their Spring, our Summer colors

I admit, it was a relief to see Gwyneth Paltrow on the cover of the Harper's Bazaar Spring 2012 issue in black. Yes, the above is the subscription cover (that, as you know from here, is different from the newsstand cover). And yes, it is the Spring issue.

Very different from the usual colorful Spring issues - like the March 2012 Aussie version here, right?

It was a busy start-of-the-summer at work for me. So trying to avoid black this summer would have been added pressure. Plus, I can always count on black to hide the fat. :) I was going to wear anything I wanted anyway, so it was good to get Gwyneth's nod of approval.

The funny thing is that after I get a license to wear black during the summer, I can't help get drawn to Spring's pastels. You already know how I am obsessed with seafoam green here.

So imagine how kid-in-a-candy-store I felt at H&M during my recent trip to Singapore. I was hoping to score some Marni-H&M returns (see related post here), but that didn't work out. Fortunately, the pastels of the Conscious Collection consoled me (and the environment at the same time).

I ended up buying the printed straight dress below, those peach shorts that I plan to pair with a sheer seafoam green sleeveless top I also got at H&M.

Oh, and how do I hide the fat in these light pastels? Well, like I always say when I gain a few pounds, it's either time to hop on the treadmill or go shopping for bigger clothes. I just did the latter! Problem solved in Spring's pastels! 

Photos from pinkwallpaper, H&M, here, here and here.

Click here for previous posts on fatness.

the elusive VW hood

Ironic. Now, I find a photo of a whole row of VW beetle hoods!

When just last week, I spotted Herbie on the way to work. It certainly brightened up morning traffic for me! I tried very hard to take a photo of his hood without bumping into the car in front of me. But all I got were multiple photos of his side and his trunk.

Someday, I hope I get to take a photo of that elusive VW hood!

Photo from pinkwallpaper and my own (via my BB Torch and edited via pixlr).

where NOT to store shoes

Because of my shoe storage tip here, I got to thinking about where I (and I'm sure ocmominmanila) wouldn't want to store shoes.

No matter how pretty my shoes look, I won't be able to bring myself to put them on my bookcase (or side table for that matter)!

Because when I see shoes, I can't help think of the floors it has stepped on.

And as you know from here, I worry about how dirty the ground is.

The thought of storing shoes - whose soles may have touched spit, stray-dog poop remnants, pee or dirty canal water - on my bookshelf just makes me weak.

Unless of course, the floors they've touched are limited to clean polka-dotted...

Or striped ones...

Actually, maybe not even...

Photos from annnniegirl.

Click here for the post on shoe storage that inspired this one.

Singapore cabs

Am going to Singapore for work tomorrow. I'm excited because I lived in Singapore for a very short while a few years back so I think of it as my second home. And the thing I miss most about the place is their cab system.

I can't help feel nostalgic when I hear the recording answer with "Comfort/City Cab. For pick-up at... press 1. For pick-up at... press 2... Please don't hang up. We are processing your destination." Then in a second, "Taxi number 8D22 will be at your destination in 3 to 5 minutes."

I love that they record your latest 2 destinations so you don't have to dictate it to an operator all the time. They say it's hard to get a cab right before 12mn, before the cab rates go up, but I've never ever been stranded. A cab always comes. Yes, they will complain about traffic - muttering "Jam!" angrily - even when it is just a 5-car build-up at a stoplight. And yes, you need to learn to pronounce your destination in their accent to get there - Penang Road is "Pineng Road" and "House" is "How" to them. But I always, always got there.

Would be perfect if Singapore cabs turned this pretty since my last visit.

But even if they didn't, Singapore cabs will always have a special place in my heart. :)

Photos from annnniegirl. 

before the monobloc

Do you remember what chairs were used in outdoor school events before the monobloc chair was invented? I remember the curved wood of the chairs during field demonstration events at my school was not polished like this. They looked more like the wood used as broomsticks. Apparently, this wooden chair with a sulihiya seat is called a bendwood or Thonet chair. And I am loving the pop of color in this new Thonet chair!

I also love the contemporary wider & shorter look on these pre-monobloc rental chairs of the past.

Don't they look fabulous at this breakfast table?

I just love how native sulihiya looks so fresh & current!

Photos from designsponge and here.

Click here for previous nostalgic posts.

nonsensical perfection

Warning: This down-in-the-dots post has sunk to the lowest of levels! It is incredibly late and I am waiting for my ultra-slow work email to send out some urgent mail. It was starting to feel like a watched pot so I opted to distract myself with this quick post to hopefully, finally make it boil. So please do not judge this blog based on this nonsensical post... 

Quite a while back here, I shared this photo of jetlag perfection. Seriously, wouldn't you want to look this good when you're jetlagged?

Around the same time here, I also shared this photo of derby perfection. Wouldn't this be the perfect outfit for a derby (if there ever was one in Manila)?

So I thought you'd also like to see this photo of armpit perfection.

Isn't it the most perfect armpit? I know it's probably photoshopped, but if I had such beautiful armpits, I'd probably find a way to keep my arms up high all the time rather than tap my fingers repeatedly as my Microsoft Outlook's send/receive status stays put at 56%.

56%. Nuninuninu... Tap-a-tap (in case you're wondering, that's the sound of my tapping fingers)... Tap-a-tap... Still at 56%. Sigh...

Photos from i'mjustsaying, everythingfab and annnniegirl.  

easter eggs

I've always wanted to dye eggs for Easter because of the delightful, lovely color options. But I've never gotten around to buying the dyes (what do they use? food coloring? paint?), laying out the newspaper and mixing the dyes to get to the colors I want.

I surfed the web to find out what dye to use and I read about a "kit", which I assume will not be easy to find in Manila since we're not the Easter-Bunny-believing-type-of-folk. I then found out how to dye eggs with food coloring here, but maybe because I am such an undomesticated goddess (see related post here), I felt a bit nauseous at the list of supplies that needed to be gathered and daunted when I got to the part of having to measure & mix vinegar and hot water and food coloring. I don't even know where to get food coloring though I figure I should be able to find some in the baking needs section, a grocery aisle I've stopped visiting since I realized those tiny colored stars and rainbow sprinkles don't really taste like candy. (Okay, I'm starting to feel that you're thinking this is a major dumb blood moment - No, that wasn't a typo because I underwent blood transfusion when I gave birth to Noah and have always felt I got dumber after that. - but you have to understand I don't even know how to fry an egg! And yes, I know some super-moms even tie-dye or marble their easter eggs!).

Luckily, I found out you can actually use Kool-Aid to dye eggs! And as some of you might already know from here, I love Kool-Aid, so we always have some in our kitchen cupboard (no need to make an extra trip to the grocery!). And all you need to do is dissolve the Kool-Aid powder in a cup of water (no vinegar or measuring needed!), and you can go ahead and dip the egg & scoop it out to dry.

Pam (who fully discloses here what worked and what didn't in her Kool-Aid-dyeing experiment) says Lime makes lovely green and Berry, a gorgeous blue. The Orange actually turns out a deep, rich yellow and Strawberry is more orange than red.

I like the idea of excitedly waiting to find out what colors we will get with each flavor. And dyeing eggs in the midst of fruity smells! I think I might just get around to dyeing some eggs this Easter!

Who knows? Maybe next Easter, I can move on to food coloring and create these pretty, pretty colors!

Happy Easter everyone!

Photos from aliedwards and polkadotshoppingbag.

Click here for a different kind of Easter.  

liar, liar, pants on fire

I am the worst liar. Lying makes me sooooo uncomfortable. I cannot even manage the little white lies to get through village gate guards. Even when I don't even have to say anything. Just being an accomplice to the hubby's "Hatid lang siya [will just drop her off at her house]" while motioning at me with his thumb is major pressure for me! I cannot even manage a confident-nod-at-the-guard-like-I-know-him-because-I-supposedly-live-there.

Ellen deGeneres says in her book, Seriously... I'm Kidding, that people tend to lie about their age, their weight, their natural hair color, and how cute their friends' babies are. I don't get why'd you'd lie about the first 2 (unless you're 16 and trying to get into Euphoria -er, I mean a club) because your age and weight show anyway. What's the point saying you're a size 2 when you're obviously a size 8? And I guess lying about your haircolor is not so relevant in this black-haired part of the world. But I have to admit that friends' babies thing is hard. I really can't lie so I end up saying "Aawww..." or "Soooo tiny." And it's not that their babies aren't cute, it's just that I think all newborns really look the same so it's hard to say if one is cute or not.

But after reading ocmominmanila's tweet the other day, I realized there is one thing that I do lie about. "The 21st century's most frequently told lie is: ☑ I have read & agree to the Terms & Conditions."

Photo from here.

workday daydream

I wonder if Kobi Yamada would take this back if she knew that this was the kind of life people are imagining...

Who wouldn't love to get paid to drink wine while looking at Pinterest?

I would love to be paid to be one of those ladies-who-lunch! I have to admit that every time I spend a leave at the mall, I am boggled at how there are so many of them. I can't help feel envious that this is what they do - a stark contrast to my typical workday of wall-to-wall meetings (with barely enough time to pee) that end at 6pm so I can finally start my real work.

So sometimes, I daydream about alternative careers: Like being a Lego-brick-builder, the ones who build those giant Lego creations. Or being a Crayola-color-namer. I have been daydreaming about this stylish box of crayons with colors like Tiffany blue, Louboutin red, Mulberry oak, Hermes orange and Chanel black.

What about you? What would you wish someone paid you to do? 

Photos from i'mjustsaying, here via acupofjo and polkadotshoppingbag.

oops, my neurosis is showing...

I have a problem with floating stickers on the windshield.

When I'm inside the car, I can't seem to look past them. So they give me a headache.

Because I need the stickers to be out of my line of sight, the only acceptable windshield space is the bottommost portion which is hard to get to because there's hardly enough space for hands to fit - what more hands that are trying to stick the sticker as close as possible to the bottom edge of the windshield? Not to mention the fact that the stickers cannot be stuck in a lopsided manner. I need them to be evenly aligned to the edge of the windshield. I used to stick them on an acetate film. But acetate films are hard to come by these days (do overhead projectors still exist?). So I actually haven't stuck an LTO-registration sticker on my windshield for 5 years now. And you know how much of a dutiful driver I am from here. So while I feel guilty about it, I really prefer a clear, floating-sticker-free windshield like this.

Oops, is my neurosis showing again?

Photos from annnniegirl.

Click here for previous posts from the Oops, My Neurosis Is Showing series.