DIY your blouse/t-shirt

I'm really a hands-on person and i love to DIY.

Today while ironing my clothes, i recalled that i found that a black blouse which i wear is really too plain. Like this:

Too plain, isn't it?  Lol! I guessed, i probably bought it because of the lace embroideries sleeve. I love that. I decided to add some details to make it less plain. I recalled removing some blink button beads from an old blouse, i decided to recycle it. Ta...ta.... here's my new blouse:

 

How i do it? It's simple. As the blink button comes with 2 small holes at the side, i just hand sew it.

Then i recalled sometime back, i DIY a plain t-shirt too. As i didn't take a before picture, i can only show you my end product.

 

I got the tiny ribbon from Diaso - my favourite shopping paradise, and the flower button from Spotlight.

I love to DIY, it not only satisfied my urge to create, it also gives me something unique which you can't get a second piece. How about you? Do you DIY?

 

One dish meal

I'm a super lazy person and i always looked for the easiest way to get things done. Yesterday, i cooked curry chicken with ready made curry chicken mix. My family enjoyed it with french bagel. Simple and fast and it's a way out of the regular rice meal.

Last week, i cooked cheesy broccoli with recipe adapted from Luxury Haven. Here's the original recipe. I added bacon bits on top of the cheese. Some how or the other, my broccoli didn't turn out like Luxury Haven presented version. Here's how my version turn out:

Nevertheless, it is still very tasty.

I also cooked salted egg yolk chicken.

 

 

This is also tasty but some how or the other, it's not as crispy probably because i pre-fried the chicken pieces way ahead and then fry again with the boiled salted egg yolk. I knew that most recipe would call for the salted egg yolk to be steamed. I boiled mine because i love to egg the salted egg white and find it too wasteful to discard it and just steam the yolk alone. I shall KIV this recipe till i perfect it before sharing it.

 

I also boiled a simple chestnut chicken soup.

 

My main purpose is just to drink the soup. Nothing to wow about it except my daughter enjoyed it very much, she loves it so much that she drink 2 big bowl of it. What i like to share here is that i manage to get vacuum pack chestnut from the supermarket. It comes like this:

It's considered a little dear thou. For this small packet, it cost me $2.90. But i don't mind paying for it because it save me the hassle of having to peel the husk and skin of the fresh chestnut and i don't like the dried form. The fresh one actually make the soup sweeter and tastier.

 

Today, i cooked a one dish meal again - cabbage rice. Simple and easy way out of thinking what dishes to cook. However, one dish meal must take care of all the nutrients too. Therefore, in this dish, there's vegetables (cabbage and mushroom), meat (lean pork, chinese sausage and dried shrimp) and rice.

 

For recipe, please refer to my bon appetite cabinet.

Home made tau Hueh as dessert

Have you heard of "Lao Ban Soya Beancurd" (tau hueh)? Apparently at one time this was very popular. I have heard how many people queue for hours just to try this soya bean milk dessert. It's located at old airport road. I've yet to try it because i'm one person who have no patience to wait for food. I feel that no matter how good the food is, having got to wait for hours would make me lost my appetite. Furthermore, it's in old airport road and it's very unlikely that i would go all the way there just to eat tau hueh.

Today i decided to DIY myself again.

How do you like my soya bean milk dessert? For full recipe, please click my recipe cabinet link on the right and it would bring you to my easy to make tau hueh and there's no need to queue for hours. How's that?

My 1st Vitacost loot

Nowsaday i do quite a bit of online shopping. While reading Luxury Haven post on "Let your finger do the walking at Vitacost", i was introduced to Vitacost - a US base website that sells health supplements, vitamins, cosmetics, household needs, pets foods, etc etc, there's just too many to name them all here. What i like is that the prices are relatively reasonable and most of the things look of quality products.

I was lucky to join Luxury Haven giveaway and won myself a US$50 voucher. I'm really elated and can't wait to go on a shopping spree.

Today my 1st Vitacost purchase arrived.

I can't wait to unwrap the box.

 

See how Vitacost nicely wrapped my purchase item.

 

Let me unwrapped further and show you my purchases.

 

Vitacost included a very useful catalogue inside the box. Here's a peek into the catalogue:

 

It introduces you to some of the health supplement that Vitacost carries. The benefits/uses of the health supplement is stated clearly in the catalogue. Beside that, the number of tablets/capsules/mg and prices are also stated clearly in the catalogue.

 

 

 Now to my real purchases:

 

"If you care" Large baking cups - 60 pieces at US$1.44

 

I have taken out 1 piece of the baking cup to show you the actual size and material of the baking cup as this was not shown in their shopping site.

 

Some nail care products that i purchased:

 

Earth Therapeutics Filing Block  - US$1.92

 

Barielle Nail strengthener cream 0.5 fl oz - US$7.12 - there's a lot of good comment on this product in the site and i think i really needed one as my nails are pretty fragile nowsday and it could hardly grow long

 

2 Revlon Crazy shine nail buffer - US$3.59 each - my friend bought this and told me that it really works wonder, therefore i got 2 because i'm super "kiasu" (afraid to loose out) as i'm a typical Singaporean - hahaha......

 

Earth Therapeutics cuticle nipper - US$4.00 - I love to DIY and since i already bought so much things to take care of my nails, i might as well buy this too (and it's really cheap, i think you may have to pay about S$15 to get one here locally) to complete my nail care system.

 

 

 

 

My most value for money purchase - Avalon Organic Thickening Shampoo 14 fl oz - US$4.62

Good buy isn't it? I've been experiencing thinning hair problem and i hope this could help. I may just have to keep repeating my order of this if it worked. See how Vitacost wrapped this shampoo? Cling wrap plus putting it into a ziplock bag just incase it spill out which i think is very unlikely to happen as i noticed how careful they are in packing the various item that i purchased.

 

My luxury indulgence - heehee..... guess what it is?

 



Aloha Bay Chakra Candle jar Abudance - 11 oz - US$8.54
I hope this would bring better luck and abundancy to my family after lighting it. This comes in a glass jar and Vitacost is very careful in packing it by having it bubble wrapped in more than 2 layers - as such, my glass jar is "safe and sound" when it reached me. If you are into "feng shui", Vitacost sells plenty of this kind of candles and lightings for feng shui.

I love this salt lamp very much.

Not in my purchase

I've KIV this because this is pretty heavy to send and the shipping may even cost more than the product itself. But i may just get it on impulse.

My highest price item among my purchases -
Avalon Organics Vitamin C vitality facial serum - 1 fl oz - US$15.25
Having read Luxury Haven's experience with Jyunka Miracle M+ fluid, and i knew that this Miracle M+ fluid is actually pure vitamin C and i'm hoping that this Avalon Vitamin C serum would do me some miracle like what Jyunka's Miracle M+ fluid would do. Hahaha..... Naive or smart? Whatever it is, i hope this would give me some magic.

My total purchases cost only US$50.07 + US$2.99. What i actually pay is only S$3.06 since i won the US$50 voucher from Luxury Haven. Thanks to Blackswan for making my X'mas comes early.

Remember, Vitacost shipped internationally to many countries and it cost only US$2.99 if you keep your total purchase weight at 1.36 kg or lower for selected countries. Love to check out for yourself? Click here : https://www.vitacostrewards.com/YHEjtcG. By clicking on this link, you can get a $10 to start off with your purchases.

Remember to subscribe to their news letter while you shop so you could also enjoy discount coupons which they reward customers and price break sales new at the very 1st hour.

I mould my own chocolates

Knowing that i love dark chocolates, my company's MD who went to switzerland to visit his daughter and the new born grand daughter brought back a block of Lindtt dark chocolates for me. This block of chocolate contain 85% cocoa.

Although i love dark chocolates, but this tastes real bitter, so no one in the house likes it except me. I decided to do something out of it. Armed with a bag of Haribo gummy bear which i bought from the local supermarket recently, i decided to mould my own gummy bear chocolates.

 

Also an ex-colleague of mine bought me a silicon chocolates mould for me when she's leaving the company which i have no chance to test out yet. So i decided to embark on my chocolates moulding adventures.

 

I  also wanted to try this chocolate mould which i buy from Diaso (the everything S$2 shop),

 

There's really no real recipe involved in my chocolates moulding. What i did is that since the dark chocolates is way too bitter, i added some semi sweet chocolate block into it while i steam melted my dark chocolates.

 

In a wok, put a steamer stand in it, bring the water to boil, put a deep mixing bowl on the stand, put dark chocolates and semi sweet chocolates block into the bowl. Steam till chocolates melted. Stir to mixed well. In the chocolates mould, place a piece of gummy bear into each hole. Spoon melted chocolates into the mould. As far as possible, try to fill chocolates within the mould or else it could be quite messy trying to clean up the excess outside the mould.

 

 

 

 

 

 

However, if u do overfilled the mould, don't worry, just use a small butter knife to scrap off any excess and use a kitchen paper towel to wipe off the side of the mould.










All u need to do next is send your chocolates filled mould into the fridge to set the chocolates.

When the chocolates is set, de-mould it from the mould. For the chocolates mould which i bought from Diaso; it's easy. Just use a toothpick to push at 1 corner and the chocolates will pop up as the mould is more shallow. For the silicon mould, it's also easy since the silicon mould is soft and you can just press the chocolates out from the soft silicon mould as shown in the picture below.

Viola! I have my own moulded chocolates as snack.

In order to keep my chocolates in the fridge for later consumption, i use aluminum foil to wrap up my chocolates. There's no need to use heavy duty aluminum foil, just the thin type will do.

 Or if you can find colored aluminum foil or aluminum chocolates cups which some supermarket sells (i remember seeing them), use them to wrap your chocolates to make it fanciful. I didn't get mine as i'm just playing with my chocolates, so i decided to drop the wrapper chocolates into a fanciful gift bag instead.

Prawn in the net

Today's dinner dish - Prawn in the Net.

I've done this before except i can't quite remember the exact version. Today i redo this again in my own version. This is my family all time favourite. Simple and easy. I've rename it "Prawn in the Net". Don't you think this looked like a net with prawn inside.

For recipe, please refer to my bon appetite recipe cabinet.

I found the perfect crispy puffy batter

I wanted to make sweet and sour fish today, however, i don't know where to start. From my last week failed attempt in making fish and chips with my sifu recipe which is share on 97.2 DJ Violet's facebook notes. Don't be mistaken, the recipe is perfectly fine except somewhere somehow i must have done wrongly, therefore my fish and chips turned out ugly because the batter didn't stick onto the fish but the batter is still crispy. (My sifu wrote the recipe and i helped in translating it to English version.)

 

Therefore i start hunting for another recipe for the batter, and i recalled Luxury haven's recipe. I took a quick read and start looking into my kitchen for the required Ingredients. I couldn't find self raising flour which is required. Then i remembered during school days, i was told that self raising flour is actually plain flour plus baking powder.

 

 

Armed with the tips from Luxury haven and my sifu's recipe, i start concocting my own batter. Guess what, the batter turns out so puffy and crispy and i decided to leave out the final step for making sweet and sour fish. This is my end product:

 

 

 

  

 

 

From the picture, you could tell that the batter is really puffy. And trust me, it is also very crispy even after 1 hour. For my concoction of CRISPY PUFFY BATTER, please refer to my BON APPETITE  recipe cabinet.

 

 

 

Clover salad anyone?

I learn this from my office cleaner lady. She's our part time cleaner which comes only twice a week. She always shared what she read from the newspaper with me - sometime from health tips to stars gossips. One fine day, she came with a box of salad for us - she said she learn from a lady doing catering and she went to help one of the day and she find this guava salad very nice and refreshing, so she decided to make some and share with us in the office. When she brought it to the office, no body could figure out what was the guava tossed with, but everyone enjoyed it. She keep saying it's very easy, just toss seasoned orange peel with the guava and voila! you get your refreshing salad.

 

Mmm.... seasoned orange peel, gosh! how to season the orange peel meh.......

 

Then another day, she brought a packet of orange peel for me. Hahaha........... it didn't occurred to me then, that it is actually this:

 

 

Yes, i have used orange peel in my brownies before, but it isn't like this. It's those that is seasoned with lots of sugar and it's a little wet, so i knew it can't be that kind of orange peel that she was talking about. Till she bought me a packet. This is the type whereby you can get at Chinese Sinseh (Chinese doctor) medical shop. You may also find this in supermarket at the preserved tibits section.

 

All you have to do is chop these orange peel finely into bits like this:

 

After that toss it with your guava and you would get a refreshing guava salad. The trick here is, do not cut your guava into big chunk, instead, sliced it thinly. For full detail, please refer to my bon appetite recipe cabinet

While i was preparing this salad, something just crossed my mind. Haha! come on, have fun with your food and cookies cutter. After slicing your guava thinly, use your cookies cutter of any shape that you like or you may use multiple cutter for multiple shape to cut out your desired shape and make you salad interesting. Well, i want to feel lucky, so mine is in the shape of four leaves clover.

Bellabox Winnings

I won this - Porefessional spygal kit,  recently from joining a contest holds by bellabox.

So lucky. It's like a Christmas gift come early, haha..... really super early. But i heard in Philippines, alot of them already start counting down.

Inside the kit, there's a full size tube of porefessional and a mini size - travel size of porefessional, a spygal cosmetics pouch (nice aqua color), a comic book plus a paper bag from benefits cosmetics.

I have been too lazy recently to update my blog except i keep posting contest information. Haha, so bad, it look as if i'm out to win things only. I think i really have to restart my other posting like craft, cooking, baking, etc. I'm always full of ideas like i wanted to post how to make a DIY flower brooch, i wanted to cook interesting dishes and post it here, i wanted to do bento box, i wanted to do this, i wanted to do that but it just never get started. Must buck up meh.......

Freebies Freebies - EHA products or facial

Here's a chance to get something free for yourself or your mum this mother's day. Join the giveaway at LUXURYHAVEN.



Win EHA products and DIY your own facial at home. Alternatively, you could win a luxury facial and be pamper at the cosy facial parlour.  

Do the steps by following Blackswan's post here. Who knows? You could be the winner.