The crazy credit card bill, drab and The White Dress.

It has been a very blah 2 weeks and I'm in such a rut. I wear black all the time, I'm starting to repeat my dresses every 2 weeks (!!!), I feel am fat, my belly shows and I need something that is flattering and nice.

[I'm a creature of habit. I wear things that are comfortable and easy to care for. I even wear the same black heels every day. Yeah... I bought 5 pairs at one go in Seoul. Fits well, zero blisters. Heaven.

I haven't worn the burgundy or the one with the bow yet. And Seoul was almost a year ago. Yikes.

And the black one is almost on its way out. :(  le sigh.]

I've got to stop going back to the same ol' things and I'm starting to feel drab. Anyhoo I need a quick shopping fix. And maybe quit drinking the 10 cocktails that are contributing to my waist line.

May I present, The White Dress.

This one is a peplum zip front dress from Asos. I think the zipper lengthens the body and makes me look taller. Me likes. And at $96 it's pretty affordable.

-- Buy it here on Asos

Coast Enna Dress is flattering too. All the drapey goodness to hide the flab and still look put together at the same time. But this is a whopping $246. I'm still smarting from April's Citibank bill (which unfortunately exceeded my monthly salary by a jaw dropping $3000) so I don't think I'm going to spend that much on a dress.

But oh how I wish I could!

-- Buy it here on Asos

What to do, what to do.

Want: 3.1 Phillip Lim - Prelude

Omg. Does it mean I can finally own a Phillip Lim?

*hyperventilates

Liven Up A Blah Complexion With This Genius Blush Trick

A fantastic short video on how to apply blush without looking like a clown.


-- From Refinery29.com

Voting for the first time and the immense despair that followed.

It's been a few days, and I've maintained silence on the subject because I may just post something that will haunt me. I'm going to keep it vague so whatever I write is not going to land me in jail.

[Really, you never know with these guys.]

Yup I voted. For the first time in my life, I voted. I voted as a citizen.

Early Sunday morning, my parents and I went to my uncle's place since we were all assigned the same polling station. We decided to go together as an extended family to vote. The polling station was just down the road in a public school. We walked there in the rain with all our brollies, all excited. One side of the road was closed so people could park nearer to the school. You could sense the excitement and hope in the air.

Maybe for the first time, there was hope. There was a better tomorrow. Maybe.

Foundation - The quest for The One.

I use makeup everyday and I'm always on the lookout for something great. No outbreaks, no heartaches.

I was almost running out of MAC when I bought a bottle of Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua. I love it. Love it. It's light, provides enough coverage and not cakey. The assistant said I should apply with a brush to get a more finished look, and that's how I ended up with the mini brush set. (Sigh there goes my bank account again. Seriously, why am I not on Citibank's valued customer list is beyond me. They earn way too much from me every month.)

Anyhoo I find the makeup a bit much when I apply it with a brush. Plus it takes me forever to get it done! I don't know how Lisa Eldridge does it so effortlessly on her video tutorials. So now, I'm applying the foundation with my fingers. Somehow I can blend it a little better than the brush.

(Watch her videos if you can. There's lots to know about foundation!)
http://www.lisaeldridge.com/blog/25694/foundationcourse-round-up/

This is all good and dandy till lunch time.

When my skin falls apart.

For the past 2 3 4 6 months (let's just leave it at 6 because I'm about to cry), I was soooo soooo busy that I was practically running on fumes. Naturally, you can hardly call my lifestyle urm balanced. Rushed meals, fast food, erratic sleeping hours and utter lack of exercise (unless you count the daily walks to the bus stop)  have rendered me a whale of a person. I feel like Jabba the hut with bad skin.

On my weekends I've tried to go for facials but since my schedule was so unpredictable, I could only call to make appointments on Friday evening or Saturday morning, praying that everyone has such good skin there's an empty slot of 3 hours for me. (Really, it takes that long. All that washing and masking and exfoliating. It's really nice, and the scent of Dermalogica massage oil puts me to sleep. Facial and a nap, no wonder I always feel better.)

Anyway no facials for the past 6 months.

Now, I'm fat with a muffin top and my skin is just... oh my god where do I begin. It feels tight after I wash it. I look tired all the time. My pores are gigantic volcano craters and not to mention the pimple scars. Seriously my life (and face) can't be any worse.

(For all my skin battles, go to here. It's a never ending uphill battle against pimples, sensitivity, aging and dehydration. Whatever can go wrong has gone wrong.)

My results of skipping weekly mask and exfoliation:

• Dry and dehydrated skin
• Dull looking skin, with uneven colour
• More pimples, especially at jaw and chin area
• Slow healing of acne scars

Steps that I've used to bring back my skin to "normal":

• Using products containing hyaluronic acid- My Hada Labo toner 
• Drinking lots of water! Actually, no. I hate water, and subconsciously I hardly refill my water bottle when I run out.

Results?
HAHAHA. What results?

I think the Hada Labo toner works. My face no longer feels like it's about to crack after I wash it, but I won't say that it's all bouncy and healthy like a baby's bottom. I'm using the blue one, with arbutin for whitening. I don't want to be fair, I just want my skintone to be even and the scars to lighten.

No amount of skincare products will help unless I actively cut down on the coffees that power me throughout the day, get more sleep and lower my stress/anger levels. I've thought about going back to the dermatologist but who has the money ($250 per session me thinks) and time (1 hour wait for a 5 minute laser zap) to do this every week?!

Le sigh.

Spring cleaning mania

As Chinese New Year draws closer, my panic-freak-out-let's-clean-everything side takes over. I think when you use Google Calendar to organise your cleaning routine, it's time you acknowledge there's a problem and you need help.

There is just too much to do. My living room is in a perpetual state of chaos, since we use it as a home office. There's mail, laptops (there're 3 of us at home but my dining table looks like we are operating a call center), magazines, newspaper, loose stationery (the last I counted: 3 pens, 2 rubber bands about 5 paper clips), bits of twisty tie only god knows where that came from, 2 iPad/iPhone cables, 2 ipads, 3 iphones and a partridge in a pear tree.

And my console table is a permanent dropbox for everyone. Keys, opened mail, unopened mail, work stuff (mostly mine), comic books (mostly my brother's), 2 headphones (all J's) and various snacks. The couch is where all clean laundry goes (to die). For some reason, I'm the designated fold-er in the family so all the clean laundry goes from the rack onto the couch, while everyone waits for the clothes to be magically sorted, folded and placed in their respective wardrobes.

-- As seen on tv! where magic happens.

Sigh. This is so NOT the dream apartment I had in mind.

Happiness will not be downloaded.

I'm a firm believer of The Maker. Not God, but the importance of tangible achievement.

There is no joy from being a keyboard warrior. All the typing and word documents and spreadsheets do not match up to something tangible, like the macarons you (try to) bake. They look less like Laduree's and more like (in J's words) fairy t-u-r-d macarons but the joy you get from seeing them rise in the oven is priceless.

-- Not the ones I baked but similar with the little tip at the top. Sigh.

Read http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/06/happiness_will_not_be_downloaded.html

Yeah.... I am a crappy baker.

Work and the meaning of life

Wow has it been 3 months since my last post?

Guess I'm just uninspired.

Work had taken over and I really couldn't remember the last time I didn't bring work home. It was so bad that I had started gnashing my teeth in my sleep, dreaming about Excel spreadsheets and waking up with clenched fists. As I type the words out, I wish I had been joking or exaggerating about the Excel spreadsheets. Sigh. Life as a grown up with bills is hard.

An opportunity came up some time in October and I grabbed onto it like it was the last float in the sinking ship that I was in. To me, it was make-or-break time. Sure it wasn't something in my comfort zone and it threw me off my career path a little but hey, a girl's gotta get out while she still can, right?

So here I am, 2 months as a secondee, running/manning/babysitting projects at the client's office.

Anyway back to how life as a grown up is hard.

Every morning I take the bus to work. It's a 45-minute journey to Mordor and much like Lord of the Rings, I enjoy the scenery/weirdos along the way. Every now and then I'll spot the fanciest, latest and greatest cars on Earth at the traffic lights. I mean, these guys are on their way to work as well but here I am, having arm contact with a weird stranger on a crowded bus while they are all buckled up in their Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Maseratis. Like this morning, a Rolls Royce stopped right next to me.

I'm so insanely jealous.

(At one point, J and I thought there must be a sale at Maseratis because a friend of ours got one. And we saw 5 on the same stretch of road. Are they giving away Maseratis now? We don't need a new car, much less a fancy one but seriously where did the money come from?)

And to reiterate in case I go off tangent again, where did all the money come from? Am I doing something wrong? Well, obviously because lowly employees like me won't ever make it big and stay on a private island. A supercar costs around $500,000. You can buy a small apartment with that.

This came to mind as I'm typing the post. The cleaning lady just came into the room to tip the rubbish bin. We smiled and exchanged pleasantries. She's around 50 and she takes care of the office, maybe 6 floors of it. She earns about $1300 a month, tops. (The lady who cleans the washrooms earns only around $1000 and she works 5 days a week, 12 hours a day.) How do you live, knowing that life isn't as hard as we thought it is and yet we can't stop complaining about it?

We're healthy and have a comfortable lifestyle while there are people who have trouble getting by. Sometimes I just feel ashamed for being so lucky. J thinks we should be thankful for what we have.

So what will you do if money was no object?

I'll set my family up. I'll take a reduced portfolio at work and do charity work at the hospital. I'll take my mom and dad on a vacation they so need. I'll help the poor, elderly, children, disadvantaged and sidelined. I want to do something tangible to help.

What will you do?

Older and Wiser - Prelude

In a week's time I'm going to be older and wiser. That's the story I'm going to stick to, delusional or not. :)

My darling husband J who's going to be home for our anniversary as well. So here's to the week long celebration and dinners with family and friends.

All is good.