TOPAZ HORIZON

I've been sleeping in luxury for a while now. Actually, my whole family has been! All because of Butterfly Dreams. Just before Christmas, the luxe linen brand from Hong Kong emailed me to say they wanted to send me bedsheets. I was so surprised! Vince said, "They must've seen our ratty sheets."

Haha, you know, in our defense, we actually have a nice collection of sheets. But I did notice that whenever I post photos of my kids on the blogs, and the kids are on the bed, we happen to always have the striped sheets! And, yeah, those are old.

But now we have brand new sheets and they are the best sheets we've ever lain on. Ever!

Well, actually, that last part is still a wish haha. Super I wish talaga na yumaman na ako! Joke. I actually don't dream of money, you know? I dream of a nice house in a nice, secure neighborhood. I dream of traveling with my kids to any country in the world every year (and sana business class seats!).

But most of all, I dream that we'll be ready for any emergency. After growing up and seeing my pets die (we can't afford a vet), my Mama and I suffering chronic pain and asthma (we can't afford medicines), and then—saddest of all—relying on the kindness of everyone who loved Mama to pay for her wake, funeral and burial, I am determined to see my family financially stable.

We've started with this happy fact: Wala akong utang! I'm not saying debt is bad. Debt can be a good thing but only if you use it wisely (for starting a business, for example) and if you can pay it. I don't know everything about finance—I'm still learning!—but I can tell you that these guys know a whole lot:

Confession: We haven't really vacuumed the house in a long, long while. We've been relying on walis and dusters, which aren't the most efficient cleaning tools. Plus, they just stir up the dust, so horrible to Vince and me since we have allergies. So why aren't we using the vacuum? Because the noise freaks out the kids, especially Iñigo.

Zalora ships fast! I ordered Sunday midnight (so technically Monday morning) and I got my iPad and phone cases Tuesday lunch! Wowza!

Packaged in Zalora-print tissue paper.

The Paperthings plastic boxes are cool, too, although I think hardly necessary. But that's just me.

My pretty pink goodies! They are made of recycled leather, which is "ground down leather scraps that are a by-product of leather manufacturing." I'm quoting from the information card, which is also made of recycled leather. It's kinda like them saying, "No tree was hurt in the making and packaging of this product." Which is of course not true but kinda cool anyway.

Recycled leather does not smell like real leather. But it still smells great! It's kinda stiff, though. I need to push in my gadget and pull it out with force. I'm hoping that with regular use, the leather will soften up a bit, allowing for more ease in use.

The quality is blameless, I must say. Really well made! And that beautiful pink color? Perfect. I'm a-wanting the other colors now but I'm simplifying life this year. So I won't buy. It will be Paperthinks's leather envelopes and leather-bound notebooks that I'll buy next!

Shop at Zalora now!

I keep forgetting to take photos of my clothes! After all this time, I still feel so awkward posing in front of the camera. I keep hearing Tyra Banks's voice in my head: "Are you showcasing the dress best? Is your neck elongated? Is your face fierce?" Top Model has ruined me forever.