Traverse City, now is your time to meet and greet famed luxury leather goods designer Patricia Nash in the flesh! Don't miss this fantastic meet and greet event -- the designer will be raffling off a Patricia Nash handbag during the event, and the first 10 people to spend $100 on a Patricia Nash item will get a $20.00 Macy's gift card to spend. That's pretty awesome, if you ask me! I love designer meet and greets-- not only are most designers super friendly in person, but you'll definitely gain a lot of insight into their creative process. Expect to hear a lot of amazing travel tales and inspirations from Patricia Nash!

Unfortunately, I'm probably not going to be able to make it myself as Traverse City is a bit of a drive for me (around 5 hours, sadly! I still want to visit sometime soon!), but the amazing people over at Patricia Nash and Michele Marie PR sent over this lovely surprise, anyway:




Isn't this backpack simply stunning?! The fashion house was kind enough to let me pick a bag of my choice, and I KNEW I just had to have this baby. It's only been a week since I received this beauty, and it's been nothing but nonstop stares and compliments! I'll do a more in depth review of this amazing bag in a separate post! All I can say is, I'm psyched to be able to find THE summer bag!

You guys have a great one ahead! :)

When you become a newly minted parent with no regular sitter (basically majority of us parents here in the US, hehe), the words "going out on the town" becomes a rarified, almost profound experience. I definitely have a newfound appreciation for something I used to take for granted. Two weeks ago, however, my brothers-in-law Clay and Brandon were in town for their birthdays-- we knew we had to go out sans babies (thank you, grandparents :)) and check out Hopcat, one of the most buzzed-about craft beer pubs in the country!

YASSSSSSS girl, yasss... The granddaddies of electronica (and one of my most favorite acts ever) are coming to Detroit with their famous 3D spectacle. You're not sitting this one out, right?

EVERLAST-ing boxing gear, literally! Everlast pro training gloves, Everlast hand wraps, Wodwhipper jump rope, and Everlast punch mitts


So you guys, looks like I'll have to Manny Pacquiao my way into losing the postpartum fats! :D

Seriously though, it's been two months since I popped out my little man, and everyday is an uphill battle to lose the excess poundage. I have gained a total of 45 pounds, and lost short of 30. That's an achievement, I suppose? But as they say, it's always the last 10 or 15 pounds thats near impossible to get rid of. I would hustle my butt off to the nearest crossfit gym if I could (I got hooked right before I left the Philippines!), but paying $250/month? No thanks. So with that, me and the hubs decided to go ahead and get us some brand new boxing gear-- I've boxed on/off in the past, so hopefully it really helps this time around.

First time moms out there, any tips on how YOU won the weight battle? Insights appreciated!:)

Ten months.

That's how long I've been absent from this space. Heck, that's the longest I've ever been gone from this space, ever. I've long given up on the thought that I still have hundreds of followers still rabidly waiting for a new update from me, but hey-- I'm hoping at least my mother and a few of my most loyal friends would be ecstatic to see something new on this page again.

Everyone who's connected to me personally would probably know by now some of the reasons as to why I've been gone that long, but if you're one of the two casual readers still hanging on to the hope that I'll return someday and explain myself, I can sum it up in three words: change is constant.

My life has been nothing but ongoing and overwhelming changes since early last year. I just HAD to decompress, even if it temporarily letting go of a lot of the things I held dear, including this blog. As you can tell from this photo, I'm obviously NOT in the tropics anymore (defeats the purpose of keeping the name, yes? but whatevs)-- I left the literal warmth of home to relocate to the heart of Midwest America (where it's ridiculously cold for more than half of the year) to finally start a little family with my significant other. Last year brought out probably the biggest change I least expected-motherhood. We now have little Dallas Isaac, our wee two-month old and the third member of our little family. So there you have it--  I actually popped a human being (Achievement unlocked!) AND moved to a whole new country in a short span of ten months. It really is too short of a time to have done both that. So again, can you blame me for being gone that long?

So as you can see, I didn't just change cities, or countries; my life completely changed course in every which way.  Finding myself being a new mom in a whole new country while trying to establish myself again has been nothing short of a challenge everyday, but I'm trying to go through the motions with open arms. I think it's going to be very interesting to see where my new life takes me.

Just like me, please expect a complete do-over where this blog is concerned. And while I'm probably no longer going to be identified as a "cebu fashion blogger" (though I miss my old blogger friends so!) or will be posting less about clothes and more about, say, the wintry beauty of Michigan or my quest to lose postpartum fats, I hope you find that my new life will be just as interesting as the last one I led. It's good to be back!:)