my week of cuteness

My whole week last week was a mishmash of the cutest, most adorable things that made my heart go pitter-patter!

Day 1:

My niece was in the hospital for dehydration. :( But when we visited her, she was quite smiley, playing games on her iPad. I myself couldn't help but smile at the wallpaper in her room! Isn't this wallpaper the cutest?

Glad you're all well now Denise! :)

Day 2:

I was delighted to discover that Saizen Galleria now has a whole shelf of Sanrio stuff! Yes, Sanrio knick-knacks for PhP88!

I was sooooo tempted to buy the Little Twin Stars bags (that I have absolutely no use for). Awww... Kiki and Lala... Memories of my childhood...

Day 3:

Such cute colors all in one bangle! Reminds me of these yummy colors.

PhP280 at the Greenhills tiangge.

Day 4:

Ate with my friends L & T at this cute little restaurant, Stacy's, in Capitol Greenstreet in Capitol Hills.

The interiors were sooooo adorable!

Notice the pink rotary phone & fridge, the chalkboard panels & matroyshka print? Oh, happiness!

They actually had me at hello because that pink polka-dotted mug with popcorn, strawberry pretzels & marshmallows is what they greet patrons with. I was late for our lunch date and L & T resisted eating the sweet table treats just so I could see the pretty mug when I arrived. Such sweet friends, right? :)

I was also delighted to see my heart-shaped rice. :) Too bad I forgot to take photos of the striped paper straws that the drinks came with and the butter ball candies that came with the receipt. They really paid attention to the littlest details... like these ones...

The servers actually wore Cath Kidston aprons like those. And that picket-fence area is actually a play area for kids - with a mini garden set and toy bread in a gingham-lined basket. Is it obvious I was smitten?

Day 5:

I was still gushing over Stacy's so I decided to write a post about it. But I couldn't remember the new name of the Capitol Hills complex where the resto belonged. So I googled it and stumbled upon Our Awesome Planet's review of Stacy's. He called the interiors "Heima-inspired" so naturally, I clicked on the link and found the website of the cutest store! Heima sells the most adorable things too (washi tapes included)!

I want the chalkboards in all colors (they also have it in a mustard-looking orange and a navy-looking blue gray)! And I loooove the subtle tiffany blue button-tufting & seat-piping peeking out from the gray T-shaped chair!

Day 6:

I trooped to Rustan's Shangri-la Tower for Dwell Studio's End of Season Sale.

I was never a big fan of pink, but I guess all the cute pinks this week got me so enamored by the pink version of my chocolate Madison Dots bag.

Day 7:

The Bitbit The Rabbit Plush Toys I ordered from Spinkie arrived! I bought them as gifts for 2 adorable babies.

But I secretly wanted to keep the plush toys for myself. Even through their plastic container, they looked so soft & cuddly.

Oh, it was such a delightful week! All these adorable things, as Heima perfectly put it, "made my senses smile & my heart flutter". Happiness!

Photos are my own and from Heima & Spinkie - edited on my iPhone with the free Instapic Frame/Collage app.

Oh, in case you didn't notice, the colored words throughout this post link to more happy, adorable things! Happy clicking! :)

scrap-cycling

I moved from paper to digital scrapbooking 4 years ago but I still have a whole stash of pretty scrapbook paper. They're so pretty (and expensive) so I could never bare to just throw them out. They're too small (cardstock is too thick too) to be used as wrapping paper. So they're rotting away, albeit prettily, in one of my closets.

But maybe I can put those scraps to good use... As wall art...

As a clever shelf-turned-dollhouse, if Isabella were still a young child...

Or as pretty tiled wallpaper for my workspace.

It's perfect! We have the exact nook in between the closets in our room. It is currently used as a dresser. But my mom has been bugging me to cover up the mirror: "it's bad feng shui", she says. I never sit down and use the dresser as it is meant to be with my 10-second morning regimen anyway. So that nook might be of better use as a workstation. And prettified with my old scrapbook papers! Ooooh, I smell a new project brewing...

Photos from here, here, acupofjo and amischmashedlife (photo cropped to call attention to the wall instead of the labeled trash bins. Check out her post on this & other pretty workspaces here).

Lego Tales: Instruction-Less Creations

Ever since Noah turned 6, he has been building Lego creations purely from his imagination. He didn't need instructions to create Batman and a Batmobile.

Or Transformers' Bumblebee.

This next one is my favorite of Noah's instruction-less creations. I wouldn't have thought it was possible to make Disney Cars' Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater out of whatever Lego bricks he owned. But Noah did it, with no instructions and no help from anyone - just pure creativity and imagination!

I find that lightning symbol on McQueen's side sooooo adorable!

And finally, a minion from Despicable Me.

Wasn't 6-year-old Noah's Lego talent just awesome? Stay tuned for 7-year-old Noah's Lego creations. Soon on this Lego Tales series.

Photos are all my own.

Click here for previous posts from the Lego Tales series. 

my childhood playmates

I find this photo so adorable. I can so relate. I grew up with just my brother as my playmate. My grandmother (see previous posts about her here) didn't allow us to go outside & play with our kid-neighbors so we ended up pretending our stuffed toys were our playmates. My brother and I had 3 teddybears: a brown one named Wicket (yes, we are part of the Ewok generation), a chubby gray one named Wally with a tail that rattled, and a pink bear named Winnie. We would pretend we had a magic pill that allowed them to talk and join us on all our pretend adventures in our room. This is probably why I love Disney Junior's Doc McStuffins so much. I love the idea of having a magic stethoscope that makes her toys come alive and talk to her.

Wicket, Wally and Winnie (same starting letter! so Pinoy!) have become the heads of our pretend horses (see related post here), bears in an imaginary jungle adventure and even the audience of a few concerts.

Though these teddybears were not real, to me, they were real playmates in a childhood filled with fun, imaginary adventures and happy memories.

Photos from annnniegirl and ikea.

Click here for previous nostalgic posts. Oh, and speaking of grandmothers, Happy Grandparents' Day to my mom and Lola!

Simple Trick: Must-Teach Piano Piece

Recently, Noah dug up his old toy piano (you know, those little pianos you can buy from the toy store). He was banging at it noisily (so not music to my ears - in fact, cannot be considered music, by any definition!) so I decided to teach him to play a simple song.

I taught him to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

CC GG AA G FF EE DD C

GG FF EE D GG FF EE D

CC GG AA G FF EE DD C (you can opt to replace D with G, it's just simpler to use D)

Here's why it's the best piano piece to teach your young child:

1. It only uses a total of 6 keys. So it works even on the smallest of toy pianos.

2. It repeats the GG FF EE DD pattern 4 times throughout the song. So it's easy for a little child to remember!

3. The GG FF EE DD pattern is so simple because it just goes down the scale 1 key at a time (vs. skipping keys all over the keyboard).

4. And best of all, when he gets tired of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, it works with Baa Baa Black Sheep and the Alphabet Song as well! So imagine the sense of accomplishment of your little pianist who can suddently play 3 whole songs!!!

Baa Baa Black Sheep

CC GG AAAA G FF EE DD C

GGG FFF EEE D GGG FFFF EEE D

CC GG AAAA G FF EE DD C (again, you can replace D with G)

The Alphabet Song

CC GG AA G FF EE DDDD C

GG F EE D GGG F EE D

CC GG AA G FF EE DD C (again, you can replace D with G)

Here's Noah playing 1 of his 3 piano pieces.

Have fun watching your child turn into a proud pianist!

Photos are my own, edited via pixlr, and from imjustsaying.

Click here for previous posts from the Simple Trick series.

Lego Tales: Cannes Lions Winning Ads

This Lego campaign from Germany won a Silver in the Outdoor category of the recently concluded 2012 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. I love that you can immediately tell it's Bert & Ernie even with just a few Lego bricks.

Did you recognize the Smurfs?

What about Donald and his nephews?

They remind me of Noah's Toy Story creations here...

This is what I love about Lego: how, with creativity and imagination, you can create anything out of those tiny, colored bricks! It is the perfect, perfect toy!

And it has been for 80 years! The Lego Group just celebrated its 80th birthday on August 12 with an animated short film here about how the company began. Turns out, Lego means "I put together" in Latin. 

Echoing my thoughts, the creator's grandson Kjeld narrates, "With a child's imagination, Lego could be anything in the world - over and over again. The imagination is the limit." The perfect, perfect toy! Happy birthday Lego! 

Photos are my own, a screenshot of the video here and from here.

Click here for previous posts from the Lego Tales series. 

Whimsical Wednesday!

Isn't this such an adorable kid's room? I love the whimsical touch of a ferris wheel for storage. Imagine how fun it would be to spin the wheel around to get to the toys you want to play with! And wouldn't it make packing away so much more fun? 

I plan to re-decorate Noah's room in a few months so was looking through my inspiration folder and found these old photos from Sweet Paul Magazine. The issue talks about how the ferris wheel actually utilizes the dead space near the ceiling. So it's not only playful & inventive, it's also functional & a clever use of space. I think the mix of wood and the playful elements make the room one that can grow with the child. Oh, and notice the carpet? They're actually smaller rugs stitched together so that when an inevitable permanent spill happens (as is natural in every kid's room) mom can replace just the damaged rug rather than a whole carpet. Plus, the patchwork of rugs looks pretty cool, right?

Loving the whimsy in this kid's room! Have a whimsical Wednesday!

Photos from sweetpaul.

Click here for previous posts from the Whimsical Wednesday series. 

Lego Tales: Noah's Toy Story Minifigs

We got Noah this Lego Toy Story 3 train set two Christmases ago (Christmas 2010). As you can see, he's got the real Lego minifigs of Rex, Woody, Buzz, Jessie and Bullseye.

But just a month later (January 2011), he decided to make his own Toy Story mini-figures out of Lego bricks!

I could not fathom why he would make minifigs out of Lego bricks when he had the actual ones.

Then again, maybe I shouldn't have been surprised. Because more than 2 years ago, even though he had an actual Buzz Lightyear costume...

... He still begged Isabella to make him Andy's cardboard box Buzz costume.

He drew the purple stripes himself with his crayon.

And played pretend-Buzz (or was it pretend-Andy?) for hours after.

I have to say that I love how Toy Story creations made out of cardboard and Lego bricks can bring just as much joy as the real thing!

Photos are mostly my own edited with pixlr except for the one from here and the Toy Story backgrounds on the pages of one of Noah's scrapbooks. I never meant for the scrapbook pages to get published so I didn't take note of the source. If you know where it's from, please email me so I can give due credit.

Click here for previous posts from the Lego Tales series. Click here for the down-in-the-dots version of this post.

some polka dots i spotted...

Patricia of patricialoves is right! Washi tape is happiness. I was so thrilled when a friend of mine gave me a polka-dotted roll a few months ago. But I haven't used it because I'm afraid to use up my one and only roll.

Though I've been wanting to "waste" them on this adorable DIY racetrack.

It would be perfect for family vacations (like the one I was just on, hence the absence of posts the past week) so I don't need to pack Noah's whole toychest! Just a couple of toycars & these Japanese tapes and I can transform our hotel room into a playplace for hours of fun! 

Patricia was just partially right. One washi tape is not enough. Loads of them would be utter happiness! Thanks to Patricia, I discovered Hey Kessy, a site that puts these happiness tapes within reach in Manila! Now I can stop wishing I knew someone from Japan. I can hardly wait to get my rolls of the chalkboard numbers, the gingham ones and of course, the dotted ones! 

Soon, I can use them for anything. To adorn wooden clothespins or boxes or jars. To make pretty flags with a toothpick to decorate cupcakes or dress up twist ties to package baked goodies like eyecandy suggests. Click on the many photo sources of this previous post on washi tapes for photos of these washi tape uses. 

Or make pretty invitations - and without the need for glue at that!

And if I'm too busy (or lazy) for all the crafty possibilities, I can use different tapes to quickly personalize water goblets or wine glasses during dinner parties at home. Even easier to do than attach those tiny wineglass rings. Or I can use them to color/pattern-code my kids things. Blue washi tapes for Noah's pens & crayons and pink for Isabella's. No need to write or type their names anymore since as long as they know their color, they won't end up using their sibling's things. Or simply just use them to tack things prettily on the wall!

I am soooo excited to get my hands on bundles of these happy tapes!

Photos from patricialoves, acupofjo and here. My source of this last photo should be found on my first washi tape post here.

Click here for previous posts from the Some Polka Dots I Spotted series. Click here for previous posts on washi tapes and here for previous posts on chalkboard things.

Whimsical Wednesday!

We have locator boards at the office. They're tiny whiteboards in a silver frame stand. Whenever we're out of the office, we write down where we are with a whiteboard marker: "seminar" or "VL" (vacation leave) or "FGD" (focus group discussion) or "Sing" (for say, a meeting at our Singapore headquarters).

I got this nameplate from Lego and I use it as my locator board. I like how it brings some whimsy into my workplace. It's also great for when Noah's at the office. He has instant Lego bricks to play with instead of (egad!) running in the hallways!

I can't wait for the Christmas break to spell out "Christmas"! Meantime, have a whimsical Wednesday!

Photos from here and here.

Click here for previous posts from the Whimsical Wednesday series.

Today, I am loving...

Today, I am loving... my new Matroyshka doll Havaianas.

I have always been drawn to Matroyshka dolls.

I love matroyshka dolls as a print on wrapping paper, notebooks or pouches.

I'd like a set to prettify a bookshelf because I realize I don't own a set of these nesting dolls!



These dolls from Demi Moore's Harper's Bazaar shoot kind of creep me out. I guess I prefer that they're tiny.

Maybe that's why I am loving my Matroyshka doll Havaianas... This tiny Matroyshka doll embellishment was what made purchasing slippers during the -ber months irresistible!

And while I felt I would get more wear out of the navy or the bronze, I chose the sugar coral color because they made my feet look pretty!

Today, I am loving... my sugar coral Matroyshka doll Havaiannas slippers.

Photos from here, here, here, here, jcrewing and happythings.

Click here for previous posts from the Today, I am loving... series.