Blue and More Blue

Pride of Madeira

(thanks to Diane of Desert Colors for helping me identify this flower)

Are we just surrounded with so many blue, or it is because I pay more attention now to all colors and blue, for I know, someone will be jumping with glee? Whatever is the reason, I am happy to see a lot of blue these days, and here are more blue pictures.

Blue Flowers Against Blue Sky

The pictures here were taken last Saturday, when we went to enjoy the wildflowers at Mission Bay. We parked at South Shores Park which is right outside Sea World. Now, these flowers are not really wild unlike the field of wild coreopsis and tidy tips from my post on Slowing Down To Smell the Wildflowers. These tall blue flowers are right next to the parking lot. Despite not being wild, their presence calls really attention, so we took that opportunity to also enjoy this gift of blue before and after we had fun with the field of yellow wildflowers.

When I first wrote this post, I did not know the name of this flower, however, thanks to Diane for helping me identify them. Just how tall are Pride of Madeiras?

How Tall Am I? Which One Is Taller? These Blue Flowers or I am?

 I am 5'6.5", and notice some blue flowers at the back ( they look purple when they get older) that are way taller than me! Some Pride of Madeiras grow to 8 ft tall!

For more about The Joys of Blue, please visit our group's site at The Salitype Society, where together we dream and work on making a child's life better and empower her through quality education.

Beauty Of The Sun

This is a compensated post written by me on behalf of Walgreens. All opinions are 100% mine.

Beauty Of The Sun

I love sunsets and sunrises. They are very therapeutic and magical moments for me. And it is at these times when the sun shows its inspiring beauty minus its harsh rays! I do love staying outside because I love all that nature and the relaxing power of the outdoor offers. They are my powerful antidote to stress! Staying outside whether hiking on the slopes or body surfing in the ocean has been part of my life for long. I hike when I am inspired! I hike when I am full of energy! I hike when I feel stressed! I hike when my mind seems very tired from too much thinking because of work! I hike when I wanted to be energized! I hike when I ran out of inspiration! In summertime, I may do little hiking because of the ocean! I swim because swimming with the fishes, seals, sea lions and the dolphins is very therapeutic.

I boogie board because the waves give me a very fast ride which washes all stresses away! The ocean and the hills and mountains are my local outdoor gym which is free! However, the outdoors is not really enjoyed by everyone! Some do not like the sun, others do not like the sand, or do not like getting salty water mess up their hair or wrinkle their skin. Well, I may not like them too, but I do not want them to STOP ME from enjoying life and feel the rejuvenating gifts of being outside. The joy I feel each time I see surprises from nature cannot be exchanged for gold. That joy is within, in my heart and mind. The gift of nature and outdoors open up to me a very inspiring world not controlled by materialism on Earth. Rather it opens up to me a world that cares! A world that inspires! A world that moves the heart to do good for all of and all in the Earth. Thus no whining can stop me from being out even if it means being under the sun. Thankfully, I can arm myself against the harsh rays of the sun when I am out exploring the outdoors, from the oceans, to the desert to the mountains.

And thankfully, there is the new Walgreens Brand Health & Wellness Products which includes the sunscreen pictured above. Whether I am out enjoying the water or the land, I know I am protected from the harsh rays of the sun! Since I use sunscreen a lot, the price difference in other branded sunscreen lotions allows me to save more since the sunscreen lasts a long time for me, I use less and pay less. Walgreens Brand Health & Wellness Products are a great value, allowing families and individuals to save money without sacrificing quality or trust.

Purchase of every Walgreens Brand Health & Wellness Product supports bringing preventive wellness services to local communities through the Walgreens Way to Well Fund™. Walgreens will contribute up to $3 million annually to the Walgreens Way to Well Fund™. The fund will provide free preventive health tests as well as other health and wellness services and education to local communities. Some of those services will include preventive health tests through the National Urban League Health & Wellness Tour and vouchers redeemable in select stores. For details, visit walgreens.com/waytowell.
Should you have questions about Walgreen products, you can chat one-on-one with the local pharmacist or online at walgreens.com/pharmacychat.

Slowing Down To Smell the Wildflowers and Feel the Coolness of The Breeze

Happy Easter Everyone!!! Wish you all had a wonderful Easter weekend!!

My Cousin and I, San Diego River Gorge Trail

This Easter weekend, we were joined by my cousin from Los Angeles, CA. It is great to slow down sometimes to spend time with family, and I thank my cousin for slowing down (literally) this weekend for us :) What I meant by literal slowing down is that my cousin runs full marathon ( 26+ miles) whenever she has chance, trains or runs on Sundays, and do hiking in Los Angeles area on Saturdays! But whenever she gets a chance, she also visits us. If she is with us, we explore our wonderful world in a slower pace for her. Here are some of the fun things we did together this weekend: (all pictures here are taken by my cousin if I am in the picture; by me, if it is my cousin in the picture; and by my hubby, if both I and my cousin are in the picture).

Saturday:

1) We went for a hike at Torrey Pines to Del Mar to smell the heavenly scent of the sea lavender and tidy tips, the two most abundant wildflowers populating the coastal bluffs.

Trail Filled With Sea Lavender 

More Sea Lavender 

Mix of Sea Lavender, Tidy Tips and Coreopsis

2) From Torrey Pines, we went to Carlsbad Premium Outlet Mall, but then, we could not find parking, so we abandoned our shopping plans for more smelling of wildflowers! We drove back to San Diego and went to Mission Bay. At Mission Bay, we took a very relaxing walk this time, simply to enjoy photoshooting with the wildflowers. 

My Fave Shot of My Cousin

My Fave Shot of Me Taken by My Cousin

Drowned in a Sea of Sunny Flowers, Coreopsis and Tidy Tips

I am 5'6.5", so, you can tell how tall are some of these wildflowers

I Am Showing The Trail here before you may think we stepped on the wildflowers. Thankfully the trail curves so we can create an illusion sometimes that we were in the setting of the Wizard of Oz  :)

My Cousin Directed Me in This Jump :)

3) After Mission Bay, we had halo-halo at Chowking, and then, I made "bangus sinigang and paksiw na bangus with ampalaya and talong" at home. 

After dinner, we attended the Easter Vigil Mass. 

Sunday:

We went to San Diego River Gorge Trailhead at San Diego Country Estates at Ramona, to hike to Cedar Creek Falls. Here are some of our photos.

Stopping for Photo :), San Diego River Gorge Trail

Field of Purple Lupines we saw after the first stream crossing

Who Can't Resist the Call of these wild lupines?

Together @ Cedar Creek Falls

(for more of San Diego River Gorge Trail to Cedar Creek Falls, please go to my site here.)

So Many Plans.....So Little Time

The Colorado River @ Page, Arizona

Whenever we travel, we always see to it to get a souvenir item that will remind us of the adventure and fun we had. We don't buy souvenir shirts or souvenir hoodies or souvenir caps that do not apply to us! For example, the shirt above that I wear has print saying, "I've hiked....Zion Canyon, Angels Landing, The Narrows.....", which is true! However, lately, I got an idea of probably creating our own designed shirts or hoodies with our very own pictures, that way it would be more customized or applicable to our personal experience. How excited I was to find out about Amsterdam Printing since I would be able to play around with my photos and our experience into shirts, hoodies, mugs, caps, and many more. Then, we will not be limited to the quality of the materials provided in the stores when we buy our souvenir items, since I can make our own. Having learned this gave me more ideas of extending my enterpreneural dreams of serving products with my designs or with my pictures at a more affordable cost, and it will bring me more fun!! Right now, all these are plans, for I have so little time. I can't wait for summer to come when I have more free time and I will surely explore this and who knows? Maybe soon, this site will link to my own personal store? Hurrah! Being in school, I know that designing pens and pencils with any logo you want will be a hit. I just hope that by summer, when I have more free time, GoPromos.com would still be around. For now, they are just plans that are making me excited and look forward to, something to continue productivity even in free time. Though hoping, soon it will be a reality :)

Enjoying Spring Out of The Doors

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Pier 1 for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
Spring has sprung, time to get out of the doors, smell and experience the heavenly gifts brought by this season full of life. And I thank Pier 1 for adding more joys to my time outdoors. How? Let me share my simple spring fun.....

Calla Lily From our Garden

I love spring, there's just so much to be joyful about, the heavenly scent in the air due to all the blooms, the busy bees

and butterflies,

and the melody of the hummingbirds blending harmoniously with all the other birds just make me want always to be outside and not miss anything what nature is buzzing around. I had been enjoying my time outside gardening, and seeing the blooms in the backyard

These Lilies Remind Me That It Is Spring, They Always Blossom At Certain Time of The Year Giving Me A Pleasant Surprise

and smelling them just give me all the more reason to spend more time outside. Though I am not very confident to say I have green thumb, but I am happy to say I am quite blessed with hands that  can grow and multiply plants and make them bloom. As a result, I love moving plants around, and re-designing the garden here and there. However, I only have enough space to run my creativity. Unless I pull out all the plants I had grown all through the years, I would have again much space to apply my garden creative thoughts. However, one of the joys of gardening is seeing your plants grow as well, and continuously bloom. This is where Pier 1 comes in to extend my garden designing on pots. I had made several dish garden already using the beautiful dish and pots I found from Pier 1 on sale.

Some of My Dish Garden, My Decorative Planters I Got From Pier 1

The decorative rocks in my dish are one of the free things I enjoy for living close to the ocean, I enjoy picking rocks always that look interesting to me, and I put the smaller one in the pots and the bigger ones in the garden. However, for those who do not have access to picking rocks and stones on a nearby shore, Pier 1 has lots of decorative rocks and stones also on sale. Our yard attracts lots of hummingbirds and cute little birds, and we love them coming often. Thus, to say thanks to these amazing little birds, I am planning to get them this beautiful bird feeder from Pier 1.

There are so many outdoor decorative decor to rave about at Pier 1, such as herb pots, bird feeders, dish or decorative planters, and of course outdoor furniture. It is the best time right now to look at the outdoor furniture at Pier 1 since they are having great bargains on these items and other outdoor decors. Also, the iconic Pier 1 Papasan has evolved, check out all their different outdoor papasan and swingasan that will surely entice you to spend more time outdoors, or in your yard. I love the swingasan, sometimes, I feel like why sit still when I can enjoy the swing like when I was a child?

March 20th marked the official start to spring,  and it's a month now since spring officially started. With the temperature warming, it is nice to be watching the sunset right from your backyard, and enjoy the crisp smell of the spring blooms around. Come out now, don't miss the many surprises spring and Pier 1 Tweetups bring your way.

Friendship That Goes Beyond.........

Pondering @ Delicate Arch, Arches National Park, Utah

Breathe in.......the joys of simple life.....breathe out.....the struggles and pain.....and recently, I just breathed out Facebook. 

Don't get me wrong, I am not anti-Facebook, only that I realized lately that Facebook is way taking so much of my time and with my very little self-discipline, I end up wasting so much time there. I need to focus to not lose the 2 years of hard work I put on my education program, to become a full pledged single subject Math teacher. I have finally come to terms with the fact that FB is not for someone like me who has to take the word self-discipline literally.  Literal self-discipline means, cutting it out from my system, otherwise, I will end up not having a life outside of FB and may even fail my education. Now, happily, I can say  I am catching up quick with my requirements, and for 3 days, had been enjoying life stress-free the way it was before, just enjoying the joys of simple life. Who knows? I may get back to FB, but not at this time, for I need to focus on my educational goals. God willing, I hope to not fail my dreams of helping more kids love Math ( it's very difficult since a lot of high school kids come to high school already HATING Math), and empower them to have more opportunities in life. One day at a time, I will move strongly closer to my goal, and I hope for those who were in my FB friends list before will understand why I am no longer there. It's not because I unfriended anyone, but it is because I deleted my account there. Because I believe that true friendship goes beyond Facebook. I am keeping this site despite I struggle with my schedules, because this is where my home is online. I am glad for the friendship and support most of you offer, I truly appreciate it. Maybe one day, I may see you again in FB when I no longer struggle with my time, when I no longer have to work on my self-discipline, but for now, this is where I continue to share my joys of simple life.

With much appreciation for your continued support through the years,

Betchai

PS....I would like to apologize that I am closing this post for comments, all my other posts though are open for comments.