My Art Stash

While other ladies go gaga over make-up, I go loco over arts and crafts supplies (and bags! LOL!) I just love arts and crafts. I always tell myself I am seriously in the wrong profession. I should be in Graphic Design, Art Museum as a curator, an Interior Decorator, an Architect or an Arts teacher or have my own fashion line where I am the designer. In short, anything related to creative pursuits is my forte.

I have been buying arts and crafts supplies lately. I stopped for a while when I got so busy with my online studies. Since, I decided to give my online studies a break, I always end up to where I started - arts and crafts.

Funny thing, I wasn't even going to buy any craft supplies. I was actually looking on some beauty products when I suddenly decided to check another site I have always visited in the past. And guess what, I emptied my beauty products cart and decided to buy arts and craft supplies. I am happier with my decision and choice!

I get my stuff from Michael's Arts in the US but when I am back in Dubai, I only shop at Blitsy. It's my favourite go-to arts and craft supplies online shop. They have regular sales and deals that are so hard to resist. In a span on 1 month, I have ordered thrice already! That's not wise for my budget but because they have deals that I cannot resist, I end up buying more in separate dates. I will be wiser in my next purchase to save on the shipping cost. I will just do the shopping in one go.

Here are my stash and I am waiting for 1 package to be delivered next week. Oh, I can't wait to get my hands on those stuff!!!

If you want to get your own lovely stash like these, you can visit Blitsy!

Be creative! Keep creating!

Sing Along Magic

I used to enjoy karaoke sessions with my family and friends when I was younger. I was pretty shameless and didn't mind whether I was out of tune because I was having so much fun singing to my heart's delight.

My family and I used to frequent the many karaoke bars along Quezon City when I was still in the Philippines. The cost of eating and booking karaoke rooms were a bit costly so we decided to buy our own system and do the singing at home.

It wasn't as professional as the ones in the karaoke bars but the media unit came with high-quality accessories like a microphone that could pass as a shure sm58a beta microphone professional bands and artists use.

We had so many wonderful and happy memories using our sing along system until it had to conk out due to old age and over use.

MyMemories Suite Project - Spring Flowers

Check out these great freebies courtesy of MyMemories.com!
They make great Party Favors! Easy and fun to make!

Use these to decorate your lawn or string them together and hang them.
Perfect for spring birthday parties or anything else you can think of!

Available free until May 5th. You may download the free template from my blog. Please check the right side under the FREEBIE header. Please do not sell or re-distribute. This is for your personal use only. Thanks!

If you don't have MyMemories Suite Software yet, you may purchase it from http://www.mymemories.com/digital_scrapbooking_software and use my 10% discount code for your purchase: STMMMS30652

Have fun!

(Photo credit: MyMemories.com)

MyMemories Suite Project - Fairy Dress Boxes

Here's another super fantastic paper project brought to you by MyMemories Suite! I like this project a lot because it it cute and great to use as giveaway boxes on little girls' celebrations or themed parties for princess or fairies or even teenagers with a fashion fix. You can download the free template from this blog, just proceed at the right side of the bar with Freebies. Please do not re-sell the templates and save them for your personal use only. The templates will be available until Feb. 11, 2013 only. So grab them now.

This project can be done using MyMemories Suite Digital Software. If you don't have the software yet, you can get the it from http://www.mymemories.com/digital_scrapbooking_software and use my 10% discount code for your purchase: STMMMS30652

All photos are courtesy of MyMemories.com.

Have fun everyone!

Fun Things To Do In Summer

Photo credit: local.sandiego.com

Summer can be very hot here in the U.A.E. If you happen to live in this part of the world then you will understand why summer here is a dreaded season. It is so hot and humid and the temperature reaches 49 to 50 degrees Celcius. That is not a joke! However, we have to make do of what we have and where we are because we cannot let these hot factors dampen our summer spirit.

There are so many ways to enjoy the blistering heat of the sun here and you can do it indoors or even outdoors either very early morning or during the night. Here are fun ways to enjoy summer while battling the heat of the long summer months:

1. Learn how to cook and bake with your family and friends. This is an indoor activity which can be enjoyed by everyone. You don't have to shell out a big amount of money to pay someone to teach you. Research and save some easy-to-make or easy-to-bake recipes and shop for the ingredients.

2. Do some arts and crafts project like scrapbooking and making handmade cards of various occasion. If you have small kids around, let them take part in the project by giving them simple tasks like coloring or pasting shapes or embellishments you will use in your project. Make fun stuff with them and you'll never realize how fun summer can be even while at home.

3. Go for a very early or late afternoon jog or walk around the park. If you have been delaying your weight loss goals for some time, summer is a good way to sweat it out. Be sure to bring water to cool yourself off and a handy towel to wipe away the perspiration.

4. Go to the beach in the morning or late in the afternoon and enjoy the ocean breeze.

5. Window-shop and enjoy the cool airconditioned malls. You save money by not switching your a/c at home. However, make sure you stick to your purpose of only to window-shop and walk around the mall.

6. Learn a new language, musical instrument or a new skill.

7. Have slumber party at home and invite your friends over for a nice movie-marathon night.

8. Clean your house. Re-organize and spruce your habitat.

9. Volunteer to some civic organizations and render your skills and service to help others.

10. Write a blog or start a blog.

11. Make a playlist of your favorite songs and organize them.

12. Make a smoothie! This is one of my fave to do!

13. Go to the museum or art galleries and try soaking in the culture and art.

14. Go on a vacation preferably somewhere cold :)

The list goes on. If you have other ways of enjoying the blistering heat, please feel free to share them here. Have fun this summer! Don't forget to dress lightly and wear protective SPF if you must.

Online Fun

Photo credit: owners of the games

I love playing online. It helps me ease the tension, de-stress and forget the trivialities of life. I play mostly arcade, simulator and puzzle games. I also play slot machines and online bingo. I find them very entertaining especially the casino games since I cannot go to a casino for real.

There are several sites that offer endless fun and entertainment through games and one of the biggest social network site to play online games is in Facebook. Aside from that, famous sites like Yahoo and online bingo site Wink Bingo offers are also offering games. Some games are free while others are trial basis on a limited time then you have to buy to proceed to the next level.

I have bought licensed games in the past for myself and my daughter so we have something else to do aside from the usual activities we have regularly. The long summer months in this country leaves us cooped at home most of the time after school and work. We finish our normal activities like studying, doing the household chores, feeding our pet and preparing meals for the day before we engage in our online activities. Although my frequency of playing time has diminished significantly. I still check online games once in a while.

Online games varies in terms of genre and audience. I tend to stick to the wholesome kind and ones that do not involve shelling out money. I have to cater to my daughter's interests too so I check out the games' rating and review before I let her play for a short period of time. She likes the baking kind and timed puzzles which help develop her creativity and sharpens her logic with the puzzle-solving games. We both enjoy farming games too and creating cities because they are colorful and you can actually visit other players' cities and farms and help out in the process.

Some games can be time consuming especially the role-playing games or RPG. I do not let my daughter play any of those games because of their nature and theme. We just stick to the child-friendly ones. I do have my preference of games to play though but I try not to engage too often. I just have to know the limitations. It is a matter of self-control while having fun on the side.

Christmas Cupcakes

Our budget was a bit tight this Christmas. Instead of buying customized cakes and yule logs, my daughter and I decided to make our own cupcakes. We baked and decorated and frosted the cupcakes. The quality is not as good as the bakeshop kind and not even close but we enjoyed every minute baking together. It's our mini-bonding time!

Here's a snap of our Christmas cupcake. Enjoy!