The fault in our stars(or at least in mine, hobby wise)

This isn't some profound analysis of the book, nope. I think I am way behind my literature stock and my writing practice to do that. Nope, this is about me(well sorry to be blunt about it- this is, after all, my blog) and my somehow "lost" lust for reading.

I cannot specifically remember when I realized it but before I graduated from high school, I was addicted to reading. I somehow managed to buy most of the Sweet Valley books that were on sale in National bookstore, I've borrowed one too many Love Stories, I've read Noli Me Tangere before school started(yup, that geeky), and I was hooked to Harry Potter. This might be social suicide, but I did enjoy them Tagalog pocketbooks too. Ahahaha!

Teenage years' memories included a loooot of these :)

It continued until College and even until I started working- I remembered promising myself that my first paycheck would include a book purchase and it did- I think I bought a Paulo Coelho book. But somehow, life happened. Shit happened. I started getting into hiking, into trying out new restos- all those phony things that yuppies do- drink expensive coffee, watch movies a lot, travel, buy too many clothes and shoes and gadgets and what nots that they don't actually need. So to cut the story short, reading material became way way low on my budget priority- and the most I did was buy magazines from time to time.

But every so often I would chance upon a book I like and buy it. I did buy my Harry Potter 6, hard bound for some 1,+++ pesos. I did buy Confessions of a Shopaholic and felt that it was worth every penny. I did buy other books and magazines in between and somehow I feel okay with that, even though I bought very little reading material to what I expected before I got a job. Somehow I didnt consider this as a loss but rather freeing myself from what I used to think was reading lust

Because I realize that to truly enjoy something, you must not be captive to that thing. You must be able to jump back to reality anytime you wanted, anytime you needed to.You must be able to define priorities, real ones at that and not just reading lists and read a book when you truly have the time. So I came to terms with the fact that I cannot buy books on a regular basis and at most times have to do with free e-books or lent paper backs. I came to terms with it because it meant that I get to spend time with my family, go hiking, go grocery shopping, plant on a virtual farm on Facebook and stalk a few people's pages(aha!)

Must. have. more. croooooooops :P

So if you, dear reader somehow scold yourself for finding excuses not to do the things you want to, remember, that as John Green said in the book, some infinities are bigger than others. Maybe the other infinity you're attending too means more. Or maybe you just havent hit that perfect spot yet to give focus to this other one. The epiphany, the time, the resources, whatever it is that you need, I hope, will come to you, one way or another :)

Going gaga over house makeovers!

I posted a series of entries about Reese's safari birthday but with the not-so-recent turn of events regarding the house we're going to buy, we finalized that our little boy won't have a swimming party on his first birthday. In as much as the thought of a full blow safari themed party excites me, reality bites and we need as much cash as we can before we move in to the house by May. We'd still buy a cake and do the photoshoot (given how gwapo our baby boy is :P) but the house is our financial priority now and not a party.

Our little one is such a water baby. He enjoyed his first beach trip immensely!

With this mind, I had to divert my attention from jungle themed goodies to house makeovers! The house that we will buy was unoccupied for about two years so even though it was in top condition before the owner migrated to the US, it now needs a lot of work and TLC. Nonetheless I am hopeful that we can move in before May 18- Reese's exact birthday, since we also plan to do the housewarming on that day. Below are some pics of how I hope we can transform his house into our home :)

1. For the common areas such as the kitchen, dining room and bathroom, I wanted to stick to neutral colors and I wanted the colors to jive. I think the palette below would do well with our exisiting furniture- a black LCD tv and black and cream sofa ^^

For the kitchen, in as much as I hate cleaning, I think it should always look immaculate and so colors close to white should be our top picks

For the bedrooms, I wanted them to have more "character" so I looked for colors which were bolder and brighter. We'd probably use the brighter colors on one side and use lighter shades on two other sides

I'm really hoping that hubby would agree to the first one as our bedroom since I was thinking that the second color is more apt for Reese's room. See, I have trouble getting up in the morning as is and I imagine it'll be much harder if the color was calming like this:

Of course, I also looked for pegs for other parts of the house like the bathroom and the dining room though I wasnt able to take a shot of the two. 

Not really a fan of orange but somehow I think that this would work well...

I think black or any dark colored furniture looks really good and with that in mind, I picked this since the picture shows black dining set ^_^

Honestly, it feels like wedding preps all over again- it's so hard to fall asleep because I'll be thinking about how all these ideas would come together.. Giddy giddy up!