Maria Blogs

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Allison Maslan, author of “Blast Off!”. All opinions are 100% mine.

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You know what’s funny with life coaches? They really don’t have anything new to say.

Except.

They lay out every little thing we already know and remind us that hey, it’s in there and by god I’m going to get it out of you and pound you to shape.

Hah.

I mean, admit it, from time to time, you can’t resist opening a forwarded “pick-me-up” email about how great you are for being a woman, a wife, a mom … cos you needed the boost it gives you.

I used to snicker when I see life coaches’ web sites cos being a web deveoper-slash-blogger, it looked almost like  industrial, line-assembly kind of template that was the sacred thing to do if you’re selling a book or a property.

But once I get to a bookstore, you know, what a book says count a lot more than what I see online (hey, I’m in  a book store, nothing like the smell of never before read books to pull out the money from me. Ca-ching!).

I used to think I’m just reading autobiographies and absolutely liked Jack Welch’s first book. But the more I think about it, the more I realize these kinds of books are actually inspirational meant to remind me of my potential and hopefully inspire me to do things another way to accomplish what I want to do. Which is usually, to be in a happy place (harder to accomplish than you might think).

And this is where Blast Off! takes off =)

The Book is a happy, sunny, bring me the gold kind of book. I mean, just look at the title, Blast Off !(with a gold star mind you) – The Surefire Success Plan to Launch Your Dreams Into Reality.

Surefire huh. Well, one thing I’m sure of, with a body like that, yeah, I will want to buy the book and see if I can have her body too =)

Seriously though, the book is inviting because it’s a perky pick me up book based on Allison Maslan’s personal experience.

It’s for people who, somehow, got stuck in a not-so-happy situation and don’t exactly know which way to go to recover their lives. Because sometimes, we get too scared to reach for that star and then it’s easier to quit than to try. And it’s at times like this that you need something you can easily pick up, read and say, hey, you know what, it’s not that hard really, just needed that extra push (or shove) to get to where I wanted to go. And if you didn’t do it the first time, why, you can reread and try again. Hah. So maybe, your $24 (the price of the book) will be worth it afterall.

Blast Off! launched last January is available on Amazon, Borders and Barnes and Nobles web sites and will most likely hit other major bookstores by now.

One weekend, Tyler and I visited with my bestfriend, who also happens to be his godmother. Everything was dandy the night before with G and his dad entertaining my little boy so the girls can have a night out. He had a blast playing and running around their house. He was so happy that he didn’t want his new play mate to sleep, running over to him every two minutes and bugging him.

Then came morning.

It was all nice and fun, we’re taking lots of pictures of everyone when BAM, lol, the two were arguing. Tyler looked so funny with his “pity me” expression while telling on G that we couldn’t help but crack up. He had an entire monologue going on why he was upset too, to which the much older, and more patient, kid had to suffer through.

And all because of this box,

As you can see, even after he calmed down and they made up, my little kid was still visibly pissed. LOL. And the vibe he was giving was like, “ok, I make nice, BUT, I’m still upset!”

They weren’t even fighting about the car, just the box. Kids.

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of SaferBrand. All opinions are 100% mine.

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Tyler loves to garden. Ever since he could walk and we started allowing him to mess about while we work in the garden he’s had a fascination with planting, watering plants and cleaning up dirt. As you can see, cleaning up dirt is probably his most favorite thing to do =)

Now that it’s getting hotter than ever (April is the hottest month of the year in the Philippines) we’re lucky if we are able to spend a couple of mornings a week to do some serious gardening. Most times, I just do a quick hose down on plants and grass. Which means I have a lot of weeds, wilted leaves and insects to deal with. Ugh.

Last year, I prided myself in being able to rescue a bunch of orchids – cattleya, dendrobium and I forgot what the other specie is called – and have been able to get all of them to flower at least once. More so, I am happy to say that every flower, shrub and fruit bearing tree on the property is organically cared for. Down to hunting for dung cakes for use as fertilizer (major stink!).

It’s totally great for flowering plants. I swear the leaves are plumper and they flower more often. That’s why, when I heard about Safer Brand’s EndALL insect spray -consisting of unique formulation of organic insecticides blended to kill on contact – I get all excited.

Why? If you don’t know yet, organic gardening is great, but it can be high maintenance in terms of spending time and effort in “patrolling” your plants for insects and other pests which your cow dung attracts by the gazillion.

EndAll insect spray kills 45 different insects on contact – including aphids, various beetles (including Japanese beetles), caterpillars and larvae (including gypsy moth caterpillars and tent caterpillars), harlequin bugs,  leafhoppers, mealybugs, stink bugs and whiteflies.

Have you ever had caterpillars eating up all the leaves on a potted plumeria (local name: calachuchi) overnight? Majorly annoying. Or start watering a pot and out crawls all kinds of bugs. Ew. Ew. Ew.

EndAll kills in any stage, from egg to adult and it does not leave chemical residues, dissolves right in the soil. Which is great cos over here, we pump water from the water table instead of hooking up to the municipal water system. And this insect spray can be used on ornamentals, trees, shrubs, fruits, vegetables, flowers and houseplants.

However, a word of caution, don’t spray during the heat of day to avoid “photo toxicity” (sunburn!)

The best thing that I like about this product and will definitely make me head out to the store to look it up is the fact that it is able to kill insects from any stage – neem zaps out baby insects while oil and pyrethrin takes care of adults – so there’s no need to park yourself and wait out to determine when you should spray. As per manufacturer’s description, you can use it up to harvest day. Hmmmnn.

Meanwhile, I’m so psyched when these hanging orchids started flowering and it has been flowering more often than the once-a-year cycle it used to have before I came home.

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of PBM Products. All opinions are 100% mine.

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I started buying store brands well before the recent recession, comparing it with branded products. Sometimes, branded products are the better choice specially paper towels or cleaning agents but other times, store brands are just fine, from rice to tomato sauce and even baby formula (Walmart!).

These days, pom pom boys are touting a modest recovery (at least on paper). Despite that, consumers who have previously, and still do, had to tighten budgets by resorting to trying and buying store brands continue to stick with their choice change.

According to a recent consumer research report, Recession, Recovery & Store Brands, 8 in 10 supermarket shopper disagree with Washington on the real state of the economy saying there is little or no improvement thus far (ok boys, main street says their lives are not better, ergo, your recovery is not reaching them).

Some of the highlights of the report says:

- 62% of consumers plan to buy more Store Brand products as they deal with the tough economy.

- Shoppers who identify themselves as frequent buyers of store brands are at an all-time high (57% of shoppers)

- 43% of shoppers are trying Store Brands for the first time in categories where they used to buy only national brands.
- Virtually all (97%) of shoppers who switched to a Store Brand are happy with their new choice.

- 49% say their new Store Brand selections compare “very favorably”  (^^ Up from 35% in June 2009)

What does this mean for the bottomline? It means that shoppers are now more financially conscious than ever before and it makes for a healthy competition between national “branded” and store branded products.

Take for example Parent’s Choice which is being sold at Walmart. Do you know that their baby milk formula is priced about a quarter lower than say Nestle Goodstart without sacrificing quality? As one astute commenter has said, cut out big media advertising budget and you’ll have a lower priced competitive product.

In this regard, store brands tend to rely more on word of mouth advertising, from people who have bought and tried these products and who tells friends and family shopping in the same supermarket chain. That’s a very powerful means of getting the word out.

As the economic crunch drag out, more and more shoppers are opting to try store brands for the first time and a lot of them are becoming satisfied with their choices and are planning to stick with them (most likely until after recession).

When my son was younger, I have experimented with buying store brand (Stop and Shop, Parent’s Choice), Pampers and Huggies. This is one tricky area since each baby is different. While some may just be fine using store brands which I found are thinner and not as absorbent, others may be prone to getting diaper rash. For me, I ended up using a mix of Stop and Shop diaper and Pampers when Tyler was still a baby and before he started his first steps. As he grew older, I switched to Huggies and use Parent’s Choice for backup for when money is tight usually using store brand diaper during the day and Huggies at night. I did switch to Parents choice for his disposable bottle liners and was satisfied with it.

It doesn’t hurt to try out store brands, just be mindful that it is a matter of preference so some products may work while others may not and you end up sticking with your national brand of choice. But at least now, there is a lot more choice than before.