Creating A Home

It's not easy creating a home.

First you have a house and then there are the people. I'm just learning to put together the house, running the household and trying to turn it into a home.

While the people part of creating a home is a definite work in progress (and never ends), the house part so far is easy. As everyone knows, we're waiting for our unit at The Beacon to be finished. It's still under construction. Since our unit is somewhere around the 2*th floor, it would take awhile before the building's people will call us for our specifications. Nevertheless, I've been going around the net to gather as much visual pegs to help me make it one step closer to turning our future house into our future home.

A few months back I was into the general areas and appliances. Now I'm going into details with invaluable help from Lombok. I've run to their site time and time again whenever I'm looking for inspiration and ideas. They have such a wide selection of different styles that I'm sure anyone will be able to find something that would appeal to their sense of elegance and functionality. It's quite easy to browse through their user-friendly webpage too. Along with the sweet, simple and to-the-point descriptions, I especially love the photos they include with their products. Since I'm a visually oriented person, the tasteful photos showcase the items to their best advantage. It's easier to visualize the products where I want to put them in our future house.

A few examples of lovely finds are these photo frames. I think we're going to cover our walls with a mosaic of framed family and friends. It'll be a cool alternative to wall paper, cross-stitched pictures or posters. Set all over the house walls, one can follow a story and our family's history in unique frames that would reflect a photo's personality.

Lighting is also another detail I don't want to neglect either. I want to create the mood that our house is our family's sanctuary. I want a cozy ambiance with lamps to create nooks for personal space and general lighting fixtures that would pull everything together. The lamps here are perfect, from floor lamps to table or bedside lamps.

Of course, there has to be candles! In the bathrooms, in the kitchen and in the living room! Colorful, scented and potted (can't have wax on the lovely wood furniture we love!). With a child and more to come though, my candle dreams will have to be put safely higher than little arms can reach! But nevertheless, the candles will be there even if I can't light them often or when the kids are around.

Speaking of other accessories, you have to check these out! I just love a good bed to sleep and lounge in with layers of pillows and sheets and covers to get lost in! I want my family to be able to look forward to a good night's luxurious snuggle in quilts and downy comforters with a nice, firm cushion or two. Warm woods and these baskets would also give our house a homey feel and storage wouldn't be too much of an eyesore to have around.

The folks in the UK are really lucky! Ordering from this site's easy and delivery's free after a certain amount of purchases online. They do international deliveries with some coordination with a client's preferred shipping company though, so there's hope for us non-UK residents!

So far, the planning for The Beacon is going well. I just hope the final look of our place would truly live up to our expectations of what our home would be. RF and I have been looking forward to this since we thought of having our own place. And until we move in to a house that would truly be ours, we would always feel nomadic, waiting for the place we can really call our home.

Updates! Updates!

Yes. I still live and breathe, people.

Good god it's been more than a full month since I last wrote. As usual, a lot has happened and I barely had time to myself, let alone to open the computer for anything. Not that it's fixed, by the way . . . the computer has broken down MORE. I didn't think it could get more wasted than it already was, but apparently there was still room for more damage. In case you're wondering, I'm at my parents' house in QC (with Oona of course). Apart from the computer use, we're staying here to take a vacation from the long vacation. And did I mention Oona's huge, brand new canines? Yes. Teething and the holidays! What could be more perfect?

The holidays were fun, exhausting and a whirlwind of tinsel, wrapping paper and snot-filled tissue paper. The parties and family get-togethers were fun, Oona supplied the whirlwind of energy and RF and I were/are the exhausted.

RF had four office parties to go to with Oona and me in tow. We managed three before being too tired to do anything but flop around the house. Then there was the socializing with family and friends. In between schmoozing, RF came down with a bug. So naturally, Oona followed her Daddy into the sniffles with matching ginormous boogers. Who knew a nose that small could sport snot the size of quarry rocks? And of course, I faithfully followed my little family into sickness and slowly into health. Sleepless nights watching for hitches in breathing, turning over the little girl when she wakes herself up from a clogged nose or giving a back rub when the cough gets to be too much. Thank god she really does take after her Daddy's ridiculously strong constitution or else, I'd feared we'd end up giving her a vaporizer for Christmas by now. The bugs making the rounds nowadays are really nasty!

After she got well, we managed to go to Baguio for Oona's first road trip up there and experienced the famous 7.5 degree temperature drop! Having managed to survive that trip without anyone freezing to death or getting pneumonia, I would declare myself Queen of Anti-Freeze. Thanks to bundles of warm, knitted clothing and layers of warm cotton, we managed to enjoy the experience without losing digits to frostbite. We forgot to apply protection to our lips though so we had a bit of windburn there to deal with, but nothing that petroleum jelly or a Chapstick can't soothe and fix.

Our last leg of the holiday whirl, that last trip really took me out. Now, I have the flu to end all flu cases. My throat hurts, my lungs hurt, my nose is dripping like a leaky faucet and I generally feel like I got run over. Ten times. By a bus on EDSA. Ten frikkin' times because the driver backed up to make sure I was dead. Ironically I was invited to attend Nuffnang's Flu Vaccine Awareness Seminar, but I'm just too exhausted to go there and maybe sneeze at people. Er, schmooze. I meant schmooze with people.

So now, after having put the Oona to bed and unwinding for a few minutes before hitting the sack, I am of course wondering what the new year will bring my little family.

After all the excitement and spectacular highs and lows of last year, would it be too much to ask for a little steady, stable ground to stand on? Of course I'd love the classic health and wealth wishes too! But right now, I would like a little peace and quiet please. Some time to heal and regain strength and establish calm and serenity in our lives. I'm just way too tired and feeling sick to bite any more bullets and dodge spitballs.

Hopefully, this coming Year of the Ox would bring us that.