Caroleen’s Treasures

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. Read more… »

It’s freezing cold up here. The lowest is 23° C (73.4° F) and it has been pouring since morning. For a warm blooded like me, that number could send me under my blanket and hibernate but I can’t do that now. I need to get my hands on the sewing machine for my orders and work on my new website.

We had a heavier rain yesterday and so the frogs went out to play.

They are like frogs. They love the rain. They jump and play. This is their favorite bonding moment.

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That is what the name of my online store. PINOY APPLE JUICE. (Love to have an online store…no need for tarps, display windows or cardboard displays to make some sales). Lord-willing that will also be the brand name of my cloth diapers and baby slings. I named it after this little guy’s love for apples.

See that bite and the eyelashes? LOL

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I started sewing in the other room tonight and I think my output is better. Well to me it is but Donald can’t tell the difference when I showed him. I don’t think I can get a good response from him. Forgot I married a sanguine eh! LOL But in fairness he is my critic on every crafts I make. He has an eye for beauty and perfection…..see?, he married me. Hahahahahaha! I know, I know I sounded like crazy tonight. Might be due to really wanting to have a cup of jura capresso or better yet a litro of ice cold Coke.

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At last I am done with the diapers! Ummm….not yet actually but close to getting it all done.  I thought I can’t finish it because the sewing machine is acting up again. I have yet to sew the soakers and the free canvas bag since the woman ordered one dozen. I was contemplating if I still throw in a freebie since she asked for a discount already. I think I have to be firm next time because hey it is no joke to be sewing cloth diapers if you are choleric. LOL

And there is also the baby sling that I still have to make…..and then I read my sister’s comment in the previous post about a fellow blogger who wanted a couple cloth diapers…..and some other text messages asking for a quotes. While I was sewing earlier, I was feeling so overwhelmed. I am not sure if I can meet the demands if there will be and I started telling Donald that maybe I can give jobs to other moms out here. I am now open to the idea of hiring some help  but they should pass the personality test. I wanted a choleric too. LOL I am just glad that two of my customers are sanguine and they just leave it to me to choose the color. I am not saying that other personalities are hard to work with but I just feel like they are the best clients because they simply don’t care. LOL

So am off to do some more sewing. Just had a break to feed the little guy. Have a blessed day ahead!

One more assignment to go and I am all done for now. Tomorrow I will be meeting Davao’s best Lamaze instructor, Ms. Alex Hao, to show her my cloth diapers. I  am so happy and excited because she was the one who asked me if we could meet!!! I hope she will like my crafts.

Last night I also exchanged emails with Mitch, a fellow blogger, who happen to see my diapers. But she admitted she don’t wanna have something to do with cloth diapers instead asked me if I can come up with baby slings. It’s a good timing because that is what I am thinking too! So after I meet Ms. Alex tomorrow noon, I will look for a fabric for my slings. It should be durable of course and I want to try it first with Eman. I wish we have a huge fabric store here like they have abroad, or even online store would be great. Thanks for all the well wishers! Also to all the wonderful bloggers and my sister Crislyn who will be spreading the word about my handmade stuffs. Wohoo! I wishy wishy that I will be successful this time so we could get Medicare supplement insurance for the whole family. One big problem now is the name. I would want to get a DTI permit for a business name. Does anyone have an idea?

Not much going on here today. Ella went to school in the morning, watched movie (again) when she got home, ate, slept, played. Donald made himself busy on the pc tweaking his blog and blog hopping and me on the sewing machine with my cloth diaper project. I already did 24 cloth diapers which still needs to be sewn with velcro. I hope I could still sew the last 12 pieces tonight and tomorrow morning as I am really wanting this project to be “officially” done before we leave for Ate Lourdes’ house in the afternoon for our weekly bible study. All in all I will be having 6 newborn size and 36 small size cloth diapers. I do not want to run out of it when the weather is not fine. Read more… »

I finally got hold of my fabric and spent most of the on my cloth diaper project. I was too excited that I let Donald check if the package has arrived from Davao so after dropping Ella to school, he went straight to LBC. He said their reason of not being able to deliver it yesterday is valid because their courier van goes straight to San Franscisco, a one hour drive past here, bringing all the packages that are supposed to be dropped here. I don’t get the point of wasting gas driving past here and bringing the packages back. Anyway, I am happy that I can continue making diapers for Emmanuel yet I really could not understand why I always get short with it when I have carefully measured the length that I needed putting a half meter allowance. It happened again! I am such a moron. So instead of whining, I make use of the scraps again. Read more… »

Been wrapped up with my cloth diaper project and loving every minute of it. I am done cutting the printed fabrics and made an adjustments on the pattern. I already made 5 pieces of NEWBORN size (yes, the small size is actually for newborn which I just found out today) so I made my own SMALL size pattern and will be sewing 30 pieces of this size. Read more… »

I should be starting on cutting the fabric for the cloth diapers last night but I was so tired from our trip that I didn’t even knew I’ve dozed off while putting Ella to sleep. I am so happy that Donald didn’t have issues on my new project and went with me to Tagum yesterday to buy materials since all I could find here in town are pongee and tetoron fabric. Not good for cloth diapers. What I got are flannels in different prints. I also got the plain white for the inner layers and the soakers.

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