TOPAZ HORIZON

TopShop is on sale! Now, I dislike sales and avoid them like the plague but yesterday, I was one of the lucky few invited to the private sale and I do appreciate having the store all empty. It's much easier to navigate without having to fight with all these hysterical and rude women.

However, I didn't find a lot of nice things yesterday. So I just bought some basic tanks.

I also got this vintage-style tee. It's cool because I married a nerd and I'm a nerd myself.
Hmm. The problem with t-shirts is they kinda gather around my tummy fat. I'd ask you for diet pills that work but I really don't need to diet, ya know? I just need to lose that stubborn tummy fat! Good thing Aesthetic Science Clinic invited me to try out their Mesotherapy and Reshape treatments next week. Wish me luck!


We waited for 10 days for the order to be shipped from London. London is pretty far from Manila but even we were surprised it took just 10 days for our shirts to arrive.

These shirts are the ultimate in film nerd chic. At GBP 18 each (PHP 1,412... plus shipping!), they're pretty pricey, but hey, we totally love them and the way people don't get 'em. For example, can you guess what movie this is?It takes a real film buff to go, "Where on earth did ya find that cool shirt?!" And when we find people who get the shirts, then we know we've met a kindred spirit.

This is a post script of sorts to the previous post. Just had a meeting with Mr. Wilson Yuloque of Pioneer Films, the distributor of Twilight Saga: New Moon here in the Philippines. I told him that there's a cardboard Edward in Megamall and that girls are lining up to have a photo with him. It's pathetic but look who had a fun time with it! (Oops, bad hair day!)Mr. Yuloque found that hilarious. I guess it's hard to believe that Rob is such hot property these days that he nearly got run over by a taxi as he was fleeing crazed fans recently. Anyway, Mr. Yuloque said he just came back from Cannes and was at a party with none other than R-Pattz himself. He told me that:

• Robert Patterson is very tall (cardboard Edward is not life-size), very funny, very polite, very clean and smells really nice. So to that rumor that the guy doesn't shower and is filthy, well, it's not true!
• In the whole of Asia, Filipinos are most crazy about Twilight. Yup, it's the Philippines, not Japan, that is Twilight's biggest Asian market. The franchise--book and film--is making crazy millions upon millions (of dollars!) from us Filipinos.
• There are only 50 original film posters currently available in the Philippines and OK! magazine now owns one!

Lana, our Managing Editor and the Twilighter in OK!, is absolutely in love with the poster.

Me? I'm in love with my shoes. They're Delicious from Anthem at the Power Plant. They're 5 inches high and just utterly comfortable. I think I'll wear them all week. Oh, end of the week is when my beauty giveaway ends. Make sure you join!

I know I said I didn't like Twilight the movie but after seeing this video, I'm willing to watch New Moon. Oh my, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart are so hot! Did they paint on Kristen's clothes? And Rob's abs--are they for real??? And that kiss! I literally felt my cheeks go warm when I saw these stills!

SPOILER ALERT! If you want the movie to be a surprise, do not watch!


Swoon! Now let me look for my own vampire and beg for a bite...

British Vogue:
InStyle:
Current hot movie of the month:
Everything hot pink, sunny yellow and bright orange is back! So, of course, I dug through my closet and found this old dress I bought from Karimadon about three years ago for a mere PHP500 (USD10). Don't you just love fashion? Never throw away anything because trends just keep coming back!

Now that my screaming orange dress is hot hot hot, I wore it to the most exciting day of the week...

When I finally got my limited edition Gucci shoppers bag! There's only 100 of these babies around the world, and I got one! Yippee!

The bag comes with an 18-carat gold plated bag tag. I'm removing it, though. It attracts too much attention.

I won this delightful prize with my blog post on the movie Confessions of a Shopaholic. The contest was sponsored by Columbia Pictures, Walt Disney Studios and Nuffnang Philippines (here I pose with them happily). Thank you so much! Now off to shop I go!

Hi, my name is Frances and I'm a shopaholic!

Regular readers of this blog know how much I love to shop. Now before you all write me off as someone who gets into debt for the love of shopping, let me say that I'm quite responsible with my purchases. I never spend money I don't have! And what extra money I do have goes to recently bought goodies like these:

I'm also about to get some seriously chunky platforms from Charles & Keith soon because I want to tower over everyone again. I went through a flats phase last year because I thought ballet flats were comfy and cute. Well, I've changed my mind. I want to be powerful and fashionable again.

In defense of those who are retail hobbyists, did you know that, aside from 4-inch heels, shopping makes me feel powerful? While other people feel power when they lead or abuse others, my feelings of power just involve handing over a wad of cash to the cashier girl and then walking around with these wonderful shopping bags filled with the most wonderful things on the planet. Quite harmless, I say!

It was around three years ago, when I started earning real money, that was when I started enjoying shopping. I remember this one time that I passed by a porcelain shop (yes, dishes!) and saw these elegant cream plates edged in 18-carat gold and covered in white lace filigree detailing. I thought, "Those are truly beautiful. I wish I ate off dishes like that..." Then I looked at the price tag. Then I asked the salesperson how many pieces were in the set. He said 24 pieces of the exquisite dinnerware. Then I looked in my wallet. Then the glorious realization: "OMG, I can actually afford the plates. I can eat from those plates every day of my now fantastic life!!!"


Purchasing power. There's nothing like it. And I hope you, my fellow bloggers, agree! If you do, then you must check out OK! magazine's February issue. May I direct your attention to the yellow part of the cover? I'm very very proud of that part because that's our Confessions of a Shopaholic movie special! The entire OK! staff had so much fun putting together that section. Joanna got a great interview from the show's star, Isla Fisher. She also got the movie's stylist (and stylist to Sex and The City) Patricia Field to cough up these fantastic style-on-a-budget tips. I supplemented the story with a sidebar on "Shopaholic Essentials" like comfy heels (we like Cole Haan's Air platform heels--serious style and serious Nike Air technology!). And because we love Shopaholic's Rebecca Bloomwood, Elaine added a fun story on our favorite silly ditzes: Legally Blonde's Elle Woods, for example.

Can you tell we're so excited about the movie??? Anything that involves shopping is good news to me. After all, there's nothing like retail therapy. Really. There have been times I've felt so bad, I almost didn't want to wake up. But a trip to the mall or an hour on eBay after, and I'm ready to face life again... in stylish new duds, of course! I know it sounds absolutely shallow but whoever said money can't buy happiness clearly did not have much of it! Viva la shopping!



Catch Confessions of a Shopaholic in cinemas on February 18, 2009!

I got tagged on email but I'd rather do it here on my blog.

Here are the rules for the Book Tag:
1. Grab the nearest book to you (not the most intellectual or your favorite. From where you're sitting, get the nearest one!).
2. Open the book to page 56.
3. Post the text of the first two-five sentences.
4. Tag five people to do the same.

And here's what I do:
1. The book is The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide by Douglas Adams. It's Vince's hardbound book that contains five novels and one short story. He loves it. I'm opening it for the first time now...

2. ... to page 56, which says,

3. "The real Universe arched sickeningly away beneath them. Various pretend ones flitted silently by, like mountain goats. Primal light exploded, splattering space-time with gobbets of Jell-O. Time blossomed, matter shrank away. The highest prime number coalesced quietly in a corner and hid itself away for ever."

4. Hmm. That was interesting and strange. I guess this book's on my To-Read list! I'm tagging the five people on my blogroll who've most recently updated their blogs:

I absolutely loved Iron Man. Watched it today with Vince at Power Plant. He wanted to watch it because it was "one huge gadget fest." Being editor in chief of T3 Philippines, he must have thought that's it's a job requirement. I figured, since I'm an entertainment magazine editor myself, I should start watching movies while they're hot and not wait till there's a DVD out (I go to the bathroom often so I hate going to the movie theater--you can't push the pause button. True enough, I missed a few minutes of the movie because I had to run out and pee!).

Now before anyone thinks I thought that would be torture, let me assure you that I adore movies like that. I absolutely am a fan of X-Men, Batman, Spider-Man, Superman, and the like. I love fantasy films, too, like the Lord of the Rings and Star Wars 5-6 trilogies, and the Harry Potter series. And I just watched Indiana Jones for the nth time, so I can be ready for the fourth one this month. I also like murder thrillers. I can passionately recite the dialog of Red Dragon and sing the Silence of the Lambs-inspired "It Rubs the Lotion on its Skin" in the shower-- to Vince's alarmed amusement. Meanwhile, you'll have to drag me to watch romantic comedies and any movie that addresses the inane issues of love (though I find that I like My Best Friend's Wedding and Love Actually very much). So, because I'm a big nerd and I married an even bigger nerd, today's movie date was happily anticipated.

I loved everything about Iron Man. I loved the action sequences. I loved the bass-heavy music. I loved the gadgets (yep, it was one huge gadget fest and a big commercial for Audi). I loved Robert Downey Jr! He really owned the role of Tony Stark. He made it believable, his performance was so naturally done. The actors were all very good, except I thought that Gwyneth Paltrow's role was a little too small for her stature. Pepper Potts is something for an up-and-comer to relish, although I must admit it was refreshing to see Gwyneth on the big screen again.

While I enjoyed the movie a lot, I was surprised at its message. The movie was obviously saying that weapons of mass destruction are evil. But I found myself startled when I teared up a bit at the scenes where the terrorists were killing villagers, bombing their homes, dragging women and children from each other, destroying lives. As a rule, I don't watch the news; selfish little me gets too disturbed. So to be suddenly confronted with images of war in a movie that I expected to be just fun, I was a bit overwhelmed. And I'm now thinking a lot about these refugees and what I can do to help them... Something Angelina Jolie and George Clooney failed to make me care about, a comic-book hero in an action movie did.

That's the magic of movies for you.

P.S. If you watched Silence of the Lambs, you really really ought to view the music video of "It Rubs the Lotion on Its Skin." So freakily fabulous! Sing with me now, "It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again!"

"There was so much ignorance and so much ego and so much disdain for living a principled life, and now I realize that there is so much power in those principles about just being humble, just being honest, just having real faith."