Whimsical Wednesday!

Are you going on a trip this summer? Will you be spending the night in a whimsical hotel like this? This is the new rainbow Saguaro Hotel in Palm Springs, California.

Even their rooms are rainbow-striped!

What about this room in the Au Vieux Panier Hotel in Marseille, France? Would you stay in this Panic Room created by artist Tilt?

Half of the room is in colorful graffiti and the other half is pure white.

Turns out, this unique hotel invites artists, graphic designers and painters to redo their rooms every year.

This is the Pantone Hotel in Brussels, Belgium.

Check out the front desk. Did you notice that the colorful panels look like pantone chips?

I just love those pantone bikes!

The rooms are meant to complement the guest's mood as Pantone Universe believes that strong emotions are evoked by color. I think this is the cheerful, warm room.

Notice the pantone chips on the wall? This one is likely the daring, fiery room.

The hotel boasts of the widest selection of Pantone products worldwide. And I think this is my favorite! I'd love to bring these home for our breakfast nook! 

Wouldn't it be fun to vacation in color this summer? Have a whimsical Wednesday!

Photos are from acupofjo, here, here and here.

Click here for previous posts from the Whimsical Wednesday series.

what are you good at?

I like the idea of decorating eggs with typography (I wonder if this is easier than dyeing eggs here?). But inspired by this book by Andy Selsberg...

I'd change the words to: Whatever you are, you ARE good. You Are Good At Things celebrates one's secret skills and unrecognized abilities. It calls attention to secret talents that are typically taken for granted. Like having the uncanny ability to always notice when someone has gotten a new haircut or how you can make the last half-ounce of toothpaste last for a month or a talent for wrapping gifts using very little tape.

Because my mom is good at giving her kids names that will never appear on key chains at gift shops (read: my brother's and my names are uncommon and hard to spell), I have the awesome ability of spelling people's names correctly. I am very conscious about how people spell their names and I make sure that whenever I say, write to them, I spell their names the right way - doubling letters that need to be doubled and resisting to end names that typically end with an "ie" with an "i" if that's how she spells it.

What about you? What thing are you good at? Of this carton of different easter eggs, my favorite is the one that reads POSSIBILITY.

Because it's true. The possibilities of what we are (and can be) good at are endless.

Happy Easter!

Photos from here via acupofjo.

happy easter!

Two Easter Sundays ago, upon waking up, I greeted Noah "Happy Easter!" and he responded with, "What's that?!" So I bolted out of bed and brought him to church! See how one Sunday School class did wonders... in this page out of Noah's scrapbook...

Yes, Jesus is risen! The stone was rolled away! Jesus lives!

Today, Noah knows this because his Sunday School teacher told him so. I sure hope that one day he will know this because he knows in his heart that it is true.

Happy Easter everyone!

Photos are my own and from here and here.

Click here for a different kind of Easter - the easter egg kind of Easter.

some polka dots i spotted...

The first thing I noticed about the post on Ruby's room in designsponge was the polka-dotted shoes of mommy & baby. Then I noticed mommy & baby also both had shiny gold shoes strewn on the carpet of Ruby's room. Then I noticed how much this mommy must love polka-dots. With the polka-dotted pillows (one is gray & neon pink and the other is gray & yellow!), dotted wall decals, dotted pink socks on Ruby and the dotted yellow fabric boxes on Ruby's shelves.

It didn't occur to me until I read through two more posts from designsponge that Ruby's room belonged to a series that shared, not only people's homes, but what they loved most about their home. I love Ruby's mom's wishes for her baby.

So even though I didn't necessarily love the design aesthetic of the houses featured in the series, I felt that the handwritten notes on what the owners loved about their home made the homes special. This one is the home of a certain Paula...

And this one is the home of a certain Camille...

This is the home of a certain Sarah... Have to say I love the hot pink ampersand (see related post here) and all the pops of color.

And this is what I love about my home as you might already know from here.

What about you? What do you love most about your home?

Photos are my own and from designsponge.

Click here for previous posts from the Some Polka Dots I Spotted series.

rules of a gentleman & one for a lady



So dear Isabella...

Because when you're ready, you will fall for a gentleman. And because...

He will...

Photos from here, annnniegirl and bippityboppityboo.

Click here for a previous post on love advice for my Isabella.

Summer

Summer is here! Time for the kids to play outdoors instead of being cooped up indoors playing Temple Run or Draw Something. Time to let them play, explore & learn.

We went on a picnic with friends in Ateneo last August and Noah tried to fly a kite. But it wasn't windy enough to keep his kite up in the air. He did have fun exploring nature and playing with friends; he even climbed a tree!

I love the Ateneo grounds. When Isabella was young, we would go on picnics in the High School field, the Bellarmine field or the place around the Meron Lagoon. This particular picnic with Noah was some other place in the Ateneo College grounds, but because of the new buildings, I'm not exactly sure where it is anymore. It was actually nice because there's parking, an open field and benches shaded by trees. We just brought some food and banig mats and we had an instant picnic! We always bring a kite, and sometimes even a bike, in case the wind doesn't cooperate.

I can't wait to try kite-flying again this summer!

I can already imagine the glee on Noah's face when he is finally able to keep his kite in flight.

So what outdoor activities do you have planned for your kids this summer? Are you planning some piko or hopscotch?

Or maybe just going to the playground to get on the swing?

Am thinking of trying this block of ice activity from nyctaughtme. I figure it would be a fun activity to cool down on a hot summer day (apart from maybe, Johnson's Baby Cooling Powder & Bath).

Armed with the new Johnson's baby daily sun protection lotion, I have no qualms letting Noah play and explore under the sun this summer!

It is going to be a fun, fun summer!

Photos are my own and from nyctaughtme. 

coffee foam art

Isn't this the cutest cafe latte? New York City-based artist and barista at The Breslin, Mike Breach, uses the foam atop a cup of espresso and milk as his canvas.

He can etch just about anything.

He even made a portrait of his friend's dog! And it does look like the real dog here!

They say that aside from looking pretty, latte art is a sign that the milk has been properly steamed and that your drink was made with love. Wouldn't you just love such an adorned cup in the morning?

Have a beautiful morning!

Photos from here via acupofjo.

Click here for previous posts from the Art series.