A day in my life

 

For the last year or so, Wednesday afternoons have been reserved for running any errands out the house that are not within walking radius from my home. It's "Eat your own lunch Wednesday" for the rest of the Yams because it's also my rest day from home cooking. :)

Today I headed to town with my bestie for brunch (last day of free parking!)...of course, my cuisine of choice would be Japanese. :) (yes, this is week 2 of being able to dine out again! Yay!)

We also went to watch Fast and Furious 9 at the cinema... my second movie this year. I went in with low expectation because the franchise isn't great on strong plots but any action at this time beats staying at home these days, right? *winks*

I also stopped by Kiehl's to drop off a bagful of recyclables...38 in total. I love that they have a great recycling program. :)

I also stopped by the YSL Beauty counter to pick up my complimentary full-sized lipstick with no purchase required. I know, I had to re-read the text message I got several times...usually they give a travel-sized lipstick for helping out with a survey. It's a new product too. Even though these days my face mask wears more lipstick than my lips. *LOL*

There you have it...a day in my life...usually the most "exciting" day of the week. Hahaha!

Tell me about what's happening in your neck of the woods.

The one about the new LED mirror

 

Guess who bought a new LED mirror during the Amazon Prime Day sale?

Guess who has been loving it?

Well, the owner of the new cool LED mirror with 5x and 7x magnification would be me. :)

And of course, the one currently obsessed with it would be nephew #1. *winks*

Just wanted to do a fun non-food layout. And the fact was that the new mirror did bring that little bit of excitement to our mundane stay-at-home lives. :)

P/s: Nephew #1 was very pleased with the photos I took of him because his biceps look very big in them. The kid has been working out. *LOL*

Another week, another mish mash card

 

This week's mish mash card was a super fun one to make. :)

I really wanted to use the fussy-cut tin man...and pulled out stuff to "match". *winks*

I kept to a limited colour palette to tie the elements together. Did it work? *LOL*

Happy to have used up quite a fair bit of stash while keeping the card relatively flat and postal-friendly.

Happy week ahead friends! :)

This week's decorated paper bag project

 

Okay friends, this was the best I could do on a gloomy day with a very shiny gold foiled patterned paper design. *LOL*

I decided to tone down the shiny gold with a white doily and an embellishment cluster of found stash. :)

The patterned paper has a really intricate design that is really pretty. Just super hard to photograph.

Happy weekend friends! :)

My attempt at a quirky bird *LOL*

 

No my friends, your eyes are NOT playing tricks on you. Your gal here has attempted a quirky bird in here art journal, totally inspired by @willowing. *winks*

I know that it's so different from my usual style. The quirky bird is so 2-dmensional and anatomically inaccurate. I did try to give her a little more dimension though some shading. Can you tell? *winks*

Of course my birdie had to wear mascara to define her lashes. *LOL*

I started with a rough pencil sketch, went in with watercolours for a base coat of colours, then went in with acrylic inks for more intensity inn the colours. I finished with paint markers and colours pencils. 

What do you think? 

This week's quick monochromatic card

 

This week I challenged myself to pull out bits from the same colour family and see if I can put together a somewhat cohesive design. 

And the result is this weird-looking card...???

Which is what happens when you are determined to get your scrap pile used up....but the light at the end of the tunnel is so far away....*LOL*

Hope you are having a great week friends!

A page from the recipe planner - sourdough focaccia

 

It's been a while since I last shared a page from my recipe planner....but I found these photos of my sourdough focaccia on my phone and remembered how yummy it turned out... definitely deserves to have a place in my recipe planner. :)

I've made this several times but this one was the fluffiest one to date....check out the holes in the bread!:) I used the recipe from Foodgeek, adding slightly more water than the original recipe because the organic flour I use absorbs a lot of water. You might have to tweak it based on your climate. High hydration doughs are usually harder to work with but since this bread gets its shape from the pan, I went in with as much water as the dough could take and it worked well for me! *triumphant music plays in the background*

The toppings for my bread were organic sea salt, oregano and tomato. So I went with the patterned papers and stickers to match my bread. :)

I tried to match up the corresponding page too.

Lots of fussy-cut bits...

Happy week ahead friends! :)

Friday's mixed media background

 

Happy Friday friends! I've been back to making my messy mixed media backgrounds as a way to de-stress, use up leftover paint in my palette and play with neglected art supplies in my stash. I might use the pieces as a backdrop for a bird painting or as patterned paper on a layout or cut them up to use as collage pieces. So many possibilities! :)

Have a great weekend!

Papa Yam's birthday 2021

 

So last week we had a small birthday celebration at home for Papa Yam since dining out is currently not allowed because of the growing number of COVID-19 cases in the community.

We were in lockdown on his birthday last year too. But I did make him food he likes...from scratch.:)

He got oven-roasted chicken and veggies, homemade miso garlic cheese bread and a carrot cake with Swiss meringue buttercream.

I found a mixed media background piece that I did a long time ago and decided to use that as my patterned paper for my photo mat. Of course, the photos were there to cover up the bits I didn't like...as usual. *winks*

I had so much fun using little scrap bits, stickers and fussy-cut elements. :)

And a lot of different washi tapes too. :)

My cake-frosting still needs work. Now you know why I've "adorned" the cake with toasted almonds! *LOL*

Workspace Wednesday - my latest obsession: nail wraps

 

These days I've been somewhat obsessed with nail stickers. Check out this first batch I ordered! :)

With the daily housework and cooking, regular nail polish doesn't last a day before chips appear. Back in April I tried a gel manicure at a local nail spa and they promised a "free" soak off. But when I went back 10 days later, they said that the "free" soak-off was only if I paid for another gel manicure! At this point the nails were not looking good so I paid for a full manicure, pretty angry that all the local nail spas were running the same "scheme". Of course I watched the nail tech like a hawk to see how she removed the old polish, how she cleaned and prepped my nails...because I was not going back. Ever.

Anyway, that day I went home and ordered a gel polish starter kit and nail steam remover from Amazon (my sister gave me an Amazon gift card for my birthday). I miss getting my nails done in Vietnam at 1/4 of the price. But I'm doing my own nails until I can travel again. *encouraging music plays in the background*

And then last month, I discovered the wonderful world of nail wraps.

I tried some transparent ones to overlay my gel manicure.

Then went direct on my nails with the opaque designs. I did add a gel top coat and cured under an LED lamp to ensure that they stayed on. And they lasted 5 days before they chipped a little at the edges. But it was about time...I was slightly bored with the patterns already. *winks* Actually I let my nails rest for at least 2 days each week. Those are the days I make my doughs because I like to go in with my hands and knead.  

And these were the ones I put on my nails earlier today. Yep...that would be a pink flamingo with its head partially cropped because I have short nails. *LOL* While I think it's nice to have longer nails, I can't type on the keyboard with nail tips so my nails are trimmed every week. 

Even though the nail wraps are supposed to stay on for 10 days (without a top coat), it probably only lasts that long on somebody who does NO housework or cooking. But they are way cheaper than getting nail art done at a nail spa. And with my gel nail kit and nail wraps, I'm pretty set with having cute nails for a while (eh...I might have ordered another batch of nail wraps ..hahaha)

In case you were wondering, I haven't experienced any damage to my nail beds since using gel polish and nail stickers at home. Not even the yellowing that I used to get from wearing regular polish. Probably because I'm using acetone steam to remove the polish instead of soaking in acetone. I do apply cuticle oil every day though. 

What about you? What is your latest stay-at-home obsession?