MERiE-isms: December 2014

Monday, December 29, 2014

I am claiming all these wishes...

Soon we'll say hi to 2015. Wow, where did all those days go? Anyway, I just want to share this message from Purpose Fairy. Such a nice letter and I am claiming all these wishes. This is my prayer for you, too. Praying for a blessed and joyous new year coming your way.

Hi Merie,

As 2014 comes to an end and the New Year approaches...

"I wish you’ll let go of all thoughts of limitation and I
hope you’ll stop settling for less than you are worth.

I wish you’ll put aside all your fears and insecurities
and I hope you’ll find the courage to take risks and make
all your dreams come true.

I wish you’ll find the courage to lose sight of the shore
so that you can discover new oceans.

I wish you’ll start believing in yourself as much as you
want the world to believe in you.

I wish you’ll pour your love into everything you do and I
hope you’ll make your life a work of art.

I wish you’ll learn to smile more and frown less; to trust
more and doubt less; to feel more and think less; to listen
more and talk less.

I wish you’ll give yourself permission to stop taking yourself
so seriously and enjoy life a little more.

I wish you’ll give yourself permission to be silly and weird,
to laugh when you feel like laughing and to cry when you feel
like crying.

I wish you’ll cleanse your inner vision until you see nothing but
light, your own and of those around you.

I wish you’ll stop chasing love and approval outside of you and start
seeking your own love and approval instead.

I wish you’ll always keep a humble heart and no matter how bad the
world will treat you, I hope you’ll look at it with eyes of love.

I wish you’ll learn to treat everyone with love and respect and I hope
you’ll make every person you come in contact with feel that there is
something valuable in them.

I wish you’ll surround yourself with the best kind of people, positive
and cheerful spirits, beautiful and loving souls.

I wish you’ll love with all your heart and no matter if you’ll get hurt,
lied or betrayed, I hope you’ll never lose your faith in love.

I wish you’ll put aside all thoughts of envy and jealousy and look at
those who already accomplished many of the things you wish to accomplish
with respect and admiration.

I wish you’ll learn to honor and embrace yourself fully, and I hope
you’ll love yourself as much as you want others to love you.

I wish you’ll learn to forgive and let go of all thoughts of anger and
resentment, and I hope you’ll allow peace, love and tranquility to enter
your heart.

I wish you’ll let go of the past and all the pain that it caused you,
and I hope you’ll allow it to make you better not bitter.

I wish you’ll find the strength to turn your wounds into wisdom
and all your difficulties into opportunities.

I wish you’ll learn to be grateful for every experience life
sends your way.

I wish you’ll allow your so called mistakes and failures to teach
you gratitude, patience, humility and compassion. And I hope you’ll
put all thoughts of blame, judgement and criticism behind you.

I wish you’ll become a reflection of that which you want to see in
the world and I hope you’ll make the rest of your life the best of
your life.”

Happy Holidays, to you and all those dear to you :)

With all my Love,
Luminita aka PurposeFairy

Christmas Day 2014

For this year's Christmas day, I went to work. YES I WENT TO WORK HOORAY! But it's not much of a big deal as I got to go home early and there was not much workload anyway. And as I came from work I took a nap! Haha! Yes I took a nap on Christmas day! I slept really late the night before to welcome our Balikbayan relatives and had our rather late noche buena. Our celebration for this year was a simple dinner out at a breakfast restaurant, Early Bird Breakfast Club. I was able to dine in here a couple of times already but those were in their BGC branch. For this Christmas day, we opted for that one in Century City Mall. Halik sa lupa first time namin lahat sa mall na 'yun haha! We were sure we are going to be caught in Christmas traffic that this year we stayed away from Tagaytay and Nuvali area. But I am not even sure why we went all the way to this mall to have breakfast for Christmas dinner. Anyway, it was sumptuous.

Photo with my pretty sister who was all girly and wearing lipstick that day! Ang ganda niya di ba??

Clarete siblings. Oh gosh I feel old!!! Hahaha!

Happy that Luke spent a part of his Christmas day with us. :)

And below are some of the dishes we ordered. Hihi I forgot to take note of our orders and to take the photos of every order.Nakakasawa na rin pala pa-minsan. Haha!

Viva Longganisa (Php345)

Yin & Yang Champorado (Php275) My favorite!!!

Happy Christmas!!

And the angel said to them, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

(Luke 2:10-11)

Let us not ever forget the reason for this season. Wishing everyone a happy Christmas!

CHICAGO Night

Last December 20, after dressing up the first ever Miss Merie bride, I headed to Mall of Asia for my college barkada's musical date. We were not complete that time yet and was rather early for the musical so we had dinner first at Lugang Cafe. I was already feeling a bit under the weather pero tuloy pa rin! Syempre catch-up catch-up with everyone. On a non-musical-related note, I am so proud of what my friends have achieved so far, feeling nanliliit ako in terms of the career we started taking, we took up business courses. There were career-shifts (one thing I am really really praying for which I find it hard at this career stage of mine), promotions, expansions and even setting up charity organizations on top of good business. Clap clap!

So to the musical-related part... It was a first for everyone of us inside The Theatre Solaire. The broadway musicals we've seen were all held in CCP. The Theatre Solaire is something similar to Resorts World only bigger. The place looks untouched, obviously newly opened. The sound system's really good. The stage is nothing like CCP. I guess it won't hold much musical shows. But it's a good venue for other shows like pageants and concerts.

Of course photo op everywhere! Ang mahal kaya ng ticket sulitin pati ang posters everywhere! Hahaha! Seven out of ten SFF were present! Ang saya! One of our biggest gatherings hahaha! Tin, Jose and Kat have been my musical buddies and this is our second musical for 2014. Glad that Candy, Roma and Kaye were also available this day!

Now I know why Chicago's the longest running musical show. It was really good and entertaining! The music and the dance moves are to watch out for. Something happened to me halfway through the show so I kind of not completely watch it boo but this musical should be on anyone's list of must-watch musicals.

And now I leave these photos of selfie-podding we got a little crazy somewhere in Solaire's carpark. 'Til our next musical date!

Credits to Tin and Kat for the photos.

My First Ever Unofficial Fashion Show

Our department's theme was Fashion Runway for the annual Christmas party held last December 14 at the Bellevue Hotel Manila Grand Ballroom. With this theme, I got the chance to work on our team's runway show which we themed "Pink Friday" - an incorporation of neon glow and pink. This theme is really nothing of my forte, which was supposed to be somehow eccentric, but I am very blessed and grateful to have this chance to showcase a few designs of mine on the runway. And though it is not official, it was still a great and fulfilling feeling! So for this unofficial first ever fashion show, thank you FPRA and MCFA! What an experience and thanks a lot for my teammates most especially these models for their trust and cooperation.

Not really my designs for the guys but styled them with the help of Madz.

The designs for the ladies. Some were a mix and match of what these ladies already have in their closets. Two of these models are already mommies!

Travel Tuesday: Promenade HK

Yay!!! I am finally done on "documenting" my HK trip after a year and a half! Haha! This is the final installment of my so-called Hong Kong photo diary. It was our last full day in HK and so after our museum visits, and shopping in Central, and hoarding in H&M and Nike in between (no H&M in Manila yet back then and they were ON SALE!!!), we just chilled walk along The Promenade where the Avenue of Stars is as well. We also watched the light show. Visiting by this area is absolutely free, in our case, it's just a 10-minute walk away from the place we stayed in. You get to see one good view of the other side. Pwedeng gawin to sa Manila e. Ewan ko ba! Haha!

Hayyyyy right this moment I am finishing this sentence, I wanna go back to shop. When I experienced Hong Kong, I finally understood why people go there to just shop shop shop! I must say it's indeed Asia's doorway to world-class shopping, I mean, all the brands at reasonable and sometimes even cheaper prices are there! Big brands got their own big shops, outlet shops are everywhere, and even imitations are everywhere, too. Exclusive finds are available as well. Masarap pumunta ng Hong Kong if maraming pera para gastusin pang-shopping. Anyway, photos below...

We called it a day and had coffee somewhere along The Promenade. Sadly, didn't find a Hong Kong tumbler here. I felt super happy and thankful that once in my life, and hopefully I may be able to go back, I visited this country. Back then, I said, unti-unti lang. Someday, I would be able to visit ALL the countries I long to visit and this is just the beginning.

And then it was time to go home...

P.s. I am experimenting on making my own action preset in Photoshop the reason why photos looked like sabog hahaha!

Travel Tuesday: Museum Day in HK

Museums are one place I am always amused about visiting -- etymology kasi nyan ay amuse-eum hahaha! Joke!! Warning 'wag paniwalaan! Haha! Being in a foreign country, and with that urge to feed our curiosity, we thought of visiting the museums near the place that we stayed. And I guess it was our day! Without really consulting the fees and all as part of our itinerary and budget, it was a day of free passes to these museums! We have spared an entrance fee converted into peso of about Php150 each of the three museums we've visited! Ang saya!!! Most photos below were taken from the Science Museum and Museum of History. Unless you appreciate stuff like these as we do, you won't enjoy much the photos but still hope you enjoy scrolling! Pero very random photos!! As you know I like documenting and posting everything I feel like posting. Haha! Laboooo...