Happy Monday friends! How’s the start of your week going? How about a cup of coffee or two to shake away those Monday blues? My day is going good so far and I’m having my daily dose of coffee inspiration too. I stumbled on this website called Coffee | Served Daily when I was looking at Tammy of Bliss & Folly‘s yummy coffee photos. Coffee | Served Daily is hosted by Kim who is a big coffee lover. She created this blog to document her vision of a 1000 cups of coffee through photos and to unite coffee lovers as well. As much as I believe that she could drink 1000 cups, she would love it if you would join her for a cup or two. Send her a coffee photo, a story, and any links you’d like to share to her email {kim@tbdesign.com} and she will take care of posting your daily dose of coffee goodness.

Right now she’s on cup #100. And I am honoured that she featured my latte series for her 100th cup! Yay, thanks Kim! *happy dance* I’ve posted the series before as a submission to a photo challenge that Ashley of Ramblings and Photos was hosting. And my latte art won that photo challenge too! Anyway, visit Coffee | Served Daily and check out all the cool coffee photos. I’m sure you will love it. Also play along if you can ♥ Stay warm and have an awesome day!

So here we are celebrating Christmas in Vancouver, and everything has been wonderful so far! Despite the rain, we happily went to Christmas midnight mass. The sermon was really moving and we enjoyed the choir sing Christmas songs. When we got home we had a nice dinner and lots of desserts *yum*. We gathered around the Christmas tree and opened some presents. I enjoyed every single moment of laughter and story-telling that we all shared. Everything seems so perfect ♥

Then I looked at the Christmas tree and was surprised on how unique all the ornaments were. From baby to family photos, hand-painted, embroidered, crochet ones, baby’s first ornament, paper snowflakes, to handmade ones from close friends. I marveled at all of them and Scott’s parents told me that there is actually a story behind every one of them. Wow!

Well, there’s this one ornament that caught my attention coz it was simple, tube-like, and I just have never seen one before. They then told me that these tubes were their first ornaments from their first year of marriage about 37 years ago. Wow! The ornament was made from a toilet paper roll covered with gift wrapping paper and a thin wire as a hanger. They said that when they first got married, life was really hard and for their first Christmas they didn’t have enough money to buy some ornaments so they decided to be more creative and use whatever materials they have available. They were so tickled and happy with it. So these neat tubes have been hanging around their Christmas tree for 37 long years now and every glimpse of it brings back happy memories of their first Christmas together ♥

This is my entry for today’s Ornament theme at Mortal Muses. Check out the rest of the Village submissions and play along if you have time!

Four more days to go before Christmas ♥ Yay! Yes, I sit here counting the days. Christmas, is one of my favorite times of the year. With all the good food, merry songs, bright lights, and the warmth of a family gathering together to open Christmas presents, who wouldn’t want to celebrate Christmas and make it an everyday celebration right?!

I’m reminiscing on how I so much miss celebrating Christmas in the Philippines, it is very festive and bright. Lots of Christmas lights and beautiful lanterns around the city and neighborhood; even the poorest of poor have the most festive decorations. We start off the Christmas celebration by attending Christmas mass on Christmas eve that lasts almost up to midnight. Then when midnight strikes the merrymaking begins! We hear fireworks that go on up to the wee hours of the morning. There’s a lot of love and hugs that go around before indulging in Christmas food which we call Noche Buena. Ohhh the food! From roasted pig on a spit, baked stuff chicken, pork adobo, sweet ham, spaghetti, stir fried rice noodles with veggies, egg rolls, chicken-pineapple macaroni salad, leche flan or caramel custard, cakes, ice cream and hot chocolate to name a few. After eating, we exchange gifts or play some fun games or light up some fireworks. And this goes on until the morning of Christmas day.

I’ve lived in the States for 6 years now and for the past few Christmases, it has just been Scott and I gathering around our cute Christmas tree. Just the two of us…we are family. We celebrate it just like how I remember it in the Philippines on Christmas eve with a variety of Ukrainian, Canadian, and Filipino food to feast on, then opening of presents right after the meal. But this time around will be different. It will be a bigger family – Scott and I, and his parents will be gathering around a real Christmas tree in their home in Canada and celebrating it both Canadian and Filipino way. I am most excited with the fact that it won’t just be me and him. A bigger family this time! I am very much looking forward to sharing food, giving love, exchanging presents, telling stories, and just gathering around the tree =) I can’t wait! Here’s an old family photo of my doggies. I ♥ them so much!

Just an old winter photo from last year. And yes, that is Scott face down on the snow. Thanks for dropping by! And check out more Family entries at Mortal Muses.

Scott’s parents live in a nice village-like place in Vancouver. Colorful lights, beautiful trees by the window, and snow slowly falling. When I saw a photo of it that his dad sent last year, the whole place looked like it came out of a Christmas card. Oh how I dreamed then of visiting their village for the holidays.
Just a week ago, his parents bought a real Christmas tree. They’ve told us that they carried this good-sized tree and walked 6 blocks back home. I saw this snow globe today while shopping and started giggling. It just reminded me of how it must have looked like for his mom and dad dragging the Christmas tree to their own little Christmas village. I imagined it was heavy, cold, but fun! But what will be more fun is that I will get to celebrate Christmas with them this year with my first real Christmas tree! ♥

This is my entry for today’s Village theme at Mortal Muses. Check out the rest of the Village submissions and play along if you have time!

The three kings traveled for miles day and night. They followed the star diligently. They endured a long journey to pay homage to a baby born in a manger in Bethlehem. They never turned back or gave up but instead sought Jesus with determination and found Him.

This is my entry for today’s Journey theme at Mortal Muses. Check out the rest of the Journey submissions and play along if you have time! Happy Saturday!

I love giving HUGS. I believe in the power of a hug. It’s such a sweet gesture but speaks more than words can say. I find comfort in it. It costs nothing but yet this simple act can lift a person or make them feel connected to someone else. Give hugs. It’s a wonderful gift. So the next time that you wrap your arms and embrace another human being, make it tight, let go of everything and focus on that hug ♥

Mortal Muses is hosting 9 Muses Musing for the Holidays from December 15 – January 1. A Holiday prompt or word will be posted each day and you have the freedom to interpret this prompt through your photographs.
So today’s prompt is: GIVING. And yes there are giveaways involved! Who doesn’t love giveaways right!?! They’re giving away a camera lens mug! Very cool! Tomorrow’s prompt is: LIGHTS

So link up, play along, and meet new friends!

How crazy! I won the photo challenge again at In A Yellow House ~ Art. I’m so thrilled to see my photo win again but then Chelsea of In A Yellow House announced at the same time that this will be the last photo challenge she’s holding…EVER. I’m sad. I joined this photo challenge when Ashley of Ramblings and Photos was holding it while Chelsea was away in Europe. It’s been six weeks since I joined the challenge. So of the 5 challenges that I participated, I won on 3 of them! Yes, I am pretty psyched with my wins but pretty sad at the same time that this challenge is no longer going to be around. This challenge really stirred a lot of creativity. I will miss it. I guess this just means finding more photo challenges, I’m sure there will be lots =)

Here’s my winning photo:

And here’s my other two wins of the past weeks. It has been a fun ride =)

Theme: Work and Play

Theme: Trees

Hello Friends! I hope you are having a super fun weekend =) I have been very busy this week and just have not had time to blog or catch up with blogs that I follow. I know, I don’t like it when I get behind. But I will try my best to catch up this coming week.

Let me start by telling you how thrilled I am for this week’s photo challenge at In a Yellow House. This week’s theme is Art. How exciting! I’m seeing lots of fun interpretation for this theme. And this is mine, Latte Art – the patterns made in the foam topping espresso drinks. Yes, it is an art and takes a lot of practice to master. I have watched baristas make it look effortless and yet perfectly create hearts, stars, flowers, and leaves. Some are ornate, some elaborate, and some skill-intensive like it has words that goes along with the art. Yes, words, ain’t that cool!?!

So here are some photos that I took yesterday when I ordered a Mocha Latte. How cool! The pouring of steamed milk into a shot of espresso is the biggest challenge for the latte artist. And this one turned perfectly neat!

The final photo is my entry to this Art photo challenge. Truly, this requires a great deal of skill and practice from baristas, as the espresso, steamed milk and pouring must all be “just right” to get an aesthetically pleasing appearance. And I’m sure that this can be an enjoyable, creative and even a competitive activity. So the next time you receive a decorated latte, show some appreciation to your barista =)

Do check out the rest of the Art submissions at In a Yellow House. Have a great weekend and support your local everything!

Yay! I won the photo challenge again at Ramblings and Photos. That’s 2 weeks in a row ♥ The theme was “Work and Play.” I’m sure you remember my entry below on the talented sculptor, PJ Acker. Thanks to her and her beautiful art.

This win warms up my heart =) I will admit feeling low and this really help cheer me up. Thanks to the lovely comments left on my blog and Ashley’s blog today. It means a lot to me. Thanks Ashley! Great news to start the week.

This coming week’s photo challenge theme is “On the Water.” So join and play if you have time.
I hope you guys had a great holiday! *Hugs*

This past Wednesday, I took a mini-vacation. Just for a day. I was able to visit a part of Oklahoma City that I’ve never been before, The Paseo Arts District. It’s just a curved, two-block street that has maintained its Spanish revival architecture with original stucco buildings with clay tile roofs still intact. I happened to stop by Gallery One at Design Center, one of the many galleries in the district. The gallery is a house to several artists, and I was happy to get to talk to one – PJ Acker. She’s a very nice and talented lady. She started out with a background in nursing but has been drawn into the world of arts as long as she could remember, thus she continues to work on her art passion. Her work includes different mediums of expression, from charcoal, to pastel, oil, acrylic, and watercolor, then sculpture.

During the visit she was happily working and talking at the same time about her love for sculpting. This is work and play for her. Work, since she gets to sell her pieces once they’re done and some pieces that were made-to-order. But at the same time, Play, since this is something that she loves doing and is passionate about. She loves being a sculptor. I could see the twinkle in her eyes as she molds clay into her hands while talking about the adventures that she went through while working on her latest piece. She looked very happy and content. I thought this is a good balance between work and play, so I’m using the first photo below as my entry for this week’s challenge at Ramblings and Photos for this week’s theme of “Work and Play.”

This is PJ’s latest piece. I thought this mother-child piece was so beautiful. You could see the emotion and strength in the mother’s eyes and the baby on her back is laughing. She’s a warrior and a mother. PJ just recently added the baby on the back. I bet the finished piece will look wonderful since she envisioned the baby to be tugging and eating part of her hair. She wants it this way coz that’s what babies naturally do. She likes to put details on her work that reflects motherhood; and it clearly shows. I asked permission of course to post this photo since she’s still currently working on this piece. I called her today and she is as sweet and happy as I remember her the other day. Such a nice lady!

You can check out more of her work on her website http://www.pjackerart.com/. Support your Local Everything!
Happy Friday everyone! Enjoy your 3-day weekend! Yay! ♥