Confessions of a Fashiontista

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Fashion magazine advertisements and lifestyle features would report discernible changes, as they introduce newfangled designs, novel colors and plush accessories, which are part of the fashion evolution. On the other hand, technology constantly brings about better, faster, and more affordable gadgets.

The high investment a woman places on fashion necessitates taking care of these “assets”. After all, if a “fashionista” is to spend thousands (or hundreds of thousands!) on shoes and bags, she may as well get her money’s worth!

SHOES

Carrie of Sex and the City loves shoes. So does Imelda Marcos. My collection may not be as vast, but I’ve got a handful which needs managing especially with my hectic lifestyle.

Shoes are best kept in their original boxes to protect them from getting scratched or deformed. However, storing them in boxes makes it difficult to identify them, especially when one is in a hurry to leave (calling out to busy fashionistas).

Another potential problem is misidentification: putting the right brand — but not the right pair — into the box. This happens often for a woman who follows a certain brand or brands (like me!). I amass Nine West, Aldo and Charles & Keith chaussure. With my love for technology and my quest to preserve my shoes, I established a way to ‘file’ them in my own fashionista way.

Using my pink Nokia 3250 mobile phone, I would take pictures of different pairs of shoes. Then, connect my phone via Bluetooth to my HP DeskJet 450cbi printer. This gave me the power of wireless printing within seconds. No computers needed! After quick printing, I tape each printed picture onto its corresponding box. Voila! No more shoe-and-box mismatch. It takes me less than 10 minutes to complete my shoe-preservation-and-identification mission!

BAGS
Prada. Gucci. Dior. Louis Vuitton. Bags, bags, and more bags! They’re a necessity to match every mood and to complete every look.

Expensive bags usually come with cloth-bag protectors. But for some of my bags which do not come with these protective things, I store them in separate paper bags (usually the original store paper bag) to help keep their shape and quality. No folding or deforming allowed girls!

Similar to the concept of shoe filing, I will take pictures of my bags using my Nokia phone, print them out, and tape the photos onto the paper bags. This way, I know exactly which bag to pull out of my closet, without having to look through several bags. You can even store more that 1 bag in every paper bag. With this space-saver, you can buy more bags! As for my fellow fashionistas with Prada’s and alike: I store them in their cloth-bags, and secure them inside paper bags individually. It preserves the shape, and allows easy filing.

This is my own quick and fun way of keeping fashion accessories in tip-top shape. To my fellow shoes-and-bags enthusiasts, the revelation of a merger!

I wrote this article a year ago and it was released in some magazines and newsletters. One of the topics in Philmug caught my attention and so I thought of re-publishing my old article in my blog. http://www.philmug.ph/forum/archive/index.php/t-7987.html

Back in Manila

Tweet A few days back in my home -- Manila, was a good break, and it still is ... we won't be flying out until next week. I was away just for a few months (left Manila officially OCT 15) to go prep for my wedding stuff in Singapore...it was weeks and weeks of preparation, happiness, visitiors and pure bliss! Last November was busy being a housewife in Singapore, honeymoon in Indo, a short visit to KL, and arrived in sunny Manila just before the Xmas month. So being back home was actually my vacation from all that!

My visit to Fort surprised me as I walked down the newly developed commercial area around Serendra. We stopped by A Different Bookstore, had some donuts at Krispy Kreme and surveyed the other establishments. I'm sure that area will be a big hit when it is completed. Another new hang-out place. Well I guess that's a new thing in Manila, but what's still the same: the bad roads and traffic in EDSA. As I was driving around, I couldn't help but think why our government can't "spend wisely" and dedicate resources to improve road infrastucture. Why can't we have wide roads like Singapore and KL, where cars won't have damaged suspensions after a few years of city driving. How I wish that will improve as our currency is improving against the dollar. Maybe there is hope?

Talking about the economy, it seems that the tourism / hotel industry is doing quite well, namely Edsa Shangri-la and Makati Shangri-la Hotel. Me and my hubby stayed in Edsa Shang a few days before spending a few days in my house, and the hotel was F-U-L-L-Y booked! The breakfast buffets were packed. December is really a good month of hotel stays I guess. We almost didn't get bookings for our next stay, which is Makati Shangri-la. We wanted a change of area for this week, and it's also my chance to catch up with some old friends who are in Makati. It's nice to be back in Makati, I kind of miss it. I used to drive to Makati every single day (for my past job). As we check in later today, I'll get the chance to ring up (and SMS) some of my good friends, schedule lunch get-togethers and "coffee chats" to catch up.

It's good to be home.

Memoirs of an Unemployed Newlywed

Tweet Every girl's dream is to meet her prince charming and walk down the aisle in a designer wedding gown. Well, that's the typical wish-list story for most of my girlfriends from Manila, and having lived all my life in the same city, part of me too thought that would be a perfect wedding story.

Fate had something else in mind, and to make my long story short: my husband is from South of France. He came to Manila for business. We were introduced, fell in love and had a long distance relationship. Our engagement was in the South of France (beautiful place!) after 1 year. We celebrated our wedding with close friends and family in Raffles Hotel Singapore after the 2nd year.

From a pure Chinese perspective living in Manila, that will make a unique story. But as the world becomes smaller, thanks to technology and direct flights, our "Asia-Europe relationship" becomes a more common story.

Having stayed in Singapore for a few months allowed me to meet Eurasian (European+Asian) couples. They always have an interesting story of how they met, how things worked out. For couples like us who come from totally different cultures, we have to always keep an open mind to ensure harmony in the relationship. From my own experience, the one who needed to keep a broader mind is not actually myself, but the people (some friends and family members) around me. All in all, as long as you are both sure and care for each other, love knows no borders.

As I embark on my adventure as an expat's wife, I hope to share thoughts and stories. And mostly I guess it's more like an online diary to account our life together and how things unfold as we begin our move. One would think that I would probably have a relaxing life now as compared to my hectic schedules in the past when I was working for HP and Nokia, but since I stopped working last August, the months passed by like a blur! I kept busy with all the wedding preparations plus all the travelling. Just days after our wedding, on November 2006 alone we were in 4 countries... living in Singapore, honeymoon in Bintan (Indonesia), condo hunting in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and visiting my hometown in Manila (Philippines). Quite hectic for an unemployed housewife (ha ha!) But seriously, I never thought I could be this happy (and busy) at the same time, simply being a housewife. I guess there comes a point in your life when career, money and all those branded stuff simply can't fulfill that happiness index. Truly, life's happiness come from things you cannot buy : LOVE, FRIENDSHIP, FAMILY and HAPPY MEMORIES.

3T's : Trips, travel and tan!

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A new car will become old one day, and you will eventually sell it.
After your shopping spree, your new clothes will soon go out-of-style after a few months.
Your new cellphone will eventually become an old model as new technology catches up.

Those are some of the luxuries of life which we enjoy, but eventually will be forgotten in your old age. One thing that you can bring with you forever are MEMORIES. And that is why travelling to me is one of the luxuries I would like to indulge in.

In the days to come I will find time to post blogs about trips I have made over the years. I came about this thought, as I am planning my trip to Greece this August. While searching through different sites, I truly appreciated one of the old blogs which someone posted about Mykonos. Their true-to-life experience offers more information (one that you will not find in lonely planet or travel books).

And maybe, just maybe ... in my future TRAVEL posts, I hope someone out there will find it useful too.

Personally, I love the beach! I try to visit the beaches of different countries to experience it... yet to tell you honestly, the Philippines is the best so far and nothing comes close to it. So to beach lovers out there -- I am calling out to you. Do not forget to include the Philippines on your list of "must see beaches", because if you do, you are missing out a lot. Will write another post about Philippines beaches... but the top 2 places : Boracay and Palawan!

Will post more in the days to come.

Lifeblog post

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Lifeblog post, originally uploaded by Ana Co.

Thu 06/15/2006 15:37 photo of my desk! A day in my busy life! Checking emails and spending lots of 'sitting' time at my desk. I should get out more! There's so much life out there, i shouldn't be stuck in here ...

The Beginning ...

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It's a first for me ... this blogging thing. I've always been curious about it... and now here I am. I have always kept a diary since I was 10 ... posting in my journal whenever I have time. Whoever thought of this blogging technology probably kept one, too.
There is so much to share and yet so little time. I'm hoping that with all this sharing and uploading, I can touch someone's life .. or possible inspire?
Let's see how this goes then ... until my next post.