Chinese New Year Cookies

A week with so much to keep me busy as a bee. After the birthday party and valentine, we dived right into Chinese New Year!

Planned to make some simple ghee cookies, but changed my mind on the day itself. Since I have some leftover butter cookie dough from the birthday party. And I actually came up with this perfect idea for leftover dough.

No time to wait for your dough to warm up to room temperature for rolling? No problem!

I used a Melon Baller/Fruit Scoop/whatever you call that to shape my dough into little balls. Baked them for however long they need to fill my kitchen with sweet cookie smell, and topped them with the melted chocolate I prepared while baking. Lastly, sprinkle a tiny bit of rainbow bits on them and they are done!

The chocolate really makes them taste sooooooooo good. I used a mixture of milk and dark chocolate, and I'm simply a genius to get such perfection the first time. Hahahahah!

Valentine 2018

A new tradition added to the calendar this year. Valentine's Day!

Well, I've actually made card for Valentine's Day before (though not consistent), but from this year on, I'm making an effort to keep the Japanese tradition of chocolate-making on this day.

Let's focus this mini card that was prepared before the actual day. Once again, it's made of 99% recycled material. The usual recycled namecard featuring a new addition to our tool stash, The Elephant Clear Stamp. Totally love this series of My Favorite Things Clear Stamps, so expect to see more of them!

The pink card base is actually the wrapper of Tokyo Banana! Pink and Giraffe! Which was irresistible for me. BUY! BOUGHT! And RECYCLED!

The wrapper is adhered to and strengthened by a calendar page. Adhered the elephant and balloon in pop-up tape, and added random heart paper punches all over. Lastly, handwritten "Love" with Versamarker and embossed at the top left hand corner. Sometimes, I'm amazed at how all these trash can come together and transform into something of such beauty.

Next on to the chocolate part. For the first year, I went for the simple, most traditional - Chocolate Truffles. Nothing fancy, just basic Chocolate Truffles.

Though I did try adding some rainbow bits for some fanciness, it failed terribly. Always good to have room for improvement next year, right? As you can see from the photo, that I got lazy towards the end, and didn't bother to roll them at all. But nonetheless, they are still yummily tasty!

Changed the recipe (from what I got from the internet) BIG TIME. And honestly, I didn't mean it. I got confused with all my conversion and overestimated the weight of the chocolate bar I used. Despite this crazy mistake (that I only realize way after), it came out just fine! In fact, I think it's even better! Because the original recipe actually requires you to remove the truffles from the refrigerator and serve when it's in room temperature (I'm assuming that it would be softer that way, than being cold from the fridge). But mine actually has a really nice texture and firmness straight from the fridge. Definitely a big plus, since ain't nobody has time to wait for yummy snacks!

Sorry for the long post and yeah, stay tuned for the next!

Mickey Birthday Party - Garlic Baby Boy [Chocolate Tartletts & Jelly Cups]

Let's continue from last week Mickey Mickey Mickey!

Used the same dough from the butter cookie recipe, and shaped them into little tartletts. They are not the most presentable or the prettiest, but they definitely taste good (and overly sweet =X). So you can't deny me an A+ for effort, especially for those ears that took so much work!

Last but not least (but I feel otherwise), Jelly Cups! 100% store-bought jello, with minimum preparation, and poured into individual jelly cups. Well, sometimes it's the simplest things that count. =D

I suppose it's a big achievement to be able to prepare a dessert table like this. Though it's just simple pastries this time, let's work harder to improve and have a party at home sometime! Woohoo~

Mickey Birthday Party - Garlic Baby Boy [Butter Cookie & Egg Biscuit]

Hi~ We're back to the biggest project so far, so big that I decided to separate it into 3 posts!

Quite amazed that the first menu to be decided was the Butter Cookies. I had always deemed it to be the most tedious recipe ever. But after a few trial-runs and some brainstorming, I managed to make a big box like this in half a day, instead of a dreadful long day previously!

It's not exactly sufficient to feed 30pax (+10 children), but since the dessert table is just a side and would be served together with a dinner buffet, I didn't wanna make too much either. Too much of anything would make it bad, right?

Alright, to the next menu! The Egg Biscuit, that was added to the menu at the very last minute, because I thought it would be perfect for children and even babies! Totally reminds me of the 旺仔小馒头! I simply can't believe that this snack I used to nom all day as a child, or even a baby, can actually be homemade! So I definitely have to try making them, right?!

The taste was totally similar, though it doesn't melt in the mouth as much as the commercial ones. But still, it was not bad for the first time. Definitely gonna make again to achieve that ultimate melt-in-the-mouth texture.

Also packed them into small little containers for easy consumption~ Come on, one for every kiddy!


I guess I should take a break here, before our eyes die from diabetes. Turn tuned for more coming up next week~

Mickey Brthday Party - Garlic Baby Boy

This is probably the biggest project I've worked on so far. Planning started waaaaaaay before the actual party, and that is definitely a good thing. Totally appreciate the early notice. Started planning at least half a year before, with some dilly-dally, procrastination, and distractions, but still did a pretty decent job, I would say.

Got there early to help out a little with the decorations. Mostly just tearing out tapes for the guys hanging the balloons. But I did help to pack these cutie boxes as well. Just a couple of them though. But still!

The host did spent a lot of effort (and money) in preparation of this day too, I suppose!

Food Displays, like the cupcake stands, pink trays and turntable, are provided by the host, with some help from her sister. I must admit everything turn out to be beautiful! Right~?

Dish Name Displays were all handmade prior to event, and I'm so glad they turned out perfect! Did some extra for the buffet table as requested from the host, but I didn't really catch photos of those, other than some funny dish names they had.

Designed them from scratch, with some help from past experience (the triangular base was the "nametag" we placed on our desks on orientation day back in secondary school)!

Sponged blue in the shape of Mickey's forehead and probably ruined it with my awful handwriting. Yeah, I know there's much to work on for that.

Typewritten the ingredients used for each of the menu, because I am paranoid about paranoid loving parents who may be overly concerned about what goes into baby's tummy.

Well, gonna talk more about the menu only next week, since I need a little more time to arrange those photos. Just glad to say that everything went smooth and yummy that day~!

Bearth-day - MMO

I must admit that I was sooooo busy that I was on the verge of dropping this. But I am still feeling bad about having dropped this last year. Not to mention that there are 2 birthdays on this same day and one of them is back to her home country that I can't even make anything even if I wanted to now. T_T

So! In the midst of all the preparations of the crazily big project (which I will be posting next week), I have found a life-saver in my favorite value shop, Daiso!

The printed card is store-bought and made in Japan! Well, the made in Japan part is the biggest contribution to my purchase. Bought one of each design, and even a letter pad. All made in Japan. Simply love them!

A stamped, pop-up centerpiece was all that is added on to make this lovely card!

A simple message/letter at the back, with random stickers everywhere. Not much time was spent on making this card, but still full of love and cuteness. I did made some steamed cupcakes (Mushipan) and gave them together with the card. But unfortunately, no pictures taken. Shall feature that another time since I gonna run for my next project~ Ta-da!

Japan Holiday - Kawai Haruka

I'm quite amazed that I was able to finish making so many card in such a "short" period? XD This one was made for a teacher who went back to Japan earlier last year.

Still featuring the Beary Special Clear Stamps from My Favorite Things. Well, it's simply too cute to be using them just once, right? Embellished with the freebies I got with some crafting tool purchase. Oh, not to mention the strips of wrapping for the background.

Packed the inside with plenty presents! A combination of clear stamps from both Christmas and Beary Special. I don't think the overlapping would have worked out without the Stamp Platform. So I guess, with these recent additions, I can say that my card-making has been brought up a level.

I have also mailed a couple of postcards while I was in Japan. It's something I always do when I go overseas, and most of the time, like this time, I would forget to take a photo. So it's gonna be just memories in my head. See ya soon~

Christmas Get-Together 2017

It's the 14th February~! Valentine's Day~! Gonna make myself busy, making chocolate truffles, but the post for it would have to come later! Because I made yummy snacks and beautiful cards for Christmas as well, and I'm here to tell and show you all about them.

The Get-Together Party this year is much earlier than before, not that I know of the reason. But thanks to that, we were able to attend (and have a revival performance) despite the year-end holiday we've planned.

I baked some butter cookies and packed them with whatever I could find around the house, since I didn't have much preparation time. Most of them were similar to last year, with a couple others to make up for the number.

With the abundance of namecards to be recycled, I decided to make full use of them this time as well. And with the combination of my sponging, stamping and coloring skills, I would say that I fared quite well in this project. Gonna keep looking forward for the next~!

Beary Special - Lingx

Back again with a little gap *Whoooops* Just as I expected, I got super busy with the December babies and Christmas, followed by the Japan holiday in which I fell terribly sick during, and now the big preparation for Garlic's baby's first birthday. Still busy, busy, busy~

Have been trying to keep my cards simple recently, as I've seen beautiful cards that don't flood every inch with details. So this time, I've decided to focus on the front of the card like the previous time.

Found a piece of leftover wrapping paper that fits perfectly without trimming, so it settled my background. Bought a Compass Circle Cutter from Carousell for just $1, and it wanted to contribute. Thus the pink spotlight for our centerpiece. Though the cutter isn't in 100% working condition, it still did its job well.

The usual recycled namecard for the cute clear stamps. Oh! Did I mention that my husband got me the Stamp Platform (from Tim Holtz, Tonic Studios) for my birthday? Totally love it (though I'm still figuring my skills out)! But the next thing I'm going to want will be a bigger work-space to store my ever-increasing tools.

Alright, let's peek into the inside of the card~ Simple centerpiece with a little caption stamped. I guess, Simplicity is Everything, sometimes.

Paired with a type-written letter on some up-cycled paper. I suppose I could have done a better job, or at least sponged it with a Distress ink for some vintage feel (which I would love to add to my To-Buy list).