My New Obsession: Instagram N Creating Your Own Comic!

For the past several weeks I've been obsessing with Instagram. I knoooooow.... So late, rite! I created an Instagram account @stylenseason a long time ago, but I didn't literally upload anything until lately. 

Aaaaand.... this is my kinda new obsession...

Creating my own version of baby comic of Baby Michael!

I love posting these comics on my personal social media like Path and Facebook and tag my husband, my parents and my brothers, so they will know Baby Michael's latest development. My parents live in another city, while my second brother lives in the US, so I'm very thankful for this kind of technology that enables us to be a little bit closer and the fact that we can easily get updates on each other's lives and connect with each other. 

Hubby, of course, see Baby Michael everyday, but he loves to read Baby Michael's comic when he's at work to brighten up his day. And I love creating them!

Some might say it's too narcissistic and self-centered. However, I think keeping a journal and documenting our lives in creative ways have values in itself. Some families have family blog. Some other create their own family newspaper. Some mothers record their family activities in beautiful scrapbooks and photo albums. Don't you think what they do is a lovely idea? At this point, my love to write and the available technology (read: smartphone apps) make it possible to create this kind of memories in my own way. 

And I have a feeling that years from now my husband, my son, his future wife and family, and myself will be happy that I'm doing this.  What do you think, Friends? ^__^

This one is titled "Overconfident Baby" Lol

And then here we're talking about giants.... Huh?

For this one, Baby Michael looooves Winnie The Pooh...

A Simple Gal's Journal: Roses Are Blue In October

Note: I finally succumb to the temptation and open an Instagram account! I know, I know, I'm so late, but better late than never, rite. Haha! The thing is, I usually don't have good internet or wifi connection, so uploading pictures on Instagram takes waaaayyyyy too long! But wifi is a little bit better now! If you'd like to know what's going on in my daily life, please find stylenseason on Instagram. ^__^

Hello, November!

Last week…

Last week was all about fighting nasty cold!

First my husband got the flu bug, coughing and sneezing all the time. Poor man, he couldn’t play with our baby as usual in the evening after work, for he was afraid Baby Michael will catch the virus. And poor me! Because we sleep in the same bed every night, definitely I caught the virus! However, neither of us gave up that easily! We drank our fruit and veggie smoothies every morning, took vitamin C three times a day instead of our usual once-a-day portion, slept a lot, drank a lot of water, did yoga every Saturday morning, basically everything to shoo away the flu bug. 

Boy, human body is amazing! With proper TLC, it fought the virus like crazy! None of us missed one day of work whatsoever, and we could still do our daily acitivities as usual. The only difference was, for about a week or so, we went to bed at nine o’clock sharp. Sleep is a very powerful medicine for any kind of disease, I believe. Heartbreak included. If you ever had a broken heart, you would know what I mean!

We’re still recovering from the not-so-sick limbo state to a truly-healthy state. Keep fighting!

Family time…

We celebrated Hubby’s birthday in October. Actually he asked for lunch at a Korean BBQ restaurant, but I reminded him that if we did so we wouldn’t be able to bring Baby Michael with us, and Hubby did want Baby Michael to present during his birthday lunch. So we changed direction and went to a very nice Chinese restaurant called Angke. The food is delicious but the restaurant is quite expensive, so we only go there for special occasion. Hubby’s birthday, of course, is a special occasion!

Unexpectedly, we received a very nice surprise when we were about to pay the bill. I’ve been having the restaurant loyalty card for a while, because the company that I work for often ordered from there. Our bill was about sixty dollars for two (Baby Michael, of course, didn’t eat restaurant food), and the waiter said that I got enough reward points in my card for fifty dollars, so we ended up paying only ten bucks for a lavish birthday lunch for two!!

More family time!

A week after Hubby’s birthday, his younger siblings came to visit us as well as having a belated mini birthday celebration. The three of us went out to lunch at a ramen shop not far from our house. Hubby’s younger brother is in college and lives at the dorm, so we don’t see him very often. We stopped by at a local mall afterwards, because Hubby wanted to buy some snorkeling goggles. It was an extremely hot day, so as a treat, we also stopped by at Starbucks for some cold frappucinos. Yum!

Praying time…

For Catholics, October is the month of Rosary, so we held a Rosary Prayer at home for our neighbors. There were about twenty people coming over to our house. We prepared extra chairs and snacks, and met new people. The event was held at 8 pm on Monday, so I took the easy route of ordering some savory and sweet snacks from a nearby bakery.

I always enjoy having people come to visit and entertain at home. For me, the point is about having good company and fun, not showcasing the perfection of my home or cooking skill, so eventhough I made a special effort to make sure my home is visitor ready, I don’t fret nor fuss to create a perfect setting and dishes. It has been working well, since guests always enjoy their visit to my home. I believe that if the hostess is calm and enjoying herself, she would be able to enjoy her guests as well, and make the quests to feel welcomed and enjoying their visit. I mean, if you go to visit someone, and the hostess is continually worry about the food, apologizing profusely for the imperfection of her home, and fuss, wouldn’t it feel a bit awkward and make you just want to leave?

Baby Michael…

has finished all his basic immunization shots! Hurray! So no need to go to the doctor until the beginning of next year. My husband and I are quite happy with Baby Michael’s development. We don’t rush him to master any new skils or anything like that. We just let him learn and explore on his own time. And we don’t compare him to other babies, if you know what I mean. He was potty trained since the age of five months, and his eyes could follow movements much earlier than our friends’ babies. But he learned to lift up his head at the age of three months, much later than our friends’ babies. We don’t really care, as long as his development is normal, we don’t worry.

And here's the man of the house as well as the man of 

that day! This is Hubby's first appearance on this blog! ^__^

The two of us.... I forgot to take pictures of my outfit that day, but it's a halter dress with vintage-y rose print. Hubby loved it!

And this is the boy ot the house!! Or the baby of the house? Well, Baby Michael is nine months old, so he's not that baby, baby anymore, rite! Haha! This is his first restaurant experience, and he loved it! He kept looking left and right, observing people, especially pretty ladies (I guess even babies are naturally attracted to attractive looking people LOL), and made funny little noises. He wore new outfit, too! I didn't buy him many clothes, since Baby Michael stays home most of the time anyway, but I bought special outfit for him for his father's birthday. 

Ponytail

Note: I finally succumb to the temptation and open an Instagram account! I know, I know, I'm so late, but better late than never, rite. Haha! The thing is, I usually don't have good internet or wifi connection, so uploading pictures on Instagram takes waaaayyyyy too long! But wifi is a little bit better now! If you'd like to know what's going on in my daily life, please find @stylenseason on Instagram. ^__^

Ponytail is a fun, cute, young, and cheerful hair style. Also, unlike pigtail, ponytail is age appropriate whether you're three, thirteen, thirty, or fifty three years old. It's never goes out of style. You can dress it up, dress it down. You can wear it neat and tight. You can wear it loose. You can wear it with bang or with no bang. It's super versatile.

My today's office wear is pretty formal, but actually it consist of three styles with different "personalities": the fun ponytail hair style, the formal black blazer and wrap skirt, and the casual batik top. I often wear the red and green top with jeans for casual daytime outing, since it's light and breezy.

Yes, you can basically mix and match basically anything and everything in your closet. It's frugal, it's creative, and it's fun!

Soft Coral N Pastel Mint

Note: I finally succumb to the temptation and open an Instagram account! I know, I know, I'm so late, but better late than never, rite. Haha! The thing is, I usually don't have good internet or wifi connection, so uploading pictures on Instagram takes waaaayyyyy too long! But wifi is a little bit better now! If you'd like to know what's going on in my daily life, please find stylenseason on Instagram. ^__^

Today's look is inspired by one of my favorite blogger from the Phillippines, Kryz, of Thirsty Thought by Kryz Uy at http://www.kryzuy.com/. She does work in fashion industry, so she's extremely fashionable, obviously. She wears a lot of looks that will not do in my life as a wife, mother of a baby boy, and a career woman in a conventional office, but she also wears a lot of fun and pretty combination that could be copied easily by throwing things that I've already had in my own wardrobe.

This is the original picture where I got inspiration from:

And this is my own version:

You might say "The two looks are completely different!" Well, yes and no. Her look is pairing lavender and mint. Mine is coral and mint. I would never thought to combine pastel on pastel if not because of her above picture. The skirt, by the way, was refashioned from one of my maternity dresses. ^__^

I browse through fashion blogs because I love to see beautiful things. Same reason for why I love to watch haul videos on YouTube. Some might argue that those bloggers or vloggers make a lot of money from sponsors and they have bad influence by sending the message of artificial beauty and materialism, but it's no the case for me. For most of them anyway. As long as those women only talk about fashion, I personally think that's OK.  If they start sending out messages like "It's OK to marry a man for reality show then divorce him after 70-something days" or "It's OK to get wasted and have sex then have babies outside of marriage" or "It's OK to yell at your mother or treating your husband like a loser"; like some popular "Keeping Up With Whoever" shows, THEN I would stop reading and watching. Being glamorous and being vulgar are two different things. Just my personal opinion. ^__^

Back to fashion, this is my version of ultra feminine pastel on pastel, chiffon on chiffon. I wore this to go to Church for Sunday mass. What do you think, Friends?

Mommy Friends N The Single Gals

I wrote this post after reading a post on tips about what to do when your friend just had a baby. I cannot find the post anymore, it seems the author had deleted it (?). Though I can understand where she was coming from, there are many points in there which I do not agree. The post basically asking SOOOO much from the no-baby friend and almost zero or even really nothing from the mommy friend. It's like "If you are my friend, you have to care about my baby. If you are my friend, you will love my baby. If you are my friend, you will be understanding that I'm busy now. Now that I'm married, I know who my friends really are! " Reading that, I was like "O mi gosh! If I were like that, I wouldn't wonder why single friends or married-with-no-children friends suddenly disappear from my life once I have a baby!"

Today I'd like to share with you all my married-with-children friends what I used to feel as a single woman about my married-with-children girlfriends who act like the writer of the aforementioned blog post. Frankly, I wouldn't dare to say these out loud were not I'm now a married-with-a-baby myself, for it might spark some misunderstandings or misconception, like I'm anti family or anti baby. And I don't mean to insult the blog writer, though I didn't mention her in this post. Everybody has their own opinion, and this is mine. This is a disclaimer that I don't mean to insult anyone! ^__^

I spent a lot of years as a single career woman who lived alone. I had been living on my own since I was eighteen, so yes, I know how it is. And now I'm a wife as well as a mom, so I also know how it's like on the other side of the fence.

Here are what I used to feel as a single woman towards several of my mommy friends (especially when they were new mommies) who suddenly became mommyzillas after having a baby.

• I'm still your friend. I still like you a lot. I haven't changed. You have. I will still like you and love you, Friend. 
• I care about you're being a wife and a mom. But my friend is YOU, not your baby, and not your husband. So please understand if I care to hear about what's going on in your life, but I'm not interested to hear hours of nonstop stories about your husband and your baby.
• Some people just don't like children, and I'm (was) one of them. Just because I don't (didn't) like children, it doesn't make me a monster. 
• For that reason, I'm not interested to listen to your stories over and over again about your baby's bowel movement and milk intake. 
• You think I'm leaving you because you're a Mommy? The reason I disappear is because you don't return my calls, you don't reply to my SMSs, and you keep saying 'no' to my invitation to hang out, if only for coffee. And I even offered to come over to YOUR house or the coffeshop in YOUR neighborhood - which will take me a ninety-minute drive from my place to yours -  at YOUR time of convenience so you don't need to make any special arrangement for your baby. And I didn't hear back from you.
• Saying that, it's just downright rude and it hurt my feeling. And by the way, is that what you're going to teach your child? To neglect your friend just like that? To not reply to her messages like she just doesn't exist?
• Communication and friendship is a two-way street. So after several attempts, I give up. If you miss me, you know my number and where to find me.
• Just because I'm single and you're a mom, it doesn't mean I have more time and less busier than you. I just happen to have other priorities. 
• If you're really my friend, you will make an effort to get in touch with me. I certainly did make an effort for you, many many times, and I tried to cater to your mommy schedule and situation. What effort have YOU done for our friendship?
• I know that with a baby and all, I would no longer be that high in your list of priorities. I understand. Really, I do. And I accept that. But instead of moving me to somewhere at the bottom of your priority list - which I'll completely understand because I would do the same thing if the situation is reversed -  it seems like you just scratched me off your list completely.
• Then one day, out of the blue, suddenly you call and invite me to lunch/coffee/dinner/girl's night out/whatever like RIGHT NOW and you expect me to drop everything and comply to your schedule, because "You don't have a child, you must have a lot of free time and flexibility!" No my dear, it doesn't work that way. I'm your friend. I'm not your convenient alternative or your last resort. 
• Don't ask me to stay late at work and do YOUR work or work on the holidays again for like the twentieth time with that lame, condescending, annoying, judgemental saying: "You're single. You have more time. We have children, so we need to be home for the holiday/dinner." OK, how much are you going to pay me then? I must be compensated because you asked me to sacrifice my time so YOU can have time with your family. AND you didn't even ask me nicely, or politely.
• You ask me to be understanding of your situation, which I did, do, a hundred times. What about you're being understanding to MY situation for once, for a change? Didn't you say that motherhood is the ultimate act of unselfishness? By treating your friends like that, don't you think it's just like doing acts of kindness ONLY to your family and doing completely selfish acts to your friends?
• And again, is that what you're going to teach your children on how to treat their friends? Only being friends when it's convenient?

And to my dear single Friends, I try to avoid doing all those things to you. If I ever did, I apologize. I really try not to be 'that' kind of married-with-children type of 'friend'. Even after my husband and Baby Michael, I do try to make time for my friends. Just because I have a baby. it doesn't mean I suddenly become unavailable. I can hang out. I can go to lunch. I can meet you for coffee. Even for dinner. All I'm asking is that you ask me in advance, because I need to make some arrangement for my baby. As a mother, I lose a lot of my time flexibility. But trust me, your once fun friend here, she is STILL here.

By the way, this is part of the email I wrote to the blog author after reading her post. 

Actually I wrote her an email with what I think, and here is some of what I wrote her. The email basically summarized my thoughts about this matter. I have to say here that she sent me a very kind and nice reply, so this post is definitely not attacking her or her post! ^__^  And I'm still subscribed to her because I love reading her blog. Anyway, here's what I said:

I'm a wife and a mother after being a single career woman for 30-something years, and I have to say that most of what you wrote rings a bell with my own situation! Ow, and one thing more: don't forget that we are a mother AND also a wife. The big baby needs attention, too!

However, I don't ask my friends to care about my child. Not everyone loves children. Some people naturally don't really care about children, except for their own. I'm the youngest child and I never dealt with any children before I had my own baby, so I could understand if some of my friends, though they care about me dearly, they are not that interested about my husband or baby. Mind you, they DO care about my marriage and my being a mom, though, and they DO want the marriage and the mommyhood work well, even great. See the difference? ^__^

Also, I'd like to add that your single and the married-with-no-children also need some consideration from their married-with-children friends. Yes, they need YOUR consideration and understanding, too. As a single girl, I was in many situation where my married-with-children friends were being so inconsiderate and treated me like a convenient alternative and everything had to go their ways, because "Hey, I'm busy being a wife and mother, and you are not!" And I also experienced many times when my mommy coworkers treated me for granted when I was single, asking me to do their work because "You single girls have more time than us busy moms!" (I refused down pat after several times) 

Come to think of it, we also know who our real friends are after THEY are married and have children. 

And for all mothers out there who still make time for your friends, here's to you! *thumbs up* 

And now I'm going out to have casual dinner with my girlfriends, and here is what I wear. ^__^

This Hermes-inspired purse was a birthday gift from my husband. He bought it on ebay, and I'm crazy about it! He was like: "I can't afford to buy you a real Hermes right now, so I hope this one will do for this year." Of course it does! I love it! Thank you, hubby! XoXoXo

Taking picture with Baby Michael before leaving. He didn't look happy that Mommy is leaving. ^__^ Don't worry, Son, Mommy will only be gone for two hours!

A Simple Gal's Journal: The Art of Doing Nothing

On the day I'm writing this...

In the morning...

The moment I opened my eyes, the first thought that came into my mind was: "Oh, thank God Hubby is here!" You might wonder why I thought that. For the past four days he had been coming home around three in the morning every night, and leaving the house at eight on the next morning. He was having a commercial shooting, and the shooting lasted from six in the morning to whatever hour it will take to finish. By the time he was home I was fast asleep, so I didn't hear coming in. It was good to open my eyes in the morning and see him laying next to me! 

Luckily, my husband was only supervising his team, so he didn't need to stand by at six. Therefore he still had time to play with our baby before the car picked him up to take him to the shooting location.

Today is Saturday... 

I had a lovely Saturday with my little family. Our yoga trainer came in the morning for our lesson, and as tired as my husband was, he was committed to do yoga class with me. He was the one wanting me taking yoga class for my health in the first place, since I'm not into exercising and going to the gym like him. I was too lazy to spend my Saturday for yoga class, but my husband insisted. Since my husband was still tired after the shooting, our instructor just made us do relatively easy and detoxifying exercise. It was really good and invigorating. I always feel cleansed and refreshed after yoga session. And hungry. All those sweats, gotta refuel!

For lunch...

I'm always famished after yoga session, so we had grilled pork, rice, and vegetables at a nearby diner. It was a simple restaurant in the neighborhood where the ambiance does not matter, you don't need to dress up, and returning customers basically just come (and pay) for the good, simple, hearty food. My kind of family style casual diner! It was not, of course, a healthy food to eat after a ninety-minute yoga class. To assuage my feeling of guilt, I sucked on a lemon afterwards. You know, to wash away all the pork fat out of my system. My husband basically laughed it off.

In the afternoon....

My husband spent some time playing with our son, then he went back to sleep. Poor man. He had not had enough sleep for days! I continued playing with our son until he fell asleep as well. The role division in our family is pretty clear and conventional. We both work outside the home. However, it is my husband's role as the breadwinner. I manage the household money, our investment, our home, and our baby. You know, the domestic matters. 

I love it. I love spending time researching for the right kinds of investments for our family and crunching numbers with my financial calculator. I'm very organized, frugal and responsible person, and my husband knows it. That's why he basically just let me take care all of our household money.

My husband also leave the house decorating to his wife. I love making our home looks pretty and homey. I love making seasonal centerpieces for our coffee table in the living room. I love arranging our cupboards and linen closet. I love nesting.

I also make sure that there's always good, nutritional food on the table, in the pantry, in the fridge, and in the kitchen. I follow my Mom's rule: "No one under my roof is ever going to be wanting of food." When I was little, I remember not having the best clothes or the best toys among other children, but when I came home from school there was always something simple yet delicious on the table for us to eat. We always had fresh bread and pastries in the cupboard and fresh fruit in the fridge. Sometimes as a treat we had ice cream and chocolates. I apply the same rule in my house now. And my husband, a big man as he is, with an appetite to match, just loves it.

So you see. The home and taking care of the children is my responsibility. My sweet husband helps, of course, but for example is he wants to watch TV or go out with his friends, I would be minding the dishes and cleaning the table. When our baby woke up at night and cried, I'm the one waking up to soothe him and making his bottle while my husband slept like a log. No complaint. We each have a different role. I don't want to be the family breadwiner, and he doesn't want to be a homemaker. So it works out beautifully.

In the evening...

My husband wanted to hang out after our son asleep. Usually our baby sleeps by eight thirty. But I guess he was still tired so we cancelled our plan and had dinner at home instead with homemade veggie soup and fried chicken wings. Then we thought we were having a movie night aka watching DVD after our son asleep, but lo and behold! My husband fell asleep again while I was tucking the baby in! Usually he played with our son before the baby's bed time, but I guess Daddy was just too tired tonight. 

So here I am typing this blog post about an ordinary Saturday of an ordinary gal. I hope you enjoy it as I enjoyed my day, though nothing special happened. Haha!

I cannot remember when I wore this ensemble, but it was definitely from my pre pregnancy. I think it was for lunch with some friends. I usually love clashing colors, but on that day I just wanted a rather monochromatic look.

I also wore this blue dress like this. For original post, please click here.

Linking up to:

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