Proceed With Caution?

I am on my way to undertaking a new endeavour and clearly I am yet again stepping into it with much apprehension - like I always do. I want to be that person who has such deep rooted confidence and no care attitude that allows them to get what they want when they want it. But I am not. I am overly cautious and easily derailed. However, as my countdown to being 30 has started I am coaxing myself to let go of unnecessary inhibitions and pursue my dreams. I have waited long enough and my excuses are running out.  Good bye to that girl who puts things off, who lets go of opportunities and is content in watching others make it. I will no longer sit and wait. God has been too good to me already. I have taken a passive role wherein I allowed fate to blow me in whichever direction it wanted to take me. I have been very blessed. Now is the time to show my appreciation and take hold of the reins. I'm ready as I'll ever be. 

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much love

A Fairy Garden Tea Party: Cassandra and Camilla turn 1!

This post is long overdue I know. I think it took me so long to organize my thoughts on how this entry ought to be. I have so much aspects of this that I want to share, from the planning to the actual execution of everything to how the party went. I want this post to be as helpful as possible to other moms out there who wants what's best that their budget would allow.  I am no expert. I will admit to that now. I still hope you guys will be able to pick up a thing or two. 

Tea Party for Two set up in front

On picking a Theme

I immediately knew that I wanted to do a Tea Party. My favorite pasalubong from my dad growing up was this pink tea set and this Barbie doll from my sister that she got from London that spews phrases in a Brit accent. "Let's have a tea party" Oh so posh right??? My initial plan matured into a Fairy Garden Tea Party theme during the planning process.  My sister was going to be doing my dessert spread and we both have this vision of how we want pastels and blooms for the cake and desserts.  Then I have the image of my girls in wings so they just got to be fairies in there too! We were overwhelmed by ideas that we wanted. The hard part was narrowing down the elements that we will include. Since the theme was abstract in nature, not concentrating on a cartoon character or a movie, it is important to keep the focus. Gladly after much deliberation, we were able to settle on colors and the elements that we will include.

On Decorations

What I like about conceptual themes is that the possibilities are endless! Again what you have to watch out for is having too much ideas that you want to execute. Think of your budget, time constraint, physical capability (if you have to do some DIY) and of course how they will look altogether! Choose areas that you will splurge on and which ones you are willing to compromise. I decided that I will concentrate my efforts on making my centrepieces. Each table had a green teapot I scored for php 50 each at Dapitan used as vase for pink roses, a mayo jar (we collected from other households) again as vase for alstroemeria and a picture frame from Regalong Pambahay showcasing Sandra and Lila's monthsary photos as table numbers. We also placed white cups with pink pretzels for snacking before we opened the buffet since we didn't hire food carts anymore.

What was such a challenge for me was thinking of what to do for the stage area. Gone were the days when we can easily just have a tarp printed and put two balloon standees on each side. What was a major challenge too was figuring out how to stick things without doing damage to the wall. I am so lucky to have Ycoy of La Belle Fete a cousin of mine and at that time, soon-to-be "boss", swooped in at the last minute and created my back drop. We used my divider at home and stuck butterflies as if they are a flutter. The effect is subtle yet simply stunning! We just topped it off with two huge portraits of the girls and placed topiaries to achieve the garden feel.

With Ycoy Sitchon of La Belle Fete and my sister dearest of Sucrerie

What we decided to splurge on are the food and entertainment. We hired a great magician/host named Alex through Bing Daza of Dazzling Celebrations. Our food was catered by Hizon's Catering and our dessert spread is by my sister. I am so lucky that she has added baking and cake designing on to her resume. Our dessert spread and birthday cake were made by her. Everything was wiped out in such a short time I wasn't even able to try any! Our sweets spread boasted of Neapolitan cake, vanilla lemon filled cupcakes, meringue bites, madeleines, and egg candy balls.

She conceptualized and made every single thing in this dessert spread!

I was already so impressed with this cake and this was before my sister took additional lessons to refine her craft.

And just to tie everything together and reinforce our theme, I asked my friend Sygryd of The Playground to design our invitation, food labels, stickers for the loot bags and the tea bag labels for the giveaways.  

A closer look on the labels designed by Sygryd of The Playground! She captured our theme perfectly!

To show our thanks to our guests we handed out teacup with tea bag tags and sugar cookies made by my sister of course!

Another nice touch would be for the celebrant's family to dress up in theme! I am so happy and proud my boys were also willing to look dapper for the day =)

My family say hi to you all!

All in all what is really important are the kids right? If I were to do things differently I would have sat back and relaxed more! HAHA I am always in a frantic frenzy during our events! I really wish I was able to take more photos with my kids and with our guests! At the end of the day we just really have to let it go and enjoy! 

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much love

P.S 

To help you with your party planning!

Divisoria Mall and 168 Mall

The best place to score for prizes and small knick knacks for your loot bags. 

Tabora Street

For your crafting and DIY needs 

Dapitan

I scored my tea pots and tea cups here. They have a lot of ceramics, plates, cake stands and a whole lot more!

Regalong Pambahay

They have a warehouse along Pioneer where everything is 20% off.

28 years.

I'm pretty sure my love affair with maxi pleated skirts will never end.  Something about donning on a floor length skirt/dress instantly spells special. So I reserved this mint number for the day I turned 28. 

TWENTY freaking EIGHT! 

I remember being 16 and thinking 28 will be the year I am allowing myself to get married. By then surely I would have a job and be all financially stable and secure. I would know how to run a household, cook, clean, budget etc. It was that magical number that I thought then to be the time I would be all grown up and mature enough.  It is just evocative of how things do not go as planned isn't it? (1) I got married 3 years earlier than the goal. (2) I will admit that there are times I feel I am just playing house. (3) I was utterly slow in finding the career path that I love. 

When I was younger I was quick to assume that the number of years would equate to the state of mind. That growing up will happen in a snap. I thought, that by this time, I just got to be, you know - a proper adult.  You guys are probably shaking your heads in amusement. Yes I know I am a young 28 year old. I am a walking contradiction. A mom of three and yet still pretty much think of herself as a kid too. 

You must also be wondering how I am faring. Well it is a constant learning process. I have to admit I was a pretty laid back learner when I was a kid. Not very pro active. I always assumed there will be a time for that in the future. Of course if there is one thing my life story can attest to - is that, lets us reiterate -  nothing ever goes as planned.  I had my eldest when I was 22. So yep I pretty much skipped a lot of years that I allotted to learning time. I pretty much dove head first to everything. Which may be why I still feel that I am in constant panic. I am rushing, rushing into figuring things out as I live it. 

At 28 this is my greatest and most proud of accomplishment. 

This is also why I am so grateful for the support system that I have. My family and my hubby's never failed to be there to support us in any way.  Maybe that is why we are slow at the up take. But seriously I do not know how we would have survived if they felt the need to cut us off completely. We both have a nurturing family sometimes even bordering on spoilers (for a lack of a better term).  And that is the philosophy we live by. When I had the guts to voice out my fears of raising my son to my dad all he had to tell me was "when he cries always pick him up no matter what". Simple yet encompassing on how we were raised. 

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much love