Ramblings

One of the things I found last night in the attic was a magazine where I had scribbled four attempts at poetry which I’d rather call Ramblings.  I had written them in 2003 after my D&C which followed my second miscarriage.  I posted them in my other blog on Motherhood, etc. under the post Lost Ramblings from a Mother in Mourning. 

I failed to bring my poetry from my younger years the first time I left Manila for New York, but I made sure to bring them with me in 2002. Some of them are still on the original sheets I had scribbled them on — others I had managed to make into short compilations.  The earliest poetry I have was from my elementary years and yes, I have them.  Writing in prose these days has been a struggle.  I have not really written any coherent prose in recent years — even these four pieces are barely coherent in the same sense as I was used to writing.

One of my forever to-do is to hopefully compile all those scribblings into one or a series of anthologies.  Since most of them were written before I became bestfriends with computers, they are either typed (yes, through the electric typewriter of old!) and more than half are actually handwritten.  Reading what I have writtent through the years is like seeing a “me” I used to know, still part of the person I am now but so different from who I have become.

I keep saying I just need to stir up the creative juices again, and once they start flowing, they will go on and on.  And maybe I will get to fill notebooks again with my rhyme and reason as they say.

Crafts: Digital Scrapbooking Galore

Did you know that there are a lot of Filipinos who are featured in the various creative teams of the more popular websites here?  I am soooo proud!  There are also a lot of members who do digital scrapbooking layouts in the various communities online and their works are just fantastic!  You can see I’ve had a lot of time to browse online of late, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to bookmark them, but I will feature them here when I get the chance to go and visit their sites again.  (Yup, downtime at home has been spent scouring the web for more freebies and more ideas).

I have been spending a lot of time at RAKscraps.com where I’ve enlisted for membership enabling me to have access to their newsletter which has a TON of downloadable freebies!  Not to mention all the featured designers and members whose works are also highlighted.  Archived editions of the newsletter are also available down to January of this year, and with each edition packed with more than just one freebie, you are all set to harvest at least a dozen!  Membership has its rewards besides that because then you get to access their FREE Mega Kit which is uploaded middle of the month and then made available to members piecemeal.  I missed the first four installments but caught the 5th and 6th download links of what looks like a superb megakit indeed.  It’s the type of kit which would enable you to do a whole album (and more) once you get everything together. 

So I’ve started doing 8×8 scrapbook layouts of Manila to give to my niece, Audrey, and to my Dad, and I’m starting our summer scrapbooks, too.  Ambitious, I know.  As far as Mom’s scrapbook is concerned, I’ve made a decision to relayout the first part because I am just not happy with what I see now that I know a whole lot more about scrapbooking.

I’m going to attempt to do digital scrapbook layouts of our summer outings, but print them into two pieces to be pieced together later.  I still intend to embellish it with actual paper embellishments because I don’t think I can really stick to just digital scrapbooking per se.

It seems to me everyone has target layouts to complete by the end of the year at RAKScraps (and RAK, by the way, stands for Random Acts of Kindness) so mine is 50 for now.. til the end of the year.  And that’s Mom’s scrapbook alone which I have been working for the first part of the year anyway.

I’m going to attempt to pull together a “BEFORE” album of the layouts in Mom’s scrapbook, then I will do a full album again once I’m done and good to go with it.  Watch out for that!

Sundays are made for lazing around the house

The sky over our part of New York is overcast.  It’s actually been gloomy and there have been showers off and on.  We experienced quite a downpour yesterday, but we’re good today.  (I think..)

We’ve been watching DVDs at home, and it’s Angel’s turn with his THOMAS the TANK ENGINE.  This is my type of weekend.  Just sitting in the living room, no pressure, and playing with Angel.  I’m actually going to start cooking lunch in a bit.  We’re definitely having lunch at home.  I don’t have much on my list except the groceries as far as errands are concerned.  I will probably put my scrapbook stuff together, maybe pay a visit to Bed, Bath and Beyond to check out this Grid Cube Stacking shelves unit I am thinking of using in the attic.   Otherwise, I’m sticking to boxes which work out at this time anyway.

I’m cooking some Sinigang na Salmon and Inihaw na baboy  (using our George Foreman grill).  Time to get busy in the kitchen.

Treasures in my attic

I went up to the attic after washing the dishes to start making room for my stuff down in the living quarters.  I put what we had left behind of the hand-me-downs for Mom’s kababayans in Bulan, Sorsogon (Bicol) in a suitcase, and came up with 3 big paper bags of winter wear she had passed up on.  Alan will drop those off at the local Salvation Army.

We’ve had quite a few windy storms in the past few days, so there was some sandy debris near the vent opening just by “my area” of the attic, I made room and sat down.  I went through the postcards strewn about the floor.  Most of my postcard collection are in boxes, but there are a lot which are in small paper bags and in open bins which need to be stored properly.  I sorted through those which were mixed in with some documents and old letters and magazines and just segregated them into freecards and postcards for now.  While going through them, I also tried to weed out the magazines I would keep and those I would throw away.

I am such a pack rat!  It is so hard for me to throw away something unless it is obviously no longer useful or it is something I find no use for at all.  I am a very sentimental person and I keep old letters, cards, gift tags, etc. although I have no organized way of keeping them.  (I have, however, practically all of the cards and letters that Alan and I exchanged before we got married bundled up in my closet in the bedroom.  Now I must put myself to task and gather what we have given each other since we got married — I keep finding them everywhere!)

I found pictures from my family in Manila, and early pictures of Alan and me –  duplicates because he keeps albums of hard copies — mostly during our pre-digital camera days.

I found my box of pencils — and added a few which I found in another box containing my things from my job with a non-profit on Wall Street before I started this job I have now three years ago.  (I have to remember to bring up the pencils I have here in the kitchen counter and in the bedroom.)  I found the postcards that started my collection — giveaways from the early days of Sari-sari (the store) which I want to frame and put in our living room.  (No matter that they are now yellowish with age..)  The first edition Papemelrotti craft postcards you will no longer find on their shelves.  Early Ayala Museum postcards of artworks by famous Filipino artists..

It was a walk down memory lane.  I managed to pull out a lot of stuff to get rid of, but much of what I had gone through, I just sorted and stored again.  They are there because they mean something to me. 

My typical Saturday evening

Back in the day in Manila (Pre June 2000) – Saturday evenings were spent either going out with friends or out on a date, or staying home after spending the day out with Nikky, my youngest brother.  We would usually go to the mall (Glorietta or Greenbelt), watch a movie or just go around shopping and eating, stop by Dad at the parlor before heading home.

During my early years in New York before Angel came along – We would stay home with the stepson spending the weekend with us.  It meant watching a DVD, ending with Saturday Night Live late at night.  We would go out Thursdays or the early days of the week when we would meet up in the city and go out to dinner by ourselves or with friends.

Now that Angel is here – After spending the day out with the family, we would have dinner, Alan would put Angel to sleep after reading him a book (current favorite is THOMAS the TRAIN or one of two CARS book featuring Lightning McQueen) — Angel would’ve taken a bath during the day instead of just before bed as is customary during the week, and we’d sit in front of the TV watching a DVD or just watching TV… maybe catch Saturday Night Live.