Maarte – The Tagalog word maarte originally meant artful. But it is more used and known to describe someone, who's finicky and by extension pretentious. It has a negative connotation, but not a very strong one.  Arte in Spanish meant art and I think, I will focus on the correct and positive meaning of this word. To the point that I will be naming my site MaartE, yes ending with a capital E! My initial of course!

 

I love that my native tongue has a strong Spanish influence and I am proud of it. La mesa, silya, cuchara, tocador are some of the few basic Spanish words spoken in our household. It brought me back to my 70’s childhood in Manila. I cherish my memories built around a strong Castilian culture. The churches, clothes, ornaments, architectures, furniture, toys and certainly, the food. We can be well travelled and been to many places, but there’s something in our roots that will always make us want to go back. We will constantly want to relive our 6 to 12 year old lives. I guess because that was the happiest, carefree-iest stages of our being. We were wide eyed in wonder observing everything around us. Our senses felt every single detail of a moment.

 

How I wish cameras was as readily available at our fingertips like now. Or we knew then like how we know now, how important it is to capture even the most insignificant happenings or even objects around us. Or just by plain habit, that we subconsciously "document” and record pieces of our existence.

 

Well, the 6 to 12 year old in me sort of got stuck and I am still as ecstatic as ever with all that’s developing before and around me. I just wish my 40 to 50 year old body could keep up!

 

As a tribute to my Español rich childhood I am bringing you Aparador (closet) which will feature my kind of fashion, Cucina (kitchen) for homegrown dishes that I always crave for, Pintura Y Lapiz (paints and pencil) for my paintings and sketches, Flor Y Regalo for gift wrapping DIYs and flowers galore and lastly Cuaderno (notebook) where I journal my random thoughts.