Ibyang Sanchez, Author at Ibyang

I Dream of Gardens and Coffee

21 November 2010 Ibyang Sanchez 0 Comments Category: Everyday Life, Great Finds for the Home

There are three things I want for our dream house to have: (1) a large kitchen, (2) a garden with lots of commercial planters where I can have coffee with the Husband and (3) a red sofa where I can lie down and read my books. I always mention those three things to my Husband and I know one day we will make our dream house come true.

I’m not sure if I have a green thumb, but I sure hope that with the help of outdoor commercial planters available these days, our dream garden will look amazing!

It would be lovely to have a commercial planter such as this…

Or maybe some large commercial planters such as these…

Nowadays, there’s so much options on how to beautify the garden of our dreams. With the right planning, finding the right resources and of course, help from the Husband, one day soon we will have our dream garden where we can relax and have coffee.

Some Wednesdays Spent With Coffee

17 November 2010 Ibyang Sanchez 8 Comments Category: Charmed Life of a Mrs, Deep Thoughts, Health and Well-being

Some Wednesdays I give myself a treat. I get out of work “earlier than early” and I go to a cafe and order a cuppa. Sometimes I call a friend of mine to join me. Sometimes one of my friends will find me sipping my cuppa inside the cafe and he or she will join me. Sometimes I am alone reading an e-book or watching people pass by as I savour my coffee.

I stay there for an hour…an hour and a half tops. Then my Husband will drop by to pick me up and we will go home together.

An hour of good coffee in the middle of the week. A rejuvenating moment to give me some respite on a busy week.

I sometimes have my affair with coffee on Wednesdays because I don’t want to wait for my “me” time on Friday. I don’t NEED to wait.

What about you? What reward do you give yourself on a hump day?

On Selecting A Car Insurance

17 November 2010 Ibyang Sanchez 0 Comments Category: Everyday Life

It’s always exciting to have a new car, isn’t it? I remember my Husband and I buying our first car (our first major investment too!) almost two years ago and we were like kids all happy and anxious to pick up the newest member of our household from the dealer. Since it was our first time in acquiring a car and even if we’ve done a bit of research online and asked friends about their experiences, we had a vague idea on the nitty-gritty of having a car such as maintenance and car insurance. Thankfully, the staff from where we bought our car were very helpful and patiently answered all our questions.

One of the things we really thought about before we bought a car was the insurance we will be availing. We studied and compared several car insurance companies in order to get the most practical policy for us.

This afternoon, I discovered iSelect‘s way of helping car owners to decide on the best car insurance for them. All you need to do is go to their site, fill in the required details and the comparison engine will give you some options for your car insurance. I tried it and it gave me reasonable results. The process took only a few minutes.

At this time of the year, car insurance are one of the things we think about as we will again renew our policy early next year.

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Movie Date with My Girls: Eat Pray Love

14 November 2010 Ibyang Sanchez 3 Comments Category: Charmed Life of a Mrs, Entertainment

From organizing get-togethers, dinners and coffee dates, my girlfriends and I watch chick flicks together too. At this point of our lives, it’s a blessing to find time to do this activity. The tricky part is always with the movie schedule wherein we really have to be there on time so we had to work our schedules around it.

We’ve seen Sex & the City 2 a couple of months ago and then last month, EAT PRAY LOVE was finally shown so we trooped to the cinemas and watched it together. Some of us have read the book and for the others who haven’t, they just looked forward to seeing it.

We all enjoyed it. It’s not spectacular or anything but it was a “feel good” movie where possibly a lot of women are able to relate to Elizabeth’s story. We walked out of the cinema feeling happy and relaxed–it’s as if we all had our “me” time only we shared the moment together.

And when we have get-togethers such as these, My Husband and little Jiona (our friends’ daughter) will always have their play time. After hanging out, my Husband will always have some photographs of them like these….

Isn’t it cute???? I just want to share these because I was so amused when I saw them. Jiona is at that stage where she can already mimic what you are doing, she’s so smart and cute in front of the camera.

Seeing this movie come to life on the big screen is a dream come true for me. Although the movie never showed some important bits and more substantial parts of Liz Gilbert’s book I’m glad that somehow the movie showed her journey to finding herself, balance and love. I love her Italy trip the best from all the three countries that she visited.

Some quotes from the movie that I like:

“Balance is not letting anyone love you less than you love yourself.”

“I want to go some place where I can marvel at something.”

Liz Gilbert: I’m sick of people telling me that I need a man.
Felipe: You don’t need a man, Liz. You need a champion.

“We call it “dolce far niente”, the sweetness of doing nothing.”

‎”The resting place of the mind is the heart. The only thing the mind hears all day is clanging bells and noise and argument, and all it wants is quietude. The only place the mind will ever find peace is inside the silence of the heart. That’s where you need to go.”

“Ruin is a gift. Ruin is the road to transformation.”

After the book “Eat Pray Love“, Elizabeth Gilbert wrote another book entitled “Committed” which tells the dramatic journey of Liz and Felipe to saying “I do.”

Crust Gourmet Pizza Bar

12 November 2010 Ibyang Sanchez 4 Comments Category: Food

Yesterday, we went back to Westfield Sydney to have dinner again. Since my craving for pizza was not satisfied the other night, I just had to go back to have my pizza at

Crust Gourmet Pizza Bar.

Crust offers oil-free quality pizza prepped and ready to go to the oven in a few minutes. They have a whole range of pizza flavors from Traditional, Meat, Chicken, Seafood and Vegetarian pizzas.

I had the tomato-based Sausage Duo topped with Italian Sausage, Chorizo Sausage, Roasted Capsicum and Caramelised Onions, garnished with authentic Buffalo Mozzarell.