wednesday wishes + shopping sprees

It's that time of year where I can step outside, take a breath of fresh-ish air and cry out, "FREEDOM!" Of course, that freedom is going to be short-lived, but at the moment I am a proud (albeit tired) student who has finished her undergraduate degree! And although my back-up plan kicks off next week (i.e., coming back to do a minor in Religious Studies on top of my double major in English and Multimedia), I'm going to enjoy the time I have off ... plus, I'll only have class on Tues/Thurs of May and June, so let's just say it's summertime for me! Yipee!

And because I'm finally on vacation, I've been doing some hardcore wishing on top of some celebrating with The Boy in the form of sleepovers and shopping sprees that make us happy. I'll admit, The Boy bought more clothes than I did but I tend to be really picky when spending my limited amount of money (gulp).

I've been looking for a cute skirt for a while and though I was aiming for floral print, couldn't resist this one - if you want larger/more details about the skirt, please look at the image right here. And then I just got a simple white tee, but it has a neat design in the fabric and I love little tiny pockets :)

Oh, and the other day my mom graciously bought me a pair of Adidas running shoes - motivation to run outside, whoopah!

And as for where I've been wishing about lately? It's somewhere I've been to before, but never really got the chance to explore fully - Warszawa (or Warsaw), the capital of Poland. Exactly two years ago I was there - boarded my first airplane and flew off to the main city, jetlagged and make-up-less, taking in the sights for a mere few hours before driving off to see family. But the city captured me in its spell - a combination of both old and new, of typical Polish food and all-you-can-eat sushi restaurants. I can't wait to hopefully go back there this August to take more of it in.

In the 'new' part of the city, high-rise buildings are spread and combine old and new ...

I saw so many shopping malls it made my head spin (really hope I get to go to at least one).

A small view at the colourful buildings in Stare Miasto - Old City, my favourite part of Warszawa.

So many look-out points and so many bright slanted rooftops.

This is my "Welcome to me shop!" pose :)

The streets of Old Warsaw are hustling and bustling - if you take a little peek at the roped-off area you'll see an older war-truck ... there were shooting not one, but two films that day on that street, and at a nearby church there was a wedding going on! Always so much to see.

And being the first European city that I ever stepped onto, I fell in love with the cobblestone streets. By the way, can anyone tell what that fuzzy figure is? In Polish, it's called piwo.

What are you wishing about today?

Hope you're having a good hump day!

just got paid, Friday night...♪

There's nothing like watching Friends season 2 DVDs and getting paid from working last month to cheer a gal up!

By the way, ten points to whoever (or is it whomever? I'm an English major, what a fail!) can guess the song from the lyrical reference in my title! Even though I already spoiled it on my twitter. Oh, shameless plugging! I decided to make a public account to keep in touch with any blogger friends who might have it. Follow me? Haha.

But yes, I took this pay all the way to the mall in another city with a close friend (also Filipina, I have a few!) and I did some shopping! We spent a good hour in Forever 21; such an amazing place, haha. A huge storm hit southern Ontario yesterday bringing lots of chaos with it and so the power went out momentarily, but I found myself not minding being stuck in that store (even though it was scary). I found myself a fantastic pair of black skinny jeans (only $16!) along with some other goodies:

These shirts are so different from each other! Pretty but comfy :)

Many use the words 'retail therapy' and I suppose that applies to me to. I restrained myself and didn't splurge, but oh, it was so hard to. However, I do have a rule when it comes to shopping. Say, you pick up that fantastic piece of clothing and you think, I just have to have it! Well, right after that pops into your head, try to imagine 3 different scenarios or days where you'd wear that particular piece of clothing. If you can picture at least three, it belongs in your wardrobe. There's nothing worse than buying a beautiful top/pants/skirt/dress but never knowing when you're going to wear it. I'm acting like clothes have feelings, oh boy!

As we went through the mall, we heard music coming from The Gap. There was a live band playing acoustically there (and I felt bad since there was no one really listening), along with free food and water. I now have a water bottle from The Gap! After browsing through the stores, we found ourselves pretty happy:


My hand looks so weird in that second pic.
And now you all know I went to La Senza ;)

The storm brought along some tornadoes too; so odd that such destruction could be followed up with such beauty:



The sky was such an odd gloomy colour so the rainbow really stood out. Sunset came soon afterward, though, so me and my gal-pal hit up a delicious restaurant called Spice Avenue, which was so filling.



I love the decor in that place! After that, we hung out and watched A Very Potter Musical which, for any Harry Potter fan, is a must-see. Speaking of Youtube-link-sharing, if you're ever in a sad mood and need a song to make you bob your head with beautiful lyrics, listen to It's A Beautiful Day ... just don't mind the random cars in the background. I don't know whether it's the accordion, the guitar, the little 'oo-oo-oo-oo-oo' in the background, or the lyrics themselves ... but it's my jam right now.

I see no reason to cry, I feel no reason to run,
Just look inside your lonely heart, open your eyes you'll see the sun.
It's a beautiful world, it's a beautiful day.
The sun is shining to my heart, every morning and every day.

I hope you'll all have a beautiful weekend! Mine will probably end up being rather spontaneous, but tonight I'm spending time with The Boy (for now, that nickname is staying, but thanks for all the suggestions!) and we'll see what happens from there!

I've come up with some ideas for the giveaway {stay tuned for that next week}, and one of the prizes will be really personable ... hope you'll enjoy it! Have a beautiful day :)

retail therapy makes me smile.

There's nothing like some retail therapy to get your mind off of your laptop, which is suffering from spyware and so you have to reformat it but first you have to put 38GB worth of pictures and music onto DVDs so that way you don't lose your precious pics and tunes. -Le sigh- At least I have my desktop!

But yes, I finally made a trek to the mall - solo. I love going with friends, and usually when I'm alone, I feel really vulnerable to passerby's' glares n' stares. Nevertheless, I braved it alone and got myself some things and only shopped in the mall for an hour before I had to leave ... because Second Cup/Booster Juice/Yogen Fruz kept calling out to me and I knew it wasn't worth it to spend $4 on a drink. Yay, resistance!

So here's my mini-shopping haul, haha.

I finally decided to use the MAC giftcard from my sister! I was intimidated going there, since it's full of women dressed in black with crazy make-up, but the lady who helped me was surprisingly nice. She approved of my tentative choices with eyeshadows (Tempting, Woodwinked and Retrospeck) and my blushes (Fleur Power, Sunbasque, and Springsheen).

As she showed me the eyeshadows, all I could think was that I had similar colours at home. Which reminded me of my Mom, her voice shouting in the back of my head: Why do all your eyeshadows look alike?! Stop spending money on the same things! So, I decided to go with a blush!

We decided Sunbasque would give me a nice sun-kissed glow like I've basked in the sun (whoa, clever name), and as she applied it on me with a Mac brush -- the first time I've ever felt one on my face -- I felt like I was having an orgasm in heaven, haha.

Looks like I can cross another thing off my 43 Things list, since a blush is just as good as an eyeshadow! Whoopah! (Yes, I have weird ways of saying yay, haha).

Got my bikini! My first non-patterned one in a while, too. It' s got detachable straps and no strings at the bottom, which is what I was looking for. I originally wanted it in white, and then decided that I didn't want to flash the whole beach with my nipples and punani once I got out of the water. So, cerulean it is! Reminds me of Cerulean City in Pokemon (oh wow, I am a dork).


And a basic black $10 tank top with diagonal straps in the back from H&M. Perfect length to pass off with just leggings (which I'd never wear as pants) but also perfect as a tank top with jeans.

So whoo-hoo for a shopping spree! And thanks so much everyone for your comments, awards and all. This blog was much more of just an experiment in the beginning, and while I still have so much more planned for this blog, I'm so happy and grateful for the blog friends that I also love reading daily. I'll stop being cheesy now! I'm off to get some cappuccino with my galfriend, hope you have an amazing weekend!