when Jason Mraz broke my heart

i've been in love with Jason Mraz longer than i've been in love with B or Burt's Bees. i love his carefree attitude, his music, his coolness, his blog, his advocacies, his philosophies and his charming good looks.

Sometimes you just get to loving someone (or something) and nothing one can hold you back. It’s like the brain is raining neurohormones oxytocin and prolactin on its own and life is in a constant post-orgasmic state. - Freshness Factor Five Thousand

in one of his recent posts titled Feeling Rainbow Bright, Not Literally, J (feeling close much?) talks about how his newfound love makes him feel and the wonders of being intimate with your special other.

i could practically feel my heart shattering into a million imaginary pieces, but that's just me being melodramatic. i'm happy for my ultimate music idol finally lucking out at finding someone just like me getting lucky with B.


Lucky by Jason Mraz ft. Ximena Sariñana. spanish always makes it more romantic don't you think?

i will still love you forever Jason but not as much as i love my B,

how well do you know your partner

i've recently taken to browsing www.cnn.com every spare minute i have at work. we're *not* allowed to view all those sites that we want to view, else i'd open just about all my favorite blogs and read to my heart's content. there's this clause that states we can only use our internet resources in connection with our business blah blah blah. i feel terribly cut off from the outside world at work, so i just go ahead and view cnn.com under the pretext that i need some latest updates on world news. yeah, right.

it worked anyway.

i was viewing oprah's segment at the site, and took a survey titled 'How Well Do You Know Your Partner'. i had no idea that it was for married couples, but with my B in mind, i took it anyway and just answered some yes/no questions about our relationship.


that's me and B at Mr. A's Coffee Shop somewhere in Busay. romantic much?

You know your partner very well and have a great marriage.

really now? i know that these surveys can't really get the gist of how solid a relationship is, but it's a good start. i could care less about what's going on at work (all i know is that he prints stuff for a job), or who his favorite relatives are, or what his problems are right now (his beer belly?). what's important is that i know all the little things that make our relationship work. and besides, it's the minute details, those little things that people sometimes take for granted, that make or break a relationship.

i know for a fact that B's favorite food is maja blanca. he also loves frappuccinos. B is a human dalmatian, and thinks he looks like john lloyd cruz. his perfume is Oxygen Gas, which i introduced him to and i also know about his kikay kit, which i gave to him. i can tell when he's pissed off, when he's mad at me, and i can make him laugh when i want to. he snores when he sleeps, and his shoe size is 8 1/2.



7 months is too short a time to get to know someone deeply, but i feel like it's been years! i guess i can own that we both know each other extremely well at this point. love you B!

the things i did to make my blog look what it looks like now

1. i knew i wanted a red-black-white color scheme for my blog so i began by choosing a nice red shade and copying the code - #c70b0b, as well as a nice gray shade to go with it.

2. i wanted to have a nice font for my blog. so i searched for good fonts all over the net, not to mention my truckload of fonts in my lappy. for my post titles, i used Caviar Dreams from www.nymfont.com. for my main page text, i just went with something generic, Verdana, so as not to be an eyesore. a splash of cool fonts here and there look so much neater.

3. i then spent hours trying to customize my chosen fonts on my blog. i finally found a very helpful tutorial over at www.kevinandamanda.com.

4. i also wanted to customize my widget titles so i searched for a tutorial to teach me just that. my lifesaver came from www.blogbulk.com.

5. to start customizing my widget, i searched for a nice red and black pattern. i then did the most tedious task of editing each title using adobe photoshop cs3. it took me hours to do that, and then i uploaded them to my site and edited a few kinks here and there.

6. i cleaned my posts by setting my text alignment to justified. again, i had no idea how so go google. by now, i realized Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V were really good friends.

7. i also aligned my badges by setting them to center mode.

8. i tested out my links, and relearned my hyperlink codes and customized my hover link colors, and pretty much obsessed about my links for a few minutes.

and i guess that's about it. it sounds so easy but it took me about four hours to do all this. i'm such a noob.

anyhow, my blog cleanup duties just aren't about finished though...
♥ center-align my post titles. how could i forget?!
♥ i also need a blog post divider.
♥ and a signature.
♥ a pretty header too.
♥ rounded picture frames for all my photos on my blog.
♥ and i might just go ahead and add some ads.

career much? i'd settle for sleepy much right now.

sweet dreams, yet again,

pimp my blog part 1

who ever knew designing a good-looking blog was a lot of work? i bow down to all graphic designers out there for coming up with such awesome looking blogs. how the heck do you guys do it? you must be such geniuses or else the rest of us ignorant in the language of graphic design must be really stupid. after hours and hours of clacking away on the keyboard and trying every known word combination about blog design starting with the words 'how to customize', i feel utterly humbled that this was all i could cough up.

i don't feel that bad though. i was never the programmer type. although i do remember getting extremely high scores back in javascript and html and css courses in high school, it seems as though all my programming knowledge has leaked out over the years. at least my result for today isn't too shabby huh?

i've been feeling rather depressed at my lack of graphic design skills every time i would open my blog page. i just wanted to tidy it up a bit, so every free time i could spare at work, i surfed the net for tutorials on how to prettify an otherwise boring and ugly blog.

i've been slaving for hours now, and my back hurts. i really need to get some sleep, but i couldn't help sharing what i've done today. i've had several crash courses on the net, and my blog doesn't look to shabby anymore! there's still a lot of work to do but at least i've accomplished something.

♥ for tips on how to improve your blog's look, you could do a google or visit www.kevinandamanda.com. (just click on the badge in my sidebar.)

♥ for cute and absolutely free fonts, you could also check out www.kevinandamanda.com or www.nymfont.com (again, just check out the badges in my sidebar.)

♥ it also doesn't hurt to be familiar with adobe photoshop, some basic html, and an idea on how you want your blog to look like.

♥ for ignoramos like myself, there are a lot of resources you could consult. never underestimate the power of google and resourcefulness. i started from absolutely nothing and look how my blog is starting to look good! ;)

more to come:
-a good header
-pretty picture frames
-music and video embedding in blogs
-and my own signature!

and now to sleep!

sweet red dreams,

a washed-out wednesday

it rained again today, just when i was about to head over to the mall to bring B some snacks (his office is just across a mall, can you frigging believe that?!) and pick up some goodies from my makeup supplier. B had a last-minute meeting though, so i ditched the snacks and went straight to my meetup. i picked up two new shades of my favorite Nyx Lippies, Hebe which is a sparkly dark fuchsia, and Tea Rose, a light shade of pink. i can't wait to swatch and try out my new lippies, but that will have to wait because as of now, nothing else touches my lips except Burt's Bees and Brad's Bees.

my makeup supplier carla, from the Yunique Shop over at facebook, also brought her onhand wares along with the preorders. it's one thing i love about this shop, you can just view the different makeup brand sites and order stuff for a fee and then she'll have it shipped to cebu. some makeup brands can't be procured in our little city, so having a supplier like carla is a huge sigh of relief for makeup junkies like myself who otherwise can't get their grubby paws on international brands. anyway carla had some other stuff that i now want to try out as well. i just have to do a little background research...

♥ it's one thing to look at lippy shades on the net, and a totally different experience trying it out for real. Nyx Round Lipstick in Circe looks pale on shade charts but otherwise looks like THE nude shade for me. i can't wait for my own tube this coming end of august.

♥ another kikayholic also recommended the Maybelline Volume Seduction Lip Plumper in Sand Castle as a solid lip plumper/gloss. i like the shade, but i really don't need a lip plumper or gloss because i have naturally plump lips and i have no plans of doing an angelina jolie-esque pout. (i'd look like a japanes koi.)

♥ Nyx has a new addition to their happy family of lip products. enter the Nyx Tinted Lip Spa, which is just fatter version of the round lipstick line. i have yet to browse around the web for reviews and such, but i'm lusting for two shades, Sake and Hush.

♥ i also got to try out a Nars Orgasm dupe in Milani Luminous. carla is still looking for a source, and i already cannot wait. impatient much?

okay enough about makeup for the day.

the early evening found me over at B's place to pick him up for dinner. (really.) and i just realized that i kind of miss quality time with my number one guy that i had so much fun applying my Burt's Bees on his brace-chapped lips. (i just can't get over the peppermint tingle.) i'm quite excited for all our future travels together because guess what, we both get regularized at work on the same day! can you believe the coincidence? it's another 'jai ho' moment for us. we've also planned to have the same vacation leaves. sweet huh? you can't help but feel the 'kilig' rush.

it's still my second day of work for the week and already i can't wait for the weekend. it's toy shopping with B this friday or saturday, and then a movie marathon that i hope won't be squashed. watch out for my nyx swatches and my nars orgasm try outs.

stay red and in love always,

mini NARS/Burt's Bees haul + wish list

so i went to the mall yesterday and ended up splurging on some stuff again. this time, i ended up with a new super love blush in NARS Orgasm. it may sound cliche but it's every bang worth your buck. and it doesn't come cheap either.




NARS Orgasm is this peachy pink shade with hints of shimmer. after testing it, i just look naturally flushed without going overboard. the blush doesn't look all that nice in the pan, but it's gorgeous once you apply it. and so without any second thoughts about how expensive it was (gulp!), i got my own pan, with a NARS Concealer Stick in Praline too. i'll show you guys some pics when i buy a memory card reader.

i also visited Beauty Bar yesterday during my splurge fest and got my own tube of cult-favorite Burt's Bees Lip Balm (the original). seriously, i can't imagine how the other flavors would go when the original is too good to be true. i absolutely adore the peppermint sting a few moments after you apply it, i love the cute yellow packaging (it was a toss up between the cute tube and the uber-cute tin but i find the tube more convenient.), and i'm crazy about the lasting moisturizing effect and the fact that it doesn't taste anything at all. plus, it's all natural and the packaging comes from recycled plastic. what's not to like and love about this baby?



ending up with these lovely products did much damage to my budget but that didn't stop me from setting my sights on some other lovelies too. when the next paycheck arrives, it's a beeline for these:

1. NARS Blush in Nico - it's a natural peach shade, which aside from peachy pink, i also hoard up on. it's a total coincidence that it's the same name as my good friend, but i really want to have this baby too.



2. Model Co. Cheek + Lips in Rose Red - i'm a huge fan of lip and cheek tints and this is the top of the food chain in that department. i tested some on my hand and it lasted that whole afternoon and evening! with that staying power, i cannot not have one tube. the pink/white packaging is super chic too. but for all it's worth, the pocket damage is serious!



3. Canus Goat's Milk Lip Balm - certified lip balm addict that i am, i also cannot turn a blind eye to good balms that are affordable. if you can't go the extra mile for a tube of Bees, then go for this one.



more to come:
- my new Nyx Lippies in Hebe and Tea Rose
- my favorite new local brand
- starting an addiction to face masks and spa treatments
- and food sampling at Tablea and Japengo

stay red with lots of mwahs,

salt

all the hype about evelyn salt is rightly justified. angelina jolie is one hot momma. would she want to adopt me if she wants to have a filipino added to her brood? we are a thrid-world country after all.

B and i just decided to watch salt after going to church, since it was my day off. B and my favorite popcorn ever, Tater's, are the perfect company. add to that a good, action-packed movie, and you have a great recipe for a good time.

it's not like it would blow your mind off, but still, it's worth watching with your man. i was torn between having a crush on salt myself or getting worried B might make me do a salt. needless to say, i want her hairstyle for myself.