Thankful for Family


Christmas 2010 is over, its the day after Christmas and since we got snowed in (freak snow and basically the whole city shut down), I stayed at my parents house and just chilled. Looking back on the year 2010, so much has happened. A year ago, my husband and I were in Colorado, and we would have never imagined we would be home with family and friends. I dont even think Jermie and I even celebrated the holidays last year, all we remember is riding the bus in the snow in Colorado. lol   But it just goes to show, that with hard work and patience and prayers...you have the power to change your life.

With what I have been through the past 10 years, from serving 4 years in the army, 2 deployments, having children and moving like a billion times, a divorce, getting married again, and so much more i do not even like to talk about, it is such a relief that all my sweat and tears and everything I worked for and all that I have struggled through finally paid off. All I wanted last year was to come home to Virginia. I have been home for about 6 months and everything is falling into place.

Christmas was awesome, it almost didnt feel like it was christmas. My husband and I were in shock, but we pulled it through. Shopping and wrapping presents for everyone was so much fun and I enjoyed watching all my cousins and my children run around the house, all my aunts and my mom and friends of the family all piled in the kitchen, cooking, wrapping and eating lumpias.....I loved it.

Christmas morning was amazing, although I was sick (which I am feeling so much better), and I got alot of great presents from everyone. I am just grateful that I was able to be with my family. I know I say that all the time, but I am so humbled I cant help but to write about it. Well, that is all I am gonna say for now, just wanted to write and wish everyone a happy christmas!


Do what you love and the money will follow.

"I feel like a parent"

I spent the day with my kiddos and it was so much fun. (for those who dont know, I share the kids with their father..so the whole joint custody thing). Even though I was feeling gross with a cold, I didnt wanna lounge in bed all day, so after drinking some coffee to wake me up, Arabella wanted to paint her nails like mine. lol I had painted my nails red and put white stripes like candy canes (stole idea from julieg713 on youtube!).  My daughter has thick, gorgeous black hair and its usually just a big mess of hair, and since I will be going to cosmetolgy school next month, I decided to practice on my daughter's hair. So here is what I did..(and copied idea from another blog...hahahaha)


It looks sloppy here, but this hairdo stayed all day. three braids in the front and then wrapped into a circle held down with bobby pins. She loved it. When I was painting her nails, she asked if she could have a sip of my coffee....and I hesitated at first telling her, "This is a grown up drink", but she insisted, so I let her have a tiny sip....after she takes a drink, she looks at me and says, " That tastes good", but I told her she couldnt have anymore. Well, the lil sneaky girl that she can be stole a few large sips when I went upstairs to get hairspray and then she even let her brother...Matthias drink some too....The next hour after that they were sooooo hyper...can I say "Sugar Buzz" lol.


After she drank the coffee..she told me......" I feel like a parent!", I asked her why and she said because parents drink coffee. It was the most adorable thing ever. lol It is true what they say that kids say the darndest things! I think I am gonna scrapbook what they say and keep it, so when they are older I can show them how stinkin cute they are. lol


and speaking of the darndest things kids say, last week, Matthias told me with a very serious face, he said "Mommy, I want a tattoo".  I said, "do you want a real one or a fake one" he said "a real one!' I told him that real ones hurt with needles, plus he would have to be 18 years old. he was pretty bummed out, but I made him a deal that I would get him fake ones and he can put them whereever he wanted. lol kids are so cute!


We took the kids to see Tangled....I guess they only remember me taking them to the movies when they were younger, so I loved that I could share this with them again. When we walked into the theater..their lil faces lit up and bella whispered to me "this is so cool". I cant wait to take them again.

well, that was my day with the kiddos...I hope everyone else who has kids can share special moments like I did. Happy Holidays!

Cecilia


Do what you love and the money will follow.

Top 7 on my Christmas List

so, just for fun, I put together a list of things I want for Christmas. I am not expecting to get any of these..because some of them are a lil expensive, but these are things I am going to get myself in 2011, so in a way, these are my 2011 goals. Counter clockwise:

HELLO KITTY WATCH
I go through watches like nobody's business. It is my number one accessory and I love watches that are different and I love Hello Kitty, which seems to be a trend that never goes out of style. I love it because my grandmother used to take me to the Sanrio store during my summer visits to Florida and have loved Hello Kitty ever since.

LIP JUNKIE LIP GLOSS BY URBAN DECAY
I love lip gloss. I do not wear lip stick too much, but I live for gloss. I love this trio that Urban Decay offers and I am gonna treat myself to this once Christmas is over (if I do not get it as a gift, of course) hahaha

DOUBLE ACTION AIRBRUSH
When you read "double action", I am sure you are wondering what the heck I am talking about. I have an airbrush, but it is just a basic airbrush, I have been practicing, but for me to do really detailed work, I need an airbrush that will let air flow and paint and that I can adjust the flow of air...the one I have now is single action which is good for bigger projects..but not good for other stuff I wanna do, such as guitars. lol

MONET FRENCH EASEL
I have been dabbling into painting for a while now, and I am really liking painting on big canvases, such as my "Lily" painting. If anyone saw my makeshift easel, it was pretty sad (I used patio chairs), and my dining table is not suitable either, so I would like to get an easel that I could use indoor or outdoor.

NIKON CAMERA
Of course, any artist cannot be complete without a nice camera. My major is graphic design, and I would like to be able to take better photos. I especially want to be able to take pics of my projects and other things I have going on, like designing clotehs, or doing someone's make up or hair.

ADOBE CS5 MASTER DESIGN SUITE
I have been downloading trial version after trial version of Adobe Illustrator, and Photoshop to try and sharpen my skills and I would like to be able to have it, instead of downloading. Once I open my boutique, I will be able to get it on my business plan. lol hehehehe

TRAVEL MAKE-UP CASES
I will be attending the Rudy and Kelly Paul Mitchell Cosmetology school next month, and I am already building up my supplies..with straighteners, blow dryers and make up...and once finished, I am hoping to be able to dive right into working once completed as a stylist, so I would like to have these cases to help lug around my stuff. lol 

Well, This was my list of top 7 wants....what are yours?

Happy Holidays, Cecilia 

Do what you love and the money will follow.

I love christmas parties!!!!!!!!!!

My mother is a chief in the navy, and every year her command has a christmas party. I have not been home to attend one of these ever..so I was really excited that my husband and I were invited to go with my parents and my aunt and her boyfriend and his son and his girlfriend.  I was so excited because I love to get all dolled up...(I dont get to dress all fancy as much as I would like) and I had this one dress a friend bought for me a few years ago, so I decided to "recycle" it and wear it again. I have been into the "pin up" 50's style and decided to look like a pin up girl. I follow a girl on youtube who makes videos on how to do your hair like a pin up girl from the 50's, so after watching a video, I did my own hair.


I didnt get a chance to take a picture of my hair from the top, but what I did was after curling my hair all over, I took my front bangs and curled them and created "pin curls", using about 15 bobby pins, I pinned 3 big pin curls. It didnt take me too long, maybe a total of 10 minutes. I love that I have peek-a-boo highlights in my hair and when I did my curls, it just looked amazing. I was really proud of myself that I did it, I cant wait to go to Cosmetology school and learn more, it's gonna be so much fun. My make up was fun to do too, I used my Bare Essentials powders, and my palette of 120 colors of eyeshadow ( which I only used 4 colors mainly), and my MAC brush set, I did a natural look for my eyes with the cat eye liner on my top lids. I used Loreal Beyonce red lip stain for my lips which really makes everything "POP"!!! Since my eyeslashes are so long, I really dont need fake lashes, but I wanted my lashes to be thicker, so I bought some fake lashes from the Dolla Sto.....(dollar store) hahahaha and that was it!  Oh, and I almost forgot, the lil red flower!





This was really nice, because Jermie and I havent been able to go out and get dressed up so we had a really fun time.  During the party, they gave away prizes...to include 2 Wii's systems, 2 XBOX 360 with the konnects systems, many gift cards and other gifts..but the main prize was a 42" TV..man, we wanted that soooo bad, but we didnt win......we did manage to get a fondue set from the gift exchange gift...that my mom brought for the game...so it was funny that we took it home!

Well, that was my night last night! I hope everyone else has fun holiday parties too!  Love, Cecilia



Do what you love and the money will follow.

Thanksgiving Mayhem

Me with my children

In the blur of the past 2 weeks, I shouldve wrote about Thanksgiving...totally spaced it. lol I have been trying to edit a video that my daughter made and I want to post it, maybe I ll get it done and hopefully it will be on this post....or I will just go ahead and post it as is. (WELL.....Blogger is taking FOREVER to load my video.....so I guess its not meant to be)


Arabella "producer in the making"

 She took control of a flip video camera and became the hostess of the show, with my son trying to yell over top of her. It was really cute. Thankfully she doesnt read this...(she is only 6 years old) but I am getting her a lil Hello Kitty Video camera, so she can make her own lil videos and shows, and I am getting Matthias a nice lil camera, since he took someones camera and started snappin away.


Matthias taking a pic of the microwave. LOL can you see our reflections?


Matti took a pic of "Jammie" is how he pronounces his name


It was just so adorable and priceless. I loved every moment of it. I havent been able to see my children in a few years due to some craziness a few years ago, but I feel really blessed that God has given me another chance to be with my family. I hope everyones holidays were as precious as this. I was able to eat turkey and mashed potatoes, cresant rolls..or should I say Garlic crescent rolls because mom grabbed the wrong kind at th commisary hahahaha, we had fresh green beans, i think there was corn, I dont really remember. All i know is we all rubbed our lil hearts out. and eveyone had abite of my moms delish creamcheese pie.....i dont even remember what this was called: I know the crust was an oreo and there was some cream cheese in there...some melted caramel and chocolate...and just rish goodness.




My mother makes some really good cheese cakes...and she makes this one chocolate chip short cake with strawberries oh man, I will havet o get that recipe and post a how to. y'all will love it!


to aspiring filmakers and artists and chefs all around the world, no matter what age they are! Love, cecilia


Do what you love and the money will follow.

All I want for Christmas is a HIPPO


I was out doing a lil christmas shopping yesterday at a discount store, and came across a Shirley Temple movie. I used to love watching Shirley Temple as a kid. In Fact, I think thats why I started in tap and ballet classes when I was younger. There's so much that her movies did for americans back in the depression..when going to the movies cost 25 cents! Now it costs like, $10 to go see a movie. lol  I love putting on an old Shirley Temple movie and just getting some sewing done, or drawing up a design stuck in my head. Watching her movies brought back some nice memories. I wonder if my daughter would like her movies. Well, this is a short post, just wanted to write a quick blog about it. If you click the title of the blog, it will link you to a youtube video that is a tribute for Shirley Temple with her song " I want a hippopotamus for Christmas"

Enjoy and happy shopping!



Do what you love and the money will follow.

Personal Shopper is not CODEWORD for something else....

Sorry it has been a few days since I have posted, I have been so busy with finals at school, and with Thanksgiving and Black Friday...it was hectic. Then of course, shopping and getting a tree picked out and decorating for Christmas. I am getting wiped out. I hope everyone had a great and yummy Thanksgiving. I was grateful to be back in my hometown for the holiday and stuffed myself with turkey....my son I think ate his weight in turkey. I wish I had a pic of him just chowin down. lol

My last post, I showed a flyer I made to be a personal shopper so I can help to make a lil extra money for my school kit. I didnt have time to post it around town, so I had posted it on Craigslist, which I wasnt sure about but hey, it couldnt hurt. I got a call early in the morning from a guy who said he wanted me to shop for a tv since he would be working.  Let's just say when I met him ( and of course I brought a friend) to his job to go over a shopping contract, I think he had other intentions. So, needless to say..I left there in a hurry. lol What a creepo though. So, for those who are posting stuff...be careful! You never know who is a creep!

And speeking of a creep, the other morning, when it was pouring down rain, at 7am, this old dude came knockin on our door. My cousin and I freaked out, and I had my husband answer the door....the ol guy was trying to hand out pamplets about a church somewhere and asking if we go to church. OK, nothing against religion or churches....but first of all....its pouring out, like a hurricane out, and its 7am...when some people are still sleeping....I respect all religions, but do not like when religion is pushed onto me..or pounding on my door 7am in the morning. C'mon! Anyways, just wanted to vent and share with yall.

Its the holidays, everyone please be careful! Happy Holidays!

Do what you love and the money will follow.