Designer In Focus: Roger Salazar

It's hard to find a decent formal or even cocktail dress when you're pregnant since you won't know if the dress will fit you once the event comes. Lucky me I happen to have known and befriended a budding designer, Roger Salazar. He was kind enough to dress me up during the formal gatherings that I had to attend.

 

I wore this Filipiana ensemble to a Toastmasters event. I was around 5-6 months pregnant here.
I particularly love the drapings. It didn't make me look all too preggy-ish in some angles.

In this one however, there is no way to conceal my 8th-month tummy. What Roger did was to make a comfortable room
for my bulging stomach with soft material and one that is not clingy to the skin.

 I am all the more fortunate that this designer friend of mine is also a make-up artist. He did my hair & make-up for the wedding of my cousin (bottom pics) while I did my own hair & make-up aka sariling sikap, during that Toastmasters event (top pics). Can you see the glaring the difference? Haha.

To Roger, remain humble and continue to chase your dreams. Thank you for making me beautiful and coming into my rescue when I don't have anything to wear. Haha.

For those who want to avail of Roger's services or just to simply befriend him (hehe), you may reach him through this number +63 922 974 9879.

 

Mom Card

My wallet is full of reward cards, loyalty cards, privilege cards and the likes. They have outnumbered my ATM cards and credit cards (as if I have many. LOL). And their latest member is this-- Mom Card!

I used it right away. I availed of the discount voucher right away. Excited much? Whenever I see the words SALE, DISCOUNT, LESS, __% OFF, the pupils of my eyes dilate, my heart beats faster and my hunger fades away. Haha. 

My priorities have changed when I got married. I don't just decide on my own. I (sometimes) seek my husband's opinion. Now that we are expecting our first child, my priorities will have to take another 360-degree turn.

Color Your World

"Your attitude is like a box of crayons that color your world.

Constantly color your picture gray, and your picture will always be bleak.

Try adding some bright colors to the picture by including humor,

and your picture begins to lighten up."
- Allen Klein

Got these beauties during the One Cebu Expo held a few months ago.

Would you believe I got all three for less than Php 200?

What's In A Name?

"What's in a name? that which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet;"

These are lines from one of Shakespeare's famous plays, Romeo and Juliet.

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A person's name is his identity. He carries that to his grave. It is not easy to change (entirely) someone's first name under our laws. Thus, aside from 'change', a person's name is permanent.

Many have been asking us (my husband and I) if we have a name for our baby already. At this stage of my pregnancy--8 months, we should have at least a shortlist of the names we will give the baby.

Actually, we do have a name already.  

Choosing the baby's name is no easy task, I tell you. I have this old planner where I listed down the names I like. I was still in the elementary then. Yes, you can say I am that fascinated with names. Now that I can actually get to name my baby, that old planner is nowhere to be found. So, back to square one.

As I was mentally thinking of possible names for our baby (ok fine, I jotted them down and started a new list), I had a hard time choosing. It was daunting, really. I mean, among all the names in the world, you have to pick one and that will be attached to your child's identity forever. What if our child won't like it? What if he'll get teased by the name we gave him? What if he finds his name weird or embarrassing? So many what if's!

How then do we choose our child's name?

I remember the homily of the priest during the Feast of St. John the Baptist (yeah, I do listen to the homily sometimes) and he said that the old Jew tradition of picking out names for their offspring were either based on these two:

1. On the circumstances surrounding the child's birth;
2. On virtues that the parents would like their child to live up to;   

They also have the tradition of naming their child after a dead relative. Naming it after one that is still living was believed to bring bad luck.

There are tons of tips and suggestions that you can find in the internet in naming your baby. Just google it.

So, how did we choose our baby's name?

My husband and I are both lawyers. I can say the process of coming up with our baby's name was done in a legal fashion. There were rules to follow.

To save us from severe headache and possible sleepless nights, we decided to limit our search to names starting with particular letters. Each has to come up with a shortlist of three names within a specific period of time (yes, there was a deadline!) Then came the hardest part--- choosing one name-- THE name.

There was a deadlock (I couldn't think of a more appropriate term).

I like a particular name that he doesn't like. And he likes a name that I don't like. You can imagine the scenario.

What we did?

Compromise.

See, I told you it was so lawyer-ly. We had to let go of the rules we initially set and made a new rule. We picked out the name that we liked the most, combined the two and settled with it.

We're one happy couple.

Our baby's name will have be composed of the following letters:

P.S. We just hope that the ultrasound is 100% accurate as to our child's gender because we have no plan B.

OUTFIT: Neon Zebra Prints

I miss wearing shorts.

I actually miss wearing most of my clothes.

But I am not complaining.

I won't exchange what I have now with anything in the world.

It's raining hard here in Cebu.

I heard that there are some areas which are flooded already.

Stay safe everyone. 

Shorts: Shapes || Top: SM

Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare Pet Peeves

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There are countless of advantages that technology brings. The world is made smaller with the burst of different social media platforms. Communication is made easier. However, there are some who abuse this powerful freedom called self-expression.

DISCLAIMER: The following are purely based on my opinion-- not influenced by someone else's.

1. On facebook: TAGGING YOURSELF IN YOUR OWN PHOTO/PHOTO ALBUM POSTED IN YOUR PROFILE/TIMELINE.  Do you really have to? I believe that the tagging feature of FB is for the pic to be posted in your friend's timeline as well, most especially if you are the only one bringing a cam or taking the pic. Or it could be also to show to the whole cyberworld who you were with. But that tagging yourself in the pic that you posted, it doesn't really make sense. The pic will appear in your profile/timeline anyway even without you tagging. 
2. On facebook still: LIKING YOUR OWN STATUS OR PIC. Now this is way too annoying for me. I couldn't get it why some people do this. When you post a status or a pic, it means that you  feel strongly for said status or pic or at least wanted such to be seen on your timeline, otherwise you wouldn't post it. Liking your own status or pic spells nothing but redundancy. Or it could be that you're afraid no one will like your post, so you do it yourself. At least you have 1 like. Pathetic, isn't it?
3. On Foursquare: CHECKING-IN ON A STREET! My goodness! The last time I checked, a street in not a restaurant, hotel, mall, or an establishment for that matter. Yes, it is a place but this constitutes abuse of the essence of Foursquare already. You are just inviting stalkers or worst, hired killers to track your whereabouts. You are turning foursquare as a GPS device.
4. On Twitter: EXCESSIVE RE-TWEETING AND HASHTAGS. Twitter proved to be the fastest way to get the word around. I turn to twitter to get the latest news on important current events. Sadly, there are those who don't tweet responsibly and flood your timeline with sometimes nonsense re-tweets. I also couldn't take those who tweet with overly many hashtags. We are given a limited number of characters for our tweet and consuming the little that we have with numerous hashtags defeats the purpose of twitter for me. 

I can enumerate some more like washing your dirty linens on FB, cursing or harassing someone you don't like on twitter, telling everyone what you are doing every single second, but these I can tolerate to a certain extent. The ones I mentioned above have gone beyond my maximum tolerance. 

Oh well, I'm just glad that facebook has the 'hide' feature. 

OUTFIT: Ruffles and Prints

Almost all of my office clothes don't fit me anymore, save for a very

few corporate dresses. On days that I don't have court hearings,

my uniform consists of leggings and a loose or stretchable top.

leggings: Celine || DIY top || cover up: Boyet Fajardo || flats: HK 

DIY: Pearls on Collar

This is my first time to work with pearls.

It's not that difficult as I thought. 

I got inspired by tops (like this one above) I see in various fashion blogs.

I saw a neglected string of faux pearls in the sewing box.
Perfect.

DIY: Glittered Collar

My mama said I must have been a beader in my past life.

Probably.

Here's another dull-looking top prettified with silver sequins.

I used backstitch in sewing the sequins to have a more compact effect.

OUTFIT: Pregnant, Purple and Proud

I have not posted any outfit post for months now. I am no fashion blogger, but sometimes I just want to dress up and feel good. That all changed with my pregnancy. My first trimester was not good at all. I was throwing up every day night (my so-called morning sickness happened at night). Things got better during my second trimester, but then my tummy was getting bigger every week. Dressing up every morning took quite longer because I had to try on many clothes and see which one still fits me. 

I don't want to buy maternity clothes. What will I do with it after I give birth? So I just bought regular clothes that are stretchable or garterized around the waist. This purple and gray maxi dress is one of those. It's very comfortable and also very versatile. It can pass as a semi-formal wear by accessorizing it with pearls. Or it can be worn casual like what I did here. The accessories sometimes do the trick.