Bella Rose Style

Food Blog in Italy

2012-07-26T21:25:00.000-07:00

I Miss authentic Italian food. Been craving since we came back... Here are a few pictures to share:

My first ever meal in Italy, I was so excited... A cheesy rigatoni

Serendipity

2012-07-04T11:19:00.002-07:00

One of the best drinks ever. The famous frozen Hot Chocolate Drink from the Serendipity store in Las Vegas that I tried last time I was there.

Can't get enough of this and now I found it here. Yay!! Can' wait to try it at home...

Dreaming of Pucci

2012-07-03T19:48:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, there was a girl who dreamed of black, pink and green dress prints specifically Prints of Pucci as evidenced in this pic below. :) while walking along Via Borgognona.

Until then, it's just a dream.. getting into a Pucci Print dress that is

Snapshots of Italy

2012-06-29T23:49:00.002-07:00

It's been days since we returned from our trip. Everything was a daze, running to catch the train or bus, the scorching heat in Italy, scrumptous food not to mention my favorite nioccola gelato (Yum!! the best anywhere you get them around Italy), the romantic gondola ride along the Grand Canal, nightime walk along St Mark's Square with soothing music to entertain tourists at the cast of dawn, the Gothic styled Cathedral of Santa Maria de Fiore (Florence's famous Doumo) and the beauty of the Mediterrean Sea along the beaches of Capri (what a beautiful sight). These pretty much sums up the week and a half we spent in Italy (from Rome to Venice to Florence and Pisa and back to Rome and ending it with a Day Trip to the beautiful Island of Capri).

The highlight of the trip for me was visiting St Peter's Cathedral, a long dream of mine since I was a little girl. I was in awe of the huge basilica and there is a certain peace I felt once I was inside. It was interesting to learn all the facts about the Vatican and history of Rome during our walking day tour.

Here are some pictures:

The Grand Altar inside St Peter's Basilica, under this is the tomb of St Peter. Another interesting fact is only the Pope can officiate mass at this very altar

National Monument to Victor Emmanuel II. Also known as the Altare della Patria Another fact we learned from our tour guide is Italians call this the wedding cake or typewrite as it resembles these from afar. This is where Mussolini gathered his army during the war.


One of the Piazzas we passed by In Trastevere

Walking along the streets of Rome, along the Spagna area

Florence boasting of it's famous Gothic designed Duomo

What's left of the Roman Colosseum

View above The Famous Rialto Bridge. Read somewhere that a lot of guys propose to their ladies on this famous bridge. This is the very same view that the Venetian Las Vegas was trying to capture

Sighing on front of the Bridge of Sighs, also known as Ponte Dei Sospiri. A local legend says that lovers will be granted eternal love and bliss if they kiss on a gondola at sunset under the Bridge Of Sighs.[


Lastly, the view on top of Capri proper

Wicked Spoon Desserts (Las vegas)

2012-05-30T00:12:00.001-07:00

The weekend before last, my girlfriends and I met in Vegas for our long planned reunion. I had a blast with the girls. I felt like in High School all over again (only for the weekend though :) But one of the best things we tried out is the Buffet at Wicked Spoon at the Cosmopolitan Hotel. Love the food presentation and of course the delectable and tempting desserts. See for your self:)

Yummy Gelato... Can't say no to that

This may be cheesecake?

Fudge, Cookies and the Home made Marshmallows are so delish :)

The Laduree Dream

2012-04-27T08:46:00.000-07:00

Ever since, I've tasted the Laduree Macarons in Paris last year, I've been dreaming of going back just for the macarons and having a meal at the Champs Elysees Restaurant. This Video did just that for me. A day trip to Milan perhaps? Mmmmm.... can't wait.

Still waiting for the day they'll conquer the West Coast!

Easter Party

2012-04-09T14:10:00.000-07:00

Easter is one of my favorite Holidays. Of course as a Catholic, it is one of the most important and festive celebrations in the Catholic Church besides Christ's birth.
I love the cute pastel and whimsical colors from decorations to great easter food and sweet treat ideas I see online. So with one week to prepare. Here are some pictures of our Family Easter Party yesterday. And of course no easter party would be complete without the annual Easter Egg Hunt around the backyard..

Parties around our house, won't be complete without a Dessert Table

Instant Caramel Flan that is store bought that i presented as dessert shots, topped with Jelly Beans

Semi Homemade Pineapple Cupcakes (Recipe I found online) with Pinacolada Frosting bought at Home Goods and topped with Bunny Peeps

Recycled water bottles turned to vases for Daisies I got from Michaels that I hanged on the Patio Deck and a tired hubby after 2 days of labor around the yard

Last minute flower centerpieces I made on recycled bottle jars

Gotta love this $1 easter sign from the 99cent store

Freesia centerpiece on our backyard dining table

Our ever dependable mantle that plays a huge part in decorating with all of our family's celebrations, traditions and favorite holidays (Easter, of course, is one of them)

Hope you had a Blessed and Fun Easter!!

2012-04-02T09:56:00.002-07:00

I'm hooked! Lots of creative Ideas you can pin on Pinterest so I gave in and joined the hype. I'm planning 2 parties this year for the kiddos and found a lot if great images on Pinterest that will get the ball rolling for my party planning. I'm so excited. You can follow me here and tell me what you think..

Fashion Police Studio Design

2012-03-26T09:22:00.003-07:00

I LOve the new Studio Set Design of Fashion Police on E! channel. No wonder it was designed by my design crush Jonathan Adler. Dreaming of a glam style like this with pops of pink, green and turquoise in my living room...

photo courtesy of Examiner

Hot Air Balloon Adventure

2012-02-24T10:22:00.000-08:00

I thought of a different way of celebrating V day this year.. I've always wanted to go up on a Hot Air Balloon and so that's what we did last weekend. We had so much fun viewing wineries, farms, different estates around the Temecula area and the best part is, getting up on the clouds (so cool!). You can literally touch the clouds and see the beautiful horizon at Sunrise that Day. It was the perfect weather and a perfect way to celebrate this day with your loved one..

Watching the ground crew inflate the Hot Air Balloon

Other Hot Air Balloon starting on their journey

Up in the clouds

Mrs & Mr

Reminds me of the movie "Up"

After the Balloon Ride

Love all around..

2012-02-24T10:05:00.000-08:00

I've never had this much flowers around me since my wedding day. So it was a nice surprise when my husband filled the house with flowers during the 14 days of Valentine's starting February first.

On the day itself, a dozen orange roses

What more can a girl ask for right?

Sweet Hong Kong

2012-02-24T09:17:00.001-08:00

My sister was in Hong Kong in January and I just had to share this pictures she took during the weekend of Chinese New Year.. I love anything sweet so when I saw these pictures, I just knew I had to share:

Giant Desserts

I wanted to see this in person, Humongous French Macaron Tower (My Favorite)

A Valentine Milk Chocolate


A bite size French Macaron (for a giant that is :)

Thanks to my sister (as seen in pictures) for sharing these nice huge sweet treats.

Crimson Resort and Spa, Cebu

2011-12-31T05:27:00.000-08:00

After a few days of nursing our jet lag when we arrived in Manila, we flew into Cebu to stay at the beautiful and new Crimson Resort in Mactan Island. We stayed at one of the Garden Villas with a veranda in front. Service and our overall experience at the resort was excellent. I loved the Aum Spa so much, I had to go back the next day and get another massage. The resort is also child-friendly as they have an outdoor play area for the kids and as well as activity center (with lots of kid's activities, toys, TV) with babysitting hourly rates. Here are some pictures:

Overlooking the Infinity Pool from the upstairs reception

The Zen themed Gardens

Kid's outdoor play area

Pool and Lounge Area

Overlooking the Beach

King Sized Bed in our Garden Villa Suite

Luxurious Bathroom

Taken from the Veranda

View of the Saffron Restaurant

Resort World Manila

2011-12-31T04:52:00.000-08:00

When I first entered this place, I thought I was walking into a Las Vegas Casino. The interior definitely are at par with famous Las Vegas hotel/casinos. I can't believe I was in Manila.

The Marriot Hotel right next to Resort World

I'd love to have this ceiling detail in my bedroom

The shops at Resort World

Newport Performing Arts Theatre

The huge Atrium with surrounding restaurants

I didn't get to take pictures of the casino though- not sure if that would be allowed.

Resort World Manila

Back to regular programming....

2011-12-31T04:40:00.000-08:00

My blog went on a hiatus as we travelled to Manila for our most awaited Family Holiday Vacay. This is turning into a Travelogue as we travelled to a lot of places this year (the most we've travelled in years and hopefully not the last). But please bear with me as I update this blog with places and recent inspirations I've encountered the last couple of days to weeks. Manila sure has changed a lot since the last time I've been here.

Our travels and most hip places in Manila I've visited coming up on my next post....

A Winter Holiday Playdate

2011-12-12T00:04:00.001-08:00

I purchased this Winter Candyland party printable over at Fresh Chick Designs for the kid's Holiday Playdate. They loved spending time with their cousins and they will miss them celebrating this holiday season so we thought of a get together for a Winter Candyland Themed Playdate. Here are some pictures:

Candy Station

Our White Easter Tree turned into a mini Chritmas tree

Dessert Table with some more candies

Labeled Water Bottles

Ginger bread House

Sugar Themed Cookies purchased from The Cookie Jar

Marshmallow penguin toppers from Oriental Trading

Favors for the kids, Penguin and Snowman pails from Michaels

I can't help but post pictures of the kids as well :)

Christmas around the house

2011-12-04T23:10:00.001-08:00

Paper trees design I purchased from Fresh Chick Designs

Our Favorite Mouse Mickey

From our home to yours, have a blessed and happy holiday season with your family :)

Making our first Gingerbread House

2011-12-04T22:44:00.001-08:00

Here are pictures of our first ever Gingerbread house. My sister worked on putting it together along with decorating it with my daughter.

while the kids looked on

the finished product as a centerpiece for our candy table

LV Store Front Display

2011-11-28T10:55:00.001-08:00

Pardon the dark pic as I only used my camera phone on this one

I can't help but take a picture of this LV Storefront Display at a Bloomingdales Store a few weeks back. I just love the mix and match of patterns and the concept itself was pretty interesting. What do you think?

It's that time of the year again..

2011-11-28T10:42:00.001-08:00

After Halloween and now Thanksgiving now past us, it's that time of the year again to bring out our Christmas decors, shopping for gifts, sending holiday cards to family and friends far away and getting things ready for the busiest and last holiday season of the year. I do have mixed emotions about Christmas this year. It's gonna be the most stressful (I think!) but at the same relaxing (in more ways than one). It's just getting through that big hurdle of travelling a very long flight with 2 toddlers (I'm keeping my fingers crossed and probably cover my ears during the flight). I will definitely miss Christmas at home this year. I will miss picking out our tree and decorating it. Oh well.. I know it will be never be the same celebrating Christmas and New Year in your own home. But I look forward to celebrating the Holidays this year with family and friends we haven't seen in a long time. It is a welcome change afterall :)

Fab @ 60 Party!

2011-11-20T23:36:00.001-08:00

Now that I have time to sit and blog about this party, I thought I'd share pictures from my Mom's 60th birthday party last summer. A lot of hard work, planning, setting up and coordinating with my family members went into preparing for this event. A party well deserved to the best Mom I know!! It was a labor of love not only from her kids but from her parents, siblings and nieces as well who helped out with the party.

As I said in my previous post here, my mom loves everything Red, Red Roses included.. As you can see it was dominant around the whole venue with accents of Gold (her favorite hue of jewelry) so we thought this would be the fitting color scheme for her party and I thought of the theme "Fab @ 60!" since there is nobody else I know who is Fab at this age as my Mom is. She has been truly blessed with family who loves and adores her and has great respect for her. She has given so much of herself to other people that we thought of making her feel special and throw a BIG and Fab party in her honor. I've never seen her this happy and surprised :) As you can see in one of the pictures, she does really look radiant in RED. It is truly her color.

I am so excited to share the pictures here: (courtesy of Uncle Rodney - a big Thank You!!!)

The Dessert Table, all desserts and pedestals are from Sweet and Saucy Shop

Lighting and DJ by Atmosphere DJ

Flowers made by my sis in law

Event Set Up

Portrait Courtesy of Uncle Rodney

Perfume Bar for the Ladies

Birthday Cake ordered from Sweet and Saucy Shop

Cake and Chocolate mousse

more chocolate mousse

The Guest of Honor in her Tadashi Shoji dress

Party Time

Gifts

My Flickr

2011-11-20T20:59:00.001-08:00

Finally I have a Flickr account. I am in process of starting an event planning business specifically Custom Themed Candy Bar and Dessert Tables Designs.

Do check it out and tell me what you think :)

DIY Hairclip Holder

2011-11-18T15:24:00.001-08:00

Been doing a lot of DIY around the house lately and this is one of the things I came up with. My daughter's Letter A hairclip holder. I've had this wooden letter "A" for a long time. I've painted it pink as a decor for her baptism party years back. So I thought, might as well put it to good use instead of just using it as a decor in her room right? I just glued 2 brown satin ribbons at the bottom where I clipped her collection of floral hairclips and put in a beaded flower (my sister taught me how to do this) as an accent that I can also turn into one of her hairclips later on:

Building our nest....

2011-11-13T16:17:00.001-08:00

I am very sentimental person. So when I found these photos of our current home being built, I thought I'd post these here. These were taken 2 years ago and you can see my very pregnant belly. When this house was being built, we were so excited that we'd come by almost every weekend to check out the progress of the construction until we had my second baby and we got busy with the 2 kids that we didn't keep up with the ritual of visiting the construction site every week until we had to come by the sales office to sign docs and go for our final walk through.

me and my very pregnant belly along with my toddler (circa summer of 2009)

I still have yet to look for the other photos and as we've taken lots of pictures during the whole construction.

Can you believe this?

2011-11-13T09:20:00.001-08:00

I can't believe it's today: Harajuku mini for Target. When I realized it is today, I thought should head over to the nearest Target. Hopefully there's still a lot of items left. I know a lot of fans like me will be in line...