Last summer, I responded to a call for contributors from October Eighty Publications' up-and-coming magazine entitled Cradle. It's supposed to be a magazine dedicated to the first 3-4 years of a baby's life. I submitted my CV and sample works to the editor-in-chief, who told me that if I do well, I would have a permanent spot as a contributing writer in the magazine. Soon I was given my first writing assignment with a deadline. I was able to submit my article in time, and the editor-in-chief acknowledged that she received it. I was never really given feedback though -- never told what they thought of my work, if it was satisfactory or whatever. I found that strange, but gave them the benefit of the doubt since they were a new magazine.

   About a month later, I received an email from the editor-in-chief informing me that she was resigning from her post. I was given a new person contact, which I did. The new person was very vague, all she said was that they will be evaluating everything. I asked her if I needed to re-send my article. She never responded. I re-sent it to her anyway, just in case it was not turned over properly. She never acknowledged if she received it. More than a month has passed, there is still no word from this person.

   I find this disturbingly unprofessional. October Eighty Publications is not exactly new in the publishing business, having several currently circulating magazine titles under its belt. I wish they would have the decency to inform their contributors about the state of their submitted works... or at least tell us what's happening. They were supposed to launch Cradle in June but pushed it back to September. I can't say I'm surprised, as they don't seem to be a very organized group. Anyways... I guess I'll just know when September comes.

   Keirra appears in Disney's Princess Magazine for the third time this year! I emailed her Princess Jasmine pic for the Princess Postbag section in the hopes of winning the Best Costume award but it somehow ended up here in Fairy Godmother Corner of the July-August 2008 issue. Oh well...

   At least we'll get P300 worth of Time Zone GCs so Keirra can play her favorite game, Love and Berry! My 7-year old cousin Ana Marie Eberhard also made it to the Fairy Godmother Corner page...

   Disney's Princess Magazine is giving away Crocs Jibbitz for this issue. Although I'd like some Jibbitz for Kei's Crocs I don't think we can win again next issue when we've just won this time... unless by some miracle we make it to Princess Postbag, hehe. 

   For a chance to win Crocs Jibbitz, just answer the question "What's your favorite color of Crocs?". Send your answers with your full name, age, address, email add, contact numbers, and your loveliest photo to princesspromos@summitmedia.com.ph with the subject: "Fairy Godmother Corner July-August". Deadline of entries is on August 5, 2008.

   I just got my very first writing assignment from an up and coming baby/children/parenting magazine. If I do well, I'll have a slot as one of the magazine's regular contributors. I'm sort of excited and at the same time stressed since I've never really done this type of work. Since this is for the magazine's maiden issue, I have no idea what kind of tone or style they want to adapt...

   I really want to do a good job.

   I actually submitted this article to GH sometime last November 2007 for the March 2008 issue but it somehow got pushed back to April 2008. Anyways I got a copy over the weekend, can't help but be excited over my very first published magazine article. Hopefully it won't be the last, haha.

   Full-page scan of the article HERE.

   Finally, the long-awaited Disney's Princess Mag's 4th Anniversary Party! Held at McDonald's Greenhills from 3-5pm, 50 lucky readers were invited to the magical costume bash. Luckily my little girl Keirra was one of them!

   Keirra went to the party dressed as Mulan, garnering countless stares as soon as we set foot in McDonalds. I thought she would best represent Mulan out of all the princesses because of her oriental features. It was games, food, and prizes galore! There were 12 special awards for the princesses (earliest, fairest, most creative, etc.). Keirra bagged the "Most Unique Princess Award" because she was the only one dressed as Mulan -- and so we got to take home a Little Mermaid playset which Kei just adores! Goldilocks also sponsored a mamon decorating contest which Kei and I mysteriously won. I thought our mamon was too simple because I just asked Kei to place the flowers and candies wherever she wanted while I worked on the frosting. We even accidentally broke the wings off our butterfly ornament so I just turned the body into a candle and frosted the antennas red for a birthday cake effect.

  Kei and I also made some great new friends as we got to meet Bianca, Yu-jin Chloe, Doc Patricia, and stagemom from GT. Lovely loot bags from Girl Stuff, Trolli, McDonald's, and Disney's Princess Magazine were distributed after the festivities. 

   My little girl couldn't be happier today, thank you Disney's Princess Magazine! May you have many more birthdays to come and may you make more little princesses happy! We can't wait for the next issues.

   I'll be posting party pics later on, as I still have to sort them out.

   Update: Party pics posted here.

   And so began my quest... which all started when I became acquainted with the GT moms. I used to just take these print appearances for granted, throwing them here and there around the house for whoever wanted to see. This particular print was taken right after Keirra participated in the Care Bears fashion show at the Glorietta last December 2006. It was published in the Philippine Star in the same month and I found it in the trunk of my hubby's car. I don't even have pics of that event because Kei was only 2 years old back then and I had to accompany her on the stage. I found the Disney and Me appearances amidst the kids' toys, and one other GH appearance in the magazine pile in our bathroom. I've uploaded what I've found in their multiply album.

   What I wouldn't give to find my kids' very first print appearance, a Chinese New Year Special in The Philippine Star back in 2005, where my son Kenshin wore a traditional Chinese costume...  there are also a few more from Working Mom and Moms Today, but  they may have been taken for recycling already.

   Normally I don't blog about something as trivial as claiming prizes I won, but today is different.

   I recently found out that my letter won as one of Food Magazine's letters of the month (December issue). They usually have one grand prize winner and one runner-up prize winner. The grand prize was a Fujidenzo coffee maker, while the runner-up prize consisted of two cookbooks from Powerbooks namely "Nigella Express" and "The Raw 50". Anyways I got the runner-up prize, which is fine by me since I didn't really care for the coffee maker and much preferred the books.

   I called Food Magazine and they told me I had to personally claim the books so I asked hubby to drop me off at ABS-CBN Publishing's office after work. Anyways when I got there Ms. Bernie immediately came out with the books and then told me to wait because Food Magazine's editor-in-chief wanted to meet me. After 5 minutes the ed-in-chief herself Ms. Norma Chikiamco came out and introduced herself. I was so surprised because usually in these situations you just claim your prize and go home. She told me she really liked my letter and that they were currently conducting kitchen tests for the next issue. She urged me to go inside their office and try the food but I told her my hubby was waiting for me in the car. Undaunted she quickly went in and came out with a styro pack which contained a portion of the triple chocolate cheesecake which is going to be featured in their February issue. She also told me not to miss the Feb issue as it is going to be her last -- she had already resigned and was going freelance.

   After our short meeting my son Kenshin (who was with me the whole time) got ambushed by the Super Inggo team and instantly got recruited into the Super Inggo Club. I didn't have the heart to tell them Ken has never watched a single episode because he has trouble understanding Tagalog. They said there were going to be giveaways and activities or something...

   We had the triple chocolate cheesecake for dessert tonight and it was really yummy! Even my hubby who doesn't really like cakes and pastries loved it. Kudos to the Food Magazine people, who were soooo nice to us.

   I got Disney and Me's 11th issue today for my kids, and surprise surprise there was a farewell note from the editor-in-chief that it's going to be their last issue.  Summit Media's Disney and Me magazine comes out every other month, like Princess magazine.  Princess magazine however, is still going strong and is actually about to celebrate its third anniversary.

  Oh well it was fun while it lasted, my kids even won some nice prizes from Disney and Me.

  The picture on the left is actually the 10th issue, Kim Possible is on the cover of the 11th and last issue...

   Goodbye Disney and Me...

   I attended Sugar Sugar Magazine's launch party with my two sisters-in-law at Nuvo in Greenbelt tonight. Sugar Sugar is published by Manila Bulletin and is the latest teenage-oriented magazine to hit the market. After ABS-CBN Publishing's Pink Magazine disappeared off the face of the earth some months ago (it finally conceded defeat to Summit Publishing's Candy and stopped publication), the team behind Pink moved on to a new home and Sugar Sugar was born.

   Since my cellphone camera doesn't come with a flash, I wasn't really too keen on taking pictures in Nuvo's dim surroundings. I just couldn't resist a photo op with ETC's Sam Oh (who is a Sugar Sugar columnist) because she's so nice and bubbly.

   I have leafed through Sugar Sugar's maiden issue released this October and its cute size and clean yet colorful layouts are reminiscent of Taiwanese / Japanese / Korean girls' magazines. It's also jam-packed with readables, and it costs only 85 pesos. 

   Anyways the party started at around 9pm and ended at around 10pm. We were served one round of Coors Lights beers (no food, heh) as Luxasia distributed Roxy perfume samples to all the guests. Some games were held as well. I won a Chocolate Clothing Co. Grab tote bag which contained a bandanna, a hardbound journal, and a Chocolate Clothing Co. discount card from Sam's question and answer game. I should've held out though because had I volunteered like 2 people later I would've walked away with a Shu Uemura gift pack which contained an eyelash curler, lipstick, and eyeshadow (my sis-in-law won one). They also had a raffle draw from all the business cards thrown in the fishbowl, prizes up for grabs included 2 big bottles of Roxy Fragrance, 3 SprintAsia gift packs containing Air Stockings Spray on Hose, 2 bags from Crumpler, and an Apple Ipod Nano. I'm not really the luckiest person on the block, I remember attending a Skycable event for 40+ people and not winning any of the 25 raffle prizes up for grabs. By some miracle my business card was drawn and I won a big bottle of Roxy Fragrance worth US$58 in the US...

   I was fortunate enough to have been invited to Marie Claire magazine's 2nd birthday bash. I was told I could bring a guest so I went with my sis-in-law to the Mercedes Benz Showroom at Fort Bonifacio Global City where the party was held.

   There were free-flowing food and drinks courtesy of M Cafe -- smoked salmon, creamy risotto, pesto pasta, 5-cheese pizza, beef satay, duck liver puffs... and some other foods I don't quite know how to name. There was also unlimited champagne, wine, and iced tea. I loved the creme brulee dessert, and although I hate jackfruit I also tried the jackfruit panna cotta. We also got to take home goodie bags with the November issue of Marie Claire, a Mango catalog, Toblerone chocolate, and a Mercedes Benz keychain.

   Marie Claire's Ten Women of the World for the year 2007 were also awarded during the celebration. Iza Calzado was one of the awardees but couldn't make it to the event so her dad and brother accepted the award for her. By some weird twist of fate we were on the same table as them because they came with GMA folks from Startalk and my sis-in-law used to work at GMA so she knew them all. I saw lots of familiar faces, mostly make-up artists I had encountered at one time or another and Summit Media people.

   Anyways we left the party at around 8pm I think... (it started at 5pm). 

   It's finally out in the newsstands... the Yummy Magazine September 2007 issue! This is where my lola's corn soup gets featured as the Reader Recipe of the Month! Aside from this fabulous one-page spread I get to take home P2,000 pesos cash and P2,000 worth of gift certificates from Little Asia.

   I would like to thank Summit Media for having Benjie Angeles of Shu Uemura and Kiehls do my hair and make-up. He's really great! So friendly, professional, and ma-chika. And he can work wonders on your hair and face all by himself with his amazing arsenal of Shu and Kiehls products. Ganda ng lola mo, o di ba?

  Get Yummy Magazine now! Super sulit with the easy-to-do recipes even a kitchen klutz like me can manage. And I just loved the vegetarian restaurants they featured in the September issue... because as I've mentioned in an earlier blog post we're trying to adapt a healthier lifestyle here... hehe.

Click on the image for a high-res view.