Little Man's Mustache Bash

I totally understand why parents spend loads of money on a big first birthday party--your kid only reaches this milestone once. But I guess I'm just...cheap practical? I figured A's not going to remember the party anyway, so I just wanted a small family-only thing at home. (On a side note, there's a funny piece called "Down with Big Birthday" about how ridiculous the "Birthday-Industrial Complex" has gotten.) 

I decided on a little man/mustache theme because 1) A really did seem like a little man, and 2) he has three mustache sandos that he regularly wears, so it's kind of his thing. Pretty much everything in this party (if you could call it that) was DIY. Because the holidays weren't hectic enough.@_@ Some photos (some were taken by my SIL): 

My Photoshop/InDesign skills were tested when I made the invitations (our assistant art director Theo made the background). I know everyone does Facebook invites nowadays, but I printed them out anyway. 

I made bunting to hang all around...

...and mixed some with Japanese lanterns that I bought from Divisoria a couple of months before. They're still hanging in our garage (thanks for helping, Ninong Rene!)--A seemed to like them so I decided to keep them.

I hung a big sign at the gate so guests would know where the party was at.

As much as I wanted to cook, I just didn't have room for that kind of stress in my life. On the menu: chicken lollipop and spaghetti made by my mom's helper, and hickory smoked barbecue ribs (my favorite) as well as baked fish with potato gratinee (H's favorite) from Banapple. 

And it might seem silly considering it was such a small event, but I printed out signs for those too...

We had some really yummy red velvet cupcakes baked by GH food editor Roselle. (She baked A's baptismal cupcakes too!)

Some extras: I made A a birthday board with some fun facts. By hand. And considering I have terrible handwriting and have no calligraphy skills, this was a true labor of love! I used chalk on illustration board--I think I'm going to go over it a second time with chalk marker. It's a little souvenir that I'd like to keep in A's room. 

With the board, I put some disposable cameras (courtesy of H's sis) and a bunch of different mustaches, so people could snap away. Our nephews and nieces had a lot of fun with those--but they had to ask us how to work the cameras!

With my BFF (A's ninang)--because she's family

We didn't really have anything planned in terms of entertainment, except for an old-school game with a twist: Pin the 'stache on A!

For the cake, I didn't wanna spend a bundle on something fancy, so I just got a big version of the mini devil's food cake (from Chocolate Kiss) we had for his first-month birthday and decorated it with mini-bunting. (I LOVE this cake. I think I had three slices that day. We ordered two so guess where most of my holiday weight came from?)

For A's outfit, I wanted something that would go with the color scheme and theme. His red button-down shirt had a tiny mustache detail, and he wore it with comfy blue pants. I wore a stache necklace.

In the realm of first birthdays, little man's was small and simple and super casual. But hey, he seemed to enjoy it!

P.S. Need help styling an event? Email me at heretishietishie@gmail.com. :)

A Sneak Peek into Our Home

Our house was used as a backdrop for GH's main fashion story for June (yup, June! For us, in the magazine world, summer is over!). Since everyone will probably be staring at the gorgeous model when the issue comes out, allow me to give you glimpses of it sans pretty girl.

Our sofa normally stands in the middle of the first floor, defining the edge of the living area and effectively separating it from our dining area. But for the shoot, we pushed it against the wall under the stairs, because I wanted to give the beautiful antique mirror from my family home its 15 minutes of fame.

I once thought of spray-painting this mirror, but my husband convinced me not to. He likes the aged feel of it, and it looks like it's got more character. I'm glad he talked me out of another DIY project.

At the top of the stairs is that wall I painted with stripes. We have since added a set of frames, hung by my husband. Photos: the two of us in Indian attire at my BFF's wedding; at our wedding; in Ilocos; during one of my first tournaments; in Bohol; and in Bali, bungee jumping!

That chandelier still makes me smile. And I still stop and look at the pics sometimes.

We shot one layout in the dressing room. It's actually meant to be a small bedroom, but since there's just two of us in a three-bedroom place, and not enough closet space in the master bedroom, I kind of commandeered the room.

My sister-in-law got me that print from Etsy. It's by this talented artist.

That mirror is something I got from a department store. It had a wood laminate frame, but one weekend I decided to get busy...

That, my friends, is what happens when your husband goes surfing for a couple of days and you decide to stay home to keep your freckles from being coaxed out by the sun! I so wanted to do a how-to post, but since I can't find my Blackberry cable, I can't download the photos from my BB.:( It's just pretty gift wrapper cut into little segments and stuck onto the frame using a mixture of glue and water. (Tips: Use a paintbrush to evenly apply the glue on the wrapper. Get dried-up glue off of glass using nail polish remover.)

I've seriously been thinking about buying an industrial-style shelf from Handyman.I spotted one at Preview creative director Vince Uy's cube and I wanted one for myself! This shoot gave me a chance to give it a test run. (Hullo, pullout!)

The white urn was supposed to be on that stack of books on the bottom shelf, but the photog wanted something to break the line of the top of the shelf, so...

Verdict: I am definitely buying! It's perfect for our guest room/study (we might need a longer one, though, to accommodate the books we have here). Handyman has it in other colors; I'm most likely getting it in white. Oh, that gold chair from Dimensione (love) is normally in the living room. What we have in the guest room is an antique-y-looking carved chair with upholstery that has seen better days. I intend to have it refurbished just as soon as my designer friend's sched allows. (I've already got the fabric for it! Will post a before and after once it's done!)

And finally, the master bedroom.

That normally isn't what my side table looks like. On a non-shoot day, I have a small lamp from Ikea (this lovely lamp was given to me by Regalong Pambahay and will find a place in the guest room), a stack of books, eye cream, phones, etc.

In true OC can't-sleep-in-an-unmade-bed fashion, this bed was perfectly made up for the shoot, but photog Sara Black wanted a more casual, rumpled look. I do think it's quite lovely! Makeup artist Omar (who did my makeup on my wedding day!) joked that I put a lot of effort into painting the headboard--but unlike the striped wall in the hallway, this was done by the pros!

So that concludes the grand tour! Just a few more touches here and there--a ginormous plant in the living area (still iffy about this since tiny Spike the Cactus is dying in my care :s), frames in the dressing room, stuff to make an interesting coffee tabletop tableau... Getting closer to the day when our house could appear in Real Living and be a star on its own!

Painting Tips, Among Other Things

Ever heard of that song that never ends? The one that goes on and on, my friend? "Some people started singing it not knowing what it was, and they continued singing it forever just because..."

Well, that's kind of how my week felt. Between my bag getting stolen, preparing for my trips (at least for the NY 2010 Part Deux one...one thing, er, place at a time!), setting up another baby shower, and shoots practically every day this week (til Saturday!), things were pretty chaotic. On a related note, how I wish I could tell you about yesterday's shoot! I got to meet someone pretty special. But will blog about that when our December ish comes out so stay tuned!

So yeah, it took a while for me to finally get to this post: Tips for painting! Just a few things I picked up when I painted stripes on our wall a couple of weeks ago:

1. Have newspapers on hand. Lots of them. Thing is, my husband and I don't subscribe to newspapers, so we had zero paper scraps at home. All I had were copies of my former magazine (my personal collection--and I wasn't about to tear those up!), other magazines I've written for/appeared in, and a few back issues that my friends had asked for. So I ended up using a beach mat to cover the floor.

2. Get ready to sweat! If you live in a tropical country like I do, it's going to get pretty uncomfortable. I perspired as much as I usually do when I do Level 2 of the 30 Day Shred--and I had two fans pointed in my direction!

3. Don't look down. If you're afraid of heights, it might be pretty daunting being high up on a ladder--especially if it's positioned right beside a flight of stairs like mine was! Thankfully, I don't have major issues when it comes to heights. Cockroaches, on the other hand...

4. Clean the entire surface--including nooks and crannies--before painting. I neglected to dust the top part of our door frame. The roller ended up collecting dust and leaving grayish streaks on some stripes. Barely noticeable but annoying nonetheless.

5. BE CAREFUL. Put your open can of paint in an out-of-the-way place, even if this means that you'll be hassled walking back and forth to refill your tray. This way, you don't accidentally knock it over as you're moving the ladder. Sigh. That ruined a perfectly good beach mat. And our wooden floor was covered with a thick glob of paint.:(

6. Be prepared for emergencies. (See #5 for an example.) I was frozen for about five minutes, helplessly watching the paint spread. My husband suggested that I scoop as much of it as I could back into the paint can. All I had were two pieces of cardboard. And then, I had to go back to the hardware store to buy thinner, since I didn't have any on hand. A waste of time. Unless you do your painting job perfectly, you're probably going to need thinner anyway, so buy a small bottle when you shop for your paint and paint materials.

It took me all of one hour to scrub and scrape the biggest concentration of paint off the floor. When I was done, Hamil got home and brought out a mop that I didn't know we had, poured paint thinner on the remaining paint-covered spots, and mopped it up in ten minutes! Plus he didn't have the swollen and cracked-dry fingertips I had from the prolonged exposure to thinner. Sigh.

7. Hire someone to do it. Seriously. If you could afford to, just get a pro to do the painting for you. I'm glad I did it, but I will probably never do it again!

If you have questions about the kind of paint to use, etc., just leave a comment, or email me at heretishietishie@gmail.com.

In other news, Here Tishie Tishie has just reached 50 followers! I think I'll host a giveaway to mark this mini milestone. Keep checking back for deets.:)