My Recent Henna Works

Red Dates Tea the Chinese Beauty Tea

In China. red dates are famous of having rich nutrient values. Red dates have high Vitamin A, Vitamin C and iron, which can stimulate the production of white blood cells. These can help to brighten up my skin colour and warm up my body a lot so I always make it for myself.

(1 person per serving)

Red dates (semi-dried):  5-8 

Dried longan:                 3-4

Wolf-berries:                  a handful

Water:                            800 ml (adjustable)

Sugar:                            5g (optional)

The ingredients above is just for reference. There is not strict amount for every single ingredient, the ratio of longans to red dates to wolf-berries should be around 1:2:3. You can add a bit sugar for the taste but I do not add it normally. That is also not a strict amount for how much water is needed. You can also reuse the ingredients just like how you reuse a teabag.

First thing first rinse all the ingredients and then cut open the red dates into half. Remove the seeds. Put them into some water and heat it up to boil to clean it throughly. Remove the water and add in new water. Heat up to boil and turn it into low heat. Put on a lid, wait for around 10 minutes and then fresh red dates tea is ready to drink.

Farewell Cookies

This year of uni is going to be very special to me because my studio class is going to be split into two groups. The first group going to the Shanghai base in semester one and the second half will go in semester two, which means in this whole year I am not see my other half except holidays :( This is really sad. When sending them off I have decided to make them cookies as a farewell gift. 

The idea of this "bye" cookie in pixelated font is inspired by a youtuber Rosanna Pansino, who made the tetris cookies with fun factory. I am going to use the same technique to make it. 

Butter:                     250g

Granulated sugar:   170g

All purpose flour:   500g

Egg:                        1

Water:                     5ml

Salt:                         a pinch 

Vanilla Extract:       2 teaspoon 

Chocolate powder:  reasonable amount

1. Whisk in the sugar into the softened butter until creamy. Then add the rest of the wet ingredients and mix them well.

2. Shift in the flour (with salt in it) and mix gently with a spatular. 

3. Cut 1/3 of the cookie dough and shift in the coco powder till the desirable colour comes out. Mix them well.

4. Put the cookie dough into the freezer for at least 2 hours.

3. Take the cookie doughs out, take out bit by bit and use the fun factory (with the rectangle setting) to make the long squared strips. 

4. Stack the strips on top of each other to create the large cookie dough block (do the math beforehand!) and pop it into the freezer to harden it.

5. Take out the cookie dough block and use a sharp knife to slice out the cookies evenly. They should be ready to bake right away. 

DIY Make up pack (for travel, everyday bag or events)

For me, my main skin problem is dark circles and oily skin. Because of this skin type, my eye make up ALWAYS smudge after just a few hours especially when I am going out for an event (you know, you can get very sweaty when you go out). Therefore, whenever I go out i will bring a tiny make up bag so I can always retouch my face.

First thing first, my number 1 must have is make up remover to remove my smudged eye make up and concealer to hide my dark circles. I cut a sponge into half, soaked the first half into make up remover and the second half into concealer. After that, place them in a tiny container individually and they are ready to go. 

I always buy the smallest size of eye liner and lipstick so they will not take up a lot of space. Sometimes I use the lipstick as my cheek colour as well if the lipstick of choice is a natural colour. However, if it's not, I have to have something to colour my cheek. To decrease the space occupied by my cheek powder, I took out the cheek powder palette from its original container and glued it onto a very shallow slide-out box. I used a eyelash box but any other similar box will be fine like chocolate box etc.

I think this will save up a lot of space so that my clutch will not bloat when I put so much stuff in it. Have fun going out bye :)

Nut-hugging Bear Cookies

Long ago I remember that I saw a post from 9gag about really cute bear hugging nut cookies and I want to try resembling what they did cause they are so freaking cute. 

Things you need is super simple and handy, you may find them all in your kitchen. The key things are the bear cookie mould and something eatable for the bear to hug.

All purpose flour: 180g 

Baking Powder:    1/4 tsp

Salt:                       Just a pinch 

Butter:                   90g

Sugar:                   100g

Egg:                       1

Vanilla Extract:     1/2 tsp

1. Mix the butter with sugar, blend with a blender until they are completely incorporated. 

2. Mix in the egg and vanilla extract 

3. Shift in the flour, baking powder and salt, mix them well

4. Put the dough into the freezer for about half an hour so it is going to be easier to work with when moulding.

5. Dust the working place with flour and the cookie dough. Use a rolling stick and roll out the cookie dough evenly. 

6. Use the cookie cutter to cut out the shapes. 

7. Put a nut in the heart of the bear, lift the bear's hands onto the nut like it is hugging it. 

8. Use a toothpick and poke three holes to create the bear's face.

9. Pop them into the preheated oven and bake at 200ºC for 10-15 minutes or until it is golden brown on the edge. 

DIY Moleskine Cover

I always have to have a sketchbook hanging around me so I can drop down all the things that just came into my mind. It is kind of like a diary to me and it is quite personal to me. Therefore for my every new sketchbook I will try to customise it with my current favourite style. Each book cover really represents my current stage. I used to have a sketchbook with loads of spikes because I was in love with Marilyn Manson, I called it my "dark period".

This year I am really into the floral prints (and red colour as always). One day I went across a store with this really amazing floral print parchment-ish paper and I knew it right away that it will be my next sketchbook cover. I love the the arrangement of the pattern and I love the choice of colour that really matches my black cover. 

The making of it is super simple. However, please do keep in mind that if the kind of wrapping sheet that you use is too thin you have to add a layer of white colour underneath it or else the pattern will blend in a bit with the book cover and the pattern will not be as stand-out (unless this is what you are looking for).

1. Decide the portion of coverage and mark it with a pen.

2. Use a masking tape or any gentle tape (so you won't damage the book cover when you take it off)  to stick it right outside of the line you just mark.

3. (Optional) Apply a layer of white acrylic with a sponge or anything, just make sure the layer is smooth.

4. Apply a layer of glue, again make sure the layer is smooth

5. Let it dry out a little bit so when the covering sheet is stick to it it won't shrink as much due to moisture.

6. Turn the cover over, apply glue again and fold in the covering paper. Fold in bit by bit for round edges, it may form a thick edge but it will give extra protect to the corners.

7. (Optional) If you want a extra glow onto the book cover you can add a layer of glue on top.

Poker suit rings

Got these cutest poker suit rings online. I am being greedy and try to put them all on on my fingers matching with different types of cuff rings. I guess my favorite will always be the heart.

[Bottle DIY Projects #1] Plastic bottle vase + simple floral arrangement

I am a huge fan of bottle and I have collected way too much bottles before I realise it. Due to the humungous resources I think I can make a series of bottle DIY projects. And this will be my very first. Stay tuned!

I always use this brand of shampoo and their bottle design is very classic so I want to make something more irregular out of it. I made a slanted cut-out and hovered the bottle over a lighted candle. The surface of the bottle will deformed and become something like this:

Lastly I spray the whole thing into white colour and it looks quite awesome to me. :)

 

I have decided to add flowers in it. to make the whole bouquet looks nicer I added a floral foam in it and insert each flower piece individually. Took be quite a while.

 
Do not neglect the leftovers! Put them in a shot glass and they will look very cute.