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Yep, it’s that time of the year for our once or twice a month visit to my hubby’s family! My in-laws are just more than an hour away from our home but Labsie’s busy sked and current graveyard shift are making it hard for us to visit them often. We finally had time this weekend coz hubby’s team building with his officemates was cancelled and that means we had an entire weekend to spend with Labsie’s family! NICE! =) So I’ll see you on Monday guys, will definitely be offline this weekend!

One of my fave rooms in our home, aside from my pink bedroom, is our kitchen and mini-bar. I love cooking and eating so the areas where I do these stuff should be well-designed. Thus, when we renovated our home last year, I took an active part in designing our kitchen and mini-bar and looked for restaurant furniture for sale. Of course, in this modern age, design magazines are out and surfing the Internet for inspiration and for quality materials is in! And one of the sites that has become my favorite is AffordableSeating.com where a wide variety of restaurant chairs and other furniture are available. They have wood bar stools, aluminum, wood/metal combo bar stools, Indoor/Outdoor, contemporary bar stools and more! w00t! =)

Why am I going gaga over bar stools? Because they are the focal point of your bar! The bar stool can be a conversation piece, the item that attracts your guests toward the bar, or be the comfort zone in your otherwise chaotic home. That’s our white metal bar stools above and as you can see, it really makes our bar very homey. =) Anyway the website also has links to Shaker furniture (if you’re into that thing, LOL), outdoor patio stuff, Thomasville furniture and oak pieces.

Before I went into the blogging and using Google AdSense to generate income, I never heard of search engine optimization or SEO (for short). Apparently, if you want your blog or your business’ website to come up in searches, your articles or posts in the site must be optimized for search engines. That is, if your sel oranges then you must mention “oranges” as many times you can but as relevantly as possible. Thus, when your website is crawled by Google, it will index you under the keyword of “oranges”. Hopefully, next time someone searches for “buy oranges” in Google, your website will come up.

Did you understand my explanation loud and clear? LOL! I really can’t explain it very well coz I’m not into its technical details. Most business websites hire people or companies known as search engine optimizers to do the job of the website optimization or as they now say, “Internet marketing services”. So what’s great if your website comes up during searches? You drive free traffic to your site! And if you sell stuff, they might buy it. After all, they searched for it. Neat huh? That’s why small business online marketing is HOT these days! You can literally drive buying customers to your website if you optimize it!

Day 1 and 2: honeymoon chronicles: makati/laguna
Day 3 (part 1): honeymoon chronicles: makati food pornography
Day 3 (part 2): honeymoon chronicles: sea creatures and robots
Day 4: honeymoon chronicles: chapel and kitchen

Manic Monday #168 - You can join in the fun HERE! =)

1. If you could completely redecorate any room in your house at no expense to you, what room would you choose?
- I would redecorate our bedroom and add more storage space. Make it better ventilated too. And good that you mention that renovating will require no expense, I’d hate it if I end up like these beautiful Outer Banks foreclosures! LOL

2. Which hour of the day do you feel goes the slowest?
- Just before waking up when I did not eat breakfast yet. Sometimes during after lunch when all I wanna do is nap =)

3. If your birthday could be in a different month of the year, when would you have it?
- I think I’ll have it during the summer months so I can celebrate it without worrying about school. My birthday always falls on exam day for the first quarter -_-

Or perhaps a small business? It has been my father’s dream to put up a restaurant, or even just a small food stall to start things. Me and my mother have always been somewhat wary about this coz of the heavy work a restaurant business entails. However my father is kinda bullish about it coz he and his family are very good cooks. Now all we need is a solid revenue model to start our own family business.

Starting your own business takes a lot of guts and needless to say, money. Most people often lack capital and thus need to loan it. That’s easy to get if you have a good credit standing, and the lending company is impressed with your business model. But even if your credit is less than stellar, never give up on your dream on becoming a restaurateur. Because ARF or Advance Restaurant Finance is here!

So what do they do? They specialize in Restaurant Loans and loans to small businesses. They are able to secure lending where most banks stop, while allowing you to retain control of your business and meet your business’s goals. ARF’s application process is simple and loans are typically funded quickly. So, what are you waiting for? Start building your food empire now! =)

Believe it or not, but for the first time in my life, I’m gonna be a bridesmaid for a non-relative! LOL! The funny thing is, I’m not a “handmaid” or “maiden” anymore — I’m a “matron” coz I’m already married! So who’s the lucky friend who got me as her bridesmaid? None other than Gladys M. who is a BS Biology classmate of mine in UP Mindanao. Hehe! I already had a dress fitting with Gladys’ preferred wedding dress shop where lots of bridesmaid dresses and bride gowns were on display. However I haven’t seen the design of the bridesmaid’s gown yet. According to Gladys it will be color red. I just hope the color “fits” me coz I’m on the darker side, LOL! Anyway, one more month and it will be “I Do” for Gladys and her groom — exciting! =)

Then use LifeLock! The company offers a proven solution that prevents your identity from being stolen. They will protect your identity and personal information for only $10 a month - and they can even guarantee up to $1,000,000! If you’re a n00b and doesn’t know what’s identity theft, here is Wikipedia’s definition: “Identity Theft is a catch-all term for crimes involving illegal usage of another individual’s identity” and its most common form is credit card fraud. Identity theft is one of the reasons why my father refuses to shop online via his credit card. I have assured him time and again, that unless he’s been really careless about giving out his personal info, he won’t be a victim of identity theft (specifically credit card fraud). But my assurance isn’t enough — and I’m glad LifeLock’s service will help my father feel safe and secure in using his credit card online =)