*Fact: "Tunay na Mahal" means, "True Love" in Tagalog.
The language spoken in the Philippines. It's pronounced, "Too-Nye nAH Ma-hall"
The language spoken in the Philippines. It's pronounced, "Too-Nye nAH Ma-hall"
You can find me on Instagram: @tunaynamahal82
I started this blog in March 2008 to document & tell the story of my long distance relationship. F.B. & I met on a forum for the actress Lindsay Lohan back in late 2003. We weren't looking for a relationship. We started off as friends and it turned into something more. Before you knew it we were emailing, sending each other letters, calling each other on the phone and April 1st, 2004 we took our first big risk- saying, "I love you." From then on our long distance relationship progressed. I finally got to meet F.B. in December 2006. We were engaged by January 2007. After 5 1/2 years and several trips to the Philippines we were married on December 19th, 2009.
My husband finally came to the USA in March 2011. Our 1st set of paperwork took about a year. We finally finished our immigration process in May 2013.
That is how my blog started. But who I am? I'm Sarah Lynn. I also go by the user name tunaynamahal82 on the internet in various places. I was born in Philadelphia and have lived here my whole life. I have three younger brothers. I was homeschool from 6th grade, until 12th. I used to write a lot in my teens. I wrote several novels and was able to use them towards my high school essays for graduation.
I'm a techy kind of girl. I've repaired & dissected a few laptops quite a few times! I play a lot computer games when I have spare time. Mostly, The Sims 4 , Planet Coaster, RTC. I am also addicted to Animal Crossing New Leaf on my Nintendo 3DS.
I love to create computer graphics, or fiddle with the HTML or layout on my blog here. I'm pretty proficient at using Fireworks & Photoshop Pro and Adobe Photoshop.
I love photography! I would love to own a SLR camera someday. I currently own a Sony Cybershot DSC-TX30. I love to take pictures of flowers, nature, nail swatches & of course my pets outdoors! I've taken my girls to the park many many times and my ferret before them. I've gotten a lot of looks, but I've also met a lot of curious friendly people. My rat Sugar was even in the local newspaper once for 'Pet Of The Week'.
I've always been the girl with unusual pets. I owned a ferret named Nippy for 4 years until she passed away from adrenal cancer in 2007. I've owned pet rats since 2007. (Average lifespan is 1-3 years). You would be surprised how smart, clean & how much personality each rat has, they even come when you call their names.
I used to bite my nails all the time when I was younger, but in late 2010 after a bad back injury I became obsessed with nail polish. Being on bed rest I had nothing better to do than paint my nails and discover nail polish blogs! I enjoy painting my nails, collecting different nail polishes, doing nail art.
I love to cook & bake. And I'm always up for trying foreign foods.
I can be shy if I don't know you too well. I get panic attacks some times. I hate large crowds or parties. I suffered from depression badly in my late teens & early twenties. I also suffered from panic attacks so badly back then that it made me almost agoraphobic. I tend to keep just a few really good close friends. F.B. & I are alike in this way as we can sometimes tend to be anti-social in our own world. I've gotten better with the agoraphobia as I've gotten older. If you get to know me well, I can be loud, I talk A LOT! Just ask my close friends or co-workers!
I love to read. I read every single night. This started when I was about 3, and wouldn't sleep at night. My grandmom gave me a stack of books to read so I wouldn't get out of bed. I love reading biographies & memoirs, classics, historical fiction, books about holocaust survivors, some regular fiction, etc. I've always loved history and became obsessed with the Tudor Dynasty back when I read The Other Boleyn Girl. From then on I took out just about every fiction and non fiction book you could imagine on Tudor History or Mary Queen of Scots. I own quite a collection of those books myself. I'm also really fond of true life/murder stories, such as Amanda Knox, Anne Perry and the Murder of the Century, Jodi Arias, Lizzie Borden. You can check out books I read here on Goodreads
I love music. I enjoy bands like, Fall Out Boy, Foster The People, Panic At the Disco, Chevelle, Eminem, Hoobastank, Incubus, Red, Kutless, 12 Stones, Three Days Grace, Avril Lavigne, Paramore, Katy Perry, or more mellow music like, Maroon 5, Ryan Cabrera, Taylor Swift, Michelle Branch, etc. I also like some dubstep, electronica: Deadmau5, Celldweller, Excision, Datsik, Daft Punk.
I'm a techy kind of girl. I've repaired & dissected a few laptops quite a few times! I play a lot computer games when I have spare time. Mostly, The Sims 4 , Planet Coaster, RTC. I am also addicted to Animal Crossing New Leaf on my Nintendo 3DS.
I love to create computer graphics, or fiddle with the HTML or layout on my blog here. I'm pretty proficient at using Fireworks & Photoshop Pro and Adobe Photoshop.
I love photography! I would love to own a SLR camera someday. I currently own a Sony Cybershot DSC-TX30. I love to take pictures of flowers, nature, nail swatches & of course my pets outdoors! I've taken my girls to the park many many times and my ferret before them. I've gotten a lot of looks, but I've also met a lot of curious friendly people. My rat Sugar was even in the local newspaper once for 'Pet Of The Week'.
I've always been the girl with unusual pets. I owned a ferret named Nippy for 4 years until she passed away from adrenal cancer in 2007. I've owned pet rats since 2007. (Average lifespan is 1-3 years). You would be surprised how smart, clean & how much personality each rat has, they even come when you call their names.
I used to bite my nails all the time when I was younger, but in late 2010 after a bad back injury I became obsessed with nail polish. Being on bed rest I had nothing better to do than paint my nails and discover nail polish blogs! I enjoy painting my nails, collecting different nail polishes, doing nail art.
I love to cook & bake. And I'm always up for trying foreign foods.
I can be shy if I don't know you too well. I get panic attacks some times. I hate large crowds or parties. I suffered from depression badly in my late teens & early twenties. I also suffered from panic attacks so badly back then that it made me almost agoraphobic. I tend to keep just a few really good close friends. F.B. & I are alike in this way as we can sometimes tend to be anti-social in our own world. I've gotten better with the agoraphobia as I've gotten older. If you get to know me well, I can be loud, I talk A LOT! Just ask my close friends or co-workers!
I love to read. I read every single night. This started when I was about 3, and wouldn't sleep at night. My grandmom gave me a stack of books to read so I wouldn't get out of bed. I love reading biographies & memoirs, classics, historical fiction, books about holocaust survivors, some regular fiction, etc. I've always loved history and became obsessed with the Tudor Dynasty back when I read The Other Boleyn Girl. From then on I took out just about every fiction and non fiction book you could imagine on Tudor History or Mary Queen of Scots. I own quite a collection of those books myself. I'm also really fond of true life/murder stories, such as Amanda Knox, Anne Perry and the Murder of the Century, Jodi Arias, Lizzie Borden. You can check out books I read here on Goodreads
I love music. I enjoy bands like, Fall Out Boy, Foster The People, Panic At the Disco, Chevelle, Eminem, Hoobastank, Incubus, Red, Kutless, 12 Stones, Three Days Grace, Avril Lavigne, Paramore, Katy Perry, or more mellow music like, Maroon 5, Ryan Cabrera, Taylor Swift, Michelle Branch, etc. I also like some dubstep, electronica: Deadmau5, Celldweller, Excision, Datsik, Daft Punk.
Photo Setup:
This is my setup for taking photos. I have my light tent on my dining room table when I use it. Depending on what kind of lighting I need, I sometimes use one or two clamp lights on the sides of my light tent. I always use the Ottlite. I put my hand inside the light tent, underneath the light to take nail polish photos.
My Equipment List:
• Two Clamp Lamps from Lowes.
• Utilitech 18-Watt Daylight (5000K) CFL Bulbs
(I have switched my clamp lights bulbs over to these Ottlite bulbs).
• One Ottlite High Definition Lamp.
• 12x12 Softbox from Cowboy Studio.
• Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-TX30
• Corel Paintshop Pro X7.
