Category: Home Decor

reduce stress

3 Simple Ways to Reduce Stress During These Hard Times

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How are you? We are on the 18th month of this pandemic and so many things have already happened… deaths left and right… Covid getting closer and closer to home (if it hasn’t hit yours already… it surely did mine. 5 of our family members caught Covid and thankfully survived it despite not getting vaccinated)… businesses shutting down… people suffering…. freedom getting suppressed in many places around the world…. and all this is starting to get on my nerves. Do you feel the same? Am I alone in feeling this way? If you’re on the same boat as I am, don’t fret. There are ways we can do to try to ride these waves. And we must. I just read an article on Bloomberg that this pandemic can last for a really long time. We can’t just give up, can we?

So what can we do to help reduce our stress during these hard times? Let me share with you some ways we try to do at home to help cope with this depressing worldwide situation:

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Sunrise in Oslob

How We Transferred to Oslob, Cebu During the Pandemic

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Hello Summer! It’s been a busy 2.5 months as we started our new beach life here in Oslob, Cebu and I promise, I will be catching up on my blog posts and vlogs until I get more current with what’s happening with us. I may still insert some throwback travel posts from the past since I’ve collected a ton all these years. But for now, here is a vlog on how our transfer from Cagayan de Oro (where we lived, half the time, the other half was in Claveria) from Sept. 1, 2017 to Jan. 7, 2021) to Oslob, Cebu happened, how we got quarantined for 14 days when we got here, and what we did while in quarantine (Jan. 9-22, 2021). 

For those who are considering transferring to their respective provinces in this time of the pandemic, you can check out this related blog post:

BOAT TRAVEL REQUIREMENTS DURING A PANDEMIC IN THE PHILIPPINES (FROM CAGAYAN DE ORO TO CEBU

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Welcoming New Year

Welcoming 2021 – A Look Back

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Time flies so fast when you’re having fun! Can’t believe it’s Feb already — my birthday month!!! I was supposed to start a vlog about our new beach life right now but there were still a lot of videos I filmed last New Year’s. And because I’m OC (obsessive-compulsive), I can’t seem to make the new ones without putting a closure first to 2020. So here’s a little look back at how we celebrated the end of 2020  — the last celebration we did at Cagayan de Oro — before finally, FINALLY, settling down in Oslob, Cebu — the land of the whale sharks… one of my few favorite places in the Philippines (Boracay and Siargao are the other two) 😉 

It’s just a quick vlog full of laughter and cheer which made me realize that those good vibes we exuded as we bid our goodbyes to 2020 and welcomed 2021 with renewed spirit and vigor really helped us bring about the same kind of energy to this new year. As the life gurus keep saying — WHAT YOU FOCUS ON EXPANDS. And every single day since we got here in Cebu last Jan. 7, I’ve been feeling so festive, as if it’s Christmas and New Year all over again every single day, and for that, I am truly thankful. Even on those days when I’m hormonal and I feel like crap, I just focus on our good life and things start looking brighter once again. What you really focus on expands! Try it!

For now, here’s a little look back last Dec. 29, 30, 31, Jan. 1. After this, I’ll be sharing with you my life stories about the brand new life we’re now living. 🙂

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New Year Charcuterie Boards

New Year’s DIY Charcuterie Table Design

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As I’ve mentioned on my Christmas blog post, we’ve always celebrated the holiday season at a nice hotel resort in the city. That’s where I would usually see wonderful buffet table settings including charcuterie board offerings. So I said to myself, why don’t I try to recreate that here at home and have that nice hotel resort buffet feel? Perhaps, I can already use some materials we already have here inside the house, and the rest, I can buy at the store? So that’s what I did! 

I just want to document here the layouts I’ve made. The idea came to me right after Christmas. I didn’t want to order any more food from Food Panda. We also didn’t want to cook. But I love to decorate and arrange things so having charcuterie boards on the table sounds perfect for what I didn’t want! Lol! So if you’ll check my Christmas blog post, there really is a huge difference in terms of the look of our buffet table. The two table settings we had last Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were nothing compared to how pretty our New Year’s Eve and New Year’s table settings were. I didn’t know I could do such an instagrammable and Pinterest-worthy charcuterie table decor. What do you think? Is it just me? Or aren’t these charcuterie table settings so pretty? 

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Christmas

Unexpected Christmas Wishes Coming True

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It’s true what they say… when you least expect it, that’s when the magic happens. For the most part of the year, and the last 3 years before that, I thought we will have the same Christmas as before — we used to live in a tiny pad, so decorating our home for Christmas was not an option then. Instead, we’d go to a hotel resort here in Cagayan de Oro City and spend an overnight stay for both Christmas and New Year. Although on our first Christmas here in 2017, we celebrated it at our farm with our people. I’ve still yet to blog and vlog about those amazing hotel resort stays we did but I really plan to (next year, hopefully, as throwback features). Oh wait, I did blog about our Seda Centrio New Year Stay.  

Well, this year, (in a way, thanks to this pandemic — we got to transfer to a cozy house — looking at the silver lining here), my long overdue wish of spending Christmas in a beautiful, cozy home I personally decorated, hosting a party if possible, and just chilling and pigging out over a simple Noche Buena feast in our pajamas — finally came true!!! I’m so happy, I really can’t stop expressing it! I’ve been saying it on my social media posts and even offline to Mahal. I’m just really so happy. Hallelujah! 

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Halloween

How to Celebrate Major Holidays During a Pandemic: Halloween Feature + a Guide

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In case I haven’t said it enough, Halloween is my most favorite time of the year! So we celebrated it in a major way the past month. Maybe because I feel like I’m still a Wiccan at heart (I used to cast spells, call out spirit guides, and share my experiences in my old Wiccan blog), but more importantly, for some reason, I turn into a child-like nymph whenever Halloween is around the corner! Teehee. Suffice it to say that I’d like to celebrate it for as long as I can, even after it’s over. Haha! So this blog post here is my last attempt to still hold on to it. After I publish this, my next blog posts will be about other aspects of my life like Tuz’s exciting 5th birthday, our everyday life, travels, Christmas, etc.

Before the pandemic, and as far as I can remember, during Halloween, I used to go out, attend costume parties, and even host events during Halloween. It’s the most magical time of the year for me and doing those things really made me happy! I know it’s hard now that we are living in this new normal but it is still possible. I made it possible, and I will continue to make it possible. Haha! Watch my Halloween vlog below:

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Tuscany

LIVING UNDER THE PROVERBIAL TUSCAN SUN

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I’ve been wanting to watch (for the nth time) one of my most favorite movies of all time — UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN — for several days now as a prelude to a perfect weekend I expect to have with my family at the farm. I’ve been so busy with work (and blogging… ha!) that I haven’t found the time until a few hours ago when Mahal arrived from his DTI class and we decided to watch it together.

When I first watched it almost 16 years ago in 2003, I felt like I have already resonated with this movie on so many different levels even if the particulars were still unbeknownst to me at that time.

Years passed and I’d still watch it when I feel sad; when I feel inspired; when I want to be inspired; when I feel happy… basically no matter what my mood is. I just tear up with this movie no matter how many times I’ve already watched it and it always makes me feel like everything is alright with the world after indulging myself with its heartwarming story.

Fast forward to 10 years after that movie was first shown (2013), my first marriage crumbled to pieces… Continue reading →

tiny pad

TINY PAD – LIVING SMALL IN A BIG CITY AND THE REASONS WE DO IT

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I mentioned a few times here on my blog how we are living in a tiny pad down the mountains in Northern Mindanao. I first mentioned it here (THE BIG MOVE PART 1) when we left my big townhouse in Alabang, Muntinlupa to try our agricultural luck in the land of martial law down south of the Philippines. Then I mentioned it again in one of my most recent posts (#MYGREENCDO – IN SUPPORT OF CDO BLOGGERS 2019 SOCIAL MEDIA ADVOCACY).

Living in a tiny pad has its pros and cons. And sometimes, when my hormones are in haywire and pictures of my beautiful home in Alabang show up on Facebook Memories, I develop a negative state of mind which I really do my best to avoid or get over with because for the most part, we are living in abundance even if we are not rich – yet. After all, real wealth is not all about how much money or material things you have or how big your house is… wealth, in its truest sense of the word, is having a happy state of mind. Like what Rhonda Byrnes wrote on the sand at the end of the movie, The Secret, —> FEEL GOOD. Continue reading →

Adjusting to Rural Living – Rants of a City Girl Turned Farm Girl at 11 in the Evening

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It’s been raining hard the past couple of days… good for our crops… kinda bad for me. We can’t go back (yet) to the city.

The original plan was for me and Tuz to stay in our tiny city pad with all the conveniences of modern living. I have strong wifi there, Tuz and I can watch movies on the big screen, we can have food delivered or even go out late at night to eat at my favorite food place in the city, there’s a fridge at home, a microwave, a washing machine and of course an air conditioner (although the temperature here at the farm is way cooler). Then that day after Mahal made LBC deliveries for Mushroom Chili Paste and Mushroom Langka Jam orders and came home, he waited for me to wake up. I was actually expecting him to be gone already by the time I wake up so it’d be easier for me to not miss him. But he couldn’t leave yet. He said he was already missing us so much. So we spent time just talking… and hugging… and kissing… an hour passed… two… three… I was on the brink of tears knowing that he needed to go back to the farm soon since the plants have been all alone with no one to take care of them for 5 whole days already at that time.

Then Mahal said: “Sama ka na!” (Come with me!)

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Jen by Design

Jen By Design – Making an Old Rustic Room Look Cozy and Nice

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Jen by Design… I should have made this official a long time ago — I LOVE INTERIOR DECORATING! It’s one of my natural-born gifts!  Since I was a kid I love making things around me beautiful! My mom and dad would usually be surprised when they wake up each morning coz our living room would have a different design from the previous day. I’d rearrange the sofas and put some potted plants inside, and organize other home decors I had made. Even my regular-sized childhood room has different nooks for all my hobbies (I have a sewing nook, a play nook, a small library, a drawing nook, my bedroom in the corner arranged diagonally, etc.) And it’s off limits to everybody! Hahaha! Because even before I hit puberty, I already slept naked but that’s a different story. 😉

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