my so called photoed life

Hot Tuesday Afternoon, Traders Joe and the Park

2013-05-14T19:07:00.000-05:00

Yesterday the weather was at 62F and when I got out today it's at 87F. Weird weather days. Anyways today I went out to check out Traders Joe for the raved about Speculooos Cookie Butter spread back home in the Philippines. I tried this at my friend's Donald and it is pretty good. I also visited Naperville Park and just sat down on one of the benches by the fountain. Because of the hot day, many people were dipping their feet into the fountain water. While I was people watching, a duo with a guitar and a drum box of sorts started playing right next to the bench I was sitting on. They were pretty good and it was a pretty cool afternoon despite the heat. :D

Shirt by Zenana Outfitters; Shorts by Banana Republic; Sandals by Loft

French Macarons and Paisley

2013-05-08T18:08:00.001-05:00

Still very lovely weather here where it's not too warm and not too cold. It's a good time to go for walks, ride a bike or just be outdoors. Well I didn't do any of those today tho hahaha. My mission was to go and find a place where they had French Macarons. These lovely delicate desserts was introduced to me by Ann my friend from Austin and I had to get my hands on supposedly the best in Chicago as stated here. I found it in Sugar Fixe Patisserie all the way in Oak Park, Illinois which is about 30 minutes away from where I stay. Yes I found it and I bought a few and it is pretty good so at least I've had my macaron fix hahaha. Anyways, my pictures tho are of what I wore to go for the macarons run hahaha. It is a paisley blouse which is very comfortable and cool in this beautiful weather. Oh what a day for a french macaron! :)

Paisley blouse by Claudia Richards; Shorts by Ross; Slippers by Oka-b

Lovely French Macarons :)

Pink and Black

2013-05-06T18:08:00.000-05:00

Shorts by Gap; Shirt by Flowers; Shoes by Payless

Ok time for an outfit post. I haven't posted one in a long time because I'm a lazy bum and I didn't have any post-worthy outfits wehehe. It's spring and the temperature is going up and today it's around 70F and above so why not wear shorts hehehe. For a mail and grocery run today this is what I wore. :)

Austin with Ann

2013-04-30T21:52:00.000-05:00

Off I went to Austin to visit one of my best friends Ann and her family. It was a super fun trip to see Ann and her family and I got to see a lot of Austin as well.

When I arrived it was cold. I immediately texted Ann and said it's cold here. Hahaha. All my expectations of how Texas would look like and be like for my first visit were all dispelled hahaha. I expected it to be hot and see deserts and plains and ranches and cattle and well when I got to Austin I did not see any of those hahaha. What I saw was a lot of greenery, mountains and hills and beautiful houses and buildings.

First activity of the day, we attended Ann's friends kiddie party in a beautiful park. I was fortunate enough to see blue bonnets which are native to Texas and blooms supposedly only during Spring. Ann was excited as well and we took a lot of pictures among the blue bonnets hehehe.

Next we went up to Mount Bonnel to see the beautiful view of Austin from up above. It was amazing to see the river passing thru, the very big and beautiful houses along the river, the bridge, the cityscape and just the beautiful sun about to set. Amazing end to a full day!

Next day we visited the Capitol of Texas. Ann said I had to see it and well good thing I did because it was a beautiful building to see and one of the landmarks of Austin. We also went inside and saw the dome inside as well as the congress hall which was luckily open because of a tour.

The next day we went for dinner and a sunset view at The Oasis, a huge restaurant which had the above spectacular view. I think the restaurant could seat 3000 people and it all looked out to the lake and to the sunset. The food was good and the company was even better. Picture upon picture was taken until the sun had set hehehe. When the sun had set, a bell was rung and a lot of clapping. Ann told me this was customary hehehe.

Earlier in the day, we visited a French Patisserie to eat their famous macarons. It was pretty good but I think the macarons Ann made before I arrived would be able to rival it hehehe. So that night, Ann made another batch of strawberry filled macarons and I've got to tell you it's a very delicate pastry to make. Ann had all the tools including her daughter's baking toy which was put to good use hahaha. Ann did a great job and it tasted really good! Yum! So addicting!

For my last day in Austin we went to The Domain which is a pretty shopping center which reminded me so much of Greenbelt back in the Philippines. It had all the shops and restaurants and condos all modern designed and lively. While going around the shops, Sophia, Ann's daughter was so in the mood to pose so the above pictures are just a few of the so many poses she had hahaha. She was such a cutie and was so game about it that it was so much fun hahaha. A great way to end the trip! :)

Visiting Nashville

2013-04-16T22:33:00.001-05:00

Asides from going around Louisville, Donald and Rose brought me all the way to Nashville, Tennesee. It is around 2.5 hours away from Louisville and it is the home of country music. It was another fun time going to the different landmarks of Nashville in a day. Check out where I went to. :)

This is where all the country music shows happen! :)

This is the Grand Ole Opry Hotel which is really grand and humongous :D

At the Parthenon Park, a copy of the Parthenon from Greece and me loving the spring blooms by the garden nearby!! :D

Really good food especially their biscuits with jam! The best I've tasted so far :D Yummy comfort food at Loveless Cafe :D

Last but not least was going around downtown and on a Sunday night all the bars where busy with each bar one after the other other with live bands in each blasting country music! Pretty cool! :D

My Louisville Experience

2013-04-15T23:32:00.000-05:00

My good friend from college, Donay, has been inviting me to visit him and his wife in Louisville, Kentucky ever since I set foot here in the US. He lives like just about 5 hours car drive away hehehe. I finally was able to drive to his place over the weekend and stayed for 5 days!! hahaha. It was so much fun! They took real good care of me. I felt so spoiled the whole time thru with the all the food and all the places they took me to and me not lifting a finger hehehe.

In Louisville, Donald took me all around like first we went downtown to their museums and went to Louisville Slugger where all the baseball bats that professional baseball players use get them from. I tried out their batting cage and man it was hard to hit the ball but it was a totally great experience trying to line up with kids to get our turn hahaha. 10 balls = 1 dollar. Not bad. We went back around 6 times hahaha. It was so much fun.

We then went to Old Louisville which I again enjoyed as we were walking around all this old refurbished beautiful houses. It was just so very pretty to look at and with all the buds of spring an added bonus.

Next up was Churchhill Downs where the famous Kentucky Derby is held. It was amazing to go thru the museum especially the part where we watched a short video with the screens in a round lap formation so we were moving around in our seats to look at where the next video would be and it was just really awesome to watch. Another awesome thing we did was walk on the grounds where the Kentucky Derby is held. We were shown the grounds, the stables, the winner names on the walls, the very expensive seats where you could watch the race. Amazing!

We then went to a part of town which reminded me so much of Camden in London with all the unique shops and eateries and I got to eat some really good tasting yogurt.

We then went to Cherokee Park to walk around and it was a beautiful park i'm guessing more so when spring gears into full bloom or beautiful too during the fall and winter.

Last stop was downtown again by the water's edge. Pretty sunset just people watching after a long day. It was a long day but it was so much fun.

Okay to OKA-b

2013-04-04T21:36:00.001-05:00

I read about this shoe brand from a blogger who highly recommended it so I wanted to try it out hehe. The brand is OKA-b and you can find them here. Their shoes, sandals and slippers are made in the USA so the more I wanted to try it out. I love the colours they have. I think they have all hues for the different styles of footwear they have. I bought this pair as I really like the colour and simple style of it. When it arrived I found it a bit heavy but really cute. It's soft on the feet and it has those therapeutic pads. I haven't tried it fully yet but as I have a walk at home it feels pretty comfortable. :)

Matching nails hihihi

Onin off to Pinas

2013-04-03T21:20:00.001-05:00

Well we sent off Onin today as he left for the Philippines. Fortunately all the balikbayan boxes he had where below the limit by .2 or .8 of an ounce hahaha. We already had test weighed the boxes and luggage at home. Good thing the weighing scale at home was pretty close to the real weighing in at the airport even if it was going crazy (tinotopak in Filipino terms) at times hahaha. I like it here how you can actually accompany the person going home all the way to the check-in counter and help him out with all those boxes as well as going all the way just before security to say goodbye. I took some pictures of him at the airport as he has really grown thin over the past few months. Let us see how it compares to when he gets back here after all the good food from back home hahaha.

Just an extra as I get to borrow his fabulous car hihihi

Bunny Hoppin'

2013-03-31T16:54:00.000-05:00

I have no idea how a bunny is related to Easter but hey guess what I have on a sweatshirt that has bunnies on it. Any relevance? None what so ever hehe. No Easter break or rituals here either like what we have back in the Philippines. We didn't do anything much either this weekend. Just preparing for Onin's trip back home to the Philippines this coming week as well as cleaning up the apartment. I'm just showing off my bunny sweatshirt in the photos haha. Happy Easter everyone!

54F/12C Weather

2013-03-29T18:13:00.000-05:00

Finally!!! It seems to be getting warmer. Yipeee!! Hopefully it stays like this. :D Now it's not too cold to shoot outside. I don't have to put on layers of clothes and I don't have to rush inside to escape the cold. So of course I went outside to shoot with the shiny shiny sun, blue blue skies and the wonderful weather. Hehe. But then I'm not wearing spring time colors haha. Oh well maybe tomorrow! :D

Jacket by Kenneth Cole; Shirt by Old Navy; Pants by Gap; Boots by RocketDog; Sunnies by Oakley

Good Deals

2013-03-25T16:24:00.000-05:00

It's been a ho-hum few weeks. Nothing much going on. :D I did get to go to Gurnee Mills yesterday which is an indoor type of outlet mall which is about an hour away from where I stay. There is an outlet mall like 15 mins away from here but it was too cold out to be walking around the stores and we also wanted to test drive Onin's new car! :D There were pretty good deals that I saw and spring sales in each and every store!!! But then Onin was with me and he can't stand staying in a store too long so at least I didn't get to spend as much wahahahaha. Check out what I was able to score. It's just a few but I think they were good deals. :D Also check out Onin's new car :D

This picture was taken at the car showroom

Onin bought the Guess perfume biggest size at full price and guess how much the incanto shine was??? 9.99 USD for the largest size. The store had deals where in you buy the first perfume at full price and get the 2nd one just for 10 USD!! Amazing! hehehe

Gap shorts for the summer!! Well this one was 50% off but what's more interesting is that I am now down to a size 8 :P I use to buy size 12 or 14 from Gap but now 8! Unbelievable hahaha

Oakley Sunnies!!! Yes! Onin got Ducati sunglasses at full price while this one was on clearance and half off for only 25 USD!!! Yes the deal was buy one at full price and get the 2nd pair 50% off. So my pair was 49 USD so amazingly I got it for 24.50 USD!!!

My first Oakley Sunnies! :)

And finally the weather will be heating up in the next few days!!! Yipeeeeee!!! :D

Layering

2013-03-22T13:14:00.000-05:00

Yes layering for the cold not yet for the warmth hahaha. Just a few pictures of what I have to put on just to get out of the house hehe. It's Friday everyone!!! Time to sit back and relax. As if I don't do that everyday huh hehehe. Hope you all have a good weekend! :)

Officially Spring

2013-03-20T16:50:00.000-05:00

Today officially marks the first day of Spring! The sunny weather outside is welcome but the temperature (21F/-6C) is not hahaha. We are still expecting some snow next week I think and the cold weather is still well on maybe 'til end of this month or all the way into April hehe. Indoors I can enjoy spring hahaha. Outdoors hmmm not so much yet hahaha. My hint of color is my ode to spring :D Spring season is on! :D

See the snow on the ground!! :D

March Glossybox

2013-03-20T15:29:00.000-05:00

So what is Glossybox? Well it's another beauty subscription just like what Ipsy is like in my previous posts. My beauty subscription was up with Ipsy so I wanted to try out Glossybox this time hehe. Well I didn't think it would come this soon haha. As it says on its website (www.glossybox.com), a box will be sent to your door every month containing 5-6 luxury-sized cosmetic and wellness samples. You want to check out what's in my box? Well here it goes. :D

I haven't tried these yet.

This lipstick glides on easily like a crayon which I like and feels really soft.

For the cheek stain, I plopped on a very small amount on my cheek and patted it and not rub it like what the instructions says.

This is a brown colour liner so at least I now have something in brown :D

Infinite Me with a dirty mirror! :D

A Print of Spring

2013-03-17T20:13:00.000-05:00

I'm wearing print today hahaha. I bought this blouse a few months ago and I thought it would be an appropriate print of spring hehe. It looks like flowers to me and I matched it with my beautiful red bag by marc ecko which I found in the clearance rack of Ross (70% off!!!) hehehe. I am not a fan of prints as I always think it makes me look large hehe so I barely have any prints in my closet. This is one of the few blouses with print that I have :D Have a look! :D

Rockin' the LBD (Little Blue Dress) hehe

2013-03-16T17:06:00.000-05:00

I love this dress. You may already know why haha. Color? Of course hahaha. I bought this dress back in the Philippines while it was on sale in MNG and I still don't tire of it. Good thing it doesn't tire of me either and now that I'm losing the lbs it's fitting me better wahahaha. We went out to eat steak today! Yay! Yep the last time we ate steak was on my birthday so that was pretty long time ago already hahaha. It was our cheat lunch and yes I rocked this dress to eat steak wahahaha. Have a look! :P

Another take on the Then and Now look hehehe. The Then photo was taken in NJ Liberty Park with NYC as the background back in 2011 :D

Dress by MNG; Jeans by D'Jeans; Shoes by Aerosoles; Watch by Merona; Necklace by Charming Charlie

My Winged Eye

2013-03-16T10:24:00.001-05:00

Experimental makeup post time hahaha. I tried out winging my eye yesterday which in other terms means I used an eyeliner gel (from Mica I got from my Feb Ipsy bag) to try to create a wing on my eye. This is new to me so in the pictures you will see that I created the wing like 3/4 towards the end of my eye instead of at the end hahaha. I didn't know any better. Anyways have a look at what I'm trying to explain instead hahaha.

Inspiring

2013-03-15T16:57:00.000-05:00

So, I wanted to keep the Spring trend even if it still does not feel like Spring here hehe. To my surprise, the shirt I am wearing in this post actually fits me with a lot of room to spare where as before I was either bursting in it or I could not even close it hahaha. I have a before and after look again for you and it's just inspiring for me. The before look was taken in Central Park, New York for the first month I was here in the US. I was jumping for joy this morning when I saw the difference hahaha. Onin wanted me to post it on FB to inspire others (i'll think about it first haha) but I'm too shy there wahahaha so I posted it here instead. So have a look! :)

Shirt by Calvin Klein; Jeans by D'Jeans; Shoes by Cotton On

Summoning Spring

2013-03-12T16:19:00.001-05:00

Well as I write this piece it is snowing outside hahaha. Great way to summon spring. Oh well I made up for the snow by dressing up in spring colours or lighter colours so I can summon spring hehe. The weather forecast says snow all week tsk tsk. It's heating up in other states but here it's still the same cold weather. I can't wait for Spring!

Shirt by LoveJ; Jeans by D'Jeans; Bag by Coach; Shoes by Self Esteem

March Ipsy Bag

2013-03-12T16:01:00.001-05:00

I got my Ipsy bag a few days ago. It really is coming earlier than usual. Anyways, this is my last bag from the gift subscription my friend Amy gave me. An Ipsy bag is a subscription where for 10 USD you get a beauty bag each month with 4 to 5 samples of beauty products. I love it. I get to try different products with brands I haven't heard of before and all that I got from Ipsy are pretty good. This bag that came are of products you can take when you travel. Take a look at the products below. You can also check my Feb bag here and my Jan bag here.

GlamRX Mirror case with magnetic palette

Eyeshadow in Seashell and Azalea Petal colors :)

I was able to put the 2 eyeshadows which had magnets and stick it in the GlamRX case :)

Shades of Grey

2013-03-10T16:47:00.000-05:00

Nope sorry this post is not about the book hehehe. It's just what I'm wearing today. So, my clothes ended up matching the day which was of rain and grey outside. I wanted to wear leggings coz I wanted something soft and warm to wear instead of jeans all the time. So, I searched my closet and came out with this grey tights. From there my outfit grew into what it is. Grey, grey and more grey hehe.

Oh today the clock moved forward due to DST meaning I thought I woke up late but well it was my normal waking time but since time moved forward there goes my 1 hour extra sleep hahaha. Anyways, I am off to eat a sinful cinnamon from cinabon tsk tsk hahaha. Just for today since I already ate lechon for lunch wahahaha. Happy Sunday everyone and have a great week ahead! :)

Time moved forward on my Charming Charlie watch hehe

Tights by Uniqlo; Shirt/Dress by Espresso; Cardigan by H&M; Jacket by Kenneth Cole; Boots by Aldo

It's a Blue Day!

2013-03-09T17:17:00.000-06:00

I love the color blue. I have so many blue items I can't keep track. When I go inside a shop I tend to go towards the blue section. So today I felt like it was a blue day. I dressed up in blue including my accessories hahaha. What was the blue color day for? Well just to watch the movie Oz and go grocery shopping today hahaha. Oz was a fun and colourful movie. All the CG and 3D stuff was amazing. We were suppose to go to the outlet mall as well but then it was too cold to be walking around the mall. The outlet mall is not a contained building so that's why you walk around from store to store in the cold hehehe. Anyways y'all have a great blue day today! :)

Blouse by Old Navy; Jeans by Gap; Watch by Charming Charlie; Bracelet by Bauble Bar

20 lbs lighter?!?

2013-03-07T15:12:00.000-06:00

Well it's been around 2 months ever since I started my diet and exercise regimen. Guess what? I lost a total of 20 lbs so far!!! Yeah!!! I just wanted to show you the progress so far hehe. I still have around 20-30 lbs more to go but I am happy so far with the results hihihi. I am now down to 2 dress sizes. I can now buy clothes in Medium size! Yeah! I used to buy clothes in L or XL sizes hehehe. The holes in my belt are not enough for my new size. Yipee!! Hahaha! Anyways, you can refer to this Cozy in the Gap blog post of mine which I sort of copied to show you the results! :)

Lovely Sunny Day

2013-03-02T15:57:00.000-06:00

Finally the sun came out! Gorgeous weather outside but still very cold. Anyways even if it was cold I ventured out for a photo shoot because it was too good a day to waste hehe. So out I went and took pictures of myself with a lovely backdrop in my opinion hehehe. But then I couldn't stay out too long. It was too cold hahaha. My hands were beginning to freeze and my ears numbing up haha. So it was a hurried shoot but hey at least I got to finally shoot outside hehe. Come on Spring show up already please! hehehe Happy Weekend everyone! :)

Sunnies by Cotton On; Bag by Kate Spade; Puffer Vest by B Hip!; Long sleeves by Uniqlo; Jeans by D Jeans; Boots by Aerosole

Spaghetti Squash

2013-03-01T15:08:00.000-06:00

It's March and it's still white outside hehe. Anyways, I have been wanting to know how to make this Spaghetti Squash I have come across the internet and today I had the chance to cook it. I find it really cool that it turns out to look like spaghetti but a more healthy alternative because it's a vegetable hahaha. So when you go to the supermarket look for this Spaghetti Squash and make your own. It's very easy and tasty as well when you mix it with different ingredients. Look at the pictures and caption below on how I cooked mine. Enjoy! :)

First, prick the spaghetti squash with a fork all around and bake in the oven for about 45 mins at 350F

Once baked, let it cool then cut in half and scoop out the seeds.

This is the coolest and most amazing step ever hahaha - with a fork scrape the squash pulp and Tada!!! ... Spaghetti like noodles hehehe

I used olive oil, garlic, basil, tomatoes and salt

Saute the garlic first with the oil and then mix in the squash noodles, basil and tomatoes and then salt

You can add parmesan to add more flavour! Coolest "pasta" ever hahahaha