TOPAZ HORIZON

You've all seen my lovely escritoire from Prizmic & Brill:

This photo is from the Real Living magazine feature a few years back. Many things have changed in our home--lots of new stuff!--but this writing desk will be mine till I'm old and gray. It's such a lovely piece. And it was Vince's Christmas gift to me in 2008. One of the best gifts he's ever given me!

Here is my now super messy desk with another (even more) amazing gift from Vince:

That little boy is always grabbing stuff from my desk! So my desk is messier than ever since I have to keep piling papers and things higher and farther from his reach. Which then makes it harder to work since my laptop is buried under so much stuff that I get lazy to do anything!

Except that it might have to be a king since Vince, Vito and I all tumble into one bed and the little big boy takes up too much space (seriously, how can someone so tiny take up so much space?!). Now another baby boy is on his way and we'll need a new bed.

Last month, I was finally able to visit Ronac Art Center. I know everyone raves about it so I was a tad disappointed that I didn't see any art. I was kinda expecting it to be a museum or a gallery, not a mini mall. Oh well. I still liked the place, especially when I discovered the Uratex beds!

I actually was in the premises for an event but the event was running suuuuuper late because some celebrities must've gotten the memo that the affair starts at 6 instead of 4pm, the time the rest of us were told. At least that's the excuse I always give these celebs. Anyway, I wandered about while waiting and as soon as I saw rows of mattresses, I did this:

Kicked off my heels!

Lay on the beds!

The Uratex memory foam pillows are better than Muji's. And much cheaper!

I tried out all the mattresses! I lay on them, rolled around, bounced. I sure gave Goldilocks a run for her money. I liked the Perfect Serenity mattress best--it's the perfect balance of firm and soft. Some of the mattresses were like sinking into clouds, which is a good thing for some but for me it felt like I was being suffocated. Some of the mattresses were very firm but that's because they're orthopedic. Perfect Serenity was just right.

The best part is the mattresses are not expensive at all! The Perfect Serenity queen is a mere P15,000. I'd have bought it then and there except I remembered I have a husband who must be consulted on purchases above... hmmm. I actually really don't ask Vince for permission to shop because he spoils me like that but I figured that since he'll be sharing the bed I wanted to buy, he had to have a say!

And this is what he had to say: "Let's wait."

The reason is we had just bought a major piece of furniture (I won't say what it is!) so he advised me from buying yet another one, even if the bed doesn't cost as much as the aforementioned major piece of furniture. Good idea. So we'll wait. But Perfect Serenity mattress, I'm coming for you soon!

Look who we caught shopping for modern furniture!

Vince and I brought Vito to his Auntie Anj's chair boutique, About A Chair. He had been fussing at the lunch table, mostly because 2pm is when he starts his nap time so we figured we'll just do a quick stop at the shop then leave. Well, as soon as Vito saw the miniature versions of these designer chairs, he came alive!

Arne Jacobsen's Ant Chair

Verner Panton's Panton Chair

Eero Aarnio's Ball Chair

Let me repeat: They're mini versions! So adorable. Vito happily climbed over them, tested them, and gurgled over them. I think he liked the Ball Chair best. The cushion's very soft and it feels like a cocoon.

Are we buying? Well, first Vince and I have to buy that sofa we wanted at BoConcept! And then we'll buy Vito his own chair when we move to a bigger apartment or to a house house, which isn't for a good long while. Sigh!

But if you're looking for fantabulous accent/designer chairs for your home, I highly recommend About A Chair!

Little fairy lights aren't just for Christmas. They look romantic strung over your bed or magical as pretty outdoor lights.

Your chair doesn't have to match your desk.

Beautiful fabrics add drama to simple shapes.

A fresh coat of paint, preferably in bright colors,  gives new life to old furniture.

Blue on blue isn't boring. Same colors can actually unify a space.

You may have a lovely house but if there's no love in it, it's not much of a home.

Heima is on the second level of LRI Plaza along N. Garcia St., Makati.

Last weekend, Vince's sister and her family invited us to their fabulous new home for a housewarming party. I do want to respect their privacy so I'm just going to post a few photos here:
This is Anj and Lit Onrubia in their dining room. They now live in a spacious 3-bedroom apartment in a gated community, which will be great for raising their precocious son, the adorable Zo! While the place looks fantastic already, Lit says they're still not done. One of the things they're still looking for are good patio chairs.

The house was designed to look very Zen. Unlike what most people think, Zen doesn't mean as little furniture and as little design possible. Zen is peaceful, the sort of decor that won't invite clutter and stress. That's me and Vince's nephew Tom (who is love in a little package) and behind us is an indoor stone garden with a water feature. Quite relaxing!

We totally love the lighting! All our photos in this apartment turned out great! That's what Vince and I wish we had invested in--lighting. It really makes a ton of difference. It's just that it's soooo expensive! When we're very rich, we'll definitely plan some fab lighting!

Oops, PDA! After more than 11 years, we still can't keep our hands off each other. That's what got us pregnant!!! Sorry, Anj and Lit, for making out in your gorgeous living room!

Okay, so I know I've been gone forever! Blasted Internet connection! And darn busy schedule, too! But I am back now with very happy news. This is what's thrilling Vince and me to bits this week:

That's Real Living's latest book and my house is the cover!!! Of course, the photo looks much better than the actual thing (see here). That's because they had to style that little space so that it'll be more photogenic. So they fixed the curtains, grabbed the garden stool from the foyer, the crystal vase and Rustan's orchids from beside the TV, the suitcases from under the coffee table, the felt rabbits from the shoe cabinets, and the editorial assistant's bag from her shoulder... Et voila! Now it's cover worthy.

Grab your copy of Real Home Ideas 5: Small Space Solutions from your favorite bookstores and magazine stands now for only P195 a book. I'm definitely getting a few! My home just became a star!

Update: The book will be officially launched on June 23, Wednesday, at the SM Megamall Atrium at 4:30 PM. I'll try to be there, of course! If you want to attend the launch and get a free book (Book 4, though), do send an email to abigail.pinili@summitmedia.com.ph to register.

The traditional gift for the third wedding anniversary is leather. Vince and I had been toying with the idea of giving each other bags--he needs a laptop bag and I... well, I don't need a bag but I definitely will not refuse one!

Instead of bags, however, we found ourselves getting these throw pillows:

They're embroidered black leather pillows from Dimensione, about a P1,000++ each. They come in other designs and there's also white versions. We like how they ground the look of our living room, which has started to look too feminine. Plus, you just need to wipe them clean!

P.S. That's my old teddy bear, Mozzarella! You can tell he loves the new pillows, too.

Yesterday, April 5, was the 11th anniversary of the day Vince and I met. Yes, just the meeting. Normally, people don't celebrate that kind of anniversary but we do because, well, it changed our lives!

We met at the U.P. National Writers Workshop. When I got in the fellowship, I was so thrilled. It's every Filipino writer's dream to become a fellow in this prestigious workshop! And I got in! I knew those two weeks in Baguio, with the country's best writers, will change my life. Little did I know how--I was going to meet the man who would become my husband!

Those two weeks were just magical. I was soooo happy to be with writers and, at the same time, I was falling in love fast with the long-haired quiet guy with the big grin, who wrote heartbreaking stories and played the guitar, and can engage me in the longest, deepest conversations. Yup, we fell fast and hard. In fact, by the end of those two weeks, April 18, Vince and I were inseparable.

So yesterday was our 11th meeting anniversary. We didn't want to celebrate it actually because there's a big anniversary coming up--the wedding one on April 18. But after we visited my OBG and got a private tour of St. Luke's Global City, we figured we'd go have dinner out anyway!

But first, we had to check out the furniture stores. Of course! Vince is such a home decor geek and he really wanted to inspect the leather sofas in Natuzzi and the shelves at Jesse.

After deciding that Italian leather sofas are way beyond our budget now (big sad sigh there), we figured we'd have Italian food instead!


We just ate at Italianni's. Nice big place and we haven't eaten there recently so in we went! I like the old photos on the walls, the murals and the big iron chandeliers reminiscent of Murray Feiss lighting.

We first had a nice basket of warm bread dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Then we had a big crisp salad. See? We're eating healthy now!


Then I had a minestrone soup. I liked it--filled with chunky veggies swimming in tomato goodness. Very hearty!

Then we had this salmon dish that wasn't so good. It was tired and tasteless. Salmon should be firm and fresh and have that hint of saltiness.So I just had a bite since I didn't like it. Vince didn;t either but he ate all of it.
Then Vince finished things off with a big lasagne. These are huge servings, by the way, so I'm mighty impressed with my husband's appetite. I didn't even have the pasta dish anymore since I was happily eating the bread (I love carbs!).

So there! That's how we celebrated our mini-anniversary! Oh, then we went home and had a Big Bang Theory marathon with mugs of Selecta's Hazelnut Brownie ice cream. Burp!

I'm feeling much much better! Been sleeping and eating all day, just resting and getting stronger by the day. Thank you to everyone who wished me well and prayed for my Jelly Bean. If it's not too much to ask, please still include this little boy in your prayers, just a quick little breath of blessing as he's only halfway through his journey out my tummy and I wish him all the love of the universe--yours!

So just a tiny update on the preparations for the little one! One sentence: We've just about depleted our savings for him! While we haven't bought anything for the nursery yet--no crib, no changing table, and definitely no toys like foosball tables --we did splurge on these:
Li'l blue Mazda 2 that Vince named Zoom Zoom. It's blue! Vince can't wait to take his son for a spin in the blue car he bought the little guy. 

An Eames RAR rocker. Its curved runners are made of really hard wood that our parquet floors--made of softer wood--get marked! Hence, the rug underneath it. I guess we ought to replace the floor. Sigh.

The hospital bills. Another big sigh! Thanks so much for all your concern, folks. I do want to say that TMC wasn't such a disaster--I am, after all, better so they did their job well. It was just the pulmo and the health insurance that caused us pain.

We've also finished furnishing the house! Well, maybe we need to replace that old sofa, but for now it will do. Here I am, organizing my magazine pile. Vince is very keen on getting the house in order for his son's arrival so, aside from the cleaning, he's also bought pieces of furniture that have finally made our house cozier than ever.

Vince and I really wanted the house to be complete before the baby arrives. Everyone warned us that when the kid's here, it's all going to be about him so we kinda rushed to make sure we've gotten everything we wanted. And now everything's ready!

Well, we haven't started with the nursery. We figured we'd wait till we meet the little guy first. After all, what if we decorate his room baby blue, then he arrives and turns out to be a brooding no-nonsense creature of the brown and black sort? Yep, we'll wait till we meet him!

For Nikki's wedding a few weeks ago, Vince and I stayed at a little boutique hotel with a quite prosaic name, 8 Suites.

We were supposed to stay in a hotel in Tagaytay Highlands (the wedding guests get discounts) but one look at the rustic-looking hotel and I looked somewhere else. Nothing against log furniture really but I prefer clean and elegant to organic and shabby.

The hotel sits on the edge of a steep hill that slopes down to Taal Lake. We can see the lake from our room but you have to climb down to the garden if you want to see the volcano.


And here's our room--all done up in chocolate hues. The rooms are large, with big beds and really fabulous pillows that I wanted to stuff into my suitcase and bring home. No worries--I'm no thief! I never could bring anything from the hotels I've stayed in. And I always fix the room before I leave--fluff up the pillows, fix the sheets, wipe down the bathroom. I know the staff cleans up after every guest leaves but I just can't bear the thought of people thinking, "What a messy bitch!" while I'm on my way home!

Here's breakfast! Quite good but nothing special. What made it great was the fact that we ate it just outside our room, with the fresh breeze and sunshine seasoning our food with extra yumminess. When you live in the middle of Manila, fresh air and sunshine are pure luxury.

I wanted to show you a photo of Vince enjoying his breakfast but the background was bad—the room next to ours had an extremely loud party the night before and they left an awful mess outside their room (you can just see the soda can past Vince's left thumb). So I had to crop out most of the mess.

Aside from the fact you share balconies with other guests, what I didn't like about the hotel was the noise level. You can hear everything--doors slamming, people walking by, the staff talking to each other, and, worse, people partying! I was so angry, I called the front desk to complain only to be told that the offending party was the owner's kid and his/her friends. This, of course, made me angrier! As the owner's kid, he/she should be even more considerate of the hotel's guests. I definitely gave them a piece of my mind and soon enough, the party toned down. Yup, I'm a huge killjoy, folks.

So. much as I liked 8 Suites (the design, the food and the view, although the last isn't their doing), I think that's the last time I'll stay there. They really should fix the noise problem!

I'm sure you've already seen it if you've been reading my blog long enough (I wrote about the Real Living feature here). But if you want better photos, head on over to the newly revamped Female Network to see!

The photos are kinda old, though, as the house looks a lot different. We have a whole wall of shoe cabinets now, the Louis Ghosts and a new elegant love seat, a bigger flat screen computer monitor to replace Vince's tired one, a Chinese porcelain stool... The house is now more home and, ya know, though we've visited nice hotels over the years, nothing beats coming home to our lovely apartment. So it's kinda scary with all the devastating earthquakes happening lately. Do you think we should ask around for home insurance quotes? Is your home insured?

Here's a better photo of my gorgeous Prizmic & Brill writing table. Vince gave that to me for Christmas 2008. I told ya he's absolutely genius when it comes to giving gifts. The cream stuffed teddy is very very old. His name is Mozzarella and Vince gave him to me for my 27th birthday--that'll be 6 years ago! I love that bear to bits and I'll tell you why soon--that bear deserves his own blog post!

I know we seem to be shopping a lot lately but remember we did sell our truck a couple of months back. Even though it was a good energy-efficient pick-up truck with cheap car insurance, we decided to let it go since we walk to work anyway. Besides, with the global credit crunch, let us shop (wisely!) so that the ailing economy will recover!
So a few weeks ago, I saw these exquisite Chinese porcelain garden stools in Dimensione High Street. I promptly fell in love with them. Now, I live in an apartment with no gardens whatsoever so I didn't buy any. But I kept thinking of them so Vince and I finally went back last week. Vince kinda balked at the price but even then he told me to get a pair since one stool would look lonely. I said, "Nah, let's just get one. We just bought two overpriced chairs."


So we looked over all of the pretty porcelain stools. I couldn't decide between the yellow and the pink. Vince said, "I think we should get the yellow one. And I really still think you should get a pair." After much agony from me and much exasperated impatience from Vince, I finally decided to get the blue one with pink flowers. Here it is at home...

Hmmm. Methinks I should've gotten the yellow one. And Vince is (again!) right--one stool, no matter how pretty, looks terribly lonely. Well, I'll just go get the yellow one then! (Although I quite like the pink one, too...)