Lactacyd's Our Baby Turns 1 Birthday Contest

Just a quick post for supermoms out there with bubs turning 1 real soon: Here's a chance to win your bub a 1-hour portrait session with Shutterbugz studio.

It's quite easy to join, you just have to sign up for their mailing list which automatically makes you a member of the Mums and Tubs Club too, then like their Facebook page: Mums and Tubs Club, Email your bub's cutest photo with a short description to info@mumsandtubsclub.com and you're all done! :)

Deadline for submission of entries is September 17, 2011. Make sure you keep an eye on their Facebook page and website as names of winners will be posted there on September 22, 2011.

Cheers! :)

Mercato Centrale @ 1 AM!

This is a late post. lol. I've been busy you know but I missed my supermoms. *hugs* :)

I've mentioned on previous post about our trip to Mercato Centrale after gorging ourselves with froyo from Frutti Froyo. The hubby wasn't really enthusiastic about it as he expected it to be a Banchetto-like affair. Although we haven't been there, Banchetto, my hubby saw it featured in a lifestyle program and was quickly turned off due to reported traffic (he's allergic to this. lol) as well as the number of people swarming the area for food. I begged and begged but was met with a blank stare. :(

FYI, Banchetto is a two-nights food fiesta happening in Ortigas area made popular by call center agents working nights in that area. Food is good and reasonably priced. I, on the other hand, was really really intrigued. Then came Mercato.

Mercato Centrale, for some reason, is considered as more upscale or "sosi" in Tagalog. lol. Maybe because it is located at The Fort and it caters to, based on my observation, gimikeros and gimikeras looking for a late-night - or early-morning? - chow as well as those living in that area (condos, etc) . We got to the area around 10PM but the there was no available parking. Take note, it was 10PM already but the place was still jampacked.

We made a quick dash to the nearest Krispy Kreme to kill time and returned around 11:30PM.

Lo and behold, available parking in about 1 kilometer away from the entrance! lol. that was an exaggeration, of course, but the walk was really long it felt like 1 kilometer to me!

We were greeted by bbq smoke and the whiny baby didn't  like it at all. We looked around for something to whet our appetites, there were plenty however with me carrying a fussy baby, I couldn't really concentrate on what was happening around me. At 11:30PM, there was still an active flow of people going in and out of the tent that is Mercato Centrale.

I gave up and chose a spot out back to sit and wait for the hubby who suddenly went  missing amidst hungry people. This was after he told me he's not interested in eating this late at night. lol :)

He came back with a styro full of roast beef with mashed potato on side. My daughter was able to find a bucket of curly fries with cheese sauce and bacon bits on top. Me, I tried Ilocos Empanada and tacos in fried siomai cups. I was eyeing Manang's Chicken but I was full to the throat at that time so I passed :(

Lucky for me the hubby liked the roast beef so he declared we're going back this weekend! yey for me! I just have to remember not to stuff myself silly so I will have room for Manang's Chicken. lol :) Also I hope we make it to Zark's Burger this time, I heard they will be on long weekend promo with their Deep fried Snickers ala mode for only P60! That's 50% off :) *drooling*

Mercato Centrale @ 1AM! lots of hungry people, I say :)

   

First Birthday Party Planning Tips For Almost Deranged Moms

Don't worry, you'll be hearing it from the pro. Yep, that would be me.

My son's first birthday party is in two weeks and if you ask me now what was already accomplished, I would tell you straight that I have no idea. Nada.

I do know that I have already paid the downpayment for the venue so you could tick that off the list. I have also sought help from my friend, who happens to be a godmother of my son and an awesome party needs supplier, for host-cum-entertainer to keep them kids busy while the adults keep their tummies busy with food and gas (food from the buffet table, gas from never ending nonsense talking a.k.a chismisan) and although she notified me the other day that our first choice for entertainer is not anymore available for the said date, I trust my friend to come up with someone cool and worth the bucks.

So that leaves me the invites and tarp and cake and costume and my "mini-assignment" of asking the venue if they will allow us to put up balloon pillars. Unfortunately, the email address that was given to me by the contact person was incorrect (oh, I hope I was not duped. oh God...)

ran..tripped..dunked..rummaged for that darn invoice.. 

Yep I'm good, invoice bears the right company header so I guess I'm good for now :)

I keep putting it off - contacting the venue, I don't know, it just slips my mind all the time. Promise tomorrow I'll work on it even if it kills me. lol :)

My bestgirl will do the invites layout so I'll just have to follow her up on that. I just have to remember to ask the venue if they could print our layout for the streamer too instead of their not-so-good looking one. no offense meant dears, it's just too..i don't know bland?

Anyhoo, the layouts will then go to those who will print it and tomorrow I still have to look for someone who can sew a race car driver costume or else we will have to buy the one we saw on sulit.com which is priced at 2,500 if I am not mistaken. Ouch.

So where are the tips?

Well.. make sure you have a list for what you need:
1. Venue. This comes first since everything else will depend on it i.e date, theme, time, etc
2. Basic party needs like sound system, etc. ask the venue's contact person as they usually have packages offered for this.
3. Invites. You can opt to use the ones provided by the venue but they are usually unattractive.
4. Costume. Of course, it should be according to theme.
5. Balloons. "To make the place more festive." as quoted from my kumare-cum-supplier
6. Host/entertainer. You can hire separately or find someone who does both.
7. Additional party favors. If you feel the provided ones are not enough. These can be booths, balloons, entertainers, giveaways, souvenirs etc..
8. Kids. What are children parties for if they don't have kids?
9. Parents/Adults. Who will eat your cake if they don't come?

As for me, I am going to write these things on my handy dandy notebook so I won't forget anything and kick myself in the future for not remembering!

Next, seek help from pros i.e party planners, layout designers, etc. everything can now be ordered off the internet and be shipped to you even if you don't have credit card or if you're not so comfortable using it online. Most shops accept bank transfers and in the Philippines, cash transfers through third party payment providers like PayPal and Gcash. Order them off when possible and just nag your way until your package comes! lol :)

Wish me luck supermoms. Cheers! :) 

Having Fun With Amazon Associate Program!

It's 5am and I'm still wide awake due to work shifts. I am now working nights as I found out that it's the most convenient time for me to work (no disturbance, thank goodness!)

Anyhoo, I have already posted about my being approved by Amazon to be an affiliate. Meaning, I can now post ads and banners on my sites and earn commission with every sale that comes from my sites. I'm excited with this prospect as it will allow me to do what I love doing (uhm.. writing about my life story?) and earn a little extra (hopefully?)

I was approved Monday and it is only now that I got down and dirty with it. Procrastination is a friend, you know..

I now have an endless.com banner installed on this site! yey!

I have chosen endless.com to run on this site and Amazon on Popular Book Reviews as endless.com has international shipping and it ships to the Philippines (yep, I've checked!) so you supermoms out there can go on and shop on their site and have it delivered directly to your doorstep (or your local post office's?)

Just to try if the endless.com banner works, I am going to insert an ad in this post. It's a gorgeous XOXO Women's XO5298A Rhinestone Accent Rose Gold Bracelet Watch by XOXO

Nice.. I think I am getting the hang of it :) update you guys soon! gotta talk to my boss first!

Cheers! :)

I Am Now An Amazon Affiliate!

I am going to keep this one short and sweet as I have bazillion things to do and I am down to my last two hours for the day. talk about cramming! lol :)
So, I applied the other day to be an Amazon affiliate using this blogger account. I would have applied using the Popular Book Reviews site but due to lack of sleep, I went on and "monetize" using my blogger dashboard without thinking twice. Let's just say that the 24-hour waiting period was hell as I have been chastising myself for not directly submitting my application to Amazon instead of using my blogger account.

HOW TO APPLY FOR AMAZON AFFILIATE PROGRAM ON BLOGGER

So basically, if you are using blogger for your blog which I am now, and you would like to apply for Amazon affiliate program, just do these steps:

1. From your dashboard, find the "Monetize" tab, that's beside "Design" and "Stats" tabs. Click on that please.
2. Below the tabs, there will be a user toolbar with choices being Set Up AdSense, AdSense For Feeds, Amazon Associate. Choose Amazon Associate.
3. Tick "I want to create a new associate ID". Click "Set Up Amazon Associates".
4. Supply info about you and your website. Be extra careful on your name and address as I believe these details will be used for sending your commissions and you wouldn't want that ending up on someone else's doorstep, would you?
5. There will be no confirmation from your blogger dashboard which I find weird but there will be an email confirmation which will inform you that your site is being reviewed and you'll be notified if approved.
6. Wait. Chew nails.

I am not really sure what happens when your website gets rejected but mine got approved after 24hours. yey!

Now I'm off to playing with Amazon affiliate widgets and ads options. Will update you guys.

Cheers! :)

Must Love Frutti Froyo :)

If you think we went straight to Frutti Froyo after Army Navy then you're wrong. We did not since Frutti Froyo in Solenad 2 has yet to open their loving arms to hungry families like ours. lol :)

We had our froyo fix in Petron Square, Katipunan Ave. later the night on our way to Mercato Centrale. Frutti Froyo in Petron Square is located up their second floor so from down parking lot, you won't be able to see it at once.

You see, we're quite a pro when it comes to mixing our own froyos as I told you it's a family  tradition already. lol :)

If you're new to Frutti Froyo, it can be quite overwhelming just seeing all those selections before you. For starters, you are faced with at least 6 different froyo flavors. The most common of which is chocolate. Come to think of it, there was no Frutti Froyo branch that I visited without a chocolate froyo. hmm..

FYI, chocolate froyo tastes like Wendy's Frosty, or frozen chocolait, only creamier. :)

My daughter and my hubby always go for chocolate froyo, they are not adventurous souls, you know. Me, I go for banana+chocolate (as you can have them swirled) or mint+chocolate but most of the time, it's only chocolate (as the two aforementioned flavor are rare ones) sooooo good :)

After choosing your froyo which will serve as your "base", you can now have fun mixing and matching nuts, candies, fresh fruits, syrups and whatnot. Your choices are virtually endless!

Here's my own "creation":

chocolate froyo + mochi + fresh strawberries + fresh blueberries + graham crumbs + oreo crumbs + mini marshmallows

Dang that light! It's bad enough that my pesky, very unreliable camera phone is not taking good pictures without natural light sabayan pa ng dimmed, yellow lighting ng Frutti Froyo!

My hubby was not in the mood for froyo so he skipped his chance and took care of the baby instead. Hay salamat naman!

 

Tried fixing this photo but it didn't come out looking right too, it is clearer than the reddish one though. I'll try it on Instagram later today, maybe these babies will come out good there. That's my daughter's cup beside mine by the way. I asked her what's in it and she gave me a gigly "ewan". lol. kids :)

I have yet to try their waffle which I think will also be ♥

Cheers! :)

Army Navy: Food War Is On!

My hubby is an absolute burger junkie. He loves burger especially if the patty is thick and the condiments don't come in sachets. He liked Cajun when we were in college, he would go for Wendy's burger if we were short for time (as Wendy's just a little skiphop away  from our place back then) There was also a time when he went gaga over Brother's Burger and we would trek over to Sta. Rosa, Laguna which was the nearest - I think still is - from our hometown, San Pablo, Laguna every bloody week.

Then we accidentally discovered Army Navy as we were making our weekly trek to Frutti Froyo Alabang Branch - family food of the month then - as they are located opposite each other. Since then, it's always Amy Navy-Frutti Froyo combination.

As the tollgate gets unbelievably higher, our then-weekly Alabang trips got down to every-other-week trips. sad. :( So just imagine our joy when we heard that Solenad 2 Sta. Rosa Laguna has opened an alfresco type of mall (some kind of, but it was really small to be called as such..) which houses, what else, Army Navy (..and Frutti Froyo, among others..) Now we're getting somewhere *insert biggie smile here*

That's the counter. Army Navy is self-serve and I like the laid-back approach. It won't make you conscious of your very messy burger eating habits (oh, I mean mine. lol)

weapons of destruction ;)

My daughter has a thing for french fries so it's only logical for her to looooove Freedom Fries. Priced at 65pesos,  what's not to love?

Hubby got his, surprise surprise, burger. He's happy even if it didn't show. He's not a big smiler and he's quite camera-shy :) That's Double Burger he's holding, priced at 195pesos. I honestly think this burger can feed two not-so-hungry men.

 

I just had a burger earlier that day so I browsed and browsed the menu. A word of caution though, they don't offer much but every bit of their offerings is good so you'll never go wrong with whatever you choose. For me, I settled with their Fearless Fried Chicken

Ain't that a beauty? :) Glad I chose this as it was soooooooooooo good :) mighty crispy on the outside but super tender, juicy inside and most of all, it got the right amount of saltiness in it. Just the way a fried chicken ought to be, me thinks :) Fearless Fried Chicken is 145pesos, not bad.

ArmyNavy Burger + Burrito = *burp*

Cheers! :)

Excited For Saturday!

Sarturday is the day we will brave the Manila traffic to find the perfect 1st birthday place for our son, Chino. yey! :)

Although I doubt we'll ever find a place that will accept us despite the occasion being in exactly two weeks, we're choosing between Dad's, TGIF and Hardrock. I hope we find one or we'll go with easy plan B which is Shakey's. lol :)

However, what I'm really looking forward to is our planned visit to much-talked about Zark's Burger. This would be my first time and I don't have any idea what to get. All I know is that it's good and we'll love it. I just have to remember to take pictures before plunging into anything head first! :)

Also, I have been trying to convince my hubby to make a really short stop and visit Mercato Centrale. I'm dying to sample their sweets and pastries being the sweet-toothed girl that I am!

I hope to land a couple of posts (target is a week worth) on Saturday so I'm really excited! :)

dalawang tulog na lang..

cheers! :)

E-radio Portal For All Those Working Nights

Wondering what's keeping me company during those working nights/early mornings? This is:


e-Radio Portal 

Cute huh? We've been together for about 2 years now and yes, there were times he failed me but he's a decent enough company so I'm not complaining. lol :)

My friends from the US are getting quite a kick out of this site as they were able to tune in to popular Philippine FM and AM stations such as 96.3 DWRK (Easy Rock), 90.7 Love Radio, 89.9 Magic FM and 101.1 Yes! FM. My personal favorite is Easy Rock. Yeah, I'm sentimental like that :)

Happy Sunday For Me

The funniest things happened to me yesterday.

Sorry I didn't get the chance to blog about  it until now. I've been too lazy the whole day that I didn't even bother doing the laundry today. Let's just say that today was definitely a heavybottom day and there wasn't a chance you'll get me far even if you kick my *toot* with your tasseled boots.

First off, I'm proud to announce that my book blog http://www.popularbookreviews.com is now officially PR4! Yey! After Google Adsense and Entrecard rejections, I was quite amazed to see the blog doing so well that it even bagged a page rank of 4.

Later the day, we decided to dine out and next thing I knew I was sharing tables with my father who, FYI, disowned me about 3 years ago. That was not the first time it happened to us and last night was not as awkward as the first time. We even shared a joke that we both laughed too hard, the rest of the crew looked weirded by us. lol :)

I guess I missed my father after all.

Oh well. It was a good way to end the week :)

My Handy Dandy Notebooks ala Blue's Clues

Goodbye old handy dandy notebook. You've served your master well..

Hello cutie handy dandy notebooks, I hope we'll have a very fruitful relationship!


you too, new pen..

Homemade Ice Lolly

Ate absolutely loves anything that is iced hence this homemade coffee ice lolly when a proper ice cream is not within reach. 

Cross my heart, ice cream is a staple in our home. The family just cannot live without an ice cream inside the fridge! It may seem impractical for some moms out there but for us who constantly crave chocolates, this is the next sensible thing to have. 

Of course there were also times when the ever-present ice cream is unavailable so we settle for ice lollies. Here you can see my left-over instant coffee (Great Taste 3 in 1) from breakfast, put in the freezer the whole day and devoured by my daughter after school!

nomnom :)

A Day In The Life Of A 30something Mom :)

6:00AM: Wake Ate up. Push her to the bathroom if need be.
6:05AM: Choose between ironing clothes (including uniforms to be used the same day) and washing baby clothes. Start washing machine to spin on her own.
6:30AM: Breastfeed baby while ironing. BE extra careful not to burn the clothes or the baby.
6:45AM:  Push everybody out the door except the baby.
7:00AM: Drain dirty water from the washing machine, replace with clean water and spin again. Hang clean but wet clothes from yesterday's washing while taking the dry ones off the drying rack.
7:30AM: Pickup scattered toys and shove all others under sofa. Sweep floors in preparation for baby onslaught in 2 hours.
8:00AM: Plug in water boiler for cereal drink while listening to AM radio for news and nasty commentaries.
8:10AM: Breastfeed baby while turning the computer on.
8:30AM: Start working online while trying to enjoy breakfast. Do everything silently so not to wake the baby up.
9:30AM: Baby starting to toss and turn, pacify by offering breast while fighting the urge to sleep. Put computer to sleep. Read ebook instead.
10:00AM: Start with new batch of washload. Fold clean, dry clothes and separate those needing some ironing.
10:30AM: Baby now wide awake. Play with baby. Pray for hubby to come back home so he could take the baby out and allow me a couple of minutes to  rest.
11:00AM: Hubby comes home with lunch then quickly goes out of the house like his pants are on fire leaving a wailing baby in his trail.
11:10AM: Try to distract baby by offering toys and putting Elmo on. Try to go back to online work.
12:00PM: Grab quick lunch. Dry-Spin washload, soak new batch of washload with soap and a little bit of bleach.
12:30PM: Feed/Breastfeed baby.
1:00PM: Baby still awake and very much irritated. Try to sneak online work from time to time while trying to calm the fussy baby.
2:00PM: Bathe baby while soaking baby clothes for washing tomorrow.
2:30PM: Put baby to sleep. Work online.
3:30PM: Give in to droopy eyes. Nap for 30minutes.
4:00PM: Ate comes home. Hubby comes home. Baby wails begging to be taken out of the house - again.
4:30PM: Breastfeed baby. Nag about messy house. If by God's glory the hubby gave in and takes the baby with him, then I would be back working online. If not, I'm stuck with a whiny baby and one hungry, near-crazy preteen.
5:00PM:  Merienda time. Whatever happens to be inside the fridge.
5:30PM-7PM:  Either minding the baby or working online, depending on, again, God's glory.
7:10PM:  Answer inquiries from my online stores. Fulfill orders. Schedule deliveries and bookings.
8:30PM: Watch favorite soap, have dinner, feed baby.
10:00PM-12AM: Put the baby to sleep. Nag everybody else to sleep too. Read a book. Nap a little.
12:05AM-3:00AM: Work online
3:30AM:  Sleep. Finally.

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

San Pablo City's Very Own Logmi :)

 

If you happen to pass by our humble city, you might want to try our city's best kept secret: Ramzi's Logmi. Here's their foursquare location: Ramzi Food and Tapsi

Strangely, they only have 18 checkins in total when everyday the place is jam-packed mostly with students from nearby schools. Maybe they didn't know the place was foursquared already. lol :)

It took me years to finally get my first taste of it. Why? Because I was sooo city-ignorant that I didn't know where to buy the much-talked about Logmi until our ex-vice mayor posted about it on Facebook. After that, I whipped my hubby's bum good just to get me an order. He promptly did the next day.

At first I didn't like it that much. Talk about food-weirdness. This dish is actually luglog+mami which is, in other words, palabok and mami combined. In my own explanation, you put luglog noodles (fat, springy ones) then you put Luglog sauce (minus shrimp) then you top it all off with thick mami broth, then you also get tiny beef bits and half an egg.. that's basically how Log-mi is done. However, it kinda grows on you that you'll eventually find yourself craving for it.

Anyway, for some reason, the hubby fell inlove with it the first time and the baby too so this is pretty much on our merienda list these days. :)

My Supermarket Finds: Nestle Raisinets, Palmers Mint Flavors, Florida's Natural Healthy Treats and Kellogg's Fruit Snacks

 

I'm not exactly your health buff mom nor do I ever try eventhough you must be seeing "fruits" scattered all over my loot bag. lol :) I just love fruit-flavored anything and I love fruits mixed with chocolates. I even went as far as putting fresh strawberries and blueberries on my chocolate froyo! Yep, the weirdest but for  me, that was the yummiest!

So there, the one farthest to the left is my alltime favorite Nestle Raisinets. This one's quite familiar as they are easily seen on most supermarket isles. This one came in a box though so I believe this is imported hence creamier (no offense meant to local ones). Priced at 80 pesos, not a bad deal at all.

Next to it is hubby's favorite, Palmer's Mint Flavors. I got it for 77 pesos which is not bad a price since we only get to buy this when we're touring Subic. I was even reprimanded by the hubby for not buying a dozen. lol :)

Then there's ate's Kellogg's fruit snacks. I was thinking of not buying it at that time as it was a little bit pricey (180 something pesos) but I chose to allow my little girl this treat just so she won't buy something foolish that will eventually end up in trash.

The star of my loot bag however is Florida's Natural Healthy Treats. Now that is  WOW! I have tried strings but I had no idea the nuggets are way better! The baby absolutely loves them! (Got it for 80 something pesos for 14 little packs)

All these were bought from Shopwise Festival branch :)

Mail2Blogger From Samsung Omnia Phone Success!

Yey! I'm so excited!

Saturday night I was tinkering with my Samsung Omnia phone as the hubby is already whining about my buying a multi-functional phone and not even maximizing it. So last week, I have spent an hour or two a day just discovering things my phone can do.

To date, my Samsung Omnia phone can: email using a Windows Live account (hotmail.com or live), obviously it can also chat using the Windows Live app pre-installed on my phone, then of course I have finally learned how to set the camera to take good pictures (apparently you cannot just rely on auto-focus and auto-whatever, I say it's half-auto/half-manual which makes it a pain in the bum for a non-interested person like me) It can also do Facebook, i.e upload photos (painstakingly one by one), post status and check on your newsfeed, if the app does something beyond that then I have yet to discover it.

The better part of my Saturday night was spent trying to send  emails from my phone as I have unknowingly set a Gmail account on it which apparently needs a lot of techie juice to make it work. I did not have any techie juice to spare so i just tinkered still..


Knowing how to Google things is a lot of help you know, so I found a forum which explains that I need a Windows Live account to set up my email, since I already created an account earlier the week when I was installing apps, I went on and set up my email, this time with my Windows Live account.


Lo and behold, my phone started sending emails to my Gmail account, the one I had on the desktop. Then I remembered you can actually send emails that will automatically be published on your blog as blog posts - or be saved as draft, depending on your settings - I knew I had to try that one as it will really save me a lot of computer time!


HOW TO SET UP MAIL2BLOGGER FROM YOUR BLOGGER DASHBOARD:
1. Click Settings tab located just beside the Comments tab.
2. Choose email and mobile.
3. Under "Posting Options", set your email posting address. This should be kept a secret since this is your mobile access and if activated, anything that will be sent through this email address will be posted on your blog
4. Choose if you would like to "Publish emails immediately" or "Save emails as draft posts"
5. Save settings.

Since I am still testing things out, I opted to save emails as draft posts so none of my mishaps will ever make it to my blog. lol :)

However, after some time, my phone stopped sending  emails through so I know I have to rest my case for a while and try again another time. 

This morning, I tried going online first on the Windows Live app instead of doing the easy route of "photo-send as email" then tried sending again some photos using the app. To my delight, the emails to the Mail2Blogger address came through. Thank goodness!

Some of my photos came through and I might post them again later as I have to do some chores now but it's definitely working.

Note to self: have the Windows Live app on first before sending emails and never go directly to other applications when trying to send anything. I have yet to discover other ways and I will definitely blog about them if I find any. :)