The Baby Project That's Project Mom

Motherhood, motherhood, motherhood. It is by far the most fun and scariest thing in the world. It changes your life. Completely.

The moment I first realized my husband and I were pregnant, we entered the world of paranoia. It was full of what-ifs. I knew that there is so much information out there especially online and reading them all will just boost my paranoia so I didn't. I resorted to a book that I think is very helpful during pregnancy. It was a book by an American author and it's probably the most popular one out there.

When I saw that a couple of celebrity moms here in the Philippines were launching a mommy book, I got so excited. I know it's going to be a great book for mommies and mommies-to-be out there because it is written from the perspective of two awesome Filipino ladies, Bianca Araneta-Elizalde and Amanda Griffin-Jacob, and the book is based on their experiences and some topics were medically-backed too.

Well, I've been a mom to a beautiful little girl for 32 months already, and it has been a roller coaster ride of sorts. I know I'm kinda lucky that my daughter's healthy when I gave birth to her. The only scare I got was right after, when I (yes, me and not the baby) had tons of blood clots that seemed to never stop. But I had the most amazing OB in the world - that's you, Dr. Williams of Piedmont Hospital, and I knew I would be okay. Home life was never the same after that. If you've watched the Coke Life commercial, you'll know what I'm talking about. It's all about the normal mess, the constant running, everything.

Don't get me wrong, I love everything about motherhood -- especially the normal mess. It reminds me of my daughter and how much fun she's having. Okay, fine, I'm probably just lazy to clean up after her only to find the house in the same condition five minutes after. Hahaha. Having this book by my side will definitely make my life a lot easier.

I went to the book launch of Project Mom last December. I saw a few mommy blogger friends there. It was a celebrity-filled event too, as you can imagine. I saw Tweetie De Leon-Gonzales and Christine Jacob among others. It was hosted by Marc Nelson (really drool-worthy by the way) and Lexi Schulze.

The book is all about how to make motherhood fun, easy and awesome. It covers everything you would like to know about being a mom - from pregnancy until after, even shedding the baby weight! The best part is, it is centered on the Filipino mom, so expect resources that can be found in the Philippines. So if you have a friend or relative who's about to give birth, this is the perfect gift for them.

Project Mom is available at all Fully Booked branches nationwide.

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Psst. Short stint on Fully Booked blog. Check it out: http://www.fullybookedonline.com/blog/view/4405

Love: Drop Caps from Jessica Hische

I just died and went to heaven. These are drop cap designs by Jessica Hische commissioned by Penguin books. The series is called Penguin Drop Caps and each book features a drop cap letter corresponding to the classic literary author's last name. Like for example, 'A' is for the book Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, and 'D' is for Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.

It makes me want to collect them because they look so pretty together, just like the Penguin Classics hardbound that I am collecting.

f you love these drop caps, go on to Jessica Hische's Daily Drop Cap project here. You can use the drop caps for personal use on your blogs too, like the "I" in the beginning of this paragraph. Isn't it so pretty? Well, good news to all you graphic design lovers. Jessica Hische is doing an online course this coming November on Skillshare. Check it out. I'm going. Are you?

Book Therapy at Fully Booked

I went to the soft opening of Fully Booked in Alabang Town Center a few days ago. The place is a book-lover's heaven. The building (yes, building) is located along Commerce Avenue, near Jamba Juice and P.F. Chang's. There are four floors of books, books and more books. Okay, there are other cool things too. Alabang is a place I don't frequent but I just might because of it. Take a look.

This is the interior. They have false trellis ceilings and the escalators are adorned with illustrations. The wooden floors make me want to go barefoot, walk around and browse through books. Look, they sell Kimmidolls and mt washi tapes too!

Parts of the wall also have illustrations. Haha, here's Hermione, Harry, Bella and Edward. There's also a floor dedicated to music and a whole section for comic books.

The best part of my visit? I got this pass for the 34th Manila International Book Fair 2013 at SMX Convention Center at the Mall of Asia Complex from September 11-15 (10am - 8pm). See you all there book nuts!

Books: What I Used to Read

Speaking of Throwback Thursdays, I have here some books I used to read when I was still a tweener slash teenager. There were no vampires or gods or witches in them just yet.

1. Sweet Valley Kids / Twins / High / University and all kinds of Sweet Valley. What 80's to 90's girl skipped this reading phenomenon? Almost everyone I knew in my generation read these, or saw someone reading them. They even made a Sweet Valley High TV series because it was that popular. Think a milder version of The Lying Game.

This was my very, very first Sweet Valley book.
Image from Amazon

2. Sweet Dreams: Who could ever forget that tugging feeling or that kilig factor when you read Sweet Dreams? My favorites are P.S. I Love You and Wrong-Way Romance -- probably you too. I never did complete the series, and just thinking about it now makes me want to have my complete set in my iBooks. Please Bantam, can you make a digital version so I can buy it?

Sigh.
Image from goodreads

3. Nancy Drew (those yellow hard-bound ones): Mystery always fascinated me, especially these light-hearted ones.

They're hardbound!
Image from The Indie Librarian

What books did you read growing up?

Book: Gone Girl