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.

divi finds

My friends M & C went to Divisoria a few months ago to buy stuff for M's son's 7th birthday party. So I tagged along and stumbled upon these pretty & uber-cheap finds in 168 Mall.

These stamp sets were being sold for less than PhP200 (less than US$4.50)!

I got lowercase stamps in typewriter & handwriting fonts. Love the wooden box with a clasp!

Can you believe these nesting dolls were only PhP70 (US$1.70)?

Was of course delighted to see the flower design made out of dots on the smallest doll. I immediately found a spot for the dolls on my shelf between my photo box here and scrapbooks here.

These fabric tapes were a steal at 5 for PhP100 (US$2.45)! Notice the bume-Burberry tape?  :)

I didn't really know what I'd use them for when I grabbed a bunch. But I was killing time one day and dressed up my blue Pilot ballpen with my polka-dotted tapes!

Isn't it much prettier now than a regular ballpen? 

Then my friend C brought us to a giftwrapper store. Minimum wholesale purchase is 25 pieces per design to get these glossy wrappers at PhP2.25 (US$0.06) per sheet.

And thanks to this (non-Divi-find) tape dispenser that automatically cuts tape into small even strips (which I discovered via Jen of Next9Baby. See reviews of the tape dispenser by 101gramsofeyecandy & ocmominmanila.), I'm almost done wrapping Christmas gifts with my Divisoria-bought striped & dotted wrappers!

Oooh, I just looove my purrretty Divi finds!

Photos are all my own.

Click here for a previous post on Matroyshka dolls.

a cuff contrast

Don't quite remember how & why, but my cuff somehow ended up on Noah's arm one day. Holding out his arm, he proclaimed he was a genie!

Eeep, my top-of-mind is still Wonder Woman when I see thick cuffs! 

Haha, generation gap!

Photo from pinkwallpaper.

Click here for a previous post about cuffs.

kitchen counters that count

I don't cook so I've never needed a huge kitchen counter (is island more apt?). But after seeing how this family gathers around their kitchen counter - laughing, talking, sharing everyday precious moments, I am now re-thinking the need for such a counter. Maybe kitchen counters are not meant just for moms who cook, but also for families that share moments that count.

Photo from pinkwallpaper.

Click here for a previous post on my undomesticatedness.

Noah says...

I asked Noah to lead our bedtime prayer one night. But he refused because he didn't know what to say. 

'Just say what's in your heart', I prodded. 

He replied, "All that's in my heart is veins & blood!" 

Photo from heritage.

Click here for previous posts from the Noah Says... series.

Lego Tales: Homemade Minifigs Part 1

When Noah turned 7 (click here for his Lego creations at 6), a love for Lego minifigures surfaced.

He started out by insisting I print him the Young Justice minifig bodies (I printed several sizes in the hopes that one of them fits his Lego minifig bodies). Then he cut out the bodies (just noticed now that he didn't just cut out Superman's shirt, but also his briefs! What attention to detail!).

He made a cape out of paper...

... and colored it in with a red marker.

And voila! Young Justice minifigs!

Noah already has a Lego Batman minifig but his shirt is gray so he opted for the black shirt cut-out. If am not mistaken, he used his old Harry Potter shirts for Martian Manhunter & Alfred. And the Martian's heads, I believe, are Toy Story army men's heads.

Notice how the faces of Red Tornado (the tornado legs made me chuckle!), Superman, Robin & Green Lantern are also taped on? Am amazed at how small the pieces are! Especially since he uses double-sided tape to stick the tiny pieces of paper on his Legos.

It took me a while to print out Nightwing's minifig so Noah drew a minifig while waiting (& constantly nagging me to finally print it).

It's quite obvious that Nightwing's face is taped on. But if you look closely, you will see that Noah even covered a yellow head with white paper (see the sliver of yellow at the neck?)!

When the Avengers movie was released, (after creating Avengers paper magic here), I guess he was itching to make Avengers minifigs and could no longer wait for me to print them out for him. So he drew the parts he needed himself! Shirt, shield, goggles...

Love the abs he drew for Thor & Hulk, how he used his old penguins' beaks for Ironman's hands, the boosters on Ironman's feet, and how Noah moved Captain America's goggles from his helmet to his eyes for the photo op!

This is version 1 of Noah's homemade Avengers minifigs...

But just a week later, he made new versions and adorably lined them up so they copy his Avengers movie poster. 

I much prefer his first version of Ironman vs. the Megablocks one here. Oh, and he had to add a Nick Fury minifig for consistency with the poster.

Noah even made Thor's blond hair...

... and Loki's helmet & scepter out of paper!

But out of all of his homemade minifigures in this post, his Captain America mask, molded out of paper...

... is my absolute favorite!

Photos are all my own.

Click here for previous posts from the Lego Tales series. Watch for more of Noah's homemade minifigs in Part 2!

some polka dots i spotted...

Pat of 101gramsofeyecandy sent me a goodie bag of her printed items way back in August. The label plates were so pretty...

... that I couldn't bring myself to waste use them. Until her Candy Shop opened and I realized I could get new ones anytime I wanted (and at affordable prices at that!). I started with organizing Noah's activity books. They used to be bunched together on a shelf with a bookend. But since they were mostly thin books (spines weren't thick enough to have a title), Noah couldn't tell them apart and was never enticed to use them. So I segregated them like this...

And he now picks out the books according to the activity he wants to do!

Using these materials...

... and by placing the nylon cable ties (which I got from Japan Home Store) on just one side of the labels, I turned the label plates into a sort of door on my silver magazine file rack. So Noah just opens the "door" to pull out his activity book.

After Noah's label plates were done, I (took a deep breath and) used one of the non-kiddie pretty, patterned label plates from Pat for my things. And of course, the first one I picked was the pretty polka-dotted one!

Love how our shelves look now with these pretty label plates! Thanks Pat!  

To get your own pretty label plates and browse other printed eye candy via The Candy Shop's online catalog, just email:

Photos are my own.

Click here for previous posts from the Some Polka Dots I Spotted... series. Watch for tomorrow's post here on what's inside my box of photos.

P.S. Someday, I'll tell you more about where that Matroyshka doll set came from. :)