Part II: Relief Efforts for Typhoon "Ondoy" Flood Victims

About a week ago, I blogged about the aftermath of Typhoon "Ondoy" in the Phillipines. Hundreds of thousands of families have lost everything because of the flooding and I just felt like I needed to something. So I coordinated a donation drive with the help of my family. I asked my uncle if we could set up shop at his filipino grocery store, and he was more than willing to help! We left tubs at the store for people to drop stuff off and I have to thank everyone who has helped out!

I've also been very impressed with how our community has really come together to help. The Bay Area has a huge filipino community, and it's so refreshing to see all the efforts. There have been night club events where 100% of proceeds go to the Philippines flood victims, restaurants donating a percentage of proceeds, donations, and benefit concerts!

Let's continue to pray for those who have been affected and try our best to help as much as we can.

This picture just breaks my heart...

Photo courtesy of Xinhua/AFP Photo

Here was our set up! We were collecting a variety of things such as, toothbrushes/toothpaste, perishable food items, vitamins/medications, soap, etc.

Thank you again for everyone's help and support this week! We got a ton of helpful items to send over to the Philippines. Remember, one small gesture will help thousands!

Maria the Make-Up Artist

Remember Maria the make-up artist? I mentioned her in a previous entry :). I've known her for about a little over 11 years now and is one of my best friends! She was nice enough to invite me to shoot her doing her make-up thing this past weekend. We kind of joke about how we are a package deal, when you get her, you get me too (and vice versa). We're both going through the beginning stages of transforming our passion into something more. It's really exciting!

I met up with her at the hotel that Saturday morning. She was doing make-up for the whole wedding party, including the bride! Talk about pressure, right? But no no, Maria was confident and did an awesome job! As she worked on the ladies, she'd give tips about how to apply eye shadow, what to use for dark circles, and explained what she was doing and using on their faces. I never knew what pigment was until that day, now I'm itching to go get some. She's such a professional, I love it!

After doing make-up for almost 5 hours, time was winding down and everyone was in a rush to get ready. But that didn't phase Maria, she was calm and finished up the last girl, the maid-of-honor, in fact, beautifully. It was such a pleasure meeting everyone and being there watching one of my bestie's in action. I had so much fun, thanks for having me ladies, you all looked beautiful!

Here's Maria.
I love all things make-up <3<3<3... id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5389349471546235506" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQF__v61mPbl6MJvAegjfzEAwpOK85aMu9QJFdL4TZbuqHuJzLynvDdYkBIPsM8YwVGBXK-978jfJnSVzG_XvDkux9s59L__Svh3O0nqOr3lr_Mql4blYZwl1J6821KPSPv-FqXw-DfBnu/s576/DSC_0706.jpg" border="0">
If I could wear false eyelashes everyday, I totally would! These belong to the bride.

Here's Maria working on the blushing bride :)
I just love this shot. I actually didn't even know I got this one until I uploaded the pictures to my computer. It's my accidently on purpose shot!

I absolutely love how she added the blue liner here. It goes perfectly with the earings.

As Tyra Banks would say, this is so FIERCE!

Pure Blendz Make-Up Party

Make-up party. Need I say more?

Okay, okay, I will! Pure Blendz is a cosmetics company that I recently learned about. The people that work there are amazing! They are all very friendly and I love the one-on-one attention they give you. A couple weeks back, I went to one of their makeover events and had my make-up done by Wendy. I bought a few of their Motives products, and absolutely love it! (I'm wearing their foundation right now) Well onward with my story, I brought my friend, Maria, who is also a make-up artist and long story (not really that long....) short, they invited her to be one of the make-up artists at a Pure Blendz Make-Up Party last week! So exciting :)

Maria recently got her esthetician license and is starting to take her love for make-up more seriously. It's actually perfect timing, because we both are starting to build our portfolios (hers is make-up, and mine is photography), so she invited me to tag along with her to shoot her in action. It was a lot of fun! Pure Blendz did an awesome job, I wish I had some special occasion coming up because I want to throw a make-up party! Hey, maybe I'll do one just cuz...hmm. I mean, seriously, what's better than getting all your girls together to have a private makeover session in your very own home?

If you want to know more about Pure Blendz, you can visit their website at www.pureblendz.com.

Relief Efforts for Typhoon "Ondoy" Flood Victims

So I'm going to share something with you that not many people know. I'm a pro when it comes to tuning out bad news/uncomfortable situations. I'll deal with things in my own way but if at all possible, I'll just pretend that it doesn't exist.

When I started hearing the news about the typhoon in the Philippines, I just thought, "Wow...that sucks!" I asked my mom if our family there is effected, and she said that the province that majority of my family lives in is safe and high enough that they don't have to worry about floods. So I just tried to not think about it, because I knew my family was okay. One day last week, my mom was chatting with one of my cousins in the Philippines and asked them how they were doing. She lives in a different area from the rest of my family, and she told my mom that their entire downstairs is flooded. I figured, "Hey, she's on the computer so it can't be that bad, right?" So again, I just put it in the back of my mind.

Last night, my uncle who lives here emails me and a few of my other family members asking for donations. It turns out that one of my aunts in the Philippines is in need of help. Her entire house is flooded. My uncle never asks us for help, so that's when it really finally hit me. I could not stop thinking about it.

So the next morning, I bring up the idea to organize a donation station. A place where people can drop off items to help the victims effected by the flooding. There is supposed to be another major storm hitting the Philippines this weekend. I started reading articles and looking at some pictures and realized that I could not just sit here and do nothing while hundreds of thousands of people have lost everything.

If you live in the Bay Area and would like to participate in our donation, please contact OndoyRelief.Payumo@gmail.com for details.

To find out more about how you can donate to help the victims, please visit the Philippines National Red Cross website.