Caroleen’s Treasures

At last I got this package from Rochelle Price, the owner of SlingRings. Soon there will be ring slings up for sale in my store, the Home of Handmade Goodies.

It contains 50 pairs of rings for my ring slings.

They shipped my order from Laveen, Arizona last February 12 and the package was already received by Davao Post Office on the 28th. As expected, the parcel notice was delivered here at home yesterday after 9 days of sitting on their desk. If you ever need to know what a “snail mail” means, try the Philippine Postal Corporation’s service and you would certainly know.

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I was up until 3 in the morning looking at photos of cakes. Donald brought up the idea of baking cakes and pastries again and I remember when I wrote about some wild thoughts October of 2008. I really wanted to learn how to bake especially cakes and we actually have a plan on buying oven and baking equipments before Eman was born. Then came Eman March the following year along with the unexpected hospital bill and the  bills that came from him being hospitalized for three times last August 2009. I have no regrets at all because I can trade all the material things for the life and health of my kids. And came the idea of baking again which I think would be a great business. Well I have proven that getting into a business don’t have to be big. It should be something that you love to do and baking is not difficult to love. Who could resist the cakes?????? I fell in love with fondant icing. I can’t wait to get my hands to it.

There is one thing that made me have second thoughts. It was having a handful to do. I have sew cloth diapers and baby slings plus I make personalized gift items. I told Donald that maybe we are jumping from one project to another…..but he said doing that is not good if we have not perfected the craft and yet start another thing again. He said I have perfected the sewing and hand-painting of gift items so to start a baking business is not a bad idea. That I really need to hear from him so I won’t feel guilty. Why not try? After all all of the successful entrepreneurs does not focus on one business only. So we are now buying an oven for me to bake cakes and cupcakes. I am so excited! I wish I can bake cakes and cupcakes for Eman’s 1st birthday.

Anyhoo, I was not easily convinced to buy an oven if it will be only for baking cakes and other goodies. After much thought, I gave in to Donald’s idea because I can use it for baking ceramics and polymer clays. These are things that I want to do but without an oven, it will not be possible.

Okay back to browsing photos of cakes.

10:03 PM - I guess I am not very sure if we will ever buy an oven. I did find one that I want. The cheapest among the La Germania freestanding ovens but a couple of online friends and fellow bloggers wants to order crib sets which means I might get into this items sooner or later. This will need another working capital. So I am torn between focusing on my sewing and hand-painting crafts or doing it with baking cakes and goodies.

11:42 PM - I still want to bake. I really do. I think I will focus on the sewing and if I can outsource it, then I will pursue my baking plan. That is all for now. I hope this post will end here….no more updates or change of plans. LOL

I am very concerned of Ella’s permanent teeth. As I see how her new teeth are coming out, it appears that we will need to save for some braces. When her two lower front teeth (central incisor) came off and the permanent teeth came out, she started pushing them out. I told her she need to to that so she won’t have an abnormal teeth growth. She is doing that for long but it seemed it won’t do any good unless the lateral incisors (beside the central incisor) will come off. Her milk teeth are too tiny and now that her new teeth are coming out, it is becoming too crowded in there. But if we will not be lucky, we already accepted that we will really need to shell out some moolah just to get her teeth fixed. That will be in 7 years or 10 maybe.

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I posted some photos of Ella and I got this comment from Julie:

Boy! I can’t get over how grown up Ella is looking in these pictures! Did she just have a growth spurt?

Yes she certainly is on growth spurt and I wish it would slow down a bit before she couldn’t wear any of her clothes. Look at what she did while we attended a breastfeeding seminar last Friday. I had no idea she had lip gloss and powder in her bag! When she got so bored inside the function room, she roamed around the lobby of Lispher Inn and ended up in their restaurant. Donald, who brought Eman out so I can participate in the group discussion, saw the waiter take one piece of siopao from the steamer and served it to the customer seated alone on one of the tables. He glanced again and saw none other than her very own daughter. She really feels she’s grown up and likes to sit in different table when we are eating out. She not yet 7 and she’s asserting her independence already. Oh how I missed when she was still learning to walk……I couldn’t believe I will have a teen soon.

Okay enough drama. I will try to get my hands on the fabric after I check one of the weight loss products. I don’t need one yet since Eman is causing me to burn fats fast. But who knows, tomorrow I will.

Heading to the water still on diaper

I am such a good procrastinator and I have proved that for the nth time. Read more… »

Eman turned 11 months old yesterday and I am such a bad mom for not being able to take decent photos of him. We went to my SIL’s house warming party in the evening and though I knew he turned another month old…….I didn’t bother to take even a single solo picture of him maybe because I was so tired and sore. We traveled an hour to get there so imagine how my back hurt. So to make up for it, we went out tonight to have some sort of late celebration. We actually  had no plans on going out but I just asked if we could go buy ingredients for mango float. I ate almost half of the whole batch that was served last night yet I still crave for it. So off we went with the kids in their jackets because we are also heading to Jack’s Ridge. It is a restaurant on top of a hill. We have been there for several times before I got pregnant with Eman so this time it was his turn to see the place. The good thing there is that you can just hang in there the park overlooking Davao City, Davao Gulf and the islands of Samal and Talicud without needing to dine in their restaurant. So that’s what we did.

This art seemed nicer during daytime. The word DAVAO is a sculpture of Durian, waling-waling, native people and Pomelo. Read more… »

Last Saturday, I went to SM to meet my high school friends and of course my whole family tagged along. We are inseparables ya know. We were at SM a couple of hours before the agreed time. We brought the laptop to Thinking Tools to get the DVD ROM checked. Then we went down to the Food Court (our favorite tambayan) and pigged out on cheese flavored french fries and choco fudge black pearls. Nom nom nom.

Since we will have  dinner together with my friends, we brought the stroller so the little guy will be comfortable just in case he naps. The whole time we were there Ella was the one pushing the stroller around. She would get mad if we will take over.

She was showing his little brother around the windows we passed by, stopping for a while to let the little guy see those mannequins in fancy clothes. Read more… »

Last February 8 was our 7th wedding anniversary and that day we had the worst meal.

Daddy, who is in Pagadian City, sent an sms greetings early in the morning. Donald was surprised he still remembers it. Well of course he does because he was the mastermind of our wedding date. LOL Daddy is not Chinese but he suggested it should be on the 8th or any date that the bottom does not points downward (like 1, 4, 7 and 9).

There in so specific plan for that day but Ella wanted it to be special by making a greeting card for me and Donald. We went to SM and did our usual walk around the ground floor and checked for a good deal at the second floor. Good thing I didn’t find anything worth buying because I have no plans in spending for anything but food that day. Then we passed by this new section at the second floor that really bothered Ella.

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Credits: Summer in the Hampton kit by Danielle Engerbretson

“Somehow, out of all the twists and turns over our lives could have taken,

and out of all the chances we might have missed,

It almost seems like we were given a meant-to-be moment…

to meet you, to get to know each other and to set the stage for a special togetherness.

When I am with you, I know that I am in the presence of

someone who makes my life more complete than I ever dreamed it could be.

I turn to you for trust and you give it openly.

I look to you for inspiration, for answers, and for encouragement.

And - not only do you never let me down. You lift my spirits up

and take me to places where my troubles seem so much further away

and my joys feel like they’re going to stay in my life forever.

I hope you’ll stay forever.

I feel you’re my soulmate.

And I want you to know that my world is reassured by you,

my tomorrow’s need to have you near.

So many of my smiles depend on you,

and my heart is so thankful that you are here.”

Excerpt from Inspiringthot.net

I just finished sewing new set of curtains for the living room mainly because I can’t live without it, I want privacy and I want a dim house. I did some little cleaning in the kitchen this afternoon and took down the curtains but I am too lazy to wash it. It was soaked but it’ll take me more time to remove the spots from I-don’t-know-where than I imagined so I dug in my box for fabric. I find it a lot easier and more fun to sew than do the laundry.

It’s almost midnight but the kids are still wide awake. Ella is hard at work with her crafts while Eman is busy with my soft tape measure. I hope this means my little guy will love numbers and math will be his favorite subject. Well the little girl is inclined to arts and I absolutely don’t have any issues with that. I actually would want her to be an artist or anything related to arts, fashion and the like. Yeah, fashion. She is learning to dress up her Barbie dolls with her handmade dresses made of scraps from my cloth diapers and baby slings.

We are loving the oldies music on Donald’s playlist……remembering the olden days. Go to go now because Eman is sitting on my lap now and is trying to reach the keyboard with his fingers and toes.