Work Week

This friday, we are going to be having a half day at work due to the GM's son graduating high school, and I am so happy we are getting the afternoon off. Not that work is hard, and I would love to work more hours, but sometimes it's nice to have time off instead of calling out of work. I didnt get a chance to post some of the photos from our dress up fridays that have become sort of a tradition.

Last week was Prom Day. We had the option to dress in the time we actually went to prom, or we could pick a time...so what do I pick??? 80's Prom! hahaha I rummaged through my mom's closet and found a few awesome dresses. This one actually fit me pretty good compared to others. What do ya think???

 Of Course, I teased up my hair BIG 80's style, did the blue eyeshadow and red lips...I was a hot mess. hahaha We had fun and cranked up the music and danced around. We even voted on categories. I got the awards for "Most- Spirited" and "Most Likely To Succeed" We all brought food and pigged out. And I brought my chicken lumpias. YUMMY!!!

The week before, I showed we dressed up as zombies, and I never posted the week before that which was Twin Day. Employees dresses alike.

Myself and Kelly

Britt and DJ

Joe and Nichole

Shannon and Cindy
We definetly try to have fun on fridays and dress up with theme days. Do you ever dress up for work or school? What good ideas do youhave for a dress up day?

This friday, there will be no dress up day, but were all gonna meet up at the beach and kick back and relax! I can't wait. I need to get some sun and catch up on reading "The Celestine Prophecy" and start a new book or two that I picked up from the library.

What are your plans for the weekend?


 The Dress up geek,




Destiny and Fate

I am one of those crazies who believe in destiny, fate and karma.  I don't believe in coincidences or that things just happen. Take for instance the path we are all on. Sometimes you feel like your not centered. We all feel like this sometimes. I've been reading the Celestine Prophecy again, and this book has alot about this subject, but I have always been into that type of stuff, but regardless of me reading this book, I take notice of my environment and how things pan out. Check out that book for a good good read!


Do you ever feel like you are meant to do something else with your life or be someone else? I have felt like this for years when I was in the military or working as a contractor, or some other job, I always felt like I was wasting my talent of being an artist. Do you ever feel that way?

I felt that way up until about 2 years ago, when I moved back to Virginia from Colorado. I stopped making excuses as to why I couldnt go back to school, or why I couldnt do something I loved. I immediately went back to school, switched majors and ended up in beauty school instead, something I really wasnt interested in doing. That turned out to be the best thing  I ever did, because it led me to bigger things. I'm not completely where I want to be, but I am moving towards it. Every thing that happens, every person you meet, is just one step closer to where you are supposed to be.

Whatever youre dealing with, or you feel like you are not on the right path, I want to tell you that youre not alone in feeling this way. Dont wait for things to change-be the change! I wanted to share some inspirational quotes I found of course via Pintrest. I am a strong believer of taking charge of your own destiny and going for your dreams.






So, what are you waiting for?



Broken Camera and Busch Gardens

Saturday, while out with the family, as I started taking pictures of everyone.....the one thing you do not want to happen to ANY electronic device..happened to me. Yup, my clumsy self dropped it. EPIC FAIL! To make it worse, the camera was on with the lens zoomed out, and I dropped it right on the lens causing it to break the motor. I swear, when it dropped, I was like in SLOW-MO...yelling "Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!

I have had that camera for almost 2 years, it was a gift from my husband for Christmas. Now I am cameraless...but I still have my bloggie which I can use, the only thing is that it does not have a flash button and it does not take good pics inside or at night. But it takes good images and videos in good light. So I will have to make due until I get an IPAD. hahaha

Here are the few images I got to take before my pink sony died. We went to an amusement park....can you guess where? If youre not from around Virginia Beach, you prolly wont guess, but we went to BUSCH GARDENS, voted the World's Most Beautiful Theme Park!

My cousin Marina, me, and my other cousin Lauren

Matti and I riding the Tram

Matthias behind me, and my littlest brother Lucas who just got back from California
My mom treated the kids to tickets to Busch Gardens now that everyone is back home. My mom, along with myself do not really ride rollercoasters. I used to be able to, but the past few years, my stomach cannot handle going up and down, and upside down. Everyone else, including my hubby loves them.

Hubby with my cousin Alec and Lucas (behind Jermie) :)
Arabella and Matthias have never been there before, so I was excited to share this with my family. We were missing a few family members, but hopefully next time everyone can join us. The kids rode all sorts of ride for "little people" and I was surprised that they both rode "Escape from Pompeii" which is a huge water ride.

photo courtesy of themeparkreview.com
We were all drenched afterwards. The first time I rode it, me and Matthias rode it and Arabella got us with the water gun on the side when the boat comes down. When they went on it again with my cousin and brother, Jermie and I got them ALL with three water guns. hahaha  We went on Roman Rapids, which is another wet ride, and we were needless to say, soaking wet.

There was also the new Verbolten Ride and MACH Tower which are the two newest rides to the park. I didnt ride them, but maybe next time when its just hubby and I. Kinda hard to do the big rides when the kiddos wanna do all the kiddie stuff.

It was a fun day. The lil zombies were sooo tired too after a day of walking. Matti had a 3 hour practice for football so he was pretty grumpy when it was time to go home.

That was how we spent our saturday, just good times with the family! What did you do this weekend???

Water rides and themeparks,



Photography Workshop

I was invited to be a hairstylist for Will King's Photography Lighting Workshop a couple of weeks ago. I have been meaning to write this post for a while, but with the surgery and the move, well, you know how I am. I think these workshops are awesome for new photographers to learn lighting and of course for hair stylists and makeup artists to network and get some experience.


I had been wanting to get back into doing shoots again, so the opportunity came when a mutual friend recommended me to Will for this workshop. We had a room set up for all the artists, stylists and models to prep in  while Will did his presentations with the photogs.

Of course, I took some photos of behind the scenes for yall. And I have photos from other photogs. I will include links to everyone so you can check out their work too!


I was excited to meet everyone and run into a few old friends I had met on previous occasions from either a shoot or networking event. I was impressed by everyone and their game, their equipment.


This makeup artist, Kristine Marie French is on her A-game! I was practically drolling over all of her makeup and her ZUCA Bag!!! Her SMA is setup very nicely and her work is amazing. Check out her website at http://kristinemarieartistry.com/

MODEL: AMBER
MUA: KRISTINE MARIE FRENCH
HAIR: CHELSEA STYLES
MODEL: MADELINE
MUA: KRISTINE MARIE FRENCH
HAIR: CHELSEA STYLES
WK LIGHTING WORKSHOP
MARIE VIOLET PHOTOGRAPHY
WILL KING LIGHT WORKSHOP
MAY 21 2012
MODEL: LAUREN
MUA KRISTINE MARIE FRENCH
STYLIST : CHELSEA STYLES
The Photog who took these images is Marie Violet Photography, make sure to go onto her FB page and like her! Her website is filled with more of her work at http://www.marievioletphotography.com/

Below, are images shot by Happy Acres Photography, I styled these two models below, Krystal and Allie


MODEL: KRYSTAL
MUA: ARIELLE DAVIS
HAIR BY CECILIA MARIE
WK LIGHTING WORKSHOP

I'm so happy I have more photos for my portfolio that I have been working on for some time.  These workshops are held every few months. If youre in the 757 area and interested in attending one of these, just check out the links I provided.

I had such a good time. Here are the links to the other hair stylists and makeup artists I worked with!


Makeup Artists: Brazil Allen and  Arielle Davis        Hairstylist: Chelsea Jordan


I hope you had fun coming along with me on my behind the scenes look at this photography workshop! See ya next time! Thanks for stopping by!

Makeup and curling irons,

UNPACKING

I just spent 3 hours trying to get this wireless router to work. After all that, it still doesnt work. My mom gave it to me last night, since she found it in her shipment from Korea, and she just told me it doesnt work...and in my head I'm like "then why did you give it to me???"


Another photo of my new hair color :) more vibrant this time
I cant complain though, I still have to buy one, but at least I tried it first. I did get a few boxes full of household stuff that we desperately needed that mom gave us that she bought in Korea. Now that she is back home, she doesnt need two of everything. Can we say SCORE?!?!?!

We got more glasses, bowls, cookware, a rice cooker (yes, I'm filipino, gotta have a rice cooker!!) a toaster, rugs....its just nice to get settled and know where everything is in our place. Were picking up our dining room table tomorrow which will be nice to sit comfortably and eat.

As I'm sitting here, I wanted to start looking online for living room inspiration photos for when were all settled, I want our place to look retro and eclectic. Here are some cool photos I found on Pintrest of course.




As you can see, I got carried away on Pintrest, but I gotta say this last photo has ME written all over it! I want this room! I cannot wait to be able to decorate my house the way I really want to. What do you want your dream house to look like???

Unpacking boxes and ricecookers,


Alphabet Blocks

Last week, I received an email from a gentleman in Canada who had stumbled across a drawing of alphabet blocks I drew up for a friend last year and requested I draw one up for him and of course pay me for my work. How awesome is that? I think that it's so cool that he found me and asked for me to a piece for him. It's a huge and humbling compliment.

He wanted old fashioned wooden blocks with his daughters initials. He wanted to incorporate her hand and her birthday in it somehow. So I sketched up these two ideas that popped in my head. I didnt finish inking it all the way.

He ended up going with another artist but he still paid me, which was cool. I enjoyed drawing it up for him, and I'm just happy that he is getting something that he loves.

I wanted to share it with yall because when I share my artwork it motivates me to keep going and push myself to work on my drawing and sketching and shading.

Here are a few other sketches I had in a sketch book that I never posted. I did post on my Instagram.

My signature legs I love drawing with shears and strands of hair

Script with "Beauty Is Not An Option"

I picked up the latest Rebel Ink magazine yesterday at Barnes and Nobles and got alot of inspiration from that. Do you read tat magazines? If you do, which one is your favorite? Mine are Bound By Ink and Rebel Mag! Love them! One day, I hope to be in a magazine, that would be awesome.

Tattoos and Ink,




Attention Deficit Disorder

I am so proud of myself...really. My computer has just been a severe butthead. There are just no other words to describe it. But I was able to fix it and Im so proud. I still dont have a wireless router (which is on the list of stuff to get this week) but now my computer does run a but faster and I can go back to multitasking and having more than one page and program up and running.

I love my bathroom mirror! PIC before I colored my hair


I sometimes feel like I have ADD, I could have a movie playing in the background, a song stuck in my head, a youtube video up playing, have my Corel Paint Shop Pro open, a calculator, and my blog up and window shopping on the next screen and be FUNCTIONAL. Is anyone else like that??? Oh and lets not forget when the kiddos are with me...then add being a referee to Bella and Matti fighting over who gets to pick the next Netflix movie, one of them is hungry for a snack, the other spilt their drink all over the carpet then your son confiscates your camera and takes pictures of himself in his hero costume...(where does he get this from??) hahaha ...like below. oh I could go on and on. oh my goodness.....women should be given an award everyday for the sheer fact of how much we do. hahahaha



Anyways, back to my original post, I recolored my hair last night and I'm quite pleased with the color! I mixed in a lil bit of my leftover Joico semi permanent colors pink and purple with the Red Color of Paul Mitchell Semi Permanent colors. I just LOVE IT! Feels good to be back to a red color even though the past year I was cursing my red hair because my hair wouldnt hold any other color like blue, turquoise or pink.



It looks way more vibrant when the sun is shining on it, it was cloudy and starting to rain when I snapped this. I llove it, you can peek a bit of the purple still on the tips, but it will all be red eventually. Ill keep it for  while.

Just wanted to show ya my new hair! What color are you "dying" to color your hair??? What are you waiting for??? Just go for it! Ill end this with my favorite quote for this week that I just cant get out of my head. Remember this too when you are too scared to look different or be different.



Thanks for stopping by!

Raving mad with ADD and red hair ....and oh look at that cat,