Thursday, December 30, 2010

City By The Bay

Remember Full House, the family tv sitcom in the 80s? That is the first thing that came into my mind when I think of San Francisco, besides the Golden Gate Bridge and the lovely Painted Ladies Victorian Houses on Lombard Street.

My travel on the west coast of USA now takes me to the Bay area and to this city. I took a city tour to get familiarise with a few of the tourist spots including the famous prison on Alcatraz Island.

The city tour is definitely a good introduction to the city, although it went by too fast and you don't have much time to explore at all except for a couple of shots from the camera. But you can take the other days to go back to those places that you would like to go back again and explore at your own pace.

The cable cars are definitely a fun way to transport around the city. Shopping central at Union Square comes alive with all the Christmas decorations and lights. But I do find shopping pretty dear in San Fran as they have probably the highest sales tax in the USA.

Fisherman's Wharf is a good place to fulfil your seafood cravings and it was crab season at this time around in December when I was there :)

That's what I was talkin' about! :)

 On Alcatraz Island

 Walking uphill toward The Rock (Alcatraz Prison)

 San Francisco City

 Alcatraz Prison

 Sunset at the Golden Gate Bridge









Breakfast with egg whites and spinach with roasted potatoes

 The famous San Fran trolleys

 Saw a rainbow :)

The painted ladies

2011 - The rest is still unwritten

The pen's in my hand, ending unplanned
Staring at the blank page before me
Allowing the sun to illuminate the words
That I could not find

Reaching for something in the distance
So close I could almost taste it
Drenching myself in words unspoken
Gonna live my life with arms wide open
Today is where my book begins
The rest are still unwritten

Happy New Year!
May the new year bring you much love, peace and joy
Reach out to the stars and run towards your dreams
Keep giving and lovin in life
Stay classy and fabulous

Today is the new beginning of a new adventure.

Love always,
Barcelona
xo

 
Usher in the New Year with a bang!

 
Allow each breaking dawn to bring you renewed grace and mercy each day

 Hold what is precious to you tenderly

 Reflect on the past to allow you to move forward with strength each new day

Plant a new seed for the beginning of all things new, fresh in live and nurture that dream of yours in your heart until it comes to fruition

Headbands

I am obsessed with headbands!

I love how headbands can add a touch of girly-playfullness to an outfit.

It is the perfect accessory to accompany a hairdo- be it casual pin-straight hair, gentle tousled curls, an elegant updo or just to hold your bangs away from the face.

I am in the race to win the sereni & shentel headband competition on Facebook.

Please vote for me if you wish and I'll be grateful even if I didn't make it with the most votes to win 7 headbands of my choice with a headband pillow-bolster by 31 December 2011 <3


Tip: You will need to LIKE the sereni and shentel page as a fan before you can cast a LIKE vote on the picture :)


*Photo is courtesy of Gem from Gigi's Fairy Fashion
Headband worn: Charcoal Kuching Cat from sereni and shentel
Girl In The Picture: Que Moi <3

xoxo

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Bowerhaus - Of Old Charm and Playful Wit

How much jewellery does a girl need? I personally think that I can never have enough as I love picking up unique and beautiful items to go with my style of dressing. I would never feel complete and be able to walk out of the house until I have either my watch, rings, necklace, bracelet or nail polish as my accessories to complete my look. Sometimes, it is a combination of the few items listed or it could just be my nail polish and a statement/cocktail ring.

I never used to be an accessory girl until I started appreciating how accessories can really change the style of your dressing and transform a look. I watched Samantha Wills (one of my favourite Australian jewellery designer) on an interview on Kerri-Anne's morning talk show once and she said that during the recent global economic downturn, her jewellery sales were not affected. In fact sales increased as women shifted their spending more on accessories instead on clothes to help change and create different looks on the same garment.

It was then that I not only started to gain more interest in accessorising my looks but also to invest in good quality accessories with unique designs.

I have long admired and acquired the love for pearls (someday I will be able to afford my own Paspaley and Mikimoto pearls *pray and work hard!). As much as I love pearls as one of my accessories choices, I always steer clear from buying them as honestly, I could not afford the expensive ones like Paspaley and while Diva and Sportsgirl do have some cute designs, they the pearls are obviously of lower quality and can also look fake.

I recently stumbled across a new brand - Bowerhaus, started by two sisters Shentel and Elizabeth Lee who are utterly obssessed with collecting beautiful trinkets from all over the world.


Inspired by their father's vintage coin collection and mother's pearls, it was time to mark their obsession by launching Bowerhaus and their first collection, simply called "Hello" was borne.

Old world charm, playful wit and understated confidence are all the hallmarks of Bowerhaus.

Paging through the lookbook of Bowerhaus, I was introduced to a collection of semi-precious stones with Keishi and Baroque pearls. Every Bowerhaus Keishi pearl is unique as they are individually selected for their playful shape and lustre whilst their Baroque pearls are highly prized for their elaborate shapes, irregularities and individual blemishes.

It was a mixture of love, excitement and joy for me to finally found a simple yet classy design of pearl accessories that I could mix and match and create different looks with. I wasted no time and created my wish list straight away with a couple of bracelets and necklaces to add to my ever-growing accessories collection. And they now include pearls! :)

Making my choices weren't easy as I was just so in love with all the different coloured semi-precious stones. And just thinking about all the different possibilities of looks that I could achieve with Bowerhaus, I think I will be collecting a few of these gorgeous bracelets and necklaces.

So utterly inspired by creativity and uniqueness!
xoxo




A few of my favourite picks;
 Yai Sou Honeycomb Amber with Keishi Pearl
 Allo Pink Opal with Baroque Pearls
 Boas Yellow Agate with Keishi Pearls
 Selamat Datang Amethyst with Keishi Pearls
 Chao Aquamarine with Keishi Pearls
 Salaam Black and White Cracked Agate with Keishi Pearl
 Bon Giorno Trio - Onyx with Baroque Pearls
 Allo Trio - Pink Opal with Baroque Pearls
 Boas Trio - Cracked Agate with Baroque Pearls
 Yo Set - Silver Beads with Freshwater Baroque Pearls
 Hello Hello Baroque Pearls
 Jambo Trio - Moss Agate with Freshwater Baroque Pearls
 Privet Amazonite with Baroque Pearl
 Privet Trio with Amazonite and Freshwater Baroque Pearl
Salut Trio Glass Crystal with Freshwater Baroque Pearls 
Yai Sou Trio Amber with Freshwater Baroque Pearls



Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Decoration Without Explanation - A Creative & Dynamic Duo

Vibrant, colourful with an energetic upbeat style and yet classy with a character of its own, this is the creation of Sereni And Shentel, founded by Sereni Linggi and Shentel Lee.


A creative and dynamic duo who are best friends and business partners in real life. They realised their dreams of making headbands through their decoration without explanation approach in life. Their hair accessories line stemmed from a passion for dressing up for parties, soirees, champagne brunches, society balls and tete-a-tete lunches.

One of my favourite accessories in life, besides the obvious necklaces, bracelets, earrings and cocktail/statement rings are my nail polish and headbands :)



Each Sereni and Shentel headbands are hand made to order in Borneo, Malaysia.



I first stumbled across the brand and their headbands on Wedding Guide Asia blog and I instantly fell in love with their creations through their lookbook.

Each headband range is created and designed with a statement unapologetically using bold, bright beautiful colours and jewel stones with ear-catching names such as Mafia Mama, Bow Down, Blair (inspired from the infamous character Blair Waldorf of Gossip Girl and her style penchant for headbands), Kuching Cat and Ice Ice Baby.



So I have five headbands from Sereni And Shentel and yet I am still collecting for more :)
Inspired by creativity and uniqueness,
xoxo