Maia Finds: Cute Pens From CDR-King

Doodling is one of the little miss's favorite pasttimes. In fact, she spends more time doodling than playing. She prefers to use pens rather than pencils. I don't know why. Maybe it's because pens are usually darker while pencils are usually on the grayish side and they tend to fade. Maybe it's because pens assures her that the drawings are not going to disappear. I don't really know why. I guess, she just really likes the way her doodles look when she uses pens.

She isn't high maintenance when it comes to art supplies. As long as it writes, she'll take it. I usually just keep a spare for her. I don't stock up a lot because she tends to use all of them at the same time. Those spares doesn't really serve the purpose because she eventually loses them all at the same time too. So yes, it's good that she doesn't have brand preferences. Easy on my pockets.

Recently, CDR-King has been a favorite hang out for the husband. While he waits for me to finish grocery shopping, he would sneak a few minutes to kill inside a CDR-King store. He always gets excited with the things he finds there. Last Friday, we spent a good few hours of our date day at one of the bigger locations in the metro.

Oh, can you just imagine my delight when I saw boxes and boxes of cute pens lined up on one of their shelves? I immediately grabbed a piece of each design. I wanted to collect all of them for the little miss. Then I realized, they will never ever end up as collections because she will eventually use all of them up. So from about 10 pieces, I trimmed them down to 5. I picked what I think suits the kid's personality.

The next day, I showed it to her and she showered me with "Thank Yous" and lots of hugs and kisses. Yes, that's how appreciative she is. And smitten by the sight of pens. I can very well tell you that she immediately tested all of the pens to see which ones can get her to make the best doodles.

If you are looking for lootbag fillers for your kid's upcoming birthday, this could be one of them. They're cheap, cute and very useful.

Kiddie Christmas Giveaway Ideas, Anyone?

Christmas has taken a whole new meaning for me the minute I became a mom. As a kid, I do have fond memories of Christmas and I guess, the spirit of the holidays really comes alive when there are kids around. In the past, my Christmases were always spent quietly with my family in Antique. But I do remember that even in my college years, we would get presents from titas and titos based here in Manila. I guess, Christmas is never complete without gift-giving. Although it is this commercial aspect of this holiday season that I dislike the most, with a kid in my midst and considering all the generosity that I experienced in my childhood I just felt compelled to indulge her even for a tiny bit and somehow give back. 

I've been cramming to search for more practical gifts to giveaway to kids for weeks now. And since the kid is now in school, the number of kids in my giftlist has tripled. It used to be just village friends, now I have classmates and school service friends to consider as well. Given a tight budget (actually,  the financier of the house wasn't briefed yet and that's makes it even more difficult for me), what options do I have?

I zeroed in on 3: something art related (since my kid is into artsy-fartsy stuff for the longest time now), something edible (and probably sweet) or something useful (like hand sanitizers). I would sweat out on the smallest details but I'm trying not to because I do not want to overwhelm myself and end up stressed. So I'm also going to make it generic for everyone. I don't think the kids will mind anyways.

For something art-related, I'm thinking of a cheap clay set/a box of crayons, drawing pads or colored pens. I'm planning to check out Uniwide and Dapitan Arcade (talk of last minute shopping) tomorrow or this weekend. Hopefully that plan pans out because REALLY, I don't have time to scour other shops anymore. Has anyone been there recently? I'm running on a very tight budget of P30-40/gift so I need to be very creative.

For something edible, I'm highly considering Maggie's cake pops. (By the way, she has an ongoing blog giveaway. Hope on over to her blog site to see the mechanics) I've decided to give those to the kid's village friends actually. I just need to make up my mind for the other kids.

Lastly, for something useful I'm thinking of either these hand sanitizers from Human Heart Nature or a study table organizer (anyone got leads on this one?). 

I am aiming to finish wrapping up my gifts this weekend. I'm dedicating two days for that. Wish me luck, okay?