Cotton Cheongsam

Cotton Cheongsam #1
Overall difficulty: medium
Techniques used: French seams, pinked edges, blind hem, invisible zipper installation, bias tape

Lessons learned for next time: I should definitely leave more seam allowance as this dress barely fits around my hips.  When I know I plan to use French seams, I would cut it more generously because I'm rather bad about making sure that seam stays at its proper size and it's good for me to have extra. Also, blind hem stitch sure took a lot of finagling from me to get the right stitch width to make it work.
Would I make it again? Totally! With a few alterations I mention below.  And it'd be fun to try this in a fabric with some stretch to it.

A short while ago I was obsessed with border prints.  I ordered this butterfly one off of fabric.com, but when it arrived I discovered the pattern tiles vertically, not along the border.  I was at a loss of what to do with this fabric until I read an article showing borders used as a wonderful accent on necklines and waistlines.  Brilliant!   After that I just had to hunt down a dress pattern made of long, thin panels and I remembered that I had also been interesting in trying my hand at making a cotton cheongsam - such as the ones pictured in vintage Shanghai posters.   

I found this cheongsam pattern off a site FULL OF FREE PATTERNS  You download and print out a pdf file which tiles out the pattern pieces, and you tape them all together.  I wasn't expecting that much from this pattern because 1) I just found it randomly on the internet, 2) it was free, 3) there's no reviews or anything to let you know how well put together the pattern is.  But, it's free so it wasn't like I was risking much!  

With this dress I really tried to apply myself and work on some better construction techniques, particularly on all the seams.  I don't have a serger, but there's ways of finishing seams so they don't all fray away into nothing when you wash it.  So overall for me this dress was a level up even as I see many things to correct for the NEXT one I make.  Yup, I liked this so much I created a more durable pattern for myself even though already I know there's alterations for that next one - I'd really make this a few inches longer, make it less of a racerback cut around the arms, and remember that I DO know how to put in a lining or construct an armhole with facing for a much more attractive opening.

The internet was a wonderful resource for all the techniques I wanted to learn and us e this time.  The following list has the particularly helpful tutorials I used.  There's lots of them out there for each technique, but I found the pictures for these the best.

How to Make French Seams
Blind Hem - what that heck is it and how does it work?
How to Make Your Own Bias Tape
Invisible Zippers - YOU Can Install One Too, Today!

And to finish off the post, another dance inspired photo.  Till next time!

Scalloped Heart Dress

It's been another two weeks of adventure in the realm of sewing for me.  Ages ago I had decided I would try to make a dress to wear to an upcoming wedding, and I'd found this great retro pattern that looked fairly simple.  I had made a mock up and a casual summer dress with the pattern (which...had problems with going wrong and wronger under another deadline), but I thought surely, the third time would work perfectly.  Ha!  Just goes to show nothing goes according to plan.

This is the dress I ended up with.  There's been a few late nights tearing out my hair and a ton of stitches regarding the skirt - the first draft of the dress ended up with an alarming amount of poof.  Like absolutely ridiculous amounts of poof.  With the clock ticking (I leave in 2 days and I had to leave time for actual packing and prepping to go) to a deadline of Sunday, I frantically thumbed through my patterns to find an alternative skirt.  So, in the end the dress looks not very much like my original pattern, but woohoo! - I have something to wear to the wedding.

These are the two patterns I based the dress off of.  It was a bit of  hack and slash to put those things together after the Poof Incident, though not to bad since the waistline is about the same area.  It wasn't as hard as I thought to tackle the pencil skirt, actually, though next time I'll know better about how to adjust the pattern to fit my hips better.  The hardest part I think was that the dress is now PRETTY SNUG right at the waist after I added in the zipper - it just took up a lot of the seam on the side.  Sadly I won't be able to gorge myself in the week leading up to the wedding, when I'm visiting New York - oh no!

I found a good scalloped edge tutorial which helped me out for the neckline.  This is the second attempt at a heart cutout for the back.  I totally forgot to attach a stiffer material to the back of the dress so it only really holds its shape if I'm not moving my arms around.  Seems like that heart cutouts are a pretty popular thing, judging from Etsy. :).


I'm very relieved it's finally done, so I took a dancing pic to celebrate.  The dance pose was inspired by the Chinese Dai ethnic group, which is very well known for their peacock dance.  The traditional costume includes a long narrow  sarong-style skirt, so the dance moves don't feature a lot of open flexibility in the hips.  My hands aren't so perfect but, eh. :)  Taken using the timer off my Canon 7D, lit with natural daylight and a ring flash.  Note to self to use a more powerful flash and/or ought to have used faster shutter speed to catch movement without blurring.

Next stop - mad amount of laundry, cleaning the house, and packing for the trip! :D

Farmer McDoris

Greetings from the garden! It's that time of year when all those seeds and little sprouts that looked so unhopeful and small weeks ago are starting to come into their own. My previous garden posts were about the boxes I made for trees, but today's garden vegetable plot actually came into existence shortly before those boxes were made.

Last winter I saw a Frame-it-All kit at Home Depot on sale (about $100 on the off season) and I just had to get it.  It comes with plastic brackets and  composite timbers that allow you to build a modular garden.  I went for a 4' x 8' plot.  The particular kit is meant to do a 2-level plot but I wanted to just go ahead and make everything 12" tall, so I had to get 2 extra pieces of 2"x6" redwood cut to 4 foot lengths to make up for it.  The plastic brackets make this thing super easy to construct, you just need a drill to attach the pieces and it just stacks together!

After that I did lay a piece of landscaping fabric down although I don't know that it was necessary.  I threw in a couple inches of bark nuggets to help with the drainage (since this will sit forever on concrete,  I don't want it to be sopping wet 24/7, though I think having it be damp when I water it is OK), and then hauled bag after bag after bag into it.  THAT took a couple of weekends because I would only want to buy/haul a few at a time!  I mixed all kinds of brands of dirt, compost, and some pearlite, figuring the type of dirt will all average out in the end.

After that I put in some seeds and seedlings and now 3 months later I have a ton of lettuce, chard, radishes (wait. there IS a slight problem where I don't actually eat nearly enough leafy greens), my tomatoes are starting to fruit and I have some green bean plants and peppers getting more optimistic looking.  I would like to put in a drip watering system for this bed, but the size of the plot, mulch,  and the shade from the leaves means it doesn't dry out TOO fast.  I still have to water it daily on very hot days, but last year I had plants wilt from heat if I didn't get to give them some water twice a day.  This is doing all right and if it gets too hot I can set up a little open shade to cool it down.

Next step: make myself eat tons and tons of leafy greens!!

Hello Kitty Dress Refashion

I really have a terrible habit of seeing something a friend has and then wanting it.  Maybe it's just good marketing by association?  A few weeks ago I saw AJ wearing an adorable Hello Kitty top and I instantly had to have one for myself!  And what better way to break in a new (to me) used sewing machine that I had just bought from AJ? 

It's been a long time since I have tried refashioning anything (a whole year according to this blog!).  I had the perfect dress I wanted to cut up.  It was another old Forever21 purchase and as you see here it was sort of cute but at the same time not very inspired.  Also, the one and only time I wore it was on a day years and years ago where I had a very, very off, breaking up kind of day with an on-off again relationship.  My biggest regret was being slightly unfashionable during said encounter and I could never bring myself to wear the dress again.  A very good reason to cut it up, don't you think?  I had some scraps of white knit jersey from a friend, enough to make a tube top.




Basically I sliced off the skirt segment, and sewed on the tube top portion.   The white tube is double layered.  I ended up having to cut the fabric so that the outward facing panel has the grain running horizontally but the inside layer the grain is vertical.  Overall there's less stretch since I have layered the fabric this way but it actually feels more secure and supportive.  The Hello Kitty face I cut from pieces of crafting felt and tacked onto the top layer of the tube top.  Her bow I made from scraps of lycra and stuffed with cotton balls since I didn't have any batting around. 

I'm quite pleased with it!  I already have a bit of a Hello Kitty reputation at work so I'd probably only wear it on the weekends or very, very casual days at work.

And bringing it all together in addition to pointing out the dangers of giving me a camera with a self-timer function and to show off the reason why my house has large amounts of blank walls - and that a new dress makes me so happy I just have to dance -->

I may have to take more dancing photos of all my clothes I make!  Just because.

I am STILL on my Southeast Asian ish kick because when you buy those packs of herbs for pho or springrolls, you get so many!  I've sort of accepted that I'm going to use what I can and then the rest will go bad, but I'm attempting to make it through more of what I bought.  I'm down to the mint, and my pot of homegrown lettuce desperately needed a thinning, so a salad inspired bento it was.

1. Base of rice noodles.  I love rice noodles because they cook so fast!  Bring a pot of water to boil, add in your rice noodles (also called rice sticks.)  They only need a few minutes (4ish for these pho style ones), drain and rinse under cold water.

2. I've been using hot pot sliced pork for a quick and easy protein.   For this, I drizzled the slices with sesame oil, soy sauce, mirin, and a tsp of sugar (raw cane, in this case) in a small bowl. Add enough liquid to partially cover the meat, let it marinate for a few minutes.  Cook it in a pan until the meat is done and has absorbed the cooking liquid.  Set aside to cool.

3.  Here I've used sliced lettuce mixed with mint, and slice radishes (also needed eating from the garden) in lieu of bean sprouts. 

4. If you would like a poached egg on top, bring a pot of water to a simmer.  Oil a silicon baking cup and crack an egg into it.  Gently drop it into the water (it will float) and simmer for 7 minutes.  Remove from water and let cool, then pop that egg out.

5. Garnish as you like.  Can't go wrong with lime!  I also had a light vinigrette, the original recipe was 1/2 fish sauce 1/2 cider vinegar, but I find the fishy taste too strong.  So it's probably more like 1/3 fish sauce, 2/3 vinegar. 

Light, fresh, and healthy!    This salad is a good one to bring to work because it's tasty cold. 

Bento: Sliders and oven baked fries

Nothing says cute like the itsy bitsy version of something.  My local Fresh and Easy had a sale on slider patties which don't turn out to be all that cheap when you think about how little meat you're actually getting.  But they're pre-shaped, and cute, and hey.  Why not try them?  (Perhaps I will make my own in the future.)
The first time I made this bento I used mini ciabatta  buns.  This time I cut rounds from a loaf of wheat bread I made earlier this week and am still working through.  I included the cute cheese cutouts just because it makes me happier to know my sliders have a heart of cuteness.  Leftover cheese was consumed at a separate meal, and I think I'll make a bread pudding with the crusts.

1. Pan cook slider patties on both sides until they're cooked through.  Set aside to cool.

2. Slice up a potato into fries, toss with salt, olive oil and pepper.  Pop into the toaster over for 20 minutes at 350 and check for doneness.  Add another 5 minutes if they're not cooked through.  I like soggy fries so it doesn't bother me that they're pretty soft. :)  You could bake them for longer to get them more golden, though.

3. Use your favorite cookie cutter to get a cute cheese shape. 

4. I used a cookie cutter to cut out rounds of bread the same size as the patties.

5. Wait for everything to cool before packing together.

6. Enjoy!

Bento: banh mi(ish) sandwich

Last Christmas my sister got me a bento cookbook written by a very popular blogger (writer of justbento.com and its companion blog justhungry.com).  We've been trading emails and ideas for bentos for awhile, although her oldest son is only just getting to be old enough to bring lunches to school and my sister is really busy as a professor so I don't know how much time she has to prepare cute lunches.  I started making some of these to fancy up the lunchtime because lately, I've been so busy at work I eat at my desk too often.  A cute or fancily-packed lunch makes me feel a bit better.

And then Wei-Ling said, "Why are you not blogging about your lunches?"

So here goes!  All recipes approximate and taken from other sources. 
Today is inspired by justbento's deconstructed banh mi:

Meat: pan fry a skinless, boneless chicken thigh until done.  set aside.  mix about 1/2 tablespoon sugar, 1 tablespoon soy, 1 tablespoon mirin and pour into the still hot pan.  when it starts to bubble, swirl the chicken thigh in the sauce until it is nicely glazed.

pickles: shred (I used a mandolin grater, cutting to small pieces would work too but don't use a cheese grater, too small) carrots daikon, apple into a bowl.  sprinkle salt (1 tsp), sugar (1 tsp) and massage for 2-3 minutes until the veggies wilt and give up some water.  rinse thoroughly.  Put into a jar with brine (1 c warm water, 1/4 C sugar, 1 C vinegar, you can adjust sugar levels to taste) and let sit for at least an hour. 

bread: traditional banh mi are served on mini baguettes, but I just put it between two slices of wheat bread.  It kind of turned into a monster sandwich.  Yum!

Basket Fence

Two years ago I had tried to make a hanging strawberry basket after I'd seen a few articles about how you can get this really cute arrangement by putting the strawberry plants out the sides as well as the top.  My first attempted two years ago didn't do very well.  I suspect it was because the baskets either didn't get enough sun or because they simply didn't retain water very well.  Plants would get alternatively drowned and then die of thirst.  Never did get many berries off of them; and supposedly you ought to be able to get your basket to last a few years if you do it right.

I'm ready to try it again  since my local Daiso had very inexpensive wire half-rounds for sale and now I have a whole sunny fence to decorate.  Here I've used wool (scooped up from a seamstress friend who was giving away fabric) as the liner.  It actually works way better than those coconut fiber baskets.  There's gaps in the wool towards the bottom where the odd-shaped pieces I cut left gaps that lets the excess water drain out, but the outside of the fabric is almost never soggy; the wool is a pretty good insulation from excess evaporation from the sides of the basket.  This year, I went ahead and used the moisture control soil AND I put in little watering globe things (the mushroom in the pic) that will slowly release water as the soil dries out.


Basically I cut slits into the wool and gently put in the plants (trying not to damage the roots) BEFORE filling up the basket with dirt and the plants on the top.  I let it sit for a week or two to let the plants settle, then hung them up on the fence.  Here I've got 3 strawberry baskets and 2 pea baskets (in the coco fiber lined ones.  not sure They're doing ok..not that that great. Hohonestly I don't think you're supposed to grow peas this way.)  But I've got a few green berries to keep an eye on!  I'm crossing my fingers for some cheery red berries come June! Enough for a couple of shortcakes? :D

Backyard Progress #2

Garden boxes galore!  Last time I checked in it was about the planter boxes for where the trees will go.  After I got the tree boxes done we had a spate of rain/I got lazy about the yard.  Then one day last week I stopped off at Orchard Supply Hardware and saw they had a whole new selection of spring veggies out and no wonder - it's April!  So I really had to get my butt gear if I was going to be able to plant things on time!

I had planned for low boxes to fit in between the trees.  Ideally I would love for some vines to go up a trellis against the back wall, although the spot is not ideal - it's in open shade instead of full sun for most of the day, but I have an idea to fix that.  And, it would be OK I think for the cooler weather vegetables.  The fully full sun spots are too hot for the leafy greens to really flourish.

I built the boxes the same was as the previous ones, open on the bottom.  For one of the two boxes I made this weekend I had to build a little guard around an existing, painted column to minimize the contact it will have with dirt and water (as I intend to grow some food plants...ha...I'll be lucky if they produce significant fruit but hey, positive).  Then I put down some weed blocker material, then shoveled in a few inches of bark nuggets for drainage.  I really ought to be using river rocks, but bringing bags of that home turned out to be impractical (read: impossible as I can't lift them by myself) ,then topped up with a mix of dirt, compost, and perlite to help keep the soil aerated.

And BAM!  Instant-o garden box.  In the back there's butternut squash and cantaloupe, since they're bitty I have a bit of time before the trellis needs to go in.  I transplanted some chard from elsewhere into this box because I think they were getting a bit fried from the sun.  (The problem could also be the way I was watering them.  Oh plants!  Why do under and over watering lead to the same result?)

Whew, so the yard is getting there. These boxes are 12" high, verses the 24" of the tree boxes, and 2'x4" large.  It's a significant amount of dirt to haul.  I think perhaps just one more small box of about 2'x2' for an herb corner and that side of the yard will in business.

 I hope the vines will come in!  I think they'll look nice against that cream wall.  All the more funny if they produce any melons/squash.  I hope the trees will do well where they are too...they do look a bit spindly at the moment, don't they?  Sadly this last picture looks just about the same as my last one, but this time the boxes are out together and one has dirt in it.  And itty bitty plants.   Grow, grow!

Backyard Progress Report #1

It's February and thanks to our gorgeous California climate gardening season is getting underway. I had plans to get my backyard ready for bare root trees back in December; but between the holidays and not having any time or the money to drop on tons of materials this didn't get going until January through now.  I wasn't too sure about how to go about what I wanted to do either; essentially, to build up a retaining wall big enough for dwarf fruit trees along my back wall.  After some thought I decided - I REALLY don't want to haul that much dirt to make this idea feasible!  It would probably take me a whole year, at the rate I was going.  Planters seemed like a much better idea.  Just build up enough dirt around the tree to get the necessary depth...and I could make it all modular! 

no fancy construction here!

Modular also seemed like a good idea because I really had no idea what I was doing.  If I messed up, it wouldn't ruin everything.  :)  I decided to make the planters open at the bottom and line them with landscaping fabric so they would drain freely and to construct these as simply as possible because I'm not so sure about my carpentry skills.

structure and order starting to appear

I went with 4 planks on each side, held together by brackets and nails.  Wood was bought and cut at Home Depot, common redwood.  Cost for each planter is coming to about $60, $40 for the wood and $20 for the brackets.

Progress!  Three planters made and housing a peach, orange (or maybe lemon which is in the foreground), and avocado tree, and loose planks to mark where the rest of the planter boxes will go. Trees will stay in the pots for this year to see how they'll do in the part-sun location. Next year or the year after when they're big enough I'll put them into the planters directly.

The longer planks are only laying out the probably position so far, and are not set in place yet.

Don't quite know what I'll do with the corners of the yard after that!  On the right side there's my compost heap (and a big pot of blueberry plants) - and not sure how to make a graceful end to the row I have going on here.  Maybe just low beds to complete the retaining wall?  I do need a good spot for herbs!

Jack Frost is an unwelcome house guest.

Brrrr.  My house is cold!

Heh, first winter in the new house and I'm reminded again that older California houses don't have the best insulation by a long shot.  The house was built in 1980 so it's not really OLD old, but not as well protected from the winter chill as something built in 2005 would be; the single pane windows have a lot to do with it.  I'm kind of used to it since the house I grew up in was exactly like that until the folks replaced everything with double pane windows; but since I'm probably many years from having the money to do that I needed to find a way to help seal out the cold at least a little bit.  (And after the first heating bill, it was a top priority.) 

Those blackout/insulating curtains are supposed to be helpful for this kind of thing, but they're pretty expensive.  I got them for my tenants' room but I didn't feel like spending a few hundred bucks doing it for the rest of the house.  (Especially because it took a lot longer after the tenant's room to get curtains for my OWN room.)  I've seen something like saran wrap taped over a window to seal it, but that wasn't quite the look I was going for either.  I was looking for something thick, something insulative - and relatively inexpensive.

My solution - fleece blankets!!   A couple of searches later on the almighty Google on similar themes had entries on things like "window quilts", especially for very old homes in non-urban areas that really ARE not insulated, and this isn't a new idea at all.  Kind of like those tapestries in medieval times to warm up stone walls!  I was all set to run out and buy fleece until I saw the suggestion to try using fleece blankets from discount stores.  BRILLIANT.  It was the beginning of cold season so all the store were bringing out their sale blankets.  That night I ran over to the local discount store and bought cheap tension rods and blankets.

My existing curtains are made for just screening out a little summer light and are 4" away from the actual window.  I put the fleece as close as I could to the actual window and it actually helps!  It's not as though my house was magically toasty warm, but there is a noticeable difference when you put your hand on one side of the blanket verses the other.  At least now I don't feel any benefit from the having the heat on leaks out 5 seconds later through the window.  Maybe 10 minutes! ha. Every little bit counts.

The Depths of Frugalness

fashion disaster Doris - 11-16/11

Let's face it; Asians have a reputation for being cheap.  This is a raging stereotype, but on the whole it is pretty true for the first generation folks who came here dirt poor and worked their asses off to the middle class; and it affects a lot of second generation-ers like myself who are the children of the previously mentioned group.  (The cheapness doesn't apply to the other group of name-brand chasing Asians; or anyway, less obviously.  There isn't an Asian out there alive who can pass up a good bargain.)

Earlier this week a friend sent me a 50% off coupon for Banana Republic, good only for one day.  Of course I did my duty and passed it on to other friends and then scoped out the website to see what I might want.  I didn't end up getting anything from Banana that day, but I sure got infected with the need to buy more classy clothes for work in a really bad way.  It probably didn't help that I was dressed in fashion-disaster style and having a bad hair day to boot.  So I was on a serious mission to get a whole new wardrobe, like now.  And because I'm cheap, I started searching through Target and Ross in a serious way.

While I was there I saw this adorable wool jacket and it looks like the perfect classy jacket to go over some work dresses and skirts I picked up.  I tried it on and I'm between sizes; I needed the medium to fit my shoulders, but a small around the waist area.  Regretfully  I put it back on the rack because I'm trying to be good and not waste my money on ill fitting clothes and uncomfortable shoes; until I noticed that the jacket was on CLEARANCE.  That little tag changed everything because my frugal Asian genes kicked in; it's such a good deal!  How can you not?  My ancestors would be ashamed if I didn't take advantage of such good luck!

A little sewing machine is a dangerous thing.

Ungh.  Sometimes I think I have maybe more time on my hands than is quite good, or anyway, at this point in my life I spend more effort in the name of less money.  So I got that jacket, took it home, and took it apart to try to do some tailoring myself.  It didn't seem like it was going to be a very hard thing; I mean, I've sort of sewn a few things together, right?  I only needed to alter the jacket slightly to look less boxy on me, but still be big enough to fit  some heavier winter clothes underneath. 

In the end, I was reasonably pleased because it's always helpful for me to see how clothes are constructed and by ripping apart the lining I got a better view on how a jacket is made.  Sadly I wasn't able to make my stitching invisible and I did kind of rip a tiny hole I had to sew up (making the jacket go instantly from classy to ghetto; but not THAT noticeable....I think.)

not box shaped anymore!

Yup, so I discovered I've got quite a capacity for being cheap, although it'll be a ways to go before I can really tailor my own clothes super well.  Shortening some pants and the hack job on this jacket is my limit so far, and still working on making it less obvious that I have done so; but I have noticed that good tailoring will take a so-so article of clothing and make it great.   Anyway I had fun doing this and it's a warm jacket so I'm good with it.  AND CHEAP, mwahahaha.

 

Living/Dining room before and after!

Hi Dad! also...blue and yellow next to each other!?

After a long break, I'm back to blogging. What have I been up to for the last 5 months? There's been a lot of working on the house. I fell into the trap of "I can't put up pictures of this before and after until the after is really done!" and as I have been discovering (all you people who have already done a lot of house-things, whether you own or not, are laughing at me) is that things are never DONE. And I fell further into the writer's trap of "I can't post anything until I get that first house blog done). Dang. That was a deep tiger pit of a trap. Anyhow! Here is my first official post about stuff I'm doing to the house because now I'm a homeowner and inflict that kind of thing on ever. PAINT! When I moved in, the house was pretty awful awful colors. I maintain that the previous owner certainly had STRONG sense of color, but I don't think he perceived color at all in the same way I do. Plus, the dining room drywall was a little destroyed due to some termite smiting.

Clearly, there was going to be a lot of repainting (i.e. the whole house.)  It was just so...not restful.  As much as I like Cal and Cal colors, it's not something I want in my dining room.

Thus I pulled a Tom Sawyer and desperately tried to convince all my friends that painting is SO MUCH FUN, and to come over and help me in return for beer, sandwiches, and pretzels.  Clearly this was a thin and sketchy offer on the fun angle, but after a few days of work my living room become much more soothing!

Granted, some of this is just that much more soothing because the mess is gone! It didn't take five months to do this painting, but it was only this last weekend where I was able to get curtains and was hence able to call this room "done".  Curtains are freaking expensive!  I did pull a crazy Asian girl homeowner thing though, and when I found a set of discontinued curtains on MEGA SALE, for the living room, I went back to two different locations to find enough matching and on sale curtains for the bedrooms.  Maybe it involved forcibly grabbing the display curtains while no one was looking a bit of work to find enough for a matching set but hey, DISCOUNTED!! and MATCHING! (boring boring white.  but the white is working for me.)

Whew, all right.  Now I feel like I can continue blogging like a normal person again, and not just about the house.  But stay tuned for more about the house. :)

D.I.Y. #3- The Zen of Cookies

Don't you just love days where the plan is to do nothing?  I amazed myself this fine Saturday (now Sunday) by my incredible multi-tasking of doing nothing yet accomplishing quite a lot.

My to-do list today looked consisted of:
1. Go to the bookstore

2. Make pancake breakfast

3. watch some tv

4. make cookies

5. start packing up the apartment

Thoere must be some Zen saying about how not TRYING to accomplish a lot means you'll be relaxed enough a hell of a lot done.  I feel like I really managed to filled up my day and be extremely productive despite waking up at 11 am and managing to watch Face/Off, Casino Royale, AND Bones AND Fringe.  The packing jitters are starting to set in, when I have to decide what I can pack now to make life easier for myself and what I won't be able to live without for the next 2-3 weeks.  Gah.  The anxiety is rising, although my subconscious must be very concerned about my shoes - I dreamed the other night that it was deathly important I pack all my shoes FIRST.  But I decided in the end that considering the next week will be eaten up by dance rehearsals, I can safely start packing away less used cooking equipment.  I don't exactly see myself making sponge cakes anytime soon.

The crowning achievement of my day, though, must be the cookies.  I've been promising Amy I'd make my Auntie Ellen's chocolate chip cookies ever since she told me about Levain Bakery in New York -  apparently famous for their chocolate chip and walnut cookies.

WELL...I've been eating Auntie Ellen's cookies since childhood and I have to say, this is my favorite CCC of all time.  Just the right balance of nuttiness, chocolate, not overly sweet, and somehow, her cookies always remain nice and firm (I was using the Tollhouse recipe for ages, but whenever I bake that, it always melts into a giant cookie puddle.)  I don't make them as well as Auntie Ellen, but a few more practice batches should do it!  So simple, so good.  Next time I'm thinking of substituting pistachios for the walnuts just to see how it turns out.  Enjoy!

Auntie Ellen's Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 measuring teaspoon baking soda

1 measuring teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, softened

¾ cup sugar

¾ cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 measuring teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

2 cups chocolate chips

1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 375⁰ F.  In small bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt; set aside. In large bowl, combine butter, sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract, beat until creamy.  Beat in eggs.  Gradually add flour mixture.  Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.  Drop by level measuring tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.  Bake at 375⁰ F. 9-11 minutes.

D.I.Y #2 - onigiri

Oh!nigiri!1!  

Have you ever been watching an anime and seen the characters chowing down on onigiri and thought, damn that looks good!  I want some, but how do I make them?  Here’s how!

What are onigiri?  Basically, onigiri are rice balls with a filling (fish or picked vegetables, wrapped in seaweed for easy handling.  They are especially delicious grilled, as the rice gets nice and crispy.  That’s all – rice and filling.  I’m 90% sure the compact hand-held aspect (and cute shapes) add even more to the flavor.  The cuter a food is, the more delicious, right?

Ingredients

 1. Fresh, hot steaming rice.  You can mix some sushi vinegar in it if you like, although that is a bit untraditional.  The rice must be hot and steaming, or else it won’t stick together.

 2. Filling of your choice.  I’ve used some lightly salted salmon as the filling for mine, you can choose your own to taste.  If it is meat, pre-cook your meat and cut into small pieces.

To assemble:

1. Onigiri making is easier with molds, but you can use your hands to make triangular shapes as well.  Fill up the mold half way with the rice and insert a piece of meat.

2. cover with rice and compress

3 Flip out onto a plate.

That’s it!  Between each ball rinse out your mold in cold, salted water (and also your hands) to keep the next ball from sticking.  The salt in the water will add a bit of flavor.   Wrap and seaweed and enjoy!

I like my rice crispy so I decided to grill these. I whipped up a quick sauce of 1/3 soy sauce, 1/3 sesame seed oil, and 1/3 mirin.  Maybe there was some vinegar in there too.  Brush some onto each side of the onigiri and throw it on the grill…

(If you don’t have a grill, broiling also works pretty decently too.)

Lastly, proceed to stuff into your face, and enjoy! :D

D.I.Y. #1 - Facial Scrub

Do you like smooth, soft facial skin but are too cheap to pay for expensive beauty products? Here's a recipe for a facial mask out of common drugstore purchases that should cost less than $10. I can't promise that you'll go from looking like

to

But let's be honest here. Even Yoda could use a little exfoliating and moisturizing to bring out that healthy green glow.

What you'll need:

1. any kind of clay facial mask

2. honey

3. uncoated apsirin

1. 2. 3.

How to use:

1. Take a few tablets of aspirin and sprinkle a few drops of water on them until they start to melt into a paste. only a small amount of water is necessary, you don't want it too runny.

2. Mix in equal amounts of the clay mask and honey.

3. Slather a thin layer onto your face avoiding your delicate eye area

4. You can use this as a mask and just let it dry, or go straight to gentle exfoliation.

5. follow with cleanser, and always, moisturizer.

Why does it work?

The clay mask helps to draw out impurities such as dirt and excess oils from your skin and pores. When your pores get clogged, that's when you start breaking out into zits/blackheads/whiteheads. Honey is a wonderful natural humectant, meaning it draws moisture to your skin (and did you know it is also an antibacterial agent? You can put it on burns, too!) Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) is very chemically similar to salicyclic acid, which is the medication in anti-acne astringents. The aspirin tablets also melt easily into a sand-like texture which makes for great exfoliating, which will scrub away dead skin cells (which also clog pores, have a dull, dry appearance) to reveal newer skin. Also, your moisturizers will penetrate more deeply and therefore be more effective.

I had been trying out a clay mask, but felt like it wasn't doing me any good at all. Then I had the brilliant idea of mixing it with honey, and almost right away I felt like my skin was much more refreshed! I had already been using an aspirin-honey scrub on occasion, so it was just natural after that to mix the three. I mix up a small batch (trust me, it doesn't take much, about 5-6 apsirin, a couple squirts of clay and honey) into a small sealable container and use that for the week. I use this about every other day, and I feel like my skin has improved greatly in tone and texture since I've started using it.

Try it and let me know how it works out! I think you'll have good results and possibly want to keep touching your face.

Just don't do that too much in public.