Now I felt foolish. You see, last December, I received an email informing me of a promo code for free 12 pieces of 8×8 photobooks (I just have to pay for the shipping fee). All the while, I thought you’re supposed to avail of ALL 12 photobooks before January 31. Then just this afternoon, I learned over at Twitter (I swear I learn so much from the twits) that all I need to do before January 31 is to have that promo code validated, and I’ll be given 2 photobooks every month for 6 months.

And since I only validated the promo code yesterday, I still have till February 22 to avail of the free photobooks. Yey!

I envy those who are in a job that is the same or somehow similar with their passion. I have two passions:

1. Dancing – I can’t sing but I can dance. I don’t want to end up as a backup dancer in any of local lunchtime shows. But it would be cool to be a backup dancer of, say, Beyonce. Still, I think it takes too much time practising. Plus, I think they have an age requirement. I may be too old now for it.

2. Photography – If I have the luxury of time (and of course, money), I’d enrol in classes, buy SLR for each lens that I want, travel around the country (with the family, I don’t like to travel with others hehe) and take pictures.

But both do not meet ALL important criteria:
1. Pay – dancing pays a lot IF you are working for someone really big like I said, Beyonce or any famous R&B artist. Photography pays good as well but only when you’re REALLY good. Plus it isn’t as stable as you want it to be. It seems that there will always be someone new who will be the next consumer favorite.

2. Time for the family and friends- dancing takes up too much time. Photography wins a point in this aspect.

3. Happiness (heart, heart) factor – here, the day job becomes the sore loser.

Wow, it’s Friday! That was fast. But there are still some things that I haven’t done. So next week I need to upload a month worth of pictures. Meaning I should upgrade my Flickr to Pro. Yeah, yeah, I had putting it off. (Is it really that obvious?)

Then I suddenly remembered a promo that Artscow is offering. 12 pieces of 8×8 photobooks till the end of January. And I haven’t scrapped a page! Sad.

I had been writing on my 2009 Starbucks planner since January 1st with daily updates. I think I’ve covered every major aspect of my day. I even list down what I have eaten for the day just to monitor my diet. Yeah, that’s how comprehensive it is.

This reminded me of one notebook I maintained way back in college. There I listed down what clothes, shoes and bag I wore for the day. Of course, it had the monthly wardrobe plan to make sure I didn’t repeat my clothes at least for a month. I know others maintained theirs for three months worth of clothes, but I didn’t have that much budget then. Now that I do, I just choose not to spend so much on clothes. ^-^

Today is the last day of the house help. She left early in the morning and is going back to the province for good. Since the nanny has no cell phone and they are cousins, she left one (yes, she has two) to the nanny. We will surely miss her. She was very hardworking and not so much into boys. She is quite mature.

Anyway, since Mikee has colds today, I stayed (and worked) at home. So I was the one taking care of Mikee.

GAAAAAWD! All the nanny did today (first day of handling the cell phone) was chat with this guy. Yes, she was on speaker phone while doing some nanny stuff so I could hear them talking everytime I go downstairs. It’s starting to annoy me. Geez, don’t you just hate those unlimited call promos? ARGGGGH!!!!

My mom just fired her house help, who by the way is one of this nanny’s friends. Like this nanny, all my mom’s help does is to talk and flirt on her mobile. And my mom complains she always does things in a hurry leaving the house a mess. In short, the pay isn’t worth it. My mom just doesn’t know how to fire her. Then last weekend this help went out, and didn’t come back for the night even if my mom told her to be back before midnight. Good! She just gave my mom a reason.

I wonder if I can fire the nanny too? You know I can’t.

Hubby and I both agree that this year is the most “Christmassy” year ever in our married life. We can’t pinpoint exactly why. Maybe because this year, we were so blessed, that we were able to share our blessings to others too. Or it could be that we have gained so much new friends this year.

Even at home, the ambience is very good. I could feel it at the moment I wake up. It could be the cool breeze. Or the new church finally built just few steps from our house where we attend the dawn masses. Hmm, I just feel everyone’s happy this year. No hang-ups, no jealousy, no regrets. It seems that this Christmas gives everyone a feeling of blessedness. Everything’s so light and happy.

I hope it continues to be…. for the next years to come, like forever, perhaps?

Tsk, tsk.

Ok, here’s the deal. Aside from wanting to spend more time with my family and with friends, the reason I wanted so much to be work-free during the shutdown is I want to finish several photobooks. I forgot to blog that I wasn’t able to have the photobooks printed.

Let’s see if I’ll have the time and energy to create the (overdue) photobooks.

Btw, for those who are waiting for me to post, I don’t have *artistic* shots of my sister’s wedding. I was busy running after Mikee. But I’m posting some shots anyway…hmm, maybe later…or tomorrow…

Geez, it has been a week, screw the service laptop! Not that I am entirely dependent on it. It’s just that the desktop has no PS installed on it, and hubby doesn’t want to install too, and the service laptop doesn’t allow any installation. So yes, I’m a LITTLE dependent on it. Goodness!

So how do I finish those photobooks without PS? Christmas magic perhaps?

Disclaimer: I’m using the desktop while blogging.

Maybe I’m being sentimental; I’ve come up with definitions of the best people in our lives.

Husband/Wife – someone you love and lust and who you’ve resigned to being with for the rest of your life (without panicking)
Daughters/Sons – people you love so much that it’s starting to feel your heart’s going to explode
Siblings/brothers/sisters – people you love and hate at the same time
Parents/father/mother – people you grew up hating (and loving only in your subconscious) but whose approval is the fulfillment of your being
Friends – your non-genetically related siblings

This is my definition ok?

I have tons of kits from the Black Friday sale, and now have a DSLR. Geez, I have ran out of excuse not to scrap!!!

I think most of my friends know that I’m an SSD fanatic, but lately I realized I like Lilypad’s Kate Hadfield too. So what do Lauren Grier and Kate Hadfield have in common? One word: doodles.

Anyway, I’m starting to like some of the Cinnamon Design stuff too. (Not all but the ones with doodles of course)

You can see that I’ve collected two types of scrap kits. First, the more paper-looking like the ones from Shabby Princess and Shabby Miss Jenn. And the second, the doodles.

I plan to scrap 2 layouts using the same pictures and template but different kits just to see which pleases me more. Geez, I should stop shopping and start scrapping. Discipline, discipline, discipline.

I tried to create a layout for the December album (which I originally thought was like a photo-a-day project). Quite expectedly, I can not come up of any layout design. Tsk, tsk.