TOPAZ HORIZON: Gadgets & Toys

Showing posts with label Gadgets & Toys. Show all posts

Monday, January 03, 2011

I didn't get my Alice fix!

I was bidding on this, but quickly withdrew from the heated bidding war because I just didn't have the money for it.

It's a 1900 edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. It's quite rare. I really wanted it. A few friends said I should check the authenticity of the books first (ask for a photo of the copyright page). Another one said I'd need a special viewing case and a dehumidifier because in our very humid and tropical climate, such old books will disintegrate.

Well, after all that, I lost the bid. Well, I didn't even try after the bids went way beyond what I was willing to pay for it. I was a tad disappointed because I collect all things Alice. So, to make me feel better, I'm thinking of bidding on these:

This is an exquisite collection of figurines modeled after the illustrations of Sir John Tenniel. It's a limited edition created by Kaiyodo. I love it!

This is whimsical wall clock depicting the mad tea party scene. And look at the time! It's backwards!

They're not cheap either so I'm a bit hesitant to bid. But it would be ever so nice if I added these to my collection. Big sigh!

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Fast updates!

Suuuuuper busy! Here's what I've been up to:

1. Just came from a Sony Ericsson event to check out the new Experia phone, which will be featured in Vince's fabulous blog Third World Nerd. I love this blog!

2. Just sent the May issue of OK! magazine to the printers and it should be hitting the newsstands by next week. Meanwhile, we're simultaneously doing the first batch of pages of the June issue. Ack, it never ends!

3. Blogged about beauty stuff in Beauty For A Living. There's a Paul & Joe event this weekend you might want to check out.

4. Got royally pissed off at HPPI, the worst HMO in the world. I'll talk about it more in another post. Right now, I'm feeling murderous.

5. At the same time, I'm also feeling very happy! Finally won a blog giveaway! I won hair accessories from Evita Peroni. I'm so happy!

6. Had a surprise visit from my dear friend Mariel yesterday! She's back from the US of A! And we had a lovely long chat over coffee and cheesecake and chocolate cake. So so so happy she's back.

7. And I have to pay the bills. Will get to that!

Oh, and the baby boy I'm carrying is kicking like he has plans to be the next great football player. He will not stop! I'm like, "Settle down in there!" Of course we're so excited. At the same time, he has such powerful kicks, it hurts!

So I'll blog again soonest with more details. Meanwhile, I hope y'all are having a nice week!

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

We bought these instead

The home plan this year was to buy a new sofa. The sofa we have is from Vince's days as a bachelor. When we got married, I had it reupholstered and it now looks like this:

Thing is, when Vince bought the sofa from Our Home in 2002, it cost him just P10,000. When I had it reupholstered in 2007, it cost me P12,000. Vince thought that was ridiculous (but, hey, it looks much better!) so he's been bugging me to approve the purchase of a new sofa. The problem with the current situation is my husband's taste has vastly improved--Our Home just doesn't cut it anymore so he's been lusting for the contemporary sofas in BoConcept. Starting price for sofas in Bo's? P120,000! So I've been saying, "No, no, no!"

But the last time we visited Bo's, he fell in love--and I kinda did, too--with the Largo sofa above (the one we saw was a dark gold). It's this plush comfy sink-in-heaven sofa that also came with a price tag that was just unbelievable. Unbelievable! But... we decided to buy it anyway! Then the rising costs of my pregnancy and the realization that the baby will be one expensive critter made us rethink the sofa. So... good-bye perfect sofa!

Feeling very deprived is not a good feeling, however. So we logged onto Amazon and bought these instead:

Olympus PEN EPL-1--the camera Vince has been wanting to buy since we found out about Jelly Bean!

We bought it with the Panasonic LUMIX pancake lens, too.

Then Vince just had to buy this horrible thing: the BioShock 2 Big Daddy plush doll. It really gives me the creeps!

And I just had to buy these fantastic books:

The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales

The Annotated Brothers Grimm

The Annotated Alice: Definitive Edition

I'm so excited for my books! They're all hardcover editions--and they're huge books! I can't wait! And, yes, they're for me, not for the Jelly Bean. Not to worry, if the Bean is anything like us, it will be devouring the books in the library in no time!

We used Johnny Air to have the stuff shipped here. We bought from Amazon before, you see, and the package of books Vince bought ended up in the post office some 20 weeks later. When we got it, the package had been tampered with and the books had been definitely looked through. So much for security.

But when I used Johnny Air to buy a few pairs of shoes, the shoes were delivered to the New York office in 3 days then to the Megamall office in 12 days, totaling 15 days from purchase to delivery. My package was also untouched. Fast and secure!

I'll give a report as soon as the stuff arrives--I'll tell you guys if the gadgets especially arrived safe and sound. Chuvaness told me that Johnny Air can be trusted absolutely (she buys her cameras from Amazon and uses Johnny Air, too!) so we're really keeping our fingers crossed that things will go well with our delivery. If so, then good-bye shopping malls!

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Hubby wants a new kick-ass camera

Because sooner than we thought, we're having a little one and Vince definitely wants better pictures than this grainy one:

Well, it still took our breath away.

And with that, I'd like to say that this year may have been difficult for us all but God is faithful and good and He keeps pouring down His blessings on us all if we just open our eyes and see the wonder of His hands. Life is pretty amazing! Tomorrow is another year and, for me and Vince, we're already sure it's going to be very very different and full of endless surprises. Well, isn't each day a surprise?

One thing that continues to surprise me and make me happy is how there are so many of you reading this blog! Thank you! You've been a big part of my life, my dear Topaz Horizon readers, and now my life is about to change yet again and if you'd like to join the ride, come along, come along! And if you feel like sending my husband a spankin' brand new Olympus EP-1, why bless your heart!

Happy New Year!