Daily Captures of April III

Part 1: http://vintageavenues.blogspot.com/2012/04/its-already-april-perfect-summer-time.html
Part 2: http://vintageavenues.blogspot.com/2012/04/daily-captures-of-april-ii.html

Day 24. April 24, 2012.
Something you're grateful for. Friendship. My friends. I love them to hell even though at times they tend to bitch on me. But I know, this is for forever. :)

Day 25. April 25, 2012.
Looking down. It's my friend KK. Haha. I don't really know what to post on this "Looking down" day. Is it the feeling of being down? Or shall I look down and see what's in store? Or looking down as in I hae to abhor something or what. So I decided to post KK's photo. I took this while I was sitting higher than her. So I guess I was looking down. Hahaha! Hi KK! You're featured already! :)

Day 26. April 26, 2012.
Black + White. Taken earlier when we watched The Avengers. Nice movie. Part 2 please. Bitin! :)

Day 27. April 27, 2012

Somewhere you went. Boni High with Boobies! Ate at Mini Shabu shabu for my super late birthday celebration and then sipped some smoothies at Jamba Juice. :)

Day 28. April 28, 2012

1pm. During the review class for Pedia. Here's my notes. Haha.

Day 29. April 29, 2012

Circle. I don't really know what to put so I'll post this instead. This is taken not on the 29th (Major fail) and not posted on the same date. Pure fail!!! Haha. Anyway, this is Coleene's float for her parade.

Day 30. April 30, 2012

Something that makes you sad. Living away from them is just as hard as hell, it's a good thing that I am at home right now. This is my very vain little sister Coleene, she loves the camera a lot and so as vice versa. This is taken at home. :)

-End. Finally! This is really hard. I never imagined myself finishing this. I had some failed days but I guess the effort I put is still there. Hirap kaya nito! I have no plans yet of doing this again!

Nail Dare: Booby Traps

Ok, just to clear things out, I entitled this post as "Booby Traps" because I'll be showing you my friends' (a.k.a. Booby Traps, what the hell, that's our name! Who cares? Haha!) nail arts.

Yesterday and the other day, I painted their nails with different designs, some of them were their ideas, then I was the one who used the brush and the nail paints to draw them. Chloe had the strawberry, Jocs wore the bumble bee, Jen had the tiger and Ai decided to have a cheetah print. So I'll be giving the details of each. And let's start with Chloe's strawberry.

A. Strawberry

1. Use Red as your base color. I used Caronia's Simply Red with Chloe's design. Double coat if it is too thin.
2. Coat the base with a colorless nail polish. You can omit this if you are sure that the base is thoroughly dried or if you think it would be too thick to still add this step.
3. Start doodling the details. I used Caronia's On The Go nail polish for the leaves of the strawberry. Draw short strokes from the base of the nail going towards halfway the center. Make sure to make them look like leaves. Don't play safe, make it a little bit messy to make it more realistic (not too messy, of course.)
4. Play around the strawberry seeds using a nail art brush. Use the black color. Distribute where to put the seeds evenly.
5. Coat the whole design set. You're done!

B. Bumble Bee

1. Use Matte Black as your base color. Double coat if it is too thin.
2. Coat the base with a colorless nail polish. You can omit this if you are sure that the base is thoroughly dried or if you think it would be too thick to still add this step.
3. Start with the line details. Use a Yellow nail polish with a nail art brush. Draw the lines one space from the other to make the body of the bee. Leave the tip of your nails with the black base.
4. For the eyes of the bee, point 2 circles on each nail tip using a white nail polish. It doesn't have to be drawn with a nail art brush. Just paint with a good amount of nail polish on the regular brush and you'll have your desired result.
5. Dry or coat the tip of your nails with the white dots using a colorless nail polish.
6. Apply smaller dots on each white dot using a black color. You can add antennas to the bumble bee by drawing spiral lines using a black nail art polish above the eyes as desired.
7. Coat the whole design with Colorless nail polish.

C. Tiger

1. Use Orange as your base color. I used Caress' Neon Orange for this. Double coat if it is too thin.
2. Coat the base with a colorless nail polish. You can omit this if you are sure that the base is thoroughly dried or if you think it would be too thick to still add this step.
3. To draw the tiger lines, start from the sides that are touching the skin of your nails. Draw strokes on alternating sides. Draw long and short strokes on each segment.
4. Coat the whole design with Colorless nail polish.

*You can use different base colors for this design. Neon Violet, Gold, White Satin and Red would be really great.

D. Red Cheetah

1. Use Red as your base color. I used Caronia's Simple Red with Chloe's design. Double coat if it is too thin.
2. Coat the base with a colorless nail polish. You can omit this if you are sure that the base is thoroughly dried or if you think it would be too thick to still add this step.
3. To draw the cheetah prints, mark your nails with messy strokes of dots and map-like figures. Imagine a real cheetah with a print that's unpredictable and indefinite. I used Caronia's Beige for these strokes. You can use any shade of brown for this. Shades of gray will also do.
4. Using the Black nail art polish, draw lines surrounding the strokes you've drawn on the precious step. Do not totally surround the strokes, leave some parts unlined. Add some other dots and strokes using the black color. Do not play safe on this part. Be the wild cheetah!
5. Coat the whole design with Colorless nail polish.

*This design would also look good on other base colors most especially with the Touch of Tan. I had no Tan nail polish yesterday so I decided to just apply red as the base. Lucky, it still looked good on Aileen's nails.

You can have these designs on your nails too. Just follow the steps or create your own! You'll love doing it, promise. :)

Watch Out: The Americana Nail Polish soon!

For questions, comments or whatever, feel free to ask/tell me. Just comment or message me personally. I would be really glad to answer your queries as soon as I can. I would be really glad to receive some other good design ideas from you guys. :)

Nail Dare: Mr. New Yorker

So I changed my nail design again. I went way too excited about a lot of designs so I got fidgety on changing and changing and changing my Tiger nail paint. I ended up designing my nails with a tux miniature, together with the bow tie and the buttons. :)

A lot of people, including my parents, siblings and classmates, had been asking me if doing such was hard. To be honest, it's not really hard to do this just that when it's already the turn of your nails on the right hand, everything just go way too messed up. (But I'm getting better at this. PRACTICE. Gulp!) It's time consuming, but with a little ounce of effort and practice, you will soon get used to it. Like me! ;)

I've also decided to share my "talent" on this by including a tutorial (Not a video, pure words. Sorry, I'm really camera shy. Haha.) 

And I'm starting with my Mr. New Yorker nail. Here it goes.

1. Apply your first coating on your nail with a white nail polish. With Mr. NY'er, I used Caronia's white satin. Double coat with the same color if the first coating looks a little thin for your nails.

2. Coat with a colorless polish. This will separate the first coating with the details that you will be applying. You can omit this step if you think it's better not to or if you want a thinner application on your nails.

3. To make the bow tie, you will need a nail art brush. 

I used the nail polish with the brand Sassy. Apply a/n X using a black polish across the topmost portion of your nail. Paint all over the gaps between the X's.

4. The buttons are just dots done using the same brush that I used with the tie. Apply the dots forming a line at the center. I've put 3 to 4 buttons only on each nail because adding more would look very exaggerated already.

5. Apply the last coat, the colorless nail polish. This will maintain the shimmer of your well groomed nails. Dry it for at least an hour to make sure all the layers are well done.

There, it's that easy. You guys can do it too. You can think of other designs, just follow the principles on when to use the thin and the regular brush and when to apply the colorless polish. By the way, I made designs on my friends' tips too, I'll try to post them as soon as I can. Kath had the bumble bee, Chloe had the strawberry, Aileen had the red animal print and Jen had the Tiger, it looked good on them and I was just so happy they liked it. So, until the next nail bites. :) 

Nail Dare: Tiger

Because girls wanna have fun, a lot of us in our class started to pamper our nails as the review classes started. Grabbed the opportunity since we have no more duty days. I  decided to have this Tiger Nails. Made it by myself, good thing, I finished both hands fair, at least. :)

Copycat Series: Spencer Hastings

“If you want to be successful, find someone who has achieved the results you want and copy what they do and you'll achieve the same results.” - Anthony Robins

On my Day 13 of my April Photo a Day post, I mentioned about me copying some styles of foreign film and TV characters. And I stated that I'll be starting with Rachel Berry on May. But I guess, everything went upside down. I have this white top that I bought in Singapore that looked like one of Spencer Hastings' (played by Troian Bellisario) clothes during an episode of ABC's Pretty Little Liars. Actually, it doesn't really look exactly the same with the polo she was wearing but the aura just kept on playing on the style. I tried to wear it with jeans and I was surprised to see that it looked good with it since I first wore it during a conference I went to in Singapore with slacks.

Spencer, according to my research, is wearing a polo from Urban Outfitters with a J. Crew cardigan. She had it with tights and a pair of gold flats from Dear Creatures. Her watch is from Coach. Her wardrobe on set is a simple classic preppy chic type which she really plays well. This gettie that she had on this episode was one of the simplest I've seen on her because she usually wears polo or captain trench coats or covers with boots, pretty hats and jeans. Her wardrobe is, frankly, my dream. It is vintage-ish. And she is also my favorite character in the series so it added up to make myself copy her first. Just a trivia, Troian's off-set style is similar to Spencer's and this is lifted from her on an interview.

Preppy chic top from Drezzy Singapore, jeans from Forever 21,

watch from Tomato, gold flat shoes from Tory Burch

I know Spencer has slim legs and a 0-size body so it was really tough to do this. I took the risk.  I wore it and I'm blogging about it right now. I had jeans because I am not really comfortable with tights on. I have big buns, okay whatever. Everyone knows that. Well, at least I tried. Hahaha. (Dude, it's my first time! Do forgive! Haha.) Anyway, I didn't wear a cardigan, hers was too cute to be copied. I just gave the best shot to at least copy the aim or gist of the get up. I also copied her hair, it was tough to do with mine because I have a layered hair and edges just kept on popping out from the braide while I was making it. But I guess, it still looked good though. 


So there, til the next copycat post! If you want to know more about her style, watch Pretty Little Liars, which is on vacation at the moment, and see her sense of style. Google her, it's a good idea too!


P.S. I wore it during our review class. :)

Daily Captures of April II

Look for the first part here: http://vintageavenues.blogspot.com/2012/04/its-already-april-perfect-summer-time.html :)

Day 13: April 13, 2012
Something You Found. I was looking all day for another segment in my blog and I thought of having something like copying the fashion of famous hollywood characters. I've been eyeing on this since March because I found a dress similar to what Rachel Berry had been wearing on Glee. So it inspired me to search on different characters and personalities in Hollywood so I could prepare myself for them. Well of course, I still need to take serious diet so I would be able to copy all of them. Hahaha. This would be really hard, I know (Gulp!) And it will take a lot of my effort to have this segment go way better than what I am imagining it to be. I'll start on Rachel Berry maybe on May because her wardrobe's a little bit of a playsafe, and my body might still take that. Yes, so, goodluck to me!  ;))

Day 14: April 14, 2012
How you feel today. I feel euphoric and cranky at the same time. My internet connection hasn't been reconnected upto now. Well, I'm just using our free Wifi here in our dorm lobby and it is a little bit of a hassle for me because I still need to get down from the penthouse just to have some life down here. Well, still I'm trying to stay more positive, that tomorrow, my connection will get back.

Day 15: April 15, 2012
Sunset. Obviously, it's not a picture of a sunset. It's Simple Line's Wintermelon Black Milk Tea. So okay, I must admit, I wasn't able to capture the sun on its moment so I decided to just take a photo of my comfort drink.Went home with it, now I've just sipped the last drop while typing this. Hihi.

Day 16: April 16, 2012
Flower. My sweet Papa/twin brother gave me this bouquet (which is actually not a bouquet anymore) last graduation. Lucky they're still alive. Just that they are already fading one by one. I might start cutting them now and keep the petals on a box. Well, let's see. ;)

Day 17: April 17, 2012
Something you don't like. It's a tweet about Pinoy Big Brother. I don't know if this is normal or it's just me. It just made me laugh very hard tonight and I don't really get myself contained on stuffs like this. They barely know each other and they just started talking sort of a week a go, how can they say stuffs like this? O well, I don't mind getting bashed by fans, anyways, I guess my opinion's pretty right on this part.

Day 18: April 18, 2012
Hair.  This was my hair today on our review class. Read something about getting to the old-child-you and thought of doing so. So there!

Day 19: April 19, 2012
Orange. Went to meet my family in a mall, since they just came from Ilocos, and I was on my review class when I suddenly stopped by a shop and saw this. Just wanted to buy it so badly but I decided not to. I guess it's a good choice as of now. I must save money for future purposes. I must!

Day 20: April 20, 2012
Something you drew. It's a "green" board. It's actually not purely mine. These were doodles done by me and my friends during the review classes. Whenever we get bored, we do this to keep ourselves awake. It's effective, but it ends up seeing ourselves laughing our asses out too bad.

Day 21: April 21, 2012
Bottle. Smart C Pomelo! My favorite! That's all. Haha.

Day 22: April 22, 2012
The last thing you bought. Nail polishes for my nail art-ing. I'm getting a little bit better each time and I got the idea of doing so from my classmates. Now, a lot of us have colorful drawings on our nails. BTW, I'll be posting some later on another blog post. Hope, you'll read it! :)

Day 23: April 23, 2012
Vegetable. Pinakbet, will eat it for dinner. It's Ilocos pinakbet and I was the one who cooked it. I better eat now, I'm getting hungry. But sorry, it looked like trash. Haha. It's because of the camera reso. :))

Shoe Confessions: I Love Flats

One of my major problems is maintaining good condition of my shoes. I have a lot of flats, most I have already discarded because of damage--- dirty sole, detached heel, tampered color, whatever, all stuffs and some, I have given away. Shoe keep-safe is just a weakness for me. Lately, I've been using them a lot because of our review classes and I thought of finding a way to keep them look good as if they were new.

So, I decided to share my little "collection" of flats together with how I maintain them. It's not really a collection, it just so happened that I never realized it is THIS now. But forgive my set of flats, I know you guys might have a bigger collection of this. I just noticed mine was growing. Haha.

So this is it, I am not really sure if this is complete because travelling them back and forth from here (Manila) to Ilocos and then back again made me lose some other pairs. And this is what's left from all of them. Practically, 40% of them, I use a lot like twice to thrice a month. 30% I haven't used for a while. And 30% I have never used. I bought them from bazaars, to department stores, to outlet brands. And some are gifts from good people. :) 

I am really fond of picking shoes anywhere I go and it's always a must for me to buy a pair of flats. I don't know why.

My personal favorites :)

I love flats! I know, a lot of girls do. Flat shoes are life savers. It drives me sane on lazy days and rescues me on long standing. It just takes a little effort to maintain them to look good as new. So here are some tips on how I have rescued/maintained my new shoes and so as the old ones. 

1. Wear foot covers whenever possible. I use skin toned socks so I won't violate the purpose of my shoes whenever I wear them. This will as well keep microorganisms from nesting on the shoes. 

2. Apply disinfectant sprays (Lysol preferably) on and forth the shoes after using.

3. Wipe the lids of the sole exposed to the floor with wet wipes. This will prevent the sole from cracking after some time of use.

4. For old, dirty flats, have a day on the laundry with them. Make sure to laundry only those that won't get destroyed by water and soap. I have revived some of my shoes doing this, thanks also for the help of Manang Mayaya on this! If the sole is the problem, have Mr. Quickie repair it, well, if it is worth paying.

5. Store them on a Room Temperature area. Avoid moisture because this will cause microorganisms to build up and later on destroy the shoes.

So I guess, that's all. I hope I have helped. Remember that it takes a little effort to do this, but trust me, it's worth it! :)

Thank you to friend anonymous for pushing me to do this blog. It took a lot of risk for me because I don't really share these kinds of stuffs and I think this would be the start of everything. :)

Daily Captures of April

It's already April! Perfect Summer time... not! I'll be attending review classes for our board exams so I decided to do this challenge to heat things up. I got it from http://www.fatmumslim.com.au to whom I owe my page layout too! Thank you ma'am, whoever you are. I'll be updating this post once in a while, I mean like everyday because it's a daily challenge so please bear with my verb tenses. And so, the challenge starts now!

Day 1: April 1, 2012
Reflection. I'm in my dorm, alone, pathetic. NO FOOD TO EAT. Lazy. I'm trying to organize my stuffs and I ended up doing this blog. I also planned on reviewing but I've finished not even a half of my target. I'm drinking milk right now hoping that after I type this blog, I would already start cooking my "brunch." Later, I'll be heading up for the Sunday Mass but I haven't even taken a bath since this morning. Same old Ninj, very lazy to finish the things to do. Mom would get really mad if she learns about this. Haha.


Right now, I'm so much feeling happy and I don't know why (despite my pitiful, lazy state.) Maybe, I'm still in nostalgia of all the things that had happened within the past week. But time to look forward, it's already April. I need to strive better than ever. It's the season of review classes and I know that I need to take it seriously. But really, I will. But I know I should start it now. So alright, before I again enjoy sharing stuffs, I better go now and eat and take a shower. ;)

Day 2: April 2, 2012

Colour. This was the print of the shirt I wore today. Used it as the color item because the print was colorful. Haha. 

I spent the day attending our review class. Same old thing, I listened then I slept then I listened and then I slept again. Correction, power nap by the way. So, well, the day wasn't really complete because Jen wasn't around and it was very dragging because the only thing in my mind was to go home already. But then, I still need to wait until Wednesday to make it happen.

After the review, I was supposed to watch The Wrath of the Titans with my RLEmates but it didn't happen because Jen wasn't there and a lot weren't really that available. But my night still ended with a happy heart. KS texted me asking me if I could join her and shop today. I gave a yes after knowing that the movie date is once again postponed. So, during the shopping, we got to talk about a lot of things. We got to buy good stuffs that we could use this summer. When I say summer, it's the Holy Week and the Review classes. We even bought the same stuffs which we are planning to wear together. The day ended with another shopping plan tomorrow because we were too late earlier, the mall closed early before we even realized that we haven't bought what we really needed to buy. Now, I'm already at home, surfing the internet again, waiting for my eyes to drop to sleep. Goodnight! :)

Day 3. April 3, 2012

Mail. Please bear with my photo for today because I'm staying at my dorm at the moment so I don't really have my own personal home mail to capture. So I decided to print screen the cyber mail instead. So here's my conversation with Donna about something I cannot tell. This made me so furious about everything else around me. And it was really tough for me to absorb it. Well then, enough of it because I might say something wrong here. So there, that's my mail post! 

By the way, had another shopping day with KS at Forever 21. So I'm officially bankrupted at the moment. Hahaha. And I'm pretty excited to head home tomorrow. So, Ilocos, here I come! :)

Day 4: April 4, 2012

Someone who makes you happy. This sounds crazy but I am totally obsessed with Zayn Malik. He's a member of the boy band One Direction from UK. I like Louis Tomlinson too but I feel like posting Zayn's photo instead. Their just adorable and I can't resist. Last night, I was just so desperate to get a tweet from them. But it's not yet my luck day, I guess. Because yes, Zayn makes me happy. Hahaha!

Day 5: April 5, 2012

Tiny. This is Icus' Lozenge that he took to lessen the pain he feels while eating. Just so you know, he has tonislitis at the moment.He was my patient and that was the main course of my day. It just feels good cause his fever is almost outruled.

Day 6: April 6, 2012

Lunch. First, it was Zayn who I blogged about, now, I decided to screenshot my wallpaper with Louis on it at 12 noon instead of taking a picture of our lunch itself. But our lunch today was supppeeerb! It was all seafood since it's Holy Friday but I really loved Mama's dishes. Salmon sinigang and seafood Kare-Kare were her recipes and I ended up having my tummy so full. 

Day 7: April 7, 2012

Shadow. I had a very fun day with my High School best friends. Today's Tanya's day in Ilocos so we grabbed the oppurtunity to spend the time with her. We took lunch at their place-- had some photo and chitchat sessions and ate ice candies. And then we walked along the Heritage Village along with tourists. And then photo sessions again and then finally, we ate empanada. It had always been so nice to spend time with these people!

Day 8: April 8, 2012
Inside Your Wallet. These are the only things found in my wallet. Around 500 pesos, 5 Singapore dollars, 30 US dollars and 10 pounds. My ATM cards and membership cards on different outlets or whatevers are kept here too, and so as the tickets I had on movies and concerts. That's how poor I am, I got only 500 pesos. Haha. I usually don't bring thousands because I tend to spend everything so I give myself an allowance everyday to save a little more.

Day 9: April 9, 2012
Younger You. This is one of my favorite childhood photo. Okay, I've been really fat ever since. Haha.

Day 10: April 10, 2012
Cold. My Jacket. I used it earlier because our room for our review class was very cold. I usually don't wear cardigans and jackets in school but I don't know why I've been so hypothyroid-ic during the reiew classes.

Day 11: April 11, 2012
Where you ate Breakfast. At my dorm. Basically, I never went out of my room the whole day. Haha. I thank you!

Day 12: April 12, 2012
Stairs. Lame photo! It's our dorm's staircase, I am here right now grabbing some internet signal because mine upstairs was disconnected which I hope will be fixed by tomorrow. Haha. So there, this photo is as lame as me right now. Except for the fact that I just blogged about my flat shoes and it is a good thing. 

March It Up!

March is my favorite month! There are a few reasons why and to top it is because of the thought that it's my birthday month. Plus to it, all my graduations since I was in pre-school happened during the month of March. Well, obviously. This time, it is a lot more than a special month to me. It is simply the best month ever! I guess, this would be the first time that I would summarize a Month's treat. So how was March? It went this way...

Seeing my High School friends once again was one of the best parts of this Month. I reunited with them and it felt like I was in St. Paul again. Most importantly, Tanya is back! She went to USA a long time ago, way back when we were still in third year high and it is only now that she came back home. Well, FINALLY! After the long period of missing each other. It was a good bonding day together with other friends. I really missed them because busy times left us far away from each other. Now that we were able to see each other again, life is again happier by a day.

I spent most of my March with Boobie Traps. We talked about spending more time together because this might be the last month that we could have a quality time as College girl friends. So we really tried our best to insert dates for us. Another good thing is, they finally met a High School friend of mine. I mean like, personally, the serious way. They met Ben and we met Jorelle, who is Ben's friend who happened to be a friend of our other friends too. Did you get it? Small world, isn' it? But anyway, March wouldn't be complete without them. We went on discovering a lot of things this month. It's a countless experience for us. The memories we had in the last days of college was worth the money and the time we spent for them. Love you Boobies as always!

I've been a part of the 8,000 Thomasians who excitedly exited the Arch of the Centuries last March 23. It was very memorable because I was with my friends who I've been with since the start of College. It was exhausting but crazily fun. That moment, I became very proud to belong with the Thomasian Family.

And finally! The most awaited college graduation also happened this month. It was awesome and eventful. It was perfect! I can't explain it in words but it felt so much good after the graduation because I really absorbed to myself that I have already gained what's rightfully to be deserved. Well, I hope I deserve it. And I guess, I really do. I am just so blessed to be able to graduate in UST because of the education that it gives to every student. It comes with quality and I never regret entering this school. I am also too lucky to be with my friends and my family, most especially. They have been there eversince, most especially to my family, who have always encouraged me to do the best that I can. It is now that everything sinks in me. It feels so good to graduate full of love from the people who continuously believes in me. And it is all worth it to make them as my inspiration in this journey.

This month, I fell in love again.

Lastly, and most importantly, like I've said earlier, March is my birthday month. Last March 19 at 3pm in the afternoon, I officially turned 20 years old. I really thank God for giving me another year of life to be able to experience happiness and love. Without that birthday, I will not be able to achieve everything that I had this month.

March is indeed my lucky month. A happy month. Not only did I achieve things but also, I realized so many thoughts I needed to know. I was also able to achieve a better lifestyle. Hahaha. I have already jogged a few times this month and I "tried" to diet myself from food. Hahaha. Well then, I guess I'm left out of words. Good bye March! It was far beyond happiness being with you :)