Go Gilas Pilipinas!

I really have no interest in sports like basketball. I think I only get a little bit excited when I'm cheering for DLSU vs. ATENEO during UAAP season haha! Well, I really had no idea what the FIBA Asia Championships were, aside from the fact that hubby kept watching basketball on TV everyday last week. Last Saturday, hubby invited me to come along for a dinner with his colleagues since all the wives were coming along too. :) Since it was apparently the semi-finals match between the Philippines and Korea, they decided to have the dinner in Overtime Sports Bar in BF so we could all watch the game.

It was my first time ever to watch a game in a bar and let me tell you, the atmosphere and level of excitement is really different! At home, I'm sure I wouldn't even have batted an eyelash at the TV, but watching it with a crowd really gets your heart pumping. The crowd was cheering and shouting and jumping everytime the Philippine team made a shot. And I found myself cheering and shouting and jumping along with them too! It was really a well-deserved victory for the team. Before, I wouldn't have been able to tell you a single name of a basketball player but now, I know their names and faces already haha! I love Jimmy Alapag and Marc Pingris! Oh, and that #14 player from Korea is so cute hahaha! All the girls were gushing over him haha! ;p

Well, I have to say that after watching that match, I am now a certified Team Gilas fan! Hubby was able to watch the championship match live against Iran and I watched at home (kulang un ticket e haha!). And although they failed to win the championship, it's still an honor because they get to go to Spain in 2014 and play with the best in the world. So again congrats to Team Gilas! Laban Pilipinas! :)

The finish line

And now I can breathe! Just found out a while ago that hubby already finished the Ironman triathlon race. According to him, his body was shutting down already on the bike (like I mentioned, he got sick just a few days ago) but I'm still so proud of him for finding the strength to cross that finish line. Thank you God! =)

Update:

Here's a pic of Vins during the bike portion of the race. Good thing it was sunny in Cebu on that day, unlike the rainy weather here in Manila.

Piolo Pascual was also there in Cebu (he was part of a relay team) and I kept telling Vins to have a picture taken with him (sorry, I really love Papa P)! Can you believe they were also together on the flight home, as in just a few seats away from each other, and still no pic?! Haaaay, men! Instead, he gets a photo with the women's champion Caroline Steffen.

Here's the welcome home banner me and the kids made to surprise Vins when he got home. He LOVED it! =)

The most important thing about finishing? Well, aside from your own personal satisfaction and accomplishment, why the medal of course! ;p Look at the gorgeous medal they gave out this year, designed by none other than Kenneth Cobonpue.

So again, congratulations to all the participants and finishers! Good job to all of you (especially to my hubby!). You all deserve to relax and unwind... and then train again for the next race. ;p

Good luck to all Ironman participants!

My hubby, Vins, is now in Cebu getting ready for the big triathlon race tomorrow. As you can imagine, I'm a nervous wreck. Actually I always get nervous whenever he races. I can't sleep and I wake up really early just itching to find out the results. Its just because I know how hard he trains and I just want him to do well.

I'll be praying extra hard since the weather has been really bad lately, and hopefully no accidents happen out there. I'm also extra stressed since Vins got a little sick too (he caught it from us when me and the kids got colds last week, so I feel really guilty!). Super bad trip since he's been in perfect shape all this time, and he gets sick 3 days before the event! So please, please pray for him too that he does well tomorrow.

Anyway, I'll probably won't be getting much sleep tonight until the race is done. Then I can breathe! I'll be following the live updates online so fingers and toes crossed! =)

DIY Styrofoam Letters (how to cut & paint styrofoam)

I was on a budget for Sabe's 1st birthday party, so I decided that we could do without the big themed styrofoam backdrop that you can rent for about P8,500. I know this is usually the main attraction in any party since everyone is facing the stage and you have a lot of photos taken there. I didn't want to use a tarpaulin, but instead decided to just make my own jumbo letter cut-outs of Sabre's name made out of styrofoam. It may sound or even seem difficult, but trust me when I say that this was so easy to do, even I was surprised myself!

STEP 1: OUTLINE YOUR LETTERS

The boards I bought at National Bookstore were 2ft x 4ft x 1/2" thick for P49 each. The height of each of my letters were 24" so I was able to fit 2 letters per board. I deliberately chose the thinnest board at 1/2" so that it would be easier to cut. I used the Varsity font which is the same font I used on the invites and other printables and just drew it by hand using a pencil.

You can use different fonts depending on your theme or if you want to do much smaller letters, then just print out your desired size and use it as a template. Just cut out the paper letters with scissors, tape them to the styro and trace the outline of the lettering onto the board.

STEP 2: CUT THE STYROFOAM

I just used a normal knife and I was able to cut through the styro like butter! The edges were straight and I didn't even make such a huge mess with all the stray particles when you break off a piece of foam.

STEP 3: PAINT THE STYROFOAM

I first used a pentel pen to make two half inch borders along the inside of the letter as a guide when painting.

Now, I had no idea how to color styrofoam at first. I didn't know if you could even paint styro in the first place. Well, I had leftover acrylic paint from the owl tree wall mural I did for Miley's room and luckily it was brown!

I used the bigger brush to paint the inside of the letters. The acrylic paint adhered really well and the color looked great! Since the paint I used was water based, I was able to quickly erase any smudges I made beyond the lines by using a wet cotton bud.

The smaller brush was used to paint the half inch border around the edges of the letters and for the sharp corners.

This is what the rest of the letters (and number) looked like during the party. =)

From my supplier ratings, you'll know that I was able to get a grass wall hedge where I stuck the letters on. But even without the grass backdrop, I'm sure it would still look awesome since it has that 3D effect to it. What's great is that since styrofoam is so light, you can just use masking or double sided tape to stick them on the wall. No drilling required! You can make all kinds of sizes or shapes and use different fonts or colors. You can use them to decorate your child's room, make ornaments and other craft projects. And the best part is it's so inexpensive and easy to do!

DIY Sports Table Centerpiece

Being on a budget really forces me to drain my creative juices to come up with cheap alternatives while party planning. One such instance was coming up with a sports themed table centerpiece. The package I got from my supplier only included 10 balloon centerpieces. I had more than 10 tables but I didn't want to add an additional P300 balloon arrangement per table anymore. I knew I could come up with something... and that I did. If you read my supplier ratings, you'll know that the finished product looked like this, but let me share how I did it. =)

I spent a lot of time online getting ideas and if I could have executed it in the exact way I wanted, I would have used a metal tin bucket as the base and a real foam finger. But since I had to make do with what was readily available, the tin bucket became a hot food bowl I got from the grocery and the foam finger was just printed on cardboard paper. ;p

Here are the materials I used:
-  hot food bowls - I got these from Shopwise at about P85 for 10 pcs.
- styrofoam - there are lots of different thickness available in National Bookstore, but I already bought these 2ft x 4ft x 1/2" boards (P49 each) which I used for Sabre's name. So I just made do with the leftovers.
- colored cartolina
- cardboard paper
- barbeque sticks
- Japanese paper
- masking tape
- glue
- scissors

These hot food bowls were really a lucky find since it was the exact size I needed. Plus the color was kind of brown so I decided to just stick with the design instead of covering it with Japanese paper.
* If you'll notice though, the label says "Little Princess" and if you look really closely, the design is made up of castles and stars. But who cares? It looks fit for a boys party to me! ;p

For the base, I knew I needed styrofoam to be able to stick the flags in. I traced the base of the bowl on the styro and cut out the circles which would then fit inside.

I used 4 styro circles per bowl to achieve the height that I wanted to be able to stick the flags in - the cardboard hand in the middle and two flags on each side.
* Like I said, I just used leftover styro. You can just buy one with a thicker width so you don't have to pile them up anymore.

 I then searched for foam finger images online, picked one I liked and edited it with Sabe's name. I made 2 versions, one the mirror image of the other, so I could stick them back to back.

I used masking tape to attach the bbq stick on the cardboard cut out of the hand. Make sure the pointy end of the stick is on the bottom so you can easily pierce it through the styro base. Then I just aligned the other side of the hand and glued it together.

I then cut triangles out of green and orange cartolina and pasted the words Happy Birthday and #1 on them. I then did the same thing as I did with the cardboard hand above to attach the bbq stick to the triangle flags.
* Of course, you can also just do the layout of the flags on your computer and just print these out to make it easier (no more extra cutting and pasting needed). I just wanted to add more dimension to the flags... and make my life harder! ;p

I assembled everything in the venue itself. I also had extra balls from the giveaways I bought so I placed these on top so you wouldn't see the styro below. The balls also added extra weight to the centerpiece so that it wouldn't easily topple over. I also stuffed some "grass" in between the balls by cutting up strips of Japanese paper.

So there you have it, my version of a DIY sports table centerpiece! A lot of what I did here was based on just winging it so I definitely had a lot of trial and error. But I had so much fun doing it that especially when you see your vision come to life (naks!). ;p

It's (almost) party time!

Just 1 more day til Sabe's party woohoo!!! My stomach is in knots just thinking about all the party details - will the suppliers deliver and arrive on time? did I buy enough prizes? is the headcount for the seats and food just right? did I forget anything???

Hahaha sorry I can't help myself but be so OC with all the planning. But I'm so excited too! Anyway, here's a sneak peak of what's in store for everyone tomorrow. We are definitely in party mode over here! Wheeeee! =)

Run, Mommy, Run!

Vins is so athletic. He’s a triathlete, he plays basketball and he has overall discipline when it comes to working out. Me? Well, let’s just say I signed up for a gym membership a couple of years ago but I just used the treadmill and spent more time in the bathroom blow drying my hair.

After we got married, Vins convinced me to finally go running with him. It really means a lot to him since he says he wants us to do an activity as a couple together (hmmm… isn’t shopping an activity?). To be honest, what really motivated me was the whole new running wardrobe I was getting. Vins bought me shoes, shorts, dri-fit shirts, and sports bras (he was generous since he said it was an investment anyway). And then I got pregnant and that was the end of my running career before it even started (Vins then said that was the worst investment he had ever made).

I promised Vins that once I gave birth, I would get back to running. Sayang naman all my running outfits dba? But then, I got pregnant again(!) so that was that.

Now, it’s been 7 months after giving birth to Sabe and I have no more excuses. 2 days ago, Vins dragged me to the park to join him in his afternoon jog. I was all confident, even telling Vins that if I ran 3k, he should treat me to Papa John’s pizza (siyempre start pa lang ng workout, food na agad ang iniisip!).

So we ran… and after a couple of minutes, my sides were starting to ache, my knees were beginning to get wobbly, I was breaking out into a sweat… I asked Vins how many kilometers we had ran so far…

Vins:  “0.3km…”

Huwaaaaaat???!!! I’d be dead before we even reach 1k!

But I wasn’t going to give up (I could already smell the pizza). After I had ran all I could, the final distance I did was 1.25k! But that was just running! Vins didn’t count the parts we walked in between. If he did, I’d have totaled more than 3k for sure! 

If I keep this up, hopefully I can join a running event sometime early next year (Condura Marathon in February?). Wish me luck!