I'm Moving!

Moving to a new blog that is! Hehe! I'm rebuilding my new blog and thinking of leaving this one? Or is it a good idea to maintain this for my scraps, and the other one for .. err, everything? Haha. I'm so loka-loka. I was thinking of putting everything in one blog, but is that a good idea? Sorry so fickle!! Maybe it's that time of the month. Hahaha.

Click here and bookmark this new one na lang ha! :-D

Loving Sydney

I love Sydney! The weather, the food, the people, the city itself is filled with so many interesting finds that you can't just get anywhere else. Even if the city is New Yorkish, you can still sense tranquility in the open spaces that are scattered around the city - all because of the parks. I so love them! What I'd give to have at least an hour a day to just relax and enjoy nature!

17 was our headcount, all from the Sales & Management team - a rather big group, but controllable nonetheless. We stayed at Sheraton at the Park Hotel on Elizabeth Street.

Glam, glam, glam. The hotel was a beauty. Even the location was prime! We were just a couple of hops away from the fanciest malls in the City - Queen Victoria, David Jones & Sydney Central. And you can even walk to Darling Harbour and the glorious Sydney Opera House from the hotel.

Here are some of my favorite photos from the trip!

I've uploaded more photos here if you'd like to see more.

Cherishing Every Moment

Grungy!!! I'm so excited to buy this kit. Gina Marie Huff does it again with such a fun kit filled with grunge goodies. You can check out the details here. You should try checking out her store as well (clicky on her namey) to see those nicey cutey kits and elements.

One thing I love about Gina and the stuff that she creates is that she has a knack of making coordinated kits such a wonder to work with. Her elements and papers work well together and they're so pleasant on the eyes.

Cherishing Every Moment by Gina Marie Huff

Now with all these kit buying, I sure hope I can pretty well scrap soon. Lol!

Back from Sydney

Hey! Our team got home last night from a gruelling 8-hr plane ride from Sydney, Australia. I really hate long flights! Oh but put me in business class and I think I'll get by just fine. Haha. So anyways, we had real fun being sort of Aussie's for a couple of days. The weather was so pleasant, bright & shiny, cool & windy! I have yet to post photos worth 3GB and process the ones I really likey like. I'll post some maybe tonight - if I don't fall asleep. Lol. Check back later.

Oh if I may digress. Please check out our metrophoto blog right here. You'll get a sneak peek of my bride-for-a-day shots.. I wasn't the one shooting though, I was the model. Lol! You'll need to figure that one out. Haha! Photos aren't even showing my face. Haha!

So much going on!

Voila! I am back. Diligently posting on this blog has become one big struggle these past weeks. My multiply gets more updated I guess. Although not as often as I'd like either.

So many things have gone by and in a couple of days, I'd be posting bit by bit on what's been happening with me and the stuff I've been in to :)

Meanwhile, let me just share with you three fave photos from our Contemporary Weddings by Metrophotography. This will be a regular series, so do watch out. If you'd like to book us, please do! Lol. No holding back. It will be a thrill to hear from you!

Hmmm.. is it just me or are the images pixelized? Oh no. Do check out more of these photos in our gallery at www.mymetrophoto.com :-)

Thanks for dropping by!

Group Hug!

I'm admittedly a photo addict. Although, I mostly love taking photos of other people except myself. Self-portrait isn't much of my thing hehe. But I sure would love to learn that. Another thing I'm quite fond of these days are group hugs. It's a term for a group photo I guess :) If I'm not mistaken, that started with PiPho, an online community for local photographers.

Ok, so group hug it is! I love my metro team to bits! So let me just share with you three group hugs we had from a coverage we did last September :-)

B&W Frenzy

I love how a photo becomes an instant, timeless-looking memory clip just by converting it to black and white. As an offshoot of our photo session with Peej's kids, here are some BW versions from our Metrophoto gallery. :) Thanks for looking :)

Lana Oasis Ruiz

Nice fancy name, don't you think? Meet the newest baby in the family, extended family that is! Here's my one-month old niece, Lana.


Isn't she just so adorable?! More of her photos in my gallery. :-)

Little Portraits from Heaven by Metrophoto

Shooting away last weekend for Little Portraits from Heaven, a division of Metrophotography. Sharing a sneak preview of some photos that I took. Do check out mymetrophoto.com in a few days to see the official snaps :)

Loving Penang

Got back from a turbulent flight from Singapore to Manila last Wednesday afternoon. Heck, I feel like I'm still in the airplane up until now. We actually went to Penang for the DELLocity Awards Plus and I was mommy to nine of our top guns in the sales force. DELL was quite luxurious to a certain extent last Q and our sales people got awards like iPod Videos, Nokia cellphones, Canon Ixus Cameras and watches from Tag Heuer, Omega and Rolex! That's a great pat on the back for making your number! (Ehem, what about me? lol).

We stayed at the newly built, G Hotel found along Gurney drive. Locals say that the area is one of the most expensive areas within Penang, probably similar to our Rockwell or the Fort. Anyways, here are some photos of G Hotel. Hey, nice! I've got photos too in my flickr site if you want to see more.

I love Penang. I don't exactly know why but it's actually a nice place to stay in. The weather's very similar to Manila and lifestyle is pretty laid back. The only part that I don't like that much is probably the food; most are REALLY spicy :-) I sure hope to come by and visit again in a couple of years.

Blogging to keep myself AWAKE

I'm so sleepy right now my eyes are literally half open as I type. These past few weeks have been quite a race. Busy with work, arrr! Shiver me timbers. Even my love Will Turner would give up on my schedule. Duh, connection? Sorry, in-flight movie hang-over.. Haha.

Anyways, I had my first wedding shoot last Sept. 13 with my Metrophoto team (oh i just love them!). The ceremony and reception was held at the Manila Hotel. We were so dead tired, but heck, we enjoyed every single minute of it! Zzz.... I can hear my mind saying *digiscrap*... I miss digiscrapping!!! Why can't I seem to find the time? Sigh. Oops, going back to Metrophoto weddings... Here are some of the photos I took last Sept. 13. :-)

The Wonders of Alaxan

The week's almost over and so is my beaten up palm. The lower part of my palm was stressed out and felt real uncomfy early this week. I figured, maybe it was too much photography for the past weeks, that my right hand became stressed out. Wow to think that I'm just fairly a newbie and working part time at this flick thing, I didn't actually expect that I'd wear out my hand by taking pictures! So as the title of this post says, Alaxan gel did wonders for me. I applied it every night before going to bed and voila, after about three days, it was back to normal :-).

Here's a photo of my little girl last week before I almost injured myself. Hehe! Have a great weekend everyone!

Updates updates!

Haven't been scrapping for the past few weeks and I totally have lost time to do put my LOs to life. Hmm! This blog is turning out to be a photography blog!

I joined Metrophoto's shoot for BE (Greenhills, Glorietta, and another branch.. oops, sorry slipped me) last Saturday. You can see some of my newbie shots here. Fast forward - after our shoot for some college students earlier today, we (Tania, Irma & myself) did some posing to complete a few studio layouts for BE. We're no models so pardon the poses. I have YET to post our personal BE shots but anyways, here's one that I like (and probly the only one at that hahaha). One thing I can say though is that, I need to lose weight!!! Seriously and fast. Lol!

I sorta subdued the colors in photoshop, thus making it look circa-like (or something hehe). Love the cheeky shades in this photo (thanks, Tania!). What do you think?

Nicholas & Zsarina

Birth pains. Learning curve. All brand new. I had my first prenup shoot last Saturday at the Manila Hotel with Metrophoto. Our beautiful clients, Nick & Zsai posed shyly as we took their pre-wedding photos. Here are unofficial cuts from my side of the viewfinder. Do watch out for the final shots from our company's website or you may check out our blog too.

10th Wedding Anniversary

Cutting it short, we had to cancel our Boracay getaway because of the typhoon. Hey, things actually turned out fine even if we had to resort to Tagaytay. We were walk-in guests at the Discovery Country Suites Tagaytay. We were fortunate enough to get a room and even more favored after finding out that the rates were off-peak. After viewing some of the hotel's beautiful suites, we decided to get the master suite of the house, the Oxford Suite. The rest is history. Hehe.

I actually couldn't start to describe the place. Except that it was a venue for pure sheer relaxation! Twas perfect for 2nd time honeymooners like us lol. Hubby and I just had fun being with each other, savoring the perfect chilly weather and being wacky almost half of the time, and the other half, I can't share with you. Haha :-)

Here are a couple of our favorite photos from our stay at the hotel.

One Vain Oscar

My hubby has had this oscar since last year and I've only come to appreciate it last week after taking its photos one lazy weekend morning. What can I say. This oscar is so vain that once it sees my camera, the thing just swirls, turns and even looks straight onto the lens then strikes a pose. Lol! Here are two of his best shots.. haha. You can check out more fishy photos here.

*frames by Sausan Designs

Metrophoto - Saturday Shoot

We had the opportunity to do a photoshoot for Ms. Faith Cuneta and a new teen model, Patty (sorry forgot her last name) last Saturday. We had it in our newly built studio :) Hey, hey, hey, Metrophoto is totally up and running! Oly, you're one great photographer! Idol! Lol :)

I'll post some photos of Faith and Patty when I get home. Meantime, lemme share with you this photo .. I really like it (even with my flaming nostrils hahaha).

Alley Bar & Grille

Who would have thought that AF points need to be defined and set correctly for the camera to focus where you want it to.. Hihihi. I had my first official food photoshoot this evening and I really don't know if I should be happy or what. Haha. Tawa na nga lang.

Here are some photos taken earlier at Alley Bar and Grille. Oh thank God Oly came (kahit late!!! hehe) and did the more important shots. Haayy, nite-nite!

Still Here!

Almost lost touch this week (my last post was last Friday!) woah. Not that it's a big deal lol. Anyways, I've been up and about this week, wondering why my schedule is full. Thank God there's still time to fit everything in.... (wife, mom, work, artist, ministry.. wow)

What kept me up in the wee hours of the morning: layout, layout, layout. Argh. I sometimes feel like I've gone to an obnoxious rust when it comes to layouts, spreads and all that. Did (rather finished) a 40-page album for Chax and also finalized everything for my friend Lala's wedding guestbook. I used to do a lot of these 5-6 years ago when we had our computer shop. But it came to a halt when I started working in the company I'm in now. So anyways, I sure sure sure hope the two projects I did turned out fine. Chax's album alone went to the mill four times for me to come up with the final one... and Lala's guestbook, I revised twice. What is up with me?! I'm off to the printer this weekend to have Lala's printed. Will post photos on that :)

Digressing......
Sched tonight: photoshoot at Alley Bar & Grille w/ guru Oly Ruiz
Saturday AM: photoshoot for my friend's property in Alabang (oh personal favor hehe not official)
Saturday PM: photoshoot for Faith Cuneta at our Metrophoto studio

Giving you love, guys! Have a great Friday and enjoy the weekend with your family. God bless!

Rache's Revelations

I've been tagged! Haha twas so funny I had to figure out what it meant. Where have I been? Lol. I've been tagged by Agring to create a short blog article and show a photo that isn't online yet. Agring, I followed you and just made a magazine cover hihihi. Sorry, birth pains. Lol.




















And here’s the instruction to this tag/meme:
1st step - Post a short blog article that includes a photograph (or a series of photos) showing the face behind your blog. If you already showed a photo somewhere on your site (such as in your about page), then make your post more interesting and choose a photo that’s not currently online.

2nd step - Include links to other people that have displayed a photo, or include their photos in your post, adding a reference.

3rd step - Tag as many others as you like in your post to spread the meme.

4th step - If you link back to me here and send an email I’ll be sure to include links back to you. Each person tagged should create their own post and repeat the process.

I'm tagging Nyree, Lorelei, Sassy , Tabs and Fran!

Sunset

I'd like to cap the work-day with a smile on my face, despite of going through such rattling activities at work (it being end of 2nd quarter for this brand that I am assigned with). It was a pretty tough week but grace was just fabulous, that I got by! :)

Now let me share with you this is a photo I took yesterday at around 6pm, just right outside our bedroom window. Aren't sunsets just the most beautiful? The asthma of my Tiffey has set down as well, praise God. Thanks to you guys who prayed :)

Have a blessed weekend everyone!

Little Rachey

scrapping early this morning after feeding my little girl tiffany who's currently sick with an inflammed throat and her asthma acting up last night. poor honey kept on coughing and was in tears as she reached out for me and asked me to pray. i wasn't able to get enough sleep as she would cough every so often and hubby and i watched out if we had to nebulize her. i am staying at home today to care for my girl and we will take her to the doctor in a while after she wakes up this morning. good thing that series of coughing died a bit and now she can catch up on sleep. i couldn't seem to get some zzz's myself, maybe because my body's telling me i should be awake during the day. i'll probably try to sleep after we pay a visit to the doctor. anways, sharing with you this new lo of me in my tiny years. :) credits here.

Boyish Layout

Tristan, originally uploaded by Rache's Scrapbook.

Did this LO last night before going to bed. I haven't actually done a LO for my little big boy, so, I took on the challenge and I'm happy at how it came out :)

Cubeville Makeover (Inspired by MrsB)

Moved by MrsB's digiscrap on her cube-fix at work, I decided to do the same favor for my neglected workspace. Here are some photos of how my cube make-over went this week.

*Before*

(a complete mess really lol!)

and...

*After*

Requested for a corkboard from our admin and posted two scraps and a portrait on one side, and some of my favorite photos from our euro trip last year. the cow hanging up there keeps me sane on a busy day (just press and it says mooo.. hehe cutie).. the tiny koala at the side is handy for clipping some docs when i can't find my binding clip.

On one corner of my workspace I posted three matte posters I got from Paris and a photo frame of me and my hubby plus the kids.

I still need to put some more effort though on the other side of my cube, which is just piled with folders and notebooks. lol. Will put that in the drawing board for now.

Lemme know what you think!

Beauties :-)

I got into such a mind buzz last night that I couldn't seem to catch some zzz's! I was thinking about this LO project that I've countlessly redone over the past four weeks.. I can't really understand why the creative side of my brain would have to be switched on from 11pm onwards. Ang laki na ng eyebags ko! Lol. So after doing five spreads for that project, I decided to scrap on this sweet-looking photo of me and my little girl, Tiffany. I'm kind of high on pink lately, so this will have a similar feel to my two previews LO's. :-) Have a great week everyone!





















Credits - Paper from Paisely & Ivy Paper Pack, Weeds & Wildflowers Design; Flowers from Being Me, Weeds & Wildflowers Design; Ribbon Bookplate by Shabby Princess; Pearls by Melany Violette; Stalk Brushes from deviantart.com; Scalloped Frame by RL; Photo by Oly Ruiz

Wedding at the Grand Terrace

Spent our Saturday afternoon at the wedding of my hubby's cousin where our boy Tristan participated in the entourage as ring bearer. I think the Grand Terrace is fairly new, with almost the same concept as that of Plaza Ibarra, Fernwood Gardens and Gazebo Royale. Anyways, it was a flicking photo spree for the family, us being such camwhores from the youngest to the oldest! My brother-in-law, Oly brought his two DSLR's for us to toy with, so, I sort of got to practice again before I lay my hands on my own DSLR. Just a thought - no wonder most photographers are men. These equipments, together with the lens and other accessories are darn heavy. And I mean heavy to the point that the muscles in my right arm would feel real strained right after a night's shoot. But it's a good kind of pain I tell ya. Especially if you want to pounce a chance to get awesome looking photos.

Here are some of the photos we took last Saturday ...

The Grand Terrace

Irma, Me, MIL, Nina and Tiff

My hubby Oli and my boy Tristan

Feeling pre-nupt pose.. haha.

Me and the kids in the bathroom.. lol!

Me and my girl Tiffany