Moments in My Life

When I was in Malaysia, it amazed me to see many ladies wearing the LV tote bags on the shoulder. I bet the price tag is probably one’s whole paycheck, but still these young ladies are able to afford it. But sometimes it came to my mind whether it is a replica or a autenthic LV that is on these ladies’ shoulders. Can you tell the different? No I can’t because I am not handbag fashionita.

It curious me to check out the LV store here in LA area. So this morning, my hubby drove us down to South Coast Plaza, about 40 minutes drive from our area. We had lunch at Rainforest Cafe and before we left the mall, the final stop was at the Louis Vuitton store. Did I see any handbag I like? Sure did. I really like this Monogram Canvas Totally PM (picture on the right). And the price tag is $840 plus sales tax. The leather is so soft on this bag and feels so light putting it on my shoulder. The size is 15.3″ x 9.4″ x 5.5″. It has two internal flat pockets (handphone/accessories). The zipper pocket is wide and keep the things inside safely inside. Did I get it? Of course not! For this price, I probably have to sleep many nights before deciding.

While on the car ride home, hubby was asking how much the bag was, and I told him. He replied with a WOW and said the bag is equivalent to a trip to Malaysia for me. Oh well … now do I want a bag that hangs on my shoulder or a plane trip back to Malaysia??

This post was sponsored by Kmart. All the opinions are mine.

Attention All Mommies!! You gotta check this out. Kmart has annouced the return of the Kmart Bluelight Specials, just in time for us to shop for school supplies and more. Believe me, I love shopping, and I even love it more when I can save money and shop at the same time.

‘Kmart Bluelight Special’ is back every Saturday beginning 8/1 and throughout the day itself, you will be able to find over 40 great items on the Bluelight Special. They can be anything from patio furniture, to toys and even jewelry. So remember to drop by any Kmart store tomorrow (8/8) to find out the items on Bluelight Special. Don’t worry if you can’t leave your home or work tomorrow because if you have internet access, you can even shop online for these Bluelight Special items. Kmart is offering free shipping for all orders $60 and up, exclusion apply (please check their website).

I wonder what items will be on the Bluelight Special tomorrow. I love to see some toys, clothes and household items on sale when I am at the Torrance Kmart tomorrow morning. It would be great to find a pair of children’s shoes on the Bluelight Special too because the current pair which my son is wearing had worn out.

Twitter’s fans out there, you can follow @kmartdealsnnews for more updates and specials.

Last term when Brandon attended the Lollipop Pre-school, I was given the Cooked Playdough recipe.  This is an easy recipe but I have not try it out yet.  Just thought that I will put it up on my blog to share with my readers who might be interested to make their own playdough.

Cooked Playdough
1 cup of flour
1 cup water
1 tbs oil
1/2 cup of salt
1 tsp cream of tartar
food coloring

Cook over medium heat until mixture pulls away from sides of pan and becomes like playdough in consistency. Knead until cool. Keeps 3 months unrefridgerated.

Kool-Aid Playdough
2 small packages of unsweetened Kool-Aid*
2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cups of flour
1/2 cup of salt
1 1/2 tbs cream of tartar
2 cups boiling water
2 tbs oil
several drops food coloring

Mix Kool-Aid, flour, salt, cream of tartar in a metal or glass bowl. In a separate bowl combine boiling water, oil and food coloring. Pour water mixture into flour mixture and blend. Knead until smoth and store in a Ziploc bag or Typperware container. Refridgeration is not necessary, but will help it to keep longer.

*Different flavors of Kool-Aid will make different colors and different smelling playdough. Ex: Lemonade makes yellow playdough etc.

Sunscreen contains many active ingredient to protect your skin from the sun.  One of the active ingredients is benzophenones and I am allegic to it. My regular facial moisturizer finished so I switched to the NutriMinC REality SPF 8, Day Créme sample size. I have to take note that whenever I see a SPF word on any lotion, I have to beware.

A week had past since I started using the new moisturizer and I didnt’ have any reaction to it … until last Saturday when I spent about 2 hours in the beach. I wore a hat and tried to stay in the shade as much as possible. But the reaction happened and my face now has tiny neutral color rashes on the surface. One can’t see it but definitely can feel the roughness in it. You see, why didn’t I have any reaction to it for the past one week? It was because I didn’t have any direct contact with the sun. Most of the time I was at home or in the car or in an indoor building. That’s why I didn’t see the reaction to it until the day in the beach.

Since Sunday morning, I had stopped using the NutriMinC REality SPF 8, Day Créme and switched back to my regular moisturizer (sample size). It will take a week or two before the rash will go away.

I am beginning clearing away my winter clothing and replacing them with my summer outfits. Summer is here early this year. We’ve been having high 70s temperature here in Los Angeles since last week. I am in a regular tee-shirt and shorts now at home now.

After looking through my current summer collection, I think I need to donate away all of them and get some new dresses. I am very picky when it comes to summer dress. There are only certain types I will wear. Those outfits from Target or Walmart don’t fit me well, although the price tag is within my budget. I don’t like to pay too much for a piece of dress as the fashion changes too fast and once the style is out of season, I might have to give it away.

As you already know, I like shopping online. And when I was browsing on the internet I came across AMI Clubwear. And saw this pretty black tunic summer dress which I really like. It is 100% cotton and has the 3/4 sleeves which is what I’ve been looking for. It is even on sale for $31.99 (regular price is $56). And if I get an additional item to increase my order to $50, I will get free shipping by using AMISHIPPED code. I will probably bring this with me for my coming up cruise vacation.

Drop by this web site if you are looking for hot summer collections. It has wide selections on quality items and with their always low price, you can actually buy more but spend less.

If you have younger children at home, you don’t want to miss out this one day special at Amazon MP3 download. This 150 Fun Songs For Kids album normally sells for $9.49. However, with the promotion, you can get the whole album with 150 Kids Fun Songs for only 99 cents on this Sunday (Easter Sunday), April 12th 2009.

I have a three children song CDs with a total of 35 songs which I paid over $20 for them. I play them every day and sing with my toddler son. He likes them a lot and he learned some of the songs from here that were not taught in his school. And now with just 99 cents you pay, you will get 150 children songs, a great deal I say. This album includes the famous songs like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Baa-Baa Black Sheep, Hot Cross Buns, Rock-A-Bye Baby and many more. You can also sample the songs from the website to listen to the quality. And with the MP3 download, you can store them in your CD and play it during a road trip or when you are in the car with your young children. Or if you prefer, you can just store the songs on your laptop and play it whenever you need to keep your child entertain for a little bit.

Our economy is not doing well. I’ve heard the recent announcement of a stimulus plan by our new President to help improve the economy. This stimulus package has been passed by the congress and we will be seeing some extra money coming in every paycheck. I think this stimulus plan will increase each paycheck by $15 for single and $30 for married and joint-filing. This doesn’t seem a lot but with careful planning for your spending, you will see the different.

For us, we try to spend wisely, especially now. We only buy what we need and we try to buy in bulk to save. We also buy items that are not perishable during sales and clearance. We are constantly looking out for good deals and sales anywhere, local and online to maximize our saving.

Lucky for us, we have been seeing a lot of sales going around. If you like saving money, you might not want to miss the clearance that is going on from now till April 18th at Sears. You can find their fall and winter apparel slashed down 75%-80% from the original price.

I need one or two new sweaters and I found this very affordable cute Apostrophe Poncho Cable & Cowl Neck for only $5.99 (original price at $48.00). Good price isn’t it? I can still wear it now when we go out in the evening time as the weather is still a bit chilly after the sun set. I definitely will not pay the original price for this piece but at $5.99, I have no second thought on buying it. I can actually buy almost three of this with the stimulus money back on one paycheck.

I believe that you can still spend money but just need to spend it wisely and plan ahead on what you want to buy. Be sure to look out for any sales or clearance to spot the best buy items. This is how we do it and it definitely worked to help us save some money.

Laptop is very vulnerable, especially if you frequently carry or move it around for work or personal reason. To protect your investment, you must buy one of the highest quality laptop bags that can last you for a life time. If I am my own laptop bag, I know I will be in safe hands. However, not many people are like me whom take good proper care of their belongings. And for those people it is better if they own a Spire laptop bag to carry their laptop around. No matter what the roughest conditions the bag goes through, the laptop inside will be fully protected. This is definitely a durable and functional laptop bag you can get in the market now. And it comes with a life time guarantee.

I lost one side of my gold earring last night.  After my shower, I came outside towel dried my hair and then played with Brandon.  When Brandon was sleeping and I was sitting in front of the laptop, that’s when I realized my right side of the earring was gone.  So it is kinda difficult to locate where it is as I don’t even know when I lost it.  I tracked back the places I went to and wasn’t to find anything.  But this morning when I was at Brandon’s room, I picked up the back of the earring and was trying to locate the front part of it but wasn’t successful.  I don’t think I will be vacuuming my carpet anytime soon, at least not until I found the other part of the earring.

Do you usually do your manicure at the salon or at home? I highly recommend that you do it at home for your own health safety. My friend once had her done at a salon for the first time and her nails were infected by fungus and it won’t go away. Until now she is still taking medication for that and vowed never ever to return to any salon for manicure or pedicure.

It is fun to sit there and have someone else to do your nails for you while you can sit back and enjoy. But think about the drive, time you going to spend going there and the cost plus tips. It will end up more than you think.

If you have all the necessary tools, you can too do it at the comfy of your own home. Or even better, you can have a mini manicure and pedicure party at your home. Invite a few friends over and let them do your nails and you do theirs. You can get a bottle of my favorite Black Forest Olan Nail Polish from Hello Gorgeous online website for only $6.00. This particular nail polish has no Formaldehyde, no Toluene, and no DBP which I like. Actually shopping online will give you more choices, selections on colors and brand names.  If you haven’t own any tools, you can purchase them from the same website too.

What you need is a list of friends, even number of people would be best.  Make sure you have all the necessary manicure/pedicure tools, nail polish colors, towels, small buckets for water and different scent of hand lotions.  You can set up the station/s on the dining table or coffee table.  Get ready some soft classical CDs to play in the background.  If you want, you can also serve one or two snack trays and some light drinks or water to your guests.  There you go … a mini manicure party at home!