Starbucks City Mug Collection Update

This past month had been crazy. My Starbucks city mug collection grew rapidly.

Reasons would be I went to the Philippines and traded my heart out. I also had a few international trades via mail. Some were gifts for me. Yes, I felt the love.

I brought these with me together with our luggage.

My cousin from Phoenix is spoiling me.

A very special mug from a dear friend. She personally bought this from her trip to Seattle.

A successful trade from Poland.

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I have 30 new mugs to add to my collection. I now have a total of 69 mugs.

And my collection continues to grow and grow...

A big THANK YOU to each person helping me grow my collection.

Photo-A-Day May 2012: First and Second Week

I had been missing for a while. Real life took over. Time was a scarcity as well as a fast efficient internet connection.

The secret had been out. Javi and I were in Manila. But we're now back in Bangkok. We traveled to the Philippines for the reason that my only brother was getting married. More on his happy wedding on a separate entry.

Day 1 - Peace
My sister helped me with the day's prompt and showed me this notebook as we were going around Fully Booked.
I "borrowed" the notebook and snapped a photo of it. I love that it's in my favorite colors - pink and neon green.

Day 2 - Skyline
If we were in Bangkok, this would have been easy as we have a spectacular view of the skyline from our balcony.
But in our barrio in Bulacan, this is the best one I could find. Very tropical!

Day 3 - Something I wore today
The summer heat is so on. I need to put up my hair all the time thus the photo of a scrunchy.

Day 4 - Fun!
KFC is more fun in the Philippines because of the gravy!

Day 5 - Bird
It was so hard to take a photo of a real bird. I kept on shooing them away. So I settled for  a coffee packaging from Starbucks from one of our late night coffee run and the bird of Twitter.

Day 6 - Me
All dolled up for my brother's wedding

Day 7 - Someone that inspires me
Next to my husband, the other person who inspires me to become a better version of myself is my son. Photo taken while we were inside the Yellow Cab restaurant in Paseo de Sta. Rosa.

Day 8 - A smell I adore
One of my favorite scent, L'eau Par Kenzo Pour Femme, with a background of the Makati skyline.

Day 9 - Something I do everyday
I start my day with my morning devotional over a cup of coffee.

Day 10 - A favorite word
My favorite word "Love" in my favorite McDonald's slogan, "Love ko 'to."
Oh, and while at McDonald's I took home my favorite Quarter Pounder with Cheese.

Day 11 - Kitchen
I was still in Bulacan so this is a part of my mother's kitchen.

Day 12 - Some thing(s) that make me happy
Three things that made me happy: (1) Purefoods Tender Juicy hotdog, (2) Advanced Mother's day lunch at Cibo, and (3) a sleeping Javi on the entire Manila - Bangkok flight.

Day 13 - Mom
Oh, why do you have to be so far away?
These are my mother's photos from her Facebook page.

Day 14 - Grass
We live in a concrete jungle. It was so hard to look for a photo of  grass.
I snapped this one while on a cab ride. 

May is almost half over. How did your first two weeks go?

Photo-A-Day April 2012: Last Week

Well, we have reached another month end. I finished my second monthly photo challenge. Yay!

April passed by in a snap of a finger. I am on a secret mission on this last week of April. I will let the photos speak for itself.

Day 22 - The last thing I bought
The ONLY thing I bought. Snack from Auntie Anne's before boarding the plane.

Day 23 - Vegetable
I love ampalaya or bitter gourd/bitter melon.
For me, the Philippines has the greenest and crunchiest ampalaya.

Day 24 - Something I'm grateful for
A sleeping baby
The iPad
Abundance of my favorite 3-in-1

Day 25 - Looking down
Sorting and arranging Starbucks items for trading

Day 26 - Black + white
Javi and I picked out this dessert from Golden Spoon - cake batter plus Reese's Peanut Butter

Day 27 - Somewhere I went
I took my little boy to see the Barney show.
He was terrified and wanted to leave the venue.
He eventually warmed up the last 15 minutes and was jumping up and down. 

Day 28 - 1PM
We celebrated my father's 80th birthday over lunch.
He passed away 12 years ago but we still do something to remember him on his birth date. 

Day 29 - Circle
This is a Filipino delicacy/dessert, Ginataang Halo-Halo. My husband loves this. 

Day 30 - Something that makes me sad
I am sad that my father couldn't be around to celebrate milestones with us. 

You may find earlier posts about the Photo-A-Day April challenge here --

Week 1
Week 2
Week 3

My challenge is also in --

Twitter
Flickr 
Google+

And there goes the rest of April for me.

How was your last week of April?