Valentine Day

This year we decided to make sushi! The whole experience was very fun. We had so much sashimi that it wasn't even funny.

We made tempura of cucumber, onion, avocado, zucchini, and shrimp. It was a lot of deep-frying. I will not be deep-frying anything for a long time from now.

We splurged a little and got day-caught scallops. They were so fresh and rich. I could never imagine how buttery and rich scallops can get. I made a garlic and sesame dressing to go with the scallops.

This was our first time rolling a sushi roll ever in our lives. We made a spicy scallop roll with strips of cucumber. It was a lot harder than we imagined.


Spicy scallop roll cut and plated.

Next up, we had the salmon and tuna roll with cucumber and cilantro.

Then we made our last and final roll which was the "Dragon" roll.

The rest were all salmon and tuna sashimi.

The meal was very satisfying. For something so simple looking as sashimi and sushi, the process of preparing it with care was quite difficult. I think I'll leave sushi rolling up to the professionals from now on. However, I will continue to eat slabs after slabs of sashimi by myself.

Chalk Wall - It Makes Writing on Walls OK

My sister has this room which was painted pink. It wasn't an ugly pink. It was just pink. She wanted to use it as a working studio or a craft room of some sort. She made the mistake of asking me for ideas on what to do with the walls. I said: LET'S MAKE ONE OF THE WALLS A CHALKBOARD!

Yay, right? Wrong! I mean, we didn't think it was wrong at first. We said: Whoo, that's awesome! Let's go pick an awesome color! And so we did. We picked an awesome grey color that would go great with the floor. But then things got tricky. Really tricky. The existing wall was texturized. We can't have a textured chalkboard! Nooooo. So my sister was the hero. She got a sander and she sanded that shit down. I think her lungs' lives just got shortened by a good 10 years due to inhalation of paint/wall dust. Oh, I forgot about lead poisoning, too. Oh man! My sister has stories on how much she suffered for that wall that could keep a whole weekend by the campfire entertaining.

Since I've always been a lazy butt, I only help out with the easy stuff like putting paint on the already sanded and primed wall.

Ah, this was the fun part. We had to mix non-sanded grout in with the paint so that chalk would later be erasable. Fun, no? Well, we um... didn't have a paint mixer and were too lazy to walk over to our parents' place to grab the drill...so my genius sister created this contraption.

Et, voila! Sticks taped to the stand mixer. It didn't work super well because the sticks were too skinny, so we switched it over to spoons later on.

We succeeded in mixing it enough that there were minimal chunks of grout in the paint. Then we painted a beautiful wall which we had to destroy immediately by smearing it with chalk. Why? Because someone told us that the chalk wouldn't erase easily if we didn't prime the wall first with chalk. So, we primed it with chalks.

This part was actually really fun. Destroying something so beautiful was fun.

We took a break to draw a kitty!

We even took a break to take this picture of me standing in front of pain and destruction!

Once the wall was completely covered in chalk, we had to wipe that stuff down so it would be nice and clean to use. This wasn't very fun.

Oh yes, we used it and it was AWESOME SAUCE!

Bag From A Bag Revisited

Ever since I made the bag from a bag, I've asked my fellow feral cat feeders for their leftover cat food bags. I've collected a bunch and finally make a new batch (about 8 bags total, I have more in my "to make" pile). I even got a proper photographer to take pictures for me this time. I even model my own bags. So editorial.
See, very editorial.


This time, I decided to get some smaller twines and braid them together for the handles. This way, the twine won't fray easily.

I got three types of kibble bags. These are the other two:


I even got help from Lily.

And Mr. Hobbes!


Since it was so editorial, I'll have to list the credits where credit is due.
Material providers: Wonderful feeders of the Hobo feral cat colony
Bags sewn by: LeTran B.
Wardrobe: Baotran B.
Background: Baotran B.
Makeup: LeTran B.
Photography: Baotran B.
Cute directors: Lily B. and Hobbes B.

Abstract ocean painting

I found this photo on Pinterest from aimee-weaver and thought, "hey, we could do this for my parents for Christmas."



My sister has been looking for a painting of an open space for them with no luck. We haven't found anything worth blowing $50-100 over. I've calculated that if we do this ourselves, we could save a lot of money AND get what we want.

The trip to Home Depot got us a large 1/4" x 4' x 8' board. We got them to cut it for us into three pieces, one of those were a 4' x 2.5'. We also got simple wall paint: self-priming pure white, a deep blue and an aqua. I also got brushes from the dollar tree: 2 for $1 :D

Let's start.

Here's our board. We like the cracks, but if you don't, invest in better boards. We opted for the cheapest piece because we really like the texture and cracks. Plus, we wanted to save money :)



Take your board and sand it down. It'll help hold the paint and reduce splinters. We like the cracks, but if you don't, invest in better boards.



Once done, flip it around to the back and install a french cleat hanger. We also stuck cabinet cabinet cork pads on the hanger before installing the screws because they were a bit longer than the thickness of the board—we didn't want the screws to go through the board.



If you're weak like me, use a drill to pre-drill a hole before installing the screw. If you're strong like my sister, you can use your bare strength.



Ok flip it over. Start painting the self-priming pure white all over the whole board. This will act as a base.



Wait until your white paint is half way dry. Mix a small amount of white and blue paint to create light blue. Paint the light blue at the top.





Add blue.



Add aqua. Blend between blue and aqua.



Blend aqua down to the white at the bottom. Done! Hang!



Sorry for the bad photos! :(

Halloween!

Halloween this year will be chilled but also cool, too. I finally have met an animal who will let me dress him up in a costume. I present to you, Gizmo, the bumblebee!




I couldn't find a cute dog costume so I bought a human costume with wings and antennae for him.

My sister and I also went to Walmart and got a pumpkin for $4. I only bought one pumpkin but I wanted to carve a cat carving and a dog carving to honor Suppy and Rocky.
Kitty cat carving for Suppy poo pie.

A howling dog for Rocky pup.

Rest well beautiful animals and happy Halloween!

DIY Necklace & Earring Hanger from Tree Branch

A few days ago, I accidentally stumbled upon a few posts on Pinterest about DIY necklace hangers made from tree branches or scraps of wood.

My mother is a hoarder—she even keeps branches of trees she cut down. It's weird, but I found a branch from her cherry tree she trimmed last year. Thank you, mother, your hoarding problem finally paid off :D

So after stealing my mother's cherry branch, aka trash, I went to Home Depot looking for small cup hooks to use on my hanger. Alas, the size I wanted were all gold. I'm not a fan of this color :| I went home a little disappointed, but decided to go ahead and use my father's stash of regular nails.

Take a branch—anything you like. Make sure it's dry.



I sprayed it with a matt varnish to seal the wood and give it a darker shade of wood.



Add nails.



I added a nail approximately every one inch. Some of my necklaces are bulky so they need space between them.



Bam. Done. Remember to make another one for your earrings.



TIP: If you use nails, because they are straight, make sure you angle the nails downwards when you hammer them in. That way the head of the nails are going upwards. Your necklaces won't move or fall off the nails. I made the mistake of not thinking about that until the end so I had to fix all the nails later.