Growth Spurt

Where did our baby go? In a few weeks he will be in Kindergarten. Lots of mixed emotions over here. Keep me from sobbing.

He looks and acts different now - in a good way. Our little big boy is acting like he's 5. He's more verbal with his emotions and how he feels (a tender way of talking back at us). More decisive and highly inquisitive (aka very nosy). And refuses to have a haircut. He's going for the surfer dude look. 

He still loves his goldfish crackers though and he's rekindling his love for the Cars movie in preparation for a Disney California trip before school starts. Superheroes and villains take a back seat for now (thank god) as racecars and tow trucks are a new passion. 

christmas 2010

christmas 2010

fall 2010

summer 2011

christmas 2011 and spring 2012


Sweet Aston baby, please dont grow up so fast. Love, Mom and Dad.

Insta-Week

Are you in Instagram (i'm @swankychicfete)? I confess, my big camera has been in hiatus lately as I have been utilizing my iPhone documenting random daily life events aka OOTD pics, food porn pics and more (LOL). It's just more convenient, less complicated. Here's a peek of my past week.....

A few things that make me happy ~ monogrammed cupcake notecards and le pen. Magnum ice cream bars for cooling off. Fastfood Wendy's amazingly good salad. Essie's new metallic mirror nailpolishes. 

I just noticed what last week's outfit theme was ~ leopard spots! 

Have a great week ahead! 

Scenes from the Weekend

The wonderful weekend started with a casual dinner out with the family Friday night. It was a tad warm and I cant resist sporting my sandals and tunic. I can't believe we had a mild winter and I'm already wearing spring/summer clothes. I guess I should not be complaining and just enjoy it! 

I also started decorating our home for the easter holiday. I chanced upon some $0.99 glitter ornament eggs and started decorating with them. I also had confetti eggs on hand. Those went inside my apothecary jars. For more of my easter home decor, visit my other blog. 

Saturday morning, we started really early and had brunch at City Centre's, Cyclone Anaya's for some yummy  mexican breakfast fare. It was such a gorgeous day and we spent half the day there and we drove off to the Woodlands for more leisurely driving! 

My niece Ailynne celebrated a birthday this past Sunday and we were off to meet them at Coal Vine's for lunch. The ambiance was fantastic as well as the food. We had a grand time gathering with family and relatives! 

Finally, I ended the weekend with some crafting. I am planning to decorate easter basket/buckets for my friends' kids and here are my paraphernalia. More on that later. 

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! 

My Week in Instagram

I love my iphone Instagram app and have utilized it more than anything in my phone. Here are a few pictures i took when I got crazy taking shots of random things as they happen to come my way.

*********

Last Saturday was my niece's vintage-inspired bachelorette party. This was the pearl-clad chandelier in the kitchen!

Ever since I've committed to hair blow-outs twice a month at Blow Dry Bar, I significantly reduced my trip to the nail salon and try to do it myself. I've stocked up on pretty fall colors from Essie (Case Study and LadyLike) and Chanel (peridot - second picture below). They are lovely colors!

I love flipping through the pages of this book and dreaming of Paris and dress like a true Parisian :-)



Still in back-to-school preparation mode, I stopped by Hobby Lobby and snatched these plain colorful tshirts and a few iron-on letters (they are on sale this week!) and completed Aston's first week of school wardrobe!

With a little fiasco on the iron and the letter T, resulted to this monogram added on the side of his green shirt! Cool!

How was your week like? Enjoy the weekend, folks!

Legoland Water Park

First thing we did when we arrived in Legoland on our third day in San Diego was to get soaked and wet at the fairly new Water Park. 

Our friends Vinnie and Grace drove down from Pasadena with their family that Friday night. We have not seen them in so long and it was great for Aston to finally meet the boys and they had so much fun!

Aston and Roman bonding over a lego figure!

Cheetos! Power snack of the day!

More pics of the Legoland adventure coming up soon! 

Sea World San Diego Part 2

Sea World was our destination for our second day in San Diego. It was a fantastic visit to say the least. Here are some of the highlights. 

Hanging out with daddy and meeting a few wet pals along the way, shamu and the dolphins. 

We were amazed and entertained by the troop consisting of the Cirque de la Mer show. 

The bayside sky ride was slightly scary with cable cars wobbling a bit in the strong winds but it was still a gorgeous ride viewing the Mission Bay from the sky! 

Some farewell shots but with an uncooperative tired little boy! 

Photo Session with Daddy

Can you believe that my husband still owns a Canon AE-1 from the 70s? So it was a treat for him to get to finally play with the Rebel and our little guy played the ever willing model for a change. 

It was a fine day spring day and the photos came out nice. 

These are raw untouched images. I need to share with you a shot of his old camera. Its actually fascinating! 

Vintage family photos

I'd like to share a few precious photos from our family obviously taken many many years ago in the Philippines. I love the black/white and sepia shots of the images, not sure if the bluish and yellow tinge on the various pictures are due to the scanning or it really depicted the true aging of the photos and is reflected after the scans. No matter how it came about, they are priceless photos of our young family then.  

My father with my three older siblings. This was taken before I was born. 

Mom with Lilivi and Alvi. Must be my sister's birthday celebration. Looks like she's in charge of the cake. 

Yup, that's me taking a quick refreshing soda drink from Papang before heading back out to the water. Older sister Lilith is behind me. 

Visits to the park was a ritual family outing usually after school or the weekends. That's me and my little brother Vincent and mom at a local park. Not sure why he does not have a shirt on (and shoes). 

At home with the neighborhood kids. This must be a birthday party for me and Lilith. We both have January birthdates and usually share a birthday celebration.

My parents back in the day.

My first time as a flower girl and I don't think i walked the aisle.

My mom and eldest brother at the beach.

I must be about 3 years old here attending a holiday party with my older sister Lilith and our nanny. Unsure who the little boy is. Looks like he's got his treat and balloon early before we did. No wonder I was pouting. 

Happy Valentine's Day

Donuts and carnations for Valentine's day!

Sunday Snapshots

I love these pink mercury tiny vases i scored from the after Christmas Michaels sale. They are so dainty and their presence along with the flowers are just lovely, I think. Although I'm still trying to figure out how to incorporate them in a possible Valentine's day tablescape, I couldn't resist taking pictures of them. 

Sunday Snapshots

These photos were not taken by my Canon but were actually shots from my iPhone 3Gs. And yes, I'm longing for the 4 version but this phone has served me well and is still acting right so, I don't see the need to upgrade so far. 

I'm probably the last to post about this cool iPhone app from hipstamatic that delivers and develops vintage-looking photos with built-in changes of films, flash and lens right in your iPhone. I just love the retro-feel photos that come out no matter what the lighting is available to you at that moment. Best of all, it reminds us of those old cameras (polaroids) in the past and the films it used to develop. 

Happy Sunday~!