TOPAZ HORIZON

Halloo, halloo! Been incredibly busy this week! Magazine deadlines, meeting old friends, restarting an online sideline biz, enjoying the entries to my Topaz Mommy book giveaway (join now!), and all that on top of being wife and mommy!

I also updated my dormant beauty blog with an event I attended recently, the double launch of Pond's Age Miracle Cell ReGEN and Flawless White with GenActiv. Here's what I wore:

Tint dress, shu uemura makeup bag used as evening bag, tiangge and Vita Fede bangles, suede peeptoes from eBay

And this is what happened. See you again here soon!

Elaine, Kabbie and Paola have been raving about the Goody Spin Pins for weeks now but I couldn't bring myself to get a pair because I have the thinnest, finest hair in the world and one regular-sized pin sticks out of the bun. So no point, right? The three girls gave one solution: the Goody Spin Pin Mini!

The coin is just so you know how small the pins are.

I hardly ever put my hair up in a bun, though. So I found another use for the minis--make my hair all soft and wavy!

A kit comes with 3 pins but since my hair's so thin, I usually just need to part my hair into two ponies, twirl into buns and secure. One pin each!
I wait for about 15-30 minutes for the curls to set (this is when I usually apply makeup and dress up) then I unspool the pins and voila! Casual curls that float around my face. Happiness! Perfect for relaxed weekends like today.

Outfit details: Gingersnaps T-shirt maternity dress, my favorite plastic earrings from the tiangge and Get Happy charm bracelet

I usually spray on Kiehl's Stylist Series Super Thick Volumizer first then end with Matrix hairspray after. If I want body, I use thermal curlers from Watsons. If I really want sexy waves, I bring out the curling iron!
This hair tutorial (naks!) was shot at Midas Hotel last week, by the way. I was there as a guest of Pond's. More about that event in the next post!

The first ever photo of Vince and me! We didn't know each other yet when this was shot. Yes, it's destiny!

I surprised my Valentine this morning. Left little gifts on his desk and waited for him to wake up. When he did, I hid in our bedroom as he ambled sleepily to his study. Then--aha!--he made a (very satisfactory to me) delighted, surprised sound and then we kissed and hugged and the world is a place filled with love and happiness!

How was your Valentine's Day?

If you're expecting a baby or a new mommy, I have a Valentine's Day surprise for you, too! Head on over to Topaz Mommy for the details!

Happy Monday, everyone! Here's a pregnant fashion post to start the week.

On Friday, I'll be on the 27th week of my pregnancy with wee Wiggle. That means I'll be 7 months along, which means in a few weeks, I'll be cradling a little baby again! Vince and I are so impatient and excited. Vito, not so much.

The pregnancy is going along extremely well, which is a relief and a joy considering how awful and tenuous it had seemed for the first 4 months. That's why I wasn't as open about this pregnancy as I had been when I was pregnant with Vito. But now we're entering the third trimester and it's all excitement and anticipation from hereon.

And fashion! I've posted a few photos recently of my pregnant self. Here's more of my preggy body in the glorious 6th month!

SM Dept Store dress, Kenneth Cole suede and satin heels

Gingersnaps dress, Anthology tweed flats, Kate Spade tote

Gingersnaps dress, Longchamp clutch, handmade multimedia necklace, Anthology tweed flats

This belly bump is waaaaay bigger than my Vito bump. I was this big at 8 months' preggo back then! Now, at only 6 months, I'm huge. I can't imagine my 9th month. Scary!

I'll post more pregnant fashion photos soon! Meanwhile, have a lovely and stylish week, my dearest readers!

In my Letter from the Editor, I dared my readers to do something new this year:

Open in a new tab to enlarge.

To be very honest, I wrote that letter as a dare to myself, too. And now that it's out there, I'm feeling very fragile and scared and stressed out!

I feel a change coming. I've been feeling it since 2009 actually, and it was perhaps brought about by my pregnancy. You can read all about it here, but I'll post an excerpt anyway:

There's still that ambitious part of me that's screaming in my head in absolute fury. I know opportunities like this don't come traipsing along every day, and I'll just have to live with this decision for the rest of my life. But now that it's done, my agony is over, my insomnia is cured, my world is again at peace.

Whatever the future holds, I only know that what I choose will always be the one that, in the words of that timeless song, will need all the love I can give, every day of my life for as long as I live.

Well, just reading the comments section of that two-year-old post made me realize that my pregnancy had nothing to do with it after all!

Anyway, I do know that I am still enjoying my magazine gig. I have so many plans this year and if you've been following the magazine, you'd see its transformation. It really is getting better and better with each new issue and I am very excited about the stuff my team and I have planned this year for our loyal readers.

You all also know I dipped my toes in entrepreneurship last year. The bag business is closed now but I took away some pretty good realizations there and I will do it again! It was very hard work, made me cry and freak out and stress many times, but I am convinced I can and will do better next time!

I also have big plans for my blogs. It's no secret that I earn from my blogs and 2011 was very good to me. My readership has gone up. Brands and PR companies have been wooing me. So many opportunities have come up! But I have had to turn down a lot of those opportunities because it will present a conflict with my job or because it will take me away from my family.

Yes, my lovely, wonderful, amazing family. I never would have thought this but I am really such a mother. I am also a committed wife. There's absolutely nothing I enjoy more than basking in the devotion of my husband and son. But because of the many many many things on my plate, I haven't really been fully immersed in my roles as mother and wife. And I feel like I'm giving so much to the things that make my life fun and not to the ones who make it worthwhile. I talk about my sadness about that over at Topaz Mommy.

So a change is coming. I can feel it thrumming in my veins. Right now, I still don't know if the change means my life will get crazier or maybe it will become quieter. My life will either get bigger or smaller. Both options are so very real, I can taste them. I'm very scared. But I'm also very excited!

I live in a condo and my bedroom wall is right against the bedroom wall of the neighboring unit. We used to have a very passionate couple as our neighbors and, boy, they made love really noisily. I didn't have to press my ear on the wall behind my bedroom door. We can hear them from our bed from across the room! I used to tell Vince, "Dammit, let's do it and drown them out!"

Well, they moved out some time ago and so, last week, I found a new thing to do with that blank wall: It will be where I keep my necklaces!

Vince doesn't like hammering nails (that's why he bought power tools) so...

... this was a true labor of love.

Tada! So neat and pretty!

I have a lot of necklaces but I never get to use them much because they're all bunched up in a messy bowl. Really terrible. So I edited my collection and decided that I will only keep a dozen. Yes, just 12 pieces! If I want a new necklace, I'll have to get rid of an old one. The simple solution above really helps!

Thank you so much, Vince! I super love you for organizing my life!

P.S. Ok, I found other necklaces buried in my closet this weekend and I couldn't part with them so now I have 2 necklaces per hook! So... just 24 pieces! No more than 24! (Wish me luck!)

You've all seen my lovely escritoire from Prizmic & Brill:

This photo is from the Real Living magazine feature a few years back. Many things have changed in our home--lots of new stuff!--but this writing desk will be mine till I'm old and gray. It's such a lovely piece. And it was Vince's Christmas gift to me in 2008. One of the best gifts he's ever given me!

Here is my now super messy desk with another (even more) amazing gift from Vince:

That little boy is always grabbing stuff from my desk! So my desk is messier than ever since I have to keep piling papers and things higher and farther from his reach. Which then makes it harder to work since my laptop is buried under so much stuff that I get lazy to do anything!

But you'll only see a teeny bit of it since I'm using TwitPic (follow me for instant outfit updates!).

In the previous post, I used another TwitPic of a Tango dress I wore last week. Followers asked where I got the sexy dress. From Tango! There's a branch in Glorietta, beside VNC (that's the only branch I know) and another one in Megamall Bldg B (but I dunno where it is exactly). Go shop na there!

Now, the Tango dress I'm wearing here is an electric pleated coral caftan with a deep plunging V-neckline. Whenever I wear this, everyone loves me! Like, they want to touch me. It's so... weird! My husband is especially enamored. I have to fight him off! Haha!

When I Tweeted this photo, they didn't notice the dress so much. Everybody asked about the necklace. It's turquoise. It's gorgeous. And it's fabulously cheap! Just P900 from Kultura at Megamall. You guys really ought to check out that place. It's full of really great accessories, bags, home stuff, delicacies--ya know, local stuff! Super fabulous items. I can never leave that huge store without a big bag of new things.

So there. Now you know where I go buy my things. The best thing about Tango and Kultura? They're Proudly Pinoy! Actually, almost all my stuff is local. Gingersnaps, Karimadon, Anthology, Janilyn, Fino, K&Company... I do shop at Zara and Mango sometimes but I mostly patronize Pinoy brands. Really amazing products we Filipinos have!

Okay, okay, past few posts have been too heavy. Didn't I promise I ain't ever gonna do that?!

(Actually, I might still have a few serious posts coming. I'm kinda feeling serious lately!)

So anyway, let's get shallow again. And what could be more shallow than an outfit post? Here's what I wore recently:

That is one huge baby bump. And I'm only 6 months pregnant! I don't want to imagine what I'd look like 3 months from now.

Oh, that's a Tango dress. Tango is my best-kept shopping secret! That little shop is filled with racks upon racks of dresses that are so nice, comfy and inexpensive. I think this dress is only P1,200. I always buy 2 or 3 dresses when I'm there. And now you know my secret and now I'm going to regret this!

Anyway, sorry if I haven't been blogging. Been a bit sad so I've taken refuge over at Twitter where 140 characters forces me to focus my thoughts on more cheerful things. So I've been Tweeting outfit pics and happy stuff lately. Follow me!

Last week, I got an email from a reader asking me for advice. Now I said I don't like giving advice but she was sincere and sad and desperate so I believe I had to say something. Here's what she asked (I edited it a bit):

Dear Ms. Frances,
My boyfriend and I have been together for five happy years. He said his New Year's resolution is to marry me. I'm very afraid of marriage because my father cheated on my mother constantly. How can I tell if my boyfriend, when he's my husband, won't cheat on me? You said you were also afraid of marriage but you never said why. How did you finally agree to marriage? How do you know Sir Vince will be faithful or that you yourself won't ever cheat on him?

Dear Fearful of the Unfaithful,

First of all, I think your guy is awfully cute. I've never heard of a New Year's resolution like that! The problem with his resolution, however, is it all depends on you and you happen to be resolute in remaining unmarried.

I think that it's unfair of you to keep him waiting, considering that you have, as you yourself described, five happy years as proof this guy loves you and you alone. But I am familiar with this fear of marriage so I won't condemn you.

The past is a powerful thing. So witnessing your father's infidelity and your mother's suffering can leave a horrible scar. Maybe it hasn't even healed. And now it's a wound that continues to hurt you... and your man. Look, your boyfriend is not your father and you are not your mother. Not all men are scumbags and not all women take shit. So don't let someone else's past affect your future!

I was afraid of marriage because, like you, I saw my mother suffer. My father never really took care of her--he didn't put that roof over her head, didn't provide for her and her children. But my mother never left him because she believed, as I do, that marriage is till death. Besides, he was the one man who made her laugh. However, she kept telling me, up to the last time we talked, that if she were to live her life all over again, she would never have gotten married. That's why I was deathly afraid of marriage. So you and I may have different reasons, but it led to the same results.

How did I finally agree to marry Vince? Well, I loved him. Still do. I believe I always will. Still, it seemed love wasn't enough of a reason to take that plunge. What made me finally marry him was my realization that life will never be perfect but, with Vince, it's going to be pretty darn close!

Still, it haunts us, my indecision. One time, I told Vince that that famous line from When Harry Met Sally made me cry: "When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible." Vince replied, "Then why did you wait so long?"

That hit me in the gut. Why did I wait so long when I knew from the start he was The One? Because I was afraid, and fear, as a wise old Jedi once said, is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering. And you, my dear sad frightened girl, are now suffering. You're afraid of the past. You're afraid of the future.

How can you tell a guy won't ever cheat on you? Well, you can't. It takes faith to marry. Faith, as the Bible says so eloquently, is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). So in marriage, all you have going for you is hope--hope that he'll be true to you always, hope that you'll honor your vows, hope that your love will last forever. And hope, as Stephen King's Shawshank Redemption defines, is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.

Aside from that wonderful word "happy," you didn't describe your relationship a lot but I think what you and your man have is a good thing. Don't let that good thing die. I think you know that, too. And I think you know exactly what to do.