I wish that I could be like the cool kids

This was taken on such a nice day before the temp started to drastically fall, I asked Jomar to walk with me to the train station next to my place for a mini shoot because I was wearing a really cool outfit. Thinking back on my younger years, I was constantly an awkward kid. I was always at the sidelines, and desperately wanted to belong. I always wished that if I were to leave this world, I'd like to leave at least a small stamp on it. I wanted the Hollywood hunk bf, a great job I'll brag about to everyone, and host an annual New Year's Eve party at my penthouse in Manhattan. None of those happened to me, but I know now that happiness does not lie on these temporal things. It's in finding beauty wherever you are at life, and being thankful for the big and small blessings. As I giggled at my bf squatting so awkwardly so he can take a nice shot of me in a soon-to-become fave outfit, I mentally ticked off all the things that were perfect in that moment. I smiled. *click*

<3 and smiles,

Outfit Photo Dump

I figured I should just post all the #OOTDs and entries to fashion contests I've made ever since I went AWOL. Here they are! :)

Yes, I photoshopped my lip color. Otherwise it would be an odd shade of dark lilac, because the lipstick I was wearing gradually turned lighter and thus did not match my outfit :/

(Kenneth Cole Contest) Wearing: a handmade genuine dagger earring from the Renaissance Festival, Hudson jeans, Calvin Klein heels, Kenneth Cole top, Bernardo leather jacket, Michael Kors belt

Top left: Forever 21 top, Halogen patent leather brogues, Sanctuary Clothing jeans (a steal at Rugged Warehouse for $7 from $130 O_O).

Top right: Chambray button-down from Ross, LOFT faded skinnies, Sara Bareilles tour shirt

Bottom Left: (for a DKNY contest) DKNY shirt and bag, Target skirt, F21 wool jacket

Bottom Right: (goofing around/pretending to be a Korean actress in a romantic comedy) Plains and Prints top, H&M skirt, Ivanka Trump shoes, Target blazer (supercute!!!!)

Top left: (CFDA/Tommy Hilfiger contest, the theme was Red/White/Blue. I won tix to Tommy's show in Feb :D ) Tommy Hilfiger dress, Old Navy jacket, Banana Republic bag, Nine West shoes

Top right: (another entry) Polo Ralph Lauren shirt, Old Navy top, Simply Vera by Vera Wang boyfriend pants, BCBGeneration heels

Bottom left: (yup. You know it!) BCBG top, DVFxCurrent/Elliot jeans, BCBGeneration heels, Kate Spade clutch

Bottom right: Aeropostale top, Hudson jeans, Ren Fest leather earrings (they're so cute!), thrifted squirrel pin

Top left: Dress from my aunt, Givenchy accessories, Jessica Simpson clutch

Top right: Parachute concert tee, Simply Vera bf jeans, Coach bag

Bottom: Locket by my cousin of the tutorial-iffic jewelboxballerina.com, Chinese Laundry sandals, Ross dress, Gap top-as-jacket

And the pièce de résistance, another entry to the Kenneth Cole contest (haven't heard anything from them though, so I assume I lost :( Ah well, you can't win them all!)

Fergie peep toe booties, Coach bag, Kenneth Cole top, Kenneth Cole sunnies, Forever21 coat

Oh, and I also made these Instagram videos for a Stuart Weitzman contest. Sadly, I didn't win either of them. I did enjoy the process of filming them and coming up with a gimmick that echoed their new campaign with Kate Moss titled "Made for Walking" :)

Nytienyt!

<3,

Lookbook.nu New York Fashion Week Contest

This will be a super quick post because I haven't eaten dinner yet! This is my entry to the NYFW contest sponsored by Lookbook.nu. It's so hard to get hypes from that site, I feel like all the looks I've posted are garbage. I think I need to start wearing all-black, fishnet stockings and DIY ripped shorts in order to get noticed, but then again that's not ME. Ah well, still crossing my fingers for the Kmart fashion contest! :)

Paper Doll - John Mayer / Neapolitan Ice Cream

1. BUBBLE GUM PINK SKIRT

   , 

   REMAIN

   , in SKIRTS

2. MINT GREEN AND WHITE STRIPED BUTTON-DOWN

   , 

   HALOGEN

   , in STRIPED SHIRTS

3. CAMEL BROWN TRENCH COAT

   , 

   NY&CO

   , in OUTERWEAR

4. BUBBLEGUM PINK SNEAKERS

   , 

   CITY SNEAKS

   , 

   PAYLESS

   , in SNEAKERS

5. GOLD OVERSIZE WATCH

   , 

   KENNETH COLE

   , in KENNETH COLE WATCHES

Follow me on instagram! --> instagram.com/juliepat

<3,

Kmart Week 4 Entries

A big thank you to Kmart, the judges and the people who voted for my entries to Part III of the Money Can't Buy Style challenge! I received the news that I am one of the finalists right after I posted my entries to Part IV, and so as not to make them go to waste I'm sharing my outfit entries here. Most of the items are from Kmart - the cobalt blue jeggings, the black and white striped top, the crop gray sweater top and the blue-green crop top - that were all luckily on sale when I bought them! They're all from Selena Gomez's Dream Out Loud line, check them out! :)

Outfit 1:

Jean jacket - Old Navy

White lace wedges - Ralph Lauren

Blue-green crop top - Dream Out Loud via Kmart

Cobalt blue jeggings - Dream Out Loud via Kmart

Rose clip - gift

Blue leather sling bag - Banana Republic

Outfit 2:

Blazer - Nordstrom

B&W top with lace sleeves - Dream Out Loud via Kmart

Cobalt blue jeggings - Dream Out Loud via Kmart

Leather hobo bag - Dooney & Bourke

Black leather clog heels - Calvin Klein

Outfit 3:

Crop grey sweater top - Dream Out Loud via Kmart

Cobalt blue jeggings - Dream Out Loud via Kmart

Sequin oxfords - Sam Edelman

Black leather sling bag - Coach

Sword ring - Pirates of the Carribean (yup, the movie!) via Hot Topic

Outfit 4:

Orange jeggings - Ross

Gold sandals - DV

Yellow leather bag - Cole Haan

Bird top - Lauren Conrad via Kohl's

Necklace - handmade by my cousin, the lovely lady behind jewelboxballerina.com

Outfit 5:

Blazer - Marshall's

B&W top - H&M

Leopard flats - (forgot!)

Orange jeggings - ROss

Black leather sling bag - Coach

Bonus outfit (this one didn't make the cut because of the color scheme, although I really, really loved it!):

 

Blue-green crop top - Dream Out Loud via Kmart

Neon green crochet sweater - TJ Maxx

Cobalt blue jeggings - Dream Out Loud via Kmart

White canvas tennis shoes - Payless

I pray that I'll win the final round so I can go to New York and watch their Spring 2013 photo shoot! Who knows, maybe they'll consider including me, too ;) *wishful thinking*

Lotsa <3,

Killer outfit

I just had to post this. Below is a killer outfit on Zoe Saldana during the Berlin premiere of Star Trek Into Darkness. She looked oh-so-divine in pink and gold Balmain separates (that jewel pink skirt! the gold and pink scales! I die..), Louboutin pumps and jewelry from EF Collection. I love that she decided to not copy the actual look and have the outfit speak for itself (the earrings on the model are too distracting, as is her stick-straight, slicked hair).

Luxe and exquisite and chic and just gorgeous all at the same time. I love it. Can you tell I love it?

Here she is sending all the fan boys' and girls' hearts a-flutter. Plus a sneaky way for me to highlight the top's details.

Ah, Balmain <3

<3,

Outfits, videos and a threadless design

Exciting news guys and gals, my latest design for Threadless is up for scoring! Be a dear and vote for it here <3

Astro Basketball

Growing up, I remember watching a lot of basketball games with my father on our small tv and cheering with him even if I had no idea what was going on, seeing him play in his former company's league (I think he was an MVP a couple of times too? I need to verify this, though, but I'm pretty sure that despite the height disadvantage, he was a great player :) ), and in later years seeing him transition into coaching teams in my youth group, Youth For Christ. That was his other passion, aside from serving in Couples For Christ and jamming on his guitar during lazy Saturdays. Which is maybe the reason why, as "un-sporty" as I am (soccer and wall climbing being the only ones that I really like), I can tolerate watching basketball a lot more than watching football, and thus understand all the hype surrounding that particular game. The design above is a wink to my dad's love for basketball and a nod to one of my many childhood obsessions (I used to reread one particular book on Space during summer vacations). I hope you like it enough to give it a five :) And oh, an interesting tidbit: I asked my older brother to sketch it for me after describing in detail how I wanted it to look like, and he got it 100%! Awesome :D

Here's my outfit for today, in celebration of the uncannily warm weather we're having. Huzzah! I am so ready to see the cherry blossoms in full bloom on Wednesday ^_^

Button-down shirt: Halogen (similar shirt from Jones New York here)

Pants with belt: H&M (I will start collecting these, they're easily one of my dressiest and comfiest pair of pants!)

Leather bag: Cole Haan's Daisy Triangle Tote

Dressing room: Nordstrom Rack (I was returning an item that I intended to use for a contest and saw an opportunity to take an outfit picture hehehe)

Flats: Calvin Klein (my favorite pair, previously mentioned here)

Necklace: Burlington

Here's a closeup of the necklace, which I absolutely adore:

It's a chain of five pearl flowers, each with a rhinestone cluster in the middle - perfect for spring!

Dirt Track Racing Cake!

Yesterday was a double celebration as it was both Easter and my nephew's 4th birthday! So of course I had double the food hahaha jk but not really, I definitely felt the aftereffect earlier today (was really groggy and sluggish). Easter morning was spent on whipping up a car themed birthday cake from scratch, based on a recipe from Hershey's website and a basic buttercream recipe I found online. Are you ready to see it? Here it is! (Controlled sloppiness is key to this cake: it's supposed to emulate dirt track racing, after all!)

The dirt track is made out of crushed chocolate cookies while the grass is tinted vanilla buttercream frosting (kelly green gel tint, lots and lots of it)

Cherry Blossoms

I have a funny story about cherry blossoms. Back in 2009, two months after I and my family arrived in the US, we decided to swing by the Cherry Blossom Festival after we finished submitting some papers to the Philippine Embassy in DC. Unfortunately, we had no idea how to take public transportation from the embassy to the Tidal Basin where the trees are in abundance, so I just took pictures of the ones that we passed on the way back to the train station.

Me: "There it is! There it is!"

If you look closely, though, you can see that it's not a cherry tree. I actually had a disagreement with my father about what they were supposed to look like, because I vaguely remembered this beautiful scene in Mulan:

Fa Zhou: My, what beautiful blossoms we have this year. But look, this one's late. But I'll bet that when it blooms, it will be the most beautiful of all.

Happy Day!

Sometimes when you're down, you just want to be left alone to sulk and immerse yourself in it until you're over it, but more often than not it just aggravates that feeling instead of making it go away. The best remedy, I think, would be to look back at the blessings you've recently received and see that there is more reason to celebrate than sulk! Take a deep breath, and do a countdown of list down these blessings - they can be small, like getting a chocolate chip cookie from your friend during lunch, or big like a promotion at work or a long, heartwarming call from a long-lost friend! Here are my blessings and some things that made me smile:

1. 3 out of 4 of my submissions to Threadless got through! Whoop whoop! And now you have the opportunity to vote for it so it would get printed hehehe. I would be so happy if you give them all a $5! :D Thanks in advance!

Click here to score "Nature <3 Bikes"

Click here to score "Breakdancing Earth"

Click here to score "The World Wants You to be Awesome" 

2. We have a new pope! I have been reading articles on Pope Francis and I liked what I found, one of them being the fact that he has a master's degree in Chemistry (a man after my own heart? haha). May God continue to guide him in shepherding the Church and hopefully he'll leave a great legacy behind. In all seriousness though, he's what we need -a humble yet wise man who cares about the poor and truly tries to live as Christ lived. Habemus Papam! (The pope, formerly known as Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina, chose the name "Francis" in honor of St. Francis of Assisi)

New hair! and other things :)

I was able to trace where majority of my headaches stemmed from - the weight of my hair when put in a bun, which is was my go-to hairstyle at work since I'm required to wear a hairnet in the lab. I had been contemplating for a while on getting a really short haircut to finally get rid of my headaches and also decrease my morning prep time, but had been putting it off due to my fear of the stylist not replicating the cut that I want and getting to that awkward growing-out stage.

J Crew Style

One of my favorite questions to ask girls is "If you could only wear one brand of clothing for the rest of your life, what would it be?" H&M, Forever21, ASOS and Top Shop are always on the forefront of high street fashion, but when you grow old, I don't think you would still want to wear fashion-y items.

Can you imagine yourself in this outfit after 20 /30/40 years? (image via forever21.com)

New York Pre-Sandy

Last Oct. 21&22, I and my friends drove to New York to see a band from our homeland, Eraserheads, perform their reunion concert (they were the kings of Filipino Rock during the 90s, having popularized the genre by penning their own songs on love, friends, driving and everything in between). It was all sorts of awesome despite the bad handling of the organizers, because we were there for the band and not for the hoopla around the band (although I must say, the $85 we paid should have been enough to cover decent lights, a better stage and bigger screens for those at the back + not blessed with height aka me) and the waves of nostalgia they brought with them. 

 The Erasherheads, fondly called the E-heads, back in their heyday

Squeezing Summer!

The cold winds are arriving, so I’m trying to squeeze out all of my warm weather clothes! Of course I will still be using most of them in the coming months, but I want to spend what’s left of summer to display their individual beauty instead of being layered with other items (this particular top, though, would not be suitable for fall/winter). I still have dresses that have yet to see the light of day – I think I should start just dressing up the way I really want to (which is a little “extravagant”) instead of trying to blend in with jeans and tops most of the time, because in trying to blend in I tend to ignore a lot of my items. Do you do the same thing? Or are you bold enough to be as extravagant/glam as you want (if you do, I salute you, brave fellow fashion lover!)?

(Oh noes, it's getting colder! Time to release all thin-material clothes!)

Hair clip via jewelboxballerina.com

 Bag from Rebecca Minkoff (via Nordstrom)
Watch from Kenneth Cole
Top from H&M
Bangles from Forever21
Flower rings from Nordstrom
Heart ring from boyfriend
Belt from H&M
Skirt from a shop in Bethesda Row


<3,