Corporate Chic: Hearts and Spades

I always tell myself to make an extra effort to look nicer when going to work, but when you're barely keeping enough time set solely for makeup in the morning, you throw on the first thing you find and hit the door. I hate arriving late at work, so I always make it a point to be there AT LEAST 15 minutes ahead of my required time in.

On the rare occasion that I wake up early and have extra time to carefully plan my outfit (I barely do it at night, because I will change my mind in the morning for sure, so it's absolutely pointless and out of the question), I am often surprised by the results of my random selections. I dig into my closet to see if there are things I haven't really worn yet or much at all, and try to work around it. Who said anything about hitting the racks in stores every time you feel stuck in a fashion rut? The secrets are all in your closets! Just have patience to sift through and surprise yourself with your selection. Just like a deck of cards, right? You never really know what you're going to get, but the fun is in making it all your own. Call it a bluff or a win that's waiting in the wings, always remember to be fierce enough to fight for your hand. ;)

Top: Vintage

Inner top: Forever 21

Skirt: from Greenhills

Wallet: Ever New

Watch: Casio

Sandals: Parisian

Have a great weekend!

Without You

Aloha! How's everybody been doing?! I sure hope you still haven't forgotten about me! Yes, your trusty neighborhood cheap-thrill-seeker is back with a vengeance! I know, I know. It's been MONTHS and it seems like I've abandoned this ship, but fret not! I am here once again and I am doing my darn best to stay afloat!

So yeah, you might have been asking what I've been up to in the past few months, well, I've been drowning in my corporate woes. If not for the numerous events I've been handling and going to, left and right, you can probably find me sandwiched between piles of paper and endless trails of administrative work. It's such a lame excuse for being cyber-dead for a while, but I am trying my darn hardest to turn things around!

Anyway, on to the outfit, I wore this to the David Guetta Live in Manila concert at the MOA Arena last October 10, 2012. Just when I was about to scream my lungs off from frustration and all the stress that's been piling on my shoulders at the time, my good friend Kach, messaged me, asked if I wanted to see the show. OF COURSE I WANTED TO SEE DAVID GUETTA SPIN LIVE! I've been wanting to for the past couple of weeks! The offer couldn't have come at a better time... and get this! THE TICKET WAS GIVEN TO HER FOR FREE! Oh, and did I mention that those were VIP tickets?

 

Dress: Forever 21

Wedges: Parisian Shoes

 Bag: Sophie Signatures

Watch: Link

 

Kissy kissy! Lovin' my Gypsy lipstick from E.L.F.!

World, meet Kach, one of the kookiest girls I know. Thanks for the tickets, love! :)

The show was wiiiild! I mean that in a good way. David was smiling all throughout his set, so was DJ Alesso and DJ Kaz James, who both rocked the house before David brought it down!

The crowd, in panorama.

We LOVE you too, David!

David kept leaping on to his table, making the crowd roar with excitement! I'm really glad I came to see the show. Without you, David, my week probably would have been one sigh of disappointment after another. Without you, I wouldn't have been as psyched to fly to Bacolod and catch an early flight (sans the sleep afterwards). 

It's good to have something to look forward to at the end of every day. For fellow working girls like me whose stress levels are always on a record high, we must never forget to still strive for that work-life balance they speak of. Yes, it's fulfilling to work yourself to the bone and get things done, but after a while, it gets toxic and suffocating. We end up being burned out and sick of everything, even before it started.

So yeah, once in a while, kick off your high-heels, strut to the beat of life outside the four corners of your office, and just have fun! 

I'll see you guys around, yeah? :)

Love, 

SGT

Madayaw, Davao!

HOLA! I'm so glad to be back to blogging! Oh my! You have no idea how long it's been since I last wrote something not in an e-mail. 

Anyway, I'm almost into my first month at work (who would have thought?!) and I'm loving it! Despite the stress and workload I'm starting to incur, there's just so much more about my job that cancels out all the cons in the book.

Just recently, I flew to Davao for the first time, for Kadayawan Festival. One of our brands sponsored and held special events there. Davao has always been on my to-visit list and I'm more than ecstatic to finally cross it off my seemingly blank travel slate. Needless to say, it was love at first sight.

The trip itself was quite intense. I flew in on the 17th, flew back to Manila on the 18th, and went back again to Davao on the 19th. Whew! Glad to be back home in one piece! If you're wondering why I treated Davao as if it's only two blocks away, I had to go back to Manila in time for our company's general assembly, wherein the new hires (including me) had a special participation. ;) The party that followed in Distillery was definitely an event to remember too. :)

Here's a photo diary of what went down in Davao:

**Please pardon the low quality of the shots. Took them with my phone's camera on a low-res setting.

Working while waiting for my flight to board.

The view outside my window. I could've easily jumped out and
skipped from one puffy cloud to another...
 but then there's gravity. So I scrapped the initial plan.

The push girls and boys are being briefed about what's going to happen next.

Kuya Alex is showing them how it's done...

Barrio Fiesta! < 3

With Ms. Phine and Rae. :)
Mga galing party last night, diretsong Kadayawan!

My response to "Life is here in Davao because..."

This response on the freedom wall really made my day. :)

Indeed! Davao is the best city in the country I've ever been to, no doubt!

Of course, the trip won't be complete without shopping! I strolled around Abreeza and was able to score a new dress from Terranova (P395), a L'Oreal Hydrafresh Anti-Shine Icy Gel (P100 off!), and a new batik wallet, as my old big-ass wallet is already ailing and is ready to burst. Anyway, I love Davao not only for its peaceful aura and very friendly citizens, but for the great bargains as well! Oh, and my super quick visit to Aldevinco was a lot of fun too!

I have so much to tell you guys about Davao, unfortunately, I have to rest for another jam-packed day tomorrow at work. (Yes, I can't seem to define holidays and long weekends anymore.) Maybe we can chat about my adventures in my upcoming posts. ;)

Here I am at the airport, squeezing in some last-minute purchases from Aldevinco. Rae captures this shot of me packing quite sporadically amid the mayhem in the background. :)

Right before we took off! We can't just not pose for one last photo! Oh, did I mention we were running late for our flight? Haha!

Aaaand here's my turista shot a few steps away from the plane that will take me back home to Manila. I even saw Bjorn Bedayo at the airport but I was too shy to say hi! :">

I'm looking forward to coming back to Davao. I love it there! The food, the fashion, the serenity of the place, the discipline of the citizens, the honesty of taxi drivers, the colorful culture, and most of all, its over-all allure. To this, I scream, "Madayaw, Davao! Daghang salamat!"

Love,

SGT :)

Fresh Meat at Fontana

The past few days have been the most memorable yet. It was my first day at "work." As luck may have it, the Brand Activation Group went on a little field trip for their planning session to Fontana Leisure Park in Clark, Pampanga.

I got to observe how the team worked and got to know them as well. By the end of the trip, I had so much to take home with me to think about. I got the push and motivation that I needed to be more excited than I am nervous about the job and the tasks at hand. This is it. I'm finally ready to take on the corporate world, deliver, and deliver well!

Check out the pictures I was able to take on our last day there:

Mixing work and play. :)

Our boss and her "yellow" thinking hat.

Beauty and brains!
Ms. Angela, Ms. Jinky, Sharon, and Martha

Love Fontana!

With Martha

Inside the lobby.

With Sharon

Upon check out

I'm really looking forward to working with the rest of the team. I'm glad I made the right decision. I feel that I am under the best care and guidance possible. To all of you who's been on the hunt for a job, especially if it's your first, I have a few realizations to impart with you guys:

1. Wait for the right opportunity to come along. That doesn't mean that you won't have to lift your ass up from that couch and actually send out resumes as much as you can. What I mean is that take your time to consider your options. Weigh the pros and cons. Despite the heartbreaks that I went through along the way, I'm glad that I ended up with the one job I was actually grateful to land. Every hurdle is only a step further to greener pastures and better opportunities that will lead you to a place your heart will be happy to be in. I didn't want to take the first offer that came my way. I didn't want to to quit early into it, just because I realized that I wasn't really happy and at peace with my choice, so I end up hating everything and hating even myself. I kept that sliver of idealism in that the right chance will come at the right time and that will be that... Thankfully, it did. Don't lose hope. I've been there. I've been desperate to work and been tempted to take the first thing I see, but trust me, DON'T.

2. Let your resume do the talking for you. You don't have to be someone you're not. Just be yourself and let your accomplishments take center stage.

3. Think hard. Like me, you may have a particular career path in mind. But that won't necessarily translate to where fate may take you. I used to want to change the world. But I realized that changing the world does not only come in the form of fighting from the grassroots up. It can also be done behind a desk or in field work. Whatever I did will have a positive impact on people's lives and my own, and that for me, is my own small way of making feeble attempts at changing the world. I'm only beginning to embrace that other side of the equation. There are countless ways of looking at reality. You just have to choose which one will work best.

4. Faith will get you far. Just trust. Trust in your capabilities. Trust that God has sown fruitful seeds for you to reap. Sometimes all you really have to do is take a blind leap of faith and run with it. You'll be surprised how far it will take you in this lifetime.

5. Enjoy it! Life is too short to be spent on stressing over the most mundane things. Don't expect too much, because if you do, it will only lead you to disappointment and heartbreak if your expectations didn't pull through the way you hoped they would. The problem with our generation is that we want too much too soon. We are young. We have an entire life ahead of us. Remember that we can't have it all in a heartbeat. Just work your way up. Take it a day at a time. You'll get to where you need and want to be in the future. Just live in the now. Plan the future, yes. Carry your hopes and dreams, yes. But don't be rigid because they can be quite limiting and you might end up being boxed in. You have to learn to let go and let live.

6. Learning never ceases. Take every opportunity, every failed attempt, every moment as a lesson learned. Always be hungry for more. Always crave to be more. There's always room for improvement. You can always be a better version of yourself. Life may be a cruel and harsh teacher, but if you're eager to learn, things will go much easier. Don't take it personally. Take everything in stride, but take every lesson to heart. Be a student of life. Welcome the idea of constant improvement. You'll be on your way to success soon enough.

Love,

SGT <3>

Nails and Notes

Hello! As you may have seen in my last entry, my mint-green nails have already chipped. That meant it's time for a fresh layer of polish! Check out what I did in between making my presentations. I have a job interview tomorrow and I want to look presentable. Chipped nails just won't cut it! As for these notes you see on the background, they're for my part-time job. :)

Base and Glitter Polish: Etude House

Clear Polish and Kwik Dry: Bobbie

Please pardon the poor quality of the shots. I used my phone to take these. 

Don't you just love glitter nails? :)

Love,

SGT <3

Teacher's Day Out

Hump day hey! I've been on the low for almost a week and it's making me sick not being able to share something with you guys! Here's an outfit post. I have yet to work on my numerous backlogs (mostly product reviews, features, and of course, my experience during the launch of Senior Year and my FIRST EVER Fete dela Musique!)

In the meantime, I'm leaving you with what I wore to my teaching demo earlier. The commute was long plus I was carrying my materials and my laptop in my backpack. Went straight to Ortigas (where my Mom works) where I treated myself to a tall cup of grass jelly milk tea from ChaTime, strolled around Saizen, snooped around Snoe's booth, and walked around 'til my feet can't take it anymore. Eventually, I got myself a pretty nifty nail buffing tool and a brown liquid eyeliner from E.L.F. (reviews will come up soon, I super duper promise!)

In case you want to know, my demo went well... at least it went better than I initially expected (I really have to stop being so pessimistic). I have to do another one next week and after that, I'm all set to handle a class! Yay! :)

Anyway, I took out this thrifted skirt (from one of my Mom's expeditions to the ukay store beside her office in Ortigas) for a spin. When she first showed it to me, I didn't think I'd like it. Honestly, I was repulsed. When push came to shove, when the time came that I needed to wear something appropriate for a teaching demo, this ugly duckling turned out to be the star of the show! I love how vintage-y it looks! One thing I love about thrifted clothes is that each piece is unique and tells its own story. I was also surprised that people seemed to really like my ensemble. (side note: I wore flats with this outfit. These Primadonna heels were a late addition to the outfit - had no time to take pictures within the day, so we shot them when we got home.)

Please pardon the haggard look. I had a loooong day. :/

Top: Milk & Co.

Skirt: Thrifted

Belt: Genevieve Gozum

Shoes: Primadonna

Got this pair from Tracy Ayson's booth at Bloggers United 3. It's never been worn and they gave it to me for Php 500!

I fell in love with the wild print!

Accessories: gifts from family and friends

Please pardon my messy room. :P

Vanity excuses nothing, not even exhaustion. ;)

Special thanks to my Mom for taking some of the shots. Complete with direction pa yun ha! That's all for now! Have fun thrift-shopping! You'll never know what stunning finds you'll get. :)

Love,

SGT <3