30 days of happiness: 2

happiness is...





...dancing with my kids with no abandon to the tune of Lady Ga-ga's "p-p-p-p-p-p-poke her face" (Sofia's version) from my favorite noontime show.

30 days of happiness: 1

happiness is...



...hearing my daughter say “oh!” sounding enlightened and pleased with my answer to her so many why questions several times a day only to be followed by another “but why mommy?“

The "oh!"s are cute but the "why's" can get tiring at times.

new non-vintage category: 30 days of happiness

I will be adding a non-vintage category on this blog called "30-days of happiness". I decided to join Erin of bluebirdbaby to share some snapshots of my little life, love, and happiness for 30 days, you can join too if you want, it should be fun!

weekend

we had a gorgeous weather on Saturday perfect for a barbeque picnic at our favorite park to celebrate hubby's birthday. The kids enjoyed of course.



Jovan and Sofia



I prepared a few of his favorite dishes; korean barbeque, enchilada, spanish rice, beans and shrimp ceviche and some carne asada. I didn't get around to making some cupcakes, but he had a big homemade chocolate cake that his daughter brought for the party.




and because he's rather private, this is the only photo he approved for me to post here; with his cute 1 year old granddaughter Reina.

happy birthday, honey!

my hubby's birthday is tomorrow, and we're having a Mexican fiesta picnic with lots of shrimp ceviche tostada, enchilada and chocolate cupcakes!

*photo from flickr

weekend in pictures

We had the most gorgeous weather here in Seattle this weekend; Saturday was beautiful and what a better way to spend it than a visit to downtown Pike Place market...

...where you can dine alfresco by an alley eating copious amount of humbow (first stop is always at my favorite humbow place for some barbeque pork humbow) while watching a street entertainer... and snapping photos of random strangers (I love this girl's colourful outfit I had to snap a photo)

where you can find rows of the most lusciuos and freshest produce Seattle has to offer...

... and witness some dead flying fish, apparently the market's main attraction (there are about 25 people surrounding this guy snapping photos of him and his fishes)...

...picked up a bunch of orange tulips to brighten a room for a few days for a mere $10...

... dollar and a half carousel ride and some pink cotton candy..

and what's a visit to the Market without rubbing Rachel the pig's snout for some good luck before heading home.

It was an enjoyable day indeed.

*first photo via Flickr

a day in a life of an etsy shop owner (work-at-home-mom)

9:00 Wake up, hit snooze button within two rings to avoid waking up the kids. (yes I own an alarm clock and use it from Monday thru Thurdays, which are kids school days)

9:01 Lay in bed, think of what to feed the kids for breakfast.

9:02 Go back to sleep, kids will wake me up eventually.

9:30 Wake up suddenly to realize I didn’t hit the snooze button, I turned it off. Kids are still sleeping.

9:32 Go to the kitchen and make a pot of coffee.

9:40 Go downstairs to the basement office, check Etsy shop, read emails while having coffee, hoping kids will sleep for another half hour.

9:45 Kids are awake, can hear their little footsteps walking downstairs to look for me.


9: 46 Go upstairs to the kitchen, put PBS cartoon on so I can get some breakfast ready.

Realized were out of bread or tortilla, but there’s still half gallon of milk.

Tell kids we’re having coco puffs for breakfast. Kids jumps in excitement.

9:49 – 10:20 Breakfast. Chaos in the kitchen.

Meals usually consist of crying over spilt juice/milk/water.


Screaming for MORE CEREAL/JUICE/MILK/BREAD/ETC!!!!


Questions (more like demands) such as WHERE’S MY DORA CUP???!!! WHERE’S MY DIEGO PLATE?????!!!!! WHERE'S MY RED CUP, BLUE CUP????!!!!

10:20 Finish breakfast. Will do the dishes later.

10:30 Get kids ready for school.


Endless pleas to put their shirt, pants, socks, shoes, jackets on already.

11:30 Get the kids to the car. Endless pleas to get them to sit on their car seat already and quit trying to get in front of the steering wheel.

11:45 Drop kids to school. Sudden sense of freedom and bliss.

11:50 Stop by favorite thrift store.

12:15 Run series of errands, ie. grocery shopping, bank deposits, return books at the library, Fedex, post office.

1:30 Rush home to photograph some items.

2:30 Upload photos, while checking and answering emails, filling orders, finding just the right boxes in the garage and packaging items to ship.

3:10 Pick up kids from school.

3:30 Go home for snack, check Etsy and emails.

Plan something for dinner.

4:45 Take kids to swimming lesson.

5:40 Go home and prepare dinner.

7:04 Dinner time, as usual chaos in the kitchen table. Wondering when will we ever experience another quiet, enjoyable, peaceful dinner.

7:47 Finished dinner, will do dishes later.

8:00 Do some arts and crafts/practice writing/colouring/ painting/reading books.

Will intermittently open laptop to check etsy and email.

9:10 – 9:45 Kids bath time.

10:00 Get kids ready for bed. Read books.

10:30 They’re finally asleep. Freedom!

10:38 Do dishes, clean up kitchen.


11:10 Take a quick shower. Mental note to buy a new shower liner on my next Target run.

11:40 Edit photos taken earlier today, research items, list, relist, answer emails/convos, package sold items.

Read blogs.


Open mails.

Pay some bills.

Write something on my blog.

Read Etsy forum; window shop on favorite etsy shops.

Read some more blogs.

Suddenly realizing a good two and a half hours was spent just reading blogs.

4:01 A.M. Vow to do the taxes tomorrow night.

4:06 A.M. Turn the ringer off, go to bed.

v day post

Remember how important valentines day used to be when you first got together with your other half? A fancy dinner and expensive bouquet of flowers are not to be missed? I can't say the same thing after being together for 14 years with my hubby. We exchanged handmade cards that the kids help make with their craft papers and crayons, and he took me to my favorite hamburger place for dinner and then a late movie of my choice afterwards. Very uneventful but was a nice break from the daily grind and from the kiddos.

merry Christmas!

So were still recovering from inhaling way too much food from our family “noche buena” which was hosted by my brother at his house last night. Noche Buena is a Philippine traditional dinner feast that is shared on the night of Christmas Eve, usually after the family has attended the late evening mass, except we didn’t go to any mass yesterday because there’s still plenty of snow on the ground, so we just ate all night. My mom and sis-in-law prepared the dinner and everything was delicious.

The kids were very excited with all the gifts they’ve got this year. They got so many; we came home with three huge garbage bags full of loot. Jovan’s most favorite one was a gumball machine. He wanted to sleep with it last night and when he woke up this morning it was the first thing he asked. Forget the 127 pieces train set, a big robot or the Hotwheels, all he cared about was his gumball machine; kids are so uncomplicated sometimes.

Hubby and I didn’t exchanged gifts this Christmas, actually this would be the 4th year we agreed not to buy each other gifts. It’s so unromantic I know, but we’re thinking more on a practical side. We always buy the things we needed when we need them, and plus I’m so picky with everything it would be waste of his money and time to buy me anything cause I would just return them for money. Now give me two hours a day, five days a week to go shopping at my favorite thrift stores while you babysit the kids without telling me what junk am I taking to the house again and do not make me feel guilty that I’m neglecting the kids with my thrifting obsession. Now that would be the best Christmas present ever!

the weather outside is frightful

It’s been snowing non-stop here in Seattle since Thursday and we have been homebound eversince. Four days of not being able to go anywhere because of the 7 inches of snow proved to be very challenging with my 3 year old twins.

They are driving me nuts! And so is my husband! I am running out of ideas to entertain them. The kids can only spend half an hour the most painting and coloring until they discover it’s more fun to color the walls, smear play dough on the carpet or paint their faces. We had baked so much cookies in the last two days, I have enough treats to give to all my neighbors in the whole block. The tree and the ornaments had taken some beatings as they love taking them down and putting the ornaments back up, ughh. oh, and I’m running out of food in my house. Heck, forget the food I have not gone to my favorite thrift stores in four days, I am having withdrawal! When is this snow going to melt?

I never liked snow. When I used to live in Eastern Washington many years ago, sometimes it would snow there until February and March and stays on the ground for weeks at a time. I never could drive in snow so I'd stay at home all day and watch TV, lucky my job was just next door to where we live, only about six steps from my house.

Anyways, with only three days to go before Christmas, alas, I'm not done with my shopping yet. I think I’m just going to whip up a bag and a wallet for couple of people on my list instead.

Here's a picture of our tree. I placed the pretty, vintage ornaments on top so the kids will leave them alone.