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

Just one more to go and I am done with my online tasks. I really have to get it all done before the cut-off so I can get more moolah for Eman’s 1st birthday so even they say it is not until tomorrow until the cut-off, I just want to make sure that all my tasks are included in the next pay out. I am swamped with sewing and craft projects and I feel like I am needing some help especially with the cutting of fabric which takes so much of my time. And there’s my online store that has been sitting there for a month now……I already have a domain where to move my Multiply store but I still can’t find time to get everything in place. I just have to find the right ecommerce plug-in that suits my needs and read about the sites that sell merchant account. I think even if I cannot afford it, I can pick some ideas from their websites.

I am always fascinated with lanterns. I find them very regal and when I see one, I can’t help but dream of having our own place adorned with different kinds of lanterns like the Murray Feiss lanterns. I would love to have outdoor wall lanterns in the patio, hanging lantern inside the home and post mounted lighting in the garden. This is my dream so help me God.

See how the lanterns at Jack’s Ridge fascinated the little guy. That is what I love with the place. I want to go back just to sit and stare at them.

I was looking at old pictures and found these precious ones. I forgot to blog about this, not that they don’t really matter to me but because I can’t keep up with a lot of things to blog about when this happened. Last March 20, 2009, the day before her Graduation Day, Ella drew this in 4″ x 6″ white board.

We were waiting for Eman to make an appearance and she envisions what will happen when that most awaited day will come. As you can see, I am on the delivery table and the doctor was helping Eman come out.

I took pictures. She erased it and made another drawing. Now the doctor is holding Eman while I was still on the delivery table.

This third drawing made me really giggle. See the taxi? Isn’t it the cutest taxi? Here we brought home the baby. Wondering why she’s not in the drawing? It’s because we have briefed her earlier that when I will give birth to her little brother, she will stay at my sister Crislyn’s apartment and wait for us to bring the baby home. We did that just in case she won’t be allowed to stay with us in the hospital but she ended up sleeping at our room for 2 nights and we all went home together with the baby.

These photos remind me of how I really loathe my huge prenatal vitamins that made me puke.With my two pregnancies, I have not finished all the vitamins that we bought. I don’t even drink Anmum when I was pregnant with Eman, just the regular milk, because I hate vanilla flavored milk. I can’t tolerate chocolate too. They just don’t appeal to me though I tried drinking a few glasses when I was pregnant with Ella. I just eat a lot of fruits, fish and vegetables (and rice too…hehehehehehe).

When I woke up today Donald told me my friend Steph called me. It’s been three days that we are constantly talking over the phone about the latest happenings, the news, our businesses and on getting a credit card for emergency purchases and payments. Donald handed me the phone in case she will call back but Eman was very quick to grab it from his Daddy’s hand. He put it near his left ear and said in the cutest voice, “Heeyoo?”. Yes our little guy knows how to answer the phone! He also say “Ayoooo” when he heard a knock. He sometimes does the knocking followed by his “ayoooo”. Well it sounded like “ayo” or “tao po” but I prefer the “tao po” because it’s Tagalog although they have the same meaning. This is how we call at someone’s gate or door.

Another thing that he does that really makes me soooooo happy is to kiss me on my cheek. When I say “kiss Mommy….”, he will put his lips on my cheek. He does that to Donald and Ella too. He still doesn’t know how to do a smack but he is getting there soon. He can also comprehend what has being told to him especially when it comes to milk. When he is in the baby sling while we are riding the motorcycle, he sometimes wants to see the road so he starts to get so fussy and wiggly. But if I tell him that we will breastfeed (”Dede na tayo”), he would stop at an instant and let me position him inside the sling and wait very patiently. He knows if it’s time to eat solid too and when he hears the sound of his bowl and spoon he would get on his feet and hold on the rails, eyes as wide as the owl’s.

He is also getting better each day with his balance. As I am writing this post, he’s in his playpen beside me doing his walking practice and I saw him take his first two steps without support. Yay! He crosses the longest side of his playpen (his is rectangle) in warp speed and with a sound effects like that of a myna. LOL Looks like he will be running on his birthday in 24 days. I wish I can stop the time. I don’t want him to turn 1 yet. I want him to be my baby for the rest of my life but that is so impossible so maybe just delay it will be alright.

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… »

I seldom see myself in the mirror because ours was broke when we moved. I do have one small mirror that I could see nothing but my face. LOL So when we went to a dinner buffet with Donald’s family last Thursday, I was surprised to see myself in the mirror. Although I noticed my weight loss because my old jeans fits well to me now, I am still surprised. If I won’t take any action, I’d be back to my old figure again and that alarmed me. I want my flabs back like when Eman was still a little over 3 months old. I feel more beautiful with those extra bulges you know. LOL I don’t think I lost weight due to lack of appetite nor weight loss formula but because of how this little guy makes every muscle in my body work double time with his acrobats. I wonder if giving him another kind of vitamins that will help him sleep more would help. Next pay out I will buy him a bottle vitamins to add on his multivitamins and vitamin C. One mom mentioned to me when Ella was little about a certain vitamins that makes her kids sleep more. We’ll see.

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… »