Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Sparkles and Cheers for 19 Years!

Nineteen years of what, you ask? Nineteen years of life, of having the best family and friends, of being showered by so many blessings, just nineteen years of pure awesomeness. When I was young, I've always thought that as you age, everything falls exactly in its order - you age, you mature then you do the things you're supposed to be doing. Everything has control and order. But nineteen years of existence has taught me that things don't always fall into place on its own and in most circumstances, you're in control of your own life. There are times when I feel so matured and grown up, a different person with changed perspective and bigger dreams. But there are also times that I feel exactly like the 10-year old version of myself - same likes and dislikes, habits and state of mind. It's trivial and ironic yet comforting at the same time knowing that some things will change and have changed but some things will always remain.

It's kind of tradition for me to come up with my birthday wish. I'm done wishing for barbies and toys or for fun teenage years - I'm blessed to have those wish granted in my past birthdays.  Now that I'm nineteen, my only wish is to be the best version of myself in all aspects. I want to be totally comfortable with who I am all the while discovering who I can be, I want to always be the bigger person, to be someone all my loved ones will be proud of and more than anything, to be able to give back and simply be a blessing to the people I care about as they have been the biggest blessing to me. 

Before my day ended, I stumbled upon an instagram photo saying "The trick is to enjoy life. Don't wish away your days, waiting for better ones ahead." I think it was the perfect reminder as I close my chapter on being 18 and open a new one. Better live life day by day, not just taking the good ones but also the bad, not only for the big things but also for the small happenings. Sparkles and cheers! Ahhhh can't believe I'm 19 already!!!! :)  
Dress (used as top) - Forever 21 || Skirt - Rustan's
Gold choker - Mia Casa
Belt - Iora
Bangles and pink ring - Accessorize

Love, Paola xx

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Little Black Dresses

One of the things I love the most is getting all dolled up - wearing fancy clothes, getting all made up and slipping into towering heels. That's why one thing I'll really miss is attending debuts. I guess it all started when I was a child, attending weddings and being a flower girl. Although I do not remember most of it, I was a flower girls to so many weddings back then. We have one album full  that documented it. Come to think it, I was probably the young counter part of Katherine Heigl in her movie, 27 Dresses. Now that the flower girl era is over, the 18 candles/18 treasures participant has taken over. But sad to say it's ending too since almost all of my friends have turned 18 already. 

Dressing up for debuts is an all together entertaining experience with just a little amount of stress. I always make sure to dress properly, keeping in mind each debutant's unique theme without sacrificing my own style preference. On instances where in the theme is pretty flexible (when the debutant just lets us wear what we want, hooray for this!), I always lean into dresses with dark colors - specifically LBDs. Black has always been my favorite color in terms of clothing pieces - both casual and formal. It is universally flattering to all body types and it never fails to exude a hint of elegance and class. Who wouldn't want that, right? With that, here's a back to back post on LBD's:


The first one I wore to a debut full of school spirit, with a lot of light and harmless bashing to La Salle since the debutant is an Atenean (Animo all the way! Haha) and the second, I wore to a debut right after a big typhoon and also the very first debut I attended where I did my own hair and make up! That's a record, right there!

Dress - 
Clutch - Espirit
Gold Choker - Mia casa
Pumps - Zara
Dress - Mamgo
Belt - The Ramp || Bangles and Ring - Aldo 
 Bag - Rustan's
Chandelier earrings - Accessorize
Heels - Aldo

Thank you to the two debutants, Miya and Tricia! 

Love, Paola xx

Monday, October 15, 2012

Twirling round and round

Let me give you a picture on how I choose my outfit. I usually decide my outfit at night so that I don't have to rack my brain in the morning. In my opinion, dressing up is not a talent you were born with or a skill that you can learn. It's always trial and error. Of course there are fashion schools and fashion courses to take but even the professionals and the experts don't get to come up with a fabulous outfit at one go. Sometimes you get lucky and come up with a perfect look but there are days when you've exhausted all the contents of your closet but nothing seems to do it. So it may look wrong now, but it you can always make it work tomorrow! 
What I usually do is pick one article of clothing and work from there. For this outfit, I started first with the skirt. After finding the canvas for my look, I then decided how I want to dress it up - do I want to go all girly-girl or toughen it up or dress it casually? It's actually amazing how one piece can produce different looks! Since the skirt was chiffon, I've figured there's no other way to go than dress it up in the sweetest way! 
Top - Just G. 
 Skirt - Cache Cache 
 Blue bracelet - Apostrophe || Eiffel earrings and charm bracelet - Gift
The skirt is absolutely pretty it made me want to keep on twirling around! 

Love, Paola xx

Thursday, October 4, 2012

A Story, A Theory and A Not-So-Witty Opinion

No, this is not going to be a serious, witty, lawful post about the Cyber Crime Law. It's just that it has caused so much clamour that I thought that it would be worth a few words (or maybe more). I have a little theory on why it has been a big issue to many, particularly to our generation. I think it's because this cyber crime law involves the internet aka faux, artificial, second life. Although I haven't read it yet, I know for a fact that social networking sites are greatly affected by this law. In a way, social networking sites have been a facade of what we really are today. It lets us change ourselves in so many ways. First there was Friendster then Multiply, My Space, Plurk, Twitter. And of course there's Facebook wherein you have what you technically call friends when you accept their friend requests, but it's not really possible to be friends with all 1348 of them. 

A professor told us once that she met one blogger before and was disappointed. She goes "Ayan ka na? That's it?" referring to her personality. Then she told us to make sure that how we are online should match how we are in real life. It's so easy to create a big, outgoing, likeable personality when you're behind the computer screen but is it that simple to do it in person too? 

I'm not saying that all the social networking sites contain fake, bogus people. It has ultimately been a great help to all of us in so many ways that I can't imagine not being part of it. But the truth is, these social networking sites help us present ourselves in the most ideal manner possible - all flaws, weaknesses and imperfections aside. The internet has become a safe hiding place for us since it lets us re create our individuality.We have developed an improved and flawless version of ourselves online. 

Personally, I can very much relate to my theory. It's so much easier for me to publicly create these oh-so lengthy paragraphs than say a sentence or two to people I'm not close to. I willingly pose for all my outfit shots with confidence but in reality there are times when I can be really awkward. It's struggle to match them but I'm trying. But you can't know that through reading my blog, or through Facebook or Twitter. After all, what people know about us are based only on what we let them see. Sometimes, we think we've seen all that there is to see but it's all merely just a front - only just the first level of who the person really is. I don't necessarily see it as a bad thing. If not, it's more of a challenge to all of us to always stay true to ourselves

How about you?

Love, Paola

Monday, October 1, 2012

Everything Is Magic Until..

September has flown by so fast in such an unexpected way. I've always been the kind of person that would try to find something to look forward to. It need not be a big event, it can simple ones like a premiere of a movie or a UAAP game on one weekend (sadly the season is over for us but I am nonetheless proud and I can't wait for next season) but there are also those major ones like my birthday, or the holidays, or a trip or vacation. I've always loved doing countdowns, having something to look forward to makes me more energized while going through life's daily routine.

 Now October is finally here and it is raining October wishes on my Twitter timeline - hopes, hashtags and all. I'm very celebratory - I like to celebrate even the most random and simple things. So to keep up with what's in for today, here's my October wish: It's to celebrate every little thing that goes way. Of course, having this month as my birthday month plays a big factor in my festive outlook, but it's not just that. This month, I want to rejoice on the little things that most of the time we ignore.  

Being on the lookout for precious albeit small things makes you realize that there's so much beauty in our daily activities. I've read a quote once saying, "Everything is magic until it becomes a routine." So this October, let's all try to see what once was magic in our everyday routine (wow, sounds like campaign.haha). It can be anything, really, like seeing your favorite basketball player in school (sorry, it's so obvious I'm still on a UAAP high) or not being stuck in traffic or acing a recitation question thrown your way. As long as it makes you smile, its worth celebrating! 
Top - Debenhams || Pants - Guess 
Trying out a new format for my outfit shots just to keep things fresh! Posting picture after picture is becoming a predictable habit so I'm changing it up just a bit! :)
Clear bangles - Gift || Pink ring - Accessorize || Two tone ring - Market! Market!
Wedges - Charles and Keith || Bag - gift

What's your October wish? :)

Love, Paola <3>