Decathlon Philippines Opens First Store in Alabang, Muntinlupa City

Mood: Taking it easy. Colds got me. Sipping some herbal tea.


Last weekend, we got a call from my nephew (he and his wife are passionate about mountaineering/hiking ) who wanted us to check out this new super sporting goods store in Alabang. It turned out that Decathlon is already having its soft opening in Festival Mall, our go-to mall. Decathlon is bright and buzzing with people when we visited last Sunday.  Festival Mall's latest addition stands ground on the second floor, near the Corporate Avenue entrance. Its location was once occupied by Shopwise's 2nd level, which they vacated when they renovated the store years ago.

Decathlon , a French company and Europe's Number 1 sports retailer exclusively houses numerous brands such as Quechua, Oxelo, Kalenji, Domyos, Nabaiji, Artengo, Kipsta, B'Twin, Inesis, Tribord, and more. The warehouse-style store has a very extensive offering of sporting gears any sports enthusiast will need and want. The staff are well trained to answer all your queries about the store, the products, and are overall helpful and warm towards customers.

The store will officially open on June 30th and are now on soft opening operations. Customers are encouraged to register (its FREE) to enjoy exclusive benefits which includes 2-year warranty on their own brand products, free access to the playground, return policy, get invites to family events, and personal notification regarding updates on their products related to your selected sports. We also got a free Decathlon reusable cloth bag with our purchase. Nice!

Mini-Haul.  For this unplanned trip we just grabbed a few casual Domyos T-shirts (P150.00 each), a small Quechua backpack (P150.00), and a pair of Nabaiji Xbase Unie Ad swimming goggles in mauve (P180.00). These items are of great quality and very reasonably priced!

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We would definitely come back to visit again, the store is so big I am pretty sure we were not able to check out all the aisles. Also, I need to check out some home workout equipment and maybe new gym gear and trainers. I think I saw a pair priced less than a thousand pesos. Ha! There is a big possibility this will boost my interest to workout more lol. 

So, the next time you visit our friendly mall in Filinvest Alabang, Muntinlupa City, make sure you make a stop at Decathlon. 

Store hours 10:00AM -10:00 PM. Follow and Like DecathlonPH on Facebook 

Steam Yard Coffee and Community. Good Food, Great Coffee and an Online Shoppers Haven

Our Muntinlupa neighborhood keeps getting interesting and yes, the changes are definitely for the better. Just a few minutes walk from our place is Steam Yard Coffee and Community, which opened last year. It is a local specialty coffee concept shop providing sanctuary for online shoppers and coffee enthusiasts, as it says in their Official Facebook Page

If you are looking for a decent cafe that offers great coffee and yummy cakes and pastries, you will definitely enjoy the very cozy ambiance of Steam Yard. They also offer quite a selection of savory meals, pasta dishes, and sandwiches in case you want more than just good brew or a refreshing drink. Our family's favorites are the Tuyo Pasta with sundried tomatoes, Pasta Negra, Ensaymada with Kesong Puti and their Barako Muffin.

The restaurant are open daily from 8am to 10pm. This hip neighborhood cafe is excellent for meetings, a quick meal, or just to enjoy a mean cup of espresso. It also houses trendy items from online sellers which makes it amazing for one-stop shop and chill place. We have already bought a couple of shirts, makeup item/tools and gift items from their collection of sellers. They have the friendliest staff from Head Barista Angelo to the Manong Security Guard who will open the door and greet you welcome.

Steam Yard also hold special activities like vinyl listening sessions, pop-up events, etc. You can just follow them SteamyardPH on IG and Steam Yard Coffee on Facebook or contact at them (02)800-6324. Address is at 49 National Road, Muntinlupa City. They are between Shakey's Pizza Parlor and Domino's Pizza.

Hot and Iced Latte Macchiato at P120.00

Brazo de Mercedes (P65.00) and Iced Chocolate (P130)

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Bench Organics Products. Aloe Soothing Gel and Face and Body Mist

Mood: Lazy Saturday morning vibes
Music: Bill LaBounty. Livin it up.

Bench has always been a fave brand because they always keep you updated about casual fashion trends and even about skin care and makeup. Their organic product line has been around awhile and their Organic Aloe products are surely a favorite. These products are amazing and really worth a try because they are a great deal, considering the quality and pricing.

The Bench Organics 94% Aloe Soothing Gel

The Bench Organics 94% Aloe Soothing Gel is just fab. It is cool and refreshing to the skin. True to its name it is soothing when you apply it especially during the warm and hot months. And since it is in gel form it is very light on the skin, it does not feel heavy or sticky. The product has 94% Aloe Vera Extracts for excellent moisturizing effects. Its gel-based formula is quickly absorbed by the skin hydrating it and leaves no oily residue. 

It is suitable for the face and body, so go ahead and be crazy with it. It has a fresh and clean scent. No need to worry about the icky smell of the aloe vera plant. If you tried using the real actual leaves you would really appreciate this product because they already eliminated that offensive smell of fresh aloe.

This Bench product also suggest that you can store it inside your refrigerator for a fresher, more soothing, and cooling effect on the skin. The product comes in a green plastic pot and has 300 ml clear aloe gel, which is a great buy at P189.00. Counterparts retail at P300-500.

Bench Organics 92% Aloe Face and Body Mist 

Bench Organics 92% Aloe Face and Body Mist is another great discovery! It is also refreshing, moisturizing, and hydrating, as the product claims. It comes in a 150ml plastic spray bottle. It retails at P229.00.   I have been using this as a face spray to just freshen up. You can also use this under or over your makeup. I also use this to spray on my arms and neck when I'm outside and just need a quick cool off.

These products are readily available at all Bench branches or you can check them out via their Bench Online Store

Quick and Easy Doggy Liver Cake Recipe

Furmom: Mother to a four-legged loving creature. Usually a dog or cat, variety. Winkwink. You & will know when you are one. When you treat your pet like your own offspring, concerned about his/her whole being, comfort, and happiness.

I'm a serious furmom, meaning I celebrate my furbaby's birthdays. Our only daughter is all grown up so the baby of the family now is our 4-year-old rescue pup. My sweet baby boy recently celebrated his 4th birthday and we decided to celebrate it with a real doggy cake. For his past birthdays, we usually just buy a Red Ribbon chocolate cake and some fast food to celebrate and its only us his humans who were enjoying the food. Poor fur celebrant always ends up with his dog food and a few chicken meat treats. So this year I decided that I bake him a real cake.

So long story short I did just that, baked him a liver cake. I  researched the recipe online. Checked out how tos on Youtube and Pinterest links. I tweaked the recipe a little so it will really be a quick bake. I also intended it to be just a small treat. Not too fancy but definitely yummy for his doggy tastebuds.

Quick and Easy Doggy Liver Cake

Ingredients

1/2 cup chicken liver

3 tablespoons instant pancake mix

1 egg

1/2 tablespoon vegetable oil

1/2 tablespoon water

I first cooked the liver by just boiling it. Then mashed it.

Add in the pancake mix, egg, oil and water. Mix well using a fork.

Then cook at 375degreesF for 10-12 minutes. Or do the toothpick test to be sure. It has to be cooked through, no fudgy liver cake for doggies, ok? 

I used a medium sized ramekin for this so the cake ended up like a muffin.

We were all happy and excited about his reaction to his cake. He ate in seconds! I'm just so proud he loved it. In the future I think he would also love it if I will add some banana, carrots, or peanut butter to the mix. I also plan to bake him some doggy biscuit treats. I will be on the lookout for a doggy bone cookie cutter.

Little Joys. Daiso Japan Mini Haul

Mood: Happy, nibbling a Hershey's Bar. 
Music: China Crisis. Because 80s music is FRI-YAY!

Daiso Japan Mini-haul.

If you frequent your friendly neighborhood malls, more or less you are very aware of the Daiso P88 stores. Daiso is a large franchise of 100-yen shops founded in Japan, owned by Daiso Sangyo Corp (Thank You Wikipedia). The 100 yen translates to Php 88.00 here in the Philippines. Yes, the majority of the items are priced uniformly, then there are items priced a bit more but still very affordable and most of the time cheaper than their branded counterparts.

During my recent visit I bought some household items. The Four-Pack Kitchen Towel and the Linen and Room Spray, both Saizen brand. I also tried the Ellefar  Eyebrow Pencil in Brown and bought a cute tea infuser.  All four items are each priced at P 88.00.

There are four rolls to a pack, again priced at P88.00. The other Daiso-themed store, Japan Home retails their 4-pack kitchen towels at P99.00. Still a lot cheaper than what you can find in the grocery.

The Linen and Room Spray is just lovely. The lavender scent truly relaxes you.  It comes in a 250 ml transparent bottle. Other scent available is Ocean, I think. 

This Eyebrow Pencil is a steal at P88.00  As you can see it even has a spoolie on the other end for taming your brows plus an extra refill. The shade of brown is very wearable. 

This is just cuteness, right? You can fill up the adorable manatee- MANATEA (get it?lol) with your loose leaf tea. This super cute tea infuser just like the above items retails for P88.00

This Daiso Japan shop is located at the Lower Ground Floor of the Ayala Malls South Park in Bayanan, Muntinlupa. The newest shopping mall is just along the National Road of the city. If you are familiar with the City from years ago, the Ayala Malls South Park District is where the Nescafe Factory used to be. Decades ago when you pass by this area you can smell the strong aroma of Nescafe Coffee. It surely brings back childhood memories when we used to live just along Bautista Street, a few meters from the new mall.

iWhite Korea Products Review. Whitening Sleeping Cream Mask and Aqua Moisturizer Whitening Vita

Mood: On a caffeinated high. 

I'm still on this personal challenge and I deemed that I would also like this blog to be my journal/repository 'whatever' of my favorites. May it be skin care, makeup, or household cleaning items. Or my favorite bayad center haha or food mart. This is like a soft opening of sorts since I am trying to get on the blogging train again and is 100% sure is talking to zero audience. lol

There is so much Korean things out there today. I mean from KPOP to handsome GongYoo. You name it we are definitely experiencing it here in Manila. I am such a fan of their Korean skin care products. Even their drugstore brands is already impressive. Particularly, iWhite products which are readily available at Watsons and even at 7-Eleven convenience stores. They usually come in packets or sachets and are very cheap.


iWhite Korea Whitening Sleeping Cream Mask. I love this overnight mask. I think I have used 3-4 sachets of this product. I do wake up feeling my facial skin deeply moisturized and it does not dry my face with its whitening properties. I have a dry to combination skin so I am particular about anything that has whitening ingredients because they usually dry up my skin. The 8ml sachets lasts me up to a week.

Apply it on your clean face before you retire at night. Apply a generous amount on entire face while avoiding the eye and mouth area. Remember to wash it off in the morning. It is safe for everyday use. I also love the gentle very clean scent of this product.

The product claims to enrich your skin while you sleep with active lightening and rejuvenating ingredients for a deep overnight skin nourishing experience. This product is infused with niacinamide/vitamin B3, bamboo sap extract, arbutin, jojoba seed oil, and rose flower water.

iWhite Korea Aqua Moisturizer Whitening Vita. This water-based moisturizer always appears on the favorites of beauty bloggers because of its light non-greasy formula and very effective moisturizing properties. I have used several sachets of this product so I already bought it in its 50 ml tube packaging. It is very light on my skin and you can wear it under your makeup, just make sure you apply sunblock because this does not have any SPF (sun protection factor) ingredients. The light blue tinted moisturizer immediately cools your face upon application. I used it to hydrate my skin during the times that we went swimming this summer and my skin seemed to thank me for the cooling nourishment upon application.

The product claims to deeply hydrates with its water-based formula. The natural ingredients also help prevent premature aging, protect the skin from cellular damage, hydrates, and maintain firmness of the skin. Active ingredients listed are mulberry root extract, panax ginseng root extract, and green tea leaf extract.

Both products are made in Korea.

iWhite Whitening Sleeping Cream Mask (P24.50) and Aqua Moisturizer Whitening Vita (P179.00)

My daughter and I are using and are fans of other iWhite Korea products. I will post our reviews for those in the coming days. We are particular fans of the pore refining products, facial wash, and BB cream. So more of those in the next posts. Also check out  iWhite on Facebook

Jollibee Chickenjoy Family Trip to El Nido Promo

Mood: High spirits.
Music: Kenny Loggins on the background. Starting with Heart to Heart.

Jollibee Chickenjoy Family Trip to El Nido Promo

Gotta share this one real quick since the promo is only until the end of this month. Good old reliable Pinoy fastfood Jollibee is wonderfully ending the summer with their Jollibee Chickenjoy Promo. I mean who does not love Chickenjoy? Right? Get a chance to be one of 20 winners to a trip for 4 to El Nido, Palawan! This post is not sponsored by Jollibee and yes I am also raring to join. Make sure that you remind their friendly staff about your coupon/s. Good luck to all of us!

HOW TO QUALIFY:
1. Promo period is from May 15 – June 30, 2017 only.

2. For every purchase of any Chickenjoy product (Solo/Value Meal/ Solo Bucket/ Bucket Meal) from May 15 - June 30, 2017, customers will get raffle coupon/s for a chance to be one of TWENTY (20) winners for four (4) persons to El Nido, Palawan.

* Pocket money worth P10,000 will be provided to each winner.
* All other related travel expenses not included in the package shall be borne by the winner.

3. Package Includes: ·

 3D/2N stay for four (4) at El Nido Resorts Palawan:

o 3D/2N stay for four (4) at Miniloc Island, El Nido Resorts, Palawan. Double/Twin sharing cliff cottage Miniloc Island
o Complimentary round-trip airfare for four (4) from NAIA Terminal 4 to El Nido Airport, El Nido Airport to NAIA Terminal 4
o Complimentary round-trip land transfers to and from Lio Airport to Taytay Town Wharf o Complimentary boat transfers to and from Taytay Town Wharf
o Full-board meals with brewed coffee, tea and fruit juices during breakfast at the Clubhouse Restaurant.

Deadline of submission of entries is until June 30, 2017, 11:59pm.

For FULL INFORMATION regarding the PROMO read on at Jollibee on Facebook - ChickenJoy Family Trip to El NidoRaffle Promo Mechanics

All Time Fave. Cafe Breton Dessert Crepes.

Rainy days and nostalgic yummy crepes.

Earlier in the day, I was doing some midweek errands and suddenly the June rain trapped me along Westgate in Alabang. Good thing I was near Cafe Breton and well it was almost merienda time. Does that sound like an excuse to enjoy some yummy crepes and brewed coffee? 

I have always wanted to try their other dessert crepes but I always end up with La Pinay (it is the usual sweet mangoes, vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup) but since I was feeling a tad bit adventurous (not really) I ordered 'Fantastic Pinay' haha. It is filled with refreshing mangoes, chocohazelnut spread, chocolate sauce and whipped cream. Woohoo! Now who is dieting and counting calories? It was definitely not me at this time. lol

For Nutella lovers, super delish Fantastic Pinay (P255) and Cafe Americano (P100).

Cafe Breton surely brings back memories of the old Greenbelt Makati after the 9 to 5 grind way back in the 1990s. Just having good food while catching up with friends and waiting for the traffic to die down. Now, we have it conveniently in the Southern Metro. So anytime you are craving a decent dessert crepe or may it be a filling savory version (with mushrooms, mozzarella, or spinach), perhaps a full on 90s throwback Tuna Melt you can drop by their forever cozy branch at Westgate Alabang in Muntinlupa City.

Even Cafe Breton's signature white and blue dishes are so comforting as their well-loved menu. More reasons to come back and enjoy your good old fave cafe. Young and old crepe lovers may check out their full menu at Cafe Breton via zomato.com They also serve breakfast, wine and beer, and cocktails.

Easy Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe

This is an easy recipe from Food Network courtesy of Ms. Paula Deen which my daughter and I altered a bit to conform to our family's taste preference. We already tested this recipe a few times and we found out that we wanted it less sweet (compared to original recipe), so the quality taste of the cream cheese will pop up. And also, so that my diabetic mom can also have a taste. We did not have pecans on hand but you can definitely add a cup or so to your cake. Do not forget to chop it first ok? Coarse or finely chopped. Again, it is all up to your preference.

For this Easy Carrot Cake Recipe. 

You are going to need 2 (9-inch) round cake pans. Grease the pans and place parchment paper. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the following ingredients in a large bowl. Use a hand mixer. Mix until ingredients are well combined.

2 cup of all-purpose flour
1-1/4 cups of sugar
2 teaspoons of baking soda
2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
4 eggs
1-1/2 cups vegetable oil
3 cups grated carrots
1-1/2 cups chopped pecans - optional

Pour into pans and bake for 35-45 minutes. It depends on your oven. Or you can just do the toothpick test to be sure. Once cooked, remove from the oven and allow to completely cool before frosting.

For the frosting you will need. Using a hand mixer, blend all the ingredients until fluffy.

2 packages of Magnolia Cream Cheese (225 grams)
125 grams or 1/2 package of Anchor butter, salted
1-3/4 cups powdered sugar


Spread frosting on each of the cake layer. Stack if you will. We did not stack this one but covered both layers with frosting. This serving size is what our family usually prefers. You can eat 1 or 2 anyways. lol

Enjoy your carrot cake slice with your fave hot beverage. I enjoyed it with a cup of green tea. Kirkland Green Tea Macha Blend.

Cersei, Long May She Reign

Cersei is back, b*tches!

The HBO series 'Game of Thrones' Season 7 Official Trailer has generated more than 29M views on Youtube and that is why July is going to be a hot month, lol pun intended. The summer release is quite opposite to its scary tagline 'Winter is Coming' or based from the last episodes of Season 6 - winter has come. Make sure to mark your calendars, Queen Cersei will be back Sunday, July 7, 2017.

If TV series creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss wintry backdrop does not give you the chills then I do not know what will. The HBO series is an adaptation of A Song of Ice and Fire, George R. R. Martin's series of fantasy novels, the first of which is A Game of Thrones.  We all have our fave characters and storylines, I have several, but crazy Cersei is my top fave. I pray she survives this season.

My other faves are Jon Snow, Jaime Lannister, Daenerys Targaryen, Ser Jorah and fierce sisters, Arya and Sansa.  And I am not forgetting the fiery bunch of Drogon, Rhaegal, and Viserion! A few more weeks and our Sundays will be crazy emotional again. Yes? yes!


"Enemies to the east. Enemies to west. Enemies to the south. Enemies to the north." Yes, baby!

 

"The great war is here" - J.S.

Personal Challenge. Serious Business.

Mood: Challenged? lol Whatever. I may generally be wishy-washy Charlie Brown but I know deep inside my inner Lucy van Pelt is bubbling to rise up. I can feel it. So...

So yes. I have been meaning to revive this blog for the longest time. If this blog was made of flesh and blood it may have been long been dead and gone to heaven. And I am guilty of abandonment many times over. I may have been starting my jail sentence and haha still mulling over 'might have beens'. Regrets over regrets. Why do I even want to blog? Sigh. Well because I miss it. I miss writing and sharing what is on my mind, my crazy thoughts. I may very well seriously answer that soon. When is soon? When this experiment is successful. When I know it, you will know it. Good luck to me. Ha!