Vacay: Blue Lagoon, Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte

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Hi dears! Remember I told you about a long weekend I spent with my high school friends at a lovely beach called Blue Lagoon (somewhere North of the Philippines)? Here's the late post about that vacation last August. :)

My hometown is about 6-8 hours North od Manila, where I currently work and reside. Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte, where Blue Lagoon is located, is around 5 hours from my hometown. So you can imagine the long trip I took just to be in paradise!

We decided to just hire a car and have a road trip from La Union to Ilocos Norte. This is what the start of the trip was like:

Rain, rain, rain. And flooded roads and potholes. After 2 hours on the road though, we were finally graced by the sun! Yay! We reached Vigan, Ilocos Sur -- with no rain in sight -- and had a sumptuous Ilocano lunch .

After around 2 more hours of driving, we at last had a glimpse of Pagudpud's famous Bangui Windmills!

The long drive really drained us and it was just well and good that the resort we picked was ah-mazing. Hannah's Beach Resort is just a few meters from the waters of the Blue Lagoon beach. It's pricey (especially for a spendthrift like me), but worth every peso or penny. Scattered around the resort are replicas of cartoon and movie characters. The resort sign itself is Hollywood-inspired!

Mr. Bean was on vacation too!

Though the Blue Lagoon was lovely, we experienced rain during our stay. I really got hit hard by the waves when we swam in the beach. Good thing Hannah's Beach Resort also had excellent pools, including this creative pool on top of a pot-shaped structure:

These are my top looks from that trip. :)

I wore my fave coverup on top of a white sando and paired it with military green pants.

I had a pink and frilly cutout maillot underneath the white crocheted coverup.

It's nice to look at these photos whenever it rains around here or when I remember that the semestral break is just two weeks away! :)

P.S. Are you on Facebook? Like my page here: https://www.facebook.com/TheClothesMusePage

(Photos by Mylene Almoite and Daryll de Lara.)

Facebook Page!

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Before I leave for (another!) vacation and become too swamped with research papers, I'm prepping you all up for my first ever blog giveaway! :)

Like I said in my previous post, the giveaway will involve one of my first posts. I'm really excited for it because it was an unexpected collaboration with a BIG company. This specific giveaway will be open to fab residents of the U.S. and Canada. If you're from the Philippines, I also have a special giveaway up my sleeve for you. :) Living elsewhere? Let's see if I can give you a chance on my blog anniversary. ;)

In lieu of the said giveaways, I (finally!) made a Facebook Page for The Clothes Muse. I hope you all go on ahead and like it. Don't worry, I won't flood your News Feeds. :p


The Clothes Muse

Promote Your Page Too

I also have another project coming up that's not exactly related to fashion. After more than a year in my current apartment, I'm moving to a location that's exactly between my school and my workplace. Convenient huh? Now I plan to do DIYs for the not-so-fab-and-kind-of-small apartment and will blog about it. I'll add a tab up there for Project: New Apartment.

Thanks loves and I'll update you soon!

Love,

Giveaways and Promos + Milestone

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Hi dears! I haven't followed my posting sked religiously, especially that special Pinterest post I've been mentioning for like a month now. Things are picking up with my master's classes as well as with my new project at work. However, I wanted to share with you a couple of stuff for the time being!

Giveaways and Promos for the Week

a. Win Php 1000 GC from R&K Manila (Philippines only)

Head on to Anagon's blog to join.

b. Random Chic Musings International Giveaway

One of my fave DIY girls on tumblr (okay, she's the only one) is Random Chic Musings. She's done a lot of cool DIYs. Check out her first giveaway here. You might win this suede fringe chain necklace. She'll pay for the shipping so go on and join!

Milestone

And finally, I'm happy to share with you some cool news.

Yay! I've breached the 10,000 hits mark! I don't know what that means but it's a milestone nevertheless. :p

This means I'll be hosting a giveaway soon! And I'm excited because the giveaway involves one of my first and most popular posts. Can you guess which one it is? :)

Love,

Sept. 7 is Wear It Purple Day!

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This is a flash post! I just saw a post from Wipe Out Homophobia regarding September 7 as  Wear It Purple Day and had to share to you all.

Here's what Wear It Purple is all about:

You have the right to be proud of who you are

Wear it Purple exists in order to help GLBTIQ (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer) youth at risk. Run by students, we aim to stop the ignorance, bullying and suicides

Every year on “Wear it Purple Day”, we ask people everywhere to wear purple to school, university, work, or other public venues to help raise this consciousness.



Women's rights and LGBT rights are two of my primary advocacies. As a college student, I joined a youth org called GABRIELA-Youth, a progressive group of women. Through it, I was able to work on advocacy campaigns not just for women's rights but for LGBT rights too. The org also influenced my fashion sense in many ways, one of which is my preference for purple clothes. We wear purple every March 8 (International Women's Day).

I definitely will wear purple tomorrow to show my love and support for the GLBTIQ! I hope you will too. A purple accent will do! If you decide to join this campaign, post your look online and send me a link.

Visit wearitpurple.org for more news and info on the campaign.


Love,

Star Magic Ball 2012 Best Dressed List

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I haven't done a best-dressed list, although it's one type of blog post I enjoy from fellow bloggers. I think the Star Magic Ball 2012 is a good first-time post so blog friends from other countries can also get a glimpse of the local (Philippines) red carpet scene. :)

Star Magic is the talent arm of the broadcast company ABS-CBN. For 20 years, it has been home to the best of the Philippines' actors and actresses, both for film and television. This year, the talent center held its 6th Star Magic Ball and all the brightest stars of the industry went all out in black and white. Here are the best dressed ladies for me. (So far, no designer names were mentioned for each actress. I'll update when the info is made available.)

My fave for the night is Erich Gonzales in a Francis Libiran gown. Many of the girls went for the lace-and-sheer style, but Erich really pulled it off the best. The detailing of her gown stands out among the others.

Erich Gonzales in Francis Libiran

Julia Montes in Pepsi Herrera

Kim Chiu wore an Edwin Tan gown

Nikki Valdes adds a pop of color

Dimples Romana

Regine Tolentino

Maricar Reyes

Angelica Panganiban

It's hard to wear white to a ball without looking like you are at a wedding (which some of the actresses weren't able to avoid). Sometimes the simpler the better. Maricar's gown is my fave look in white.

Aside from black, lace and sheer, another common detail among the ladies' gowns was feather accents. Bea Alonzo went all out and wore a black raven-like gown.

To see more of the stars of Star Magic and what they wore to this year's ball, check out the Yahoo PH! slideshow and Style Bible's gallery.

Photos from Yahoo! OMG! Philippines and StyleBible.ph.

Love,

Fashion + Milk Tea: Miss-Match.com.ph, Postura Project and Moonleaf Tea Shop

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The milk tea craze is still going strong, at least here in Metro Manila (I hear it's coconut water/buko juice everywhere else). My first milk tea experience was Serenitea at Alabang Town Center and their Wintermelon Milk Tea remains my favorite. Of course, up North of the metro -- specifically QC area -- there's Moonleaf Tea Shop. My bestfriend brought me to Moonleaf Maginhawa St. once. They just opened a branch recently at RCBC Plaza, which is near my office. It's very timely because of their fashion campaign:

It's a style-spotting promo sponsored by miss-match.com.ph, Postura Project and Moonleaf to promote what they call "fashionalism" and to introduce the "Style Gallery" of the aforementioned website.

Here are the mechanics as posted by Ms. Sarah Tirona of www.fashioneggplant.com:


1. Take a photo of yourself wearing at least one local brand and holding your favorite Moonleaf drink.
2. Upload your photo in the Style Gallery on miss-match.com.ph.

That’s it! Just remember: Wear Pinoy. Take a Sip. Strike a Pose! 

Five stylish winners will be chosen each week, and up for grabs are gift certificates from Moonleaf and fashion loot from Postura Project’s partner brands, including Habi, Renegade Folk, The School of Satchel, maryandmaria.com.ph, and Headware. 

The promo will run from September 8 to October 5, 2012.

(Source: http://www.fashioneggplant.com/2012/09/express-your-fashionali-tea.html)

I think I'll ask my officemate Marge of http://pisofashion.blogspot.com one of these days. When I feel like getting photographed hehe..


Ciao,