
This week on Sunday Best. Every third Sunday of the month, hubbie and I join our Joy In The Spirit (JITS) Prayer Community to celebrate the holy mass done in Filipino. We hold it at the St. John the Evangelist Church in Pasadena, Maryland. Hubbie is part of the wonderful JITS choir. Their beautiful singing voices coupled with the inspiring Fr. Pete Literal presiding the mass, it is always a eucharistic time quite memorable. If you’re around the area, please join us every third Sunday at 2:30 pm. I promise you, you will also be uplifted by the whole experience.
After the mass, we do have socials where we serve potluck food. The get together has always been a festive one – we would always have a cake for the birthday celebrants and everything from main course to dessert. Hubbie and I always look forward to our 3rd Sunday meetings with our prayer community, this is our base, our headquarters. This is where our close friends are.
When you’ve been with a group like this for awhile, you get to see the children grow up right in front of your eyes. We’ve only been with them close to 5 years, but I am already a witness to some of them grow up from being babies to running, hyper but oh so sweet toddlers. And this baby with me in the photos is one of them. She is my godchild, Sarah, whose parents are very good friends of ours. I never had a chance to have kids of my own and I think that’s why I tend to spoil and pay a lot of attention to children – nephews, nieces, kids of friends. They always make my spirit feel young. Since all my nephews and niece are in Canada, I busy myself with the JITS children. They are all close to my heart.

For this Sunday Best edition, I am wearing a chiffon summer dress from Express. I bought this number on sale last winter while shopping for clothes to bring to our trip to the Philippines. I am a believer in discounts and buying out-of-season clothes to wear for the next year. This is why my closet could contain clothes with their tag still on because it could just be waiting for the “same time next year”. That’s how I’ve always saved on clothes. Express is one of those stores that I go to for their off-season sales. I do find classic clothes on their sale racks. And their designs are really classy.

One particular piece I enjoyed about my outfit was the bracelet I bought at SM in Cubao, Q.C. at their Filipiniana section, Kultura. I know it could be a little pricey locally, but it was a $30 purchase that I didn’t really mind since I know this would have been priced higher here. It came with a nice pair of drop earrings and I was happy that it matched the summer dress I wore. They were made of semi-precious stones and crystals and the sparkle of it really caught my attention. This is something I can keep on using for a long while.

Do you actually know how to calculate your money’s worth on your outfits and accessories? Wear them often. If you divide the price you bought the item for by the number of times you’ve used it and will still be using it, this is what they call “cost per wear”. Which means, the more uses you get from the item, the better this investment gets. So buy classic pieces, and picture yourself wearing it with as much outfits as you can. I am already predicting that you will see a lot of this piece of accessory on a lot of the outfits I will be showing in the future. By the looks of it, I can also wear it with more formal get-ups.
On the other hand, if you do WANT to wear trendy apparel but know you won’t be wearing it very often, make sure you get them on sale. That way the cost per wear would not be too high. Plus, it wouldn’t give you a heartache whenever you see this item in your closet and you know you’ve spent a lot on it but never got to use it often enough. You’ve gone through so many heart crashes, don’t let your clothes be one of them 😉
Sales sure are a wonderful idea.
So, what about you, my dear readers, any outfit investments worth the money you paid for?
That’s it for our Sunday Best. Hope you can come and visit me again soon. If you do have your special special Sunday Best, why don’t you drop me a comment or tag me on instagram (@the_gigi_lifestyle) so that I can also feature you on my blog. Happy week, everyone!


The once named “godmother of the Philippine Blogosphere”, Gigi Manaloto-Refugia, known by her pen name “Ate Sienna” has been blogging since 2002 in her old pansitan.net community where she housed famous bloggers. She now writes about being 50-something and shares her tips on fashion, makeup, skincare, travel, food and thrift-store diving.
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