothing. Now that I won't be working, I imagine I won't be driving at night nor alone so much anymore.

I will miss (a lot of the big things but also) these little delightful things.

But I am certain there will be a different set of delightful little things as this big adventure begins.

Photos from pinkwallpaper and here via acupofjo.

It's time.

Today is my last day of work.

It became a choice between being a mother or a marketeer...

... and of course, the former won out.

Since I've been working 10-to-14-hour days for 16 years, I am looking forward to the gift of time that my new adventure will bring.

Time to enjoy a weekday meal with the kids - something I didn't have because I could barely make it home before bedtime, what more dinner?

Time to enjoy several chapters of a book in one sitting - rather than a few pages every night before bedtime.

Time to fix & organize the house and find out where the string of helpers, that have come and gone all these years, have tucked away our things.

Time to just enjoy a cup of coffee - without also thinking about work or also actually tapping away on my computer to finish a presentation or also reading a book to cram more me-activities in the rare half-hour me-time windows I was lucky to get.

Time to have lunch with my girlfriends (Who doesn't dream of being one of those 'ladies who lunch'? I often wondered with envy how there always seems to be so many of them during the few times I am at the mall on a weekday. It doesn't help that I had to file a vacation leave to be there that day.).

Time to learn something new - like maybe photography?

Time to travel without having to schedule it when there are the most holidays or take red-eye flights so I can leave after work or arrive in time for work the next day. 

Time to surf & blog & scrapbook & maybe even write a book.

Yes, I look forward to the time I will have on my hands starting tomorrow. But today, it's time to say goodbye to the life I've known for 16 years.

Photos from everythingfab, playtimebreak, pinkwallpaper, annnniegirl and fromainsleywithlove.