Early on in our relationship I made it a point to tell Bubba I wanted to be asked to be his Valentine; I didn't want him to assume that just because we were dating he didn't have to ask.

I don't know why I have this thing besides that I've never really been asked to BE someone's Valentine before. Hell I never really even HAD a Valentine's Day until Bubba came along. I use to use Valentine's Day as a day to spoil myself. My mom would get me gifts every since I was little and flowers every year though so I never really cared if I had a Valentine or not.

Even in the 11 years I was previously married we never really celebrated Valentine's Day. I did have a self tradition of having a Valentine's Day outfit. I figured if I wasn't gonna celebrate it, I might as well wear something nice that day. Plus pink is one of my favorite colors.

This year I randomly came out to the kitchen and saw this set up and Bubba asked me for a third time to be his Valentine ♡.

Ohhh baby, you're getting big.

I'm always tired.

Happy year of The Pig!

This year we went and joined the Lunar New Year celebration like we did last year.

Bubba recently took me to Olive Garden for lunch after his surgery (a story for another time) and we noticed a few new-ish items.

Granted it had been a few months since we were last at Olive Garden but I figure: I've never actually expressed my love for Olive Garden on this blog before!

I guess long background short is I use to take myself in lunch dates here when I lived in Cali and wanted time to be alone. It's always been my comfort place and my comfort food. So OG holds a bit of meaning for me.

Bubba has been spoiling craaaaaap out of me when it comes to Lush the last few trips. There's a bunch of great things he got me!


The first set of things he got me was a bit of skincare-y stuff. He got me the two solid soap bars at the top; I wish I could remember what they were called but when we were in store it was on sale buy one get one free the green one smells like limes and the orange one smells like oranges and it easily splits in half. He also got me the two shower bombs at the bottom: Sleepy and Not Sleepy. These things are so interesting.



I've tried the Sleepy Shower Bomb so far. These things are so interesting!


The thing that's missing is the Sleepy Shower Gel and Scrubee!

This was one of the biggest reason why we went into Lush. Bubba got me the Sleepy body lotion last year and I wasn't that big of a fan, I don't like how it makes your skin feel chalky after it dries down but I love how there's glitter in the pot. Would be super cool if the shower gel had glitter in it too!

I use this as a bubble bath actually and it works out so great! I love using this as a bubble bath! If they ever make this as a bath bomb or bubble bar that would be AWESOME.



I ended up picking myself up two products; the Goddess bath bomb and the Milky Bar soap.

The Milk Bath bubble bar is one of my fav bubble bars so the fact they made it into a solid soap bar is amazing! I haven't used either yet but I'm planning on splitting the Goddess bath bomb in half.

I use to haul the hell out of ELF back when I started getting into makeup in 2007; back then you could only order their products online and they only had their $1 line. There's still some stuff from the $1 that I swear by or always keep on hand to this day.
 
Then they released their Studio Line where everything was $3 and their brushes in that line are still some of my favs. Then after that released another line I don't remember the name of but I LOVED that line! They had pigments (the pink one was a holy grail and I'm so sad I lost mine or it's still back home in CA) that I loved and they had this all natural brush set to go with it. I still have the travel set floating around somewhere. I wish they'd bring that back!

Since then they've created so many more products and collections; some I've LOVED and others I could live without.

I haven't made a full ELF haul from their website since 2015 so I was due for one! I picked up a few things I've been wanting to get/try!


ELF has certainly upped their prices over the years and I don't blame them! But what use to get me a good amount of products just get me a few now a days lol!

I've seen the Modern Metal's floating around Instagram and was super curious about it. There's also a lip set that I skipped on since I just got a ton of lippies for Christmas. The ELF Perfect Blend Concealer is a repurchase over the years — it's not the best concealer ever but it does what it needs to do!

My purchase came with a free gift that included the Face Primer which I think I've tried once when I didn't understand the concept of Primers and Sugar Lip Exfoliater which I also think I tried once and didn't really dig.


I also got this beanie because it was up for $4 and to show my love for ELF cosmetics. Not just that but I've been trying to get a hold of more pom beanies and I'm so picky with the ones I like!


The main reason for my purchase?

The Heart highlighter duo!

I've been following Heart for years; since she lived in that apartment way before her and Arnold got married or engaged I think. And she's always been a Filipino influencer to look up to! I used this in a look I made a blog post about on hazearella recently and it was the first time in 10 years I decided to put highlighter on my face again. And you know, I didn't hate it! Bubba even noticed and complimented me on my glow. Safe to say I'll be reaching for this more often!

Most of my beauty posts can be found on hazearella but I am trying to add some here as well since makeup and beauty is a huge part of a my life!

After making this purchase however I saw ELF recently came out with a new skincare line! I love that they're coming out with so much skincare at such an affordable price and I'm itching to try some as I'm trying to build a skincare routine myself this year!

Do you have any favorite ELF products?

Is anyone else just done with Winter?!

I'm in such a desperate need for a Spring Refresh right about now! Besides Fall Spring and Summer are some of my fav seasons; correction ─ Summer in Florida. Summer in Texas is pretty fun too but Summer in Florida will always be my fav.

Bubba thinks it's too early for me to start jumping around saying yayyyy Sprrrrrrring but I can't help it when stores are starting to roll out all the pinks and reds for Valentine's Day! There's just something about Valentine's Day and VDay decor that always makes me so excited feeling refreshed on the inside!

Lately I've been loving HUDA eye shadow palettes but it wasn't until I had stumbled on the HUDA Gemstone Obsessions palette that I really got weird about starting an entire HUDA palette collection (I miss this vanity/set up). I mean, can we just... talk about how GORGEOUS this palette is? I'm a sucker for shimmer and glitter shades so this was right up all my ally's, let me tell you!

I ended up buying myself the HUDA Desert Dusk palette shortly after over the Rose Gold Remastered that I had originally told myself I was going to get and now I sort of regret not sticking to my original plan...




Then my fiance got me the HUDA Nude palette I had been itching for for Christmas.

I MEAN LOOK AT IT.

I'm in love with the four reflective shades, I just hate how one swipe/swatch and you sort of mess up the patterns of the pearl flecks so I'm trying to be careful and not ruin how pretty they are. Which I'm sure, at some point is bound to happen... BUT LET ME PROLONG THIS FATE OF DOOM ok? I love that the palette includes two glitter shades though I sometimes find them hard to work with/hard not to ruin as well and enough mattes to create the perfect look.

I wouldn't really call the shades in this palette "nude" however since there's a lot of berry tones. Or well more than what you would usually find in a "nude" palette.



The fiance and I went on a "date day" and I had to find a look for this top.

Oh hey Baby Lo, you're looking mighty... very much there these days. With your 28 week self! Bubba got me this cute maternity top from Target and I wanted to find a purple in my collection that would match.

You'd think the HUDA Amethyst palette, right?

WRONG.

The purples in that palette were not the purples I was looking for. At all. It was literally strange. And a little disappointing.

2018 was a whirlwind of a year.

I also hate how out of order my posts are going to be for the next month; I still have one or two 2018 posts I want to write but I've already started writing 2019 posts. Whoops.


Pregnancy brain.
For one of the last trips to Dallas in 2019 I wanted to try a French bakery that I've had my eye on pretty much all year — Bisous Bisous Pâtisserie which is located in Uptown Dallas. I won't be reviewing the bakery in this post, I'm saving that for a different post cause it deserves its own post. Trust me.

I've wanted to change the content for hazearella (my lifestyle/makeup/candle blog) for a few years now but never had the drive to make the content or take the pictures I wanted. So I decided on this day, I was going to.

I wanted to start 2019 with being the blogger I always wanted to be; to my surprise when I pitched this idea to Bubba his only response was: "F I N A L L Y." Gotta love a man who supports your passions!

I'm still working on not being camera shy and I'm still working on how to pose for photos. I'm so use to being behind the camera and when I'm not, I'm usually turned around or taking a selfie.



I hope in 2019 I'm able to let go of these small silly insecurities. That I'm able to express myself more and be okay with the fact that no matter how hard I try sometimes my makeup isn't going to always be perfect. Or that not every photo will be perfection. But I hope to post it all anyway. I hope to have fun with it. I hope to fall in love with lifestyle blogging the way I always dreamed and wanted.
I also hope to learn how to dress myself like a human being as well! I told myself no hoodies in 2019 (I mean of course there's certain exceptions but for the most part if we're going OUT OUT, no hoodies). I use to put effort into dressing nice and doing my hair and putting on makeup; I want to get back into that habit again.

Because it made me feel good. It made me feel awake and alive. It made me feel productive. And with a baby on the way — I'm sure you can assume how drained and blah I feel on a daily basis. Pulling yourself out of that is hard; but I don't want to end up like those mama's who can't find time to take care of themselves and end up blaming the baby.

Baby Lo is here to enhance my life. Not take over it. Not change it. Not take things away from me. But add on that extra encouragement. The extra smile and laugh while I figure out this new chapter in my life that's coming up quick!

I don't know why I find it so hard to update on my own dang pregnancy but it drives me crazy! I had hoped that I would keep this super organized archive of everything happening so when Baby Lo was born I could look back on it all and my experience. But to be honest in the last 27 weeks I think I've written like 3 pregnancy blog posts.




I've been at least trying to keep up with taking my weekly baby bump photos; though I wish I'd put a little more effort and "show" into them I guess. But baby bump selfies are super hard! Especially when my bump isn't big enough and finding the angle for it to show in a photo is a struggle in itself!
Also weird because on thebump.com the objects were switched: 26 weeks was an Eggplant and 27 weeks was a Cauliflower. I guess the idea is the same though lol!

I can't believe it's 2019... already.

But then again how many of us are saying that this week?!

Every year for the last few years I've done {onelittleword} and for the last 2 years Bubba has chosen my word for me — this year he picked L E A R N as my word for 2019.

As new parents (I can't believe she'll be here in a few months! It's so crazy to think about!) this year we're going to do a lot of learning and I'm determined to not be one of those parents who let their newborn change their life as drastically as everyone says they will.

I've never been friends with the concept of sleep; to be honest I've probably gotten more sleep since BEING pregnant, despite all the discomforts than I've gotten naturally since 2004. Like my biggest excitement is the ability to fall asleep at night WITHOUT sleeping aids as I've been heavily dependent on them to get me to sleep since 2004. Me and sleep just haven't gotten along in a really long time.

In addition to being new parents I really want to get back into learning in general. I still need to learn the rest of French and I want to start learning Spanish. I want to relearn the social media world as well as how to make the most out of my blogging and getting back into graphic design. I want to learn how to bake. How to cook better meals. How to be a better version of myself.

There's much power in knowledge and I feel like the last few years I've been in a haze of just winging things; I want to go back to being that determined person with goals and intention.