Moving! (Blog URL's that is.)

Dear Friends,

Just wanted to let you all know that I will soon be moving my blog to http://mychocolateinspiration.blogger.com. See you there!

Thanks for being a reader of my blog!

<3 Maita

Our Anniversary! The First!

As of last weekend, we've been married a year! A year, can you believe it? Well I know we have a hard time :D.

And so much has happened in that year. We went to Hong Kong for our honeymoon, I got my fiance visa (technically our wedding in the Philippines was only a religious ceremony), my whole family flew to the US, where Gerard and I got legally married, and we settled into our apartment. And I settled into life in Concord.

We went to L.A. for Thanksgiving and spent Christmas in Virginia. I got my driver's license, a total of two haircuts the whole year (they're expensive) and started taking graphic design classes. Gerard traveled a lot for work, L.A., Chicago, Vegas. And he's going to Germany sometime this year too.

We moved apartments, bought a washer/dryer, and settled into our current home. I work from home, cook dinner, and help Gerard catch up with his laundry. We go for long drives (usually in search of some craving I have, some random thing I want to see), movie dates, and walks in the park. Our place isn't always 100% neat but I've learned to live with that.

We watch TV, run errands, and we're starting to plan our meals too.

Sure, we fought. But I figured that's part of adjusting to living together, learning about each other, and being married!

For anniversary weekend, we did quite a lot.

We cooked a yummy dinner of Seared Scallops, Salmon Sashimi, Mussels and Pasta + BBQ Ribs on Friday night.

Saturday, we drove to Napa and had merienda at the Oxbow Public Market, a "Napa-fied" version of San Francisco's Ferry Building.

I really wanted to try the ice cream from Three Twins but their freezer was buggy so they were only selling by the pints and gallons that day.

So I got me some mini cupcakes instead from Kara's Cupcakes (I love the Fleur de Sal one! My new favorite!)

 

And we had the Cachapa or sweet corn pancake with meat and cheese filling from Pica Pica. 

It was really yummy!

Afterwards, we drove to a few Napa thrift stores where I scored some awesome books, especially a design book recommended by my illustrator teacher. It's price at $15 on Amazon but I got it for $1. Thrift store shopping rocks!

And stopped by the golf course on the way home to take some pictures. Good thing too! Cause when we actually went to play golf the next day (my awesome anniversary gift to Gerard) I had left the memory card at home! Rookie mistake.

But here are some shots of us at the golf course in Napa. (We didn't play here though, we played in Concord. This was just for a photo op.)

Our golf game was pretty awesome even though golf cart rentals were only for seniors and the disabled. So we walked, I dragged my bag along, played 9 holes and tied at that! Was a decent game with both of us scoring two over bogey.

Happy Anniversary to us! Here's to many more years of adventures ahead!

(Sappy sentiments not to be posted online, only written in cards.)

Wedding Bouquet Display

For some time now, I’ve been keeping my eye out for a glass cloche or dome at thrift stores. I wanted them for my wedding bouquet, which I had left sitting in a glass vase (without any water) so it had dried out nicely. I wanted to further protect it from elements like water and moving people. I had checked online too and the size that I had needed cost upward of $45 which was a little too pricy for a piece of glass in my opinion. (The ones below start from $89! They are pretty though.)

photo from www.wisteria.com

So here’s my shabby chic inspired version for displaying my wedding bouquet:

 The Lanstalle lantern for candles purchased from… Ikea. Though it may not be as airtight as the cloche, I’m still pretty happy with how it turned out. And since dust mostly settles from on top, I covered the air duct at the very top of the lantern with a round piece of contact paper.

Now my wedding flowers are happily sitting in their new home, protected from the elements. (Well mostly at least.) And the price of this glass lantern? $14.99. Wanting to save does make you think out of the box! Or in this case, in it.

New Favorite Stuff!

I've been really busy here in our new home and in my studio. I have so much more room to do projects... which makes me super busy... which leads to little blogging time. 

But I wanted to write a quick post of some things that I'm totally loving now.

1.) Loreal Everpure Sulfate Free Shampoo and Conditioner.

photo from Frugal-Freebies.com

My mom told me that she had started using sulfate free shampoo and conditioner and it had done wonders for her hair. It also had a wonderful price at maybe P1200.00. a bottle. That's pretty pricy shampoo! 

So she sent me on a mission to find affordable sulfate free shampoo and conditioner here and I found one manufactured by Loreal.

I bought some, tried it out and I am now a sulfate free shampoo convert! My hair has never been this soft and healthy! My hair is naturally on the frizzy side but it now dries silky soft and slightly wavy with no help from a hair dryer! I've gotten quite a few compliments on it too! Plus the bottle lasts really long because you only have to use so little of it at a time.

And the best part? Less than $7 a bottle (tube?) from your local Target. (I love Target!)

2.) So remember a few weeks it was my birthday? Well Gerard took me to Ruth's Chris Steak House where we had a wonderful, intimate meal. The veal was delicious. But my no doubt ultimate favorite part of that meal... was the Sweet Potato Casserole. It was like a mashed sweet potato  dish with a kind of candied pecan topping and it was like having dessert. With your main course. Matter of fact, that was one of the reasons Gerard wanted to take me there. For their Sweet Potato Casserole.

I loved it so much that a friend gave me the recipe she uses to replicate it. And I made some for my belated birthday dinner too!

 I know it may not look like much in the photo. But it's SO GOOD that I made it TWICE in March alone. (And I wonder where these few extra pounds came from!) I'll post the recipe on here soon.

3.) Spicy SPAM

photo from spam.com

 I've never been a huge fan of spam, until my friend Nicole served some for breakfast at her place one day. It was spicy, crispy, and perfect with steaming hot white rice.

Fast forward several months later and I found spicy spam on sale at our local Seafood City for $2.50 a can. And what does Maita do? Buy 4 cans.

Not only do we love eating it with white rice, it's A-MAZ-ING with the sweet potato casserole above. The contrast of the spicy, crispy, meat with the sweet potato is addictive. Super addictive. So addictive that I cooked up another casserole last week and have been slowly eating it with spicy spam.

Sounds weird, I know. But don't knock it til you try it.


3. Since I've been cooking more now that we have a separate kitchen/dining room, well, I've also got to clean up more to. I'd seen this product around and read a review in my favorite magazine, Real Simple.

It's the SLIPPER GENIE, basically slippers with microfiber fingers underneath that clean as you walk. Plus the soles can be detached and thrown in the washing machine. I wear them so that while I'm cooking, I'm cleaning the kitchen floor too!

Unfortunately, at our local Ross, all they had was the kids version.

photo from amazon.com

And I bought them anyway :). They actually fit me just right! And they were only $5.00 compared to the $13.00 price tag on amazon.

Gerard thinks they're cute. And I've got clean floors so I'm not complaining. Mine are blue hehe. We don't know it its supposed to be a puppy on it or a donkey. Any guesses?

So there, I just had to share these things which I'm totally loving and they bright up my day. Do you have a list of your current favorite things? I'd love to see them!

Enter Project Life

Whee! I'm super excited! I think that's probably why I couldn't sleep last night!

My Project Life Kit arrived yesterday! 

So um, what's Project Life?

It’s called a complete scrapbook system but that’s not how I like to think of it. (I really don’t like scrapbooking!) What it is, is a complete, easy to assemble album complete with journaling cards for you to jot down little notes about the photos. It comes with monthly dividers, title cards, journal cards, stickers, even a date stamp! There’s no need to cute anything, just choose where you want things to go, slip your photos and journal cards and you’re done!

There’s no need to cut anything, punch out anything, go back to the store for matching accents, everything you need is right in the awesome Becky Higgins box. (There are photo albums dedicated to this box alone!) And what kind of timeline you use, is up to you! There are 54 photo pages that come with this kit, including one page for a front, one for a back so it you can use it one page per week. Or day. Or month. Or however you like.

Here’s a better photo from Amazon. com, where Project Life kits are primarily sold.

I was so excited to start using Project Life I begged Gerard to let me open it already even if our anniversary isn’t for another two weeks. (Traditional gifts for anniversaries call for paper. I'm not complaining! )My excuse was that I wanted to document our whole first year of marriage first, starting with a few wedding photos, our honeymoon, our first apartment. I’m not following a specific time format, I just want to chronicle all the adventures we’ve had in the last 12 months. Maybe my next kit I’ll do weekly! Who knows 

What really appealed to me about this kit, were the journaling cards. I love to write, I love to jot down my thoughts and photo books don’t really give you that opportunity. With Project Life, I can take a journaling card and write a few sentences for every photo in the album. It’s like a photo album and journal in one! And if you like, you can insert a few mementos like ticket stubs, receipts, and other things too!

The only slight, slight downside is that the photo pages are only set for horizontal photos. But you can buy additional pages that feature vertical photos. I’m actually just buying more photo pockets, period!

So I’ve spent a good part of the day uploading photos to seehere.com, Fujifilm’s online print service. I’ve always preferred Fuji to Kodak but I’ll save my thoughts on seehere.com for another day.

Have I piqued your interest? For more about Project Life, check out beckhiggins.comwhere they’ve got all sorts of info, inspiration, and additional products for Project Life. There’s even a digital edition! And a whole community of Project Life users who share their ideas.

I’ll give you a peek at my first few pages as soon as I’m done.

Mini Dinner Party

Two things I love:

1) Extended Birthday Celebrations

2) Sharing a good meal with great friends

After three weeks of moving, unpacking, buying furniture plus a washer and dryer, we finally felt our home was organized enough to host a mini dinner with friends. Or we scrambled like crazy to at least get it half presentable the day of. (Which is it? I'll never tell.)

I always tell myself it takes at least 6 months to get settled in somewhere, and I'm just so grateful that we have friends and family nearby. We may not get to see them very often but I've always felt that one of the things that makes a house feel more like a home is having friends and family over. I love having people over! More so than going out, I think. Well that's fun too but I guess I'm low-key like that.

Plus we love to cook! So a post birthday celebration/housewarming was the perfect excuse to cook up a mean meal. And I do mean, a daze-inducing, stuffed-to-the-brim, I'm-so-full-I'm-not-eating-for-the-next-week, mean meal.

 Menu: Steak, Butter Lemon Garlic Crab, 

Sweet Potato Casserole, Roasted Bone Marrow, 

and White Jasmin Rice.

Oh, plus brownies and vanilla bean ice cream for dessert :D.

We had an awesome time, talking about the most random things like Evian face spray bottles and the fact that you can buy crab fat in a jar in the Philippines. And the food was wiped out!

Thank you, H, D, and J, for joining us to celebrate lots of things, our new home, my birthday, and love, laughter and friendship.

Looking forward to many more yummy dinners :D Already thinking of more occasions to celebrate! Anniversaries, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, hmmm...

On Facebook Reconnections

Many times I do see the cons of too much technology, your life gets sucked in, your eyesight gets worse, your forearms/wrist hurt from repetitive strain injury (I may be guilty to all of the above.) But there are also the wonderful pros to technology. And Facebook. One of the things I love about Facebook is that I get to get in touch with old friends and family from around the world.

Case in point:

Jennifer was our dear friend whose family migrated to Hawaii shortly before the sixth grade. Back then, we had no internet, no way of communicating, we didn't even get to say goodbye to her. We had no forwarding address, no number. My friends and I were very saddened at her departure and just hoped that we'd see her again someday.

Fast forward 17 years later and here I am, having lunch with Jennifer and our other classmate, Melissa, in San Francisco! We got to meet her husband and her two adorable kids, catch up on the last 17 years and talk about marriage! (Sometimes the fact of marriage still amazes me.) We had awesome time and lunch was over before we knew it.

L-R Melissa, Jennifer, Me

I've got other stories too and I do think that Facebook is awesome in the getting/keeping in touch aspect. Now if only we could get a whole class reunion organized!

P.S. This was the same day I went to Fabmo, this awesome organization that give fabric and all this other stuff away for free! See my FabMo post HERE.

Updates + Spring Bazaar

I've been one busy bee huh. Yep, that's me. Moving, celebrating, waiting for the cable guy, waiting for the internet guy, selling on etsy, unpacking, buying furniture, studying, I could go on!

Our place isn't quite photo ready yet (I admit, that photo of the bedroom took ten minutes of tidying up.) But I'm hoping to make headway in the dining room soon as we just bought a new buffet table! (Well, not really new as it came from Craigslist, but new to us anyhow. Don't you just love Craigslist?) 

As for the bedroom, the husband has to build his Pax wardrobe closet from Ikea before we can put away most of his clothes. AND we still need a dryer. We bought a washer from the Sears Outlet the other week but no dryer. So I've got a huge amount of laundry waiting to be done and the pile is growing every day!

Oh the every day nuances of married life :D. So with all this going on, I realizes it's a little over a month until the SPRING BAZAAR that I'm joining! I'd better get a move on it, designing products to sell. I hope my new box of printer ink arrives soon!

In the meantime, if you're in the bay area on April 16, please do check out the Spring Bazaar which is going to be held at the Winery, on Treasure Island, San Francisco. I do sure hope to see you there!

P. S. I've also been studying blog designing. "Chocolate" (as I fondly called this blog) is due for some design tweaks. I've made the switch to Wordpress on "Studio" as I like to call my "professional" blog, Studio Alcantara. Please do stop by!

Birthday Weekend!

My 2011 birthday marked:

1) My first year of married life and living in the U.S. (it's our anniversary next month!)

2) Two moves, one to an apartment in the U.S. and last week, to a townhouse!

3) My first Thanksgiving in the U.S. and Black Friday Sale! Scored a super affordable drafting table from Michael's.

4) My first Christmas with my in-laws and away from my family. But I'm going home twice this year!

And that's all I've got off the top of my head.


And now for my birthday weekend:

A humongous chocolate cake from Costco to kick it off

A delicious dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse (I am now a sweet potato casserole convert) 

and a movie The Adjustment Bureau

Gorgeous flowers from my family delivered by my cousin

A drive down to Half Moon Bay and yummy lunch at the Ritz Carlton

And shopping at the Sears Outlet. We were looking for a Dryer but ended up with a bag of clothes because everything, I literally mean everything was $7 or less. Clothes and shoewise at least.

Now if only I could get this placed cleaned up enough to invite people over for dinner!

I fondly remind Gerard, next month is our first year anniversary. Teeheee!

Today is my sister's birthday too! (I miss celebrating with her.) And if I'm not mistaken, the birth of my new nephew, Lael, as well! Can't wait to meet him!

On Internet Connections

We've been internet-less for a week since we moved, aside from sporadic bouts of wifi and mobile use.

When Comcast finally gave us the green light, and I literally mean the green light on our modem, I cannot begin to express the joy I felt at being connected. Then it took a good hour to get our wifi up and running for some reason. Mind you, this is with a techie-geek couple both working on it and arguing about what we weren't doing right hahaha. Oh the stress of no connection.

When did I become this person? I can't help but chuckle and shake my head in wonder.

Now that we're finally back online, I can't seem to remember what I used to spend hours doing. 

It'll come back to me.

Let's start with a birthday weekend post!

Home Sweet Home (At Least Partly)

I must say, I love our new bedroom.

Bedrooms have always been sacred space to me, a place to relax, unwind and just me. I'm something of a self-proclaimed homebody, I love nights at home, just reading or watching TV.

All of our bedroom furniture is the same with the addition of two pretty side table lamps (a wedding/housewarming gift from two friends.) But this new space is bigger, less cramped. (Even with all of our clothes and suitcases on the floor, waiting to be put away.) This room feels so much more comfortable, even with the whir of the BART running every few minutes. It's so relaxing that I haven't had trouble sleeping since we moved here and it usually takes me a few nights to adjust to a new place.

I love soft, freshly washed sheets and mountains of pillows, pretty comforters and quiet spaces. Course the new sheets don't hurt either, white jersey cotton sheets, a steal at $24.99 for 4 piece set from Target.

So here's a peek at our new bedroom. Not very different looking from the old one, but it just feels so much more like home.

 

P.S. Stylists must spend an awful lot of time prepping bedrooms for a shoot! I wasn't about to bring the steamer out just for those wrinkles.

The Birthday Wishlist

In the midst of unpacking and arranging our new place, I'm taking a break to celebrate my birthday! Or even better, my birth month! Hey, nothing wrong with milking it for what it's worth. Any excuse for a mini vacation with the husband, a shopping spree, or to indulge in all my favorite food. Plus dinner parties! Looking forward to hosting small dinners with close friends in our new home, just a few at a time to keep it cozy and intimate.

But the day before my birthday, I'm thinking of my gift wish list. These are my big three:

1) Plane Ticket to Visit the Family and attend Rhoda's Wedding (Check! Thank you Mom and Dad!)

2) New, Bigger Place to live in, complete with home office/studio for me (Check! Thank you Husband!)

3) I really really miss having a DSLR. Not that I don't love my Canon G11 but I'm seriously contemplating going into freelance photography. Plus I've got to photograph all these new products for Studio Alcantara right? So third on my birthday wish list and what I'm trying to save up for:

Photo from 60dcanon.net

A Canon 60D.

And there you have it. Would love a few more odds and ends like:

Red Round Placemats like these from Crate & Barrel.
(I see a trip to the Crate & Barrel outlet in my future.)

Becky Higgin's Project Life Scrapbooking Kit.

I'm not really a scrapbooker per say but it's an all included kit wherein all you do is place photos in pockets and write on "journal" cards. I thought it would be a great way to document, well, life!

And later on, when we have time and the weather's better, I'd like a mini vacation like these from Living Social Escapes.

Ok time go get back to unpacking. I'll never be able to have people over to celebrate with me if I don't start cleaning this place up!

Moving Math

20 Something Boxes
17 Car Trips
10 Days
5 Awesome People who came over to help
5 Bruises (Cause I'm clumsy like that)
4 Plastic Bins Reused Several Times Over
3 Moving Van Loads
2 Paper Cuts (From Cardboard Boxes and Dry Hands.)
1 Hand Truck

= Gerard and Maita now happily living in a two story townhouse.

Photos soon!

On Riding Trains

I’m sitting on the BART as I write this and I can’t help but marvel about how my life has changed.

My wedding ring winks at me from my left hand and from my window I can see the sun setting over San Francisco, where I’m headed to for my first graphic design class.

Growing up, I could never have fathomed that this would be my life someday.

In fifteen weeks (I only know that because I’m headed home as soon as this class is done) I will be on a plane headed back to the Philippines, for the first time since I’ve moved to the US. I will have been gone for a year and I wonder how things will have changed there.

Life’s a funny thing like that. Never thought I would become a teacher. Never thought that I would marry Gerard and we would end up living in the Bay Area. (Ok fine, maybe I did have thoughts of marrying Gerard haha.) Never really thought about what leaving home would be like and how much I would miss my family every day.  (Working in media and design, not so shocking since I did major in communication.)

Yet, here I am, on a train, amazed by my reflection and location, in the window.

I guess sometimes, it’s when you’re forced to sit down and wait to get somewhere that you realize how far you’ve come.

On another note, poor Chocolate, Vanilla, and Then Some has been sorrily neglected in favor of hellowhimsy and etsy! I’m hoping that once life settles down a bit, I’ll have more time to write here again.

But on the other hand, I have loved the fact that I’ve been living life offline, and not just writing about it.

2011 Updates

I know I haven't been posting so much, mostly because I've become insanely busy! But some quick updates:

1) Gerard and I are moving next month! We've found a pretty townhouse nearby and we're so excited to soon call it home. It will mean more space for us, a home office/guest room, and what I'm especially happy about, room to entertain! We'll be able to start having friends and family over for dinner parties, throw barbecues and watch movies. We're super excited!

2) I've been job-hunting. I've been applying to a lot of jobs but so far I haven't heard back from any. Part of the reason I've decided to take some classes to further my education. Which leads me to the next two items.
 

3) I've been taking classes on some computer programs that I've always wanted to master, like Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and Adobe InDesign at this place called LearnIT. While I'm at it, how about some Excel, PowerPoint, Quickbooks, and any other classes that will make my skills more marketable for the job market.

4) I'm also taking graphic design classes at the UC Berkeley Extension! I've always wanted to take graphic design classes but they weren't really offered back home. It seemed a bit overwhelming at the information session but like what I always tell myself, most things worth doing, aren't easy.

5) With everything on my plate, my etsy store has kind of taken a back seat for now but things are still in the works.

6) I've also been participating in the 365 project of photographer Rikki Dy-Liacco, which entails taking one photo a day from my iPhone. Check out the project and my gallery.

It's been a very busy January! And a great start to 2011!