Hello, everyone! I know it’s been a while since I last wrote a blog post again. It can be difficult to find the time to sit down and just let the words flow, especially with how I’m prioritizing my work for Calyxta, and our wedding preps! But I didn’t want October to end without doing a recap of everything that happened last September 29 during the Greta’s Junkyard Turns 5: An Afternoon of Bonding, Bubblies, and Beauty, so here it is!
I remember how super hectic September was, because after I got back from our two-week trip to Europe, I suddenly had to fly to Singapore at the last minute, which left me with barely any time to prepare for the anniversary. I tried to make the preparations last August as smooth as possible—even jotting down checklists and To-Do lists on my Trello board, so that I could already execute what I could execute, and then leave the rest for when I got back. Event planning is something I love doing—from conceptualizing to executing (which is why I’m so excited for our wedding!), but when time isn’t on your side, it gets challenging. For a week, I was sleeping past 3am—juggling wedding preparations (I was in a hurry to book at least our church and reception venue for our wedding in September 2019, before anyone else got the date we wanted) and making sure I had everything I needed for the blog’s 5th anniversary.
Thankfully, I’m the luckiest girl alive to be blessed with such a supportive family. My mom volunteered to do the grocery shopping for the food, and during the event day itself, slept at 3am just prepping everything. I wanted this year’s theme to be a celebration of two milestones—the blog’s 5th anniversary, and my engagement! I made sure to prepare homemade sangria, ordered my signature custom cupcakes from Mau’s Cupcake, and even booked Facenook Digital‘s Social Print package, where all public photos posted on Instagram using the #GretasJunkyardTurns5 hashtag could be printed! For the food, my mom (with the help of my dad and brother) arranged a cheeseboard and cooked a variety of pica-pica.
During our ingress, it took us a couple of hours to ready the place, and I was so grateful to Calyxta that they let me use our headquarters as a venue. Calyxta’s office is one of my favorite places to be in, to be honest—it never feels like an office when I’m there, because of how beautiful it is, plus it always stimulates my creativity and passion to write. With a lot of help from my dad, siblings, and the Cupcake, we were able to transform it into a haven of purple!
Everything that happened after was just so overwhelming—I felt the love and support from my family, my friends and colleagues, and of course, you—my readers. Like I said during my short speech, we grew together these last five years and experienced amazing milestones together. It was even more fulfilling to see how everyone has become good friends throughout the years that you’ve been attending the blog’s anniversary celebrations—from the Makeup Workshop in Purebeauty Serendra, to Coffee and Contour in Craft Greenhills, to a Pampering Soiree in Manos Nail Lounge, and to Bonding, Bubblies, and Beauty at Calyxta!
It was such a fun afternoon that started with merienda and a quick makeup workshop where I showed my everyday monochromatic look using Glossier’s Cloud Paint, followed by the Ultimate Greta’s Junkyard Quiz (which I super enjoyed making questions for), and then closed it off with a raffle care of Club Clio, Peter Thomas Roth, ASUS, Human Heart Nature, and Sleek Makeup! Everyone also received gift bags loaded with products care of Maybelline.
I’m still working on a recap video, which I’ll be posting here as soon as possible. In the meantime, here’s a giveaway I promised everyone (to continue the celebration even after a month! Hahaha!). Get a chance to win Php 10,000 worth of products from Club Clio, Peter Thomas Roth, ASUS, Human Heart Nature, and many more when you enter the raffle below.
Hopefully I’ll see everyone again next year. Until my next blog post! Sending love and hugs to everybody.