goodbye 2011, it's been a heck of a year!

It's the last day of 2011 and in a few moments, my side of the world will be ringing in the new year. What can I say about 2011 really other than it's been one of those years filled with extreme highs and lows and nothing in between. When it was good, it was great and when it was bad, those are moments I'd rather not dwell on.

It's been an eventful year not only for me personally but for the whole world at large. We've witnessed major political shifts worldwide not to mention the onslaught of every conceivable disaster Mother Nature could throw at us. The death of Osama Bin Laden and Muammar Ghaddafi. The Arab Spring and Occupy movements. The devastating tsunami that hit Japan back in March, earthquakes in Turkey and other terrifying natural disasters that swept across the globe.

As we enter into 2012, all I can think about is how much this year has given me in terms of personal growth and I am very thankful for that. So, thanks 2011 for all that you have given me, I truly appreciated it :)

the year i lived excessively

I think i did rather okay up till my sister's trip to the US and then everything just went haywire for me :)

My sister's Stateside vacay kicked off a major spending spree that hopefully stops today, right here, right now. Mainly because I cannot afford all the excessive spending and my conscience about savings (which there have been none to speak off for the past couple of months) has become louder the more I buy stuff.

Up till late October, I thought I would get away with no major designer handbag purchases. Then I got the YSL Sac Biker but at 900 plus dollars, was still a rather affordable purchase. Then I got my Tiffany bracelet (seen below) and the Balenciaga Giant City in Parme from the US trip.

After that, I bought my iPhone 4S plus the Mophie Juice Pack Plus case which pushed the overall phone total to over 1000 dollars. Next I was nudged to get the Dark Violet Balenciaga Velo by my sis. Which is this bag I'm holding right here, finally have it in hand!

Then I got this:

Yup, a Miu Miu Coffret. A style that I've always loved from this line. It was selling for a lil over 1500 dollars. And I'm modeling it wearing a couple of things from my F21 haul - the lace maxi skirt (which turned out to be something I totally LOVE), my black ruched sleeve blazer and my faux pearl bracelet. I think I have on the F21 black racerback tank underneath the blazer. All accessorized with my Dolce Vita Marci sandals and the Balenciaga City Parme (not pictured).

Then today, on the last day of 2011, I got myself this:

You're looking at the Marc Jacobs Stam in Purple! Which I got for 50% off!! That's the largest Stam size available and I paid less than 1000 bucks for it!

That's right, in this year alone, I managed to cross off 3 of the bags on my covet list!! Isn't that CRAZY?!?!?!

So it's no wonder that I feel like I've been living the excessive life - cos I have! Anyways's here's hoping the upcoming year will be one with more of a modest demeanor - can't keep up with my 2011 self anyways :D

i know i'm late to the party

BUT I AM IN LOVE WITH 'The Voice'!

I know the first season is over - done and dusted with the inaugural winner crowned being Javier Colon mentored by Adam Levine. Anyways, I love the entire concept of this show, it is just such a refreshing take on reality TV singing competitions. I believe the concept of the show was based upon a show from Holland called 'The Voice of Holland'.

Anyways, I was just flipping through channels yesterday and happened to catch a repeat of the quarter final show 1. I switched on the TV to keep me company while I was preparing my lunch and baking and thought that The Voice was a good choice since I wouldn't really have to 'watch' it to be able to follow the plot, you know. And since the contestant that was up was Jared Blake from Team Blake singing King of Leon's Use Somebody which is a fave of mine that it made me stop and stay on the show. When the two back-to-back epis ended, I switched on my lappie cos I had the season stashed somewhere on my computer but never got around to watching it, and decided to get all caught up.

Ok, the premise of the competition is very interesting and all but I'll be honest, what kept me watching was Blake Shelton. Yes, I'll admit it, I have a crush on Blake Shelton. I like him so much as a man and a person. I have no clue as to his artistry as a singer cos I'm really not a country gal but as a guy, he is sooooo attractive to me. Firstly, the height *swoon*. He's 6'5" according to Adam Levine and as I've made it clear, I HAVE A THING FOR TALL DUDES! Plus, he's cheeky and funny and not too bad to look at. And his rendition of Maroon 5's This Love with the suggestive hand gestures towards Adam Levine during the lyrics 'Sinking my fingertips' as well as his quick quip "That's what she said" when Adam commented on how big he was length-wise compared to the rest of the people on stage at the time was what completely endeared him to me. Adam totally laid up that comment for him though :)

Yes, I am aware he's married to Miranda Lambert but who cares really? It's not that I'm in love with him, I just like to have some man candy when I'm watching something :D

further transgressions

Ok, just so that I don't appear like I'm a crazy shopaholic (we may be beyond that already but I'll try to redeem myself anyways), I'd just like to state that these purchases were made prior to my posting the last two entries. So it's not like I talked about my needing to curb my purchasing power (:D) and then turned right around and bought some more stuff.

So, now that I've sufficiently justified my shopping addiction (hehe), let's just proceed onto the stuff that I got. First up, a rubberized hard case cover for the company issued Blackberry Torch.

I got this off of eBay and decided to go for the red case. Now, this is truly a departure for me as I usually streamline my gadgets to one colour only and that is BLACK. It was a 'BUY NOW' deal and cost me $2.98. The reason I decided to get this is because when my parents were up here visiting me, there was an incident where I dropped the phone, which had been sitting on my lap, getting out of the car, a 4WD, and proceeded to put one foot atop it. When I realized what had happened, I knew that there would be some kind of physical damage to the phone as it had fallen from a height and onto asphalt. True enough, the once smooth bezel of the phone was now pock-marked. I got truly annoyed with myself. Since then, everytime I look at the phone, I am reminded of that incident and the annoyance creeps back in. To save my sanity, I decided I needed to cover the damaged areas and what better way then to get a hard case. I went for red cos I felt it would be easier to find in my bag. It's been shipped but I don't know if it'll reach in time for my short visit Homeland next week. We'll just have to see ;)

Next, I got some skincare off of Strawberrynet. I decided to go full-on Murad and bought the Blemish Control Starter Kit, the Post-Acne Spot Lightening Gel and another bottle of the Skin Perfecting Primer Acne and Shine Control. Sense a theme here aside from the brand? ACNE :D I am on acne prevention control. God, I am nowhere near a teen but it sucks that I still have to deal with this. My hormones have just gone haywire for the last couple of months which created small bumps all along my jawline and I did a lot of things to try to get them under control but until I started taking the GNC Saw Palmetto pills, nothing worked to treat my hormonal acne.

Once I started taking the pills, along with the Sibu Sea Buckthorn supplements, I have seen a marked improvement in my skin. However, although the appearance of new pimples and amount of acne has decreased significantly, I still have to contend with the scarring. I am one of those people who get highly hyperpigmented scars from acne and it is so annoying to have to wait eons for the marks to fade. I do have the Ambi Fade cream but I need something stronger, something that contained a higher potency of Hydroquinone which is a skin bleaching chemical. So I decided to get the Murad, Post-Acne Spot Lightening Gel. The product comes in a 30ml bottle and costs $62.50 on Strawberrynet which is $2.50 more expensive than if I had had gotten it off of drugstore.com. The reviews for this product were 99% positive so I decided to just invest in this product.

Next I decided to get another bottle of the Murad Hybrids Skin Perfecting Primer Acne and Shine Control. It retails for $35 but on Strawberrynet it cost 5 bucks more at 40 dollars. I have been using the bottle I got off of drugstore.com for the past one month and I have to say I like it. It does control shine very well. I like that it also contains acne fighting properties. This primer has a 0.5% salycylic acid content to help control acne. Honestly, I use a 2% salycylic acid blemish treatment so 0.5% is really a negligent amount :) The primer is light but it doesn't have a runny consistency. It spreads easily and you don't have to spread it so quickly before it dries.

Lastly, I figured I've tried so many Murad 'skincare accessories' that I might as well give the basic skincare range a go. That's why I got the Blemish Control Starter Kit. The product I'm most excited to try is the Exfoliating Blemish Gel - I have heard/read soooo many good things about this product. The kit contains the Clarifying Cleanser in a 60ml tube, the Exfoliating Blemish Treatment Gel in a 30ml bottle, a 7.5ml tube of the Blemish Spot Treatment, a 30ml tube of the Skin Perfecting Lotion and a 0.9ml sample packet of the Oil-Control Mattifier SPF 15. This kit cost me $39.50 but the RRP on drugstore.com is 36 bucks.

So I got these yesterday and they were already shipped and the package is currently in transit. This order was shared between myself and two other colleagues as we all wanted the additional 5% discount for orders containing 6 items and above. Also, currently Strawberrynet is offering an additional 10% off on the Christmas specials set and my Murad Blemish Control Starter Kit qualified for that. On top of all that, I had my 7.5% loyalty discount. In total, I paid $119.05 for my entire purchase with free shipping. Although I had a 20% discount from drugstore.com, I decided to just buy the stuff from Strawberrynet because any discount I got from drugstore.com would be offset by the amount of shipping I would have had to pay to have it sent back to Homeland. I think from now on, unless the discounts are significantly cheaper, I will just get my beauty products off of Strawberrynet if they have it in stock.

On a side note, I've tried various spot treatments and something I've noticed about myself is that my skin responds the best to products that contain salycylic acid. It does not like products that contain Tea Tree Oil so much and barely tolerates those that have Benzoyl Peroxide as the main chemical. However, all the salycylic acid is drying so I have had to really slather on Garnier Skin Naturals lightening moisturizer I am currently using as my go-to face cream.

since I'm airing out transgressions.....

I'd like to add that I also got myself the 64GB iPhone 4S, teehee! That's just the pic of the box it came in. It's resting atop my souvenir from Eldest Sis US trip, my Coach iPad cover and the box is being propped up using my old iPhone 2G stacked atop my Nokia N97 so I could take the pic at an angle. Using the iPhone 4S of course and the lighting was provided by the flash from the Blackberry Torch :D If that's not using mobile technology creatively, I don't know what is, hehehe. Behold!

Yup, in another spur of the moment moment, I managed to persuade myself that I could slip in an iPhone 4S purchase for this month. I am now truly up to my eyeballs in debt! Hehe, for some reason I find this hilarious. It's been a tad mind-boggling to look at the bills, specifically the ones from Tiffany and Balenciaga but I guess I thought that a USD950 purchase of an iPhone 4S could still be managed :D

At least I can say I am truly living up to 2011's mantra "Zlena's Year Of Living Frivolously". Or was it "Zlena's Year-long Milestone Celebration"? I forget, I come up with many mantras to justify one thing or another, I am aware :D. Anyways, despite the utter craziness of the amount of spending I have done in the past 2 months, I have been completely happy, ecstatic even, with all my new purchases.

And this iPhone 4S - I LOVE IT! Granted, there are moments when Siri and I are on the outs because she doesn't get my dictation down perfect but other than that, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE! What would make it truly EPIC though would be when I can finally jailbreak it! Yes, I love jailbreaking my iDevices!

When making the decision to buy the iPhone 4S, I had already made up my mind to go for the largest storage capacity. I am one of those people who just need it. Plus, since this is going to be my main picture-taking device, I will need the storage space to store the photos/videos. And trust me, with the awesome camera hardware on this phone, it is encouraging me to whip it out all the time to take random, obscure and nonsensical pictures :D

And I have discovered how much I love to FaceTime. It's probably my newest addiction. I may be 900 plus miles away from my family but FaceTime makes it feel like they're just right there in front of me! I know the whole video conferencing/chat thing isn't new and I have Skype and the like prior to this but the quality of the calls made via FaceTime is tons better than with any other app I have ever used!

Aside from that, it's pretty much the same as my old iPhone 2G (which is moving on to my other sis now that I have upgraded), just faster. What I'm doing now is looking into accessories. I made a decision to get the Mophie Juice Pack Plus case after reading that the battery on the iPhone 4S drains rather fast. I can testify to this truth. I start out at full charge in the morning but by evening I'll have about 36% juice left. This is with hour-long FaceTime sessions and music-listening. Also, Wifi is always on. So, I only felt it was prudent for me to get the case with a built-in external battery pack since I wanted this device to not only be my phone but be my camera as well. And I decided to get the Mophie Pack Plus and not the cheaper Mophie Pack Air because the Plus doubles the battery life while the Air extends it to just below double. Plus, the Plus (hehe) which usually retails for $99.99 was on sale via Amazon.com for $64.95. But only for the magenta. It's a good thing I loved the magenta :)

I am also looking at getting the Olloclip lens kit. Like I keep mentioning, this is going to be my primary camera so I am planning to get serious with photography through this, hehe. ok, so not serious serious but actual recording/archiving of life events with this camera phone so I thought I would invest in some camera related accessories.

But this will have to wait in January cos like I mentioned, just spent a ton of money and I can't swing a $69.95 purchase of a camera lens kit *wink, wink, nudge, nudge* Ok, no seriously serious, I am only getting this when I am about to go on the yearly company trip which should be during the usual month of May. Plus the Glif tripod mount and the Joby Gorillapod Flexible Tripod. Told ya, I was serious about getting serious :D

So, ok, am ending this post now cos my eyes are actually blurring due to staring at monitors so long. Toodles!

DISCLAIMER:
Images of the Olloclip, Joby Gorillapod and Glif came from the respective websites.

i think my mental faculties have left me

I honestly think my brain has been shorted in the past couple of weeks. The part of the brain that got fried - my self-control! Remember me writing about getting this....

Yup, that's my Balenciaga City in Parme with Rose Gold Hardware. Weeelllll.....I accidentally got myself another Balenciaga! A Velo in dark violet with rose gold hardware to be precise. It costs the same as my City Parme. Geez, I'm kinda in a bit of a daze.

I totally blame my sister for being the MASTER INSTIGATOR. During her US sojourn, she became buddies with this SA in one of the Las Vegas Balenciaga stores and along with her enabler, I ended being convinced to purchase another designer bag! Sight unseen! But apparently, this is what it looks like -

Well, Scott, the Bal Enabler, emailed her the 2012 colour swatches and also a few images of the inventory that had already come in. My sis fell in love instantly with the dark violet with rose gold hardware City that was on display. So did I. Despite that, I managed to resist. But my Instigator Sister kept iMessaging and BBM-ing me with lil comments like "You would look soooo good carrying a dark violet Velo with rose gold hardware, Zlena" that I managed to convince myself that "Yes, I would look good with a Balenciaga Velo in dark violet with rose gold hardware!"

And thus, she put in our order and that was that. On the bag front - I hope :)

DISCLAIMER:
The pic of the Balenciaga City in Parme is my own but the image of the Balenciaga Velo in Dark Violet I got from a site called lovebbags.com. I had a few photos that Scott the SA sent to my sis but none was of the actual bag I ordered so I googled imaged it and was directed to this site. The picture belongs to lovebbags.com, I am just borrowing it :)