The planner that keeps me sane.

My love affair with Belle de Jour Planner started in 2009 when I was looking for a planner that will suit my lifestyle as a young professional who was so in need of  a beautiful space to write all my thoughts! I found some posts in my blog when I was talking about the cover of my BDJ Planner  in 2010 and when I used the yearly goal planner. 

And since the BDJ Fair is less than 2 weeks away, here's my photo with the beautiful bellas I met in BDJ Fair in 2010! Seems like it was just yesterday! I remember we met in a game then we all had our hairs curled! Haha. 

This is your chance to learn, explore, and meet beautiful people too! See you at the SM MOA Music Hall on October 14, from 10am to 10pm!

Aside from their interesting line-up of guest speakers and fun activities, I'm super excited to check out the latest editions of the BDJ Power Planner, Navi: Your Lifestyle Navigator, and their newest babies -- the everything is possible planner and newest edition of the BDJ FMN notebooks! 

The best part is: They will all be available at the fair for 20% off! :D

Belle de Jour Power Planner

The Belle de Jour (BDJ) Power Planner is especially made for the Pinay fashionista achiever.The term Belle de Jour (bel duh zhoor') is French fashion lingo for Ït"girl and we have redefined it to mean the modern day renaissance woman who dares to achieve her goals, lives herdream life, makes a difference in her community, all while doing everything in great style.

All pages reflect the uniqueness of the BDJ Girl. The BDJ Poer Planner includes time-management principles to help BDJ Girls manage their life better, articles and affirmations to inspire them to live life to the fullest and over Php20,000 worth of coupons - to remind them of work-life balance.

NAVI: Your Life Navigator

Who wouldn't want to see the world? Inspired by the traveler who embraces uncertainty, NAVI: Your Life Navigator, reminds us about the importance of going places and belonging in those places. On their fourth year, NAVI 2013 encourages us to ask the important questions and to be aptient with getting answers, while still keeping our life goals in check. With its low-key travel- themed design, inspiring travel articles, and plenty of space for notes every week, NAVI 2013 is the must-have planner for men and women who want to keep moving forward in life.

EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE

Imagine what you would do every day if you tell yourself that everything is possible? everything is possible is about simplifying life by creating concrete goals and breaking them down into achievable steps. Pick from our inspiring quotes to use as your mantra, and maximize our much-loved time management-based layout to help you be mindful of anything, big or small, as a real possibility. With its minimalist clean design, everything is possible is the planner for anyone itching for a fresh start.

FORGET-ME-NOT

The BDJ Forget-Me-Not line is the ultimate companion to the BDJ Planner. Purchase one or all of these handy pads separately for the endless things you need to write down.

CREATE/INSPIRE

Take a moment to write things down and never let a brilliant idea go to waste, this is your perfect idea pad.

DARE/ACHIEVE

Start with a clear agenda, organize your thoughts and assign tasks easily with DARE/ACHIEVE, your go-to pad for meetings.

SAVE/DO

Keep your cash in control and be on top of your tasks with SAVE/DO, your dual=purpose pad for tracking cash and to-dos.

Check out the newest releases of the Belle de Jour team at the 2012 BDJ Fair: Limitless! at the SM MOA Music Hall on October 12 with their discounted Fair Prices! Are you Bellas excited? I sure am! :)

Know more about the different BDJ Fair activities and sign up details here: http://on.fb.me/SNFueP

Like them on Facebook: facebook.com/BelledeJourPlanner

Follow them on Twitter: @BDJBuzz

Visit their website: www.belledejourpowerplanner.com

What I learned about Surfing

On top of my list when I was in my early 20s (Goodness! I'm saying this now!) was to surf, first was to climb a mountain. I usually have a timeline for my plans, Climb a mountain: 18, Travel abroad: 25, (both were realized before the deadline by the way. haha) but for surfing, it was just in my list but I never believed in actually doing it. 

I learned lessons from my first ride (hoping to get a chance for a second ride) that remind me on how I should look at life when not riding the waves:

1. Impossible really becomes not possible if you never give it a shot. My list doesn't say that I should be a professional surfer but for a long time, I was thinking that even just trying it... is absurd. 

The photo below shows how scared I was on my first try:

2. Patience is always a virtue. Life is not designed to be flat, it has ups and downs, right and wrong, but we have to keep the faith and keep moving. If you didn't ride the wave the first time, be more alert and try it the second time. If you fall, hug the board tight and try again. After a few try, you'll know. :)

As cliche as it is, "something that does not happen doesn't mean that it won't happen."

3. Listen & use your senses. In today's world, everyone wants to talk which oftentimes make things complicated. In surfing, you need to use your senses, don't just look, listen and feel the waves coming. Listen to the wind blowing, look at the waves beside you, quickly close your eyes to feel the waves and concentrate on your senses. You can't afford to lose a wave cause you might not experience one anymore!

4. Sometimes, you just don't have the chance to backout, so rock it! Sometimes, life gives us things that we think we don't need but is actually for us to experience and we have to be brave enough to try what's in-store for us out there. Most of the time, we need to risk then our lives will never be the same again cause it just gets better.

5. It will always be hard to keep the balance, but only the wise can do it (Read: wise- with knowledge & experience of falling and standing up over and over. haha).

6. Be prepared (you can't afford to miss one wave, remember?).

7. Enjoy the ride. There's a feeling of euphoria when riding a wave, it's addictive. The feeling before, during and after riding a wave is indescribable but you can never tell a story about only "after the ride," it needs to be a whole process to make the story complete so you have to enjoy every second of it.

FREEDOM. It was a liberating feeling to ride the waves. 

Awesome Idea: What I always do is to imagine the feeling when I was riding a wave, then I imagine my worries as the wave- scary and huge...after a few breaths, rode over my worries, then they go away! 

Maybe that's a good idea for you to try surfing, so you'll know what to imagine when worries come again!

So here is what I've found out in my hard drive, my "chimpanzee" first ride:

*This was a quick trip to Zambales, read the whole story here.

Vanity & Savings

So, the photo above is our savings! Yohoo! But as you can see, I'm not suppose to use it for shoes or dress, it says "FOR TRAVEL ONLY" and it's not even mine alone, Taku put some 10 & 5 peso coins there for the past months! 

We got a total of 3,500 pesos! I thought we have 6,000 already :( but I'm wondering where could we go with this! 

Anyway, since I always keep in mind "to save" and I don't usually buy things that are not "the basic," here's something that I do when mixing and matching with what I have:

This is my headband. I put white ribbon in it and made it a necklace. Yey!

Since this necklace is in my closet for so long (given to me by a gorgeous friend, Rochelle) and I've found a nice white top, I worn it and took a photo cause I want to remember when Taku looked at it 4 times trying not to laugh. Then he sent me a message during lunch saying "How's your curse working?" I swear he's so not into fashion!

But just last week, I had fun having Avocado foot mask with Taku (Korean experience)! Haha.

Look how the guy liked it! Probably, we'll do this again cause my feet got a bit softer. 

(You can buy this pack from Watson's)