Changes in Life with Just Another Pixel

After couple of weeks preparing for the big event of Mhel of Just Another Pixel, her blog contest has now finally come to life. She call this contest as Changes in my Life. Mhel did a very good job in this event so it is really worth to be part of her event.

Watch all the bloggers out there because it now your chance to win fabulous prizes over $300. Yes you've heard it, OVER $300 in prizes. This is in connection with her 30th year of existence (Happy Birthday, Mhel).

As I recall, I met Mhel at Sulit where she won as First Place in the blog writing contest. I was her number one fan and I supported her entry all through the contest period (co'z this young lady captured my heart to the max!). Our friendship did not stop there because it was only the beginning of everything for us. Now, in one of the biggest event in her life I am here again to support her. I pledged to be one of her primary sponsors. I will be giving my service for three winners for a total blog makeover through my DRESS UP YOUR BLOGS (can be a makeover or design for a new blog..choice of the winners).

Come, visit, read, and participate in her event and this could be your chance to win $$, or free advertising, mobile phone cards, web hosting package, shirts, gift certificates, and my service for blog makeover. So, this is so amazing and great chance for everybody. The rules and mechanics are well-written and explained. So what you will do is to just read, understand, and participate. Don't miss this opportunity.

I, myself, want to join but I prefer to support her and encourage other bloggers to be part also with the biggest changes happening in her life. I am now, so you're next.

A Decade Anniversary

Wow, it's been 10 years of togetherness already...a decade, big one O! Time really flies so fast between my husband and me. Here is my designed card for him:

It's already 10:30pm here in my place and we just arrived from a date of the decade. And you know where we went for a dinner??? Tada! we celebrated our 10th year wedding anniversary at McDonalds. Yes, lovin' it at McDo...in this 24-hour branch near in our place.

Am I kidding? No I am not. We really had our dinner date here as if we never had one before. Sorry, we were unable to get a better shot because this was only a self shot. No need for me to post what we ate because it was very obvious what you can find at McDonalds. For us, it does not matter if we celebrated this moment in ordinary way because we know in ourselves that everyday is a special day.

Last Sunday, our friends in the church gave us this ring rosary as their gift for us. We were also blessed during the mass. So, knowing that there are people who love us, is a big and enough gift for us and we are so grateful and thankful about it.

To my husband, happy anniversary. I love you and I will keep on loving you more.

The song that inspires me

Sentimental….yes I am a sentimental person. Once I attached to a person or things, sometimes it hard for me to say goodbye or put things away that easy. All physical materials and unforgettable moments that brought big impact on my life always have special place in my heart and no matter what, I keep on treasuring and remembering.

I am not a perfect person but I can say I am a good human being. I admit that there are some things happened in my life that almost made me down and felt hopeless and thought that nobody cares for me at all. But I was wrong because there was somebody who lifted me up.

I want to share to all of you the song that inspires me all through this time. The song, YOU MADE ME LIVE AGAIN, which popularized by our local singer Janet Basco (in the late 80's I think), reminds me of a person that saved me from being discouraged. He thought me how to be strong and gave me hope that everybody deserves to be happy and has chance to be happy even in little ways. The person that gave me the strength to face my real world is no other than my husband Gerry. This song is really for him. Two days from now we will be celebrating our 10th year wedding anniversary and I could say that in those 10 years of togetherness, I love him even more and keep on loving him and I want to spend the rest of my life with him together with our kids.

I have searched this song in YouTube and I found a perfect one from a certain aarontrinidad. Come and hear it. I am so proud to tell the world that this song is my song which might be your song too. I also pasted the lyrics below if you want to have a copy.

YOU MADE ME LIVE AGAIN

By: Janet Basco

I was down and out and feelin' so low
You took my hand and eased my mind
I was astray you showed me the way
And now I finally found my home in you

I still recall the times I've been through
Confused and I didn't know what to do
I almost gave up but you gave me hope
You've made me strong as the days went on
You made me live again

I was lost in the dark
With my lonely, broken heart
Then you came along
You took me home
And made me your own

You were always there to lend a helping hand
When good friends were hard to find
When things went wrong you made them right
You've made my days so bright
You made me live again

I was lost in the dark
With my lonely, broken heart
Then you came along
You took me home
And made me your own

Now look at me
Yes, a different me
Back on my feet again
I'm not afraid to face the world again
'Cause you taught me how to be strong

This song keeps on inspiring me. I love the rhythm. I love the tempo, very mellow. So, what can you say about the song? Could you relate?

My 6-year Old Crossstitch

I want to introduce you to my 6-year old crossstitch. Yes, this canvas is already in its 6 years in the making and until now I am not yet finish. This is my Last Supper and it measures 36.9" x 16" in 14 count Ecru Aida cloth.

I started working on this on the later part of year 2004 and until now I am still working on this. You might wonder why it takes so long for me to finish this one. The reason --> I am not full time in doing this. I just give it an one hour or two a night and sometimes not. So I am expecting not to finish it in just couple of months unlike my other crossstitch works (The Wedding, Adonis, Holy Family, Mother and child, etc) which only takes two-four months in the making. Let me show you my working paraphernalia for my Last Supper:

But you know what, crossstitching is my favorite hobby which I cannot live without. I started doing this when I was in fourth year high school and I never stop doing this until now. So its been 14 years of crossstitching and I tell you I can crossstitch even in closed-eyes (exaggz!).

So, what are these things. You can see I have two boxes. These boxes are where the threads, the needles, scissor, and the bobbins are kept. I want my things organized so I make sure I have boxes which can accommodate all these small paraphernalia especially for the threads. Here are single capture all these paraphernalia:

DMC threads. This pattern composes of almost 58 different colors of DMC thread.




The pattern. This pattern comes in colored and not in photocopy. This is an original crossstitch pattern from DMC.


The Bobbins are where the DMC threads are rolled and numbered. These comes in different colors.


The scissor, the needles, and the pin cushion.




So, those are the paraphernalia I used to work for my Last Supper crossstitch. I am hoping that this coming year, I can finish this and be framed. I am planning to place this in our dining room. Hayyz, our house actually looks like a one small museum because of these big framed crossstitches. And when I finish my Last Supper, this could be additional. But I am planning to give some of those to my mother because she loves my crossstitches so much.

My husband actually promised me to shoulder the framing fee and that is a good news for me... I will keep you updated about my Last Supper...cheers:)

How to Make Origami Lucky Star

Okay, like what I have promised in my previous post that I will tell you the instructions on how to make those lucky stars. I scanned the actual instructions in each pack of these paper strips I bought but unluckily only sketch pictures are being shown, no word instructions. This is how the instructions look like:

I don’t know why there are no instructions in words. Perhaps for some, these are clear but frankly the first time I saw the instructions, I did not understand them; probably because that time I was new to origami. To make things clear for some who do not also understand the picture instructions, I will provide my own steps in reference to the scanned instructions above. I hope you can understand the steps I will be giving you.

1. Get single paper strip, usually with a size of 258mm by 10mm. This is the size of the paper strip I used but I guess these papers come in different sizes. Tie it like a knot at the end of the paper.

2. Fold the excess or cut it off. But you can estimate the length of the strip in tying like a knot just enough to hide the other end of the strip.

3. Holding the longer part of the strip, fold it and wrap facing the printed part (the back of the strip is plain white) following the sides of a pentagon-like you are forming.

4. Turn it over to fold and wrap again just like in step 3.

5. Repeat the step 4 over and over again until you reach the end of the paper strip.

6. To close the folding, tuck the last tip of the strip into the pouch. If in case the excess is too much, you can fold it to hide or cut.

7. Then you will end up having a flat pentagon shape-like.

8. Hold firm but not too tight, make a gently pinch pushing inward on the five center of the pentagon edge.

9. From a flat folded pentagon shape-like, you will get a fatty star which they call “lucky”.

I have scanned also the instructions in the other pack I have. This could be another steps you can refer in relation to the first set of instructions.

But here is the best tutorial I could give you. I found this video tutorial online from 5min.com and for me this is the best and clear picture of the instructions.

There you have it. Now it’s time for you to practice making one. I advise you to make use of recyclable colored magazine page or anything if this is your first time to try, otherwise you will ended like me during my first try.

Here are some of my paper strip collection:


which turned into these lovely lucky stars:

Anyway, each pack does not cost more, as a matter of fact it only costs Taiwan Dollar NT$10 (USD$0.30) per 100 pieces of strips with ten different designs. Not bad, right? I don’t have to design, print, and cut because these strips are extremely affordable. I am still planning to buy and collect more of these paper strips for my lucky star collection. Have fun!

The Beginning of my Lucky Stars

The very first time I visited a bookshop in Taipei called Kingston, I saw some bunch of colorful paper strips which caught my attention and curiosity. At first glance, I never had an idea to what these papers were intended for. And I discovered that they were used for paper folding like origami or something because each pack has instructions which I did not understand exactly how to follow. What I knew was these were used to make stars, bumpy and fatty colorful stars. Believe it or not, I was being impulsive that time to buy dozens of these tiny pieces of paper strips which in fact I did not know yet how to work with. When I got home, I could not wait to give myself a try following the picture instructions at the back of each pack. And you know what, I almost wasted one whole pack but I still could not get and see the real star. My patience then almost gone and I ended up my day very disappointing.

Two days after that day, a friend of ours who lived in Taipei for almost 10 years came over to our apartment and I mentioned to her about these paper strips I bought. She almost laughed at me when she saw my wasted paper strips and the finished deformed stars I made. That day she invited me to her apartment to see her collection. I was amazed when she let me see her big transparent plastic jar with full of stars made out of those paper strips which almost ruined my day in trying to learn even just one piece of star. I got so excited more to learn seriously about this paper folding. And I did learn. I actually did. Since then I kept on folding here, folding there. It's been almost two years since I started making my own lucky stars and I let this passion pass to some of my friends who are enjoying now more than I do. They are so cute, aren’t they? Try for yourself also. It is fun and another useful and creative way of “killing time”.

Please come back to my blog for in my next post I will tell you the instructions how to make such lucky stars. I will also show you some samples of the paper strip designs I have bought couple of weeks ago. I have bunch of these paper strip collection and I am willing to share my works to you.

Before I end up, if you will ask me why they are called "Lucky Stars", well, me either do not know. I will try to find out.

P.S. I used captured images of my actual lucky stars so far I have in my jar. For two years in the making, I already made thousands of lucky stars, I guess but I gave some of them to my friends.

If you are in this kind of hobby, I would appreciate if you let me see your works too. I would love to visit your blog...cheers:)

Digital Retouching turned 2 at Yola

Come and celebrate with me in my 2nd year anniversary at Yola..


Did you know that I am now a newly ranked as Yola Champ?

Read more of this news: http://digital-retouching.net/blog/yola-at-two

Always Feel Like a Winner at Sulit

Frankly, Sulit.com.ph at first was not in my list. I thought it was only meant for those who have concerns about traditional way of business in the Philippines and a digital designer like me has no place in it. I could have never imagined that such first impression would suddenly change into a habitual and spontaneous way of making my digital world come to life. From the first day I register an account, I could no longer survive a day without having the Sulit.com.ph in my browser.

What I found more interesting about being a Sulit member (most commonly known as Sulitizen) is that the community itself offers lots of privileges for its members to enjoy. I found this community a boring-free business site where not only buy and sell is concern but also how to have harmonious relationships among other members. I have never been into any Filipino online community but what I am experiencing now with Sulit is truly remarkable. Who can beat a site that offers unlimited posting of classified ads? They are not kidding about this service. It is true indeed that you can post your ads as many as you can for FREE in accordance with its rules and terms.

The very best thing I experienced with Sulit is the time when I joined the Valentine Postcard Making Contest held last February 2010. That was my first participated contest from the time I joined Sulit. Luckily and unexpectedly, from almost 400 who submitted entries, mine was chosen to be one of the ten winning entries. That was the best Valentine I had because I made my husband very happy and surprised a lot with bouquet of flowers he received from me as part of the prize.

You can read my whole story here where it was originally posted (February 23, 2010).

But the best prize I got from being around with Sulit is the friendships which I started to build on with other members. I won lots of friends and still winning more of them. I have this one person in Sulit whom I called not only as co-sulitizen but a friend that easy to count on. I don’t know her personally. I don’t know anything much about her except what are written in her blogs. But I know we have the same interests, share the same world, and what a coincidence we also both finished the same course in college. I am referring to a person known as “blankpixels” whom I prefer now to call on her name, Mhel. We had a very good start of meeting each other and I owe this to Sulit. I met her during the Blog Writing Contest held by Sulit last August. She luckily got the first place which everybody was hoping for to get (including me because I was not lucky to be among the Top10!). I got no doubt that she would make it which made me to decide to support her all through the contest period. And the rest for sure will become a history for us.

So, to all the chances that Sulit is giving me, to all the contests that have been launched, whether I won or not, with Sulit I always feel like a winner and I will always be. I never feel like a loser instead I always ended up my day with a smile in my face knowing that Sulit has made something in my life that no other usual community will do.

Have you heard about Sulitizens

**Original posted last August 24, 2010 at http://digital-retouching.net/blog/have-you-heard-about-sulitizen

Have you ever heard, or read from a particular writings, or at least encounter in any instance the word Sulitizen? Perhaps you may confidently say, “Yes I did!” or it could be, “Sounds like familiar” or “Not yet so far”. If you are a Filipino (Philippine citizens), this word definitely may not new to you. But if this is your very first time to hear this word, let me give you some idea on what “Sulitizen” means.

Based from my experience and understanding, in my own choice of words, this is the most explicit meaning I could give to define “Sulitizen”:

"A Sulitizen is a functional member of the leading business-related online community in the Philippines, the Sulit.com.ph. He/she can be a buyer, a seller, or an individual who participates in various fields of interests to gain optimal satisfaction and enjoys privileges that the community has to offer."

Let me tell you something about Sulit.com.ph. It is the leading buy and sell website in the Philippines and most Filipinos are relying in this fast growing online community not only just for their living but also for some concerns whether it is for personal or business related. Most likely, the word Sulitizen is derived from the name of the community itself “Sulit” and “izen” from the word citizen. So literally speaking, the word Sulitizen simply means "a citizen of Sulit". The term "Sulit" is our native language which can be described as "best, most favorable, advantageous".

We often call this community as "Sulit" for short. It offers wide areas of concern in business world particularly in the Philippines. It is best known for buy and sell and free online classified ads.

I have been a Sulitizen for just less than a year now but I enjoy all the chances and privileges that Sulit has to offer to its members. I am a buyer at Sulit. I am a seller at Sulit. I am an advertiser at Sulit, and most important, I am a functional member of Sulit who shares talents and own insights in the field of my expertise. I am so proud to tell the whole world how grateful I am to be a Sulitizen.

So, are you ready to become a Sulitizen, too? Visit me here and register yourself now!

Is this a community for Filipinos only? Of course not. Everybody is welcome to jump in and be part of us. Anybody has a good place to fit in.