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

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.

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.

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.

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?