All About Photo books!

Photo book is in!  Gone are those days, where after our pictures are printed, we are given a "free album".  Now, they advised me to avail their photobooks.  Curious about it, I give it a try but the layout in the shop is simple and need to top-up/pay more money if you want to have a nice layout (in photoshop or other collage software maybe). 

I decided that i will try to create the layout for my photobooks.  At first, it looks so simple and eventually i learn to be "more creative".  My first photobook was my son's "First 12 Months".  In that photobook, i make sure that every month is represented.  When i first saw the photo book, i was in tears that anytime i wish to recall my baby's growth, all i have to do is open the book.  So after that, almost all events in my baby's life is in photobooks.  Now he is 3.5 yrs and here's the books that i have created so far.

I still have many more to put into photobooks like our recent vacation last yr and our 2012 Moments. The layout of these books are "lay flat" style.  Here's some of the pages:

Truly, photo album has evolved into a much more meaningful and fun to see.  Can you imagine how many photobooks will my son have in the future?? He might have a library full of his childhood pictures :).

18th Birthday!

Finally, the time has come where our youngest sister will celebrate her "18th Birthday"!  As the youngest, she is privilege to enjoy this opportunity..  All of us (elder sisters), had a simple celebration on our 18th birthday so this is the first time that we will held a grand birthday party.

You might be wondering, what's so special with 18th birthday for girls in the Philippines. From wikipedia:

The Debut is a traditional Filipino coming-of-age celebration for young women. The occasion is somewhat reminiscent of the Latin American Quinceañera, although instead of celebrating the girl's 15th birthday, the debut celebrates a young woman's 18th birthday, the age of maturity in the Philippines.

On their 18th birthday, Filipinos customarily throw a large party, complete with her own hand-picked entourage of 18 individuals or multiple sets of 18. These 18 are conventionally nine males and nine females whom the celebrant pairs off into partners. The celebrant's court usually wears a uniform formal outfit chosen by the celebrant (similar to the dress of a wedding party), while the celebrant herself typically wears one or several extravagant gowns during the course of the night.

Preparations have to be made and here's what we have consider before deciding to host a debut for my sister.
1. How much is the budget?  
   - Decide/Source out for possible venues.
   - How many guest?  I actually told my sister that she could not just invite all the people she knows so i give her a limit as to how many she can invite.
   - If decoration is not included in the venue package then need to look for one..
   - party suppliers like cake, tokens, projector, bubble machine, etc
  - if there's enough budget, it's good to have a party coordinator.
2.  What's the motif/theme?
  - source out for debutante gown?
  - do we need to provide gown for the cotillions?
       (The cotillion is a type of patterned social dance that originated in France in the 18th century.)
  - coordinate with party suppliers on what's the color motif and theme of the party to make sure that decorations/cakes etc match with the color motif/theme.
3. let the debutante come up with the list for her 18 dance, 18 treasures, 18 wishes.

My sister choose "pink and black" color motif and the theme is "masquerade".  So i make sure that her gown should have pink and black in it. Here's the pictures of her two gowns:

Here's the cake:

The party was a blast, and it was all worth it.