Lippie Talk

swatches!

I don't spend much on lippies like I used to because a tube for me only last 2-3 months so why spend on fancy ones right? For me, a lippie should not cost over Php300 considering my usage. I'm not a cheapskate but I could buy lots of make up for one thousand than just a tube of lippie. I don't stick to just one brand of lipstick or make up per se because there's tons of them sprouting like mushrooms nowadays giving consumers better options and value for their money.

I do have favorite brands though such as BYS' matte lippie called Biscuit Barrel and Wet n Wild's Barely There. I've been using these brands for a little over a year now.

heavy contoured face + smoky eyes +
nude lipstick

I frenzy over new make up brands and I spot it outright whenever there's a new brand out just by how they are arranged at the mall's vanity/cosmetic section.

I was originally rooting for Pinkies Collections™ Matte nude lippie but failed to find it. So, I instead resorted to LA Girl's™ liquid lippie called Glazed Lip Paint in Whisper because it's also new, like a shiny new toy I was excited to try it and eventually applied it like a lip gloss to the one I was wearing (wnw barely there). I loved the finish plus there's a refreshing menthol feel once applied. I even thought that it has a lip plumper ingredient to it but it doesn't. It doesn't dry fast though and the texture is not so thick but I love the cute packaging and it's within my price range of course Php260+ ish. I really love matte so  when I saw Pinkies Collections I still bought their nude(st)  shade called Callalily. It was cheap for Php160+  and a good alternative for BYS' Biscuit Barrel but half the cost! I love good finds really and I also noticed that I can actually use Callalily as base coat then LA GIRL's Whisper for a luscious looking finish. 

crimson red lipstick

vampire red lipstick

But, don't just rely on lippie alone, my advise? Use nude lippie for a full make up look (smokey eyes, heavy contoured face) like what I usually sport whilst crimson red lippie for a simple make up. Trust me, red lippie always saves the day if you're not wearing the full make up look because it divert onlookers attention to your lips as focal point even if you're not wearing too much make up. Be careful in picking your red lippie shade btw, crimson/vampire red always radiate that classic and Gothic vibe which makes a girl's look pretty edgy and sexy at the same time. Oh let's not forget the winged eye liner baby!

So, what's your shade? 

Do Whatever

I have been nursing a cold for five days now and yes I am self-medicating. I know it's wrong but I hate going to hospitals and wait in vain. So, what I do, I keep my old prescriptions and bear in mind which medicine works for me all the time.

During the first two days, my throat was itchy like hell. An itchy throat for days indicates an infection, and, this happens to me every time I indulge on sweets or anything cold like ice cream, etc. which I did when I went to back home to Manila the week before. Let me also mention that I get sick once exposed to the rain without any proper rain gear and the recent typhoon compelled me to get out of the house to attend to our dogs despite the heavy rains.

Going back, my sissy suggested that I drink ginger ale as it's a natural anti-biotic which I of course agreed. The ginger was such a good home remedy that my itchy throat subsided eventually although not as fast as anti-biotics in pill form which normally lead to not so good effects on me after taking them for days.

my homemade chocolate and peanut
butter cake :)

I prescribed Sinupret for myself which is vegan so it's safe as per majority of internists (I have consulted in the past) for my running nose and Sinecod for my cough, they're all over the counter drugs by the way. I'm on my way to getting better day by day with a little help from my twinnings tea and lime friends! I even got back to baking and consumed all my baking supplies. Let me also share that as soon as I'm a whole lot better I am considering to go back to driving (yay!) because I can no longer endure commuting in Manila quite frankly (sic). The population density brought forth shortage in public transportation and aggravated traffic jams. So my solution is to go back driving (which I haven't been in twenty years! (say huwaat??) yes it's been that long. Driving is a necessity of course in case of emergency and I'm planning to do everything that I can do while I still have the time because once I'm back working again TIME would be my major constraint for sure.

posted from Bloggeroid

Conserve

photo courtesy of google images

The power was out for three days here up north because of the recent typhoon Ineng. It felt like dooms day every time I hear the super strong winds lashing outside. I barely slept these past days fearing that a tornado might be underway, thank God my sister and I were safe and sound.

All our electronic gadgets drained out because our power bank only sustained our power hungry gadgets for a day and we were left with no communication to the outside world for almost a couple of days after.

photo courtesy of google images

Having no power sucks big time and I felt like going nuts unable to use my mobile phone and all other power dependent stuff here at home. What added more to my annoyance is the fact that our only source of existence after the black out, our portable LPG (liquified petroleum gas) also ran out yesterday morning leaving us with no way to heat water nor do any cooking anymore. I said to myself, we're totally doomed. Good riddance the power went back on at exactly five in the afternoon thank God! Our three days of ember finally ended. I can't even heat water using charcoal geez.

The black out made me realize how important is energy to everyone that I promise to conserve for as much as I could because it is as precious as water. Energy is also our source of life that our planet might be heaving because we're draining her resources to sustain us all.

posted from Bloggeroid

What has happened

NLEX toll gate..

It's over 30°C here in Manila and the traffic turned worse to worst. I don't know what's going on with all the endless road repairs and the traffic turmoil. When I left Manila four years ago, the traffic is still a little bearable especially if you leave early for work. But now? Wow, if I were to describe the traffic condition nowadays I will say from rust to decay. The train system has been horrendous even before but the never ending troubles commuting via train turned quite life threatening already that most people would rather take the bus or if they have means buy a car. The result? Much more heavy traffic jams.

I can't blame car owners because, I too, will not subject myself neither to the hassles of commuting nowadays. Taking a cab can even endanger your life if you have heard of those cab drivers spraying some sort of chemical to the cab's aircon vents so their poor and helpless passenger would pass out thus give them opportunity to steal whatever they could steal from them. Scary. Encountering an obnoxious cab driver is scary enough what more passing out in a cab and waking up just to find that you no longer have a single penny in you? Worse, if you ever still wake up. I don't mean to write about these horrors but it's a way to warn commuters nowadays like me, that, even if we're living in a democratic country we fear for our lives and safety, especially women. What has happened?

I am aware that corruption is so rampant in all countries (rich or poor). I just can't wrap my head around the fact that how come our neighboring countries here in South East Asia have way better transportation system than us considering they also have corrupt government officials? Road repairs after another, after another, they haven't even fixed one yet another road is being excavated thus causing even heavier traffic jams. Why does the Philippines suit itsef with refurbished elevators, buses and trains? Big chunk of our pay goes to taxes, I am just wondering where'd they go.

Halo-halo to beat the
heat.

somewhere over the rainbow.

Moving on, since I arrived couple of days ago, all that my sissy and I do is hang out in air conditioned places to keep us sane. My god, the heat here down south is so unbearable that you could literally fry an egg outside. So, to beat the heat we either we go to an ice cream parlor or anywhere else that serves any cold stuff like halo-halo, bubble tea etc. It felt like being inside an urn where you're left to fry anywhere you go. It just made me think, is the universe really dying like what the news said? If so then where do we go? I'd love to watch this movie Interstellar again.

Early this week, I saw a rainbow and according to my Dad, for as long as a rainbow appears in the heavens, it is a sign that God will no longer end the world by water. The bible said that according to him. No more Noah's arc I guess. But, we should still consider that there's four elements: earth, wind, water and fire.

I love to travel everywhere now that I have all the time in the world (for now) so our niece drove us off to the Parish of the Immaculate Heart today. She said, she wished for a car the first time she set foot there and it eventually came true so I fervently wished for someone to buy our house up north so we could move on with our lives and pretty much start over. I wish I may. Patience is a virtue whilst prayers can move mountains.

Foodie Time

Not a busy day today thus I was able to attend to Brandon, our doggie patient's needs. I tended his wound this morning (which is slowly but surely healing), had him take his second to the last Co-Amox antibiotic, fed him and that's pretty much it. We actually noticed he didn't chow his gauze (wrapped around his Hygroma/wound) last night, well that's a first after almost a week.

My sissy learned, as per our long time family friend's advise that, we have to wipe any menthol smelling oil (e.g White flower, Pao liniment etc.) to his gauze to prevent him from chewing it because dogs hate the smell of menthol. It actually worked except that the smell eventually faded after few hours so we needed to apply menthol on his gauze in the morning and another one in the evening. We did not do that before because we thought the smell might stress him out. However, you have to perform some hacks if all else failed. We'll take Brandon to the vet tomorrow and we'll see what's their verdict. We're saying no to surgery though.

Anyways, since it's not a busy day today we went to downtown (or should I say uptown since town is forty five minutes up north from our house) to scout for an AM/FM modulator for our car's old school stereo. My sister gave her smaller SUV to our niece and is now driving a bigger one. Since her bigger car's stereo does not have any USB slot which stores all of our music, we have to find a modulator, the one you plug to the car's charger/cigarette hub so we could use our USB dongle. It was a fail since according to majority of electronic shops we checked they already phased them out here up north. There are so many things you can no longer find here which is too bad because down south there's this wide array of options for almost everything. We just suit ourselves with mobile music for the time being.

We Had lunch today at Hill Station in Casa Vallejo, upstairs Mt. Cloud book store (I bought a Mt. Cloud cute sticker for Php30.00) simply because we haven't tried dining there yet. We already ate at Hill Station Bistro in Camp John Hay a long time ago and tried their Death by Chocolate Cake. We found the place not as cozy as the one in Casa Vallejo though. Dining there is by reservation by the way but since the whatever event taking place there is not until later today, we were accommodated. I love how cozy the place was, the black and white photography on the walls made the ambiance dramatic.

Art is expressed in so many forms. 
I love black and white photography, it's classic. The photographs seemed to have a soul in them that they will pop out of the photo paper any time. I love something raw, something rustic, there's just inexplicable beauty in them. I miss my photography class back in college. My professor missed my black and white shots back then and when I stopped shooting black and white pictures he asked “what happened?”

Moving on, I had the Vegetarian Panini Sandwich (grilled eggplant, tomatoes and this healthy tasting sour dressing) and their wonderful Iced Tea with a sliced of lime. What I loved about their iced tea is that it's the real deal, you know the taste of tea coming from the actual tea bag with a lot of brown sugar and lime. I always try to replicate that kind of iced tea but I can't so I just suit myself at home with lotsa lime, many ice cubes and brown sugar served usually in mason jars. Lime is always good because it's a very good source of vitamin C.




posted from Bloggeroid

Good for the Heart

new baking supplies...

 I bought some more baking stuff yesterday. Like what I mentioned on my previous blog entry, I frenzy over shopping for baking products and materials every time I go to the Supermarket's baking section. Here up north, there's this Supermarket located at the heart of the city where you could find cheap baking products and utensils. They have baking pans for less than a hundred, non fat cocoa which only cost Php10.00 and miniature individual rice cake trays for the same price. Haven right? I love cheap finds. They make my world happy despite my limited budget for baking supplies.

My sister might have been inspired of me baking so she also scoured YouTube for no bake desserts! She told me she also want to make her very own non bake cake and picked this simple oreo cheese cake which only required condensed milk, oreo cookies and cream cheese. I said sure why not for a change since I want her to have her own little hobby as well whilst were both on hiatus and also, to sort of, let our creative minds work.

I bought myself this muffin tray, cocoa, some more flour, chocolate morsels and my favorite blue food coloring because I am thinking of baking blue cup cakes! I only bought one color for the time being since I'm just gonna test it for now and if it turn out good then I'll buy other colors. New things excite me, it's like finding a shiny new toy lol.

my sister's no bake oreo cheese cake
(photo courtesy of m00nchildr0cks)

As soon as my sister and I reached home yesterday we started working on her masterpiece, her oreo cheesecake then I alone worked on my blue mini cup cakes. I was too excited that I forgot to put butter on my muffin tray (geez) so the bottom of my miniature cakes were a li'l half done. I just did a little work around last night since everything's fine except for that. How did it go? My sissy's oreo cheesecake was ok although there's something missing and we thought it might've been nutella. The cream cheese is not yet too solid so we thought of freezing it overnight. We tried the second tub today and it was a hit, it tasted better than yesterday probably it's 'cuz the cream cheese tasted so much better if frozen overnight. My blue cup cakes were saved by the chocolate morsels I stuffed them haha! It was good actually except that I shouldn't have place them in the freezer, just the chiller part instead my mistake lol. What did I learned from this experience? Practice makes prefect and go easy on food coloring, yeah I dazzled my batter too much of it that's why it turned out quite dark whilst I was just aiming for light shade of blue :D

my blue mini cup cakes with cream cheese
frosting and rainbow sprinkles.

The good thing was, the left over cream cheese (which I turned into cream cheese frosting fused with butter, condensed milk and granulated sugar mixed by hand since I don't have a mixer) sort of elevated my mini cup cake's taste. All went well e? I hate measuring, I just toss them in, taste the batter and it should be all set. Oh let me just say that my steam baked cookies n' cream was a hit with my niece and other sissy. I packed a handful for them during their trip back down to the south early this week. If they're happy with it then I am too. My niece said I should sell my cake/muffin babies but I said they're not ready yet, I need to perfect them first and besides this is just a hobby for now, something to make me happy. Kinda like my omega 3, good for the heart.

choose a life that is yours

chocolate pancake with oreo chunks and
strawberry jam

Woke up late this morning because of last night's movie marathon. Watched Jurassic World, the new Cinderella flick and Interstellar. I will blog about them when I feel like it one of these days.

Atari the kitty

Anyways, my cat is my roomie last night. He often sleep in my bed even if my sister and I share the same room I guess it's cuz he already blanketed my bed with his fur and his scent already linger in my comforter. The good thing is I'm not allergic to cats or any animals per se with fur, I only sneeze if it's too much to bear already. I love sleeping in the attic recently because it is really vast that it's able to sleep about ten people.

Moving on, I still managed to make some chocolate pancakes with bits of oreo cookies this morning. I paired it with apple and black coffee. Man, I was stuffed 'til lunch time. Life is good. I love my routine, sleep and wake up late, cook, watch movies, I'm such a slacker :D

I love it not having to sleep early just to endure my boring job the next day. This is my so called life for now teehee.

nayyirah waheed poem

Let me end this blog with a poem from nayyirah waheed.

Have great day ahead ;)

posted from Bloggeroid

A Dog Is Family Too

Brandon, recuperating from an infected hygroma (photo courtesy
of m00nchildr0cks)

Been nursing our ten year old family dog Brandon for about a week now. His hygroma, those callous you found on big dog's elbow, knees and behind has gotten worse. It has already turned into an infected open wound with pus thus we rushed him to a veterinary clinic so he'll get the proper care for his wound asap. The good thing is, this happened on time whilst my sissy and I are both on hiatus thus we are able to attend to Brandon as he is already a senior dog (10 years is equivalent to 70 years in dog years) and he absolutely needs ample TLC (tender love and care) at this very moment.

I made this DIY pill holder out of egg container to store Brandon's medicines
and even labelled them :)

Brandon, was named after Brandon Boyd of Incubus since we name all of our dogs after rock stars because we're into rock music since during our adolescent years (we have Fiona named after Fiona Apple, our dearly departed long coat chihuahua dog Harriet from Harriet Wheeler of The Sundays, her also departed son Jack, after Jack of The White Stripes and his sister Jill after Jill Sobule. Then, a relative of Harriet also a long coat chihua, Bruce from Bruce Springsteen, Kurt from Kurt Cobain of Nirvana obviously and so on). Going back, Brandon is our Dad's dog and he bought him all the way from Cavite way back 2005 with my sister and nine year old niece. According to them it was a hearbreaking story because Brandon was up for sale along with his sister and a Doctor along with his little kids took care of them like their own from puppyhood until they're up for sale. When my Dad took Brandon (he cost less than 10k) his Doctor owner and kids seemed heartbroken thus they already hid inside their house prior to Brandon leaving the compound because they might've felt like a they lost a family member that's why my sister assured them Brandon would be in good hands since our family treat our pets like family members so just imagine our rage when we heard about the Yulin Festival crap.

Anyways, Brandon is a German Shepherd and is PCCI (Philippine Canine Club, Inc) certified thus my Dad even enrolled him to this fancy canine academy where he learned basic tricks and even earned a certificate afterwards (kinda like a Diploma). We supplied him with vitamins since he's not an ordinary dog and provided extra care but like any other animals he's become susceptible to illness as he gets older. He once had worm infestation I think wherein my Dad even needed to rush back home whilst on his way to the south to send him over to a vet because there's already blood in his stools. All went well and he's been healthy until lately because he might've scratched his callous too far that's why it got infected. I mean what to expect with animals right? They scratch haplessly if there's an itch. Brandon was really behave whilst at the vet, he didn't even growl nor displayed any aggressive behavior towards the veterinarian that's why they were able to clean his wound well, prescribed some anti-biotics, anti-flammatory meds, wound cleaner and a liver supplement to possibly help in healing his wound fast since he's a senior dog.

DIY hygroma pads made from a couple of large dog muzzles and hand
sewn leather strap. 

My sister and I even made this DIY hygroma pads for Brandon but he seemed uncomfortable so we were left with no choice but get rid of the pads since he already chewed on it. It was made from leather car seats by the way which have been long discarded and kept somewhere in the house. I even hand sewn it but it did not last very long for a huge and strong dog. He even ate some of his gauze good thing my other sissy caught him.

So far his wound on his elbow seemed to be closing, a sign of healing which is absolutely a good thing. He's temporarily wearing this Elizabeth collar aka collar of shame for animals because he couldn't keep his teeth away from his wound, munching and ripping his bandage. We have been giving him his anti-biotic as prescribed and we'll see how it goes after this week. I hope the wound gets better within this week so surgery won't be an option anymore. Who wants surgery anyways right? I personally don't having gone through one because he's a ten year old dog and same with humans, as you get older the risk is high once you're placed under the knife. Brandon is a mighty dog despite his wound and he even gets to guard our house at night whilst recuperating. He's our very own stay in security guard actually.