Dresses and photographs.

I was at the bridal studio on Sunday to discuss our wedding photos and to pick dresses for the photo shoot. It took me 3 hours, 2 games of chess, numerous YouTube videos and Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time eBook for J.

It was enjoyable! Like a shopping trip, I tried on dresses after dresses. Slim sheaths in gold, festive Valentino Red and the obligatory puffy wedding dresses.


I have slight regrets about not choosing something that's Valentino red right now. But I think I have found a way to squeeze one more dress out of the deal.

I got to pick 3 for the photoshoot because it's already paid for!

I got one that's a cross between these 2.



Left to right: Oscar de la Renta Spring 2010 and Banana Republic dress

I was inspired by Oscar de la Renta's creation (that's another post altogether). The moment I saw it, I knew I wanted it. It's a big bow on the right side of the gown. Big big bow with a crystal brooch.

Some dresses look absolutely fab in real life, but don't translate well in photographs. Just like beautiful people who don't photograph well

The dress with the big bow is divine. Fingers crossed for good pictures!

My love for hair bands run deep.

I love head bands. Hair bands, headbands whatever you want to call it. It's pretty, preppy and super useful on windy days.

I have them in plastic, metal, painted, wrapped in silk and faux leather.

But this takes the cake.

double crystal scallop headwrap

This Jennifer Behr's creation is made from Swarovski crystals



Antique crystals? Swooooooooooon.

I want to wear this on my wedding day. It's very 'me'! It's also very overpriced at USD$262.



p.s. Behr is the one to go to for headbands in the US. Who knew you can make a career out of designing headbands?! My mom will be surprised.


Link:
Jennifer Behr - official site

I *heart* balloons.

For reasons that escape me, I am fascinated by balloons.

First I saw them in a window display and thought it was genius.

I thought I was overly impressed because it was from Van Cleef & Arpels. Maybe I was taken by the label and not the sheer ingenuity of the design.



*Swoooooooooooooooooooon*

I guess I thought wrong. I love the balloons and how romantic they are.

Then I saw them at the back of a magazine.

-- Miss Dior Cherie

I want them in my photographs.

Don't they look positively happy?? I want one. Now.

At my wedding.



Aren't they cute? They remind me of simpler and happier times, when candy and balloons rule. I love tugging the string bobbing the balloons everywhere I go. I still do that.

It cheers me up just thinking of them!


Link:
Une Journee a Paris - Official site

Presumably lost and found.

I thought I had misplaced pictures of my Save The Dates. I couldn't find them on my laptop nor work computer.

I was beginning to question myself: did I actually take photos of them?

And there they were.



Some friends and family overseas have actually MSNed me to say they have received it, but didn't say anything about who's coming.



That's unsettling.

Nicole Miller sale on Bluefly.com

Nicole Miller is having a massive sale on Bluefly.com!

This is just pretty. Ribbons, all the folds and swishy georgette!



Available in so many shades.



Sale ends soon so make haste!

Links:
Nicole Miller sale on Bluefly.com - link

Just discovered - Oren Lavie.

This is a random song I found on youtube and I lurve it.

Her Morning Elegance - Oren Lavie



The video is simply amazing! And this is just my kind of song.

Enjoy!

I *heart* ring pillows.

I am looking around for ring pillows that looks like this. Isn't it swoonsome?



So many colors.



I guess the plus side is, I know what I want and it's not really negotiable. And of course that presents us with a rather tricky situation: where am I going to get it?



These beautiful ring pillows are available from 5eizen. They cost about USD$50 each, excluding postage. And I'm not ready to spend so much on something that I am using for 5 minutes.

Time to DIY!

Links:
5eizen - Etsy link

Post-Its and deadline.

You have to watch this. It's weirdly entertaining.



I wonder how much time he spent, and how many Post-Its were used.

Pretense at work.

How do I put this gently? Work sucks.

Not the work I do at work, but more of the.... atmosphere. I am deeply unhappy. And I still fail to see our roles and responsibilities.

We don't build the application.
We don't build the servers.
We don't design the architecture.
We just watch and maintain.

Then why the hell is everyone looking so busy when the 'Sent' folder hasn't been active for the past few hours?

I dislike the pretense. And the "we look busy therefore we're important" thing going on. It's annoying.

1000 posts milestone.

Who would have thought my 1000th post would be on ignorance and Shaq?

I can't believe I've typed 1000 posts. Mostly incoherent, angry rants about anything under the sun, and an unhealthy focus on shopping.

And my weird sense of humour. I'm not sure who would see the funny in the finance section of the newspaper being next to the obituaries. I try not to chuckle.

Ahhh... my life in 1000 posts and more to come.

I thought I was ignorant.

Last overheard while walking in front of a couple.

Woman: This guy is so tall! He's practically a giant.
Guy: Like Shaquille O'Neal.
Woman: What's that?

*Face palm*

I turned to J, incredulous. Wow I thought I was bad with current affairs, pop culture and generally things around the WORLD. But she's .... one of a kind.

I can't wait till they talk about Ahmadinejad.

Discovery of Bluefly.com

I've known Bluefly as a shopping site but I have always been biased towards the online website the brands itself. The bummer is, the sale is hardly worthy of mention.

Bluefly.com is having a massive sale!



So far my shopping cart reads US$132.93.



With pretties like these, I don't think normal sizes will last long. They even have a wedding section, which I felt obligated to check out.



Go go go!

Link:
Bluefly.com - site

Project Natal looks like pure awesome in a box.

I realised some people have not heard of Project Natal.

It's godsend, that's what.



Oh. My. God.

For the skeptical you, this is the live demo from E3. I'm insanely jealous of Abigail.



Can you imagine playing Super Mario or Fallout 3 or Red Alert 3 using Project Natal's technology? Kick*ss simulated shooting!



Does Project Natal mean it's going to be out in 9 months? I hope so. Time to invest, people.

Break bricks with our heads like Mario.

Until Project Natal goes into production and I finally become a XBOX 360 convert, this rocks.



Oh. My. God.

Theorectically, the movements are like those in Wii but without using the Wiimote. So we should be able to run, jump and break bricks with our heads. Make Mario do it, I mean.

So Nintendo, GET ON IT AND MAKE IT WORK.

Link:
Project Natal - Official site

This can't be happening.

This has been a sucky week. It's has been terribly frustrating that I'm just gonna write in point form.

By Monday night,

• My face is still peeling
• My nail polish is fading from all the cleaning and scrubing and chores
• The standing fan makes such a high pitched whiny sound when it's on
• Opens fridge to get food for dinner. Appalled to find all food thawed.
• Puzzled by the warmth in the fridge. Did we leave it open? Not sure.
• Decides to buy a new fan. Can't possibly sleep with that screechy sound all night. Rushes out to hypermarket to get one before it closed at 11pm
• Fridge still running but not cold.

By Tuesday night,

• Still effing peeling
• Nail polish is still looking faded.
• Opened fridge to find slightly cooled compartments. Still not cold enough. Food still thawed.
• Concluded that fridge is effin screwed
• Felt utterly helpless and in despair. called mom
• Mom told me to cook all the meat (!) she bought and eat them all before they go bad
• Told me to store what i can't finish
• Told mom the fridge isnt cold enough to even store cooked food.
• Silence ensues.
• "Thanks mom"

.
.
.

• Absolute waste of money to chuck all that food away.
• Decided to cook food i think that hasn't gone off.
• Cooked 2 portions of fish and 3 portions of veg.

.
.
.

• Wondered if I'll succumb to food poisoning.
• Wondered if I'll feel happy to get sick leave or absolutely pissed off because of loo trips
• Then again, in the immortal words of Emily from The Devil Wears Prada
  
  "I'm only 1 stomach flu away from my goal weight."
  
  So win?

And it was only effin Tuesday.

What. The. Fudge.

Chic khakis actually don't exist.

I went to Gap yesterday.

My heart skipped a beat when I saw the giant Gap CDFA Vena Cava poster all over the display window.

I felt hope.

My eyes gazed upon the beautiful khaki and black dresses Vena (Are we on first name basis? Let's not dwell so much. Moving on.) created for Gap.

My hands touched the dresses.

I felt despair.

For some reason, the dresses look beautiful on the photo. I imagined luxe fabric, perhaps silk printed with Vena's design. I touched what felt like the rough side of a sponge.

Even dresses in Forever21 feel better.

The zip dress looks best (among the khaki collection ("best among the worst" scenario)) in real life but the tailoring... sigh. It looks like trained blind monkeys took over the factory and tried their best.

Design? Good on printed material.
Tailoring? As disappointing as mass produced clothes can get.

I am not going to step into Gap anymore. Thanks for crushing my hopes and dreams, Gap.

Chic khakis are hardly used together in the same sentence.

O.M.G.



Who knew khaki can look so good?

Gone are the days when khakis are restricted to Dockers.
Gone are the days when khakis are synonymous with dad pants. With pleats. Ick.

Urm. I need to be somewhere else tomorrow. I guess I'm not going to be free for lunch. Gotta run somewhere to get some khakis.

Urm. Totally justified purchase because it can double as work wear and casual clothes. Makes absolute financial sense.

Pretty flowers and chores.

Apart from my flaking face, crappy job and the number of wedding vendors driving me insane, life is peachy because J is coming home soon!

I am instantly cheered by this thought. I want to run out and buy flowers from the market.

Maybe one in the kitchen.

Lurrrrrrrrrrrve hydrangeas.

And another one for my room.



Aren't they pretty??? Swoooooooooooooooooooooon.

It would take an operation of military precision to buy flowers for the flat. I start at 9am. I finish work at 7pm. The flower shop in the market closes in the afternoon.

starts work flower shop closes finishes work
|---------------|--------------------------------------------------------|


Please work out some plan and email me.


Which reminds me, I need to fold the laundry I've stuffed in his closet *temporarily* because I ran out of space and hangars in mine.

And to clean his side of the *world* (read:bed). Magazines, a bunny rabbit and other clean laundry lie on that side.

And maybe clean the entire flat if I have any time left.

Uh-oh.

Flaky skin - Dermalogica to the rescue.

Perhaps the weather has been most unkind to me. The extreme heat and the bitter cold in the office have taken a toll on my skin.

Truth be told, I don't have a good complexion. I've been plagued with bad skin for as long as I can remember. With the help of a very very generous dermatologist, I have clear skin now and we're more focused on treating the scars than acne.

Then the stupid weather (currently 34 degrees and boiling) wrecked everything.

I am peeling. I am blotchy. I don't think I'll react well if this happens close to the photoshoot or wedding.


The facialist has recommended me Dermalogica Barrier Repair



and Daily Microfoliant



The Barrier Repair acts as a barrier (duh, I feel dumb just typing it) between your skin and the world, protecting it from pollutants and chemicals that irritate the skin. It is absorbed very quickly and my face doesn't feel greasy.

[Usually I hate layering creams and potions because they become sticky in this humid weather. Instead of being absorbed by the skin, it sits on top and irritates me. By afternoon I'm not sure if it's moisturiser or dirt or oils. It's just gross. ]

And since my skin is super sensitive to fragrances, coloring and now heat, I have to use this superfine exfoliant so my face isn't scrubbed raw. Although it says 'Daily Microfoliant', I was advised NOT to use it daily because, yeah, my skin is THAT sensitive.

*SOBS*

I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Let's hope the weird peeling and blotchy skin go away by Wednesday soon.

Link:
Barrier Repair - Official site
Daily Microfoliant - Official site

Constructive shopping.

I want to go shopping. Even if I can't physically be there, online stores solve everything.



The colors are too inviting!

I decided to be a little more constructive. Do more weddingy related things, strike a couple of things off the list constructive.



Hot pink AND lavender?!

How on earth did I miss that combo is beyond me. Fun and pretty!

Steamed veggies and name calling.

After a very long and tiring day, I went home and slumped against the kitchen chair. I wanted something homely and easy for dinner.

There was no way I was going to make something difficult. All that defrosting and marinating and washing up. The thought of it filled me with dread.

I had dumplings and steamed veggies. All done in about 10 minutes.



I learnt how to make steamed veggies from J's dad. It's still weird for me because I still can't call him by his name. In my family, we don't EVER address our parents or anyone older than us by name. It's just... not done.

And he is still J's dad. The whole father-in-law thing is still too overwhelming for me to acknowledge. I'm at the "my brother is half yours now" stage.

Progress!

I am mostly coffee on weekdays.

I think on certain weekdays, more coffee flow through my veins than blood. I'm powered by coffee, both good and bad watery ones. I'm probably 70% coffee if they want a blood sample.



Thing is, I don't even want coffee on weekends!


-- This is too cute to pass, even on weekends.

Thank god it's Thursday?

Some people are just jerks.

People should snap out of their daydreams and fix the mess they made. Why should I be the one paying for their mistakes?

Sometimes I'm so mad that I want to scream.

Bad news and turning into a monster.

Today hasn't been the best day in quite a while.

I came to work all happy and extremely punctual, only to find an empty coffee cup on my desk and my swivel chair facing the wrong way.



Vendors come and go, and I understand that there aren't enough seats to go around. I left early yesterday at about 3pm because I started work at 6.30am. So it's perfectly ok if someone took my seat in the afternoon.

But to leave a coffee cup on my desk? That's just rude.

The lost-in-space agent called me after I sent her a text asking for updates. She doesn't seem strong enough to push for developments. I guess I turned into a total b*tch and was firm with her. I just thought if a person makes a mistake, he should fix it. And the space cadet of an agent should step up to the game and make him remedy the situation, and not letting it slide so easily.



As soon as I hung up, something happened. I was taken down a notch. I even felt bad for going all b*tch mode on the space cadet.

A lady who used to work in the office building sent out a mass email. Her 4 year old daughter has stage 4 bone cancer. Her husband left her when she was 8 months pregnant with her. The doctors here give her a 20% survival rate. And her chances are better at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in NYC.

But it will cost her $500,000 just in initial payments.

She is a single mother with a cancer stricken 4 year old.

I feel so bad for her. I made a small donation but I want to do more. I doubt we'll be able to raise $500,000 in this building.

I guess the approach to all medical treatment is to start as soon as possible. But just how long does it take to raise the initial $500,000? Can the little girl wait till then? And the thought of other medical payments she will face during this entire ordeal is just too daunting.

Just how can I do more? I'm not really sure.

Link:
A mother's journal on the little girl - link
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center - Pediatric Cancer Center

Ruffles and neutral colors make me wanna shop.

Perhaps I've got my mojo back, because I'm dying to go shopping for something breathtaking. Weddingy things, girly things, non-weddingy and anything.

[And no. I'll write about the Great Local Sale soon.]

I've been pretty wrapped up with the wedding, and after looking through so many color swatches, I just want to do something.. else.

It's refreshing to see something so simple and so... natural.

Neutral/nude is the new black.

Oh my god, ruffles!!! Asymmetrical ruffles!!!



This top is too funky and cute.



The zippers & peachy combo screams "I'm a cute and girly biker chick". But that's just me.

Philip Lim brought it to life.


But since I need to pay bills, I'll settle for Asos' version. Done!

[Everything is from Asos.com]

Link:
Asos - official site

My revamp didn't work.

I guess the mass revamp I was going for wasn't as successful as I hoped.

I went with a plain background. I used easy to read colors for fonts.



But but... it's so muted. Soooo.... ineffective. Sooooo... bland. Mingie agreed too.

Doesn't the original look better?



The colors just pop. It grabs your attention. Just like a 13 year old attention seeking child. It works in its own way.

I'm relentless. I went ahead with small tweaks. Experimented with loads of colors courtesy of CSS Color Values

Like bright pink for the title of the blog. It is growing on me. Guess it'll stick!


Links:
W3Schools on CSS - CSS color values

Time to stop procrastinating.

Remember my past attempts to revamp this place? I guess I'm going for it.

I remembered choosing black because I thought, like clothes, black is timeless. Everything else I added could pop. Even a course on usability didn't make me change it.

But... it's black. It's goth. It looks like what a 13 year old would do. And even 13 year olds put in Flash and popups and gods knows what else on their sites.

So, I'm going to start small. I'm just going to tweak the background color first. And we'll see where we go from there.

Monday and phone calls.

Today has been a very very busy day.

I've had calls from 3 florists, 1 lost-in-space agent and 1 so-gonna-get-screamed at insurance agent when asked, replied that he got my number from a list of numbers his company bought.

Excluding all the email correspondence from various prospective wedding vendors.

Just awesome. Bah humbug.

Confession of a procrastinator - Part Save The Date.

I have a confession to make.

My Save The Date cards are still sitting on my table.

I know I know it's 5 months till the big day and being a destination wedding (for some of our guests) we should let them know the dates so they can make travel arrangements.

Flight of Love. (Rachel TM)

But I can do so much more on the cards before I mail them! Add stickers, labels, jazz it up and wow our overseas friends with my inner Martha Stewart. And I used my best handwriting on all the addresses. I can't bear to part with them now.

Plus by informing them now, it sends the word out and buys me a wee bit more time to decide on the invitations.

I'm still undecided.

Should I DIY 50 cards because it's an insanely small number to print and printers usually require a minimum of 100.

The local printers do not do letterpress. Major bummer because I'm so in love with them. Check out Mika78.

Swoooooooooooooooon

Wouldn't anyone look forward to the wedding if they receive beautiful cards in the mail?

If local printers are going to print it using laser printers and charge me $4/card and upwards, I might as well do it on my own.

Pros:
Affordable
Personal touch
Unique

Cons:
Time consuming. Big time.
Hard to find images.
Layout. Microsoft Word places the words wrong.
Fonts. Don't get me started on all the fonts I've installed.
Paper weight.

Some printers are unable to take paper of heavier stock. I'm not about to send the office printer to printer heaven but I'm not sending tissue thin invitations! The weight of the stationery gives it luxe. I don't think I can compromise on that.

Bah I can go on and on. Help me!

How much is too much for flowers.

I'm not sure how many brides to be read this site, but I'll just ask anyway.

How much is too much to pay for flowers?

I've been to a good florist (says floral designer on the business card) and he gave me a quote of $4500-6000. This figure still jolts me out of my seat after a good 3 months.

loooooooooove.

My Wizard friend from NYC told me that his friend paid $4000. And most likely I'm not going to get a price lower than that if I get what I want.

[And I've been known to pick pricey things. And the florists I've interviewed all paused when I mentioned hydrangeas etc.]

molto looooooooooooooove.

[Seriously I did not ask him anything on flowers. I am currently working on getting a florist and bam! He just brings this up out of the blue. Talk about timing.]

So my question, how much is too much to pay? Should I forgo beautiful blooms and arrangements and learn to live with mediocrity? Or should I just close my eyes and hand over the clams?

My room may smell pretty soon.

I skipped lunch today and head down to Holland Village with L, just to get some sun and fresh air.

It turned into a little bit of shopping, of course.

Got yummy smelling goodies for home. I mean, I practically stay in a box. The least I can do is to make it smell better and more habitable, right?

Moroccan Rose Reed Diffuser

sets me back? $42.90 $34

Lavender fragrance oil


sets me back? $8.90 $7.12


And if you're a member like J is (thank god I remembered his ID at checkout), you get 20% off everything! The more you buy now, the more you're saving in future.

Makes perfect economic sense *in self denial*

Awesomeness has never smelled this pretty and affordable.

I think I found my song.

Book of Love - Peter Gabriel



Swooooooooooooooooooon.

I wonder if J thinks about the future this way. Minus Turk and Doctor Cox.