Pick Pic of the Week

Photo from Jolina Magdangal and Mark Escueta's pre-nup album.

Yes, that Jolina Magdangal, who reigned supreme in the 90s.

Bangs and all.



via mangored

Zorro and Cute Kids

Some pictures from Tanya's Family Day in UP Diliman two weekends ago.

I love playing responsible tita roles. =)

Bespectacled.  Little Geniuses doing the Gangnam Style.

Kids doing the crazy Gangnam Style. So cute.

Zorro. He is in every way a celebrity.

Ate Ay, Ate Jo, Ze Zorro, Tanya and Me


Acad Oval. It never loses its charm even if filled with people.

Trees are runners' friends!

Sunday Sermon

my current obsession: Pure Nourishment

because words are powerful

via Pure Nourishment

Design Inspiration #9

My legs are crossed Indian style and my back is rested against the soft red and black -striped cushion. My laptop is propped on a small brown round table (to my English teachers, how do I arrange adjectives again? size then color then shape?). I am all set to think and dream and read and breathe - my me time this Sunday cost me Php 160 pesos for a chocolate mint drink and free wi-fi in Seattle's Best near our QC apartment. But I can not think and dream and read, not at this time, not when my heart is racing with ideas and researched pegs of, among all parts of my future home, a home office or will be also known as TINA's NOOK (I know it does not sound sexy "Tina's Nook" but it works for me). And I have decided, these are the only things I need at the moment to get me in the zone: a table and a really nice chair. And I am all set to conquer the world!!! Yes!!!

Who will not get inspired with these lovelies? I am not YET a kitchen person so my only interest in kitchen design is my colorful and labeled Gourdo's chopping board. I think I will fuss over my living room and bedroom in stressful ways far more than you can ever imagine because they will be the most important parts of my home - but these are shared spaces. The living room for my friends and guests and the bedroom for my multitude of lovers (yuck tina!!!) and wholesome friends and sisters who will luckily have the chance to sleep over my kingdom, my pink and grey kingdom!! But Tina's Nook will be off limits - you can stare and drop by for a few minutes and borrow my staplers and lovely stationeries  but for most parts of the days and years and centuries and millenia, it's mine and mine alone. I'll haunt it even after death. Mwahahaha! (Sorry, we're three days away from Halloween!:p)

Let's feast our eyes with these lovelies shall we? I realized I am leaning towards the dainty and clean look. =)

I love the blue over white idea and walls which double
as cork board (via apartment therapy)

leaning towards hot pink and bluish grey
 (via apartment therapy)

every girl's dream: baby pink and paris
 (via pinterest)

pretty and rustic, shabby chic
 (via pinterest)

i love the stool idea
 (via pinterest)

oh so clean and white. i'm loving the lantern
 (via pinterest)

burst of colors: his and hers
 (via pinterest)

so dainty
 (via pinterest)

i'm the boss. and i'm pretty.
 (via pinterest)

Juicy Minutes

Happy List #6 or random things I wish to write about in great length but do not have the time or the pocketful of sunshine to do so, so I will just enumerate or write in snippets...

One: My Quirky Brother and Mozart

My brother has been sleeping over our place (he usually goes home to an apartment near his school in the Manila area) since the end of the first semester and my younger sister, who lives with him, needed to go home for the sembreak. I want to keep him company but there is no way that I will live in Manila since I pledged my allegiance to Quezon City. So he had to come to me.

I am familiar with the ways of my brother in general but there are so many little details I have yet to know about him. Adorable details. For one, he listens to classical music. Yes, classical music – Mozart, Beethoven, Pachelbel, Vivaldi, Bach and many others whose names are either difficult to spell or are either German or Russian sounding. He listens to them while reviewing, while doing his homework, while playing the Gameboy and even while in the shower. I asked him to transfer his classical music files to my computer because I have grown to like some of them. My favourite would have to be Canon in D by Pachelbel in orchestra – it makes a great lullaby.

Now there are two Wofgang’s in my life: That musical genius who wowed the world with Requiem and Symphony No. 40  and that rock star who can get away with saying “Let’s get over this sh*t, moth*rf*ckrs!” and still look hot and sexy.

Two: From Grannies to Groupies Friday

I have very little interaction with most of my friends this year given that most of us are busy with our respective careers or graduate studies or for some geniuses, both career and studies. This utter madness of missing my friends ended when Ria and Bes showed up for my invitation to meet up on a Friday afternoon to try out some café somewhere in Quezon City. I so missed my friends; I realized, they keep me sane and inspired.

By Day: The Grannies at Mom and Tina's in Katipunan

By night: The Groupies at theTanduay Rhum Rockfest in MOA

Five things I learned from spending my Friday with Ria and Bes:

a) Trees are of the male gender and they can either be dorky, geeky, handsome or lolo-like.

b) There are many ideal places to watch the sunset: the beach, the mountains, Manila Bay and on the steps of a BPO office in UP-Ayala Techno Hub.

c) Judith McNaught. Got to read her.

d) Rico Blanco and Basti Artadi are artists. And they are hot. And they say bad words like sh*t and f**ck and pu**** &^na and still manage to look credible.

e) Coffee, books, salads, steaks, romance novels, bookstores, fleece jackets, head banging, rock concert, swear words, Tanduay rhum – these things, they make sense even when pooled together. They complete our “from grannies to groupies” Friday story. =)

Three: The Turquoise Earrings and the Girl from MRT

I was leaning on the hairy wall carpet of the MRT (the middle portion where the carriages are joined together) with my brown bag of groceries in both hands when a Chinese looking girl with wavy hair and sunshiny smile stroke up a conversation:

“Nice earrings”, she said.

“Thank you.”

“Where did you get them?”, she asked.

“Forever 21.”

“That’s what’s nice about the store noh? They get away with selling many similar items but when worn by individuals it’s as if they are the only ones who wear them or the things were custom made for them”. “That’s a nice color, it suits your skin tone”.

“Thank you”, I said.

That was our entire conversation; I needed to get off the next station and besides, what else is there to talk about? I feel a little embarrassed with my pathetic one-liners. I used to be that kind of girl, appreciative, at ease with starting a conversation with anybody, even strangers. Now, I seem to have grown old and less engaging. Working on getting my radiance back!

Four: My Christmas Wish List for Now

-Towels

-No Panty-panties (size: small, haha!)

-Bed Sheets

-Dimensione Drawer

-Children’s Books (of any kind)

-Year-long supply of peanuts, macadamia, pistachio, cashew

Five: Books (some I own, some I don’t but will)

Whenever in bookstores, I take pictures of books which I plan to read (and have read) using my low tech Nokia phone and here are some of them: a mix of children's lit, home design, self-help and travel lit - sorry, the picture got cut in the process of layout.

From L-R: 1) Beatrix Potter, The Complete Tales 2) The Selby 

3) Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading 4) Eloise 5) With the Kama Sutra Under 

My Arm 6) A Visit from the Goon Squad 7) Color: A Natural History 

of the Palette 8) Cupcakes and Cashmeres 

 Happy Sunday Universe! =)

Saturday Sermon

Just Do.

via Pure Nourishment

Pink and Paris

My version will read - Someday Bhutan or Someday Sri Lanka or Someday Tibet or Someday Nepal and of course every girl's dream -  Paris.=)

 via Travel Magazine

Friday Sermon

Because I am on leave today (the reason I wrote in the online leave application form in that company somewhere over the rainbow is: "to do some soul searching :-)", yes, complete with smiley), my to do list for the day drastically changed from minding somebody else's business (my boss's, the client's,the sellers', the project's) to minding my own.

Thank you Universe for a wonderful Friday! :-) (with a well-deserved smiley)

via Balay Kalipay

Design Inspiration #8

It's nothing close to pink and grey - but just the same, this is among the loveliest places to be!
Take me to Sao Paolo!
Images are from The Selby.