Cherished Memories Archives | Page 16 of 29

Sunset on Air

19 September 2010 Ibyang Sanchez 3 Comments Category: Charmed Life of a Mrs, Cherished Memories, The Married Life

One of my best surprising experiences happened yesterday as I took a plane back home to Sydney and looked out the window and witnessed a beautiful sunset. It was the perfect blessing to end my short Spring getaway with the Husband.

I don’t remember ever booking a flight during sunset hours and the moment I saw this spectacle outside my window, one of my thoughts were, “I should have done this ages ago.”

There’s something wonderful about watching the sun set while up on air. It’s like you are so much nearer to God’s beautiful creations.

Life gives you perfect moments in simple, minuscule forms sometimes that if you’re not living in the moment, you might missed it.

Yesterday up on air, I experienced one of the most perfect moments of my life: sitting inside the plane, the beautiful sunset outside my window and holding the hand of the love of my life.

I’m in love. I’m at peace. I’m blessed. I’m grateful.

Dinner @ Hurricane’s Grill, Dessert @ The Chocolate Room

14 September 2010 Ibyang Sanchez 10 Comments Category: Charmed Life of a Mrs, Cherished Memories, Food

In celebration of our friend and tweetmate Kristine’s arrival in Sydney, Lena, Jay, Chris and I took her to dinner tonight. We took her to one of the restos in Sydney that served delicious ribs–Hurricane’s Grill.

Pre-food…a reunion of sorts!

We only ordered two courses at Hurricane’s as we planned to have dessert somewhere else. For starters, we had the Grilled Calamari (flash grilled with lemon and rice). The calamari tasted fresh and soft. I swear, the guys at Hurricane’s know how to grill.

The main event was of course the Pork Ribs. Two full racks of tasty, grilled Pork Ribs. The meat was so tender it literally fell off the bones. Sidings of chips and rice (for the boys) completed our meal.

Before the attack….

and after.

We were supposed to have dessert at Lindt Cafe but it was closed already (boo hoo!) so we walked some more and found ourselves at The Chocolate Room.

Had a taste of Mortal Sin. Nice name for a cake, huh? Sinfully rich but not too sweet.

The best discovery of the night was that they now serve Gelato!!! Weeeee! Kristine had a scoop of Ferrero Gelato (yes, from the chocolate Ferrero Rocher) and I had a taste of it. It had a nutty taste with an aftertaste of rhum (?). Interesting. Not sure if it was really rhum or maybe it was just very high in cocoa.

I had a scoop of the Tim Tam Gelato (yes, from the chocolate!) It tasted like chocolate mudcake. Not very “Tim Tam-y” for me. But it was good nonetheless.

Kristine brought her Polaroid camera with her and it was a dream come true to have a genuine Polaroid photo of us!

My Polaroid souvenir. I love it!!!! (Thanks Kristine! Lovely to finally meet you!)

Back To Our Normal

15 August 2010 Ibyang Sanchez 10 Comments Category: Charmed Life of a Mrs, Cherished Memories, The Married Life

It’s been a week and a day since my mom went back to Manila and things have gone back to normal in the home. Back to our normal means:

(1) Not doing any touristy stuff
(2) Eating out is a once a week reward and a break from all the cooking we do at home throughout the week
(3) We are back to our weekly schedule of cleaning and de-cluttering the home
(4) Staying in is the first option during the weekend not unless we need to go somewhere
(5) Going back to our regular eating habits in the home: more fish, veggies and fruits; less meat and sweets.
(6) Being wrapped up with work during weekdays

So there. That is exactly the kind of lifestyle we have sans special visits from family and friends from overseas. Not many know and it is not obvious (because I always blog about our gimiks–but then why would I always blog about what we do at home, right?) that we love spending our free time at home. The only reason why we have a social life is because we have relatives and friends that we love to spend time with once in a while. However, if there are no invitations from loved ones, we do spend our free time just hanging out at home, cooking or baking, doing TV series/movie marathons or playing games.

My mom’s vacation was one of the most relaxed vacations ever. She came here not to do touristy stuff but just to spend time with her family. Before she came to visit, she told me that she didn’t want to go anywhere much. With that in mind, I told her I’ll share my love for food, leisure and theatre with her when she visits. And that’s what we did.

We took her to the Good Food and Wine Show and watched a cooking demo of two of the most famous Australian chefs. We took her to restaurants that served great food. I took her to Yum Cha so she can have a taste of the most delicious roast duck I’ve ever tasted. We took her to a farmer’s market and together we got to know the local producers in our area.

I took her to the Capitol Theatre to see one of my favorite musicals, “Wicked”. She enjoyed it immensely.

For the first time, my mom met up with a friend here, my Tita Beth. My mom and I enjoyed the company of Tita Beth as we played tourist guides for a day.

Best of all, my mom celebrated her birthday here.

She was here for seven weeks and time passed by so quickly. Now, we just look forward to seeing each other again in a few months (we hope).

Inspiration Behind “A Wife’s Charmed Life”

19 July 2010 Ibyang Sanchez 15 Comments Category: Charmed Life of a Mrs, Cherished Memories, Deep Thoughts

Three years ago, I started blogging regularly because it was the only way for my parents to be updated on my Aussie life. My mom was the inspiration for “A Wife’s Charmed Life“. If not for her, I wouldn’t be blogging and sharing thoughts with the blogosphere. Without her, I wouldn’t have the inspiration to live a charmed life. Without her, there won’t be a “A Wife’s Charmed Life” and I wouldn’t have met so many beautiful, great people thru this medium.

She says she always, always read my blog. She says she’s my number 1 fan. What she didn’t know is that I am her fan and she’s one of the three people I dedicate my writing and photographs to.

To the idol of my heart, the one who gave me life and lessons I will always remember, the one who love me in so many ways, the one whose quiet grace and strength I hope that one day I would emanate, one of the persons responsible for the sunshine in my life…happy birthday Mommy! I love you always.

A Cupcake Tower for an 18th Birthday

11 July 2010 Ibyang Sanchez 9 Comments Category: Cherished Memories, Food, Photography, The Married Life

My Husband and I are still glowing with joy from the success of my cousin’s 18th birthday bash. Last night was the culmination of two weeks of hard work. My Husband and I were asked to cook Menudo and bake cupcakes for the party. Other than helping out in the food, we were also in-charged of creating an AVP for the debutant and to officially cover the event.

I will share my story and photos of the event on another time. I still haven’t shared two events we have covered: a wedding in May and a christening a week ago. I believe I should share them first before jumping to another event. Our photography journey is becoming exciting by the day and I really would love to document everything as I know in the future, I will be coming back to my writings for learning and inspiration.

In the meantime, let me share with you the cupcakes we especially made for my cousin’s debut.
Since this is a debut, we decided to create a simple, sweet and classic design.

We bought these cute little rose icing decors and pink & white fairy bitz. The rose icing decors came in three different colours: pink, white and yellow. We made two cupcake flavours this time: vanilla and chocolate. We only used silver foils with white paper inside to hold our cupcakes. Since this was for a debut we wanted our cupcakes to have a more classy look.

We invested in a 6-tier cupcake stand for better presentation. Our stand can hold up to 22 cupcakes.

On the topmost cupcake, I put the rose icing decor on the side and placed one silver candle.

My cousin had two blowing-of-cake portions during the party. One was solely with her friends and so we used the Cupcake Tower for that. The second blowing-of-cake portion was with her big tradional cake as she was surrounded by all the guests.

We made 3 batches of cupcakes which equaled to 36 pieces. We were told by guests that they loved our cupcakes and we can’t be happier.

To our dear cousin Rachel, we hope you had a great time on your 18th birthday. We are so happy to be a part of it. We love you!