Day 2 of our Ilocos Tour

So many pictures... I don't know which ones to share. Day one was mostly spent on the road since it took a very long drive to get to Ilocos Norte. Now moving on to day two. We had breakfast at the hotel first then took a dip at the pool.

Swimming with daddy:
And with mommy:

Now it's all three of us:

Later that day, we went around Ilocos Norte to view some of their famous tourist attractions. Lots of beautiful and historical places here. First stop... Marcos Museum.
Here you'll find some memorabillas and photos of former president Ferdinand Marcos. His remains used to be displayed here too but now they say it's just his wax version and not the real Marcos anymore. We're not allowed to take photos in his musuleum but we were able to take photos of his other stuff:

President Marcos' desk:

It was scorching hot that day so we got ourselves some ice cream to cool down a bit.
Next stop is over at the very beautiful St. Augustine Church or better known as Paoay Church. I must say this is one of the most beautiful churches I've ever seen! It's also a part of UNESCO's World Heritage list.
After visiting Paoay, our next destination was at the Malacañang of the North. It was the official residence of President Ferdinand Marcos in Ilocos Norte.

My mom fell in love with the house because she's into antique looks nowadays. Just like this beautiful chandelier:
Look at the beautiful view of Paoay lake taken from the mansion's balcony:
Behind me and my sisters is a huge painting of the Paoay church:
Then off to another church. This time the Laoag Church- St. William's Cathedral is older than Paoay Church,as it was first built in 1590 by the Augustinian friars.
Across the street from the church is the sinking bell tower. It is considered the tallest in the Philippines but it sinks an inch each year because of its weight and sandy foundation.
That little door there is the entrance. And we were lucky enough to find the care taker and he showed us what was inside the tower. It was pretty dark inside, quite scary coz we had to climb a series of steps.
Finally we made it to the bell. But we were told this wasn't the highest part of the tower yet. I wasn't brave enough to climb the highest part anymore because the stairs looked unsafe.Little Marcie fell asleep while we were here. I guess she got tired from all the traveling. And when she woke up she started crying...

Aaahww... you poor little thing.

Also nearby was the Museo Ilocos Norte. It is a lifestyle museum that showcases the cultural heritage of the Ilocanos and the different ethnic tribes of Ilocos Norte.

Fashion then and now.... lol
Can you believe this used to be how a shower room looked like?

Our last destination for day 2 was the Sta. Monica Church or Sarrat Church. Built in 1779, Sta. Monica Church is considered the biggest church in Ilocos region. Sarrat Ilocos Norte is the birth place of the late President Ferdinand Marcos.
In 1983, Santa Monica was the site of the grand wedding of Irene Marcos-Araneta, the daughter of the late President Ferdinand Marcos.
You can also see the Torture Chamber Ruins here. Ok at first the name sort of gave me the chills considering it used to be a torture chamber, but when we went inside, the scene was actually beautiful!

Me inside a horseless kalesa (horse-drawn carriage):

Love the landscaping:

And after all the crying this girl was in the mood for some picture taking:
Make a wish:

Whew! finally finished this post. Sorry if it's photo heavy. I just had to share these beautiful places. TFL!

Holy Cow!

Holy cow! I didn't think this would be real but it actually is. :) I submitted to a DT call for Purple Cows a couple of months ago. Unfortunately, I didn't make it in the team but a few days after the DT members were introduced, I received an e-mail from Purple Cows and they told me they would be sending me a 2-in-1 combo trimmer as a token of appreciation for me because of submitting to their DT call. They also asked me if I could be a guest designer for them in the future. Wow! That's great news. And unexpectedly, this afternoon, Mr. Air 21 rang the door bell and I was surprised to see a huge box for me.
I immediately saw the label Purple Cows on the box and that's when I knew I wasn't actually dreaming when I read their e-mail. lol.
Thank you Purple Cows!

Oh and I just wanted to share this simple altered clock I made. It's a gift for a debutante which my mom asked me to make as one of her gifts for the 18 treasures. I also made another clock for another birthday girl but wasn't able to take a photo of it because after I finished it, it had to be wrapped right away. Hehe.
Gotta go now to try my new trimmer. TFL!

I'm Back! (Plus sharing pics from day 1 of our trip)

****WARNING--- Photo heavy post!****

Whew! Is it May already? Sorry for being away for a while. We just got home last Tuesday night from our trip to the north. We got to visit Region I plus Baguio City this time. I am still quite tired from the short vacation but I surely enjoyed it. I'll be sharing a few pics from our trip every now and then. We took so many pictures, probably 500-800 pics a day! lol. Sadly we all felt sick after the long trip but it was all worth it, we're recovering now.

The weather was very cooperative too. It was bright and sunny during our whole trip (which explains why our skin got tanned). And when we finally arrived back home in Pampanga, a storm hit the country. Talk about perfect timing. Thank God we were back home already when the storm started.

We left home early Thursday morning (April 30) at around 4 am. We had to pick up my hubby from work first then headed off to our first stop, Manaoag Church in Pangasinan. It was around 7:30 am when we arrived. We heard mass at 8 and lit some candles after, to ask God to bless our trip.

We also bought some yummy native goodies from Pangasinan like their putong Calasiao which is one of my faves and kutchinta to match.
Then we headed off again to continue our trip. This time it was a very long trip. It took us about 4 hours until we reached Ilocos Sur:

And 2 more hours until we finally reached Ilocos Norte.
We stopped by at Tribeca, a local coffee shop which according to my research is dubbed as the "Starbucks" of Ilocos. My verdict... their drinks don't quite taste like Starbucks but their cakes and pastries are yum-o! I loved their blueberry cheesecake and carrot cake. Gotta have a piece of that if you do get there.

A few minutes later we drove to our hotel, Fort Ilocandia Resort. This is where we stayed for 3 nights and 4 days:

We checked in then headed off to our rooms to tidy up a bit. Then we rushed to the beach to catch a glimpse of the beautiful sunset.

And back to our room for a well deserved rest from a very long trip.
That's all for today. I still got more photos and stories to share in the following days. I hope you don't get too bored with all the photos and stuff. lol. Peace out!

Unfinished Business

Oh no! It's past midnight and I'm still up. I just finished packing our bags for our much awaited trip to the North. We'll be going to Pangasinan, Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur, and Baguio too. It's gonna be a very long ride (approximately 10 hours by land!) Well here I am trying to catch my sleep while writing this post through my phone. Lol. As if that's gonna help me sleep! It was a pretty tiring day for me. I had to finish some business matters, packed for me, hubby and Marcie. Unfortunately, Mark had to report to work tonight but good thing his leave was approved for tomorrow until next week! Yey! After packing (which I hate coz it took me forever!), I baked more cookies to bring with us along the trip. I had to clean the kitchen afterwards and then did my final packing. I suddenly saw my unfinished LO which was supposed to be for the Kaya Challenge! Oops I didn't finish on time! I thought the deadline was tomorrow until I saw my email from the PS group. So sorry Bjay, I really tried to beat the deadline but I failed. :( Anyway, here's a peek at my unfinished layout:



Notice how my table is so messy too? Didn't have enough time to clean it up. So much to do but so little time! Oh well I guess I'll just post the finished product when I get back home from our trip. I will be absent for a while but if we're fortunate enough to have Wi-fi spots in the area, I'll try to update my blog and share some pics. :) Ta ta for now! Gracie

Banana Muffins and Recycled Projects

My mom brought home a couple of over ripe bananas yesterday which she got from my grandmas house. She said they would be perfect for baking banana muffins and asked me to bake some this afternoon. I added some oatmeal and chocolate chunks for added flavor and texture to the muffins. I also baked a loaf of banana bread using the same recipe but baked longer. I enjoyed taking photos of them as much as we enjoyed eating these yummy treats.

Hot and fresh from the oven:

2 dozens and a half:Let's have a close up:

A loaf of yummy goodness:

Want a slice?And if that wasn't enough, I also created some projects to go with the muffins. I made some altered projects and some cards using some recycled materials.

First was this altered can (it's an emptied chocolate wafer sticks container) which can be used as a gift container for these muffins. You can fit up to 4 muffins in the can. It can also be used as a container for trinkets or other goodies too.

Here's a closer look at the can:

Another recycled project which I also made on my previous post is the altered toilet paper roll. This one can be a gift card holder:

And last but not the least are these pair of cards (I had some left over pps from the can and the gc holder so I made some mini cards from them to maximize the use of the pp):
TFL! Have a yummy week ahead!

April Showers Bring in May Flowers

My has the weather here been weird lately! It's usually super hot in the morning and it suddenly rains so hard in the afternoon. While it's supposed to be summer time this time of the year, we've been getting a lot of rain for the past couple of days. Blame it on global warming. We sure need some earth lovin' nowadays. Speaking of earth lovin'... we just celebrated Earth Day 2 days ago and I did make some Earth Day projects that day but I haven't really gotten the chance to post them yet. I made some gift card holders made from recycled empty toilet paper rolls (you know that brown roll that holds the toilet paper). They're so fun and easy to make too. Maybe I'll post a tutorial here one of these days. I made 3 but I still need to embellish the remaining 2. Here's one of the finished gift card holders:

Altered Toilet Paper rollWill post the others when I'm done with them.

Then I also made this distressed card for Hero Arts challenge:
Lots of flowers huh? I guess April showers do bring in May flowers. lol.

Graduation mini album

We just attended a big graduation party last night. We had 10 graduates this year from my mother's side of the family! So they thought of just having one big party for all of them. One of this year's graduate is my nephew, JN (John Naciel). I made this mini album for my his graduation pics. It was also his birthday last April 3 so I gave this to him as a birthday/graduation gift.

Congrats to all the graduates of 2009!
TFL!