TOPAZ HORIZON

When I was a kid, my dream—aside from becoming a writer—was to become a postman. Yep, the guy who delivers mail. I figured I'd be at the post office early in the morning to get my batch of deliveries, then spend the rest of the morning going around houses and chatting with the people. Then I'll rest in the afternoon, and then—and here's when the real work begins—then I'll sit down and make up stories about the people I met that day.

I tested out that dream by selling tapa, tocino and longganisa one summer. I was 11 or 12 years old, very skinny, and I put the frozen meat in a pail of ice (very heavy) and walked around the neighborhood selling people breakfast. I had a great time. Everyone loved my products, everyone loved that a young girl was so entrepreneurial, and I loved that I met so many people and learned so much about them. After all, people like to talk to someone who brings food!

But the business ended when a neighbor, who had been getting meat on credit, refused to pay me. When I kept showing up at her door to collect payment, she finally set her dogs on me. That ended that business real quick. When I told my parents about it, in the hope they would confront the nasty neighbor and get me my money, my father said, "It's best this way. I don't like you out in the sun because your skin gets dark."

I hope to be a parent who encourages my kids to do crazy things. Hopefully, the crazy things are the sort that makes them money haha. Vince told me he was so charmed by this little girl who would collect rocks around her neighborhood, wash them and paint pretty designs on them, then sell the painted rocks to her neighbors. I wish our sons would be that entrepreneurial!

How inspiring is this?


He earns enough to buy LEGOs. Those things are so expensive! I know because we buy our boys LEGO all the time! He is so cute. And so encouraging to me because I want to sell bags again. You all know how that business failed spectacularly. But I don't regret it because I learned a lot.

As with my frozen meats business, I learned that credit must not be extended lightly. With the bag business, I learned that I can't just assume people are doing their jobs just because they said so. I actually have a business now, my freelance writing. I'm learning a lot, too, the most important being this: Start charging after the second meeting and don't be shy about my rates. Argh, I've wasted a lot of time and energy this year meeting prospective clients and working on proposals and mock-up projects which all went up in smoke anyway. So the project didn't push through but I spent time and money and brain cells on them anyway and I got nothing in return. Lesson learned! Just goes to show you're never too young or too old to learn something new!

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Been feeling under the weather but I still had to work! So I trimmed off the the meetings and events that weren't really urgent. But for those times I had to really really work, these are what I wore:

Lunch meeting at Il Terrazo with a new major blog partner (announced on Topaz Mommy!) and then off to a Levi's house party in Forbes. I wore my Ojay raw silk blouse, Uniqlo jeans, Karimadon woven belt, Dune London loafers, Charles & Keith sunglasses and Fino bag.

Check out my red red hair! It's so clown red! I love it!

Gosh, this is such a comfy outfit. I love those jeans. The shoes are so buttery soft. Must buy more Uniqlo jeans and loafers from Dune!

Hosting duties as the new Vicks VapoRub Mommy (click here for the story)! I wore my K & Company wrap dress and Zara pumps. I bought both summer of last year, right after giving birth to Iñigo. The dress looks navy but it's actually a blue-green hue.

Also, the dress has such a plunging neckline that I had to ask the Vicks people for double-sided tape to prevent a wardrobe malfunction. Well, either the neckline was too low or my boobs got too big for the dress. You see, when I left the house, my cleavage was fine. But two hours later, my breastfeeding boobs were filling up with milk and they were just spilling out of my dress!

I want to proudly say that I did my own hair and makeup!

Photo shoot at Louis Phillip Keep Premier Salon for my Manila Bulletin column. That's my photo shoots uniform: soft shirt, skinny jeans. I wore my old, thin, gray Topshop shirt (I wore a red bra underneath that in bright light, you can see through the shirt), skinny Guess jeans, Nine West heels. Really comfy!

That's my iPad Mini from SMART. (Thanks, SMART! I love that I can now #LiveMore!) It's my latest fashion accessory, mommy tool, blogger and writer necessity!

I actually was planning to blog about my latest online shopping purchases from Zalora and Sammy Dress but I'm soooo lazy to take photos. I'll blog about those as soon as I have the pics. Happy weekend!

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Got the silliest message over at this blog's Facebook page. A reader observed that I only have one smile. Haha! Yes, I do! I'm so Zoolander!

Actually, my orthodontist taught me how to smile when she removed my braces. I used to smile really widely but she told me I shouldn't do that because a) it makes me look toothy, b) it distorts my features, and c) I'll get wrinkles.

But I do have other looks. I was looking for them (haha affected!) and came upon these wacky shots from staff photo shoots of long ago:

Sorry for the pixelated shots. I didn't do a good job resizing them! Elaine has clearer images (click here and here). And then I realized that today is exactly the first anniversary of our last photo shoot together.

Aww. This was such a bittersweet photo shoot. It was OK! magazine's final staff shoot. We had lots of fun. We knew we did a fantastic job, we were all moving on to new lives, and yet we were also in the throes of good-bye. I think we all cried buckets of tears. I know I did.

But life goes on. We've all moved on. Managing editor Lana is with Kristn.com, beauty editor Elaine is with Good Housekeeping, red carpet columnist Jay writes for Kristn and also has his fingers in a lot of pies, features editor Joanna used to be with Kristn but is now a freelance writer, editorial assistant Sandra is with Cosmo.ph, fashion editor Kabbie is now with Stylebible, publishing assistant Mary Love is studying in the U.S., publisher Franny is working in Singapore, and art director Red is now the art director of Hola! Philippines. Oh, and there's me! I'm a freelance writer, editor, newspaper columnist and a blogger. Life is good!

So I take heart in this. One year ago today, behind the smiles, all of those people in those pictures were sad and worried. But life had surprises for us. We're in such good places today! Maybe for some of us, I dare say we're even in a much better place.

So if you're in a tough situation, take heart in tomorrow. It does get better!

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My friends (and I guess my readers, too!) know that I love coloring my hair red. I've colored it every hue except green and platinum, but red is my color. I've been red blond, red pink, red brown since 2009. But now, I'm red. Just red. A wild exciting red! Almost like I'm an anime character!
For color, I only trust Louis Phillip Kee. That's him supervising my marination. Louis is the best colorist in the country. I'm serious. If you're going for serious color change, go to Louis. He's been coloring my hair since 2006. Yes, this is a relationship! So when I dropped by the spankin' brand new Louis Phillip Kee Premier Salon at the Grand Midori at Legaspi Village two weeks ago, I was given the royal treatment. I love being friends with hairstylists!

Chilled white wine.

Scrumptious club sandwich. Seriously, this was the best club sandwich I've ever had in my life!

Hello, world! Transformation underway!

While my hair was steeped in the red dye, I waited in my comfy chair, read some magazines, got an amazing back massage and had my nails done. But before all that, I took my camera and went around the chic salon.

Up the winding staircase, you'll find the VIP rooms.

The LPK Premier Salons attract celebrities and VIP clients so expect to get the A-list treatment here. I always feel so special in this salon. Like when I visit other salons (for a blowdry, for example), I always wonder, "Where's my coffee? My tea? My international and current magazines? My massage? My free WiFi?" Hehe, so spoiled! That's all the fault of the LPK Premier Salon! You'll feel so pampered!

Upstairs. The mirrors are perfect. No distortion. You'll always look good!

Love the chrome and chandelier. So sleek!

A cozy corner for relaxing foot spa treatments.

After my color, Louis cut my hair. Vince and I wanted to keep it long. So did Louis. Louis was there when I went short for years and years. Having fine, thin hair, I never grew my hair long but Louis encouraged me to grow it and he has taken care of my hair so well that I am finally sporting long healthy locks for the first time in my life!

Louis performing his famous precision style cutting.

He's inspecting the color.

It's pretty wild!

But I LOVE it! I'm so fabulous!!!

That's Louis with one of the owners, Roseann Ko. She's so stylish and so nice! (Ok, I'm looking a little pudgy there. Don't look below the neck hehe.)
Louis and Roseann gave me gifts, too! A really good blowdryer and a big box of Kerastase and Wella goodies! Thank you so much!

I'm featuring Louis and his creative team of stylists in my Manila Bulletin column soon. You'll learn more about them, the craft and the salons on my column. This story on my blog is just my happy experience. If you want to experience the A-list treatment, too, book a whole day of pampering now!


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