Scracthing head

When it comes the time for my Mother-in-law's birthday or Mother's day, I have to scratch my head really hard to find a good gift for her. I scout a lot of online stores trying to find the 'perfect' gift for her from her daughter-in-law. I better start looking for Mother's Day gift now since the big day is exactly one month away. But I think I know what to get her this time around.

When my son was born, I used to print his pictures I took every week in 4x6 for her. But since he turned 1, I seldom do that anymore because lack of time. Now that he has turned two, I have many pictures of him which I can put together and produce a collage for her on canvas. Does this sound like a good idea for Mother's Day gift?

A wonderful pre-Christmas gift for Mommy

Dear Baby,

Mommy just want you to remember this. Here you are posing happily with mommy’s pre-Christmas gift, a Hamilton Beach® Stand Mixer, from the nice and wonderful people at Hamilton Beach®.

Mommy was one of the lucky winners when she submitted her video post earlier last month with you starring in it. Although you were crying and didn’t show much enthusiasm by being Mommy’s little helper/mixer in our little baking adventure, our video post was selected to win a beautiful All-Metal Pineapple Hamilton Beach® Mixer. Thank you so much for being a sport in Mommy’s previous video.

Now with this new Hamilton Beach® Eclectrics® Mixer, Mommy can make cookies for snack in the morning even in her PJs. Most importantly, she doesn't have to make you 'cry' anymore during her baking session. And while the mixer is working on the cookie dough, Mommy can play 'Little Piggy' with you. You can have all the time you want from her now.

This extremely quiet Hamilton Beach® Eclectrics® All-Metal Stand Mixer is a great addition to any family. Mommy's next project would be to try different recipes for cupcakes and hopefully she is able to find a delicious cupcake recipe for your 2nd birthday bash early March 2008.

Love,
Mommy xoxo

My gift is here!

I won another contest online and the gift has just arrived this morning. The UPS guy left it by the garage door as we were out and about but was home around 11:20am. Usually the UPS guy comes between 11:30am to 2:00pm. I guessed he might have been a little early today.

Now I need to whip up some cupcakes with this new toy and then take another video to post. So stay tune for the next video post and see what I've won.

Bring your binoculars to the baseball games

My husband and I love to go to baseball games. It is the perfect way to spend the summer evenings at the ballpark. But we cannot always get good seats. A lot of the premium seats are taken by season ticket holders. So I always make sure to bring my binoculars to the game, that way I can catch the action of the field too. I had purchased a smaller pair, so they easily fit in my purse. The last thing I want to do is to lug around a heavy pair of binoculars while cheering for my favorite team, the Los Angeles Angels.

My gift arrived!

My gifts have arrived! Do you still remember my winning post? I was picked to be the winner for a new set of Clean Rest Encasements by Elina.

The package arrived this afternoon by UPS. I don't remember having anything to be delivered or ordering anything online lately. When I opened the package then only I remembered. Many thanks again to Clean Rest and BDMM Community!

Remember your sunglasses

The sun is very bright and sunny in California, especially in Los Angeles. You would need sunglasses if you are visiting here for the first time. I remember I had to squint my eyes so badly without the sunglasses until you could see wrinkles forming on my forehead.

If you don't have any sunglasses, you may want to check out EyeglassesContacts dot com. They have over hundreds of designers sunglasses to choose from at great prices.

Free Shutterfly 5x7 Casual Book

Amazon.com gave me a free Shutterfly 5x7 Casual Book when I purchased $25 and above in their baby department a few months back. This book is worth $12.99 if I have to pay it myself.

The expire date on the free casual book was end of September. I had to put together all the pictures and layout on the book myself. It took me 1 week to find all the pictures I wanted to include in this book. I managed to get it submitted for printing two days before it expired. All I needed to pay was the shipping plus tax.

The delivery was pretty fast, I received my product in less than a week. But I was a little shocked when I saw the book. It is very thin, I was expecting something thicker like a photobook. Anyway, since this is free, no harm although I have to admit the quality is pretty good. But would I pay $12.99 for this? I don't think so.

Extraordinary Ceiling Fan

While visiting a model home at 360 South Bay, a new community with condos and townhomes, I saw this piece of art as well as a ceiling fan. My son loves ceiling fan but he was not in the model home with me.

He was getting tired and a bit bashful with the many people in and out the model home. He was outside with Daddy while Mommy was touring fanatically on all the model homes. I wasn't able to finish all of them as it was about time for Brandon's nap. But I thought the above picture is something my son would like to see. Haven't show it to him yet as this picture was all the while in my memory card, yet to download to the computer.

Christmas gift for me

*hint* *hint* Christmas is coming soon. 'You' want some idea what to get me? You know what I would like? A gift from a fine designer jewelry store probably would surprise me. But I know 'he' is not romantic enough to surprise me with 'this' gift.

I know it sounds a bit crazy, I lost one side of the my diamond earrings beginning of the year. I didn't even know how, where and when I lost it. I came home after an appointment with my client and dinner at Pink's then I found out one side of my earrings went missing. I looked up and down, in the shower and bathroom, but couldn't find it. I assumed that it was lost outside the house where there is not chance I can retrieve it back.

So if 'you' are reading this, you know what to get me for Christmas.

I want a new mattress pad!

Yesterday morning I received an email from Immomsdaughter about the October Giveaway: a chance to win a queen size mattress pad plus 2 pillow case covers.

My eyes immediately became wide open! Yes, the email woke me up very good. Who doesn't want to win a $139.97 gift just by blogging about it rite?! But is not that easy, you also need to be creative and let her know why you deserve to win the mattress pad.

Hope my real life motherhood story can help me win.

I want to win My Lil Venture’s October Giveaway because ...

Why you may ask? Well, first read here.

Our old mattress pad was working fine until my son came along. It was fine when he was sleping in his own crib. But because of the cold weather and we were afraid he might be too cold, we moved him to sleep with us. Yes, we've been co-sleeping since then and I am enjoying it.

And since then, he has been sleeping on our bed for his daytime nap as well as the night time sleep. Many times accidents happened on the bed that I need to remove the bedsheets as well as the mattress pad to be washed. Yes, I am a clean freak! Accidents like throwing up (yucks that is smelly!), wetting, pee leaking from diaper, and more. There was 1 time I need to change my bedsheet once a night, then the next morning and then that next night again. Luckily, it was a nice sunny day my bedsheets were able to dry once I washed them

Lately, I've been noticing the mattress pad is really in 'distress'. See picture below:

If any of you were me, probably this got thrown out to the trash already. For me, I have wanted to get a new mattress pad but I have no time to shop around to find the best deal for the best quality. Until now ... I saw the contest sponsored by CleanRest at a friend's blog and I know I have to win this. I really do.

Read from their website that it can help people with allergy as well as someone with breathing problem. Hopefully with this new mattress pad, Hubby won't need to be reaching into the drawer for his inhaler in the middle of the night anymore.

Please please please let me win so we can have a nice, new and clean mattress pad to protect our bed as well as our sleep.

Order to knit

My SIL is very hardwordking, besides working full time, she is knitting for extra income and for fun. She receives many orders from her co-workers and friends for scarves.

Since we are approaching Christmas season, she has more order to finish. She uses high quality alpaca yarn from Alpaca Direct for her knitting. These are hypoallergenic, as soft as cashmere and warmer than wool. She has many repeat customers who praise highly on the quality and workmanship.

Shopping for kilt?

This is a review for Heritage of Scotland dot com. They specialize in Scottish kilt besides other items like tartan travel rugs, official Scottish rugby shirts, and more.

They also carry women's kilts, kids' kilts and baby's first kilts. Each item has a one click currency conversion (GBP, USD, CAD, EUR, JPY.), readily available on the page. You can utilize their kilt measuring guide to help you get the perfect measurement. Your kilt is made to order with free shipping.

If you still have doubt about their quality and workmanship, check out the pictures provided by their satisfied customers whom had purchased from them before.

I miss this gal

When I was in Whittier College I knew a girl from Hong Kong. Since we both speak the same language, we were quite close even though she was studying art while I was into the science. She's definitely from rich family as she drove a new 3 series BMW. Imagine that. I remember her by all the body jewelries she was wearing. She had nose rings, ear cartilage jewelries, a gold belly button rings and a tongue ring too. I wonder where she is now. Didn't keep in touch after I left college.

Pretend play kitchen

Yesterday we stopped by Toys "R" Us in Cerritos to look for feeding bibs for a friend of mine. They do not have the one she was looking for at this location. But since we were there, we walked around and then I came to this pretend play kitchen area. When I look at these, I want 1 for myself. May be I will get 1 for Brandon and I can pretend play with him. He too loves playing cooking. The two shown above are around $200. We saw a smaller unit for $99. Should we get it for me Brandon?

I got my dad a Dell Notebook

A few years back my dad was asking me to get him a refurbished IBM notebook from here and mail back to Malaysia for him. The price was expensive even for a refurbished one. It was almost close in price as a new Dell Inspiron laptop which I bought a few weeks before he emailed me.

A few days after I received his email, I saw another smaller and lighter Dell laptop - Dell Inspiron 700m on sale. I couldn't pass the opportunity and bought that small portable one for myself. As for my dad, I gave him my 4 weeks old Dell.

It was a few years back and the laptop is still working fine and my dad is still using it for his daily internet surfing.

My workstation

This is my workstation on my dining table. I work from home and do blogging to earn extra income. Because I have an active toddler at home, I have to be mobile. I used to only work from my study room. But now I work outside in the dining area.

That's why I use a Dell laptop as my workstation. This is an Inspiron 700m, a very small laptop. Dell no longer carries this model. But when I bought it, it was one of the cheap laptops compare to other brands.

Recently, I received a catalogue from Dell and their new range of Inspiron laptops are so colorful, they come in red, green, blue, yellow and more. Choose a color to match your personality.

This may sound weird, but I can't wait for my laptop to stop working so I can get a new one. *wink*

I love Dell

Dell is my favorite brand when it comes to personal electronics. When I mention Dell, most people recognize they build Desktops and Laptops. But besides these, they also used to make Handheld (Dell Axim) and MP3 player (Dell Jukebox) too. I once owned those two small electronics.

My household has many Dell's items including a Dell 26" LCD TV, 2 units of Dell desktop, and 1 Dell personal laptop. I am looking to purchase another desktop and LCD TV to link them together for our dining room. My son loves playing the online game so with this new purchase, he will have his very own personal computer to play the online educational software.

Baby/Pregnancy Magazines

I used to have magazine subscriptions when I was pregnant. Back then I still have time to read and enjoy all the articles in the books. Now with my boy, I hardly read any books. I haven't even finish my Harry Potter Book 7.

The magazines above were once my collection. All these magazines were so well kept. The corners were all nice and crisp, just like new.

I wanted to keep but I know I won't have the time to read them again. I wanted to give them away but no one wanted it. I even listed on Craigslist as free item but no one emailed me for them. Then one day I decided to put them all in the recyle bin. They were taking up space in my study room and building up dust. I very 'mm seh duck' but had to do it.

What's that noise?

I know I grind my teeth when I sleeping at night. Even though I am sleeping, I know I am doing the grinding but yet I cannot control it to stop. It is pretty loud sometimes, husband had once told me. I search around for some product that can help me control the midnite grinding. Though my husband never complain about it, but too much grinding may not be too good for my teeth either. I didn't want to pay for the dentist to fix my chipped teeth.

So I googled Night Guard, TMJ, Bruxism, Tooth Grinding, NightGuard and found Dentek. This is a 1 size fit all night guard and can easily buy it at CVS Pharmacy. If I order it from Dentek, it will be $29.99 plus free shipping.

One cool item to own

As a family we love to travel, short or long distance. There were many times we need a little help from cutting an expose thread on our shirt to open a bottle of soda, my dad was the one person we looked for. He always carried Swiss Army knives with him. It is a tool that he never leave home without.

Now that I have my own family, I also keep one of a smaller version with me. I love how the company has included technology into a tool we always carry with us. Today, we can find Swiss Army knives that come with removable USB flash drives. Now this is one great gift idea and a cool item for everyone to own.