“The darker the night, the brighter the stars, The deeper the grief, the closer is God!” - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The burnt sunset of Sienna.

Fly little bird. Fly!

This book taught me a lot about praying, contemplating, and living ala Jesuits style. 😊

If you are the kind of reader that allows their book to influence them, this one is tough. How Jorge Bergoglio (Pope Francis) defined Humility was way beyond my imagination. One of the toughest was (totally) surrendering your pride thru self-accusation. He also draws inspiration through the words of st. Doroteus of Gaza. It was good, but really challenging. #popefrancis #book

"Although the life of a person is in a land full of thorns and weeds, there is always a space in which the good seed can grow. You have to trust God." - Pope Francis

The beautiful Minor Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. First time to visit this yesterday after the concert.
I was lucky enough to witness a wedding, and I was able to pray to Mother Mary before they closed the door of the church.
I hope to see Her closer soon, and I look forward in attending the mass too.

Watercolor students for the day. I am glad that I gave this one a shot. I enjoyed and learned so much.
Thanks to Liz of Project Vanity for teaching us, and Tin Tin for inviting me to join.

My simple pleasures: random toys and figures. Hoarding more curiosities and tinkeries in the future.

Follow me on instagram.

274: “Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.” ― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment

New read! I just finished reading Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore

One of my projects! I love how I rendered the picture of Pope Francis. It's so cute. Look at the details by the way.
He even has a dove on top perched on his head. ❤

Every day planning is best done with brewed coffee and Cassava Cake.

My fascination and love for figurines seems to be growing

"Only by becoming poor ourselves, by stripping away our complacency, will we be able to identify with the least of our brothers and sisters." - Pope Francis

 

 

“It isn't what you have or who you are or where you are or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about it.” ― Dale Carnegie

251: 100 Days Of Happiness

Has anyone of you tried the 100 Days of Happiness Challenge? I have seen this #100DaysOfHappiness tag in my Facebook feed but never really paid attention to it because heck, I thought is it really necessary? Plus, I sort of doubt myself completing it just because I'm a bit forgetful. So yeah, when I saw the challenge, checked it out, and then I realized that nope, that's not going to happen to me. Yeah, so all is forgotten until I see my friend had been posting hers in Instagram every single day.

Her intention was of course not to spam but rather keep track of it. I was really curious about how she was progressing, so I thought to check her Instagram profile. There it was her progress in the challenge.

After checking it out, I realized that it make sense to do it. I think what really got me to join the challenge is because in the end of the day -- even how horrible my day was -- I would look back on what moment I really felt happy about.

So yeah, I would definitely recommend to do it. I recommend it because it's good for our soul.

Check out my progress on my Instagram!

Connect with me!
Have you also participated in the challenge? Share your story!

230: My life in Instagram: On Jars of Opportunity

First, horray, yeah? Finally I have updated. I had been wanting to update but due to endless raining last few weekends ago it reduced me to a state of lethargy. I had been - literally - wasting my weekends watching movies. But hey, my watching of movies didn't turn out to be just 'pointless'. I realized that I am into action films. So you see there's a self realization there. I'm getting to know myself better. hahaha. Okay, I'm just justifying my being lethargic for the past few weekends. *wink* *wink*. If you ask what I particularly enjoyed last weekend you might want to check out my getglue account { shamelessly plugging }. And yes, let's be friends. Shall we?

Since I am desperate to get this updated because I realized that I had gone MIA for a little while, I'll just post an entries based on my instagram photo-entries: 

1. September Reads { John Maxwell's How to Influence People, Entrepreneur } - One of my goals is to read as many personal development books/magazines. I make it a point that I spend some time reading these kinds of readings. Besides, they say that what we should only expose ourselves to things that we want to happen in our life. So yeah, anything that could add to make myself better. But please don't get me wrong, I still read fictions. In fact I'm currently reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (GoodReads). 
2. Nikka and I's post birthday Celebration - My good friend Nikka and I celebrated her post birthday by going to the Book Fair. You might wonder where's a picture of that event? Forget it. Who went there? We went there last Sept 15, 2013. It's basically the last day of the event. It's Sunday and it was raining hard. Bad choice of date to visit it. It was pandemonium. I was not able to buy anything save for Jane Eyre. Seriously, I envisioned book fair so differently. I was hoping for magic, not thrashed, sold-books-without-dignity type of setup. So yeah, it was poor. We both didn't enjoy it. 
3. Rachel-Effin-Weisz - She's my girl crush (along with Cate Blanchett, and Julianne Moore). I watched the Bourne Legacy (again) and Oz the Great and Powerful last weekend, and I cannot help but fall a little deeply in love with her. Man, her beauty is eternal. She's eternal. I hope she gets more movies coming up. I just checked her IMDB and the Oz was the last one written there. I hope she's not taking a long break just because she's already married to sir. Hot Guy James Bond, Daniel Craig. But I forgive her. lol. I LOVE YOU! <3 And if you're going to ask me if I stalked her during her shooting days here in Philippines, you know the answer to that. HAHAHA. 
4. My WorldVentures Mastercard - Mannnn, my WorldVentures mastercard finally arrived. It means more money and more travel. Whatelse? If you want to know more about WorldVentures watch here. 
5. T H A I L AN D | S O O N - And since I'm on WorldVentures the privilege to travel and learn is endless. Therefore, this December I got myself booked to go to Thailand. Actually, I got three trips coming Boracay ✈ Thailand ✈ Palawan. I'm not really a travel enthusiast but when I got to explore more about travelling when I joined WorldVentures, I realized that there's more to travelling than just burning cash (as others might look at it). There are a lot of reasons why you should travel but this video is suffice to summarize it all.  
6. Preserving the Old Roses - I got this roses somewhere in the house and I thought about preserving them by putting them on a small vial. I thought it was cute, so I placed and used it as an ornament on my working table. Some of the people who gets into my room takes a peek on it. They thought that I was preserving the rose because it was given by someone significant, little they did know that it was just 'some rose around the corner'. lol. 

It's amazing how in a small span of time a lot of things had happened and is continue to happen. Some people think that maybe I am just lucky, but you know, things happen because we make them happen. I mean, you simply cannot just wait for an opportunity to fall into your lap. We need to chase it - look for it. Just as how writing is. We do not wait for an inspiration to struck us, we just write.

So you know in opportunity to become a better version of ourselves, we have to start somewhere, anywhere. Learn how to speak French, learn how to dance, compliment someone. Anything that you think could make you a better person. Don't hesitate, don't be hopeless. Don't turn our back to an opportunity even how small it is, because we do not know what that opportunity will lead us to. Just believe that what we do in life (as long as it's good) it will get us somewhere good. Besides, we certainly do not want to live our life wondering 'what could have been', right?

To Good More Days to Come!

221: a Bag of Mixed Beans: Instagram, and a pint of vent

1. Paroxysm of Rage - This watercoloring I've painted borne out of frustration. I find watercoloring a good venting method to alleviate some of my pent up emotions. It's not so much but I'm quite happy of the outcome.
2. You should be here! - Man, I had this back when I was in Singapore attending the Millionaire Bootcamp, that's my ID lace. I miss the environment there, I miss the people, the energy, the mentors. Man, truly one of the best bootcamp ever.
3. A Mix of Curry - I had one of the best curry in Singapore. We ate in the local Indian restaurant, and as much as the smell nauseates me, I did enjoy it. I didn't have much rice, but substituted prata bread instead but I'm telling you even though I didn't have much rice I feel very heavy afterwards.
4.  Synergy - That's the people I spent time with. I was in the extreme left standing next to my wonderful sister. I miss these people.
5. Nananana #Ironman - Look at my cute-sy Ironman flashdrive. Very nerdy, isn't it?
6. My Decision - That yellow badge that I got in the Millionaire bootcamp is my decision. You might be wondering what decision it is, but this decision I took is the commitment that I made that I chose to be successful in the endeavor that I took. 

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For the past few days I had been a little bit of a mixed up. Mixed up because I finally found what I want to do in my life but sometimes, sometimes I cannot help but also second-guess myself. I know I've been rallying on being optimist, and fighting for what we want in life but sometimes reality just keeps on knocking on my head to be realistic.

But honestly, I've been rolling my eyes when I hear about being realistic because seriously as Will Smith shared that 'being realistic is the most commonly traveled road to mediocrity'. So you know, it makes me ill to think of not pursuing my goals because of my shortcomings or because of some lame excuses because I just can't. I can't just live my life not being able to carry out my goals, because I have to be realistic. ugh.

To tell you honestly, I'm not sure how I can work it out, but I really have faith. I have faith in my God, in Laws of Attraction, in the power of decision that I made ... so whatever, I swear, it will work out. ✌