i'm moving

Not physically though! My blog is getting a much-needed revamp, and sadly, that meant leaving blogger where I've been for the past 6 years and migrating on over to Wordpress. Catch more of my updates at ladykrystle.wordpress.com from now on! I have been able to import all my old blog entries though, so no content will be missed from my "old" blog here. See you there!

what i'll save up for

Nati came down from Kingston to visit me for the weekend and I couldn't help but notice her Cartier watch. I am normally much more drawn to watches with bigger faces but something about the simplicity and classic elegance of this watch made me glance at it time and time again. I finally decided to look up the model name, and it's called the Ronde Solo de Cartier Small Ladies' Watch in Stainless Steel. I think I have just changed my mind about that big ticket item I was going to buy for myself when the time comes for me to (sadly and regrettably) leave New York. Originally I was thinking of splurging on a Chanel bag, but I think a watch is more up my alley. This will definitely make my eventual leaving New York a bit more tolerable.

happy socks!

I recently bought myself a pair of Happy Socks from Nordstrom Rack where they sell them at $5 a pair instead of the usual $10. I know they're made for the men, but I couldn't let the guys have all the fun. Who can resist wearing a pair of socks as fun as these?? Only Paul Smith socks like the one Aldrich got for Ming on his birthday could match the joy one feels upon seeing these on your feet. And those cost $30 a pair! These are much more worth the money :D

boredom breeds productivity

I always seem to find myself creating something when I'm bored. Maybe I should be bored more often, then I'll have much more to show for my time! Here's a little something I came up with one night last week. I was too lazy to trace the lines so the illustration's not in vector form right now. One day I will find the time (and the patience) to do that.

labor day weekend

Everyone's obviously in vacation mode now. People are coming into the office at 10am instead of the usual 9:30, and the subway trains were practically empty today on the way to work. I am a bit (okay, maybe a lot) jealous of the people who are off to vacation somewhere nice for the weekend. It helps though that we get off work today at 2pm (yey!) And, we're all heading to Queens for some Thai food at SriPraPhai! It's located almost across the street from Red Ribbon, two blocks up from Jollibee along Roosevelt Ave. and it's supposed to be the best Thai restaurant in all of New York City. I'm super excited. :D

red dress up high

Something about this red dress hanging off a second-floor balcony-slash-fire-escape seemed really dramatic. I couldn't not take a snapshot of it.

photo shoot at work

After weeks of preparation, we finally had our two-day photo shoot for our client last Thursday and Friday! It was an amazing experience putting together all the settings with Luca (the prop stylist) and his team, ogling over the outfits Peter styled and watching as the photo assistants created lighting magic under Cyrus' direction. There was also Ludo, Mr. French digital technician, who kept a watchful eye on focus and lighting on the iMac screen whenever Cyrus fired his camera and Erin who made sure everything was going according to schedule. Everything went pretty smoothly! I'm still bummed that we weren't able to set up the green living room we had planned for the first day, but oh well. The "hobby room" and the "music room" from the second day turned out great!



It was a bit overwhelming being surrounded by so many beautiful people. One of the models who we cast as the older, slightly "not-so-pretty" guy turned out to be the hottest in the bunch. *insert Rietje's sigh here* (She had a major crush on that guy, Philip.) Even the stylists were gorgeous! Funnily enough, I found out that Peter, the wardrobe stylist, actually used to be a model himself but has since decided it wasn't for him and now styles outfits for people like Maroon 5. He has got himself an amazing job, I must say!

I was pretty flattered though when one of the models, Ming, came out wearing an outfit that looked eerily, okay, exactly, like mine! I don't think Peter had done it intentionally, but he later joked, "You're my muse!" when he saw the "similarity".


Here's me in the "bachelor pad" setting


And here's Ming in the "home office" setting with Peter

I wanted to grab so many things off the clothes racks they had brought there. They were mostly filled with goodies from J.Crew and Club Monaco. *sigh* If only we could keep the clothes! Peter said had we been in L.A., we would probably have been able to keep them. Sayang!

my summer friday

This is how I spent the afternoon of my third Summer Friday! (We get four Fridays of our choice off between Independence Day and Labor Day.) I haven't touched my acrylics in almost two years... actually, make that three! I haven't touched them since I finished Color Theory class in my first semester at Parsons.

I remembered I still have a few blank canvases left over from my art student days so today I decided to paint on one of them. Before I could get started, I actually had to go out and buy a palette from Lee's Art Shop a few doors down because I realized I'd thrown away my old one. (It was probably unbearably stained.) When I got back, I then realized I only had one paintbrush left too. I was hoping I had a thinner one around but, oh well, I didn't want to go back out again, so I made do.

I'm really not a painter, and I've only used my Guerra paints for those Color Theory projects that took Cel and I forever to finish. (I still cringe thinking about the grayscale half-painting half-collage piece that took us 10 hours each to complete! Haha) I wasn't really expecting a masterpiece of any sort to emerge from these hands of mine. I was not gifted to be a painter. Haha, I must say though, I'm pretty happy with how this turned out all things considered. I couldn't really fix things that needed more detail because of the width of my brush, but I don't think I ever intended to fill in the details of my face anyway. I like doing faceless sketches and paintings; it makes life so much easier. *grins*



Sooo, this might look familiar... because it's based off the picture I posted maybe 3 entries ago, hehehe :) Now that I've finished cleaning the palette and putting all the paint back into my art box, off to other things! I'm really excited for Karaoke tonight in K-town! Jared has been talking about organizing this for over a year now, and it's finally happening! Hurray! :)

miso soup mishap

Today I decided to forgo my recent obsession with Soon Doo Boo from Manna Kitchen and revert back to my former obsession of Oyakodon from Ennju. I had my bowl of chicken and egg on rice in front of me, my chopsticks in hand, and my eyes glued onto my computer screen. I was watching White Collar on Hulu during my lunch break and was well, busy swooning over Neil Caffrey (Matt Bomer, I love you, your style, your suits and your blue eyes!) Next thing I know, I had spilled a spoonful of my complimentary miso soup onto my pants, and not just anywhere, but right at the crotch! I was horrified. I had to wait a good 30 minutes for my gray pants to dry and for the spot to disappear. Thank goodness nobody needed me and had wanted me to come over to their desks! Else I would have had to stand up looking like I had peed right through my pants! *laughs* Hayayay.

ramen coma

I think I might have slurped down that bowl of Shoyu ramen at Terakawa Ramen much too quickly. My tummy is not feeling all that well at the moment. The ramen, from the soup, to the noodles and that perfectly soft-boiled egg, was so delicious I just started stuffing my face with it all. Now I am regretting not taking my time with it. Food comaaaaaaaa...

my hair in a bun

This is the first time I've worn my hair in a bun since I had my last ballet recital when I was, I don't know, maybe 4 years old? *laughs* It was actually fun taking all those bobby pins and just sticking them in "strategic locations" to keep the strands in place. Quite fulfilling! I still don't know how the auditioning ballerinas who I see waiting in line on 19th Street everyday on my way to work keep their buns so neat, without a hair out of place. It's definitely a learned art.

Anyway, I wore a super comfy no-fuss outfit today. I felt like I was walking around in pajamas! I really love my hot pink top, it's super soft and flowy. I remember wearing this to my brother's birthday dinner almost exactly a year ago. How time flies!

red mango graphics

I know this Red Mango store has been open for almost 7 months now, but I never really got to "celebrate" this illustration that I created for the counter wall at the SM Mall of Asia. I remember working on this graphic over countless wintry nights at our poorly heated sublet apartment on W 51st Street (I would sometimes wear my puffy down jacket over my pajamas because it was so cold in there!) I've never seen this store in person, and I haven't seen the SM Megamall store either. I guess everything will have to wait until I'm back in Manila for the holidays this December.


The illustration
I was a bit bummed to see they hadn't gotten the measurements right and had zoomed into the illustration and cut away a large part of it when they applied it to the wall, especially since I'm sure I was working on the right size/proportions. Oh well. Achi said she could have it changed eventually, but I don't think we're ever gonna end up doing that. I wish the illustration didn't end up getting zoomed in this huge though (especially since I might have some curves there that aren't as smooth as I would have liked them to be! hehehe oops!)


As seen at the SM Mall of Asia store
Another thing I just finished working on last night is a new set of slides for the rotating TV menus we have at the stores. I remember having done the first set a year ago in haste because we were opening the first-ever Red Mango Philippines store at TriNoma in a few days. I've realized, now that I've done the second set, that the first set from last year looked quite bad! I guess my design sense has been taken up a notch since then! *laughs* It's funny how different you can feel about something once time turns its hands. It's amusing looking back on things you've done, things you were actually happy about or even proud of, and seeing them now and making a face thinking, "I actually thought that looked good?" Hehehe.

Overall, I guess I still retained a bit of a feel from the first set, but I've just buttoned it up a bit. And so I present a before-and-after snapshot of a couple of the slides on the menu. At the very least I think I've been able to make the slides more cohesive as a set the second time around :) Or do people think otherwise? Oopsie if they do hehe!

old town in san diego

I always knew achi was bossy, but I didn't know she knew how to brandish a whip! *laughs* Poor shoti!



Some other pictures from Old Town include cute little cacti and a stretched piece of cowhide. I looooove the illustration of the Virgin Mary on the wooden bench!

my new camera bag

Well, it's technically not new because it's vintage. Let's just say it's recently acquired :) I love it!

cool shoesies

These shoes are so cuuute and funky! Figures that the shoes' name is Funk a Delico! They're on sale for $119.99 (originally $160) at Need Supply but I have no intention of buying them. I doubt I'll ever really wear them, I just get a kick out of looking at them, hehe. Besides, I don't have money to spare!

waiting for the weekend again

Listening to: Your Love is My Drug by Ke$ha

This song is so cheery! It makes me want to let my hair down and spin around with arms outstretched, eyes closed, face towards the sky, without a care for the world.

The problem is, as I stare at the calendar on my computer, I see that it's only Monday. There will be no letting my hair down until Friday. This past weekend has been fun enough to fuel me through this week though. We went up to Greenwich, Connecticut for a barbecue pool party and all I can say about Meredith's house is wow. Infinity pool and hot tub, plus steaks, burgers and corn grilled on a Weber grill, plus a grassy yard surrounded by blue and purple hydrangeas where we ran around barefoot playing soccer and tossing frisbees equals a Saturday very well spent. I loved it, even if I did not get to swim and had to satisfy myself with wading and hanging my legs off the edge of the pool. Rainer is one lucky guy. He can come up to Greenwich whenever he feels like it now especially since his wedding with Meredith's in less than a month! So exciting :)

my skimmer design

Yey! My skimmer design for punchdrunkpanda's out! Because I wasn't able to think of a name for my design, Nati ended up calling it "Magnolia". The design doesn't really resemble a Magnolia, or any particular flower for that manner, hehehe, but the spirit of it is still quite girly and I guess because of that, a flower's name works well enough. I still think the perfect name is eluding us though.

Still, I'm pretty happy with the way this turned out! Now if only Nati and Horn would give their artists a free pair/piece of whatever they designed for punchdrunkpanda as part of the compensation. *hint hint* :D

And oh, is it obvious that I love pink?



Click on the image and it'll take you to the "Magnolia" product page on punchdrunkpanda's website where you can purchase this, or click around and find other skimmers and laptop sleeves that tickle your fancy. Ayan Nati, free advertising! :)

passion pit

Lately I've been listening a lot to Passion Pit. And for the longest time I couldn't sing along to any of the songs because I couldn't quite make out what he's saying. Now that I've checked out the lyrics, I'm surprised at how abstract they are. They're actually a bit hard to interpret, but that's precisely why I find them so intriguing. Here's a stanza I love that's a bit more straightforward.

Oh, I know
That whatever happens to you
whatever happens to me
I hope that I'll fall asleep
Knowing that you'll always be
The story with no ending
From Live to Tell the Tale by Passion Pit

stress.

My goodness. Nakakastress. I wonder how the maleta move-in at the apartment is doing. I cannot believe they actually have 14 pieces of luggage. Well at least they got rid of all the boxes. And I guess that's actually a really good number considering 3 of those are my sister's and Andrew's and the rest hold my brother's whole life for the past 4 years at Cornell. I can only imagine the state my apartment (okay, our apartment) will be in after they cram all the stuff in. Huhu. It's going to be a "cozy" three weeks.

On the bright side, I'm glad to have family around! But you gotta admit living on your own also has its merits. No one to clean up after, no one to worry about sharing the bathroom with, no one to look for you when you're out, hehe :)

my brother's graduation

The last of the Tanmantiongs has finally graduated from college! And with Cum Laude honors at that, sooo proud of you shoti! :) Hmm... I suddenly feel really old. I've just realized that I'm now 3 years out of Ateneo and a year out of Parsons! Time is speeding by much too quickly. Tsk tsk! Anyway, thought I'd post a picture of the family that was taken at Cornell University the day before the graduation ceremonies. I really love Cornell's campus. Every time I visit I can't help but think I should have gone there for my bachelor's degree just because I find the campus so beautiful! (That's assuming I'd have been good enough to get into Cornell!)


Thanks to Andrew for taking the picture!

her morning elegance

Such a beautiful stop motion video for an equally enchanting song from Oren Lavie. So sweet and whimsical.

need something to do

I wish I had something interesting to talk about, but I don't. I just need to be doing something other than image searching right now. I wish I could be working on something for Red Mango back at the apartment instead of trying to look busy here, hehehe. Oh well, work will pick up tomorrow. I should enjoy these rare days of relaxation (and boredom) haha!

What is there to talk about? Oh! I just finished designing a skimmer for Nati and Horn's brainchild, Punchdrunk Panda, last week. The skimmers I made probably won't be out for another few months but I'm quite excited to see people walking around with my art on their feet. Well, that's only if someone actually buys the skimmers I designed, hehe. I hope people do! If they sell well, maybe Nati and Horn will give me more projects to do. I'll post pictures of the skimmers when they're already on sale. For now, you can just check out the other designs (for skimmers and laptop sleeves) they currently have on sale at their site.

cinco de mayo

I thought I'd just post a picture of the Cinco de Mayo celebration we had at our office. The interns made some pretty amazing teaser posters and decorations (which I don't have pictures of, unfortunately) and put together a playlist that really made you feel like you were in Mexico. We had sangria, tortilla chips with salsa and guacamole, and a variety of paper mustaches to choose from and pose with! It's nice to cut loose and just hang out every once in a while. I love that we're getting to do fun, bonding activities like this more and more at Landor :)


Clockwise from top right: Karen, Me, Erin and Natalie

trinkets

I buy a lot of useless stuff. A lot of pretty, but useless stuff. It's not that they provide no utility, I just seem to like owning them but not using them. I have hipster glasses gathering dust on top of my dresser, brooches that sit in my drawer never seeing the light of day, and fancy rings and earrings that I couldn't resist buying but have yet to wear. I suffer the same problem with shoes, high heels in particular. All the flat shoes I buy get trodden on right away, but those skyscraper heels are another story. I buy them because they look sooo beautiful (and sexy), but I almost never wear them because I can never find the right occasion to subject my feet to the torture of the eternal tiptoe. But that's just my excuse.

I realize I must put a stop to this nonsense. Either I stop buying the stuff altogether, or I should start wearing all of them so that they don't go to waste... I've decided on the latter. I don't think I can resist the urge to buy something if it's already caught my eye, so I better just make sure I depreciate its value properly through use.

To start off this new resolution of mine, I pinned this brooch onto my blazer and wore it to work yesterday. I got this for (I think) $2 at a flea market on 6th Avenue more than a year ago. It's missing one dangling thing on the left (you can't really tell from this picture) but it's not very obvious. And I can always just take off the one on the right to make it symmetrical again, haha :)




Now let's see if I can keep the habit up!

update on my living room

Here's a picture of my living room taken from another angle. The door on the left leads to my room while the door on the right leads to what will be my brother's room. :) Right now I've got some of my clothes piled onto his bed, hehe, I will have to start putting them in their proper drawers soon. He'll be graduating from Cornell at the end of May and he'll be living with me by June. I am excited to have someone to talk to at home but I am dreading having to pick up after his messes. *laughs* I hope he'll clean up after himself!



Anyway, I now have a clock and three frames hanging on the main living room wall. The leftmost frame houses a hand-painted illustration from a German costume book from the late 19th Century that I got from a bookshop in D.C.

The middle frame holds a silk scarf from the Met printed with the work of Henri Toulouse Lautrec. This was gifted to me on my 18th birthday by my dad's friend, Paul, way before I ever even imagined I would come to New York and learn about Lautrec in my History of Graphic Design class. I'd forgotten I ever had this scarf. I found it again, after 7 years, when I was home for the holidays just this past December and cleaning out my old stuff. Isn't it funny how Paul seemed to have psychic powers? I was so amused when I found that scarf, still in it's Metropolitan Museum of Art box, and still with the birthday card stuck on it that I had to bring it back with me to New York. It's now back where it came from. :)

On the right is a silkscreen poster I did for class in 2008 with silver and gold ink. This is probably one of my favorite pieces from my time at Parsons. I still have a few more prints like these tucked away under my bed. I used even blacker paper for the others; those turned out beautiful.

And of course, in the corner on the left, you can see the rear wheel of my Linus Dutchi. Because there really isn't anywhere else I can park it, my bike has to stay right there. The wheel somewhat obstructs the entrance to my room but oh well. :)

doing a little victory dance.

I think I just heard what is by far the best piece of work-related news when I came into the office today. Much of the design work I've done here in the past year have not really seen the light of day. They may make it to the last round but clients never seem to choose my work, even if they're sometimes the designs that we as a company recommend they adopt. Work has to go through so many corporate hoops that it takes months to have a single logo chosen and approved. That's just the way it is.

I was my usual 5 minutes late. So after plopping my bag in the corner and taking off my cardigan, I quickly settled into my chair, typed in my network password to log onto my computer and did the first thing I do each morning. I checked my mail. There shone a single new message sent at 6:53 pm the night before, and the subject line read "Good meeting!"

Excited, I clicked to open the email that had come from one of my bosses who had been at a client's office yesterday to present a visual identity system (aka what we at Landor call a House Style) that I had worked on. They apparently had an unusually successful meeting (the client required no changes at all!) and the CEO had signed off on the design pretty quickly. So now it's time to create the guidelines for the system and get it through implementation. I will FINALLY have something that will actually live in the real world! :) Granted, this process will take another few months, and the company probably won't be able to implement the system and roll out designs until maybe early or mid-2011(?) but whatever, I'm happy :D In a year, I will be able to see the fruits of my labor at branches of this company across the city, and all the work will have been worth it. :) I'm excited!

bike snob.

I found this book as I was reading through Cool Hunting and I am putting it on my wish list! It seems like the perfect primer for my foray into urban cycling. It's humorous and unpretentious with a fresh mix of historical nuggets, cycling-disaster anecdotes and straightforward bike safety information. But the 2-color line illustrations by Christopher Koelle are really what sealed the deal for me. I wouldn't be able to resist buying this book even just for the illustrations if I had seen this at a store.


Bike Snob cover


I will probably find myself ordering this online from Chronicle Books tonight when I'm sitting at my desk back home. They have a 20% discount + free shipping, which puts the original price of $16.95 at $13.56! Granted it's a small book at 5" x 7" but it's got a hardcover. I'd say that's not bad, not bad at all.

my linus dutchi!

I finally bought my bike last weekend! It's soooo european retro chic :) I love it! It's even got its own little bell. :)

Linus Dutchi Single-Speed
I'm now just waiting for my Bern Watts helmet to arrive in the mail. It's equally cute! I can't wait to put it on and ride my bike through Central Park. It reminds me of those helmets Italian girls wear when they're riding down the streets in Vespas although it's really a skate helmet. They didn't have the glossy white helmet in my size so I had to order it online. My head is apparently a men's size medium! I always knew I had a big head, I'm just thankful I'm not a men's XL!


Bern Watts Summer EPS Helmet
I hope my helmet comes this weekend because I already told Henry I'd go biking with him! I did order a basket to put on my handlebars too, and according to UPS tracking it should arrive tomorrow, so I can start installing it when I get home from work. Yey! I will post another picture when I've got that basket on there.

eames rocking chair

I love the Eames rocking chair. I just never thought it would make such a cool-looking tattoo! :)

Photo taken from Ethan Pines' website

first weekend of spring!

It's the first weekend of spring and we're heading over to Central Park for a picnic tomorrow! I'm excited beyond belief. I'm excited by the prospect of getting to wear shorts, a skirt or a dress again without having to pull on tights or stockings underneath. I'm excited to finally put my aviators to good use under the warm rays of the sun. And I'm excited to go buy a bike! Okay, so that last one might not happen this weekend, but I will get around to doing that hopefully before April is over. I'm actually very tempted to just get one from Republic Bikes online, but I should do my research and go around the different bike stores. I should also ask where people store their bicycles in our building. I've never seen anyone bring one in yet. Hmm...

all i want for spring

I am itching to go shopping, but I don't have the moolah to go buy all the things I want to right now. Luckily for me, my mom is willing to sponsor the purchase of the trench coat! So now I only have to worry about all the other items on my list. It's still going to be quite a big drain on my account. I probably won't get around to buying everything, but I plan on getting at least one of them!

Oh, and there's one more thing I need to get this spring too! I am so envious of Henry who keeps talking about riding his bike around on the weekends. I will get myself a euro-style bike one of these days! :D Here's one from Republic Bikes that you actually customize (choose colors for all the different parts) and they'll send it over to you all built. :) It's like Nike iD for bikes! I love it!

Update: I bought the Club Monaco trenchcoat two weekends ago and I've already worn it a couple of times since then! Yey for spring! It's gorgeous out this week.

my new living room

Yey! :) I finally bought some rug tiles from CB2 (at $13.95 each) to complete my living room! I still want to add more frames and pretty pictures to my wall but I'm feeling really happy with how my living room turned out. All the furniture's from IKEA so the total cost for everything in this picture stands at around $550. That includes the pillows, the frame, the vase, and even the white cabinet in the dark hallway. Not too bad. :)

i love yellow and i love stripes!

things are going my way.

Little reasons for happiness (however shallow they may be) are popping up here and there these days and I've been catching myself smiling out of the blue because of them.

First, I've got some money rolling in, and who says no to money? Last December, I completely forgot to change my mailing address on my employee profile so my last paycheck for the year got sent to my old apartment. I put in a request to have the check reissued and I finally got the new check yesterday! Ka-ching! More money in the bank always makes me happy. :) When I catch the shopping bug again at least I'll have a little more padding. *naughty smile* I'm not even sure what I want to buy as I've already purchased two pairs of metallic shoes in the past 2 weeks. I don't know what the deal with the metallic streak is, but I just couldn't pass them up. I can't wait for spring (or at least a sunny winter day when all the slush from the recent snow days melts away) to come so I can wear them. :D Also, I just got back a cashier's check I issued as a move-in insurance deposit for my apartment a few days ago. I'd forgotten about it so it was a nice surprise. Double ka-ching!

Second, we just got out of a meeting with some clients and they loved all the work we presented them! And it seems my design concept is going to make it to the next round :) Oh yeah! *fist pump* Hahaha :) Little victories like these make work that much more satisfying. As we always say here in our cube, "All a designer wants is to be loved and understood." A little appreciation goes a long long way.

Third, because my apartment finally feels like a home with all the IKEA furniture finally built! Woohoo :) Now if I can only go out and finish purchasing the pots and pans so I can start cooking! I did use my newly purchased microwave for the first time two nights ago though. I can already imagine myself using it for some buttery popcorn on Netflix movie nights!

Fourth, just because I'm in New York, concrete jungle where dreams are made, there's nothing you can't do here. Wahahaha, I'm actually a bit sick of that song now, but yeah, I just love it here and now I can honestly say that I'm really glad I decided to stay. :)

settling in (back in new york)

It's been two weeks since I got back from my little vacation back home. These two weeks have been strange in that they feel long and yet short. So much has happened in so little time; it feels a bit disorienting. If you think about it, 2 weeks is a relatively short time but it feels like forever since I took my flight out of Manila. So much has changed.

Since getting back I've moved my stuff out of storage and into my new apartment (and not without some trouble! Boy, did I have to whip out persuasion skills I didn't know I had just to get my boxes of clothes through the door.) gone to IKEA to buy 4 pallets worth of furniture (and spending $2000!) and built about half of that furniture. The rest of them are still in boxes leaning against the living room wall. I'm excited to finally get everything up and ready but it's proving to be much more difficult than expected. My room is looking more and more like a room now though. I can't wait to finally have pictures of it when it's all complete!