Sunday, March 29, 2009

A thousand thanks to Real Living, Nuffnang and Table for Three!

Before the month ends, let me just announce the fantabulous things I almost forgot to tell you about:

Our home feature in Real Living magazine is out now! I think there are still some March issues left on the stands so I hope you can get yourself a copy. Our house came out in the Color Issue and my favorite house--aside from ours, of course!--is the feature after ours. It's got to be the coolest colorful house I've ever seen. But you'll have to grab the March issue to see that. Meanwhile, if you can't get a copy, here's our home in the pages of Real Living:




Did y'all see my giant wall clock in the hallway? The strangest thing is it's so huge no one sees it! It took me about a week to install it, checking with Greenwich time to make sure my numbers were perfectly placed. The daybed (and lots of other things in the house actually) is Vince's parents' wedding gift. The lovely antique Italian mirror in the dining room is my parents' wedding gift.

The white chandelier--which is the first thing everybody sees--is one of the first things Vince and I bought as a married couple. We didn't even have a house yet when we bought it so naturally, the design for the apartment revolved around the chandelier!

To prove this is really our house, here's a zoom in.


Close up of the rabbits in Casa Cunejo. Boy, everybody told me I looked fat in this photo... and I do! The other fattie is Galadriel trying to get into the bedroom because she was camera-shy. On the right is Vince. Literally. A smoking rabbit with stubble. Haha! Actually, it's a designer toy called Smorkin Labbit by graphic artist Frank Kozik. We saw it in a store window but we were told it wasn't for sale, that it was part of the store's decor. Well, that don't stop me, sugar! Ten minutes later, Vince and I were dusting it off and we had a new toy. The glass coffee table it's standing on is a truly gorgeous design from BoConcept.


This is Vince's Christmas gift to me, by the way. It's a Prizmic & Brill New York leather and brass studded writing desk. Remember how I've been looking for a desk for so long? Well, my husband went over and beyond my expectations and when he bought me this beauty, I just screamed my head off.

The exquisite colored-glass mosaic mirror above my desk is from Tessa Prieto Valdes. So sweeeeeeet of Tessa! She had this shipped from I don't know where just because I saw it, said I liked it and she ordered one for me pronto! Thanks, Sea Princess!

Anyway, the apartment is still a work in progress. We're still hunting for lamps and an accent chair for the living room, a buffet table to put under the giant clock in the hallway, rugs and carpets, have a shoe cabinet installed and... oh so many things! Vince and I love to decorate but we do it slooooowly. We both have to fall in love with a piece first and check if we can pay for it and when those conditions are met, then game! A home is so much fun.

Oh, and I'm also Nuffnang's Featured Blogger of the Month!

And I'm a guest blogger at Table for Three!

Friday, March 27, 2009

The vain don't complain, right?

Part of my job is to test the latest offerings of beauty products, spas and health centers. While that sounds cool, most of the time, I just dread it.

Recently, the editors and I were at the launch of L'Oreal Professionel's latest hair colors--green, blue and purple. You read that right. That's Robbie of L'Oreal Professional who successfully convinced Kat of Good Housekeeping to dye her hair blue. She bravely did it. She did not like it since a few days later, her hair turned gray. Robbie, if you're reading this, don't worry: I will try the purple! It looks rich. But I'll do that when I get tired of my current red.

Hair is okay, though. I'll do anything to my hair since it grows out anyway. It's the other things I worry about. One time I was in this super posh spa about to test their new massage techniques by therapists especially imported from some European country. I do not exaggerate when I say that my therapist almost broke my neck. The whole right side of my head felt tingly for the next two days.

Then I just tested this new facial that uses chocolate to moisturize your skin. Well, my face did feel soft and supple but the chocolate was also absorbed and I looked dark for two days! I exfoliated like crazy because my face was darker than the rest of me.

And now I'm being offered to do a colonic cleanse. This treatment is said to flush out bacteria and toxins from your system resulting to clearer skin, less allergies, fresher breath, and a general lightness of being. Still, just reading up on it makes my tummy turn. I don't like the idea of things going up my butt and I like my bacteria a lot, thank you very much!

Ack, I really don't want to do this colonic cleanse! Yes, editors aren't really very excited to try out stuff. I have a beauty editor friend who had the skin of her butt burned off--she could not sit for weeks... but when the burned skin peeled off, no more stretch marks! Another editor had orange skin for a week because of a tanning session gone wrong. Yikes!

So if you're from Manila and can write extremely well, why don't you drop me an email at frances.amper@summitmedia.com.ph and volunteer to test out things? Just as long as you don't sue us in case your face becomes dark, your hair turns gray or you break your neck!

Maybe I'll just drink cod liver oil, eat more oatmeal and veggies and try taking Colonix in the meantime.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

All the single ladies, watch this!

When I said I looked to the '80s for hair inspiration, well, Beyonce went a few notches higher and created a whole video inspired by the '60s.

Here she says that her uber popular "Put a Ring on It" vid was inspired by choreographer Gwen Fosse (oops, posted a wrong vid! Here's the real one!):


And here's the incomparable Mrs. Fosse and her backup dancers shakin' their booty:


Wowza! Whoever said white folks can't dance clearly do not know the Lady Fosse! Here's Beyonce and her backup dancers paying homage:


Can you believe the lithe muscles on Beyonce and her girls? They must've been taking some HGH to get that strong! And those moves aren't easy, mind you. I can imagine the endless practice sessions and training. Anyway, here's the Philippines' very own Dancing Queen, Lucy Torres-Gomez!


I will give Lucy a big A for effort. I tried dancing it and looked pathetic so I won't even dare say anything against the lovely Lucy... But please feel free to comment!

Monday, March 23, 2009

And here's vintage Britney for y'all

OMG, Britney at the height of her career and her sexiness. "Toxic" is one of my favorite Britney Spears songs and when I found this on YouTube today, well, I just had to dance and sing along!

Note: If you're very conservative, then please skip to the next post.



Didn't that make your jaw drop? I hope pants didn't drop, though! I'm trying to learn the dance moves and Vince just laughed away. I guess I need a sparkly nude costume then!

Friday, March 20, 2009

Parties in hot Manila

And by hot, I mean literally sweltering hot. This week was just filled with events: product launches, store openings, press conferences. Ack. No matter what we did, our hair was plastered onto our scalps, neck and foreheads! Makeup melted, dresses were glued to our backs, and greetings were reduced to those deplorable air kisses. I love Manila but when it gets hot like this, I just want to stay in front of the A/C.


Anyway, Karimadon—which I adore for two reasons: the pretty dresses and its owner Josie Go (in pink)—just launched their small but well stocked branch in Glorietta 5 early this week.


I met brand endorser Marian Rivera. Marian is unbelievably tiny (I am crouching in above photo and I'm taller than Josie) and extremely pretty. And, I agree that she's what she proudly described herself to be in this month's Cosmopolitan: "Yun ang problema sa akin. Kapag di ko kilala, hindi ako nagsasalita. Kapag nakilala ko, ayan chika na tayo." (translation: "That's the problem with me. If I don't know you, I don't talk. When I get to know you, well, then I'm friendly.") Fair enough. I respect the girl's chutzpah and... that's all.

I wore one of the two Karimadon dresses I bought to yesterday's events. First, we went to Greenbelt 3 for the launch of Kiehl's Ultimate White line, which they say is the best and most effective whitening treatment out there. Boy, was it hot! To distract myself from the heat, I took pics of my fellow media friends:

Cosmo's Nicole Delos Angeles and Preview's Lyca Puno (the two girls leftmost) with the Kiehl's girls

OK!'s Kabbie Rodriguez and FemaleNetwork's Trixie Reyna

OK!'s Nichole Reyes shows off her sexy back

Me, Nicole and Hinge Inquirer's Ianne Evangelista (also the former editor-in-chief of Cosmo)

Then off to Serendra for dinner with my darling friend Mariel. I wanted to go to Hobbes to check out some pet supplements, to Charles & Keith for shoes and to Fully Booked for, well, books. But Balducci's cool interiors enticed me and I just sat in this wonderfully cozy restaurant while Mariel was buying my (two years delayed!) wedding gift—a clever corkscrew from Alessi. Thanks, neighbor! We love it!

Anyway, after dinner, Mariel and I headed off to Dessert Row for the launch of the Kerastase chocolate treatment. I wasn't able to get a sample but I did get to taste some wonderful chocolates. And boy, it was even hotter at Serendra. So everyone I took pics of had sweaty faces!

Inquirer columnist Mariel Chua, accessories designer Happy David and HIP editorial director Ianne Evangelista

I would've posted more photos but I know my friends would kill me if I posted anything with shiny, sweaty cheeks and foreheads! And that's my week!