Fab Find: Carrie's Turban

I'm sure a lot of us loved Sex and the City for the fashion, and Carrie's turban is just one of the ah-mazing pieces I swore I gotta have someday.

Hats are instant style ooomphers. Haha, I like making up my own words. :P In days when you can't think of anything to wear, just put on something casual then add a nice hat. Ta-da! Fab in an instant!

So as I was doing my usual mall rounds, I spotted this blue turban that made my heart leap!

It even matched my outfit!

The price: Only Php 199! Aaaack, we're totally meant to be!

Only 2 pieces left--1 blue and 1 brown--so of course, I bought them both!

I love you, Yhansy!

Grab a copy of the December issue of OK! Philippines and check out my other great finds from this store, perfect for your holiday gift list!

*Yhansy is located at 5th floor, Shangri-la Plaza Mall.

*SJP photo from here.

Dine In: Sicilian Express

Sicilian Express is our go-to comfort food since forever. Well actually, we only order two things from here: The Sicilian Salad and White Pizza. Perfect combination!

Sicilian Salad

This baby is the yummiest salad everrrr!

Showing off his "new" shirt!

(Back story: While looking at the photos from my camera the day before, I noticed that in most of our date night pics, he's wearing his striped yellow and gray shirt. So I was like "ay pag nilagay ko pala lahat 'to sa blog ko pare-parehas suot mo oh!" Hahaha!)

White Pizza

I am a sucker for anything cheesy and buttery so this one totally fits the bill!

Gooeylicious!

Nom nom nom!

*Sicilian Express is located at Meralco Ave., Ortigas Center, Pasig City

For the love of Taylor Swift

Ticket prices are out! I'm sooo excited for this!

Upper Box A it is!

Published in The Philippine Star

Thank you, Ovation Productions, for choosing Araneta Coliseum! I don't like MOA concerts because I'm too small to fight with those tall insensitive peeps standing on chairs. :-\

Next year's Valentines will be beyond fantastic! YAY! :)

*Photos grabbed from here.

Raket Science: BTS for Fashion Match, Cosmo Nov2010

Producing a fashion editorial is not a walk in the park, and I guess you know that by now. But lemme tell you, this particular project was twice as hard, because I needed to source out at least 7 identical outfits with huge price differences. It took me almost a week to go around different malls and scoured every single store to look for item duplicates. With my digicam as my secret weapon, I took photos of the clothes which I felt I can find similar versions of. Example, when I spotted this nautical top at Rustan's, I had this gut feeling that I can also find one in SM. Lo and behold, meron nga! :) So, by the end of the week, I was able to build outfits based from the loose pieces that I found. And the rest was history. :P

I was privileged to shoot this with no less than Sara Black. Man, she's amazing! Plus, I had my super team--Ria Gamboa for makeup, John Valle for hair, Krystle Rius and Lou Sison as models--to make my vision come to life. Check out behind-the-scene photos here!

Welcome to the Black Studio

John Valle and Ria Gamboa

The team at work

Sara Black, ready to shoot

The set

Me at work

Fixing this...

...and fixing that.

Phew! Happy and satisfied. :)

* BTS photos courtesy of Joyce Paulo

* Special thanks to Happy Lopez

* Grab a copy of Cosmo's Nov 2010 issue now!

Raket Science: Mahal VS Mura

Remember these two?

Mura and Mahal

HAHAHA! I have no words.

Don't panic. They're not going back on TV...yet. And I didn't style them. I just did a shoot inspired by their screen names, and now it's published (finally) on Cosmo's Nov ish!

Mahal VS Mura--COSMOTIZED!

Now, can you guess who's Ms. Splurge and Ms. Save?

Find out at Cosmo's November 2010 issue (Kim Chiu on the cover) and check out the other 5 identical looks I styled! The only main difference are the price tags--Hint: 1 Splurge outfit costs P14,983 VS the Save version which is only P6,036.75! Interesting, eh? Go grab a copy now! :)

Styling by Kabbie Rodriguez

Photographs by Sara Black

Makeup by Ria Gamboa

Hair by John Valle

Models: Krystle Rius and Lou Sison

Mahal and Mura photo from here.

surprise, surprise.

It all started with a surprise announcement at Cookbook Kitchen about a month ago.

Tetah and Daks--ENGAGED! :)

My Forever Girls also known as BMG (Barkadahang Magastos)

Super ecstatic with the big news!

Of course, we ought to follow tradition so Jego planned a surprise bridal shower for the bride-to-be. Our venue: Lancaster Suites!

The Mastermind

The happy minions

Irene, Tin, and Jatts

The excited ones

Jego, Binder, Biggie, and me

Biggie's very high school lettering

The food courtesy of Deb, Chip, Caloi, Vina, and Jatts

And now, time to watch the big reveal!

Iiyak na yan! Iiyak na yan!

HAHAHA!

We are so happy for you, Mrs. de Leon-to-be! Weee!

Raket Science: Airbrush Makeup for Claire

I've had my airbrush system for the longest time. I used it for a couple of gigs already but this is actually the first time that I was able to play with it for a photo shoot.

Claire's Before and After

Photos by Chie Zamora

Makeup by Kabbie Rodriguez

So my darling brides, let me know if you want to upgrade, ok? Teehee. :)

Fun(ny) Find: Fastfood Masahista

Ano ang meron sa Burger King na wala sa McDo at Jollibee?

Onion rings.

Ano pa?

Eto oh:

The Fastfood Masahista.

Now, who wants a massage while eating burger and fries? Anyone?

At first I thought that the man brought the therapist with him on purpose. But why would he do that? I mean, c'mon, is it normal to get a massage while eating at a fast food joint? It's so...bizarre. Then I checked the lady's nameplate and it says: "Have it your way". So okay, it's really Burger King's value added service! HAHAHA!

*Spotted this at Robinsons Galleria.

shady halloween.

And the Regine's Gift Shop post continues. This time around, it's all about eye wear. If you're still on the lookout for anything weird to wear for Halloween, well, maybe this could help.

So why don't you...

...go as a masquerade beauty?

OR

...as wizard boy Harry Potter?

OR

...a confuzzled scientist?

OR

...just a plain dork?

(sayang I can't open the packaging eh)

FUN! :)

*These costume shades are available at Regine's Gift Shop, 2nd level of Shoppesville, Greenhills Shopping Center. Price starts at P50.

Fun Find: Crying Chickens.

It's been a while since my sister and I visited Greenhills so we really had a blast window shopping today. One of our favorite places to go to is Regine's Gift Shop just because they have so many interesting items that you can play around with.

Look at what Daria saw:

Freaked-out chickens.
Ano ang ibig sabihin ng "ONE TRY ONLY PLS"?

Find out here:



HILARIOUS!
Who would buy that? Hahaha!

*These "crying" chickens are sold at Regine's Gift Shop, 2nd Level of Shoppesville, Greenhills Shopping Center.

Fun Find: Cool Vendo

Speaking of refs, meet its cool kapamilya.

Oooooh.

We chanced upon this vendo machine while I was getting cash from the ATM. Looks hi-tech to us! Hahaha! My sister, Daria, immediately tried it (she bought a bottle of Coke) while I was busy banking. My oh my, she got so giddy when she saw how the machine works that she wanted me to experience it too. This was how our conversation went:

Daria: Karen, bilis bili ka!
Me: Di ako nauuhaw eh. Teka pano ba mahuhulog yung bote? Saan lulusot?
Daria: Bili ka na kasi para makita mo! Sige na eto 5 pesos dagdagan mo nalang.
Me: Ano ba pinakamura dyan? Ah yun, tubig 15 pesos.
Mitor: Ano ba yan gagastos ka ng 15 pesos para lang sa tubig? Piliin mo na yung may lasa, yung Minute Maid oh.
Me: Mas gusto ko Tropicana eh (unfortunately walang Tropicana)
Daria: Bilis na kahit ano nalang! (excited, much?)

Now watch how it works here!



We are so shallow and I love it!

HAHAHA!

*This vendo machine is located at the 2nd level of Shoppesville, Greenhills Shopping Center.

* Daria is not my sister's real name. I just call her that because they somehow act and think alike plus she's a huge fan of the show. Hehehe.

Fun Find: Mother Lily's Brand New Ref

There's actually a lot of good finds at the Mega Sale if you have the patience for it. Look at what we saw on our way to Ace Hardware:

Toshiba refrigerators now 50% off!

Sold to Mother Lily for only P14,599!
Wagi!

*Toshiba marked-down refs are available at the entrance of SM Appliances, lower ground floor, Mega B. :)

mom and mall-wide sales.

I was trained to shop wisely since I was young. That, I think, is the reason why pulling out and hunting for good finds seems so natural to me. Every time there's a mall-wide sale, Mom would take me and my sister with her and we'd spend the whole day shopping for bargains. Divisoria, Baclaran, 168, Tutuban...you name it, we've shopped there. Not to mention, Mom used to have a stall in Greenhills back in the 80's which explains why we know that tiangge kingdom from corner to corner and never got lost in the middle of the chaos.

Now that I'm always busy with work, and Mom's arthritis/rheumatism limits her from walking a lot like she used to, we hardly ever go to mall-wide sales anymore. I missed that a lot. More than anything, I missed spending time with her.

So about 3 days ago, I blocked off my whole Friday and told my Mom that I'd take her to the Mega Sale on her birthday. She got really excited or make that, SUPER excited that she woke me up by 7am so we can go there early! But I am not that desperate to shop so I slept until 10am and we were at SM Megamall an hour later.

Our first stop: SM Department Store.

Mom and her portable walker

First on the agenda was to check if the Van Huesen clothes are on 70% off and get a few pieces for Dad. Unfortunately, 50% off lang so Mom decided not to buy. That's how kuripot she is. HAHAHA.

Next was to buy her makeup. The lines were too long at the cashier so we changed our minds, dropped our items and moved on.

Third on our mental list was to buy my desk lamp. We headed to Ace Hardware and got this baby for P825.

And then there was light!

Then we decided to check out Forever 21. And look what welcomed us:

Reminded me of Wowowee in Ultra.
Buti nalang walang stampede. Afraidddd.

CRAZY!!! I had no intention of going inside but the guard saw my mom with her walker and gave us a free pass. Senior citizen perks, eh? As soon as we entered the store, I wanted to leave. The lines to the cashier were soooo long that there's actually not enough space to look around for stuff anymore. What the heck, I'm not that crazy so after 5 minutes we left. Told ya I was trained to shop wisely! If the line's too long, surrender! Hahaha!

I kinda felt bad for the other local retailers, though. Wala masyado tao! Everyone was going gaga over Forever 21! And that worked to my advantage because I was able to score a couple of tops in my "secret list of overlooked stores" without having to fall a single line. Sweet!

After that, we headed home and continued Mom's celebration with good food.

Make a wish!

Happy grandparents with Liam, the first grandson. Oh you lucky kid.

What a feast!
Crispy pata, honey-roasted chicken, lumpiang shanghai, and pancit!
Delicioso!

Hope you enjoyed our date, Mom! Let's do this more often, sale or no sale. Haha! I love you!

P.S.
Aren't you glad that I didn't use your credit card? See, I can handle my money now. You should be proud. LOL

Mr. Pure Energy.

Gary Valenciano's energy is not just pure, folks. It's LEGENDARY. Last Saturday, I was lucky enough to witness this incredible artist perform right in front of my eyes at the Music Museum (super thanks, Louie A!). You see, I've always been a fan of this guy but I don't know what took me so long before I managed to watch him live. And what made me feel even more luckier? Louie scored really good seats for us, as in next to the VIPs! :)

The who?
Clues: J. ASAP. Dynamite.

In no time, our area was surrounded by ASAP talents. They were nice to look at, to say the least. But I'm not the type who'd go out of my way to take their photographs, so there. Hehehe.

The real VIP.

Gary opened the show from the back door, singing "Hataw Na!". I remember dancing to this song when I was young. Haaay, memories.

Singing from the heart.

If I were to describe his show in one word, it would be...HEARTFELT. It's amazing how he took us back in time with his numerous hits that made an impact in our lives, in one way or another. He is just so REAL in every sense of the word.

I think every person in the audience had their own emo moments during the show and I am definitely no exception. Mine was this:

He started the segment by talking about a father's unconditional love. The way he expresses his love for his children is just so admirable. Keana, his youngest daughter, is about to turn 18 this year, and he said that no matter how old she is, for him, he will always be this playful little girl:

An old video clip of Gary teaching 4-year old Keana how to sing.

Oh my gosh, tears just started rolling nonstop! It was sooo sweet and lovely. Words are not enough, really. Then moments later, Keana and Gab appeared on stage.

They sang "The Climb" together...

...while Gab played the piano.
Apart from dancing, this guy can also play instruments. What a revelation!

The concert had a number of guests, too.

Jericho Rosales can really sing live, and in tune ha. I likey!
Plus, he composed "Pusong Ligaw" all by himself. Way to go, crush!

Duncan Ramos actually performed with Gary V when he was a kid.
And boy, he can dance pala!

The last part was the "request" segment, where Gary graciously sang whatever the audience wanted to hear. Nakakaaliw, super. And did I mention that I was just one seat apart from rubbing elbows with this guy?

Sam Milby!
This photo is for you, cousin Toni. Haha!

What an amazing show! Can't wait to watch him again in the future! GARY V. ROCKS!