The one about rice bowls

 

These days I'm into making rice bowls for lunch and dinner. Because I have a troublesome "kid" (aka dad) who just wants to eat the protein and eat very little veggies (unless it's okra or eggplant which are his faves)...and very little rice.

He already gets 1/2 of what everyone else gets (we want him to finish and not waste food) but he will have  a few grains of rice with a huge chunk of meat (instead of a small piece of protein to a spoonful of rice). And he will keep taking protein to eat...and then struggle to "finish" his rice. 

But the house rule is if you can't finish your rice, you can't have fruit or dessert. It's okay to put the rice back in the p if you haven't started eating but you have to finish what's on your plate once you start. And did I mention that dad loves fruit and dessert? *LOL*

Anyway, the rice bowls mean that dad cannot add any more of the food he wants to eat. He gets the rice bowl with all the food and that's it. As you can see, very little rice and a lot of other yummy goodness. So it's been working so far. *winks*

Lots of fun bits on this layout....this gal is using up her stash! *triumphant music plays in the background*

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Make Stuff Monday - a decorated envelope

 

Today's Make Stuff Monday is a decorated envelope using packaging and happy mail bits in a muted colour palette.:)

Love that I got to use these butterfly punch-outs that I had in my stash for ages!

Yep, I do love digging my stash for forgotten "treasures" that are prefect for my project.

Of course I had to finish with a light misting of shimmering gold...to tie everything together. :)

Happy week ahead friends!

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Thursday's desk - another week of eye drawings

 

Another week has gone by...here are my eye drawings for the week! :)

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Workspace Wednesday - making the most out of a $5 bouquet from the supermarket

Happy Wednesday friends! Felt like having some fresh flowers in my room...so I got a $5 bouquet from the supermarket, split the blooms into small vases (technically speaking, there was only one actual crystal vase...the rest are decorated sake bottles..*winks*), arranged them nicely on a rattan tray and  *happy music plays in the background*....got a pretty floral arrangement for my room. :)

If you are lucky to have flowers in your own garden, take them indoors and enjoy them! 

P/s: If you use a smaller "vase", you don't need so many flowers to fill it up. 

 

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Tuesday's upcycled happy mail envelope

 

I found a stash of packaging envelopes I wanted to upcyle recently.

Like this one from stationery I bought from an online Japanese store. It looked a little "battered" from the shipping but it's thick and sturdy and made a great candidate for a decorated happy mail envelope! :)

I kept it pretty "simple" with a main cluster of flat elements to one side of the envelope.

Leaving plenty of space to write the recipient's name and address and to affix all the stamps.

I used a mixture of liquid glue, glue stick, washi tape and stickers so that the embellishments "hold" up as they make their way to the recipient. :)

Hope you are having a great week so far!

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Make Stuff Monday - an upcycled coffee bag

 

In today's Make Stuff Monday, I'm sharing an up cycled coffee bag.:)

I started with this sturdy coffee bag that I got from a specialty store selling freshly roasted coffee beans.

I went with a fun "scene" with happy bunnies in the background. :)

Found some adhesive dots in my stash so I added them to butterfly #2 for a little dimension.

Happy week ahead friends! 

P/s: Thanks for all the well wishes. Dad's surgery went well and he's back home.

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Happy Thursday - this week's eye drawings

 

Happy Thursday friends! Just stopping by to share this week's eye drawings. :)

P/s: Dad's surgery is tomorrow. So I'll sign off for this week...enjoy your weekend friends! 

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Workspace Wednesday - cute stuff my sister bought me

 

Happy Wednesday friends! My sister just cam back from South Korea and bought me some cute stuff! Yep. I love My Melody. :) And yes, this grown woman only wears cute socks. *LOL*

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Keeping meals simple

 

These days I'm all about keeping meals simple to minimise time spent in the kitchen doing prep work, the actual cooking and cleanup.

Since I'm in it for the long haul, I want to make it easier on myself so that I don't suffer from burnout.

The upside of spending the last 2 years trying out recipes is that I actually have developed some competencies in food prep and now rely more on my taste buds than actual step-by-step recipes. Right now I'm down to 45 minutes if I do 2 dishes and 60 minutes if I do 3 dishes (served with steamed white rice) with cleaning up done in between so that lunch service is about 90 minutes total.

And I have all my trusty friends to help out too - regular oven, steam oven, rice cooker and air-fryer.:)

This was the other day's lunch - air-fryer fish fillet and stir-fried mixed veggies.

What about you? How long do you spend on a home-cooked meal?

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Make Stuff Monday - upcycled decorated bag

 

Can you tell that I've been having fun mixing up my own stash with happy mail bits? *winks*

It allows you to stretch your creativity and play with "new" colour combos.

And despite using my stash diligently and not buying anything new (papercrafting supplies), I still have years of stash left. Can you relate? *LOL*

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