中秋節快樂! Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

Before baking. Is that Hello Kitty I see?

 September 12th marks the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival, where the moon is at it's best: bright, round, and beaming ^^ In China, a lot of people, especially elders, still use the lunar calender. I believe Chuseok is also around this time of year so I hope everyone is having a great time with their families!

After baking. Scrumptious and golden~

 It is a tradition to eat a full meal and moon cakes(月餅) with the family and play around with lanterns. I have always celebrated Mid-Autumn Festival with my family including my parents, grandparents, uncles, cousins and such. It was great!

"Bing pei" moon cake

 I am so thankful to have such a fantastic mom~! The word "fantastic" doesn't even cut it :P She is also a wonderful cook and she was the one who made these moon cakes! The golden ones are filled with custard and salted duck egg. The white ones are "bing pei" moon cakes. The literal translation is frozen skin as these moon cakes are not baked, unlike the golden ones.

The filling is made of salted duck eggs (dark yellow) and green bean paste ^^ People in Taiwan as well as Vietnam celebrate 中秋節 too! 

Here is a lantern made out of skin of a Pomelo :) I can't even express how much I love playing with lanterns. Well, I upgraded from lanterns to glow sticks. I also have some rebellious cousins so we would play with candles and fire in metal tins from moon cakes. I haven't done it in a long time. I'm pretty sure that it is now illegal XD because a lot of kids are very careless and end up hurting themselves or setting things on fire LOL Don't try this at home kids! Ever!

The moon from my view. Not the best I've seen so far

I hope you all have a great one!

NOTD: Pass the Sprinkles + Giveaways

With flash

 [Click to enlarge :)]

Natural light

 I tried out the "sandwich" manicure. All I did was layer different sheer, glittery and sparkly nail polishes on top of each other and this is how it turned out.

Natural light

 Glitter nail polishes are really hard to remove so I suggest using a base coat. I usually use a clear top coat as the base. The down side to this type of manicure is that it peels easily due to the multiple coats.

Natural light

Products used (in order):

• Base coat
• Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear in Strobe Light (2 coats)
• Sephora Hello Kitty Liquid Nail Art in Purple Sprinkles (1 coat)
• Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Hidden Treasure (1 coat)
• Essie To Dry For Top Coat (1-2 coats)

Here are more opportunities to try out circle lenses without using a penny ^^

Jeeya's circle lenses giveaway can be found here. This ends September 30th, 2011.

If you absolutely LOVE pastels, this giveaway is for you :) Pastel Raindrops' giveaway ends October 31st, 2011 (National Unicef Day!! & Halloween). Those shoes are to DIE for!

If you've always wanted to look like a Gyaru, now's your chance ;) I believe these lenses are quite popular among Japanese gyarus. You can join Rakhshanda's giveaway here. This ends September 30th, 2011.

I hope you liked this NOTD post~! Have a lovely weekend everybody! <3

Yumeko's Rice Cooker Recipe! The Results + Giveaway

My first batch

The lovely Yumeko shared her second rice cooker recipe on her blog and her pictures made my mouth water...excessively :P So the very next day,after reading her blog post, I was determined to track down the ingredients and I actually made it~! It turned out waaay better than I hoped it to be. The food that I usually make doesn't taste great...unless they are instant noodles or anything you make in the microwave ;D

Second batch

This recipe is super easy as it only needs 6 ingredients! And you can find almost all of it in your pantry and fridge ^^ Another plus is that the cooking time is really quick (around 5-6 minutes). I just dump it all in the rice cooker, flip it once so both sides brown (crispy! Yum~!) and VOILA! Of course, it takes more time to make the dough and roll it but the final product is so good that you have to try it!

What it looks like on the inside :)

Yumeko gave us some tips which include making your own pancake mix so that the dough doesn't come out sweet and salty (a weird combination :P). I used this recipe from eHow but I modified it.  You'll need:

• 2 cups of sifted flour
• 1 1/2 tablespoon of baking powder
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• 1teaspoon of salt (2 makes it very salty XD)

The dough turned out to be just like bread: it's rather fluffy =] So for all of you that can't get your hands on "Hotcake mix", don't worry, just substitute this instead. Another thing, if you have those smaller rice cookers that have a glass top (no button and the top doesn't connect to the body of the rice cooker), this recipe will still work! I hope you give it a try. It's super easy, quick, fun, but the outcome is huge!

On the other hand, Anna is holding another circle lens giveaway~ You can check it out here. It ends on September 30th, 2011 and this time, there are 3 winners! Woooo! I'm trying my luck again this time. Good luck to everyone ^^

I'm in Hello Kitty Heaven + Giveaways

Every little girl's dream!

Who wouldn't want a 4 foot tall stuffed toy to cuddle with? I had to give up on my hair and "sense" of fashion while travelling :P

By chance I received candy with the same name~

Well, Dear Daniel was close enough for me :P This was in the lobby of Grand Hi-Lai Hotel in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. I was lucky to have gone to both Hong Kong and Taiwan in the same summer ^^ If you are a Hello Kitty die hard fan (I personally know one keke~), you will be happy to know that they have special Hello Kitty suites and rooms to satisfy any HK cravings. Here's the link if you want to see more photos!

On another note, I recently spotted some great circle lenses giveaways. Here are two opportunities for you to try out some pretty lenses without spending a penny!

Check out Blair's Dueba Candy Sugar lenses giveaway here. Ends September 11th, 2011. Blair herself is super sweet (even sweeter than these sugar lenses ;D) so follow her blog even if the lenses aren't your thing~

The beautiful Anna is holding another circle lenses giveaway~! Her blog is so resourceful and I can never get tired of reading her creative posts. Ends September 5th, 2011.

I've been trying to get my photos organized, so keep an eye out for some hauls, food and scenery~!

Me2Day: Strolling Down the Streets of Hong Kong

Listening to: nothing (my grandma is alseep! ssshhh)

Mood: Happy

I've just been trying to enjoy every moment of living in Hong Kong :) It's been too long. I'm really grateful to be able to see my relatives again, because who knows how long I'll have to wait for the next opportunity~

So far I've been to Ocean Park. Hey! You are never too old for amusement/sight-seeing parks. I love being immersed in an "underwater" world; seeing jellyfish gently moving about with their seemingly harmless tentacles. They remind me of ribbon dancers! ^^

I'm well fed with lots of good food! They even have taro McFlurries here! I had many chances to do a "little" shopping and boy, have I ever been so exhausted! I shall update you all with hauls once I get back. Be warned though! There will be lots and lots of photos~

Can someone teach how to make these?

Udon!! nomnomnom