Retail Therapy

To be honest, the only thing Nards and I had planned for today was to go to The Reading Room (TRR) today at Cubao X to check out the antique secretary's desk that was on sale.   Then last night, Rome and I chatted and we agreed to meet before lunch so I can get the garments for the shoot.  Also, I got word from Nix that: 1) the hero shirts designer asked me to go to his shop to get the ones I got exchanged for the right size; and 2) there's a chocolate tasting at Heavenly Chocolates (but she begged off from joining us because ra-rakstar daw si Jazz).

This morning, when my alarm went off at 8AM, we had four things on our agenda: antique desk, meet Rome, exchange the shirts and go to the chocolate tasting.

 

We went to TRR, and sadly, someone beat me to the desk.  No sweat, I figured it wasn't meant for me, and that I'm sure we'll find another good deal in other antique stores.  We walked around and looked at the other stores that were open that early.  We wanted to grab brunch, but Nards refused to eat at Bellini's.  Our choice was limited to walking to KFC or Gateway.  We started walking towards KFC, realized the distance (quite far and quite disagreeable to two hungry tummies), and went back to the car.  Gateway it is.

We were about to pull out of the parking lot when we saw this.  Isn't that a lovely fabric?  Nards and I were hoping to talk to the store owner to ask where they got it.  But it was closed.  Next time.

Of course, I forgot about Rome.  After a hastily eaten brunch, Nards and I were browsing at Marks & Spencer's when I got an SMS from her, apologizing that she was still on the road.  A minute of panic there.  Luckily, she was also in Gateway when I called.  Hooray!  Nards immediately took off for Fully Booked, while Rome and I headed to Rustan's to pick up some Christmas presents for a handful of cousins on Nards' side.   We completed our purchases in half an hour, and as I was fishing for my cellphone to call Nards, Rome and I spied Beauty Bar at the same time.  Our feet were faster than our brains and we were entering the store in a blink.  Sale!  Brilliant!   Rome bought an eyeshadow palette from Smashbox (I think), and a cream blush from Bloom, while I picked up a gloss from Red Earth and a multi-purpose cream tint from Bloom. I refused to buy more no matter how tempting it was, because I still have the Urban Decay and Pixi items arriving at the end of the month. 

We met up with Nards, and left Gateway.  Rome was headed to her Tita's place near Boni Serrano, and she invited us up at the shop.  Her Tita designs and manufactures clothes for a few of the well known local boutiques, and she has an entire rack of samples that she was selling at giveaway prices.  Rome pulled me to the rack that was literally bursting with different fabrics, and asked me what style I wore.  I told her classy with a bit of boho.  She started pulling off items from the rack.  A lot of it.  Nards nearly panicked when he saw a huge pile of garments that nearly obscured me.  I tried on everything, and it kind of reminded me when my Mom and I used to go to her seamstress to get dresses fitted.  And the three of us divided the clothes into yeses, noes and unsures.   (Took this photo of Rome before we started fitting.)

Got five garments all in all: one little black dress and four tops.  All for the price of one dress in the mall.  I was amazed at how much I got for so little.

I wasn't the only one who found good deals today.  When Nards and I had the shirts exchanged, we stumbled on an outlet store that was selling sports apparel.   Nards bought three shirts from Nike for the price of one and a dry fit one from Adidas for half the price.  Not bad.  Not bad, at all.

So.  We got were able to do everything in our agenda for today, yey!  Except for the chocolate tasting.  We were so exhausted from spending money, that we just wanted to get home and unwind.  (And to do laundry.  And to get some work done for the website because Noah's coming over tomorrow.)