Asides

Hi! Just squeezing in a blog post before

Hi! Just squeezing in a blog post before the rain falls again.

I bought more Nyx SLMC! I love Milan, a “mid-toned blue-toned pink“, the quieter sister of my Addis Ababa tube. This is probably more wearable in the office.

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I also bought San Paulo, plummy-pink, a pink that sits between these two shades, but I haven’t swatched it yet. Here are some nice swatches on Shen’s Addiction.

Oh wait, here you go:

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I ended up on Taste Central again and got a bar of Trader Joe’s PB & J Milk Chocolate Bar. It’s a chocolate bar with creamy peanut butter and raspberry jelly filling. This is the best, and doesn’t feel very heavy. Just don’t eat everything in one sitting. (I did and I’m very sorry.) It sells at PhP 75.

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I bought some gifts for my mother at the Beauty Bar, and got these little samples for free. I do love the Burt’s Bees Intense Hydration Night Cream. It leaves my skin feeling supple and soft. I might just get that when I run out of night creams.

I have used Cure twice already, but I can’t vouch for the exfoliation effects just yet.

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I also saw some tins of Steam Cream at the store, but I controlled myself. Yay? Here’s the Vain Jane gushing about it.

Author and editor Carrie Cuinn has compiled a list of 90-plus authors of Asian descent, with links to their websites and a free sample story. I’m delighted to find my name, and the names of authors I admire, in this list. Click the link and discover some tales!

Meanwhile: The rains are here. Have a green tea cupcake and coffee, dear.

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It was the country’s Independence Day yesterday, June

It was the country’s Independence Day yesterday, June 12. We stayed inside and fed ourselves home-cooked meals that J experimented on, like this very tasty tuna sisig:

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A can of tuna sauteed in a skillet with chopped garlic, chili, and onion. Add mayonnaise and calamansi after. Soy sauce, calamansi and chili for sawsawan. Pair with steamed rice. Sarap!

Book Giveaway Alert: Chris Mariano of Ficsation is giving away a signed copy (with a special bookmark) of Unseen Moon! Contest runs until June 22. Head over here to read the details. Go, go, join, join! :)

Just a quick post for some writing news. Over the weekend I have received proof copy of Issue 34 of Neon Literary Magazine – I have three poems in it! It will be available soon, both online and in UK stores.

And here’s a draft of the upcoming cover for the ebook edition of A Bottle of Storm Clouds, forthcoming from the folks at Flipside.

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I’m going on vacation! Be back Tuesday.

In the meantime, if you’ve been thinking of buying my poetry chapbook Apocalypses but would like to see the first few pages first, you may visit this page and download a short sample. Email me if it piques your curiosity.

Shipping of orders will resume next week. Till then!

Hello all. Here is an early poem, not included in Apocalypses, but I hope is enough for your quiet Sunday evening:

“Storytellers“

I’m taking pre-orders till Feb 27. The chapbook will ship out either late March or early April. Though I may have the copies as early as March 1, I’ll still be waiting for a tiny gift, arriving mid-March or so, that will be included in the packages – I do hope it doesn’t get lost. (And my proof copy of the US version is taking forever to get here.)

Will email those who have already ordered (thank you!) nearer to the date of shipping with details about payment etc etc. Sorry for the wait!

That is all. Carry on.

So how is everyone today? Last week, J found a recipe for Garlic Fried Chicken and White Gravy, so we tried doing that, and it wasn’t very successful. Heh. The gravy was lumpy (we didn’t have a whisk!), and the fried chicken got burnt. It was still a pretty tasty meal though:

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white gravy, brown rice, garlic fried chicken, sauteed spinach

J was apologetic but I was just glad I wasn’t eating something out of a can. (And he was successful in the next attempt! Too bad I wasn’t there to take a photo.)

In quick beauty/kaartehan news, I bought myself my first BB cream. Stick. BB cream stick.

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This is Radiance. If you’re fair-skinned, pick up Fresh. Maybelline’s Clear Smooth BB Stick (PhP 249) blends well and leaves a powder finish, but I’m not sure if this is cruelty-free. What BB cream/stick do you use?

We checked out the book bargain bins, and I got this book for PhP 115.

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And Flipside Publishing editors talk about their picks for 2012. Editor Kristine Reynaldo (with her pretty glasses) picks The Viewless Dark and says it made her cry. Watch the video at the source.

Have you been to the Vanilla Cupcake Bakery in Glorietta? Try and visit! We had the Banana Cream Cheese and Chocolate Smores.

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Yum!

 

Tease Your Toes has lovely pictures of the store itself.