Late night shopping + jack's loft + outfit

Last friday night, bf and I decided to go to Eastwood City Walk and Tiendesitas to check out what cheapie finds we can get with our christmas money. hehehe! Actually we were just so bored lying around the house and it was already 9 pm when we decided to move. And (just a little fyi for everyone) in manila, virtually all malls close by 9 pm except for a few places that offer shopping at 'after mall hours'. :)

One such shopping area is Eastwood City Walk where the stores close at 12 midnight and all dining areas close at around 3-4 am. This has been a fave place of nocturnal people and has also expanded tremendously through the years!

Shot of Eastwood City Walk. Photo by al dimalanta of pbase.com

Beside this place, around 10 minutes away by car, another cinderella hour (i.e. closes at 12 mn) shopping area was built just last year. However, this one has a more fun, bazaar atmosphere as it is a roofed outdoor centre with numerous stalls and is also a place where haggling is a favorite game. Aptly called Tiendesitas (spanish i think, for 'little stores'), it houses more than 300 stalls with products ranging from broomsticks to funky accessories to lingerie to pet food to celphone cases. It is a pretty big area (30,000 sq. meters to be exact) and offers plenty of cheapie stuff. :D

Tiendesitas at daytime. Shot from tiendesitas.com.ph

First stop was Tiendesitas for this el cheap-o couple! hahaha. Actually I just had fun handling various merchandise but didn't actually buy much. (Need to hold on to them money as I have bills to pay! heehee.) Bf was laughing coz I only bought two small things after scouring more than half of the area! hahaha.

Here they are:
Please ignore the candles and various other things in the background.

I am referring to the two leather cuff bracelets. The black one with skulls was such a cool find! I got it for P300 ($6) after A LOT of haggling hehe. The brown one with woven detail and brass studs was bought by bf for me. Hehe! We were able to haggle it down to P250 ($5) after sweetly cajouling the store owner. hehehe. Not bad for a haggling pair eh? The good thing about these accessories is that I'm sure to not find them all over the place since the stores where we got them only had one of each. I love them to bits! *beams*

Now here is a family pic of my current 'thick' wrist candies together:

Pic taken just for fun! hahaha.

And here's an update of my small skull accessories collection (most of them recently acquired in the past few days, ie. gifts, which I value all the more. heehee!).

People know that I adore incorporating this into my girly outfits for a bit of contrast. *wink*

After tiendesitas, bf and I scooted over to Eastwood to get some eats. We ate at Jack's Loft where I got indian-style spicy butter chicken.

It's chicken whipped with cumin, cream, nuts and spices on a bed of white rice. It was very good! (and price wasn't bad either at P220 (approx. $5). ;)

While bf got garlic mushrooms (forgot to take a pic) and a bowl of cream of squash soup.

He wasn't so happy with the mushrooms but loved this soup! I think it was around P90(around $1.80?). Btw, he already ate dinner and was just taking a snack whereas I haven't eaten anything since 1 pm. hehehe! *defensive piggy alert*

Oh and I was meaning to eat the famous jack's loft cheesecake but was already too full! I just took a sly pic of the dessert case for you. ;)



To end this post is my outfit for that small "date" heehee! (sorry for the crappy pic, my cam wasn't adjusting properly and i was in a hurry!)

Navy pinstripe vest is vintage norma k. from my mom, white reconstructured hanes tank, purple and black checkered shorts from mphosis, black leggings from topshop, plum bow clutch from primark, and black peeptoe flats from steve madden. not in picture: plum headband from evita peroni.

Manila animal shoes

After gobbling up all four december magazine issues from front to back and back to front again (see previous post), I started thinking of getting a third pair of quirky printed flats. (I only have two at the moment: a pair of blue and cream paisley pointed ones from jdc hk and the nine west pony hair leopard ones I've posted before.) This led me to search online for a pair by a local designer so that I would not have to wait too long to own them. (what an impatient hag. bow.) hahaha!

Interestingly, I noticed a strong presence of animal inspiration among the shoes I checked out.

Look at these shoes by Tenorio Manila (from his Creatures line) for example.

This one is called the Angelfish (duh!) and I think the color combi is nice. Actual angelfish pic is from a deepsea diving website. They don't advertise it with that pic beside it. hehe!


Guess what this one is called. 2nd pic is from google images. ;)

And here's another one from his Noir Females collection.

Called the Croc Uncorker, I think this pair has a more modern vibe than the two previous ones. It does sort of have a 60's attitude with a bit of present day spunk. 2nd pic is from google again. :)

I really liked the shoesies above were it not for the heels. I mean, how I wish they made those in flats. i'd definitely snatch them up right away!

The only other ones that I considered were these zebra-print pony hair ballet flats from Sapato Manila. Nothing out of the ordinary but I guess it still does the job. *clap clap*

We all know which one is the zebra print, right? XD

Ain't no pigging like the holidays (hehe)

Bf decided to go here at around 8 pm so I can steam him some crabs. (I know, I was like... "i'm not your personal maid!" hahaha.) Anyway, it's still vacation time (at least for us med students) so I decided to just do it for the poor fellah. The only bad thing is, I freaking ended up eating too. *rolls eyes* I just could not say no to steamed fat gigantic-clawed crabs. hehehe! We ate it up quickly with lemon butter sauce and white rice. It was so good that I forgot to take a picture of the perfectly steamed big orange crab! Well, upon realizing this, I also found it too gross to take a pic of the crab carcass as it is so not appetizing at all! hehe.

After dinner (my second one that is), bf and I decided to create some strawberry dessert from the leftover strawberries last christmas day. Well, we were sort of lazy (and full!) so we just used fresh milk, condensed milk, and a bit of confectioner's sugar.

Here is how mine looked:

Only 5 pieces of strawberries for me. hahaha! I just put them over sweet fresh milk and drizzled a bit of thick condensed milk over them.

And here is bf's mashed up creation:

He likes the berries squeezed and mashed such that the milk ends up tasting like strawberry as well. I really don't know where he got this habit but he always eats strawberries this way. *shrugs*

I just hope I don't gain more than 5-10 lbs over the remaining days! hahaha.

Locked up with my buddies

Stayed home the whole of today and caught up with my reading. :)

Clockwise from top: Mega, Teen Vogue, Preview and Vogue December issues

I haven't had time to open up my december magazines due to the never-ending holiday happenings so I've really been looking forward to a lazy day. :) If you look closely to the right of the pic, my afternoon snack is peeking. heehee! Can you guess what it is? Btw, I particularly loved this month's vogue and mega (a local magazine).

Oh and I also updated my previous post with a wacky phone pic my bf took. hahaha.

Outfit post

Went to rustan's makati to check the end-of-season sale last night. (geez, when will the sales end?! hahaha.) Well, I went home empty handed though so no interesting bargain entry for today. *pout* Yes, i am trying to be a responsible girl. You know, I was actually eyeing this prada ipod nano case (for my new baby) but i had to take a grip of myself and let it go. *sigh* I'd have to settle for my coach poppy wristlet in the meantime. *ahem ahem* I am now putting myself in a 'designer goods ban' until further announcement. hehehe!

Here is what I wore:

Light yellow top w/ flower detail from ebase and slim dark denims from tough jeans (both from hk), silver leather pointed shoes from bakers, and metallic lurex mini signature top handle bag from coach.

and here's a funny picture dear bf took with my phone. You can see part of the top's flower detail here.



The shoes and bag I wore are among my favorite holiday accessories. ;)



I got away with mixing champagne gold and silver leather since the signature c's in the coach monogram had silver on them and all the metal hardware in it were silver too! Besides, I'm not one up for super strict fashion no-no's. *wink*

Bittersweet christmas morning

Christmas morning each year is a bit difficult for me. It's bittersweet in that I'd have to accept that christmas eve (my favorite occasion that I look forward to each year) is over... but then I'm also super happy since my yummy gifts smile at me the minute I roll over to the side of my bed and see them. hehehe!

I haven't the strength to take a pic of my whole loot but here is a pic that I was able to take last night whilst I was 3/4ths finished opening all of them. Anyway, you'd best be interested in seeing these ones since I opened the 'big guns' first. *wink*

Among stuff not in this shot are: 2 earrings, a skull necklace, skull keyring, rina albert cosmetic cases, the healing therapy mandarin lotion, a furry rainbow bookmark, cute hello kitty pencil case, phone lanyard, and good old cash!!! heehee.

And here's quick pic I took with my other phone of all my gifts still wrapped and gathered around me for opening. hehe!



Of course you remember the 6233 phone right? It is so effing cute! Bf even put a takashi murakami artwork as wallpaper and the screensaver was a blinking LV white multicolore print. hehehe! Plus he included a crystal protective case coz (according to him) I will probably drop the thing within 24 hours. hahaha! But you know, the more surprising gift was the tokidoki inferno fanny pack!!! Bf also gave it to me for christmas since he said I might bawl big time if the last piece in the store gets sold before I get the money to buy it. heehee! He's so adorable for looking at that 'future possibility'... hahaha. Thanks love! (but he got so drunk last night so I ended up getting mad at him. hahaha. love you hottie!) My dearest mom gave me a black ipod nano (yay! so lucky coz it matches my new black phone too!) which I am itching to learn how to use already (yes, it is my first ipod. hehe!) Thanks mom!!! And among my other gifts are cutie cutie little things that are so "me". Thank you so much everyone!!! I love love love ALL my gifts. *hugs everyone* (Oh yeah, special mention: CG thank you so much for the plum bow clutch all the way from primark UK!)

On a more fashion note, I wore my holiday long sleeves shift dress last night:

Here's a pic with G and H (2 of my fave cousins in the world). Red and black shift dress from f21. ;)

And here's my baby brother robbie (who gave me a rockin' necklace with brown leather chain and brass skull pendant! thanks rob!) who took that pic. heehee! (peace bro! XD mwah!)



Have a lovely christmas morning everyone!

Merry christmas gorgeous!!!

Hope everyone's having a great time right at this moment. Just opened my gifts and I am so happy!!! heehee. Will share more about them tomorrow. ;)

Little bro drew and I sang for our dad, hehe. (It's christmas tradition to do 'something' for the money! hahaha.) Well, actually he played the guitar and I sang. Robbie breakdanced and my eldest bro jeff did a solo acapella. Could you guess what drew and I sang?

Here's a hint:



Actually that's the song we did. heehee. Merry Christmas everyone!

Fourth holiday dinner + my new tech candy (yipee!)

The last few days have been so fattening for me. tsk tsk. These quaint holiday dinners, whilst so much enjoyable, could also be quite deceiving once the pounds start to bulk in the midsection. hehehe! Oh well, I still ain't going to miss on any good munchies, especially when christmas desserts are involved. A few pounds don't scare this gal, no no no. (please excuse the trying hard 'slang' girl in me. hahaha!) In fact I am looking forward to two dinners tonight and have been contemplating on what to wear the moment I woke up. (I've narrowed it down to the blue dress I posted about months ago. *wink*)

Here's a sort of pic of my outfit last night. I am sitting in a couch with Bf's second younger sister, Ina. (gosh, she is so tall so I wanted a pic sitting down hehe)

Black jersey mini pinafore dress from H&M, plain white baby tee from topshop, black leather plat pumps from bakers, plaid taupe, red & green headband from forever21, and small shoulder monogram bag from gucci

One of my bf's cousins brought along his cute puppy named samantha last night and I was able to take this cute pic of mica with it. (If you remember, mica is bf's youngest sister, she just turned 4!)



Oh and I'm so excited to tell you about this!!! Early yesterday, bf gave me a new gadget as "part" of my christmas gift. It's my newest tech candy:

A brand new nokia 6233!

But I'm not allowed to open it until the midnight of the 24th. aaarrrgh.. It's all wrapped up and sitting under the tree now. I super can't wait!!!

Why I ended up fancying a freakishly kawaii fanny pack

Last night, I went to glorietta with bf to look around for the perfect gift for his dad. Within 10 minutes of stepping inside the mall, his mom suddenly called to say that his dad is eyeing this one shirt in topman and that we could get that if we wanted something he’ll like for sure. So we were like, hmmm.. okay… that was easy! We didn’t have to search high and low for ‘the gift’ anymore! And besides, a topman shirt is such a cool choice. Bf’s dad is so cute!!! Of course I kept asking myself how come my dad doesn’t buy anything topman... (the closest thing he’ll consider to such a fast-forward trendy place is Celio and Van Heusen. XP ) hahaha. Oh well, not all dads can be the same, can they? (Peace dad! heehee.. *hiding in my chair now* although I doubt that you’ll get to read this anyway. Mwahaha!) Well, you know guys, actually my dad is, um, cute too... in his own little way. *futile attempt to redeem myself before my dad smacks my head with a newspaper*

Anyway, back to the mall… I ended up looking around for post-holiday potential buys instead, which wasn’t so bad at all. hehehe! I was initially looking at the cutie quirky accessories section to look for a pretty beanie when suddenly the Lesportsac area caught my eye. The winter tokidoki prints have recently been brought out and they were really eye-catching in a kawaii japanimania way. Here are swatches of how they look like:

Tokidoki Winter 2006: Paradiso and Inferno Print

There are two new prints called Paradiso and Inferno (translating to paradise and hell in Italian, quite obviously hehe.) Paradiso is a lighter print with mostly pinks and blues which emulates little babies and rainbows in heaven (hence the name) while the Inferno print was a rockin' print that had more grays, reds and yellows (amongst the characters were little devils, skulls, bullets and chili peppers). Both bf and I thought the latter looked really really rad! hahaha. And that was then that I fell in love with the funky fanny pack they had from the line.

Here's a screencap of the opening page of this collection at lesportsac.com

I'm pretty sure you can tell which one is inferno right? heehee, looks like I'm into the "naughty" line. haha!

To get an idea of how the fanny pack looks like, here are some stock photos of this style:



And *drum roll please* here's the stock pic of the inferno one! so kawaii!



Aptly called canguro (Italian for kangaroo), the fanny pack is quite functional, pop cultsy, and edgy at the same time. It’s also just the right size such that it doesn't seem to be too overwhelming even with the super colorful print. When I tried it on, it actually gave the vibe of a sort of modish belt. Very cute indeed, but perhaps not for the faint of heart when it comes to fashion. *nods head* I think you may have to sort of be into pop graphics or something like that. (Well, I’m from the rainbow brite generation so I certainly can take bright colors in tokidoki doses. hahaha!) Sadly though, my pocket could not handle the price tag of this new waist candy at the moment (around $110). *sniff sniff* so I had to slowly put down the last piece of inferno canguro back into the display shelf. (The SA said they had ran out of the inferno ones but still had 2 stocks of the paradiso ones). It was really hard! I almost felt like the little devils in the print were telling me to steal the stupid bum bag. hahaha!

When I got home though, I couldn’t get the darn thing out of my head and so I started researching about the tokidoki lines. It so happens that tokidoki (which means sometimes in Japanese btw) is a company created by Simone Legno, the designer himself, who might I add, is a pretty hot young Italian guy. LOL! Well, I was surprised as I always thought he was a Japanese guy that looked like Takashi Murakami. 8D

There he is on the right, taken from a korean mag of some sort I think. He seems to adore facial piercings. hehehe.

And here's another shot of him with two fans whilst wearing his signature fedora hat, taken from a comic or graphic convention i think. (Look, the girls are actually rocking the canguro! hehehe.)

Simone initially was simply a graphic artist until the owners of Hard Candy Co. invited him to start a company when he first stepped on American soil. And so was the birth of tokidoki and of numerous collaborations such as with fornarina and nike. Check these out:

Ads of Fornarina collabs

A super cute pair of nike's!!!

I also learned that apparently, Tokidoki stuff are very hot in the market with fans coming from all over the world. (*sigh* and now I just had to become one. hahaha.) Just look at these cool HK girls sporting those tokidoki bags!

They really look smokin' with those bags! *oggle oggle* haha.

But more importantly, I became more infatuated with the cute fanny pack the more I researched about this line. I mean just look at these pictures.

Pic from Nylon Magazine 2006. Now that's how i'd wear mine! (sans the multiple fannies of course *wink*).

Shoot, even Jessica Alba likes it! I really was in a dilemma over this bag by the time I saw this pic. hehehe!

Oh well, such is the start of my fixation with the tokidoki inferno fanny pack. I’ve always thought belt bags were going to make a big come back after being dealt with a long bum rap in the fashion world. *wink*

Missing HK. My unfulfilled holiday wish...

If there's one thing I had wanted to do this holiday season, it would be to spend it in hongkong. I simply love the place and capping 2006 with three visits there would have been so cool. *sigh* Then I can actually tell my kids that the year 2006 was very very memorable to their dear mama because it was the year which solidified my obsession with bags and multiple shopping trips to hongkong. Oh well... *pout* I guess there's not much I can do since my schedule is so crazy and money isn't exactly overflowing at the moment. hehehe! Heck, I think I can still tell that to them future rugrats anyway. haha!

Whilst I am reminiscing so much, I decided to share some jolly hk pics with you. If you haven't gone there yet, do save up and put it in your list of places to see. I promise that you simply will not regret it! There are a lot of nicey nicey things there, and it ranges from dirt cheap to not-so-cheap to lord-what-an-expensive-piece-of-sh*t. hehehe. Food is superb too! Although I am not much of a fan of the stinky tofu or whatever that popular street food is... still, everything else is sooo yummy. *stomach rumbling* You know me, food and shopping are my favorite things to do in the world. And so is the reason why I love hk so much.

Here are random pics I dug up in my hard disk.



And as a treat, here's a video ( thanks so much suz!!! ) that will give you a more vivid experience of what hongkong is really like. I hope you like it because I really did. It almost felt like I was there. *beams*

video credits: susie of stylebubble. :)