Showing posts with label Anniversaries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anniversaries. Show all posts

7 Years!? Blogiversary Giveaway! [CLOSED]

March 17th this blogs turns 7 years old! Though I didn't really start blogging about nail polish until 2011, this little blog started way back on St. Patrick's Day in 2008; more as a lifestyle blog at first. A place to share my thoughts, travels, pets, photography, and long distance relationship, at the time. And it has grown and evolved over the years. :)

Anyhow, I wanted to throw a giveaway to celebrate. And there will be two prizes! 1 USA winner will receive a $25 giftcard to KB Shimmer, and 1 International winner will receive a $25 giftcard to Harlow & Co. Each prize is an electronic gift card, so it is required you have a valid active email address to enter, since that's where the gift cards will be sent. (Please make sure to read the giveaway terms and conditions at the end of this post, before you enter!)


Winners for the anniversary giveaway have been confirmed! Congrats to Lisa N. who won a $25 gift card to Harlow & Co., and congratulations to Sumeet S. who won a $25 gift card to KBShimmer Bath and Body!


Please enter on the Rafflecopter form below, or click here if you cannot see it.
Terms and Conditions: Giveaway ends March 17th, 2015 at 12:00 am ESTYou must be 18 or older to enter. Prizes purchased by: www.tunaynamahal.com. I have the right to request proof of age if it seems appropriate. All entries will be verified. No following and unfollowing once the giveaway ends. There will be 2 winners chosen. 1 USA winner, and 1 International winner. Winner(s) will be selected by Random.org and notified by email. Winner has 24 hours to respond before a new winner is selected. I may choose a new winner at my discretion for any reasonNo giveaway only accounts. I am not liable for lost or damaged packages after you have redeemed your gift certificate. KB Shimmer, Harlow & Co, Facebook, Twitter, Bloglovin’, and Instagram are in no way associated with this giveaway. Any personal information provided will be used only for the purpose of contacting the winner.

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10 Year Anniversary!


My husband & I first started dating 10 years ago today! Yes... on April Fool's Day... lol! 04/01/2004. I can't believe it's been a decade already.... absolutely crazy...

I've cataloged our relationship over the years on my blog so check out: Our Time Line.

And, since I'm feeling nostalgic today, here's a preview of our Mahal Mix Tape. (Song preview links on Amazon).

P.S. I'm a bit incapacitated this week... I somehow strained/sprained my middle finger using the touch pad on my laptop while editing photos... it's extremely painful and my knuckle is all swollen. Never had this happen. :-( I still have quite a few photo's I need to edit, but I don't have many blog posts scheduled. Blah... but don't worry, there will be another nail polish post up on Thursday... Enchanted Polish... so stay tuned! :-)


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Painted Polish & Happy Holidays!

These are early Christmas presents from my husband. They arrived today and I couldn't wait to play with them, especially because I wanted to do holiday nails for tomorrow when we go out to lunch and go over my parents house for Christmas Eve. After seeing gorgeous swatches on Instagram, I needed 'Girl on Fire' and 'Kiss me Teal Midnight'.

'Girl on Fire' is from the Painted Polish Hunger Games collection. (I still want Effie & District 12!) It's a gorgeous red jelly polish with red glitter and holographic circle glitter. I needed 3 coats, and one thick coat of Seche Vite to give it that gorgeous shiny look. I did have to go fishing for the circle glitters. I placed a few on each of my nails in between coats. Isn't it gorgeous? I stamped snowflakes with Winstonia Store plate W120.


'Kiss Me Teal Midnight' is a turquoise jelly, with all different colors of glitter. Blue, Green, Purple, Orange... it reminds me of confetti on New Year's Eve! There's also different colors of holographic circles. I used 3 coats & placed the circle glitters in between coats, plus 1 coat of Seche Vite. 


Also, 12/19/2013 was my 4th wedding anniversary. 

I got my husband & I new titanium wedding bands (I like titanium because it's light and doesn't tarnish. Our original bands are titanium too). On the inside of the rings they are engraved with 'Tunay Na Mahal' and our wedding date: 12/19/09. Tunay Na Mahal means "True Love" in Tagalog, my husband is Filipino and we were married in the Philippines.


Happy Holidays!

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Easter, an Anniversary & other ramblings.

It's been 9 years since F.B. & I defined our long distance relationship, back on April 1st, 2004! (See our Relationship Timeline). The picture above is the card he got me. :-)

We had a quiet Easter dinner here at home. I made homemade pound cake, (using this recipe). It turned out gorgeous!

Our Easter Dinner. Roast Beef, Onions & Mushrooms, Roasted Seasoned Potatoes, Creamed Corn & Martinelli's Sparkling Apple Cider. We still have leftovers.

I also made lemon butter cream icing to go with our pound cake. 

Peeps & the Little Chick are from my co-worker. 

Also, I'm now obsessed with these iced & frozen cappuccinos from Wawa. They have a specialty drink bar now and you can customize your coffee drink. Soooo good.

I took advantage of the 20% off coupon L'Occitane sent me in the mail.  I got Almond soap, Verbena soap & Rose soap. Love them.

I've been having green smoothies in the morning for breakfast now. I do 1 whole banana, 2 tablespoons of plain yogurt, Half cup of almond milk, Big handful of fresh spinach, tablespoon of PB2 powder, & some protein powder. Might do some strawberry or blueberry, fruit smoothies this week too.

New favorite wine (Besides Sutter Home Sweet Red). I never had Pink Moscato before! It's really fruity and tangy. LOVE!

Typical commuting to work week. I ride these trains 2 times a day, 5 times a week. 45min to 1 hour commute...
Pictures are from my Instagram: @tunaynamahal82

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5 Years of Blogging!

5 years ago today.... (yes on St. Patrick's Day)... I started blogging...


I've recorded and documented so many things here on my blog. It's my space to just be me. To blog about whatever is going on in my life. It's been a space to blog about our long distance relationship, our marriage, our immigration process. My Pets, my nail polish obsession, sharing recipes, trips I've taken in the Philippines, Philadelphia trips, etc...

I've also made a lot of friends blogging. Like Shannon, and Patty, Karen, Jacki, Stephanie, Georgia, Shawna, (and other friends). New blogging friends like Kelly & Faith. I get to keep up with family & friends by reading their blogs, like my SIL, My cousin Katie, my childhood friend Leah. Thank you for letting me read about your lives too.

As everyone has probably heard, this week Google announced, Google Reader will be shutting down in July of this year. I use Google Reader to follow so many blogs I read, because it's a simple format and easy to use on my cell phone, tablet or computer.

There's a petition that has currently reached over 122,000+ signatures and counting on Change.org. 


It's been covered hundreds of times in media around the world. Google will be watching closely over the next few days to see if the story dies out or if it keeps growing -- and that's up to you. Sign the petition and please share it on Facebook and Twitter. Hopefully Google will see we don't want Google Reader to go anywhere!

But... if they still retire Google Reader, you can still follow my blog through BlogLovin. And you can import all your blog feeds from Google Reader to BlogLovin by clicking here.

Follow on Bloglovin

P.S. I've started using The Old Reader. I think I like it better than Bloglovin because it's a very simple reader, like Google Reader. You can import all the blogs you follow too. :-)

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3 Year Anniversary! (Immigration & the Holidays)

December 19th, was our 3 year wedding anniversary! We just had a laid back anniversary this year.


I took F.B. to see The Hobbit for his anniversary gift. We didn't get home until close to 1am. (The movie wasn't my cup of tea... and it's very long, 3 hours!) We went Tuesday evening and the movies are quite empty on a weeknight!


We decided to stay home on our anniversary and order Chinese Takeout from one of my favorite places, King Wok. (We got an updated menu and it looks like they only sell Chinese now, no more Japanese. The picture below is of their old menu). We ordered so much food though, I think we have leftovers for 3 days now! :-)


So let's talk about immigration again. They received our paperwork and sent F.B. a notice. The paper he received is his 1 year extension. He also got his biometrics appointment for January 10th. Where he gets fingerprinted and his photo taken for his new permanent resident card.

But... our lawyer said the USCIS Vermont center is so backlogged with paperwork it is taking 8 months to 1 YEAR to process paperwork. So we will not know if F.B.'s conditional status removal was approved and he will not receive his new updated resident card for up to 1 year....

I asked our lawyer what happens if it takes Immigration longer than 1 year to process our paperwork and she said in that case his status would be extended but he would have to go to a USCIS center with his I-797 notice and his passport to have it stamped for an addtional year.

Immigration is just so complicated. I thought we were almost done and had no idea it could take 8 months to 1 year to receive his new resident card. Wow... Ugh...

NOTE: Our lawyers Peter J. Gonzales & Shanna Stanton have changed firms. They are no longer with Kahiga Tiagha. They are now with Green and Spiegel LLC, but still located in Philadelphia.

To leave off on a more positive note here is a few of our Christmas Decorations!

Our "Christmas" door. It's already green, so the bow works, lol!
These are our Christmas trees. :-)
Christmas sock monkeys! Just a few of the holidays stuffed animals I have.

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8 years! ♥


F.B. & I have been together 8 years today! Yes... April Fools Day, (04-01-2004) was the 1st time we said "I love you", and started this crazy journey. Now eight years later, after 7 years of long distance, traveling to the Philippines and immigration (still not finished that!), we've been married 2 years and are finally living in the same time zone together! And while it's not always perfect, it's been worth it. ♥

Check out 'Our Timeline'. I keep it updated and link to old blog entries that tell our story over the years. ♥

F.B. and I are just staying home this year and getting some Chinese takeout for dinner, since I've been home on bed rest due to my back. I'll be back at work on Monday.

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4 years of blogging!

Today is my 4 year anniversary of blogging! I started 'Tunay Na Mahal' back on March 17th, 2008! It's been a space for me to share my long distance relationship, our immigration process, life in Philadelphia, travels to the Philippines; my pets & things I love!


P.S. Please check out these items I'm selling on Ebay!

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2 year wedding anniversary! ♥


Today is our 2 year wedding anniversary! (Though "legally" our marriage certificate says December 18th. See why here). I get 2 hours of administrative holiday leave, so I am using it to leave work a bit early on our anniversary. We will be heading to The Cheesecake Factory for dinner!

I finally finished unpacking on Sunday! We have internet now too. Yay! January is going to suck with all the new bills being due though... I may have to call the electric & gas company to change my due dates once I pay the 1st bills, so that my one pay check will just be for rent, food, gas & my other check for all the other big bills.

We had my cousin Jessica over Saturday night for dinner. (Darn we forget to get pictures together!) We also Skyped with her sister, my cousin Chrissy who lives in Georgia. We ordered Chinese take-out and exchanged Christmas gifts, had some wine & watched 'The Social Network'. It was a really fun evening.

Our new apartment is really close to where I used to work, before our office relocated to Center City Philadelphia. It's a shame, because if we still worked at the old location I could probably WALK to work! The Chinese take-out place is one that my co-workers used to order from for lunch. :-)

My cousin spoiled us with some Christmas/Housewarming gifts!


Sparkling wine!


Christmas day, we are hopefully meeting with my family to have brunch at a Chinese Buffet & exchange gifts. For New Years Eve, I think my husband & I will just be celebrating here at the apartment. I already bought a small half ham, sweet potatoes with brown sugar, crackers, cheese, pepperoni & Martinelli's sparking cider. And a chocolate chip Panettone cake.

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