Looking at some of my old design projects I found these, and thought, why didn’t I blog about these before? It’s been almost two years since Dawn & Rain’s presence have totally changed up our game, and the sight of these invitations made me all the more excited about their birthday soon! Continue reading “Throwback: Invites to Dawn & Rain’s Dedication”
I just finished a blog post about home office ideas for Make It Blissful (watch out for it!) but I’m not yet satisfied with my Pinterest therapy. I’m on a roll! Recently I talked about how the Ikea Catalog 2015 has made me restless about re-styling our apartment. But how much can you change things up when there’s not much space to move around in, or when you don’t really need any major furniture upgrade?
The answer, my friend, lies in the little things. ;)
Change up the curtains, re-arrange the shelf, or.. buy some statement pillows.
Pretty no?
In styling your home with statement throw pillows, this is what I’ve observed:
Voila, instant makeover. Amazing what difference a few pretty things can make!
Looks like someone’s making a trip to the department store later today. Who’s with me? Have a great Friday, y’all!
Add me up: PINTEREST | INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK ~ Let’s be friends!
This blog post has been waiting to happen since Monday night when I re-launched, but every time I try to finish it, I always end up fixing other things in the site (OC stuff). Anyway, here it goes, finally.
As June 19 was approaching, the date of domain renewal for Chasingdreams.net, I had to think really hard and consider how I want to take this site moving forward. I have to admit, the thought of trading this *ehem* cheesy-sounding domain name for a more serious, professional portfolio-sounding one crossed my mind countless of times. But, needless to say, I just couldn’t let “Chasing Dreams” go.
And it’s not only because I’ve invested the past 5 years of my life in this site, or that I’m too lazy to think of a better name. Mostly it’s because my life advocacy and desire has grown deeply embedded within the two words that make up this domain name, which means it didn’t make sense to change my online brand anymore.
Granted I registered this site at a time I was feeling lost and directionless, needing an online channel for my own selfish purposes. But God has a way of turning things around for His glory, which is exactly what happened to this site.
And so we came to this point. Five years. Hey, that’s the longest I’ve kept a domain name in my 13 years of blogging! The first two domain names I owned lasted for a total of 3+ years, not counting the free-hosted blogs. Five years is a lot of time in the blogging community and I want to do a little victory dance for having kept it this long. At five years, I thought it was the perfect time to do this overhaul of sorts.
If you’ve been reading/lurking on this blog for a while, you should be able to connect the dots. I’ve mentioned this “change” in this post when I decided that I needed to start fresh. When I talked about pursuing my passions at the start of the year, I knew that this is one of them. When I redesigned the blog in February, I also said as early as then that I was foreseeing major changes happening around here come mid-year.
My desire for this site is to be a channel that would inspire others to pursue their dreams and the calling that God has for them. (While also pursuing my dreams and the calling God has for me.) For a long time I imagined doing this through blog posts and photographs, and through a generous serving of my life story. I want to believe that we can all learn from each other, and we can use these God-given experiences to encourage and inspire other people for His glory.
But while I was doing that, this platform has extended my reach to female bloggers, creative entrepreneurs, and men and women who have specific dreams and visions for their own businesses and their own blogs. People who, just like me, have something to say/offer and dreams to chase.
And so I started helping people build their own online platforms, after office hours. I’ve began helping design their websites, blogs, and even special events. Most of my projects lately are collaborations with people who are aching to fill this same hole, who desire to help others find their niche, and their voice, online.
And oh. my. heart. It feels sooooo good. So good to exercise my passion in design, while also helping others, while also earning on the side. The monetary part is the cherry on top of the icing on the cake, but well, if I get to do something that doesn’t feel like work and it pays the bills too, why not right? :)
In the next few weeks I’m going to start posting my recent design work and building up my portfolio. I have many many many dreams for this space, and I hope you feel excited as I am. :)
To know more about my dreams for this site, and the road to getting here, feel free to read these related posts:
Wow, it’s June, and the first week of the second half of the year is about to come to an end. This morning I found myself in a momentary state of paralysis, wondering where on earth the days went, and making a mental checklist of all the tasks, chores, dreams, drafts and photographs that have somehow piled up all over me these past months. Will I ever tick those items off my list?
(My instagrams from the month of May. I guess I didn’t need to ask where the days went.)
It’s actually my first week back at work too, after taking an entire week off to breathe and to reboot. Ahh, let me talk about that later. For now, I want to talk about starting fresh. Continue reading “Halfway through the year, starting fresh”
Photographs of my daughters, once a week, every week, this 2014. Week 12.
12/52: We managed to get Dawn inside her floater, but Rain wouldn’t take her arms (and legs!) off her Daddy. Haha. We should try again next time.
It was their first time to swim, and they didn’t like it. We think it must be because they’ve gotten so used to taking a bath in warm water or hot shower, that it caught them off guard when we dipped them in a pool that had colder temperature. Which explains their unhappy faces.
Needless to say, there weren’t a lot of photographs taken because we took them out of the pool after about 15 minutes of cryfest. Still adorable, these two. And they sure loved wearing their swim suits!
Their Daddy currently has the top picture as his FB cover photo, and he captioned it with this:
17th month: First time swimming in an actual pool. Took the whole gang, your ninongs and ninangs, to calm you down because you’re not used to bathing in cold water. It was a funny and touching scene. This is just the first. I’m thinking that next time, we’ll be the ones who will have a hard time pulling you out of the water.
On a sidenote, D changes his cover photo on the 24th of each month. He captions each photograph with his love letter for the twins, and I love just how consistent he’s been doing this for the past 17 months! I should compile his love letters no? I think I will. So proud of this guy, for the man that he is, and now, for the Daddy that he’s become. <3
(Photo credit: Last 3 photos grabbed from one of their Ninong’s FB page.)
More about Project 52 here. View all posts in this blog series here.
Throwback! On the eve of our wedding, I was absolutely sure that I would look like the most haggard bride ever. I was sleepless for weeks, my eyebags were the size of a half-moon, and I was worried about too many things. But then our wedding day came, and I never felt more beautiful.
I’m sure it’s a combination of things that made me feel beautiful that day—the love that surrounded me, the relief that the day I waited for my whole life has finally come, the affirmation that God makes things beautiful in His time.
But of course a huge part of my *ehem* bridal beauty was because of my Ate Imy‘s mad make-up skillz.
Me? Vainly and shamelessly posting photos of myself like this? You know this rarely happens. In fact, Ate Imy insisted on including my picture in her portfolio of beautiful brides—the one that takes up the walls of her booth on bridal fairs—but I feel too shy (and undeserving!) to have my face up there.
I realized, however, that I owe it to her to take pride in the beauty that she managed to bring out in the mess that was me, on my wedding day. So this post is for her, for being the best sister ever, and the greatest make-up artist there is.
My advice for you is this: get a really good make-up artist for your wedding day. Someone who will make you look beautiful without making you look like someone else. You will feel haggard and stressed out on the days leading to your wedding, and there are make-up artists out there who will hide your beauty in layers of make-up, making you look different and not like yourself.
You don’t want to look at your wedding pictures later and wonder who on earth that girl is. You want to be beautiful, but most especially you want to be you. And may I recommend to you Imelyn Sanchez Makeup Artistry. Her style is elegant, and natural, and very classy. Trust me, she’s really good.
She will have a booth setup at SMX Convention Center for the annual Themes & Motifs Bridal Fair this March 8 and 9, 2014. Come visit, and avail of her generous discounts. And tell her you found her because of my blog—that will really make her smile. :)
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