Archive for September, 2008
Posted on September 24, 2008 by admin
1. What is your absolute favorite piece of furniture you have and why? I love my daybed. It’s where I sometimes take my afternoon nap, it’s where the little boy plays and it’s where the family relaxes.
2. What would be your design style? Asian, Americana, country, contemporary, etc.? I love country because it feels comfortable and very home-y. I like Asian, too as I am loving wood furniture right now.
3. Are you of the spartan furnishing philosophy, or the more the better? I like to keep it simple, easier to clean. I like it clean and clutter-free. That’s why I am now torn between my first favorite style – country and Asian.
4. What are your two favorite rooms? The living room where we spend most of our time and the bedroom where I get to relax and sleep and sometimes spend my PC time blogging and browsing for things like digital signage, etc..
5. If money were no object and you were to redecorate, pick one room in your house and describe its decor. I like to do our kitchen. It is still bare, so I want new cabinets, an oven, a bigger fridge and lots of baking and cooking tools. I would like to have a new dining set made of heavy wood.
Posted on September 23, 2008 by admin
This is one little locomotive no one will want to miss! Our ingeniously designed cake pan bakes a complete nine-car train that’s ready to decorate and eat. From engine to caboose, there’s no limit to the colors and decorative details imaginative young bakers can add to each train car. Made of durable cast aluminum by NordicWare, the pan bakes each little cake to perfection every time. The premium nonstick interior turns out cakes with beautiful detail and is easy to clean. Hand-wash. 6-cup cap.; 15 1/2″ x 9 3/4″ x 1 3/4″ high. Made in the USA by NordicWare. A Williams-Sonoma exclusive.
I love this railway cake pan from Williams-Sonoma. I promise to get this once I learned how to bake. I do have to have an oven first. 
Posted on September 23, 2008 by admin
1. Do you manage to find free time for yourself each day? I do. It’s usually at night when my son is asleep.
2. What is your favorite thing to do with your “me” time? I go online. I blog, check emails, catch up with friends, shop sometimes and check some stuff like Harley parts. Other times, I just relax and watch TV.
3. If you had a whole day of free time, no responsibilities to anyone but yourself (and unlimited funds to indulge!), what would you do? I will go to the mall to shop and shop some more. Or I will visit a new place and take pictures.
Posted on September 23, 2008 by admin
You Are Pasta Puttanesca
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Compared to most people, you have a sexy and wild personality.
So it fits that you’re like a pasta popularized by street walkers!
You like food with interesting, contrasting, and spicy flavors.
You live an exciting life – and you wouldn’t ever go for anything bland.
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Posted on September 23, 2008 by admin
While going through my feeds at Bloglines, I came across Coverleaf.
Coverleaf.com is a service that provides digital editions of many of your favorite magazines allowing you to conveniently read your magazine anywhere with Internet access. No software downloads are required. If you are a current print edition subscriber, you can access your magazines for free by verifying your subscription. You can also browse the selection of magazines on coverleaf.com and look inside any issue for a free preview. If you opt to register on coverleaf.com, you can clip, save and share pages from any issue. Coverleaf is provided by Texterity, a leading provider of digital publishing services, in partnership with leading publishing and fulfillment companies.
To my delight, they have Scrapbooks Etc and Memory Makers magazines. You can buy digital copies of magazine issues for only $0.99. I do love reading magazines but I hate the clutter so this one’s for me. If I find the magazine worth keeping then that’s the time I will buy a hard copy.
Posted on September 22, 2008 by admin
Download these printable Christmas planner here. Or if you want to make your own, you can follow these guides from OrganizedChristmas.com.
Posted on September 20, 2008 by admin
I will be adding lemons to my grocery list. I was told by the husband that drinking lemon water will do us good. I googled lemon water and here’s what came up.
The benefits of drinking lemon water:
* Lemons are antiseptic
* Lemon water has excellent digestive properties and can ease heartburn, bloating and other digestion problems
* Lemon water cleanses and stimulates the liver and kidneys
* Lemon juice contains calcium, magnesium and potassium
* Lemon juice has been known to relieve asthma
* Lemon water (hot) offers relief from cold and flu symptoms while providing some much needed Vitamin C
* Lemon juice is a great skin cleanser
{Source: http://www.energiseforlife.com/wordpress/1002/lemon-water-alkalising-superstar}
Lemon Remedies Published by Jethro Kloss in Back to Eden
* For sore throat, dilute lemon juice with water and gargle frequently. Dilute one-half lemon juice with one-half water. It is even better to use straight lemon juice.
* A slice of lemon bound over a corn overnight will greatly relieve the pain.
* A slice of lemon bound over a felon [pus formation on a finger joint] will not fail to bring the pus to the surface where it can be easily removed.
* To relieve asthma, take a tablespoon of lemon juice one hour before each meal.
* For liver complaints, the juice of the lemon should be taken in a glass of hot water one hour before breakfast every morning.
* To break up la grippe [flu or influenza], drink a large glass of hot water with the juice of a lemon added, while at the same time have the feet in a deep bucket or other vessel of water with mustard added to it. The water should be deep enough to where it comes nearly up to the knees. Keep adding hot water to the patient’s tolerance and until the patient begins to perspire freely (about 20-30 minutes). Be sure there is no draft on the person while this is done. The patient should be near a bed so he can get in it easily and avoid any danger of getting chilled. If convenient, a full hot bathtub would be good in place of the foot-bath. The lemon water should be taken every hour until the patient feels that all the symptoms of the cold are gone.
* A teaspoon of lemon juice in half a glass of water relieves heartburn.
* For rheumatism, one or two ounces of lemon juice diluted in water should be taken three times a day: one hour before meals and at bedtime.
* In cases of hemorrhage, lemon juice diluted in water and taken as cold as possible will stop it.
* Scurvy is treated by giving one to two ounces of lemon juice diluted with water every two to four hours.
* In excessive menstruation the juice of three to four lemons a day will help check it. Best to take the juice of one lemon at a time in a glass of cold water.
How much lemon to use
If you are in good health and weigh less than 150 pounds, squeeze the juice of one half a lemon (one ounce) into a glass of purified water and drink this mixture twice a day (one whole lemon a day.) If you weigh over 150 pounds, squeeze the juice out of an entire lemon (two ounces) into a glass of purified water and drink this mixture twice a day (two whole lemons a day.) The lemon juice can be diluted more according to taste.
To help your body get the energy from the food you are eating, drink lemon water regularly. Next to drinking plain purified water, drinking lemon water daily is the most important thing you can do for your health.
“When life gives you a lemon… squeeze it, mix it with six ounces of distilled water and drink twice daily.”
{Source: http://www.quantumbalancing.com/news/lemon%20water.htm}
Posted on September 19, 2008 by admin
After two weeks of waiting (the maker promised one week), the daybed arrived. I was a bit worried of the design as we just had a sketch of what we like. I would have wanted to just buy whatever’s available in the store but I wasn’t able to find a design I like at a price that fits my budget. Anyway, this came a few nights ago and has been the little boy’s play area ever since. I do like it. It’s made of acacia, and it is so heavy. However, I must say that it isn’t as neat and perfect as I would like it to be. But considering the amount we paid, this is a good deal.
Posted on September 14, 2008 by admin
Sharing tips to make your home more organized, attractive and efficient. No, this isn’t my list. I just snagged this from Lifehack.
General Household Tips
1. Hide a cluttered bookshelf with a spring-loaded curtain rod and a set of curtains.
2. Use filing cabinets for a TV stand.
3. Use clear plastic shoeboxes to store knick-knacks and other odds and ends.
4. Organize your house by task so that the things most relevant to each job are where you’re most likely to use them. This might be obvious for things like laundry and crafts, but what about a mail station, homework area, or just storing linens in the laundry room?
5. Figure out where things normally get dropped and set up an appropriate place for them as close as possible to that point. This will improve the chance that they’ll end up where they belong, and decrease the distance the things that don’t make it home have to go to be put back.
6. Label it! Labeling is not just for file folders – get a label-maker (or several) and keep it handy all around the house. Kitchen shelves, storage containers, bookshelves, coat racks — there are millions of places where a smart label can forestall endless amounts of clutter.
7. Designate a “launchpad”. This is an area in your house, preferably near the door, where coats, jackets, shoes, backpacks, purses, keys, and everything else you need to find easily next time you leave the house stays. Think of it a transition-zone between outside and inside — almost like an airlock.
8. Set up a “bucket” at your “launchpad (a milk crate, basket, or an actual bucket) for each person “.
9. Use a 4-tier “Stadium Rack” for spices, allowing you to always see everything easily without taking up much space.
10. Set up “clutter bags” in every room. Keep a reusable shopping bag — there are plenty of attractive ones available for super-cheap these days — in every room; when stuff from elsewhere around the house starts building up, throw it into the clutter bag until you can sort it out.
11. Store trash bags inside the trash can, under the current liner. That way, you (or whoever takes the trash out) have a fresh bag handy every single time.
12. Set up a shared online calendar between you and your partner, and allow access to your close family, child-care providers, and anyone else who might need to know where you are at any given moment — or what events are coming up that they might need to plan for.
13. Use behind-the-door shoe holders for storage of tiny or awkward stuff. The cloth kind have 20 or so pockets that are ideal for craft supplies, cleaning products, tools, and office materials.
14. Take care of dishes immediately after meals.
15. Run the dishwasher frequently. Large households often never get to that mythical state where the clean dishes are put away, the dirty ones are in the dishwasher, and nothing is stacked up in the sink. Modern dishwashers are designed to detect the size of the load, so there’s no reason to wait until the washer is full to run your dishes.
16. Take pictures of sentimental objects before giving them away or throwing them out. Like that T-shirt from that concert you want to when you were 20 years younger, 3 sizes smaller, and quite a bit more stoned. You know you won’t ever wear it again, but hold onto it because of the memories.
17. Set up a library/rental box. Store your library books and rented videos in a box in your living room or other place near where you’ll use them, and keep your library cards and video rental cards there as well. That way, you’ll always be reminded if anything’s due when you go to collect your rental cards.
18. Color-code your family. Assign a color to everyone in the house, and buy everything for them in that color: towels, toothbrushes, cups, water bottles, lunch boxes, slippers, whatever.
19. Keep your “go bag” in the car. For example, all the stuff for family outings (aside from food) can be stored in the truck, freeing up space in the house and keeping it with you for spontaneous fun time.
20. Use an accordion organizer to sort kids’ project paper. Sort by color and/or type of paper.
21. Use bed risers to increase the space under your bed.
22. Use drawers, not counters, for storing bathroom stuff. Or keep all your toiletries in one box or basket on the counter — easy to move for cleaning the counter.
23. Use a corkboard and pushpins to hang jewelry. Keeps everything visible but out of the way.
24. Use a travel jewelry organizer that goes over a hangar. Also keeps jewelry visible and out of the way — and thieves aren’t likely to look for your jewelry among your hung clothes.
25. Keep a basket by the stairs and add out-of-place items to it. When the basket’s full, take it upstairs and put everything away.
26. Fill a box with stuff you’re unsure of and pack it for a year. Make sure you put the date on the outside. If you don’t use anything in the box for an entire year, you don’t need it and can get rid of it.
27. Put a whiteboard in your garage where you’ll see it when you come home and when you get ready to leave. Put to-do lists, reminders, and other important information on it.
28. Find creative uses for containers. For example, ice cube trays are great for storing all sorts of tiny objects — any they stack easily.
29. Keep a rack by the door for keys. But make sure they’re not visible from the front door/window.
30. Pull bookshelves out slightly to hide cords for gadgets in the back.
Bills and Business
1. Set up a scanner and a shredder next to each other. Incoming mail goes into the scanner and then – unless you need it for your records — straight into the shredder.
2. Sort mail as it comes in. Trash it, file it, respond to it, or take action on it — don’t let it build up.
3. Go paperless. Scan all your important paperwork and store it on your computer. File only the papers you absolutely need hard copies of.
4. Set up your bills to be due all on the same day. Most utilities will let you shift your payment date, though you will usually have to make up a month-plus the first time after the change.
5. Use chip clips to hold related papers together.
6. Put all your work work on your desk and “do as you clean”. When you’re done, the desk is clean — a great motivator for people who like a clean desk.
7. Auto-pay everything.
8. Scan business cards as you get them.
9. Make a nice box for receipts and put new receipts in it every night when you get home. Sort your receipts on a regular basis, or this will overflow and become yet another source of clutter.
10. Convert a closet into an office. With a little creativity, even a tiny closet can be transformed into a functional space — and when you’re done, close the door to hide the mess.
Habits and Attitudes
1. Learn to travel light. That way, a) you don’t have as much to carry, and b) you don’t have as big a bag to store in your house when you’re not traveling.
2. Close the circle. This takes a little discipline — ok, a lot of discipline — but if you can build the habit of always seeing every act through to its logical end every time, it will prevent a lot of clutter. In practical terms, this means that every time you use something, you follow through until that thing is back where it started from: eat a bowl of cereal, wash the bowl, dry it, and put it back on the shelf. Our lives tend to be built up out of a lot of little “incompletions” that lead to clutter; if you can break that habit and see see things all the way through, you’ll find a lot more improves than just your clutter situation.
3. Clean one room or area a day. This is less daunting than cleaning the whole house, and gives you a clear goal, instead of the “one-more-thing” syndrome that strikes when you get a mind to “do some cleaning”.
4. Find the clutter “focal point” of each room and keep it clean. In the bedroom, make the bed and keep it clear; in the kitchen, don’t store anything in the sink. If these focal points are clean, the room will seem less cluttered.
5. Give it away. Make a habit of taking regular trips to the Goodwill or other donation center to give away excess stuff, and make sure that when that day comes, you’ve got a full load of stuff to get rid of.
6. One in, one out. Make a habit of throwing out, selling, or giving away something for every new thing you bring into the house. For example, when you buy a new pair of shoes, get rid of your least favorite. Variation: One in, TWO Out!
7. Use “deep storage” wisely. Pack up things that you’re not going to use and store them — don’t keep stuff out when you are unlikely to ever need it.
8. Don’t shop “recreationally”. Go shopping for the things you need, not to kill time or “just to look”. Avoid succumbing to temptation by avoiding temptation itself!
9. Never put anything on top of anything smaller than it is. For example, never put a newspaper on top of a small book or your keys. You’ll lose less stuff that way.
10. Don’t make piles. Ever.
Posted on September 10, 2008 by admin
I was craving for something sweet so I dropped by Marks & Spencer when we went to Alabang to buy my favorite butter cookies from them. I have been eating this for a long time but it’s just now that I realized that this was made of organic butter.
I am lately becoming aware of organic food and products. For starters, I try to prepare organic rice for the family. Good thing, the little boy enjoys it. I am also hoping that it will tone down the little boy’s kulit-ness.
Near the counter, I saw these very nice organic cotton bags. Since it only costs 295 pesos, I got one. I really am not sure where to use it but I bought one anyway. I’ll just probably use it to carry the little boy’s change of clothes and other toiletries in school. It’s nice and it’s cheap. So go buy one. 
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