This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of LG Chocolate Touch. All opinions are 100% mine.

Are you thinking what to get for your Valentine’s this year? Look no further, get her/him a LG Chocolate Touch. This cell phone is just more than the look. It has everything you need under your palm. It weighs a little over 4 ounces, and measures 4.3 x 2.2 x 0.47 inches. The lithium-ion battery will give you up to 5 hours of talk time and 470 hours of standby time.

If my husband would get me this phone, I would be more than thrilled! I love all the features it has. Do you know that with this phone, you can make calls, send/receive texts, browsing the internet, Social Media, a music player, a digital camera and a video camera? With this phone alone, I will not need to be carrying with me my digital camera, te Flip camera for video and my iPod.

Amazingly, the music player in this LG phone comes with Dolby Mobile technology for crystal-clear sound quality. Can you imagine that this phone can dance or rather vibrates to the beat of the music it is playing? Yes, it does! Thanks to the Sweet Visual Effect which includes the Rhythmical Beat that will do just that. It will definitely be handy for me as a blogger and a Facebook addict because with its one-touch social network message key, I can easily update my blog or the status on my Facebook profile. Its Mobile Media allows you to send high quality text/picture/video messages. It even comes with a image editor for editing the pictures and video, all in one device.

Now my wish is to receive this little gadget for my Valentine’s Day. *hint* *hint* … if “you” by any chance are reading this, you better know what you should do to make a special Valentine’s Day for me this year.

I just received an email from Lucille. Their “Feast for 2″ is BACK by popular demand!

Lucille’s Feast for 2 is only $32! You’ll get to choose the following (for dine-in and take-out):

Course 1: Choice of a House or Caesar salad, served with biscuits and apple butter

Course 2: A platter for two with our most popular BBQ meats. Served with your choice of two of our signature side dishes.

Course 3: A choice of our Famous Fruit Cobbler or Banana Pudding

This offer is available for a limited time only! We will not want to miss out on this so we are planning a dinner there tomorrow!

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of HealthyTuna.com. All opinions are 100% mine.

I tried as much as possible to eat healthy food when I was pregnant with my first son. I avoided raw fish even though sushi is one of my favorite items. But I still eat fish, just not raw. I steamed, fried, grilled or boiled fish in soup. I was picky about the fish I had and I don’t buy any that might contain high mercury level such as the shark, mackerel, swordfish and tilefish.

Eating fish is healthy for you even though you are not pregnant. But in the case for pregnant women, scientific study has found that pregnant women may have an increase in depression if they are not eating fish during their pregnancy.

“The typical pregnant woman in America eats less than two ounces of fish per week, but a significant new study shows this may increase her risk of developing symptoms of depression.”

And the depression during pregnancy may increase their risk of:

*Having a c-section
*Delivering prematurely
*Having a low-birth-weight baby
*Lowering cognitive test scores and babies’ brain and behavior development
*Having depression after pregnancy

You can read the full article on the above topic at a healthy tuna website. You can also read many other recent studies around seafood and its many benefits through the links on the website.

Try to include in your weekly cooking for your family at least two to three servings of fish or seafood. And for the pregnant women, increasing your fish or seafood intake may boost your babies’ brains. Now you should go out to the market, get your fish and make a seafood dinner for tonight!

The Loft Hawaiian Restaurants are having special for the whole month of January to celebrate the New Year. I think this special prices are only available for two locations - North Torrance and South Bay. They are available for lunch/dinner/take out.

Items are priced from $5.45 to $6.95 during this promotion. I always like their Island Style Fried Chicken Plate that serves with steamed rice, macaroni salad and ramen cabbage salad. My husband enjoys their Kalua Pork Plate. We will be having these tonite for dinner.

The Loft Hawaiian Restaurant, North Torrance
2210 W. Artesia Blvd.
Torrance, CA 90504
Tel: (310)217-1000
Hours:
Sunday - Thursday - 11:00 am - 10:00 pm
Friday & Saturday 11:00 am - 11:00 pm

The Loft Hawaiian Restaurant, South Bay
23305 Hawthorne Blvd.
Torrance, CA 90505
Tel: (310)375-4051
Hours:
Monday - Thursday - 11:00 am - 9:00 pm
Friday - 11:00 am - 10:00 pm
Saturday - 10:00 am - 10:00 pm
Sunday - 10:00 am - 9:00 pm

These are some events that I picked from the Westway AAA magazine to share with my readers:

Pick Your Own Oranges at Heritage Park, La Verne
Jan 2 - Mar 13
“Visitors can pick fruits on Saturdays at one of the last working orange groves in the area. Heritage Park. (909) 593-2862.”

Train Days, Redlands
Jan 16-17
“Large and small model train layouts, real railroad artifacts, train experts, games, and kids’ crafts. San Bernadino County Museum. (909) 307-2669 ext 256.”

San Gabriel Valley Lunar New Year Parade and Festival, Alhambra
Feb 6
“Chinese New Year parade and street festival with food court, entertainment fashion show, karaoke contest, cultural exhibitsm and kids’ activities. Valley Blvd. between Garfield Ave and Almansor St. (626) 39509995.“

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Wheat Food Council. All opinions are 100% mine.

My family and I started a well-balanced diet not too long ago and we’ve added wheat bread and whole grain cereal in our breakfast menu. And I have been very conscious about the food items I buy. I usually check their nutrition value of the products I buy. If I get to choose, I tried to go with a product with higher fiber, less fat and sugar. And believe it or not, most of our daily diet items are made of wheat. Cereal is one of them. Pasta is another. Bread, bagel, pizza and much more. I think it is important to know the source of your products and how they were made.

Before visiting How Wheat Works website, I didn’t even know that there are so many different types of wheat. There are six classes (Hard Red Winter, Hard Red Spring, Soft Red Winter, Durum, Hard White and Soft White) of wheat with over 30,000 varieties. This website is an interactive online program to provide more information about wheat (from farm to fork) to the general public, like myself. Sometimes we took granted for a lot of things we don’t know. When you sign up as a participant, you will grow, harvest and mill your choice of kernels and make them into wheat food. There are four phases and each phase takes a few minutes to complete. Once you complete each phase, you will wait 24 hours and return to continue with the next.It was a good learning experience on my side.

I signed up as a participant and I have just completed my first phase - growing. My next phase is harvesting and an email will be sent to my account to remind me to return to the website to continue the program. And for each participant in this program, the Wheat Foods Council will donate two pounds of flour (up to 90,000 pounds) to Operation Homefront, a non-profit organization that provides assistance to needy U.S. troops and their families.

We love dining at Corner Bakery Cafe.  The location we visit the most is the one at Manhattan Beach Mall.  My son just loves this cafe, and everytime we walk pass it, he has to go in to check it out.  He even picks the booth seat and he will just sit there and tell me to go order the food.  This place has very reasonable priced kid’s meal - $4.29 which includes a sandwich or pasta bowl, with fresh medley fruit bowl or a cookie, and a box of Organic Horizon Milk or Juice.

For this Christmas season, if you purchase $25 gift card from here, they will include a $5 bonus gift card.  If you do visit this restaurant chain regularly, I think it is a good deal.  The bonus card is valid from Jan 1 to Jan 31st 2010.  One certificate per person per visit.  Not valid for purchase of gift cards and not redeemable with other ofers. 

I’ve just purchased some Christmas craft from Oriental Trading and in the package, they included a coupon code which they allowed me to share with my friends.

Coupon Code: NOVBB10 

With this coupon code, you will save $10 on any order of $60 or more OR save $20 on any order of $120 or more.

Enjoy the coupon!!

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Ramblers Way. All opinions are 100% mine.

Whenever I read the phrase ‘made of wool‘ appearing in the small tag in any apparel, I will gently put down the garment.  The very first time I bought a wool vest, I forgot to read the care instruction and I accidentally washed it in my washer. The next thing I know, my wool vest became baby size, and it was not even in the dryer yet.  After that incident, I told myself not to buy any apparel that is made of wool.

So when I first dropped by the Ramblers Way website, I saw the word ‘wool’ on main page. Honestly, if this is a retail store, half of my body would be out of the shop. But then I thought I should read more about their product fact before making my decision.  Believe it or not, my mind was turned 180 degree around after reading that the fact that their apparels are machine-washable and dryable, and chemical-free.

Immediately, I know I need to own some of these wool garments for this winter. If I have $500 to shop at Ramblers Way, what would I get? I really like their 18.5 micron Rambouillet wool Women’s Next-to-Skin Scoop Neck Short Sleeve Top, Cross Neck Long Sleeve Top and Low Rise Long Jane for myself. For my husband, I will get him the Men’s Next-to-Skin Cross Neck Long Sleeve Shirt. I will wear this as my bottom layer with a sweater on the top when I go out. It is perfect for our Southern California weather because it can be really cold early morning and warm in the afternoon even during the winter months.

I didn’t know much of this online retailer until I visited their website. They are family-based business producing all American next-to-skin worsted wool apparel. Their very own sheep farm is located in Maine and they work together with other ranches around America to meet their standard for superfine softness and sustainable farming practices. Their production factories are located in the Carolinas and New Englands. You can learn more about their values and products on the website.

How was your Black Friday shopping??

I woke up at 415am and was planning to get out the house by 445am to Target, but I was held back ordering my new digital P&S camera - Canon SD780 from Amazon.  Normal price on these are $199 ($250 with instant $50 off).  I bought mine from Amazon at $170, with no sales tax and free shipping.

By the time I was done with my order, it was 5am.  And it took me about 20 minutes to get done and left the house at 520am.  Arriving at Target, I was very happy that I found a spot for my car in the very full parking lot.  As I was walking towards the store, many people were waking away with bags of goodies.  Upon entering the Target, I grabbed a basket and then I saw the very long line of people waiting to pay.  All the cash registers were opened but I thought for a second and I left the store.  Instead of shopping at Target, I drove to the Del Amo Mall’s Joann Fabric store. 

The was a few people waiting for Joann to open at 6am.  I joined them.  The store assistant opened up the door exactly at 6am.  The first stop was at the fabric counter.  I picked 6 different flannel fabric patterns that were on sale (doorbusters) for $1.49/yd and joined the long line to wait for cutting.  Fortunately, the other cutting section at the curtain department was opened after waiting for 20 minutes.  I ran there and I was first in the line to get my cuttings.  I bought a box of Wilton’s Holiday Cookie Cutters, silicone baking mould, holiday treat bags and holiday place mats.  By the time I left the store after paying for my goodies, it was 7:30am.  I went home after that. 

Back at home, I rested a bit and was in front of my laptop checking updated slickdeals available online.  When I was done, we went out again, this time my hubby and 3 yr old son came too.  Arriving at Hawthorne’s Toys R Us, we were able to find parking easily.  The line was short.  But most of the good items were out of stock.  We left and went to Manhattan Beach Mall. 

First stop in the mall was at Harry and David store.  We bought the Moose Munchies, fruit cake, blueberry muffin mix, a box of Christmas cookies with the 20% off coupon that was given out for guest entering the store before 10am.  We actually went in at 10:15am but when we asked the very nice sales assistant about the discount, she quietly gave us a piece of paper.  Only then we knew that they were passing out the coupons only to shoppers before 10am. 

Next stop was at Pottery Barn for Kids.  We left the store with a bag of wooden Shaped Building Set that was on sale for $16.99 (regular price $59) plus an additional 30% off because it was partly the store floor model. 

After that, we went to Cerritos for lunch at Prince Restaurant.  We had dim sum.

Our shopping didn’t end yet.  Back home in the evening, my hubby went out to Lowe’s and bought a gift box for his mom.  It is a tool set with various tools.  And our last purchase for Black Friday was a Sony Vaio CW Series laptop for myself. 

We spent over $1000, probably under $1500 on Black Friday alone.  We still have more shopping to go for the next few weeks.  I bet there will be more sales between now and Christmas.  Will post them as I see them coming.   

We were at Target yesterday and bought this Blu-ray + DVD great deal. It’s the latest Disney and Pixar movie production - UP.  This package has 4 discs including 2 Blu-ray discs, 1 DVD and 1 digital copy.  The digital copy is a file that you can transfer to your computer or digital media and watch it. All these for only $19.99 plus sales tax.  The package even come with a special ‘UP’ journal book for you to put down all your special memory.

My son watched it and like the movie a lot. The beginning of the movie was very touching. I am not ashame to say I shed a few tears. It is a meaningful movie which is great for all ages in the family.

I also found the 4 Discs Blu-ray + DVD + digital copy for the same price on Amazon (no sales tax and free shipping for order $25 and above). The original price at Amazon is $45.99 and with this $19.99, it is more than 50% discount. The only thing I am not sure if this pack includes the free journal book or not. The journal book may be a Target exclusive offer.

Blu-ray discs and players are definitely coming down in price. I think we will soon able to afford a Blu-ray player. *wink* … but my hubby said that we should get a nicer plasma/LCD TV before purchasing a blu-ray player.

My sister-in-law loves to add special touches to her Christmas gifts she gives out during the Holiday season. Every year she will make something herself to give out. I’ve seen her handmade Christmas cards, small photo frames and ornaments. They are all very pretty and cute. When I was in her room one evening last week, I saw some semi precious gemstone beads lying around her crafting table. I think her friends and relatives will be getting handmade jewelry gifts this holiday. *wink* She is definitely starting early this year.

When I saw her, I asked her about the beautiful semi precious Wholesale Beads and she told me she bought them online at Beads of Cambay. She enjoys shopping there because of the free shipping they offer for orders $100 and above. She also said this online shop always has Newest Beads Added to their collection every so often. And most importantly - their worry free shopping policy.

I think this is a great idea for handmade Xmas gifts to fill up the stocking. She told me it is not difficult to make your own jewelry as long as you have the right tools. You can find out more about jewelry making by searching online. Or you can even visit your nearest crafting shop to see if they offer any classes for this hobby.

Pictures credit: Copyright © beadsofcambay.com

We receive a flyer from my boy’s preschool about the Halloween Carnival at Wilson Park on Oct 31st, 2009.

Date: 10/31/09
Place: Wilson Park, 2200 Crenshaw Blvd, Torrance CA
Time: 4pm to 8pm

Kids can enjoy themselves at the carnival booths and games. Adult can join in if they like. They will be selling the unlimited use wristbank for $5 at the park on the day itself There will be a costume parade at 630pm.

I will definitely take my boy there that evening. At his age now, he should be able to play some games by himself.

Take note on your calendar.  Coming Monday October 26th is the World Pasta Day.  At Buca di Beppo, they are giving away free spaghetti with your choice of meat sauce or marinara, with purchase of any Buca small or Buca Large pasta or entree.

We’ve been to their outlet in Huntington Beach once.  They serve authentic Italian meal.  They do have several outlets in Los Angeles area - Redondo Beach, Pasadena, Universal City and Santa Monica.  So if you are looking to eat out on October 26th and want a deal, visit a Buca di Beppo restaurant outlet to get the free spaghetti with purchase offer.

If you are local to South Bay area in Los Angeles, you will be familiar with King’s Hawaiian Restaurant.  They have another branch in North Torrance named The Local Place.  I just received a flyer in the Sunday newspaper with its latest promotion and thought I should share it with my readers.

All Keiki Meals now just for $1.49 on Saturday and Sunday with purchase of one adult entree.  Only valid for kids 12 and under with maximum two meals per adult entree.  The offer will end on 11/29/09.

The Local Place - Keiki menu  

Teriyaki Chicken Bowl $3.55 (Reg price)
Saimin $3.15 (Reg price)
Hawaiian Chicken Nuggets $3.65 (Reg price)
Grilled Cheese Sandwich $3.15 (Reg price)
The Little Island Burger $3.55 (Reg price)