March 31, 2019

#the100dayproject – Vera Documents Life!

verabear Project Life, The 100 Day Project #100daysofmemorykeeping, #memorykeeping, #projectlife, #the100dayproject, #veradocumentslife 0 Comments

For the third year in a row, I am signed up for The 100 Day Project. Check out the link to find out more, I hope you decide to join in or follow along.

Beginning April 2, I shall be embarking on a journey of a hundred days of memory keeping.

Memory what? Memory Keeping!

Are you familiar with Timehop? Or the Memories app on Facebook? It shows you something from your feed from the same day of each year in the past, for as far back as when you joined Facebook. It could be one of your own posts, or one you were tagged in. Honestly, love that feature!

It’s an automated way of showing us what we were doing, thinking, or even found interesting in the past. We have no control over what shows up though; sometimes even stuff we didn’t mean to memorialize just come up. Truly, it digs up stuff we forgot we ever posted about.

Still, it’s a pretty nifty app, don’t you think? There are times when it shows a past aspiration, a dream project, or even just something I said wanted to do or a place I wanted to visit. Sometimes that reminder is enough to push me into action (in case I didn’t take action before). Sometimes it’s a strong reminder of what I had already forgotten.

What if the app is discontinued? What if Facebook shuts down or you lose access to your account?

I have just been notified of my 10 years on Facebook. If I get locked out of my account, how will I get back those 10 years’ worth of posts, albums, memories?

Memory Keeping is anything you do to document your current life or past experiences, so it can later on be reviewed and/or enjoyed. It could be your way of telling your story and making your mark. It can be a piece of family history that gets passed on from generation to generation.

Many of us treat our social media feeds as the sole avenue for memory keeping. We setup albums of our most memorable occasions and experiences. When we’ve reached milestones, we mark the occasion by posting about it.

That’s all good, but if it’s the only way we preserve our memories, what happens when those sites go away? Have we learned anything from the demise of Multiply and Friendster? Is there another way we’re documenting our lives?

We take loads of photos everyday but apart from uploading to social media, most of the time those photos are just left sitting in your phone albums, or on computed hard drives. Who sees them? Don’t wait for first-hand experience when technology fails. I have lost plenty of photos due to computers crashing or hard drives failing. Sayang naman those photos.

This project is my way of preserving those memories and turning them into something tangible that we can enjoy now, and for years and years to come.

Project Goals

For many years I told myself I will be printing my photos and creating Project Life albums to record our life. I’ve amassed a lot of supplies and spent a lot of money towards this intention. So far though, I have one photobook for a day tour of a local museum, another one documenting my first ever 5k run with my girlfriends, and a 30 Days of Thankful album. I’ve got a few weeks’ documented for 2015, maybe 2 or 3 spreads from other years.

Here are some of my Memory Keeping goals:

Make a photobook of our Bangkok 2017 trip.
Make a photobook of our Taiwan 2018 trip.
Do a 2018 Yearbook.
Start and get caught up on our 2019 Yearbook.
Do something with our Wedding photos
Make a photobook of our Palawan 2018 trip, or include pages of it in our 2018 yearbook.
Track older photos and figure out a central storage (could be cloud-based) that will allow me to easily get them into books and printed.

I have no illusions of completing ALL of this in 100 days, but if I do, wouldn’t that be ever so SPECTACULAR? My goals for these hundred days though, would be:

To get started!
To do SOMETHING Memory Keeping related each and every day
- Go through course/s in the BH CLassroom (I purchased the Photo Tips + Workflow class while it was on sale, but it’s still available on full price right now. Also thinking about getting the Yearbook class, on its final 20% off sale TODAY!)
- Select + edit photos
- Print photos
- Work on Journalling
- Put pages together
Use my existing supplies!
Share my progress.

#the100DayProject Inspiration

On Instagram, I follow the #the100dayproject to be inspired by others who are creating something every single day. When you do that it can be easy to feel intimidated about how beautiful others’ work can be, or how much progress they are making. Instead, I choose the inspiration that comes out of their accomplishments.

Here are some accounts or hashtags to checkout, and hopefully they move you to do your own #100dayproject:

#the100dayproject

Amanda of mooandboohandmade

Elise Joy (she’s so amazing, really a creativity/productivity peg!)

I’ll re-share others also on my Instagram in the coming days. 🙂

You can do any of the following to follow and support me as I document life:

Follow me on Instagram: http://instagram.com/verabear
Follow #veradocumentslife
I will figure out a way to share the URL of my blog’s Facebook page, haha 🙂

I hope you follow along and tag us if you decide to do your own 100 day project!

July 4, 2018

Midyear Musings

verabear Intentional Living, The 100 Day Project #100daysofblogging, #100daysofwriting, #the100dayproject, #verawritesfor100days 2 Comments

Another month done. Halfway through 2018. Six more months and it would be just another year gone by.

How much have we accomplished thus far? Is life all about the passage of time, or about how much we do or make in a given amount of time?

Do you measure life by how you feel?

If we want happiness – how does happy feel like? Stop for a moment and think about this: how do you want to feel? Whatever that it is – do what you need to do to feel that way.

Many times, I catch myself thinking about how much time I have wasted. It’s as if I look back at days, weeks, and months, only to realize that I’ve only been going through the motions but not really being fully alive.

But I don’t really think that’s 100% true. I think what’s true is that my idea of living constantly changes. Sometimes I want more, and other times, it is enough to simply exist.

And always, these ideas are influenced by what or who is around me. My husband is prone to saying that social media is evil – and he has a point. How many times have I looked at my social media feeds and come out feeling bad that I didn’t do this, or I haven’t been there, or my house doesn’t look like that? So many times.

But it isn’t social media‘s fault. I realized that I’ve allowed myself to compare my life with an idea of someone else‘s life based only on carefully curated photos. I judged myself.

It took some introspection, some inspiration, and some deep conversations with like-minded people, plus the husband, for me to come to terms with the reality of the choices we make in life. Because ultimately, that is why we are where we are in this season of our lives. It’s about the choices we make. It’s about what we prioritize.

That’s how I managed to stick to the habits I learned when I gave my health a reboot. That’s how I’m finding time to spend with the people I want to surround myself with. It’s also how I’ve managed to complete 8 crochet projects so far this year, and read 16 books! It’s also how we’ve now managed to travel to two countries in less than a year’s time vs ZERO travel in so many years.

Life is all about what we make space and time for. When we look at it that way, I think, it opens us up to nearly limitless possibilities.

This is not to say that I’m living the life. I am also a work in progress. I know that I am still making bad choices, and my daily actions still don’t reflect my vision for the future I want to have. I am inspired – but more often, as it appears, not inspired enough to take real action. Understanding that, I am less frustrated by how much I haven’t yet achieved.

Inspiration. Choice. These are the precious first few steps, but they are not enough to make our dreams a reality. That requires consistent and focused action. That’s why I share this note to the world, not to preach, but really to remind myself to

Choose your vision. Get up. Show up. Do the work. Make it happen.

24/100

July 2, 2018

Our First Potluck At Home

verabear The 100 Day Project #100daysofblogging, #100daysofwriting, #smallbusiness, #the100dayproject, #verawritesfor100days 0 Comments

We did it. We pulled it off.

Our very first time to entertain at home. 🙂

Technically, it’s not the first time. The hubby has had friends over for drinks, but they only ever really spend time at the back and its only for drinks. On Saturday night, we hosted our first potluck dinner party to celebrate the hubby‘s birthday with his side of the family.

This is the first time his family is coming over for a visit. We have been dreading this day for two months – since about the time the cousins agreed that the June inuman session was going to happen here.

Why have we been dreading this day?

Our entire living area is such a mess. It looks like we just moved in, or a tornado just blasted through. That’s why I don’t invite friends over, and why one of my goals this year was to finally be able to entertain friends and family at home – to motivate us to really clean house!

Initially, we wanted to do the cleaning all by ourselves. But we’ve postponed the dinner date because that didn’t happen. And just a week left before the last day of June, we were desperate for help. We finally booked the help of Busy Bees Housekeeping Services to get the house in shape.

They really saved the day.

They helped us declutter and let go of a lot of things. They cleaned up our couch, our bathroom and our kitchen and back area. There’s still a lot of stuff we held on to, but it’s a start towards breaking free of ‘stuff.’ Next time, we intend to enlist their help again but for the bedrooms and the upstairs bath.

Sorry, no before and after photos here but trust me – they did wonders to our home! My parents will attest, specially my Dad! 🙂

Too bad we didn’t get to take photos of everyone who made it to our small shindig, specially since it was the first time since the wedding three and a half years ago that my parents got any face time with my in-laws. By the time I remembered to snap this photo of our remaining guests, the ‘oldies’ had already left 🙂

On a side note, the Big Winner of this gathering was really our nephew/inaanak Grey who got to pick three items from his Ninong Dodong’s Lego collection:

Honestly though, we are wondering how many days we’re actually going to be able to maintain order and cleanliness around here. Haha!

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If you need cleaning services, chat up Busy Bees Housekeeping Cleaning Services on Facebook, they are very responsive and will provide you with a free estimate.

June 27, 2018

The Book Thief

verabear My Bookcase, The 100 Day Project #100daysofblogging, #100daysofwriting, #the100dayproject, #verawritesfor100days, 2018 reading challenge, books 0 Comments

How many times have I found myself transported to another place, and another time? How many times have I imagined living in a different world, a different era? But I would never wish to exist in the time of The Book Thief.

Specially not on Himmel Street.

The Book Thief is my book #14 for 2018. I took my time with this one, reading just a few pages a day. Towards the end, I wanted to keep reading. All the while knowing…

That I may not have the courage to live in that harsh reality of wartime Germany. I don’t know that I have the heart to survive it.

Liesel Meminger had to say so many goodbyes at a tender young age. All because of words. Words. Words. Words that planted seeds of fear and hate. Words that started and fueled a war. Words that ripped families apart. Words that sent home thousands of souls earlier than they had to.

Is it coincidence that I read Markus Zusak’s masterpiece at this very season? There is a lot happening in our country, and in the world today. And once again, words are at the center. Words that are once again being shaken and used to distract, confuse, instill fear, and instigate hate. Words that are rewriting history, and shaping a new reality.

But it is also Words that helped Liesel cope. Words kept her alive. Zusak weaved for us a beautiful tale of humans that existed in that time. He forces us to remember that where there is ugliness, there is also beauty. And that kindness continues to persist in a world full of hate.

No, I would not wish to have lived in that time, in that place, but I would have been fortunate to have known the likes of Liesel, her family and her friends.

They are a reminder that there are Hans and Rosa Hubermanns out there who are willing to care for the lost and forgotten. That no matter the danger, it is right to repay kindness with kindness. There are Rudys, who are true friends, and this one shows us that boys can grow up to be decent young men who will give their all. And there is Max, who held on to hope even when it seemed that all is lost, and who never failed to show gratitude in every way he could.

So I also know that now we have a choice – do we allow the words of modern-day Fuhrers to shape our world, or will we use our words to spark hope, spread kindness, bring joy, and inspire change?

22/100

June 22, 2018

Clean Oven

verabear Baking, The 100 Day Project #100daysofblogging, #100daysofwriting, #smallbusiness, #the100dayproject, #verawritesfor100days 0 Comments

Our Elba, the oven I happily featured in this post from 2009, has served us really well. Recently, it’s always grimy, and all pots and pans you use while cooking would end up with soooo much soot I hated washing because soot just ended up on everything else that’s on the sink.

One knob was broken and has gone missing. The burners weren’t working 100%.

We haven’t used the oven in a long time.

Now, thanks to these young men, Louie and JC, we have a clean and fully functioning oven!

They checked everything and cleaned it inside and out. They say it was in pretty good condition, and just needed a good cleaning to get back to tip-top shape. It did take about 5 or 6 hours for them to complete the job though on a rainy Saturday afternoon.

The service is husband-approved! He’s the primary cook and kitchen manager in this household and is very happy that he can now use multiple burners again. He is also looking forward to using the rotisserie function!

For your oven cleaning and repairs

These guys came all the way from Binangonan, Rizal, and had braved through Metro Manila traffic on their way to our place. That evening, I couldn’t stop thinking about how much time they spend on a single job that day – 6 hours on the job and maybe 4 hours on the commute?

So I would really love to help drive more business to these hardworking, small business folk. For your oven repair and Service needs, here’s how to reach them:

Facebook: Bertiz Louie

Mobile: 09073116053

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Stitches & Words

#the100dayproject