My $1 Shopping Spree

Nothing gives me a real thrill than finding a real-honest-to-goodness bargain at the store. Just imagine yourself walking in at Nordstrom Rack and being greeted by this amazing collections of designer sunglasses at 75% off. Good right? No! These designer sunglasses cost range from $85 - $125 a pair.  So I just walked away.

But that incident did not dampen my spirit a bit. I just continued browsing and checking things out and viola! I found an entire rack of active wear on clearance.

I did not have second thoughts. I grabbed what I can handle and splurged. For everything on it was on 75% to 98% off.

So would you pass on that kind of opportunity? I won't! So let's have a little fun here. Or shall I say - Let me brag about it!

1. Marika Dri Fit Top: Original price - $42. Clearance - $1. Savings - $41. (I bought 3 of them in different colors.)

2. Nike Tennis Sports Dress: Original Price - $50. Clearance - $1. Savings - $49.

3. American Buddha Yoga Tops: Original price - $42. Clearance - $1. Savings - $41.

4. American Buddha Yoga Sports Bra: Original Price - $42. Clearance - $1. Savings $41.

Let's do some Math. Yeah, I hate Math but this time, I love it. This is the only kind of Mathematical problem that I love to do. Seriously! LOL

Here we go.

So, you don't have to be a Rocket Scientist to figure this out. I spent $4 (plus Maine taxes) on 6 items which would have cost me $260 if they were not on clearance and had a total savings of $254 since they were on clearance. 

Now, can you blame me for being a shop-a-holic again? Don't judge me! LOL.

Californication Foodies (Part 1)

My California vacation in 2010 was one of the most memorable vacations I had. The highlight of the trip was basically food. Well, that and - shopping!

From the day I flew in from Maine to the time I was about to board the plane out of LAX... food was involved.

So to give you an idea of my food experience I decided to present my food-opportunity-of-sort with matching photos to drool on. LOL.

As soon as my cousin Joey and her most loyal boyfriend JV picked me up at the Union Station, JV drove us straight to Salu-Salo Restaurant where I had my first Pinoy food in California.

The next day, I had a hearty meal at a Thai Restaurant near Joey's condo unit with Carmen - one of my favorite students (shhhhhh) in High School.

After 4 years of being in America, I finally got the chance to have my favorite siopao from Chowking when I met up with my long time friend Ate Emz whom I have not seen for over a decade.

And during this vacation, I finally met in person 3 amazing "virtual" friends I met through blogging. My TSS Sistahs are no longer "virtual", they are for real and our friendship grown stronger and deeper.

Yes, this is only a partial treat of my food adventure in California. As the title says... Part 1 - therefor, you are in for more tasty treats as I will give you 4 parts of this tasty adventure of mine. Chow!

This is one of 'MERICA Posts Series. A regular post dedicated to my HOME away from home.

Read more about my 'merica HERE as I share my experiences in this land of amazing People, Culture and Traditions.

My New BFF

I am a great cook... not! Well, probably I am, in my own right, that is. I'm not a "cook-cook" but I can cook. My Sweetest loves my cooking or probably he is a good eater and doesn't care much about the taste of the food. LOL  My brothers love my cooking. Some of my friends love my cooking. And most importantly I love my cooking. Of course.

But since I don't have much time to cook, I would rather have someone cook for me. However, since I discovered my new BFF, I now enjoy cooking again --- the slow way.

Yes, meet my new "best friend forever"... the slow cooker.

And here is one of the dish I cooked with it - Pork Ribs with Onions and Pepper.

For recipe... click here.

Maine Shopping Attractions

First of all, I am a recovering shop-a-holic. LOL I really don't know if there is such a thing but whatever. Shopping for me is not really my main priority. I just shop on "if-need-be" basis.

Second of all, I don't really post anything about my shopping spree online for fear of being tagged as a "brag or show-off". But I think I need to write about my shopping experiences now for "if-need-be" reasons.

Who doesn't love bargains like this one?

Well, I have noticed on several blogs that most bloggers are now writing and posting about their shopping escapades. A lot of them are mostly product reviews and tips on where to find bargains and sales to help shoppers. Some of them are giving helpful alternatives to shoppers to choose wisely. But a few of them are using these kind of posts for online monetizing reasons. And in that case... I am joining the band wagon.

And who doesn't love the thrill of acquiring "on sale" stuff like these?

So, whether you like it or not. I will be posting stuff about shopping, bargains, clearances, discounts, on sale items, 75% off, 90% off and whatever "off" there would be around Maine.

And I will be giving tips and ideas where to find some cool items at discounted prices. I will also write some reviews of products and stores. Note however, that my reviews are all 100% mine and they will not in any way be influenced by the store or the product manufacturers. Just to be clear, I have it written in my disclosure policy about my views on specific things that I am writing about. So you can check it out HERE.

So here is a short list of MY Maine shopping attractions. These are several of may go-to-stores that I where I am having if-need-be shopping moments. Just to let you know, they are not paying me "right now" for writing and  mentioning them here in my post. But I will be happy to write about them and get pay for it in the near future. So watch out! LOL

1. Walmart. It's the happiest place on earth. wink* This is where I go to to find practically anything and everything and I do pay less here. This was the very first place I drove to when I got my license. LOL.

2. Big Lots - They got lots of cool stuff on discounted price. I usually get emails from them every week to let me know what items are on sale. Yeah, where kinda close, you know. hahaha

3. Marshalls - This is my shopping haven for designer goods and I don't pay full price for them. Going to Marshalls is always a good shop-portunity. And on certain days you will get lucky to get items priced at $1.

4. Hannaford - This is where I do my grocery shopping. There are items that are priced low here on certain days. I love their organic produce because they are reasonable priced.

5. Dollar Tree - Yeah, just what the store says - everything here is a "buck". From food to toiletries, from diner ware to party supplies... everything is a dollar. This is where I get most of my party planning supplies.

6. Goodwill - This place is where you can find rare treasures. This is a thrift shop but I do find some brand new things here too. This is where I bring my old stuff too for them to sell. This is a store for all the good reasons. 

Photo Credit: From the internet.

7. The Christmas Tree Shop - Yes, it's Christmas all year round in Maine. This is one of the best places to find anything at discounted price Christmas or not.

Photo Credit: From the internet.

8. Target - Lots of cool items here at low price too.

Photo Credit: From its Facebook Account... Here

9. Marden's. Oh I tell you, when you find an item here that you really really really like... buy it because if you don't you will regret it. As the song goes - "you should have bought it when you saw it at Marden's!" Yeah, that's how it is because I learned my lesson hard here.

Photo credit: Kendra

10. Nordstrom Rack - This is my newest go-to store for one item... shoes! Oh yes, they got my size. They have sizes 4, 41/2, 5, and 51/2. And they got them in stilettos too but not in stilettos-high price.

There you go. Those are the places where I go when I need to relax, recharge and spend some "me-time". But be aware too that when I go to those stores... most of the time I don't buy. I just want to check items and dream about them. So don't judge me! LOL.

Sometimes, a woman just needs a place to relax... a hobby... and a sports.  For me, it's walking in the store. wink*

-------------------------------Maine Attraction-------------------------------

 

This is a SPECIAL POST for MAINE Attraction... a regular blog that features everything and anything about my home - Maine.

Some Moments

I'm having a long weekend. It's a good thing. It means I can sleep in longer instead of getting up at 4AM. And moments like these are precious.

It also means that I can do nothing or focus on things that seem unimportant.

My New Fall Cleaning BFF

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of BISSELL Homecare, Inc. for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

As you all know by now, “Fall” is my favorite season. I love the crisp nippy air of Fall. I love the bursting color of Fall. And I love the changing sceneries of Fall. However, if there is anything I don’t like about it – it’s the cleaning part of it.

Good thing I have a wonderful helper so the changing season will surely be easy-breezy. Yup, my Sweetest got me the new BISSELL PowerGlide® with Lift-Off® Technology. And this is my new BFF in the cleaning department. This baby is lightweight yet powerful enough to tackle our home’s toughest messes, including pur stairs, the heavy drapes and other hard-to-reach places like under the bed, the sofa and every nook and cranny of your haven.

This baby is really wonderful because of its key features: No won’t loss of suction and sealed system. It has one-step removable pod for portable cleaning, long-stretch hose, 12-inch foot for stability, 27-foot cord, lightweight, swivel steering for maneuverability, adjustable handle for easy use and storage, large capacity dirt cup, and it has TurboBrush® and crevice tool.

Cleaning is not really my department. I don’t really like it but I don’t have a choice. But since I have a new BFF - BISSELL  that can help me do my chore easy-breezy I learned to enjoy Fall cleaning now .
So here are some helpful cleaning tips that you can use on how you can enjoy Fall Cleaning.

Parties & Entertaining
1. The five places you’ve never thought to clean – and your guests will notice
• Stairs and railings, ceiling corners, underneath furniture, window and door frames and behind the bathroom toilet.
• PGLO lift-off pod, crevice tool and swivel steering help to clean hard-to-reach places that other vacuums can’t.
2. How to clean for out-of-town visitors/overnight guests/last-minute holiday guests
• Steps to ready the house for guests, including prepping overnight rooms.
• Quick steps to a cleaner home when last-minute guests are on their way.
3. Party prep checklist
• Steps to make sure your home is ready for your next big bash – what you should do one week, one day and one hour before guests arrive.4. Your worst party messes – solved!
• Party guests come for the fun, but they leave behind plenty of messes for hosts to clean up, specifically food crumbs, drink stains and tracked-in dirt from outside.
5. Holiday cleaning
• There’s no place like home for the holidays, so it’s important that the house looks its best.
• Tips for cleaning before, during and after the holiday season.

Parenting & Pets
1. Cleaning up after play dates, sleepovers, school-year study sessions, etc.
• When kids come together, the messes multiply – quick ways to clean up leftover messes from kids’ play dates, slumber parties and study sessions.
• Messes such as after-school/movie snacks; art projects; paint, pen and marker stains; and sticky messes like glue, juice boxes and more.
2. Chore checklist for the entire family
• Get the entire family involved in cleaning the house with tasks that family members of every age can easily do.
3. Cleaning kid (and pet) messes in the car
• Families spend a lot of time in the car between road trips, school carpools and everyone’s activities. So, it’s not hard to see why there can be just as many messes in the car as in the home.
4. Quick touch-ups when you have little time to clean
• Quick cleaning solutions for every room in the house when you only have 5, 10 or 15 minutes.
5. Your pets aren’t confined to one room in the house and neither are their messes
• As furry members of the family, pets have free reign of the house, but they also take their messes with them.
• PGLO is lightweight enough to move to wherever messes are in the house. Its lift-off pod, crevice tool and long-stretch hose make it easy to clean hard-to-reach pet hair and tracked-in dirt.

Home Décor & Improvement
1. How to keep your home looking like new after redecorating
• A lot of time and resources go into making a home feel like new – cleaning guidelines to keep the home looking its best.
2. The vacuum that cleans every room in the house
• With the PGLO, the vacuum isn’t just for floors anymore – highlight a room-by-room outline of other things PGLO can easily clean, such as stairs, furniture, lamp shades, knick-knacks, bathrooms, the car, etc. Lightweight design makes it easy to carry from room to room.
3. Fall cleaning checklist
• Before winter sets in, it’s important to do another thorough cleaning of the house from top to bottom – what cleaning projects to tackle.
• Checklist to include: cleaning out cabinets, drawers and cabinet tops that have accumulated since spring cleaning and need another clean; cleaning floors; cleaning upholstery, which can collect just as much dirt, crumbs and hair; etc.
• PGLO’s long-stretch hose, lift-off pod and crevice tool make it easy to clean all of these tough places to ensure a clean home for the fall/winter months.
4. Home cleaning and maintenance tips for your next home improvement/DIY project
• While home improvement/DIY projects are meant to make the home look better, the stages between can actually put the home in a state of disarray.
• PGLO has no loss of suction, lift-off pod, long-stretch hose and large capacity dirt cup to clean up tough messes like sawdust, tracked-in dirt, and other particles.
5. Items in your home that you aren’t cleaning but you should be
• Ceiling fans, vents, artwork and computer keyboards are just some of the overlooked items where dirt and grime can collect- what to do to clean them regularly.

Well, I hope I was able to give you important tips on how to make Fall Cleaning fun. And here is another thing that you need to know. Do you want to know a secret? Just between us… enter to win a great promo for BISSELL. Buy any of the following products:
• PowerGlide Pet Vacuum with Lift-Off Technology - 2763
• PowerGlide Pet Bagged Rewind Vacuum - 38631
• PowerGlide Pet Vacuum – 1044

and you get $20 off with Free Shipping. Just use the promo code: POWERGLIDE. It’s valid from 9/12/2013 until 11/30/2013 so you still have lots of time to take advantage of this wonderful change to own this wonderful Fall Cleaning Helper.

SO what are you waiting for? Get yourself one of these babies and have yourself a new Fall Cleaning BFF.

Cravings... solved!

Last weekend I went up to see my friend Medy. And guess what... we had another eating marathon. I was craving for good'ol lechon but since it's impossible to get one here, I cooked lechon kawali instead with my version of sarsa ng lechon because we also ran out of Mang Tomas Sarsa ng Lechon.

The verdict! It was delishhhhh!!! For recipe click here.

The "S" Word

The "S" word. No, it's not "snow". Neither it is the nasty one. Nor the inappropriate one for a wholesome blog like this. It's all about the most important thing for women of all ages, sizes, shapes and color.  It stands for SHOES! You dirty-minded! LOL

This MK flat pair is one of my favorites. And I got it @ 50% off from Marshall's.

The pedicure was free. I'm too cheap to get a professional one. wink*

The Veggie Salad Bar

The Veggie Salad Bar is not your grandma's salad platter. It's not even "old school" salad platter.

It's the level up in "salad" department. So yeah, I upgraded the salad bar into this new "veggie salad bar".

I'm trying my best to live a healthier life style so the salad bar duringHubby's birthday was a refreshing take to set up a different kind of salad platter.

Those cute glasses containers where I put the celery, baby carrots and cuke sticks are votive candle holders I got from the Dollar store.

The green and blue bowls are also from the Dollar store. They compliment the color theme of Hubby's birthday party.

Cutting the pineapple in this particular way made an artistic presentation for the salad bar too.

And I put the dressing in that blue goblet that matches the setting too.

At the end, I realized that this salad bar is not just an upgrade in healthier lifestyle but in party planning as well.

The Little Black Dress

For a petite woman like me, dressing up is a little challenging if not tricky. And just like any woman for that matter, dressing up is always fun and exciting. And when we talk about "the woman and dressing up", there is only one word for it - shopping.

So where do I go shopping for clothes? Hmmm... that's a tricky question and the answers are varied. But you cannot go wrong with the word "clearance". wink*

For this LBD number from Max Studio, it was a steal at Marshall's at 75% off. 

The Flowers or the Photos?

I was browsing my photo file when I stumble upon this old photo. I'm not really sure what was the focus on this photo.

I don't know if it was the flowers that I got from my Sweetest or the photo frames.

But just to let you know, this is not how my bay window looks like now. And you will not have the chance to see a photo of this window because I don't have the guts to even take a picture of it. LOL. Oh how I miss that window. hahaha.