From a Kreativ Blogger

Salutations to you all! I am pleased to announce that I have been awarded! *insert triumphant music and excited cheering here*

I was awarded with the Kreativ Blogger Award by Jemimah from Beautiful Blank Pages and by Jodie from Heart Strings!

The rules:

1) Link back to the person who gave the award.

2) Put the award on your post.

3) Post 10 random things about yourself.

4) Choose 6 blogs to receive the award.

5) Let them know you awarded them.

The facts:

1) If you haven't already noticed, I am a wholehearted believer in God. My life has been (and will always be) a journey in which I constantly try to know Him more and make Him known. Though I sometimes fail more often than I succeed, I know that He is faithful and that He will always be there to strengthen me and help me get back up. :)

2) I am an avid bookworm.

3) On some days, I feel like a poet producing forth masterpieces filled with wisdom and creativity. On other days, I'm just a giggling, overly excited teenager who likes to say "Haha."

4) I love words, but they almost always seem to escape me whenever I need them. Bummer.

5) I laugh constantly, and I usually think I am funnier than I really am..

6) Artists are really cool, in my opinion.

7) I listen to movie scores, classical music, and Andrea Bocelli-type songs. 

8) I really like graphic design.

9) I really like pizza.

10) I think Owl City is one of the greatest bands ever. Adam Young, the brains behind it, is a huge inspiration to me.

Those I award:

1) Denise/Nichie from Nichie-in-Italy

2) Lidja from For My Own Satisfaction

3) Katrina from Tons of Random Things

4) Jocee from Cupcake Dictionary

5) Gracie from Lollipops and Cupcakes

6) C. C. Shoshanah from My Midnight Melody

I suggest following these bloggers I've mentioned above because they are truly creative and deserve this award. (Also, six is way too small a number!)

Thank you again for the award, Ate Jemimah and Jodie, and congratulations to those that have now been awarded. :)

Inspirational Pieces II

Have an awesome day, everyone! Stay happy! :)

{Images via Tumblr}

Longing: The Adventure of a Lifetime

     I am a girl who loves stories and, with them, adventure. Even when I was little, I was spellbound by the way many of the stories I loved were crafted so beautifully. I liked the fact that they always seemed to draw people in. I marveled at how how they could whisk me off to other lands in just a snap. Through stories, I traveled back in time or into the future. I met many lovable and not-so-lovable characters. I became a part of all sorts of their crazy, wonderful and exciting mishaps, all of which were, I suppose, what first instilled in me my love for adventure. I didn’t know it then, but I was going to learn what adventure really meant to me.

     I continued to watch and read about other people going on exciting journeys. The more I did, the more I developed a longing for an adventure of my own. I loved the feeling of someday being able to travel and explore. I wanted to experience new things and see breathtaking sights. I was fascinated at how interesting and beautiful the world was. I wanted to see more of it and discover what it held for me. I didn’t want another experience just in the movies or in my books, either. I wanted real full-blown adventures that I could call mine. I read and I watched; I daydreamed and played pretend, hoping my own adventures would come soon.

     However, as I grew older, I started to realize that to go on an adventure wasn’t as easy as it seemed. Life just didn’t always consist of the exciting things. I didn’t get to experience anything as thrilling as the people’s encounters in the stories I’d read or watched. On the contrary, my life was composed of normal, everyday things. Instead of going on expeditions, I went on car rides to the grocery store. Instead of conquering giants, I conquered the dirty dishes. I didn’t get the chance to visit outer space, or save the world, or discover the sunken city of Atlantis. It seemed that the movies and my books were the closest I could ever get to tasting adventure.

     One day I came across a book that changed my thinking. In it, one of the characters remarked, “It’s not what the world holds for you; it’s what you bring to it.” That line struck a chord in me. Suddenly, I realized that I didn’t want my life to be about discovering what the world had in store for me. As wonderful as that would be, I discovered that I would much rather make a change in it and the people around me. After all, I thought, isn’t the whole purpose of my life to glorify the Lord and show people how amazing He is? I accepted that calling when I became a Christian. What mark would I leave on the earth if I only lived for myself?

     I believe I was changed by my realizations. My perspective was now different. I didn’t want to live my life in the search of an adventure of my own anymore. Instead, I wanted to find out what I could do for other people to have their adventures. While it is true that sailing the seven seas would be grand, it wouldn’t be quite as fulfilling as the adventure of helping others. It is a hard journey, but I know that it is one worth taking. Who knows? Maybe I’ll get to have the adventure of a lifetime after all!

{Image via We Heart It}

Hey, It's Free!

I was making a few bookmark designs today and I just thought that I should share them with you. All you have to do is download them, print them, cut them, then stick them into your books. It's up to you to decide what paper to print them on, but I've tried printing them on photo paper, both the glossy and the matte kind, and they've been pretty good for me (plus, the size is just right). You could also laminate them for durability or put some string at the top like regular bookmarks.

I hope you like them! Enjoy! :)

(PS If you know Pugly Pixel, you'd probably recognize the second bookmark's layout. It's based on this one.)

{Image & Image Design (c) Hannah G.}

Present Happenings II

Because I am still in the middle of the longest artist's/writer's block in the world, and because I want to let you all know that I

am still alive, I am making another post in which I share a little about what has been happening in my life at the moment.

reading

Anne of Avonlea and marvelling at how the author, Lucy Maud Montgomery, crafts her stories so beautifully.

eating

countless apple pies from McDonalds and peach mango pies from Jollibee. I really love pies.

being

glad for the time I have spent here in the Philippines.

listening

to certain songs and basking in the various memories that each one brings.

wondering

what has become of the media today.

saying

sorry to my dear followers for the lack of exciting or inspiring words. 

feeling

miserable due to an extremely bothering sickness, procrastination, and overdue school deadlines, yet not wishing

to spread any of the misery to anybody.

wanting

direction.

trying

desperately not to wallow in distress and instead focus on seeing the good in everything and learning a lesson from it.

knowing

that God is still in control and that He is my God, my Father, who loves me and cares about me. I need only trust Him

to know that everything will turn out fine in the end.

{Image (c) Hannah G.}

Glad: A Reason

{Image via We Heart It}

The Result of Photoshop and a Day That Wasn't Very Interesting

I finally have a decent blog header and my own blog button! Yaaay!

(You can grab this button on the sidebar. >>)

What do you guys think? :)

Mabuhay From Manila!

Greetings, everyone! Or as we say in Manila, Philippines, "Mabuhay!" Here are little snippets of my trip so far. (Sorry for the grainy quality of the pictures. I don't own a DSLR--I only borrow--so I had to settle for the iPod Touch.)

Waiting (not so patiently) at the airport.

The view of the plane window that I could not capture with a simple iPod.

Treetops in the province against a clear sky that is almost mint green (or maybe it's just the effect).

 Lovely flowers that remind me of sunshine.

A landscape that is perfect for playing Hunger Games. ;)

A random pile of branches that could be used to make a bow and some arrows. (Katniss moment.)

 My pretty, crazy cousins. The middle one (should I mention her name or should I protect her anonymity? loljk) wore her hair in a long side braid the day before, so she was Katniss. Haha.

Little cousins playing. :)

This lovely pattern.

Eating at Sizzlin' Pepper Steak. Ah, happiness.




Plus a few other moments that, unfortunately, I wasn't able to capture with pictures.
Like meeting up with my super awesome friend Arielle and her family to watch The Hunger Games,
gaining a collection of notebooks to take back home (I have five so far),
eating so much good food,
returning to Instagram (follow me, @iamasmiley!),
planning more meet-ups,
awkward silences,
putting chocolate masks with my cousin Abby that made us look like lepers
 making dinner for eight all by ourselves (well, we kind of needed some help with the stove and the pasta noodles),
and reminiscing sweet memories.


That is what my trip has been so far. I hope you all have an awesome weekend! Stay smiling! :)




{Images (c) Hannah G.}

A Suggestion

Live as if everyone you meet will be gone tomorrow. Treat them as if today were their last day on earth. Don't waste an opportunity to be kind to them and to just be with them.

Maybe if people lived like this, the world would be just a little bit better.

{Image via We Heart It}

To the bloggers out there,

Judging from my latest posts (which are usually full of pictures instead of words), you can probably tell that I am in the middle of a block. A fat cement block in my mind, mainly driven by my lack of will to just get off my butt and do things, that is keeping me from producing forth art and writing that I can be unfeignedly proud of. But as I was going through my Inspiration page, editing another piece of my little blog for the nth time, and visiting a number of other blogs, I was greatly inspired. I was inspired by all of you. I loved reading about your different thoughts and aspirations. I loved looking through your pretty photos. I loved--and I still do love--your blogs and I want to thank you for creating them and making them unique and your own.

I'm not a hundred percent certain that my artist's and writer's block will end forever because of this, but I know one thing that is sure. It is that you have all sincerely inspired me, and for that I am grateful. Keep up the awesome work and remember,

{Images via We Heart It}