It's NSD This Weekend!

This coming weekend's the most anticipated and awaited days of the digiscrapping fanatics. It's the NSD or the National Scrapbooking Day celebration so they're up once again for crazy sales, contests and freebies. In fact, a few digiscrapping blogs have already started their blog train of freebies while some have provided teasers of their new products and promotions for the said event. I better secure my paypal tight or else, my budget for my term life insurance premium that will be due next week might get damaged if I shop for digi goodies on impulse. But let's see, I don't want to deprive myself also from getting jumpstarted to digiscrap again. Who knows, some new digiscrapping goodies (on sale) might just be the prompter I've been waiting for.

Here are just some of the NSD teasers I was talking about:

Simply.com's Online Advertising.

Simply.com's solution for small businesses' online advertising needs is truly remarkable. It's one inexpensive, practical yet effective way of driving large amounts of traffic to one's business site which consequently translates to sales and profits later on.

Munching...Munching.

It's 6 pm and guess what I'm munching right now while I finish some day's work. I'm having my fix of "chicharon" (fried pork skin) dipped in spicy vinegar. It's actually one of my Mom's pasalubongs from the province along with a basketful of green mangoes. That's what I love when a relative from the province visits us. Our fridge usually gets filled with native foods like my Lola's home made longanisa (my fave!), sweet delicacies like pastillas, buko pie, vegetables and fruits...all foods that should be accompanied with an intake of fat burners that work so as to shun the unwanted calories. It's definitely pleasurable to eat, but gaining weight and flabs is not.

The Spoiler.

I am starting to believe that between the two of us, it's the husband who's likely to be the spoiler to our dear son. Just like last Friday when we went to Mall of Asia, instead of heading to a beauty bar and buy himself acnepril, he insisted that we go to Toy Kingdom so the little one can feast his eyes on the abounding toys. As expected, we didn't get out of the store empty-handed. The husband bought the little one not just one, but two toys to the little fellow's delight. He got a whole set of basketball (ring and ball) plus a toy helicopter. Oh well, I guess it has to do with the intimate ties that a father-son has.

Expensive Hospital Supplies.

If you've experienced getting confined in a hospital, I bet doubt is also clouding your thoughts how they facilitate charging of supplies used. I mean, like in my experience when I gave birth, the hospital bill entailed usage of about 5 boxes with 10 pairs each of surgical gloves. There's no way for me to contest or check but I'm just wondering if they really did used a total of 50 pairs on me in the Delivery Room. It's also noticeable that the costing of hospital supplies are way more expensive as compared when bought in retail shops outside. It's improbable but I wish they can give options to patients as to which medical supplies to be used or they be allowed to purchase the same brand and specifications outside to save. Getting hospitalized is no doubt wallet damaging. Even if you're going to check the website of JazzMedical.com, an online retailer of medical supplies, it appears that their products are way a lot cheaper compared to that of the hospital's pharmacy.

A Lavish Birthday Gift.

A friend of mine just wished for an electric grill for her birthday, but guess what her extravagant husband surprised her with. A 4D 3N tour package to the wonderful paradise of Bellarocca Island Resort and Spa in Marinduque! Now I'm so green with envy because after reading great raves and seeing inviting pictures of this haven on the web, I have put this in my top wish list of local destinations to visit. I've already made the husband agree that we will see this in the future. Provided, he says, I'd be able to snag generous discounts and promos from the resort.

By the way speaking of Bellaroca, the only airline that flies to Marinduque, Seair, is offering a Php 1500 off discount per way in any route in celebration of their 15th anniversary. Check out their site for more details.

Bye-bye Balikbayans.

On Thursday, my sister and her family will be flying back to Qatar after having a month-long vacation here in the Philippines. Earlier this month, my folks also flew back to KSA after enjoying 2 months of stay here. Just like that, happy days with our balikbayan family members are over. Time flies really fast (as fast as how prevera takes effect) and I can't help but wish for more. If only I can rewind time so we can prolong their stay here and bond some more, that would be great. For now, we don't have a choice but wait until their return next year. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and with that, we'll just hang on, hope and look forward to their next visit in the near future. After all, time flies fast and before I know it, they will all be here again soon.

Hoping To Digiscrap Soon.

Soliciting your indulgence with all these non-scrapbook related (NSBR) posts recently. It just goes to show that I, still, haven't got my digiscrapping mojos back and they're still on the lose. I know I've mentioned that a lot of times already. Believe me, my heart greatly desires to do so. There's a huge part of me wanting to scrap as I have lots of piled up growing up pictures of my son to play with but I just don't have the time (and partly, lack of inspiration) to do it. When I digiscrap I have this tendency to really get immersed with my layout that I spend a couple of hours at minimum to work on a decent layout and with my parenting tasks to a very rigorous and demanding toddler, it's just impossible to squeeze in my schedule even just an hour for that.

You see, I also author a handful of blogs so that's another load to keep me busy with. I need to earn to help the husband and augment the family income, thus, my blogs are sprawled with money equated keywords. We're having our house built that's why I'm also driven to earn in heaps. In fact, I've also been odesk-ing these days for some added income. The projects I've had were just a tad taxing but small paying. Nevertheless, they're still added earnings so I'm keeping the job. Besides, the porjects are quiet similar to the blogging job I've been doing for several years now only there's an added work to submit my works to an Article directory which is pretty manageable and not really a handful.

Wish me luck, I hope one of these days I'll be able to have the time and the drive to open up my picture editing software and scrap away.

Just Slightly Favored.

When I got pregnant, it was not a secret that I "slightly favored" to have a baby girl. Coming from an almost all-girls family and being one of the tres marias, I just know how fun it is to be a girl. I may have wanted a baby girl but this does not mean that I love my son less. It's just that baby girls are more fun to dress and doll up with all the cute and fancy dresses and chic fashion for little girls. And I have to be biased, I'm a girl so I want someone to share same interests with like shopping, girly stuffs and secrets, beauty and pampering ways like body acne treatment and so on. But it's okay..I'll just pray to have a little Mai on our next baby project, hopefully in a year or couple of years time.

Failbooking.

Facebook rocks..don't you agree? It's the big thing in the social networking world now and you're out and so old-fashioned if you don't have an account (and do not play the addicting farming, restaurant, casino and all other game applications). As Facebook has millions of members worldwide, many online sellers take advantage of free advertising in this site: from dresses, to baby products and food. I even saw one acquaintance featured a rv for sale. By the tagging system on uploaded pictures, tons of people will be able to view the product.

In addition to that, Facebook also provides a one of a kind entertainment through hilarious "failbooking" wall posts such as these two:

Moms' Bunk Beds Review Comment

I can so relate with your post. A twin bunk bed also brings me back memories of my childhood years because that’s what my siblings and I grew up having and sleeping on until our teenage years. Thank you for sharing your review about Mom’s Bunk Beds. I never actually knew about them until I stumbled upon your blog. I now know where will I look into should I decide to buy space saving, safe and comfortable bunk beds for my kids in the future. Great post!

Technopile and Game Geek

My childhood years consist of playing pac-man on the PC. The program's file size is so small that it could be just stored in an 8-inch floppy disks. I also remember playing with my cousins Atari, Sega and Family Computer games. Towards the 90's, my daddy bought our youngest sibling a SNES where I mastered the games Lion King, Super Mario World, Donkey Kong, Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. Then years later, it was replaced with a PS2. The gadget craze has already stopped so we do not have the latest ones like Xbox, Nintendo wii and all other recent ones. For those of you who are able to catch up with these thingamajigs, check out these digiscrapping kits that you can use when making a layout for your gadget freak kids. The elements are perfect, aren't they?

Kate Hadfield's Beth's Belief Freebie

I know of relatives, friends and acquaintances who have died or still struggling with the big C. Also, I've been hearing courageous and inspiring cancer patient stories from all over the world and I can't just imagine how difficult it is to live such a downtrodden life. Bless those Good Samaritans they encounter along their path and they are somehow relieved, albeit not physically, of their burden.

It is for this reason that Katie Hadfield came up with Beth's Belief Freebie goodies. These cancer themed goodies is for a special friend, Beth, who's battling the big C for quite some time now. Beth made this a special request so she can have some elements to use for cards that she'll be gifting her fellow big C patients.

Such stories make realize further how life is so important (and how significant an affordable health insurance is). and how good it is to be given the precious gift of life. Life is uncertain and anything may happen but what's good about this is that the big Boss up there, gives us every chance to see the beauty of life how long or short our existence would be.

So Wanting To Digiscrap.

Every time I read feeds about digiscrapping freebies and new digi goodies in my Reader and see inspiration layouts, I always heave a heavy sigh. For the longest time, I've been wanting to reunite with my stashed digital kits and digiscrap the gazillion growing up pictures of my son but I just don't have the time. I've been so swamped with online works since the start of the year. My tremendous job search efforts for online opportunities are paying off. No matter how hard I try, I really can't manage to squeeze an hour or even half of it to whip up a decent layout from a scratch. I'm so envious of a friend who really can manage her time very well: a full time mom, a diligent problogger and yes, her Flicker gallery is always brimming with new and well done layouts. I know, it's possible and my work is not an excuse. I just don't manage my time very well and that's what I've been trying fervently to work on.

Ready.

This is my very first post after my 3 day online hiatus in observance of Lent. I was able to finish all of my pending online assignments prior going offline and so doing it for that long was a lot easier for me. I won't be back on my regular programming though because we're up for a two-day vacation in Laiya tomorrow. We did some last minute shopping for the trip this afternoon like chips, sodas, little one's sunblock and a memory stick duo pro for our camcorder. The husband has likewise charged all the batteries of our gadgets i.e. laptop, DSLR and video camera. Woohoo! Can't wait to get sunkissed. I'll update and share pictures the soonest. Yes, I'm bringing my laptop with me because I have several pending online works again that were given during my Lenten offline break. I'll try to sneak a very short business time. Of course, relaxation will be my priority. :)