2009 Project 365: Week 2 (Jan 5 - Jan 11)

2009 Project 365: Week 1 (Jan 5 - Jan 11), originally uploaded by cutieissa.

My first full week! =) And it's my first time to play with Photoshop Elements 7 too. I have been using PSE5 since 2007 and I must say PSE7 is way, way much cooler! It's almost like CS3 but very user-friendly. All my Project 365 digiscrapz are on my new "dedicated to P365" Flickr account.

To read my notes on the scraps, click on the photo. You would then be taken to its Flickr page. On top of the photo, click the "ALL SIZES" button and voila! You'll be able to read my notes. Not that you're required to read them, LOL ;-)

credits: template from Hummie's World and papers from Bren Boone Designs & Flamingo Amanda

2009 Project 365: Week 1 (Jan 1 - Jan 4)

2009 Project 365: Week 1 (Jan 1 - Jan 4), originally uploaded by cutieissa.

I have been trying to take digital photos EVERYDAY since 2005 but it’s my first time to join Project 365 (Google it!) that has been the rage in the online world this year. The bonus? I’m forced to SCRAP my weekly photos. Time to get my creative juice running! ^_^ Anyway here’s my scrap page for Week 1. I'm nearly finished with Week 2 (7 photos this time) so stay tuned for that =) Wanna join in the fun? It will be great to see on December 31, 2009 the photos you've taken the past 12 months!

credit: template by IkeaGoddess

it’s Christmas Eve!!! ^_^

This is my first Christmas post as Mrs. Melissa Solito-Elbanbuena and will probably be my last post for the year 2008. And what a dramatic year it has been! Not just for me but for the whole world (economic crisis, epidemics, disasters, etc). WHEW! I wonder what’s in store for 2009?? o_O For this blog, expect my personal 2008 Year in Review, more of our wedding pictures and finally, our honeymoon photos! I know a lot of people have been waiting for that (so sorry guys!) but I’ve been really busy (yeah, pathetic excuse I know) even after our wedding last October. Here’s what I’ve been up to:

One, I was choosing and segregating wedding photos from 5gb worth of that stuff. I got to choose what to send to the printers, what to put in the albums we’ll give to our parents (the official storybook album was taken cared of by the studio), what to reprint for families, friends, and sponsors. The task seemed daunting! But I finally finished it and was even able to post some wedding photos in this blog =) Two, I was making a wedding invitation (second page below) for my cousin who’s in Zamboanga (his bride is in Dubai). Thank god for email!! I finally finished it first week of December. And yeah, I did it for FREE =) Three, loads of extra online work! Gotta earn dough for my insurance payment due this month!

Four, I was going out of my wits Christmas gift shopping for 2 families, 4 clans and 4 godchildren. Gahh!! Also, Labsie and I had a hard time scheduling how we will spend the meager holiday vacation time he has. Unlike most employees who had a 12-day vacation, Labsie will only be free on Dec. 25-27 and 31 (yes, he had work on 24 and 30!) and Jan 1-2. And since we knew his family was hankering to spend time with us, we knew we had to squeeze a mini-vacation in Panabo (his home). And did I mention already the 2 baptisms, 4 school reunions, and 4 family reunions that we have to attend? But wait, there’s more! Four of that reunions will be on Dec. 27! Are we supposed to halve our bodies now?? LOL! I tell you it has been (and still will be) a hectic December for us! Married life is effin’ crazy during Christmas!! o_O

do you like my new Christmas blog theme?

NOTE: for Multiply readers, head on to yes, it’s ME to see what I’m talking about =)

Me? I love it! After all it’s PINK, hehe! Don’t worry pink haters, it’s a very pale shade of pink, more like old rose actually. And before you heap praises (or maybe insults, boohoo) on how beautiful and Christmassy my blog looks, I didn’t do this. Hehe! I actually bought this Blog in a Box set for $6 from Zoe Pearn =) It came with 3 background papers, 2 photo banners, 1 non-photo banner, 1 Typepad banner, 2 blog post separators, 4 labeled sidebar graphics, and 4 blank sidebar graphics. Now that’s great value for money!! And I actually bought 2 sets =p

My only problem is that the JavaScript I put on the sidebar doesn’t work. As you can see, I have no skyscraper Adsense units and other monetize-your-blog widgets =( Also, I have yet to edit the HTML code of my layout. I still have to improve lots of stuff, hay! And come February, I’ll have a new theme (the second one that I bought) which I’ll use until November. Yup, it’s goodbye to my stark white Minima blog theme for the moment. Time to go cutesy and girly girl! Hehe!

honeymoon chronicles: sea creatures and robots

WARNING: LONG POST AND PHOTO OVERLOAD AHEAD!

And the honeymoon posts are back! =) So far, we're in Day 3 (yeah, I'm so effin' slow!). As earlier posted, Labsie and I started our day early in Salcedo's Saturday Market and by 8am, we were back in our condo for a second breakfast.  After resting and showering, we headed to our second destination of the day: Manila Ocean Park! This was around 10am and we were both super excited for our "ocean appreciation tour" ^_^ Labsie and I love anything water-related. He especially loves the ocean for its fishes and other sea creatures. Their family has a saltwater aquarium with Nemo (clown fish), anemones, and other colorful fishes. Labsie missed it so much that he asked Mama quite bluntly if he can build a saltwater aquarium in our home! LOL! Anyway the photos can enlarged (just click) and they have labels, just hover / mouse over them. Enjoy! ^_^

It was my second time in Manila Ocean Park (entrance fee is P400) but I was still taking pictures left and right with my SE k800i phone. I sooo love the pretty and weird fishes!! =) We took our time appreciating the rich marine life but we managed to finish within 2 hours. We were on tight schedule as we still have to go malling in the world's third largest mall, exploring the latest in science and movies, and experiencing Manila's famous sunset after. Anyhoo, on with the pictures! Not much photos of the fishes (and me!) coz we're still celebrating Labsie's 27th birthday -- so all you'll see is his face! Hehe! :-p BTW, can you guess where's the fish in the photo at the middle of the collage below??

- - - - - O - - - - -

Around 12noon, we arrived in SM's Mall of Asia (MOA), the world's third largest mall. Instead of eating in the food court or in one of the numerous restaurants there (RACK's has a branch there!! We totally dig RACK's ribs!!), we found a cozy spot in one of the open air spaces / indoor park strewn in MOA. There, we ate our maki and other food from Salcedo's Saturday Market. It was refreshing to breath fresh air (sometimes tangy coz of the nearby Manila Bay) "inside" a mall! ^_^ After lunch, we explored MOA a bit but mostly we spent our time in bookstores browsing for books. Around 1pm, we went ahead to our 3rd destination of the day: SM Science Discovery Center! Woohoo! Can you tell we're nerds?? Oceanarium, bookstores, and now a science center! Sa honeymoon pa talaga, hehe!

SM Science Discovery Center (P350 entrance fee + freebie ice skating tickets and popcorn discounts) has over 400 exhibits in 10 galleries. Plus they have the Philippines' ONLY state-of-the-art Digistar Planetarium! Info about it is pictured above. This got me really excited coz the last time I was in a "planetarium" was in Pisay, more than 10 years ago! I can still remember watching the heavens lying down, while a voiceover droned on about the universe and its magnificence. I can't wait to experience it again! ^_^ Luckily, a show was scheduled at 120pm -- we only have to wait 20min! Woohoo! The planetarium shows start at 10am til 10pm, with 3 shows every 2 hours. Anyway, that's us below inside the dome-screened 158-seat Digistar Planetarium. The seats were reclined and the blue "screen" was 180 degrees, like half a globe above us.

As usual, we were with noisy kids. There was an excursion and the SM Science Discovery Center was crawling with grade school children! Gahh! Also, around this time, I was very feverish, dizzy and weak. I told Labsie that if I won't improve after taking my meds, we have to cancel our sunset dinner by Manila Bay and watching Superman in the IMAX Theater (also in MOA). I badly need to rest. Aside from this not-so-good news was another disappointment: the planetarium show wasn't about the planets and the stars! =( It was a short movie about the deep blue sea, its fishes and their bravery. Yup, it was cartoons in 3d! Tsk! Still, it was enjoyable especially since you were kinda "inside" the movie, the screen was a dome after all! All around me was the beautiful ocean and its creatures =) After the show, we enjoyed the Center's 10 galleries. Loved it all!!

- - - - - O - - - - -

GROSSOLOGY: Learn about the icky stuff! From burps to slime to odors -- you're sure to learn about grossness the super fun way!

.

ROBOTICS: Two galleries -- Robot Inc. and Lego Mindstorms Robotics Center (closed when we were there). The former gallery features the famous mechanical and electronic wonders, shows you the historical evolution of robots, and the importance of machines.

.

TRANSPORTATION NATION: Build your own car (see photo below), the first automobile (owned by Pilipinas Shell), Philippines' own solar-powered car (Sinag), Segway and prototypes of future cars and transportation solutions. Labsie had lots of fun here! GUYS!

SPACESHIP EARTH: Pictured in the small photos below. "Know what's happening and what needs to be done to save the world!"

Other galleries not pictured: Lifeclock (factoids about Internet, send emails to the future), ImagePort (learn everything about the camera!), SMART Media City (free internet and PC games, experience the latest software and digital trends, play CG games), Virtual Reef (too dark to take photos; a fish will "talk" to you, so fun!), and City Science (earthquake simulation, TALL scaled models of the world's tallest buildings).

- - - - - O - - - - -

By the time we finished exploring SM Science Discovery Center, I was very weak. I also felt very cold and couldn't imagine sitting over 2 hours inside an air-conditioned IMAX theater =( So we decided to go home.. But before that, we bought dinner first. I cannot cook in my condition and Labsie has absolutely no idea how to cook! Hehe! And since we were quite feeling low (I really wanna have a sunset dinner!!), we lifted our spirits by splurging on food -- in SBARRO!!! We got yummy veggie salad, creamy spiral pasta, HUGE stuffed pizza, and bread"sticks" -- carbo-loading to the max! Thus, despite me being sick and us missing IMAX movie-watching and Manila Bay's sunset, Day 3 ended on a happy note! ^_^ Nothing like good food to drown all your sorrows eh? Hehe!

 

ALL PHOTOS taken with my Sony Ericsson k800i ^_^       (except for the Astroboy photo pala!)

married for 2 weeks! ^_^

Still a lil overwhelmed with this marriage thingy and the wedding so this post will be a bit short. We haven't even unpacked from our honeymoon yet! LOL! =) Labsie and I wanna say thanks to our two sets of parents, families and relatives, our friends (especially the kada, hehe!) and the wedding suppliers who all made our wedding day very special. Thanks for gracing the most unforgettable event of our lives guys! See you in our 10th wedding anniversary! Hehe!

happy birthday to my big bro!

No, he's not my elder brother -- I'm the eldest! =) I call him my big bro coz he's BIG! Bigger than me, our younger brother, even bigger than our father! Hehe o_O Happy 26th birthday Ya! God bless you always and may you have many more birthdays to come! =)

credits: Jeann

merry christmas!

THIS POST IS NOT FROM MY PHONE =)

Finally got around to making a Christmas desktop for our PC! This desktop QP is from PinkuPixie.com -- the woman who runs this blog is so talented! And the freebies she offer are printables, i.e. she has lots of Christmas tags, ready-made Christmas cards, etc. All you have to do is personalize her freebies, print it out and voila! Instant pretty Christmas stuff for you =)

my desktop freeVIEW

THIS POST IS NOT FROM MY PHONE =)

Cherry Rose tagged me (at TongueTemptations.us) to show my desktop view and I would just like to share it with you here =) Anyway I forgot where I got this digiscrap calendar layout. If you know the creator, pls msg me so I can credit it to her. Thanks! =) AND FEEL FREE TO SNAG THIS TAG!

Note: Copy Starts Here!

My Desktop Free View Instruction:

A. Upon receiving this tag, immediately perform a screen capture of your desktop. It is best that no icons be deleted before the screen capture so as to add to the element of fun. You can do a screen capture by:

1. Going to your desktop and pressing the Print Screen key (located on the right side of the F12 key).

2. Open a graphics program (like Picture Manager, Paint, or Photoshop) and do a Paste (CTRL + V).

3. If you wish, you can “edit” the image, before saving it.

B. Post the picture in your blog. You can also give a short explanation on the look of your desktop just below it if you want. You can explain why you preferred such look or why is it full of Icons, things like that.

C. Tag five of your friends and ask them to give you a Free View of their desktop as well.

~ I am tagging...

D. Add your name to this list of Free Viewers with a link pointing directly to your Desktop Free View post to promote it to succeeding participants.

iSSa @ Tongue Temptations & Issa's Dollar Earners

it's love! =)

THIS POST IS NOT FROM MY PHONE =)

Sorry for the back to back non-photo blog posts. Gotta upload my scrapZ coz my 20gb pentium3 laptop is running out of space, hehe! Have to get a new one na talaga, my laptop is archaic! Imagine, it's still pentium3! *shakes head* Anyway, this scrap is with my boyfriend, Labsie (one of the gazillions we have since 2005). I just used a super gorgeous premade template from ScrapCarli and added our photos, green glitter alphabets from Oscraps, and valentine glitter stuff from LaWanna Desjardin -- and voila! We got LOVEscrap beybeh! =)

kada! =)

THIS POST IS NOT FROM MY PHONE =)

Here are my good friends in our get-togethers early September. Jinky (in red), Chin (in white), Ger (male in red) and JB (in blue) are my friends way back from high school. We each live our separate lives but we know whatever happens, we'll always have each other. BERKS forever! Este, kada pala! Hehe! =) Click to enlarge and to appreciate our faces, lol!

The premade cutie pink template is from AntJe's Scrap Corner. Love it! And best of all, it's FREE! =) So if you're into digital scrapbooking, go to her site. Lots of good stuff there! A bit of warning: the site is in German. Hehe!