on being a new mom.

that's sophie 2 years ago. sophie's almost 3. wow. i still feel like a "new mom". i don't think there's such a thing as a "new mom". being a mom doesn't get old. like i'm always going to be a new mom. because each of sophie's age is new to me. if i have another baby (hopefully a boy) he's going to be different from sophie. different personality and character. obviously i have to take care of him in a "new" way and obviously my life is going to be in a different situation like at that time i will have 2 kids to take care of as to sophie being an only child. like i've never had 2 kids before so it's all "new" to me.

villa roma.

just got back from an 8-day vaca. catskills. (woohoo for upstate new york, lol) but there are actually some pretty interesting places to see near the callicoon area. there's the woodstock, apparently the biggest kaleidoscope is somewhere in that area, a lot of second hand and antique stores and umm i guess that's it. there's really not much to do there. i had 2 goals: take a pic of the yasgur farm and take sophie to a petting farm (i was really looking forward to this one). unfortunately, i didn't get to do both due to weather conditions. (grrr, don't you just hate that) damn it's cold upstate. nevertheless, i had so much fun!! took a lot of pix and spent $600 at walmart! yes, half of that went to food. i finally bought rain boots to replace my old one (yes, they're so comfy and i can use them for gardening which i plan to do soon and yes for rain which is why i made it a point to head out to blockbuster yesterday in the "pouring rain"). bought 2 of the hardest puzzle we could find, jengga (finally), and yey for granimal and miley cyrus clothes. yeah, so what? that's sophie and my pangbahay. anyway, i am back.

going provencal.

saw this in the latest issue of martha stewart mag and omg i am obsessing. yeah lately i have been so into vintage and provencal ceramics. i love so many things at the anthropologie home section. they also have really nice white cannisters but i am just in love with this sugarbowl. it would make a nice mothers day gift. perfect actually. wink wink. now i am in search for a matching one since we like using powdered cream for our coffee.

happy mothers day.

it's tomorrow already and i didn't even notice. just finished making these. happy mothers day. goodnight.

remember the cutest little hydrant i blogged about? well this is it. i would say it's about 2 feet small. so cute! i finally took a photo of it while driving to work last tuesday. yeah not very safe. i was able to upload all my vegas hydrants too!

i am relaxed!!! no seriously. i'm not kidding.

so this week's been a little crazy. just got back from vegas on sunday so that means laundry and grocery shopping. worked on tuesday. hand made 100 r&r invitations. and now i am packing for next week's trip - 7 days for me, j and sophie. i've been juggling everything from doing laundry (which means folding clothes also), doing the invitations, chores and errands. seriously like last wednesday my day went like this: made breakfast and grilled j's healthy lunch, took j to main st. at the same time pick my sister up, then stopped by the gas station, then went to cvs to get my dad and father in law's meds, went to the bank to deposit my paycheck from the day before (caching!), staples to get ink for the printer, grocery shopping, cooked pancit for lunch, ate and washed dishes and bottles, took sophie to the park, made her sleep as soon as we got home, figured out how to use this damn printer, printed the invitations, assembled the sinamay to the invitations by hand if i may say so, still printing, then sophie woke up and fed her, took inggay to the train station and picked j up, faithful mr. softie was waiting for us when we got home so we bought sophie ice cream, had a quick dinner, washed dishes, still printing, made sophie sleep, continued with the invitations and then j was like, "why don't you just relax already?". and i had to stop and think for a sec. i was actually not tired. in fact i was relaxed in a wierd way. seriously. i probably didn't look like it (because i had an allergy attack after the park and when i say attack i mean attack) but i was. i think everytime i am creating something i automatically turn my zen mode on. i did 50 invites that night and that took a lot of time but it's funny that i can't remember now what was going through my head during those time. i guess you we are capable of thinking about nothing. oh wait, i do remember something, or not. whatever. the invites looks good. so. good.

r&r update.

3 months to go before rb's big day. gave up half of my cork board for r&r. thanks to inggay i am only baby sitting my printer. i really like the champagne and magenta combination. so elegant especially with chocolate. which reminds me i still have to buy my shoes.

ruler.

anyone who knows me knows i love all kinds of "desktop" supplies (if there's such a thing - i made that up). lol. school supplies, office supplies, art supplies, scrapbooking, sewing, painting, cutting, home improvement, just about everything i can use to create something. and i'm pretty much the go to person is anyone needs something. shirley once asked me for an old school fastener (yeah the metal one) and i actually had one. but there is one item i don't have or i can't seem to find because it's so common that i must have one. i mean how can i not have one? a ruler. yes, a simple, dependable ruler. seriously, it's a long process for me to make a straight and exact line. i have a tape measure and i have a paper cutter with measurements. so yeah i've been using those to measure and an old folder to make a straight line. now that i think about it, it's ridiculous. i could have saved so much time if i had a ruler. and that's just a ruler. (uh oh here it comes) we probably waste so much time on using the wrong things. things are so easy if you have the right tool or should i say nothing is difficult if you use the right tool. yeah but tools now are so complicated. too much features like my blackberry. gosh don't get me started on that. in thoreau's walden, we have become the tools of our tools or something like that. and gosh ain't that the truth. our phone is pretty much like a leash. i'm happy and proud to say i am not tied to my phone. in fact i always forget my phone (my husband is not very happy about that) and i never read my texts on time. anyway, so yeah i need a ruler.

side note: if i didn't have this blog, i would have probably thought about this thought but no one would know or i would feel really bad for the person i am with at that time. right that's why i used to own ayanshead@yahoo.com to email myself and that didn't work out. yey for blogging.

electric post.

see that's why i like flickr. so apparently i am not the only one with a wierd obssession. this photo was picked to be in a group for electric post photos. cool. shout out to andres_fq.

single ladies.

watch out world for the next backseat star with her crazy smile!

tourist for a day.

i've been to main st., flushing (to walk around) more times when i lived in sunnyside than now that i live 10 minutes away. that is pretty sad. i love little asian boutiques and 99 cents shops! i love pho! i even like riding the bus. and i was so excited to take sophie for her first bus ride. we (my sister, garet and sophie)went to morning glory - one of my favorite stores. i was so overwhelmed that i left empty handed.

i seriously felt like an annoying tourist with the camera. it was almost embarassing to stop and take photos. but i did anyway! so?! i am not very happy with the little pictures i took but i am glad i was able to do it. and i took a hydrant picture. yey! we had to pretend we were on line for the bus and my sister had to go in the middle of the street to take the shot. people were probably like wtf. and then after we were like "oh it's the wrong bus" loud enough for everyone to hear. lol.

baby quilt.

sophie is growing so fast. went through all her clothes and they're all pretty much small on her. i can't give 'em away because most of them have stains and i don't want to throw them out coz they're so cute (not because i am a hoarder(i am not being defensive)). my sister gave me a great idea of turning them into a quilt. it's a big project but i have every reason to do it. 1. keepsake + memories 2. finally put my mom's sewing machine into use (since last year it has been back and forth from her house to ours and that thing is damn heavy) 3. finally learn to use a sewing machine 4. free up some space in our laundry room 5. for fun! now i just have to go through them again!

ayan's hydrants.

so i came across this blog: runningfromcamera.blogspot.com where this guy sets his camera on self-timer for 2 seconds and tries to run from it as far away as possible. i thought it's really cool. so i created another blog dedicated to my hydrants. so!? because i wanted to. check out ayanshydrants.blogspot.com.

8.4 million dolphins killed every year.

last night i just saw one of the most heartbreaking documentary film, the cove. i mean i've heard about the "save the whales" and even hayden panettiere being involved with the dolphins but i never really bothered to get the details. who knew that 23,000 dolphins are being slaughtered in taiji, japan everyday. everyday. seriously. and that's just one of many spots where this terrible crime happens. it's not even a crime but it should be.

i've watched shamu and the dolphins when we went to sea world before and yes i've seen flipper on tv. amazing but if you really think about it they are captives masked by their facial features that look like big smiles. dolphins in the wild travel/swim on an average of 40,000 miles or something like that (a lot!) daily. and show dolphins don't even have a mile of space. and these are the "lucky ones" who got picked while the rest of their batch were killed for their meat. and for money.

pain.

so it turns out that pain really is subjective. i've heard and read that so many times but never actually cared until my last visit to my endo. *wow* another enlightenment. i like my doctor very much. she's cool and everyone who works at her office are so hot! like seriously.

anyway, 6 months ago, i found out that i have 3 enlarged nodules on my thyroid. one of them is cystic but nothing to worry about. it's benign. and last tuesday i woke up and i was in so much pain. the right side of my throat hurt so much. like my cyst was dislodged (if that's even possible) or even dangling. yeah it was painful. so anyway my doctor's diagnosis: "you're stressed out and it's all in your head. go to the gym or go shopping." of course she had a longer explaination and i really wish i could remember everything she said. because what can i tell you i am cured! and that's after taking her advise and going straight to ac that day.

another fun fact i learned that day is that even amputees who are experiencing phantom pains are given pain killers. doctors are actually required to prescribe them pain killers. just like my thryroid - there's actually no nerves on the gland. if i was feeling pain (which i did), it would've been caused by the surrounding area of the thryroid and that would only happen if my cyst grew bigger but not in my case.

pain/endurance is a state of mind. yup like in martial arts movies. in reality, we don't actually always control our brains but we can. that is the power of the mind. nice to know i am a kung fu fighter deep inside. yeah really really deep inside.