Chasing Dreams

45/52: Apartment Hunting

December 18, 2014July 21, 2020 RhizaLeave a comment

Photographs of our twin daughters, once a week, every week, this 2014.

(This post has been waiting in the drafts for a while, and so are the last few backlogs of my 52 week project. And they’re all coming out today. Let’s do this.)

Sometimes, you find a new house to move in to, sometimes, it finds you. Finding this new place was a faith journey in itself. It began with fervent prayers, progressed with one affirmation after another, culminated in some leaps of faith, and voila, we found our new home. (Or it found us.)

Let’s just say, we were caught in a situation where we had no choice but to move. On top of that, the girls are getting bigger, and our old place was starting to feel like it was getting smaller. Moving to a bigger house was inevitable.

And so it went on for months, hunting for an apartment, asking around for referrals, browsing online listings, walking around the neighborhood and searching for random “Apartment for Rent” ads, computing costs, praying, waiting. It wasn’t until the first week of November that, walking around our neighborhood, the Lord lead us to a signage that brought us to this apartment we now call “home”.

A snap from my camera, the girls checking out the new house, trying it for size.

It was love at first sight, I have to say; and that’s saying a lot considering how many apartments we viewed prior to this one. We immediately expressed interest, and the owners were kind enough to give us two weeks to decide, reserve the place, even when many others were also checking it out.

It has been quite a ride, these past two months. Terrifying, too, if I might add. But with a new apartment waiting for us, we had to say good bye to the place where we, the four of us, first became a family. Which means we also had to say good bye to that wall in the garage, the background to more than half of the twins’ photographs this past year. Saying good bye to a wall, I know right. I’m sentimental like that.

To be continued.

More about Project 52 here. View all posts in this blog series here.

Ikea Catalog 2015, My Picks (and a bit of Content Marketing)

December 6, 2014May 13, 2019 RhizaLeave a comment

I haven’t redecorated or invested in our home interiors in a while. Not that we need to buy any more new things. We’re all set. We have everything that we need, and there isn’t exactly any more space in our apartment for, say, new furniture, or a bigger bed. Not much space to re-arrange too. At least none yet.

But this week I found myself browsing through the recently released Ikea Catalog 2015 (online version) and felt my heart flutter with excitement all over again.

I used to be an avid Ikea Catalog collector. And of course I like their products too. Known as the go-to place for affordable and high quality furniture and home essentials, they surely have refined their designs and have evolved into an inspirational lifestyle brand worldwide. I guess for us here in the Philippines, Ikea items are more of a novelty since we don’t have any Ikea stores in the country.

Ikea products are affordable if you buy them from the US, EU, Australia, or Singapore. Getting their items to the Philippines, however, can be really costly, at least based from my own experience. I have a few Ikea pieces I bought when I was still single and we still use them until now —a phased out Rexbo ladder shelf (aha, collector’s item!), a floor lamp, some pillowcases and bed sheets, frames, etc. They cost a bit much because, either you spend a ridiculous amount on shipping, or, you have to go abroad to visit an Ikea store.

Browsing the online catalog makes me daydream about home interiors again, and how we can improve our own home in small, inexpensive ways. Here are some of my picks from the catalog and why I love them. I hope this gives you a little dose of inspiration today too:

Kid-friendly living room and playroom

Lately I’ve been daydreaming a lot about having white walls and huge windows! Natural light, yo. I love how neutral colored bases (white tables, book shelves and chairs, and light colored sofas) can make a space look big, and make bright and happy accent colors pop up!

My husband and I have maintained a minimalist look for our home since we got married, but what can I say, it’s just impossible to not have a messy, colorful house with kids! I’ve learned to adjust to that, and have grown to love and embrace this beautiful mess. What can I say.. “a messy house is a happy house“, indeed! :)

Clean and functional bedroom

Ikea catalog writes, “The bedroom and bathroom is where everyday begins and ends. And if everyone can make everyday begin and end in a nicer way, just imagine its effect on life!”

I never really thought of it that way, and so for the longest time, I’ve placed little thought on styling our bedroom, which also happens to be (probably) the messiest space in our house. Sharing our bed and our small bedroom space with the twins is just a riot! If we have a bigger space (and budget), these are my bedroom pegs:

Although, seriously, can any real life bedroom really look this perfect??

Organized closet space

At first I thought “ohhhh I want this!”

And almost within an instant, I remembered that I’m not sharing an apartment with a woman, soooo I thought this clean, neutral walk-in closet will do:

We don’t have a lot of closet space in our apartment now, which is why it’s hard to maintain a bedroom without clothes and towels lying around. Maybe someday. In our future home. :)

Me-time space

Ahhh, I need huge windows, some house plants, and a cozy window seat like this in my life:

Or a small room that we can convert to a movie room or a mini-library!

Aside from white, the only other wall paint I could imagine living in is a nice shade of blue, like this, which looks a lot like our wedding colors, don’t you think? I can’t deny, I’ve been pretty consistent with this. Blue has always been OUR color.

Ikea’s Content Marketing Strategy

A few months ago I blogged about why Ikea’s Content Marketing is working wonders for them. (Read the article HERE.) As far as Content Marketing is concerned, Ikea is one of the few major brands who get it.

You can just imagine the amount of work they put in building their content (and those catalogs!), and they’re doing it so amazingly well that it’s not just about selling furniture anymore. It’s become more of engaging a community and inspiring individuals to live happy, inspired and meaningful lives.

To launch the Ikea Catalog 2015, they created this video that is currently being shared around the web since it was released 3 days ago. Have you seen it?

You just can’t help but smile watching that one, no? The video promoted the Ikea brand without hard-selling the actual products, and that is how any content strategy should be. I thought spoofing Apple to promote their catalog was very entertaining to watch. Coining a new word “BookBook” was just plain brilliant.

But what did you get from watching that video, really? Did it make you want to run to the nearest Ikea store to get a copy of the catalog or to buy Ikea products? Maybe yes. Maybe not. Mostly, what the video did was to make us think about the proverbial analog vs digital debate, and why holding a book still feels more rewarding at times.

While many other brands have chosen to go paper-less, Ikea has been consistently firm in producing printed material such as their annual catalogs. And yet, they’re so in the digital game too, effectively producing the same material in digital format that people just love to consume and share. Free inspiration is always welcome, and Ikea has been successfully inspiring us (for free!) through years. Well, why not.

Hands down, Ikea. Your passion just blows my mind.

3 Things I Learned About Moving and Changing Addresses

December 6, 2014December 23, 2021 Rhiza5 Comments

Those smiles.. they keep us moving. ;)

So I did the math, and it turns out I’ve never stayed in one house longer than 18 months, and have lived in 10 different addresses in the past 8 years. Eleven, if you count this next move. Apparently, getting married and having kids didn’t really make me “settle down”, and that “last stop” was not really the last.

You’d think I have mastered the art of moving houses at this point, but somehow, each move is still every bit as hard and as stressful as the first one. I mean, come on, I used to just pack my own stuff, and now.. I have to pack for 4 people. And while I’m starting to get a bit tired about packing and unpacking and changing addresses, I find that moving has taught me valuable lessons I wouldn’t have learned otherwise. Here are just some of them:

1. You learn to not hold on to material things too much.

Renting out apartments is like backpacking, only with bigger bags and boxes. Knowing that apartments are temporary, we’ve learned to periodically purge stuff we don’t need, to live simply, and to not hoard too many things that we can’t eventually bring with us when it’s time to move again.

2. You learn to trust and follow God’s lead.

The truth is, each move that I’ve made throughout the past years of apartment-hopping has been accompanied by answered prayers, and provisions, and perfect timing. It’s easy to complain about moving and to be too comfortable once settled in one place, but we’ve learned enough to be ready to pack up and go when God says it’s time to go.

3. You learn the difference between “house” and “home”.

“Houses” are confined to a place, but “home” is that which you bring with you wherever you go, whether it’s in the next street or the next city or the next continent. I’ve struggled about moving my whole life, I still do. Moving is scary, packing is stressful, and adjusting to a new place can be overwhelming. But I’ve learned to find comfort in the thought that as long as I have my little family with me, home is wherever we go.

This is it you guys. See you when the chaos is over.

Home Inspiration: Online Retail Therapy

November 21, 2014May 13, 2019 RhizaLeave a comment

I love that the Philippines is catching up a little in the online retail market and starting to see local brands set up shop online. I remember a couple of years back, how frustrated I was browsing through the Ikea website, knowing that it’s not reasonable to purchase items because the shipping costs are ginormous. One night when I couldn’t sleep and was feeling a bit sad, I swiped my card to buy an Ikea furniture (this red Ikea rexbo ladder, which is now phased out) and had it shipped from China. Naturally, I felt remorse the following morning when I realized what I had done. The shipping cost was more than the price of the furniture, ack.

That was then, and this is now. Years later, I am no longer a reckless, impulsive online shopper who didn’t think too much about how she spent her money. No credit to my own self-control really, none of this was my doing. I think it’s more of a natural (and divine!) coming of age. Because of my new role and my new life as a wife and mother, I am forced—and I use that word in a good way—to try to be responsible and think many times over before purchasing anything at all.

Good thing is, a lot has changed in the (local) online retail scene too and now, we can canvass home interior effects online from brands like Heima and, my most recent favorite, Mandaue Foam. I love how I can check out their items without leaving my desk and put into consideration the prices at the same time. Tonight I allowed myself to indulge in a little “cyber window shopping” and bookmarked some items to put in my “consider” list.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

On a totally related note, we’re moving to a new apartment soon, and we’re currently in the process of purging, re-assessing what we want to take with us to the new place and what we have to let go of. The twins are 2 years old now and our family dynamics are changing. Remember when I was nesting and getting our house ready for their arrival? I’m kind of in the same phase right now, except I would love our home to be more for all of us than just for the twins. For the past two years it did feel like the entire house was their nursery, if you know what I’m saying.

Which explains my more “matured” preferences in the board above. I picked basic items that are neutral in color so that I can just easily change accent colors any time we feel like it. Like maybe these:

I think I also prefer earth tones now more than those bright colored hues I used to pin lots of.

Don’t you just love adding up little details—pillow cases with pretty patterns, or some colored pots, or maybe a new set of curtains—to change the look and feel of your space? An inexpensive “tweak” too, I must say.

Items on the board are all from Mandaue Foam: black retro chair / black desk clock / blue throw / succulent / black chevron pillows / table lamp / book case / love figurine / bird of paradise / red chevron throw pillows / yellow geometric patterned trow pillows / brown and yellow ikat pillows / teal geometric patterned pilllows / orange cylinder pot / yellow pot

Design Process: It All Begins with Inspiration

November 17, 2014December 29, 2019 RhizaLeave a comment

pillow / outfit / mug / interiors / earrings / workspace / heart

Creating an inspiration board is a crucial first step in designing anything. As the client, it’s the part of the process where you scour the web for pegs and inspiration that will set the course for the entire project. As the designer, this is the part where we put together what the client has gathered, along with some additional ideas of our own, into a cohesive “look” that will serve as a guide in designing your brand.

While creating the inspiration board is probably the most enjoyable part of the process, it can also be the most overwhelming. Pinterest, alone, is brimming with ideas and beautiful imagery, and if you’re not careful, you’ll end up having an inspiration board that is just.. all over the place. You might end up wanting too many colors or too many fonts, or too many ideas. As a designer, I help my clients refine their choices.

The result is something like the one above. As you would have noticed, it’s the inspiration board I created for Chasing Dreams. ;)

After finalizing the inspiration board and creating the logo design, I then create a final brand board that serves as guide in designing the website and marketing assets like business cards, media kits, brochures, etc. Continue reading “Design Process: It All Begins with Inspiration” →

44/52: Little Women

November 16, 2014July 21, 2020 RhizaLeave a comment

Photographs of our twin daughters, once a week, every week, this 2014.

They turned two and suddenly they look like little people, as opposed to looking like babies. Sometimes I find myself intentionally calling them “baby”, enjoying the sound of the word while I can, still unable to grasp my head around how fast babies grow (and why they have to grow huhu).

Last Sunday they were wearing these pretty little shift dresses from their Lola Mama. I made them wear these gold Mary Janes we got from Landmark, and pulled their hair up with these floral hairpins I got from Forever21. Forever21, you guys. You know, that fashion brand for grownups? I stared at them in disbelief—even though it was totally me who picked what they were wearing—and wondered, why are my girls wearing shift dresses, and gold shoes, and hair accessories for grownups, and looking like little women?!

And then they started laughing hysterically, and singing Incy Wincy Spider, and dancing with their arms in the air, and shouting oh yeahs and hoorays, and running around like the whole garage was their world. Aww, my babies!

There there, little ones, your Mommy’s just a bit excited to dress you up but no need to grow up too fast. Let’s enjoy these years.

More about Project 52 here. View all posts in this blog series here.