Complete my October Reading Challenge

This is one thing I aim for every year (for the last 10 years); some years I'm successful and other years... not so much. But it's definitely one of my favorite challenges I came up for myself. I'll try not to overwhelm myself this year, but no promises.

Bake

I really want to start baking more this year in general. I've always wanted to attempt Fall baking which makes your home smell warm and cozy. Pinterest has a bunch of great recipes to find (and a bunch I have saved over the years)!

Play with dark looks

I've always loved dark makeup. OG dark Filipino lipstick like in the 90's, dark eyeshadows usually smoked out with black. But lately I admit I have not been playing with dark colors. I've been playing more with natural and light shades. I don't know how or why the switch happened, but I really want to get back to my roots!

Review Fall snacks

Fall snacks are my favorite. When Target switches to the Fall section it just makes my soul so happy! I'm a sucker for Caramel Apple anything. I think I've outgrown the Pumpkin Spice scene. But I do still love a good slice of Pumpkin Pie! I'm excited to see what new snacks are coming out in 2020.

Take Fall inspired pictures

Vote

Tidy & Purge before setting up for Christmas

How is it possible that this year is traveling even faster despite the on and off lock down's?! This year is just zooming by; it's almost Spooky and Holiday Szn and I'm glad to have something to look forward to.

Read

I honestly don't know why I don't update this blog as often anymore considering I still update the IG as frequently as I can.

March has been a challenge for all of us. With the quarantine's, the lock down's, the businesses closing and the entire media trying to scare the shit out of us into staying home -- which I'm not saying we shouldn't stay home, I definitely think we should -- but I'm just tired of all the scary negative news every time I open a browser or an app. It doesn't help my mom continuesly talks about the Corona every chance she gets. Every single day. No matter what else we're talking about.

So March has been a lot of staying home; which honestly, as a SAHM I already stay home every single day but Saturday on a regular basis. So. Basically it's been a non adventure on Saturday month.

Some cool things DID happen though! This stay at home thing has made me epically fail at my financial health goal -- but it's okay! Cause those trips are cancelled anyway! I still have time to re-save up that money lmao. I hate myself, why am I like dis lmao.

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.

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!

Every Christmas Bubba always says, "this is gonna be, the BEST Christmas EVER!" and every year he tops the previous year lol.

He also has a habit of letting me open gifts early.


One of the first early gifts I got to open was my Too Faced Gingerbread palette and my Fenty lip/cheek combos. Only cause Bubba wanted his tablet early lol.

He has a sort of tradition of getting me Too Faced palettes every Christmas and this was one I was super excited about! It doesn't smell like Gingerbread in my opinion, but it sure is pretty!

This year we decided on a white tree that we would decorate together — I'm such a sucker for white tree's, but I'm also a sucker for pastels! We stopped by At Home stores (FINALLY) and I want crazy.

OMG, that place is like... a Winter Wonderland heaven!

We originally had planned a Disney tree but then, as always, I fell in love with this set of pastel balls so we changed the theme. Bubba had me run around and pick out other little details besides just different balls styles.

This is possibly the first time I'm ever writing a Fall Bucket List.

And the third year I'm missing Halloween at Disney World -- life changes are always hard and having something you love so much that you can't go back to is always hard.

I'm enjoying actually being able to feel Fall here in Texas, something that Florida couldn't grant you no matter how much wishing you do!

You can find magic anywhere. If you look hard enough.

This pregnancy delayed my plans to deck my apartment out in Fall decor (it's the 11th and nothing is up yet! I know, fuckin crazy right?) so to get myself in the Fall mood I figure I'd make a list of things I hope to see/do this Fall season!

• Go to a Pumpkin Patch
  I honestly don't remember the last time I actually went to a Pumpkin Patch! Maybe when I was in grade school and we would take school trips to one? And the only reason why I even remember that is because of pictures I've seen!

• Complete my October Reading Challenge
  I look forward to this challenge every year because I always end up finding 1 or 2 books I absolutely fall in love with because of it! So I'm hoping I get a good amount of books read this year because so far this year I've only fallen in love with one book and it makes my soul restless!

• Work on taking Fall aesthetic photos
  I love love LOVE seeing Fall aesthetic photos on Pinterest and on Instagram! Photos always have a way of inspiring me and I love how aesthetic photos make me feel.

• Visit the Dallas Arboretum
  I recently just discovered this place through an Instagram ad (and they say those things aren't useful)! Last year they themed their Pumpkin Patch for OZ! I'm so sad I missed out on it!! This year it's themed after Neverland! I love gardens and such so I'm pretty excited to see this!

• Go to the Texas State Fair
  In Cali our state fair was always in the summer time -- when it was hot and sticky and there were way too many people. Here in Texas it's in October -- thank goodness! It's still pretty warm but it's not hot. There's so much to see/do and eat! I always had "Attend a Texas State Fair" on my bucket list and I never thought I'd see one so it blows my mind that I get to go to them now!

• Bake something
  I'm sure I'm not the only one who pins about a million different "Fall recipes" on Pinterest in hopes to spend afternoons in the kitchen baking up pretty pastries and savory dinners. When in reality we probably won't even get to one of those. WELL NO MORE I SAY! I'm hoping this year I'll get to bake something. At least one thing. Even if it's not until November (cause TECHNICALLY that's still "Fall")!

• Stroll through Trader Joe's and pick up a thing or two
  You can't say Trader Joe's is not the Fall food aesthetic headquarters. You just can't! Granted I haven't been there in the Fall, I don't think. I know I haven't picked up or tried any of their Pumpkin treats yet! So I'm aiming to change that this year AND WHEN I DO better believe there will be a wholeee blog post about my experience! 

• Get my apartment into the zen space I want it to be
  This for some reason is really hard for me right now -- I can't figure out why. I know I had missed out on about 3 months of hope to get anything done around my apartment in terms of tidying, sorting and organizing. But now that I feel pretty much better my OCD is what's holding me back most days. I wish I could explain it in more detail than just leaving it like that but I'm really hoping to fight back some day before this month is over and get it at least somewhat to what I can consider zen. Especially with the baby coming soon...

• Play with more dark and vampy makeup looks
  I haven't been playing with or wearing much makeup as of late and I know it's because I was feeling really crummy up until recently but now with Fall here and Winter just right around the corner I can finally pull out all my dark makeup looks and my beloved dark lipsticks! Oh how I miss the 90's when dark lip colors were acceptable year round!

Gosh this list turned out longer than I thought it would!

What are some things you hope to do this Fall?

Hai guys.

I feel like I haven't been here in forever. I honestly think the idea of being the "ideal blogger" with the "perfect photos/flat lays" has seriously gotten to me and it's taking a serious toll on my blog and Instagram accounts.

I try to post photos and updates more freely on Twitter, as much as I can/remember to.

A lot has happened since the last time I was here so I'll try and do a quick recap;

I never really went back and talked about my experience with moving from state to state and with using a moving company.

I was just... really really upset with the outcome and the experience that beyond writing a review on Yelp, I didn't really want to talk about it.

But since it's coming around to that time of the year where I'm getting ready to move again, I figured I'd go back and talk about this.

Moving state to state is hard. Especially when you literally don't know what you're doing. Bubba helped me find a moving company and I had done some searches on Google and on Yelp; but PICKING one is the hardest part. These days it seems like reviews can be more hurtful than helpful and filtering out the reviews that are straight up complaints is hard.

I had a few leads and it came down to two.

When I was contacted by Coast to Coast Moving I was contacted by "Taylor" he break down the cost details and he broke down what the process was like he also stated that they were listed on a website called "Andrea's Choice" which was suppose to make them more "reputable" I guess. After going over inventory for days and finalizing it he quoted me with $1700. Assured me there was going to be no hidden extra charges and $1700 was all I had to come up with.

Here's the part that threw me off; I would call and ask a million questions just to make sure I understood everything COMPLETELY. Had him send emails with proof of the conversation. There was a time I had a question the Sunday before my move and so I called as he stated his phone was always open for questions and he threw out "as you can see it's my day off and I'm still answering my phone for questions." as if it was something he should be applauded for. He seemed like an okay guy who knew his stuff... until I handed over the deposit and it seemed almost instantly like his entire vibe and attitude had changed.

I didn't get into contact with him after that, I was passed on to someone else who would be handling my move. Someone else who even with the finalized inventory sheet "in front of them" had an incomplete list. So once again, I had to spend time fixing this damn list. He tried charging me extra and when I had protested that Taylor promised it would only be $1700 he "went to talk to his manager" and they "managed to cut me some deals" in order to keep my $1700 quote. On top of this, I had to exclude even MORE stuff.

When the pick up people got here, they were really not friendly at all. They moved stuff and worked very quickly. Didn't ask questions or say anything at all really. By the time they left I had to leave behind pretty much all of my living room furniture. The only things I brought with me were: my bed, my computer chair, one bookcase, my nightstand and my floor lamp. And since they "had to" pack my smaller boxes into a bigger box they charged me an extra $200 for it. Which was ridiculous as I didn't ask them to nor did they ask if it was okay. Boxes marked with "fragile" were completely ignored. Thank goodness I packed everything valuable with blankets. Not to mention that I noticed the paperwork said Unique Vanlines.

After all that time of Taylor bad mouthing brokers look who they are. SURPRISE, I guess.

Instead of the 10 days they said it would take for them to get my things to me, it took them 2 weeks. When it got passed the 10 days, when I'd call I would either get no answer or "they were unable to get into contact with anyone."


When they finally did come to drop my things back off the driver (I suppose) doing the paperwork had me lead him to my apartment to finish filling out the rest of the paperwork.

He very calmly, as if it were normal, told me he would have to charge me ANOTHER additional $150 because the location was over 75 feet away from the truck. I live in apartment complex. With an elevator. THE FUCK YOU MEAN OVER 75 FT FROM THE FUCKIN TRUCK.

I told him I didn't have that; he stated "I can continue to move your stuff into your apartment while you run to the bank if you have to."

1) No bitch, I mean I don't have that PERIOD because your bitch ass people quoted me $1700 which they PROMISED was all I had to pay. 2) THE FUCK YOU MEAN, I'm not leaving strangers in my apartment who already seem sketchy as fuck.

Frustrated and pretty much crying from how stressful this all is suddenly I went downstairs to the property manager and told her what was happening and if I could borrow a storage unit to try and eliminate some of the "steps". She was PISSED. And she went out there and yelled at the guy the whole elevator ride up to the storage unit to which he pretty much called us "stupid girls" and said it was "my fault" for "not reading the agreement" when I READ THE SHIT over and over again. I CALLED and verified HOW MUCH MONEY I NEEDED. I was SO ANGRY. DO NOT make me out to be some irresponsible chick just because you want to scam somebody then get mad when you're called out. He had the audacity to spew out more negativity before yelling down the hall way "fine, whatever, I'll work for free." Take that up with your sender, not me bud.

He ended up taking my stuff to my apartment "for free" by THROWING my boxes into the elevator. Didn't give a damn if they were marked fragile. As you can see the condition of my boxes in the photo above. Not just that, but had the nerve to ask if a piece they brought up was mine. ISNT THAT WHAT THE INVENTORY SHEET IS FOR?! They offered to put my bed together to which I declined and waited for them to leave. I handed them the money orders and slammed the door.

Then I curled up and cried and was so damn over the day that it wasn't even funny anymore.

Bubba came after work to help me unpack. He brought me food. And once most of the boxes were unpacked he shoo'd me off to take a hot bath while he and Sophie went to put the bed together.

It wasn't after all the boxes were put up that I realized I was missing a box full of makeup AND my floor lamp. I called to claim it and they told me to send an email. TO A GMAIL ACCOUNT. Once they "investigated" to which they said that they checked with all the others who shared the truck space and couldn't find my box OR floor lamp (THE WHOLE THING) they directed me to make a claim and when I did citing the cost lost they said they could only go off of weight to which the would only be able to reimburst me $150 because I didn't have insurance WHICH I SWEAR I FUCKIN DID.

There are just so many damn loopholes and so much scamming that is being done with this company and if other companies ARENT like this I feel bad for them. Other companies make people like me hesitant to ever want to hire any moving company ever again.

This entire experience was seriously ridiculous. I honestly wish I had gone with someone else, and even with research done it sucks that you can never be too sure if the reviews posted are legit or fake. After I had posted my review on Yelp, more negative reviews started coming on and with stories FAR WORSE than mine. It's insane that this company is still in business!

⇢ Get your shit together (at least a little bit)
⇢ Read 3 books (and not on the last day of the month)
⇢ Blog more // I know shit can be hard but girl it's your release SO QUIT IT
⇢ EXPLORE more, spend LESS
⇢ Apartment hunting
⇢ Tidy room & closet / purge shit you really don't need
⇢ Sort digital stuff / back up laptop (since it's been like years since you did)
⇢ Get RDM and AST to 60 on FFXIV
⇢ Find something that calms you
⇢ Practice better time management
⇢ Catch up on reviews that need to be written
⇢ Celebrate your birthday... the best you can

So here's to April; my personal restart button.

Last year I told Bubba that Easter was one of my favorite hoildays; my mom always made sure we had Easter baskets and as I got older she started adding Tulips to my Easter basket gifts. But when I moved away to work for Disney, she wasn't there to set up an Easter basket for me (though some years she would ship me one) and so I started making Easter baskets for myself.

(Fun Fact: Despite I was married before for pretty much 11 years, my ex husband never ONCE made me an Easter basket. Then again it took divorce papers to actually buy me a birthday gift for the first time ever so who knows.)



Last year Bubba made me an Easter basket claiming I can't make them for myself so he put together a basket and brought it with him to Disney World since we were spending my birthday there and he was flying out on Easter.

To this day, I have no idea how he fit that giant basket into his duffel bag.