Happy First Anniversary Miscellaneous Me!

The Miscellaneous Me is turning 1 this April 2011 and she's celebrating it with a bang! She's giving away she beautiful fashion accessories from Miranda Miranda. 

Miranda Miranda has a wide selection of fashion accessories ranging from bracelets, earings, headbands and necklaces. There would be 3 lucky winners which would win any of the following:

A nymph necklace. It is made from freshwater pearls, hammer shells and mother-of-pearl chips. The pendant can be removed and used as a brooch.

Necklace size: 15 inches + 2-inch extender. (Choker)

This is a lariat necklace is a long necklace without locks or claps, which is usually worn by winding it once or twice around. It’s a very flexible fashion accessory that can be worn in many different ways.

This is part of the tiered majorica bracelet collection. It has 3 strands of Majorica pearls with ribbon and is on an elastic bracelet. This one's my favorite because I love pearls and the touch of black ribbon adds to the classic beauty and elegance of the bracelet. 

How to join:

There will be one winner for each item. And joining is really easy!

1. Blog about this giveaway. Make sure that your post links back to this contest post. Please also include what accessory you like most from Miranda Miranda‘s accessories.

2. Subscribe to The Miscellaneous Me email feeds. The form can be found on the left sidebar.

3. Follow her using Google Friend Connect.

Please enter your information on this form to make your entry count!

If you have multiple blogs, you can enter as many times as you want for more entries. Just make sure you input your information on the form mentioned above. This giveaway starts on  March 19 until March 31. 3 winners will be drawn using manual raffle. This is open to bloggers with address in the Philippines only. For details, click here.  Again, Happy First Anniversary Miscellaneous Me!

Knight in Shining Armor - Adventure Partner

I grew up believing in fairy tales. I always believe in happy endings. However, to hear from someone you admire of her own version of a fairytale, it makes you wish you not only to hear it, but to see and experience it for yourself.

Angelina once told me of a remarkable experience she had when her scriptures has helped her escape danger when the book which she neatly kept on her bag was struck by a sharp object instead of directly hitting her. 

Though I may not have escaped physical dangers just like what happened to Angelina, my adventure partner –which is my scripture, has helped me escape various other dangers. 

1. Don't worry about losing a signal

The word of God provides endless communication between our Heavenly Father and us. Its network coverage is endless. And yes, you don't have to worry about varying bill rates wherever you may go. 

2. Constant companion

People come and go in our lives, but in this every changing world, we can always trust in the Lord's unchanging word.

3. Letters

A missionary was once in deep solitude because his family doesn't write him letters during his mission here in the Philippines. The wife of the mission president joked him and said, "Elder, in the scriptures, there are lots of letters". 

I may not have experienced having a knight in shining armor like Angelina did. However, with my scriptures, I found an adventure partner - an eternal companion.  

This is an entry to Wanderlass Adventure Partner Contest themed ‘My Adventure Partner’ by Wanderlass.com and R.O.X. Philippines.

My Adventure Partner - My Eternal Companion

The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.  - St. Augustine

I see my scriptures not just as adventure partner in my travels but my eternal companion in this wonderful journey called life with:

Every Traveler's Essentials

1. BAND AIDS - "For I am the God who heals you" Exodus 15:26

2. CANDLES - "Your Word is a Lamp unto my feet and a Light unto my path" Psalms 119:105

3. ERASERS - "As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our sins from us" Psalms 103:12

4. TAPE - "God sticks to you like tape - No Matter What"

5. BUBBLE SOAP - "The fountain of wisdom is a bubbling brook" Proverbs 18:4

6. BATTERIES - "God has given us a Spirit of Power......" II Timothy 1:7

7. BUBBLE GUM - "The thirsty soul (ground) will become a bubbling spring" Isiah 35:7

8. CAR - "Race to the Finish - With God!!"

9. MARKERS - "Color your world for Jesus"

10. MEMO PADS - "Write them on the tablet of your heart" Proverbs 7:23

11. MUSTARD SEEDS - "If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can move mountains" Matthew 17:20

12. SALT - "You are the salt of the earth" Matthew 5:13

13. LOLLIPOPS - "Taste and see the Lord is good" Psalms 34:8 

This is an entry to Wanderlass Adventure Partner Contest themed ‘My Adventure Partner’ by Wanderlass.com and R.O.X. Philippines.

Taking the Chances!

Today's post is gonna be a little laid back and different. You know, like how differently I wore the life jacket ;-)

or how we do our yoga differently

(No, don't worry, this blog hasn't been hacked, silly! ;-) 

No specific topic, whatsoever. 

I'm tired of always trying to be in control. I'll just let the thoughts flow. When was the last time that I wrote? Oh, here and here. 

For the past few days -- or should I say months, I have been running in circles. I traveled to Boracay with my friends - Karen Reontoy and Airel Ilarina just to shoot for a couple of contests that I'm joining. I know, I'm crazy at that. I have been kind of addicted in contests. It all started when I joined the Standard Chartered Bank's World's Coolest Intern 2010 contest. Among 1,180 contestants all around the globe, I made it to the Top 10 (being the only Filipina in the list). However, I eventually lost to the Social Media Wizards of Oz. It was one of the most memorable moments of my 2010 and something that would always inspire me all my life. I lost but I felt like I won a lot. I gained the respect of the people I've always admired. Gained friends from all over the world and learned that life is not always about winning but about how you enjoy every moments of it. Also, my story became one of the winners for the Yahoo! My 2010 Story. You see, God is not bad in balancing things ;-) 

So yeah, the experiences that I get to learn from contest has kept me going along with the support I'm getting from my friends. The same is true in real life. There are contests and trials that we win. There are some that we lost. 

The sign of being a mature person is not how well you prepare for everything to be right, but on how you stand up and move on after everything goes wrong.

I invite you all to take a look at my entries and see if you 'like' them. Here's my entry to Samsung Galaxy Tab Craziest Things where I ate a raw egg, had a zorb run over us and climbed the highest...see for yourself here.

For a contest which is truly close to my heart by Veet for a chance to date with Daniel Matsunaga and the dashing iPad.  In my entry, I showed how Veet could empower me as a woman and I feel that helping the kids and defend those who are powerless. I hope you also notice how the actions sync with the song by Heart Evangelista like when I tried to reach out for the balloon so I could give them to the kids, "there's nothing that I can't do whenever we're together" - with Veet. Here's the video. You could vote for it until April 30. Everyday. Up to 15 times. 

Last month, I also took a chance to a contest hosted by the Azerbaijan government in honor and commemoration of the Khojaly Tragedy, thus called the Khojaly contest. "Khojaly - Lessons for future", organized by Athena Ventures, supported by the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan.


PRIZES:

First Prize: Rs 10,000 Cash
Second Prize: Rs 7,500 Cash
Third Prize: Rs 5,000 Cash
Certificates of Honour for good entries
Participation Certificates for all participants

PLUS

Travel will be arranged (or paid for) for the winners if they wish to receive prizes from the Ambassador of The Republic of Azerbaijan

ACTIVITY:

Write an essay after exploring internet, books and other sources

REFERENCES:

1. http://www.khojaly.net
2. http://www.khojaly.org
3. http://www.justiceforkhojaly.org
4. http://www.khojaly.org.az
5. http://www.khocaly.s5.com
6. http://www.wikipedia.org

Then several weeks ago, I got a call from a guy whom I didn't remember the name. He identified himself as someone associated with the Azerbaijan embassy. He told me I won the Khojaly contest. Though I know I wasn't one of the Top 3 winners, I was elated to hear that my entry must be one of the best. He took down my bank details and said they'll send me my prize via my local bank.

Me and my mom went to Banco de Oro yesterday and lo and behold, I got $195.00 credited to my account! Me and my friend were joking that since their grand prize is First Prize: Rs 7,500 Cash, they might just be giving me Php10.00 being one of the consolation prizes but hey, they actually sent me Php 8385. You see, never underestimate any contest! It was fun joining such a contest because it has helped me become aware of what's happening in other sides of the world and how cruel the Armenian forces were to the residents of Khojaly.

Now why I am sharing you all these. There will come in our lives when we want to get things that we like. However, we just can't have everything we want, just the things we need. 

When me and my friends shoot in Boracay, there's a lot of things that me and my friends learned. I've opened the album for everyone so you could have a glimpse of how fun it was. 

When we were on our way home, Airel told me that she has learned so much for such a brief yet fun experience. She learned that we need to take chances once they show up. She continued that though she may be preparing for her board exams, she decided to go with me and show her support instead. Karen was reviewing for gazillion of exams for the week and I felt so lucky to have friends who would abandon all their other responsibilities just to have fun with support me. 

I guess we should:

Never let a problem to be solved become more important than the person to be loved. - Barbara Johnson

Just like my favorite blogger Danny Brown said, 

Life moves fast; we’re not always in the lane that we should be to keep up. Time is precious. We need to remember to treat it as such.

May I take this opportunity to thank everyone for all the wonderful things you did in my life. Thank you for being part of it. Thank you for making it colorful, fun and a totally rewarding one. I feel that I haven't been able to reach out with you all more than I should be so allow me to take this chance to THANK YOU. You are amazing for who you are.