Christmas 2021. I have a thing for Christmas. As a (Filipino) pastor's kid, I grew up in an environment where Christmas is celebrated in a huge way. Christmas hymns blasted from our car stereo as soon as the "ber" months began; my Mom would wrap a bazillion presents for every ...
About Riz
Behind the Scenes of a Christmas Photograph
Christmas 2020. Behind the one family photo that makes the proverbial Christmas postcard are a dozen outtakes and stories. This was us last year, Christmas 2020, at the height of the pandemic. We had been under lockdown for almost a year—and in the Philippines no less, the ...
Counting the Days, and Making the Days Count
It's the first day of November and day 231 of this lockdown. Most of you probably stopped counting the days but, as someone who can count on one hand all the times she left the house in the past 8 months, I might as well just keep counting. And so it has been 231 days ...
Wrapping up the Past Decade in a Bow
A tad too late to the decade-ender party but as always taking my time to process it all—the decade that has passed, the new one that has just begun. I started writing this post in December, only to write up the last paragraph while in quarantine. Ha! I'll save the quarantine ...
How I Want to Remember this Christmas
Christmas 2019. "Best Christmas ever!", says my daughter mid-jump, eyes twinkling bright like the northern star. I may have said something like "woohoo!" but deep inside I tried to recall past Christmasses and, taking my daughter's declaration too seriously, secretly ...
The Christmas Animated Movie You Won’t Mind Watching All Year-Round
Heads up: It's on Netflix. It's always been on Netflix, somewhere, underneath piles of shows trying to capture your attention this Christmas season. I highly recommend you look up The Star. The Star Animated Film, 2017 In case you don't know, "The Star" is an ...
And Just Like That, Dawn and Rain are 7
Hanging by the door of their classroom in Kids Church, a signage goes "Pre-school: 4-6 Years Old". One Sunday afternoon, as we were picking them up after the church service, our conversation went something like this— "Mom, what happens when we turn 7 years old? We can't go to ...
10 Classic Holiday Movies to Inspire the Creative in You
Originally published in 2017. But.. it's that time of the year so I'm bringing this up. ;) Growing up with about a hundred cousins, Christmas gatherings and family reunions were huge parts of my childhood. I enjoyed the company of my cousins and somehow that made me believe I ...
Dreamy Dresses and Magical Spaces with Spinkie
A Spinkie event, you say? Expect magic and whimsy and all things dreamy. Also, photo-worthy spaces, everywhere you point your camera. It's been two weeks now since Spinkie's 9th-year anniversary celebration and here we are, still talking about it. Dawn and Rain are still raving ...
Our Spinkie Story
Many would have discovered Spinkie through their magical and inspiring Instagram presence. But for us, discovering Spinkie was more, shall I say, random (or fate!) It was the year 2012. I was a new mom, on a quest to find our first Christmas gifts for our then barely 2-month ...
So You Want to Climb Mt. Ulap? Go for it!
[Edit, July 2024]: Hello, I changed the title from "Don't do it!" to "Go for it!" I'm happy to see that people are finding this post when researching about climbing Mt. Ulap! One of the comments below raised that this post seems to discourage people from doing it, which is not ...
Unique Finds at Lazada Home Living
Isn't it mind-blowing how this digital age has made everything so much easier? Paying bills, running errands, booking transportation, planning trips, shopping for groceries even! And even though the Philippines lagged behind a little bit in the online shopping department, we're ...
