7 Must-Read Local Fashion Blogs

Urban did a feature on local fashion bloggers and I was so glad to see most of my favourite fashion bloggers being featured. Other than reading fashion mags (which means spending $$), why not get your dose of fashion inspiration online? Of course some of these bloggers may be more “out-there” and experimental, but you can always adapt their ideas and tone them down to create your own style! Check them out now (not in order of preference)!

1) FashionNation

FashionNation is the first local fashion blog I encountered. The posts are always well-written and their passion in fashion and all things stylish rubs off on you!

2) Fash-Eccentric!

Another passionate fashion blogger who comes across as outspoken, quirky and fun-loving. She shares lots about her holidays abroad too.

3) Wottoncool

The name's a play on CottonWool! Though they may only be university students, they get invited to press conferences and store openings! Students these days are growing up so much faster!

4) Cherry Magazine

Another student fashion blogger .. ok I think she just graduated... she models for her own photoshoots and some of the clothes are sponsored by companies like Nike and River Island. Think she's incredibly talented, she has a blogshop, does videos and street snaps of fashionable people.

5) Beatrice Says….

Not really a fashion blog but Beatrice always dresses well and is the model ambassador for BonitoChico, a very popular blogshop I blogged about before and also for Majolica Majorca. She posts lots of reviews of blogshops and I think these blogshops send her free clothes to be featured on her blog. It pays to be a popular blogger yah? You can read more about her here!

6) Swirl Girls

The blog of the owners of Swirl, a local fashion label. Their standalone store at Stamford House is no more but their clothes are stocked at different locations around Sg. I scored a nice ribbon bow blouse at their closing down sale at 70% off, super worth it! I knew about the sale from their blog entry that they were closing down! The Swirl Girls dress well although their clothes come from high-street stores and even Chinatown. You don't have to be rich to be fashionable!

7) Love is Eternal

Again, not really a so-called fashion blog but Renzze does lots of outfit posts that you can get loads of ideas from! She travels a lot and takes beautiful photos of the places she visits, worth a read!

Serta Sheep Sun Tanning

The weather is really super hot these days! Although I dun enjoy this hot stuffy weather, I am often glad cos my laundry gets to dry so much faster! I know this sounds very "auntie"! Well, taking advantage of the weather, I washed my pillows, bolster and Serta sheep! It was so cute seeing the sheep suntanning, I took photos! =p


Must have an even tan, that's why both sides! =)

Office prank!

We always have a bit of a “welcome prank” for our colleagues who have gone on long leave, long MC, etc… so see what we did to our colleague’s desk below!! We had quite a laugh executing this!

And in case you are curious, you can find out more about Maybank Rewards Infinite Value here! ;P

Kang Xi Lai Le!

Opps wrong picture! Hee! Anyway this was the cool postcard one of the girls at New Life Church Taipei passed to us!

If you are on the lookout for free entry to museums, head on down to the Asian Civilisations Museum this coming Friday on the 26 of June and check out The Kangxi Emperor: Treasures from the Forbidden City exhibit! For free! ;D It’s until 28 Jun so check it out while it’s still here in Sg!

Pic from Google Images

Day/Night at the Museum

Day at the Museum

A few Sundays ago was International Museum Day which means Open House aka FREE entry to the various museums in Singapore !! Woohoo! So Joe and I went to visit the Singapore National Museum. To my surprise, Joe has NEVER gone to the Museum at all, not even when he was younger! He must have been on sick leave when his class had an excursion to the Museum!

One of two special exhibits I really wanted to catch was Christian Lacroix the Costumier. He is a famous fashion designer but also well-known for his stage costumes for various operas, theatre shows and ballets. The costumes were rich and lavish but maybe cos it was crowded with visitors, the lighting a bit dim for me and I wasn’t familiar with the stage performances he designed these costumes for, I din really enjoy it much.

But I really liked the Verner Panton one a lot more! He is the designer for the iconic Panton chair and they had the chair in various colours scattered throughout the hall for free sitting and it was so comfy! It’s the first chair that’s molded out of a single piece of plastic and literally “hugs” your body and legs!

The chair was so comfortable Joe fell asleep sitting on it!

Panton was really a revolutionary furniture designer, with a bold use of colours and re-imagined shapes.

The red cushiony thing on the right is some kind of sofa!

These are dubbed “The Flying Chairs”!

More interesting seating! Pardon the dark pics!

Very retro yah?

We also checked out the Singapore Living Galleries which were in 4 rooms, comprising Fashion, Film & Wayang, Food, and Photography.

Here’s my justification to Dear who’s always saying I buy too many accessories! Oh hey where was the male clothing? I want to see the policemen’s shorts!

The top two pictures show something my mum-in-law is very familiar with! A puppet stage and puppets! She does puppet shows! Cool right?

I remember the Satay Man! Do you remember the Satay Man song we used to sing? And Satay Club where the Esplanade now stands?

We had a fun time without spending a cent! Hee!

Night at the Museum

We caught the 1^st Night at the Museum movie and enjoyed it a lot. It was just a fun and brainless movie to chill to. So when Part 2 came out, we wanted to watch it too. This time round, it’s more of the same jokes but now that the movie was set at the Smithsonian, paintings, sculptures, airplanes, and rockets came to life too! I loved the live paintings/photographs! Just imagine your favourite photograph taken eons ago. Now it comes alive, such that you can “go into” the photograph and relive that moment in time when it was taken! Cool right? Wish museums could be this interactive and the exhibits can “come alive” literally!

I liked both movies too cos I have been to both museums before when I went to US so it brings back lots of memories! See below for some photos I took at the actual Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian! If you have watched the movies, do the following exhibits look familiar?

Remember the airplanes?

The space rocket!

Abraham Lincoln came alive in the movie!

I din manage to take a photo of the front facade of the American Museum of Natural History where the first movie was set, just the side entrance.

T-Rex! Grrrrr…………….!

Soulful Covers

Kris Allen’s take of Heartless by Kanye West

Mandy Moore ’s take of Umbrella by Rihanna

Wow wow wow!

Celebrity Weekend really blew my mind! The amazing testimonies of all these celebrities and their anointed performances really touched my heart and lots of others who were there! When the photos are up on the church website, shall post some of them here! The top 3 personalities that impacted me are:

1) Jacelyn Tay
Her testimony was amazing! Indeed God knows how to use different ways and means to reach different kinds of people. Hahha God sure knows how to reach out to the stubborn!

2) Sandra Angelia
In a family of pastors, she made the decision to take the road less travelled by becoming a beauty queen! But I think she's not just a pretty face, she's a real woman of substance, with a big heart for the needy and a great vision. Totally inspiring! And her voice was awesome! You can read more about her in this report.

3) Vanness Wu
Yes, Vanness Wu was in the house! It was just amazing to hear him share about his love for God, totally totally unexpected! I think God really transformed his life! And when he led worship, it was full of God's presence! Pardon all the exclamation marks! I also read his interview with City News and he's really on fire! Below is an extract of his interview:

“I am Christian first before I am an entertainer. All this entertainment stuff might be gone tomorrow, I don’t even know, but God’s always going to be there. No matter how busy my day is, I have to make time for prayer. It’s when you say ‘I don’t have time to pray’ — that’s when the enemy’s going to come at you and you need to be on guard.

“I pray every morning for 40 minutes, on a good day, an hour. Even then I feel like that’s not enough time, I need more. It’s good to be greedy with God,” he laughs.

“So I prayed for one hour. And the whole day just became so clear. Everything was brighter, everything was just good. Sometimes things are bad, you get attacked, but God would never put anything in front of you that you can’t handle with Him. So you just gotta have that faith, and just make time for prayer.

“Even if you don’t have time in the morning, pray at night. If you don’t have time at night, pray in the day, five minutes here and there. If you pray in tongues, pray in tongues about everything! Just make sure you’re covered in prayer.”

Wowowoowow! If Vanness Wu can pray for an hour everyday, I'm sure you and I can too! I am just so inspired!

How-tos: Blogshopping

I recently discovered blogshops and was amazed by the very affordable prices for pretty blouses and dresses. It’s a really convenient and cheap way to get dresses for work! For those of you new to blogshops, here's a short guide so that you can start shopping in no time!

There are many blogshops hosted on LiveJournal. Two very popular blogshops are BonitoChico and Lylarose. Btw, many blogshops are opened by young entrepreneurial ladies who source their supplies from Bangkok, Hong Kong, etc or have suppliers produce their own designs (known as “specially manufactured items”.

How They Work

For LiveJournal blogshops, it's usually ok not to have an LJ nick though some blogshops may require you to have one. These blogshops will often launch "collections" at certain set times and orders are all on a first-come-first-served basis as normally only limited stocks are available.

How You Shop

As you browse through the collection and see something you are keen on, you leave a comment with your email details and the item(s) you are interested to order. You will then receive an email whether the item is still available or not. If it is available, you will be given between 24 - 48 hours to transfer the payment, normally via POSB Funds Transfer or Interbank Transfer. Only when payment is received will the item be mailed out.

For some blogshops or backorders (meaning certain items in a collection that were initially out of stock due to overwhelming response but now made available in VERY limited quantities), you will need to transfer the money over first to confirm your order and reserve the item. Refunds will be made if the item is no longer available.

For other blogshops like those hosted on Blogger, the same principle applies but instead of leaving a comment, you send an email to the owner of the blog to make your order.

Postage

For postage, there's normal postage and registered mail. Registered mail will be safer as you will be able to track the status of the delivery as a Registered Article (RA) number will be issued.

More Tips on Blogshopping

Since these blogshops normally launch collections quite regularly like once a week, you can join their Mailing List and they will email you when a collection is open for ordering. And for popular blogshops, once a collection is launched, the items are often very quickly snapped up!

As you can see, it is really EASY to buy from a blogshop! But some important points to note:

• You don’t get to try or touch the item before purchasing.
• The actual product may differ from the product.
• Some blogshops may not be dependable and may take a long time to send out your item to you, mix up your orders, etc.
• You need to be patient at times to wait for your purchase to reach you. Backorders normally have a longer waiting time as blogshop owners do not have ready stock and need to reorder, and wait for stocks to arrive before they can send out to you. So if you can’t wait, try to get items while they’re newly released.
• To protect yourself, do a search on the blogshop you are keen to buy from, and check out forums to see if there are any negative comments or experiences from other shoppers to be sure the shop is reputable.
• Finally, would you be able to write off the amount if the item gets lost in the mail, the quality differs greatly from what you expected, the clothing doesn't fit, etc? If so, you are ready to SHOP!!

Check out some of these blogshops now!

BonitoChico en vogue

This is a very popular blogshop and I must say their designs are stylish and also very affordable. They release a collection once a week so you will definitely find something you like! This is the also the blogshop I did my first blogshopping (actually my only for now)!

Vogue Femme

Found out about this blogshop as its owner was featured in Urban for her dressing. The styles are not bad!

Lollyrouge

Came across this blogshop from Beatrice’s blog. Find the designs quite unique.

There are lots and lots of blogshops out there, do a search online or you can click over to Beatrice’s blog for more links (under Advert: Shopping Treat!)

Will share with you my first experience blogshopping in another post! Stay tuned!

The Magnet Man

Maybank's 1st TVC! Check it out!

The why is here.

Joe's Birthday Celebration (Part 3)

Here's the video of Joe's birthday speeches! I just realised how easy it is to edit videos. But I am a beginner so dun mind the background sound , etc... =) Think I shall try video blogging in future, just like SUN!~ Her blog has lots of interesting videos... hope she posts videos of Dayan!!

Joseph's Birthday Speeches from Emily Ong on Vimeo.

Okie, so there's the end of this series of posts on Joe's birthday. If you are keen to read his side of the story, click here and here! And ok ok, I know his birthday is long over but I have been busy! Shall update more regularly soon!

Hubby’s Birthday (Part 2)

Woo hoo, finally found time to blog again. Last week was crazy and I was drained out the whole week after 3 nights of OT. I wonder how my boss can stay till late at night and even early mornings?

So here’s Part 2 of my hubby’s birthday celebration! After the very full lunch/high tea, we went to walk around Ann Siang Hill. We wanted to find JJ Lin’s shop called SMUDGE but we couldn’t find it! Tsk, tsk, too guerilla already! But we took some nice shots of the place and I love the shops there, a lot of character and unique stuff, just that everything’s too expensive for my pocket!

Like this photo the most! You see Joe’s legs? And the shadow’s of my legs! Behind every successful man is a beautiful wife! =)

Then it was off to Bugis Village to search out a nice tote bag for Joe, hey Porter’s just totally beyond the budget! We also caught the movie Star Trek which was surprisingly quite a good movie! Then I brought Joe to check out Haji Lane , which he has never gone to!! Hey, shopaholics must know where all the shopping havens around Singapore are! Then we took a cab back home and that’s when the real Operation Birthday Surprise kicked in.

I had passed my keys to Ting who would open the door to some of the subzone/cg members to hide stuff aka “gifts” around the house and discretely hide themselves in some corner, ready to spring their surprise on Joe when we reached home! But alas, those who were supposed to come were late and we reached home earlier than scheduled! So the plan was changed that while Joe was having his shower, I would let them in to hide the stuff and hide themselves! The moment Joe stepped into the shower and the coast was clear, I did a quick text to Ting and had everyone in a frenzy to quickly run up from where they were hiding at the void deck and do what was needed.

They were panting and puffing by the time they got to my door step and in a few minutes, hid the stuff around the house as quietly as possible, tiptoeing and then rushed into the spare room where I knew Joe would go and hang his towel after his shower. I resumed my position on the sofa and started reading the newspapers as if nothing happened. All this time Joe was still happily showering away. Then I (and all the rest!) heard the click of the bathroom door and we all held our breath as the moment of truth was coming soon!

Joe (fully dressed!!) walked over to the spare room which was pitch black and started to hear a sound (they were singing “Happy Birthday!”). He was shocked and kinda creeped out so he screamed and lurched backwards! They were equally stunned, screamed too then starting laughing! It was hilarious! Too bad I din manage to catch Joe’s shocked face, he did try to do a reenactment!

Then it was time for Treasure Hunt! They had hidden $10, $2 notes and SKIN vouchers all around the house, in the freezer, behind the TV, under the photocopier flap, all over! They even tried to hide one behind Joe’s back. Thankfully it dropped off or it was going to be them screaming continuously, “HOT! HOT! HOT!” and Joe not knowing exactly where!

Check out the special operation force below! Thanks everyone for the effort and time! And though Joe said next time dun do it again cos he was so shocked his heart almost came out of his mouth, do something equally exciting cos he loves surprises! Wahahha!

Btw, there’s one more part for Joe’s birthday celebration. I am trying to edit a video of birthday speeches given to him! Watch out for it yah? =)))