Her time is now

To those of you who don't know here's my best friend:

 

Cool, huh? First thing people notice when they see her is her shaved head. But beyond that, she's a person who's not afraid to LIVE. 

So far she's lived in 4 countries (Saudi Arabia, Manila, Germany & Norway), traveled all over the world (name any country, chances are, she's been there), climbed mountains (literally and figuratively), and surfed the waves. She's a yoga instructor, photographer and skateboarder. She was a competitive wall climber (even competed in international meets), triathlete, print model (mostly for Summit Media magazines), t-shirt designer...the list goes on. All this and she's only in her 20's.

And now she's on to pursuing her latest dream:

becoming a Benetton model

Why Benetton? Ever since we were in high school (when Benetton was THE brand), we always admired the Benetton multi-racial print ads, though we felt that the Philippines was unrepresented. With the exception of Tim Yap and Rissa Mananquil, there never were any other Filipinos who were featured in their ads.

Except now.

Benetton recently launched an online casting call for their 2010 campaign, and Isla is part of it! With her morena complexion, unique sense of style and her go-getter attitude, she's the PERFECT candidate to represent our country for the campaign, don't you think? But before she can do that, she needs to win the online polls so she can be part of the shortlist of 100.

Do I need to say it out loud?

PLEASE VOTE FOR ISLA!

by going to this LINK

or copy and paste this to your browser:

http://casting.benetton.com/users/76558-isla/

The votation ends on March 16, and you can vote for her everyday. You just have to create a profile though, but I think they also have a Facebook connect thing. Easy right? :) Vote, vote, vote!

How the Grinch turned into an Elf

Endless deadlines, stress and drama turned me into a Scrooge this year.  Despite the nippy weather, this year didn't feel like Christmas to me. I assumed that as I got older, the magic of Christmas will fade, since Christmas is for kids. Plus I am already imagining the credit card bill that will come along with this holiday, which will probably make me faint and hyperventilate. Till I saw this on my desk this morning:

My first Christmas gift for this year!

 

Dark Chocolate! My favorite!

 

Now it feels like Christmas!

Have a chocolate-y Christmas everyone!

tommorrow's the future, tonight's the party!

as we bid "ta-ta!" to 2008 and say "bonjour!" to 2009,
let me say thank you to everyone who made my year a crazy one.

a year of discoveries...
of challenges...
laughter...
and love...
2008 was indeed a year for the books!

with every end, there's always a new beginning.
i am definitely looking forward for tomorrow.
let the party begin!