make it blissful Archives

The reason why I thought of creating a part two of the Make it Blissful X Luminisce gathering is because I believe that the brand who participated deserve to be featured and highlighted, too. And it’s not because they were “sponsors” of a beautiful event, but because I felt that their brand stories were beautiful, too!

People don’t see the just see the hardships that entrepreneurs go through in creating their businesses and in building their brands. We only see them as things that we buy or things that we don’t buy or brands that we like or brands that we don’t like. But I personally, would like to see each as inspiring stories. Stories of people who took courage to fulfill their passions!

Especially made for me!

The Make it Blissful Box

The Make it Blissful x Luminisce Box

This box was really filled with amazing gifts and surprises, but most of all, it was made with LOVE. Some of them were even personalized and made especially for us! Let me share the stories of these entrepreneurs who made them.

Your Truly receiving my box from Audrey and Dra. Kaycee of Luminisce

Luminisce

Luminisce founder, Dr. Kaycee, believes that achieving physical wellness should not only come from the outside but from the inside as well. She says that what sets Luminisce apart from the others is their desire to help people achieve the balance of both body and mind. Luminisce teaches its patients to achieve beauty and confidence from the inside. Using state-of-the-art equipment combined with natural or alternative approaches, this combination aims not to achieve physical wellness in the short run but to sustain overall health in the long run.

Read more about her here: Luminisce Holistic Skin Innovations

Humabi
Erika Tesoro-Mata and Dr. Richard Mata were a couple who started supporting a few scholar students from the Philippine Science High School and they felt that they wanted to do “something” more. This led to the birth of Humabi, which is a social enterprise that helps women in need and children who could not go to school.

Read more about them in this link: Humabi

Pro Studio

Valerie and Andrea were just two friends who were into beauty, who both faced the problem of purchasing airbrush kits that were too expensive. With this, they thought of creating their own affordable airbrush makeup brand and this was the birth of Pro Studio Beauty Exclusives.

Read more about them in this link: Pro Studio Beauty Exclusives

Whisk and Zin

Oh, I am a super fan of Cheryl and Czarina ever since the first time I met them for the GTV interview. Here’s my interview with them.

Their business really started when these two friends were seeking for yummy salad dressings and jams and decided to create them instead. I’m so proud that they now have a line of salt (ZIN), which by the way I cannot live without now!

Read more about them in this link: WHISK and ZIN

Lulu Swing

Lulu Swing was established by another lady that I admire, Isabel Abonal. We had coffee once, but her passion for her craft really inspired me! Isabel had deep appreciation for shoes so she wanted to create a local and affordable line that caters to women who loves comfort but seeks for pretty styles, too.

Reed more about her in this link: Lulu Swing

Aireescreates

After 14 years of making handmade paper invitation, Airees (thus the brand name), rediscovered her passion for painting. In April 2014, she took an online watercolor class and painted girls in boots every day. In October, she launched her business with Calendar presenting 12 of the numerous girls she painted. Last September, she launched a collection named Musings in Color consisting of 8 designs taken from her art journals. Each one has a story behind it.

Read more about them here: Hallmark

Boqueria Lifestyle Market

BLM was founded by sisters Steph and Lady. Growing up, they were exposed to a “well-curated” home — mixing and matching of old and the new, turning trash into treasures, etc. Their mom made sure that everything was lovely! Over the years, they have been collecting anything and everything that tickles their fancy — collector’s items, unique pieces of art, bargain finds, etc.

Read more about them here: Boqueria Lifestyle Market

A Vanilla Story

It all started when Mr. and Mrs. Vanilla changed their hectic lifestyle and relocated to the countryside hills for a simple and slow-paced lifestyle. When they started baking Christmas cookies, they couldn’t find good, real Vanilla, so they decided to be THE Vanilla Company!

Read more about them here: The Vanilla Company

I hope you liked the inspiring stories of the entrepreneurs behind these brands. I sure did and I hope that you see the time, love and the effort that these people gave to building their businesses and brands to how they are today. Thank you Make it Blissful x Luminisce for sharing with us the box and the amazing,inspiring stories of these people!

Continue to make life blissful!

Blissfully yours,

Mommy Ginger

Every year, I look forward to going to Christmas parties. These are times when you get to see friends and family that you have not seen for the past year. One of the Christmas parties or gatherings that I always look forward to is the one with my fellow Blissmakers. As you all know, I contribute some articles every year at MakeitBlissful.com. This site was built by my dear friend, Martine De Luna, to inspire women to achieve a happy and blissful life. Most of the women here also are part of the WAHMderful Life Community of Women (work-at-home-moms).

Martine De Luna of MakeitBlissful.com

Make it Blissful x Luminisce Gathering

This group of women has helped me a lot in the past years, and I am really happy that I got to know this group of amazing women. You want to know why and how this group helped me?

1. This group believes in inclusive growth. Walang iwanan! Obviously, not literally (well, sometime literally, too! hihihi!), but more of the fact that we will do anything to help each other succeed. We will lend out a hand to those in need of inspiration, strength and comfort. We will support the projects of each one in this group, whether it be just posting on social media, sharing contacts or just by praying for each one’s success.

With my fellow Blissmakers! Missing Martine in this picture 🙁

2. This group is comprised of strong willed and empowered women. They stand up for their beliefs, but at the same, they know how to respect other people’s opinions. When we disagree about stuff, we don’t burden each other with bombarding them with guilt, stress and anger.

3. Even with each one’s busy lives, when we get to see each other, it’s like we just saw each other yesterday. We all value friendship and we know that friendship doesn’t mean holding them too tightly or hugging them close to you always. Just like love, in friendship, you need to see your friends grow and achieve their dreams. We can’t be too possessive with our friends, too.

4. We just feel that everyone genuinely cares for each one! This is the reason why I am also excited to build our (Martine of MakeitBlissful.com, Frances of MommyTopaz.com and yours truly) new project, Beauty Biz Bliss, which was created for women of all ages.

I truly had a wonderful time time with the Blissmakers. Kuddos to Audrey for preparing this gathering! Thank you especially also to Dr. Kaycee of Luminisce! 🙂 I will write a part two on what we did and what was inside our Blissful Box!

Be part of our community! Like https://www.facebook.com/Makeitblissfulblog/ and also https://www.facebook.com/beautybizbliss/ Looking forward to meeting you soon!

I was listening to Amy Porterfield’s podcast the other day and she mentioned that one of the things that makes a blogger successful is consistency in coming out with content. I think this is what made me successful, too. MommyGinger.com comes out with fresh content almost every day. Enough though with the technicalities. Thinking about coming out with fresh content every day can stress you out though. Thinking about all of these technicalities WILL stress you out.

Do you want to know my secret?

My secret is (aside from the great love for writing) I consider my blog as a documentation of my life. When I pass away in the future, people will see how fun my life has been, urging them to cherish their life as well. Living is FUN!

#LindochinelovesMiB

Me with my daughter — excited to start Journaling!

Martine of MakeitBlissful.com

My Lovely Daughter holding Hey Kessy Materials

An event that made me remember and solidify why I love blogging is the Journaling event that Make it Blissful and L’indochine came up with (LindochinexMiB). Martine of MakeitBlissful.com invited me and other women for a light afternoon of just coming together to start our own journal. I know a lot of people who want to start a journal, but they think it’s so tedious to start and sustain. Here are some of my tips on how to sustain once you have started a blog or a journal.

1. If you don’t know what you’re first entry will be, notice the first thing that you think about and write about it. It can be a thought about building something from scratch, to your child’s doctor’s appointment, to cleaning your house later today.

2. During days when you feel uninspired, try to walk around and just rediscover the fascinating things that you see around you — how trees grow into certain weird shapes, how the sky changes in color especially during sunrise and sunset. Simple things like that will amaze you and inspire you!

The first page of my Journal

3. Another way to start writing (especially when your mind is blank) is to write down everything you think of. Let me try it now…

I am sitting on a chair here in Coffee Bean and Leaf Burgos circle. I have no idea why I automatically gravitated to this branch tonigh. I could have gone to Starbucks Reserve, which was nearer to the place I live in. It must be this Moroccan Mint Tea Latte. I love this drink. Oh, currently checking out this lovely yellow dress of a woman who just arrived. Thinking that it would be perfect for me, since I love the color yellow. I think this color makes people happy. She’s also wearing pumps. I think I should start wearing pumps, too. I’m always in FitFlops or Sketchers rubber shoes. When I wear my Melissa flats, it’s already an indication that it’s a formal event. haha!

There you go, ladies and gentlemen. You could try this technique. As you can see, there are a lot of topics that you can now discuss or write about further — like how colors affect moods, proximity of places or why location of businesses matter, etc. You get the idea!

4. It doesn’t often have to be your own content (just as long as you quote your source). If a quote, lyrics of a song, a poem, a book, or any other thing inspires you then, write about it. The main thought doesn’t have to come from you. You can give your own opinion on things like these.

You can use pictures like these to tell people about the amazing moments in your life!

5. It doesn’t always have to be written. If you have a journal written in a notebook, it doesn’t always have to contain words. Clippings, doodles, drawings, splatters, pictures, etc. will do. If you have a blog like MommyGinger.com, then entries can be audio recordings (which I have done lately because I just felt like making these), pictures or videos. Just let it go! (Now I’ve got that last song syndrome of Frozen).

6. This is something interesting that you can do if you are going through difficult times in your life. Write about it from a third person point of view. You can write about how you see it from an angle that moves you to be non-partisan and unbiased about it. This will make things clearer!

We enjoyed this event!

These are some of the things that I have been doing for the past years of blogging and it has helped me a lot with consistency. Being consistent has definitely made me successful at what I do. Oh, one more thing to remember and this one is really important.

This is your blog / journal. Don’t let anyone tell you what you can or cannot post in your blog / journal. Remember that this is a documentation about your life. Do you really want people dictating you what you can or cannot do with your life?

We got this beautiful bag from L’indochine’s travel collection

We had fun at the #LindochinelovesMiB Gathering!

This is what I like about the Make it Blissful events and also with the soon to be implemented Beauty Biz Bliss events and other events like the ones of our friends from Wholemom and Pursuit Manila. They make you feel empowered and inspired to take on life’s challenges, knowing that you have friends in the community. Your journey is just happier, brighter and more blissful!

Thank you to Make it Blissful, L’indochine, Gourdos, Stabilo, National Book Store, Hey Kessy, She Dreams Ink, Raintree Restaurants, Shop House Coffee and Hey Jow for supporting the #LindochineLoveMiB Journaling gathering! Looking forward to more gatherings like these!

Philosophy is the study of the general and fundamental nature of reality, existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind and language (Wikipedia). Being an overthinker, I love that word. I love thinking about the reason why we exist, the reason why we act the way we do and the reason why we think about the things that we think about. And normally, I get to that state where I think about these things when I’m feeling either down or when I’m inspired.

And lately, I’ve been feeling inspired! Why shouldn’t I be, right? There are so many things that we need to be thankful for. Living is such a fun thing to do! I was recently invited by my friend, Martine De Luna for the MakeitBlissful x Philosophy Event in Megamall and I saw this written on the wall…

It reminded me of the essential things in life. We, oftentimes, think that the reason we all exist needs to be that huge or that life changing. I know that I talk about leaving a legacy and making a difference in the world, but I never mentioned the expanse of the dream or the legacy. Why? Because our reasons really differ and the expanse of a certain action is not measured by quantity. I don’t even think that it can be measured by quality, even. If you want to make a difference or if you want to leave a legacy, there are thousand things that you can do and all of these things start with the simplest of things, which is wanting it.

If you want to be a good mother, then be one. If you want to be the best wife ever, be one. If you want to be the best girlfriend, be one. If you want to be the best doctor or lawyer, be one. If you want to help entrepreneurs start their own businesses, then do so. If you want to change lives with the things you write in your blog, then do it.

We need to keep our lives simple. My philosophy starting today is to keep everything simple. If I feel like saying I Love You, i’ll do it. If I feel like crying, I will cry (parang baliw lang). Everything becomes clearer when we go back to the basics. Even in taking care of ourselves, we need to go back to the basics.

I was reminded of that during the event. This simple facial that was given to us reminded me of how grateful I am for little ‘pampering’ moments like these.

Me and Mommy Vanessa of http://shedmomblog.com

This bottle, which I actually purchased that day because it amazingly brightened my skin, also reminded me that I should make it a point to brighten someone else’s day. It reminded me that me need to be a source of inspiration to others so that they can also be sources of inspiration for other people.

We should brighten another person’s day!

And no matter where we are, we need to co-exist with other people. We need to live in harmony with others. This sense of community comes from a simple seed of the innate goodness that we have — of wanting to do good for and to others.

It’s now time to free ourselves of any inhibitions. Now is the time to achieve dreams and make things happen. I believe that each one of us is placed on this world for a reason. Time is the most valuable asset we could ever own. Let’s use it wisely.

This is not your usual event review or product review. By just visiting this Philosophy store, it actually made me think of so many things (weirdly so!). Each product made me think of a lesson or a philosophy in life that I would actually live by from now on. It was a meaningful and lovely afternoon. Thank you, Martine and Philosophy for inviting me. *hugs*

Yours Truly and the other lovely ladies at the MakeitBlissful x Philosophy gathering!

Early this year, my good friend and business partner, Martine de Luna, asked me to be part of her team for MakeitBlissful.com. She told me about her plans of changing her website, DaintyMom.com and re-branding it into this site where women could share stories of BLISS. This group of ladies that she asked would be her ‘bliss-makers’, constantly highlighting the little memorable things that make one’s life happier. These are the things that make our ordinary lives extra-ordinary.

Yours truly, Ginger Arboleda (@mommyginj) with my good friend, Martine De Luna (@makeitblissful)

Well, when she ‘recruited’ me (haha! sounds like a sorority!), I immediately said yes and it was not because I gave in to peer pressure. Nor was it because Martine was a friend and I couldn’t say ‘no’. Martine has this gift of sharing stories and she does it in a way that is so inspiring! At that time, I was thinking of the goal of helping people find bliss, even in their professional, entrepreneurial and work life. As technical and as straight-forward as that aspect of life may seem, we could always find BLISS there. My main mission in life is really to help entrepreneurs make turn their dreams into reality and I knew that if I joined Martine’s team, we could help all of these people (aspiring entrepreneurs, work at home individuals and even office workers and professionals) live their lives to the fullest.

Fast forward to today, it has almost been one year and I’m very happy for Martine and of course, the rest of the team for what we have accomplished. MakeitBlissful.com is such an inspiring site and I love reading the articles there of my fellow Blissmakers.

Recently, Martine threw a party called the Bliss Makerie 2014 for all of her clients, sponsors, collaborators, partners and fellow bliss-makers. It was held at Scarsdale at S&R Shaw Boulevard. The invite was so ‘Martine’ and so blissful. She told us to come in rustic chic attire. I wish you could have seen the behind the scenes conversation of the MakeitBlissful.com team. Everyone was scrambling and asking Martine for pegs. We all wanted to come and look our best for the event. That was how excited we were (haha! Gigil for parties!).

When I arrived, I was so amazed at how Constance Event Styling decorated the place. It definitely exuded BLISS and dainty-ness.

Wonderful table set-up by Constance Event Styling

Look! It’s my Name!

Yummy treats from Scarsdale!

Just had to have a Latte! Wonderful!

Lovely raffle prizes from Elin, Brown Belly resort and leisure wear, Sitting Pretty Crafts Studio magnet boards, make-up from Happy Skin, Sunday Paper notebooks, “Cudsly cash” from Cudsly and a weekend getaway from Taal Vista Hotel

I won Cudsly cash in the raffle and immediately used it two days after!

I won Cudsly Cash which I already redeemed!

The afternoon was just an informal gathering. It was nice to meet other blissmakers! It was nice catching up with friends that I haven’t seen for the longest time. It was awesome to discuss collaborations and possible tie-ups for 2015 with people I have just met. It was great seeing the people who I follow online and actually meet them finally in person.

Martine welcomed all of us to the event

Frances of MommyTopaz.com, Martine of MakeitBlissful.com, Ginger of MommyGinger.com and Rica of RicaPeralejo.ph

Blissmaker Martine of MakeitBlissful.com, Mompreneur Ginger of Mommyginger.com and Beauty Minister Frances of MommyTopaz.com —My bestest friends in the industry!

Me with the lovely Paula Peralejo – Fernandez of PaulatheExplorer.com It was nice to see you again after so many years!

Me with Maricel and Van of Shed Mom Blog

Me with Carmel of pinkmyride.com and Van of Shed Mom Blog

Me and my good friend, Rissa Mananquil-Trillo (entrepreneur behind Happyskin.ph) Love this girl!

Me and my good and super cool friend, Rissa Mananquil-Trillo (entrepreneur behind Happyskin.ph) Love this girl!

Lovely Blissmakers: Vanessa of Shedmom, AJ of Sunday Paper Co., Maricel of A Sweet Cottage, Martine of Make it Blissful, Chrissy of Changing Nappies in High Heels, Peachy of Peachy.ph and Ginger (yours truly) of MommyGinger.com

My wonderful friend, Louise of MommyPracticality.com. We’re cooking up something for 2015! #collaboration haha!

One of my favorite bloggers, Patty Laurel – Filart. It was nice to meet this refreshing lady! (pattylaurel.com)

My good friend, Peachy from Peachy.ph

It was a simple yet lovely affair. We also had a croughnut contest and the winner took home a trip to Taal Vista! I created my own croughnut and called it Ginger Spice! haha! It was a croughnut topped with dark chocolate with Baileys. It also had caramel popcorn with almonds on top. This was my creation.

My creation called Ginger Spice!

Ladies creating their own Croughnuts

Denise of Bebengisms.com creating her own Scarsdale Croughnut

I was a great afternoon of inspiring conversations and celebrating blissful living. Martine also gave us a Bliss Box filled with her favorite things!

The Bliss Box!

I super love the polka dot box from Print Cafe. Each one of us received product from Yosi Samra Philippines, Heima, Zoya, A Vanilla Story, The Vanilla Company, Cutieverse, Casa La Armonia, Craftsmith, Nica Cosio and Philosophy.

I am so glad that I am a blissmaker! I’m looking forward to contributing more stories in 2015 at MakeitBlissful.com. Join us as we strive to achieve BLISS everyday!

The BLISSMAKERS!

Make it Blissful x Luminisce (A Christmas Gathering): Part 2

Make it Blissful x Luminisce (A Christmas Gathering): Part 1

My Personal Journey in My MiB Journal (#LindochinelovesMib)

The Philosophy of my Life

I am a proud Blissmaker! (Bliss Makerie 2014)

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