January 2013 Favorites

Oh boy!  I haven't had a proper favorites post since September last year.  I have been diligent with listing down possible favorites per month but I haven't posted them for some reason.  And since my trip last November, I had no energy to do much.  But a New Year's resolution is writing/blogging more so here we go.


1. Rurouni Kenshin

The live-action film has been a favorite since I first saw it on JAL Entertainment last November.  And you know what, it still is up to this day!  I still watch it and it has become one of my "when all else fails" movies together with LOTR and The Avengers.   And because I love the movie so much, I decided to go on a rewatch of the anime series.  Tears in my eyes when I got to the Kyoto Arc... probably the best season of anime ever.  And can I have more Sanosuke/Megumi fanfiction?  I'm pretty obsessed with the two of them right now.  Sure, I am studying Korean but once I got home, my entertainment was in Japanese.  There even was a time while practicing introducing myself in Korean, I automatically finish my sentences with -desu instead of -ibnida.  *oro*

2.-3. The Hobbit and Thorin's Key
Every single thing about it.  Everything.  I bought The Hobbit Chronicles art and design book and I flip through it from time to and and it still wows me.  It has the Map of Thorin and Bilbo's Contract.  I also have Thorin's Key.  I pretty much geeked out when I saw that at Hot Topic.  So cool!  I also have the movie companion by Brian Sibley.  I remember buying the one for The Fellowship of the Ring all those years ago.  Speaking of years, after 10 of them, I finally purchased the bestiary by David Day.  Yes, it took me 10 years to decide whether to pick it up or not.  Now I have it and Day's other Tolkien guide.  I lose all reason when it comes to Tolkien.  Forgive me.

4.-6. Yelp!, Instagram, ColorNote Apps
Ever since switching to a smartphone with an actual data plan, I've been obsessed with these three apps.  Yelp has been very helpful when finding places to eat and checking in is fun.  Dukedom, anyone? I've been Instagramming a storm since November.  I'm still too lazy to watermark but hey, everything I post on my 'gram is mine.  If I didn't take it, I put it on the twitter picture thing.  ColorNote App proved to be so helpful when I was in my Etude House binge.  It is both a note/memo and a checklist.  In fact, my favorites are listed on that very same app right now.

7. Whatsername arm warmers
You can see a bit of them here.  If you know the musical American Idiot, you'd know what I'm talking about.  Basically, as the women of the show are preparing to go full on FU mode during the song Whatsername, they put on these red and black striped arm warmers.  While they're not the very same ones, I found these at Hot Topic about two-three years ago.  I now have two pairs of this.

8. ELF Essential Jumbo Lip Gloss Stick in Movie Star
This is huge hit from ELF.  I love red lips and this is buildable and comfortable on the lips.  Such a great wearable red.  And for $2?  You cannot beat that.

9. Etude House Happy Tea Time Cleansing Cream in Lemon Tea
Funny how this is in a favorites list.  Basically, this is a makeup remover cream that smells like tea.  I haven't written a review for this yet but it is coming up.  Now, when I bought this in the Philippines, I got all 3 kinds: Lemon Tea, Green Tea, and Milk Tea.  Out of the three, I liked Lemon Tea the least because I thought it smelled like car freshener.  And it does.  So I decided to use it up first.  But I ended up liking it.  I'll save some for the review post but what I love best about it is it leaves your skin so soft and I grew to like the smell.

10. Orange lipsticks
Especially the Kate Moss for Rimmel #12.  I'm on the search for more orange lipsticks.  Not peach or coral but straight up orange.  Hehe, okay more on the reddish orange to be more wearable.  I have a couple of finds but this is the only one in the LOVE column.  My Etude House Dear My Blooming Lips-talk OR202 is getting there but I have more Etude House lipsticks waiting in the wings.  I just like bright lip colors in general.

11. Korean messy bun
And of course, I cannot do it now with my hair.  But when my hair was still waist-length, this was my go-to hair.  So easy and very sturdy.  And it looks good!  It's very put-together and elegant.  I will try to make it work with my medium-length hair.  I just love it.

For my last two, I'm going to kill two birds with one stone.  Or picture.

Annyeong haseyo! I am Catrina. My Korean name is Haru. Nice to meet you.

12. - 13. Writing in Hangul and the name "Haru".
Yes, Haru.  Just like Tablo's uber adorable daughter.  In my Korean language class, my teacher asked us if we wanted Korean names.  And duh, of course!  We got to pick and I chose "Haru".  I think it's cute as a name.  By the way, it means day in Korean.  Haru Haru, anybody?