Stuff

 
I'm planning on moving soon from my condo to an even smaller place and that has forced me to assess all the stuff I have. And, boy, do I have a lot of stuff.

So lately I'm busy going on a purging binge and, as advised by numerous home organizers, segregating things into piles of "keep", "throw", "sell" or "donate/give away". Surprisingly, my "keep" pile only has less than ten items as of now (besides what I am still using at the moment). Majority of them end up on the "sell" pile which tells a lot, doesn't it?

I'm still not finished but I can already feel the change. I am more relaxed and feel like my head is getting clearer. It's like how when you're vacationing at a hotel and you get a good rest because you aren't constantly surrounded by your stuff that, in the back your mind, you have to do.

Less stuff = less worrying about all the unimportant stuff and more focus on the important stuff.

Any cleaning and purging tips you want to share?

Meg

Bedside Matter

Night

Day

Mirror - AC +632, Greenbelt 3

Scarf - Japan street stall

Anglepoise lamp - SM Homeworld

Various Books - National Bookstore

Vintage suitcase (filled with complete Nora Roberts Language of Love series) - Legaspi Sunday Market

Pig figurine - China (?)

Wireless mouse - CDR King

Fan - gifted

Red necklace - crafted by moi

Antique-style clock - SM Homeworld

Lace placemat - Landmark

Ceramics - inherited from Mom

White wooden picture box - ??? store

A Closet Case

"It's not that I have too many clothes... It's just that I have a small closet."

- Me

I had long despaired of finding a good closet. I didn't think it was too much to ask. I wasn't talking about one of those walk-in ones where it looks more like a boutique than an actual closet. All I wanted was only about 50 inches wide with drawers and, most importantly, a mirror installed in one of the doors. I don't have a full-length mirror on my room so whenever I dress, I have to go out and check myself on the "hallway" mirror. And I'm not one of those people who are always satisfied with their first outfit... sometimes I go on three outfit changes so you can imagine how much time it takes to dress up.

 Uneven doors, disjointed, bottomless drawers, and under the bed storage

Another reason why I wanted a new closet was because the one I had was already falling apart. It was one of those generic ones you see being sold on most furniture stores like SM Homeworld. While it may look ideally perfect for my needs, the workmanship left much to be desired. I had to re-install a metal rod instead of the plastic one it came with because it curved due to the weight of the clothes. Soon, the drawers' bottoms gave out so the the top drawers contents toppled down to the bottom (In a way, you can call it a bottomless drawer hehe). The closet door also went out of alignment that I couldn't open the closet door without opening the drawer. Suffice to say, I am never going to buy one of those closets again.

Easier said than done... because there aren't a lot of places in Manila where you could buy a good quality closet.

My options: 1) Have it custom made; 2) Buy second hand from those antique stores in Evangelista; and 3) Persist in finding the perfect closet.

I was seriously considering having it custom made but I didn't know who to ask. This probably would have been my best option, but I didn't pursue it.

For buying second hand... I saw these two closets which had mirrors in front over at the second hand shops at Evangelista, Bangkal. One of them was just my style - the mirror had flower etchings and there was even a hidden drawer! But, sadly, it was too small for my needs. The other one was a bit large and a little austere for my taste, but I could work on it to make it more "pretty." And they were pretty cheap. Again, I was seriously considering buying the latter (and restoring the former and maybe selling it) but the main drawback was that it was an antique. It wouldn't surprise me if one night a white lady showed herself on the mirror or a child was suddenly hiding inside the closet. *Insert me screaming* No, thank you.

The third option was a trial in patience. I went around different furniture stores and had a tape measure in my bag for several months just in case I find a prospective closet. I ended up going to Waltermart Makati and up to S.B. Furniture to look at what they have in stock. I think this was back last year, later than September, I guess. They had really good quality closets and some of them even had mirrors! But!!! They were too large for my wee condo. If it wasn't too tall, it was too wide. There was no way it could fit in my room and still have room for people to walk on. Fortunately, they had a website and I looked it up. They get their furniture from Thailand and if I wanted a design, I could order it and it will arrive... in two months! Two months seemed a long time to me so I didn't place an order and just hoped that I could still find my dream closet. Fast forward to 2012 and I was still suffering with my old closet - some of my clothes stored under the bed because the drawers were useless. Yeah... I was regretting not ordering from overseas by then.

Hopefully, I thought that maybe their next shipment of furniture - which the friendly people at their store told me would come by February - would have my dream closet. I made a pest of myself calling and calling them to ask if the furniture had arrived yet and did they have a closet with a mirror on it. The answer was always "no, not yet."

Then one day, I went to the store by chance. I asked. Again. And was told, again, that they didn't have it. But! One of the people remembered a closet that was ordered by someone and was going to be shipped to Pampanga. I looked at the picture and there it was - a three-door closet with a mirror! 

Princess Wardrobe

(image taken from S.B. Furniture)

The sales associate told me that someone ordered two of the model and he was going to check if that person will still get two. I was mentally willing the unknown person to take only just one while he phoned the other branch. And then... YES! I got it! Wasting no time, I whipped out my credit card and asked when it could be delivered. And, what do you know - it will be delivered the next day!

 Before and (Happily Ever) After

So... thus ends the case of the sad, sad closet. Now it's a happy closet. Look! It has butterfly handles and stuff! (LOL!)

Thanks to the friendly and helpful people at S.B. Furniture and to the unknown person from Pampanga who ordered two of these and only got one. I hope you really didn't need it, because I really, really did.

***

S.B. FURNITURE

4th Level, Waltermart Makati, Chino Roces Ave. cor Arnaiz St. Makati City

S.B. Furniture (Philippines) Facebook Page

A lot like Christmas...

I've finally finished decorating for Christmas. Shopping for it? Well, that's a different matter.

My theme this year was supposed to be handmade, but I ended up buying most of the gifts, as usual. But I did D.I.Y. some of the decorations this year.

I got the Merry Christmas bunting flags from the Ruffled blog. I just printed them out and cut little lines and threaded a measuring tape through it. I love the results, even though it doesn't look very Christmas-y.

A lot is going on in this picture. First the teacup which is from Japan Home Center. I bought it just because I loved the way it looked. Haha... The "Have a Wonderful Life" is by Papemelroti. Remember that store? When I was in high school, almost all my gifts to my classmates were from there. There's a yellow fabric ball at the right side which I made (more on that later) and the flower shaped thing is just an empty tissue roll which I pasted together. I'm still not sure what to do with it yet, but I'm leaving it as is for now. I might decide to paint it gold or whatever.

 

The pastel-colored tissue pom pom balls I made myself thanks to some tutorials I found in the internet. It's really easy to do, surprisingly. I just stuck some barbecue sticks and tied some green fabric on the base and put them on a vintage pink pitcher I had lying around. The photo props I printed, cut, and pasted are from Oh Happy Day. We turn into such photo whores during the holidays. LOL

Isn't the bunny cute? Little tip. I got this at Watsons last year. They sell stuff toys there too! But during December it's so expensive so you don't really want to buy one. But after the holidays, the prices suddenly drop! I think I got this for less than a hundred pesos! So you could say I started my Christmas shopping as soon as Christmas ended. It's so fluffy (!!!) that I wanted it for myself but I think I'm too old for this (huhu...) and stuffed toys + asthmatic kid me doesn't really mesh well. Sad.

I had a vision for this and I really don't know if I executed it well enough. It's basically four frames which contents I usually change depending on the mood (more on that later). I cut four squares of watercolor paper from my pad and painted them yellow, blue, red, and green. After that, I cut out the words using an Xacto knife (and a small Swiss army knife when I got tired) then put Christmas wrapping paper as backing. I still think it needs improvement but I'll let this one go for now and maybe improve on the design idea next year.

The coffee table. Not much happening here except where I randomly stuck some of the leftover Christmas flowers on a green glass pitcher. Yes, I have a lot of pitchers at home which I don't use for what it is actually supposed to be used for. LOL. Check out my collection! DVD box sets of F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and BtVS (of course!), plus the romance novels (if you read them, then you can recognize what it is from the spines) and the remote controls! Yay! Haha... The stack of magazines are Yummy magazines (even if I don't cook) and decorating books.

Our only Christmas cushion cover. It's very glitter-y so I don't really like it much. Some of it gets stuck on you when you handle it. Oh well, it's just for a month.

Extra! I'm loving my current nail polish. Very holiday-ish. This was actually supposed to be a gift for someone but I changed my mind on what to give her and then I got bored and painted my nails. Haha...

And... ending this post with one my favorite wrapped presents for my Ninang. I love the Tiffany blue, silvery wrapper plus the red ribbon.

Now it really feels like Christmas season already. :)

Bed Romance

This is kinda embarrassing, but I think I have one heck of a girly bedroom. It's not all pink, but it's kinda - for a lack of a term - princess-y. I would argue that it's not really my fault, because I hired an interior decorator to make my bedroom and I wasn't there the whole time to approve of everything. I wanted a relaxed, romantic, vintage-y type of room so I guess it is quite close to what I said. I still love the look that makes you feel like you're sleeping underneath a blooming cherry blossom / sakura tree... but the brass four-poster bed (shown without the matching white gauze curtains) was maybe a little too much.

 Sleeping Beauty's bed? LOL

It has its pros... For one thing, it was raised very high and there was a lot of space below for plastic storage boxes (seen on the photos) and in case of earthquakes, you can hide beneath it (hopefully I don't need to do this). I also hang a lot on the curved designs/brackets of the headboard, like ponytail holders, cloth headbands, necklaces, bags, etc. I also used to hang clothes on the bars when I take photos to sell them online.

Wall mural (yes, it's not wallpaper!)

But... I felt like the bars above gathered dust that trickled down to me. It was also a space-eater - physically and visually. You can't get from one side of the room to the other because the footboard blocked you from just vaulting over.

Work in progress... I sat on the cushion as I watched my computer monitor.

Slept like this while the bed was being done... not bad, actually.

I wanted to change it or modify it for years. I finally got around to it last month and I am absolutely loving it. Now I can see more of the mural behind the bed and I get an unobstructed view to my computer monitor from my bed - which, added to my bluetooth mouse means more laid-back viewing! Yay!

Finished product!

Now that my bed is done, my next step would be to shop for a new closet, which is harder than anticipated. And also, expensive! Sigh. Why isn't there an Ikea here in the Philippines yet?