talk about home

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If you have Six Million Philippine Pesos, it would go a long way in the Philippines if you’re planning to buy a house and lot and decorate it besides.

But we’re not based in the Philippines and we have to plan accordingly based on where we are based. Now, Japan. And if you live in the city like we do, and a city close to Tokyo at that, real estate prices really do skyrocket. Our previous researches points to houses with area of ~60sq.m. that’s priced at roughly (tadaan!) 60 MILLION YEN.

And that’s just the house. You have to buy your furnitures and home fixtures and home decors right? Plus the curtains, the carpet, the rugs, the linen. And of course you need to have those home interior goodies coordinate and compliment with each other in terms of colors and theme right?

I was window shopping yesterday in Bo Concept in Queens. I was daydreaming already as I walked around the place (and I’d say they have such a huge place for their display) and wondering how much should we earn for us to have our dream home already. The good store lady gave me a brochure. Guess, I’ll continue daydreaming with that.

Earlier, I was complaining about the expensive furnitures here in Japan with some colleagues and Teof recommended I go visit Nitori in Jack’s Mall. He said though that it would be good to browse their website first.

And boy it was such a good suggestion. The website told me it’s not a bad idea to dream, alright.

Do browse. http://www.nitori.co.jp/en/index.html

I love their digital catalogues. And I most love the kitchen part. Do check out the oh-so-convenient cupboards. Even if you’re of a petite stature, you don’t have to get a chair or a small ladder just so you can access your cupboards.

Ja. It’s 11:45 pm now. I guess it’s high time to continue dreaming about our dream house.

Happy dreaming minna-san (everyone)!

on sales and sheets

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The summer sale is just so crazy this year. Everywhere you look, there’s a nice piece of garment or accessory to catch your eye, discounted at such a very reasonable price (even as low as 50%!) making it quite difficult for you to refuse. It doesn’t help as well that the city is just teeming with shops selling women’s clothes and shoes and bags and accessories. A good timing for the bargain sale as well since most companies give out half of the year’s bonus around this time of the year. Or was this the sole reason malls and shops time the sale during this period? But then again, as hubby pointed out, there are lots of sale periods in the country throughout the year. There’s the Charming Sale; The New Year sale where you can get really good bargain with them happy bags if you’re lucky enough and well the Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter bargain sale. LOL.

Anyway, sale season are such a boon especially when you’re still on the look for home items to stuff your home with. Curtains for one are just so EXPENSIVE here in Japan that you’d want to wait for the bargain before buying one. I haven’t seen one that I like yet though. And well, the question really is “how do you buy curtains??”.

Anyhow, our objective this summer sale was more on linen for the bed. We need to have an alternate for our organic-themed bedcovers. Fell in love with this. Pink-themed Burberry linen. Heart.

Loved this as well!!

But alas, Burberry wasn’t on sale.

Thankfully though, we found this lovely futton/comforter cover. Just perfect for our pink and brown theme at home. When we fitted it in, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the underside is of pink and brown stripes design. It’s as if underneath the beautiful chaos is organized beauty. Heart.

And bed cover!

One thing we’ve noticed though ever since changing the sheets. It’s been really difficult to wake up in the mornings. Soo sleepy yet!

Yukatas for A&M

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Thankful in that through Kamio-san’s thoughtfulness, we now have our first yukatas as a couple. And well, yes, my first yukata ever.

Yukata (浴衣) is the summer kimono. Although you’re still pretty much covered as compared to popular western summer clothes, yukata is much breezier than kimonos in that you don’t have to wear layers of cloth on you. You still have the obi though. There has to be obi to hold everything in prettily.

Blue for Atsushi. Very manly.

I particularly love this intricate detail on the sleeves.

Kamio-san chose a purple yukata for me. He said that in Japan, purple is considered as the color for nobles. As he relates, centuries ago, the material used to dye cloths in purple were very rare and hence come off expensive. Ergo, only nobles and rich people can afford it. That was then how people associated the color purple with nobility.

Kamio-san tossed in a bonus for me. Zouri (草履) or japanese slippers to go with my yukata. Yey! The slippers are yellow-themed and would go well with the yellow obi.  When I first saw it, I exclaimed that he got my size right – my shoe size is 22.5~23cm! LOL. Apparently, “23” is a well-known brand in Japan for apparels.  

Thoughtful that he is, Kamio-san also included in the package a guide pamphlet on how to wear our yukatas. We badly need it I think since we both haven’t had any experience yet on how to don a yukata, by ourselves. Although based on our experience with our assemble-DIY bookshelves, we seem to have some trouble following operating manuals. Basically, we just go ahead and then when we encounter some difficulty already, that’s when we remember the “operating manual”. LOL.

Arigatou Kamio-san for your unique and very Japanese wedding gift! 🙂

Shu Uemura, i wish i used you before the wedding

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On top of the numerous details soon-to-weds have to think of for their wedding, one thing they must also take care of is their skin care. Think: you’ll be hiring top-rated photographers and videographers and they’ll have high-power cameras that can zoom in those old zits on your face, making them look almost like the potholes in the road to Caleruega.

So yep, Hubby and I had our visits in House of Obagi for some facial care (note: hubby had more facials than I did! haha. Truly more the bride between us :D). Alas though, it wasn’t enough for me.

More than a year ago, at the start of uber hot summer in Manila, I started to have some rashes on the face. A dermatologist visit confirmed it’s caused by the intense heat. Doc gave me some moisturizers and it did help with the redness and rashes. They subsided. But from then on, I have had dry skin on the face. The moisturizers helped (I alternated between the moisturizer from dermatologist and some products from Face Shop and Clinique). But still haven’t quite got rid of the dryness.

On my March visit to Japan, I tried Hyalocharge which Hubby was using then. It’s a lotion with viscosity that’s almost equal to water and as Hubby explained, is infused with collagen for healthier skin.

It did help. But then again, that was late winter/early spring. Our wedding is in the middle of summer.

I wanted to try a new product but I was afraid to since our wedding was getting near; I want to avoid any facial mishaps that I’ve read a lot about. My old moisturizers were working fine anyway. Problem though was that my HMUA Irene Sy-Go and coordinator Erika, instructed me not to have any moisturizers on the face during the wedding day for the makeup to have its full effect. Result, dryness at the start of the preps shoot. Thankfully, the makeup has set a couple hours later hence it wasn’t obvious at all anymore. And really, Irene is just so good she made me look flawless.

So now that our wedding is over and done, I’m a bit freer to experiment on facial products to help with the dry skin.

Shu Uemura.

And I must say, I feel much better now. I’m far from being flawless still but the facial skin dryness certainly has lessened a lot.

Step 1: Skin purifier. You use it as a facial wash. It has the consistency of a makeup remover.

Step 2: Facial lotion. Clear as water yet viscous.

Step 3: Vitalizing concentrate. When the Shu Uemura lady made a demo of this on my face, she was drumming her fingers on my face so hard it was almost painful. She said the concentrate has to be “patted” to help the skin absorb the medicine. Very viscous. Hence, the medicine dropper.

Step 4: Revitilizing emulsion. Fluid inside looks like your ordinary facial lotion.

I know it’s a bit costly. But I bought it as a gift for myself using my first salary. Yippee! Thankful. Still though, I wish I used the lot in preparation for the wedding.

manzanitas or grapes?

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Got curious with how it’d taste compared with normal-sized ones hence I finally bought these mini grapes for our dessert. Look how tiny they are!

One thing with the taste though. They were good. But. They tasted similar to manzanitas sans the minuscule seeds. Given that, I don’t think I’d buy this again. I’d rather buy manzanitas (or pick some from our neighborhood in Philippines at that!) as that will be much cheaper. They have similar taste anyway. 😀

simple joys

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Three notes to start this post:

1. We are really thankful to the people who lend us some of their time and read our posts. And even comment at that! Your visits makes blogging even more worthwhile. Thank you.

2. Among the many reasons a bride has in researching for her wedding details till her back breaks is so that her wedding will be unique, one of a kind, exceptional. Trust that a bride is truly exceptionally happy when she’s able to achieve this.

3. Recognition. To be recognised that the bride has achieved number two above is even sweeter than merely achieving it.

For some this may be mundane. But for us, it’s one simple joy to be thankful for. 🙂 It may change from day to day (this was last night). But at least, on some particular days, we made a mark.

Type in “travel themed wedding” in Google. This particular theme is almost worn out already these days. Hence for us to be on Google’s top six searches is a thing to be happy about.

Out of wanting to be deviant, we added a spice to our travel-theme and infused some rustic tone. Key in “rustic wedding theme” and voila!

And for obvious reasons, we’re happiest with this one. The fusion, Rustic travel themed wedding.

First. Thank you! 🙂