Home Made Card

Father's day is one of the few celebrations where my daughter gets really excited. The reason for it is because I told her that we are going to do something special for her dad. I thought this will really tickle her plus we get to do something that will keep her occupied.

My original plan was just to go to the store and look for a card and let her do the choosing. But since I have a few papers for digital scrapbooking I decided to just make our home made card.

We started with cutting letters from magazines, but after we finish the first card, I realized that using the papers for digital scrapbooking was much better. So, we start from scratch again.

And as it turn out it looks much better. We also had some letterings from the supplies(scrapbooking) which works great. I also put a photo of my daughter and my husband on the front page...photo taken using our old digital camera...not to bad but I wish I have one of those nice Canon camera that I can use. But, nevertheless it still turn out nice. My daughter had a great time doing some art projects. She even gets to put her signature drawing at the back. She did a drawing of her dad at the back. We also added a family cartoon picture inside... we got it from a magazine and it work out great because the kid on it is a girl. And then we made sort of a castle to frame the picture.

In the front, I asked my daughter what does she thinks of her dad. And so we came up with "special and thoughtful." And the last one, she came up on her own... "great". And at the bottom I added the wordings "live, learn - laugh, love". Is a simple card, but like they said "it's the thought that counts." Next time will make it more appealing, just have to take more photos and get a new camera.

Below is the finish home made card.

Inside of the card
Front ----------------------------- Back

Father's Day Celebration

It's a tad late for my post about our father's day celebration, but better than never. I am just enjoying all this vacation without having to think about school and other stuff plus I been reading books non stop that I rarely had time to blog.

Anyways, we went to Adventure Landing for father's day celebration to treat my husband for some mini golf and batting. He used to play baseball when he was younger and so I thought he will love to do something similar. And guess what? He did!

Here's a few sneak photos:


Ysah watching her daddy do some batting.



Teaching ysah how to hold the golf club.

Tired from playing.
Trying to think of a good move to get a hole in one.
Great shot on this one. I'm proud of myself.. ;) lol
Comes night time, well... lets just say that my husband was sore... muscles that haven't been used for a long time where all stretch out. Oh, and lately he has been telling me that he want to go to a golf course. I guess the treat has awaken something in him...

the 300 followers giveaway!

I am just 172 shy away from reaching 300 followers on my designer blog, so I decided to have a new giveaway going to celebrate almost reaching this number. I am going to give $60 credit toward my design services. You can use this credit to purchase any of my design services.

To enter to win $60 credit toward any of my services, you can visit Designs by Vhiel - The Blog and read the full details. To find out what services I offer, you can visit Designs by Vhiel.

This giveaway will end June 30, 2010!

Looking Back

I was just chatting with one of my high school friend and we got into talking about having kids and how difficult it was with our first child. However, for her second one she said that it was the total opposite. Now I am thinking, would it be totally different the second time around.

It's just that the whole pregnancy thing wasn't such a pleasant experience that thinking about having another child is scaring me. There are a few instances during the pregnancy that was great but I just can't go through the whole nine months taking medicine so I can do my normal days.

I hate taking medicines, any kind. I even have issues with taking my prenatal vitamins. And I'm afraid that there will be some problems since I haven't been taking those vitamins. I just hope that my daughter doesn't suffer that consequence.

raised pores

My daughter has been complaining that there are some areas in her skin that feels like patchy. When I checked on it, it feels like little pores that are raised up. She has some of those before when she was a baby and her pediatrician said to just make sure that it gets a lot of lotion so it won't get dry but now I was thinking that maybe its eczema. But when I checked for images and symptoms it doesn't really look like the ones I see online.

She didn't really have the following symptoms: crusting, flaking, blistering, cracking, oozing or bleeding but she has the itching and dryness. So, I think we are still okay... I just have to make sure that the skin area gets a lot of lotion and won't get dry.

Ahhhh... the prize of being a parent.

nose area

Lately, I've noticed that the whiteheads around my nose area are causing some issues. Not only that its irritating, I have to constantly make sure that my face doesn't get to oily and clean my face before I go to bed. I now started some facial regime and hopefully I can stick to it the nose area will not be rough.

I was thinking that maybe the astringent that I am using is causing more problems that helping. I feel like I'm a teen that I have to constantly struggle with this problem on my face. I think I may have to check out some anti acne serum and see if that will work for me. Otherwise I really don't know what else to do with this problem around my nose area.

I saw some commercials before about a strips that you can use for your nose, but I can't seem to remember what was it. Do you have any recommendations on what to do for white heads? I'd love to know them.

"Clean your plate...it will help the starving children in China"

According to The Science of Nutrition (J. Thompson, M. Manore, L. Vaughan) it used to be considered polite to finish all the food on your plate and wasteful to throw food away. Children were told, "Clean your plate...it will help the starving children in China." Today this raises a serious issue that you might want to consider if you are or plan to be a parent or to work with children.

The primary reason for not teaching children to clean their plates is that overeating is becoming a worldwide problem, and coaxing children to eat when they are no longer hungry teaches them to ignore their body's hunger/satiation signals. This can set the stage for disordered eating. Instead of overfilling the child's plate, parents and caregivers should serve children a reasonable portion of food. If the child eats that is still hungry, he or she can be given more.

Healthful eating behavior reduces children risk of developing obesity and its associated chronic diseases, thereby reducing their use of limited medical resources as they age.

This is similar as well with smoking issues. If you as a parent is not being a role model, you don't have the slightest right to ask your children not to use any nicotine products or
electronic cigarette, alcoholic beverages or to watch what they are eating. Remember, your kids are looking up for your guidance.

I've learn that over the years, setting the pace and letting your kids follow is the best way to guide them. You cannot tell them not to talk when your mouth is full when you as their teacher is not doing it.

So next time you're tempted to admonish your child to "clean your plate" try something new. Get down on the child's level, and ask the child about it. "I noticed you haven't finished your dinner. Check in with your tummy-are you still hungry or have you had enough?" Your question may not help a starving child in China, but it might help every child you're talking to.

Smelly...

So I have this issue about smells whenever I am cooking fish or when my husband is cooking hamburger, sausage or something that makes some odor. Used to I don't really mind having all this smell, but when I was pregnant that's when it all got worst.

It causes a lot of discomfort and most of the time moisture in the air and I've heard molds. And you know that molds causes a lot of health problems. To mention a few: headaches, nasal irritation (this I am encountering a lot), dizziness, fatigue and nausea.

According to an article I've read, the unpleasant odor problem is caused by lack of proper ventilation and poor air quality. Our house was built in '82 and we are not sure really if the house has been taken good care by previous owners.

I know that the only way we can removed the odor is by improving the ventilation and purifying the air quality inside the house. It's possible that using a dehumidifier can also help alleviate some of the smelly odors in the house.

I know there's a lot of products that we can use in order to remove the harmful contaminants inside the house but we don't want to break out budget as well. For right now, I just make sure that fresh air gets circulated inside the house.

Little Princess

I have been wanting to upload some of the photo's I've taken during the pageant for my little girl but just now found the time. This photo's was taken last April. She won the "Little Miss Onion Blossom" (3-4 years old category) pageant that was done here in our city. It was the first time we joined such one and I didn't really expected that she is going to win. I told her to have fun and if we didn't win it's also okay. But, then again in the back of my mind I was hoping she will win. Well, I am a mom, lets face it we all want the best for our kids right.


Anyways, she won on her category and that was really exciting for us. When they announce the winner on her category I was sort of trembling, it was nerve wracking and at the same time I was so happy. I can't keep the camera straight.



The following week, she was on the newspaper, together with the other winners.

The kids all look adorable with their gowns/sundays best and some of the boys are wearing their tuxedo. Just adorable and cute. During the interview portion, some of the younger kids didn't really say anything. I was getting nervous because there are times that Isabella gets really shy and she won't say anything, but I guess she was all too excited.

During the announcement of winners, she got a little anxious. I was thinking that maybe because they haven't called her name, but later on I noticed that she was more anxious to get the treats that they were giving to the runner ups. When they called her name, she can hardly carry all the treats.

Not Bad Eh...

For a while now I have been cutting my husband hair. Since he needs a haircut like every 2-3 weeks, its cheaper for us if I do it. The first time I cut his hair it...a long time ago...it was a mess, for me anyway. I think my husband was just being nice to me because he wasn't complaining... he knows that I am going to get back at him if he complains. I didn't actually want to do it before since I don't have any formal training or anything when it comes to cutting hair.

But today, I am proud of myself. I actually did pretty good with his hair cut. It's a little shorter because I grab the number 2 lengths (attachable) for the electric cutter instead of the number 3, but it turn out pretty good.

He actually want me to make the one at the back a little higher but I told him before that it makes his head looks elongated if the cut is higher. Plus it will look like he was looking hair and people might think he needs some shampoo for hair loss because it was too short. He just gets irritated when his hair gets really long because its hot here in Texas now. He grow up in Kentucky so he's used to colder weather.

But what do you all think? Not bad eh... now line up if you want to get a hair cut. It's free!

Natural Treatment

I have been looking for some natural treatment that I can use to make some part of skin, such as my elbow, bikini lines, under arm lighter but I just can't find any. And then I read from one of my science book and it says that lemon lime is great for making the areas I have mention above lighter because it's acidic. And it hit me that there was actually a detergent in the Philippines that has lime as one of the ingredients and it says that it makes the clothes whitier.

Now I just started with this regimen so I can't really say if its effective. Although, my elbow looks a little lighter. I am also trying to find something natural that I can use as a facial. My mom told me before that she was using oatmeal and I think it really works because her face is smoother. Now my mom is in her 60's already and if using natural treatment actually works on her, them it might work for me.

And while we are talking about natural treatment, I wonder if there is a natural ingredients for hemorrhoids treatment. This is one of those health issues that you want to treat as soon as possible so if you know any natural treatment or some tips that are proven, I'd love for you to share it here.

Outdoor Pool

I want one...

With the heat that we are getting here in Texas, having one in the backyard is like a dream come true. We can literally have a pool in the backyard since we have a huge lot but we can't afford it. It's expensive. Maybe we can just dig a hole and do it ourselves. Or we can also buy an above ground pool, but then again that's also expensive. The one that I saw ranges from $300 to $500. Although maybe a smaller version can be around $150 to $250, and maybe, just maybe we can get one. Anyway I was thinking of picking out some outdoor pillows for the swing that I want to build together with my husband and put it either in the front or the backyard.

I found some pretty pillows online and they were on sale. I was actually tempted to get them but then again, after thinking about it, I don't really have a place to put them since the swing is still in planning.

Hopefully, when we finish the swing, the sale is still going on.