Christmas gift idea: Philip Stein's Legacy Petite watch

MANILA – This new watch collection is made available exclusively in the Philippines first, just in time for the holiday season.

Philip Stein’s Legacy Petite watches are as chic and elegant as its predecessors and come in two styles – the stainless steel oval case and the rose gold-plated version.

Each timepiece has Philip Stein’s signature dual time zone dial in white mother of pearl, fitted with mineral crystal, and comes with interchangeable silk calf straps available in black, white, pink and light blue.

It is also equipped with Philip Stein’s Natural Frequency Technology, a chip that acts like an antenna to help the wearer “tune in to the earth’s positive alpha waves.”

Broadway star and “The Voice of the Philippines” coach Lea Salonga, an endorser of Philip Stein, co-created the Legacy Petite collection.

Priced from P37,100 to P47,950 each, the Legacy Petite watches will be available in Philip Stein stores nationwide in late December.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

How to give kids Christmas gifts that will last a lifetime

MANILA, Philippines - For lolos and lolas, saying no to their grandkids is hard to do. As the responsibility of disciplining them no longer falls on the grandparents, they can’t resist to pamper the young ones with expensive toys as Christmas gifts.

But before you splurge and give them items that will hold their attention for a few minutes, hours or at most days, maybe it’s time to consider getting them something more long-lasting.

Nowadays, more parents are forthright in saying that they would prefer the gift of cash that can go towards a college fund for their children. Given the astronomical cost of tertiary education, this makes a lot of sense. Tuition fees in private schools rise by almost 15% every year, and this does not cover miscellaneous expenses such as allowances, books, and related expenses.

If you choose to contribute towards your apo’s college education, not only are you giving something of value to your grandchildren, you are also helping the kids’ parents – your kids – save up for their child’s future.

Although the thought of receiving college funds may not sound very exciting to a child, rest assured that they will definitely thank you for it in the years to come.

The magic of compounding

Don’t think that you need to fork over a huge sum in order to give this type of present. You can start by giving your grandchild (through his parents or guardians) an amount that can serve as a starter fund for his college education. You can add to this fund every year — perhaps during your grandchild’s birthday and during the holidays — while letting the magic of compounding work wonders on the fund. Compounding builds on earnings of an asset's reinvested earnings. Twenty years down the road, when that little smiling baby is a young adult all set for university, that fund that you started will surely serve him well, and will make his parents equally happy.

Just to let you realize the power of compounding, here’s how it works: If you invest P10,000 today at 6%, you will have P10,600 in one year (P10,000 x 1.06). The reinvested P600 grows with the original amount of P10,000. If you continue to earn the same rate of 6%, your investment will grow to P11,236 (P10,600 x 1.06) by the end of the second year. The increase in interest grows each year, as your interest earns interest. The longer you keep your money invested, the more you stand to earn.

If your grandchild is one year old today, you have around 17 years to let your aguinaldo compound. The more time you have, the greater the growth potential. In fact, you can start a fund for your grandchild while he or she is still in utero. Of course, you can put money towards an older grandchild’s education, but the earlier you do it, the bigger its earning potential.

Below are some ideas on how you can give your grandchild the aguinaldo that will last a lifetime:

1. Purchase an education plan.

An education plan gives your grandchild a fixed amount of money to cover college expenses starting at a specified time, usually when he turns 17 years old. Depending on the plan you purchase, the education plan may come with life insurance and accidental death benefits, and a contingency fund should the payor (you) pass away during the payment period of the policy. Premiums are usually payable from 5 to 7 years.

2. Look at high-interest earning savings accounts.

Savings accounts are easy to open for your grandchildren. You can ask the child to come with you to the bank and you can make the initial deposit for him. That will be quite an experience – and a moment to capture using the camera from your mobile phone. Later on, you or other family members can add to this fund.

3. Open an investment account in his name.

There are various entry-level mutual funds or unit investment trust funds that would allow you to put in as little as P5,000. You can add to this every so often, or the parents can also inject additional funds when they can. Of course, you can also put in a much larger amount and allow it to grow over time.

4. Pay attention to the legalities.

Bank accounts for your grandchild will have to be in a guardian’s name, held in trust for your grandchild, until he comes of age. Make sure that this fund is accessed by a responsible adult who will use it for its intended purpose.

5. Make it fun.

Your grandchild might not explode into a dance of joy when he receives an envelope, but there is a way around the initial disappointment. Present your gift imaginatively. Perhaps, you can ask him what he wants to be in the future and tell him that you’ve just given the gift that will make his dream come true.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Magnetic Faces Board – A Homemade Toy

It’s craft time!  The last time my MIL came to visit us, I asked her to bring some old magazines that we could cut up.  We also needed some advertising magnets, and my parents were able to provide a few.  The only other supplies we used for this were stiff cardboard and a few laminating sheets (I had some in my craft stash, but you could also use clear packing tape).

Our son and I leafed through the magazines looking for large faces.  We found lots of heavily made-up eyes, since most of the large faces seemed to be ads for wrinkle cream or make up.  But we did manage to find a few kid faces, a few dog faces, a few men, and even a buffalo.  We tore out the pages we needed and immediately put the stack of magazines in our wagon to drop off at the library.  Craft clutter has to be tamed right away or it has babies when you’re not looking!

Next we cut out the individual features from each face, and glued them all onto the pieces of cardboard (we just used cardboard that we had in our recycling bin).  Then we trimmed the cardboard around each feature.  We chopped up an advertising magnet into lots of little rectangles and glued them to the back of the cardboard on each feature.  Some of the larger items needed several magnet pieces, but most needed only one.  We waited until after we had put the magnets on to laminate the features, since we weren’t sure how well the magnets would stick to the backs if they were already laminated.

The last step was to laminate the features and cut them out.  Viola!  A neat magnetic face board!  It’s like Mr. Potato Head in 2-D


The boys have had lots of fun playing with it.  Even the little one gets into it, although he seems to have the most fun un-doing whatever arrangement his brother has just put together.





We already had the magnetic message board –  a relic from the days before we went paper-free in our offices.  It’s perfect for the boys’ letter magnets, which I prefer to keep off the fridge and with the toys instead (I like clean fridge doors; we put up a wire on a wall to hang artwork so that doesn’t get stuck to the fridge either).  So now the letters and faces share a magnet board, and it’s all very portable from one room to another.

I got the inspiration for this project from another blog, but it was a while ago and unfortunately I don’t remember where it was. If you know who came up with this idea, please leave a comment and let me know!  This would be easy to do with words, shapes, or other objects like trees and houses.  Half the fun for our son was looking through the magazines and finding faces that he wanted to use, so any sort of magazine scavenger hunt would be fun.  A magnetic faces board is a good project to do with the kiddos if they’re old enough, or you could fancy it up a bit and make it as a DIY Christmas or birthday gift.

source: frugalbabe.com