[Project FeeTrail August 2014]: Shabby chic, Serene and Sweet

If you've read my Project Feet Trail posts for a while now, you will notice how this shot is very similar to a certain post in October 2012 during my cousin's inter cultural wedding (also designed by my wedding/events florist sister, Aprille Araguas)

It was a lovely day for a rustic themed wedding and I love the whole feel of the exclusivity and intimate setting. The place even had a nice room for wedding suppliers to set up. I would like to gush more about the details but I'm going to save that for the actual complete wedding post at www.aprillearaguas.com.

In a previous post, I said how this is my first time in Casa San Pablo but our second time to cover an intercultural wedding. Hence, this automatically goes to my Feet Trail collection. This shot was taken after the wedding ceremony and I decided to include that little white lantern as well.

The -BER months starts tomorrow! Time flies so fast!

The kind of vacation one should be taking

" I remember one Facebook post you had, where you said you can't wait to wake up because finally, your reality is better than your dreams."Jon told me in 2009.

I remember that post. I miss that feeling, to be honest. Life happened. No need to get into details.

I do love going on a holiday, but not as often as I wish I can. I've gone to beach trips, out of town trips with friends before but I seem to always go back feeling tired and in this state of incredible resistance to go back to your real life.

I'm not much of a traveler, but I do believe that vacations are simply a state of mind. Travel is not the same as vacation. I can be walking along the cherry blossom trees of Japan having a stressful time of my life and I can be just inside my room, uninterrupted and mentally recharging. I remember taking a long weekend and just staying in the suburbs and ended up having one of the best, unexpected weekends of my life.

And just last weekend, I took advantage of the long weekend to pay my friends a visit in the city. We only had one activity (we went to a hydrotherapy water spa) and spent the entire weekend lounging in the house, watching 5 movies. We didn't have much going on, just catching up, and an entire day to be just in house clothes, taking a step away from what's bothering us, and doze off whenever we I want to. Actually, that weekend I spent majority of my time just listening, contrary to my usual talkative self, and ended up enlightened.

To make the story short, I came back grateful and looking forward to my new personal action plan. In fact, I felt inspired that I got so excited that I immediately bought a sketch pad and started sketching and finally made time for art as my long overdue creative outlet. Also, I can now squeeze in a few minutes to read my positivity books that I bought on impulse that I have on stand by for a while now. The little things that irks me are now being overlooked. I tell you, when gratitude takes over, it works like a thick shield that protects you from the littlest things that once gets the best of you.

And from that I have decided that my vacations must have an internal wellness purpose and not just to have something to post on instagram.

Travel Laguna: Casa San Pablo for a country side, shabby chic, rustic themed wedding

I've seen Casa San Pablo for quite a long time now and it is only when my wedding and events florist/stylist sister, Aprille Araguas, did the entourage flowers and table flower arrangements for a rustic themed wedding that I got to visit and see what the place looked like from the inside.

Anyway, the complete post of the rustic themed wedding is now published at www.aprillearaguas.com, meanwhile, let me show you the photos I took from my phone.

Upon entrance from the parking lot:

The other side shows a way to the pool: 

Since we just had typhoon Glenda a month ago, some parts of Casa San Pablo are undergoing renovation such as the other pool and probably this pavilion.

Below is the second pool. The other one, on the opposite side of this, is under renovation from this time the photo was taken.

As Casa San Pablo said on their site and brochures, they are a Bed and Breakfast, country style, shabby chic, cozy country inn.

 A sneak preview of the rustic wedding theme now on the blog at www.aprillearaguas.com

 This is where the buffet is set up:

 Accommodations:

I was not really able to take a peak inside the rooms, but according to the feedback of one of the guests checked in, the air conditioning is not as cold as they thought it would be.

This is the other side of the area of the buffet, the second floor is like a mess hall where they serve you breakfast:

If you're wondering, yes they have free WIFI. But when we were there, the staff gave us a different password for a non-existent router name. Probably he got confused?

You CAN outsource some suppliers such as the lights and sounds, wedding/event florist, etc. It depends on your deal with Casa San Pablo. With regard to the catering service, you can just ask the Casa San Pablo Management. I know they offer wedding packages (click here). 

Anyway, that's my little coverage for now. The details of the floral arrangements (and our second inter cultural wedding) is now up on the blog. Enjoy our coverage by clicking this link!

I will have a KOKON someday

Remember my post about the cuddling couch? I found something better! Its KOKON, Cecile Van Straten and Locsin International furniture collaboration.

According to CVS' blog post:

"The KOKON daybed is priced at Php 164,000 for the indoor version and Php 232,000 for outdoor, inclusive of mattress and plain throw pillows. KOKON is now available to order at Locsin.com or through their showrooms at LRI Design Plaza, Nicanor Garcia Street, Bel-Air, Makati, or at 4th level, SM Megamall-B."

"It is amazingly spacious. Five people can sit inside and two adults can sleep with a child"

This is perfect! I can already imagine reading books, watching movies on my ipod, and writing stuff. I don't think I want to renovate my old room anymore! Oh wait, I take it back! I need my room but this, aaaaah. I can't stop gushing. I want this in this color. I want an indoor one, but it's so expensive.

Maybe the universe will reward me someday for all the good things I never expected and thought that I would do. Haha!

More of Locsin here.

Blog Readers' Questions Answered: Hair, Mousse, and How to be part of a Studio Audience

First, I would like to apologize for the way too delayed reply. I didn't even know I am getting messages because the notification stopped and I never received it in my email. So to make things easy, you can message me on Facebook (and oh, and like my page too!)

Second of all, I never really thought I would do the type to have actual reader requests three in a row! Wow, legit blogger na ako? 

I know these responses are way too delayed but I would like to return the favor of answering your queries and as thank you for reading/stumbling upon my blog.

1) From C:

Hi Kea! stumbled upon your blog while checking for products for damn hair. hehehe! question. do you think it's okay to have my hair permed even if i have a curly hair like that of nigers. seriously. please help. really look old and wanna try to look better. thanks.

My Reply:

Hi C!

I think the question would be best answered by the hairstylist. Stylist mismo not the assistant who would encourage you to try other services (that will blow up your budget). I suggest you go to the nearest Tony and Jackey (where I had mine) and have your hair assessed (Read my post about it here). They will tell you about the texture and what would be best. Go for the medium curls and not the big ones because the medium curls will eventually turn into big ones and they stay long.

Thank you for reading my blog!

Best,
Kea

2) From S:

hi. i just wanna ask couple of questions po :) first time to digi perm hair and it's not turning out the way i want it to even though i condition my hair, apply mousse when it's wet and scrunch it, i don't blow dry my hair or comb it but it still turns out like i have a bad hair day and u cant see the curls and they are more like frizzy hair what do u recommend i do? i just permed my hair a month ago would u recommend getting the top part of the hair rebonded and the lower part digi permed? i saw a salon that offers that kind of service e do u need to curl your perm with your fingers when u apply mousse or does scrunching do the job?

My Reply:

Hi S!

That is the common hair woe the day after you had your hair permed. Actually there are cases that it became straight again. But as per instructions, you are not allowed to get your hair wet  for a number of days. Scrunching actually does the trick, like what I wrote in this post, as long as you do it while the hair is still wet. You can read all about my hair products here.

Thank you for reading my blog!

Best,
Kea

From L:

Hi Kea, your blog happened to catch my attention, the name is unique as well. Since I'm looking how could I bring my family to watch Party Pilipinas live like you did, could you help me how to the tickets? We're going to Phil. (from Canada) this June __ and planning to watch the show on July __probably with some of my niece and nephew say 6-8 persons. My daughter wish to see the celebrities since we have GMA channels right here. Hope to here from you. Thank you and keep on writing you do it very well, L

My Reply:

Hi L!

My super sincerest apologies for not replying as fast as I can. Although I watched the sunday show three times already, it was on different cases. The first one was during our the opening of the biggest and brand new live audience studio and we got passes from the director who is my mom's friend's friend (hope you were able to catch that! hihi). The second time, I got in because my former agent was a member of a fans club (haha!)We went in on different privileges (fan club access) though we're not really members of their club. They were just kind hearted enough to let us in. The third one is the show's renamed program (the one I wrote here) and we got passes from my friend in graduate school who's best friend works there. (Or used to work there, I don't know anymore.) GMA has studio tours you can check it here, and also ABS-CBN offers studio tours where you can be a live audience on some programs. You can access it here.

Thank you for reading my blog!

Best,
Kea

You can send me a message through my Facebook page instead, it is easier and I get to reply to you in a more timely manner.

Thank you for reading!

I know someone who made it to the French Huffington Post @eisenbernard

This reminded me of Chinie Diaz's post about Why Filipinos Claim Jessica Sanchez - and Everyone Else with a drop of Filipino Blood and how it became a little bit controversial.

I have colleague from way back who bragged that there are only two people in the Philippines who owns a Php 1 million bag, This person (insert spanish sounding last name of an elite here) and her "Tita"(Aunt).

I was like, Oh wow! Really? Your tita? Like the sister of your mom? or the sister of your dad?

She goes: "No, she's the auntie of my third cousin's best friend's friend. "

She lost me there.

But this, this I can claim. I KNOW SOMEONE WHO MADE IT TO HUFFINGTON POST! The French Version pa!!!

Source

If you've been hanging around my blog for a while, you will know that I have a friend and now former colleague named Eisen Bernardo, who went with me to cover museums and my most popular blog post to date: 2013 Oblation run.

The Huffington post article only featured 10 out of the 45 works he has in this album alone. But here are my favorites (some are not included in huffington article):

Not only that! He even made FHM versions and was featured in FHM under a different name (Scare Reyes):

Check out all his fabulous works HERE.