Children's Book Alert: Mommy Loves You Just The Same

I have a soft spot for children's book, especially after having illustrated a couple myself (read: Super Labandera and Si Aiyah...), so I'm more than happy to promote Mommy Loves You Just The Same, launched May 19, 2016, from inspirational speaker and mommy-author Teresa Gumap-as Dumadag.

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MANILA, Philippines – May 25, 2016 – #1 Amazon bestselling Author and Inspirational Speaker Teresa Gumap-as Dumadag launched her first children’s book Mommy Loves You Just the Same last May 19, 2016. The author’s two older children inspired her to write the book while she was pregnant with her third child. It tells the heartwarming story of how an expectant mother assured her son of her unchanging love — during her pregnancy and after she gave birth to her new baby. It also shows how this mother’s assuring love inspired and enabled the little boy to become a loving and responsible big brother.

“As a mom of three kids, I love how this book reassures the older kids that we love them just as much as before as well as helping to foster and nurture love for their new sibling. Children can be quite anxious about the arrival of a new baby and this book does well to put those insecurities to rest,” says Author of Project Mom, Celebrity and Blogger Amanda Griffin-Jacob.

“A definite must-have for any family who is about to add a new member to the family,” adds Jacob.

“Mommy Loves You Just the Same is a pleasure to read with its melodious text and clean illustrations. The story is sweet and relatable: it will be a great source of comfort for the new older brother or sister who might feel a bit threatened by the newest member of the family,” says Mariel Uyquiengco, a homeschooling mom of three, editor and speaker at the Learning Basket, a U.S. licensed Kindermusik educator and a Certified Positive Discipline Parent Educator.

Martine De Luna, another mom who is also a Content Creation & Social Media Consultant, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Make it Blissful and owner of MJ De Luna Events says this about the book, “As a mom of two, I could very much relate with Mommy Loves You Just the Same. Teresa has done a wonderful job of marrying the joys of motherhood with the challenges of parenting, resulting in a balanced storyline that partners and children can relate with easily. I also appreciate how the coloring pages can be incorporated into my children's homeschooling, as a purposeful yet practical activity for them to enjoy.”

Mommy Loves You Just the Same can be purchased online for only Php 150.00  through Hands-OnParentwhileEarning.com’s online shop, via email at teresa@fulllifecube.com or through the following Facebook Pages: Full Life Cube, Hands-On Parent while Earning or BREASTFEEDING: A Journey Worth Taking.

Book Review Giveaway

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All book buyers of Mommy Loves You Just the Same are invited to join the ongoing giveaway. Just write a book review and giving a rating in the website for a chance to win one (1) year membership from Gymboree Philippines and P500 gift certificates from Halo Philippines and Mom and Milly Educational Toys respectively.

My better attempt at watercolor flowers

This is probably the prettiest I've painted so far, so I'm sharing it with you goys hehehehe.

Jenen!

Inspiration: this watercolor piece by Casey Ligon

A photo posted by Casey Ligon 🌿 Lettering (@caseyligon) on Jan 13, 2016 at 8:40am PST

I saw it featured on The Craft Central's Instagram page and I was so taken by it that I immediately pulled out a postcard sized watercolor paper and started drawing the flowers. I actually keep a stash of art materials in my office drawer in case I run into moments of inspiration, like this. 

I know it has to be super light and it didn't have to be perfect cos it'll be colored anyway but I couldn't really spare the details. Drawing was my first love so I tend to over-illustrate things. Notice that I drafted the flowers first in my notebook using ballpen before actually drawing it on the vellum pad. I didn't want a lot of erasures on this one cos it damages the paper and could ruin the texture.

Then I started painting! For this I used a small water brush I bought from The Craft Central. For some reason the head doesn't dry out completely, it seems like water continuously flows through it as you brush. I thought it was a defect cos you usually have to squeeze the handle to release water once it's too dry. Mine doesn't seem to need any of that, but it's not leaking either so I let it go. It's very minor and didn't ruin my piece anyway haha.

I applied the colors layer by layer, starting with the lightest grade. I think the key to achieving this effect is to let each layer dry first before applying the next layer. I don't really know what it's called hehe. XD

After the flowers I went for the leaves. I did a mistake of making a darker green shade instead of just layering it so there are a couple of irregularly darker leaves somewhere.

Finally, I added a light blue background, erased the pencil outlines, and redrew them using brown Titus ballpen. Here's the final output:

Hope you like it! Looking forward to improve my painting skills :D If you have tips, tricks and know of super cheap watercolor workshops in QC, let me know!

Of codes and stale coffee

I'm trying to see if Blogger has any form of default code formatting.

 <script type='text/javascript'>  
 var obj0=document.getElementById(&quot;adsmiddle1<data:post.id/>&quot;);  
 var obj1=document.getElementById(&quot;adsmiddle2<data:post.id/>&quot;);  
 var s=obj1.innerHTML;  
 var r=s.search(/\x3C!-- adsense --\x3E/igm);  
 if(r&gt;0) {obj0.innerHTML=s.substr(0,r);obj1.innerHTML=s.substr(r+16);}  
 </script>  

Ooooh, looks like the code needs to be parsed and enclosed in <pre> and <code> tags so they could be displayed properly. This was helpful. Yeyy I can finally paste code lol. That snippet is from this tutorial, it lets you insert Google ads between your post. :)

I have left-over ground coffee from seven months ago that I'm drinking now. The aroma from the tin can still gets me euphoric like it did that first time I opened the pack. But after setting it up on a pour-over and drowning two sachets of Stevia, the elation dispersed at its apparent staleness. It's still good coffee, nonetheless, one that'll help me stay up alright. I may have to add two more scoops on my second cup to make it stronger, but at this point it's okay.

The Sunday Currently (vol. 23)

Long time no Sunday Currently, so here you go hehe

Currently

Reading
Nothing. I wonder if I really liked to read in the first place. I'm never the voracious reader, who could read almost any type of material and has a huge vocabulary. I get easily bored if I don't like the style.

Anyway, God is Disappointed in You and Me Before You are both on hold. I started reading The Last Song this week but I didn't like the heroine so I stopped reading haha.

Watching
Rewatching Heartstrings KDrama. Also regularly waiting for new uploads of Game of Thrones S06.

Listening
To instrumental cafe music on youtube (here). I hope I could download them but no online converter would let me cos they're too long, like three hours huhu.

Two weeks ago my playlist looped around Reese Lansangan's first album, Arigato, Internet. Grabe, love her voice (but hate her rapping)! My favorite (and I'm trying to kapa the chords) would be Creeper 'cos I could relate haha. Edit: I'm not trying to kapa anymore, I'm just asking around for the chords lol.

Thinking
About how to really get back in shape. I want to lose at least 5kgs for the sake of my withering self esteem and wilting wardrobe funds. The healthy lifestyle doesn't excite me too much and requires a lot of commitment, but I'm always willing to try. I'm looking into subscribing to diet meals (again) but I'm getting frustrated trying to bargain for a different delivery schedule (Monday to Friday PM) just so it would fit my fkn graveyard shift.

Speaking of the graveyard, looks like working a different shift isn't going to be possible for me unless I get moved to another team or get sent onsite long-term. I'm hating it again cos it's starting to (yet again) get in the way of my bonding time with Jeckie. We only meet on Saturdays and I'm always so sleepy pa huhu

Smelling
Massage oil <3

Wishing
I get to work a different shift naman. I'm really going to resign next year if my shift doesn't get better or if I don't get promised long-term onsite assignment (blog, don't jinx this). I know it's going to be unfair to my team lead, cos if anything, he's the most deserving to be flown for good, but I can't ignore my own needs as well. Whatever.

Wearing
Singlet and shorts

Loving

This footbridge being constructed along Quirino avenue, between Robinsons Novaliches and SM Fairview. Soon there will be no fear crossing the pedestrian! I do wish it was connecting the two malls directly but this is already superb. I wanted to say change is really coming but I'm not sure if Duterte is to be credited with this project so, Thanks DPWH! Rare times they build something sensitive to the commuters' needs. 

Wanting
To start reading Inferno by Dan Brown.

Needing
To lose weight

Feeling
Heavy, as always lol.

Yet another layout change

Jenen! I'm not taking credit for the design cos it was taken entirely from this theme and applied to the original backbone of this layout which is this theme. I already finished layouting my test blog but found that there are some features that I may lose out if I overwrite the existing theme with a new one, so I decided to just incorporate the features I want from the other theme. It's not a lot anyway, just the background and the single column post container which I dissed eventually.

I changed my mind, I'm not really decluttering, I'm just trying to make my widgets appear neat and organized. I hope it shows lol.

On my previous theme I was fascinated by the idea of a video header. But it's quite a task finding a free video host that wouldn't take down my file without notice, and I wouldn't invest money on a measly 15second webm file either, so I just shrugged it off, more like I got tired of looking at it lol.

Then I was browsing at blogger theme galleries for inspiration and found Padhang Theme, I was caught by the beautiful background and thought ohkaaaaay let's do that. It's a CSS miracle to be able to fix and scale a background image proportionately to a browser window (or maybe I'm just old). Digging through the codes I learned it was actually a jquery plugin called Backstretch that's responsible for the perfect background haha. I'll leave it at that but know that I'm very happy I found out about it.

Just like how I was so glad learning about Font Awesome. <3

Happy Friday you guys!

To change or not to

I'm in the middle of editing my test blog for a possible layout change. Ever since I decided to not care about being a professional blogger, my sidebar has been drastically decluttered, so I'm thinking maybe it's time to try out a single column blog! Yas! Edit: My footer is still cluttered haha

You see, I wanted to focus more on just writing right now. None of those SEO optimized listicles that provide real value to readers, and a tiny bit of income to me haha. And speaking of income, it took a lot of thinking on my part to decide on putting down Google's leaderboard ad because it almost always messes with the design, and the only reason I'm keeping a Nuffnang ad is to be able to call myself a "Nuffnang registered blogger" and ultimately be eligible to join their contests (which recently have become so blah and competitive so ohkay). Anyway, not giving up ads entirely as I've found a pretty alternative to pesky header ads... inline ads!

The more I try to direct my blog to a source of income, the more cluttered it becomes, the more desperate I feel, the more out of character my entries come out. I even have a lot of reservations joining comment exchanges because here I go again shamelessly plugging what I ate for lunch and forcing people to come up with encouraging comments lol. And half the time, I don't really know how to engage with people's posts, especially those with glaringly bad grammar. It's already a chore trying to understand the entry, and then I have to say something nice. Ugh, as much as I want to snark up, my conscience tells me to suck it up instead 'cos karma happens even to the best of us. Char.

To be fair, Comexes has served its purpose of providing me some reading material. I love to read but lately it has been a struggle to reach out to my virtual bookshelf. Blog posts are easier to conquer. If I'm lucky, half the list I'm supposed to read is well written, other times I'm just trying to get by link after link wondering how the hell some people love to write badly.

Don't get me wrong, grammar can be learned. I'm just bitching out cos I've been reading a lot of bad writing lately, my blog included heh.

Why are we talking about Comexes again?

So there, actually I've finished tinkering with the design. I'm just contemplating on installing the theme now or later (or never). I don't know why I can't keep a layout for long, moreso, I don't understand how some people could stick with their blog layout for months. Just how.

Actually I think I know why, I was a UI developer so I can't help going to the HTML editor to experiment on stuff. It's my knowledge and curiosity of web design trends that make it hard for me to stick to one theme for even just a quarter. Isn't that tragic. My blogger-designer friends don't seem to be this way with their own blogs. What's wrong with me. Not a question.

Okay. I should be off to sleep, it's 3:30PM, and that reads 3:30AM for zombies like me. Off to the grave.

A quick revamp

Jenen! I didn't really think when I decided to change my layout design, it just sort of happened haha. I don't know why but I easily get bored with my theme, kaka-visit ko siguro LOL. Anyway, I decided to change a couple of things here and there after browsing tumblr themes and finding this: http://rainier-theme.tumblr.com/

I thought, oooooh a video header under dark translucent overlay! Let's do it! It was a simple F12 job for me (Inspect element). I copied a few lines of code, a couple of CSS properties, and voila! It's refreshing to see something moving on my header. Needless to say, I was happy and bent on finding/making my own short HD clip of something nice but it's such a hassle. I didn't want to just grab the original video too cos I may be violating some creative commons chuchu, so I just settled for a picture first. ;)

I also removed some post borders and stuff. 

Hm, on second thought, a video header would be cool. I'm looking at www.abbey-sy.com for inspiration. I suddenly want to shoot my own header lol. A 15 second webm clip is only 3.9MB. TEMPTING. Whatever, what do I know about shooting stuff lol.

We'll see ;)