Happy Planner Layout | 100 Days Until Christmas + Life Lately

This week's Happy Planner layout is officially Christmas-themed using Happy Planner's Merry Christmas sticker book. Christmas because today is officially 100 days before Christmas, my favorite holiday of the year!

I'm planning to bring out our Christmas stockings later today and hopefully put up our Christmas tree sometime this week too. So expect a little Christmas decorating update in next week's Happy Planner and Life Lately post. Hehe!

A Little Planner Catch-Up

I haven't been journaling daily lately since we spent the first week of September in Indonesia. As soon as we got back, I went straight into catching up with pending design team projects, so my planner has been a little neglected.

I did, however, make a special memory spread for the first week of September to commemorate Ton and Lucky's birthdays and our family birthday trip to Indonesia.

And yes... Indonesia travel blog coming soon! That's a blog promise. 

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Traci Reed Designs

Traci recently released a beautiful new collection called Golden Days to celebrate autumn.

A little funny backstory...

On August 31, we celebrated Ton's birthday with friends. During dinner, I mentioned that the news was already announcing the end of meteorological summer and the beginning of meteorological autumn on September 1.

Now... that's kind of funny when you live in Saudi Arabia because our seasons are basically:

• Intense heat

• Intense cold

Still, I like pretending we have autumn here, so I'm fully embracing "fall" until winter arrives, which I'm optimistically hoping will be in October. Yes... here I am once again blogging about how excited I am for winter.

Although, I did notice something on September 1.The shower wasn't burning hot anymore! There was actually a tiny hint of cool water. Maybe autumn really did arrive after all. 

So here is the planner spread I mentioned earlier, the first week of September, also known as my "Autumn" spread.

I also decorated my September monthly calendar using the same Golden Days collection.

More Traci Projects

I also made book related projects for our recent Sweet Steal salge for Ex Libris Galaxias collection.

• A book protector case

• A Kindle cover

Read about them over at Traci's blog:

Protect Your Kindle and Your Book with these DIY Viral Cases!

And something completely new... A journal with interchangeable inserts!

Originally I wanted to make a mini album, but I didn't think I have enough time to finish one. Instead, I designed a reusable journal that allows you to add or swap inserts whenever you like.

I actually think this might become a regular project from now on using different collections.

Read about how I made it over at Traci's blog:

Tutorial: Create Your Own Golden Days Bound Journal

I also finally completed another scrapbook layout using this month's Sketchy Sunday sketch.

I always say I love scrapbook sketches, and I'm really not exaggerating.

Sketches make scrapbooking so much easier because I usually prioritize documenting our travels. Having sketches encourages me to preserve the smaller, everyday memories too.

This layout documents the kids' workshop I conducted here in Saudi Arabia.

Hopefully it won't be my last workshop either. Fingers crossed!

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Bee Happy Crafts

I finally received my very first Bee Happy Brand Ambassador kit for Q3!

Technically it arrived almost an entire quarter late because we're already about to receive our Q4 kits, but the excitement was exactly the same.

The kit was delivered to our home in Manila a few months ago, and I finally got to unbox everything during our Indonesia trip. It was like a birthday extension! hehe!

Watch my unboxing below!

For last week's Weeklies, I also made personalized notebook-style canvas pouches for my niece's teachers.

I also created a Grandparents Day card for my niece to give to her lolo and lola on her dad's side.

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Polkadoodles

As always, my Polkadoodles projects get their own dedicated blog posts, but here's a little roundup of everything from the past week:

• Polkadoodles Hello Autumn Collection | KCC#23 Card #1 – Autumn Rides

• Polkadoodles Hello Autumn Collection | KCC#23 Card #4 – Cute Fox Witch Pumpkin Halloween

• Digi Choosday | Christmas Shaker Card Featuring Cute Santa

• It's a Happy Kinda Day... and a Polkadoodles Giveaway!

And speaking of sketches...

Here's another reason why I love them so much.

I used Kendra's Card Challenges #23 sketches to create several cards for Polkadoodles' brand-new Hello Autumn collection.

There are plenty more autumn cards coming over the next few weeks!

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Other Life Lately Updates

Lucky's Birthday

I'm sharing a few of Lucky's many birthday photos here!

I also made the cutest birthday video of him, and I'm ridiculously proud of how it turned out. 

Actually... I think he deserves his own dedicated birthday blog post featuring all his birthday photos through the years. (writing this down on my To Dos)

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Ton's Birthday

We started Ton's birthday celebration with a little tradition of ours - celebrating 7pm the day before our birthday for an "early" salubong.

The night before his birthday, we drove to Bahrain with friends so we could celebrate his birthday salubong at 7 PM, which is already midnight in the Philippines.

We had unlimited pork at Itsumo (still sounds funny saying it like that), then headed to Lilou Café for coffee and birthday cake.

The next morning, Ton still had work, but I prepared his outfit the night before as usual.

This time I picked out a red tie and one of his Pac-Man socks featuring Blinky, the red ghost, for a little birthday good luck.

 D kita si Blinky though

I never told him why I chose them, but the moment he saw the tie he immediately understood.

He missed the socks though. hehe.

That evening we tried a new Japanese restaurant called Kojo, and we really loved it.

I loved the gulay that my steak came with so much that the steak kind of became the sides instead. hahaha!

It reminded us of one fancy Japanese restaurant we visited in Italy 2 years ago, just as beautiful and delicious, but thankfully much less expensive.

Sharing post-blog, photos of that Italy Japanese Restaurant experience. We dined here toc elebrate our wedding anniversary.

We also dropped Lucky off to my friend Jun who will take care of him while we are gone.

I initially felt guilty leaving him, but then I realized he was actually the one having a vacation while we were away. I even told Lucky that he was leaving us for his holiday. hehehe.

Of course, the birthday celebrations continued the following day when we flew to Jakarta.

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Back Home

Since getting back from Indonesia, it's been the usual routine of chores and design team projects.

I've also been reorganizing my craft room yet again. The funny thing is, I had just finished organizing everything after our move.

Now I'm reorganizing all over again because my Bee Happy supplies need more space.

It's basically every crafter's never-ending cycle:

New supplies.

Reorganize.

Repeat.

Hahahahahaha. Not complaining though! But maybe I should calm down. hahahah.

Here's a photo I took middle of my unpacking and packing pasalubongs for friend and then suddenly I got lazy to continue. hahaha:

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My Brisket Obsession Continues

Sooooo, apparently, I'm still not over my brisket cravings.

We decided to try Outback to see if they served brisket, and they did!

Our server, Magdi, gave five-star service. Super!!

Even though he started his shift at 9:01 PM, he still offered us a special platter that officially ended at 9 PM.

For SAR149, we expected a meal for one person.

But instead, we received enough food for what I think could have fed three people. And we got 2 platters! HAHAHAHAHAH

Each platter also came with two drinks, soup, and salad.

We ended up taking half of everything home and enjoyed it again the next day.

 We'll definitely be back and next time just order 1 platter. hehehe.

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Finally Taking My Vitamins

I finally started taking our Hair, Skin & Nails vitamins!

We've had them since our Seattle Costco trip last year.

I've been procrastinating because the capsules are absolutely gigantic.

I'm already taking several medications every day, and swallowing pills isn't exactly one of my favorite hobbies.

But as my friend Mok once told me:

"Lulunukin na lang 'yan, ba't 'di mo pa gawin?"

Fair enough. 

So here I am, adding pill number five to my daily routine.

I also tried a new herbal sleeping medication recommended by the pharmacist as an alternative to my usual one. Unfortunately, I don't think it's for me.

The first night gave me strange dreams, and I slept so deeply that I barely moved all night. I woke up with a terribly stiff neck and felt awful the entire day.

Definitely not taking that blue one again.

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Reading

I've only finished one book so far this month.

It was an airport purchase that kept me company during our nine-hour flight and eight-hour layover.

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Salted Eggs!

Inspired by the yummy salted egg dishes we ate in Jakarta, I finally resumed making salted eggs at home.

The photo I'm sharing is from Day 0. Haha. I'll share an update after 40 days. hahaha!

Now I'm excited to start experimenting with salted egg recipes!

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Hair Care Switch

I also switched hair care brands.

I originally planned to buy my usual Japanese Fino products.

While shopping, a very kind Saudi lady recommended 360 Hair Professional instead.

She even explained that it doesn't contain parabens like Fino and personally walked me through the different product lines.

She was so convincing that she actually removed the Fino products from my shopping cart herself! 

Shopping haul

New hair stuff and lip scrub

So now we're officially trying an Italian hair care routine.

Let's see how it goes!

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Angelgotchi Update

Aaaaaand now, I'm officially adding Tamagotchi updates to these Life Lately posts.

I've wanted a Tamagotchi for quite some time.

I almost ordered one from Japan, but my family will be leaving for Jakarta before the estimated delviery date. Then considered Amazon and thought I'll just order it after our trip, but during our Jakarta trip I randomly found one in a store.

It was Php 1400.00 but I got a Php 1000.00 discount from a lucky draw at the store. So, super win!

I picked the Angelgotchi version simply because it was pink and glittery. I didn't know it was an Angelgotchi until I sstarted playing with it and it had wings. I Googled and learned about the Angelgotchi.

The first day, I thought I had made a mistake because it was so needy.

Thankfully it became much easier after that. Then on Day 4 I looked at the screen and was shocked to see two angels.

Apparently, if you take exceptionally good care of your Angelgotchi, there's a rare chance you'll get twin Angelgotchis. So I guess I'm doing something right!

Yay!

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As always, I'm ending this post by sharing our menu for the week.

And I think that's everything for this week's little Life Lately update.

Thanks for stopping by, and I'll see you next week, hopefully with Christmas decorations already up and maybe even a winter-themed planner spread!