Dragons beware!

All my life has been spent within these walls.  When I was younger, everyone was around, there was always so many people, you could walk in each others houses to borrow sugar and/or similar. Our house is a compound with a garden in the middle, the best times were holidays and special occassions, this was where everyone would gather to celebrate, it was (and still is, at least for now) the best place to hold parties. As I grew up my cousins started to get married and move in to their own houses. Here in the Philippines, we like to stick around our parents houses usually until we decide to settle down and have enough to find our own way in the world. The compound became empty, even more so when my mom passed and eventually, all my mom's siblings decided, it was time to sell the property.

I didn't realize until a few months back that I didn't really need to find a lot of locations for my shoot, the surroundings of the house was enough for all the outfit posts that I wanted up, well at least until it's gone. So before we lose this place forever, I decided to get out of my room and look for those little nooks and crannies that I loved about this place, and take my very willing (and now, very skillful) fiancé to them for outfit shoots. That way, I still get to have photos of the house I've lived in all my life :)

This specific spot is very memorable to me, I literally got playful and a whole bunch of silly when we started shooting. This is where the laundry is done, it's under the water tank of house. My cousin and I used to play here a lot during weekend afternoons, we even used to try and climb the ladder to the dam, which I have never reached (hrm...idea!). Once I touched the bars it reminded me of all those times we tried slaying dragons in this place!

Dragons beware!!!!

I have a mop!!! FEAR ME!!!!

Did you guys have any favorite spots you slayed dragons or played house in?

Friday!!!!!!! :D :D :D

Top: Eastwood City bazaar, Jeans: Thrifted, Shoes: SM Department Store
Scarf: Boracay Market, Necklace: Bubbles,
Charm Bracelet: Eastwood City bazaar, Bangles: Girl Shoppe/Vintage

Is it just me or was this week just really really slow?

Don't you just love accessories? Last week, I was the epitome of lazy and didn't really want to wear too much, I just wanted light clothing if there is such a thing. Luckily, accessories got my back, and I was actually able to pull off a lot of outfits without looking like something was missing. Most of my accessories are from Bubbles, because she has such a heavenly collection of icing and they fit the budget! :D I started collection (almost hoarding) stuff from her 2 or 3 months ago, so now it's been some kind of ritual to check her site for new designs :D

Bubbles is my savior :D Have a happy weekend ahead everyone!!!!

Patch it up!

Anybody home?

I'm so good at looking lost :D

Top: Eastwood City Bazaar, Skirt: Landmark Makati,
Sandals: SM Department Store, Belt: Forever21, Necklace: Bubbles 
Charm Bracelet: Eastwood City Baxaar, Earrings: Seasons Shangrila Mall
Bangles/Bracelets: Vintage/Seasons Shangrila Mall/Glorietta

In line with being all comfy while dealing with the minor tattoo pains last week, I decided to wear this outfit to work. More casual than corporate but it passed the dress code thankfully :D. I've had this skirt since I was in college, and for a while it was too small to wear, but it has now grown back to a normal size and I'm happy to be able to slip back into it. Nothing but a colorful piece to make an outfit, may it be a bag or a top, the plus side? This skirt moves in pretty swishes, super comfy, and fun to twirl in :D

Hope you guys are having a great week! :D

Cheapskate Tuesdays!

Cardigan: Eastwood City bazaar, Top: Thrifted, Belt: Forever21
Skirt: Eastwood City Bazaar, Tights: SM Department Store, Flats: SM Hypermart
Necklace: Bubbles (Php295), Charm Bracelet: Eastwood City Bazaar (Php 150)
Bangles: SM Department Store (I don't remember how much they cost! :D)

It was difficult to choose a post for today's Cheapskate Tuesdays. I had a choice between an outfit that had shoes that cost a bit too much but was old anyway so I didn't spend much on the pieces I wore on that one or this one that I posted. This one has a pricey belt, but when I walked around the Eastwood City bazaar I found that the belts there were only 50 pesos less than what the one I have on from Forever 21. And  I realized that during the past few months, I don't really spend much on clothing anymore. I usually go to the Eastwood Bazaar (if that isn't already obvious) and thriftshops, shopping in stores hasn't been exciting anymore, not even for shoes. I think in the last year I bought enough to last me until next year and nothing's popped up on me recently (thank goodness). So anyway, putting all that babble aside, I decided on posting this one specifically because I actually used this photo, that I found on Pinterest as inspiration for this outfit.

I looked at it and thought it was such a pretty dress, and then realized that I could recreate it! Whoohooo!! :D It's so nice to find something online and know that you have a way to recreate it half the cost and with your own twist too!!

Have you guys tried recreating "runway" looks or outfits that you've seen online? :)

I'm back! :D

Top: Eastwood City Bazaar, Pants: Thrifted, Belt: Eastwood City Bazaar,
Shoes: Payless, Charm Bracelet: Eastwood City Bazaar,
Bangles: Vintage/Seasons Shangrila Mall, Ring: Girl Shoppe
Necklace: Bubbles

I'm back *runs around hugging everyone*!!!! I had the urge to hug my laptop when I logged into blogger, over reaction to the max! I had enough rest, the week vacation did me good, specially with the little pain that the tattoo left me. Thankfully toward the end of the week I wasn't feeling anything at all, which was a relief. My tattoo artist told me to keep on putting medicine for 10 days, so I thought I'd still be feeling pain until then. To my surprise the pain was gone mid week and I was able to move around better :D. So, of course, I'm happy to show you guys the part of the tattoo that I got that was still too red to show, which is my mom's portrait! So far I'm really happy with it, although I'm thinking of having a bit more detail added to her face, like shadows and more prominent teeth, but maybe not just yet. For my very first tattoo I think it turned out very well and I'm extremely ecstatic about it. If I had really nice arms and if the office allowed I'd probably wear tube tops all month just to show her off!

It was such a happy sunny weekend that we decided to shoot in the garden of my parents house :) I will have to commend my fiance's efforts! He's really hyping up his camera skillz! It's nice to be outdoors for a change :D

I have been looking for a lace top for a while now and I happened upon one while I was going through the Eastwood Bazaar. I wasn't sure that I had enough guts to wear it at first, because this baby has just lace at the back, which mad it see through. Scared of catching a cold, and showing...too much bra (?) I asked Cameele what she thought of the top. She suggested that I wear a tube to cover the back if I was worried about catching a flu or too much bra visibility (she's so useful :D). So I braved the lace tides and decided that even if it cost a bit too much for a sheer back lace top, I would get it :D. I threw it on with my (kind of) wide legged pants from the thrift stores (only 20 pesos), sprinkled it with accessories and I was a happy happy girl.

So tell me, how is everyone? How was last week? Did anything exciting happen while I was away??? I missed you guys! :D

P.S.
If you guys noticed, my engagement ring is on my ring finger... it's also grown on me, I'm afraid it will attempt to run away from my ring finger so I had to transfer it to my middle finger until I'm able to pull away from my busy weekends to have it resized :D

scratched and burned

Here is the detail that the tattoo artist designed that flows with my mom's hair

Tattoo: Frances Arbie

So...last Saturday I went to get the biggest accessory that I have been planning for months. It took a little bit of courage and a lot of pain, but I'm really happy that I did. I'm only showing you guys a few snapshots of it because it's still kind of bleeding and a bit on the painful side and I didn't want to show that part of my skin. Anyway, if it isn't obvious yet :P, what I got is a tattoo dedicated to my mom, it's my very first and it's bigger than most people get for their first. It was a very painful experience, and to think I opted to have painless creams slathered on the area of my back that would have the tattoo, but it wore off after awhile and I was left to feel every stroke. My artist didn't want to have it done in sessions so I was there at her shop for 4 hours and 30 mins straight until she was finished.

The design is very intricate, but the most important parts of this design are my mom's words in her handwriting, which I got from a letter she had written years ago, and her portrait. I didn't want to show you guys because it's still a little smudgy and there's still a bit of swelling and blood (hehehehe sorry TMI). I have never in my life wanted to have a tattoo, not that I didn't like them or felt that they looked dirty, I just didn't think I had the courage, the right pain threshold and a design that I can live with forever. A few months ago, I found her letter and thought it would be the perfect way for me to walk down the aisle on my wedding day and have her by my side, in my own way, and also, to carry her words with me wherever I go. It was after that, that I decided to have her portrait done as well. All in all, I am very happy with the result, and even if it didn't bring her back, at least I have part of her with me, etched on my skin forever.

I chose not to post entries this week, since I'm still recovering from the tattoo. It is my first time and I have such a low tolerance for pain that, I'm still going through the burning sensations and the stress of sleeping on the side I'm not used to. Plus I couldn't get the strength to dress up and have a weekend shoot with my fiance, it was still on the sore side and I didn't want to irritate it buy wearing that tops that I had last week. I was instructed to wear light clothing and strapless bras for ten days, but I won't be gone for that long. I'm sure I'll be fine by this weekend and have posts by then. Although if there is anything I'm able to shoot within the week I'm sure to post it right away :)

Thanks for understanding you guys!!! I'm just such a wimp when it comes to pain! I hope you guys have an awesome week!

Clean and simple

Top: Eastwood City Bazaar, Jeggings: Eastwood City Bazaar, Scarf: Gift,
Earrings: Forever21, Bangles: Vintage/Girl Shoppe/ Seasons Shangrila Mall,
Shoes: Brash from Payless

I had one of those days last week when I did not want to think too much about what to mix and match with what. Like a little style vacation, I wanted to keep away from my frilly necklaces and keep it simple. I'm not very good at that, I learn from some other bloggers who look fab with minimal accessories. I admit I'm one to over do it sometimes, so I wanted to venture out without a lot of the things, dangling from my wrists or neck. I usually have an accessories checklist when I leave the house (i.e. necklaces, all the bangles in the world, nice dangle-y earrings the right mix and match of clothes and the right pair of shoes). Without too much of those this is what I came up with, you guys be the judge :D

P.S.
I'm sorry for the sudden disappearance yesterday, I was experiencing "girly-pains" and was scared of getting a fever. I wanted to make sure I rested enough so I wouldn't catch a flu, as some of you know there's this big thing happening on Saturday :D and I want to be sure not to miss it!

Just another rockstar wannabe

An attempt to look serious and rocker-chick-like

One last attempt

Yeah, I can't do it.
Top: Eastwood City Bazaar, Jeggings: Eastwood City Bazaar,
Necklace: Bubbles, Bangles: SM Department Store, Cuff: Bubbles

This outfit happened because it rained really hard, which confused a lot of people because it's November and it isn't supposed to rain really hard anymore. Not to mention the sunny weather we've been having since the first week of the month. I looked out of my window and I decided I didn't want my feet to get all wet on the way to the bridesmaids fitting. My first option were my Plueys/Wellys of course but they were purple and I thought they might be too heavy and colorful for the simple outfit that I planned. My next option were these knee high combat boots that I bought a year or two years ago. Unfortunately I forgot where I bought them, all I remember is that I wanted a pair, looked online, bought it and got it in the mail a few weeks after. I have only used them out twice and I think I'm going to be using them more often now :)

Anyway back to how I put it all together, I put on the boots, and picked out my accessories. Before I knew it I felt like I was part of some band or like a band aid or something cool like that. The boy, couldn't stop taking a photos, which is why I actually have more shots than the ones I'm showing you guys now :D I think he liked it and yeah...I rocked the outfit (right? heh) :D

I got a few glimpses of the bead work for some of my bridesmaids, I'm so happy with how everything is looking. My designer is genius, I love her to bits and pieces, she's done so much for our special day <3

Hope you guys have a great Wednesday :)

Cheapskate Tuesdays!

Cardigan: Landmark Makati, Sheer Cardigan: Thirfted, Belt: Forever21,
Dress: Thrifted, Flats: SM Department Store, Necklace: Bubbles

The boy and I were invited to a baptism of one of his former teammates baby boy last Saturday. The church was a hop and a skip from my house which gave us no room for excuses not to be able to make it :P. It was very very cloudy and cold day, I wanted to stay warm but still look appropriate. Although, I didn't want to walk around wet pavement in my heels so I decided I would slip on my flats and not worry about being on my toes the entire time :)

He was cute that day too :D

Allergic Friday

Top: Eastwood City Bazaar, Belt: Forever21, Skirt: Thirfted,
Shoes: Fioni from Payless, Necklace: Bubbles, Cuff: Bubbles,
Bangles: SM Department Store

I love Fridays, but today I have allergies. I get these allergies when I don't get enough sleep the night before. It's quite simple these allergies, I just get a runny nose in the morning, when I didn't know any better I used to call it my morning sickness, yeah....I don't think I will ever call it that :P While we're on the topic of allergies, I actually have a slight allergy to chocolate.

Nope, I'm not kidding. Okay, let me give you a moment to digest and react accordingly.

Are you okay now? No? Okay, breathe.

Okay. So my throat gets all scratchy and filled with gooey phlegm when I eat a candy bar. It's gotten worse actually and I don't want to go into detail here, but there was a hospital involved. My mom decided it would be good to feed me chocolate so maybe my system would get used to it. At least my throat doesn't get all swollen and I haven't been rushed to a hospital in years because of it. I still do experience that throat thing though, and yes, I do eat chocolate still. I just stop when my throat starts to complain :) (see it all turned out well didn't?)

Do any of you have an allergic reaction to anything?

P.S.
Hopefully this is my last set of grainy pictures....hahaha :D

Corporate Gypsy Girl (?)

Blazer: SM Department Store, Dress: Thrifted (I KNOW RIGHT?!??!)
Tights: Leg Love, Shoes: Fioni from Payless, Necklace: Bubbles Bangles: Vintage,
Ring: Girl Shoppe 

This is my favorite dress ever, ever, ever, EVAR, and of course because she's one of my favorites I'm going to name her...but maybe not right now because I can't think of one yet :D. I've avoided wearing this dress too often because if I didn't, I would live in it. It has the right colors and goes so well with the patterned stockings that I got from Leg Love. I was even tempted to wear it as a Halloween costume for a friends party, with the right accessories it would instantly look really good as a gypsy dress :D.

Oh! I just thought of a name, Indie, yup that's her name. I found Indie at the last thriftshop I was at, she was actually a replacement for one of the dresses that I wasn't sure about. I figured, if I looked one more time I was bound to find something I was sure of, and there she was. I'm glad I reconsidered that other dress, it was too big for me anyway. Indie has an empire cut and little puff sleeves, I love her tiny lace detail, like a lace belt below the chest area (hahahahha I don't know how to word it properly!!!). She is the kind of dress you want to save to hand down to others, hopefully I can keep her safe for then :).

P.S.
I found this in Pinterest the other day and I think it would make Indie delirously happy!

I doubt my hands would function if I wore them all at once but they all look
so gorgeous!

It's Wednesday already O.O

Colleagues Earl and Cameele enjoying the left over pasta from lunch, they bought BBQ's to eat with them
at snack time! :D

Blazer: Thrifted, Top: Greenhills Bazaar, Belt: Eastwood City,
Pants: Saint Francis Square, Necklace: Bubbles, Shoes: Fioni from Payless

I was just about to whine about the week being so slow and then I realized...WHOA it's Wednesday O.O.

Anyway I had such a great day today we have something called "Special Interest Group" (SIG) at work. For our team what we did was to present something that we are interested in to the members of our team. My first battle was the subject of my SIG, being a multimedia artist confuses me sometimes. At first I wanted to teach video editing. It's the one thing that some of my teammates have been asking me to teach them. But I realized that, teaching video editing would be easier if they were hands-on with a computer and not all of us have editing softwares. The next best thing to teach was Photoshop, but most of them already know Photoshop and I was stuck with what I was going to teach about it that they didn't already know ('cause they are awesomesauce and they know a lot of stuff). I had this dilemma for a few weeks until I stumbled upon a sight that had a few short cuts (very useful ones, if I may add) and decided that, since we use Photoshop both for personal and for work that I would share to them the shortcuts I knew and the ones that I could find online as well.

I wanted to make it exciting, so I planned a little contest for them to join with food prizes!!!! :D My first prize was supposed to be a big Tupperware of pasta, that I would prepare the night before but I decided against that because I wanted to be able to share it with the rest of the team instead. SO my final list of prizes were, a bag of Cheetos, two Twix candy bars and a bag filled with popcorn puffs (I call them puffs not balls because I think they're puffy, and the word balls has never been the same to me ever since I started high school) that I made. I took the pasta that I cooked (tomato, pesto, with white cream and mozarella) and shared it with them over lunch and was able to present my Photoshop Shortcuts SIG in the afternoon.

The contest was simple, I made a graphic and had them recreate it using the shortcuts that I taught in the presentation! And a colleague of mine (who is part of the Graphics team of our team [hope that makes sense]) and I were the judges on whose was the closest to what I made and who would get that big bag of Cheetos! After all the prizes were given away, and all the prize haggling was over, we all ended up happily munching on all the food, the best end to my SIG :D

Hope you guys are having a great week! I have bridal duties this weekend for two of my bridesmaids are fitting this Saturday :D (yay!)

Cheapskate Tuesday!

 Necklace: Bubbles  (Php 295) Bangles: SM Department Store (I bought it a long time ago
I don't remember how much they are! sorry!) 

Today I went to work as part of the skeletal team. It's actually my first time to come to work on a holiday since I started working in this company. All in all, it was nice, Eastwood was almost empty, no traffic whatsoever so the commute was short. I like this semi-ghost town feel, sometimes crowds aren't my thing. Getting pushed and shoved, and not to mention I have a semi phobia to enclosed spaces so an elevator ride with a big group of people is always a nightmare for me.

Last weekend the fiance and I decided to hop on over to Greenhills again, because he wanted to check if his mobile phone was available, (he applied for a line) and I needed to have my phone replaced because one of the buttons wasn't working. I decided to take Aimee out for another spin! She's really my favorite skirt, I can't believe I found her at the thriftshop. I decided to be brave and try to mix my striped top with her, I think it worked out well, don't you?

Thank you for the comments I got for my last post, I'm starting to feel better about the whole thing. There are just times when I remember and I get all down and drama queen about it. Thanks for letting me vent all about it here too, but on to happier stuff :D

P.S. Sorry for the grainy photos....I'll have graininess all week cause I just had my photos taken with my phone and at night thus, grainy-ness galore! Lets just pretend it's a really cool camera effect shall we? :D