Your Wednesday Morning Uber Ride

I have been taking cabs or Uber cars for nine days now. I’ve generally had a good Uber experience, except for Monday’s ride that took the long way costing me a bit more time and money than usual. On Friday, a 6-minute wait time turned out more like 20, but I didn’t make a big deal out of it.

There are two down sides to this situation – it is costing me a lot more daily to take cabs, than my usual petrol costs (let’s not talk about Parking for now). And we can’t just up and go to the grocery, when we run out of food. Fast food delivery is also costing us much more, in addition to the food not being good for us.

Of course, other people are able to do groceries even without cars, it isn’t a requirement. People go out and do stuff all the time and take public transport or hop on and off cabs or Uber cars. I get it. We just haven’t done that in a while. Old habits die hard.

And I just really miss driving my own car.

Last Look at Dale

Last Look at Dale

That there is a snapshot of my official last look at my first car – Dale. I named it Dale based on the plate, but I never really got the habit of calling it that. We just referred to it as the car, my car, the Honda.

We’ve been through so much, including 3 costly accidents. But he’s been good to me. I feel bad that in the last two months or so, he barely got washed. Our suki car wash along Scout Reyes closed down and I just couldn’t find another place that I liked enough to bring my car weekly to. Haha.

Dale was supposed to be replaced the very next day. It hasn’t happened so far. It’s been really frustrating and disappointing, but I’d rather not spend my energies on being negative about this situation. So to and from work, Uber it is. I try to enjoy the experience of sitting in a different car every time I need to go somewhere. Like today, I found out that it is actually spacious inside a Toyota Wigo. It isn’t as tight as I thought it would be. The Hyundai Eon wasn’t too shabby either. In fact, that car was the coolest of all the cars I’ve used in my morning/afternoon trips so far. By coolest I mean A/C coolest. I’ve had to ask other drivers to adjust the A/C, but not on that Eon.

As a rider, I really do like Uber. I love @Uber! I also like the business model and the potential income it offers. Have you tried it? How was your Uber experience? If you haven’t, then sign up with my promo code and get ?200 off your first ride! https://www.uber.com/invite/verao27ue

*Not a sponsored post, but I do get a free ride if you sign up with my code: verao27ue

My Project Life Corner

Last week, I made a honey-do list for my Husband, and also for one myself. Both were lists of declutter and cleaning projects for the two of us. Each having designated areas around the house. 

The very next day, a Wednesday, the Husband dove right into it – not really minding the lists but just tackling pile after pile of stuff around our living area. 

  

I came home and got handed stuff to sort and a big bag to dump garbage in. And the dust clouds got stirred and lost items got found. 

 The biggest and happiest thing I got out of the exercise was this – my very own Project Life corner:  

I bought my very first PL core kit thru Amazon in 2011 but never really completed an album. A big factor was not having a dedicated area to just access everything, but also mostly because I was being too hard on myself.

There was so much inspiration out there but I didn’t use it to my advantage. Instead, I kept obsessing about having to make stuff look prettier that I ended up not making anything. I had the front and back covers done for 2011 and then redone for 2012. And then just 1 and 3/4 of a spread in total.

Among the found stuff was a bunch of Instax prints from 3-4 years ago. I quickly made a spread using the cards I had on hand and plain Washi tape. 

  

 I felt happy having completed the spread in 15 minutes. Later on I went back to write a quote on friendship on that journaling card. 
Prior to having this corner, I’ve had a PL revival already courtesy of the App. But that story’s for another day. What about you, how do you document your everyday life? 

Mystery CAL Afghan 2015

A CAL is a crochet-a-long challenge, where anyone who signs up works on the same project at pretty much the same time.

mystery CAL afghan 2015 1

mystery CAL afghan 2015 1

I learned of Yarnspirations & The Crochet Crowd’s CAL about a week or two after it started – many months ago!  No big deal though, because anyone can jump in, anytime. It’s also a mystery cal which meant participants didn’t know what the end would look like. It was meant to run 10 weeks, but all in all it took me maybe double that time.
I would crochet or knit all day everyday if I could – I’d do it for a living! But I have a full time job, other hobbies, and I need my time to just loaf around too, hehe. But working on this project has been really good for me. It’s a way to de-stress, and also a way to learn new stuff in crocheting.

Mystery CAL Afghan 2015 3

Mystery CAL Afghan 2015 3

My crochet bag didn’t make it to work this time around, but I did bring it with me on a few errands. Mostly though, I crocheted in the car while the Husband went grocery shopping. Yep – I drive the Hubby to the grocery & back. We list together the items we need, but it’s him who does the leg work 🙂

mystery CAL afghan 2015 2

So back to the project. I love the softness of the yarn! I prefer the feel of Caron Simply Soft over Red Heart Super Saver. I chose the jewel tones on the suggested color motif and it turned out bright and bold.

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My favorite part of the project was the edging, I’d never done any work like that before and I liked the variety of stitches I got to use. I love how it turned out!

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If I were to change anything though, I would have made more squares. I ended up with a baby blanket instead of an afghan, it’s just too small. I am considering making another one like it, but of a different palette.

For now, I sent it off to Amir. I’ll leave it up to him if he wants to have it for himself. When I was starting to make it he did ask to be made one, so I’ll let him have it if he wants. I think though that he might ask for a different one with reds and blues instead. 🙂

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Rainbow’s End 

  
After a very long day at work, we all looked out the window, snapped and stared in awe at this rainbow. It was so vivid, and we could see the end of the rainbow – the golden Shell gasoline station across EDSA.

Whether there is or isn’t a pot of gold at that rainbow’s end didn’t matter. It’s appearance was enough to give us hope. We are in the midst of a transition at work right now and the numbers just don’t reflect where we know we should already be. It definitely broke the trend we were building up to in the past six weeks, but seeing the rainbow is a reminder to look at it in perspective. 

Yes, we knew that this evolution was going to give us a further handicap. We knew it was an added challenge. But we also know what we need to do to overcome it.

There is no doubt in my mind that relentless execution of the plan will see us through to consistent success.

Thank you, Rainbow. Your presence today sure brought back some hope and a dash of color. 

Friends, What does seeing the rainbow inspire in you? 

Oodles of Doodles

I know that I’ve always loved doodling. But I don’t think I’ve doodled so much like I do now! 🙂

It started when I bought a pack of Sharpies on sale and brought it to work with me, along with 4×6 cards. I made a number of greeting cards. And then, I just kept writing and doodling with my Sharpies. A few weeks later, I scored a pack of colored pens from the bookstore and it made the doodling so much easier. I like writing words, not so much shapes.

Doodles by Verabear

Doodles by Verabear

 

This is why I started thinking about learning more about lettering or calligraphy. I tried my hand on it back in highschool. I even bought a book, nibs and ink. But I soon realized it wasn’t the kind of writing I liked.

Have you heard about Abbey Sy? I recently followed her on Instagram (@abbeysy) and she does really beautiful type work. I’d love to have her book (The ABCs of Hand Lettering), and/or her lettering kit.

The ABCs of Hand Lettering by Abbey Sy

The ABCs of Hand Lettering by Abbey Sy – photo credit to Abbey Sy and http://artistic-dreams.com/

 

The Craft Central - Lettering Starter Kit

The Craft Central – Lettering Starter Kit

I know, I know. I already have hobbies I can’t even sustain. But I see lettering as possibly complementary to scrapbooking with Project Life. Imagine those journal cards and how lovely they’d look. 🙂

Ooooh so many hobbies. Hobbies that cost time and money – but also a lot of happiness. Haha. For now, the kit or classes on lettering would have to take least priority. But her book is only PhP 295 so that’s definitely affordable. Supplies might cost a bit though. We’ll see.

What about you? Do you like doodling or lettering too? Any hobbies?

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