December 15, 2014

Pajama Pants

Another little project I worked on during my day off few weeks ago. These are fabrics I collected while ago that I need to start using for purpose.

I followed a pattern to make this pants, super standard pants that you can totally google image it. And then I reused the same fabric to make strap for each of these pants.

It's a good practice if it's your first time to sew a pants for yourself!

pajama pants

strap

pants #1

pants #2

December 7, 2014

Shepherds Pie

Tried out making Shepherds pie from a recipe site I love to go to.

Shepherds Pie:
-1 1/2 to 2 pounds potatoes (about 3 large potatoes), peeled and quartered
-3 strips of bacon, chopped
-1 tbsp butter
-1 medium onion, chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)
-1-2 cups vegetables—diced carrots, corn, peas
-1 1/2 lbs ground round beef
-1/2 cup beef broth
-1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
-Salt, pepper, other seasonings of choice.

1. Boil the potatoes until tender. Mash them with potato masher and add salt and pepper and 1 table spoon of butter to season it.  Leave it a side 
2. Cook the onion with carrots until tender, then add corn, peas and bacon.
3. Add ground beef and cook until it's not pink.
4. Simmer with broth, Worcestershire sauce for 10min.
5. Preheat oven to 400F.
6. In a large baking dish layer with beef and veggies and then potatoes on top. Use fork to rake the surface of mashed potatoes to brown the surface nicer when baking.
7. Bake for 30min.
8. After that set the oven to Broil and brown the surface more if you like it more crispy.

Shepherds pie

November 30, 2014

Stripe T-shirt

Did a painting of a girl wearing stripe t-shirt used for main image for my website and this blog.

It's so sad to say, but this is my first painting I've done in 2014.
I look back to my work back in highschool where I used to draw every Sunday morning until evening and then get screwed at night not finishing my homework.

So next year, my new year's resolution is to at least do one painting a month!

stripe t-shirt

November 17, 2014

Stripe Skirt

Looking at this photo, and staring at the window thinking summer is really over.

I made this over the summer that I totally forgot to share this. Fabric was bought at Fabricland using any simple A-line skirt pattern. I don't own skirts that much but this skirt is very comfortable to wear.

Summer, I'll see you next year!

stripe skirt

stripe skirt

November 9, 2014

A Girl Walking In The Rain

Sharing this year's Halloween Costume. Tim had an idea to make "Connect the Dots" costume based from kid's activity of connect the dots pictures. I thought it was cute idea and it's good for people who needs last minute costumes.

All you need is cardboard covered with white paint (or grab white cardboard), scissors/knife, and black sharpie marker. It's better to go for simple iconic image like a person walking with a dog, a kid walking with a balloon or fisherman. I did a girl walking in the rain. 

Easy peasy Halloween costume that anyone can do it!
We entered another Coolest Homemade Costume Contest. Check out other submission other people made!

We also did a little photo shooting with our project. For mine we used our patio floor as our backdrop where I laid down on the ground posed and set my props then Tim took photo of it from second floor patio.

Connect the dots costume

Materials
-  X-Acto knife
- White cardboard OR brown cardboard and white paint to cover.
- Dots: Black Sharpie marker/Paint marker OR Black Round sticker/paper
- Duck tape or Glue gun ( if you need o attach anything)
- Pick your theme.


1. It's good to start off with a sketch on a piece of paper to brainstorm accessories you need. Just remember to keep the drawing iconic and simple.

A girl walking in the rain accessories:
- Umbrella
- Rain boots
- Bow(hair piece)

Optional decoration for photos:
- Clouds
- Teardrops

Fisherman:
- Bucket Hat
- Fishing Vest
- Fishing Rod
- Fish

WIP : connect the dot costume


2. We spend extra time to paint the cardboard with white paint but you can always buy white cardboard at craft store to save time. For dots, decide on the size of the circle and cut out samples from papers from your recycling box(Circle Craft Punch will be handy here). Use them as guideline to place where dots should be.

NOTE : At least have an inch border around dotted lines so you have space to write numbers later on.

WIP : connect the dot costume


3. You can draw in some details to your accessories to give more information. To keep it simple dots are mainly used outline of the shape.

TIP : Sharpie Perm. Marker is good if you don't have too much accessories to make. But the amount we had, Sharpie Paint Marker was handy. Paint Marker are more opaque and quicker to color in circles. Another option is cut out circles with black construction paper and glue on the board.

WIP : connect the dot costume

WIP : connect the dot costume

WIP : connect the dot costume


4. Once dots are colored in, decided where the numbers starts. Keep in mind to write the numbers outside the dotted lines.

WIP : connect the dot costume

connect the dot costume: fisherman

connect the dot costume: a girl in the rain

What's next? Another costume idea, try Minion Carrying Banana Box Illusion

November 2, 2014

Pumpkin Carving

Happy belated Halloween everyone!
This year's Halloween was not a pleasant weather to walk around joyfully. Coldness was easily forgotten when you're outside walking around to see other people's costume but soaked socks are not comfortable....
 
Here is my second attempt with pumpkin carving. Used same technique as last year stabbing each hole at a time.

How was your Halloween? 

pumpkin carving 2014

What's next?  You can do mini pumpkin carving using orange.

October 20, 2014

Bass dishes

Over the summer I've been experimenting different kind of dishes for bass that Tim and I've been catching.

Tim suggested steamed fish that his parents always make. Then I thought of making donburi out of it so I came up with a recipe that goes well with it. A Steamed fish following the Chinese dishes served, with boiled bok-choy drizzled with soy sauce and sesame oil and rice underneath it.
Another dish is have your own fish taco at home with homemade tortilla. Fish taco is fun to eat, you can pick any kind of topping you like, but we kept it simple for this recipe. Also try making your own tortillas, it's simple and super easy!! After trying this I can't go back to buying store made tortilla any more!

These are the two dishes we keep going back to.

Steamed Fish Donburi:
- finely chopped ginger(as many you want to steam the fish with)
- finely sliced green onion(as many you want to steam the fish with), leave some for garnish
- 4 filleted bass
- 4 tbsp of sesame oil, piping hot in a sauce pan
- 1 Bag of Shanghai Bok-Choy, boiled
- 2 bowl of rice
- soy sauce (for drizzling)

1. In a steamer, make a pouch with tin foil to lay filet with ginger and green onion on top. Drizzle with soy sauce. Steam until fish is tender(about 8min)
2. Have your bowl of rice ready, and lay boiled bok choy on top.
3. Add cooked fish on top of bok choy with ginger, green onion and remaining broth from the pouch.
4. Drizzle more with soy sauce.
5. Very lastly drizzle piping hot sesame oil across the fish.(Oil will splash so keep it safe when you're doing this)

steamed bass

Fish Taco with homemade tortilla:

Fish
- 4 filleted bass
- Fish and Crisp seasoning
1. Deep fry Fish until cooked

Toppings
- 3 tomatoes, diced
- half onion, minced
- bunch of cilantro, chopped
- sliced lime
1. Season tomatoes and onion with pinch of: basil, oregano, sea salt, ground pepper, olive oil

Homemade Tortilla recipe:
click here

fish taco

October 5, 2014

homemade pasta

Tried my first time making homemade pasta.

I actually tried making this without the pasta machine and it took very very long time. Having no muscle I think I spend good hour just roll out the pasta. It did took a while but it was well worth it. This deserved pasta sauce from scratch too so I made quick and simple pasta sauce.

My favorite part of making pasta is to hand cut the dough into noodles.

homemade pasta

homemade pasta

September 27, 2014

Pictionary Chalkboard Art

Did a fun activity with Tim drawing on our chalkboard wall we have in our living room. Played a little Pictionary game where we picked words(from Word Generator) and drew the same thing together. Our goal was to fill in cute drawings in the wall space much as possible.

We're both artists and there still lot of things we just can't draw things properly, but interesting to see how each of us interpret things.

With this lovely backdrop we had a little photo session playing around with lightings. As for the cupcake, Tim got them for me to wish me happy birthday. Thank you!

wall art WIP 1

wall art WIP 2

wall art WIP 3

completed wall art

wall art

night light

night light with birthday cupcake


September 22, 2014

Jambalaya

Tried my first attempt to make Jambalaya with sausage and shrimp. It's probably not made correctly but I like how simple it is to make!

Sausage and Shrimp Jambalaya
- 2tbsp butter
- 8oz Andouille sausage or other smoky sausage, cut into 1/4'' thick
- 2 tbsp paprika
- 1 tbsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup diced tomato
- 1 large freen bell pepper, diced
- 2 rib celery, sliced 1/4'' thick
- 4 green onion, sliced thin
- 1 cup brown rice(pre-made for quick make)
- 3 cups chicken broth
- 1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined

1. Cook sausage(5min with butter). Add all spices. Saute for 1 min then add tomatoes. Cook until liquid evaporate.
2. Add bell pepper, celery, most of green onion and stir 5min.
3. Stir in tice, mix well. Add stock and bring to simmer.
4. When rice is tender add shrimp and cook for another 5min.


jambalaya

August 25, 2014

summer

It's been hard to blog weekly when there are so many things you can do in the summer. I've been enjoying my time making breakfast, trying out new recipes, fishing, crafting, and walking a lot under bright sun.

How's your summer been?

 breakfast3

fishing

breakfast2

light

Hamilton Bay Front

breakfast1

cloud

July 20, 2014

crochet socks

I found this adorable idea at LUTTER IDYL's crochet socks for furniture. I recently bought drawer from IKEA that's definitely going to scratch the wooden floor so this is best time to try making them.

So easy to make, I will continue making more for my other furniture that has feet!
I used thicker yarn for this but I will try finer string that will look more elegant like what Lutter Idyl has.

 chair foot socks

chair foot socks

chair foot socks

July 13, 2014

Chili

Made chili for the first time!
I like how easy and simple to make. It makes quite a lot so it can lasts few days. You can pretty much put anything you like is what I like the most.

Chili
- 2lb lean ground beef
- 1 box mushroom
- 1-2 onion, sliced
- 1-2 green pepper, chunks
- 2-3 celery, sliced
- 1 28fl oz/796ml tomato sauce
- 1-1.5 tbsp chili season mix
- 1 bottle of your favorite beer
- 1 cup of parsley

-1 green onion, finely slice(for garnish)
-2 large bun, for dipping or make into soup bowl.

1. Cook onion until tender. Add ground beef until fully cooked.
2. Add all veggies/herb with season mix, tomato sauce, and beer. Mix.
3. Simmer until the consistency that you like. (if it gets too thick just add more tomato sauce)

chili

June 30, 2014

Noodles with Mushroom & Lemon Ginger Dressing

Made this simple and easy to make noodle that goes very well with anything as side dish. But I love it enough that I had it by itself.

Got it from one of my favorite recipe site Simply Recipe for this refreshing meal. Very simple to make, you just cook noodle and saute the mushrooms. Mix those 2 in large bowl, add the dressing and toss.

Noodles with Mushroom & Lemon Ginger Dressing
Lemon Ginger Dressing:
- 3/4 tsp Chilli powder
- Grated zest of 1 lemon
- 1 tbsp squeezed lemon juice
- 1 inch section of ginger, grated
- 1/4 cup rice vinegar
- 1/3cup soy sauce
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 tbsp sesami oil
- 3 tbsp olive oil

Noodles
- 9 ounces noodle(used pasta instead of soba)
- 7 ounces mushrooms
- 1 1/2 tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp minced herbs(parsley, green onion, cilantro, or basil)
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds



Noodles with Mushroom & Lemon Ginger Dressing

Noodles with Mushroom & Lemon Ginger Dressing

June 8, 2014

t-shirt drawing

First time using fabric markers to draw on T-shirts. It was a lot flexible to draw on fabric more than I expected. It gives that sketchy look that I like on paper.

I went to 8 years old girl's birthday party where they had craft session to decorate your shirt and make necklaces. The birthday girl has younger sister so I drew their current favorite movie, Frozen characters on extra t-shirt they had for the party.

This gave me an idea to draw anything I like on old tanktops to dash it up so I would wear it more often.

t-shirt drawing with fabric markers

elsa drawing

anna drawing

April 27, 2014

Tomato Radicchio Bucatini

Another recipe I found from freshjuice.ca!

I'm not a alcohol drinker but I do love using beer, vodka or wine in my food so finding recipe that uses those excites me!

Tomato Radicchio Bucatini
- 3 cups grape tomatoes, halved
- 1 large radicchio, chopped
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 cup prepared roasted red peppers
- 1 onioin finely diced
- 4 anchovies
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2tsp red pepper flakes
- 1/4tsp salt
- 1lb extra-lean ground beef
- 1/2 cup red wine
- 1lb bucatini pasta
- 1/4 cup parmeasan cheese, shaved or grated
- 1/2cup parsley

1. Preheat oven to 400F/200C. Bake tomatoes and radicchio with 1 1/2 olive oil and roast for 30min.
2. Puree half of roasted tomatoes and radicchio with red peppers and set aside.
3. With remaining olive oil saute onion for 2min, then add anchovies, garlic, chipotle peppers, red pepper flakes and salt. Stir in ground beef and cook for 5min. Stir in red wine, tomato radicchio sauce and reamining roasted tomatoes and radicchio and simmer for 10min at low heat.
4. Cook pasta until al dente, drain and toss with sauce. Serve garnished with parmesan and parsley.

 Tomato Radicchio Bucatini

April 20, 2014

ramen

One of my favorite food is Ramen. Real one, instant one, snack pack one they all tastes so good!

Here is store bought-homemade ramen you can have at it at home. They sell it at J-town in the freezer section, wrapped in clear plastic bag with yellow paper typed out in black text. I'm describing all this because I have no clue what the brand name is, they've been using this simple packaging since I was little.

You have choices of plain ramen with no soup base, shoyou or miso soup base. Follow the instruction and put anything you like for your topping. I put mine with  teriyaki chicken with saute mushroom/carrots and shredded green onion. 

If you have a chance to drop by at J-town, also try their cold ramen in freezer section. Good to eat on hot summery day!

ramen

March 30, 2014

Roasted Root Vegetable Soup

My first attempt to use squash to make soup!

This year of Spring is not quite yet warm enough to say Spring is here. Roasting vegetables really makes warm and cozy soup that's perfect for cold weather.

Roasted Root Vegetable Soup
- 1/4 cup Olive Oil.
- 1 small butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cubed.
- 2 carrots, cut into thick rounds.
- 1 large parsnip, cubed
- 2 leeks, thickly sliced
- 1 onion, quartered
- 3 bay leaves
- 4 thyme sprigs
- 3 rosemary sprigs
- 5 cups veg stock
- salt and freshly ground black pepper, soured cream to serve

1. Preheat oven 200C/400F. Pour olive oil into bowl and toss all veggies until evenly coated.
2. Spread out veggies on baking pan. Tuck the bay leaves and thyme and rosemary sprigs amongst veggies.
3. Roast veggies for 50min until tender, tuning them occasionally to make sure they brown evenly.
4. Discard herbs and transfer veggies into large pot.
5. Pour the stock into the pot and bring to boil and simmer for 10min.
6. Blend the soup with food processor/blender until thick and smooth.
7. Season the soup with salt, pepper, sour cream(optional) and serve.

Roasted Root Vegetable Soup

Roasted Root Vegetable Soup

Roasted Root Vegetable Soup