Homey Home!

interior dezine.

noreply@blogger.com (julai) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:12:00 +0000

I just found a new cool homey site : http://www.interiordezine.com , a site crammed with information and ideas on all aspects of interior design and decorating. They have free e-courses like: interior decorating, free color and free curtain design and they have a lot of free tips too about interior designing and other stuffs related to organizing your abode.

I will surely frequent this site coz I love reading articles about home designing and decorating and I want to look at photos to get ideas on how my dream house should look like.:)

Merry, Merry Christmas!

noreply@blogger.com (julai) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 23:52:00 +0000

I´m back again just in time to greet you all a Merry, Merry Christmas! I hope that you will all have a super nice and fun celebration with your family and friends.:)

I will celebrate it far from my family (for the 7th times) and my bf, but it´s ok, the celebration will go on, coz it´s not about me, but it´s about Jesus´birthday. It´s about HIM, the real STAR ng PASKO.:)

Anyways, I bought an Elle mag for December (Spain edition) and it comes with an Elle Decor issue. I´ve browsed it already and I saw a lot of good, homey stuffs there. But I am going to take a closer look at it once the schedule is no longer very hectic and then I´ll share to you whatever good finds I´ll encounter.:)

Happy holidays once again!

Minimalists.

noreply@blogger.com (julai) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 21:26:00 +0000

I am glad that my new employers are minimalists especially when it comes to their home. Only the necessary furniture are present in the house and definitely no small stuffs displayed in every corner of the house, just like what I saw in other huge houses. They are indeed minimalists (especially my female employer) coz she throws things without second thought when she don´t need them anymore even if they´re still in perfect condition.

They are very organized as well, so even if it´s a 3-storey house, it´s still easy to clean and maintain. And I love their house coz it´s painted white in the inside and the wooden floor is dark brown to black in color. Exactly my idea of my own house in the future.:) I´ll take some photos in my mobile soon.

And speaking of home, I want to have my own home soon (a house and a family living in it,:)). The bf is planning for a vacation soon and I am already excited.:) But he´s not bringing the huge delivery truck with super loud train horns that he is driving. It would be exciting to personally see the huge truck, but someone else will be driving it, while he´s on vacation. Hope soon, I can go with him in one of his driving trips.

Home alarm system.

noreply@blogger.com (julai) — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 22:08:00 +0000

I only got aware of alarm systems when I started working abroad coz it´s very common in houses, almost all houses have alarms. So far, only the house of my employers in DK has no alarm. And since then, I already wished to have a home alarm system in our house in Pinas, especially that robbery is very common there. I think alarm system is still common in the big cities in Pinas, but surely, not in the small cities, let alone in remote areas, just like our place in Pinas. So, right now, it´s impossible for us to avail of offers from different home security systems. And I don´t think it will be soon that alarm systems will reach our place coz heck, internet connection hasn´t reach our place until now! grrrrrrrrrrrrrr, it just shows how slow progress is, but it will not stop me from hoping for a better future. I know all good things come to those who wait! I am not sure of ADT Home Security is already in Pinas, if not, then I hope it will be soon. And hope that its presence will also reach the remote areas in the near future.

Maybe, we can make use of an improvised alarm system while waiting for an alarm company to reach our place.

Doctor friends.

noreply@blogger.com (julai) — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 21:50:00 +0000

I instantly remember my college classmates who are now medical doctors in Pinas, after seeing the medical teaching course link. We took BS Biology in college as a preparatory in realizing our dream of becoming a medical doctor. I was already so sure back then that I´ll become one in the future. But obviously, God has other plans for me. He brought me here in Europe to work as a househelp. I was in self pity for years, but not anymore! I already realized that the dream is not for me, God has a better version of that dream. So here I am and no more regrets and self pit anymore!

Anyways, back to my college classmates. Others studied nursing after the BS Bio course and some are now working as nurses abroad, while others are nurses in Pinas. But most of our college classmates continued with medicine proper and are now medical doctors. I am so happy for them because I feel like I realized my dream of becoming a doctor in them.:) One of my close friends in college worked as a Doctor to the Barrios, my very plan, if given the chance to become a doctor. But I found the realization of that plan in her and I am so proud of her. And now, she´s specializing in anesthesiology and I know that she´ll finish it with good records. I haven´t talk to her about her plans after finishing the specialization. But maybe she wants to teach on the side, so she can also share her knowledge to upcoming doctors. I will ask her the next time we talk, but whether the answer is a yes or a no, I will still share to her the medical management course and teach the teacher course links, so she can check them and they might be useful for her in the future.

I hope to see her and my other college classmates when I come home for vacation and home that it will be soon.:)

SwitcheRoom.

noreply@blogger.com (julai) — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 21:40:00 +0000

I´m happy that I stumbled into SwitcheRoom a month ago. Thanks to Ate Ai for sharing her current inspiration in her blog. I checked all the links she shared there and SwitcheRoom is one of the links that I keep on visiting. The site is very informative and very helpful, especially those who want to renovate their places in a tight budget. I love reading all her DIY projects and it makes me wanna go home to Pinas and start making a make-over in our house, hehehe. The site is owned by an interior design addict Pinay. I haven´t left a message in her blog yet, but I´m a fan and proud of this truly talented kababayan from Quezon City. I hope that you´ll have more projects to come. I´ll know you´ll make it big soon!

Go and visit her site and take a look at her DIY projects and her Design Projects. I am sure you will be amazed as well with her works! I don´t want to try doing a make-over in our house anymore. I want to avail of her services for the make-over(sooner or later) to make sure that the result will be awesome! I just hope I can afford her services and if I can, I just hope she´s willing to go to Bohol for it.:)

tools and job hunting.

noreply@blogger.com (julai) — Mon, 16 May 2011 21:56:00 +0000

I went to Centro Filipino in the afternoon as part of the job hunting.:) Centro Filipino is an organization that helps and supports all Filipino migrants here in Barcelona. It has a lot of activities and projects for Filipinos here. A lot of employers call the office everyday to ask for chikas (domestic help) from the Centro and they give it to the jobless Filipinos who call or go personally to the office for help. The office is close every Monday, but I still came because Sister Pau was there in the office and there might be an employer who will call. But no one did. But I am glad I came coz I was able to talk with Sister Pau. Tomorrow, I will come again at 10:30 am. I will go early, so I can choose which employers should I go for interview. hehehe.

But anyways, when I came this afternoon. I met Kuya Orly, one of the Centro Filipino volunteers ( I one of them, by the way. hehehe). He was fixing the table of the office coz the hinges and the fasteners of the tables were getting loose already. He went home to make some food for his lunch and to get some tools for fixing the tables. He came back around 3pm with the tools. Good thing and he didn´t go to the hardware or look for grommets suppliers anymore coz he had some spare parts at his place. So, he was able to fix the tables in less than an hour.

He is such a kind man coz even if he has a lot of work to do, but still he comes to Centro Filipino every Monday for 2 hours to fix things or organize files and then at 6 pm, he leaves to go to his other job. Despite his busy schedule, but he still devotes some of his time in helping and serving others. What an inspiration!

i want to be home.

noreply@blogger.com (julai) — Mon, 16 May 2011 21:31:00 +0000

I am terribly missing home right now and it´s doesn´t help that I am jobless for almost 2 weeks now.:( How I wish Pinas is just a jeepney ride away, so I can just go home everyday and spend the night with my family and then go back to work here early in the morning.:) I miss my entire family in Pinas. I miss our home and the simple living that we have there. I miss being so relaxed and I miss laughing a lot with my family and friends. And ohh, I miss Mama´s garden as well. It´s so nice to be surrounded by flowers and plants everyday. It´s like being in paradise. :)

a part of Mama´s garden.

I really hope to be home so soon.:)

Rainy days.

noreply@blogger.com (julai) — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 23:19:00 +0000

I called my family back home 2 weeks ago and Mama told me that it´s been raining there all the time. And 2 days ago, she sent me an sms informing me that it´s still raining in our place. She´s already complaining about the rainy days coz she already got an athlete´s foot from it, as well as most of the students in our local high school where she´s teaching. And the school ground is already very muddy from the constant raining. I am really hoping that the rainy days will soon stop or atleast mellow a bit so it won´t be very muddy (in the school) anymore.Speaking of rainy days, I just hope we have atleast 2 rain barrels at home, so we can store the rainwater and save it for the dry season for my Mama´s garden. Rain harvesting is not really necessary in our home since we have a deep well with abundant water in it (our neighbors are also taking water from it), but I still want us to have rain barrels as garden decors if they´re as cute as the photo below.

I am not sure though if we have rain barrels for sale in the malls in the City. I will surely check the stores when I come for vacation and hope that it will be soon.:)

Nuevo Estilo, February 2011.

noreply@blogger.com (julai) — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 00:02:00 +0000

I bought a copy of Elle Magazine - February 2011, Spain edition yesterday right after picking up the kid from school and I am so happy with it coz it comes with 3 freebies: 7ml Estee Lauder Advanced Night repair, Elle Love Book 2011 and a copy of Nuevo Estilo, Feb. issue. I first encountered a Nuevo Estilo mag copy in the winterhouse of my employers coz they have 2 copies in the mag close there. I love reading the mags during my siesta or when I am done cleaning already. I picked up a copy of Nuevo Estilo and I enjoyed it coz I love looking at interior designs of houses, furniture and anything related to home decoration. Though the mag is in Castellano, but it´s ok coz I got most of the idea just by looking at the photos.:)

Canadian House & Home.

noreply@blogger.com (julai) — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 14:53:00 +0000

I was surfing the net for house and home sites 2 days ago when I bumped into Canadian House and Home. It´s a site with a house and home theme like interior designs, decors, furniture, etc. They also have forum where you can discuss topics with other members. You can even subscribe to their site, so will get the latest news about homey themes. Check them out, too.

a new place.

noreply@blogger.com (julai) — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 23:54:00 +0000

Ate 3 ate roommates and I will be moving to a new boarding house by February, or on Jauary 29 to be accurate coz we need to vacate the old place by that date and then if we still have some things left, then we just get them the following day. But we can´t sleep in the old place anymore on the 29th coz that´s the order from the owner of the place. We are happy coz we found a new place just 5 minutes away from San Agustin Church where we always go every Sunday and the also the venue of most of our activities in the CFC - FFL community. So, it´s really good for us so we won´t be late anymore.:)

Anyways, we still have a lot of stuffs to move and we haven´t buy double decks yet. We will go to Ikea again on Saturday and we are hoping that they will already have stocks of the double deck that we want coz we need to set them up before we move in the rst of our things coz if we move them before the double decks are assembled, then we won´t have space for them anymore. And we only have 2 weeks left to do all the moving. Moving is always a stress. arggg. The last time we went to the new place to bring some stuffs, one of the Ates said that it would be nice if we will have a ceiling fan in the room for the hot Barcelona summer and all the Ates agreed. But right now, we will first solve our "double deck" problem before checking ceiling fans and finding the right one for our room. Anyways, if you are looking for ceiling fans for your home, then try to check out Hansen Wholesale Ceiling Fans coz they have a lot of nice and elegant ceiling fans. I already checked the site before and I so wish that they have an outlet in the Philippines, so I can buy ceiling fans from them for our home in Pinas. If you want a bit of history about their high quality ceiling fans, read first the page " Find out who makes the best ceiling fans here!".

Good luck to our moving and I will surely keep you posted.:)

Happy 2011 from Homey Home!

noreply@blogger.com (julai) — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 23:58:00 +0000

Happy 2011 everyone! Hope you all had a New Year´s celebration and a nice Christmas, as well.

I´m back to blogging here at my Homey Home blog and I hope that I can continue it all year round. It has been 2 months since my post and I don´t like it at all. I want to be productive this year as much as possible and it means that I have to minimize spending a lot of time in things that not very important at all, like facebooking.:( Yes, I spend a lot of time facebooking. I don´t intend it, but I lost track of time once I started looking at the photos of my friends in fb. hehehe. I better spend more time in blogging and do my best to learn the techniques on how to make my blogs income generating to help fund my big poject for this year.:)

More blessings to all!

New dining area.

noreply@blogger.com (julai) — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 00:01:00 +0000

My employers just made a little renovation in the kitchen. They changed the dining table into a bigger one. The old one was made of glass and small, but the new one is made of wood and it´s painted white and it´s bigger. And then, the tiled walls adjacent to the table were covered with gray and white colored paper that looks so nice. The heater was also changed into a slender one to accommodate the bigger table. The hanging lamp above the table was also changed into a very nicely once. How I wish I have a picture to share right now, but I don´t have. :( I should take one when I´ll have my new phone already, so it´s easy to transfer it to the computer via bluetooth.

I digress, back to the topic now.:) Everyone is happy with the little renovation in the kitchen. And I´ve heard that they´re going to make little changes in the house little by little. I hope the next project will be the mailbox. It´s so little and it´s a fixed part of the door. I hope they´ll put a Commercial Mailbox outside to accommodate all the advertisement papers, news, etc. that they´re getting everyday. Most of the time, the mailbox overflows and papers are dropping on the ground and littering outside as the wind carry them away. It´s not a nice scene to look at and it irritates me.

The photo above is one of the many Commercial Mailboxes available at Mailboxixchange and I am sure that it´s just the right size that can accommodate all the papers that they´re getting from the post. This or they can put a note outside the old mailbox informing the post that they don´t want to receive advertisement papers anymore. I´ll go and check all the Commercial Mailboxes designs before taking a nap. Have a nice day everyone!

Missing home.

noreply@blogger.com (julai) — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 15:44:00 +0000

I´ve been away for almost 4 years and I am terribly missing home, especially that Christmas is nearly approaching. And the month ends is "ber", then it´s already Christmas time in Pinas. Christmas in in the air already as early as September. Radios and malls start playing Christmas songs and houses start displaying Christmas decors. Ohh, I truly miss home and I really wanna go home soon. If only it´s so easy, then I´ll celebrate Christmas with my family. "Ber" months is also the start of the rainy season in the Pinas or if not, atleast in my hometown. We celebrate our fiesta during December and the celebration is always a rainy day, as far as I remember. I miss home even more especially when it´s raining here coz I just want to be home lying in the sofa and watching tv and eating champorado during merienda.

Speaking of rainy days, I just saw this beautiful rain barrel at Simply Rain Barrels and how I wish that I can buy one as a birthday gift to my Mama on her birthday this October 31. This would surely fit in her garden and she´ll surely love it. It´s really cool coz it doesn´t look like a rain water barrel at all, but an elegant flower stand. This will surely look nice on our porch.

But for sure, Simply Rain Barrels will not ship all the way to the Philippines just in case I´ll order one for my Mama. And besides, the shipping fees will cost me a fortune.:) So, I better ask my brother to check the local malls in the city and see if they have rain barrels for sale.

To blog more.

noreply@blogger.com (julai) — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 14:17:00 +0000

To blog more is actually one of the goals for this year, but I haven´t realize it yet due to the busy schedule and laziness as well. grrrrrrrr. I have been blogging often early this year, but not anymore in the past months and I´m really sad about it. But no matter how busy and lazy I become from now on, I want to blog more before the year ends. I just have to.

I have been blogging since 2007, even if I don´t have a clear grasp yet of what blogging really is. I just made a blog and started writing. And then, Ate Nitz, an online friend, explained to me what blogging is all about and how it works. I am not a good writer, not even close to be considered a writer. But I just love writing. It´s my way of relaxing and relieving my stress. I feel good everytime I write in my blog, aww blogs.:)

The boost to write more came this morning right after stumbling into Blue Backlinks. It´s a free service that generates a backlink report of your website or blog. The Backlink Checker will provide you with information about the site or blog´s total backlinks, pagerank, alexa rank, DMOZ listing, top 3 anchor text, option to export to excel and option to report after 7 days. And not only that, they will also show you the details of the backlinks that you have in your site like the anchor text, outbound links (OBL) and flag (follow or nofollow).

Right after reading what Blue Backlinks does, I immediately typed one of my blogs to check its status. And in less then a minute, all the information mentioned above appeared. And then, I checked my other blogs as well.:)I was really impressed with the efficiency of the tool. And it made me decide to write more and check my improvement as I go along using the newly found backlink checker. I want all my blogs to have page ranks and to keep the rank increasing. Right now, I have 3 out of 5 with page ranks. So, I have 2 more to work with and then slowly, I´ll work to improve all their ranks. I´m excited. :)

There´s three more cool things about Blue Backlinks. One, it automatically refreshes and orders the detailed links by OBL count right after analyzing the backlinks. Second, it allows you to check as many sites as you want. Third, you can also use the backlink checker in spying someone else´s site or blog. :)

I´ll surely do more blog updates from now on. Thanks Blue Backlinks!

Boarding house.

noreply@blogger.com (julai) — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 22:02:00 +0000

It´s been my dream since my Denmark days to have a boarding house as a source of income. My mother and my brother support me all the way with the plan. I already started paying for the land when I was still in Norway, but sadly, the processing of the land title takes forever. Until now, it´s not done yet. But atleast, I can already start building if I want to. I want to start the project a long time ago and my brother has been urging to me start with it. The problem now is that I already used the money that I´m supposed to use in starting the building. I used it in another investment. So, now I have to wait until next year to earn some money for it. My brother said that I really have to start it, even if I can only put up pillars, atleast I already started and have something to look forward to finish. Yes, my brother is really concern about my future and I know he´s been pushing me to start it coz he thinks that I already wasted a lot of money by spending them on nonsense, kikay, girly things.:) So, I´m working my butt off to have money by next year to start the building and since next year is already 3 months away, so I guess, I´ll just have enough for the pillars.:)

I have a lot of projects in mind, but I have limited funds. That´s why I want to look for investments where my money will grow, so I can use them later to fund the projects. I was surfing in the net last night for ways to earn money and I stumbled into a site featuring 101 ways to earn money online and offline. I wasn´t done reading coz it´s so long and it was already 2am. But anyways, one of the ways mentioned there was to buy silver bullion as an investment product. According to the site, there´s no better time for investing in silver bullion than now since the world demand for silver now exceeds annual production and has been like that since 1990. Sounds like a really good investment, but the problems is that it surely needs a big amount to acquire a piece of silver bullion. And for sure, I don´t have that amount right now coz I am still broke.:) But no matter what, I´ll start the boarding house project next year, so help me God. And please Universe, conspire for me and make this dream of mine come true.:)

Ceiling fans.

noreply@blogger.com (julai) — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 15:16:00 +0000

I remember my love for ceiling fans and chandeliers upon watching the photos of Ate Ellen's mansion.:) Since I was in high school, I wanted to have atleast one ceiling fan and a chandelier in our house in Phils. And I think that we're going to have it soon since brother is already starting to equip the house with the missing pieces.:)
The photo above is a stylish Fanimation ceiling fan I found at Hansen Wholesale Ceiling Fans. I so love it coz it comes with a dual function: ceiling fan and lights. And I hope that we can find a replica of this ceiling fan in Pinas.

Ate Ellen's mansion.

noreply@blogger.com (julai) — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 15:02:00 +0000

Ate Ellen is a one of my very good friends. Our friendship started in Denmark during our au pair time in the country until now, even if we are already countries apart. Me being here in Spain and her in Italy. We don't talk very often now, but when we do, the closeness is still there and it never changed despite distance and time. When we were still in Denmark, she told me of her dream of building a nice house for her family in Pinas. She went home to Pinas about 2 months ago and she tol me in our chat before that the house she's building in Pinas is already finished. I'm soo happy for her and I asked her to send me photos. And just this afternoon, I got the photos in my e-mail and I am even happier for her. The house is soo lovely. Hoping to see you soon Ate Ellen and I prefer to see you again in your future wedding. Hope I can attend it.:)

Rainwater barrels

noreply@blogger.com (julai) — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 21:32:00 +0000

I just saw cute, nice rainwater barrels at simplyrainbarrels.com and I instantly remember home and Mama's garden coz for sure, her garden will be lovelier with a rain barrel in it ( which can also be used as a garden decor, aside from its real purpose of storing rainwater).

Here's the photo of the rain barrel that I like the most and the same rain barrel that will make Mama's garden lovelier as well:
Though we have a deep well in our home with a motor pump connected in it for easier usage, but still a rain barrel will be a nice thing in Mama's garden coz we use a lot of water everyday just for watering her plants and flowers. So, it's just a smart idea to store rainwater in this lovely barrel to lessen the electric bill ( coz it means less usage of the motor pump). :) I just hope there are rain barrels for sale where we live and as cute and nice as the barrels I saw at simplyrainbarrels.com.

Crossandra house model

noreply@blogger.com (julai) — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 21:19:00 +0000

Here's another house model from http://ph-realestate.com:

Ground Floor

2nd Floor

Mama's garden.

noreply@blogger.com (julai) — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 22:30:00 +0000

My Mother loves plants, flowers and gardening. We always have a lot of flowers at home since my childhood days until now. She even made the different species of mayana (a local herbal plant) look beatiful with their different leaf patterns. And now that the house in Pinas is renovated as well as the landscaping to give space to the mini-multicab that she bought on her 49th birthday, still she manages to make a space for her flowers. :)

some of Mama's orchids.

How I wish our house has a bigger lawn, so my Mama's garden will be bigger as well coz I really want to buy her some home and garden products just like the ones I saw at Become. Here's a beautiful garden table that I saw from there:

I really love the table set and I'm sure it will look perfect in Mama's garden. I love the landscaping in the photo too. I can show it to Mama and maybe we can hire someone to landscape the garden so it will look similar to this. I miss my family, I miss home.

Cool address plaques

noreply@blogger.com (julai) — Wed, 19 May 2010 21:17:00 +0000

I just stumbled into justaddressplaques.com a while ago and I enjoyed viewing all their address plaques and numbers. The store is the marketplace of a wide variety of address plaques categorized into: residential address plaques, commercial address plaques, address numbers, address posts, specialty plaques amd mailboxes. All their plaques are so cool that I want to have one for our house in Bohol.:) But the brother has to make some more renovation to our house, so it wouldn't look "over" if we will put an elegant/cool address sign just outside the gate. hehehe.

One of their home address plaques:

Who knows, we would really have a home address plaque from justaddressplaques.com in the future.:)

Amaranth house model

noreply@blogger.com (julai) — Mon, 17 May 2010 21:44:00 +0000

Here's another lovely house model that I got from http://ph-realestate.com :

Ground Floor

Second Floor

Ate Eves' dream house...

noreply@blogger.com (julai) — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 23:21:00 +0000

Ate Eves is one of my funny,kind ate friends.:) I've known her since my visa waiting time in Pinas. We've already shared a lot of memories together in Denmark, Norway and now Spain.:) I love her so much and I admire her for her determination to succeed in life. And oh, her love for her family is so greaaat that she sacrificed her own happiness for her family. She has a lot of dreams and one by one, those dreams are coming into reality. And one of it is her dream house. And about 1 year ago, she finally built the house or her dreams.:)

Ate Eves and her dream house.:)

I haven't seen the house in person yet and so excited to visit her in her new house. God bless Ate Eves and keep up the good work. I lab u ate, muahhh.