Party With The Nifties

I have been wanting for months now to start blogging again.
But what do I blog about? I have nothing to say.
So today, I am trying to overcome this sill 'when you have nothing to say syndrome' just to get me going. Just to keep my finger busy...and I will keep hitting the keyboard with whatever nonsense excuse there is to talk about. Ha!

While no doubt the holiday season is keeping everyone in a rush...I on the other hand seem to slowly find my balance, and hopefully I get to have that full rest before Christmas! Last weekend was fun, I had a great time with the girls, and I promise I am going to blog about each of them! Yup, soon!

These are snapshots of the fun times we had...

 

 

 

Good food. Good wine. Great friends. Indeed, I am blessed.

Happy New Year!!!

I made it...it's now 2015!
Time flies when you are having fun...or too busy to have some fun. Hahaha
Either way...WOOT! Cheers for another 365 days. Another chance to do the things we've been wanting to do or undo the things we shouldn't have done. ;)
This year, I promise myself only one thing - to make ME my priority.

That's all. 

With that said, this is how I intend to start my year -

1. Come tomorrow I will start running again.
2. I will go back to to the gym and start boxing again.
3. In 3 weeks time I will be going on a week vacation. And there hopefully I get to finalize that book that I've been wanting to self-publish! Don't jump from your seat yet...it's nothing fancy. It's just a collection of ALL the haikus I have done for the past years. 

Overall, I hope y'all had a blast welcoming the new year.
Cheers for more fun to come...and success!
I wish you all the best for 2015!!!

Gong Xi Fa Cai 2012!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

恭禧發財

It's the first time for the past years that I will be celebrating Chinese New Year away from the IT Guy.
Schedules are quite difficult for us as I just had a long weekend with the Management Team. I'd say one of the best weekend I've spent. Our work session was a success!

2011 was a very challenging year yet full of promises. I hope 2012 will bring more returns.

To all of you who celebrates Chinese New Year, I wish you all good health, happiness and prosperity.

To IT Guy who sent me all the food I need to complete my evening...thank you very much!

Cheers!!!

Merry Christmas To All!

Today I got the best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other. While we miss Papa so much...we're still able to celebrate Christmas in honor of his memory.

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas!!!


May God continue to bless you all...

Wish You All Wealth and Success!

We just celebrated the Chinese New Year and we will have different related activities for the next 2 weeks. A tradition that the family gets to keep for the most part is the giving of red envelopes. I, personally is fond of giving red envelopes may it be new year or any special occasions such as birthdays. I'm sharing you one here. I wish you all success and prosperity for 2010! May this be your best ever!

Happy Wordless Wednesday everyone!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

This new year is all about BIG things happening, and this is quite true for Mariposa. As most of you know we always celebrate Chinese New Year, and I did share our moments for the past years now, remember 2008 and 2009? So the past days had me, the IT Guy and the entire family busy preparing for the big day. 

Last week I already did my advance visit to the Taoist Temple and we should go back there tomorrow. My decision to leave work earlier and stay at home first before starting the new job just made this new year the best so far. I'd say the best because for this particular one I'm able to spend more time at the kitchen and was able to plan everything out. Woot!

The house was more than ready for it as IT Guy did some of the decors...as you can see  here --

We also prepared some money in red envelopes for the traditional monetary gift. In Mandarin we call these red envelopes Hóng Bāo, and Lai See in Cantonese. We do this not only on new years by the way, but also on other special occasions such as birthdays and weddings.

Here we hanged some of in one of the small tree in the garden --

 

  

 

Here is a closer look!

We also prepared some food for dinner and of course the traditional new year delicacies --

 

I did my favorite beef caldereta. I made it a little more spicy than the usual to help welcome the year of the metal tiger. I also made sure there are enough veggies on it for health and longevity. The IT Guy did the spaghetti. As most of you know, noodles are for long life and the nephew love it! The rest are the usual, spring rolls, sweet and sour fish, lechon kawali and other desserts. One things unusual here as you may have noticed is the whole chicken, and it is really WHOLE, as you can see, it still have its feet  and head. Yes, we have this every new year too so symbolize completeness. Got this particular tradition years ago when I visited mainland China.

 

For the other usual delicacy, we have the traditional tikoy, macy, huatki, chibiko and of course, my favorite fortune cookies!

  

We also prepared some candies and chocolates!

 

And of course some dried sweet plum, jelly candies, dried pineapple and sweet potato candies! 

All those, and some other which I feel no need to be mentioned is more than enough to make the table so crowded! 

I also have to mention that IT Guy took care of the fireworks part (he always does anyway) and this year is just AMAZING! I did not take any video as I wanted to enjoy it and just really watch and enjoy. He told me he found a new supplier and we plan to have another firework display soon! Maybe on the nephew's birthday. 

So here are some snapshots of the celebration we had last night --

 

  

 

Once again, Gong Xi Fa Cai to all of you! That is how we greet in Mandarin, and while we say it differently in Cantonese, Gong Hey Fat Choy, just for everybody's info, they're both written the same. =)

 Congratulations and Be Prosperous!

Cooking Is An Art...

...but you eat it too!

This is beef caldereta à la Mariposa! I did tell you all how busy I was over the holidays, right? Well I was at the kitchen most of the time and this was one of my endeavor. I am so proud of this one as I can say this is my own creation. ;)

This is a simple recipe, quick and easy to prepare. If you want to try it, the recipe is posted at Mariposa's Kitchen.


Happy Wordless Wednesday everyone!

Happy New Year from Cebu, Philippines!

From Cebu, Philippines, we wish you all a happy 2010! May the new year bring you joy, love, good health and success. Cheers!

Sending you all Hugs and Kisses,

Mariposa's Christmas Decor

So glad to be back to Fun Monday before ending the year!

The lovely Gattina is hosting this week and her task for this week is --

Just take a picture of one Christmas ornament which you love the most, explain why, and if you don't have any explanations it's also OK. For those who haven't celebrated Christmas, just take a picture of something else you love as decoration.

This is quite easy to do and I have more than one. I remember doing a similar theme in my first year with Fun Monday, but of course I'm not posting that old photo. ;)

First off, here is my Christmas tree! This year I did not so many decors like I used to but I decided to bring the tree out the porch. This is a favorite decor as there was no Christmas without it. So here it is with its lights. I love them in evening...it feels nice listening to the lights sing those Christmas carols. 

Then under the tree is where my gifts are. (I know there are not decors but I love them and my Christmas tree is not complete without them!) I love wrapping gifts and moreso the fun of distributing them to friends and families. Here is my taking a short break with my wrapping of gifts adventure. Iwas not halfway then...but the IT Guy asked me to pose and so the obedient me did as he told me and you see there one harassed butterfly! LOL

 

 And my most favorite Christmas decor of all is the Nativity! And most especially this one as this was given by a friend 12 years ago. One of my most treasured decor. For 12 years I have kept it and I intend to keep it forever. By the way, here in my place we this Belen. We always display the Nativity in our living room every Christmas. It's not so big we can put it on top of a table, a low shelves, etc.

 

 So that's it. Let me go and visit the others now and see what they have. I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a wonderful 2010!

Hugs and Kisses,

The Little...

PhotoHunt: TWELVE

These are Sean's little twelve friends... Unfortunately the IT Guy can't make him join them in the line. LOL

Thanks to all who sent me eCards, eMails, and gifts. Also to those who gave me a ring, thanks so much! A bit late, but hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! I had a big one with family and friends.  And this afternoon, I had the chance to spend Christmas with the children at Cebu City Medical Center Pediatrics Ward and I promise to write a post about it tomorrow. :)

Please visit PhotoHunt's HQ to see others' TWELVE !

Photo Holiday Cards

I just did a post about sending holiday cards and well as the days pass, ideas keep coming in and it's just getting better and more exciting!

Remember I mentioned about the thrill of sending customized holiday cards to friends and families specially for the ones who are really far from us? Well...what could be cooler than sending them photo holiday cards!

I think sending some photos as holiday cards will just add to the thrill and excitement of getting something real...you get to touch it...feel it! Perfect!

So today I am going for sure to spend more time in my archives looking for photos with friends...families to have my photo holiday cards ready soon. What I'm doing is making a list of people whom I want to send these holiday cards and brainstorm what photo I want to send them. Once I have everything organized I can have them printed. Hopefully all would be sent out by last week of November to beat the holiday rush. Or it would be funny getting a thank you message from a friend for a Christmas card on a February with a P.S. of "happy valentine's". Ha!

Happy Independence Day Philippines!

* ~ ♥ ~ * ~ ♥ ~ *

celebrating our
one hundred eleventh year
of independence

* ~ ♥ ~ * ~ ♥ ~ *

It's a holiday here as we are celebrating our Independence Day. I will not talk on how we got our independence here but feel free to click on the link if you want to know more. All I know is we owe this day to the brave souls who laid their lives for our freedom. Every June 12 I have only one prayer, and it was best said by the character Elias in Jose Rizal's book El Filibusterismo --

“Nothing will remain of me. I die without seeing the dawn gleam over my native land…You who are destined to see it, salute it, do not forget those who have fallen during the night.”


God bless the Philippines and the Filipino people!


Please don't forget
to visit other
people's wonderful haiku
at A Mommy Story!



P.S. My Local Love Friday and Friday Fill-Ins entries are below this post. You may scroll down or click Cebu's Larsian to know more about Cebu.


Wish everyone a great weekend!

My Mom

...is a never ending song in my heart of comfort, happiness, and being. I may sometimes forget the words but I always remember the tune.
~Graycie Harmon

Today is all about Moms in the world! I just got up and greet my Mom...but left the gift for her last night! For this year no more flowers for her...I gave her a sweet peach blouse. ;)

All I am today is because of my parents...and my Mom is a very wise woman...loving...compassionate and has a good sense of humor. If there are good traits which I got her, it's her sense of humor of compassion. She also taught me forgiveness and patience. Ah, what can I say...I guess most of my good traits I got from her!

Yet, she also spoils me...because of her I don't get to do laundry...wash the dishes...clean my room, iron my clothes. So lucky me! LOL

But I've got a mean Mom too. Because of her meanness I never tried drugs...was never to jail...finished school on time...was doing great in school...and more importantly I missed messing up with up life!

Thank you Mom for all the things you've done for me...for us! We love you so much. You are one of our greatest treasure and we're so blessed to have you around!

And my Mom also is very good with natural remedies for almost anything. At some point in my life I thought she was my ultimate doctor! LOL

And since I just mentioned about humor...let me share with you some funny things that most of the Moms in the world taught us...LOL

Things My Mom Taught Me

My mother taught me
TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE

"If you're going to kill each other, do it outside - I just finished cleaning!"

My mother taught me
RELIGION

"You better pray that will come out of the carpet."

My mother taught me about
TIME TRAVEL

"If you don't straighten up, I'm going to knock you into the middle of next week!"

My mother taught me
LOGIC

"Because I said so, that's why."

My mother taught me
FORESIGHT

"Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you're in an accident."

My mother taught me
IRONY

"Keep laughing and I'll 'give' you something to cry about."

My mother taught me about the science of
OSMOSIS

"Shut your mouth and eat your supper!"

My mother taught me about
CONTORTIONISM

"Will you 'look' at the dirt on the back of your neck!"

My mother taught me about
STAMINA

"You'll sit there 'til all that spinach is finished."

My mother taught me about
WEATHER

"It looks as if a tornado swept through your room."

My mother taught me how to solve
PHYSICS PROBLEMS

"If I yelled because I saw a meteor coming toward you; would you listen then?"

My mother taught me about
HYPOCRISY

"If I've told you once, I've told you a million times - Don't Exaggerate!!!"

My mother taught me
THE CIRCLE OF LIFE

"I brought you into this world, and I can take you out."

My mother taught me about
BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION

"Stop acting like your father!"

My mother taught me about
ENVY

"There are millions of less fortunate children in this world who don't have wonderful parents like you do!"

Source: ThisFunsForYou


Happy Mother's Day to all Moms!

Gong Xi Fa Cai 2009!

The weekend got me very busy preparing for the new year...ummm, I mean Chinese New Year! ;)


My family always celebrate Chinese New Year...and this year is no different. It wen with a bang as always...though no photos for me to share...I can only do so much with just one arm working 100%...but anyway, it was just more or less like last year, so you can view photos here.


The fireworks this year I'd say was more awesome! LOL IT Guy did find a good supplier this time and got some new ones...a lot safer and more spectacular! ;)


2009 is year of the Ox...it's a hardworking animal so most people say it will be a tough year for most people and that we need to work hard. The Ox does not carry a good relationship with the Sheep, which happens to be my year...so I need to tame the Ox for this year I guess...yet, they say, despite that, it will be good for Sheep born on '79...ooopsss that's me! LOL


For me, 2009 is the aftermath of all the strategic thinking I did for 2008. This year will be the time for me to move from the greater picture to details. As the passing of 2008, which was the year of the rat, will be about clearing out Business MODELS and learning to take care of 'details'...as little things impact the bigger things and to be in the mercurial mode and water flow....as it prepares us for SOME SOLID NEW STEPS. Yep, solid new steps for me!


This year I'm going to finally take some STEPS, small ones but REAL ones in my LIFE and upon the changing the world around me! This year I will once again continue to build on that foundation I need...ha, wish me luck...and join me in my journey!

I offer you ALL Eight gold fish to wish you all

Prosperity,

Wealth,

Good Health,

Peace,

Luck,

Longevity,

Long Lasting Love...

and Happiness!

Xin Nain Kuai Le (Happy New Year!)...Gong Xi Fa Cai (May Prosperity Be With You)...and May the year bring you blessings of great fortune!

Some TMIs...

Before I start with my TMI...let me first send out my warmest THANK YOU to all you participated Fun Monday this week. I really had fun reading your entries...they were both entertaining...and inspiring!

Anyone who want to host Fun Monday next week, please let me know so I can make an announcement here...or I end up giving a more challenging theme next week! LOL

Seriously...just drop me a comment or a mail!


1. What is your favorite Thanksgiving food?

First, we don't really celebrate Thanksgiving in the Philippines the way US and Canada and maybe other countries do. Though there were attempts of declaring some dates as such, it did not happen at all. I guess this is due to the fact that as an archipelago we are clustered as regions and each regions/ provinces celebrate several feasts (both Christians and Muslims do have their own festivities) and they are in a form of thanksgiving. Also, I personally believe that the way we celebrate Christmas here is more or less like Thanksgiving...

Most of our festivities here (Muslim occasion an exception!) is not complete without the LECHON (roasted pig).




2. You can flip a switch that will wipe any band or musical artist out of existence. Which one will it be?

Okay, don't kill me, but maybe I will wipe out boy bands! LOL

3. You seem to be having an excellent day because you just came across a hundred-dollar bill on the sidewalk. Holy crap, a hundred bucks! How are you gonna spend it?

I will save it for my outreach program for children.

4. What is your favorite curse word?

Actually word and words...

I used to say...

F.U.C.K

and

F.u.c.k.i.n.g Unbelievable!

Though lately, it's been very rare...if it comes out from my mouth at all!
Mom keeps telling me what comes out from my mouth is what's in my heart, so I'm trying to stay away from it!

So...now, if I do curse...I say...

Freak...or Freaking...something!

Who am I kidding...at least, it's a different word!

5. Rufus appears out of nowhere with a time-traveling phone booth. You can go anytime in the PAST. What time are you traveling to and what are you going to do when you get there?

Wow, this is tough. Not really sure if there is that particular time I'd like to go to or return to.

Bonus (as in optional):You accidentally eat some radioactive vegetables. They were good, and what's even cooler is that they endow you with the super-power of your choice! What's it gonna be?


The ability to teleport!

Ha, imagine me visiting you every time I hit publish on your comment box! ;)

That would be cool huh?!


For more TMIs, please visit the HQ!

Happy Tuesday everyone...