Music from the Tea Lands

I'm downloading new music again, and to add to my "cool" music collection (Milka will comment on this I'm sure hahaha), I downloaded three Putumayo World Music albums and so far, my favorite is this one, Music from the Tea Lands. It's time for a tea party!

I was first drawn to the charm of Putumayo because of the cover art designs. The artworks are created by Nicola Heindl and the style features a fusion of folk lore and contemporary. For those who are strangers to Putumayo music, Putumayo World Music is a record label which specializes in featuring upbeat and melodic music from different parts of the globe. They specialize in African and Cuban music but they are also great in selecting music from all over. According to the Wikipedia article, a large portion of their target market are people with an interest in culture, travel and the arts. People like me! Amazing!

Music from the Tea Lands particularly impressed me because of its melodic Asian sound. It contains music from China, India and Turkey (only to name a few). I really enjoyed the music because I feel transported through time and space. Asian culture has been a growing interest of mine and this music makes a great accompaniment! Makes my room feel like a cozy little tea house. I love it.

I've been thinking up of a concept for my future store (thinking WAY ahead, Sheena, what the hell) with a cultural, artsy kindda theme and for sure, Putumayo Music will be playing in the background.

Barbie Silkstone Collection

When I was a little girl, I loved Barbie dolls, not because it was a great toy, but because I loved the different outfits. Dolls served more as a display for me rather than a toy (except when cousins or friends would come visit and ask to play with them), and I loved them that way (Here we see the beginnings of my obsession with pretty things haha). Recently, I have been surfing the net for new references for different costumes when I came across a Barbie website arranging dolls according to collection. The Silkstone Collection was the first thing that struck me and I was completely drawn to the unique style of the dolls.

The facial features of the dolls is the most impressive detail in this collection. They all look so sophisticated and elegant. Reminds me so much of Audrey Hepburn! The costumes also feature a wide range of outfits with the theme of high class society women.

The elegant midnight gowns are so entrancing and even the casual outfits were so well designed! There are times when I wish I lived a life as such, and these dolls only heightened this desire! Such lovely lovely costumes! So vintage and so classy!

As some of my close friends may have already guessed, my favorite among the dolls is the Equestrian doll, officially known as the "High Stepping" Barbie, simply because I have always been in love with the culture of old style tea-parties and polo matches on a Sunday afternoon.

I think I'd post more entries about other Barbie doll collections which I find wonderful!

Maggie Parr

I was first introduced to Magie Parr's artworks during my visit to HK Disneyland, and back then, I wasn't aware that she was the genius behind the paintings. I distinctly remember walking inside Banquet Hall and seeing the Snow White painting, I squealed like a little girl and rushed to it to take pictures. Then I noticed that there were other paintings beside it with the same art style and I felt like I was gonna die of excitement. Haha.

What struck me at first about her paintings was the colors and lighting. It gave out an air similar to that of old renaissance works of art. I love how she made the Beauty and the Beast artwork most especially because it's so early century-ish! Belle looks a bit huffy here though at first glance, hehe.

I was lucky to have come across a website once which accurately provided the artist's name, since I really had no idea who did these paintings. So I researched more about her works and found out that she was in fact commissioned to do a lot of portraits for the different Disneyland Resorts. I was able to gather some samples of her works as well.

Probably my favorite series is the one where she imitates the styles of famous pieces like the Mona Lisa (which she wittily named Minnie Lisa) and one of my personal favorites, The Swing. I have already had ideas of creating a similar set (actually I've already started before, with my Last Supper drawing), but I wasn't able to push through with the plan, partly because I felt that my flat colors wouldn't do the paintings justice. But maybe I shall get around to continuing that idea next time.

Funny London Pics

I was browsing through our pictures a while ago when I came across these! I don't know if you'll find them funny but when I was trying to remember those particular moments, it really made me laugh. Haha!

So first, this set. Me in front of the Royal Albert Hall! Uh, I don't know why we took three pics? Hahaha! But this was just really funny. I don't remember this much, like why I took off my jacket in steps, but I did, so there! I look like an Eskimo in the first one, haha I love it! This is one of my favorite jackets. So comfy!

This second one is another silly picture which I remember very well! I was squealing because of the cute squirrels all over the park and I was bugging my brother to take my picture with a squirrel. But the problem was, the squirrels ran away every time I tried to get near them (I think they were scared cuz I was too hyper, boo).

So my 'brilliant' plan was to move slowly, one step at a time, sideways, so that I can fool the squirrels into thinking that I wasn't going to take a picture with them. -.- Don't know what I was thinking! HAHAHA!

Anyway this pictures shows me, trying to exectue my plan, but as you can see, the squirrel got away. :( Damn. I need a plan B.

Hahaha ok, that's all! I was just so amused at the pictures. I think I'll go find other funny pics from our other trips!

January Celadon Events!

The Ateneo Celadon is an organization that I actively participate in at school. I really love my org and I'd like to give the entire story why, but that's another story. For this entry, I'd like to share two Celadon events which I participated in this January; the Business Fair and the Spring Film Festival.

The Biz Fair took place last January 19-20. I was there even before the event started and got the opportunity to use Retcher's DSLR and be our official amateur photographer (haha) for the day, beginning from the ribbon cutting! Heheee! I took most of the pics that day with the DSLR (which I wish I had instead!). I also tried helping out as much as I can the entire day from 9:30 am to 9:30 pm! I had tons of siomai which I absolutely adore! I had such a great time helping out for such a great event. The heads have done a very good job with this and I am very proud to have been part of the event, even if I just played a small role.

It was also a very memorable experience because of the funny fact that I was at the advertisements! One of the four 'models' haha! I honestly didn't expect that it was going to be that big of a deal until I saw posters hanging above the escalators. Freaky. Fed my vanity though. Hahaha! But it was really funny because obviously I'm not really a model of any sort and this was my first, er, shoot, I guess. But it was fun! My friends were teasing me about it. For the first time, I wasn't the one designing, I was the model! I think I prefer designing though... haha!

Spring Film Fest was one of the most interesting projects for me which is why I immediately signed up for this. It's our annual film festival wherein we feature 4 Chinese movies subtitled in English. As I am a big fan of foreign films, I already knew from the beginning that I wanted to participate.

I submitted a design for the promotional materials and luckily, the project heads liked what I did and used it as the official design. I'm very honored. This is my most widespread design though and again, I was surprised at how much of a big deal they made this! This is the largest tarp design I've ever done, it was as long as three floors, I think, and at Trinoma too! Huge mall! o.o And the posters and flyers were distributed everywhere inside and outside school! I worked very hard on them, editing the format dozens of times because of the different layouts needed and after all the revisions (Da knows... haha!) , but in the end, after I saw everything at Trinoma during our Gala Night, I realized it was all worth the pain.

Speaking of Gala Night, I was also there and I served as an usherette! It was really fun cuz we got to dress up in semi formal dresses and suits. I was also the one who held one of four scissors for the ribbon cutting. HAHA ok, that wasn't a big deal, but it made me happy. Funny! The movie we watched was really nice, it's called "Getting Home". I already had a bias for this because I'm totally in love with foreign films (as you might know already) and I've recently been having a love affair with Chinese culture (I must write about that soon). But really, it was a funny movie and I loved it. The people I worked with the entire time were great people too so great job everyone! My co ushers (they were all guys) made the night really fun and it was all great!

I love Celadon very much (I just have to stress that fact) and I'm looking forward to more events in the future! Yey!