What's the perfect gift this Christmas?

The perfect gift for your kiddie relatives here and abroad! "Mga Tambay sa Tabi-tabi" is a delightful compendium of art and poetry for children and interesting tidbits about Philippine lower mythology, illustrated and written by Ang Ilustrador ng Kabataan (Ang INK), published by Anvil Publishing. Get your copies now!!!

My Pal's DIY Wedding: Invite Design Part 2

Here's a nicer, cleaner invite design for my gal pal. I think this one's better since it'll use less ink and wouldn't require any cutting (I'm a messy cutter).

Cashed Out on a Cyber Contest

Last August I wrote about submitting an entry to an online story writing competition. I'm so happy to announce that I was chosen as one of the ten winners! That's twenty grand, plus a chance for my story to be published. We'll be having the awards brunch at one posh resto at the Fort. I've yet to look for someone to drive me there (and join me for brunch, too) since I've stopped driving the moment I got my license (sad, but true). But I can't wait!

My Pal's DIY Wedding: Invite Design

Here's one initial design I made for my friend who'll soon get hitched. Her colors are cherry blossom pink and sepia. Yum! She'll be having roses for her bridal bouquet so I thought I'd include it in the invite. I hope she likes it. What do you think?

Cashing in on Cyber Contests

Yesterday I found out that the entry I submitted for a story writing contest was chosen as one of the finalists. Yay! I chanced upon the contest from one of the forwarded messages from an egroup to which I belong. All I had to do was write a short story for a certain age group about their given topic and send the piece online. The price if I get lucky? Twenty grand. Not bad, right?

Joining online contests sure is one great way to use your internet time wisely. Most online contests don't require any purchase, documents, travel, nor much of your time, but the rewards are surprisingly, well, rewarding. My sister's boyfriend, who happens to be a wrestling fan, joined an online contest which promised a weekend for two in Australia to watch the smackdown live. People usually pay no attention to such contests, but when he won, his friends raced to their terminals, signing up for every contest imaginable.

I've yet to search for such contests, but I will soon, after I get that twenty grand. Wish me luck!

Our DIY Wedding: Gifts

A couple of days ago I heard a story on the radio about this English couple who received 24 oven toasters of the same brand for their wedding. The couple never thought that the joke they told their friends would be taken way too seriously.

For those who don't want this horror story to happen at their own wedding, a bridal registry might just do the trick. My husband and I initially wanted this one, too, especially since we were starting our marital lives from scratch. After inquiring from the malls, though, we trashed the idea due to the following reasons:

• Only selected branches of department stores offered registries.
• These stores, although belonging to the same company, weren't coordinated. This means our guests will be able to purchase only from the mall where we were registered.
• Our guests will be coming from different parts of Luzon, and most of them were far from the malls which offered registries.
• We didn't want our guests to be limited by a set of choices. We didn't want to be too imposing. And we didn't want to "require" them to buy us something just because we invited them to the celebration.

Luckily, after the wedding, we didn't get 24 oven toasters. Only a couple of items were doubled, which was not bad at all. There were some close friends who asked us what we wanted, and during those instances we didn't hesitate to tell them our needs.

Speaking of gifts, another trend in today's weddings is to indicate in the invite that a monetary present is preferred. This is very practical, yes, but my husband and I didn't opt for this, too. As I have said, giving us anything was not a requirement. We invited family and friends because we wanted them to celebrate with us. Thus, their presence was more than enough.

ASEAN-wide photo contest on biodiversity

To all photo enthusiasts, here's something to get busy with. The contest will run until 30 August 2009 and winners will be awarded during the ACB side event at the ASEAN Conference on Biodiversity in Singapore on 21 – 23 October 2009.

For more info, visit their website.