I'm a full-time mummy

Christmas is coming soon! We were just at IKEA few weeks ago, scouting for ideas of corporate gifts to be given to hubby's clients this year and the first thing that greeted us as we stepped into IKEA was the beautiful selection of dining sets and to be honest, I think the ideas this year is very creative and Christmas-sy!

Anyway it was such a pleasant surprise few days later as I was given an Ikea gift card to shop for whatever items in Ikea that could best fulfill my dream! I would also say that God hears my prayers as He sent my best buddy and her boyfriend to fetch me and my 2 kiddos to Ikea one fine day (I've been waiting for hubby to be free but he was really really really tied up with his work since early December)

We went to Ikea about 2pm and shopped around, looking for ideas and from then on, it was quite fast for me to come up with what I wanted: plates, bowls, glasses, cutleries. I was quite nervous when I had to choose the dinnerware as I was worried I have to follow the proper etiquette but then after discussing my worries with my buddy, we decided this is how we have our meals so I should do what I feel comfortable with, not for the sake of writing a review to please others but to write a review which is honest and from my heart and one that I am comfortable with.

So back to my review, I got on to choosing the plate and bowls in matching designs and colors. And then I decided to get a similar color paper napkin and glasses and a simple cutlery set.

Here's the pictures of what I got from Ikea:

# 1: FÄRGRIK VÄLDIG Plate, white, lilac

# 2: FÄRGRIK VÄLDIG Bowl, white, dark lilac

# 3: FÖRNUFT 24-piece cutlery set, stainless steel

# 4: SKOJA Glass, lilac

# 5: LÄGLIG Paper napkin, assorted patterns

I was trying so so so hard to locate the Smaska cutlery and tableware set (for my 2 kiddos) but I just could not find any of it, except a few which are demo units. In addition, I was also disappointed as I cannot get hold of the ORDENTLIG Place mat lilac which I feel would totally goes well with my selected items... Arghhhh!!

Anywhooooo, I've got to make do with what I can for now and ladies and gentlemen, here's how they all looked like after a little sweet and homey touch-up by yours truly... ehem, ehem... tadaaaaaaaaa!!

Top and front view of the 4 person setup...

Now please excuse me if I arranged the cutleries wrongly as we don't have formal settings in how to arrange our fork, spoon and knife and we are usually the plate and bowl type of family so, you will not see the usual deep plate, server plate, etc etc... You know, the complete proper dinnerware setup. A quick check on Wikipedia got me more confused as there are so many different ways to arrange your cutlery! Anyway, I hope the way I arranged them is correct...

My arrangement: Plate layered with a piece of paper napkin followed with a bowl and top with another rolled and curled paper napkin in the center for decoration. Matching Skoja glass accompanying each dinnerware followed by 4 piece cutlery set arranged neatly around the plate. This is the front view of one of the dinnerware set against our wall...

I hope you guys enjoy my dream table setting for Christmas dinners! I love what I got and hope that my guests will too!

Thank you Ikea for making my dreams come true!!!

You can browse for more selections at Ikea's website. 

I was provided with an Ikea gift card in order to facilitate my review for this post. However, all opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine.

This is the final month of the year!!!

So let's make December a month to remember!

For today, I'm giving away a Blu-Ray set of "The Original Christmas Classics" collection movies!

(Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, etc)!

That means 1 lucky US winner will get to win this!

The giveaway will be open for entries from 13th Dec 2012 until 12th Jan 2013.

This giveaway is sponsored by:

To enter the giveaway, kindly read and follow the instructions as stated in the Rafflecopter form below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good Luck!

In the middle of Sept this year, I have started teaching my 3.5 years old boy unofficially. Unofficially in the sense that we do not follow any curriculum or schedule. I have tried introducing phonic word families to my boy but our progress is still at a very slow pace, hence this review is based on my sole opinion as I did not involve my boy's participation in this app. Without further ado, here goes my feedback...

* Title: ABC Phonics Word Family
* Price: $2.99
* Category: Books
* Updated: Nov 29, 2012
* Version: 2.02
* Size: 36.9 MB
* Language: English
* Seller: Abitalk Incorporated
* Rated: 4+
* Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.3 or later. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.

Description from the product page:

"The Phonics Word Family provides the word phonics spelling, beginning sound, word family phonics, short vowel sound, and images with a lot of animations and interactions for each word. There are a total of fifty six word family groups which focus on the short vowel, long vowel, two vowel, and combination vowel word family phonics learning. After children complete the phonics spelling in each group, the matching game follows and children can review what they learned. Word Family Phonics Basics includes 56 different phonics word family groups."

* I like the simplicity of this app where you choose the word family to try on and then guess the missing letter which should complete the word given.

* I also appreciate the image of the object which is also shown so that you can visualise better.

* You can hear the phonics pronounciation of the letters when you tap on it so you can try guessing which is the correct letter to drag to solve the question.

* My boy is not at the recognising so many alphabets and phonics yet so I can't really feedback on this app at the moment but I will definitely revisit this app when the time comes (I always do that for all my products and apps!).

In summary, I think this app is a great app and would benefit my boy when the time comes since I'm currently teaching him.

You can purchase the "ABC Phonics Word Family" app from the iTunes App Store.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the promo code to redeem the application for free from iTunes Store in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine. And if you'd like to read my previous iPad Apps reviews, you can do so by reading this post of mine called "My iPad App Reviews"