Shopping from a Stylist's Closet (Or, The Best Ukay Ever)

What do you do when one of the country's top stylists (and my good friend and life peg) posts this announcement?

You text the damn number.

And you set a budget, because you can seriously go broke at The Best Sale Ever.

Super stylist Pam Quinones finally decided to let go of a lot of stuff--clothes, shoes, accessories from her styling jobs as well as her own personal stash. Pam is my go-to girl whenever I need specific outfits ("Pam, I have a beach wedding!" "Pam, I need a 20s outfit!" "Pam, my niece's birthday party is safari-themed!"), plus the girl is never less than uber-chic, so I HAD to go to this sale. I also needed new clothes for this unrecognizable post-preggo body, but was unwilling to spend a bundle when I now have other priorities (like the kid's monthly vaccines!).

So, off to the sale I went. And let me tell you, it was the best decision I ever made.

We walked into the first floor of Pam's gorgeous studio (she's a frustrated interior designer) and were told that "shorts and pants are on this floor, dresses are upstairs."

Nina (GH's assistant fashion editor, whom I dragged along) and I went straight to the second floor. And ZOMG it was a frickin' black hole.

There was a room just for accessories and shoes (thankfully not my size!).

And another room with racks and racks of dresses.

We started going through the clothes, neatly arranged by color. Some items hadn't even been used, tags on and everything. One of Pam's assistants encouraged us to start in another room, where all the designer duds were. We figured our budgets were just enough for this room, so we politely said, "No, thank you." Then he said, "The prices are almost the same." That was our cue!

The designer room also had several racks of dresses. Amid the Martin Bautistas and Charina Sartes, I found this confection.

An absolutely dreamy Lanvin dress for--wait for it--P2,500!!! WHERE ELSE AM I GOING TO FIND A FRICKIN' LANVIN FOR $60?!

I had to be smart about my shopping trip though. I had a small budget, and I wanted to stretch it as much as I could, and a Lanvin that I couldn't wear that often just didn't make sense. But I figured my best friend would LOVE the dress. So I sent her a photo, and next thing I knew, she was reserving it. Which means I could borrow it some day. Yay!

I couldn't resist trying it on though. Tee-hee. Sigh, so pretty!

I ended up getting a Chloe dress (!) instead. And a couple of other dresses, a top, and a cover-up. All for P2,000!!!

Nins had a similar budget, and she thought long and hard about her purchases:

Nina: There's a cute leather jacket, pero hindi ko alam kung magagamit ko kasi ang init dito (I don't know if I'll be able to use it since it's so hot here.)

Me: Magkano ba? (How much?)

Nina: P100.

Me: PINAG-IISIPAN PA BA YON?! (Do you even have to think about it?!)

Here's Nins with her haul--her "splurge" was a P500 Zara dress, then she got a bunch of P100 dresses and tops! (Btw, you might want to check out her fashion blog, ninyacolada.tumblr.com--super cute outfit posts!)

As our totals were being tallied, more stuff was coming in, including some YSLs and Charlotte Olympias.
 

 

THANK YOU, PAM.

Will probably do another post on my finds. So happy!

Work through the Eyes of Instagram

So this is what work looks like.

A cover shoot at a super cute store (more in a future post).

An outfit photo for our OOTD posts.

Lunch at a new restaurant.

Mad for Garlic, an Italian resto from Korea

A date with a star(fish).

Shocking pink nails from the launch of Orly's new line of polish.

 Hmm my phone didn't save the Instagram version. I thought this thing was supposed to be smart?

Invitations to events. "Special dessert buffet," you say?

 

...I'm there!

P.S. We got to take home six cupcakes of our choice!

A malunggay bouquet from our office security guard--he says he has an abundance of it at home and he thought I, being a nursing mother, would want some. Aww.

A sweet treat!

I can't see myself ever going back to a desk job.

Follow me on Instagram, @tishietishie.

Be-you-tiful!

Confession: In the weeks leading up to my maternity leave, I was so worried about leaving my staff. Not because they aren't a capable bunch, but because they're all so young! I just kept thinking about how they would manage without their mom around. 

Well, I shouldn't have worried. Behold the fashion and beauty issue they worked on while I was away (and not yet working from home):

A big big thank you to Yvette Fernandez of Town&Country for babysitting my girls!

I believe this is one of the most beautiful issues of GH ever! They sure showed me huh? What an incredibly talented, hardworking, fantastic team I've got! I thank God for them every single day.

Do grab a copy of this gorgeous issue. An interesting tidbit: The writer actually tried Botox for that story mentioned on the cover!

The Third Month

My little monstar is now three months old! Hurray! He's growing so fast--I've had to put away some clothes that are a bit too snug now. *sniff* Some highlights:

• He got baptized! I was so worried that he would cry, especially when the priest poured water on him, but he was such a trooper! He didn't cry at all. But dude kept farting! Haha. He wore a really cute outfit (below, left) which H's sister got from Singapore; my brother's wife gave the shoes. For church, he also wore the baptismal gown (below, right) that my three brothers, nephews, niece, and I all wore to our own baptisms. He wore (or was made to wear) it against his father's will. Har. Sorry H. Kinda reminded me of an episode of The New Normal!

• He's been flipping over onto his back. His nanny tells me that he can flip over from back to front as well, but I haven't seen it.
• I heard him laugh for the first time.:)
• He's figured out how to suck his thumb. (I can hear him sucking away as I type.)
• He seems to be getting rounder. We aren't scheduled to see his doctor til next week so I don't know how much he weighs now. But it's immensely satisfying seeing his double chin and chubby thighs, and knowing it's all because of my milk.
• He's no longer gassy! (Knock on wood.) I had to give up dairy, which seemed to be causing all the gassiness and crying and sleepless nights. When I said goodbye to milk (which I love, by the way), he became less fussy and much happier. And that is a reason to celebrate!

Photo by Jun Pinzon. My makeup by Elaine Ganuelas, hair by Jerry Javier. Flying balloons c/o the GH team!

Getting My Groove Back

Challenges of new motherhood:

Managing my time. If the few-and-far-between posts aren't enough of a hint, I'm still figuring out how to juggle everything, especially now that I'm back at work. (Posting this while the baby sleeps. I should be sleeping too but I felt bad for my neglected blog.) Pre-baby, a few people told me that I was so good at managing my time--I was able to hold down a full-time job, run a household, take care of a husband, play sports, go out with friends... I would give myself a pat on the back each time I got that compliment. But man oh man, mothers deserve that thumbs-up more than I ever did!

Before, I didn't really understand how time-consuming motherhood could be. I don't know if it's just because little monstar isn't a big sleeper or if it's like this for everybody, but my sched is filled with feeding, burping, bathing (him, and if I'm lucky, me!), playing, and getting him to sleep. Repeat. And even with help (which I am incredibly lucky to have), I'm still so tired!

Getting back into shape. I missed working out so much that I thought I would get fit in no time. True, I've pretty much dropped all the pregnancy weight, but I am nowhere near my fitness levels pre-pregnancy. I haven't even tried doing a proper run. The first night I got back on the field, I was so frustrated--I nearly tripped on my own feet a few times because, in my mind, I was going faster than I actually was.

I had grand plans of doing the 30-Day Shred right before plunging into Insanity. But six weeks after the doc gave the go-signal to exercise, I've only done about five days of the Shred, with a bit of disc and plyo. My kid wakes up some time between 5:30 and 7 a.m., so working out in the morning is out of the question. I would seriously rather sleep, especially since he isn't sleeping through the night yet. And I don't want to work out after putting him to bed because I normally can't sleep after evening cardio.

Finding clothes to wear. If you think dressing a baby bump is hard, well, it's only going to get harder! Even though I've dropped the weight, my body is so different. I lost a lot of muscle mass, so my arms are flabbier and my tummy is smooshier. And, er, other things are bigger. A lot of people have told me that it looks like I'm back to my old self, but they don't know that I'm hiding some secrets underneath my well-chosen outfit. Put me in a figure-hugging dress and the illusion is shattered. Aside from looking for stuff in my closet that fit well, I also have to make sure that they're nursing-/pump-friendly. Sigh. I wish I could replace my wardrobe! But funds have been diverted towards a nanny (a godsend), diapers, and vaccinations.

It all boils down to managing my time. If I'm moderately successful at that, I'll be able to find time to work out, then get back into shape, then start fitting into my old clothes again. Maybe tomorrow. Haha. Right now, I need a nap!

The Second Month

On his second-month birthday, A got totally wasted (on mommy's milk)

Things have gotten somewhat easier--because I'm not going to lie to you, the first month (the first two weeks especially) was hard. I'm the youngest in the family so I had never taken care of a baby, and so I was completely clueless. No book or birthing class can prepare you for all the inexplicable crying, for the amount of feeding a little barracuda requires, and the amount of time you need to devote to take care of a little one.  I never understood that last one until now--people say all a baby does is eat and sleep. But this one eats A LOT (and he's purely breastfed), so it's an endless cycle of feed-burp. He's also at the low end of the spectrum of average hours of sleep, and when he's awake, he demands to be entertained!

I knew that my life was going to change, but I didn't expect it to change that much. It was just the two of us for more than three years, so to say we went through an adjustment is a bit of an understatement. I went through the baby blues--I mourned the loss of my previous life, sad that things were never going to be the same again. I couldn't hop on a plane on a whim--heck, going to two-hour disc training (yes, I'm back!) requires extensive planning! Don't get me wrong, I was (and am) crazy in love with our little darling, but this new normal was taking a toll on me emotionally. It made things that much harder, and me that much sadder.

But one day I realized that I just simply had to embrace that things were never going to be the same. I was called on to be a mother--a privilege not everyone has--and it meant truly letting go of my selfish past, and loving the fact that I pretty much belonged to another human being. The minute I accepted that I was a different person with a different life now, I was ready to be a different kind of happy.

It still isn't easy. There is still some inexplicable crying sometimes, but at least we're better at reading his cues now. And he has a semblance of a routine now, and he seems to know it. By 6 or 7 a.m., I can hear him going, "Eh! Eh! Eh!" and he won't stop until someone comes and talks to him. (Yes, he "talks" now! He's quite chatty and he's got a LOUD voice, so it's hilarious.) By 11 a.m., he's ready for his bath. By 6:30 p.m., he's ready for his bedtime ritual: We change him into his jammies, and then I feed him. If he's still wide awake, I play music or read him a story. Once he's somewhat sleepy, I rock him in my arms and sing to him. Of course he's still in his newborn stage, so he throws us for a loop sometimes (e.g., sleeping four straight hours one night, then feeding literally every hour the next--guess who ends up not getting any sleep?). But it's more manageable now.

Besides, it's hard not to be happy when he's learned how to do this:

♥

Showered with Lurve

I intended to do all these detailed posts about all the other wonderful baby showers that my loved ones organized for me, but motherhood came a few days early, and well, my schedule was turned upside down. I still want to write about them though (or show a few photos), even if it is just a quickie post (about all I have time for these days).

First, my family threw together a shower for me, and my cousin used her son's old Ninja Turtles as decor.

For giveaways, I experimented with sugar cookie stamping, and used the design of a "Monster Man" shirt a friend/pseudo-sister gave for the stamp. At the back, there's a sticker that says, "That means 'thank you!' -Little Monster"

My husband's friends also organized a shower for me at Eleven Tables, a fondue place.

My teammates threw me one (complete with my Officers' Club favorite buttered chicken)...

 

...and we played a round of disc golf aterwards. I was around 35 weeks pregnant so my sense of balance while throwing the disc was a little off!

 

Finally, my former co-workers decorated an area of Borough for me--diaper tower atop a disc, balloons, cupcakes, and all!

This was one of the best things about being pregnant--just feeling so much love from everyone! A big thank you to all those who took the time and effort to welcome our little monster!