Under the Sydney Sun

I've been having a blast here in Sydney. It's nice to be a complete family after 6 months!
The PAREDES family on Christmas Eve. After the children's mass at 6 pm, we had a quiet dinner of steak and stuffed mushrooms, before sitting by the tree to open gifts while eating cheese, cold cuts, mom' strawberry shortcake and drinking champagne from Boogie! It's VERY different from Christmas Eve in Manila, which is traditionally spent with the Paredeses at our house. It was nice though, to be able to talk to each other and really spend time on that special day.
We went to Soldier's Beach in the Central Coast yesterday and it was so nice to see a sunny day after a week of grey, gloom and cold. Too bad I couldn't swim because of women's issues haha. It was fun nontheless and Ananda had a great time and didn't want to leave!

Speaking of beaches, what is this about having shark sightings in Bondi? If that's true, why on earth are people still swimming!
Today i went to the Glebe markets with ala and Chini. No, i didn't sell. Today i went as a shopper!It was nice.
On our walk down to Pitt street, we decided to go to Broadway Betty, a vintage store, and try on weird clothes-and document the whole thing. This was the best part of the day and I highly recommend doing this to everyone. It's super duper fun. We were dying, rolling on the floor laughing. Here is Chini in a "gorgeous" glittery green and white cocktail dress.
Ala in a "lovely" aqua mini dress once worn by the singer Selena in one of her concerts (Not true haha)
Here I am in a STUNNING electric blue 80's prom dress. If there is "pretty in pink" I am "BLUE IN BLUE"
Ala in her zoolander shirt, and a very 80's coat-both she and her shirt are doing THE MAGNUM
I wonder how many different animals went into this coat. It looks like a farm exploded on it!

Anyway, you get the idea-it was fun. I wanna do that again. Who's in? haha

I've got two more weeks here and I will definitely make the most of it. Hay, miss this place. When I'm here naman for a long time, I miss Manila. But, I definitely love both. ;p

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas! Have a great New Year's celebration too! Peace!

Merry Christmas from down under!

Pictures

At this time on Tuesday, I will be in the sky on the way to Sydney. I'm so, so excited! I really can't wait to hang out with family and friends. Lately though I've been super busy trying to finish all my work, plus cramming in just enough time to spend with friends and Boogie before I leave.

With Bea at the new wing of Embassy during the shoot of the Oh, Kate! Collection of This kid loves vintage.
With Bebeth at the Abs Cbn Publishing Christmas party. We were anti-social all night haha
Christmas dinner with my Ateneo girls. It was so good. We had home made pesto (Patring), Steak and cheddar/sour cream mashed potatoes (me), Manchego, Brie, pate and crackers (Alexi), Salad and Garlic Bread (Anna), Roast Chicken (Amina) and Banofee Pie (Gina)
Ananda's Christmas Program at School. She sang 2 English songs and 2 Chinese songs. So cute!

Dinner at Damaso and drinks at M Cafe with magazine friends. Super fun night last night!
My daughter dressed herself. Ummmm...Ok. Very Carrie Bradshaw :)

Tomorrow is my last day of work and Christmas dinner with Boogie and then I'm off to Australia. YAY!

Oh, Kate now available!

Our Oh, Kate! Collection is now available at vintagekids.multiply.com!

A sneak peek:
Photography: Dix Perez
Styling: Erica Paredes
Make-up: Benjie Angeles
Model: Amina Aranaz
Shot at Embassy (New Wing-The place is Fab!)

visit This Kid loves Vintage today. NOW! :)

COMING SOON!

I'm Excited for this! Coming Super duper SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!!!

ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS...

...is to be in Sydney and spend it with my family! And guess what! I am! I'm so excited! Just one more month to go and I'll be there already. Last year, Dada and I spent it in Manila and we enjoyed dinner with the Camposes and then Noche Buena with the Paredeses. The next day we had our traditional Christmas lunch at lola's house-but it was still different and kind of sad because we weren't with my parents and siblings. Plus, I haven't experienced an Australian Christmas yet and I'm excited to hit the beaches!

Before that I have to finish my work so I can stay in Sydney longer, have my yearly Christmas dinner with my college friends and finish all my shopping! I've come up with a list already but have not moved my butt to buy anything!

And C'mon that's not ALL i want for Christmas! Here is this year's list:

1. A Holga or Oktomat camera

2. A new digital camera

3. A chiuahua, french bulldog or mini schnauzer (Although it wouldn't be smart for me to get another dog. I just think they are so so cute)

4. A stack of new cookbooks-French, Italian, Indian, Chinese and a Bakiing Cookbook!

5. A Year's subscription to Yummy magazine!

6. A Damier Azur Speedy!

7. A nice new leather wallet in a cute color. The long kind with a lot of space to put all my licenses and cards.

8. A make-up chair (like a director's chair but taller) and a new case with a built in mirror and light bulbs!

9. A couch and coffee table for my room.

10. A trip to London!
11. A short culinary course!

It's getting colder, the parols are up and the department stores are blasting Christmas Carols! But I'm preparing myself for a HOT SUMMER CHRISTMAS. Woohoo!

When did she get so big?

When I started blogging , Ananda was a newborn. Look at her now! she's 3 1/2 already! I see pictures like this sometimes and I still get shocked at how fast she's growing! Before I know it she'll be a teenager already-and I'll be old! haha!

Costume Parties!

When You are invited to a Theme party or costume party, you should really make sure to make an effort to dress that part.

Why?

Well, First of all, the host made an effort to fix the place and dress up and basically put everything in order for you, so in return you should follow his/her request of dressing up.

Second, you never know what you might win as a prize for BEST COSTUME :) In my case, it was a pretty Aranaz clutch that I've been eyeing. Plus, Ananda also won best costume for her category-because we were dressed in similar outfits.

So the theme was Lucas' Sports Camp, and the celebrant was Lucas, Amina and Rafa's son. After going through all the Olympic Sports, we decided the easiest would be to be basketball players.

But then, I though, that's so easy and kinda baduy-so I spiced it up a bit.

I had two jersey's made. Both Hot Pink with black piping!

In front, it was exactly the same. We had our last name PAREDES across our chests and of course, a Peace sign below it, as our logo!

But, the back of the jersey's were different. Hers said "Baby Joe" while mine said "Joe Mama" We decided to wear matching knee high socks, short shorts and cute kicks and at the end of our costume planning, our official title was "Old School Ball Players"

I super love dressing up. Halloween is like the biggest and best holiday there is for me, and usually when I throw parties, there has to be a theme. A few years ago, the Ateneo girls and I threw a Cuban "Havana Nights" party, where all our drinks, food and outfits were inspired by Cuba and the movie with Diego Luna. This year, our Christmas party will have a color theme. Ananda's party had an all-out pirate theme, then I planned my sister, Ala's last birthday with a Hollywood theme. I wonder what's next!

In other news, I can't wait to get back to Australian soil, even just for a few weeks! I miss my family so much and I miss cheap clothes at valley girl, fresh mushrooms and woolies. Ang babaw ko. Haha. Just one more month! Woohoo!

Short Cuts

It seems like everybody is chopping off their hair! Even Boogie has decided to cut off his famous locks! I'm so happy, it's a refreshing change! The look we were going for was a longer version of Brad Pitt a.k.a Rusty Ryan in Ocean's 13. Now his only problem is finding the patience to apply product to his hair every morning! I think cutting off a significant amount of hair is very liberating, and can also signify letting go of a lot of issues of the past and looking at what it's front of you now and at the future.

Now let's go blonde! ;p

GIRLS, GIRLS, GIRLS

Girls can be really petty, catty and mean to each other. That's why growing up, I had a lot of male friends. Guys are less complicated. If you piss them off or act like a bitch, they tell you to your face, whereas girls will talk and talk and talk-to everybody except you. Most of my arguements with my male friends last all of 15 minutes, while some fights with girl friends have resulted to months of the silent treatment and complaining to family and other friends.

Don't get me wrong, I am not rejecting my own, I just wish women could be more 1. HONEST 2. FORGIVING and less 1. CATTY 2. VENGEFUL and in general just be nicer to each other. I feel like girls always look at other girls as competition: Who has the better job? Who's prettier? and everyone's favorite Who's skinnier? Who's getting married first? Who's having a baby first? Who got a better deal at the last sale? Who has a hotter boyfriend?
Furthermore, women also have very obvious defense mechanisms when they are feeling insecure: Eew she sucks. Don't worry about her, she's so not pretty. oooh, is that ****? She's so fat now. She can do so much better than that guy. Look at her, she's so hung up on *** and again, everyone's favorite God she's such a slut.

Face it, girls-yes me, you and every female out there, can be REALLY mean. And besides, didn't they say in Mean Girls that calling someone ugly doesn't make you prettier, calling someone fat doesn't make you thinner and calling someone stupid doesn't make you smarter.

What I despise most is the whole ring leader syndrome. There's this one girl I see occassionally, and when she's alone and I know most of the people around, she's all "Hi Erica! how are You?" *Smile smile* but when she's with *ringleader* she completely ignores me, because I suppose ringleader doesn't like me for reasons I believe speak more about her hangups then me.

Speaking of which, I also dislike when you have been introduced to somebody, you've spoken to them, and sometimes even hung out with them, and whenever they see you, they act like they don't know you. It pisses me off like anything because you know in all honesty, I can be a major bitch if I chose to be, but if I know that i know you, I won't think twice about aknowledging your presence.

Cliquish girls annoy me. Are we in high school?

I'm just really happy that somewhere along the way, I found a some girls, who are unique,smart confident, honest, fun, and don't take themselves too seriously.

Life is too short to have to deal with drama.

We heart Baguio

So what did you all do for the long weekend? I took my daughter to Baguio. The last time I was there was 4 and a half years ago, long before I had her. It was so nice to be back in our house, to feel the cold, clean Baguio air, the warmth of our fireplace and to buy fresh fruits and veg in the Baguio Public market! Ananda's first market experience. If you ask her she'll say "What market? That icky place that smelled like suka?" hahaha! OF course I had to take her to do all the traditional Baguio things. My dad always says that when you have children, you go through childhood all over again, and he's right. I found myself going to Wright Park (Twice!) to ride horses, Burnham park to see the boats and Mine's View Park-all for the benefit of my daughter. We've had out Baguio house for about a decade now and not once do I remember going to most of the tourist spots. The first time we went to Wright Park, she wanted a big horse and for me to ride with her. The next day she wanted to ride a horse all by herself. And it had to be one with Pink hair. The one we originally wanted had nice long hair, like Starlight from Rainbow Brite. Unfortunately some other kid was riding it and we'd have to wait 30 minutes, so she settled for Strawberry. We spent two of our three nights in front of the fireplace at home, with Gina and I eating cheese and crackers and drinking wine and Ananda devouring marshmallows and slurping down hot chocolate. She was so excited the whole time we were there that she actually had eye bags from lack of sleep. She'd wake up so early, already shouting for the horses! We had a whole ginormous bag or giant marshamallows in two nights. That can't be good! Of course, I HAD to go to Good Sheperd and get strawberry jam (I'm not a fan of Ube! Although it smells heavenly when newly cooked!) I also got home made peanut butter (w/c is alwys good), guava jam, guava jelly, mango jam and guava candy. Can you tell I like Guava? All I drank when I was preggers with Ananda was Guava juice and it just stuck. The ironic thing is, I don't care so much for the actual fruit. Anyway, it was fun and I'm looking forward to going up there more often. I can't believe I waited this long! I love our house and I love the weather!

BOO!

Before we left for the mountains, I went out for Halloween! We just roamed around the Fort area. It was fun.

Bea as a...actually I don't know what, Me as Alice in wonderland (in Navy Blue!) and Gina as a Japanese Girl-in Piedra
Alice, Alexi as a witch (too cute to be a witch!), 2 baduy costume-less guys Rob and Pao , Monique and Ginasachiko at Cuisine.
Alice, Jena, Ginasachiko and Unfinished Dress Patring- a little detour to Jaipur!

I love Halloween and I'll dres sup every year forever and ever!

Chuvaness

To Cecille Zamora, I don't know you but I'm borrowing this title hehe

Last night, despite my horrible digestive issues, I had to attend this Champagne tasting event at Cuisine hosted by Mumm Champagne. I tried this Champagne at The Tides launch in Boracay, which is good because I didn't want to drink last night. Instead, Gina, Vicky and I took 65 (yes SIXTY FIVE) pictures of ourselves with different themes. This particular one is called "THE PAM" after our friend, superstylist Pam Quinones.
This is mine and Vicky's version of "THE GINA" after crazy girl Gina Reyes-who always manages to look like this in pictures after a few drinks-and also when sober.
This particular shot is entitled "The Catfight" starring Vicky and Gina hahaha!
And of course our forever "Nanalo sa lotto/Wowowee/Deal or no deal/Kitchen Showcase pose"

See Kids, you don't need alcohol in your system to act like a retard ;p

HAIR TODAY, GONE TOMORROW!

This was me last night at the opening of the Kiehl's store in Greenbelt 5
Early in the evening with Gina and our fashion assistant at Metro, Andrea!
And with Pam and Vicy. As usual, my hair wa sin a boring old ponytail because I didn't know what else to do with it!

And this is me right NOW!
I finally chopped my hair off. Yay for me! It's so liberating! The under layer is actually really cropped, to add volume to the back, then the front is a bit longer, right below the chin. On the left side of my face there's a part right above my ear that's cut shorter and i can kind of scrunch it up to make it look messy.

I asked Drea Zulueta (of Piandre) to give me a cut that was FUN, PLAYFUL, EASY TO MANAGE, FUNKY but not TOO MUCH that I'll hate it after a week. Loves it!
Buti nalang I have an event tonight, so I can make a hair debut! hahaha!

that's all for now haha. I'm just happy about my hair!

Hafa Adai!

I'm back from a fun but VERY TIRING trip to Guam. I left Friday night at 1030 pm, arrived at 430 am Guam time (They are ahead 2 hours) checked in and got settled by 630 am and had to be ready for breakfast-and all the activities of the day by 9 am!

So, with barely an hour of sleep...We-

...Toured the hotel wth the rest of the Philippine journalists-from beside me: Judith from High Life, Becca from Philippine Star and Cheryl from Lifestyle Asia.

We stayed at a hotel called Pacific Islands Club. It had something like 7 swimming pools and all these water activities. I think it would be the perfect place if you had your kids with you. There is so much for them to do. Otherwise, I'd book a room at the Hyatt (for couples and lone travelers)

...Went to Two Lovers Point. Legend is that this Chamorro (Native Guamanian) Chief wanted his daughter to marry this Spanish guy, but she was in love with a strong Chamorro Warrior. So, much like Romeo and Juliet, they deviced a plan to die together because death was preferable to a life without each other. They tied their hair together in a knot and jumped off a cliff-now known as Two Lovers Point.This is where the two lovers supposedly jumped to their deaths! Young people are crazy, eh?

...Attended this super cool, super yummy event called Pastries in Paradise in another hotel. It was like a contest/exhibit of desserts from all the hotels and restaurants in Guam (I'm actually not sure if it's just the Tumon area or literally the entire Guam) Anyway in these photos are Strawberries dipped in chocolate and rolled in pistachios and a spread of cookies! There were also mini pavlovas, macaroons, panacottas and lots more.


...and as if we weren't stuffed enough from the pastries, we went straight to Jamaican Grill for yummy jerk chicken. The food was like a fusion of Jamaican and Chamorro cuisine. Too bad i was so stuffed, I could only manage half a piece and some rice.

...To cap off our already tiring day, we were brought to two clubs to experience Guam's Night life. In the picture above, we were at Club Pash and below was 80's night at the Globe with Bryan (our Manila GVB Representative) and his friend Vince. We were SO tired already then.

The next day was filled with activity as well. As early as 8 am, we were having breakfast already because we were scheduled to ride a submarine!
I was excited but then disappointed because we didn't see anything cool like sharks or even an octopus or a manta ray or something. At one point we were 140 metres underwater and all I saw was...water-whoopee! haha.

Next we went to Underwater World after lunch. It's like an aquarium. It's kind of small but cool nonetheless because they ahve these giant turtles, mantarays and stuff. It's like the Sydney Aquarium where you walk through a tunnel and the marine life is all above you.
A Shark A shark! Oh btw, on the submarine ride, they started playing the music from Jaws WTF?
Me touching a baby shark. I swear, whenever I'm at aquariums or zoos, I turn into this little kid. I get so excited!
Camwhoring at the Underwater World sign before leaving for DFS (Duty Free!)

Behind us are stores like Hermes (in photos) beside it Louis Vuitton, Chanel,Bally, Bulgari etc. We drooled, we lusted over, but sadly, we were all too short on funds to each nab ourselves a Chanel bag (The ultimate, mother of all bags! Screw Hermes. I don't even like the Birkin!)

We went to the Micronesian Fair after, but I was too tired to take pictures-I thought I was going to pass out so I begged for an early dinner, we all ate in our rooms and rested a little bit-then went to K mart after to splurge on American food that we can't find here.

I got Apple Jacks, Twinkies and Funyuns among other things woohoo. I love it. Bring on the calories.

On our last full day, we SLEPT IN! I still didn't sleep THAT much (around 6 1/2 hours) and we had the morning free. After lunch at Hyatt, we went to GPO (Guam Premier Outlet) and Micronesia Mall to go shopping.

After a really good buffet lunch at Hyatt. I checked my weight here when i got home and I gained three pounds in three days! Ack! Starvation for the next two days!

After the mall, we had our last group dinner at Capricciossa, a Japanese owned Italian restaurant chain (I believe there is one in GB) This is the last photo I have of all the Philippine delagates to Guam on this trip-
Aside from us print media people, the Sports Unlimited crew was there as well. Here we are with Corey Wills, Mark Nelson, Jackie Castillejo (Dianne not in picture) as well as the GVB Philippines marketting Reps Bryan and Michelle and GVB Guam people-who were such good hosts :)

LAst minute shopping at Kmart followed and we had to be ready to go to the airport at 4am. No sleep-again. Today was spent alternating between playign with dada and sleeping. Still not fully recovered. Tonight I will get real rest.

It's always good to be home. I wonder where my feet will take me next :)