I have been browsing Pinterest for party ideas. I am amazed at how creative people can get especially in making all decoration details match the chosen theme. Most of those that I saw were for little girls or little boys, which are common, obviously. What’s more amazing are the theme meant for grown-ups. I saw movie themed and sports themed, among others.

The most awesome party I saw (on Pinterest) is the casino themed party. Of course, this theme is easier for victorian casino antiques collectors, as they can use their own collection as part of the party details. Complete with victorian casino auction items, the venue almost looked like a real casino, matched with casino themed dessert table.

Here are some neat ideas for casino themed desserts:
1. Cake, cupcakes, cake pops, cookies and other dessert goodies shaped/designed as chips, dice or cards.

2. Brownies cut into domino size – draw the dots and lines of dominoes using white icing.

3. Use stringed cards as garland.

4. Use real dice, chips and cards as accents on your dessert table, and around the place.

Now, it’s easy to prepare themed parties, as tutorial on how to customize cakes and desserts are aplenty.

Note: Photos from Pinterest.

From April 15th up to May 31st (2013), you can catch Spongebob Squarepants, and his friends Patrick and Squidward, and have your pictures taken inside the Krabby Patty, outside Squidward’s house and even Spongebob’s pineapple house.

I know I’m posting late, but here’s a list of the activities you can do for the rest of the month:
Spongebob & Patrick Meet & Greet
The Block Atrium
May 18, 25, & 31

Face Painting
The Block Atrium
May 18, 19, 25 & 26
Calling all the kids and kids-at-heart with pride in these fun face painting sessions

Get Squared Photo Op
The Block Atrium
May 31
Have your photos taken at the giant frame with your favorite characters from Spongebob Squarepants

Barbara just accepted another position and put in two weeks’ notice on her job. She has just paid the mortgage, car payment and insurance, the utilities and bought groceries. Unfortunately, there will be one week between when she leaves her present job and she receives a paycheck from her new job. She’s going to need gas for the car, groceries for one week and school supplies for the kids. The credit cards are maxed out and the checking account is empty. Oops.

Barbara needs to check into Usacashservices.com offers Nevada Payday Loans. She can have a prepaid Visa card within an hour or she can have the funds she’ll need direct deposited. Repayment of the loan can be made at $10 per week for the life of the loan. If she needs to extend her loan, extensions are available. The company will work with her because they understand her need and want to help. Barbara will need paycheck stubs and bank account information for the company to give her the loan. The stores are open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mountain Time Monday to Friday and on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mountain Time. She can repay her loan at Usacashservices.com offers Nevada Payday Loans after work or pay it online. She may repay the loan early if she wishes. If Barbara finds she doesn’t need the loan after all, she can cancel within 24 hours of the loan agreement without further charge.

We are blessed with friends that have kids almost the same age as ours. So we attend parties quite a number of times within a year. (And probably our kids will start to hate having and going to parties with us, their parents at the same time. Hahaha.)

My kids do not have any qualms playing games in front, even dancing with other kids in front during “performance” part of a party.

Aside from the games and party food, they have come to love the “extra attractions” like a parlor station, but in this case, since the birthday celebrator is a boy (Joaqui of Peachy), it’s called a rock star makeover station.

It was a really fun “concert” for the kids. My son even got the chance to try out Joaqui’s drum set on stage.

Rock on!

Odors are sometimes an unfortunate side effect of life, and people are often on the lookout for something to help relieve their space of unpleasant scents. It is particularly important for businesses to combat the odors that creep in and threaten to disrupt daily business. Odor Free’s selection of Odor Free ozone generators work great at creating ozone and oxidizing unwelcome odors wherever they are and whatever causes them. Some of the main odors that people have to ward off include some that are much more difficult to eliminate than others. Some of the biggest offenders include lingering pet smells, food odors, lingering smoke odors and the very distinct smell that is left over from mold. Odor Free ozone generators are powerful and environmentally friendly tools when customers deal with especially bad smells that make being in the home or business nearly unbearable. The generators are able to reach the odors at their source and remove the odors permanently. Odor Free ozone generators deliver a dose of ozone shock treatments to the affected areas and manage to obliterate the offending smells without causing any damage to the area where the smells lie. There are no chemicals or deodorizers used to mask the scent, so all that customers will experience after a treatment is fresh, clean air. Once customers choose between the Hotel 350, Suite 700 or Villa 1000 models, the process is simple when they turn the machines on and immediately vacate the space where the odors are left lingering.

Glass after glass, your best friends at your side through thick and thin and the sheer thrill of feeling like you’re utterly invincible — there are plenty of good things to be said about partying hard, but your body can only take so much. If you don’t chill out once in a while, your huge nights out on the town will become the kind of horror shows that only end in tears.

Know Your Limits or They’ll Limit Your Fun

Nobody is trying to harsh your party mellow, but there’s definitely a down side to having too many big nights out. It’s all fun and games until someone loses their lunch in the back alley behind some filthy pub, and that’s not even the worst of it.

In reality, the harshest side effect of trying to pack too much fun into an insufficient amount of time is that it leaves you with less time for other things. Relative no-brainers that you’re usually on top of, like eating other meals besides 3 a.m. Macca’s and actually going to the gym once in a while are easy to forget when your schedule is fully packed with clubs, pubs and parties.

These basic lifestyle choices really add up, considering you tend to forget that you made them if you’re getting pissed on a regular basis. Before you know it, however, your doctor will be lecturing you about your overly high cholesterol and nagging you to start working out more. If you’re smart, you’ll take steps to avoid these unpleasant conversations by cutting back a bit now.

Hidden Health Risks

In addition to the obvious liver problems that you’ll have if you don’t try to take it easy, your horrible habits can also have effects that you might not anticipate. Although people say moderate alcohol intake is associated with positive health benefits like stroke reduction, no studies have ever definitively proven how this works to the satisfaction of the international medical community. Most merely suggest possible mechanisms. On the other hand, there are numerous accepted reports that demonstrate precisely how alcohol overconsumption is linked to various forms of cancer, cardiovascular diseases and other chronic conditions.

Alcohol and drug addiction are huge risks that can really mess up your life before you know it. Nobody plans to become an addict; it’s just that many people do not take the time to plan for otherwise. It’s pretty easy to decide that you’re going to take a break once every week or so, but if you’re just going with the flow all the time, you’re pretty much dooming yourself from the start.

Increased Financial Burdens

Party-related health problems might not kill you, but their financial ramifications will certainly make you wish that they had. Party more in a short time period and you’ll wind up with less and less energy. Sure, you probably won’t get fired if you keep showing up to work on time, but you’ll definitely get passed over for promotion in favour of someone else who actually has their head in the game. So much for that raise.

Also remember that lazing around is a major detriment to your health, and that’s pretty much what most of partying consists of. Even if you’re one of those heavy stoners who likes to get high every time you mountain bike, surf or participate in your weekly sport of choice, your choices definitely have an effect on your brain. The chemical processes that tell your pituitary gland and hypothalamus to produce endorphins get played out after a while; your physical and psychological health can only take so much.

Regardless whether you take this advice to heart or not, remember that the things you do now will catch up with you later and that the myriad side effects of partying all the time can be expensive from a healthcare perspective. Even though you might not feel like it’s an issue today, take a second to compare health insurance online. Have your fun in moderation, and stay protected by checking out different policies to find the best rates.

It used to be that when we were younger, we eat anything to our hearts delight, stay up until we can, with very little exercise and still have a healthy vigorous body with no flabs at all. But when you hit your 30s, you realize you’ve got to take extra care of your body to look as buff as before. Here are some changes in one’s discipline to stay fit and healthy at any age.

1. Change in diet. Low in carbs, low in salt, low in sugar, more natural, less junk, whatever diet you choose, the discipline here is to have any food in moderation. It also helps to have more fiber (mostly from eating more vegetables and fruits) and more water into your diet to help speed up metabolism.

2. Get sunlight at the right time. Protect yourself if you’re going out between 10am and 3pm. Cover using a hat, or a good sunscreen.

3. Exercise! Not only will it make you healthier, it will also make you feel better, think better and gives you more energy. Now there are workout programs to help you burn out fat and build muscle even right inside your home. (Bonus: when we exercise regularly, our body burns calories even when resting. Awesome, right?)

4. Have a good night sleep. Sleep is needed for your body to regenerate cells.

These changes, no matter how little or gradual you do it, will help improve your health and fitness.

When I checked my phone, I saw a missed call from my brother. He rarely calls so I decided to call him back. He asked (again) when I am planning to shop online. I usually shop and send the items to my aunt, who will collect and pack the items into one box, and sends them to me once the box is filled.

He is again shopping another musical instrument. Mind you, he knows how to play the guitar, drums, a little piano and the violin. But it all started with his very first flute. Good thing my mom supported him during those times when he wanted to buy the best flutes.

And look at him now, he can play any instrument that he would want to. Even if he’s the only one in the family who’s musically talented, he was able to learn, all on his own.

The weekend before Holy Week, my mom and my sister decided to meet up with me and my kids. But we were too early for our lunch date so we decided to have breakfast at the UCC Park Cafe, just across Makati Shangri-la.

I always love their breakfast meals but that particular morning, they ran out of waffles. Good thing my kids had their breakfast earlier at home. I just opted for toast to match my bacon and eggs. My kids had some toast and strawberry milkshake (which they couldn’t finish so I ended up having it after my coffee).

Since Theo was too restless, we stayed outside UCC Park Cafe so he could roam around while we eat and chat. But the weather was too hot so we decided to head to Makati Shangri-la to have this yummy “green tea opera”.

Mikee wasn’t able to finish it, I ended up eating it. So by lunch time, I didn’t eat much anymore.

But of course, I didn’t pass the chance to have some sushi.

More and more people are choosing to go organic whether for food, personal hygiene and cleaning products. And why not? Food not only tastes better, you know that you’re getting the nutrition from every bite sans the chemicals. (Organic food has longer shelf life too.) Even restaurants are becoming more aware of the advantages of using organic food.

As many of us are aware of, pesticides have been linked to cancer. Going organic reduces our risk of having cancer. That is a reason good enough to choose organic. Plus, we’re helping reduce the chemicals (pesticides) that go to our water resources. Organic agriculture protects both us humans and the environment.

I also can’t rave enough about organic shampoos and soaps. My skin feels smoother and healthier. My hair is shinier and healthier too. (And yes, I found organic toothpaste too.) So you can take care of your body inside and out.

And now you can go organic for your home too, such as upholstery, carpet and rug cleaning. Especially for us moms, we wouldn’t dare expose our family to harmful chemicals cleaning our house. We want safe and effective way of maintaining our house. The good news is now these services are offered at a very reasonable price.