First Time Mo?

I've been oddly quiet for more than a week. I was in Malaysia, specifically the quiet town of Miri. (Not that this is reason enough for me not to blog... the more probable reason is the lazy bug just hit me). Among the Southeast Asian nations I've been to, I think Malaysia is closest to home.

Miri, as described by Wikipedia, is the second largest city in Sarawak and located close to Brunei. It is the birthplace of Malaysia's petroleum industry. 

I have heard a number of stories about Miri from friends who have stayed there and I am happy to report that it exceeded my expectations. So here's my little Miri story.

First stop last Sunday was at Kuala Lumpur International Airport where I was greeted by the haze: you canNOT see the terminal tubes from the runway and portions of the airport smelled of burnt wood! It's that bad! Good thing when we flew out earlier the haze was gone and the beautiful palm plantations showed themselves flying out and into KLIA.

I was reminded that this is the land of white coffee and bought a bag from the grocery.

I stayed at the Miri Marriot which isn't bad. 

Gorgeous lobby, the spectacular view of the South China Sea West Philippine Sea and my short stretch of jogging path where I was able to burn calories  for 4 nights.

I think the pool is lovely. Good thing a friend and I had a chance to go for a dip yesterday. The hotel gets a lot of patron on weekends, mostly to enjoy the pool.

Throw in the pine trees on the beach. This coastal town has more pine trees than coconut trees.

Though the only problem is the gigantic mosquitoes. So gigantic that one of my bites had a red central dot and 1 cm-diameter bruise around it!?!?!?

Deym those mosquitoes!

I think Sarawak has one of the best tasting food in the region: spicy enough to make you sweat but not totally paralyze your taste buds. Roti canai with dahl, 

all forms of curry, beef/chicken/seafood with Sarawak black pepper....

I am loving it. 

Now it's making sense! The best black pepper crab I've ever had was from Balikpapan, Indonesia (forget Singapore's) and geographically, these 2 places are on the same island (albeit different countries). It must be the Borneo peppers.

Here's the ever famous teh tarik.

Calories galore.

So that's it, pansit. 

I am back to reality, running on 4 hours of sleep. Allow me to end this post by saying "It was nice meeting you Sarawak, until next time."

Wedding Wednesday: Wedding Inspirations

I am not artsy nor am I artistically creative. I can easily do arithmetic and I kick-ass solving complex logical problems but putting colors, shapes and texture together - that doesn't exist in my brain. Simply put, walang talent. 

However, I love and adore well put together events. Whatever the style is, I want tastefully designed decors. To address the gap for our wedding, I turn to inspiration websites. From color palettes, to concepts and most especially the little details: I love, love, love how creative people can get. I also take note of the suppliers and website who provided the services... and therefore, voila! I don't have to reinvent the will. I just need to know what I want and for certain elements, I steal shamelessly!

Top on my list is Stylemepretty.com

There are no highly-stylized events on this site. Very personal and very intimate. Just our kinda of thing.

Martha Stewart Wedding

This website is a very good resource for every little detail you need. My favorite is they have instructions how to make those cutesy, little decors for your wedding.

Here in the Philippines, we have an awesome wedding website. If I want to refer to up and coming suppliers loaded with talent (read: talent fee is reasonable/para sa mga walang budget) I head to Bride and Breakfast

The site that got my attention recently is Green Wedding Shoes.

I have yet to explore the site in detail but I am loving what I've seen the last week.

These are my daily reads - bedtime reads really. I just pin what I like on Pinterest and use the photos to communicate with my suppliers. 

Easy peasy for us non-artsy brides!

Forever 12

My high school batchmate's post on our Facebook group.

Which I find very hilarious: because I look like I am forever 12! Hahaha! Maybe when I am 50, I'll look like I am 28! Bongga!

It's also not surprising when they used the law of transitivity this way in our Senior year.

"No man is an island

Sol is an island

Therefore, Sol is no man"

Or have spoken to me in binary code, has christened me Mildred (just because) and has created at least two groups (1) The P*me*a Mo*t**o Society (PMS) and (2) J*a* Uy Fans Club (JFC).

Memories of high school... hahaha!

It's always fun to be kids -(",)-*wink*

Wedding Wednesday: Save the Date

It's been 5 days since we started distributing our Save the Dates and it's such a joy seeing the expression on friends faces every time they get a first glimpse of our wedding day. 

When I grabbed hold of this pack from the printer, my heart skipped a beat. The kilig kind. Our set has come a long way, from the design process with the talented graphic artist, to the printer - which by the way - is a major headache! (it is safe to say that we're not having the invitation printed with them), to the casual calligraphy by the Cunanans and now the distribution! 

Yes, Save the Dates are fun! -(",)-*wink*

Some pointers from  Martha Stewart Weddings:

1. Save-the-date cards create the first impression that your guests will have of the wedding, so you want them to reflect the style of the event. 

2. Send save the date cards 4 to 6 months before the wedding to give guests time to book travel arrangements and accommodation. 

3. For a formal event, the cards can be worded simply: "Please save the date of Saturday, the ninth of November, for the wedding of  Ann Jones to Mark Brown". For a casual wedding, you might say something like "We're getting married! Please save the date: November 9, 2002, New York City"

4. You may want to put essentials in the card, itinerary of wedding events, map of the area, etc.

And as any typical Wedding Wednesday, allow me to share the Save the Dates I fancy on Pinterest.

Keeping it simple and structured

A little casual

I like that this one is handwritten, letter-pressed on a pretty paper

Now if you have those rockstar pre-nup photos, why don't you try something like this. I like the textured grey lines.

Now this is brilliant

If you want something vintage and scrabble-inspired, try this.

There are so many creative ways to present your Save the Dates. Personally, we find Save the Date essential, especially that our guests are coming from all over and we want them to feel that they are valued and we give them ample time to prepare so they can join us on our wedding day.

Weekend Update

After traversing Muntinlupa, Paranaque, Makati, Manila, Caloocan, Malabon, Valenzuela, Quezon City, Pasig, San Juan, Mandaluyong, Pasay and back to Muntinlupa...  slot in 3 meetings with  wedding partners and visiting a wake, I can definitely say it's a very productive Saturday for Team N&K. 

Yay!

If that's not enough, we started the day with a little DIY project. Masipag, much?

I am supposed to do labandera and katulong duties but I am pagoda cold wave lotion na and the only amusing thing to do right now is blog, therefore I blog!

Let's start with my first time in Malabon. After 10 years staying in Manila, it made me happy that I set foot in Malabon. 

The traveler in me finds self-fulfillment in conquering mileage near or far. 

On one of my sojourn in the city, I chanced upon this gas station. I wonder what Petron and Chevron think. 

This happened after watching Brown Revival perform at 70s Bistro. I am slowly turning into one cool musical hippie... though I slept in the bar after the first set. Tsk tsk tsk ... who dozes off in a bar?

On another note, I just have to share that yesterday, the ex-boyfriend surprised me with a bunch of flowers. Ex-boyfriends, this is what you should do.

Two weeks ago, this was left on my work desk. 

Office romance. Haha!

Speaking of work, here are my favorite things at the moment. My hard hat, my cabin trolley and of course the shoe box... and the pair of shoes inside.

Back to pastry, Purple Oven has the best bakeshop nook 

while the board is to die for

Very lovely.

I would like to end this note on a serious tone. While finishing my bottled water, I noticed that purchase of this product benefits my hometown.

SM provides for my l'il old town of Zamboanga del Norte. I am hoping that the new set of elected officials will do something and lead the province out of the poorest areas list.

Wedding Wednesday: Calligraphy by the Cunanans

Calligraphy, as defined by Wikipedia, is the design and execution of lettering with a broad tip instrument or brush in one stroke. Modern calligraphy ranges from functional hand-lettered inscriptions and designs to fine art pieces. Calligraphy continues to flourish in the forms of wedding and event invitations, font design, original hand-lettered logo design, religious art, announcement and calligraphic art.

Because today is Wednesday, we'll discuss how we're incorporating this form of art on our wedding day. Etiquette has it that wedding invitation envelopes should always be addressed by hand. It is often the first impression of the wedding an invited guest will have. It should set the tone and give the recipient a sense of how formal or informal the event would be. Black ink is the most formal and traditional manner but of course, colored ink is also acceptable. 

Calligraphy tools from Martha Stewart

Sample writing randomly found on Pinterest

A wedding monogram

And envelopes

And so... because we're doing a D-I-Y (aka wala na kaming budget) wedding, we've enlisted the help of the very talented Cunanans to handwrite the names and address of the recipients of our Save the Date card. 

We bought calligraphy pens from National Bookstore. The pens are really nice, flat-tipped and brings out the best handwriting you've got. The set comes in 3 sizes: 0.8, 1.3 and 1.8. There's also a converter so we can switch between ink cartridge and bottle.

We're keeping the set to write cheques and sign documents at work with! Hahaha!

Little brother Cunanan practiced on the test printout from the printer.

This is Ate Cunanan's output 1.

Her output 2. 

Team n&k approves!

Then this is Papa Cunanan's calligraphy.

We're loving it, too!

Having fun with the pens.

I am pretty sure the black ink on top is my output. Walang talent?

Gosh, this is a very talented bunch. Person A's output is also a winner but he has a lot of things to do so we're farming it out to the family.

Family project. Or maybe, we should make a business out of this hobby.

I highly suggest pursuing a DIY calligraphy rather than spending PhP30/invite on calligraphy. It's fun and easy peasy! Great family bonding.

I Don't Believe in Make Up: Chia Seed Watery Eye & Spot Essence

My eye bags are always on a roll. When I am sick, I oversleep and I sleep less than 7 hours, expect to see me with humongous eyebags: puffy, dark circles .... the horrendous works. 6 hours and 59 minutes doesn't make the cut - it has to be 7 hours down to the last millisecond else it will proudly show itself and tell the world that I am not getting any sleep.

I have a hate-hate relationship with my eyebags. Just to be clear about it.

I have always been vocal about my search for the best eye cream. To date, it's Shiseido White Lucent that I like the most and next to it is Kiehl's Abyssine Eye cream. From time to time, I mix it with value for money find and this time around I was brave enough to try Face Shop's Chia Seed Watery Eye and Spot Essence.

According to Face Shop, "An intensive essence exclusively for the eyes and spots. A chiffon-like soft spread and moisturization provide one-step care to dark circles around the eyes, liver spots and blemishes. Flawless care with moisture level-up around the eyes. Chia seed, which absorbs moisture 10 times its own weight, and pearl extract raise the level of moisture and provides care to troubled areas for flawless clarity. Contains 100% chia seeds water instead of water. Chia seeds water is extracted within 24 hours via the Fresh method, instead of water delivers the vitality of the highly pure chia seeds.

The consistency is very light, almost watery light and easily glides upon application. I use it once in the morning and before I sleep. I've been applying the product for roughly 2 months now and it doesn't work as well as the other eye creams I have tried. The moisturizing effect is nothing out of the ordinary, it doesn't lessen the puffiness as well as darkened portion. For ~PhP 1000/30mL tube, I am expecting more.

A little break, here's a Chia pet - some company markets a figurine which eventually grow a green carpet.

Here's the actual Chia seeds which are rich in fiber, potassium, calcium and omega-3. It has high nutritional value and is a favorite of athletes.

Going back, I still believe that the best cure for dark under eye is sleep... lotsa sleep.

Gnyt! -(",)-*wink*