Kamuning Swap Meet, Quezon City

One of the things I enjoy doing is visiting the local second-hand stores in Evanglista St. in Makati and Kamuning in Quezon City.  

Even if it looks like these vendors have small stalls, most of them have huge warehouses somewhere else where they stash all their treasures (aka junk).

Lots of times I don't spot things right away because my eye is distracted with a lot of real junk and items being passed off as vintage when you can still buy similar at the department store for much less.  

That's why I take a lot of pictures so I can look at the things again later on. 

A few years ago there was an abundance of chandeliers with porcelain roses facing downwards. I haven't seen those in a long time now, nor have I seen an interesting chandelier.

Someone in this household is looking for a vintage typewriter that's still working. I wonder where we would source the ribbons though. Do you think these old typewriters will come back, the way the polaroid cameras are novelty again for kids?

If only I had an application for these glass panels below--I love the period look.

These chairs were pretty too but I had to restrain myself because I don't have any place for them.

A couple of years back I was told that they were going to close down this venue, and vendors were moving--but I'd been back two or three times since that time and they were still there. I wonder if they still are there now. Maybe it's time for a visit. 

Alicia's Home

This post is way overdue--I mean really, really overdue. I took these pictures maybe three years ago, when Alicia was not writing for a major glossy magazine yet.

I just filed these pictures away after I took them because she said her house was going to be featured in Town and Country in a couple of months,

and of course it wouldn't be nice to pre-empt the feature.

The house came out in the magazine as she said, and although it was a very nice feature and the photos beautiful, I felt it didn't show the house the way I experienced it.

Come to think of it, maybe my pictures won't either--because there's a big difference between seeing a house in person and seeing it in photos.

Some houses look better photographed, specially when a crew comes in and styles the house to make it "magazine-worthy" and some houses just look better when you are in it.

Alicia's house looks beautiful in photographs, but it's better when you're standing in it, with her animatedly telling you the stories or inspiration behind each piece.

If I remember right, this chair above, one of a pair, was a castaway from an uncle. It was about to be dumped because it was old and tattered.

With her characteristic obsessive attention to detail, she salvaged the chairs, restyled, reupholstered and refinished them. Look how interesting and unique they turned out.

"And guess how much they cost me?!?" she enthusiastically asked after she told me in detail how she resurrected the chairs.

I appreciate it when people see value where it exists and are proud of their resourcefulness--especially if they don't need to be!

Aside from being passionate about furnishings and interiors, she is also very excited about the kitchen, cooking and eating--not necessarily in that order.

She actually started a blog on interior design a couple of years back, but has since devoted her time to writing more about food than interiors. 

Imagine, I dropped by her house in the morning with only about thirty-minutes' notice, and this is how neat her house looked.

This TV-watching area is part of the master room.

I can't find the pictures of her daughters' bedrooms which are also beautifully done. They each have a mirrored vanity.

But it's just as well, because this post could go on and on.

Now that I look at my own photos of her house, I can't say I did her house justice either.  You really have to be in it to get the full effect.