Happy New Year! Posted at 6:11 am 0 comments (+) I'm writing this post as a reminder to myself that I actually set a goal for this year. Honestly, there are a couple of things I needed to work on (since ages ago), but I couldn't bring myself to hit two-five birds with one stone, that's why I never made any resolutions or goals until now. I wanna focus on what I think I need the most: money. UHM, OKAY. I know, cue the contentment/simplicity quotes... But I absolutely have no savings (AS IN, ZERO) for the past 8 years! I'm turning 20 this year; I need to find a job, need to find a backup job while I find a job, need to construct my foundation (that will serve as my starting point to fulfillmy dreams blablabla). I am 67% confident that I have the creativity, but not the money. I cannot move when I don't have it. Literally! And I know it sounds so materialistic and bratty but screw it because deep down you know it's true.

So I was hovering over at Pinterest when I saw these 2015 Fitness/Money/Reading Challenges and I realized I should do one of these for a change! However,the challenges seemed unfit for me because it still felt like a bit too much to handle for a year.I know it's going to be hard if I set very demanding rules (I have tried setting limits on my allowances but I just can't.)  I didn't want to not spend but I also didn't want to not save.  I thought long and hard for what challenge and I came up with a money-saving challenge that will (hopefully) improve my spending habits.

MECHANICS:
1. I am to deposit 20pesos EVERY DAY to my coin bank. So 20 pesos x 365 days = 7300pesos!
2. For EACH MONTH, I am allowed to spend a maximum of 2000 pesos on MAKEUP, CLOTHES, SHOES, HYGIENE, or FOOD aka my guilty pleasures, depending on the guilty pleasure randomly selected. So I can only spend on one guilty pleasure, but I can interchange them as long as I spend upto 2k only.

• JANUARY: CLOTHES
• FEBRUARY: SHOES
• MARCH: HYGIENE
• APRIL: MAKEUP
• MAY: SHOES
• JUNE: FOOD
• JULY: MAKEUP
• AUGUST: FOOD
• SEPTEMBER: SHOES
• OCTOBER: CLOTHES
• NOVEMBER: CLOTHES
• DECEMBER: HYGIENE

2000 pesos x 12 months = 24000 pesos. It's a lot more than the 7300 pesos I'll get to save for December, but at least I have an organized way of deciding where my money goes. I'll have my goodies and I can always put the change (or maybe the whole of it) to my coin bank! I really hope this works.  Feel free to try this if we're on the same page. Goodluck and may you feel better this 2015!

Singapore May-June 2014 Part 1 Posted at 2:24 am 0 comments (+) Sharing my family's trip to Singapore before everything becomes a blur, and because I'm keeping myself from slacking off and doing nothing at home. Quick side-story: While sorting photos of our travel, I accidentally deleted everything while I thought they were being transferred to another folder. Went through a panic to recover it but my computer won't detect my device and encounters an unidentified problem whenever I try to connect, so I'm gonna post photos which my sister took and some that were left in my phone. But still, NAKAKAIYAK.

Let's take a tour through Day 1!


Upon landing at Changi International Airport, you can get a hold of a guide available in English and Mandarin. We didn't hire a tour guide, and we did not avail any travel itineraries before we arrived in Singapore. Everything will be spontaneous, thus we were glad to find these brochures to at least give us info on where to begin. Even the airport's transport service has a brochure on fares and contact numbers to get you anywhere in Singapore. Ang ayos lang ng lahat po.


Daylight in Singapore: Lots of people walking, shopping, watching dramas in their smartphones (yup), and taking pictures. Another thing I loved is that there were trees everywhere. A friend told me that weather in Singapore is slightly more humid than in the Philippines. But when we got there we didn't sweat much! I guess it's thanks to the trees. Did I mention there's lots of walking involved? Yes. Also, I saw trash and cigar butts in some corners, which made me confused because you're supposed to pay $1,000 for littering. I got intimidated by everyone, really. Singapore is a place full of...anyone. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the long walk!

And now for the highlight of Day 1!

Come nighttime, we rode a train from Orchard to Marina Bay. Taking the train is the most convenient way to get to anywhere, actually. The basics are pretty much the same here and in Singapore. But damnnn they have such fast and well-ventilated trains, not to mention they have 5 lines (North South, East West, North East, Downtown, and Circle Line) to take you to places. If you research on how to get around Singapore, this would be a piece of cake. My sister was the one in charge of the research so we were following her around during the trip, lol. Don't worry, because the guide has got you covered if you're having a rough time! That is, if you grabbed a brochure... Haha!


Welcome to Marina Bay Sands! I prefer to see it at night because the lights make it futuristic, like you're in a different planet. Unfortunately, this is the only photo I had of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, the most expensive building in the world. Checking-in is quite costly, but you get what you pay for! It was huge and tall I could still see it even when we got to the Gardens.


ArtScience Museum that's shaped like a lotus; more of a general way of welcoming tourists. However, too much walking made me think of a ramen bowl and sliced green mango when I saw this.


After another hour of walking around other attractions in Marina Bay, we finally went inside the Shoppes at Marina Bay and had heavy dinner. Everything here is high-end (old news!) so we just strolled around and took more photos. Then my Dad decided to check out the Skypark a.k.a. the banana-shaped thing at the top of Marina Bay Sands Hotel. OMG.

A whopping $23 to see Singapore at the ~heart~ of Singapore. But like I said, you get what you pay for so...


The blue lighted-goblets are actually the trees from Gardens By the Bay. At the left is the Marina Barrage. Am I in Do Min Joon's planet or whut.

Labels: Singapore, travel

Our Housemaids Posted at 4:05 pm 0 comments (+) If you ask me, our experiences with housemaids were almost never pleasant, so if you stumbled upon this post and condemn me for ranting about them, I don't really care. My period is coming in two days; I'm not quite feeling well down there. I have so much stuff in my head that I just have to get this one out so the negative vibes will disappear and I can move on to the other stuff in my head (a lot of beauty things that I can't wait to share wit' u!) Below are some of the memorable housemaids (not arranged chronologically because my memory is that bad lol) during this family's lifetime:

• My parents have been hiring housemaids since we were babies so basically we grew up depending on them for house work. Back then we'd each have one maid for my two siblings and I: An old but kindly woman for my brother, a long-haired teenage girl for my younger sister, and my maid turned out to be the worst of them all. CUE MY SAD FACE AND TEARY-EYES AS I TYPE THIS lol I remember so many bad things! Whenever my parents leave for work, our maids would usually laze around and watch TV. The old woman would usually get up first from the couch and clean, the long-hair would go out and play with my sister, and I'm forced to sit with my maid while she watches TV (I don't quite remember what it was but it was boring for me.) One time, my sister and I out asked our maids to buy 4 ice candies, and while we were eating them, a drop of ice candy fell to my lap and stained my clothes and she pinched me so hard it hurt! *Heavy breathing* there were lots of times when she shampoos my hair and the shampoo gets into my eyes and she wouldn't even bother rinsing them off! She grumpily puts my clothes on and doesn't care if it's too tight or too lose. And she screams at me a lot for no reason at all. I'm pretty sure there were other circumstances of her evilness because my Mom told me! I AM SO FORGETFUL MOST OF THE TIME.  The worse part is, when my parents are at home SHE ACTS SO HEAVENLY TOWARDS ME. It gets me pissed up until now whenever I remember it. I was a little girl then, around 2-3 years old. I don't remember much which is TOO FREAKING bad. Fast forward to me at 9 years old and my Dad introduced me to her again, asking me if I remember her. You know what I just did? Because my favorite show was on and I was too giddy to care, I only smiled at her and said Hi. WTAF. I just realized that I should've bitch-slapped her for all those harsh times. LOL, I\M PISSED NAO.
• There was a time when we had this maid who was EXTREMELY LAZIER THAN OUR ASSES. She just sits on the couch all day and watches the then-popular show, Rosalinda. I remember when my Grandma visited our old home and she-wait for it- asked my Grandma to WASH ALL THE DISHES. Uhm. Wtaf?! That wasn't the only time. Once, my Mom asked her to sweep the floor and she forgot to do it because she was, again, watching Rosalinda. My Mom ended up sweeping the floors HERSELF because she couldn't stand the dirt! FUCK, RIGHT? Hahahaha. Of course she didn't stay that long; all of us were so happy she was gone.
• Another time, my parents hired two maids (we were around 9-13 yrs. old by that time, still three of us.) who are siblings. House work-wise, they were okay; the only big problem was that they're the fangirl-types, and back then, Meteor Garden was a huge hit. So of course, their house work came less and less of quality and more Dao Ming Xi-Vic Zhou-Vaness-Ken LOL. I remember waking up early in the morning, finding them in the living room, cleaning sofas while the TV was on and they were scanning channels of possible Meteor Garden appearances. WTF. It was so hilarious, how they were so fans of everything and everyone. I had this F4 poster I got in World Trade back then, and they asked if they could have it, only to tape the poster on the ceiling so they have something to look at when they're going to sleep!!! HAHAHA. When it's not Meteor Garden, it's those local movies on Cinema One/PBO hahaha! My Dad eventually noticed it too and became unsatisfied with their work, so he let them go. I wonder where they are now that Meteor Garden is back in airing...
• One of the worst is when my Dad hired 3 helpers in the house and stole a ton of cash that belonged to my aunt. I don't remember much of it (huuhhh sawry), but it's also because my Mom wouldn't let us know about the whole detail of it. They had this alibi going on for 2 weeks or so, and I remember coming home from school and there were all these police officers taking them out of the house. There was a big and curly-haired woman (who later came to work in the house again only to go again because my Mom never liked her lol), a short woman in her early-twenties, gangsta-like and one of my most hated maids (she told her folks that she was dating my Dad  like WTAF EWW), and a gay helper. Ugh, baddies. And they liked drinking outside our backdoor during the night.
• We had a housemaid who left us (and the house gate open) in the middle of the night, while my parents were out in a get-together party and we were asleep. My Mom was super mad about it and burst, lol.
• There was this house maid who secretly used all my Mom's cosmetics whenever she was out.
• We also had a hyperactive house maid, who my sister hated because she startles her. But now that we look back, we kinda want her again! Maybe we'd be laughing together now that we've ~matured~, lol.
• Few years ago my Dad hired a woman to work for us (uhm, duh.) How do I put this?? I asked her some stuff and found out she only finished until 3rd grade and she hasn't learned since then. So when I told my Dad, we all went pretty gentle with her on house chores. One time my Dad carefully instructed her how to go and shop at the market, and she got lost going back (even thought the market was just one straight-route to our house) and my Dad had to find her in a police station because she couldn't instruct the officers well. There was also this one time, I was chatting with my Mom through Skype and she saw it, and she freaked out because it's the first time she saw another person on a computer. She didn't even know what a computer is and what it does. Sigh.

Labels: house maids, ranting, wala lang

Teacher Kang Posted at 4:55 pm 0 comments (+)

"Your drama has a long way to go before it's over. So don't force yourself to go quickly. If you go slowly, you can see a lot more, in more detail, than the people who go quickly. If you ask me who would grow more between those two, I'd say it's the one who goes slowly and sees a lot."

Lifts 2 Posted at 12:00 pm 0 comments (+) Lifts 1

Back from a dye job! The result is not what I expected, but it's definitely one that I'm starting to like and ~embrace~. Previously, I had 7.) Platinum Roots, Ash-Blonde-Light Orange Hair. Uhm. You might get weirded-out with the names I decide on, but I'm just describing what I see on my hair and I don't really have the knowledge to classify them into shades or hues or whatever. Like I said before, I'm not a professional. Going back, I couldn't take another bleaching session after my hair became gummy and expired pasta. Also, my roots are a level lighter than the rest of my hair, which is pretty strange for people to see (no one in the family took my hair positively after seeing it bleached, lol.) So I bought a Light Ash Blonde Dye in the beauty supply store in hopes of achieving an even hair color and to tone the brassy orange. I was so nervous while my best friend was applying it (there were some horror stories of hair turning pale green after rinsing it out.) Reji assured me that it's not gonna turn green and I took comfort on that. However, when the dye was slowly covering my hair, it had a weed-green tone to it so I (internally) freaked. Left the dye on my hair for an hour and a half, and when we rinsed it....


Goodbye, orange tone and hello, Ash Blonde! But look, there's an odd color that came out after the rinse...


Because I had Platinum roots when I dyed it with Light Ash Blonde, for some reason the Platinum became Gray. COOL BEANS. I know sporting Gray hair would be interesting, but I didn't expect it to happen. It looked so good that I threw out my dream of becoming Platinum and wanted Gray hair, lol! It's not the gray you see in aged people. More of like, silver (so maybe I should've said Silver instead of Gray? lol ok.) BUT IT WAS TOO PRETTY.

8.) Silver/Gray Roots, Ash Blonde Hair

AGGGH, LOVE. At first it was frustrating because only the roots were gray. I wanted the entire head, but it cannot be unless I tone and tone and tone and dye.


Just gonna leave this Kate Moss photo because we have the same hair, ~squeeeee~ though I think she's fixed hers now. Who knew!

Unfortunately, this gray hair wouldn't last for long. AH, FUCK.  I decided that the better decision to do is to (still), even out my color then proceed to the Gray/Silver hair. Just now I toned my hair with my homemade toner, this time to remove the brassy yellow hues. I didn't apply it on my silver roots because the result would be white. After leaving the toner for 4 hours (it'll depend on how brassy your yellow is) and rinsing it, my hair was lighter (almost in level with the roots), but it had a weed-green-blue tone! It's like I went back to my previous ash-blonde stage... A few hours of drying and it became Blonde. Yay!




Emote.

So now, my hair is blonde and the silver/gray roots turned platinum when I rinsed my entire head. It's a lot less awkward to look at now that it's a bit evened-out. I'm considering this another successful step and now I would like to take a break from the processing and just deep-condition my hair. Next time, I'm ordering a toner to effectively lighten my hair to platinum and who knows, maybe I'll proceed straight to silver and another goal in life is completed... So there! Another long post about ~hair~ lol. Girls.
Feel free to address your concerns and I shall entertain them. Good luck!

Labels: Hair

(DIY) Hair Toner for Brassy Yellow and/or Orange Tones Posted at 11:26 pm 12 comments (+) Are you Filipino? Are you frustrated with the fact that hair toners are not available for purchase in beauty stores nationwide? No purple hair dye to start with toning? Do you want a cheaper alternative to these toners? Ta-daaaa! Lucky you. Today, I'm sharing a DIY hair toner that's more nourishing to apply on hair. This is what I did when I bleached my hair and the result was Orange, and this is what I also did when I achieved the Blonde. First, I'm going to tell you that you may/may not do this project, since it will always be your choice to take risks or play by the expert's rules. I'm not a hair expert, I'm just in the process of self-renewal wherein I ~share~ stuff that's happening in my life lately with people online, basically strangers.

Here are the things you need to apply on your hair. They're not much and they cost less than the toners and dyes ordered online because Philippines. Online. Sigh. Get my point?

• Mix white conditioner and 1-2 drops of food color (Purple if you have more yellow tones, Blue if more orange tones.) on a plastic bowl.
• Apply it on your dry hair.
• It's ideal to leave it it for 15-30 minutes. It depends on how yellow or how orange your hair is; Leave it longer if it's too brassy and rinse it immediately if it's not. Cover it up for faster development.
• Rinse and towel dry.

You should notice your hair getting a level lighter and toned (duh). If you think the procedure was successful and would like to go lighter, then you can do it again, but don't leave it longer than before. If it didn't, you can stop. Check your hair every now and then because leaving the mixture longer than it should be might turn out too green/blue. I advise you to perform a strand-test, even though it's heartbreaking for me to cut pieces of hair.

Labels: Hair

(DIY) Removing Dye From Hair Posted at 3:48 pm 0 comments (+) LOL. I'm here to share the homemade experiment I did to lift the jet black dye I had months ago. Before you proceed, let me tell you that this DIY project did not work on my hair. However, I had super black hair when I did this, so maybe I was just too impatient to see the results and based on my ex-ten-sive research, this works better when you have a lighter hair color than black. Another thing is that there are other methods faster and more effective like using products specifically for hair dye removing, but what I'm gonna show you are safer and milder to use, because duh. Homemade.

Labels: Hair