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Thursday 3 October 2013

Things That Make Me Happy {August}

1. A day out with the four year old. 2. A stay in a wonderful hotel. 3. A trip to the capital. 4. Discovering the tastiest pistachio ice cream in the world. 5. Eating Japanese

Tuesday 1 October 2013

Popband


These came through the post the other week for me and my little girl to try. We tried it for a week and here are our thoughts. 



First and foremost, we love how pretty they look and the colours are very attractive. 

They do not only look nice on your hair, they are very pretty on your wrists, too when not in use as a hair tie.



And I love how the hairband stays on my hair as usually when I use one, it pops off my head in a few minutes. This one stayed on.

These hair ties are made of really soft material that they are very gentle on your hair and does not pull any hair strands with it when you take it off.


My little girl loves Popband hair ties and so do I.



Tuesday 3 September 2013

Zinio Subscription Giveaway

This competition is now close.

Before the time of e-magazines, I used to ask my mother back home to send me copies of the Filipino editions of my favourites. From the time I ask her to the time I get my hands on the issue, it would have been weeks already. It was that long, snail mail, as we used to know it. 

In this digital time of ours, I could not be more happier. I see an advert of the current issue of a magazine, I go to my Zinio app and voila, I have the copy in no time, straight into my iPad.


I used to only get from Zinio the magazines that I could not get here in the UK but because I just find it so easy and quick, I have decided to get all my magazines digitally via my Zinio app on my iPad. It is true that it is the ultimate app for any magazine lover. The good news is that aside from the iPad and iPhone, you can access it from any device be it an android, windows 8 or on your mac or on any pc via www.zinio.com.


But wait, there is one more good news. Zinio is giving away 9 free magazine subscriptions to give away to my readers.The   lucky ones can choose any of the thousands of titles that is on offer. Subscription length depends on the title. This giveaway is open anywhere in the world. Each winner must provide me with their full name, magazine of choice and an email address to which the subscription will be sent to.

The mechanics is simple. You will only need to do ONE of the three listed below.

                       1. Like my Facebook page. Click on the link here to go to the page.
                       2. Follow me on Twitter @thestagemommy or click on the link here.
                       3. Subscribe to my blog via email subscription. Click on the envelope icon on the upper right
                           hand side of the blog to do so.

Once you have done ONE of the three, please let me know by sending me an email at raquelgn8@gmail.com with your full name, magazine title and email address where you want the subscription to be sent to. The first 9 to let me know will be my 9 lucky winners. 

This competition closes on the 20th of September 2013.

What are you waiting for?

Zinio is also currently running some wonderful offers:

2 for 1 (2 year subscription for the price of one) which ends September 12. Click on the link here.



Complimentary one year 12 issue subscription to Shape magazine. Click on the link here.



Disclaimer: The stage mommy received a free subscription of her magazine of choice in exchange for running this giveaway on her blog.











Monday 19 August 2013

Never A Sweet Tooth

I never used to have a sweet tooth but that totally changed when I was pregnant with my baby girl. Suddenly, I was craving pancakes and muffins first thing in the morning. I thought it was just a phase brought about by pregnancy as I was always a savoury kind of girl. I would normally choose a pizza over a cake. After the birth and 4 years after that, I have been forever loving sweets. 

This is not refined to just the food but the drinks, too. My favourites are the frapuccinos. Costa and Starbucks as we all know makes the best ones in the market. 

I have been loving Stabucks triple caramel frapuccino since the summer began. It's so refreshing especially when out and about in the heat and the sweetness overload is enough to give you that sugar rush, enough energy for the rest of the day.



Starbucks does Strawberries and Cream during the summer but I like Costa's version. Sweeter and simpler taste.



Since the topic is about sweets anyway, I am not going to close this post without mentioning my friend's homemade choco flan.

This is a very moist chocolate cake and flan in one. Literally melts in your mouth goodness. Every bite sends me to cake heaven. Now if only she makes them as a business so that having this would just be a phone call away.




Fragrance Wish List


Guess what they are?

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Baking With Ava

My four year old loves to bake. This is our bonding activity. 

Our favourite things to bake are cupcakes and brownies, Nutella brownies in particular. She always guards the cake while they are baking in the oven


The finished product happily ensconced in the cake tray.


Saw this lovely baking book and hoping to get it for both of us. 

Here's to more mother and daughter bonding.



Friday 16 August 2013

Presentation, Presentation, Presentation

I love eating in restaurants, nice restaurants if I  may say so. Unfortunately though, I cannot eat in a restaurant every day of my life so I would like to recreate it at home.Thus when serving food at home, I make sure, not always though, that food is well presented to give me that restaurant feel.

If estate agents believe in location, location, location, I believe in presentation, presentation, presentation when it comes to my food.

Here are some photos of meals at home that I lovingly served, very well presented.

Afternoon Tea


Brunch for one


A healthy lunch



Mommy and Ava's smoothies


Home made pancakes and egg sunny side up


Spam for dinner


Family breakfast
 Another afternoon tea


How about you? Does presentation matter?



Thursday 15 August 2013

Shake Shack

"I dreamed of this a thousand times before..."

That line from a song is the best thing that would best describe my anticipation of the day. The day when I finally get to try the famous burger from New York, Shake Shack.

I am on Instagram and I see a lot of posts about Shake Shack. Anyone and everyone who goes to New York, more often than not, would post pictures of this burger chain in NY. This got my curiosity going. I love my food you see and it does not take a lot to get my interest in something that looks and sounds yummy. I mean, come on, is my photo of this amazing burger not enough to get you running to the nearest Shake Shack? Unfortunately though, Shake Shack is not global yet and they only just opened their first and only branch in the UK located in Covent Garden.



I heard there is normally a long queue but good that on the day that we went, there were not a lot of people and the queue was not very long. After ordering, they give you this buzzer which will tell you when to collect your food from the counter.

.

When we finally got our orders and got to sink our teeth into the burgers, there was silence. I have never tasted burgers as juicy and delicious in my entire life. You could tell that everything is fresh.


The bun is so soft, like biting into a bunch of clouds. The meat is tender and juicy, just pure beef I suppose, sans the flour. Perfectly cooked, not charred. This is the best burger I have ever had.

Need I say more?








Thursday 8 August 2013

Making Memories



The husband and I have always enjoyed travelling. Now that we have a tiny person in our lives in the form of our little girl, our travels are made more special. I love the idea that as we travel, apart from immersing her in different cultures and history, we are also making memories of which she will forever treasure.

My favourite among our travels was our trip to Portugal when she was three years old. It was memorable because it was not only her first time to travel to another European country but because it was also a spiritual trip for us. The main purpose was to visit Fatima but since we are already in Portugal, we decided to tour and go around Lisbon as well.

The moment we landed, our itchy feet could not wait to explore the city.



We fell in love with Lisbon’s rustic charm.


Its has beautiful architecture that is full of history.




There was greenery and pretty parks for our little girl.



And if you feel like going to the seaside, it is right under your nose.


Not to forget the delicious culinary experience we had. 

My first time to eat Octopus. It was delicious.



And the weather was always sunny and warm.




We would definitely go back but not after we have toured the other parts of the world. 




Wednesday 7 August 2013

London: Up close And Personal








The London Bridge Hotel

The four year old little girl has toured Singapore and Lisbon but has never toured London which is just on our door step. We have done day trips to London but a day will not be enough to do every thing that we have planned to do. Decided to book an overnight stay and after extensive search and visits to Trip Advisor, we finally found the one.

The London Bridge Hotel is located just across The Shard, round the corner from Borough market and just a few minutes walk to Westminster where Big Ben and the London Eye is located.




We had a wonderful stay in this hotel. It is modern and contemporary. Just my kind of hotel. 


The bed was so comfortable, so were the pillows and duvet. The air conditioning was perfect. It was so quiet. We all slept like a log.


I am particular with cleanliness especially in the bathroom and it passed my standards.


The White Company toiletries. Lovely.


Complimentary magazines


Complimentary fruits and bottles of water.


It was nice waking up to our own playlist.



Best of all, there was free WiFi,



It was a wonderful weekend in London Town with lovely warm weather made more special with the thought that at the end of the day, we are going back to a nice and lovely 
hotel.