TOPAZ HORIZON

If you've visited my husband's blog lately, you'll know that we have an exciting new gadget in the house, which is driving the Third World Nerd crazy happy. He's so cute really.

This, of course, means we should slow down on the purchases with the impending arrival of Mr. Jelly Bean. Actually, that would be "purchases unrelated to babies" since I just got a list of stuff we supposedly need for a kid and that list is mighty long. I've already looked at how much things cost and am seriously upset.

For example, an Avent electronic breast pump is about P13,000 here, but if I buy from the US, it'll just cost me $140, or P6,200. Same goes for a lot of baby stuff--they're cheaper from online shops so I guess this means we'll use Johnny Air again.

We really really love Johnny Air! I think from now on, we'll buy our things from the US because Johnny Air ships absolutely anything and everything for an inexpensive shipping fee! We've already bought books and toys and gadgets and we really love the service. Although, we bought small and light stuff so maybe for big stuff, like a Sony or Samsung HDTV, we'll have to get from here!     

So there. Must save money now. And yet, I still want to buy this yellow topaz ring I saw in a jewelry shop last week. It's been haunting me every day! And we also saw these cute puppies for sale from Project Lightning!
Awwwww! Cute little critters! I can totally see my son with a beagle! Vince wants Jelly Bean to own a dog. Research has shown that children who had pets were more responsible, healthier, more compassionate and--this is the interesting part--were less likely to get pregnant/get someone pregnant out of wedlock. Well! That's a good enough reason for me! Thing is, we live in an apartment. With a rabbit. So maybe we'll get a beagle in 5 to 7 years' time, when we'll maybe live in a house with a big garden!


*breast pump photo from Philips online shop. Puppies photos from Project Lightning's Facebook page. Don't forget to "like" Topaz Horizon's FB page!

I just realized that when the GoDaddy reminder came in my inbox. Time to pay for another year's domain use!

While this blog has been up since May 24, 2006, I actually started blogging via Friendster in May 2005. So I've really been blogging for 5 years now. But my blog used to be too honest, too raw, too... me! Har de harhar, not that I'm saying I'm fake now; just saying that I've learned to edit myself and not to spill every little emotion on cyberspace. That, my friends, is a very bad idea, and I can say that with conviction because I've hurt a lot of people and got hurt myself just because I was careless.

Anyway, on to the present! To celebrate, I created a Facebook page!!! I really dunno if I did it right but this link should get you there. If not, just type "Topaz Horizon" on your FB search and the page should come out. Pleeeeease like me!


While I've been blogging for a while, it's only now that I really feel like I'm a blogger. For one thing, bloggers now are recognized as the new media. Events and press conferences now aren't complete without bloggers. I feel a bit weird sometimes because I'd get two invitations to the same event addressed as "Frances Amper Sales, OK! editor-in-chief" and "Frances Amper Sales, Topaz Horizon" (or "Beauty For A Living")!

I'm glad that my blogs are getting popular. I feel like I'm being recognized as a person. What I mean by that is, as an editor of a magazine, I'm usually addressed in the context of my work, usually very politely and in a very business-like manner. With my blogs, people see me as a wife, a friend, a daughter, a sister, a homemaker and now a mom-to-be. People see the person behind the editor-in-chief, and this is really okay with me. Because when I'm no longer editor-in-chief (let's face it--this gig can't last till I'm 60!), I don't cease to exist in people's minds because they already know my other roles. And that's a big relief! 

How about you? How long have you been blogging? And how do you feel about blogging as the new media?

Weekends are much more precious now. In a few weeks, it won't be just Vince and me anymore. There'll be the baby, the maids, the friends, and relatives... That's a good thing, of course, but Vince and I happen to be loners. We're quite anti-social although when we're forced by our work/family/friends to attend events, we do try our very best to be friendly! So the prospect of not being alone for the next 20 or so years is quite mind-boggling.

So today, one of the last few Sundays where it's just him and me, we spent it just reading, playing video games, eating, and chatting. Such fun! When the kid comes, we'll have to spend more time with family and the community. Weekends will be spent for the kid's entertainment--educational trips to museums and zoos, fun trips to amusement parks... I'm already tired just thinking about it.I am not being resentful here, not at all. It's more of I'm marinating in the time Vince and I have alone but, at the same time, anticipating the little one's arrival. It's so strange and scary and happy all at the same time!

Speaking of family trips, here's one we had last November at Tagaytay:

I found two really cool gadgets online today (scroll below). And this reminded me of another issue concerning us Filipinos--our energy bills.

I've been keeping quiet about my electric bill even though every Filipino I know is raising a huge fuss about theirs... and with good reason. The bills people quote are shocking! How on earth did their bills get that high?? I just nod and agree and say, "Yeah, my bill doubled, too." What I don't say is, "My bill doubled from P900 to P1,900." Yup, I have shoes and dresses that cost more than my spiked bill.



I know why my bill went up--it's because my energy consumption went up. But Vince and I have always been energy-savers so what we consume is probably less than the average Pinoy household. Here are just a few things we do:

• All our appliances are energy-efficient. They cost more when you buy them but they really do pay for themselves. Every month, I see the proof in our electric bill.
• All our light bulbs are energy-efficient, too. 
• Our window panes are tinted to decrease the strength of the hot hot hot sun. When that fails, we have triple-lined curtains to block the sun out. These curtains cost more than regular ones but they instantly cool the house.
• We open our windows. There's no need to turn on the A/C or even the fans because the winds that flow around a high rise are quite cool and powerful. We just open the windows a crack and the entire apartment is like a wind tunnel.
• We turn off and unplug everything in the house when we're not using them (except the ref!). It's an extra step when we do want to watch TV, use the computer, etc but we think every little thing helps!
• Oh, and baby powder helps big time! I'm usually powdered everywhere because the heat is unbelievable but baby powder saves me from getting sticky!

Another tip I can share--though this isn't mine--is to call an electrician and have your meter and wiring checked. My parents used to get huge electric bills no matter what they do. When they finally called in an energy auditor, they found out that there was a "ground" so the appliances were continually using energy even though they weren't in use. The electrician fixed the ground and the bills went down.



In this terrible summer we're all experiencing, it's really difficult to think of saving energy when the heat is enough to drive us insane. To be honest with ya, I've been turning on the A/C almost every night. It's just too hot! But energy can be saved--invest in new energy-efficient gadgets, find ways to cool the house without using electricity, dress in light clothes and use baby powder!

Photos and product descriptions from FastCompany.com's article: Can Designers Save the World?

Thank you to everyone who greeted me a happy mommy's day. That really amused me since, technically, I'm still a mom-to-be but, gee, I already am taking care of a little one in my tummy and a fat rabbit in the utility area so yup, that makes me a mom! Thanks!

Happy Mother's Day to you, too--moms of their own kids, pets, nephews and nieces--as long as you're taking care of someone, I salute you!

Anyway, I've been avoiding my darling blogging community the last few days because it was Mother's Day weekend and I just didn't want to read about how happy you are to have your moms around. Makes the emptiness in my heart just a wee bit more hollow, you know? But that didn't mean I didn't think of Mama--though I did try not to so I wouldn't be sad, but hey, maybe sadness isn't too bad. So today I finally allowed myself to wallow.

I was thinking today of this huge irony in my life: Mama had always wanted a nice house in a nice neighborhood. Our house used to be nice but decay had set in and we didn't have the money to do repairs so the house just became... well, not nice. Also, our once quiet neighborhood had become a den of thieves and peeping Toms, the kind that needed tall fences, dead bolts and driveway alarms, so Mama always talked about moving to another place.

She loved looking at the Crown Asia subdivisions in Antipolo--Maia Alta, Cottonwood--pretty little communities nestled far up in the hills. She'd say she'd buy a white car so she can visit us and she'd plant a pretty garden because Mama had an awfully green thumb and she can make dead things come to life.

So when I started working, I promised Mama I'd buy her a house in Cottonwood (it was nicer there, I thought). Vince knew this dream and agreed with me--we were going to buy Mama a house! Of course, a house and lot (and that white car) don't come cheap so I really spent the last decade just slaving away. I had a day job and then I had many other projects--PR writing here, web content there, and magazine articles, too. I seemed to be endlessly writing and never sleeping. Mama said she understood whenever I couldn't see her. I was just too damn busy, yes, but it was all for buying her that house! I hardly saw her the last few years of her life but I was getting there, getting closer to our dream.

On February 14, 2008--her 63rd birthday--I told her that with the way things are going, Vince and I would most likely buy her her own house and lot as her 65th birthday gift. She was so giddy. She died a few months later.

A few months after we buried Mama, I got a big raise. I remember looking at that piece of paper and just feeling... nothing. Just this vast emptiness that threatened to swallow me up and never spit me out. I think I went on a shopping spree for me, Vince, my sister and my nieces. I don't really remember.

Do I regret working too much when I could've spent that time with her? Sometimes I do, most times I don't. I did it for her, you see.

Sure, I may not have been able to get her her house but I was able to do this one thing for her... When I got married in 2007, and Mama walked down that aisle looking like a queen, I was so happy for her. When the wedding came out in the society pages and the people who had put her down and sneered at her all those years for being poor and unlucky began calling her up and wanted to be friends again, I was happy for her. She had a daughter who made her proud, and I was that daughter. I gave her a reason to lift her chin again. And I am never going to regret that.

Still, when Mother's Day comes rolling around, or her birthday, or mine, or the holidays, or when this whole motherhood thing crashes down on me and I get terrified at becoming a mom myself, I do wish she were still around so that I don't have to be so strong and so brave all the time. Because really, most of the time, I don't have any idea how life works and it would be so nice to have a mother around. Even for just a little while.

This is just so fabulous!!! Considering I mostly dress for comfort (except when it comes to shoes) and that I hardly ever know what's the latest on the runways, to be included in their feature is definitely most unexpected and appreciated.

Everyone else on the list is not just a celebrity, they're also such fashionistas! I'm just an ordinary girl!

Giddy, giddy me! Click on this link to read my interview and on this link to read the entire story--this I suggest most because the other women are much more stylish than I am and have more advice to offer you than I do. Yey, what a way to usher me into motherhood! Thanks, Style Bible. I think this is a fantastic first Mother's Day gift!

I was squinting at the mirror today, realizing my eyes need to be checked because my glasses are more than a year old and need changing. At the same time, I also know that pregnancy changes the shape of the eyeball so my increasingly blurry vision may just be temporary. I did think of getting cheap prescription glasses to tide me over till when I give birth in August, then I figured, what the heck, with all the changes in my body, I might as well wait out these last three months.

Three more months and then I'll be confronted with the real damage to my body. People have been warning me about stretchmarks, varicose veins, darkened skin, saggy breasts, swollen abdomen, stubborn fat... Well, I don't really mind. Really! Stretchmarks and dark skin can be bleached away, veins can be lasered off, fat can be exercised away, etc. What really has me sad is my belly button.

I'm only vain about two things--my nose and my belly button. I think that those are the only two perfect things in my entire body. Everything else (sparse lashes, myopic eyes, huge ears, big teeth, long face, thin flat hair, flat chest, bony fingers, stubby toes, flabby everywhere) is just okay. Despite enumerating all that, don't worry--I have pretty good self-esteem because I have friends and family who love me absolutely!

So anyway, everyone warned that pregnancy will wreak havoc on the body. So far, so good. I do feel insecure sometimes when I look in the mirror and see a different body. I check for changes--and there are many already--but the ones I'm most concerned about are the enlarged nose and the protruding navel. My nose is still the same, thank the heavens, but my belly button? Well, today, it is officially the same level as my tummy. Yes, it is no longer in its perfect deeply sunken, perfectly round state. And that means in a few weeks, I'll have a nipple in the middle of my belly.

I know it's so shallow but I feel a little grief over the belly button. Mommies tell me that the belly button will recede into the tummy again when the baby's out but that it will look stretched and tired. One said, "You'll just have to work extra hard to have a flat belly so that your navel may look ugly but because your tummy's perfect, it won't look so bad." Great, that's a big comfort to me! 


My husband already misses my belly button and it's upsetting me. In many ways, my belly button is a metaphor of my body-before-baby and I worry not really about what I'll look like after the baby but how my husband will react to the after-baby body. I know he'll still love me and want me but he misses the belly button already and I worry that he'll miss the pre-pregnant body, too.

I recently won my first contest while pregnant! That deserves to be mentioned because there's this belief that pregnant women are lucky, so since getting preggers I've been joining contests and raffles left and right, whether for an Xperia X10 phone (a Sony Ericsson raffle), a Tamaraw FX (a Mercury Drug raffle) and, yes, almost all the blog giveaways I can find and... I haven't won anything! Till now!

Here's my loot...

This is the Kezia band (P585) and it's in pink! Love it! It's very comfy. I'm a migraine sufferer so headbands aren't a favorite but I've heard that Evita Peroni headbands are painless and the rumor is correct!

Discovered a new cooking show today. Well, it's been airing for a while now actually but I usually spend Saturday afternoons asleep so I never catch this show. But today I woke up just before the day turned into evening and caught it. It's called Everyday Exotic and it's hosted by chef/musician Roger Mooking.

Today, his special ingredient was lychee. He made grilled pork chops with potato pancakes and lychee salad served with a refreshing lychee cocktail.

The potato pancakes were interesting--he basically made a pancake batter, mixed in garlic powder, mashed potatoes and scallions, browned both sides on a buttered pan, then slid the pancakes into a hot oven for about 10 minutes.

Pork chops are always a very simple thing to do. I just season it with salt and pepper then fry them on a skillet. Perfect and simple all the time. Roger, meanwhile, marinated the meat in hoisin sauce for 30 minutes then put them on a grill and, I swear, my mouth just watered. I've never grilled anything in my life before and I love grilled food. Vince loves it even more than I do! Which makes me wonder why on earth don't we have a grill!

Well, I do know why we haven't gotten one--we live in a high-rise and we've always just thought that charcoal and smoke with a small enclosed space is a very bad combination. But when I saw Roger's tabletop grill, well, now I want one, too! Yep, an outdoor electric grill will be on my to-buy list now--just look at that photo above. Yes, that's my future. With that, I'll be able to grill pork chops, barbecue, steak, kebabs, fish, prawns, burgers and even fruit slices! OMG, now I'm really really hungry!

Hi, allow me to just promote my beauty blog, Beauty For A Living.

Since I've been attending a lot of fabulous events lately, I have a lot of new stories. I've only written about a few (soap, designer wedding rings), but I'll be adding more over the weekend.

I also have been getting a number of beauty products which I'm very excited about (like this amazing new cream that promises to banish dark circles around eyes!) so I want to tell you guys about that.

Lastly, I'll be holding a beauty giveaway soon. Yes, and y'all know I can be very generous with my prizes! I'll announce it when I'm ready but I'll already give you a hint on what you'll need to do to win such a fabulous contest: First, you have to be a nerd. If you're not, then let's hope your friend/boyfriend/husband/brother/sister is! Because while the contest will be held in my beauty blog, it's really to celebrate my husband's new blog, Third World Nerd! Second, the prize is very Japanese. Curious yet? Exciting times!!!

Meanwhile, check out Beauty For A Living! Thanks and enjoy your weekend!

Lookit my new favorite thing!

It's an Infiniti bib necklace I got at Glorietta 5. Ain't it purty?

I just love the big semi-precious stones and the crystal beads. Depending on the light, the stones look either pink, purple or magenta. So they feel alive.

I've always loved bib necklaces but found them terribly expensive. So I've lusted after them for quite a while now. So when I found this beautiful piece for a mere P3,600, I just had to have it!

Here's how I wore it:

Wore the necklace with my favorite Gingersnaps t-shirt dress and Kenneth Cole purple peep-toes. To see more cute preggy photos and understand a big reason why I love this necklace, go to my Pregnant Pics at 6 Months post at my mommy blog.

On the eve of our third wedding anniversary, Vince and I drove all the way to old Manila for a symphony concert by the FILharmoniKA orchestra of Gerard Salonga.

My younger brother, Theodore Amper, happens to be part of it! He's a cellist and we're very thrilled that he's with the FILharmoniKA group. Exciting times for everyone!

For the concert, the orchestra played Antonin Dvořák's Cello Concerto with guest cellist Richard Bamping. He was great. The first violinist was amazing. The whole orchestra was fantastic!

Vince and I had such a lovely time, just letting the music sweep over and through us. I literally felt my soul swell with the music. And the little Jelly Bean? Well, he kicked about every time the orchestra builds into a crescendo so I think he got excited when the music got louder and faster and... well, he took after his father then. Vince likes his music loud and strong!

Theodore is also part of the string quartet Manila String Machine, which performs at weddings and other special events. They performed at my wedding three years ago so I highly recommend them. Book them now!

The traditional gift for the third wedding anniversary is leather. Vince and I had been toying with the idea of giving each other bags--he needs a laptop bag and I... well, I don't need a bag but I definitely will not refuse one!

Instead of bags, however, we found ourselves getting these throw pillows:

They're embroidered black leather pillows from Dimensione, about a P1,000++ each. They come in other designs and there's also white versions. We like how they ground the look of our living room, which has started to look too feminine. Plus, you just need to wipe them clean!

P.S. That's my old teddy bear, Mozzarella! You can tell he loves the new pillows, too.

This past weekend was just lovely. Vince and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary and the 11th anniversary of when we fell in love! I'll update soonest with a proper post, but for now here's a look back on that very special day:

Tessa Prieto-Valdes a.k.a. The Sea Princess wrote about our wedding in her column. I totally forgot where I put the news clipping of that! But here's another from the Inquirer (click photos to enlarge):

I'll have the Wedding Essentials magazine feature and Cosmopolitan mention scanned so you can take a look, too. I wish I'd also recorded the bridal feature on Kate Torralba's wedding gowns of some TV show. I heard that we had really nice photos from our wedding shown there. Oh well! Have a nice week!

Suuuuuper busy! Here's what I've been up to:

1. Just came from a Sony Ericsson event to check out the new Experia phone, which will be featured in Vince's fabulous blog Third World Nerd. I love this blog!

2. Just sent the May issue of OK! magazine to the printers and it should be hitting the newsstands by next week. Meanwhile, we're simultaneously doing the first batch of pages of the June issue. Ack, it never ends!

3. Blogged about beauty stuff in Beauty For A Living. There's a Paul & Joe event this weekend you might want to check out.

4. Got royally pissed off at HPPI, the worst HMO in the world. I'll talk about it more in another post. Right now, I'm feeling murderous.

5. At the same time, I'm also feeling very happy! Finally won a blog giveaway! I won hair accessories from Evita Peroni. I'm so happy!

6. Had a surprise visit from my dear friend Mariel yesterday! She's back from the US of A! And we had a lovely long chat over coffee and cheesecake and chocolate cake. So so so happy she's back.

7. And I have to pay the bills. Will get to that!

Oh, and the baby boy I'm carrying is kicking like he has plans to be the next great football player. He will not stop! I'm like, "Settle down in there!" Of course we're so excited. At the same time, he has such powerful kicks, it hurts!

So I'll blog again soonest with more details. Meanwhile, I hope y'all are having a nice week!

I still haven't bought maternity clothes. I just went to my usual dress haunts and got a medium (I'm usually a small) or a size 6 (I'm usually a 4). From the front, I don't even look pregnant. From the side, well, there you go—the big baby belly bump!

The secret to looking slim while pregnant is black, black, black! Y'all know that black can make you look like a model for weight loss pills, and pregnant Hollywood stars often turn to black to avoid looking too big.

If you don't like black, stick to one color since it fools the eye into thinking there's one long length of you. I like dark green, navy blue, gray and white! I am especially fond of this Karimadon with a big red bow on the chest--makes my new chest look even bigger, but in a sweet way!

Busy patterns, which pregnant women seem to be fond of, just widen you. So avoid them. If you do like patterns (like me!), get the small kind—you know, tiny flowers, little paisley swirls. Do not get clothes with huge circles, big teddy bears, big flowers. Also, remember that you're carrying a baby; you're not the baby. So choose sophisticated touches, not prints that toddlers will wear.

Choose clothes that are tailored—yes, it's possible to wear tailored clothes even while pregnant. Just look at this black dress again.
This is again a Karimadon (which I wore with Vita Fede bangles and Schu flats) and it came with a big belt. No need to wear the belt but after I give birth, I can still use this dress and wrap the belt around my waist, which will hopefully reappear by Christmas!

You don't really need a lot of maternity wear anyway. I think I rotate about 10 dresses. Silk jersey dresses, soft knitwear, comfy cotton—clothes that flow over the body or those that show off just the boobs or the tummy celebrate your new shape without making you look dumpy and fat—even if we are! The trick is to look slim, not be thin. A lot of women just buy maxi dresses—they look so romantic. Some women I know wear jeans and short shorts--they look so damn hot! I'm not that kind, though (wish I were!). If I want to look sexy, I just bring out my mini dresses.

So just because you're going to be a mom doesn't mean you cease to be a woman. After all, you got pregnant because someone thought you were sexy enough to sleep with! Don't forget that sexy creature!

I mentioned in this blog before that some bloggers earn a ton of money from their blogs. Their secret is an understanding of search engine optimization. I have no idea what that means. Well, I do know that it means using words and phrases that makes your blog appear high on the list of search engines. And for me, that's just cheating. I've been to some blogs that have manipulated the SEO and, gee, their blogs are boring.  Why would anyone want to read a blog like that? But because they're clever, they've learned how to cheat the system so that their blogs go up, up, up on the search.

Well, they may be boring but those blogs earn cold hard cash! Well, mine does, too, but not so much so I'm glad I have a job that makes me really really happy, both monetarily and in everything else! 

SEO also means having a lot of links to your blog, which is time consuming to say the least! That's going to dozens, even hundreds, of other blogs and making friends with them so that they'll visit your blog, maybe like it and then link your blog to theirs. You see, the more links your blog has, the more popular it is, and obviously that would make it climb up the search engines. There are some people who bypass this process by using a directory submission service, but I personally prefer making friends, however time consuming that may be!

Of course, since I'm a very busy woman, I really don't have the time to do this! I usually spend my weekends browsing blogs and leaving comments. I've made friends this way (ladies, you know who you are!). But since getting pregnant, I'm sleepy all the time! So thank you for still visiting my blogs and linking up and leaving your darling comments here. You are appreciated! I may not earn a lot of money from my blogs but I've earned friends. And that is priceless.


*image from the web. can't say which website really since several sites used it!