Then there's the lightweight beanie of earthy tones for little girl. We love it's simplicity. It was faster to make too. 

The kids' beret. Took them a very long time to decide what beanie/beret/hat they wanted me to make. Finally they chose the classic French beret. We opted for black. It is cozy inside. Made with Red Heart yarn. 

It looked too blank, being black. With my kids' personalities, the beret's seemed to disappear so we took my mother's vintage pearl/crystal brooches to accessorize...

Very lovely indeed. You can make your own beret with this free pattern from Crochet Geek.  You can also find written instructions on her youtube page. Thank you Teresa!

Where I went. 

Reason why I had been very quiet the past week. Went on a trip with a couple girlfriends, which meant endless pre-trip preparations for the household! 

Putting my backpack together (the 3 of us backpacked) was a breeze. Putting together schedules for my household was more tricky. Thus the silence the week before I left, ahihihi.

Flew to Naga City, Camarines Sur, the final destination being the Caramoan Islands. It was spectacular!!!

These photos were taken by my friend, Peachy at Caramoan. 

Will be sharing our itinerary soon. It was a wonderful trip, taxi, boat, plane rides and all. Four days of fun!

While in the subject of unending sunshine in our country...

Meet my cute straw hat.

I took a risk here. It is never advisable to buy hats online where one cannot be sure of the measurements 

and fit. 

Luckily this baby fits!

Isn't it such a cutie? An H x M straw hat. Very light weight and very affordable (that's important right?).

It's casual, not too intimidating for city wear. You know what I mean. 

And it hides my unkept hair hahahahaha!

Please meet my photographer. She directed me in this shoot.

Yeah, my hair is nothing compared to her beautiful curly locks...

Stay cool everyone! Cover up and drink your liquids. 

(Eye make up from Smashbox, lipstick from Mac)

My friends feed my love for hats and such. They bring me one from their trips. Bless my dear friends. hehehe. This fuzzy cute fuschia/teal/purple number is from Ann. Yes, dear Ann. She got it from their trip to Baguio last summer (well, a month ago to be precise).

How could I resist taking a photo!

Goes very well with my lipstick eh?

We live in a tropical country. But the weather had been copying more like the foreign windy chilly at times kind of days and nights so this one should be a perfect accessory. Hmm... a trip abroad after Christmas perhaps? I do hope hubby reads this...hahaha!

Thank you Ann! You know I love you...

(Thank you Lulubelle for the lipstick!)

Thank You Boss!

Thank You for love and friendship.

My father's hat.

78 days since he has been gone.

78 days of crying myself to sleep.

I swore I would not write any sad thoughts on father's day. But my mother gives papa's most favorite and most worn cowboy hat to my husband for father's day. I could not keep my eyes off it as it sits on my hubby's table. So many memories of my own father using the hat.

His brother from the US sent him this before I was born. There are albums and albums of photos of him wearing it. From when I was a baby to when I was in college.

I couldn't help but wear it before I headed out this morning...

I could still smell papa's pomade. It could be my imagination. I feel him.

I'm glad it now belongs to my husband.

Papa...

I miss you. Terribly.

Every day, every night.

I miss your text messages, your calls, your cellphone number flashing on my phone.

I miss you asking how my photoshoot went. I miss you asking me if I've lost weight already.

I miss looking into your eyes.

Have you known then?

When you'd dial my number and just listen to me call your name 3 times a day before we saw one another?

When called your granddaughters' names and hugged them one by one minutes before it happened?

When you told our helper to always take care of mommy and the plantation?

Have you known already that very morning?

When you gave me your favorite watch?

I will always miss you pa.

I will always need you in my life.

(Belated) Happy Father's Day, papa in heaven.

Update everyone!

Yes, the Ebay bidding has ended and the Philip Treacy hat of Princess Beatrice was...

SOLD!

...for 81,100.01 pounds ($131, 134.00 thank you very much)!

Proceeds shall be given to the UNICEF UK and Children in Crisis charities.

A warm of applause to the princess.

Class listen up. Php 5.6 MILLION.

I love it!

I was surfing along the big waves at ebay and found this...

Very gracious of her of have taken things lightly. Converting all those talks (mostly nasty unfortunately) into usable and helpful amount of FIVE MILLION PESOS. 13 hours more to bid on this millinery engineering by Philip Treacy. At its current price it already is a record breaker.

The money raised will then be given to UNICEF and Children in Crisis charities.

The hat was worn by Princess Beatrice at her cousin Prince William's wedding to Catherine Middleton last April. Outlandish it maybe but this piece that once adorned a certified royal head, soliciting only unflattering reviews (it has its own Facebook page) will put beautiful smiles on the benefactors as the bidding ends...

I am actually holding my breath. This should be one for the network's books. Soon, my pretty hat, soon. You will once again reign tv air time. For a good cause.

I love it!

I love hats. But in this part of the world, it's not really the norm. You could count people regularly wearing the hats I like with fingers on one hand.

My virtual love affair with hats started in 2008 when I saw Angelie Jolie on some photos of her movie, The Changeling (it wasn't until last year that I watched the actual movie). She wore the cloche, a hat most popular during the 1920s.

Isn't it beautiful?

So...thank goodness for MICH DULCE!!!

I spied MD's Engineer hat from 2007 and fell in love!

A milliner and corsetiere (among others), she designs and makes the best hats!!! She is afterall, an award winning designer.

This month she launches beauty (yet again)...

But alas, I am not going to Tokyo, but to Hong Kong on these dates. Wish I was going to Tokyo. Wish I know somebody in Tokyo. It is very hard to get a Mich Dulce hat.

Wouldn't these darlings look nifty on MY head!

Ahihihihi...

So ok, I have absolutely no idea where I would wear/work them but what the heck,

I WANT them!!!

Two days straight my errands always take me to the malls more often than not.

It is just RED all over!

Big RED SALE signs all over the place!

Guess it's time to mark down those ridiculously overpriced winter collections ey?

The past year winter clothing has popped up fashionably on the windows of popular (foreign) high end shops. Really beautiful I should say. Yes, one can be tempted to buy a 4000-peso leather (with fleeced lining mind you) just for the heck of it. Well, not to mention, use for about 3 to 5 times. Guess that frequency does not sound bad. Afterall, my friend, Gwenie just told me 'since when did fashion become practical'. Hehehe. I agree. We were talking about my black MUJI boots. So, maybe a couple would rack up a bill of Php5000 on winter cloths and accessories for their trip to chilly Asean countries or Europe or the US. (Hmmm...Europe I understand but wouldn't it be more practical to buy them in the US when you're there?).

People in this town use to go to surplus shops for the winter collections. They're unique, well used, but will only cost from P150- 500. Not bad really for stuff you would only use for a 5-day trip abroad.

So why the coming of winter clothings in this part of the world?

So ok, I bought a pair of gloves. Well, they were yummy. All velvety buttery leathery suede beauty of gloves. HAHAHAHA! Didn't come cheap, really. I was on a hunt for the perfect hat too. But everything good and nice on my head were priced P1000 and above. I decided it was too much for a whistle. So why didn't I think the P900 price tag of the gloves was too much for a whistle? Only fashion heaven can say, actually. HAHAHAHA

Seriously, what brought about the surge of winter clothing in our tropical country? A friend abroad who works in retail said, they have to.

Ok, so the big red signs are there. Perfect for us post winter shoppers. Really. That P1,400 hat? It's now down 70%. So I bought. I need to go back for that beret. HAHAHAHA

Oh, on second thought, I believe this is the best time to shop on ebay! Yeah!!!

But honestly, I want that muffler of a scarf on that mannequin. I would look good on that big cape sweater! HAHAHAHA but with its P5000 price tag, forget it.

I look around and find racks and racks of fluffy thick coats and sweater now on sale. No takers. No takers then, I dont think there will be some now either. I mean, new styles will be out next winter right? So there's a freaky cold front in our country right now, but does that really warrant us to buy those overpriced winter cover ups?

Where do they all go now?

Just wondering...

I saw in her blog yesterday about her dream wedding dress. So glam indeed. Then I realized I need a hat. Yes, hats are just a little bitsy unheard of in this part of the country, but I need a hat. I want a hat. Not just any hat. A MICH DULCE hat, thank you very much!
The lady needs not much of an intro in this blog, she is a very well known designer. Recently won
International Young Creative Entrepreneur Award for Fashion in London on February 21 for her millinery collection.
So hey, my dream is in very capable hands. hehehehe. I don't do much parties. None which I'm one of those rich invitees anyway...usually I'm the photographer. But I've gotta dress appropriately right? Those photographers who dress up bohemian just for the sake of art disappoint me. Ebay is my bestfriend. I get them used designer stuff there. Money for quality. Might as well get them good stuff. So what better accessory to top off a few of my "working ensemble" than a Mich Dulce hat?


Hahaha lookey lookey at what I've done! I usually wear slacks. But a pair of blue jeans was irresistible.
With my fave black Comme des Garcons light jacket, pink Tinkerbell Disney shirt...maybe an orange or red hat would be fab. hehehe...Im not really one with a stylist wand but wouldn't a cute little perky hat be something?


This one's my Marni. It's so "school-girlish" I love it! Yep it's my happy Comme de Garcons shirt inside.
See the white MDulce hat? Wouldn't that be great on me? Read she made that for a wedding. Delicious! And her Engineer hat below is perfect. But I could also get used to a dainty little green topper...


HAHAHAHA...just having fun!
Coolness!