Bridal Gown Trends, Summer 2018

Bridal orders have begun for the summer seasons of 2018. We have been watching and wondering what hot trends will come this season. It was worth the wait. We will share with you the latest trends, the hottest styles, and what colors to watch for.

It is all about the trains The wedding gowns gracing the aisles in 2018 will be followed by trains of tulle and lace. The longer the train the more in style it is in the wedding gown scenes. While traditional trains are always strong in presence, you will see more brides opt for the bridal cape that trails behind her. The tulle capes will be lace trimmed or decorated with shimmering beads.

Types of trains Bridal trains come in a variety of lengths. This allows the bride getting married in a cathedral or the bride getting married in a vineyard or barn to have the options of a train without fear of snagging or causing a fall.

Sweep Train

The sweep train is a short train that falls about one foot past where the dress brushes the floor. It sweeps just behind the bride and it does not require an attendant.

Court Train

The court train begins about three feet past the waist. It is a little longer than the sweep train but still, requires no assistance.

The Chapel Train

The chapel train normally begins at the waist and it trails about 5 feet from the hem of the wedding gown. Depending on the venue, a bridesmaid may have to assist the bride to ensure there are no issues with the positioning of the train as the bride walks the aisle.

The Cathedral Train

This is the longer train that you often see in church weddings. The train begins at the waist and it trails about seven feet from the gown. A bridesmaid will be needed to keep the train straight and snagged or creased as the bride makes her way down the aisle.

Bridal Cape The bridal cape is made very similar to the train. However, the cape is worn around the shoulders and fastened around the neck. The cape can be short, waist length, or it can trail the bride like a traditional train. These are beautiful in photographs and they are a hot item for fashionable brides this spring. The capa is popular for the themed weddings and sometimes for the destination weddings too. Those different destination/themed weddings are a bit pricey lately so there’s sometimes a fund for organising it - souch as honeyfund for instance, where your guests can fund as a gift to your wedding and help you prepare the fairytale event or honeymoon or whatever you wish!

Black accents

Wedding gowns will be white, ivory, or champagne this season, but they will come with a shock of jet black. You will also see silver bridal gowns with a lot of embellishment, and still the shocking black accessories. Elbow length gloves in black are popular with the whitest gowns. You will also see black sashes, belts, bows, headpieces, and floral arrangements of black and white. More daring brides will opt for the black dress or a two piece gown with a full, black skirt.

Even more daring While the black gown and white gowns with slashes of black for drama are daring, perhaps the most daring trend for this year is the sheer corsets gown. The corsets accent the waist and bust while giving the bride a smooth look. The gowns are sheer with showing enough of the body to be bold but stopping short of nudity. Pearl embellishment is very popular with this sexy gown.

Bridesmaids dresses and colors Blue is back. The colors you will be seeing are pastels, ice blue, steel blue, very soft blues that are elegant and not quite baby blue.

Dresses will feature lots of cascading layers and ruffles. Cap sleeves, sheer wraps, and lots of tulle will adorn the bridesmaid. This is not the year for sleeveless or plunging backs.

Be creative and stylish in your wedding day. Keep going.

7 Steps to Save Yourself from Depression

How to overcome depression? Why we must not ignore depression? Many may find it as normal, but I find it alarming. Depression is a silent killer. 

It kills your joy, it kills your hope and it kills your inner peace. It loses our reason to live. It only gives you sorrow and agony that penetrates in your inner soul.

Many people are not aware that they’re in the depressing state. As early as possible, we must detect this silent killer.

1.       Pray. Unload your burden to God. The main reason why people get depressed is that they have a huge problem or burden that they carry with them. Loose that thing that burdens you. Sometimes it’s hard to forget and hard to let go, but we must entrust it to God. Trust God, He can carry it through. God is an all-knowing God, and He knows what you’re going through. God wants to carry your burden. He wants to save you.

2.       Bring back your inspiration. Find the reason to celebrate life. Look on the people who stays by your side. Keep them. Treasure and appreciate them. They love you. They will give you reason to celebrate life and makes you glad.

3.       Don’t shut yourselves from people.  Don’t give satan, the enemy, the reason to play on you. He manipulates your mind and thoughts. Go to people who can be trusted. Talk to them, tell them about how you feel. Go to your family or a Christian friend who can help you out. Satan wants to discourage you, but God wants to uplift you. God will use people to encourage you.

4.       Go out. Go to the place where you can find yourself at ease. Go to church, eat on your favorite restaurant, shop, go to salon and spa. You must pamper yourself. You deserve a treat. Give time for yourself. Give yourself a break- from stresses and work. Know your worth. Give yourself a time to sort things out.

5.       Encourage someone. One way to encourage yourself is to encourage someone. There are a lot of people who are also in need of encouragement. You know how it feels, you know their grief and you can empathize to them and bring compassion to them. In that way, you will be encouraged.

6.       Move on. Know the cause of your depression, if it’s people… then approach them and talk to them. Humility is the key. Ask for forgiveness. If it’s circumstances, look on the brighter side. It’s just an obstacle, it’s not the end of the race. It may be hard, but sooner, you will understand.

7.       Know Jesus. He can intercede for you. Believe that Jesus saves you to bring you life in Him. He wants you to enjoy abundant life with Him. You will be an overcomer. You will overcome!

I hope that this will help you. I hope it will save you, because it saves mine.

Keep going everyone. God bless.

Just Expression- Just Press On

Finally, we've launched our site on FB. Please do like our site/ page on Facebook. Thanks!

https://web.facebook.com/justexpressionsph/

I cannot explain how I felt when we first launched our site on Fb. I was excited because this is all I wanna do- to express my passion and love for arts at the same time inspire people through arts and poetry. I saw this in my vision. I'll be doing this. I thank the Lord for the opportunity to do the things I love.
All I want is to inspire people, especially those who suffered from depression. They need a  care group or someone who will encourage them to press on and move forward.We need someone who will encourage us to overcome the challenges in life.
God has amazing things prepared for all of us. Just wait for His right timing and see how it unfolds.

I hope you'll try to visit and like our page. So far, we have three (3) contributing artist, and I'm one of them, who shared their artworks and thoughts to people.

I hope you'll like our site and be blessed. :)

Keep going everyone.

To-Do Over a Christmas Break

Christmas is my favorite season. I don't know, its in the Christmas spirit that makes my heart feels so glad. Maybe because this is the time of the year where all your family members gather together and celebrate the season. Relatives and old friends are reunited in Christmas parties and other get-together gathering. Aside from that, this is the time where I can have a long break from all the stresses in work. What I love about this break is that I can always find time for myself- to do the things that I failed to do during regular days.  I can have my "me time" and I can do whatever I want to do. So here it is, I've already planned out my "To-Do Over a Christmas Break Checklist".

So, to start things of, I got  list of activities. I put check mark (✓ ) to the accomplished tasks and x for the things I haven't done yet.

✓  1. Do some general cleaning- Do the sweeping, clean my room, wash clothes, clean my bedding, bags and etc. I got this "OCness" in me that I wish to clean everything almost everyday, but failed to do it due to school work. So, finally I got to make it today. I'm proud I got to wash mine and my sister's clothes. You can rarely see me washing because I hate washing clothes. 

X  2. Paint-  I got some blank canvas and set of oil paint, so I'll start painting at least 2-3 paintings for this season. I really love painting. It is my first love but it saddens me, knowing that I can only do it once in a while. 

✓  3. Cook my Specialty Dish- Nobody knows I love cooking, but I feel exhausted in cleaning after cooking so I rarely cook. This time I want to practice cooking spaghetti and tadahh... I made some for Christmas eve.  

X  4. Facial Treatment- I really love facial massage. It is soothing and relaxing. I love the result, so I gotta visit the clinic this Christmas break.

X 5. Read a Book- I downloaded a book and I'm planning to read it this Christmas break. It's a Christian book to be exact.

X 6. Go some place (somewhere) alone-  I wanna be independent this coming 2018. All my life my parents,siblings, friends dictates me on things I'm going to do. This time, it's my symbolic way of expressing... "this time, Im going to do it on my own", not because somebody said so. I want to be an independent woman.

X 7. Rest from Social Media- I was so bombarded with so much happenings in social media that I don't understand anymore the things that is going on in my life. This time, I'll gonna spend time with my self resting, meditating. I also wanna spend time with God and do some catching up. heheh

X 8. Go out with a Friend-  I am a busy person that even going out with a a friend is such a hard thing to do. I miss my friends a lot. I want to catch up with them and spend some quality time with them. I hope I can do this before the break ends.

X 9. Dinner in a Restaurant w/ Family- I know what you're thinking. Yeah right, I'm a boring and busy person. But I'm trying to change :| for the better.We usually had dinner (together) at home but not in a restaurant- yeah, due to busy scheds (I guess).

X 10. Write some blogs-  my blog is my safe haven, this is where I can express myself when others are not listening. Aside from prayer and painting, this is where I can be myself. I maybe fake and pretentious in front of many people, but my blog is where I want to be. I can be sad, lonely, gloomy and happy. All sorts of emotion I can express and good thing, nobody cares.

So, this is it. I got my list and it's all set.  I got to accomplish it before my break ends. Got to go! Keep going everyone. Happy holidays. 

Merry Christmas everyone and God bless you.

To The One That Got Away

I miss someone who isn't mine to miss. I dream about someone who isn't mine to dream about. I love someone who isn't mine to love. He's too far from me now. I was never been a part of his life, nor in his plans and dreams. I was never in his mind or in his heart. It breaks my heart because I can't even express my love for him. I can't even say he is the one that I LOVE. I want to take good care of him, love him and live the rest of my life with him. He is always been in the heart of my prayers, praying to  God to make his dream come true. I want him to be happy in his life and be the man he wants to be. I want him to live the dream- even if I'm not part of it. After all, true love is not selfish. It is about being happy for someone's happiness.

"Unrequited love does not die; it's only beaten down to the secret place where it  hides, curled and wounded." -Elle Newmark

So I wrote a letter for you as part of my healing and this will be the last...

To the one that got away,

I never thought that I will fall for you. We were ones friends, then best friends... but I was caught off guard. Yeah, I fell. You cared so much to me, the caress that I got from you is what I always value, but I never thought it was never been true. Now, I was left wounded and shattered. You didn't do anything wrong... it's just me who loves you all along. How can I get back from this sudden fall? I was left puzzled and hopeless. Puzzled, thinking what if you love me too. Hopeless, because I know you never do. You were once the cause of my happiness, but it turned out the cause of emptiness, loneliness and brokenness. How can I stand from this fall?  Why am I afraid to loose you... when you're not even mine? Your departure just caused me deep sorrow. Since the day you left, I've been missing you so badly, almost everyday.

Many years had passed, the scars and wounds never leave. It was just being suppressed without being noticed. I loose faith in love and turned out to be fearful in love. I started to loose my hope. It's not your fault, it's me who fall after all. But this notion should come to an end. I shouldn't wallow on the sadness and brokenness. God has many plans in my life. God installed good things to me, waiting to be unfold.
I swear this will be my last letter for you. I'm writing this to you to be healed. This healing of wounds is not easy, it's tough, but it is the right thing to do. All I want is these wounds to be gone.

So, I'm letting you go. 
I forgave you.
I understand.
I know, we were not meant to be. 
God wants to heal me, but first I should let you go. I will let you go.
Letting you go doesn't mean I'll stop praying for you. I'll still be praying  for your happiness and success. Letting you go doesn't mean I'll forget you, it means I'm already giving up the idea that we will end up together.

So I'll go now. I believe there is someone out there who is waiting for me in the future and the same with you too. I know my God prepared something beautiful for us separately. I'll start to live  life again without you. Now it's time for you to go and leave- to leave my mind and heart. So, farewell to you my love. I should start walking without you. Let's walk our separate ways without looking back. But I never wish that we'll be strangers again, after all... I never regret loving you.

Goodbye my love. And when we meet again, I'll hug you tight and say thank you, because you taught me how to love unselfishly and love unconditionally. You taught me how to forgive and to let go.
And when we meet again, when that day comes, probably all my questions about "Why?" are answered. 

Wishing you the best. Thank you my friend :)
Good Bye.

Love,
Ling