Summer Pieces Suggestions To Add in Your Closet

One of my favorite season to spend outdoors is definitely summer when longer days and brighter days are being experienced. Even if summer this year has cancelled my travels, it won’t stop me from dressing up in my favorite summer pieces. One of my favorite staple piece is a pair of good bikini that can be worn effortlessly. I was inspired in my previous blog post to revamp and add more in my collection. I’ve own few classic pieces but I’m now looking for some good new pairs that I can add up in my collection. I did some readings online and listed some of the things that would def be in my next orders from Bellelily.

I not only love tie dye in shirts but also in bikinis. I saw a co-blogger wearing a tie dye bikini just recently and I just can’t help but adore that beautiful pair! I love how it gives off an instant summer vibes through its combination of bright and pastel colors. In contrast with brights, I also love wearing neutrals and I want to add more of it in my collection. Most of my bikinis are all neutral colors because I can mix match the pieces and and repeat it in my next beach trip without anyone noticing it. #Bikinihacks

When it comes to prints what I would always prefer are animal and floral ones. I love how naughty and chic an animal print suggests while I love how feminine and posh a floral conveys. Whether I want to be naughty or nice, these 2 are both my go to bikini prints! 

I never had a high waist one but I’d also love too as it covers most part of the belly. I think it’s one of the cons of wearing one since it’s one problem that I have to face every time I go on vacations and choose to live the moment and drop the diet! :P

Aside from bikinis, I'm also a big fan of summer dresses! I came across some good few pieces from Fairy Season that I'd love to consider for my next orders.

 

How about you? What are some of the things that you look for in a bikini or a dress? Any suggestions on few good summer styles that I can splurge on? 

xoxo,

Escape with Me

If only I could bring everyone of you to my happy place right now, I definitely would. I've been living by the seashore in my grandparents' house in this time of pandemic and I couldn't be more thankful to the freedom that I'm experiencing now. During the months of January and February I've lived my life in Manila to prepare for the upcoming board exam. When President Duterte announced a lock down in Manila during the outbreak I went back home in the province and lived there from March to April. When our place started to have the most cases of PUIs and PUMs and covid cases in Batangas my family decided to go to our bukid and live with my grandparents. Being in the little town of Pagkilatan is a big relief for me and my family. There were no noted history nor present covid cases and people were alive and free but still in a way that proper precautions are practiced. This place took away my anxiety and let me live a normal life again. If only I could bring all my loved ones and friends here, I definitely would. With restrictions that we have right now, visitors are not allowed until I really don't know when. But I promise that once it's already safe and GCQ is lifted I'll bring you all and let you experience the things I get to enjoy in my little piece of heaven. 

On a random sunny Thursday I decided to go on a quick paddle boarding and shoot some photos for the blog. I wore a one piece bikini from DressLily and it was the first time that I used it. I love how the print and color give off  a tropical and beach vibes and how cute yet still modest the off shoulder detail looks! 

How are your days going? Comment some good suggestions of series or kdramas that I can binge watch on netflix plsss! I'm currently watching What's Wrong with Secretary Kim :)

xoxo,

How I Cope Up with COVID Anxiety

Hey guys! It's already been 2 months since the start of lock down and here I am reminiscing a past beach trip a few years back. I was surprised to see this in my draft box and I think this is the perfect time to share with you the pictures that never get posted (but was prepared a long time ago) on my blog together with my thoughts about this quarantine period. 

It was never easy for all of us to be in this season of pandemic and be quarantined for several months. A lot of people lost their jobs, millions of people were infected around the world, everyone feels anxious about their lives, you name it! Our 2020 plans got cancelled and we have many thoughts and made up problems in our mind right now on how are we going to continue to live a life like this. We're never going back to normal and we have to set certain standards on how are we going to live the "new normal". I have to admit that when this outbreak started I feared for my life-  I feared that I might get infected because of my low immune system or that any members of the family will; I feared that I might not accomplish my personal and career goals this year; I feared that I might not be able to travel anymore; I feared that we're not going to experience the life that we have before. I had so much thoughts and I tend to overthink at times but as I get used to all of these things, I was able to slowly overcame it with a different outlook and mindset. Being busy also helped me cope up with my anxiety and I want to share you some of the things that keeps me sane and moving while on lockdown.

Binge watch on netflix. I remember the last time that I went out to have a grocery during the last week of March I went back home really scared and anxious. I regret that I went outside, made up symptoms on my mind and I just can't get over with the thought that I might have encountered someone infected. What I did was I binge watch in netflix to cope up with my anxiety and keep my mind busy. It's when my love for kdrama started!I started watching Crash Landing On You and finished it in 2 days. After that I felt fangirling over kdramas and watched more of it for the whole month.  

Workout. It's really hard to start working out especially if you've been idle for so long and got used to your usual routine of eat-sleep-repeat. I'm guilty but I realized that if I won't be able to accomplish my other goals this year, might as well have a Plan B and start working on it. Every single move, single walk, single burn, and a progressing diet, when added together really means a lot. I may not make myself slimmer and sexier like the ones here on this post but I'm working on achieving a healthier and more toned body this quarantine. 

Strengthen your support system. One of the things that's keeping me away from my worries is through reconnecting with my family and friends. Be active on group chats and group calls, ask how they are, send memes in between covid topic to break off the tension, update them on what you're doing. Just basically be there for them in this time of crisis.  

Blog. Having a good read is an essential to keep you away from anything that bothers you. Reading other blogs and knowing what others are up to gives me ideas on how to stay busy and productive this quarantine. Cooking is one of the many things that bloggers are busy at this period and I joined the bandwagon by trying out easy recipes and dishes that I saw online. I made a post about it here. I'm happy that I was able to discover something that turned into passion.

Pray. Do not underestimate the power of prayer. I know my prayers saves me every single day. The moment I wake up and before I sleep I always say a prayer to calm my mind and cast my worries away. I know He's the only one who's in control and it is on His hands where all of us will be saved. Don't forget to say a prayer every day. :)

That's it! I hope you're all doing good at this period. I hope you're all safe and healthy! 

xoxo,

Confidently Plus size

I’ve always considered myself a plus size woman because I’m taller and have bigger built compared to any normal girls in my age. I know it’s hard to cope up at times especially when you see your friends being curvy and sexy but you cannot do anything about it because it’s your natural built and all you have to do is deal with it. You all know that one of my goals this quarantine period is to try my best to be slim that’s why I have decided to work my ass off and start following those Emi Wong’s workout videos. I know I’m still in the process of achieving the body that I’m working for and it’s going to take long months or so but I’m not worried anyway because I have gotten an accessible accessory that I can use anytime and anywhere I go to boost my self confidence. I’m talking about the best shapewear! I’ve used shape wears several times in events especially when it concerns about wearing fitted gowns and dresses. I’ve also used it during my previous pageants and one tip that I can give you is to stick to a shapewear that you are most comfortable in! It’s hard to breathe in and move around if you’re not comfortable with what you are wearing so make sure that you are always (always!!) dressed not just beautifully outside but comfortably inside.

Lover-beauty is an international online store that showcases different kinds of sport wears, lingeries, waist trainers and shapewears for all types of body built especially for plus size woman like me. I like for a fact that shapewears are made to enhance some features of the body to make it more presentable like enhancing the abdomen and butt areas. From my experience it helped me feel more confident and it does honestly boost my self-esteem because I was able to see my sexier and curvier version even just for a while. I’ve picked some products from Lover-beauty so I can share to you what their products look like from their stores.

Left: https://www.lover-beauty.com/product/plus-size-black-neoprene-trainer-7-bones-double-adjustment-sticker_i_15415.html
Right: https://www.lover-beauty.com/product/spotlight-skin-high-waist-flat-tummy-queen-size-shapewear-slimming-stomach_i_27424.html

Aside from that they also have an added addition of cheap plus size summer dresses in their store. I have picked some of my favorites to give you an idea of what it looks like.

Left: https://www.lover-beauty.com/product/dazzles-yellow-big-size-dress-tie-chain-pattern-breath_i_102810.html
Right: https://www.lover-beauty.com/product/glossy-brown-v-collar-plus-size-dress-slit-ruffle-svelte-style_i_102457.html

Left: https://www.lover-beauty.com/product/fiercely-light-blue-maxi-dress-flower-print-tie-waist-feminine-confidence_i_116295.html
Right: https://www.lover-beauty.com/product/summer-glow-blue-v-neck-stripe-large-size-dress-button-womens_i_101049.html

You can visit their online store and check more items. :)

xoxo,

Quarantine Feast

Being in lock down down for 2 months made me try new things that I didn't purposely thought I will do. One of those many things that I did out of boredom (but turned out to be funn!) is COOKING! Ahhh, for the love of food, I know all things are possible!! I've been addicted in cooking and almost all the meals prepared at home were done by me. I'm no expert and the only time that I learned cooking real foods was during this quarantine. I know you're already judging me (I'm judging myself too! Haha!) but for 23 years I've never cooked anything in our house other than sunny side up, rice and boiled egg. Quarantine made me a little crafty and so I tried cooking, but it also made me hungrier that I decided to order some foods that are beyond my cooking skill. Sharing with you some of the foods from my Quarantine Feast that happened at home and outside home before the start official lock down. Let us all drool together!  

Pasta Carbonara is for sure my specialty. I've cooked carbonara twice this quarantine and I'm happy that my family, my boyfriend and my neighbors loved it! I just followed my tita's recipe and learned cooking it through phone call with her instructions.  

L: Beef Tapa and Honey Garlic Chicken, R: Chocnut Ganache Pancake
Kanto Freestyle Breakfast was a food haven that I discovered during my late stay in Taft. I always pass by that restau but I never come in because of the amount of people waiting outside and inside. When I knew that they serve 24/7 I decided to try the hype before I went back to Batangas. I didn't expected to find myself indulging in two consecutive meals before I bid goodbye to Taft. Their foods could be a little pricey but they were all delicious!!

Chicken Cordon Bleu
I've seen this everywhere in facebook and everytime I pass by it I can't help but drool and share it. When I knew that Pau and I's fave restau operates and delivers foods during the quarantine I didn't hesitated and listed down my orders from them. This is one of the foods that I ordered. Octadix never failed me. :)

Aside from Chicken Cordon Bleu I also got Cheesy Embutido from Octadix. It speaks up for its cheesiness. My family and I loved it!!

L: Chocolate Moist Cake, R: Choco balls in Caramel Dip
Pau and I still got to see each other during quarantine whenever he ran errands like grocery and stuff. He came once in our house and brought me my sweet cravings still from Octadix. I couldn't be happier & kilig when I tasted these 2. The choco moist cake didn't even lasted for 3 days. It was so yummy! I also loved the choco balls (I think it's brownies) dipped in my favorite flavor, caramel!! I highly recommend these 2 if you want to satisfy your sweet cravings! :)

Classic Beef Burger
Even if I didn't made the patty I still made the burger anyway! Haha! I decided to make a burger during my brother's birthday instead of buying some. I ordered the burger patties from Burger St. and I'm satisfied because it's beefyyy and it really smells good. The toppings that I included here were ketchup, mayo, lettuce, cheese, tomato and onion. After eating a whole burger I felt again the fullness that I've been missing for so long. I'm so satisfied! :)

L: Cheesedog Bread Rolls, R: Chicken Afritada by yours truly
My cheesedog bread rolls were inspired by a random recipe from facebook. It was made out of boredom but I'm happy that it turned out fine. It's just basically a rolled cheese strips and hotdog in a loaf bread dipped in milk, egg and bread crumbs. Fry it after and it's good to go! :) Chicken Afritada, on the other hand, is the dish that my family always requests me to cook for dinner. I'm not really fond of eating it unlike adobo but when I got to cook it for several times I already learned to love it. 

Mom's Quarantine Birthday Celeb by yours truly
My mom celebrated her birthday on Day 2 of lock down and it was where my love for cooking started. I decided to take in charge of the cooking and I cooked the usual foods that can be seen on a birthday setup. It was my first time to cook Spaghetti and I'm proud that it tasted really good. Super pinoy style! I also cooked Adobong Baboy (it was the first filipino dish that I learned to cook), fried some breaded chicken wings (we couldn't miss it!!) and some french fries. 

L: California Tempura Maki from Tokyo-Tokyo, R: Liempo by me
I used to eat Ramen, Cheesy Beef Donburi and Chicken Karage whenever dine in Tokyo-Tokyo. When the mall was still up during the first week of GCQ we ate at Tokyo-Tokyo (Pau and I's go to restau) and had still all those foods mentioned but with an additional California Tempura Maki in our order. I didn't know that it tasted that good!! I know now what I'm gonna pick first when this ECQ is over!!! Last from the list is my family's all time favorite liempo. I cooked it thrice this ECQ. The first one was a fail because it was too salty (the marinating procedure that I followed was too much!!) but the second and third were just delicious and satisfying! I have my liempo cut orders delivered again and would cook a mouth watering liempo dish for the fam and for my man.

xoxo,

Hong Kong & Shenzhen 4 Days Itinerary + Budget

I want to make the most out of the quarantine days that I have (because I'm literally bored afff) so I decided to make myself active in blogging again. I actually have so much ideas for my blog (and vlog!) but some of it were still in the process of making (blogs about product reviews that I'm still trying and waiting for the results and vlogs that I still haven't finished editing yet). While waiting for those posts to be published I thought of sharing a worth reading content on the blog. Since I already miss travelling and I will never be able to make it this year again (or maybe until next year because of this covid anxiety) I thought of sharing a few itineraries, best places to visit, budget and all related travel tips on the previous trips that I went to for the past years.

My first out of the country travel and first plane ride was bound to Hong Kong. Hong kong experiences 4 seasons. It doesn't snow in winter (December to February) but the lowest can get 10 degrees and below in early January. Spring (March to May) has an average temperature of 16-23 degrees Celsius and is the most ideal month for me to travel as it is never hot and can get a little bit cold at night. We went there on the last week of March. Summer (June to September) is very humid and hot and it is when frequent typhoons visit the country. Autumn (late September to November) is cool and dry with plenty of sunshine and the most ideal for most travelers.

Hong kong is one of those places where people (especially Filipinos) experience their first out of the country travel because it's one of the nearest travel destination from the Philippines. Several airlines travel from Manila to Hong kong including Cebu Pacific, Air Asia, Philippine Airlines and Cathay Pacific. We flew via Cebu Pacific. Our tour and hotel were booked separately through a Batangas-based travel agency. I will make a breakdown of the travel expenses that we had for our HK-Shenzhen trip on the last part of the blog.

Since we were booked through an agency and there was a whole itinerary planned already the choice of the hotel was made by them. Our hotel was Rambler Garden Oasis Hotel and it was situated in the different island away from the city. I can rate this hotel with 3 out of 5 stars mainly because I don't find it accessible in the city. If I will go back to Hong kong in the next years I would find a hotel situated in the city center where the malls and night life can be enjoyed.

Situated underground of the hotel is Cafe de Coral where we had our breakfasts. 3 out of 5 would be the rating since they don't cater continental meals. Most of it were Chinese and Hong kong foods that we were not familiar with. 

Day 1 (4:00 pm-7:00 pm). Our first tour was Peak Tram and Sky Terrace Tour. It was actually not included in our itinerary because our first day was a free day. While we were in the airport a tour guide came to us and offered this package tour. This is probably one of the many activities that I loved in Hong kong. We were able to ride the oldest train transportation in HK, went to the highest peak with the most beautiful view and had the time of our lives taking pictures with the wax figures in Madame Tussauds. I highly recommend this tour if you haven't tried it yet. 

Day 1 (8:00 pm-11:00 pm) Our last stop was in Mong kok night market.We spent the rest of the night shopping for pasalubongs. I remember buying my first ever boots there! Haha! Our trip to Mong kok was not included in our tour anymore so we rode the taxi in going back to the hotel. It was expensive because it was far from the city.  

Day 2 (8:00 am). Our morning tour for that day started at the famous Avenue of the Stars and Victoria Harbour. There's nothing really much to see but appreciate the beauty of Hong kong harbour. It would have been better if we went there on the evening because of the Symphony of Lights show. 

Day 2 (10:00 am) Next to Victoria Harbour is the Aberdeen Fishing Village. We opted to ride the Sampan boat (which lasted for 20 minutes) and had a tour on the traditional fishing port of Hong kong. There were sights of the Floating Restaurant and numerous luxury yachts.
Day 2 (11:00 am)- Luxury jewelry shops tour 

Day 2 (12:30 pm- 10:00 pm) Hong Kong Disneyland. This is the best tour recommendation for first timers in the country. Don't go home without experiencing Disneyland from the parade in the afternoon till the fireworks in the late night!

Day 3 (6:00 am) Our Day 3 & 4 were spent in the city of Shenzhen, China. We left at 6 am via train and it took us almost 2 hours to reach Shenzhen. We went first to our hotel named "Green Tree Inn" and I highly recommend this one because of its location in the city center. I also felt more at home here than in our hotel in Hong kong. I didn't know that Shenzhen is way colder than Hong kong and one of my mistake was I brought shorts and t-shirts instead of sweater and pants.

Day 3 (10:00 am) Shenzhen Central Park. There's nothing much to do but enjoy the sightseeing, cold weather and watch the cherry blossoms bloom.  

Day 3 (11:00 am) Chinese Art and Craft Centre. The highlight of this tour is actually the silk shop where we went to. I got a scarf made of silk and I really like how it can be styled in different ways.   

Day 3 (1:00 pm- 5:00 pm) Window of the World. That afternoon was actually a free time for us but since we want to maximize the time that we have in Shenzhen we availed this tour on the spot. This is actually one of the best tour that we had in Shenzhen so if you happen to be in the country for a vacation, consider going to Window of the World. It's a theme park that houses the replicas of the world's iconic spots. The place is instagram worthy and worth every penny. 

Day 4 (8:00 am) COCO Park. For our last day we went on pasalubong and personal shopping. There were so many cheap items here!

Day 4 (12: 00 pm) Left Shenzhen via train bound to Hong Kong
(4:00 pm) Checked-in and passed the immigration
(6:00 pm) Flight back to the Philippines

Breakdown of Travel Expenses
- Batangas-based Travel Agency HK-Shenzhen package (Airfare via Cebu Pacific, Hotel transfers, HK Hotel with breakfast, HK City tour, Disneyland tour, Shenzhen train fare back and forth, Shenzhen hotel with breakfast, Shenzhen City tour- Php 16,000)
- Peak Tram, Sky Terrace & Madame Tussauds- Php 1,700
- Sampan Boat Tour- Php 300
- Window of the World- Php 1,600
Total: Php 19,600

*Note that personal pocket money is still not included in the computation. It's up to you on how much you'll spend on your 4-days stay! :)

I hope that this HK-Shenzhen itinerary will help you in your next travel trip! For the mean time, keep safe and stay healthy guys! 

xoxo,