Weekly Photo Challenge: Express Yourself

Weekly Photo Challenge is hosted by The Daily Post,
where we publish a new post with a photo interpreting the weekly theme..

Color Me Rainbow

This week’s theme is:

EXPRESS YOURSELF

Today, we challenge you to show us what “express yourself” means to you. It could be the delightful, gummy grin of a baby grand-nephew, a message of love written with a biplane in the sky, the clenched fist of anger and frustration, or even a lunch with an attitude.

Express myself? A rainbow would truly express my personality. I could be a different color each minute. Not that I’m a moody type of a person though. My friends would always tell me that I have a colorful frame of mind and I’m never dull so I think this photo would really express who I am. Plus hubby always tell me that I’m usually sweet so that explains the chocolate. Hihi! 😀

“Be uniquely you. Stand out. Shine. Be colorful.
The world needs your prismatic soul!”
— Amy Leigh Mercree

Weekly Photo Challenge: Serenity

Weekly Photo Challenge is hosted by The Daily Post,
where we publish a new post with a photo interpreting the weekly theme..

Weekend Bliss

This week’s theme is:

SERENITY
/səˈrenədē/

-the state of being calm, peaceful, and untroubled.

Since my off from work falls on Wednesdays and Thursdays, I got to experience the serenity of Bonifacio Global City’s business district during weekends. It’s always been like a ghost town. Few cars, joggers and the occasional film shootings and the likes. Aside from those, nothing. I can’t help thinking that it’s also like walking the streets of The Walking Dead series. Not a single soul in sight and any moment those zombies will chase you. Lol! Oh well. Just me and my infinite imagination. 😀

“Embrace the magical gift of serenity in your daily life.
Nothing beats patience, humility, honesty and tranquility.”
— Angelica Hopes, Landscapes of a Heart, Whispers of a Soul

Weekly Photo Challenge: Shadowed

Weekly Photo Challenge is hosted by The Daily Post,
where we publish a new post with a photo interpreting the weekly theme..

Got Shaded..

This week’s theme is:

SHADOWED
/ˈSHadōwD/

Low-light photography can be difficult to get right,
but sometimes the absence of light can make for a compelling, dramatic photograph.
Experimenting with shadows can be a fun and rewarding way to push yourself to try something new with your camera and your surroundings, and look beyond the obvious shot. You can choose a literal interpretation and shoot an actual shadow, or you can play with the light and dark, and create a moody scene, or capture your subject in a rich and interesting way.

It’s been raining for the past couple of days now. It made the sky somehow shadowy and the days extra gray. The air has that chilling breeze of melting snow, especially in the morning (Like I know how that feels, I’m from somewhere tropical. Lol). I chose this photo since I’m always fascinated by clouds.

“I thought the most beautiful thing in the world must be shadow.”
— Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

Book Blogger Hop: January 9th – 15th

This is from Billy of Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer

If you could have dinner with your favorite character, who would it be?

Jesus Christ! I have a lot. I can’t even begin to mentally list them all. Lol! Wait, I’ll go with Theron, the Prince Heir of Cordell from Snow Like Ashes of Sara Raasch. He’s all you need for a book boyfriend. I know a lot would agree with me. He’s a perfect gentleman. Sweet and always selfless. Not to mention, gorgeous. I tried looking for a fan art of him, but didn’t find any. Too bad. I would love to have a picnic dinner with him. Perhaps under the stars with fireflies flying by. Yay! That would be so romantic. Don’t you think? 😉

January Random Reads 2015

This is where we pick a random book from our shelf to read within the month. Feel free to do more than one, but since a lot of people have a lot of books to read, only one is “required” for the meme.

How to join on Random Reads?

You can either use Random.org, eeny, meeny, miny, moe or you can simply close your eyes and point randomly at a book in your shelf. Easy Peasy 😀

Welcome to my first feature for Random Reads this 2015! If you haven’t read or heard about this, I’ve been doing this since October last year and this helped a lot to clear my unread pile without picking my favorites first. I tend to choose my most awaited books so a huge number are left unread on my pile. So for this feature, I’ve chosen to close my eyes and pointed randomly at a book in my shelf. I love that way in choosing (Nah. I’m just lazy! LOL)! Here’s what I got:

Name: The Burning Sky
(The Elemental Trilogy #1)
Author: Sherry Thomas
Number of Pages: 376 pages in Hardcover
Published: September 17th 2013
by Balzer + Bray
Genre: High Fantasy, Young Adult,
Romance, Adventure

It all began with a ruined elixir and a bolt of lightning.
Iolanthe Seabourne is the greatest elemental mage of her generation—or so she’s been told. The one prophesied for years to be the savior of The Realm. It is her duty and destiny to face and defeat the Bane, the most powerful tyrant and mage the world has ever known. This would be a suicide task for anyone, let alone a reluctant sixteen-year-old girl with no training.
Guided by his mother’s visions and committed to avenging his family, Prince Titus has sworn to protect Iolanthe even as he prepares her for their battle with the Bane. But he makes the terrifying mistake of falling in love with the girl who should have been only a means to an end. Now, with the servants of the tyrant closing in, Titus must choose between his mission—and her life.

I’ve heard a lot of wonderful stuff about this series and I’m very much excited to read it. I’ll probably read this after Tear You Apart since I got an ARC of it from NetGalley and it will be released on the 27th. So they’re expecting a review of Tear You Apart not later than the end of the month, I think.

I’ll try my best to squeeze the book this month for the sake of this meme. Wish me luck! Hey if you do have a Random Reads post, comment your link. I’ll try to check it out. 😀

Top 5 Best Book Covers: January 2015

This is from Billy of Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer

The meme’s rules are simple:
1. Grab the Top 5 Best Book Covers button!
2. Post your 5 favorite books covers that are being released in the current month!
3. You can use a blurb or book synopsis in your post.

Name: Ensnared (Splintered #3)
Author: A. G. Howard
Number of Pages: 384 in Kindle Edition
Published: January 6th 2015 by Amulet Books
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, Retellings, Romance, Paranormal

In the final installment of the wildly popular Splintered trilogy, Alyssa and her dad journey into the heart of magic and mayhem in search of her mom and to set right all that’s gone wrong. Together with Jeb and Morpheus, they must salvage Wonderland from the decay and destruction that has ensnared it. But if they succeed and come out alive, can everyone truly have their happily ever after?
— To be honest, this cover really made me decide to continue reading this. Lol! I have issues, yes, but who would argue that this book cover is so beautiful? 😀

Name: Fairest (The Lunar Chronicles 0.1)
Author: Marissa Meyer
Number of Pages: 256 pages in Hardcover
Published: January 27th 2015 by Feiwel & Friends
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, Retellings, Science Fiction

In this stunning bridge book between Cress and Winter in the bestselling Lunar Chronicles, Queen Levana’s story is finally told. Fans of the Lunar Chronicles know Queen Levana as a ruler who uses her “glamour” to gain power. But long before she crossed paths with Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress, Levana lived a very different story – a story that has never been told . . . until now.
— I’m so excited about this book. It felt like I’ve already waited ages for this one. Stunning cover isn’t it? I saw a GIF format of this book cover and it’s so amazing with the fire blazing.

Weekly Photo Challenge: New

Weekly Photo Challenge is hosted by The Daily Post,
where we publish a new post with a photo interpreting the weekly theme..

Read Your Book Case

This week’s theme is:

NEW
/ˈn(y)o͞o/

Use your photo this week to show us something new-to-you for 2015.
It could be a photo that tells us something about your dreams: a place you hope to travel.
Something that represents a new goal you’d like to reach — the house you’re saving up for, the gates of a school you’d like to attend, the cover of a magazine you’d love to publish in.
Highlight a new person in your life, and all the possibility that relationships contain.
Or keep things lower-key, with an image of a favorite gift you received,
an inspiring book you just started reading, your new puppy,
or the hiking trail you hope to master.
New year. New opportunities. New adventures.
Let’s inspire one another — show us what’s new.

I want to empty my bookshelf of unread books and that’s my first goal this year. I believe the photo clearly represents it. See the hidden message? Read. Your. Book. Case. That’s pretty awesome! 😀 Other than my goal of reading every unread books I have which is tons, I want to have this bookshelf badly. Stumbled upon it on MoIllusions and I immediately fell in love. This is built by Italian designers Eva Alessandrini and Roberto Saporiti of the Italian furniture design firm Saporiti. I don’t know how much it cost though. Not sure if I can afford it, but I’ll inquire. I really want this! 😀

“A library of mostly unread books is far more inspiring than a library of books already read. There’s nothing more exciting than finishing a book,
and walking over to your shelves to figure out what you’re going to read next.”
— Gabe Habash
[The Wonderful and Terrible Habit of Buying Too Many Books,
PWxyz (news blog of Publishers Weekly), February 16th, 2012]

Book Blogger Hop: January 2nd – 8th

This is from Billy of Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer

Question of the Week

What is your Blogger’s New Year’s Resolution?

My Answer:

When I’ve read the question for this week, I stared at my PC for I think five minutes before it registered. I’ve never thought about a Blogger’s New Year’s Resolution really. This is pretty tough ’cause I don’t want to go listing things then eventually forget about them. Perhaps I need them tattooed on my forehead. That would be pretty. Lol! Anyway, here are some things that I would probably NEED to do so here are my Blogger’s New Year’s Resolutions..
+ TRY to not hoard books and finish my unread ones first. (With TRY being all caps Ü)
+ Post book reviews right after reading it so I won’t be behind of schedule.
+ Visit my friends’ blogs more often (I’m feeling like an awful friend already. Lol!)
+ Participate to Reading Challenges (I’m really hoping I could do this!)
+ I think I need to have a Blog Make-over. (Don’t you think? Ü)

Reading Bingo│2014

Since I’m so lazy doing a recap of the books I’ve read this year, I’m so glad that I saw this from Emalie of BookGatherer. This looks a lot of fun. I may or may not do the recap in January
so I’ll do this instead. Hihi 😀 So, all we have to do is to dig up from the piles
we’ve read according to the squares below. It’s up to you in which order you want to do it.

 

 

 

Name: Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices #3)
Author: Cassandra Clare
This book has 576 pages and I really really love it ♥

 

 

 

Name: A Christmas Carol
Author: Charles Dickens
I’m not really certain if this is forgotten, but it’s definitely classic right? 🙂 This is the only Christmas book I’ve read this year.

 

 

 

 

 

Name: The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #2)
Author: Rick Riordan
I’ve read this way way back, but I’ve only seen the movie this year.

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Warmth

Weekly Photo Challenge is hosted by The Daily Post,
where we publish a new post with a photo interpreting the weekly theme..

Basking The Day Away..

This week’s theme is:

WARMTH
/ˈwôrmTH/

-the quality, state, or sensation of being warm;
moderate and comfortable heat.
-enthusiasm, affection, or kindness.
-vehemence or intensity of emotion.

I’m sorry that you’re disappointed about me not wearing a bikini. I don’t want to risk my friends having nightmares. Lol! The photo was taken at Subic, Zambales which is a place that’s so dear to me. That’s where my Mom’s hometown is and the beaches are divine. I usually just sit there basking in the sun while taking a nap or reading a book. I wish I could go back one of these days. 😉

“I cannot endure to waste anything so precious
as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house.”
— Nathaniel Hawthorne,
The American Notebooks