iprice: My Online Shopping Savior!

Summer is here! Philippines is feeling the heat of the sun! And what better way to spend summer, but to head out to the beach.

Hubby and I are already busy planning out our next summer adventure. We are not really looking forward for an out of the country vacation because of budget constraint, but rather spend the summer somewhere nearby, yet very fun, after all “it is More Fun in the Philippines”.

While we were busy planning for our next trip, hubby and I forgot to look for a new set of swim wears for our little boy who already outgrown his rash guards and trunks. However, hitting the malls is way impossible for us these days because of our very busy schedules. Hence, my savior is finding these items online.

Online shopping is a very convenient way of buying what you need and what you want without leaving your home. All you need is an internet connection, a computer and a bucket of patience to jump from one online shop to another. With the growing numbers of online stores, going through them one by one will really take a lot of time. That is why, when I learned about iprice.ph “Your One Stop Shopping Destination” made me jumped for joy.

2014 Limited Edition Commemorative Coins

On December 2014, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) issued three (3) limited edition commemorative coins and was made available on December 22, 2015.

Acquiring the said coins for collection purposes is not easy in my part of the Philippines, instead I asked my friend to get me the set because her father is connected with BSP.

Three months after these coins are finally in my hands. It stayed with her until the time we get to see each other, which was last week at Laguna. Thanks so much dear friend/kumare! J

The three limited edition coins are as follows:

Circulating in P5 denomination is The Bagong Bayani Commemorative Coin to honor our new heroes the Overseas Filipino Workers.

Also in P5 is the Leyte Landing, commemorates the 70^th Anniversary of the historic return of General Douglas McArthur in October 20, 1944.

And finally circulating in the P10 denomination is the 150^th Year of Philippine Hero Apolinario Mabini. Born in July 23, 1864, Philippines commemorate the sesquicentennial of Apolinario Mabini in 2014. He is known as the Sublime Paralytic and the Brains of the Revolution.

According to BSP, there were about 10million pieces available for sale. And in that 1 million pieces sold, I was one of the lucky few to get six sets, which I eventually distributed the rest to my friends.

This year, hubby and I are so excited and looking forward for the Papal visit commemorative coins which will be available soon.

Peanut Butter Cookies

The first baked goodies I have made, are banana chocolate chip muffins aka cupcakes, or whatever you call it. It was not that successful because of the ingredients. 

Aside from muffins, I wanted to learn how to make cookies, I have tried baking oatmeal cookies, but the result was not that good but still edible though. This time around, I tried making another batch of cookies. A bunch of peanut butter cookies that I am sure my son will love, (he loves peanuts, peanut butter a lot).

Thanks to technology and the internet, learning how to bake these days are easy-peasy. Just type the key words and hit search, Google will display what you are looking for I seconds. This is what I am doing now, I usually “screenshot” some recipes that I found easy to follow, buy the ingredients and start creating.

One of the many sites, that I have stumbled upon, is “bake happy” a proudly pinoy blog own by Ms.Aikko. This is where I found the “Peanut Butter Cookies” recipe which I am sharing right now. 

source

Using the recipe above, except for the extra sugar for sprinkling, here’s my version.

Though they are not perfectly rounded cookies, the taste was indeed heaven! As expected my kids love it!

As what Ms.Aikko, had said, making these “sweetness” is very easy and as a beginner myself I have no difficulty in following her instructions.

She’s too patient and generous to share the step by step with pictures. Whew! Thanks so much, I’ll be making more of these in a few days. I already got jars of peanut butter in my cupboard. J

Enjoy the yumminess!

P.S. I applied some of the tips from Mommy Joy's "the food styling something" and came up with this idea. But with regards to lighting, I made used only the pop-up flash :-). Soon I'll practice also taking pictures outside using natural light. :-)

My Baking Adventures will be Published here soon...

The truth is I am not a kitchen junkie. I am a person who loves to eat, but do not know how to cook except for the very basic like steamed rice, eggs, etc., which I have learned since childhood because we grew up without house helpers.

But on the 4^th quarter of last year, after a twist of event and with determination to learn how to bake goodies for my kids and their father, I decided to learn the art of baking. I bought a small electric oven (using my BDO reward points) and few baking essentials + tutorials from the internet, the journey started.

With all the preservatives, etc. that are found in processed foods these days; we already do not know which ones are healthy, which ones are not. Hence, the more I am determined to learn how to make yummy snacks, especially for my kids, that way I am sure of the ingredients I am using.

In my six months of this so called baking adventure, I already tried a few of the recipes I found online. I also watch tutorials from the YouTube and learned the basics, read and asked two of my colleagues here who are also baking and experimenting. Some were posted on my Instagram, and some on other blog. This time around I wanted to share what I have made here in my photoblog, because I also want to learn the art of food photography. 

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I think it was last month, when I saw a post on Mommy Bloggers Philippines’ FB page that Ms. Joy Gurtiza of www.JoyBites.com will be sharing a series of photography tutorials on “how to take blog worthy photos”, I immediately signed up and received 3 series of newsletters that I have found very helpful.

I have a DSLR, but frankly speaking, I do not know to use it at its full potential, I always rely on the basics and set the dial at “P”, take photos without considering the light, settings, etc. I always wanted to learn photography, but because I am also a corporate employee, a mother of two, a wife, etc., my time is already filled up. Hence, looking for that extra time is difficult.

Eventhough, how difficult it may be, I think soon when all are in place I can do the tweaking of the gadget and start taking blog worthy photos.

Actually, I already started, using my baking experiment results as my subjects and soon, with the pointers from the Mommy Joy’s newsletters I can do better in the future.

So, stick around and from time to time I’ll be posting my baking adventure + photography adventure here at www.photosbyjanuary.com.

Watch out for it!