Recently, honestbee has just launched a brand new store called Family Market that focuses on all your family's everyday needs.
Their products range from food, health and beauty essentials, to babycare products and household goods.
I love going grocery shopping. If grocery shopping is considered a hobby, I'd probably list it as one of mine haha.
Even when traveling overseas, I love going to the markets and grocery stores to check out what's new and available {Chicken in a Bisket is back in Singapore by the way!! woot woot}, suss out the daily deals, compare quality and prices for the things I need between different brands, and just basically amble down the aisles...
This is, of course, based on the notion that I have time to spare. For most working parents like me, time is of the essence and just spending more than 30 minutes out grocery shopping is probably considered a luxury.
It's all usually just a grab-and-go, and you probably don't want to be caught wasting time queuing to pay, hustling with the after-work/ weekend crowd or running after your kids after a hard's day of work making sure they don't wander off and knock down a display of toilet paper or something （/｡＼)
I guess that why most parents I know like the convenience of online grocery shopping.
You can just sit in the comfort of your home to choose the items you need from a website, click to pay and get them delivered to your doorstep in a jiffy. Easy peasy.
And now at Family Market, it makes things even easier and more streamlined for online family shopping as they have identified all the basic essentials used by families in Singapore and grouped them together into 7 simple categories under one roof - Babies, Drinks, Food Cupboard, Health & Beauty, Home, Household & Cleaning and Snacks & Sweets.
Within these categories, they stock the bestselling products with the best prices negotiated daily from their partner stores, without a mark-up. A quick comparison check I did showed that a lot of the items we use at home are about 10-30% cheaper than other online grocery stores. I know because I like to compare prices and get the best value-for-money deals haha... and it's so much easier {and faster!} when it's done online (｡^‿^｡)
For example, a staple at my home, Quaker Instant Oatmeal Smooth & Creamy 1kg refill, costs S$4.40 in Family Market, but S$5.10 at FairPrice online and S$4.80 at RedMart. Or even a bottle of Dove Beauty Nourishing Body Wash 1L costs S$9.30 in Family Mart, and S$9.75 at both FairPrice and RedMart. Prices correct as of yesterday, Thu 29 Jun 2017.
There are currently around 500 products in this new Family Mart, and they are adding new products to it daily based on market research and customer demand.
Browse through their offerings on the Family Mart website and use my promo link for extra savings! Spend a minimum of S$50 for free delivery and a concierge fee of S$3.99 applies.
Family Market is a part of honestbee, an online grocery store where you can get your shopping from different stores in one order, on the same day AND within an hour #woah
While other online stores available in Singapore can only deliver from one store or inventory, honestbee does not stockpile goods in a warehouse. Instead, their trained shoppers go to stores near you and hand pick every item when you place an order to ensure the widest possible choice of fresh, great quality items. You can even leave very specific instructions for them to follow "e.g. please ask the butcher to chop my meat & separate into 200g packs"!
I like that they have a customer service centre that's open from 9am - 10pm daily. If you want to change your 1-hour delivery time slot or have a question about your order, you can easily speak to someone about it. If your item is out-of-stock or changes need to be made to the order, they will always contact you first for your approval too.
Their partner stores include FairPrice, Emporium Shokuhin {Japanese gourmet grocer}, Le Petit Depot {French supermarket - has Carrefour value-for-money stuff!}, Jones the Grocer, Amazin' Graze, Gastronomia, The Providore and even farm-to-table wholesalers like Fresh Direct {fruits & vegetable from farms around the world} and Foodsterr {health & organic food from US & Australia}.
You'd definitely be spoilt for choice when shopping here *grins*
Promo: Use this link to sign up & get S$10 OFF S$50 at honestbee online concierge and delivery services. Valid for one month from date of your successful account activation.
*Disclosure: This is a sponsored post for honestbee. All opinions are my own.
Recently, Lil Pumpkin has upgraded to "adult headphones" that's a lot more stylish and sleeker - the Sudio Sweden Earphones in Regent White. They definitely are a pair I would gladly use myself too.. ♥
Lil Pumpkin is always on-the-go with us. We don't have a helper so if she's not at school or any of her extra-curricular classes, that usually means wherever we go, she goes. Sometimes this means that she's at work with us {either at my office or at her daddy's clinic}, or even if we go for our gym sessions / fitness classes.
We will always put her in safe areas away from the weights/ exercise areas in clear view, and give her strict instructions to not go anywhere with strangers or stray away.
Usually, the gym / fitness classes we go to have understanding staff who help to keep an eye out for her too and luckily for us, Lil Pumpkin is a good girl who listens to our instructions and knows how to entertain herself with school work, games {current favourites are word searches & puzzles..} or her favourite videos.
When Lil Pumpkin was younger, she used a kiddy pair of headphones from JVC that I bought from Japan. I've seen them in local stores though. I bought them mainly for our travel flights as the airline earphones are pretty uncomfortable and often slip off {can be such a hassle adjusting them with a trayful of food & blankets all over!}, however she also started using them if she watched her videos / listened to music outside of home.
I reckon good kids headphones are those that have an effective volume limiter {experts recommend 70dB or at most 85dB} to protect their sensitive ears, have minimum noise leakage, and fit comfortably on their smaller heads.
The JVC Tiny Phones {HA-KD5} are sturdy and have comfortable, soft padding. It also has an efficient volume limiter {85dB} and restrict noise leakage relatively ok. Cool thing is that it also comes with some stickers for Lil Pumpkin to customise her headphones and they aren't that expensive too. I'd recommend this kids earphones if you're in the market looking for one. They are built for ages 4 and up.
Lil Pumpkin has been using her kids headphones for about 3 years now and although they still work fine, the cords are rather icky and get tangled easily so I'd prefer her to have a convenient wire-free experience.
There are wireless kids headphones in the market but since she's growing up so fast anyway, adult headphones aren't such a bad idea especially if we are looking for quality headphones that last long and are comfortable. Plus, I can use them too! haha
The Sudio Regent headphones are really, really comfortable. There's leather padding on the headband even, and of course the ear cups, but I'm not kidding when I say that the padding is pillowy-soft and feels comfortable even during extended use which don't worry, isn't often. We tell Lil Pumpkin to rest her ears after an hour or so of use... but she usually doesn't use it for long periods at a go unless we're on a plane and she's watching a movie.
Even as an adult headphone, it fits snugly on Lil Pumpkin at the smallest setting. You can adjust the size easily by lifting the headband up and down its gold metal accents so that it fits a wide variety of head sizes.
As with any wireless headphone, Sudio Regent requires its own power supply and has an inbuilt rechargeable battery. It takes about 2hrs for it to be fully-charged and good thing that its battery life is about 24+hours too, because sometimes Lil Pumpkin forgets to tell us to help her charge it haha. Even with its inbuilt battery, it's just 177g and feels pretty light.
The Sudio Regent headphones connect to any devices via Bluetooth 4.1 and supports multi-pairing. We help Lil Pumpkin to set it up as she's still too young to figure it out herself.
All you have to do is switch on Bluetooth for the device, press the Play/Stop button on the headphones, then pair them after you see the blue and red light. Easy peasy. Bluetooth has a range of 10m so technically speaking, if she wants she can move 10m away from the source device and still hear her audio.
I'm no audiophile, but sound-wise I think the Sudio Regent headphones are pretty good. By that I mean that the sound quality is strong, clear and balanced. There's minimal audio leakage as the ear cups form a good seal {just nice for my ear size and covers Lil Pumpkin's ears fully} and you won't disturb others if your volume is too high but we've taught Lil Pumpkin not to do that. Sometimes she forgets, but most of the times she follows the instructions.
{As there's no volume limiter, the only way to really monitor is by checking on the volume every now and then.}
It's definitely good enough for Lil Pumpkin to use for casual music-listening and video-watching.
The white & gold look is very attractive but I know it will get dirty pretty easily, especially when a kid is using it haha, so I try to give it a wipe-down with a slightly damp cloth after each use. If you like, Sudio Regent headphones also comes in Black.
One thing I'd have appreciated is if it came in its own carry pouch but no biggie, we've many empty bags at home to keep it in when not in use. The metal bars protrude out quite a bit though so they aren't very compact though.
While Lil Pumpkin's previous kids headphone came with stickers for customisation, the Sudio Regent also lets you have your own unique headphone with the customisation of its ear caps. Sold separately at S$29 each, you can choose from 4 fun designs that match Sudio Regent White or Black headphones. Lil Pumpkin chose these pink ones herself!
I hope they have more designs and colours in the future though! Or maybe even one where you can draw and design something yourself... like those Starbucks "Create Your Own Tumblers"??
Sudio Regent Wireless Headphones are sold via Sudio Sweden's website at S$299 each and make a great gift for tweens like Lil Pumpkin, teens or adults. If you use my promo code below in addition to the tax rebate, it will cost S$156 i.e. you save S$143!!! That's excellent savings and it's not even a GSS promo haha.
Sudio Sweden delivers to Singapore with free express shipping {takes 3-5 working days} and currently, there is a complimentary summer tote bag {worth S$33} with every purchase. Have a look at their website for more information and product details.
Promo: Quote "sakuraharuka" for 15% OFF for any Sudio Sweden product from their website. Valid until Sunday, 31 Dec 2017. In addition, you get additional 20% instant tax rebate if you purchase outside EU!
P.S. Look out for a giveaway on their latest Wireless Vasa Blå earphones coming up real soon! (•‿•)♬
*Disclosure: This is a review for Sudio Sweden. All opinions are my own.
We've read countless books but how amazing is it to be part of a story where you are the main character and hero??! It must be such a magical feeling and Bookboo personalised books helps to bring that magic alive for families and children.
Based in Singapore, they are the first ever book that can be personalised for any family with 1 or 2 children, even twins and single parents. The story takes the kid{s} on a jungle adventure where the kid{s} rescue their own parents from the cruel Evilor. The story is designed to help children enhance their vocabulary and inculcate life values of kindness, love and courage
Last month, hubby and I ordered the Fun Family Bookyboo book
for Lil Pumpkin and her cousin, Lil J. When the book arrived earlier in the week, Lil Pumpkin was really excited to read it to Lil J so we went over to my sister's home yesterday to chill and for the kids to play together..
It's really such a sweet sight to see Lil Pumpkin reading to her little cousin (*^▽^*)
Since young, she always loved being the "big jie jie" and taking care of younger kids whether in the family, in school or at the playground.. I've no doubt that if blessed with the opportunity, she would definitely be a wonderful, caring older sister.
And that opportunity came along with Lil J (/^▽^)/
Although both of them are just cousins, we hope that they will both grow up to be close like real sisters and
go on many adventures through life together. This book will be a
precious reminder of the bond they share with one another and a way for the children to discover the power of a strong family and sibling love!
To order the book, just go to Bookyboo's website and key in some simple details like the kid{s} name{s}, gender{s} and you can even customise the book for twins or those with single parents.
The illustrations, characters and story will differ slightly based on your customisations. For example, if you put in 2 kids' names, there will be 2 kids as heroes in the story. If you put in 1 kid's name, there will be 1 kid and his pet dino who will go on the adventure in the story.
Unfortunately, you are not able to customise the "look" of each character e.g. hairstyle, hair colour, race, outfit etc. and I hope that Bookyboo will have this option available in the future.
There is only 1 storyline too where the heroes go into a jungle to fight the villian. I reckon it would be more fun if there were seasonal stories you can choose from too e.g. going to a winter wonderland during Christmas to fight a snow monster haha and hopefully Bookyboo will look into this too.
However, can I just say how impressed I am with the website? It is so clean, easy-to-use and loads fast. You can even preview the whole book for free before purchase! Here are some examples with the different customisation options,
Fun Family Bookyboo for twins, 1 boy and 1 girl, with both parents
Fun Family Bookybook for brothers of different ages
Fun Family Bookybook for single child and single parent
And if having your name all over the book and being the hero of the story isn't good enough, you also get a printed personalised message on the first page too! ♥ Hubby and I wrote a special, individualised message for each of the girl's book.
The Fun Family Bookyboo is printed on rich, thick, textured paper. Each page opens up to panoramic full-spread illustrations. Designed for the little ones' easy reading and sharing, each bookyboo is A4 landscape size {297mm x 210mm}.
Fun Family Bookyboo is recommended for kids aged 3-9 years old, and is definitely easy enough for a child like Lil Pumpkin {who is turning 8 next month by the way!} to read by herself. The text is in simple English using fun rhymes.
Delivery time is estimated to be 12 to 15 working days from the order date. You can check the exact shipping days at the time of checkout. For more information or to make your own personalised book, go to Bookyboo website or Facebook page.
P.S. Bookyboo also has another book called My Adventure where it is personalised for the letters of the child's name. I ordered that for a friend's newborn baby but it will arrive later. I'll review that when it comes in a few more weeks' time (≧∇≦*)
Promo: 10% OFF on the second book, and 15% OFF on the third book onwards. These books must all be in one order and have a common shipping address {discount will be automatically calculated in your cart}. Overseas shipping available, and free delivery to addresses in India, Malaysia and Singapore.
I first saw the 3M Post-it Super Sticky Dry Erase Surface in stores a few months ago and thought they were pretty cool.
All you needed to do was to just peel and stick, and you can transform any ordinary surface into “instant whiteboards”. No extra tools needed and no worries about destroying walls!
Using a proprietary dry erase coating so that it erases cleanly every time from whiteboard markers, the Post-it Super Sticky Dry Erase Surface is a rolled, self-stick film product that easily adheres to horizontal or vertical surfaces, converting them into a pristine, dry erase board.
You can apply them to painted walls, steel, finished wood, glass and even existing chalkboards. Unlike some cheaper versions, the stain-proof writing surface makes it easy to write and erase smoothly, and is less susceptible to scratching or marker stains.
I like that it can easily cut-to-size to create customized whiteboards or fun doodling surfaces. Think about the possibilities!! If you ever thought of getting one of those hipster blackboard walls for your kids to unleash their creativity at home but cringed at the thought of painting a whole wall black and cleaning up the chalk-dust {I sure did haha}, you should really consider getting the 3M Post-it Super Sticky Dry Erase Surface.
You can cover a whole wall with it, or even tables and chairs, and let your kids draw freely to inspire and encourage a nature of creativity or even do school work on. If after some time you feel like redecorating, you just have to peel it off and reuse it somewhere else. No need to repaint any walls at all!
Personally, we've peeled if off a few times to adjust / realign the surfaces and our walls seem fine. We've been using 3M tapes for years and I usually find that they do not damage my walls but do note that results may vary for you, depending on the type of walls you have as well.
Why write down fitness goals? Well, if you have a set clear, written goals for the future, you will make specific plans to transform your dreams into realities :) It's highly motivating and all committed athletes do it.
With them clearly out on the Post-it Super Sticky Dry Erase Surface, it's highly visible and motivating!
Since it’s flat and doesn’t jut out to take out any extra space like a traditional whiteboard, we don’t have to worry about hitting it with any of our bars or gym equipment when lifting weights too.
I think children get a reaaaaaaal real kick out of writing/ drawing on walls haha and Lil Pumpkin does like to use it to doodle and practice her spelling or maths sums too.
It doesn’t come with any accessory holder for the markers and whiteboard eraser, but no biggie - you can buy it separately. I do hope that they come out with a magnetic version soon though so that we can also stick notes and messages on it too.
3M Post-it Super Sticky Dry Erase Surface {60.9cm x 91.4cm} retails at S$55.95 {w/ GST} and is available in selected Popular and leading bookstores.
Promo:15% OFF retail price in Popular and selected Self-fix outlets for the entire month of April 2017.
*Disclosure: This is a review for 3M Singapore. All opinions are my own.
Last Saturday we went for our first family run of the year at Safari Zoo Run 2017! We were up bright and early.. and praise God for the good weather! I still remember the torrential rain we experienced during Safari Zoo Run 2013 haha..thank goodness it was such a wonderful day for outdoor running!
The weekend before that we were at Marina Square to collect our Race Packs.
It was really smooth and for the first time ever, you didn't even need to wait for the event staff to attend to you to search for your bibs and goodies.. you could just use one of the FotoGraft Beta vending machines to collect your race pack items {see here for your runner's entitlement}!! How cool is that! (*＾▽＾)／
These vending machines were apparently just launched recently and event staff were still at hand to help in case there were any problems. The staff told us that in the future, the organisers will probably put them at the various malls for participants to collect their race packs at their own convenience.
All you needed was to either type or scan your IC number / event confirmation number and the machine will print your bib on the spot and dispense the t-shirt {and timing chips for those in the competitive categories}. After that you head to another staff to collect your eco goodie bag and vouchers.
Lil Pumpkin had fun taking the items out of the dispenser bin haha..
Even though our flag-off time for the 5.5km Safari Zoo Family Run was 8am, we reached the zoo about 7am to get a parking lot. After slowly going to the restrooms, wearing our bibs, taking some photos etc. it was about 7.40am and the starting pen was open so we went in..
This year, the Safari Zoo Run is themed "Run for Wildlife" and features 4 animal icons for Safari Zoo Run 2017 - Ah Meng the Orangutan, Chawang the Asian Elephant, Canola the Manatee and Sunny the Hornbill. It focuses on raising awareness for wildlife conservation. Each animal icon team supports an endangered wildlife species that the Singapore Zoo would like to raise awareness for.
Canola the Manatee mascot was there when we were about to start!
The race route was slightly different from the previous times we took part in the Safari Zoo Runs, but we still went through parts of the Singapore Zoo and even the Night Safari.
I really love taking part in the non-competitive Family Run to slowly appreciate and take in the sounds and sights of the 2 wildlife parks in the quiet early morning before the tourists come in..
There's no need to rush, and you can stop at any time for photo opportunities with the animals.
You've to cross the finish line by 10.15am to collect your Finisher's Medal though but 2.5hrs is more than enough time to complete 5.5km even if you are ambling along as we were haha. o(^▽^)o
When we were at the start line, I thought I heard the host announce that there was going to be just 1 water station! But thankfully, there were actually 4 stations along the 5.5km race route.. phew!!
More than enough opportunities to get hydrated even if you didn't bring along your own water bottles.
Ever since DC Justice League Superheroes Run 2015 Lil Pumpkin has been completing our family fun runs without resting in her stroller haha.. even though this route is slightly longer than our usual runs, she still managed it without any whining or requests for us to carry her.
So proud of our little darling! I guess her CrossFit Kids classes has really been paying off in training her conditioning and endurance haha..
The 5.5km Family Run is comfortable not just for the young, but for the old to take part too. I was really happy my mum could join us for the event and have fun as well.
Mandatory shots with the route markers!! We always look out for these whenever we go for our fun runs..
It took us about 20 mins to complete 1 km.
In some runs these route markers can be kind of small but luckily these were big and visible..
One with the whole family ੧(❛▿❛✿)੭
My mum said that we should take one of Lil Pumpkin by herself at the 5km mark since she managed to run/walk the whole route by herself.. she was very proud of her granddaughter too ❤
Only at the last part did the boy happily carry Lil Pumpkin on his shoulder past the finish line ( ᐛ )و
After the Safari Zoo Run, as per our usual practice, we headed to Rainforest Kidzworld in Singapore Zoo to cool down and play at the waterplay area. I thought it would be crowded with the other kids participants but surprisingly, it was pretty empty!!
Perhaps they went to the River Safari as you could enter for free that day as part of your runner's entitlement too.
We've never been to River Safari before but I'm pretty sure Lil Pumpkin would enjoy playing at the water playground much more than walking around again to admire more animals haha.. just look at her happy face in this photo!
Love the cute finisher medals that add to our growing collection of fun run medals but more importantly, I love the memories and experience of being active and taking part in these fun runs with my family.
It really makes you very appreciative of your health and wellness (●´∀｀●)
