Nail art : 1 UP mushroom (Super Mario Brothers)
This was inspired by Brinks’ green and white nails last week. I found them really cute so I decided to try them on myself. She suggested that I add the little mushroom heads on the thumb too 
Thanks Ezra for taking the picture.
Sorry it’s so grainy, I forgot to lower the ISO.
Week 15/52 : Heavy hearts, like heavy clouds in the sky, are best relieved by the letting of a little water.
Quote by Christopher Morley
Something simple. I didn’t have time to shoot a proper self portrait the week this was taken. (I don’t bring my camera with me when I go to Manila for the week, so I normally shoot my SPs over the weekend.)
The clouds were added in Photoshop.
Thanks Ezra for taking the photo of my hands.
(EZRA) 15/52 : School’s Over!
Similar concept as my old photo back in 2009 (Paper Paper Go Away - I looked so young), but Ezra wanted a shot with falling papers too.
Her description:
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Finally I get to have a vacation. Classes and exams are officially done and I have no more worries because I’ve also already seen all of grades and they were really good so I think this has been a really good semester.
This picture is actually kinda weird for me because for some reason I’m not used to seeing myself smile that actually show my teeth. I was actually planning to do a new one, but my sister said it was fine and that I should smile more.
Thanks to my sister for taking my picture and editing it!
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Favorite lines from Secret Garden (and some animated gifs)
I know I’ve just posted a review of this kdrama, but I couldn’t help making another entry about it. I was browsing through Tumblr and saw that a lot of people have been blogging their favorite quotes from the show, so I decided to repost some of them in this entry. I’ll probably add more when I find other ones I like.
“Is that the best you can do? Are you sure?” – Joo Won
“The thing about women is, the most common of women can become a queen, and the most rarefied woman can become a maid – according to how she is treated by the person she loves.” – Seul
“She drives like a car racer. If she witnesses someone’s purse being snatched, someone she’s never met in her life, she’ll throw fists. She has no money and her body is covered in scars, but she doesn’t want to spend even one second of one minute with people like us. She’s that kind of woman. I’ve never seen a woman as cool as her. That… is my answer.” – Joo Won
“At what age did you become so pretty?” – Joo Won
“Munja Washo!” – Ra Im/Joo Won
“I’m thinking of doing everything now, including this stupid act of waiting for someone in front of their house so you should do the same. You have no thoughts of becoming the little mermaid, so that’s why I’ll be come the little mermaid instead. I’ll be right next to you as if I am not there and disappear like foam. So right now, I am the one shamelessly hanging on to you.” – Joo Won
“For all the hugs I didn’t give you I’m paying it back all at once.” *kisses Kim Joo Won* – Gil Ra Im
“All around the world there are 230 countries, and among those people I can speak 5 languages. Nevertheless, I can’t find the exact word to define our relationship.” – Joo Won
“Open your eyes. You did something strange and stole my heart, you made me drink something strange and stole my body, showed up at someone else’s party and stole even my lips. If it wasn’t for that, there is no reason for you to look so pretty in my eyes.” – Joo Won
“It’s not because I love you, but because I only love you. If I don’t have you, then I won’t have any other choices.” – Joo Won
And of course this one too:
Joo Won: So who raised you?
Ra Im: I grew up alone. As a “poor and unfortunate neighbor”.
Joo Won: How about money?
Ra Im: I had what the government gave me.
Joo Won: So … all my huge taxes went to you.
Ra Im: Why? Does it seem like a waste now?
Joo Won: … I would’ve paid more if I knew I was raising you.
“Why did you come out so late? I walked slowly from here to there, looking totally pretty from the back” – Gil Ra Im
Oska : How is it with the 21-year old Joo Won? Do you see him often?
Ra Im : He’s energetic and perverted. He’s absolutely adorable
Ra Im : I get discharged tomorrow
Joo Won : Are you telling me to take you home?
Ra Im : Because you’ll want to see me again tomorrow, I’m giving you an excuse to come
I also stumbled upon the fyeah Secret Garden tumblr account, which was filled with gifs from the show. I didn’t make these, I found them on that account and wanted to share my favorite ones with you guys:
Joo Won in Ra Im’s body XD
LOL Oska
K-drama Review : Secret Garden
A friend recommended this drama a few months back (while it was still airing), but I didn’t really get the chance to watch it until this week. This was partly because I wanted to wait until the show was over so I could watch it all in one go.
The show originally has 20 episodes – each about an hour long – but due to its popularity, two additional episodes were added after the show ended.
SYNOPSIS
The show focuses on the lives of Kim Joo Won, a wealthy CEO and Gil Ra Im, a stuntwoman. It’s the typical “rich dude meets a poor girl” kind of story. They fall in love and must overcome various obstacles to be together. Perhaps one of the most challenging obstacle they must face is the fact that they end up switching bodies somewhere along the story. From this, they learn more about each other’s lives and become closer as they try to figure out how to get back to their own bodies.
NOTE: LOTS OF SPOILERS AND PICTURES AHEAD. STOP READING IF YOU PLAN TO WATCH THE SHOW. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED
Happy birthday Aprille
It was Aprille’s birthday last Friday, but the girls and I were all busy that day so we didn’t get a chance to celebrate with her until yesterday. I picked Brinks up from her house around 8:30pm and we headed over to Aprille’s to pick up the birthday girl. We were hoping the the rest of the girls were available too (Camille, Moy and Ves), but they were all out of town so it was just the three of us.
We’ve all had dinner by then so we decided to just grab some dessert at Dairymoor. (Its funny how this place has replaced Bonitos as our default barkada tambayan.)
Kup’s Patapon necklace. I want one to!!! She got it at the Ozine Fest last week.
With the birthday girl
We didn’t really do much except sit around and catch up on each other’s lives. Nothing really interesting to write about so I’ll just spam this entry with photos we took last night.
I love Kup’s nails 
Aprille taught me how to change the saturation, tone, and contrast settings on my camera. Yes, I’m embarrassed to admit that I’ve had my camera for 3 years and I’ve never discovered how to do this myself. I always use the standard settings and correct the tones using Photoshop.
Anyway, I played around with different settings and came up with these:
Setting 1 (high saturation and high sharpness)
(EZRA) 14/52 : Express yourself
Ezra’s portrait for last week.
Her description:
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The spray paint is actually bug spray, hehe. I got the idea from the ending sequence of the anime K-ON. I don’t watch the anime, but I saw the video while I was flipping through channels and I thought that it would be a cute shot.
I had a hard time in this shoot because it’s really difficult for me to visualize that I’m actually spray painting something. I have a really weak imagination. My sister had to hold a CD case in front of my face just to get this shot.
Thanks a lot to my sister for taking my picture and editing it!
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(She kept looking at the can’s nozzle, making her look cross eyed, and it didn’t look realistic when she looked straight to camera. I told her to imagine a wall in front of her but for some reason she found that really hard.)
Week 14/52 : Inner demons
Self portrait last week.
For Flickr’s TOTW : “Shadows”
My mind’s still such a mess at the moment. So much stuff going on inside my head, it’s driving me crazy. The other night I woke up at 3am due to a bad dream and it took forever to fall back asleep. Maybe I should meditate before going to bed.
The wallpaper texture came from HERE
Lazy Saturday + Ckloy’s new baby
(Old entry I keep forgetting to post. It’s been sitting in my drafts folder for a while now.)
A couple of months ago, Ckloy bought a new camera. He wasn’t sure what he wanted yet, so he asked me to come with him and help him choose. The sales assistant at Canon (Megamall) was really nice and he answered all our questions about the different camera models they had available (and he wasn’t pushy at all unlike other SAs). After thinking about it, we decided on the Canon EOS 550d.
Ckloy talking to Raffy (the sales assistant)
Ckloy testing his new camera out. I was more than happy to be his first test subject XD Isn’t the photo quality great? This was shot using just the kit lens.
Ckloy looking so happy with his new techie baby
Aside from a few test shots taken at the store, we weren’t really able to play with his new camera since it was getting late and we both had to leave soon (I had to head back to LB while he had to stop by his office). So we agreed that Ckloy would come over that weekend and we would go out and take photos.
I took him to Forestry, one of my favorite locations to shoot in UPLB campus because it’s quiet, hidden and there’s plenty of privacy. I took my camera and 50mm lens with me as well.
Ckloy shooting away
Tripod
Unfortunately, just a few minutes after we arrived, some buses started pulling up next to us and dozens of kids started running around the area. It turned out there was some sort of field trip happening there that day. So much for privacy.
Bus with kids inside
Eventually it got too crowded so we decided to switch locations. We headed up to UPCO where there were less people. We stayed there for a while taking pictures (Ckloy helped me take my 4th SP for this year) then headed down to Freedom park.
Some pictures taken that day (most are from Ckloy’s camera):
Happy Birthday Yamapi
Our dear Pi-chan turns 26 today~
I became a Yamapi fan back in October 2007 (yes, I remember the month and the year). It was the end of the semester, I just finished computing my student’s grades and my sister dropped by my office. She was hunting down her professors to find out what she got in her subjects but she learned that most of them wouldn’t arrive until the afternoon. She didn’t want to go home and come back in a few hours so she asked me if she could watch Kurosagi on my laptop to pass the time. I wasn’t really into Asian dramas back then, but it was my lunch break and I didn’t have anything to do so I said yes and watched with her. Thus the start of my Yamapi (and J-dorama) obsession.
Here’s a mini picspam for the man who turned me into such a fangirl:
The famous Pi-pout
Looking so peaceful
Dark Mahogany Brown
Darkened my hair again a few weeks ago. The old dye was starting to fade and the roots were starting to show, so I had to do something about.
I used Revlon Colorsilk in Dark Mahogany Brown this time:
Before coloring:
I dyed my hair medium brown last December, but it faded to a light brown after a few months
Week 13/52 : Despair
(Uploaded this on Flickr last Saturday, which explains why the description seems a bit outdated.)
I kinda like how this turned out, considering how this was a last minute thing. I’m just so uninspired this week! I didn’t have a clue what to do for my SP until about an hour ago. I had a bunch of random ideas in my mind, but nothing really stood out. Anyway, the week is almost done so I figured I should just get in front of the camera and start shooting.
This week was going well until yesterday. I can’t really write about it at the moment though. I just feel so powerless right now, like I have no control over my life. I hate this feeling T__T
On a happier note, I bought new shoes last weekend (the ones I’m wearing in this shot). Aren’t they cute? I love details. And those larger studs are actually little skulls. Pretty neat huh?
They were on sale. Got them for only P1500+ (original price was P2200).
(EZRA) 13/52 : My Final Heaven
Ezra’s portrait last week.
I like how this shot turned out.
The candles gave us such a hard time! They kept falling over, grrr. Ezra had to stand very still for this shot. (The flames are obviously photoshopped. We didn’t want to risk Ezra accidentally setting herself on fire for this shot.)
The birds inside the cage are fake too.
Ezra’s description:
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This shot was inspired by the Dutch metal/rock band “Within Temptation”.
This is one of the most difficult shoot we’ve ever done because I couldn’t see at all (obviously), so my sister had to position me for the shot. Plus the candles kept falling over so I wasn’t allowed to move so much.
I got the title from Tifa’s limit break in the RPG game Final Fantasy 7.
Thanks a lot to my sister for taking my picture, editing it and buying me this dress!
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We were actually trying to recreate this album cover, but we had to work with what we have:
Pasalubong from Korea II
Gifts from my parents who arrived this morning from a 3-day workshop in Korea:
My sister and I asked for some Korean make up products but my parents couldn’t find a mall near the workshop venue, so they ended up having to get them from the Duty Free at the airport.
Ezra got the Precious Mineral BB Cream from Etude house and some samples of the Collagen Moistfull Massage (whatever that is).
Week 12/52 : I’ve laid my memories and dreams upon those wings
I totally stole this idea from froze by desire (on Flickr). I thought it was a cool concept so I asked her if I could do something similar
In Japan they believe that folding 1000 paper cranes can make your wish come true. I have a big wish coming up and I figured there’s no harm in trying, right? Only 994 more to go, LOL. (I doubt I’ll actually be able to fold that many cranes though.)
Thanks Ezra for taking the shot
Title came from the song “Melodies of Life”, from the FF9 soundtrack.
(EZRA) 12/52 : Curiouser and curiouser!
Ezra’s description:
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I recently watched the new Kuroshitsuji OVA “Ciel in Wonderland” and I loved it! It inspired me to do an Alice in Wonderland theme for this week. I also got the title from a line in the movie.
Thanks a lot to my sister for taking my picture and editing it!
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A late Christmas present : Braun Silk-Epil Soft Perfection Epilator
Finally it arrived! Ezra’s Christmas present for me. I’ve been waiting for it for months~
I’ve been looking for an epilator for a while now, but unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be that popular here in the Philippines. There are only a few places where you can get them, and they can be a bit pricey. When I told my friend Kat back in December about epilators and how I wanted one, she got really excited and emailed her brother in Pennsylvania to order two and include it in their next balikbayan box. Ezra agreed to pay for it since she couldn’t think of a Christmas present for me. And now, after about 3 months, it’s finally here! (Thanks Ezra, Kat and Kat’s kuya XD)
For those who aren’t familiar with epilators, they’re basically an electronic tweezer. Except instead of pulling the hair out one at a time, an epilator can grab onto multiple hairs and pull them out at the same time. A bit similar to waxing.
Yes, it sounds painful, and it sorta is I suppose. But once you get used to it, it’s actually not that big a deal. Some even find the pain quite enjoyable. Ezra described it as a numbing yet soothing kind of pain. (The first time she tried it, however, she was literally screaming in pain as each hair was pulled out. But you get used to it after a while.) It helps if you’ve experienced waxing or plucking before.
The model Kat and I got was the Braun Silk-Epil Soft Perfection. I was hoping to get the one in pink since green isn’t really my thing. But then again, it does the job so I shouldn’t complain.
It comes with a removable massaging attachment that’s supposed to help reduce (or numb) the pain. I like using it for when I remove the hair on my underarms, but it tickles when I use it on my legs so I take it out. The metal things you see are the rotating tweezer heads. The machine sounds (and looks) scary when you turn it on at first but I got used to it. The first time I turned it on, I stared at the rotating heads for a while before finally getting the courage to use it XD
The epilator also comes with a power cord and a cleaning brush. The manual tells me to dip the brush in rubbing alcohol and use it to remove the hair stuck on the epilator after each use. You can also remove the epilator head (the white part where the tweezers are) if you want to really clean it. For hygiene purposes, epilators are not meant to be shared with other people, but I don’t really mind sharing with my sister as long as she makes sure to clean it after she uses it.
Finally, I can say goodbye to shaving. I really hate how it irritates my skin. Plus it’s messy and I hate how quickly the hair grows back. Waxing is a bit better, but it takes too much time to do and can be a bit expensive. I’ve also tried depilatory creams, but I’m not a big fan of them either (too messy and they smell terrible!) Epilating is so much better! The only thing I don’t like about it is the ingrown hairs (which I sometimes get when I shave or wax as well). I’ve only had my epilator for a few days but I can already tell you that I love it
Week 11/52 : It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live
Quote by Albus Dumbledore (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone)
I miss reading books. I mean real books. These days all I have time to read are textbooks and journal articles for my thesis. Well, ocassionally I read random blogs online too. But I really miss reading books.
Thanks Ezra for taking the picture (and coming up with the concept for this shot).
(EZRA) 11/52 : I need a vacation
Ezra’s SP for last week.
Her description:
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It’s almost the end of the semester so I’ve been really busy lately. There are a lot of requirements that I need to submit in each subject. Plus I also need to study for my finals. It’s so tiring!
Thanks a lot to my sister for taking my picture and editing it!
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