Gimme A Break

I’ve got a couple of wedding invitation that just came in. My niece and nephew are both getting married within one month of each other. How cool is that!

And what that means is that I’d better start planning my wardrobe. Like I’m some kind of celeb aunt making her grand entrance, eh!??!

At any rate, it’s going to be exciting because I’m not just shopping for myself but also with my two daughters.

I’ve been looking at fashion jewelry online because accessories is one aspect that I always leave to the last minute and then realize I have nothing to match my outfit.

I’m thinking something neutral like diamonds and pearls would do the trick quite nicely. They’ll match whatever I decide on wearing that day.

Just take a look at what I found online on Holsted Jewelry. They’ve got tons of other designs which are great for teens as well. I’m going to have the girls take a look later.

• contemporary gold
• jewelry to match
• peeking out from under my oyster shell
• stretch your creativity with Aqua Dots
• diamonds are forever

by minutechaser - No Comments →

I’m so behind in my blogging because I’ve been so-oo busy with everything else. As if I’m not busy enough as it is. If I were to list it out, it may not sound like much, but some of the things I’ve been doing are quite labor-intensive .

Like cooking for my brood who are sitting for their exams which takes more planning than usual. This is, of course, compounded by the China milk scare which has caused me to throw out all of the dairy products in my fridge and to severely limit my grocery options since veggies and milk from China have now been added to the growing list of possibly tainted products.

Ugh. Yesterday morning, I walked around the produce section of the grocery store like a food inspector checking the labels just to be sure. But then again, we can never quite be sure now, can we? So many ingredients go into making a product, who knows where each ingredient comes from? Just something to think about …

• grass? mmm, yummy!
• hibernating
• do the dofollow
• insurance reminders
• smoking section

by minutechaser - No Comments →

My 15-year-old’s best friend has a birthday coming up. I’m not sure when but I know it’s soon. Last weekend, my daughter was asking what she should get for her friend.

I told her chocolates would be a sure winner and her friend will love it. Tell me who doesn’t love chocolate, especially toffee and dark chocolate?

As it turned out, we didn’t have time to buy them when we were at the mall. We needed to get home as my Dad was going to be dropping by from out of town.

This morning, my daughter tells me she’s found a great chocolate place online at chocolatepath.com. They have chocolate toffee, her friend’s favorite, and they even do gift-wrapping.

I had a brief look at the website and man, I have to say even I am tempted to order some dark chocolates for myself.

But hey, look at the gift that my daughter has picked out. Isn’t it sweet? I’m sure teens being teens, her friend is just going to love the pink detailing.

I honestly can’t tell you how relieved I am. With my dad coming to visit, I simply won’t have the time to take my daughter shopping for her friend’s birthday gift.

• what do gym freaks want?
• gourmet gift baskets
• stretch your creativity with Aqua Dots
• diaper-changing robot?
• mom’s day out

by minutechaser - No Comments →

My youngest daughter has just finished her exams and that is always a good excuse to celebrate. Celebration = food so off we went, hoping to grab some fried chicken at KFC or something.

Would you believe it? The place was packed - talk about trying to dine out on a Saturday night. Eventually we decided on Chinese which was probably the easiest as the restaurant was only half filled and we could easily get a table.

I typically cannot walk out of the mall without doing a bit of window-shopping. So after dinner, we took a leisurely stroll through the mall hoping to chance upon a sale or two which is how I usually manage to end up with some bargains.

• Japanese buffet, really?
• an exceptionally great wedding dinner
• lines, lines, lines
• fight or flee, that is the question
• true blue city girl

by minutechaser - 1 Comment →

I do so love long weekends. The kids and I were out first thing this morning, the kind of morning that just refuses to get rushed.

And so ambled over to the bookstore and to window-shop at the mall, and then on to an early lunch.

This being a holiday weekend, the grocery store has lots of promotions. While I love promotions, it does get rather frustrating trying to push a shopping cart through the crowds.

I didn’t manage to shop as much as I wanted to. The kids were getting impatient because it was so crowded and the checkout lines were ridiculously long.

Tonight we’re planning to go out and watch the fireworks. I’m not sure where they’re at but not to worry, my kids are on top of it !

• lines, lines, lines
• mirage
• why you should shop on weekdays if you can
• happy new year
• Valentine’s, who’s celebratin’?

by minutechaser - No Comments →

While we were out shopping over the weekend, we ran into an acquaintance. Although I haven’t seen her in a long time, I still remember what she’s notorious for.

She’s someone who fires questions at you on sight. It doesn’t matter that she’s a futures broker now, she still shoots questions like rapid fire, thank you very much.

When I saw her approaching, my first instinct was to duck into one of the stores and pretend I didn’t see her. But her eyes were quicker than my thoughts, and even before I could grab my kids, she’d already seen us.

So there we were, eye to eye and I knew the questions would follow rapidly. Right at that moment though, a little boy with a cup of coke ran straight into her spilling its icy contents onto her flowing white skirt.

I heard her go “aargh” as she looked down at the damage. Not wanting to appear thoughtless, I said you’d best go clean that up, and we quickly disappeared into the Sunday crowd. Whew! That was close.

• nosy’s in town
• surely this is a record in sales history
• my good neighbor
• blabbermouth
• out of sight, out of mind

by minutechaser - No Comments →

On the way back from dinner on the weekend, we usually stop by at our favorite computer shop to see what’s new. Last weekend, we stopped by to pick up some video cards and a couple of other things that our friends had ordered through us. Guess what, we found the store closed. At 6pm on a Saturday night?

These days, it seems that four times out of five that we decide to stop by the store, it’s closed even during the stipulated business hours. Business must be really good for our dear friend. It seems he only works when he wants to.

But for customers, it’s become a guessing game. We can’t count on him to be open and it’s seriously becoming a major inconvenience. Maybe he’s not interested in doing business any more. Maybe we should take our business elsewhere.

• garnering up webloyalty
• hiccup remedies
• an exceptionally great wedding dinner
• an Angelina Jolie
• add another white elephant to the heap

by minutechaser - No Comments →

I’ve been shopping like crazy right after gas prices went up. I was trying to take advantage of that window of prices that still haven’t gone up all the way yet, that calm before the storm.

I honestly hadn’t realized how much walking I’ve been doing… at the malls on the weekends until I started reaching for my Foot Pain Relief.

You know how I hate applying some icky cream that feel slimy and won’t come off for weeks no matter how hard you scrub. Duh! Luckily these come in the form of patches which I can easily stick on.

• school or beauty contest?
• ice cream time
• beat up over breakfast
• out of battery
• when are the robots coming?

by minutechaser - No Comments →

Our relatives have left town for their next shopping destination. Lucky them. They were saying that with so many affordable flight deals on offer at this time of year, they’d be stupid not to take advantage of the savings.

That’s what I used to do before I got so busy with my kids. I would chase bargains down to the ends of the earth given the time and money . I mean, wouldn’t you?

There’s always something to buy, something new and interesting to catch your fancy and new shopping places to explore. For me, a holiday isn’t a holiday unless I shop till I drop. How about you?

• joining in the rush
• New York, New York
• planning our getaway
• staying home
• crazy ’bout lions

by minutechaser - No Comments →

I’m all rested and ready for another day out tomorrow entertaining our visitors from out of town. Wouldn’t it be nice if every day could be this carefree and enjoyable, doing stuff that doesn’t stress you out?

I’m not sure where we’ll be going but it always works out to be a lot of fun. Not having a set agenda is really a neat way of avoiding stress. The malls are less crowded on the weekend so it’s relatively easy to keep an eye on the kids and not worrying about leaving someone behind.

I mean, we can take our sweet time to window-shop and linger over lunch now that the kids are a little older and able to take the crazy shopping hours we set.

• long weekend
• window-shopping day
• best stress reliever
• Quick Shop makes it easy to save
• 5 ways to reduce festive stress

by minutechaser - No Comments →