One Little Word: DOWNSIZE

Happy New Year!!!

Just wanted to share that I'm doing the One Little Word project this year... I won't be joining Ali Edward's class but I'll be doing it on my own, instead. For those of you who is not familiar with the project, You can read all about it here.

So, here's my One Little Word for 2015...

DOWNSIZE is the word I'll be focusing on this year. The word chose me and I even tried to confirm it.

This year, I'll be focusing on downsizing by removing excess or unnecessary baggages in all aspects of my life. I feel physically, emotionally and mentally drained. My heart is heavy and so is my body, obviously. My mind is cluttered and so is the space around me.

Here are things I'll be working on this year (what I have thought of so far):

• Health: Will try my best to shed off some pounds for the obvious reason and also for the sake of my slipped disks.
• People: Will try to let goof people who give me heartaches and try not to push myself to those who obviously don't want me in their lives.
• Organization: Like what I've mentioned, both my mind and the space around me are cluttered. I'll try to organize my mind by removing unnecessary thoughts and feelings. Also, to help me focus and somehow clear my chaotic mind, I will be doing lots of decluttering and organizing, getting rid of things that I don't really need.
• Financial: I'm aiming to be debt free before the year ends and to have saved a little.

I'll be updating this post when I think of new ones to add. At the end of each month, I'll reflect how the word has touched me and will try to post it here. I will also think of a project that I can do to go with this.

How about you, what's your One Little Word?

10 Days of Heartaches

I joined DyosaImma and Fozzy's 10 Days of Heartaches calligraphy challenge on Instagram and I just want to share my works here, too.

I had a hard time with the very first one because it was a while since I last did calligraphy. One thing I learned from this challenge is that practice really does make perfect. Well, in my case, it's not perfect but I can see the improvements. So, I've decided to practice calligraphy frequently if not everyday. I should at least do the drills, right? Also, I've learned that calligraphy need not be expensive. See, mI don't want to buy expensive inks or paints unless I'm doing this professionally. I just buy Indian ink for black and watercolor and poster paint for colors, including metallic ones like gold and silver, and white.

Here are my works with their corresponding song titles and links to YT videos (so you can listen to them). Click photos to view full size.

Day 1: Because I Miss You by Jung Yong Hwa of CNBLUE

Day 2: Eyes, Nose, Lips cover by Tablo X Taeyang

Day 3: Porcelain by Julia Fordham

Day 4: Tonight I Can Write, a poem by Pablo Neruda read by Andy Garcia

Day 5: Everything You Want by Vertical Horizon

Day 6: Sa Kanya by Agot Isidro

Day 7: Illusion by CNBLUE

Day 8: Tell Me on a Sunday by Marti Webb

Day 9: Foolish Games by Jewel

Day 10: Only One Day by SS501

I hope you'll take the time to check out the songs... they're all really nice, even the non-English ones (Filipino, Korean and Japanese). You can also check out my work on Instagram (link in the sidebar) or search for the hashtag #10DaysofHeartaches to see all the participants' works.

For the Love of...

A couple of friends asked me to do some calligraphy for this windsurfing camp in Anilao that we frequent. I hesitated at first because I don't think that my calligraphy is good enough. But they talked me into it and now, I'm very excited to do the project... calligraphy and some paint decorating. Yay!

I Googled for some ideas and here's what I came up with first...

I had a hard time with the waves (took me several tries before I settled with this one), I don't know how to draw waves. Haha! Also, I thought this was not really appropriate for the camp. It's a windsurfing camp and the peeps there catch wind instead of waves (fine... they do sometimes haha). So, I looked for a more appropriate quote and found this one by Isak Dinesen...

I like this one better. What do you think? Now, the question is, will I be able to replicate this on a much much larger scale? I already bought some poster-sized papers for practice.

I really wish this project will push through and that I'll be able to do it. For the love of Anilao! Wish me luck!

The List Project: Ice Cream and Toys

Here are my lists for day 2 and day 3.

Day 2: Ice Cream Flavors That I Love. I love ice cream! I've tried a lot of flavors and loved almost all of them. But my favorite flavors are the uncomplicated ones on my list. Click the images to view full size.

The word sarang is a Korean word which means love and the title was inspired by the Korean song Lovin' Ice Cream. Go search it in YouTube, it's a really cute song with very nice lyrics, too.

Day 3:  Favorite Toys When I Was A Kid. Instead of a word list, I made a short list with images. Short because there were still a lot more but I just included some of the toys. The most fun part the Barbie dolls... they really brought back a lot of memories. The ones I included were the ones I remember playing with. Some were originally mine and some were hand-me downs from my sister and cousin.

How about you? What flavors of ice cream do you love and what are your favorite toys?