Saturday, March 31, 2012

This Day Last Year

In honor of my greatest adventure of all time (Haha!), I am recounting the breezy days I spent in the land of the free. ;)  Initially, I wanted to document EVERYTHING from that trip.  You know, for records purpose, in case my memory turns its back on me.  But, I simply didn't have the time nor the energy to write then as my senses tried to take EVERYTHING in.  So, let me do this now.  While I am unemployed.  Haha!

My 28 days away


March 31, I flew out of Manila to visit the States and see my family and friends.

Marquee:  Maligayang Paglalakbay
We had a layover at Taipei, then spent the night flying across the Pacific Ocean.  When we finally got to San Francisco, I was beyond belief, and at the same time, very thankful for the safe flight and the chance. :)


From the airport, I took the train (station within the airport, thank God) to another train station where I'll take a train, and then a bus to get to my friend's area.  All in all, I was in transit for 27 hours, stopovers and waiting time included, before seeing a familiar face again. :)

Bay Area post, next up!

Sunday, March 25, 2012

I, the Sucker for Giveaways!

I came across a blog which has links to a lot of crafting giveaways.  And I, the soon-to-be-unemployed and the sucker for freebies won't let any of those go without giving a try!  They choose the winner/s randomly, so I PRAY that I win!

Click the links and follow along:

http://creativekuts2.blogspot.com/2012/02/300-follower-blog-candy.html

http://indymermaid.blogspot.com/2012/03/mermaids-crafts-one-year-blogaversary.html

http://stamping-fantasies.blogspot.com/2012/03/third-blogaversary-candy.html

Monday, March 12, 2012

Updates, Bullet-style

The school year ended last Friday, and so the past couple of days have been light.  But, I'm quite emotionally loaded right now, both positively and negatively, so I can't say that I'm actually as free as a bird.  Anyway, in my life, here are the latest happenings:

- This school year is my last school year in Xavier.  It is certainly so very sad to say goodbye to this familiar place, especially to the kids, but resigning is something that's just been waiting to happen.  With the completion of my MA in sight, I guess this is the best time to go.  Needless to say, I cried buckets while saying goodbye and giving out chocolates to my previous and current students.  It was very hard, especially since there's a part of me which feels that it's unfair for the students not to have their teacher to visit next year. Egocentric?

- With this resignation comes the uncertainty about the future.  There's already a part-time work waiting for me (official announcement soon!  lol!), thank God.  But I don't think that'll be financially enough, given my obligations and needs.  Anyway, I'm still job-hunting, so that's one thing that's keeping me occupied as well.  Mentally, at least.  'cause I just go around and around thinking about it, without actually doing anything.  (But I'm sure you'll understand, as I have  a lot of stuff in my hands. :p )

- I started cleaning up my work station today.  I tried to not get too sentimental while packing my stuff.  I just really wanted to start cleaning and not delay the inevitable.  Tomorrow, I'll remove all my classroom decors.  I'm sure it's not gonna be easy... :(

Mess!

- Still regarding resignation, I still have to work on my clearance, my bank account, and other requirements.  You know, I don't really have the energy to attend to my resignation, or saying goodbye, for that matter.  When people ask me about it, I just nod in affirmation then shrug it off, giving the same excuse I'm giving you now: "I don't have the energy to deal with it yet, that's why I didn't tell you."  Is that some kind of a bad sign or something?

- Thesis-wise, I'm currently waiting.  But it's the waiting that kills me.  My oral defense is not until March 21, so that means I only have a week to revise and submit everything so that I can graduate this semester.  I'm hoping against hope that my panelists won't make me do lots of rework anymore, especially since I heeded their advice during my proposal defense.  What I'm procrastinating to do, though, is my defense presentation. I turned on my laptop with that to-do in mind, but, oh well!  I'll finish it tomorrow, I promise!

- Hey!!  I won in the card-making contest I joined in last month!  If that doesn't make me a legitimate crafter, I don't know what will!  Hahaha!  (Check out the button on the side bar. That's right, it's for real, baby!)  I'd be honest, though - I'm still SO NOT confident with my "artistic" side.  I'll work on that this April!

My winning card!!  Walang kokontra, there's a rationale why it won!  Haha!


- Crafting dues:  I'm currently working on some baptismal invites for my friend's baby.  I could have finished it yesterday but I couldn't find the perfect buttons to embellish the invites.  Argh.  I better hit the market soon.  Also, as a simple goodbye gifts to my teacher friends, I initially planned on making monogram cards for them. The thing is, aside from the fact that I don't have much time, the alphabet stamps I purchased from eBay are still in the box en route to Manila.  My aunt said it'll probably arrive by end of March.  Too late, too late, too late. :(  So, I guess what I can do is just give them thank-you cards.  I made some during the Christmas break, but I need about 15 cards (or more?).  Time to work! :s

- The problem with me is, as it has always been, the more time I have, the less things I accomplish.  I like free time to be free time, and work time to be all about work, work, work!  I don't know why I'm such a masochist!  Haha!  But that's the sad thing about me.  I can't even get myself to make a card.  Or go to the gym!  (When before I'd work out in the middle of a thesis-work chaos!)

- No progress regarding my car repair.  Crazy insurance said since the car is more than three years, they don't cover casa repair.  The hell!  They should've informed us about that earlier so we could just file a claim from our insurance but NO.  They told us to file a certificate of no claim from our insurance.  Again, the hell.

- I have a short trip with my two friends after the Holy Week, and we haven't booked a a place to stay yet.  Though I'm really looking forward to that vacation and escaping Manila heat, I can't get myself to be excited about that yet since there's the matter of the thesis and the job-hunting.  Actually, we don't know squat about what we're gonna do there.  Haha!  I'm so irresponsible, what is up?  I guess I'm under a lot of stress right now- I juggle one thought and another without accomplishing anything.  And that's just sad.

HAAAAAYYYYYYY.  Typing all these down makes me feel like a huge rock on my shoulders has been lifted up.  Thanks, catharsis.  For now, I'm counting on you! I hope my next entry won't be as blah as this.

Tuesday, March 06, 2012

The Banner Project

My New York-based friend asked me to help arrange a surprise party for her husband. They came home last Sunday, and I took it upon myself to make a banner for a more 'surprise' effect! :)


I first started with the idea of using a brown paper bag ('cause I just got a pack from the supermarket), then I worked from there.  I ran each brown bag on my embossing machine using different embossing templates.

Then, I cut out the letters from different patterned papers.  Good thing I have some 'boyish' papers on hand, or else it would've been a pink party!  I don't have a lot of papers at home, I have just enough numbers for the letters I needed.  What luck! :)

And then, I pasted each letter on the brown bag.  I also cut the bottom part to get to that shape.  It worked for the better, if you ask me. ;)

After that, I asked my teacher friend to do the broken white lines on the sides of the bag.  We used liquid eraser for that.  Nice, right?!

Using my ticket puncher, I punched holes on the top part of each paper where I can 'sew' the white yarn through.  There!

Here's the photo of my star banner!  Yes, I proclaimed it a star!  Lol!

It looked better in actual life, I promise!


This isn't the best picture 'cause the embossing isn't visible here.  But good thing the banner wasn't placed too high, or the place wasn't too big, so everyone was able to see it. :D  Forgive me, I'm such a show off!  Hahaha!  I'll post a closer shot when my friend shares her photos. :)

For MORE, I also made some small souvenir brown bags the guests can take home.  I used small brown bags, the one you see when you buy peanuts on the streets.  I ran each through my Big Shot also.  Then, I stamped 'thank you' on the side.  I wasn't quite satisfied with how it looked at this point, so I cut some blue ribbons in half, then just pasted it on the bag.  Gosh, it's so hard to make stuff for boys!  I couldn't even tie a bow!


I love the embossed look!  Now it doesn't look like your
regular peanut wrapper, does it?!
I put chocolates inside the bag.  I only made 30 pieces of this, but my fingers still hurt. :s  I should do something about that, especially since I intend to do this kind of stuff for a looooong time!


Thursday, March 01, 2012

Deleting Bookmarks

...is like erasing something that used to be very important.  And somehow, the very fact that you're deleting something that was significant enough for you before to bookmark it is saddening... :(  A tiny end-of-an-era on its own.

Greyhound Reservations
China Airlines
Expedia itinerary
San Francisco Taxi Fare Calculator
Self-inking stamps for teachers

The bookmarks above, no matter how I want to cling on them, serve me no purpose now. :(

The following bookmarks, I'd be so happy to be deleting, though. Hehe!  Deleting these is like a premature graduation celebration.  Haha!

Multiple Regression
Simple Slopes Analysis
Transforming Data in SPSS
Structural Modelling Equation with EQS



And then there are some which will remain, mostly websites on crafting. ;) No surprise!  I wonder what I'd bookmark soon!