from a couple weeks ago

 

(photos by Candice Calonia. Thanks so much, b!)

Really late post. I swear I don't mean to fall off the face of the earth when I go back to Dumaguete City for school and yes, it's all because I'm finally finishing my last semester of graduate school. No one knows what's going to happen after this not even myself. I've been busy working on revising my Master's thesis proposal so far and colloqium is around the corner already so I've been sparse even in both accounts on twitter lately. Oh and instagram as well. It doesn't exactly mean I have abandoned anything.

I still do hang out with some friends from time to time but even they are sparse these days. I probably need to acquire new ones. Sort of. But being the usual introvert I am, I'm not that lonely, really. Basically just stressed now because of, well, a lot of work to do and I've been spending days on end in the library I've probably forgotten what civilization looks like. Yep, I dunno exactly anymore either.

Lately, it's been school-rented pad-school-and sometimes McDonalds' so far I'm a very normal college graduate school student, finally though I don't hang out in the graduate school section of the library too often. I love the second floor of the Silliman University library too much to mingle with co-gradschool students in the first floor. It's also been so hot these days my current wardrobe consists of denim shorts and a lot of tanks and camis later covered up with a hoodie when I'm freezing in the arctic...library.

Also, walking. When in Dumaguete City, there's so much walking to be had I've been ignoring pedicabs wanting to take me anywhere for a fare (fee) of 9 Php. Why ride when you can walk early in the morning or late in the evening and get exercise from that as well?

And it will be awhile before I ever get home so I might as well make the best of being here at this point. 

 

Oh and my special skills apparently now include carrying two to three things at the same time in one hand including coffee cups. I normally take mine iced regularly now. 

vintage boots, bag and curdoroy jacket; Mixed Berry skirt; hanes t.

recent

 

(my and Jan Michelle's photos)

1. A tad bit too small for me---I'm not a size 5 and am more of a size 7 but it seemed like a good-fit-for-me size 5 when I first tried it on---slip-on flats I found at the local Footstep. That place is multitudes of affordable footwear in style heaven, I swear.

2-3; 5-6. One shirt worn in different ways. This is about to be the 12th hour I am wearing the thing since this morning. I'll likely sleep in it. It's a lovely find from Savemore in Capistrano which is really more of a grocery store than a department store... Funny story, my brother must've thought it was for him, since it's actually a guy's shirt, when he found it in the grocery cart that time we were there.

4. Obsessed with the leather chair and the crate box-turned-coffee table at the Coffee Bean and Co. branch by Lim Ketkai Center; and, of course, my favorite iced chai tea latte

7. And lookie! I found a solo box of Acai Berry juice! I swear to get the bigger one next time. :D /addicted.

Savemore/SM Surplus men's baseball shirt; ShopWAGW faux leather shorts; Spartan (via Footstep) slip-ons, levis cutoffs; vintage boots, bag; 2nd hand Anne Klein hoodie

playing catch-up: ss 2015 New York

New York Fashion Week for Spring/Summer 2015 has just officially come to a close and London Fashion Week is up next. September 2014 is basically fashion month---London Fashion Week next, then Milan then Paris!---and being my birth month, it's like Christmas or candy wonderland for me although I'd wish I could afford the clothes I see on the runways at this time. Not likely to happen in this lifetime however. 

So much good stuff has come out of New York and prolific American designers I'm already looking forward to fashion week in Paris. I'm definitely going to take a hint from a lot of the trends this year and probably do my own rendition of them somehow. Just so I don't break the bank before I do start working by the following school year---March 2015 is hopefully the month I finally graduate from grad school. Yay!  

Social media has made fashion week so much easier to keep tabs on these days. I've done nothing but lurk around instagram and twitter for updates on these and I was not disappointed by all the successive updates at all! This week, all I probably did was flood my friends in real life and from various fandoms with retweeted updates of fashion shows and such around New York. (Sorry, guys!) I shall count on social media again for Paris Fashion Week at the end of this month. Meanwhile, I'll be checking in once in a while with London and Milan's successive fashion weeks. Bring on the rest of Fashion Month September!

And without further ado, here are some trends that have grabbed my attention via social media:

 (via teenvogue on instagram)

All white everything on Frame Denim at the start of New York Fashion Week SS 2015. A lot of whites in my closet are begging to be styled this way. Later...yes.

 (via Rumi Neely on Instagram)

 (via Olivia Palermo/Vogue Paris on twitter)

(via British Vogue on twitter)

Tommy Hilfiger goes starry, colorful and boho. Seriously. And just about everyone from Olivia Palermo to Vogue Paris and Vogue UK are talking about this.
Luxe-ish pinstripped shorts are currently stuck in my head as of the last photo from this batch.

 (via netaporter on instagram)

3.1 Phillip Lim goes cheery yellow. I'm eternally stuck around the little white top however.

 (via style.com on twitter)

(via Rumi Neely on instagram)

 

One of the highlights for this fashion week in New York, the amazing little black dresses from Anthony Vaccarello's collection with Versus, Versace. Breathtaking details on mainly black. 

(via WhoWhatWear on twitter)

Rag and Bone keeps the urban street style (and beachwear) fans happy. Leather shorts and those slippers. A must to have just about everywhere especially in the islands.

(via WhoWhatWear on twitter)

(via netaporter on instagram)

Obsessed with the surfboards in Elizabeth and James and that sleeveless mini suit dress. 

(via Rumi Neely on instagram)

Another highlight for NYFW Spring/Summer 2015: Jason Wu's covetable pretty, sleek clean tailored collection for Hugo Boss. This collection is legit BOSS.

(via teenvogue on instagram)

Perfect and easy all black collection from Theory. 

Details...

 (via netaporter at instagram)

(via teenvogue at instagram)

All at Michael Kors Spring/Summer 2015

1. tied belt around the waist and that untamed shaggy shoulder-length hair

2. messy braid

As of today, the Marc Jacobs collection has just come out and it's a treasure trove of utilitarian clothing wares. I'm not sure yet how I feel about it but I do like it a lot. Calvin Klein's Spring/Summer 2015 collection is also amazing for being the usual classic Calvin Klein simplistic/minimalistic stuff. 

movie date

(photos by Jan Michelle Dumlao)

Right after Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno, which was awesome despite some modifications to the original storyline that were actually expected (condensing a 5-10 episodes of an arc of the anime [or manga] into one 3-hour movie is never easy), by the way, at the SM cinemas. Of course, some  fooling around at Dunkin Donuts and a bit of window shopping were done.

vintage/secondhand everything, shoes and necklace: forever21

sort-of boyfriend jeans

gifted Glo cropped jeans; hanes t; random bangles, sunglasses and rings; primadonna shoes; secondhand bag; wagw hat; f21 arrow and gifted K-pendant necklace, (not seen on photo); SM accessories  cross earrings

Ran an errand for mum then running more errands in the afternoon which includes stopping by the PRC office to get my teaching license renewed. Definitely loathing the sun today and changing into a pair of leggings to look even more unkempt before I head down to the mall to inquire about something, not so much as to shop as I haven't done that in eons now all the while wishing I were in a pair of denim shorts or something airier...like, maybe a skirt instead. Nothing's stopping me from dropping by the Robinsons' department store by Ayala Centrio today to check if they have any more basics like the baseball t I wanted for quite awhile now I could abuse almost daily, though so definitely something I'd do today.

honey + sugar body scrub update

It's not only the wardrobe that has gone into a minimalist phase. Even on my everyday beauty products that I use in the shower and out, I've also gone natural. This means less usage of such products with chemicals that are difficult to decipher whether they are harmful or not, more of those with the natural, unharmful ingredients such as those from Human Heart Nature or Human Nature among others. If it's not the products of the said brand then I would play with stuff in the kitchen and those you can easily buy from the market to make products I can add to the daily beauty routine apart from concocting varieties of the green smoothies I now consume for breakfast or dinner almost daily. One such example is the honey and sugar body scrub I use that I have now updated with papaya and vitamin E oil. Or it could work with just papaya because you're in the shower anyway and oil and water do not mix so easily.

I'm not quite sure yet if using it does wonders for the skin because I've only started using it for a few weeks but it does have its good effects and it is quite an effective body scrub. What I do like about it is that it does not break the bank at all and everything for it is in the kitchen...or the market, whichever you prefer to get your ingredients from. Aside from that, this would even make a great gift to friends and family during Christmas or their birthdays and other such occasions. Just place it in a presentable, beautiful packaging and it's good to go as a home made, all-natural present they could really use.

I'm exploring a few more things I can make at home for beauty and health/wellness purposes and I think being a naturalista this way, making it a career as well as life, is becoming easier and more rewarding the longer I get more into making natural beauty, health and wellness products at home. Here's to my journey then on becoming a budding naturalista! 

dreamcatcher

DIY sleeves-cut random shirt and denim cut-offs, Payless boots, thrifted Gucci bag, random dreamcatcher necklace (from Aizilim) and stacked F21 bangles