Seventeen Postcards and Counting

Snail mail will never get old. From Moscow, Barcelona, Kyiv, Zagreb, Oulo, Minsk, Szczecinek, Chisinau, Brussels, Taipei, Gironde, Nokia, Schwabach, Bremen and Leipzig - some vaguely familiar, some completely new to me. 

From these exchanges I learned Nokia is not only a famous Finnish cellphone brand but an actual place; martisor is a Romanian festival in celebration of spring; that it can go down to about -25 degrees Celsius in Finland; that Croatia is quite an interesting country to go to besides the fact that Mario Ancic is from there, etc. 

I joined Postcrossing for the mere curiosity and thrill of receiving snail mail, but now I'm even more invested in it because of the tidbits of new things I learn from so many people living across the world. I may not be actually sitting on a plane heading to these exotic places, but through these cards I get to enjoy the best thing about travel - new people, new cultures, new places to learn and dream of! 

On Postcards and Postcrossing

I've recently gotten into the hobby of collecting postcards and sending them out to random people living all over the world. It's a wonderful means to make simple connections with other people doing the same thing, writing them random thoughts or tidbits of information about the city I live in, or explaining why I chose a certain postcard for them to receive. I've sent some out to Belarus, Russia, China and Poland, and in return I've gotten beautiful postcards from Finland, Spain, Ukraine and Germany. Now every time I go collect mail from the mailbox, there's always the wonderful possibility of receiving another postcard from a country. It's made the simple task of mail collecting exciting!

Some postcards I've sent out have come from this wonderful collection from one of my favorite local photographers, Aleyn, who's called this set of photo postcards "Windswept Letters". This beautiful package came in the mail by the time I arrived in Manila, and unwrapping it was such a delight.

Most if not all of these postcards have found themselves in far-flung parts of Europe, and now I have about one or two to keep for myself, if I don't intend to send them out in the future. 

In any case, my postcard collection has grown to seventeen beautiful postcards! Soon I'll post some snapshots of them, some gorgeous, some quirky, some with very cool stamps and more. 

Windswept Letters can be purchased from Aleyn Comprendio. 

Rainy Sunday Indoors

Weekends have never been more blessed until I started working. Much like any normal person, I look forward to the comfortable lull of Saturday and Sunday and the happy art of taking my time with the things I do. On a regular sunny weekend, I'd make sure not to waste the weather and head on to a new place to explore in the city, but this recent weekend has been spent indoors, watching the rain fall and feeling conflicted as to whether or not I should go out despite the dreary and incredibly lazy weather. 

So this Sunday I took pictures of my little space and our humble room, not even bothering to whip out Duccio in such lazy weather and relying instead on my phone. I've been sifting through the latest issue of frankie, a magazine frequently mentioned by some blogs I follow, and which I decided to buy. It's a quaint magazine, so neatly designed and so fresh that I'm quite determined to buy all the next issues this year.

Today I wrote out lists on what to do when I visit Manila in February - much to do with developing film rolls and compiling a photo book of recent happenings - and whiled the afternoon away listening to Up Dharma Down's Capacities album, the perfect sort of music to be playing on a rainy day. Days like these are absolute love. J'adore!

*The books by my bed, and Freya the French bunny, but came all the way from Korea

*The picture that hangs by my bed

*One of the articles in frankie, which suits my mood and the state of my bed

*Shoes and Duccio

*The snapshots that are stuck to the wall above my roommate's bed

Fourteen Stations, Seven Churches

It's Holy Week again. Holy Thursday was spent going about the city for Bisita Iglesia - that tradition of praying the fourteen stations of the Cross, ideally doing one station for every church visit. My family usually prays two for every church that we visit, so that makes the trip somewhat easier because that would simplify things for us and trim down fourteen visits to seven. It's not my favorite thing to do, but it's one of the consistent sacrificial traditions we undertake every year; with that in mind, I've been in the process of learning not to be such a complainer since the first time we did this as a family.

This year, we visited the St. Joseph Parish Church (most famous for the Bamboo Organ in Las Pinas), St. Andrew's Cathedral in Paranaque, the Shrine for St. Therese near Resorts World, a teensy chapel my parents used to frequent when they used to live in Tambo, the church of Pateros, the Presentation Parish in BF Homes, and another church in the Fort. It was the most tiring bisita we did in years (usually we do it later in the day bordering on early evening), and it definitely took a toll on my temper. Huhu. I was grumpy for about half the trip because of the heat, mainly, and the fact that all I really wanted to do was relax in bed. But like I said, it's just one of the sacrifices we have to do for God. And I did get to see some of the loveliest churches in Manila (St. Joseph was just such a beauty with all the centuries-old stone), so that was just awesome. :)

Hope you're having a wonderful Holy Week. Whether or not you're at home or out of town, do remember to spare a minute or two for a bit of prayer! An advanced Happy Easter and God bless. :)

Old Boracay

This is just a break from the craziness of thesis. Things are about to roll next week, and I'm dead scared and anxious of what the future holds for me this time next week.

AAAANYWAY, despite the fact that I shouldn't be thinking of happy things like summer in such hectic times, I thought I'd share some photos of old Boracay today from Manila Old Timer and contemplate on how different it is today. It makes one wonder how man can so easily destroy manipulate the raw and quiet beauty of Mother Nature. Oh, if only Boracay still looked this pristine!

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I dream of basking in the summer sun, and I hope everything goes well soon so that I don't feel guilty anymore of dreaming of all things pretty. God knows how tense I've been for the past eight months. :P

I'd rather be a comma.

Excuse the vanity. Today was grad pic shoot day, and my makeup was pretty awesome. I didn't really want to say goodbye to the eye makeup and my great hair (because in real life, my hair is Hermione-ish. HIHI. And it makes me giddy to say that because my creative shot is Potter-inspired.). I was going for movement in some of these pictures, hence the intended blur. And I wanna say that it is when I'm wearing eyeliner and eyeshadow that I look East Asian, but I think I'm pushing my luck. Haha. *feeling Japanese*

DIY Denim Shorts

Whaddaya know, I did a DIY project this sembreak! YAY. *productive* 

It wasn't so creative because all I did was cut out these long shorts I had (which, in the past, I had cut  already by the professional sastre (tailor), and yet today they still seemed very long) with heavy-duty scissors. I was planning on bleaching them, too, but then thought, "Mehhhh, I'm not one to wear bleachy-type clothing!", so I cancelled that plan and was content with this simple but fresh output. :) 

The first cut. I tried them on, thought they were kinda okay, buuuuuuuut I still wasn't satisfied.

The fringes aren't so distinct yet, but another blog I googled did say that they'd be better after the first wash.

The final length. Made the cut curve towards the outer side, and whaddaya know, they looked better when I tried them on.

These are the leftovers. I wonder what I can do with them - any suggestions? 

When worn. HIHI. YAAAAAAY.
Totally perfect for the beach, methinks. I should have done this a year ago during summer to bring to Bora! OR at least last summer to Palawan. Hay.

BTW, the loose feather shirt is from The Only Ukay Queen (it's my ultimate beach/weekend shirt) and that's the old pair of shorts revamped. Hihi. Gonna work on those fringes! 

I never thought DIY projects were so fulfilling; this certainly was, and all I did was shorten my shorts. Haha! I've been eyeing doing something related to Miu Miu's swallow silhouette patterns on an old shirt or skirt, but I don't want to paint the swallows in for fear of committing a mistake. I wanna print them and use transfer paper the way other girls do abroad on their blogs, but I don't know where to find such paper here. *sigh* But oh, well. :)

Tomorrow's officially enrollment for what is hopefully my last semester of university; I hope it goes well! 

Trip Down A Polly Pocket Memory Lane

The whole morning today was spent on rummaging through all the closets of the rooms in our house, cleaning them out for the garage sale. My mom's hyped and swears she'll never have one again in the near future, because the logistics of a garage sale is C-R-A-Z-Y. The house is basically a mess at the moment, and we're not even done pricing and completely leaving the closets clean. But it's break time for now, and I wanted to share these awesome pictures...

...Because I found my Polly Pockets! YAY. 

I don't know about you, but Polly Pocket (and I'm talking about the teeny pocket-sized ones, not the ones they've been marketing recently that are humongous) was an integral part of my childhood. In short, they were the best toys a girl at the time could have, apart from the Sky Dancers. 

I had a beauty kit, a school with stamps, a nursery with stamps, a storybook that lit up, a drive-thru with a car, a garden party, a safari, a stable (although I think this was a faker), and three houses.

Got them out of the closet while sorting through stuff to sell for the garage sale this Saturday. Suffice it to say that these are not for sale! :D

This was my first ever Polly Pocket. I find it funny now that my thesis is on a zoo! What a coincidence!

This was my favorite, I think. It was a storybook of under-the-sea adventures, and the best part was that it lit up when you put batteries in. This one had a dolphin, a sunken ship, mermaids and an octopus!

The garden party themed Polly Pocket!

It's not like I'll be playing with them the whole day like before, but the sentimental value's still there, and who are we kidding - I took care of these toys and there's not a mark of dust on them. Hihi. They're going back to the closet, but I'm sure I'll pull them out again someday.

Meanwhile, it's lunch break for me, Mom and Manang Weng, and I'm waiting for the hot dogs to cook. The pile of saleable items is in front of me as I type, and the pile is sure to multiply in the next few hours of the afternoon.

The rest of the mess is in the rooms waiting to be cleaned and placed here.

Crazy mess that spans from the dining room to the sala.

SHEEEEESH. Garage sales. *phew*

Audrey Hepburn BTS Photos

TIME Magazine online recently did a set of photos of Audrey Hepburn behind the scenes of her movies. Going through the pictures makes you wonder how much of a great fashion icon she was, and how fashion, in essence, is basically just a cycle in time, considering that what she donned in the pictures are today what you would still call fashionable. She was truly such an elegant lady, and I can only hope to one day grow old as beautifully as she did.

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*To see the whole collection, click here.