Style and Soul

It is said that a man will not heal at all... not until he is completely broken.

Upon hearing this line from the movie Grace Card, my life flashed right before me. Right then and there, I fully understood. You see, if you read a lot of my previous personal posts and some from the soul section, you'll notice that most of them were poignant and some of you will see right through -- you can probably tell that I went through something tough these past months.

I may have felt defeated at one point (and I'm sure I'll find myself in a similar situation again someday) but what matters most is that I came out totally fine. The healing process has come full circle.

As always, our Shop Vintage collection is comprised of specially-curated and one-piece-per-item-only thrift and pre-loved treasures for YOU – my fellow budget fashionista!  Everything is in good, wearable condition and reasonably priced so that a lot of mid-income earners and trend-savvy students who depend on their allowance savings, can afford to “splurge” without actually spending too much.

This is really my goal in keeping  F-STOP up and running. When I started getting more interested in dressing up, it has been difficult for me to SAVE a lot of my hard-earned money because like any other normal girl, I do like to shop. Thank God for ukay (thrift store)! I’m able to maintain a “stylish” lifestyle on an incredibly tight shopping limit. This is what I want you, the busy (no time to go thrift shopping) but stylish recessionista to experience. 

Of course, I’m not selling the products for its ukay prices because you also have to consider the effort, investment and profit. However, I always put myself in the shoes of the shopper and make sure that my pricing is fair enough. Exceptional pieces like printed or colourful blazers, fur vests and leather jackets are sold for P900 and below (I never sell any product for over a thousand unless it’s brand new), chic dresses, tops and bottoms are priced for way less than P500 and basic yet equally trendy items are around P150 – P350 only.

In this time and economy, imagine what items you can actually buy with those prices. 

Even though I’ve been incredibly busy these past few months, my “attempt” at time management has allowed me to squeeze in a few hours for some thrift treasure hunting. Here, below are some of the items you’ll find in F-STOP store this month.

Hello Anonymous! I would've replied to your comment through the comment box but sadly, due to the length of my reply, I couldn't post it there and so, I'm doing it here.

P.S. I'll also take the opportunity to insert some outfit photos, just to minimize my backlogs, haha.

Let me start with your “If you really want to change, JUST DO IT” line. YOU DON’T KNOW ME -- AT ALL. You don’t know what I’ve done to change and what I’m still doing in my life to keep on changing. ALL OF US (including you) have something in us that we want to change, fix or improve. I'd like to ask you this, nakakasama mo ba ko araw-araw para malaman mo kung nagbago nga ba ako? HINDI. The people who truly know me are the ONLY ones who can "genuinely" tell me what changed or what hasn't and what's left for me to do.

The Topic of People Helping and "Announcing" It in Public 

If you think my first 3 paragraphs are “blah” and annoying, that’s okay. I get you, not everyone’s going to react positively to everything I say. Often, I also find myself really irritated by some people (not all) who keep on posting their charity works online because I also feel like all of those were empty “blahs.” As for me, I’d like to think I wrote those paragraphs with a purpose in mind.  We’ll get to that later. :)

You know, you’re right. In my head, those kind of people (again not all) are “probably” bragging (I left a little room for benefit of the doubt though). I share the same sentiment with Patty Laurel and Ms. Cecile (Chuvaness) because I believe people don’t need to tell other people that they’re helping. Let other people talk about your “good works” or let them find out through some other means but you don’t say (for example) “I just gave alms to a beggar on the way home and it felt good.” Or “Saw an old lady and helped her climb the stairs.” Why even say or post about it? So people will compliment how nice you are to do that? So you will “inspire” other people to do the same? If that’s the case, then you’re just helping for those wrong purposes then. So why do you REALLY help? Is it to help for the sake of helping or just so people will think you are encouraging and inspiring? The way I see things, “helping” is not about feeling good about yourself. It is about helping those in need EVEN IF no one’s looking or no one knows you did it.   

Sometimes I wonder, "How many times should I say 'sorry' for blogging late or not blogging at all?" After much thought, I realized, it's not right to feel the need to apologize if the only reason of doing so is because I hardly update my blog.

Before any judgment on how inconsiderate it is of me to not think about the people who patronize Style and Soul, allow me to clarify what I really mean before I get misinterpreted - again. As much as possible, I try to avoid calling my followers,  my followers because I hate treating them as fans. Read back on my previous entries and I'm sure you'll notice that I like using the term readers because I actually believe that my genuine supporters certainly take time out of their busy schedules to read what I've written and not just browse or look at photos.

Even though I may not be as expressive as I should be, truth is, I really love my readers. Whenever I receive thoughtful comments when I open my laptop once I arrive home from a labor-intensive or stressful project, it puts a smile on my face and pulls my emotional strings (cheesy but sooo true, haha). It feels touching and it makes me more inspired to keep on writing entries where I'm able to share ideas, insights and feelings that may influence beliefs, something they can ponder on, or just anything useful that they can take with them as they live their lives in the real world.
Because my readers mean much to me, I also value their time spent on this blog. Although a few commitments push me to flush out certain posts, generally, I'm not the type of blogger who updates regularly or for more, blog for the sake of blogging. My blogging philosophy tells me to only blog when I really have something to say and not because I want to say something. You get the difference?

A lot of us are recessionistas in real life - style enthusiasts who always keep an eye out for the latest sales, biggest price cuts and frugal finds. For every fashionista on a budget, this is your lucky month as I give you a quick list of the recent bazaar schedules and brand sale announcements for the month of July.

Ever since I decided to make blogging one of my least priorities in life, I turned down a lot of blogger-related opportunities, stopped going to events (focused on what I should be really doing) and started dressing up as comfortable and as casual possible. My uniform these days are loose tops, shorts and wedges - not that special and so, not that worth blogging about, so I thought. 

Thinking that there's nothing much in the outfits that I've been wearing recently, not to mention my boyfriend isn't always there to take photos anymore, I would simply choose to not post at all instead of compromising my standards. If I have nothing much to say, at least my photos better be of good quality and not some blurred or pixelated crap.

I really thought I would be updating my blog more last September. Well guess what - haven't done it again. Haha. My boyfriend told me that I should treat blogging like a job now (and not just some hobby or leisure) so it's something that I would be doing regularly.  

Well I guess I really should. Blogging isn't so much of a habit anymore unlike before and so, I should force myself to develop a system to follow so that even though I get busy, I'd still find time to actually get to it.

Before I blog about my most recent whereabouts, it's really important for me to write about our Port 88 Bazaar experience and thank all the shoppers, followers and blogger friends who really went out of their way to show their support for either Ana, Aisa, Aie, me or for more, the four of us! We had such a blast meeting all of you! Again, many, many thanks! *HUG*

Aisa and her reader :) Thanks for buying my lace dress!

Sharing the booth with three other blogger friends was indeed so much fun. Made the time we stayed there worthwhile and enjoyable.

The obligatory pose-in-front-of-my-F-STOP-tarp photo. Haha. Kung maka-promote lang. Haha.

Are you guys really sisters? Weh?! Di nga? Haha. That's Ate Tricia, Pax's older sister (whoa?! Can't believe she's older). Haha peace Aisa!

Remember my mom? Who doesn't seem to support my business? Surprisingly, she went there to support! :)

On the first day of the bazaar, we weren't able to meet everyone who dropped by our booth because we went to the Blogapalooza event. It was a congregation of some sort for all bloggers from different categories who were all gathered together to witness companies present  their products and brand profiles. These are businesses that wanted to make a solid presence online through the help of the bloggers. Of course, the one who made it possible, to bridge the gap between brands and us [bloggers] is the team of Blogapalooza headed by Vince of When in Manila.

We actually arrived late since we came all the way from the Port 88 Bazaar (traveling from Ortigas to Taguig was an effort and expensive via taxi, haha). Aaaw too bad, we missed the first few company presentations. It also was supposed to be a networking place but I was too shy (me too shy? ows?!), yes too shy and maybe a bit not-in-the-mood to approach someone else and give my card and promote myself. Although I do that here in my blog, hahaha, I just don't have the guts to do it in person. I'll do a better job next time. Hah!

There were just too many to mention brands and products and until now, I'm still sorting out which were the ones that I genuinely like enough to write about. So I'll get to that soon! How soon? We'll see... hahaha.

This is one of my most favorite presentations from Size Matters! I'm not the same as some girls out there who are really conscious about their body shape and weight. I love my full medium-sized body and I'm just always-on-the-go for huge burgers!

So that's a wrap for now! Got so many giveaways and freebies from the Blogapalooza event and I can't wait to share them with all of youuuu. If you follow me on Twitter, you'll notice that I pretty much update my shop F-STOP aaaall the time but not so much on my blog though. Haha. See yah!

Hello guys, quick post before I do some important paper works. Lately I've updated the site twice last week and hopefully, I'll get better at updating in the following weeks. Haha. I have a lot to share to you: the backlog of the RRJ fashion show that I styled with Aisa, the Port 88 and Blogapalooza, a fragrance launch event, outfit posts, a new brand feature in my shop support segment and a giveaway!

But before all that, I'll focus first on my clients for my online shop's Asian Fashion BATCH 25B arrivals. See, these shoes have been quite delayed (Grrr Korean suppliers, haha joke) and some of my customers can't wait any longer. Oh well. I understand their impatience but I'm also a retailer so like them, I've been dying of waiting for the shoes to ship them.

And now, I finally (FINALLY!!) had the time to take photos of some of my actual product photos. Usually, customers can be very demanding, take note that ASIAN FASHION shoes can arrive a little bit later than the estimated arrival time, so I would always hustle to pack them up and ship right away without bothering to take some photos. I've come to realize the importance of having actual product photos just so clients would believe that I really do sell these products and they do arrive at my doorstep. 

Here are some of my favorites! (Made sure I put F-STOP watermark on each shoe!)

Chunky-heeled, lace up oxfords made of PU leather and suede (in gray & black)

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