Finding The Time To Work On Your Goals

Are you that type of person who believe in New Years Resolution? Do you make a list of things that you wish to achieve on New Years Day?
I personally think that although a person really do not have to wait at the start of a year to be able to achieve the things that she/he wants to achieve, to be able to start to do the things that she/he wants to do, or change things that she/he wants to change. Because all it takes is willingness, perseverance and the will to do it at anytime and you can start anytime, right?

But if for the whole year through you had a hard time getting motivated and finding which morning/day you are gonna make the move and try to work on achieving your goals and hopes, then probably the New Year might be a great time to start. New Year day is time when a lot of people reflect on the things that happened and occured during the past year, and you have great recollections of a lot of things...and possibly thinking of the coming year head also like which things you want changed, which happenings you dont really want to be repeated...

So if you have things to do, things to achieve, you can start at anytime, but if you have a hard time finding the time or day to actually do it, then New Year might be a great time to start and made that commitment. Be very objective and made the commitment and find the willingness to do it, with that you are already taking the first step towards achieving your goals or hopes. Every step forward that you make, will bring you one step closer and closer to your goals or hopes.

After Christmas Sale

After Christmas sale is currently going on! Usually, it starts on December 26, a day after Christmas Day! Most christmas decors and gift items are all marked down heavily, mostly around 35 to 50 percent off the suggested retail price of the item. Why most stores drop down their prices of seasonal and holiday items? Because most of these items are seasonal and they dont want to wait for another year to sell them, they dont want to complicate their inventory records that would mean more confusing lists to keep track of their products which will also complicate their accounting record for filing taxes too. And most of all, unsold seasonal items that dont sell will definitely need storage and warehouse areas, which is more likely mean an added cost for most business because aside from their needs of storage for regular items, they would also be needing additional storage for all seasonal items, if they wont sell or get rid of them. Most stores would rather get rid of occassional inventories by marking them down big time, so that they can get rid of them easily and fast, and eliminate the hassle of recording, storing anymore.

So if you have extra cash you can spend after Christmas, and want to buy early decorations for next year, and have room to store items for next holiday, after Christmas sale is a great time to buy, without spending a fortune! You can save tons of money, and a lot of times these same items will be high in price again as soon as the next holiday is coming near nest time. So checkout your favorite stores these days for awesome deals of seasonal items.

Grocery Store Memberships

Before we joined for any grocery store or supermarket and/or warehouse club memberships, i was definitely wondering if it is necessary or if is it worth it. Why do we need to register or sign up to shop in a store anyway? I thought, there was no point really to sign up for such membership because I do like the freedom of being able to shop wherever I want, at any store, no strings attached! Who knows these stores are just gonna fill my mail box with junks loaded with store advertisings and promos i dont really need.

But i realized that there are huge advantages for signing up for the free memberships in stores like Safeway. Safeway members, for instance, get three (3) cent off per gallon of gas that they fuel their car, and a lot of times, they also provide further gas discounts if your grocery shopping total reached a certain amount that qualifies for additional gas discounts. I also noticed that when you walk-in to store like Safeway, they usually have two (2) different pricings for most of their products, one for store members, and the other price for non-members or without membership cards. Sometimes, promo like buy-one-take-one for members only, can really benefit the members in a big way because if you are a non-member, you have to pay a lot more for the same exact item and you only get one item! So I think signing up for store memberships like Safeway is definitely worth it, you can definitely get huge savings. Besides, it is free membership sign-up, so what can you loose? In some occassions, you can get as much as 35 to 50 percent savings compare to when you are not a member, that is a lot of money savings, that you can use to buy something else!

As far as being a member of either Sams Club and/or Costco Warehouse Clubs, where it is a paid membership, you might wonder if paying for such membership fee is really worth it? For most cases, yes, specially if you shop there several times a year, for even the most common items that you always buy and need everyday. Both Costco and/or Sams Club offers huge discounts for buying by bulk. Although, in most cases, you cannot buy items individually, they are usually package and sold by the packs and/or package, but this is were most of the huge savings and discounts are. For instance, you buy an item in a regular store for $10.00 for one piece, but when same item you can buy for $15.00 for three (3) pieces, that is an instant saving of $15, in calculation $10 x 3 = $30, and then $30 - $15 = $15 savings! So if you normally buy items by the bulk, then it is definitely worth it to pay for membership. By the time you add all the savings you make everytime you shop there, the membership cost is only a small portion compare to the total savings that you make. But if you only buy one item at a time, and only when you need it, then warehouse clubs might not work best for you this way. So the benefits of being a member, will largely depends on the total volume of shopping you normally do daily, weekly, monthly.

Side Effects Sucks

For many years, I heared all kinds of commercials and adveritising about medicines and/or pills that can cure this and that, and at the same time also warn people about all kinds of side effects that may occur when taking such medicines. Sometimes you hear about pills being pubicly advertised and are available for people, and then later on got recalled and pulled out of the shelves because of the harmful effect in the human body.

Wouldnt it be better when someone will take a medicine, get cured without getting another sickness due to the side effect that a medicine caused? Wouldnt it be better when someone will take a certain pill due to his sickness, will not have to worry about side effect like blurred vision or drowsiness or vomiting, etc? It would be so much better if a medicine designed to cure one problem, would not become a cause of another problem that needs to be cured.

New Teenage Drivers

I was flipping a recent copy of Wall Street Journal today, and I came across a whole page ad of All State Insurance. It is a simple, mostly text ads with a catchy red ribbon on the upper right corner of the page ad. When I started reading the ad, it provides a sample Parent-Teen Driving Contract, which provides space for both new teen driver and her/his parents to come into agreement between different driving scenarios agreement, and what are the consequences will be if the new teen driver will fail to comply with the agreement. The contract form covers topic like speeding and tickets, crashes, drinking and driving, driving with distractions like talking in the cellphone and eating, wearing the seatbelts, curfews, having passengers, and other road rules.

I personally think that an agreement like this is not only good for the parents side but to the new teenage drivers as well. Getting a drivers license is definitely a big step to freedom, but driving is a gift, not a right. We could really use more responsible new drivers nowadays for a safer and more harmonious travel all around. Having a contract like this, Parent-Teen Driving Contract, will be a great reminder to the new teenage drivers that they are enjoying their freedom (to drive and go wherever) because they earn it and they deserve it. And contract/agreement like this will allow new drivers to appreciate their freedom, but at the same time be aware that if you break the rules, you could get hurt, you could hurt somebody else, so it matters that new teenage drivers are careful and follow the rules, to be safe and to avoid the consequences.

If you are a parent to a new teen driver, having a contract like this will not only give you peace of mind knowing that your kid will be safer because she/he knows the rules, but also knowing that your kid is aware of the contract, work on complying with it to avoid the consequences. And if you are a the new driver or teenage driver, why not suggest this contract to your parents, this is definitely for your own good, it will be a great guide and reminder for you to always drive safely and follow the rules.

Check out this link: Parent-Teen Driving Contract

A Robot That We Can Count On

Its been few years since we bought out robotic floor vacuum, popularly known as iRobot Romba, a rechargable robot designed to vacuum the floors.

Having dogs in our household, can cause loose dog hairs in the floor. And dogs sometimes also carries outside dirts and dust inside the house specially when they go outside for their personal business and come back inside the house carrying little by little a dust and dirt in their feet and transfer them to the floor.

Having Romba vacuum makes it so much easier to clean the floor more often and the convenient of a battery operated device, meaning cordless feature, and independent device, meaning Romba can clean the floors without humans following her around the whole time, totally allow us to perform other chores while our floor is being clean.

So if you have a problem with not having enough time to clean your floors everyday because you have so many other stuff to finish and take care of, try using a Romba floor vacuum. We are proud owner of one, and they sure are reliable and helpful robot around the house, they do the work they are intended to do, and we are happy that they help us some of the cleaning around the house.

Blog Rezoned

Aside from fashion, women clothings, and online shopping, this blog also includes postings entries about home decorating, cooking and kitchen, holidays, lifestyle, and more.

In this regard, I decided to change the blog header today. I have change the header to match the content of this blog: Living and Life, Lifestyle and Choices, Fashion and Style, Latest and Trends, Online Shopping, reviews, feedbacks, comments, actions, reactions, opinions, all of that and more.

And if you have blogs related to these topics and would like to exchange links with this blog, please feel free to leave comments here...Have a nice day

Holiday Greetings

Just want to greet you ALL advance

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

From Our Family To Yours

Different Ways To Cook Chicken Eggs

I grow up not going to restaurant a lot. I learned most of my cooking from watching my mother and my grandmother. For most household, like ours, chicken egg is a basic ingredient that you often, if not always find in the kitchen refrigerator. Aside from having fried egg and boiled egg for breakfast, i used egg for baking. But lately, I been learning more new ways and technique to cook and serve eggs, old and new ways, which some of you maybe familiar or have heard of before:

Boiled Egg. Usually you just place bunch of whole egg still in their shell in a pan. Add water and boil the eggs for around 5 to 10 minutes enough to achieve either a Soft Boiled or Hard Boiled. Soft boiled means the egg white is cooked but the yellow yolk is still a little runny. While Hard bolied means both eggwhite and egg yolk are hard enough that its not runny.

Scrambled Egg. To prepare, just crack egg egg and put both eggwhite and eggyolk together in a bowl. Sprinkle some salt to taste, add minimal amount of milk and then lightly whip the whole mixture, enough to mix all ingredients thoroughly. Then add the mixture in a pre-heated greased pan and then cooked the egg until fluffy, stir the egg mixture while cooking to achieve the scrambled idea.

Fried Egg. Follow the same steps are Scrambled Egg (see above), but instead of stirring the egg while cooking, let one side cook, and then use a wide spatula to flip the whole egg, maintaining the shape of the egg mixture. If the fan is big, usually you will ended up with bigger size, you can fold the egg half-way to in three-folds, and let it fry until all the runny mixture is gone.

Sunny-Side Up. Simply pre-heat a greased pan in a medium heat and crack the egg and then put the whole contents in the pan, make sure that the egg yolk will stay intact and unbroken to achieve the right visual look of sunny-side up. Cook the egg until the egg white hardens and partly the egg yolk as well, then its ready to serve.

Over-Easy. Follow the same steps for cooking the Sunny-Side Up (see above), but once the first side is cooked, you flipped the whole egg using a spatula and let the other side cooked for about one to two seconds and serve. Over-easy usually still has the egg yolk a little bit runny.

Over-hard. Follow the same steps for cooking the Over-Easy one, but when you flipped the egg, let the other side cooked a little bit longer so that the egg yolk will thoroughly cooked and not runny.

Omelet. There are several types of omelet, you have several options as far as fillings that you can add for your omelet recipe, but I just want to focus more on how its cooked, rather than the ingredients. For a simple omelet, follow the same steps as Fried Egg, but placing the egg to the frying pan, add extra ingredient to the egg mixture like diced tomatoes, tidbits of bacons, tidbits of hams or sauges, and then mix it with the egg. Then cooked the same way as either Fried egg or Scrambled egg, see above for both.

Devilled Egg. Cooked whole eggs, exactly the same way as Boiled Egg, make sure that you boil the egg around 10-13 minutes to make sure that you achieve the hard-boiled egg effect. Once boiled, carefully peel the shell of each eggs, this can be very hot so make sure that you have cold water handy to help you with the peeling part, and cool down the egg a little bit. Cut the peeled egg legnthwise and carefully scoped the egg yolks and place them a bowl. Add taste of mustard, pickles, and mayonaise in the egg yolk and mix well. Fill back the hollowed egg white using the egg yolk mixture, chill and serve!

Written by JAZEVOX. All Rights Reserved.

Remarkable Award as a BODACIOUS Blog

This is a really neat and cute award that I received today from my co-blogger pal PrettyLifeOnline, who have a remarkable blog with entertaining and great postings too!

This is really touching, and I truly appreciate this and happy to receive it. Thank you :-)

Are You Winterized?

Are you ready for winter? For countries like US and Europe where winter happens every year, there are some things that you need specifically for winter time and get yourself ready for it.

Warm Up. It is always good to be sure that your heater is up and running, or your wood burning stove and fireplaces are clean and ready for winter wood burning again. For those who use and depend mainly on eletric heaters, winter storms can cause power outtage and it would be better to have a back-up heater on hand like gas heater, wood burning stove and/or fireplaces.

Bundle Up. It is time to dig the winter clothes again, sweaters, jackets, coats, warmers, etc. Many people advise to practice clothes layering where you can stay warm safely and if it gets really hot, you can remove the outer layer and still have more clothings to keep you warm for the cold weather.

Hot and Warm Drinks. What can make you feel better this cold freezing temperature than a cup of hot choco or eggnog. Also great to warm up your body easily during this chilling time is a warm chicken soup or a quick fix and inexpensive noodle soup.

Non-Slip Gears. With freezing temperature outside, standing water and moist areas could easily turn into ice even your decks and driveways. It is hard to see sometimes but if you walk on an icy area it is definitely very slippery and very dangerous. Try to de-ice this areas by having bags of salt handy that you can spread to the icy area, and it is advisable that you put a shoe chain in your rubber shoes or boots to gain some additional tractions.

Protect Your Eyes. During snow days, it would be best to wear some eye-protection with proper shading on it to protect your eyes. Frequent exposure to the bright snow without any eyewear with some kind of shading can be very damaging to your eyes, so better safe than sorry. Safety first is always a great idea!

Tire Chain and Shovels. If you plan to travel in a snowy day, it would not hurt to carry a tire chains with you incase it gets really heavy and stormy, and for those who are not driving a four-wheel drive in a snowy day, it would be quite a challenge and the road might be slippery when icy or snowed on, and having tire chains handy is not a bad idea. And shovels. Nowadays, you can buy portable shovels that you can easily place in the trank of your car everyday that you can use in times of need specially during snowy day and your tire get stuck and the only way to unstuck is dig around the tire, if you dont have shovels, digging the snow by hand and frezzing it is not a good idea.

Retain Indoor Heat. To avoid loose of so much heat in your house, it would be best to use double-pane windows. Also try to avoid opening the doors and windows often/constantly to avoid the cold air to get in to your house and the heat to escape. Try to close the window blinds and drapes preferably with rubber-backing to help keep the cold air in the window from travelling further to the room or to avoid the room heat escape to a bare window.

Happy Holidays!

Written by JAZEVOX. All Rights Reserved.

Deciding Gifts For The Holidays

Gift giving is definitely part of the Christmas holiday celebration and tradition, one of the many activity that a lot of people are looking forward to. As early as November up to the 23rd of December, most people are busy thinking what they can give to their love ones for the holidays. There are so many gift choices, it is hard to pinpoint which one you think your love one would really want, or wished to receive! Most, if not all of us, are not born with the capability to read peoples minds, so its hard to know what other people are thinking, even your love ones. The main goal of gift giving is to give a gift that they would really be happy to get, not something that you think you like to give. If you are having this delimna, here are some tips to help you decide which gifts to give this holiday:

In the past previous months, during your trips to the stores, did you ever heared your love ones dropping some hints to you like saying that she/he really like that item, or wishing to have that particular item? If so, then there you go, that is a great help to let you know what she/he really wants, your love one probably wished that you heared her/him that day! Can you imagine her/him unwrapping a gift with that item, she/he will probably be very grateful that you remember the hints, or listened to what she/he was saying during those store trips! If you are getting all these hints, you are lucky, saving you a lot of headache already.

If you have a hard time deciding which one to buy for your love ones, a Gift Certificate of her/his favorite store is also a great idea. If you spend time together shopping, you probably know which store she/he dont ever want to miss to go everytime you go to town or the malls with hijm/her. So which gift certificate to give will vary on what store she/he really likes to go often during regular days. By giving her/him a gift certificate, your love one can buy the item that she/he really want! For instance, you dont really want to buy your husband a nail gun when he already have one, right? But you are not sure if he could really use a sander or not, but if he is a handy type of guy, he can definitely use a gift certificate from home improvement stores where he can buy what he really like to add to his tools. And for the guys who is thinking of gift for the ladies, you heard her say handbag one time, but which handbag, you dont know, and most ladies are very particular about design and style, so if you are not sure which particular style, you can choose to give gift certificate or cash too.

For a lot of people giving cash does not always feel very personal or romantic. Sometimes, it feels so unintimate to hand cash for special occassions like Christmas holidays. But to minimize the impersonal appeal of cash giving, you can present it in a nicer and creative way. Like buying a holiday card that you can write a special message and short note that you are giving cash so he/she can get what she/he really wants. You can put cash in specially made ornaments for cash givings, or you can place cash in a decorative gift box and wrapped it with nice wrapping paper and ribbon. No matter how you present it, it would be more meaningful if you include a special message together with the cash.

Or wrap her/him a gift you think your love one will like. Just go with your instinct and buy things that you believe she/he will like or can use. At this time of year, most stores have pre-packed gift packs that are pack-ready for gift giving. If you want more fancy gifts, pretend to be on your love ones shoe, imagine her/his reaction might be if you give her/him this or give her/him that. You probably spent enough time with your love ones to know about her/his favorites, what colors she/he likes, what brands he/she adores, what styles he/she wears. Knowing all of these, or some of these will definitely give you an idea which item might have the best possibility that she/he will like and get excited to receive.

Gift giving is anyones delima this time of year, it is mostly challenging but fun, but the ultimate goal is giving the one thing that will put a smile in your love ones face the moment he/she opened your gift. When that smile will come the moment she/he open her/his gifts, then you know for sure that you are doing your research, or took an effort to know what makes her/him happy. Good luck.

Written by JAZEVOX. All Rights Reserved.

Minimize energy bills for your holiday decors

Christmas holiday months is the common time of the year when most household electricity bills goes up than normal, this is because we usually put up all kinds of holiday decorations both inside and outside our homes for the holidays and most of these decors consume electricity. The more decorations, the nicer it looks, and the brighter it gets, the merrier and livelier. But effects of all these glimming lights also cause a fast rise in our electricity bill. Although, I cannot tell give you a solution that makes the electric company to wave your electrical bill this season, there are infacts somethings that each one of us can do to minimize the energy consumption this holiday, like using automatic timers.

Nowadays, you can buy different types of timers for both indoor and outdoor that you can use with most electrical decors to control the on and off of the decors automatically. Most timers are reusable, that is why even if it will cost you more to buy the timers the first time, you can use and reuse these timers for years to come, so the cost will not be so heavy if you think of it this way, the long period. Automatic timers will come really handy when you dont want to plug and unplug each electrical decors every night or day.

There are different types of timers, one of the most common one is the automatic on/off, where you can set the mode and adjust the desired time frame when you want the device to go on and off. This type of timer will be great if you wish your decors to turn off as soon as everyone is asleep, say 11 pm, when almost everyone is sleeping or trying to sleep and cant really see your decorations anymore so might as well have the decor off and save the energy. And have it set to turn on in the morning when everyone wakes up, lets say seven in the morning. And you no longer have to sweat worrying and thinking if you turn on or off the decors. Some decors that will be great for this type of timer is blow-up santa balloons, etc.

Aother type of timer that you can buy is the Dusk-to-Dawn timer, where it has a built-in sensor to determine the outdoor light, which will usually works really great if you setup icecles and christmas tree lights outside, where it will turn on when it started to go dark outside and turn off as soon as the dawn arrives. This will save you lots of electricity and no more reasons like you forgot to turn it off in the morning , or you woke up late and have the lights running while the sun is out for 2-4 hours more..

With the global warming being a worldwide concern and everyone is affected, it is time that each of us do a little something to help, and one way to help is use less energy! If each one of us use less energy everyday this holiday, multiply by the billions, that is a lot of energy save everyday!

Hopefully this holiday, you save some energy, save some money and help save your planet as well.

Written by JAZEVOX