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Showing posts from December, 2007

An hour of Pleasure, A day spent in Bliss

2007 is a trying and emotional time for me; it is also my busiest year, but I survived it. I always believe in the power of prayer, every endeavor I do I always ask the Lord to guide me to make the right decisions and never leave me during my darkest hours. Another thing that I do is treating myself every now and then to some “perks” like pedicures, facials and spas. It helps me recharge my batteries so to speak. I don’t consider shopping a perk because as my husband put it, it is my favorite pastime. This time my gift to myself was visiting my favorite spa, the Red Bamboo Spa at Riverbanks, Marikina City. I regularly go there maybe 3 to 4 times a year as a reward for a job well done be it in teaching or in business. It’s a good way to de stress and sooth the soul. I went there with my mother(its my Christmas gift to her) and we spent an hour of pleasure, being pampered like princesses. During the hour that my body is undergoing Swedish massage, my mind is clear and this time I let all

A Memorable Christmas

Our Christmas this year can be considered “uneventful” or simply quiet, meaning this year we got to spend the holiday with just the family, no relatives from the province visiting or cousins stopping by. It was the time where you can just relax and bond with each other. The usual Christmas season for us is one big family reunion where relatives from the province arrive before Christmas and stays with us till January and our relatives here in the metro drops by to see them at any given time. I consider this Christmas season very memorable, it is when I got to bond with every member of the family during the Noche Buena preparations, each one has prepared a dish and for the whole day we work side by side while cooking. I also gave in to my son’s request to bake goodies, we made chicken empanada and boy he got to really got his hands dirty but enjoyed every minute of it, my parents prepared our favorite asadong baka, while my husband prepared a prawn dish which he calls “shrimp ala cham” (

Sending Love this Christmas

Many say that Christmas should be spent with your family. In our case where many families are apart due to economic reasons, many of our countrymen are abroad to earn a living for their families, Christmas can be a sad event. I am very fortunate that my husband does not have to go abroad anymore to earn a living, but it can’t be said of many families in the country. Luckily there are different ways for families to be together and keep in touch, there are the mobile communications, online chat and or emails and IMs. Keeping touch with each other is not difficult anymore, love ones are just a text message or phone call away. Technology today is also keeping up with the needs to the people, OFWs abroad can now send a Christmas gift to the Philippines through online stores. You can make your families feel loved by using these stores where you can pick products for them and have them delivered at home even if you are not in the Philippines. This kind of innovations enhances the relationshi

Importance of True Friendships

A friend of mine called me up last week just to say hello, it was both a surprise and a delight to talk to her again. She was my classmate in High School, we’ve been only classmates for a year then I was moved to another section for the remaining three years. We have been close then but lost touch after high school; we met again in a school reunion four years ago and became close again since. I lost touch of her two years ago, and was regularly trying to contact her mobile phone ever since so it was really a surprise when she called. She entered a monastery to be a nun two years ago, I know of her plans and accompanied her in some of her search for the right order for her. I just did not know what order she had chosen and when is entered. Today she is out of the monastery for a mandatory period of soul searching to help her decide if she really wants to be a nun. I am so happy for her and can’t wait to meet her again. In reflection, friendships are like gift of jewels in our lives, the

Lessons Learned in Joining my First Tiangge

One of my dreams was to join a tiangge or bazaar, I was supposed to join one last November but it did not push through due to problems on logistics. I was lucky to join one this week at PSBA, they are celebrating their foundation day. The tiangge runs for four days and my brother who is studying there help me manage my booth. I did not earn much but I treat it as an important lesson for my business. Lessons Learned: The most important – study your market very well and make products that they will likely buy. Since my market was mostly students I had to price my products low and have products that appeal to them. Pick a location that has a lot of foot traffic. Make your booth attractive so that it easily attracts customers. Put tarpaulins, posters and make colorful decorations that reflect the products you are selling. Have fliers ready to be handed out to interested buyers, so that they can contact you if they want to purchase from you even after the bazaar is over. Have friendly and h

Managing MyLittleBaker

The Christmas season is the peak season for my home based business and it keeps me "very- busy-that-there-is-not-much-sleeping-anymore" kind of busy but what I realized is that in making your business grow, you have to grow with it too. I started with just making chocolate lollipops seven years ago to having a whole product line that can hardly fit a short bond paper. Things can get complicated really quickly especially when you have deliveries scheduled. With all of this happening I have to develop business management skills fast. Supplier sourcing alone takes a lot of time and money. Looking for low price cost on my supplies like nuts, baking supplies and chocolates is done in October. Encountering out-of-stock supplies at this stage is nerve racking. Even remembering where to buy flour that cost the lowest can sometimes be a dilemma specially if that information is not readily available or I can’t remember where I bought it. I have three stores where I buy my supplies and

Preparing for the Christmas Feast

My parents are great cooks, maybe that is why I am so keen on learning to be a great one also. During the Christmas season I make it an effort to prepare something new for the whole family to taste and judge for themselves. Many of my products on my online store MylittleBaker comes from these recipes, they are tried and tested by my tough testers that only the best ones make it. On the picture above there are my work of love, the Tipsy Leche Flan, Minicakes and The Fruitcake. The Tipsy Leche Flan . I love leche flans but I only eat them during special occasions same with a little alcohol drink. So last year I decided to experiment a bit and put this two together and to my delight I was happily tipsy and it also help me control eating leche flan meaning I eat a few spoonful every meal to savor not like eating the whole llanera full. The Minicakes. I love cakes and what better occasion I can share my love for them than on Christmas season? During these times we have many visitors durin