ukay
I’m still an arrow unshot
…fixed in a bow, I’m still, I’m still
- “Still”, Great Lake Swimmers
Off-shoulder blouse, Shaw MRT Station. Jag jeans. Nine West sandals, borrowed from Karess. Moon guitar necklace, Circle C.
I have never worn this blouse before this shoot. It’s not exactly office material, and for some reason the time to wear it hasn’t come yet. Until this shoot.
Now that I know how it looks on me—you have to admit, sometimes looking in the mirror isn’t the same thing—I can’t wait to really use it in real life.
On a side note: I almost took a line from Electric Avenue for the title of this post. Something about hanging laundry. Or maybe that “rock it in the daytime, rock it in the night” coda.
About the photo
Photography by Veejay Jimenez. More photos here~
Can I ignore that sound of distant drumming
This, here… This, right here… It is a milestone.
I saw this in the Get Laud! website late last year and instantly fell in love with it. But, since I’m a shirt jeans girl who doesn’t wear dresses unless completely necessary, I had second (and third) thoughts about buying it. At one point I even closed the window to the catalog and tried to forget about buying it. But I could almost hear the dress calling out to me in the form of strong Indian war drums from Pocahontas’ tribe.
I logged back on the Get Laud! website again and emailed their sales team to ask if they had this dress in the branch near me.
If they don’t have it, then I’m not getting it, I thought to myself.
But it’s so prettyyyyyyyyyyy! I thought again.
But it’s a DRESS, I insisted in thought. And I don’t do dresses unless the situation required it. And situations that required dresses usually required formal ones, so I might not be able to wear this dress after all and I was really, really, REALLY just making up excuses at this point.
So, anyway. I emailed Get Laud, right? They replied quickly, and said that the branches near me, in fact, did NOT have it anymore. Aww.
But—you had to know there was a “but” coming— they’ve checked their other branches, and found one. ONE. One LAST piece. In the whole of Metro Manila. And they were going to have it sent to the branch of my choice if I wanted to.
BUT I DO NOT WEAR DRESSES UNLESS NECESSARY!
I hit “Reply”, and said “Yes, please, and can you girls check if this other shirt dress I like is available?”
I got my order about a week later.
But I didn’t wear dresses on normal days, right? So, after admiring this cute printed dress, I stashed it in my closet, waiting for an event that requires dresses so I can finally wear it.
About five months later, I still haven’t worn it.
And then, while I was cleaning out my closet the other day, I decided that okay, FINE, I was going to wear this dress even though the situation didn’t actually require it. I’ll just wear it with leggings or something. Or over jeans. Or… something. But it was MUCH too hot for a dress and leggings. Even moreso for a dress and jeans.
The result? My Get Laud! dress with the awesome Indian (-ish) print. Chocolate brown stockings (because I’m still not comfortable with having my legs bare without good reason). My brown suede boots. A bracelet you can’t see in the photo. My leather bag.
I can’t say that I’m turning back on the whole I’ll-wear-a-dress-only-when-absolutely-necessary set-up… But this outfit? It. Is. LOVE.
Title from “Just Around the Riverbend”, Disney’s Pocahontas Soundtrack.
the only way to really know is to really let it go
‘Coz maybe, in the future, you’re gonna come back, you’re gonna come back around
- “Maybe”, Ingrid Michaelson
You know how, sometimes, you see an outfit and you say, “Oooh what a nice outfit! But I’ll never wear it myself. EVER”? Yeah, that happens to me all the time.
So my spring cleaning room overhaul has led to unearthing old clothes and creating new combinations for my stuff, like the one I wore yesterday. It has also led to the discovery that I had every piece necessary for me to wear one of the outfits that I said I’ll never wear. Ever.
But since I also said yesterday that we should use what we have in our closets, I am now staring at my outfit for tomorrow. Dreading wearing it, but at the same time feeling strangely giddy. Weird combination, that.
Here’s a preview. Yes, I actually tried it on just to get the feel of it. I’m posting it now to keep myself from backing out.
Boots from ukay sa Crossing. P400.
My Chucks look lonely.
Oh villains fear him
Tetsuwan Atom (Astro Boy) t-shirt from that ukay beside Lolo Oboy’s, P280. Tank top from Baguio ukay, P30. Unbranded jeans from Circle C, P250. Necklace from Punya, P80. Watch from Tomato. Chucks.
And here it is. My Astro Boy shirt with the collar area chopped off to transform it from a little boy’s shirt to a Flashdance-y shirt. Yey!
The print says, “Atom is a super hero”. And then there’s that awesome holographic design.
As I was getting dressed, I tried to convince myself that the weather was nice, and it wasn’t scorching hot… seeing as I was to wear two layers of clothing when most girls are wearing thin sleeveless shirts the past few days. Either I really did convince myself properly, or the weather really was nice. Or maybe this whole combo isn’t hot at all. Oh, man, I wish it was that last one so I can wear this again soon!
So. My first t-shirt cutting project. Success? Yes? No?
Title from the 1980 Astro Boy opening theme. Personally I like the 1960 one better, but that… is beside the point of this post. Haha!
she’s touring the facility and picking up slack
Brown turtleneck from that ukay beside Lolo Oboy’s, P120. Silver necklace with G-clef pendant, Cebu airport. Watch. Slacks.
Huh. I’m discovering that maybe I actually look okay in turtlenecks. Huh. Interesting. It kind of makes me look like a boss-type lady, if I match it with a sort of frown like this one. Haha! It makes me wonder if I’ll look even more bossy if I wore a pencil skirt and killer hills with this. Hmmmmm.
And, by the way, this blouse? It’s in near perfect condition. Pretty good for its price!
About the photo
Look at the cute magnets between me and the SUCCESS note on the wall. Haha!
Taken at 6 PM at the office. Thus the low lighting again. *sigh* I already tried to do color correction and lessen the yellow hue, but this is the best I can do. Any Photoshop tips, anyone?
Title from “Short Skirt, Long Jacket”, Cake.
Oh frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!
Graphic t-shirt, unbranded jeans and moon guitar necklace, all from Circle C. Boots from ukay sa Crossing. Beatles bag from Thailand.
My outfit for the Alice in Wonderland premier. Of course I was going to wear my little moon guitar necklace. It’s Alice size! Haha!
Title from “The Jabberwocky”, Lewis Carroll.
Shot taken by Sara in SM Megamall, right before closing time.
with the sun shining down on me and you
Purple shirt, ~P30, from a small ukay store along Libertad Mandaluyong, near BPI Libertad-Calbayog.
Shirt says “DARE YOU to enter the DOORWAY into TIME! with SHIROI NEKO!”
LOL! It’s not exactly senseless, but it’s hilarious, nonetheless. I love it. Karess was the one who saw this for me, actually. It was on a 3 for 100 rack, so we looked for two other shirts just so I could buy this. Haha!
Title from “5 Years Time”, Noah and the Whale.
this is the start of something good, don’t you agree?
Striped boat neck, P120.
Like I said, I gravitate to stripes recently.
This is one of my purchases in Lolo Oboy’s… or the ukay beside it. I still wish I’d gotten it at a lower price, but 120 isn’t actually bad for the quality of the blouse. You know what this means, right? It means I’m going to go back there sometime soon. Haha!
About the photo
The window beside our lobby couch provides pretty lighting. Wheee~
Title from “Follow Through”, Gavin DeGraw
Weaving in and out of line
“the sidewalk’s full of merchandise”
- “Lion in a Coma”, Animal Collective
Today Sara and I fulfilled our plan to go shopping in an ukay-ukay. We went to the one Noelle wrote about, the one right next to the Anonas LRT-2 station.
Confession: When we got off the jeep and I saw the sign saying “Lolo Oboy’s”, I felt giddy and excited and scared. Let’s face it: thrift stores kind of scare me. SO MANY HANGERS. @_@ I attempt to go in them, but I’m usually unsuccessful in finding treasures, unlike other people I know. I didn’t want to screw the whole op and leave an ukay heaven empty-handed. (Like what I did in Baguio, for example.)
But still, I marched forward. After all, I wasn’t charging on by myself.
So. Like Noelle said, the place was four floors of thrift shops. Sara and I checked out the first shop there, and, after painstakingly browsing through the racks, I saw this gem. But it was too small for me. Drat.
After several more minutes of browsing–and, to be honest, I was starting to feel my energy draining from me already–I delightfully found two tops I could buy. They were the kind I needed, and they actually fit me well! Sadly, though, the price was much higher than I expected. But I got them anyway.
Lesson learned: thrift stores near the entrance of the mall/ukay center are more expensive. Therefore, go deeper. Or, in this case, go higher. Sara and I went straight to the top floor. And, behold! There were racks that had clothes for P50 each, and even P10 each. There were LOTS of cute skirts, but I didn’t get any because, like most people know, I don’t do skirts. But if you love skirts, you’ll probably enjoy looking through those racks.
We looked into several more shops, and I surprisingly bought a couple more tops. Yey! But as happy as I was that I was being productive, I was feeling my shopper stamina reaching a critically low level. If I was a game character, the health bar would probably be in red.
One observation about Lolo Oboy’s: as cheap as the items were, you cannot get discounts from the tag prices. I mean, you can’t haggle with the salesladies. Being used to tiangges, this is pretty much a new thing to me. And there were also rather expensive items (for ukay standards, anyway).
In the last shop we went into, I very nearly got this Zara bolero that was priced P380. It was rather thin and creased, but it was Zara. It looked reaaaally nice on me, and since boleros don’t usually work with me, this was a rare find. But I said I was only going to get items lower than 200. I already had to break that for a rare, rare shirt (I’ll blog about it later and show you why), so I decided that I would just have to hunt for a cheaper, unbranded bolero.
So, in summary, I did not leave Lolo Oboy’s empty-handed, and the expedition to Anonas was rather productive. It drained me a bit, though, and made me realize that maybe I’m still not quite ready for mega ukay experiences yet.
Gah. I have a loooooooooong way to go to being a real shopper. *sigh* Someday, maybe. Or maybe not. We’ll see.
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