Friday, April 03, 2009

Tag Post: 6 Things That Make Me Happy

Quick post! I was tagged by M of Cross My Heart and Kiss My Elbow (interesting name...) way back in November and Bucca of Whatever She Said, Then I'm That in February. So here goes!

This is called the "6 Things That Make Me Happy Tag." According to the rules, the things should be unimportant. Oh my. If they make me happy, then they are very important! Hence, I had trouble doing this tag. But I will try to put the silly I-can-do-without stuff that make me happy here.

Anyway, here are the rules:
  • Mention the person who tagged you
  • List 6 unimportant things that make you happy
  • Tag 6 blogs, state the rules and notify them with a teeny comment on their blog

And without further ado...

1.
InStyle, Vanity Fair, Elle, Allure and Glamour! Especially InStyle, which I've been collecting for a number of years now. That should put this magazine in the "important" category but I want to think that it's a want not a need.

2. manicures and foot spas - I don't like massages and body scrubs but I do enjoy a good foot soak and scrub now and then. I indulge only when I have extra cash. Most of the time, I just do it myself in my little bathroom with a scented candle lit and all my lotions and potions surrounding me.

3. the pomodoro soup in Cibo - tangy tomato chunks in a rich tomato sauce. Yum. Whenever I feel exceptionally sad or happy, off to Cibo I go for this soup!

4. my red hair - I love it. I think I'm really a redhead! I think I'll be a redhead for a while. But I know myself. I do get bored with my hair color after a few months so while my passion for this red lasts, I'll keep it. I'm thinking of purple next...

5. my pillbox collection - it's modest but growing slowly and the pillboxes are so tiny and pretty, I can't help but smile whenever I see them!

6. online shopping - I buy a lot of things online because I'm lazy to go to the mall. And with the easy online payment services available today, e-shopping has never been more secure and fun to do!

I tag: Eternal Sunshine, Kaith, Uninterrupted, Belle Lumiere, Nevergirl's, Tales of the Domesticated Husband's Wife and I Am Overjoyed. These women have got to be some of the most inspiring I've ever met so I'm very curious to read the unimportant things that make them happy!


Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Tag Post: The Purse Tag

Been really delinquent with doing my tags! Sorry to everybody who've been so sweet enough to think of tagging me. I'm devoting this entire week to answering tags!

This one's from Jennie of Kikay Corner. It's called the "Purse Tag" for the voyeurs of the world! Here are the rules:
1. Post a picture of whatever bag you are carrying as of late. No, you can't go into your closet and pull out your favorite purse! We want to know what you carried today or the last time you left the house.
2. List how much it cost. And this is not to judge. This is for entertainment purposes only. So spill it. And if there is a story to go along with how you obtained it, we'd love to hear it.
3. List what's inside it and post a picture of the entire mess!
4. Tag some chicks. And link back to this post so people know why the heck you're showing everyone your bag.

* * * * * * *

Like most women, I have several bags in my closet and I pick whatever matches my outfit for the day. For the days I carry a lot of things (and the day I wrote this post was a day I had to carry a ton), this is the bag I use:
My Gucci Limited Edition Shoppers Bag!

It's free. I won it in a recent Nuffnang contest and you'll find the exciting story here and the post that won the contest here. It's reportedly worth over GBP 300 (PHP 21,000) according to Shoewawa and Handbag.com!

Inside it are... well, it's a big bag so here goes:
1-2. shoe bag - I walk to work so I bring my heels in this pouch.
3. Alexa bag organizer - given to me by dear friend Maisa Deluria. This has soooo many pockets! It very efficiently contains the rest of my mess!
4. Denman hair brush
5. L'Oreal True Match mineral foundation powder - when they say it's a true match, they mean it! I have never used a foundation that's made me look flawless and natural until I met True Match!
6. The Body Shop foundation brush - I am soooo in love with this brush! My one problem with True Match is the awful brush, but with this uber soft and compact brush, that problem is solved.
7. Modelco eyebrow kit - since I decided that I wanted to look like Camilla Belle, this amazing kit has brought me more than a few steps closer to looking like a star!
8. Burt's Bees lip balm - a gift from my sister-in-law Anj Onrubia
9. Shu Uemura lip gloss - I'm not a lipstick person and this pretty shade makes my lips look luscious
10. Rustan's Essences blotting film
11. Maldita shades
12. a bottle of water
13. Kleenex tissues
14. Dolfenal 250 - for my migraines

15. Now, in my big bag is a smaller bag. Because when I attend events or meetings, I do not lug around the entire sack! This is my Liz Claiborne multi-stripe shoulder bag. It's PHP 2,500 (USD 52), I think. Inside this bag are:

16. house keys
17. pink Fossil wallet - a surprise gift from Lorenz Manalang
18. our ridiculous office ID - it's for a creative environment, I know, but try showing that ID at embassies and banks. I always get, "Ma'am, do you have a real ID?"
19. Ventolin inhaler - I have asthma. I can leave anything and everything except this!
20-21. two Sony Ericsson phones - one for personal use, the other's SIM is owned by the company. They're both very battered and old but I can't bear to replace them!
22. a notebook - indispensable part of my life! Given to me by Nichole Reyes, OK!'s former fashion & beauty editor
23. a personalized pen - all my pens are personalized but this particular one was a lovely gift by my old friend Tatin Lopez. It came with a beautiful red Moleskine journal.

So that's a total of 23 items! In the words of my husband, "Why on earth is this bag so heavy? And why--despite how huge and heavy this is--do you never have a nail cutter when I need one?"

I reiterate that I only bring this much when I have a big event and I'd need to change outfits and put on makeup. Most days, I just bring the small bag and its essential items!

I tag: Mariel of NYMinute Now, Ria of Dubai yuki, Ro of Sparkle & Scribble, Laura of Daisy Chain Dreams, and Wendy of Wendy Brandes Jewelry

Sunday, March 29, 2009

A thousand thanks to Real Living, Nuffnang and Table for Three!

Before the month ends, let me just announce the fantabulous things I almost forgot to tell you about:

Our home feature in Real Living magazine is out now! I think there are still some March issues left on the stands so I hope you can get yourself a copy. Our house came out in the Color Issue and my favorite house--aside from ours, of course!--is the feature after ours. It's got to be the coolest colorful house I've ever seen. But you'll have to grab the March issue to see that. Meanwhile, if you can't get a copy, here's our home in the pages of Real Living:




Did y'all see my giant wall clock in the hallway? The strangest thing is it's so huge no one sees it! It took me about a week to install it, checking with Greenwich time to make sure my numbers were perfectly placed. The daybed (and lots of other things in the house actually) is Vince's parents' wedding gift. The lovely antique Italian mirror in the dining room is my parents' wedding gift.

The white chandelier--which is the first thing everybody sees--is one of the first things Vince and I bought as a married couple. We didn't even have a house yet when we bought it so naturally, the design for the apartment revolved around the chandelier!

To prove this is really our house, here's a zoom in.


Close up of the rabbits in Casa Cunejo. Boy, everybody told me I looked fat in this photo... and I do! The other fattie is Galadriel trying to get into the bedroom because she was camera-shy. On the right is Vince. Literally. A smoking rabbit with stubble. Haha! Actually, it's a designer toy called Smorkin Labbit by graphic artist Frank Kozik. We saw it in a store window but we were told it wasn't for sale, that it was part of the store's decor. Well, that don't stop me, sugar! Ten minutes later, Vince and I were dusting it off and we had a new toy. The glass coffee table it's standing on is a truly gorgeous design from BoConcept.


This is Vince's Christmas gift to me, by the way. It's a Prizmic & Brill New York leather and brass studded writing desk. Remember how I've been looking for a desk for so long? Well, my husband went over and beyond my expectations and when he bought me this beauty, I just screamed my head off.

The exquisite colored-glass mosaic mirror above my desk is from Tessa Prieto Valdes. So sweeeeeeet of Tessa! She had this shipped from I don't know where just because I saw it, said I liked it and she ordered one for me pronto! Thanks, Sea Princess!

Anyway, the apartment is still a work in progress. We're still hunting for lamps and an accent chair for the living room, a buffet table to put under the giant clock in the hallway, rugs and carpets, have a shoe cabinet installed and... oh so many things! Vince and I love to decorate but we do it slooooowly. We both have to fall in love with a piece first and check if we can pay for it and when those conditions are met, then game! A home is so much fun.

Oh, and I'm also Nuffnang's Featured Blogger of the Month!

And I'm a guest blogger at Table for Three!

Friday, March 27, 2009

The vain don't complain, right?

Part of my job is to test the latest offerings of beauty products, spas and health centers. While that sounds cool, most of the time, I just dread it.

Recently, the editors and I were at the launch of L'Oreal Professionel's latest hair colors--green, blue and purple. You read that right. That's Robbie of L'Oreal Professional who successfully convinced Kat of Good Housekeeping to dye her hair blue. She bravely did it. She did not like it since a few days later, her hair turned gray. Robbie, if you're reading this, don't worry: I will try the purple! It looks rich. But I'll do that when I get tired of my current red.

Hair is okay, though. I'll do anything to my hair since it grows out anyway. It's the other things I worry about. One time I was in this super posh spa about to test their new massage techniques by therapists especially imported from some European country. I do not exaggerate when I say that my therapist almost broke my neck. The whole right side of my head felt tingly for the next two days.

Then I just tested this new facial that uses chocolate to moisturize your skin. Well, my face did feel soft and supple but the chocolate was also absorbed and I looked dark for two days! I exfoliated like crazy because my face was darker than the rest of me.

And now I'm being offered to do a colonic cleanse. This treatment is said to flush out bacteria and toxins from your system resulting to clearer skin, less allergies, fresher breath, and a general lightness of being. Still, just reading up on it makes my tummy turn. I don't like the idea of things going up my butt and I like my bacteria a lot, thank you very much!

Ack, I really don't want to do this colonic cleanse! Yes, editors aren't really very excited to try out stuff. I have a beauty editor friend who had the skin of her butt burned off--she could not sit for weeks... but when the burned skin peeled off, no more stretch marks! Another editor had orange skin for a week because of a tanning session gone wrong. Yikes!

So if you're from Manila and can write extremely well, why don't you drop me an email at frances.amper@summitmedia.com.ph and volunteer to test out things? Just as long as you don't sue us in case your face becomes dark, your hair turns gray or you break your neck!

Maybe I'll just drink cod liver oil, eat more oatmeal and veggies and try taking Colonix in the meantime.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

All the single ladies, watch this!

When I said I looked to the '80s for hair inspiration, well, Beyonce went a few notches higher and created a whole video inspired by the '60s.

Here she says that her uber popular "Put a Ring on It" vid was inspired by choreographer Gwen Fosse (oops, posted a wrong vid! Here's the real one!):


And here's the incomparable Mrs. Fosse and her backup dancers shakin' their booty:


Wowza! Whoever said white folks can't dance clearly do not know the Lady Fosse! Here's Beyonce and her backup dancers paying homage:


Can you believe the lithe muscles on Beyonce and her girls? They must've been taking some HGH to get that strong! And those moves aren't easy, mind you. I can imagine the endless practice sessions and training. Anyway, here's the Philippines' very own Dancing Queen, Lucy Torres-Gomez!


I will give Lucy a big A for effort. I tried dancing it and looked pathetic so I won't even dare say anything against the lovely Lucy... But please feel free to comment!