unreal

As I sifted through my Legoland photos for the ones I would include in my Legoland Details post here, I came across this one unexpected photo. Because Legoland's attention to detail has been so unparalleled -- creating unique people on the Daytona bleachers with Lego bricks instead of mini-figs, I guess my expectations rose to unrealistic levels.

To the point that I expected them to create the Pier 39 carousel horses out of bricks rather than the regular Lego horses.

I know... Give someone a hand, and they take your whole arm. Tsk tsk, unfair.

Legoland Malaysia is opening on Septemer 15, 2012 (check out the countdown here). I can't wait to witness Legoland's unmatched awesomeness again here in Asia. Brick horse or not, I am unequivocally still Legoland's #1 fan. 

Photos are my own.

hahahappy

Lately, I haven't been inspired to write any posts for this blog. Maybe it's because I'm happy. After all, this blog was meant to be an outlet for when I am down in the dots, -er, dumps.

Maybe I've been post-less because I've been getting more than my usual dose of sunny days...

Of bubble tea, cupcakes and chalkboard walls...

Of color...

And polka dots...

Even horses...

But it's possible... that I haven't been posting because I'd really rather not push down that post below of the man in a suit who allegedly tweeted me...

Because he's just so incredibly cute.

Okay, I may be going completely insane... Or I could just be insanely hahahappy!

Photos from annnniegirl.

Click on the yellow fonts throughout this post for links to posts you may have missed.

delightful dinner dysfunction

I grew up eating dinner in front of the TV. We did it as a family. We would eat in our den with trays on tables like these (ours weren't as pretty though) and watch TV together. We watched dramas like Dallas, Knots Landing and Falcon Crest. We watched comedy shows like Three's Company, Who's the Boss?, Punky Brewster, Cosby Show, Alf and Perfect Strangers. I also remember watching Buck Rogers, Greatest American Hero, Moonlighting and Scarecrow & Mrs. King. We talked about our day during commercials, but once the show started again, we either laughed together, groaned together at annoying cliffhangers or playfully teased those that bawled during sad episodes. I didn't have a TV in my room and I never felt I needed it. Perhaps because TV time was family-time rather than alone-time for me.

I realize now it was odd not to sit at the dinnertable at dinner. And if you're wondering how my brother and I learned good table manners with this dinner-in-front-of-the-TV habit, I think it's because our mom used to take us out to lunch every weekend. I remember how when we were kids, we frequented Cafe Rizal in the old Rizal Theater, the Manila Garden coffee shop, SM's Cafe Elysee and Trattoria Uno in Ali Mall (see related post here). I also remember how my little brother would even pull our chairs for my mom & me at these restos. I'm sure the other lunch patrons who saw us kids with our napkins on our laps and scooping our soup away-from-rather-than-towards-us wouldn't have believed we ate our dinners on cafeteria trays in front of the TV.

I guess I have to admit that growing up, our dinners - maybe even our lunches - were not very common. Some would probably even frown upon them and call them dysfunctional. But for me, they were delightful family-bonding memories. And I wouldn't have had them any other way. 

Photo from FYNCT. 

This Twitter's a tease!

Loko 'tong Twitter na 'to! Got an email today with subject: Josh Duhamel has a Tweet for you.

I have to say it's the first email I checked in my inbox of 20 unread emails! Because isn't he just the absolute cutest?

I am so crushing on him that I've watched most of his movies - including When In Rome which, I have to say, has one of the silliest plots ever. And I mean silly-bad, not silly-good. And yet I've watched it an unbelievable amount of times. Just because he looks awfully good in a suit!

Josh Duhamel has a Tweet for me. Haha! I wish!

Have to say, even if it wasn't true, that email from Twitter made my day!

Photos from here, here and here.

just curious

I wonder if the owner of this home is Filipino? 'Coz they say "you know you're Filipino if you decorate your wall with a giant spoon & fork". 

Then again, they also say "you know you're Filipino if you cut your meat with a spoon & fork". So since it's forks & knives on the curtains, could it be that the homeowner is NOT Filipino?

Then again, isn't that a sulihiya rocking chair over there?

Gosh, I am so curious to know if the homeowner is indeed Filipino! :)

Photo from annnniegirl.

Click here for a previous post about a contemporary sulihiya chair. Click here for a previous post about another very Filipino item for the home: quilted appliance covers!

supposedly successful half-tuck

This would have been a successful half-tuck as defined here. But I couldn't bring myself to include it in my of-dots-&-things post because of the woman's black bra under her white shirt.

And while I believe Carrie Bradshaw left a great sartorial legacy, this is one trend she started that I am not a fan of. I don't mind a dark bra peeking through a sheer top of a similar hue. If this woman was wearing a brown or fun-colored bra under her white button-down, I wouldn't have been perfectly fine with it. But I just can't bring myself to appreciate a black bra under a white shirt.

Then again, a white bra under a black or white shirt is much, much worse. 

What about you? For you, is a black bra under a white top fashionable or a fashion faux pas? 

Photo from pinkwallpaper.

Click here for the of-dots-&-things version of this post. 

a mother's day gift that didn't quite cut it

I wanted to give my mom and lola (grandma) a bouquet of white flowers for Mother's Day. But I also wanted to give it the elegant touch of brown kraft paper. Don't you think the warm color of the paper sets off the whiteness of the flowers so perfectly? And the green leaves give the bouquet just the right amount of color?

I could already imagine sealing it with my new washi tapes from R and K (Thanks guys!)...

But sadly, the yellow manila paper we have around here just doesn't cut it. :(

Photos from everythingfab.

Click here for my of-dots-&-things post on Mother's Day. 

my thing about personalized monograms

My his & hers post here made me realize that - for someone who loves wearing her kids' names or initials around her neck here, I am not a fan of my own monogram or initial. I realized I don't have personalized label stickers like a lot of people I know. I don't even put my name on my books so book nameplates are useless for me. And I've never been attracted to the idea of having my designer bag monogrammed.

I wonder if it's because I have two names... My family calls me by my first name. Naturally. But my friends & co-workers call me by my maiden name. It started in school. My classmates just got into the habit of calling me by my maiden name largely because it sounds like a nickname. It caught on so it's the name I've been using since I started working. In fact, after I got married, very few of my co-workers know that what they think is my nickname is actually my maiden name. Anyway, obviously, my family couldn't get on board with calling me by my maiden name. So I ended up with a different name for my family vs. my friends. And maybe this is why I don't like plastering my name or initial on anything.

I wonder though if the reason behind this quirk of mine is my 91-year-old Lola (grandma). Because as you will see in this post about her of ocmominmanila here, she put ghastly-looking labels of her initials all over our house. I grew up with our TV, electric fan, even our flashlights displaying a masking-tape marked JH. Maybe those horrible labels just turned me off of personalized labels?

Whatever the reason, I won't be having our towels or pillows embroidered with our initials anytime soon. I guess this would be the only possible embroidery on our pillows...

It's no wonder then that I am loving the charming non-monogrammed his & hers items here.

Photos from pinkwallpaper and annnniegirl.

Click here for another post about what makes my Lola such a character.

dear kid with a balloon



Please hold on to your balloon tightly.

They say that each year, millions of balloons are released into the air and when they finally land, they can wind up in trees, river systems and many other habitats. Sadly, latex balloon material has shown up in the digestive systems of turtles, dolphins and many other marine animals.

So, dear little kid with a balloon, please don't let go of your balloon.

And to a sweet boyfriend planning a beautiful balloon-release surprise for his girl...

As beautiful as it is to watch a bunch of balloons fly up among the clouds, please don't release them into the air. Instead, maybe you can surprise your girl indoors?

It may not seem as grand a gesture as this.

But it's just as pretty and special.

And just as sweet.

So dear little kid & sweet boyfriend with balloons... please hold on to your balloons tightly. Because as sweet as they look to see them fly up into the air, animals might mistake them for sweet food when they finally land.

Photos from annnniegirl, polkadotshoppingbag and here.

Click here for previous posts from the Dear... series. Click here for the of-dots-&-things version of this post.

oops, my neurosis is showing...

This photo filled with lavender could have been part of my of-dots-&-things Color Obsession post on lavender here. But for some reason, I couldn't bring myself to include it. The greens, browns, yellows & nudes were exactly the colors I chose in my lavender color palette. But for some reason, this photo still didn't make the cut.

Am not really sure why. Could it be the huge leopard print? Perhaps they're a tad too big? Maybe I find the model's pose too awkward? Too contrived? Too unreal?

I don't really know. What makes it even more puzzling is that I feel it is pretty enough a picture to post in this blog. Which leads me to my neurosis. I'm not a very good photographer so most of the photos I take myself never make the cut. That's why I have a post on my home makeover here without an actual photo of my house. It wasn't easy to find photos on the web with furniture pieces that resemble mine. But I preferred that over posting photos of the real thing - because they had bad lighting. This is also why I used a screenshot from H&M here to show my shopping loot rather than upload a photo of the actual loot. I even spent some time surfing for a photo of the sleeveless seafoam green top I also purchased but didn't find it. So I opted to just mention that I got one and plan to pair it with my peach shorts. Instead of uploading a photo of the actual outfit.

You see, my blog is my repository of beautiful things. So if I decide to post an ugly photo, I'd probably end up taking it down later anyway. I realize my posts could end up as contrived & unreal as the model above. But while the pretty photos are taken by much better photographers than I am, I promise that every word is genuine and real and all so, so me.

Sigh. My neurosis is showing yet again...

Photo from here.  

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

Today, I am unloving...

This (above photo) isn't really a photo of our pomeranian, Halee. But she pretty much looks like this dog. That is, until today...

It's just been so hot these days that we decided to give her a "summer cut". We're feeling incredibly hot ourselves and we're not even covered in thick fur. So we figured it would help Halee feel cooler if she had shorter hair.

But today, I am unloving... Halee's haircut. Our cute, fluffy dog now looks like Timone, a meercat. 

Talk about a bad hair day! Poor Halee!

Oh, but sadly, it doesn't end here. While writing this post, I googled to check if "summer cut" is something Isabella just made up. Turns out, it isn't and I came across this article here that says that "not all dogs benefit from a summer haircut". And poms are one of these dogs that might get harmed by a summer cut. Oh no!!!

So today, I am unloving... our dog's summer cut and the fact that we may have caused her more harm than good. Aaaagggghhhh!!!

Photos from annnniegirl and my own edited with pixlr.

Click here for previous posts from the Today, I am unloving... series. Click here for a previous post about when Halee was a still a puppy.