Friday, November 18, 2016

See you at the Alaska Ultimate Mission Camp this Sunday!

This post is brought to you by Alaska Milk.


Hello, all you mommies who have kids who love Marvel superheroes and the walang kamatayan Frozen! There's a special day for us and our kids this Nov. 20, Sunday, at the SMX 4 at Mall of Asia—the Alaska Ultimate Mission Camp!!!

Here are my kids getting all excited about the camp:


We're so excited!!!

At the camp, there will be Disney Mission Zones for kids to complete special assignments that are fun and educational. All the activities in the Mission Zones are for kids 5 years old and up. These zones are for kids only. Don't worry—Alaska made sure the missions and the areas are safe and secure.

There will be activities for moms and dads to enjoy, too. I believe there will be cooking and food tasting goodies for us to enjoy. Hooray! I love cooking and eating!

But if you bring kids aged 4 and below (like my Iñigo and Piero), well, you'll need to be with them when they enjoy the other activity zones.

Kids may come in costume but since costumes may restrict vision and movement (hello, capes and masks and gowns and crowns!), it's much better if they come in comfortable attire.

There will be snacks and Alaska Milk drinks (of course!) so just enjoy all the fun stuff lined up for us because Alaska Milk will take care of everything. Yes, even the entrance fee. There is NO ENTRANCE FEE! It's free! You just need to register at the Facebook page of the Alaska Ultimate Mission Camp up until 11:59 pm tonight!

See you on Sunday!

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Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Between the proposal and the wedding: How to enjoy being engaged


Exactly 10 years ago, Vince was planning to propose to me. But because I bought him an expensive gift (the first models of the Sony PS3 were pricey back then), I impulsively decided it was too much of a gift to give to just a boyfriend. So I dropped down on one knee and proposed to him instead! Two weeks after our engagement, he proposed to me properly with a proper diamond ring because that's what proper people expected us to do. Nah, just kidding. Vince really wanted to propose but the ring took longer to make than anticipated so I ended up doing it first!

Anyway! Lots of people are getting engaged these days, as my Facebook feed attests. So here I go dispensing advice no one asked for but you ought to follow: Enjoy your engagement! 

Being engaged is a strange time in your life. It often feels like you’re playing the waiting game until you actually get married, at which point your life with your partner will really begin. But between the proposal and the wedding, is planning the wedding all you must do? That can be really stressful. I know a lot of couples who were tempted to elope! Yes, us included! So why not try to really enjoy your engagement? It’s a time when you’re planning your future with the love of your life. Here are some tips to help you enjoy—not stress about!—your engagement.

Go on vacation
Okay, so you should probably be saving for your wedding right now. But why not take a trip? Even a short trip away from all the wedding planning will make you even closer—get some sun, lie by a pool, eat some great food, and spend a lot of time talking to your partner. While you’re there, you could talk about planning your honeymoon or future vacation spots you’d like to visit one day.

Go to couples’ counseling
More than anything, you want your relationship to work. When you get engaged, you are effectively telling each other that you expect to stay together for the rest of your lives. However, that’s easier said than done. If you go to counseling before you get married, you’ll be able to sort out any issues you might have before they arise – like taking a vitamin C supplement to make sure you don’t get a cold before you even feel sick! If you plan to get married in a Catholic church, you'll be required to attend some sort of marriage seminar anyway so try to choose one that will help you realize if you and your fiancé share the same family values and life goals.

Set aside an evening with no wedding talk
It’s so easy to allow your wedding planning to take over your life. Make sure that you set aside at least one evening a week in which you don’t discuss any wedding planning at all. Hang out with your partner and fully enjoy his company, without any of the stress of wedding talk. Make dinner together and curl up on the couch to watch a movie, or go on a double date with your best friends, or do some home improvement. Just make sure you relax together!

Get an engagement shoot
Sure, some engagement shoots look kind of cheesy (and that's why we didn't do it haha), but lucky for you, you’re not that kind of couple. Or maybe you are, and if so, you should embrace that! Get the look here to figure out what you want from your shoot. Getting an engagement photo shoot done will be a lot of fun for you and your husband-to-be, and it will also provide you with a photo album full of great memories. If you like your photographer, you could also consider hiring them to shoot your wedding—treat it as a trial run for that!

Explore your neighborhood
A lot of couples plan to have children after they get married. Although children are, of course, a blessing and a joy, I'm telling you now that they are also undeniably a huge responsibility. So while you don’t have kids, you should go out and fully explore where you live, or where you will both live when you're married! If you live in the province or the suburbs, take a trip to the nearest city for a couple of nights. Go out for dinner, take a bus tour, and hit the clubs to party all night, and make the most of being together.

Remember: You're not just planning a wedding, you're also preparing for a marriage. And that contract ends at "till death do us part." So use your engagement period to really get to know each other. Once the wedding preps really kick in and the moving into the new home happens and the integrating into each other's families start and especially when the kids arrive, it's hard to focus on each other. All that I mentioned are wonderful phases in your married life but they can distract you from what's truly important—your marriage. So use this precious time to really lay the foundations of your union. Congratulations and best wishes!


*photo from Pixabay
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Monday, November 14, 2016

Frances Finds: Christmas #GiftsTheyllLoveAtNBS (that's National Book Store!)

This post is brought to you by National Book Store.

I'm halfway through my Christmas gift shopping! I spent the day after my birthday shopping for gifts for other people. Yes, when you turn 40, you start thinking of others first! I shopped a lot at the newly redesigned SM North Edsa store of National Book Store. The place looks so bright and beautiful, you'll be super encouraged to shop. I know I was!

So I want to show you what I shopped for. It wasn't easy to decide on these—there were just sooooo many amazing items at National Book Store that I wanted to buy even more! If only I were a gazillionaire! But I thought of my family and what they'll like and I'm very happy with what I got for them. Have a look! 

For Vito: Paper Bots because my little boy is sooo into paper these days. He's folding them into planes and making books. He will LOVE this book!

For Iñigo: Funky Things to Draw: Animals. My preschooler loves to draw. He's really good at it. He will enjoy all the easy tips to draw. And all the pencils and erasers he'll ever need! No more borrowing from me and his Kuya Vito! I can't wait for him to open this gift!

For Piero: My Learning Library Kit: First Words. This is a box of board books, word puzzles, and blocks. At just over 2 years old, Piero is the one who talked soonest (compared to his brothers). He loves stories and chatting and singing. He is going to enjoy this box of learning tools so much!

For all three kids: Dr. Seuss pop up books. I just had to get them these books because I grew up with the most amazing pop-up books. They make reading so much more fun because it's interactive.

For my husband me: Color Chart by Itoya grid journal because I am a new convert to bullet journaling!!! I actually got into bujo (yes, that's what they call it) because of Vince. He wanted to try it out and I've long known about bujo but thought it was boring. Then I checked it out on Instagram (#bujo and #bulletjournal), and I was swept off my feet! I've been doing bujo since September and, yes, I have found planner peace at last!
I love Color Chart by Itoya because the pages are the smoothest pages in all the world. And it lies flat. Look at that! I'm still planning on giving this to my husband but he insists I should have it because I'm THAT in love with it.

For Vince: Color Chart by Itoya pencil case. I love how clever this is because it attaches to your notebook! I'm giving this to him as a partner to his Color Chart by Itoya journal and because green is his favorite color, but since he says I should have the journal, I don't know what to do. Oh, I know! Buy another set!


For my sister: Chameleon pens. This set will be perfect for my sister who loves to draw and do calligraphy. Chameleon pens are special alcohol-based markers because they gradually darken, so she can add gradients, highlights and shadings to her drawings and calligraphy projects automatically! Check this video out to see how it works. Amazing, right? She will love this!

For my parents-in-law: Lapoché luggage organizers. These are the very best of travel pouches and will be very useful for Vince's parents who travel all over the world. They'll appreciate the roominess, the zipped pockets, mesh compartments, and how sturdy these pouches are! They're water-resistant in case grooming products leak. I like the hooks because they make carrying easy, plus when you need to make space on the bathroom counter, for example, you can just hook it—and your toiletries!—up! Cool organizing tip, right? For more organizing and packing tips, click here.

For my nieces: a Querkles Colour By Numbers book. This a huge book with more than a dozen portraits of historical figures to fill in. I'm pretty sure just one portrait will take hours to make so I hope my three smart nieces will share this book and learn a thing or two about the characters in it.

For Papa: Caran d'Ache Supracolor Colour Pencils and Classic Water-Soluble Pastels. Caran d'Ache is the luxury brand when it comes to writing and art materials. I plan to give these to my Papa because he used to draw nudes and landscapes and portraits. Now, he's obsessed with Facebook (aren't we all?). I've come to think that Facebook is making us all stupid especially lately so I hope these luxury art pencils and pastels will make him draw again and make him spend his twilight years doing something beautiful again.

There you go! National Book Store is most definitely the gift destination of the season! Well, of every season since they offer lots of things everyone will love. Books, magazines, journals, pens, arts and crafts materials, stationery supplies, and little things for the home. Definitely more than a book store!

You can check out what other shoppers have found at National Book Store by following @nbsalert on Twitter and Instagram and checking out the hashtag #GiftsTheyllLoveAtNBS.

P.S. I'll tell you more about the shopping event that National Book Store held for the media next week. I have videos of influencers shopping at NBS and tell you more about the NBS Gift Generator, a special shopping app you'll find useful this Christmas!

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