Aicha Amano

June has been more than kind to me and my frazzled nerves! The past months have definitely been a handful, with work left and right, and barely having time to really take some quiet time and not get those terrifying surge of rush and panic: that-"ohhh, wasn't I supposed to finish X and Y and Z by tomorrow?!"-feeling every 5 minutes. I can tell you that's not always a happy time, that's a lot coming from me, the queen of breaking deadlines before the deadline it even realizes I'm all " ...hasta-la-vista-baby !" with a smirk. So my June vacation leaves were a kind treat to me before I got thoroughly down with burning myself out. I love that I was given 5 days (3 working days + weekends!) to feel refreshed and see a lot of places! Together with our friends Pat & Ren, we went to Pearl Farm Beach Resort which is one of the best beaches in the country. Aside from all those food trips all over, I had also some time to practice some of my hobbies. I...

During the month of May, it was very pleasant since I gotten re-acquainted with watercolor painting. I have a new Prang basic color set :) It's wonderful because it is so pigmented and very workable. I've done just a couple of coloring exercises. Nothing too impressive, I hope I can learn and become better at watercolors faster :(   Because I want to fuel this passion, I bought a 'painting' desk (just an ordinary corkboard study desk, nothing too fancy) so that I can have an area in my room where it's brightly lit and I can watercolor in peace... Meaning, not get distracted by the glaring monitor and the urge to browse about my favorite websites. I like this desk because the horizontal board folds up and closes like a little cabinet. I store some artbooks there too, and if you look closely, there's a bunch of manga on the shelves along my videogame and anime toy collectibles. I need more, don't you think? Haha! I feel that watercolors is ve...

Hello~ It's been a good month since I last posted, so you can tell I've been very busy! Busier than ever and working as hard as I can. Book-wise, I would like to say that I have  made a substantial success in reordering my books: filtering the books that I want to give away and ensuring that all my favorites are accounted for and sitting prettily in my shelf. Because I'm the type of reader who doesn't give away the books after I'm done reading, I always have a couple of stacks of books around my bed, my table, my dresser and cabinet, and even in various places in our house :) My novels stacked high, my artbooks haphazard among my stuffed toys I've been compiling some books that I also want to sell, and I've been doing a good deal of trading ( the "selling my books so I can save up enough to buy different ones" kind of trading XD ) at Blink.com.ph so if you want to catch some of my titles and to some different sellers, you can definitel...

Well well well, another post, another day to praise the benefits of organic products to the heavens! You must be getting tired of all these wonderful feedback, but I am all up in this cause. I want to find a comfortable pace in shifting to all-organic skin care, so I am now dabbling to bath care! Zooming on Face Washing Daily cleansing is a very important part that you just can't skip. (Don't even think of skipping your cleansing routine!) It is where the foundation to which the health of your skin rests on. There is more to cleansing than just washing away of the day's dirt or grime, as it should also: 1. Avoid stripping away the natural moisture 2. Help the skin replenish lost moisture due to make up or heavy usage of topical skin care products 3. Not aggravate skin conditions like dry skin or oily skin 4. Cleanse the face thoroughly without being harsh to the skin Organic soaps should always be cut in smaller pieces, as these have no "hardeners" and may melt a ...

May is currently rolling, and I am feeling adventurous! I've been using several products from Human Heart Nature these previous few months, obliterating most of  the products I've long been using. There is a certain relief in my part that I've committed to stop using chemical-laden products on my skin. I feel like I am going in the right direction, and my skin feels like its thanking me for this effort :D I've been going on about "becoming healthier" or going "all-natural" in my previous posts, giving you a hints that all boil down to this online order: Human Heart Nature is a local brand made popular by the subscribers of the Go-Organic subscribers or people who are on the Green-campaign bandwagon. I've recently developed a disgust in the usage of beauty products containing harsh chemicals which can "take care" of our skin. For me, that sounds like an oxymoron gone haywire. I ordered a few items from Human Heart Nature, starting wit...

Ever get that blurred vision during a hazy, warm summer's day, when the air is thick with humidity then all you can see is the clear sky with no trace of clouds, and the road is a strip of hot air forming a translucent mirage, and for some strange reason, the sun keeps on getting in your eye and you just can't think straight? That's what I felt when I read The Stranger by Albert Camus . Even during at night when fluorescent lights are lit up for everything they're worth, my eyes still squint from overexposure from a scorching sun and mirage from the asphalt roads; the same way when the bright noonday sun slashes from between the rustling leaves of tall trees. I've heard of Albert Camus before, as he is big in the Philosopher's circles and his works have so far branched out into the Literary pools that one can't help but at least hear of his name. The one thing that I am always curious about is Philosophy, but I can never keep up with this or that schoo...

I LOVE TEA . It is calming, steadfast and comforting. This is a post about all my adventures in drinking. I have been drinking cups and cups of tea in different types and tea sets and situations. You can drink commercialized, pre-packaged or coffeeshop-prepared tea all you want but nothing really beats boiling water and steeping the tea bags yourself. Sure, there are benefits of drinking tea, we all know that somehow these little packets do a lot of good to the body, but few know that it is excellent for the SKIN. You wouldn't mind a good boost in elasticity and firmness to your skin, would you? But more than that, there is a longer list of benefits when you drink tea everyday! Tea with Le Kareshi Aside from the benefits of tea, one of my favorite things is completing the tea prep. Above is my matching tea set. I use this on weekends or when I have people to have tea with. It is a 6-piece pot and cup flowery, spring-love thing and I adore it very much.The porcelain is perfect to k...