Mixing Prints

Last July 2, my mother celebrated her birthday (exact age to remain a secret, hehe). I know, that's more than a month ago... talk about backlogs *sigh*! But what can I do, school's been getting the best (and worst) of me. But I'm happy that I'm just around two weeks away from the term break! I have a lot of things planned out already (hint: one of them is catching up on my backlogs, and another is finishing my blog's new layout heh)! Well anyway, here's an account of what transpired on my mom's birthday!

Since my classes are only halfday (but the workload is h e a v y), my family went out for lunch. We make it a point to take advantage of every holiday/special day to head on over to the Fort, for some reason. Of course, I made sure to shoot my outfit! So here's what I wore:

Top: Forever 21 || Skirt: Mango || Watch: Casio

Denim jacket: Guess || Cut-out boots: Topshop

Honestly, I may have underestimated the weather (in terms of temperature, particularly in degrees) with wearing the jacket. But hey, it was cold in class so it worked out at some point! The denim jacket has actually been in my possession ever since I was a kid! No kidding. I'm really happy we kept it though, and I rediscovered it. It feels pretty good to fit again in something that you had when you were a lot younger and tinier. 

From the old and vintage, we go to the new. I wore two new things in this outfit: the skirt, and the boots. The skirt was one of the pieces that I bought as a means of taking advantage of the sale season. I really love the print: I like how it's floral, but not the big-flowers kind of floral. I want more floral and/or flowy skirts; I feel like one can never have enough skirts!

And we go down to the boots. I think this pair may just be the best bargain ever!! Another steal from the oh-so wonderful sale season, I got these Topshop boots for only P600!! YES, you read that right. Have I mentioned how much I love Topshop sales, particularly their markdowns on shoes?! This lovely pair of booties is actually my 3rd pair of Topshop shoes, and all of them were on sale when I got them. (Fun fact: they're all suede too!) The best thing is, I've been wanting a pair of cut-out booties for so long, and I've been eyeing these in particular! So when my I saw them on sale, my jaw literally dropped; and I knew I had to snag it at once. Talk about 'meant to be' hahaha!

As can be seen, I wore two prints together. Some say that mixing prints is a no-no, but I believe there are exceptions. I feel like one of the fool-proof pattern combinations are stripes and florals. It would work especially better too if at least one of them are "minimal" in nature. 

For example, the thin stripes of my top works well the small flowers of my skirt; but even if the print of my skirt was an explosion big floral patterns, it would still look nice. But if both of then were big, meaning the flowers are big and the stipes are thick, it might be a bit too much. That's just me and how I see it though; what do you think? :)

Moving on, we ate lunch somewhere we've never tried before: Mamou. My parents heard word of how delectable their steak is, so we figured to try it out for ourselves.

We decided to get a salad for a starter. We originally wanted the one with soft shell crab, but unfortunately crabs weren't in season that time. So instead. we got the Harvest salad instead. It's got lettuce (duh), tomatoes, cheese, pecans, and cranberries. It was pretty delicious and reminiscent of  one of Project Pie's salads (which costs a lot more less, by the way).

We also decided to get the Truffle Cream pasta. It was perfect. To be honest, I'm not a fan of pasta-- well, Italian food, in general; so I'm really picky when it comes to them. But this one's really good! And if it's coming from me, one who's not exactly a fan of pasta, then that should say something, right?

And here comes the star of the meal-- the Angus Rib-eye USDA Prime Grade Steak Twin. We got the Twin size, which is good for sharing. We got it in medium well, our usual preference when it comes to steak. The photo below may not do it justice, but I tell you: it's h e a v e n l y. It's so tender, it almost melts in your mouth. It's juicy too which, ironically, makes it sinful. But it really is good! I didn't even bother leaving out the fat of the beef because its got so much flavor. But at least we all shared on it; at least the guilt is shared too hehe. Aside from sea salt, the steak is also served with a gravy. But as it is usual in most steaks, the gravy should be left untouched in order to taste the pure goodness of the steak. However, I did sprinkle some sea salt on my portion because I'm kind of fond of salty food on times that I don't worry about water retention, that is, lol. I suggest you add some salt too! It makes it even more flavorful.

An order of the steak also comes with two free side dishes. We got creamy spinach and mountain rice. The creamy spinach kind of reminded me of laing, while the latter was something new for my taste buds. It was rice left unpolished, so it had this earthy kind of taste. It served well to balance out the slight saltiness of the steak.

Mamou

Serendra

Bonifacio Global City, Taguig

We then did some walking around Bonifacio High Street, and eventually ended up at Toys R' Us, where we found these cute walls! Of course, I decided to pose for some photos.

We then decided to eat dessert at Magnum Cafe (again-- read about my first visit there on a previous post of mine). But this time, instead of making our own ice cream bars, we decided to dine in and try their gourmet creations. We got the Death By Chocolate, which is a pan of brownie served with Magnum and cream. It smelled good, like chocolate, the same as the rest of the restaurant. In my opinion though, it was just so-so. The whole thing was too sweet. Also, I would have preferred if the brownie was chewy, instead of gooey. But then, maybe that's just me. (Wasn't able to take any photo, sorry.)

So that was my day! I didn't post a photo of my mom here because she's pretty shy; but if you're curious, feel free to check out my Instagram. I posted a photo with her during her birthday.It'd be great if you followed me there; I'm a lot more active there than here. Follow me also on GFC and/or Bloglovin! I've also just joined Chictopia, so join me there too! I'm sorry it's taking me a while to get back to your comments and/or follow back, but I promise I'll do them all in time. :)

x Erika Rosales