Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Sheer Delight

This sheer polo with leopard print piping is probably the most recognizable piece from the Greater Good and StyleBreak collaboration. It instantly caught my attention because I haven't seen anything quite like it before. I believe a plain white polo should be a closet staple and the leopard piping adds an instant pizazz. I'm happy with my outfit choice for Father's day since it was raining cats and dogs in Makati. The weather made walking around Greenbelt extra conducive and the sheer polo provided the right amount of coverage against the cool weather. I wore a black body con skirt to balance the silhouette of the outfit.

Perfect weather to wear those boots!


Sheer polo from Greater Good X Stylebreak // Body con skirt from Cotton On // Boots from Forever 21

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Father's Day

 Happy Father's Day to all our beloved Dads :) 
We had lunch at Benny's which is one of our favorite restaurants. Benny's is located at the ground floor of Rustan's Makati.



Happy Father's Day to the smartest man I know, Tatay! I love you Tatay :) Thank you so much for everything. You are definitely my hero, best friend and inspiration! We are all very proud of everything that you have accomplished. 

:)

A kiss to send us off


DEAR BRANDON BOYD, 
Ang sexy mo


I can't wait to see you on July 28 :)
Your lover, 
Ana

PS. The good seats are almost sold out! If you guys are planning to watch the concert, this might help you :)

Thank you Nanay and Tatay <3

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Of cheap thrills and indulgences..

While the rest of the country is still celebrating Independence Day, my family shifted gears and celebrated indulgence day earlier. Before I begin to fill you in on how my day went down, here's a decent outfit post before I left home.

I wore a plain black tube top, a high waist leopard print skirt, black flats from Rubi shoes, my favorite purse and sunglasses from Christian Dior. The leopard skirt is my first ever ukay find and I got it for only Php 25! I spotted the skirt yesterday while sitting in traffic and asked my adorable sister Ela (haha!) to dash, grab and buy the skirt. It was mission accomplished and she got back in the car in time before the traffic light switched. Once i got home,our house-help soaked the skirt in boiling water and washed it thoroughly :) I love the wrap-around drapey detail of the skirt which was not captured in photograph.

To cut a long story short, my mom, aunt, Glam-Ma and I went to greenbelt earlier to pick up a bag from LV which was reserved under my name (intense)!  We arrived at Greenbelt 30 minutes before the opening so we headed to Conti's to grab a bite. I was already hungry by then since I just had cereals for breakfast but Mommy wanted to have late lunch so I opted for a slice of Black Velvet.
Please excuse the quality of photos. I used an iPod because it allows me to take pictures discreetly.


After downing our food, we went straight to LV to pick up the bag. As you can see, they really know how to pamper their customers. Enjoyed complimentary drinks while checking out purses here and there. That's me on the left feeling all hyper and a bit sweaty. The lovely sales personnel of LV asked if I was feeling cold and told me she can fix me a cup of sweet tea. Haha That's just me, I don't easily feel cold, hence the strapless top and skirt. I appreciate the concern, but no, thank you, Evian will do!

Trivia: Speedy 25 was customized for Audrey Hepburn! They only manufactured the Speedy bag in that size when more people started to request for it after seeing it on Audrey. How cool is that?  

They can also personalize your LV purse, free of charge (hot stamping)! So after two hours of trying out purses, and browsing through the catalogues, we left the store and decided to pay Greenbelt 4 a visit. Next stop: Gucci!
Tatay is on a business trip every single week. My parents SMS each other very often as seen on the left most photo.

Mommy and Nanay lounging at the velour couch while Ayin (my Aunt) was shopping. Mommy made me try out those outrageously high Gucci heels! It was so much fun but the the ones I like are not available in my size. 
Pieces perfect for color blocking! Camilla Belle's Gucci outfit is still available, see? After another full hour, we finally left Gucci and transferred to Ferragamo because Mommy was ogling at the loafers on the display window. She has this habit of making me try out shoes and clothes because she knows I'm up for it. She randomly picks out shoes that she thinks will look good on me. If she loves how it looks on me, she usually buys the item. No questions asked, that's my grandmother right there! She pointed out a pair of black strappy wedges. The pair looks small at first glance, so back to the shelf it went. The very kind sales personnel double checked the size, and told me they were the last pair in size 9! Someone's feeling lucky. The pair is very simple yet classy, and it looks a lot more sophisticated when worn. Not to mention, it fits beautifully and the arch is just .. ugh! Perfection! I walked in them for a few more minutes until the final verdict was reached! Then I started to wonder if ever we'd reach the same verdict, in case the orange Gucci pumps miraculously fit? Kidding! I don't want to push my luck. Plus they say Ferragamos last a lifetime :) I'm a happy kid!

Photo grabbed/stolen from Donna's blog hehe
I finally met Donna of try.believe.LOVE while filling out some raffle coupons at the counter. I already saw her at Zara earlier that day but she might get creeped out if I just come up to her and confess my fondness of reading her blog (that slightly awkward moment when you bump into Chictopia friends in person and they don't recognize you back. I mean, do I smile, say 'hi' and introduce myself or walk away? hehe). When i saw her for the second time at Ferragamo (pulling out clothes for a shoot, I presume), we had a short chit chat by the counter and she even invited me to their fashion show next week :)
Look on your face was priceless! Yes, the look on your face was priceless! The look on your face was.. so.. Priceless! Priceless! So.. Priceless!!
I'm a happy girl, see? :D All the while I've been thinking about the upcoming Incubus concert and how much I want to get hold of a good seat! But let's just wait and see, it's more than a month away so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Many thanks to my parents, to Ayin and to Mommy for chipping in moolah for my new shoes!! Since Tatay is on a trip, I sent him an SMS, thanking him for the Ferragamos to which he replied with: "Okay baby, good night".  :) I love my family!
Some Tod's and Prada later, we settled at Italliani's for lunch. (Like, really late lunch because it was already past 3PM.)

I was full after 3 bites and was still a little bit shakey thanks to Salvatore. After lunch, we went to Le Petit Artisan to take out desserts. I love their cream puffs!
We decided not go to S&R anymore because Mommy was afraid to leave our unexpected loot unattended in the parking. We were all excited to go home anyway so it's all good.. Oh that joy you get from retail therapy. Sana may part 2. Next week! Joke lang ;P This is probably the best girl-bonding we had in the family. Hopefully my sisters will be able to join in next time :)

Pretty Little Liars season 2 premieres in a few hours :)
Happy weekend !

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Sweet Picks

All these free times I've been spending at home sometimes forces my mind to take backtracks. When I was little, I remember Tatay would always bring us chocolates from his business trips and it's something my family would always enjoy. I distinctly remember this chocolate he brought home from Tokyo which was unlike any other. The chocolate was covered in glutinous rice and smothered with a generous amount of cocoa powder. Chocolate daifuku, as the box read, and that was the only thing we knew about the delectable foreign treat. Of course it never occurred to my 10-year old self to google more information about it. A decade passed and I can still vividly recall how the daifuku tastes.
We met the girls of Sophie's Mom at Bloggers United and they were selling mochi, red velvet cupcakes (my favorite!) and cookies.When I saw the mochi truffles, they instantly reminded me of my favorite Japanese treat from 10 years ago. It actually took me a while before I was able to confirm that daifuku and mochi are one and the same. I regret not trying out their products during the bazaar because I went crazy over the clothes and the presence of my favorite bloggers, that I forgot to address the needs of my grumbling stomach. My sisters, on the other hand, were more eager to check out the food concessionaires. A week ago, we met up with Sophie's Mom herself, Tita Tonette in Rustan's Makati to pick up our orders.

Must try! I absolutely love their Mochi nutella truffles! The Mochi truffles also come in belgian chocolate and caramel flavors. All of them are actually really good :) My sisters ordered Mochi ice cream in frozen brazo and vanilla, and cookie dough. No photo however because it has to be consumed right away. Mochi ice cream is also larger than the truffles, if you're wondering. Mochi ice cream is about the size of a jaw breaker. 

Another must try! The decadence of red velvet cupcakes captured in cookies! We went for red velvet cookies instead of cupcakes because they're cheaper by Php 20 hence, we can order more :) I can't quite translate the goodness of these treats into words, so I recommend you all to try their products! 

Friday, June 10, 2011

The social butterfly I once knew

The social butterfly I once knew


I remember writing an essay about Audrey Hepburn in high school. I gave my little piece of work the title, The Social Butterfly I Once Knew after her most distinguishable role in Breakfast at Tiffany's. I remember my mom surprised me with the VCD copy of this film when I came home from my high school Ilocos trip. Despite my lack of sleep and sun burnt back (from the beach, of course), I took a long shower, slipped on my favorite flowy maxi dress, and spent the next 2 hours glued on the TV. From then on, Breakfast at Tiffany's immediately won the favorite movie of all time award. I have to admit, I didn't quite understand it at first, but there was definitely something about her charm, elegance and classiness that won me over. My favorite scene is definitely the first one where she was literally having breakfast in front of Tiffany's, complete with coffee and bagels. Holly Golightly is my favorite movie character of all time. I'd love to dress up as her on Halloween. haha


Since then, I've been very curious about her movies and her life. I even endured watching the Audrey Hepburn Story starring Jennifer Love Hewitt on youtube. (If you chance upon the quality of the video, you'll see why I meant "endured".) After Breakfast at Tiffany's, I started buying other Hepburn movies. I always end up liking the movie no matter how serious, or superficial it is. So far, I've seen Sabrina, How to Steal a Million and Roman Holiday. I've been dying to see My Fair Lady so I seriously hope I can find the ultimate Audrey Hepburn DVD collection!

Okay so I'm blogging about Audrey Hepburn because I found out that one cable channel is going to have an Audrey Hepburn Film fest this month and they'll be showing one Audrey Hepburn movie every Sunday night! I'm so excited because they'll be showing the movies I have not seen yet :)

One of the items on my bucket list, is to see, touch and photograph Audrey Hepburn's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in L.A. Speaking of bucket list, I'm about to cross out an item come July 28. My ultimate favorite band Incubus is coming back to Manila!! Call me a loser but I've never been to a concert before, save for those free concerts in college. I told myself Incubus will be the first concert that I'll watch and I thought that's never gonna happen since they came over to the country twice already. I hope I won't faint once I see Brandon Boyd <3



Happy Weekend ;)


Monday, June 6, 2011

Hey, Darla *out now!*

Summer Forever's first collection is out now :)





Click Me to check out their online boutique!

*coming soon* SUMMER FOREVER

Summer may officially be over, but 2 of my good friends Ariana and Katrina are redirecting the sunshine back to your closets as they bring you Summer Forever.


If you can't get enough of heart printed polos, sheer polos, lace dresses, floral dresses, tulle dresses (and even heart printed tulle dresses), playsuits and maxi dresses, make sure to like Summer Forever  on Facebook. Here's a teaser of their first collection Hey, Darla to be released tonight!

Think Teen Vogue meets Coachella, if that even makes sense. You definitely don't wanna miss out on all these right? Only a few more hours left before the launch so make sure to click the like button before the clock strikes 8 tonight! :)

Thanks everyone ;)
<3 Ana

* Click HERE to visit Summer Forever on Facebook *