TOPAZ HORIZON

Recently, Penelope Cruz sparked frenzied rumors of an engagement with longtime love Javier Bardem when she was spotted wearing this huge sapphire ring:I don't know why that would cause a flurry when Penelope's been wearing loads of fabulous jewelry every time she makes a public appearance.

Fine, it is on the right finger... or rather, on the left ring finger. And it is very similar to Diana's engagement ring. But until Penelope and Javier confirm an engagement (oh, I'd love for them to get married!), we will assume it's just another ring in the Spanish beauty's collection.

Recently, I've also been spotted with a huge sapphire ring. Similar to Diana's engagement ring and to Penelope's alleged engagement ring. It, too, has caused gasps from everyone who's seen it.

I assure you all I am not engaged. Still very happily married, in fact. I'm just very happy I'm turning 33 in a week! And this blue bauble is my birthday present to myself! What's that you said? You want to give me a present, too? Well, go here now for my requests! Or you can help replenish my seriously depleted bank account and buy these shoes! Thank you!

Here's my other baby girl, the adorable and naughty Matilda. She got my eyes, don't you think?

My feathered headbands from Singapore:

My Diane Von Furstenburg ladybug dress! I finally wore it after four months. Totally forgot it was in my closet. Silly me. I love it!
And this weird hardware necklace, which goes well with practically everything in my closet:

Miley's songs! I can't stand the girl (her looks and her antics) but I really like "Seven Things I Hate About You," "Fly on the Wall" and "The Climb." Now I'm dancing a lot to "Party in the USA"!


This minty Tea Tree Face Mask from The Body Shop, which scares the living daylights out of my poor darling husband:

And my personalized Bobbi Brown lip-and-cheek pot:

Fun fun fashionable post! I hope to give you a more substantial post tomorrow!

Well, officially he's Joanna's very own but since we all saw him grow and grow and grow in Joanna's tiny body, we have adopted him. Meet Juan Paolo Tuazon Mendoza...

He is so cute! Lana, Elaine and I all cooed and ooh-ed and aah-ed over the little guy and he seemed to enjoy the attention. Yes, little man, get used to beautiful women fawning over you!

Joanna gave birth on October 9. Here she regales us about the birthing process, eliciting grimaces and giggles from us. Seems like she was screaming her head off and fainting away while Elijah passed around Facebook and text messages about his new status as daddy.

My goodness, I will confess that I felt like a grandma when I saw Paolo. Joanna, being so young and as a member of my staff, well, I think of her (and the rest of them actually) as my kids. So I feel very very old these days. Funnily enough, when I told someone at an event earlier today that I was turning 33 next week, she sighed, "Oh, you're so young!" Music to my ears!

Dear Joanna, congratulations on your new baby boy. I pray that God give you wisdom, patience, guidance, strength, good health and daily provision. May you always find humor, may you always respond in love, and may you always remember that you are also a wife and a woman--don't just be a mom! One day, Paolo will grow up and leave you, as all children are wont to do. Relish your other roles and never forget your own needs. Then again, I don't need to tell you this because you're one smart girl. And that's how I know that little boy is in good hands.

I'm out of the country actually. In Singapore. For the Nuffnang Asia Pacific Bloggers Awards!

Singapore is just about the most beautiful city I have ever seen. Just amazing. Will talk about this stunningly beautiful city soonest. Right now I need to:
1. apologize to Hair in Manila. My writing assignment is almost done!
2. resize photos from this amazing trip.
3. pack my stuff because we're going home to Manila tomorrow. You know, I just want to say that Singapore may be beautiful but it's not as alive as Manila. Manila is another animal altogether and I love Manila!

I will be uploading photos soon but I am very hesitant because, after seeing the fantastic pictures of my fellow bloggers, I realize to my horror how terrible my photos are!!! So I will just grab and grab and grab! Like these pics that I grabbed from...



I've met so many wonderful bloggers! I am seriously inspired to make Topaz Horizon better! Anyway, will update soonest!

My birthday's coming up and I feel like sharing my blessings by selling these fantabulous shoes for a low price! Each is brand new and still in their boxes. All are imported from the US of A. That means they aren't available here! But because I'm feeling magnanimous, I'll sell them to you lovely ladies for a bargain price. Plus, free shipping! Wouldn't you like to buy a pair or two?



Email me at frances@topazhorizon.com if and only if you're buying! I accept PayPal, G-Cash and deposits to my BDO bank account. Be fashyon and drive your friends crazy when they ask, "Where did you get those shoes?!" and then you say, "Oh, this is one of a kind. I'm the only one in the country who has these babies!" Love it. Buy now!

Last Saturday, I joined some Nuffnangers on a visit to Sunshineville in Las Pinas. Sunshineville. You gotta love a place named like that! And you know what? The people who live there truly are filled with sunshine. And look at how they decorate their windows! I was just so delighted!

Sunshineville is a community development project of the Gawad Kalinga Foundation. The place used to be an ultra-low income neighborhood. In today's PC terms, informal settlers. In other words, squatters. But through the efforts of Gawad Kalinga and many corporate sponsors, these people are now living in their own homes (they pay Php500 a month!). They all have a sense of ownership and belonging. And these can do wonders to the soul!

Going around the colorful neighborhood and talking to the people, I was amazed at how confident they are, at how proud and happy they are. Many times when I meet people, they regard me with resentment--insecure and ashamed of how different they are from me. And I'm not even talking about poor people--some people who are so fantastically blessed can be angry just because your skin is lighter or you're thinner. Or they look down on you because of the same shallow reasons. I can't understand this!

In Sunshineville, I felt none of that nonsense. In Sunshineville, they didn't make me feel like I was better than them. I felt like I was with equals. And I truly was! The people at Sunshineville not only are paying for their mortgage, they also built their houses. They also have a livelihood that gives them self-worth (I'll talk about this livelihood later!). No one talked about how many cars you owned or what new fitness fad or diet pill you're taking or what designer brand you just bought. What we talked about was our work and how wonderful it is to work!

It is a most beautiful thing to witness how an honest day's work gives people dignity. I'm so inspired! Can you imagine if the entire country was transformed like this? Now I want to put up a business so I can give people jobs and make more people happy!

*for more photos of Sunshineville (especially the people! Haha, sorry, was so fascinated by the windows I forgot to take pictures of the people!), click here!

Air pumps used to mean nothing to me as they usually meant car tires, balls and basketball shoes. Then I spied these on a shop shelf.My new forest green Cole Haan pumps. With Nike Air technology! I feel like I'm wearing sneakers! Cole Haan is on a huge sale this month--these babies were 75% off. Yes. Originally at Php19,000! Great deal!!!

They're a sensible style and since my style isn't so sensible, I got it in not-so-sensible forest green! Except that when I tried them on with my all-black ensemble (Bench tank, Kate Moss for Topshop pants), they also looked black. So now I just ended up looking like a career bitch... in high heeled sneakers! Now I'm thinking fondly of that scene from Stepford Wives when Matthew Broderick's character tells Nicole Kidman's character about their new life:

Walter: First of all, we're in the country now,
so no more black.
Joanna: No more black? Are you insane?
Walter: You heard me. Only high-powered, neurotic,
castrating, Manhattan career bitches wear black.
Is that what you wanna be?
Joanna: Ever since I was a little girl.

Oh! I've also always dreamed of being a career woman when I was a little girl! Whenever my Papa would start saying things like, "One day, you'll be married..." or "When you have kids..." I would tell him very loudly, "I'm going to be a working woman!" and Papa would shake his head in disapproval. So it's very strange now that he's actually proud of me!

My, my, wasn't yesterday's post petulant (and mildly grammatically incorrect in some parts!)? I blame it on PMS. Migraine, mood swings, more tired than usual and you get whiny me. I guess I got envious of the women around me--efficient and impeccable because they have an army of assistants and maids to help them out.

But my reader Nikki of AskMeWhats, whom I've never met, saw through all my complaints and observed quite accurately, "I have a feeling you're someone who'd rather do things themselves as you know 'the right way' to do it, just like me. That's why I'd rather do things on my own than ask someone to do it then, at the end, not be satisfied!" Indeed, Nikki. That is who I am--I complain of all the work but when people help, I get more annoyed than grateful. And it's because I have a way of doing things and if it's not done just so, I get angry. So I end up doing everything myself! So I should stop complaining!!!

Goodness, I also want to add that my house is always perfectly clean and that I need not think about washing the dishes. I just want to put that out there because my darling sweet husband doesn't want you to think that our house is a mess. It isn't and that's because Vince is such a sweetheart with tidying things up. Why, just today he waxed and polished the floors! Thanks, Vince! Whatever would I do without you?

Yes, I'm in a better mood now. Had spicy tuna maki and tuna sashimi and miso soup--this always puts me in a good mood, this and tinolang manok and my mother-in-law's caldereta. Also went shopping recently. Bought a nice dress, got some seriously cool shoes. Booked an appointment with beauty maestro Louis Phillip Kee. I'm also preparing to leave for an all-expense-paid trip to Singapore this weekend. Well, there you go! What should I be complaining about when I'm the luckiest girl in the world? Shame on me indeed!

At a shoot, the model said, "Oh fuck, I'm wearing a dress? I forgot to shave my legs." She flipped open her phone and said, "Where are you? Get me a razor and I need it now." Five minutes later, a girl appears (I kid you not when I said 5 minutes) with a 7-11 plastic bag with, not one, not two, but three fresh razors (model must be really hairy, eh?).

At another shoot, the stylist had her assistant lug around the bags and clothes and shoes while she walked about the set in her sky-high heels, fresh as a daisy.

At the office, a fellow editor-in-chief had her driver pick up all her bags and folders and bring them to the waiting car where she just slid into the back seat and had the door shut for her and she was whisked away. No, this wasn't Pauline of Preview.

At a bloggers event, I asked a fellow blogger how she can update her blog three to four times a day, "You have a full-time job, like me. Goodness, when I get home, I still have to do chores." "Chores?" she laughed. "I have a maid."

Watching Mad Men the other night, I was struck by how they bossed around their secretaries: "Call this guy, make me coffee, pick this up, type this, send that." Or how Betty Draper barked, "Show him the door, take the laundry upstairs, get the kids."


That is not my life and it has never been my life. In my job, I xerox my own pages, fill up my own forms, schedule my own meetings, call the people I need to talk to myself and bring my own huge bags. At home, I do my own cooking and cleaning and housekeeping (with a lot of help from Vince who loves to clean!). We don't have a car so I take the bus or the train or the cab or the tricycle. I line up at the bank to pay the bills, the grocery to buy food, the drugstore to refill my prescriptions, the post office to send and pick up packages. I do everything!!!

"No wonder you're so tired," my friends all tut-tut, their beautifully painted faces expressing concern and their perfectly manicured hands patting me sympathetically. I look at my own bare nails, cracked from exposure to detergent and bleach or at my own uncombed hair and wonder if they're right: I need slaves.

Yes. Slaves. Say what you will but Filipinos still have that master-slave mentality. We never pay our help/assistants well enough for the work they do for us. And we never allow them to treat us as equals (be honest!). And that is just a step above slavery. That is why I refuse to have maids or hire an assistant. But these days, I'm really beginning to think I need one. Or two. I need help.

My idea of heaven now? At work, I can wear heels all day since I'm not running about doing my errands and picking up papers myself. I don't need to worry about heavy bags because someone's sent them to my house already. Then I come home to a clean house, the table set and hot home-cooked food waiting for me. I will eat it then stand up and not think about washing the dishes. Food magically appears at meal times. When I open my closet, freshly laundered and pressed clothes greet me. My shoes are always polished. The rabbits are always clean and fluffy. I can just focus on me and Vince and books and writing... It sounds lovely but I simply can't see myself bossing about another human being.

And this is why I can't imagine having children! I just can't handle anymore on my plate!

Oh, maybe I just need a day at the spa and the salon. I'll feel better after a good massage, a foot scrub, a mani and pedi, a scalp massage, a facial and hot ginger tea... Mmmm.