TOPAZ HORIZON

Remember when I wrote about this bed?

Since then, Vince and I have been roaming Manila's furniture shops, department stores and bed boutiques looking for the perfect tufted headboard. We've found a few but they never did quite meet our standards. So when Ethan Allen announced that they had a design contest and a tufted headboard was one of the prizes, it was kismet!

Ethan Allen's rules were simple:
1. Choose one piece from their collection and highlight it.
2. Create a concept about how any space--big or small--can be made lovely with the right furniture and accessories.
3. Design an entire room around the chosen piece. I can use other Ethan Allen pieces and my own furniture and accessories.

Of course you all know what that one Ethan Allen piece I chose! I chose the Jensen tufted headboard!

Here's the concept I came up with (special thanks to the advice and active participation of my wonderful husband, the one with the real taste in design—Vince Sales!):

This is the whole setting up at the Pioneer showroom:

My little wall!

These guys are so fast and efficient!

That's Angel of Ethan Allen arranging my sheets and pillows. Yes, those are really mine!

I brought my steamer so I can smooth out the creases.

My pet peeve is wrinkly sheets and pillows!

Last few touches!

And here's the result!

Except for the major pieces and rug, everything in this set-up—from cradle and sheets to flowers and rocking horse—is really my property!

I think I want that tufted armchair and mirrored chest...

These are my design consultants, Sharon and Angel.

Do you like it? There are more photos in The One Ethan Allen Challenge Facebook page. You can also check out the other challengers' rooms. They're also nice!

But there can only be one winner!

Please vote for MY room! Make sure to like my bedroom in the album called OFFICIAL ENTRIES. There you can vote for my room (yes, my room, ha!). So pleeeeeeeease VOTE FOR ME by "liking" my room! Thank you so much!

UPDATE: I won! Hooray!

I keep muttering about how I am taking on too much and then just last week, I took on yet another project! Insanity!!! I'll tell you more about this exciting new thing I've been up to on Thursday (I want to tell you now but the official announcement is scheduled on Thursday!) but if you follow me on Twitter, you'd know I've joined a contest and the prize is really making Vince and me giddy giddy giddy!

Okay, shhh. I can't say anything about it till Thursday so I'll just post a pregnant photo of me:

Yep, nothing special, just a really comfy dress from Mango that I wore for our magazine staff shoot last Friday. I'm going to have my belly button Photoshopped off--it seriously looks like a third nipple! I also felt very huge beside my super skinny staff--all of them lithe limbs and flat stomachs. Grrr! Even the other pregnant woman in my staff, Joanna, just looked like she has a fake belly because the rest of her is still so slim.

I'll be 8 months preggers this Friday! I am sooo excited! Vince, too. We can't wait to meet Wiggle-y Poo! I guess that's why I'm also just grabbing every opportunity now, despite my overly packed schedule, because I really think that once Wiggle is born, I'm going to hibernate. Just focus on my family, take care of the babies, lovey-dovey the hubby again, maybe redecorate.

I'll miss you an awful lot, though. My blogging friends have always been there for me and I can't imagine not blogging. So we'll see how it goes after May! Oh my, May is just around the corner! Soooo excited!

P.S. Don't forget--I have a fabulous baby footwear giveaway over at Topaz Mommy!

Then

Now

Tee hee. So now you know my secret! I've tried extensions and expensive blow outs but nothing beats good old rollers!

Oh, and that's Vito, the first time he saw me in rollers (he was 8 months old then). He thought the curlers were hilarious. Now that he sees me with rollers regularly, he pays them no mind. Although he always looks amazed when I come out of the bathroom looking gorgeous!

What's your beauty secret?

True.

And then there's him:



I never want to close my eyes, darling boy. I just want to drink you in as I pray that God never closes my eyes and make me miss the wonder that is you.

The plate is full, that's for sure. I am happily busy. It's my magazine's deadline week. There's a lot more happening at work but I won't discuss anymore. I'm just glad I'm really enjoying work!

Lovely lunch with Kat of Kat Dy Finds

I've also been seeing friends almost every day. It's been lovely, having mini dates with women I admire and miss. I've been feeling out of sorts this past month, and being with friends and feeling their encouragement... Well, I feel much, much better now!

On the blog front, well, obviously I haven't been blogging here. Well, I had a contest to run over at Topaz Mommy and that kept me occupied. I've been getting a lot of requests to sponsor a giveaway of their products on my mommy blog and I usually say yes (I have to like, love, believe in the product! And I have to be convinced that the promo will help my blog) but it really isn't easy to do a giveaway. For example, checking the entries alone takes time. Plus, the raffle, then the coordinating with the winners, then the sending of the prizes. It's not a joke. I don't have an assistant.

I do have a maid/yaya. I pay her more than the usual rate because I like to keep my help happy. Well, I wish the help felt the same way about me. Last night, after I sent Vito off to sleep, I got up very carefully from the bed so as to not disturb my slumbering toddler and then have dinner. No dinner. Maid was already locked in her room. So I set the table, fix dinner, and she comes out of her room sleepily, annoyed at the (very minimal) noise. She asked if Vito was finally asleep. I said yes as I set out plates and utensils. She said, "Okay. Good night!" Then tonight, as I was telling her to prepare dinner, she tells me that she has to go out and meet someone and that she'll be back by 10. Then she left, without even saying good-bye. She just got back now, at 11. And don't get me started on the daily annoyances. I pay this woman to do what again?

Oh well. No rest for the weary. But I can't complain. I'm very grateful. I have a little boy asleep in this same room and a wonderful man writing in the other room, rooms in a house filled with lovely things and love. I'm a very lucky girl!