A Surprise in the Mail!

Guess what just came in for me today?

A shirt from Paraiso Philippines Forum! Thanks Admin and Mitch for this early Christmas treat! This will fit my Dad well. :)

Want to become a PPFnian? Visit and register at Paraiso Philippines Forum now!

Stranger

You hide in a perennial veil;
a veil I try so hard to lift,
for me to touch and discover
the beauty underneath.

Yet all that I see
is the light of your darkness.
Darkness.
Or is it, your true likeness?

I long to unravel the mystery
behind your innocence…
thoughts…
feelings…
dreams…
you…

But you create a distance
that leaves my heart
in doubt.

All that I have
is the sound of your presence,
the warmth that you send
from afar
reaching me cold.

Tell me
just when,
just when can we touch?

~September 1992~

Sale! Sale!: 80% Off at Swimsuits For All

I love a great BIG sale! *giggles*

Given that I seldom buy regular-priced items when it comes to branded clothing/apparel, I wait for the opportunity to purchase what I like at a lesser price (better if it's slashed down to less than 50% off). Never mind if I wait for a little while, as long as I'll save more - that's the idea.

Swimsuits For All is currently holding a clearance sale with discounts up to 80% off! They carry a wide range of hard-to-find swimsuits for women, men, teens and kids; but best of all, there are a lot of styles that will suit any kind of size and budget.

I browsed the selections and picked 2 items that have been super marked down:

The brown ensemble has a suggested retail price (SRP) of $78, but now it's on sale at only $19.95! The printed swimsuit's original SRP is $98, now you can have it for as low as $14.48! You get up to 85% savings from these beauties.

If you will notice, both styles have a slimming effect. A solid top and bottom color gives the illusion of length, while prints take away attention from problem areas. Both are great for those who want to make their tummy area look flatter.

You may want to take advantage of these additional promos as well:

50%-70% on Liz Claiborne
50% on Longitude Swimwear (use code: LONGITUDE50)
Extra 20% off on hot sellers (use code: SAVE 20)

Win $100 Gift Certificate Towards Next Purchase at SwimsuitsForAll.com! Click Here for More Details!
Win a FREE Swimsuit at SwimsuitsForAll.com!- Enter Yourself into a MONTHLY FREE SWIMSUIT Drawing- CLICK HERE!

Now, that's what I call a SUPER sale! :)


P.S. Check out other SALE items here!

Care to Visual Talk?

Visual Talking

Here's what I just composed through Visual Talking. It's a cool new way to get your message across!

Can you guess my message just by looking at the pictures, without reading the words? It's a line from an old favorite song. Click the image to reveal if you got it right. Unless you got magnifying eyes, that is! ;-)

By the way, this is part of a $1.50 survey from dNeero. You too, can get paid by answering surveys like this! All you have to do is answer the survey and post it to your blog or any social networking site! It's easy and best of all, it's free! Click here to join now!

Reviving the Wormie in Me

I haven't seen the sun for a while.

Only now, after days of mandatory solitude that I am able to bask in its rays once again.

Oh, I miss how the heat makes my skin tingle! After days of rain coming from the sky and my eyes, pouring into my soul, the sun makes me realize I'm still glad to be alive.

I'm already smelling the perfume emanating from my chest where I lavishly sprayed it earlier. The fact that I'm wearing a low-cut blouse only made it worse. The mild Green Tea scent is giving my olfactory senses a lot to deal with; it's starting to make me feel dizzy.

I just realized I haven't had lunch yet.

Lines from a novel? Nah.

Maybe I just sound particularly novel-ish today, partly because I snagged some good books at a sale yesterday. I got these books or only P99 each and, get a load of this-- they are NEW and on BUY ONE, TAKE ONE! So each piece costs only around $1 and a few cents. Great deal, huh!

I got "A Map of the World" (Jane Hamilton), "Under the Tuscan Sun" (Frances Mayes), "A Little Help From Above" (Saralee Rosenberg) and "Welcome to my Planet" (Shannon Olson) for me.

"A Map of the World" is on Oprah's Book Club and a national bestseller, so I figured it must be good. I already watched "Under the Tuscan Sun" before, and loved it. But I'd like to read the story this time and compare. On the other hand, the other two are light novels which I hope will turn out to be good reads too.

As for the Little Lady, I got lucky to find these thick hardbound books:


"The Magickers" (Emily Drake) and "Mira, Mirror" (Mette Ivie Harrison). She loves magic and mystery, so these are really perfect for her.

Did I mention that she already started reading Nancy Drew books? She chose to get the hardbound type last time, like the ones I used to borrow from the school library when I was still in high school.

Good that she doesn't need colorful graphics to entice her to read. Though she still loves reading Princess, W.I.T.C.H, Total Girl, Winx, Monster Allergy magazines and Archie comics.

I'm glad she shares the same interest in reading at this early age. :)

Now, if only I have the time to read all these. I got them primarily to revive the bookworm in me. It's been a while since I finished reading a book. All the rest were half-read and gathering dust and cobwebs in my shelf.

Since I joined Muthahood Crib's Online Book and Movie Fan Club, I might as well find time for this. :)

Wish me luck!


P.S.
Love Books? Check this out! Free Shipping: Booksfree.com

Art on My Mind

Art on My Mind

My theme for this week's Scrapbook Saturday is still about art. But this time, it's Chestene's art. I can't fit them all here, so I just chose four of them for this scrap.

If you'd like to see more of her work, head on over to her blog and tell her what you think. She'll be thrilled to hear from you! :)

Graphic Elements by: Pimp Your Scrapbook, Sooze and bengigirl of Scrapbookflair.com


Related Posts:

My Art, Revisited
Framed
Smile Baby, Smile!
Chestene is Hannah Montana
Good Girl in Glitters
One Summer in Subic
My Favorite Babies
Flower Power

Win an XBox 360!

I love contests! In fact, I write about them here, from time to time. Whenever I stumble upon a cool one, or when I get lucky enough to win a prize, I post it right away to share with everyone so each of us can take a shot at it.

Well, it’s been a while since I last won a giveaway, but I recently discovered another contest that has great prizes at stake. You could win an XBox 360, tickets to Michigan vs. Penn State (Saturday, October 18, 2008) or a $100 Gift Certificate from Dick's Sporting Goods! Now, isn’t that awesome?

It’s really easy to join! All you need is to sign up as a member of SportsVids in order to participate in the contest. This site has a wide array of online sports videos, so I assure you that your membership would be well worth it.

Once registered, you will be given specific contest instructions, which will then provide you with a unique URL. The goal is to drive the most number of unique visitors through this URL to the SportsVids website. So put it in your blog and social networking sites, email it to your friends and spread the word!

One click from a unique visitor is equivalent to 1 Referral Point, and the top three members that will gain the most unique hits/Referral Points will win the contest.

Contest ends on September 30, 2008, so hurry, visit the link to join now!

http://www.sportsvids.com/index.php?contest=TVRrdw==

Two Lessons I Learned from My Child Today

It’s been sometime since I last thoroughly organized the contents of my Little Lady’s school bag. So when I had the chance a while ago, I turned it upside down to get broken crayons, short and over-sharpened pencils, candies and lots of pieces of pad paper folded into different shapes.

Some of them crumpled, while the others are neatly folded with the label “secret” on top. No- they are not love letters this time. :)

I patiently looked at each piece of paper. I'm not the type to throw things right away; I'm too sentimental for that. I keep her notes, drawings and anything worth saving to stash in her memory box.

In the pile of paper, there were drawings, quizzes, stories, letters from her classmates and her own letters to God. Everyday her teacher asks the students to write to God first thing in the morning, before starting class. What a way to start the day!

It made me think of my own daily prayer habit. Sometimes, I forget to say my morning prayers because I’m always rushing off to work; then at night, when I feel so tired, I doze off without even saying, “Thank you, Lord.”

I'm guilty to the nth degree.

Lesson #1: Always put God first.

We get too busy and sometimes self-absorbed in our own world, to even say a quick prayer to the ONE who gave us everything we have today.

It's always good to start the day with a prayer to ask for strength and protection to carry out our daily tasks, guidance to do what is right and just, and both physical and spiritual blessings to get us through.

She was happy when she came home today because she received a St. Michael medal for sharing last Sunday’s Gospel. I thought she found the paper she’s been looking for early this morning - her interpretation of the Gospel. She was very eager to show it to Sr. Estrella, a nun in her school, but it turned out that she wasn’t able to find her work, so she just explained it to the class. The nun commended her because she knew the Gospel not only in words, but by heart.

Lesson #2: Listen and understand the Gospel.

How often do you find yourself sleepy in church when it comes to hearing the priest’s sermon? Why do people start to feel drowsy at that exact moment?

A priest once said that it must be the work of the devil, and I believe him. I always experience being awake the whole time, but when the sermon starts, my eyes feel heavy right away as if I’ve been sprinkled with sleeping dust; only to feel awake again the minute it’s done.

Psychological? I don't think so.

When people fail to hear the Gospel, they miss out on the teaching; and that makes the devil rejoice. It’s like going to class, falling asleep during the lecture, learning nothing and flunking the exams afterward.

God asks for only an hour of our time each week, and yet we come late, fall asleep, and become altogether inattentive while we're in His home.

Why is it so hard to spare an hour of undivided attention to Him, when we can do meetings and appointments that we willingly devote our focus and attention to?

They say it's human nature. Yes, we always blame it to human nature.

I’m thankful I have my daughter to constantly remind me of important lessons I’m missing out because I’m too jaded and preoccupied living my life as a multitasked adult.

She nudges me to stop and smell the flowers once in a while. She is my life, but I never thought I could also learn from her how to truly live.


Related Posts:

God's Ad
Child Discipline, My Style
What Type of Parent are You?
Surviving the First Week of School
To My Child

Diet and Me

I’ve been on a diet forever. It’s actually a mixed diet that makes me gain and lose weight alternately, depending on my appetite and metabolism. :)

Hah. So my body is not perfect and nowhere near a bony and catwalk-worthy physique, and more on the curvaceous-voluptuous side. But I love it!

Yes, I get tired of hearing comments about losing weight and gaining weight from some of my friends whenever I see them; as if the world revolves around the numbers on the weighing scale and there’s nothing else seem worth conversing about. But of course, in my mind, there will always be a permanent yearning for me to trim down a bit and to look my best in all aspects.

I want that to feel good about myself and not to please anyone else. I want it for me.

It will be utterly hypocritical to say that looks don’t matter. Looks DO matter. It’s one’s tangible representation to others. You need not be gorgeous to look good. I guess the effort to be clean, healthy and to carry a positive outlook is enough to exude the look that you are taking care of yourself.

Some work their tushies off the gym to get Madonna muscles, stone abs and rock-hard butts. I admire women who have the patience to sweat it all out just to achieve their desired shape.

I, on the other hand, don’t like to exercise much. I'm more comfortable doing regular activities such as walking, sleeping or singing, to burn off calories.

Yeah, sleeping and singing also burn off calories!

The greatest effort that I did was to enroll myself in Tae-bo class, and that was it. I figured there must be some way to shape up without getting all that sweaty (except for sauna and something else ^_^ of course). After all, it’s not my goal to have a body-building-competition-worthy body; I’m just interested to target and manage the usual problem areas that are always eager to grow faster than the rest of my body parts.

So I searched and read about diets that might help me achieve the body that I wanted without heavy exercise involved.

I tried the high protein-low carb diet, and it really worked for me. But after a few months of eating no sweets and bread at all, I started having dreams about Cinnabon rolls and Auntie Anne’s pretzels, so I snapped out of it.

For a couple of years I also went on a no-rice diet, but whenever I face ‘Binagoongan’ (shrimp paste with veggies/pork), ‘Laing’ (Gabi leaves in coconut milk), ‘tuyo/daing/danggit’ (dried fish) and other dishes in coconut milk, my willpower gets thrown out of the window.

When a diet deprives you of certain food, most especially your favorite food, it usually doesn’t work.

To be on the safe side, I always try to go for natural products. So I tried green tea, apple cider vinegar tonic, chili (which is normally a part of my daily diet) and other natural thermogenic products that aid fat burning without side effects.

Yes, they helped me manage my weight, but I’m still on the lookout for other products that are natural, and yet have faster slimming effects. Then I found this:

LOSE WEIGHT NATURALLY!
Risk free trial of Brazilian Weight Loss Natural Supplement

Tempting, huh! Especially if you're just like me who loves free trials - the kind that won't cost you a cent if it doesn't work out.

So I checked it out and true enough, it's 100% natural (derived from the Hoodia plant) with no side effects, and anyone can try the product risk-free for 15 days. One just have to pay for shipping and handling; if after that period you're not satisfied, just cancel it anytime.

Well, they must be really confident about the product to have a deal like that.

Anyways, this diet supplement already got featured in the news (CBS, Today, BBC) and also in Oprah's "O" magazine, which makes it more interesting to try.

Hmmm. I guess I need to decide before the free trial runs out or I'll just have to go back to singing and drinking gallons of green tea to lose a pound. :-)

My Art, Revisited

I did some digging through my old stuff and dusty books and look what I found for this week's Scrapbook Saturday.

These two freehand drawings were done in the early 90's. The portrait of Miriam Defensor-Santiago, a political figure in the Philippines, was my first charcoal painting (July 1990); I made the Hallmark baby four years after, on March 1994. I call it such, because I copied the photo from a black and white greeting card.

I can't remember where I stashed my other artworks. Guess it's high time to do a little organizing. :-)

If you wish to take part in this weekly activity, click here to join Scrapbook Saturday!


Graphic Elements by: Sooze, Adeyeo and Rainbow7203 of Scrapbookflair.com

P.S. This is a super late post because Blogger had problems uploading earlier. I just posted it anyways. :)

Related Posts:

Framed
Smile Baby, Smile!
Chestene is Hannah Montana
Good Girl in Glitters
One Summer in Subic
My Favorite Babies
Flower Power