Day 1 (12/23/2010) of our Ilocos Adventure

We left the house at around 3 in the morning. I didn't have any sleep that time because I was busy buying things for our vacation. It took me hours to pack my things that's why I just decided to sleep in the car. I am very meticulous when it comes to preparing my things for a vacation. I should bring all the necessary things needed for the trip. So I ended up bringing a lot of things. I am the type of person who is always ready. I am a girl scout indeed. Hehe...

Before going straight to Ilocos, we stopped at Manaoag first to thank the Our Lady of Manaoag for all of the blessings that we've been receiving. My sister and I are both devotee of Manaoag so every year, we always try our best to visit Her.

 

Ilocos here we come! I felt the excitement the moment I saw this bridge because I knew we were very near to our destination which is Vigan.  

 

Finally, we arrived at Vigan. We ate lunch there with Ilocos' famous bagnet. It was sinfully yummy. LOL... We walked around the Brick Road to take pictures and look for some souvenirs. This was actually my second time to visit Vigan. After that, we headed to Pagudpud to find a place to stay in for at least 3 days.

When we arrived at Pagudpud it was raining. It took us long hours to find a place. Luckily, we found Hannah's Beach Resort. According to them they were already fully booked but they allowed us to stay until the next day at 12 noon. The room we got was already reserved. We ate our dinner there at around 8 in the evening. We were so tired from the travel so we slept very early.

Spending Christmas Away from Home

     This is my first time to celebrate Christmas in Ilocos with the family. We had a very simple celebration but it was fun. I love swimming on the beach and observing the beautiful sceneries in Pagudpud. The beaches are very clean and now I saw what they call the Boracay of the North. We stayed in Ilocos for 3 days and I think it's still not enough for us. How I wished we stayed there longer. 

     We ate fresh fish that we just bought from the fishermen in Saud. We just grilled the fish and it was really delicious! This is my first time to eat a very fresh fish. Eating fresh fish has never been this good for me. 

    We were able to visit other places in Ilocos aside from Pagudpud like the Windmills in Bangui, Cape Bojeador and Kapurpurawan. 

    The vacation was really worth it eventhough it took us more or less 10 hours travelling. We only used a Toyota Avanza and there were 8 passengers (6 adults, 2 children). If you could only imagine how we looked inside that car. We were like sardines. LOL... Well, we planned on renting a car but the owner charged us for P4,000/day ($94/day) and the gasoline is not yet included. That's very pricey!

     It was really sulit. I hope I could come back to Ilocos again. 

Namamasko Po!

My sister invited me to attend her husband's Christmas Party in the office last December 21. Though I'm not that familiar with most of the people there, I still enjoyed their party. I enjoyed the food, their parlor games for the kids and employees and of course meeting new people. Afterwards, we went to Mall of Asia to watch Narnia and enjoy the night there.

Pink Cones for our Christmas Tree

 

Remember the acorns I picked from the beach before? I thought it would be good to turn them as decorations for our Christmas tree. And I loved how it turned out. I painted the acorns with pink since this is my favorite color and I thought it would be good to put a contrasting color for our Christmas tree.

The cones are too small for our Christmas tree so I just glued three acorns in a set. I just used a  pink poster paint and a small brush so I can brush the tiny holes and corners of the cones. I also used a pink glitter glue so it will give the pink cones a sparkling effect. I just used paper clips because it's easier to attach compared to a thread.

From brown to pink!

I just inserted the paper clips on the center of the three cones I've glued. This is very easy to hang on the Christmas tree that's why I preferred the paper clips more than the thread. Another reason is that it's harder to tie the thread on the cones and it would take a lot of time compared to the paper clips.

 

Tadaaaan! Here's the final output of my pink cones project. I hope you liked it as much as i did. =)

Christmas Shopping at Divisoria

I've been very busy last week because almost everyday me and my sister go out to do some errands. It was really a great treat for ourselves to go shopping to Divisoria last Saturday. It's like a treat for ourselves after being so tired the whole week. These are the things I bough from Divisoria:I didn't include on this picture the stuffs I bought for our house.

I bought a leash for our dogs. I found a black collar for Azimo but
unfortunately, I wasn't able to find a red collar for Butchie.

This shorts is actually a buy 1 take 1 but we bought 3 pcs.
since we'll be using this for our out of town.
1 for me, 1 for my sister and 1 for our sister in law.
We might be spending our Christmas at Pangasinan.
A pair of yellow flipflops that I'm also going to use for our swimming vacation.
Found these two blouses at a very cheap price.

Shoe organizer. This would be very useful for my shoes inside my room since
I don't have much space on my old shoe organizer anymore.

We also bought some stuff for our house like hangers, stuff for the bathroom, rugs, mugs as a giveaway, etc. We were all very tired that day and Divisoria was very crowded since most people are doing their shopping for Christmas. I still wanted to buy more but I guess I'll just come back after Christmas season.

Shopping for Christmas

My sister and I just went shopping. When it comes to jewelries, my sister is really addicted and I get speechless about it. Honestly, I think I'm also getting addicted to it. I'm very thankful that I didn't buy one 'coz I'm really on a tight budget. But my sister did buy one 'coz there were jewelries that were on sale so she grabbed that chance since it's Christmas season and she told me that it would be her gift to herself. The sales lady told us that the price of gold is getting higher nowadays in our country so it's really a good investment to buy jewelries because in the future, it will cost higher than its present price. But what about those people who are not fond of buying or collecting jewelries? I suggest that you just buy gold coins instead of jewelries. They have the same advantages. Gold coins could also be used as an investment and you could use them in the future just in case you will be needing money or anything. While they're cheap, try to get them so in the future, you'll benefit from your gold coins.

Akihiro Sato: Wins The First Survivor Philippines Celebrity Edition

I really wanted Aki to win the title and my prayer was answered. I'm so happy for him. He deserves it. I was very nervous while Richard Guttierez was reading the votes. It was really a tight competition and I know that everybody deserves to win. Congratulations to you Akihiro Sato!

Photo Credits: Kapuso Online

What's For Merienda?

I'm just wondering what's on the seller's mind on why he/she wrote the menu this way. Anyway, I miss these foods. I used to eat them during my college days. My course is very demanding when it comes to time that's why those foods on the list is perfect for students who are always on the go. By the way, I got the picture from Facebook. It brings back memories. How I wish I could go back to Morayta and eat street foods again.

Fuji Finepix JV 100

My sister gave me this brand new digital camera as her 'pasalubong' for me. She bought it from Dubai during her stop over. This is a good buy for those who are in a tight budget. It is very cheap. It only costs more or less $100. That is really worth the price. I'm going to use this camera for my blogging so in the next few days, you'll be able to see some sample shots. I really loved the camera. The features are great and I'm very satisfied with it. Too bad it wasn't pink. At least I was able to save my money because I'm about to buy my own digicam this Christmas season. =)

Here's the features of Fuji Finepix JV 100:

Style: Ultra Compact

Megapixels: 12

Zoom: 3x

LCD Screen: 2.7

MemoryCards: SD / SDHC

Resolution: 4:3 16:9 3:2

File Formats: JPEG

Focal Length Equivalent: 37 - 111mm

Shutter Speed: 8 - 1/2000 seconds

Aperture: F3.2 (Wide) 5.9 (Telephoto)

Sensitivity: ISO 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, (3200 at 3 megapixels)

White Balance Settings: Auto, Fine, Shade, Fluorescent light (Daylight), Fluorescent light (Warm White), Fluorescent light (Cool White), Incandescent light

ExposureCompensation: -2EV to +2EV (in 1/3EV steps)

Viewfinder: No

Flash Modes: Auto, Red-eye Reduction & Forced Flash, Suppressed Flash, Red-eye Reduction & Slow Synchro

Flash Range: 3.5m

Shooting Modes: Portrait, Baby, Smile, Landscape, Panorama, Sport, Night, Night (Tripod), Fireworks, Sunset, Snow, Beach, Party, Flower, Party, Flower, Text

Maximum Movie Resolution: 1280 x 720 pixels

Maximum Movie Frames Per Second: 30 fps

Maximum Movie Duration: Not Supplied

Macro Focus: 10cms

Metering: Unknown

ManualControls: None

Image Stabilisation: No

Lens Converters: No

Self Timer: 10 seconds or 2 seconds

Video Out (TV Playback): Yes

Computer Connection: Yes

Batteries:Lithium-ion Rechargeable

Dimensions: 93 x 55 x 20.6mm

Weight: 123g