vacay high: cherry blossoms park

Over the next few months (too many photos, hard to sift through all!), I will be sharing some highlights of our recent vacation. This is the first of this mini-series: our trip to the Essex County Cherry Blossom Center.

I had never seen cherry blossoms before. My travel buddies and I were planning a trip to Japan 2 years ago but our work skeds conflicted with the uncertain cherry blossoms peak so we didn't get around to going. Little did I know I would witness their beauty during our trip to New Jersey.

Being surrounded by pink foliage was an incredibly pretty sight!

Quite surreal too that they will only be that way for a week or so and we were lucky enough to catch it! They hadn't completely peaked actually. See the buds that have not blossomed?

But it was breathtaking nevertheless.

Isabella gushed at how beautiful they were.

Noah, on the other hand, was busy climbing every single cherry blossom tree in the park.

I love how the branches cascaded downward so we had a lovely fort (which Noah calls a jail, hehe!) under the tree.

Such a pretty canopy, right?

There were also white cherry blossom trees...

... which the kids couldn't resist climbing.

And dark pink ones too.

But I much prefer the light pink ones.

Truly a captivating sight!

Photos are my own.

more than just flowers

Valentine's Day is fast approaching and I found the prettiest bouquets at Bungalow 300! They're pretty not just because of the flowers, but, I have to admit, more because of the pretty packaging. After all, it isn't Bungalow 300 without pretty prints! How lovely are these fabric wraps? They're available in orange, white or blue. You can also choose your type of roses (1 dozen local long-stemmed for PhP2,750, 2 dozens local long-stemmed for PhP3,500, and 1 dozen Ecuadorian for PhP4,750). Then your rose color - red or fuschia.

But the pretty doesn't end with bouquet wraps. Bungalow 300 also offers these cute bouquets in fabric-wrapped take-out boxes!

Aren't they adorable?

These bouquets-to-go cost PhP1,500 each.

Hmmm... now, the question is how to get your Valentine to order these prettily-packaged flowers for you.

Check out Bungalow 300's FB page. To order, email bungalow300@gmail.com or call 0947-6108616. Free delivery within Alabang or Makati; small delivery fee for other areas.

Photos from Bungalow 300.

mixing it up

Surprisingly, this weekend turned out to be about being bold and finally starting a blog. So am inspired to pursue this throughout the rest of the workweek by boldly breaking some well-ingrained, but quite ancient design and fashion rules. (1) Gray, meet camel and brown. My instincts tell me gray can only go with black, purple or white. But all neutrals go together, right? (2) I am in this Muji clean and simple phase. Subdued gingham, stripes and solids. But the Aquarian in me has always loved a splash of color. And I never thought such a playful, flirty floral print could go with clean, striped lines. (3) Consistent with my "gray goes with cool, not hot, hues" rule, I struggle to mix silver with gold jewelry (or bag hardware). Resist old design sensibilities! (4) Am wired to think fresh flowers are for special occasions. But why not get fresh flowers just to spruce up my living room? (5) Now, I wonder if I can be bold enough to wear this fancy bucket hat I have but have never worn in the hot & humid summer weather of Manila?

What about you? What self-imposed rules are you breaking this week? Will you mix it up with me?

Photo credits: http://www.everythingfab.com/, http://deliciouslyorganized.blogspot.com/, http://101gramsofeyecandy.blogspot.com/