Friday, March 12, 2010

Thanks for the blog love!

I've been telling you guys about my house in the newly revamped Female Network but I failed to mention that FN has included Topaz Horizon in its list of Blogs We Love! I know my screen cap is tiny but I swear to you that my blog is the very last on its list (it's alphabetical!) so do visit FN if you need convincing!

This blog also made it to All Women Stalk's list of 7 Best Blogs By Women. Wow! And I'm the only Filipina there! I feel like it's my birthday, people!

Thanks for the love. Now I have to make sure this blog gets better so your acknowledgment won't go to waste!
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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:



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!

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Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Behind-the-scenes at Mariel's wedding

So many cute photos from Mariel's wedding so here are more!

The night before the wedding, maid of honor Kai Morales and matron of honor me trooped to Mariel's suite to go over the details of the big day.

Then all of Mariel's friends came by to help with the souvenirs. We all had to fold boxes for the candy bar and guests can just scoop all the candy and chocolate they want into the boxes!

Next morning was bright and sunshiny! Vince and me at the hotel lobby, gathering with all the other guests to board our coasters that will take us to the church.

Outside the church, we wait with Kai. It's breezy in the shadow of the cathedral but inside, ooh wow, it was hot!

The reception was held on the beach. This is my first beach wedding! It's very relaxed and happy. What I really like about Mariel's wedding was it still looked so fabulous! A lot of beach weddings I see in magazines are so... blah. 

Gorgeous guests: photographer Monica Barretto, Martha Stewart Weddings Philippines editor-in-chief Tata Mapa and makeup artist Marie Calica.

I really should put all these nice pics in a USB stick and plug it into our unused digital frame that we got for free when Vince bought his computer monitor last year. Yep, we have a really nice digital frame that we aren't using! But with all the pics I have now, I think it's time to fire it up.

Oh, for more on Mariel's wedding, click here and here.

Photos by Monica Barretto.
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Monday, March 08, 2010

Welcome to my new readers!

Blogging for this new year is off to a good start. My visitors are steadily increasing. Hooray!

Here's Nuffnang's report for the last 2 weeks, an average of 518 unique visits a day:

Here's SiteMeter's report for the first three days of March, an average of 535 unique visits a day:
March 1
March 2
March 3

So I'm basically averaging 530 readers a day, and these days the daily visits are actually at 600+. That's a pretty good number, considering that just a little over a year ago, I had about 100 readers. It sure took me a while to get those readers, though! Here's what I did:

1. Make an interesting blog! Good grammar, correct spelling. Lots of photos. Fun topics!
2. Leave good comments on other people's blogs. None of that stupid "Hey, great blog" and "Love your blog" and "Care to exchange links?" nonsense.
3. Promote on Facebook!

Oh man, that was a lot of work and I really just started promoting Topaz Horizon around October 2008. So that's about a year of hard work. Now I usually just do Step 1 because if you make a good blog, people will come back for more and maybe they'll like it enough to tell other people about it.

Thanks for reading, old friends! And to the new folks coming around recently, I hope you like what you read and come back soonest!
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Sunday, March 07, 2010

The gift that rocks!

Someone, impressed with my husband's gift-giving skills, asked me why I didn't blog about Vince's Christmas gift to me. Well, because by the time December and January came along, I was in the midst of that first trimester madness and totally forgot that my Christmas--despite all the morning sickness, sleepiness, fatigue, etc--was extremely happy and blessed!

So what did Vince give me for Christmas? Actually, we gave this to each other because we both wanted it and since it was kinda not cheap, we both decided it'll be perfect for us both! We got ourselves this:
 Just look at that smile on my face!
 Unwrapping giddily. I'm the guitarist. I'm really good at it!
Vince is the drummer. He's really good at it, too. 
Me? I can never get the hang of it!

Happiness! We totally love Rock Band 2! Super funnest game ever! Ya, I know the girls reading this are disappointed ("A video game? WTF?!") but you have to understand I'm a geek and I'm really good at some video games. That would make me every guy's dream girl, right? But Vince doesn't even want to play with me sometimes because I can get fiercely competitive. It's not about having fun for me, it's about annihilating the enemy (and if you're the other guy, that would mean killing you). Worse, I'm a sore loser. I don't take defeat lightly at all, which makes playing games with me totally not fun. 

But Rock Band is just fun. Fun! Fun! Fun! I've never had so much fun playing with others--we've even done Rock Band parties because it's the kind of game that just makes everyone happy.
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Thursday, March 04, 2010

More photos of Nikki's wedding

The bride. Glorious in a Rajo Laurel creation. That skirt is just incredible, Nikki! I want to hear all about the creation process or maybe we can feature it in a bridal story in OK!. What do you think?!

The groom. Looking dashing in his three-piece suit. Looking very serious, too! Bernard, I prefer you when you're smiling--you look like a smiley face! I think that's what got Nikki hooked!

The entourage. This photo is so surreal, like it was for a fashion magazine! And, unlike a fashion magazine, this photo is not Photoshopped, so yes, the ladies really do look like they're fans of Stimerex ES--although they aren't! Those svelte bodies are the result of good ol' exercise and diet.

The guests who can't keep their hands off each other. Someone tell these two to save it for the bedroom. Really! Look at where all this affection got that girl--pregnant! I think this was the part the candle kept going out and I found it funny and Vince didn't.

The OK! girls. Everyone's here except Joanna, who was occupied with domestic matters (she is a new mom, after all, and traveling can be stressful). These are the women who make each issue of my magazine fantabulous each month! We're a happy bunch who likes Hollywood happenings and eating, eating, eating! We love swooning over love stories, too, so this was definitely a night to remember.

Photos (except last) by Pat Dy
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Tuesday, March 02, 2010

Nikki's glamorous wedding

 
My darling friend Nichole Reyes became Mrs. Bernard Mercado last Saturday in a fabulous wedding over at picturesque Tagaytay Highlands. I can't get over how glamorous Nikki and Bernard's wedding was! Here are a few photos from my camera but I'll be stealing from Facebook in a bit so you get to see nicer pics.

The couple arrived at the altar looking like Barbie and Ken. Hmmm, actually, Barbie and Ken never looked this good! 

Kiss! Kiss! Berns and Nikki kiss really cute, by the way. They kinda go, "Mwah!"

 
Me and Vince! We wore matching gray. I wore a gunmetal silk jersey gown with a beaded bodice while Vince was in a gray suit with a black shirt and tie (I have another pic in my mommy blog).

Now I've been to a lot of weddings but this has got to be the most stylish wedding I've ever seen! It wasn't a surprise though--Nikki and Bern are always very well groomed and dressed up, even when we just have silly chats at home or when we're off to a spa for a treatment or to get our skin ID'd. You just never see Nikki in a tee and jeans, and sneakers are alien to her! Look at her gown!
 Front view
The teeny-tiny waist
That voluminous skirt is beyond amazing!

The guests were also dressed to the nines. I wish I could've gotten more photos but I didn't know all the stylish people there so I was shy to ask them for poses. Here are a few:

Nicole in a pussy-bow silk blouse and a full tulle skirt. I should've gotten a pic of her shoes--it has triple bows at the back!

Red looking dashing in a suit, a red pin-striped shirt and bow tie.

Elaine looks like a fairy in her nude dress. Very on trend!

Kabbie in a summery maxi dress with a coral bib necklace.
Gorgeous girl in yellow. I'm going to have a dress made just like that!

Here I am with the newlyweds right after the fireworks. We're soooo happy! Nikki and Berns, you guys are so perfect for each other. But life isn't perfect so I'm glad you have each other to weather the storms and find beauty and fun in life and in love. Congratulations!

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More photos of Mariel's wedding

The bride

The groom

Just before the kiss

Congratulations, my dearest friends! May all the love and laughter in the world bless your marriage! Love ya both! And I want to have cheese fondue soonest!

Gown and suit by Kate Torralba
Photos by Pat Dy
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Hot! Hot! Hot!


OK!'s March issue is out and it's hotter than the weather! Look at that cover—it looks like we slathered testosterone creams on it then set it ablaze! Johnny Depp is my favorite. Yumminess to the extreme. I don't mind David Beckham either as he's just oozing sex.

Now that Robert Pattinson... well, the girls love him so he's there. But I can't stand the guy. He's like John Mayer. I mean, what is up with his interview with Details magazine? He says, "I really hate vaginas. I'm allergic to vagina." Well, thank goodness I don't want him anywhere near mine but I feel really bad for all the girls who love him. Ladies, he hates your vaginas. What are you going to do???

Meanwhile, we do have other testosterone-free stories. We have a big story following Taylor Swift, arguably America's biggest star these days, on her tour bus, backstage, in her dressing room and performing onstage. It's a fab story! We also have a lovely interview with Susan Boyle. She's a charming lady, that Susan. Anyway, lotsa lotsa great stories so I hope you grab a copy!


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Monday, March 01, 2010

Wanna see my house?

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!
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