I have been posting throwback photos of my siblings who are celebrating birthdays, but for you, Nina, it's an entire blog entry, just because there is not just one photo that will capture and tell the world just how precious you are.  You-- Quintessential Gemini: analytic, dependable.  Me-- Pisces of the first Order: drama queen and all passion.  It's like Murphy Brown hanging out with Maria Elena from Vicky Cristina Barcelona.  But to say that we click is putting it oh so mildly.  Blame it on the blood running through us, the ties that bind and the closest I can get to unconditional love for another human being.  So for your birthday, here are my top Nina moments (I came up with a dozen!):

1.  When Mom brought you home from the hospital a few days old, I thought that she was away on a trip and brought home a doll for me.  I didn't know at the time that you would teach me everything to learn about being a sister.

2.  I took your school entrance exam for you but...

3.  You learned to tie your shoe laces before I did.

4.  Nina and Anna in Chicago, age 14 and 12, on our own!  Everything from that first summer: putting up the reading program at the Children's Museum, learning to commute, going to SSA for me and Sacred Heart for you.

5.  New York for my 16th birthday with you.  

6.  Taking you to soccer practice and picking you up after.  You'd put your feet up by the AC in the car.  Gee, thanks!  But years later, you would do exactly the same thing for Mia and Giko (and even more!).

7.  Mom left for LA the summer between sophomore and junior year in high school.  The minute she was gone for the airport, I insisted on you comng with me to the limited engagement of The Lover in the 900 N. Michigan theater.  I conned you into it by saying that it would impress your French teacher that you had gone to see the film.  I was horrified that you had started to cry after realizing that it was a more mature film than what you were used to.  So sorry for that!

8.  And Europe!  Particularly the head butt in Italy, the dog running after me in Vienna, and Papa complaining that you and I were worse than all the three boys together!

9.  The summer after Manila in 1999... you picked me up in O'Hare Airport and cried hopelessly, saying that it will never be the same because I was off to grad school in Providence a few days after.

10.  But we called each other at 1 am almost every night in grad school, you in Baltimore, conquering your dream career.  When we didn't have anything else to say to each other, we'd sing along with the ad for the Christian Praise CD's, karaoke-style.  Only we will ever get away with that!

11.  And I even bunked with you in Baltimore as an intern with SOM in DC.  That summer was all about Italian ice, Annapolis and you complaining that I left you out of everything I did with the ex.  Not true!  Case in point: who do I still speak with now?  Hahaha!  And actually, who did I do a reprise with as roomies on LaSalle St. in Chicago?  YOU!

12.  Nina in Vegas then Nina in Monterey, CA... Founder of Dare to Dream and Imagine College.  After being an investment banker, a developer, now working in the not-for-profit world, giving it away.  I am so proud of you every moment, and I continue to watch you and cheer for you all the way.  

See, it's always been that way, and it will continue to be so. 

Now for the throw back photos:

You and I before we saw Annie and Mom had our hair permed just like hers.

Your first communion

Fifth Grade at the Sacred Heart, Chciago

Women I miss: you, Mia and Mom

Nina and Riko at one of our family dinners.  

Very recently, you and Giko

To my bestest best friend in the world, happy 32nd!!!  Sending you lots of love from Manila!!

I've been on a diet ever since I can remember eating.  I've never been the skinny girl, and after all the holiday food, I'm on a diet again.  Today, I realized I've reached the point where my heart tells me I want to have a piece of that cake, but my body isn't really craving for it.  I painted it instead.  And here are some interpretations of it...

Charcoal, Acrylic, Decorative Papers, Doilies, Oil Pastels 

on Canvas, 8" x 24"

Some Details:

and

and on one side...

I was able to squeeze in another one today...

Charcoal, Acrylic, Oil Pastels, Various Decorative Papers

8" x 8"

Some Details...

and one side...

The Inspiration for this week...

Cakes by Wayne Thiebaud, 1963.

Dear Thrusday,

I doodle as a way to make certain that I am listening.  So leafing through my current notebook, these are what I found...  Between pages of office notes, to-do lists and interior architectural sketches...

and somewhere between thoughts on bathroom details and kitchen cabinetry, a mermaid drifted into my mind, made it through my pen and into my notebook...

and another girl with what miight as well be a whole flower pot growing on her head, because that's exactly how I was feeling, talking on the phone about taxes...

And oh, what I must do to makeit through some long days... More doodles posted here periodically.  Enjoy!

Dear Sunday,

Thank you very much for the week that was.  We celebrated Chinese New Year, and I received this loot bag filled with plastic toys: a pig, a golden coin, a pair of iridescent pink peaches, etc.  They're sitting on my table for good luck.  Aside from the daily stuff of work, there was a visit to an aunt I haven't seen in years, a long chat with some like-minded people that will be published soon, a visit to a gallery, a visit to a library, a meal with family here, long walks with Momo, hours dipped in the pool and a refreshing painting class.  I feel so favored, so I will be transitioning into Monday in a few minutes.  Good night!

"Values eccentricity over convention.  Listens to the day's forecast but favors her own intuition. Fancies herself an artist though she excels primarily in finger painting.  Could happily live off of red velvet cake..." They could be talking about me right there. Presenting...My latest crush in online magazine land... Matchbook Magazine, "The Field Guide to a Charmed Life."  The first issue covered travelling in Peru, Haleigh Walsworth, Rita Konig, Sophie Dahl and Peggy Guggenheim.  Matchbook is by a formidably stylish team, Katie Anderson, Jane Lily Warren, Fallon Hagerty, and Katie Evans.  Enjoy!!

 
No chronicle of coming home would be complete without writing about the original Sunday House.  1760 Sandejas Street is the home that yielded 9 children from an industrialist and a housewife.  These 9 children went out to the world, literally scattered in lots of places: Canada, California, Missouri, Chicago, Mass., D.C., India, the Philippines.  Two more generations (and counting) have called 1760 Sandejas Street home.  Lately, I have been coming back to it at least once a month to take part in the lunches that are hosted there.  It seems like now as before, food and its comforts are part of the reason to return home.

The house itself is an essay on wood and all of its incarnations: paneled, carved, book-matched...

The heart of it all is the dining table.  If it could talk, it would tell the story of its life that started out as a project for prison inmates.  Then it was ushered into this home to be in the center of many family gatherings, from the simple lunch and dinners where my lola would fry one squab each for her nine children (then again, "simple" is relative), to the more festive Christmas meals.  Our family probably owes our penchant for good food from this table and the kitchen that served it. After all, my generation can be proud of producing four chefs! But the best dishes served here are those that are cooked slow, stews and soups that have taken a whole day to languish in flavor, savored in the company of people who automatically understand and know where you're coming from because of the strong ties that bind.  

Abundance, nourishment, security... all hallmarks of this home.  I am very grateful that it has been recently restored to be called home by us and many more generations after us.

I am so new to town, I actually got a membership to a local museum just so I'd get mail, and believe me, in this age of Facebook, Twitter and e-mail, getting real mail is a big treat!  I got my ornament all the way from San Francisco from the lovely Jen Hewett through an ornament swap I joined by BluPenny (Cindy Ann).  Jen, I loved the ornament!!  Thank you so much!  This is how it sits in my apartment:

It shares the spot with one of the best birthday presents I received ever, an ornament by Cindy Steiler.

And while we're on this past holiday's ornament swap, here's what I sent my swapmates:

Oil Pastel, Charcoal, Acrylic on Wooden Disks, Doilies, White Pipe Cleaners, Paper Flowers, Ribbon.  Hope they liked it!

So to say that I haven't been doing anything creative in my own personal terms in Manila is sort of a lie.  I couldn't pass the Holidays without giving a few lovely people something that I created.  But this year, there were more people in my list.  2010 didn't go so well professionally, with me being a stranger to my own country, without the help of a number of people.  I experimented with a UV technology of printing on wood.  Here is a photo of it.  A limited edition of 50 pieces were printed, packaged and sent off to my list of lovelies.  And in classic Anna fashion, I can't wait for the next Holiday season!  And I hope that this year, I'd start my preparations around September to see the vision through.

Happy New Year everyone!!  Today is 1.11.11.  The first day of the year was also marked by 4 1's, and in signature fashion, I wasn't able to blog on New Year's Day of 2011, so I am doing it now.  By hook or by crook, I had to be blogging something today.  The biggest price I am paying for not blogging in such a long time or touching my art in ages is the feeling of disconnection and isolation to Sunday House, which was something I started because when I did, it felt like the safest place in the world for me to express and be myself, create the things I like with no apologies for not making any world-changing statements with them.  

My move to Manila was 20 years in the making.  Every bit of making my way back to Manila seemed to be dreamed of, everyday that I spent away from it.  I think each moment I spent abroad was lived with the intention to make the most of it, gear myself for the day when I'd be back here.  But what to make of being back here?  It's been so interesting.  It's a big relief, but more than that, my moments in Manila make me realize that I appreciate having lived away for a long time.  Whatever experiences I lived through prior to this have allowed me to gain a sense of self-- not pressured to fit in, make a statement, just be.  It's rather nice!

So after figuring out all the logistics and making a comfortable foundation for the beginnings of a design-related career here, I am back to Sunday House.  And I am still glad for this space.  Will want to write more, show more, and shake things up more for 2011.  One of my biggest achievements here is to fit my three bedroom MO apartment into a studio space, the contents of my art studio now belonging to a few clear boxes.  The dining table is now my work space, covered in decorative paper, canvas, paint brushes in containers, glue, stamps, all the accoutrement of creating, Sunday House style.  Yes, we want for space in Manila, but it doesn't matter.  What I am grateful for is the blank slate I have and the inspiration that I see, hear, smell everywhere.  I am excited to show how they all translate here.  Welcome, 2011!!  You belong!!

Hello from Manila!  It's been a while!  Big life change for me, one that does not include blogging and crafting on my spare time.  Oops!  I forgot: my new life does not have time to spare either.  But there's 2011, and I resolve to get back into this thing that I loved doing.  The piece above is my first one from Manila.  I will blog more about Manila... and I don't even know where to begin.  Inspiration sits in every turn!  We do this thing here called Misa de Gallo, which is really a novena.  9 days before Christmas, folks get up early to hear a full mass at 4:30 am, just when the roosters crow in the morning.  It ends at 6-ish, so between that and work time, I am painting.  This was today's piece.  So, peace and blessings to everyone!