TOPAZ HORIZON

This is my friend Nikki.

We met in 2007, when I hired her to be the Fashion & Beauty Editor of the magazine I edit.

This is the staff on a team building trip to Zambales.

Nikki, Lana and Joanna get silly in Zoobic. This is the only photo of Nikki "wearing" something not chica!

Nikki with Lana and me at the Cosmo Bachelor Bash in 2008.

We did the rounds of TV shows taking about celebrity style.

Here she is at the staff shoot in 2009.

She worked as a stylist (in heels no less!) for our staff shoot.

She's also a beauty columnist.

Nikki with Nicole and me at The Spa to do reviews.

Here we are again at a Lancome event. (I was pregnant!)

Or we do dinners and lunches at each other's homes.

Uber chic couple Nikki and Bern

Nikki's cloud gown.

Her entourage photo looks like a fashion editorial!

As you may have guessed from all the photos above, Nikki's a woman of many talents. One of those talents is her unerring knack to put together a completely stylish look. Everywhere Nikki goes--whether it's to a gala, a TV show, a lunch meeting or a dinner at home, she looks absolutely amazing. Not a hair out of place and always flawless. And she makes it look so effortless, too!

So we've been entreating, begging, nagging and pushing her to put up her own style blog. She's been giving us shopping, style and beauty advice for years and her tips are always unbelievably easy! I think my outfits drastically improved when we became friends to be honest. So wouldn't it be nice if she did the same for you?

Well, she finally agreed. Meet The Picky Dresser. In her words, she's "living life one outfit at a time!"
Do give Nikki a warm welcome to the blogging world!

Update, Sept 12, 2012: Nikki shut down her blog =(

Was looking through my computer's folders and found a lot of forgotten pics or some I put on my mommy blog instead but you didn't get to see. Here are 10 pics (in chronological order):

Oct 28, 2009. Jane Kingsu-Cheng of My Style Kit and Forever 21. This was at an Estee Lauder event at Chef Laudico's Bistro. I've seen Jane before when she was still a magazine editor but I've never actually met her. Then we "met" through our blogs so when we actually physically saw each other again, we just had to say hi! And that was the start of a beautiful friendship. Jane was one of my "mommies" when I was pregnant and afraid. Thanks, Jane!

Dec 30, 2009. Our Rock Band was spankin' brand new and Vince's brother and his kids came over to check it out. Since the boys would rather play the instruments, I was the designated singer. I miss my red hair!

May 15, 2010. The day the iPad arrived. Lookit how happy the Third World Nerd is! His expression reminds me of the first time he held Vito in his arms! If you want to know the fantastic story of how we got our iPad, click here and here. It is quite a tale!

June 30, 2010. Kat's birthday party! Kat left for New York City early last year to study fashion merchandising. But in June, she flew back to Manila for a rendezvous with her boyfriend, who threw her a surprise birthday party. So here we are, Nikki, Leslie, Nic and Kat. That was a fun night. I was 7 months pregnant. I can't believe my arms were thinner back then! I'm so fat now!


Nov 29, 2010. My pink Christmas tree. Ain't it a beaut?

Jan 26, 2011. Vito at 5 months old, wearing a Cheshire Cat shirt with a glow-in-the-dark grin. Yes, we like cool and funny t-shirts! This was taken at dawn. Yes, even now at 9 months old, he still wakes up at 5am! When will I ever sleep for 10 hours again? Even 8 hours? Never? Thought so.

April 14, 2011. With fellow mommies Paola Loot (with her sweetie pie Sjofn) and Martine De Luna, who has a son named Vito too and is the author of Dainty Mom. We tried Plana Forma. The super fit woman at the right was our instructor. I gave up after just one session. It is hard! Martine continued the torture.

April 24, 2011. At Bonifacio High Street. Vito played with a puppy right after this shot. Vito loves dogs and rabbits. Loves them. Totally shrieks with delight when he sees anything furry. I know I haven't updated about my rabbit Matilda forever but yes, she's still alive and fatter and cuter. Which drives Vito insane--he's always so excited when he sees Matilda, grabs at her and shrieks. Matilda does not like this one bit. She doesn't like Vito at all. Sigh. I wonder if this is what will happen if we have another kid...

May 7, 2011. At Rustan's Makati, where I always shop for Vito's stuff. Vince shops at Mothercare. Yes, we have different baby stuff haunts! We bought him three pairs of shoes this day. Porma shoes only since I prefer he learn to walk barefoot. He's standing on his own now, by the way! My goodness, where did the time go?

Looking at these photos, they only feel like yesterday and yet also a lifetime ago. Sigh.

Last Thursday, I had dinner at Nikki and Bern's townhouse. They threw an intimate party for our friend Nicole. I didn't realize it was that intimate, though! It was just Nikki, Bern, me, Nic and Nic's friend Tata.

Nicole and I love milk tea!

On a diet, Nikki gets "upset" at dessert: profiteroles!

Tired me with Bern and Nikki

We talked about a lot of things and so ended up going home past midnight.

Nic and Nikki, still pretty at midnight!

Nic's been hanging out a lot with Tata.

I can't tell you what we talked about so I'll just show you our shoes!

Nikki. Everyone should have yellow shoes!

Nic's Aldo nude pumps are a classic.

My two-tone Sapato Manila heels

Tata's sandals

What shoes are you wearing today? Me? As in, today today? I'm wearing Janilyn flats!

Well, I saw some old friends like JR Isaac at shu uemura's artsy party...

... and I'm absolutely loving Melissa Shoes' new model!

Check out my beauty blog, girls. I've finally decided to resurrect it with exciting fashion and beauty news, glam events I attend, stuff I actually use, and product reviews. I'm only posting products I like, however. Can't do any negative reviews apparently since I'm not supposed to bite the hand that feeds me. So if I feature it on Beauty For A Living, you can be sure that the product is so good, I love it!

And right about now, it's everywhere! Remember when I was going on and on about this bag?

Kate Spade Marielly Sutton Place Cross-Body Bag

Well, blog reader Eper left a comment on my Facebook page saying she found a fabulous deal for me: Kate Spade was on sale and the Marielly was 50% off! I immediately clicked on the link she sent me and, indeed, Kate Spade was on sale! So I bought... TWO! (Thank you, blogging money!)

I woke up to the heavenly smell of leather and the sound of crinkly tissue paper!

It's such a cute bag!

And it opens up to a tote if you need more space!

One for me and one for my dear dear dearest friend Mariel! I figured she should have a bag that has the same name as hers. Besides, it was her birthday and it was Christmas, too. So Mariel and I both had a merry Christmas!

That's just-woken-up me! Good morning indeed!

I love my new bag. Soooo much! Will post an outfit photo soon!

Since giving birth to Vito Gwapito, I really don't go anywhere far from my house. Sleepless nights have made me look and act like a zombie so I don't look very presentable most days. My goodness, when will I ever have a good night's rest again--maybe when Vito's 18? Argh, that's a whole set of worries by then and I guess I'll have to resort to some potent sleep aids to get any rest at all. Readers who want to have babies, be warned!

Anyway, the real reason I don't venture far from the house anymore is because I breastfeed Vito. I express milk but there's not much milk that gets expressed (only about 3 oz a session) so even if I have a few bottles stored, I still get paranoid that Vito will drink all the milk while I'm away and then he'll starve. Ya, I'm crazy stupid like that.

But last Friday night, I was able to steal away for four hours to go shopping with my girlfriends Nicole and Nikki at the newly opened Kiehl's boutique at Mall of Asia (more on that soon at Beauty For A Living). Let me tell ya, it was soooo nice to just chat away with the girls. From silly things like Topshop finds and yummy things like traditional Thanksgiving dishes to really serious and sad stuff that I won't talk about here.

Instead I'll talk about the light and fluffy! Like my outfit! Woot! Outfit post! Now when was the last time I did that?! Anyway, I am wearing my Gap shirt, my Guess skinny jeans, my black suede peep-toes I bought from eBay and my Fino bag.


If you're wondering why Nicole has her hand in that begging pose, it's because of this:

Freaky! Nic just came from an acupuncture session, a regular treatment she does that really helped her health. I've only done acupuncture once, as a last resort to a terrible cough that lasted for weeks and wouldn't go away whatever I did and no matter how many doctors I saw. So off I went to a Chinese clinic, had a detox, an acupressure massage, an acupuncture session and a total physical diagnosis using magnets. I was half laughing and half coughing the entire time. "This is crazy shit," I said to myself. But that night, my phlegm loosened and by morning, my cough was gone. Gone!

So I've digressed from my story! Anyway, I'm just glad I was able to go out. Being a mom is all about giving, giving, giving. It saps the life out of me sometimes. So it's good to be able to steal away now and then and just recharge. I should do it more often actually. Vince has been complaining about my temper recently. Sigh.

Saw these photos from 8 months ago. And I just got nostalgic. We were so happy!
This was at Nikki's wedding and these are the glamorous people that make up our Wine Night group. Can I just point out my arm??? I was actually eating a LOT at that time because I was 4 months pregnant.

Yep, I was 4 months pregnant then. A lot has happened since... the pneumonia scare for me, magazine features for some, finding and losing love for one, heartbreak for others, a homecoming, leaving for another land for one, I gave birth to Vito and had postpartum depression, etc. A lot truly has happened in the past 8 months!

But certain things remain...

Here's to us, my darling drunks!