It's so hard to find a man that can love me like only you can!

          Where do I begin to even scratch the surface of the impact you've had on my life? I can never forget the hardships you have taken to bring me to the level I am today. Even in the midst of my successes, my problems and my shortcomings, you have always accepted me as I am. 

         The ways you have helped me would make quite a list. Your wisdom and knowledge have shown me the way and I'm thankful for you as I live day by day. I don't tell you enough how important you are, in my universe you're a bright shining star. And if all the fathers had lined up one by one and god told me to pick, I'D STILL CHOOSE TO BE YOUR PRINCESS. to the man I looked up to with respect, HAPPY FATHERS DAY!

Can We Still Mend A Broken Relationship?

4 years but it has been damaged, it has been strained and it suddenly ended. We said so many mean things and we can no longer take our words back. We have been hurt so we fought back but we both know that we just expressed our feelings. We felt it is already hopeless to patch things up. After 4 months, we met again. We talked as if there is no more bitterness and it seems like everything is okay... as if nothing happened, confiding in each other and getting close again. What the fuck do these things mean; second chance? Can we still mend a broken relationship?

 I am the kind of believer that if it didn't work out the first time, why would it again? Usually that is true. Not because I don't believe in second chances or that there weren’t good things there but it just made me think if are we still in love or are we just lonely and wanting to figure out what will happen if we go back to what once felt comfortable?

It is easy to remember a lot of our sweet times together. I am sure that there were things that made me be with you again at one point and it really bothers me. Am I heading down a bad road again? Change? Maybe we already did but I'm afraid of a repeat of what happened before.

Is it the right time already to examine why and where it went wrong before we begin to try to pick the pieces up and put them back together? I believe we should not be just looking at the same reasons why we should give it another chance because that won't work. We both know that we ended things for some reason. But have we really grown and learned from our mistakes?  Second chance, are we really destined for that?

Serenitea's Okinawa Milk Tea

I usually crave for milk tea whenever I talk with friends. When I got to meet a friend for some chitchat, I made sure that we stopped by a tea place particularly in Happy Lemon. Couple of days ago we had our family reunion at Tramway Tea House Banawe and then I saw Serenitea just across the street. After our dinner I decided to check out their place and try one of their best sellers. Ordering is easy. You just go to the counter and choose which drink you like. You can also choose which topping (QQ, Pearl, Crystals, Egg Pudding, Black Bricks, & Lime Jelly) to put and also the sugar level of your drink (Full Sugar (standard), Less Sugar (75%), Half Sugar (50%), Mild Sugar (25%), and No Sugar). Serenitea offers some finger foods too. Their prices are reasonable. Quality is  really top notch, considering that their teas are brewed (not made of artificial flavors). Serenitea's probably one of the most talked about milk tea places these days, I am glad I have finally tried it. Location is the main reason why it took me so long to know what all the fuss was about. Got myself a Large Okinawa Milk Tea with 50% sweetness and crystals for 105 pesos. 

Okinawa Milk Tea had a light, bubbly, and happy mood – with all the lively crystals dancing around in my light brown drink.  All in all, Okinawa milk tea is a perfect full-bodied black tea flavor. It reminds me of coffee and gives me the same energy – but with the ulcer-free happy after-feeling that only comes with tea. The 50% sugar level was perfect- It's not too sweet.

So for a very reasonable price yet top notch quality milk teas visit Serenitea: 

1. 1F G&L Building J. Abad Santos cor V. Cruz, San Juan City
2. 268 Aguirre Avenue, BF Homes, Paranaque City
3. 74 B N. Roxas St. cor. Banawe, Sto. Domingo Quezon City

The Secret is Letting Go :)

My friends often say that they admire my positive outlook in life. I’ve had my share of heartaches, almost got to the point that I became cynical about love. Although it seems that I tend to move on quickly or that I don’t really dwell so much over a break-up, the truth is, I do. I just don’t like to make myself miserable over things that I can’t fix anymore. I guess, experience is the key to make it easy to move on after a break up. Here are some tips that I would like to share to everyone…

1. Give yourself a chance to grieve. Sometimes, we tend to desperately want to move on so quickly without realizing that we should give ourselves a chance to mourn, after all, a lost love needs closure and there’s nothing like a good cry.

2. Remove reminders of your ex. No, don’t throw anything, someday you might want to look back and give yourself a good laugh. Just keep all those sappy, sentimental items you have laying around. Delete his number from your cell phone or your speed dial, get rid of those pictures of you together and put them away where you can’t see it everyday. Seeing them around will only prolong the nostalgia and you will only torture yourself with constant reminders.

3. Be angry and sad. If being angry helps, then so be it. It’s quite normal to feel angry and sad after a break-up regardless of the reason why you ended the relationship. These emotions should be dealt with in a positive and healthy way. Talk to friends, clean out your closets, work out, and try to write poems. Just remember, don’t let your anger buckle up inside or do something destructive to yourself.

4. Pamper yourself. Go to the spa, eat healthy, exercise, get a haircut, get enough sleep. Don’t let the break up make you look miserable and ugly. And mostly, don’t let it make you physically sick. When your body is healthy, you feel good and when you feel good, you make good decisions and have a healthy self-esteem.

5. Be Patient. Life can seem empty after a break up. Everything seems bleak and it’s depressing sometimes. Don’t be too eager to move on. As they always say, wounds needs time to heal and heartache is not something you can cure overnight, it takes time and I know waiting is difficult but love has its own time table, you can’t really tell your heart to forget someone you dearly love but you can help ease your pain by allowing yourself to move on.

6. Acceptance. If you’re a hopeless romantic like me, you have these notions that love should be forever but in the harsh reality of life, forever is just a state of mind and we may claim to be all-knowing about love but the truth is love will always remain a mystery. Sometimes you just have to accept that your relationship with your ex is over for a reason, you are simply not meant to be.

7. Open your heart again. When you’ve given yourself enough time to work through your emotions, you can now begin to open your heart again. This is where I usually fail, I tend to guard my heart and shield myself against love not realizing that I deserve to be happy, that one day my heart will still find that someone that God intended for me and if I have to find him one day, I need to open my heart again and take the risk to fall in love again.

On a special note, I don’t consider myself numb or cold but whenever I’m heartbroken I just give all the broken pieces to God and allow Him to work on my pain. Remember, God can heal a broken heart but you have to trust Him with all the pieces.

Random Thoughts

When you get to know someone, all their physical characteristics start to disappear. You begin to dwell in their energy, recognize the scent of their skin. You see only the essence of the person, not the shell. That’s why you can’t fall in love with beauty or looks. You can lust after it, be infatuated by it, want to own it. You can love it with your eyes and your body, but not your heart. That’s why when you really connect with a person, any physical imperfections disappear, become irrelevant.

Listening To Your Heart is Always Not A Good Idea

          I just realized that it really matters to listen to your heart or what you really want. I just did.... But listening to your heart is always not a good idea. At the end of it, pain and heartache is inevitable. It is not easy to get out in a stupid sticky situation they call “LOVE,” no matter how hard you tried to be strong, you still got exhausted, rocks are still here and there, they are very hard to avoid. 

          Love wants you to keep on going there but listening to your heart is not enough because sometimes, you have to follow what your mind says… Everything has to end, simply because nothing, absolutely nothing stays forever, like what they say in DeBeers diamonds; “Even diamonds lose their shine overtime,” it would be so hard if you’ll try to restore them; in fact, it may be even impossible. What is old is old. When I say it matters to listen to your heart, it does but I did not say the result will be good. It’s like hearing a story, not all stories are fairytale that is why there are some catastrophes that happened to me in the past. You know how it is when a man loses his armor... it’s like a girl living without her heart, no substance. Listening to your heart, it will bring about new beginnings, not particularly with your new special someone nor in particularly with love but a new beginning with yourself. Love is a mystery, it’s ambiguous. Love is a psychological state of mind and I could not easily fathom how does it exists up to now.

People change. Feelings fade. Lovers drift and life goes on! :)

Brown and Bronze

Nowadays, the-no-makeup makeup look or the "Nude" makeup is really in. It is actually a natural, fresh-faced, and barely-there style of makeup look. I have three words to describe it: FAB, CLASSY, and CLASSIC. I love this look because the shimmery brown and bronze shadows really flatter your features without looking like you spent a ton of time on your makeup. I am a certified PINAY and I can say that this type of makeup is definitely the one that suits our morena skin tone. I’m no make-up person to be honest. I’m just a baby powder and lipstick girl. I found it a bit of an effort to do my own make-up. I am a girl and I know that sometimes I have to learn such things like this. I’m no make up guru but let me share you how I do it. This is just the basic way of applying makeup. Who knows, you might  also like and take some ideas from me that you can also do for a better finish of this makeup look on you. Sorry about the low image quality because I just took the photos using my Ipod Touch 4g. 

These are the things that I used:

Eyes & Eyebrows

Nichido Eye Pencil in Dark Brown

IN2IT Waterproof Eyebrow Colour w/ Vitamin E- 01 Eyebrowns

IN2IT Waterproof Eye Colour Set- EWE 04 Cappuccino

Maybelline Hyper Diamonds Ready-To-Wear Eye Color Pallet

Estee Lauder Pure Color EyeShadow- 43 Polished Platinum Shimmer 

Clinique Quickliner for Eyes Intense- 01 Intense Black

Clinique Lash Doubling Mascara- Black

Face

Revlon ColorStay Medium

Clinique Blushwear Cream Stick- 03 Rosy Blush

Lips

Clinique Rouge A Levres Different Lipstick-  51 Think Bronze

Clinique Long Last Glosswear SPF 15- 10 Air Kiss

The first thing to do is to choose the right shade of a foundation and a powder for your face. It should be closer to your natural skin tone.  When applying the foundation  and the powder make sure that you focus on the usual dark areas of the face like under the eyes, nose, and around the lips.

The next thing to do is to apply primer on your eyelids. It ensures that the eyeshadows will stay on your lids but during this time I did not bother to put primer anymore since the eyeshadows that I used are waterproof. Anyways, apply your chosen shade of eyeshadow on the eyelid up to the crease. Extend the shade to the outer eye corner and continue down the lower lid. Use a lighter eyeshadow in the upper eye just below the brown bone. A darker eyeshadow should be applied above the crease of the eye. After that, apply an eyeliner by lining the eye from the inside of the lashes outward in one big sweep. Then, groom the eyebrows combing it using a spoolie brush.  Use a lighter shade of brow shadow. 

Apply blush on your cheeks. then, choose a good shade of lipstick and apply also a lipgloss to go with your look. And you're all set! So there you have it! 

Hope my tips were helpful! I’d love to hear how they did or did not help you, so feel free to leave a comment! :)