This 7-pc Limited Edition Holiday Make-Up Brush Set is available at Deal Grocer.

If I actually put on make up, or even knew how to put on makeup, I’d grab this deal. But I don’t know much about make-up. Sure I know something about lipsticks and glosses, and maybe a thing or two about eyelash enhancer, but really not much else. 

Suesh has a good reputation for quality tools, and the discount of 900 pesos is a really good deal. I intend to learn how to do make up some time in 2012, but I will sadly have to pass off on this one for now. I’ve told myself countless times not to buy anything I won’t use right away. Since I won’t be using these brushes anytime soon, the savings from the purchase might not really be savings for me at all. But it doesn’t mean you have to let this deal pass on, you can have it. Click through if you want this set!

So learning to do makeup is just one of the things I want to accomplish in 2012. I haven’t really thought about making a list of resolutions for the coming new year, but flipping through the BDJ 2012 planner got me thinking about my goals.

Gretchen Rubin of The Happiness Project posted 6 questions you should ask yourself when you’re making New Year’s resolutions. Check those out as you ponder your own list. I know I had to change mine so there’ll be more concrete action. Leave me a link if you’ve listed your 2012 Goal List, or Resolutions! Thanks!

Tonight is my last workday for the week, also the last one before Christmas. I’d be bringing the ‘generic’ gifts I got for some people. I really wished I was more creative and picked out something special for each person, but it won’t be so this year. Oh well.

Until now I keep thinking about getting something for all my reps too. I thought I had a brilliant idea last month and perhaps I should have got them then because now, I don’t think it’s so brilliant after all. Haha. Perhaps I’ll get them some food and give each a handwritten note on a card. Hmm, that’s something personal.

I had thought of getting custom lanyards for them but that didn’t come to fruit, either. I would have our LOB names printed on it, but I heard there’s a minimum order and since I handle two small LOBs and two teams of yet another one, what I need for each design won’t be enough for the minimum.

I’m using beaded lanyards now, an agent gave it to me. You can see part of it here:

Pardon my vanity shot – my eyebags look awful! I was only trying to take a photo of my new earrings that day.

So there’s something attached to the beads that allowed me to also attach a badge reel at the end. I’ve been using the pair for months, but today I took it off because the reel isn’t working anymore. Bummer.

Oh, because my lanyard looks pretty, I don’t mind keeping it on even outside of the office. Just like wearing a necklace without worrying about it being stolen or snatched away.

I’m also still thinking of another gift for someone special. I’ve set my sights on something but I’m still having second thoughts because of the cost. With just one day left and then it’s the 24th, I don’t think I’ll be completing my gift list this year. I can always just send more donations for Sendong, and then name it for the person I would have bought a gift for but couldn’t. A donation in their name is a good gift for people who already have everything.

Today, I stopped by SM Cubao to get some wrapping paper. Mom’s orders. As I was paying for the rolls I got, I saw this display stand of Japanese chocolate – Meiji!

Me: “No Choco Baby. Hmmm. Oooh, the Strawberry ones are there. Hello Panda! Hey, what’s this?”

It’s available in two variants, creamy milk chocolate and Strawberry. I went with the safer variant because I wasn’t sure it was going to taste great.

I’m not sure why I ever doubted that.

It opens this way, like a gift:

Inside, there are more snowflakes in the packaging. Nice touch. Festive. It’s individually packed. Doesn’t make it any harder to go through one box though. But I was driving so I only had one, or three.

Okay, I lost count. At least they reached the house! My mom saw them right away, and she almost finished up all that was left. Had to stop her.

They’re like square chocolate truffles. Melts in your mouth.

A box costs PhP 119.00. Not cheap. But worth it. Consider it a treat.

Chocolates like these – though hardly high end nor gourmet – these are luxuries. Like arturo fuente cigars that you would only take out of the box for special occasions. (Okay, I exaggerate). That’s how I like to think of these Meiji chocolates so I won’t buy them so much.

Before you go grab a box, consider donating first to relief efforts for Typhoon Sendong victims. See my previous post, for links. Better yet, go straight to http://donate.unicef.ph/ and hit the Donate Now button. Whip out your cellphone, type RED 500 and send to 2889 if you’re a Globe user. That sends Red Cross a Php 500 donation for #Sendong.

So this one has fewer words. I’ll let the photo, and my handwriting tell the story:

Here’s another juice pack I’d been thinking of lately, the Juju Cleanse.

So my 3-4 year-old LCD monitor is actually 22 inches in size, not 19. We brought it into the Qube service center this afternoon. Looks like they can fix it, we’ll either pay 1000 pesos for just repair, or 1500 if any piece has to be replaced. We’ll go back for it in three days.

Three more days without my PC. I’ll survive.

But I’ve got projects I can’t work on because of this hitch:

- My blog overhaul. There’s been malicious attacks on both Verabear.net and The Newbie Photographer. The latter has been completely disabled so I need to rebuild. For this one, I’m thinking of taking this down to be built it up gain . I can’t do that on an iPad, nor on my dad’s work laptop.

- Organizing our photos. I took (or should I say ‘am taking’?) Kayla Lamoreaux’s Finding Photo Flow class. It’s really great. I haven’t gone through all the class content and haven’t really begun work on my cluttered photos (digital clutter of course).

- Project Life. Okay, it’s not my PC or the monitor that’s keeping me from this one…

Just found out that my nephew AJ has a new puppy! I don’t know what breed of dog 6-month old Sake is, but he’s so adorable! I’ll take a photo soon and post, I’m sure his new family won’t mind. Sake, that’s a cute name isn’t it? I think my Zune senses him. He’s lying in front of the door as if waiting for something, or someone.

Also early this afternoon, my Dad asked about flash drives that go as much as 4G in capacity. I told him he should get a portable external drive instead so he can have all of his files handy. Later on though, I realized he can just use online storage. There are free options like SkyDrive and Oystor that would be sufficient for his needs. He would need to be online to access them though, and I guess that’s the only downside of it for him. Everything’s found online these days, and there are many solutions for mobility like the iCloud.

So many things online, I wish I could just telecommute for work. And still earn as much if not more than I do now. Hope. Long ago, job hunting has been brought online, even teaching, freelance, nursing, and physician jobs can be found online. But those jobs are still offline, if you know what I mean. Wouldn’t I love a job that would just all be online? Haha. I feel so at home online, maybe it’s because I find so many inspiration all over the place.

Okay, sounds like I’m rambling? Yes I am. Trying to distract myself from looking at bags at the Cath Kidston website. I fancy this:

Alfred bought it for me as a very very late birthday present. It only cost PhP 990, a third of the cost of an Apple keyboard for the iPad. I hope I get to use it for a loooooooong time.

There are other compatible keyboards sold at CD-R King for the iPad but this was the one I got because of its size. There’s a pocket-sized one but typing with it would be too uncomfortable. My iPad already has a case so I didn’t go for the other style. Besides, the case wasn’t as good as the one I already had.

There’s talk of tablets being issued to OMs at work and we’re all looking forward to that. I’ve always wanted to use my iPad for work, but there’s no Wifi access there at the moment so I wont be able to send my work to my email like I do with my phone. Another alternative for me is to finally upgrade the iPhone to iOS 5 so I can get the wifi hotspot functionality and take advantage of my 24/7 unlimited Internet connectivity. But once the tablets are issued to us, Wifi won’t be my problem anymore.

We’ve been discussing getting a new (personal) laptop so Alfred and I wouldn’t have to wait for each other’s turn on the PC. But if I get one, it would have to be good enough for photo editing and digital scrap booking. I would want it to be fast, of course. A MacBook is ideal, but way out of my budget. Just now, I’ve sort of decided not to get a laptop anymore. I’ll just spend the money on premium iPad apps. Much of my blogging and surfing could be done here anyway, right? The rest I can do on the PC when Alfred is done with his games and PP.

Back to CD-R King. That store is full of stuff! Imagine they even have LED TVs now. My 19″ LCD monitor seems to have died already, and I’m seriously considering getting a replacement from the gadget store for the masses. We’ll take the monitor to the Qube store at Gilmore where we bought it 3-4 years ago and see if it can still be revived.

For Pinoy readers, would you consider buying an LED TV or monitor from CD-R King?

I’ve ticked a couple of names off my Christmas list already. I shopped through the convenience of the group-buying websites. I only get from the reliable sites, those I’ve tried before and personally used by friends. Got this to give my Dad, who doesn’t read my blog so it should be safe to say so here.

This is the perfect solution for him to take his favorite music with him in his car – which doesn’t have a CD player, just like mine. For my car we have the Garmin which not only helps with navigation, but is also an FM tuner for the iPod/iPhone. This player I got for Dad is already sold out, but CashCashPinoy still has an AVT GPS Navigator up for grabs, it plays music and videos too.

I also bought a deal from Groupon Philippines, one I won’t reveal because the intended recipients might be stalking my blog as we speak. But it’s a very good deal, the same type of product is available at Lock N’ Lock stores at a huge price difference. I was so stoked I bought two sets! So go checkout GrouponPh!

I still have quite a list to go through. I don’t know what to get my Mom yet. Although there’s nothing wrong to give generic gifts to specific groups of people, for my Mom I don’t want to get something like Sferra linens, kwim? I’d like to get her something really nice that’s for her and not for the whole household. So what to get for Ma? That Sony Cybershot DSC TX10 camera on sale from Amazon last night would have been a real good gift. I hesitated though so the ones on-stock now are not as cheap, but still marked down.

Anyhoo, how’s Christmas shopping going so far?