Monthly Archives: November 2013

28 Nov

Best Cebu Blogs Awards 2013

Hey there!

Remember a while back when I told you all about how I had been nominated for a Best Cebu Blogs Award? My heart began to race when I received an email this week telling me that I’m a finalist! I am so full of gratitude to be recognized for my effort and so excited to be a part of the Best Cebu Blogs Awards! Thanks toeveryone everyone who voted for me. I’ll let you know how it goes.I was so reluctant to start this blog at the beginning of this year, but I have NO regrets. I appreciate all my followers and the new friends I have made this past year. Although it has been hard to keep up with two kids, some health issues, the home, and blogging, it has also been so much fun! Your “likes”, shares and comments mean so much to me and I hope to continue to come up with some great designs to share with you. Who knows? Maybe we can change the world in our own little ways as we go along. Check out my last post to see how you can help people in the Philippines.

Thanks Best Cebu Blogs Awards!

About BCBA
Best Cebu Blogs Awards is an annual recognition of bloggers who continue to provide valuable content to their audience and affecting change on other people’s lives.  This year, the awarding ceremony will be held on December 7, 2013 at Avalon, Cebu Business Park. This Awards Night will be hosted by Best Cebu Fashion Blogger of 2011, Eden Villarba.

The BCBA is spearheaded by Deutche Atil Mark Monta (the founder) and following bloggers:
Mark Monta of www.cebufitnessblog.com
Agnes Jimenez of www.empressofdrac.com
Bjorn Bernales of www.bjorncebuano.com
Jaysee Pingkian of www.jayseeblabs.me
Gezelle Tapangan of www.geemiz.com
Chanel Imperial of shankybaby.blogspot.com
Eden Villarba of www.chicinthetropics.com

There are some awesome sponsors for the BCBA this year.

GOLD SPONSORS
Greenwich_Philippines
Globe Vector Logo CMYK Pos V2
phi_hires
BRONZE SPONSORS
Basic CMYK
Starbucks_Philippines
Dr. Xavier G. Solis Dental Care Clinic
DONOR SPONSORS
island grill 1994 logo
javders
OFFICIAL ONLINE MEDIA PARTNERS
cebu-bloggers-society-logo
Ten-Minutes
OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPHER AND AVP ARTIST
iSnapPhotography
15 Nov

Philippine Flag Nail Art (and a plea from my heart)

Hello friends,

I mentioned in my last post that we were hunkering down for super typhoon Haiyan or Yolanda as it is locally called. Unless you have been living under a rock somewhere, you have heard about the catastrophic damage that the storm has left in its wake. Those of us in Cebu City were spared the brunt of the storm but many, many others in this beautiful country were not and they are suffering unimaginably. Thousands have lost their homes. Many are literally starving and suffering dehydration as relief goods are difficult to deliver through blocked roads. Clearing roads of fallen trees and buildings and other debris takes much time and there are many people in many places that need help badly! Many people have been evacuated to Cebu City and Manila and now the government is scrambling to find housing and daily sustenance for the thousands of people with nothing left! The casualty count is getting higher and bustling cities are now in ruins. It is absolutely heart breaking.

Needless to say, with all this going on, I find it hard to bring myself to do my nails. But I decided to do these to honor the strength of the Filipino people and to raise awareness of the situation here.

Philippine Flag Nail Art

These nails were inspired by the Philippine flag. I used two coats of Caronia Tea Rose (red) and then added San San Blue Sapphire to half the nail. I added gold studs I bought at Blooming Nail Cebu. These “flag nails” could have been more detailed as I could have added stars and the sun you see in the picture of the Philippine flag (below). But, I have been busy doing other things that mean more to me and I don’t have the heart to spend much time on my nails at all lately. I hope you can still see how it is inspired by the flag. One day I will do another design inspired by our flag.

Philippine Flag
Photo Credit: Mike Gonzalez
The nail art community is jam packed with AWESOME people. Seriously, you gals have hearts of gold and I feel like I can ask you to please PLEASE consider donating some money via any organization you feel comfortable with. You can donate through the Philippine Red Cross, UNICEF or another  big organization like that. You can also donate through many smaller organizations that are doing wonderful work and are effectively and QUICKLY helping people. May I suggest the non-profit organization Lilia’s Place? I know Doug and Lisa, who run this organization, personally. They are a great couple who have huge hearts for helping others. They gave up their comfortable lives and jobs in the US and left all their family behind and have been working with street families in Cebu City for over 4 years. Now they are working to help those affected by the typhoon as well. I can assure you that they will use your money immediately to purchase relief goods and take them to those in need. Just yesterday they brought a truckload up north of Cebu and provided food and water to a village of 300 families that hadn’t had a bite to eat in 4 days (pictures on their FB page)! Can you even imagine?!? Please consider sending some money through them if you would like to fund a smaller relief effort. If you choose to donate, please include a note that the funds are for typhoon relief.
I want to assure you that every dollar counts! Just one US dollar can buy 3 pounds of rice or 3 cans of sardines or 4 liters of drinking water. Do you think you could have PB&J or ramen for dinner just once this week or drink water instead of soda or  hold of on a polish lemming for a while and send a couple (or a couple hundred) dollars to help get some food to someone in dire need? Please?
If you are in the Philippines and want to help by volunteering but don’t know where to start, please contact me via email (rdrobins84@gmail.com) and I will do my best to find a place in your area where you can help in some way.

I don’t know how often I will be able to post in the next few weeks as my priorities right now are spending my free time volunteering packing relief goods. But I will be back and I hope you will stick around. Please pray for this country as we mourn and try to pick up the pieces and help those hardest hit as much as we can. Thank you for reading all this. I’m sorry for such a heavy post but I hope you will understand.
Hugs to you all!
Rach

07 Nov

Pink and Purple Sparkly Tips

Hello!

I hope this post finds everyone doing fine. I had EVERY plan of doing my nails several times this week, and it looked like it was going to happen until news showed that a tropical storm was developing to the east of us, and we found ourselves bracing for Super Typhoon Haiyan which will make landfall in the Philippines in a few hours. It is going to be devastating for those directly in its path. While the eye will probably pass over Cebu Island, we are not directly in the path so we aren’t expecting the full hurricane-force winds. But we are still expecting some very strong winds and lots of rain and we are doing our best to prepare. Please say a prayer that the storm will lose strength quickly and pray for the safety of those in its path.

On a happier note, my joint giveaway with Blooming Nail Cebu ended this week and I was able to contact the winners and get each package/packet sent on their way. Giveaways are such fun! I’m thinking the next one I do will give you the option of extra entries if you create and submit nail art according to a theme. What do you think? Would you join?

I’m showing you a sparkly mani today to cheer me up after a day full of gloomy, cloud-filled skies.

Outdoor shade

Isn’t it pretty? It’s very eye catching too! I started with 2 coats of Jocarste #28 which is a light pink foil polish that is easy to apply and easy to remove. Then I sponged on Jocarste #8100 which is a gorgeous glitter bomb with purple, gold (multi sized) and silver holo bits in it. My amateur skills were unable to capture the holo sparlies in my lightbox and it was not a sunny day when I sported these nails so you will just have to appreciate the pretty glitters and imagine how extra special it was with a holo twist. #8100 is very different from #28 in that it is a PAIN to take off. I guess all glitters are like that though. Maybe it has just been a long time since I did glitter tips but I was muttering under my breath about how I would throw way this bottle if it wasn’t so darn pretty. Yeah, I know… much bigger problems in the world. Tiniest violin and all that. Ha! Glitter tip manis are some of my favorites and apparently you all like them too because I get a ton of hits on this look I did early this year.

Lightbox… soooo shiny!

Well, I’m off to get some more things ready. I wanted to post something so things wouldn’t be too quiet around here this weekend. See you soon ladies and have a great weekend!

Hugs!

04 Nov

Kleancolor Chunky Holo Purple over San San Red Gleam

Hello all!

I’m sorry I haven’t posted much this week. Everyone has been extremely busy around these here parts and that leaves little time for my nails. It’s a sad story I know. But it’s all for a good cause and I did actually get to do my nails a couple of times. I went with simple but pretty looks. I just haven’t had the time to sit down and get them up on the blog. This next week promises to be a bit less hectic so hopefully I’ll be back to my old routine. (Fingers and toes crossed!)

Kleancolor Chunky Holo Purple over San San Red Gleam with bow charm accent

I started off with two coats of San San Red Gleam. I don’t really get why they named it Red Gleam since it really looks just like the shade in the picture. More like Dark Pink Gleam. Ha! Anyway, I was kind of dissapointed in the formula for Red Gleam . It applied easily enough and I had high hopes for it’s opacity. But even with this being a dark color that passed the “brush test”, I still had a few thin spots after the second coat. It’s only really noticeable in certain lighting. I went ahead and stuck with two coats as I topped it off with two coats of Kleancolor Chunky Holo Purple which was easy as pie to apply. Come to think of it, I have made my fair share of pies and it was actually MUCH easier than pie. Just sayin’!

As you can see, for a finishing touch I added a bow to the accent nail. I’m still not too crazy about 3D nail art so the bow will have to grow on me a bit. But my 4 year old loves it. According to him, “The one without the bow is not good at all. But the bow is great!” So we’re going to go with the recommendation of my 4 year old… this time.

Kleancolor Chunky Holo Purple over San San Red Gleam

What do you think? This was so easy to photograph and It’s very pretty and shiny.

By the way, my joint giveaway with Blooming Nail Cebu ends in 12 hours. If you haven’t joined yet, you really need to. Just look at all these goodies up for grabs. And it’s open internationally! Good luck! I can’t wait to see who wins!

Blooming Nail Cebu Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

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