#styleoverlabel

If you're an early bird in when it comes to making christmas lists and you still haven't filled up the entries on what to give your girlfriends, your titas, your mom or yourself then I've got a suggestion. 

Get them one of these bags from Rags2Riches.

Carefully and beautifully crafted by Filipino artisans living in less advantaged communities across the country, these Rags2Riches bags are not only statement bags because of its world-class designs. These bags are statement pieces because of the inspiring story it has to tell.

Do you wanna hear a short story?

This Fall/Holiday 2013, Rags2Riches welcomes the celebrity stylist and fashion editor-at-large, Liz Uy as their season's Style Advocate.

Liz's style advocate story revolves around her belief that "one’s personal style should always make a statement, and that one’s accessories should go way beyond being just a decorative piece, possessing a story and life of its own." Her collection for Rags2Riches ARTEsenal Luxe makes a bold statement that glamour can be good for the world, and that style can have soul and substance. 

My favorite from this collection would have to be this green Zelda mini bag. I find the richness of this green refreshing from the usual emerald or military green sling bags that I usually see in stores. :) 

I was glad to have been invited by Ms. Reese Fernandez-Ruiz, CEO of Rags to Riches (who I was so luck to meet during one of the IamMeg Episodes read by blog post below) to this launch. I was even happier to get the chance to bond with the Meg ladies Julz, Yuki, Trisha and our stylist Pattee, outside our IamMeg taping days :)

I was also stoked to have the chance to meet one of the most stylish person in the country, Liz Uy. Who by the way was very pleasant and humble. :)

If you want to get to know more about these beautiful hand crafted bags, visit www.rags2riches.ph. Like Rags2Riches on Facebook and Follow Rags2Riches on Twitter, on Pinterest and on Instagram: @rags2richesinc. 

Shine,

STEPH

The pleasure comes from neither the question nor the answer, but the reasoning.

(Bob Cropped Top | H&M Skater Skirt and Emerald Sneaker Heels)

In life, akin to the puzzle- Connect the Dots, the fun part isn’t much where you begin or where you end. The fun part is the in journey of looking for the next number, the next step, making sure you draw a straight line. The best part isn’t necessarily finally guessing the final image correctly. Rather, it is when you find the meaning behind the image drawn. 

I feel like I'm playing Connect the Dots in my life now, but instead of following the numbers strictly within the sequence, I jump from one dot to another... trying to cheat my way to figuring out what the final picture would be like. But I realize, this doesn't work that way. It is essential for me to follow the number sequence, because if I don't then the final output of my work will have no meaning. There is a reason, a purpose, of why the dots are placed where they are, and I have to respect that.

Right now, I'm not exactly where I want to be, but I'd like to believe this is where I ought to be. I should worry less and not be discouraged because somehow, I know the dots will connect. I know I will get the puzzle right. All I need to do is play the game and never give up. 

Shine,

4.1.13

Try’na start over

Wished my life on a clover

to find some answers

I’ve learned that the two most important questions in life only comes in two words, one is a letter and the other is a three-letter word. 

I? 

Why?

“Who am I?” is the expansion of the question I? In one of Blair Waldorf’s lecture to her minions, she quips, “They don’t tell you who you are, you tell them who you are.” Problem is what if you’re idea of yourself is quite blurry. What if the only way you identify your self is via other’s opinion of you. Even the Johari Window validates the idea that we only really know half of who we are for we are subject to a blind spot and to the unknown. How then can we get it right in answering the first essential life question? Perhaps by finding out your strength and weaknesses. Then again, some of your weaknesses could be your strength and vice versa. Can you feel the dilemma, my dilemma? 

Okay let’s imagine we’ve answered the first essential life question, cause most of us really have that covered in our own twisted logic. I mean we even pull out the “I’m just being true to myself” card in some instances, so let us make believe (or know, which ever you prefer) that we are passed the first question. 

On to the second, WHY? 

The question why correlates with the reason for being or purpose. I don’t think anyone will contest that. Thus, we agree that“Why am I here? What is my purpose?” is the implication of the question Why?

In general, I believe our purpose is to constantly change. Life is an energy that is neither created nor destroyed. Life is about change. We know that something lives when it changes. Like a how a tree grows leaves, a flower blooms, a cocoon flies as a butterfly, a shell breaks into a chick. 

I remember asking over twitter, “I know that everyone dies, but does everyone really live?” I thought, if we are basing life on only the physical existence, then yes we live. But our kind of life goes beyond the body, it goes beyond the mind, beyond the heart and sometimes the soul. 

(Charlie Sunnies| Forever21 Vest&Corset| Bazaar Find Jeans | H&M Sneaker-heels| Promod Bag| Guess Watch)

In my questions, I drown in confusion. But it is all good cause I know as my thoughts are progressing, I am changing and therefore, I am living.

It may be frustrating to not know the answer, but who cares cause what makes life interesting isn’t the answers but the questions. 

So, did you get lost in my contemplation?

♥, 

Allow me to resurrect my netizenship in the blogosphere with a Haiku. One of my motives in putting up this blog is to try and train to become a word alchemist like Tyler Knott Gregson. I hold high esteem for his ability to express so much with a few words. I want to emulate his special power of imagination and word play.  Thus, as much as I can, I shall try to inject Haikus in my post. Look, I just did.

Jesus Christ’s reborn

There is no more time to mourn

So go blow the horn

Today I celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the restoration of vigor in my life. I have promised myself that 2013 will be the year my dreams become my reality; however, after my reflection and personal evaluation during the Holy Week, I realized I have fallen short of this goal, at least given a quarter of the time. But hey, failure is final only when you stop trying. Here I am, yet again, starting over. I’ve always wanted to keep a regularly updated blog but I have been slacking off (thebasicsteph.tumblr.com has been forsaken).

Even so, like in the other aspects of my life, I am not giving up. I pick myself up and try and try until I die succeed. 

As I drowned myself in reverie during Lent, I brainstormed about what specific content should my new blog cover. Of the myriad addresses in the web, why should people visit my page? How can I make my blog interesting? What is my unique selling proposition? My answer: a mind blowing “I DON’T KNOW.”

  My gosh it’s been a seven year on and off relationship with the blogosphere (yes, with all the changing web addresses from multiply to blogger to tumblr and holy now wordpress) and I still do not know what I want to write or talk about. Should I just concede and say my life is not interesting enough? Definitely not. Besides, the goal of this blog isn’t to prove to people that my life is interesting. It is to share my thoughts and interests, hoping that somehow, somewhere, someone can make use of it.

What makes blogs and people interesting anyway? It’s when they are interested. There is an unexplained magic that happens when people talk or write about something that they are genuinely interested in.  Ergo, I’ll just go with the flow and talk about my interests. Everyone has a story to tell and my task is to tell it well.

So yeah, allow me to be hipster by rejoining the bandwagon of being a blogger.

* Bikini Top: OP | Denim Polo: Talbots | Belt & Shorts: Bazaar Find | Slippers: Havaianas  *

*Special Thanks to X Vallez for the photos. Finally pretty photos especially for the blog. Dandy Mar Roa for my make up. You did magic. Betsy Alano for the BTS shots and the ice cream treat and my Mother Dearest for being there as always. Love you all. *

♥,