paper lanterns

i am a sucker for paper lanterns.

i think it's perfect for the urban feel.

what i love about them the most is that if you really think about it, paper lanterns are so basic and simple - nothing ornate at all;

yet, they can give any space a festive yet elegant look.

and they look great in photos!

[photos by: Blue World Studios blueworldstudios.com]

edit: my version of paper lanterns...

see more here: dinner and dancing at westin casuarina

poknat

today, some time before my lunch break, i got a surprise call at work from my sweetest gurrrlfriend everrrrr!

"uy, tita mae, let's go to lunch. i'm gonna feed you! my treat!" she said in that cheerful, vibrant, world-rocking yet adorably sweet voice of hers - her trademark. (o ha, antarush!) and of course, how could i say "no" to that??? not because the offer is irresistible, but because the offer is from valerie. ;)

then, as if, she hasn't fully convinced me yet, she had to add, "c'mon, i really want to do this before i completely go back to college student poverty... just consider this as one of my ways of fulfilling my bridesmaid duties."

awwwww... when i heard these words, i could just cry... in laughter. hahaha! no, seriously, i was super touched!

so there she went... complete with picking me up at work, taking me to cheesecake factory, MAKING me go thru the whole nine yards - appetizer, main entree, and two (2) varieties of guilt-filled chocolate dessert with so much stuff left-over for to-go, and dropping me back off at work. you should have seen how we tried to multi-task to avoid any idle time since i only have an hour lunch break: talking nonstop while masticating our food. hahaha! the weirdest thing is ( it is very weird, alright?) that after all that effort to avoid wasting any time, i still ended up taking over an hour lunch break. yikes, i was actually gone on a lunch break for almost two hours. i know, right?! but trust me, every second of it was very well worth it... even though i had to stay an hour extra unpaid after work. ;)

to val: wow, sum'kaynopa espesyal panawagan epek pa 'to ha. hahaha! no, pero seryoso nga, on a serious note, (hahaha anlabo!) what can i say? it's hard for me not to be baduy right now coz like i said today, "words are not good enough..." but i am willing to strip myself bare, baduy and all, for you! charing! haha! sige na, seryoso na... i just really appreciate our times together coz i know how extremely busy you have been - like, you haven't even been able to go home earlier than 9-10pm every single day; yet, you are still willing to squeeze me in between even if it means staying up with me until five-thirty a.m. on a sunday morning just to bitch, whine, vent, and laugh our asses off together. hihihihi! Eight hours later, i still cannot stop myself from from smiling with matching kilig epek because of your gesture today... but i am even more amazed as i was reminiscing our past to where we are now. the story of our friendship - even from how we specifically met - with all the laughter and the drama and everything in between, has truly turned out to be (and i'm sure, will always be) "beautiful in His time." (o ha? nakanampoooch!) i know the roller coaster ride of our friendship has not ended, but no matter what happens in the future, i just want to make sure that i told you this at least once: we will always be... poknat and bokbok forever at the dulo ng rainbow. love kita talaga, val <333

excerpts

before i share this with you, let me give you a little background. the email excerpts i will be sharing with you shortly are email series of me and vince, my former co-worker at coldwell. for some number of months, i was assigned at the desk next to his (i guess, until my old boss found out that half of my shift would be spent chatting with him instead of working... hehe), which how we became pretty good friends even outside work. he would usually listen to me - fairly patiently, for that matter - whine endlessly and repetitively about me and mike's drama. oh, yes, the good ol' days. so anyway, when we both quit at coldwell last year, w e did pretty good in keeping in touch (usually through email at work hehe) even though we did not see each other regularly. that was until the beginning of this year; our emails slowly became more sporadically.

anyway, i'm sharing some bits and pieces of this email since it honestly describes a summary of my viewpoint of me and mike's upside-down-turning journey together within the span of a single year...

last week, after several months of no communication, vince shot me an email just to catch up. the series below start with my reply. here it goes:

_____________________________________________________________________________
Subject: RE: Haaaayyyyy!!

Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2007 11:13:35 -0700

From: xxx@xxxxxxxx.com

To: xxx@hotmail.com

Well, Hello, Mr. Soto.

It’s been ages!!! I mean, look, the last time we talked was before your parents’ 50th wedding anniversary! That’s a looong time! hehehe… sure, I’d love to see some pics. I never met any of your family, so it’d be nice! Believe it or not, I have not partied hard since last year so I have no interesting pics to show you. hehe…

So you work with two Filipino women? I don’t feel threatened at all. I know mike and I will always have THE spot! Haha…

I know I mentioned it to you before, but since we have not talked in a while… Mike and I will have our church wedding (the whole nine yards and all…) on nov 24, so I hope you’re not planning on going out of town since that is the Saturday of thanksgiving weekend. Email me your home address so I can mail an invite to you… once it is done… yes, 8 weeks and all, and I still have not sent out my invites. I know you have not forgotten that I am the reigning queen of procrastination.

Anyway, I’ve been good, extremely busy but good. My life has been constantly spinning and changing as you can see since I moved out of my parents house last year. Mike’s daughters (ages 13 and 6) have come back from the Philippines; they stay with us 3 days per week, so aside from learning how to be a wife – a “good” wife, for that matter – I have been playing stepmother to girls who can practically be considered my little sisters. How fun is that!!! Heh… nah, it’s been a cool but crrrazy experience.

What about you? Anything else new???

sheila

______________________________________________________________________________
From: vince soto [mailto: xxx@hotmail.com]

Sent: Monday, September 24, 2007 6:12 PM

To: Romulo, Sheila Mae

Subject: RE: Haaaayyyyy!!

YOU'RE A MOM!!!!!!!!!!

You have to admit that that is kinda funny - it wasn't that long ago that you didn't even want to get married because you said you were still too young and now you're a MOM...

C'mon.....you have to admit that that IS funny....at least a little....

_________________________________________________________________

From: Romulo, Sheila Mae
Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2007 10:21 AM
To: 'vince soto'
Subject: RE: Haaaayyyyy!!

OK, yes, it IS funny. I am not denying the irony of my life! It seems like everything that I dreaded to happen is happening… faster than a bullet.

There are still times when I wake up in the morning and feel mike next to me, and like a lightning in my head, I realize, “oh my gosh, I’m married!!!” Then, add to that: a few minutes later, the kids would come barging in our room to wake us up (to make them breakfast), and I feel as if I am floating above my self watching the whole scene and laughing at myself mockingly, like, “are you freeeeakin’ kidding me?!?!?!”


sheila

Tree Seed Box Favors

we originally planned to have our wedding favors made in the Philippines (specifically in mike's hometown, loaog city, ilocos norte... aw, he's such a province boy =) mainly because we could not find a favor here in the states that is unique and clever yet worth keeping and using and preferably with some meaning to me and mike. not necessarily "practical" but something that will not eventually turn into a junk at our guests' homes a few years later. and by "junk," i mean "something that you don't want to throw away because you feel like it's not really a trash but, at the same time, you really do not have any use for it other than cluttering your house." well, so anyway, getting the favors from the philippines was only feasible to us before because papa (mike's daddy) was planning to go visit home sometime in september or october, so we figured we do not have to worry about shipping. however, recently, we found out, he cannot make it after all. therefore, for convenience's sake, we would just have to really start digging online for the wedding favors... and errr! it's hard!

most of the ones i saw are either so cliche (candles, bells, glass figurines... seriously??? when i was between 4-12 yrs old, i was often made as a flower girl or a bride's maid, and i can still remember clearly that all of their wedding favors were either of those three mentioned... and that was 80's to 90s era. eck!); or too practical that it's almost ghetto (notepads, plastic ballpens, measuring spoons... cookie cutter???); or too corny (ruler with a label that says "love rules" or rollable tape measure with "love beyond measure" sticker on the front... all i can say is: hehehe!) i found some that i loved, but unfortunately they do not go very well with my fall contemporary theme (i.e. i saw several beach-themed favors that are pretty clever).

anyway, i got excited when i stumbled upon this wedding favors online store: http://www.plantamemory.com/ and found their tree seed box favor. i have to say i am strongly considering this.

The product description states:

Plant a Tree to help global warming.
Included in this Favor Package: seed packet with 10-15 tree seeds hermetically sealed to preserve freshness, personalized imprinted paper card in handmade paper image with thank you message, poem, growing instructions ,terra cotta pot, jiffy pellet soil, and oatmeal colored raffia ribbon. (some assembly required)

Tree Seed Choices:

Blue Spruce - Black Pine click for more information

Douglas Fir : Evergreen tree often used as a Christmas tree (10-15 seeds/packet)

Honey Locust: Shade tree ,fast growing ,heat & drought tolerant landscape tree, grows to 100' height. ( larger seed pod; 5-6 seeds/packet)Paper (canoe)

Birch: Landscape tree, moist soil, amazing fall color, winter interest grows to 90 feet. (small seeds-surface sowed- 50 seeds/packet)

pretty cool, eh? if we do decide on this, i'm thinking of choosing the douglas fir seeds, which is an Evergreen tree that is normally used as a Christmas tree. it's meaningful in a way because mike and i got [civilly] married on thanksgiving day last year. in american tradition, the thanksgiving holiday is kind of like the "official" start of christmas season: when people start buying christmas presents (thus, "black Friday," the day after thanksgiving day, was coined for one of the biggest annual retail sales nationwide.), when christmas carols are significantly more often played on the radio, when people start putting up christmas decorations in their homes, etc. then again, i can imagine douglas-firs probably not surviving here in the desert (where most of my guests are from). either way, honey locust and birch seeds are not too shabby at all.

when i proposed the idea to mike, he noted that it is not really the most "practical" favor coz what if our guests tried planting them and they died (LOL). so i persuaded him, it's ok. to be pessimistic: if they die, then the guests would just throw them in the trash; therefore, no concerns of these favors turning into a "junk" and dust collector (as explained above). i don't have a green thumb, so i can picture it happening to a good majority of those guests who attempt. besides, i'm not into plants and gardening myself, but the idea of trying to grow something out of seeds is pretty cool to me. on the other hand, to be optimistic: if the plant continually grows into a tree and lasts forever, that's monumental! and a clever way to commemorate our wedding. =)

plus, i just have to say, i love how it's packaged and wrapped. that's basically what kinda did it for me. you can actually just forget all the blurbs above. LOL

THE aisle is so mine!

white luminous mini lanterns
from myweddingfavors.com

These perfectly white practical mini lanterns are the ideal favor. They add mystery and height to your table decor, while impressing your guests with their substance and thoughtfulness. Each aluminum lantern stands 5" high with a removable lid that makes lighting the replaceable tea light easy.

Inseparable

Inseparable,
That's how we'll always be:
Inseparable.
Just you and me,
It's so wonderful to know you'll always be around me.

Incredible,
What you are to me:
Incredible.
You bring out the woman [best] in me with your style of love.
Inseparable -
Yes, we are.

Well, like a flower to a tree;
Like words to a melody of love.
There's no way we could break up.
No words that can make us blow our thing.

We're just inseparable.
That's how it is:
Inseparable
For the rest of our years
It's so wonderful to know you'll always be around.

just anotherrr monday

well, actually, not so much.

because of the labor day holiday, mike had this brilliant fun idea of going up to mt. charleston today to have a bbq/picnic with the whole family. so we did. we crammed all of ourselves - 10 adults and 1 child and trays of food for our baon - in my mommy's expedition, turning a fairly huge suv truck into what seemed like a sardine can, in a 45 minute-1 hour long drive (and that's just one-way) only to find out that it was pouring hard rain up there, so hard as if all the rainfall that vegas did not get during the scorching summer were saved up and collected to pour down up there today. and of course, because of the rain, it was also 40 degrees colder than the average summer temperature. anyway, we ended up going back down and looking for a spot near the highway us95 where we could park and get our grub on since at that time, after two hours of being crammed like sardines in the car, we had not eaten our lunch yet. (we were going to have our lunch at the planned picnic.) grrr... good one, husband. ehh, it's not so bad, i guess, coz it's rare nowadays that all of us (my family and mike's family) could get together like that even though our picnic turned out to be a super long butt-numbing "joyride" because all of us have different work and/or school schedules. we're now at our house and decided to continue our bbq thing here for dinner instead.

so i heard from mike's aunties this weekend. auntie joy had been in touch with us since last weekend as she was trying to book their (auntie joy, auntie faith, and manang jenny - mike's cousin) trip here for the wedding! then, auntie faith (she and i claim to be the great beauties of the fam... muhahaha) was also telling me how they are already talking about what they are going to wear for the event. exciting, but at the same time, mike and i were like, "whoa! this is it. people are actually planning for the wedding now. no turning back now. we have to have the wedding." weird, i know. we're getting cold feet as if we have not been married for the past 9 months!

james also came over yesterday to show me his samples that he created for the wedding invite. the concept was pretty impressive! [yiheeeee... awesome job, james!] although there are still some room for enhancement, aylaveeet! we are going to be busy with that in the next two weeks. we are shooting to mail out by week of 9/17. (i know... urrrgh, a little last minute, but virtually all of the guest list have already been informed about the event anyway. it's just a matter of putting it in writing.)

so yes, this is it! it's crunch time!!!

Dream Aisle, Here I Come

LED LumaLyte TeaLight
NON-FLICKERING
Battery Candle Lights in Pack of 12
$15.95

• Glowing Non-Flickering TeaLight Battery Candle Lights are safe indoor and outdoor Luminaria lights
• Ideal for wedding centerpieces, staircases, church isle, and window sills for Holiday and New Years Eve Parties, Halloween, Weddings or event dinners
• Size: 1-1/2" dia. X 1-1/4"
• Battery is included in each candle
• Can be turned on and off for 25 hours of light!
• The light casts a golden glow
• Water resistant
• Replacement batteries available
• Only $1.34 per Light

[from: lumabase.com]

special note: the church does not allow wax candles other than the unity candles. thus, this is a great discovery for me.

just... perfect

oh.

my.

gosh.

this would be sooooo me. [look, tita val o!]

ol' bare dark wooden aisle without the cliché tulle drapes and flower cones or bows on the pews and flowers or petals on the aisle runner…

just illuminaries.

just... perfect!

urrrghhh, vegas needs more of these darn churches!!!

[photo by kristin spencer]