— littlemissdressup

While we, Hanna and Rosanna, had an amazing three year relationship,it’s time to put our love affair with Little Miss Dress Up to rest. Soon to be approaching our quarter life crises, we realized that we’re no longer ‘little’. While we wish we had a more scandalous explanation that involved break ups and catfights (hahahaha!), instead it’s about time we start living independent (cyber) lives.

So dear readers, we want to thank YOU. yes. YOU. for your support! Our blog has brought us so much new opportunities. It’s been a pleasure sharing bits and pieces of our insanity with you guys!

Don’t worry. It’s not over…completely. New year, new country, new blog.

It’s time to fly solo.

http://www.hannachoayu.com

or

http://thesansinator.tumblr.com

If you miss us too much…

LMDU: THE ARCHIVES

2011 | 2010 – 2009

Hello,

Come join me in my glittery galaxy:

http://www.hannachoayu.com

xxx Hanna

Everyone I know is sick. I’ve done my time over the holidays, so now it’s everyone else’s turn!

All this getting sick business has got me thinking about the healing power of food…which isnt really style-related but it’s my blog post. Actually, there were loads of talks about size 0 models and eating disorders around 2008 – 09. At one point, some designers even refused to hire models with unhealthy BMIs for runway shows. So ya, I guess this is ‘kinda’ fashion related in the loosest way possible.

We all know the golden rule : You are what you eat. (My friend, Fiona, who Likes every facebook group and page known to mankind – and this is why we’re friends – is a fan of ‘You are what you eat’ I don’t remember eating an effin legend’. I obviously mean it in a more literal sense.)

What you put into your body is so vital to your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being. Temporary highs are very seductive so you can just imagine the number of junk people willingly feed/inject themselves with that lead to decay. I, for one, fell victim to the holiday food frenzy so im going to have to rekindle my friendship with discipline and self-control.

Bye bye chemicals! Bye bye preservatives! Bye bye overly processed food! Bye bye feeling pregnant with a food baby!

Hello chef Mother Earth and all your wonderful munchies! Hello healthy grains, nuts and oats!

Hello apple stall that sells every kind of apple imaginable across the UN on Wednesdays (or is it Tuesdays?). Apples are SUCH great fruits, I could talk about it for days.

Hello natural remedies! My New York nanna Coring introduced me to the amazing world of grapefruit peel tea. It’s God’s gift to people with flu and a bad throat.

Hello better health!!

xxxx

Gotcha there! For your sake, were not talking about deep shit today. Maudlin Mondays are SO grade 7, back when life revolved around pimples. The whole process of adolescence was quite brutal thanks to my frienemy ‘Raging Hormones’. These days I just feel bad for ‘R.H.’ He gets blamed for everything, specially if he’s friends with an emotionally charged woman. (Why did hormone take a masculine identity in my head? Well, THAT’S a pyschoanalytical topic that would be fun to explore)

Its quite interesting how China took over the world way before the economic boom that started more or less in the 80s under the leadership of Deng X. Forget talks of GDPs, FDIs, open markets, job creation, diversification, and all that economic jargon….HAVENT YOU ALL NOTICED HOW THERE’S A CHINA TOWN IN MOST CAPITALS IN THE WORLD?!?!?!

If you know Manhattan, then you’d know that Chinatown covers the long stretch of Bowery extending over to Canal St. just at the edge of Italytown. (LOVE how actual geography has NO say on the proximity of China… and say Italy)

I, for one, love Chinatowns. Fruits are cheaper; You can buy ‘surprise’ buns that all look the same outside, but can either contain pork or custard inside; and everything is livelier because we communicate in higher decibels. It’s also quite flattering when my Asian peoples start talking to me in Mandarin, then I reply with the 4 words I know, and a conversation is born where I make hand gestures 97.5% of the time. It’s all good fun.

Plus there’s lot’s of interesting things to see like:

1) Balloons caught in a bald tree

2. Man with bubble gun

(If only all pistols fired bubbles instead of deadly ammunitions, the world would be a more peaceful place. Trust me on this one.)

3. Chinese McDonalds

4. And last, but not the least (and not really taken at Chinatown) but interesting nonetheless:

NITROGEN TANKS. Has anyone else noticed how there’s one in every corner? Fascinating. I told my boss of my secret dream to have a picture with a nitrogen tank on our way to a meeting last week, so he indulged me and walked 10 blocks around Turtle Bay in search for one..and guess what…we couldn’t find a single one! Nada. It’s like when you’re looking for something specific to buy and you CANNOT find it, but when youre not searching for it: BAM it’s there.

Life and its mysteries.

PS. That’s the parka I was talking about before!

My mother is SO funny. People never expect her to be because she never really mingles with ‘society’ and she looks and acts pretty normal in everyday life. Except I’ve known her for 24 years and I know the truth. Many people say (my father mainly) that we are quite similar…except she’s wiser and cleaner. Plus, she’s not really into fashion and prefers practical and classic clothes.

She does have her fashion dilemmas, and her concerns of the late are two-fold:

1) She’s been imploring me for the last few weeks to buy a real fur collar as a gift from her: ‘Hanna, as for your animal rights concerns, you can buy a non-extinct animal. Plus, there are now a lot of companies who have humane ways of making fur items.‘

I never really took up on this offer mainly because my faux versions are pretty good. They’re low maintenance and I can throw them in the washing machine whenever dirt starts to creep up. Ps, dry cleaning and hand washing totally stresses me out.

2) For the past 10 years she has begged me to keep warm in the winter and dress appropriately for the rain. She’s always saying things like ‘Youre going to class, not a fashion show!’ (Earth to mama: LIFE is one big catwalk); ‘Youre wearing THAT to lunch? You do know that were not going to a fancy place today’ (Ma, I like chic things so changing my outfit wont make a difference); ‘PLEASE buy a warm coat or a rain jacket. You know, there was a time I couldn’t afford good outerwear…so freezing is sort of a phobia for me.’ (It baffles her to no end how she birthed someone who would prefer hypothermia to looking ugly)

Long story short, I finally bought a rain jacket.

And ever since I purchased my non-Hanna rain jacket, the whole non-Hanna buying binge kinda spiraled out of control…Orange knitted scarf, Orange floppy Hat, Floral Dress, Jeans, snakeskin pants, Parka (!!!  – although the one I bought is a princess parka. Ill wear it for the blog one of these days) Blue-y Green-ish Cowl Scarf thing. I even got a pair of giraffe mittens because they looked so sweet. The kids love it because I use it as a puppet to tell stories and bite their noses and give them giraffe kisses. I’m going through this cutesy kitschy mini-phase at the moment. It has a lot to do with where I’m at in my life and the dreadfully depressing weather outside which is getting the best of New Yorkers. While walking around manhattan, I’ve observed people with crumpled foreheads and dropped shoulders, and I just want to run up to them and give them a hug and sing ‘the sun will come out tomorrow’ ! Actually, I did this today. Haha. Not the singing because I haven’t practiced in a long time, but I gave the guy behind the counter at urban outfitters a proper hug after he told me he was going through some painful and sorrowful stuff.

Anyway, here’s Hanna looking very un-Hanna today, and some pictures of my lovely New York! xxx

Need to do a little Christmas shopping on a budget?!?!?
STOP by LOOKING FOR LOLA’S SALE!
With items as low as P50!!!

Visit us at THE THIRD FLOOR!
THE THIRD FLOOR | 3F Rodil Bldg. #326 Capt. Henry Javier St. Pasig

LIKE US on FACEBOOK:

http://www.facebook.com/lookingforlola

My friends = AMAZING.

Case in point: Pablo, who I’ve adored for years.

I’ve lost count how many years. But in my mind the length of friendship goes a little something like this: Ive moved to 3 different countries. He’s moved to 2 different cities. We’ve seen each other through family crises, relationship crises, etc. Most importantly, we’ve witnessed each other go through our awkward adolescence phase and still manage to  have a healthy dose of respect for one another.

ANYWAY, the purpose of this post (I promise there’s one) is my excitement over my architect-cum-designer ‘Spanish Boyfriend’s’ new accessories business in Madrid. A peek through his tumblr (http://plphandcraft.tumblr.com/) should reveal a lot about his personality and products: Clean and sleek. Modern with a twist. Natural and architectural. Wooly but leathery. Soft yet hard. Haha, im just throwing out lines and combining the first words that are entering my head.

Visit his site. Buy something. Flirt with him in the comment box. He’ll love it.

I stole your pic on facebook. I hope that’s okay. x