Parrot on a PorchA Journey Toward the Little Mansion Dream

We drove yesterday morning to Banawe, a place in QC where suppliers of car accessories and auto parts abound. The van’s speedometer has been malfunctioning since the other week. It was just yesterday the mechanic had a time to drop by and discern what’s wrong. It turns out that the bearing and rubber (or whatever that is called) that makes it function has worn off. He says that the wear and tear of such part is expected to last not that long. Although the broken part won’t affect the engine and the van will run smoothly, it is recommended that it’d be replaced soon to eradicate the inconvenience of driving with a busted speedometer. Also, it’s for safety precautions. You wouldn’t know how fast you’ve been running without the meter, right?

And so, we looked for that part in Banawe yesterday but after checking out a number of open stores, we didn’t have one. That certain part’s out of stock. We could have readily bought one from other bigger stores but alas, it was a Sunday and most auto parts shops as well as the major distributor of that stuff were closed to business. So we decided to just drop by again next Saturday.

While checking out the auto parts shop, I was so overwhelmed how varied and how plenty of auto parts that there are. From the biggest to the smallest and even to the colorful and interesting parts like projector headlights, I was asking hubby to name them and what they are for. At first he gladly answered my queries but later he got tired and told me to just check out CarID.com’s site if I’m really interested to know. He says, it’s an online shop of auto accessories and parts and it has the most comprehensive galleries across all car makes and brand. I’m browsing the site now and he’s right. I also checked that they have the part we’re looking for. If only they are shipping internationally then our problem could have been solved.

Last weekend, we dropped by at the Developer’s office to get a blue print of THE house’s floor plan. An aunt who has an interior design background is helping us out in conceptualizing and planning the furniture (its location, size, color, etc). This is definitely one of the things I look forward to the most as we think of how to make Little Mansion even more homey, cozy and just lovely place to live in. When we visited the site last week, the foreman thinks, with the way things are going, it will be finished just as scheduled, hopefully before February ends. What a great timing because little A and I are celebrating our birthdays on March. While I originally wished for a pair of faux sapphire earrings, this will make the best and perfect birthday gift. But on a second thought, it won’t be bad too if I get them both. LOL. Well, there’s Holsted Jewelers anyway who offers high quality jewelries at a bargain.

One of these days, the husband and I will sit down for a brainstorming session as we will draft our 2010 financial goals and plans. With our “little mansion” project as our top most priority goal, it is already given that saving up measures and frugal spending will be strictly observed in the months to come. In fact, I am already preparing myself as my budgeting skills will be tremendously put to test. No luxuries, no whims, no unnecessary expenses. Simply put..no travel plans and most especially, no extravagant shopping. Looking back at my budgeting and shopping attitude last year, I could say that I fared well and I’m already pretty geared up for this year. The “little mansion” project has been indeed a big motivation. I just hope and pray that we’ll be continually blessed with lots of work opportunities so it will translate to bountiful earnings and more savings as well. If everything goes well as planned and hoped for, we could probably take on our other goals like venture on a business franchise. I got motivated while browsing FranNet.com where I chanced upon great franchising opportunities that are surely a big hit in the business industry today. If this might be a little shadowy, then we can pave way for a more exciting and fulfilling “project” instead. How does baby number 2 sounds? Hmmm, let’s see.

The department store’s home section has become one of our must drop-by points whenever we go malling during weekends. We don’t have news yet from our developer regarding the housing loan approval but it’s never too early to start canvassing home furniture and appliances for our future little mansion, right? All the more it keeps me excited but at the same time, I think, I’m giving myself unnecessary pressure and overwhelmed thoughts because there are just too many lovely inspirations and ideas that I get.

Among the sub-sections, the racks and area for the bathroom has the most limited time visit. Why? Simply because this particular mall that we go to has just minimal options. This convinces me that we might just browse or if circumstances allow, perhaps order online for furniture and accessories, at least, for our bathrooms. By the way, I’m just excited that we’re having a couple of bathrooms in our future little mansion. (We’re used to having just one in our present and even former homes).

I have already bookmarked several websites but so far, Better Bathrooms stands out to be the best not only in terms of their huge bathroom suites selections but their affordable prices and clearance sale rates can not simply be missed. One great thing about shopping for bathroom suites from them is that they also supply the coordinating tiles giving a whopping 20% savings. Now one can practically build and design his dream bathroom with Better Bathrooms.

You know that I go for anything blue so I’m off to check if they have similar border tiles and designs such as shown here in my dream bathroom design:

I used to have this great fascination with watches before. My favorite of which was a certain original limited edition Swatch that my Dad gifted me when I graduated from High School. I wanted to collect genuine and original watches way back and make it as a hobby but I was still a student then and absolutely had no means or resources to fund genuine ones. That is why I contented myself with just imitations to satisfy my whims. I used whatever is left from my allowance to buy from a famous local replica watch store near our school. I have no qualms about wearing and owning replica watches because people wouldn’t know anyway that they aren’t the originals. My fascination only stopped when my son was born and had to be “watch-less” most of the time because he might get accidentally scratched and bruised by it while I carry him. But since he’s getting a little bigger now, I’m planning to revive my fascination soon. And it’s very timely because I just discovered an online shop where I can safely order replica watches.

Zenreplica.com is the online home to a wide selection of Swiss grade and Japanese grade replica watches from the most sought after and well known brands like Cartier, Gucci, Omega, Patek Philippe, Rado, Tag Heuer and many more. Their products are finely made and looks as genuine as the originals that you wouldn’t think it’s just an imitation. The affordable prices make them more alluring enabling you to enjoy the benefits of sporting a seemingly branded one. They’re a lot more affordable because they user cheaper materials for assembly. What’s even great about this site is they have a credit card payment facility and they practically ship to anywhere in the world.

Now this post gave me an idea what to wish for this Christmas from my Santa.

Do you love online shopping? I do. It’s not that I habitually do it every single day but I’m just one of those who loves the convenience and ease it brings like being able to browse various catalogs of products, check the products out and pay with just one click then just wait for the items to get delivered right at your doorstep. No need to spend for transportation expenses and no efforts and too much energy are wasted because all it takes is just a finger’s click.

As convenient as it can be, online shopping must be done very carefully to safeguard sensitive information such as our personal and credit card information. There’s always a risk because there are tons of hackers and unscrupulous souls out there. When shopping the least we can do is to check and make sure that the site is safely encrypted. But recently, internet security experts say that encryption is just not enough and what must online shops should avail are credit card tokenization services from Brain Tree Payment Solutions. It is one of the best ways to implement proper security and reach Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance. As the name implies, it works in such a way that a set of random numbers or “token” is generated and stored to the merchant’s internal system when a credit or debit card is used. This way when the system is hacked, the hacker gets nothing but a useless and irrelevant set of numbers. Online shops should really consider adapting this technology. This way they do not only protect their clients’ personal information but they also safeguard their companies from suffering breach.