Lavender 'N Orange » Shopping

Mommas Day out

Dimpz — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 22:45:51 +0000

Last Wednesday we had a wonderful day out with other co-school moms. After sending my daughter my new friend Ida (Indonesian) together with Tina (Filipina) they talked me out in going to VIllagio Mall for some shopping spree and then came Mavis and Chocho (a Burmese nice old friend for 5 years). At first, I was so hesitant in going with them because I had a laundry basket full of clean clothes to be ironed but I guess I’m the least person who would not want to join a fun-filled day of window shopping. Yup, I did not intend to buy something I just want to chill out for half a day and then suffer my afternoon catching up on some of my chores which nobody would do aside from me.

We were joking to our husbands that me and my friend Mavis were new recruits that he should let me go with them. And there without much asking he told me yes and I asked Ida first to drop me in my house to get some things for my little boy before we proceed to Tina’s house as we waited for the 9 am opening of some shops in the mall. I thought that shops in VIllagio mall opens up at 10 am but I was wrong I guess The other 3 cool mommas were always on a shopping spree after sending their kids to school and I was not mistaken.:)

It was nice talking to Ida, we shared a lot of stories from our kids to some topics in our married lives and its good to widen my horizon with new good friends and I’m blessed with not only one but more wonderful friends.

When we reached Tina’s house I was so amazed with almost everything, from the architectural design of the villa to her furniture and of course the nice kidney shaped pool just in front of her floor length window, I can’t stop myself from admiring their place. It was so neat, spic and spanned villa, cozy and warm. And my son enjoyed playing inside the kiddy bedroom for Tina’s only son while us the cool mommas had our cappuccino and chit-chatted like there’ll be no tomorrow.

It was one happy half day holiday with friends and I ended up buying some stuffs for myself and for my kids in H & M shop. And I’m looking forward to another day out with you cool mommas.

A Touch of Style!

Dimpz — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 22:35:20 +0000

Isn’t it nice to receive a gift with a stylish wrap or to give a gift with an extra touch? With so much birthday parties to attend to (mostly kiddie birthday parties) I always make sure to give a gift that would somehow make the celebrant more happy unless he/she is still a baby, in that case the mom will be the one smiling from ear to ear with a beautifully wrapped gift. I make sure that the gift would be functional or would be a source of delight to the receiver. I want that it would be a thing to cherish and be remembered.

For kids as much as possible I would give books and other educational toys and for the babies usually I go for a safer kind of gift it could be a beautiful pink dress with the emphasis on the size that somehow the baby could use the dress for a longer time. For newborn babies usually I would buy receiving blankets with mittens, with matching cap, booties and a dress.

For my friends usually I would give inspirational or most of the time recipe books. I’m happy to know that Sassy Lawyer would soon publish her Pinoy Food blog and this could be the best resipe book to give to those friends of mine who are still novice in the kitchen or to those who are newlyweds.

I use and recycle old shoe boxes, different kind of wrapping materials with different colors and textures. Any embelishment that could give a highlight to the gift and it became a habit of buying wrapping papers eventhough I don’t need one so that I wouldn’t be combing the city when the need arises.

My good finds are from Jarir Bookstore, Daiso, Al Rawnaq in Old Airport and some are from Carrefour.

This is just one of the many gifts that I fancy taking pictures before giving:

other pics are still in my other external hard disk show you later…

Shopping Spree!

Dimpz — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 17:33:14 +0000

Last weekend we went to Villagio Mall, Landmark Mall and Hyatt Plaza for a shopping spree and here are my good finds:

A white blouse from Zara, it’s original price is Qr. 165 and I got it at Qr. 132 (it’s just the start of Zara’s sale so the mark down is not quite big and if you’ll wait for the further reduction, sometimes it’s 75% off and the problem would be all nice stuffs are gone by that time.)

Hmmm. .. this skirt belongs to the new collection therefore there’s no discount in it. I love this skirt and that’s me if i’ll like something w/ or w/out discount i’ll buy it.

This black blouse (100% silk) is Qr. 220 and after discount it’s Qr. 172

Graffiti bag from Nine West 30% mark down (Qr. 179).

Another Nine West bag (Qr. 149)

A slingback pointed toe court shoes from Marks and Spencer.

I shopped also from Mango (2 weeks ago) and I got a dress half its price, a bag, pants, and some blouses. Most of my purchases from Mango have 50% discount. Not bad:)

There are items that ranges from 20 to 50 riyals in Zara, mostly basic T shirts & tank tops but I’m not in need of those stuffs. And surely, my shopping spree would be like in another year again. Read: A big smile in my lips…

The Summer Sale is On!

Dimpz — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 21:03:59 +0000

In Villagio Mall you can find these shops on sale: Mango , Zara, Topman, Topshop, Bershka, Pull and Bear, and Claire’s, Xanaxa, Evans, River island,Oysho, Cool Cat, Salsa,Pimkie,Boggi and Limited Too.

Wedgwood & Waterford and Dune in Landmark

Promod Shop in City Center

Adams Kids in City Center and Landmark Mall

Pumpkin Patch in The Mall and Villagio Mall

Camaieu in Villagio Mall

Aldo in Hyatt Plaza

Nine West is also on sale (City Center, Hyatt Plaza, Landmark Mall)

Furla, Sergent Major and Kekos in Landmark

We’re Back!

Dimpz — Wed, 16 May 2007 11:12:56 +0000

It’s been quite awhile and here we are back to our normal life from a very long vacation in the Philippines. My kids are still adjusting to the Doha time and they are sleeping too early,at 5 in the afternoon and wakes up at 3 in the morning.

Yesterday, we went out for a late Mother’s Day celebration and we decided to go to Villagio Mall to have an early dinner and I guess it was my luck to have our grocery there before my kids would have their nap time.

I like the ambiance of this mall, a Venetian themed mall, it was like we are in Venice, very romantic and very spacious.There’s a small pool akin to the canals in Venice wherein you can have a gondola ride and there are some areas with an atrium roofing wherein you can hear your voice echo whenever you talk. My daughter was very happy with her voice echoing and so did my 21 mos. old Sean. It has all the shops that I like,it’s nearer to our place and for sure we’ll have our groceries here every weekend instead of going to City Center. And one more thing, I love this Virgin Megastore.

small favors and friday madness

Sandro Rafael — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 21:55:24 +0000

The other day my friend M (whom I got fond of coz she’s so bubbly and a very nice friend; I can see the very essence and value of friendship in her) sent me an e-mail asking some small favor in helping her to prepare and cook for her friend’s birthday (and alongside with her friend’s celebration was a religious activity the 2000 Rosary; it’s almost the same with what we had in our house the only difference is the 2000 Hail Mary’s instead of the usual count).

I called her after reading some mails and answering some phone calls from other friends and told her the needed ingredients in making leche flan and ref. cake and talked more on what we’ll be doin’ since its weekend again. We settled with the idea of going to Villagio Mall and there’s the newly opened Carrefour to have our groceries and just to see what’s with this new mall.

They came around lunch time, and almost all of the grocery stores were closing, they were like the contestants in Amazing Race who jumped from one grocery store to another , left with small time to buy all the needed stuffs, so they just had the ingredients for leche flan but nothing for the refregirator cake and brought food from Take Away Restaurant (take note of the name of the resto) and after eating lunch we started making the flan with the help of our li’l cook (our daughters) who are always ready to help. And so we let them help a little , only in stirring the yokes. Then came the usual scene from the two bratinellas, yelling, crying and making peace again with each other again for the nth time.

After the cooking we went to the Carrefour, gross, too much people of different races were coming and going. And worst thing is there’s this band (i’m ashamed to tell this but they are kabayans who were singing out loud that’s ….to be continued my baby sean is already awake…

Tryin’ a new sport

Sandro Rafael — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 11:57:57 +0000

Finally, I gave in to my friend’s (J) persuasion of trying a new sport, which is by the way she really patronizes (whom she referred as a sport with “class”). It’s been nearly 2 months that she was talking me into engaging into tennis.

Eventhough, I really liked the idea of indulging myself into a new sport which would help me also reduce my weight (still got the love handles from giving birth to my 1 year old son) and to have time for myself once in a while still I was so hesitant to join her for lot of reasons; like I don’t have a nanny who’ll take care of my kids while I’m out there and enjoying myself and second it’s still summer and sometimes humidity is so high but my hubby cooperated very well and as well as my brother, so case no. one is solved then just deal with the heat and the humidity.
Good thing is our friend M will be joining us too so good luck to us!Thanks to our husbands who’ll be looking after our kids. Last Sunday we went to City Center with our friends M and C and looked for all the neccessary stuffs we’ll be using. We walked to and fro all the sports shop and tried to haggle with every salesperson to give us more discount for the racquet.

As a starter for this sports I don’t have an idea which tennis apparel and racquet to buy. And so, I settled with the affordable one and decided to have the Head Titanium 4100 (original price is Qr 208 and I got it for Qr 160) and my friend M got the Head Titanium 4200( orig. price is Qr.199 and got it for Qr.179), of course we bought it with discounts. We bought also knee pads and wrist bands from Sun and Sands.

I’m excited and i’m looking forward to start the lessons at once so that I can play tennis with my friends.

12 hours sale!

Sandro Rafael — Sun, 06 Jun 2004 19:37:01 +0000

got hooked again with the discount fever. we went to city center for our groceries but found out that there’s a 12-hour sale in debenhams. well, not bad! 25 percent discount is bearable than nothing so princess shopped again for pink stuffs: two piece suit, two pink shoes and blouses from mothercare shop. this is the first time that we spent longer hours in this mall imagine we left city center at nearly 12 midnight.
dinner ar nando’s resto was great. dada craved for a a fried bangus fish but unluckily florian cafe was near to its closure when we went to this italian-filipino restaurant so we decided to head to another restaurant but not a fast food again. their chicken espetada was great, now i learned my lesson from our past date in this restaurant (that was i think when we’re just starting out w/ our relationship that we used to eat and hang out here in nando’s with ninay faye)never to order the hottest one!
princess was in deep slumber while we’re in nando’s but when we reached home she got up and played til 2 a.m. it was really bad! we wanted to go to sleep but we can’t. little munchkin was into her latest game, again stand-and-fall. she mastered also her pincer grasp to the point that she can take everything to her hands but most of the times she’s like a monkey in her crib with her swinging arms always on the go for reaching higher stuffs.

the shopaholic baby!!!

Sandro Rafael — Thu, 27 May 2004 09:42:18 +0000

we went to babyshop yesterday and princess went home with a piano, barbie doll and a little barbie ( barbie’s daughter), skirt, and summer blouses. yep! shopping galore with momsy and dada. i think her cabinet when she reaches her first birthday would be overflowing with her clothes not to mention that there’s a suitcase waiting for her in pinas from lola mameng (balikabayan box from the States) and lots of dresses also from auntie baby from u.k.
when i gave to princess her first barbie doll she’s do very happy you can read it from her eyes. it seems that she knows how to play with dolls now, she did not put the barbie in her mouth but then i have to take off barbie’s shoes maybe princess would put them inside her mouth and that would be a serious problem. wow! she gave barbie a kiss!!! she’s screaming at me coz she wants also to play with barbie’s daughter but, can’t give it to her coz it has lots of accessories in its hair and some tiny materials on its dress. she’d gone nuts also with her piano i dunno if we’re disturbing our neighbors with its noise can’t keep princess from banging it.
and of course we’ve been also to our usual routine–picture perfect! it’s like i’m becoming a real stage momsy everytime that there’s new i’m into our digital camera again and princess to her terrific stunts while momsy keeps on clicking the camera. for sure mama baby and papa boy as well as uncle nnoy would be very happy to see her pics again on the net. and i think the second part of her movie will be finished only that dada is always busy.

interior design 101

Sandro Rafael — Sat, 08 May 2004 01:03:34 +0000

what a day! we’ve been to city center earlier this time for our groceries and we waited for two hours for the “home center” to open. we saw Ninang may and ninong yam together with ate marivic and uben. they also waited for the home center to open. ate marivic is an interior designer. ate marivic gave a short lecture on every stuff she saw inside the store.