On the Street: Lady in White

Took this photo eons back.

She walked past me and I saw her beautiful chignon.

The lighting and timing was perfect. If she took one more step she would have been in the shade.

Personal Blog is up!

Hey everyone my personal blog is up at janessasanio.com!

Do drop by and say hi altho my first official post is kinda dreary. D:

Trying to cope with alot of things lately and pondering over scary grown-up things.

One thing's for sure, Waking Up Famous is staying altho like I mentioned before, things just messy right now.

Advertorial: Estee Lauder New Idealist Even Skintone Illuminator

Took a rare break last weekend and on a Saturday, I managed to get an invite to an Estee Lauder workshop/preview of their 

New Idealist Even Skintone Illuminator

Was kinda surprised that  actually got an invite considering that compared other bloggers they were way more popular than lil old me.

Beautiful, beautiful set up. The event planner in me was squealing in delight. I wanted to go ooh and ahh but, shyness got the better of me.

We started off the session by asking us what is our ideal skin and Bong Qiu Qiu, piped in, 

"Like Korean!"

Totally agree with her!

My ideal skin is to have to have a smooth, dewy, even and bright skin tone.

Everyone of us there, underneath that flawless and meticulously applied make up, have some sort of skin discoloration from blotchiness, acne marks and dark spots.


Well Estee Lauder developed the,

New Idealist Even Skintone Illuminator


to help us achieve our ideal skin!

And not only did we get to try it out, we also get to keep a bottle along with other goodies!




On to the,

New Idealist Even Skintone Illuminator


(Hee, Love how I put major emphasis on the name)





One word to describe it?


AMAZING.


It smells nices, it has a opalescent glow to it, making your skin glow and the moment you apply it on, your skin feels so so loved.




I hope I captured the subtle glow it did for the skin of my hands.

Anyway, apart from applying it to the back of our hands, we removed the make up from the lower half of our face and applied it on.


(After removing make up)

(With the Estee Lauder New Idealist Skintone Illuminator)

(With the Estee Lauder Hydrationist Maximum Moisture Lotion)


(With my game face on! I <3<3)

We also used their range of Estee Lauder make up and I am smitten.

(If only I could afford to own the collection, I'll just settle for the freebies. Hee.)

Apart from trying the,

New Idealist Even Skintone Illuminator

they also had tons of goodies for us! From Polaroid photos to decorating them and yummy cupcakes!

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With the 

New Idealist Even Skintone Illuminator

Achieving my ideal skin is possible!

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They're now available at all Estee Lauder Counters islandwide!

So get a bottle or two, heck get the whole set cos its so worth splurging on an investment towards your ideal skin!

An explaination

As much as I love Waking Up Famous, my dream of turning it into a blogzine is put on hold.

Sometimes I wonder if it'll ever come to fruition.

I've been working for almost one and a half month now.

It has in a way changed my lifestyle drastically.

I don't see Mr. Wonderful a lot, let alone go on a proper date.

I haven't been connecting with fellow local bloggers (offline and online) much alone close friends.

I've turned down numerous blogging engagements /events due to conflicting schedules whereby work always come first.

Don't worry tho. Waking Up Famous will continue running still, albeit at a slower pace.

You may think I'm crazy cos I can't even maintain a regular schedule but I am starting a new blog.

A personal one mind you.

It'll be up on http://www.janessasanio.com.

Its called Janessa Loves and I'll be blogging what's it like to be a working girl.

Its not up yet. So do watch this space.

Also, I've decided to have a separate twitter account for Waking Up Famous.

I tend to tweet (and rant) personal stuff but I want to separate them (you know, to be more professional).

So I've changed the current @wakingupfamous to @janessaloves and now have a new twitter account for @wakingupfamous.

As much as I want to create all over again a personal twitter account, I feel that my old twitter account be best used as a personal one cos I do have friends who follow me. So it'll be a great great favour if you could once again follow @wakingupfamous.

Burberry Prorsum Resort 2012

Fashion Houses are showcasing their Resort 2012 Collection! I'll be featuring my faves in upcoming posts! I started with Zac Posen's last night and I've been endlessly trying to pick my faves. I'll keep it to 5 posts max but gosh, forgive me if I posts more than that!

Burberry Prorsum.

I love how Christopher Bailey puts a spin to Burberry's signature trench coat with every collection and this collection is no exception.

(Images via style.com)

(Also loving their very English Rose models)

Zac Posen Resort 2012

Seriously. I'm obsessed with Zac. As in Zac Posen, not Effron.

His Resort collection is to die for. Literally.

My favourite?

  The Dramatic Red Dress. 

And calling it The Dramatic Red Dress still doesn't do justice.

I absolutely love the silhouette. It shows off the curves.

Something I can wear and pull off.

Provided I can afford the price tag.

Look and be hooked.

(images from style.com)

And his collection for Z spoke is pure genius too.

Elsie's Wedding

One of my favourite creative bloggers is Elsie from A beautiful mess.

She recently got married and I want a wedding just like hers! So full of personality and creativity!

Watch the awesome video below by Goodwin Films.

Elsie & Jeremy | May 15th 2011 from Goodwin Films on Vimeo.

(Image via stylemepretty.com)

Congratulations!

xoxo - the girl who secretly stalks your blog

New Crush: Syl & Sam and their DIY Bleached Jeans

While browsing through Pinterest. (Awesome source of inspiration btw) I came across this tutorial on how to bleached your jeans, by Syl & Sam.

I totally fell in love with their blog after looking through and will definitely bookmark them.

Summer Solstice! Prepare for a long day ahead

Good morning everyone! Today's the summer solstice! Longest day of the year! And if you head to google.com you'll find the wacky illustration done by Takashi Murakami as their masthead!

Totally cute illustration to mark the day!

Burberry Foldable Sunnies!

How awesome are these Burberry foldable sunnies?

Love the colours available but the only downside is that the zippered pouch it comes with is in boring plain black.

Blog Discussions: Running Your Blog

After last week's pretty hot topic on haters, I thought I'll simmer things down abit on the topic of running your blog.

I started off Waking Up Famous by randomly posting on and off as and when I have things to blog about.

So there were weeks when I was in a blogging frenzy.

And weeks of dry spell too.

After my last dry spell,
(I sound like a loser who have not gotten laid for a loong time)


I told myself to get organized if I was gonna take my blog seriously!

So now I have a system.


Altho that system has been under pressure lately now that I have a full time job.

I'm making changes to my system to accommodate my new job.

So what's my system?

No way I'm sharing!

Just kidding.
Below is an overview of how I worked out my system.
Not gonna be detailed cos its my masterplan to world domination each person has different ways.

The first thing I did before anything else was to define my blog.

Asian blogs are very personal sometimes but that's not my thing and but I really want a rough direction of where I want my blog to be.

So second thing, I wrote

like,

1. How often I post

Once a day, 3 times a week etc

2. Post layout

It helps to be consistent throughout so its easier on the eye for your reader, e.g. If you're gonna center align your blog post make sure its the same for your future blog posts also, set rules on the number of photos per post cos it gets extremely frustrating waiting for pictures to load.

3. Regular Features

Weekend Links, Blog Discussions, Thoughts on Love.

4. Your schedule for blogging.

Checking of email; Peparing posts in advance and how far ahead you should plan your posts, reading other blogs etc

After setting down the rules I set down my,

Goals can be anything from from increasing readership to
(This is very important for all bloggers I guess)

let's say improving your photography for your blog but make sure that your goals are - in my lecturers' words -

Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Realistic
Timely

So basically, that's how I run my blog? What about you?

Michael Jackson The Behind the Mask Project

Monday really is not my favourite day but this video certainly cheered me up!

The scale of this project is amazing!

Homemade Blockbuster

Forget your Monday blues tomorrow after watching this music video.

Homemade Blockbuster a Brazilian band went and did an "urban intervention" the night before Brazil's equivalent of Valentine's Day and to debut their new single entitled, Heartlights.

Guess what they did? 

They went around posting heart-shaped stickers on the red lights all over town.

Pretty fawesome yea?

We're just getting started

Starting tomorrow, Waking Up Famous is gonna be more zine, more posts & more everything but,

Yea baby! This is just the beginning for more wonderful things on Waking Up Famous.

Weekend Break

Hey everyone, my first week of work is over and I'm pretty much pooped. I'm busy handling details for multiple events and July is a super duper busy month for me.

I haven't anything good to link up cos I barely have time. Today I just want to unwind, slowly plan my posts for next week and take things slow before Monday starts.

So have a great week ahead and rest up for the weekend!

My handmade Feather Extension Clip Ons

Okay remember my post on how I'm obsessed with Feather extensions in mah hair?

I got so obsessed I browsed through ebay and etsy just drooling and getting a major case of obsessititus.

I told myself enough. Went out, bought supplies and made myself an alligator clip feather extension.

Since I can't have 'em semi-permanently in my hair, I'll make a clip on!

Whatcha think? Imma do a tutorial next week if you've obsessed with them since my post and wanna have feathers in your hair!

Thoughts on Love: Dependency

If you followed my tweets, I had a nightmare of an experience while out with my sister on Saturday. More on that later.

This incident had me thinking about,

independence and dependency in relationships

Let's talk about Independence first,

Before I got into a relationship, I feared dependence. I valued my independence highly and the idea of relying on someone to make choices for you and take care of your needs, I thought those people were weak.

 (I was highly idealistic back then, also highly opinionated)

So when I started out with Mr. Wonderful, I jealously guarded my independence as if it was my secret stash of guilty pleasure hidden in my room. 

(Umm.. Chocolates by the way, in case your mind wandered elsewhere)

To quote last week's thoughts on love, here's an example of how our conversation went.

Mr. Wonderful: Baby what's wrong?

Me looking troubled : Nothing.

(The best conversation to quote as an example for any topic on relationships. Can be interpreted in many ways.)

Obviously, also, a trust issue there but that's for another time.

Obviously, our relationship would eventually lead to nowhere and I started depending on Mr. Wonderful.
Oh and it was so so easy to just let go I tell you. I started depending on Mr. Wonderful too much.

(image source: unknown)

The feeling of Dependency is a serious temptation. 
To never have to worry about anything, to have always someone who will look out for you.


For an independent person, I began to hate what I as turning into but the feeling of being taken care of was too nice to stop this dependency. 


(As you can tell I'm a person of extreme nature, I can be a serious workaholic but when I stop, I turn into a professional procrastinator)


Also it wasn't fair for Mr. Wonderful, the way I was acting, that and the self-loathing pushed me to stop being dependent.

This all leads to last Saturday's incident. I was with my sister that day.

We went to attend Singapore's World Blood Donor Day Celebration at Singapore Science Centre.

We were having a great time, till I became a victim of a pickpocket. Thank goodness a staff found my poor abandoned wallet (coin purse really) fairly intact. (All cash gone)

But during that half an hour of uncertainty was a nightmare.

I was at the other end of the island with no idea how I was gonna get back home,

I was on the verge of tears 

 with a sister who depended on me not to panic and who was also pretty much oblivious to seriousness of the situation.

I had one thought in my head.

"I have to call Mr. Wonderful"

But before I did I filed a lost item report at the customer service counter, backtracked to the places I went but the probability of finding it was so slim with such a crowd and I knew it.

And when only then I thought that I've done everything I could to rectify the situation, I sat down and called him.

I admit, I was slightly on the hysterical side. (I blamed him for the situation, how I came to that conclusion, I don't know)
But he talked to me, asked me questions about the situation, calmed me. I would have preferred if he was by my side but listening to him on the phone soothed my frazzled nerves.

At the same he thought of calling people we knew who lived in the West side who could help me out if my purse was not found. I did not think of that.

This whole episode made me realise I found the balance between Independence and Dependency.

Altho I'm still on the dependency side but I've learnt to take control where I could and depend on him for things I did not thought of or cannot do.

My Constant Lover

I asked Mr. Wonderful a question,

Me: "what's my favourite colour?"

Mr. Wonderful: "..uh.." 

(looking very very worried)

Mr. Wonderful : "Hey! Wait a minute! You tried to trick me! You have no particular favourite colour!"

Hehe. Its true. I've no particular favourite colour. I fall in and out of love with colour schemes tho.

But I do have a constant colour scheme I just keep coming back to.

Its like knowing that you have a lover at home who'll wait for you forever despite you're fickleness.

Without much further ado, I present to you my loyal lover!

Yes I've even named it. But I am thinking of using it for my blog. Just tiny tweaks to reflect my favourite colour inspiration. What do you think?

Blog Discussions: Where is the love? Haters, Cyberstalkers and In-betweens

I've been lucky so far, or maybe because my pool of readers is just too small but I've never had a hater on my blog before. I have heard of horror stories and to tell you the truth, an action can make or break you in the blogosphere.

I believe that Haters/Blogger thing is two-way.

So first of all let's discuss what a Hater is?

A hater is a person who hates. (lol)

He/She leaves nasty comments or sends you nasty email stating things like,

"you're a whore/bastard/bitch (insert ugly adjective here)" for some reason or another

His/her aim is to demoralize/belittle/insult etc.

Haters are also often Criticizers but Criticizers can be categorized into two types. Malicious Criticizers and Constructive Criticizers. The former is also a form of being a Hater.

Here's an example,

Malicious Criticizers: Omg, such a nice top! Too bad it makes you look fat

Constructive Criticizers: Oh wow what a wonderful top but I don't think it does justice to your wonderful figure, why not try something with an empire neckline?"

Altho Constructive Criticism can sometimes be a subtle form of Malicious Criticism but that's up to you to discern if it is or if it is not.

So how would you handle a Hater or A Malicious Criticizer?

If I ever encountered one, I guess what I'll do is,

1. Email them to ask them why they feel that way of me and what have I done/said/written that makes them feel that way.

2. If they can't justify/explain/give a ridiculous reason, I'll warn them saying that if they feel that way, they should stop reading my blog and stop posting such comments.

3. If they persist, I'll moderate their comments and even ban them if need be.

I don't feel that there is a need to moderate the comments I received. More on this later.

So how would you handle if you find yourself with a hater? I would love to hear from you.

Next part of the discussions,

(Image by Omar Noory)

How to avoid all the hate, or at least have a well meaning discussion?

Being a blog owner to me means that,

1. My blog is place for my own opinions and actions

2. What I write/say/do, I'm responsible for my actions

3. I respect the opinion of my readers

I guess some of us bloggers have a misconception that, your blog being your blog means that you're entitled to your opinion and get pretty defensive if someone says otherwise. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Well to tell you the truth, if you feel that way, write your thoughts in a journal away from the very public eye of the world wide web.

The question is, do you want a blog based on controversy, being at odds with your readers/commenters all the time with having to defend your opinion?

 I like my comments to be a place of discussion. My post is to state my opinion and the comments page, the debate arena for my readers to state why they agree or disagree with me. Either way, I respect their opinions.

Your readers are bloggers too.

Remember the above. Being a blogger means you get your say. You can change the public opinion of things, but it goes both ways. Meaning, your reader if offended by your comments can blog about you, altho I believe that isn't the way of how things should be handled.

Some bloggers to counter negative comments, moderate the comments received, only publishing those that are positive. This in itself I find suspicious. I feel that the blogger has something to hide. Not all do have things to hide, some moderate because of spam and I understand that.

So now, I'd love to hear your opinion! All opinions and constructive criticism are welcome! This is definitely a topic worth discussing.

(PS, to see previous discussions, click here)

First Day of Work

Pretty late post on my side but, I started my first day of work today!

Definitely a steep learning curve ahead but I'm liking my boss and and colleagues.

So where am I working at? I'm working for a company that solely caters to golf events. Yes golf.

I think it'll be inevitable that I'll pick up on how to play golf and I'm looking forward to it.

Since also I've started work, juggling both my blog and work will be a challenge. Difficult yes but I'll manage.

Initially I had planned to post something else today but I thought since I'm finally a working girl (likening myself to Eddie Sedgewick. Lol), I'll write a short post that,

I'm a working girl now!

So today's initial post will be pushed to Wednesday and I've got to start drafting tomorrow's post now! ><

Sunday Hike!

Today my family and I are going Pulau Ubin!

Hiking. An extreme version of Walking.

(Wanted to do a graphic with those words but no time!)

Weekend Links!

I can't wait to start work on Monday! Oh and tomorrow my family might go to Pulau Ubin for a family day out! I'm super excited about it. Anyway here are some awesome links for this weekend!

Tumblr is fawesome. And umm yes, there's a tumblog dedicated to Hungover owls.

"I'm laughing on the inside. My outside still thinks you're an asshole"

(image from Hungover Owls)

Also a tumblog for chart lovers. You know those funny charts with useless but oh so true information.

(image from I love charts)

All You Haters (Suck My Balls) from nixbros on Vimeo.

Err.. the video is.. and the comments are.. Talk about hipster love and irony.

I love these photos by Adriana Gerasimova for her photoshoot, The Explorer.

This is the most beautiful and saddest love story ever. I hope they'll be reunited one day.

I'm so obsessed with typography. How to make ligatures.

I guess that's all for now! As you can tell by some of the links and video, I've been in hipster land.

Uniqlo Chinos are the best!

I love love the Great Singapore Sale! Don't you?

Altho I can't  really afford to go shopping but I couldn't pass it up! Since I'm starting work next week Monday (wish me luck!), I thought its a good cause to get myself some new duds to wear!

I love the fact that attire at the office is casual but at the same time I do want to look smart as well without going to the jeans and tee routine.

So when I saw these chinos from Uniqlo on offer, I had to own a pair!
(I got the one in Khaki)

(Charlize Theron)

(image from Uniqlo)

They're smart looking but at the same time, I won't look overdressed for work! I hope to get another pair soon but I'm in need of a top and a pair of sexy wedges to go with my my new pants and I shall get some today.

The Monday what??

Okay you're all probably clueless to what my post on monday is all about.

Well I've kind of announced it on twitter. Do you follow my twitter? No? Then start following @wakingupfamous! (yes, its a very blatant self promotion)

Anyway, I've finally found a job! *screams*

After weeks and weeks of sending out resumes, I'm so glad that finally, I've found a job.

The funny thing is, after a such a long dry spell of no reply, I received two interview invitations in a span of two hours.

I guess my prayers have been answered.

My family is part of a self-run Filipino family rosary prayer group. Its a group that started off 18 odd years ago (!!!) so that, the then small community of pinoys in SG can bond over prayer and fellowship.

Anyway, every month the image of Mother Mary and Jesus is adopted into a family's home for a month. The host family recites the rosary for the month daily. Guess who were the host for May?

At first it was tedious but I do love reciting the rosary as a family and everyday I prayed for her intercession that I may find a job. I had almost given up hope when it was almost time for the images to leave.

God heard my prayers through her intercession.

I'm bereft tho that she has left our house but I pray that she hears the prayers of the next family and intercedes for them.

(I understand that this isn't really the usual style of what I blog about as this is highly personal to me and you know how I try not to blog about too much personal stuff on my blog. However I felt that this was something I should share to everyone. Oh and yes, I'm catholic)

New Obsession: Feathers Extension

I have a few obsessions this summer.

Feather, Gold, Cerulean, Nautical Knots, Leather, Wood


I am obsessed more with feathers. More specifically. Feather Extensions in mah head! :D


(Image by totalchanges)




(Image by seekateblog)

Too bad I'm starting work soon. I'm pretty sure its not appropriate for work to have feathers in your hair. Sigh..

One can dream.

Blog Discussions: What do you blog about?

Hi everyone! This is the second installation of Blog Discussions! Click here to see the first.

So today's discussion is,

"What do you blog about?"

Out there there are millions of blogs on every topic you can think of under the sun! We all discussed the reason why you blog last week. Some blog for money, some blog just because.

I noticed that the blogging style of Asian bloggers are different from the rest.

Asians tend to blog more about their day to day activity while bloggers, lets say from Australia have a specific niche, like crafting or fashion, altho they inject little anecdotes about their life, it is not as revealing as Asian blogs.

Do you notice this too?

For me, Waking Up Famous is a little bit on the niche side, focusing on aesthetics that I love. I'm not very open about my personal life. Its not that I'm hiding something. I feel that if I do have problems, I'd rather keep it to myself.

I've gone that route before where I used to blog about personal stuff, mostly negative but I didn't feel good about it and that's when I started Waking Up Famous and closed my old blog.

So what about you? What do you blog about and what's your style?

Next week, let's discuss haters.

Crossing my fingers

I'm waiting for a phone call that could change things.

Wish me luck.




Update: I got the it! *screams!*

Weekend Links!

What's your weekend gonna be like? I wish it was going to be a lazy one for me but I'm in the midst of preparing for a gathering at my place and my mum is once again cooking up food enough to feed an army.

A rainbow themed wedding! Makes me want to have a wedding just because.

30 days of grateful - 'summer' from hailey bartholomew on Vimeo.

I saw this over at Ruiting's blog and it makes me want to escape the chaos happening around me know. I love what she posts on her blog sometimes!

 (I really am in the mood for summery day.)

Beautiful illustrations.

Honestly WTF! is A-MAZING. They have such wild DIYs! Like how to make teepee poles for a teepee.

And lastly a music video for the movie 500 days of summer. Completely unrelated to the movie but so fun. :D(PS. Zooey Deschanel has this really cute blog with two other ladies, hello giggles.)

Time to go! I hear my mum panicking.