HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Yay Halloween is here! Time to get on those costumes and be someone else for a day. Since I didn’t spend money/effort on a costume this year (I know, LAME-O HERE hahaha), I went to the local Dollar Tree, Jo-Ann and Pumpkin Patch to get a few things. I got tape, curling ribbon, paper napkins, Candy Corn, Reese’s, Kisses, Starburst, glow sticks, one piece of black and orange felt and two mini pumpkins.

What did I do with all of these goodies?? I GOT CRAFTY!

Truthfully, Martha Stewart got me in the Halloween mood. I was flipping through her Halloween edition magazine at Barnes & Nobles. I always love her ideas (despite her little jail incident).

First, I cracked open that pack of Halloween napkins. What kind of craft can you do with paper napkins? I modified Martha Stewart’sHalloween Pumpkin treat bags, since I was doing most of my shopping at the Dollar Tree. Martha’s initial idea was to “Fill orange mini craft bags with candy. Twist the top of the bag up into a stem. … Wrap floral tape around stem…” When I first read this idea, I thought it was AMAZING! My Dollar Tree version of this: I opened up a napkin, put some candy in, and closed it with tape. My idea of covering the tip with curling ribbon wasn’t going too well, so I covered it with felt instead and used the curling ribbon as an accent. 

My second crafty creation was also Martha Stewart inspired. In the magazine, she had an I Scream Sundae. (The link is the closest thing I could find online.) I thought the witch hats were super adorable. Where does my Dollar Tree goodies come in? Well, I cut out pieces from the paper napkin to turn it into a witch hat for the mini pumpkins. Then I continued to decorate the pumpkins with the black felt I bought. 

I used the rest of the felt to make pumpkins, black cats, bats, spiders, witch hats, brooms, tomb stones, trick or treat bags and candy. I used the curling ribbon to accent most of my crafty creations. I was going to put the glow sticks in the pumpkin treat bags, but I forgot. Ha-Ha-Ha! I think glow sticks are just enjoyable by themselves anyway. Lastly, I used the cardboard roll that the glow sticks were in. I took some tissue and made ghost out of them. BOO!

The door decor for the bathroom

I hung the ghost from the ceiling

Happy Halloween everyone! I hope you have a SPOOOoooOOooOooKY day!

HELLO KITTY AIR!!!

http://designyoutrust.com/2012/02/hello-kitty-air-jet-by-eva-airways/

I was watching TV and it just so happened that this came on the news. HELLO KITTY AIR!!! I had so many reactions!!!

WOW!

OH MY GOODNESS!

HOT TAMALE!

WHAT IN THE WORLD!?

AMAZING?!!

I WANT TO GO!! I WANT TO GO!!!

Hello Kitty has flooded stores all over the world. This kitty icon has so many different variations: rock, nerd, tanned, etc.. I love Hello Kitty. I may not love it to the extent where I must buy everything Hello Kitty and cover my room in Hello Kitty, but I do love Hello Kitty.

I would love to experience Hello Kitty Eva Air!! One day!! From its website, it looks like it only flies out of Taiwan. Ha-ha-ha Maybe one day I will take the flight from Taiwan to Seoul. In Seoul, I will go visit the Hello Kitty Cafe!! A whole trip dedicated to Hello Kitty!

At the moment, I am in Japan! I will be heading to Kiddy Land soon! I hear they sell many Hello Kitty and Rilakkuma paraphernalia. :) I can't wait! I am such a little kid at heart!

Hot Day, Dessert on the Way!

Jenny and I at Ah Chew in Singapore

Nothing beats a refreshing and delicious dessert on a hot and humid Singapore day. My parents, our friend Jenny, and I went back to Ah Chew (God Bless you ha-ha-ha). I got to have my Hong Kong Red Bean Ice with Mango ice cream! Yummy!

At Swensen’s they do not mess around with their ice cream. Go big or go home! Oh man! Check out their Sundae Menu! It amazed me when my parents and I sat down to have some ice cream. I got their Local Infusion Milo Indulgence. It was rich and delicious! (Milo is a Singapore favorite. It’s a chocolate and malt powdered drink, which tastes similarly to chocolate milk. Learn more about Milo.)

Honey Moon Desserts has some great Asian desserts as well! I LOVE GREEN TEA ICE CREAM! Put that on top of the mango pudding with sago, jelly and mangos. That equals a super delicious fabulous dessert! Yummy!

Find out about my adventures in Singapore at my travel blog! Here.

"Sweet" spots in San Francisco!

As you can tell I have quite a sweet tooth. Sometimes I like to think that baked goods, candy, ice cream, and many more sweets are good for you. Ha-ha I don't have that thought quite too often, but I like to dream that it is true.
My friend Moe visited me this summer and I was able to rediscover San Francisco along with taking him to some of my favorite sweet spots in the city.

Sweet Spot #1: Ciao Bella!

Ciao Bella is located in the Ferry Building right by the Embarcadero Bart exit! This place is an Italian gelato place. They have tons of flavors of gelato and sorbet. When you see all their flavors, it looks so colorful! We tried the Strawberry and Mango gelato. Yummy!

Sweet Spot #2: Bi-Rite Creamery

Walking to Bi-Rite Creamery from Bart is not a very pretty site. You get off at 16th Street and Mission, but I think this ice cream is definitely worth it. I didn't want to stand in line for hours, so I took Moe here on a weekday. It was the perfect wait. When we were walking there I could tell we were getting closer because I saw Bi-Rite Market and Bi-Rite Soft Serve. I was thinking, "YES, ICE CREAM HERE WE COME!" One of my favorite flavors in the world is strawberry, so I always get the Balsamic Strawberry. This time I also tried Coffee Toffee because I always enjoy my cup of coffee. Both were delicious! I'm sticking to those flavors from now on. Yum!

Sweet Spot #3: Tartine Bakery

I wasn't able to take Moe here, but I love Tartine Bakery. It can get busy, but I love to come here for breakfast! Their chocolate croissant is super delicious! It is flaky and chocolaty! They have cookies, pie, cake, bread and coffee. Ha-ha you can see why I love this place! You can't go wrong with pastries and coffee.

Sweet Spot #4: Ghirardelli Ice Cream

I love the scenery at Ghirardelli Square more than the ice cream, but you can't say no to ice cream. This is definitely the tourist spot, but I love it here at night. Everything is lit up and so beautiful! Yay for having ice cream here!! That makes this place super beautifully delicious!

Sweet Spot #5: Beard Papa

Oh man, oh man! Beard Papa cream puffs are so yummy! They are simple, yet so good! These cream puffs can get addicting! 

Sweet Spot #6: Tout Sweet Patisserie

Tout Sweet Patisserie recently opened and I am dying to try it! I put it on the list because I already love it by looking at pictures and looking at the website. I know I shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but I really love the colorful decor of the place! And you can't go wrong with sweeeeeets!! Look at those macarons! They're beautiful and colorful! My next trip to the city, some of those will be coming home with me!

Cookies and Oreo Truffles

Gifts are great! Food gifts are just deliciously awesome!! I love baking and making yummy treats for my friends' birthday gifts! It's easier when I'm in town to give it to them, then the goodies won't go bad and stay fresh.

My friend, Allison, had her birthday this past September 12th. As a treat for her birthday I took her out to dinner and gave her the birthday present!! She loved it. Who could not love cookies and Oreo truffles?!

Oreo Truffles freshly dipped. Now into the fridge they go.

The best thing about presents are putting them in cute boxes or wrapping them in awesome wrapping paper. I found my box at Daiso. I call it the $1.50 Japanese store. Ha-ha. I found the box there and the cups for the truffles too. 

The Oreo truffles are super easy to make! Plus you only need three ingredients: chocolate, cream cheese, and Oreos. Here is the recipe.

Banana-Walnut Chocolate Chunk

Double Chocolate Coconut

Yes! Yes! Cookies! A fattening gift, but so good! I love all of Martha Stewart's cookie recipes!! I bought her Cookies book and Cupcakes book. I made the Banana-Walnut Chocolate Chunk Cookies and the Double Chocolate Coconut Cookies. Those names are mouthful! Mouthful of flavorful yummy goodness!

Here are the recipes! [Banana-Walnut Chocolate Chunk Cookies] [Double Chocolate Coconut Cookies] Have fun!

The Red Bean Fix!

Starbuck's Green Tea Frappuccino with red beans

 I feel like I was put under a magical spell after taking a sip of the Green Tea Frappuccino with red beans in Singapore. After I tasted it, I had to try so many different things with red bean. (Well things that I could find). It’s strange to me that I enjoyed the taste so much. When I was a kid and had hot red bean soup dessert, I wouldn’t touch the red beans. I only drank the broth, which made the process of eating/drinking that dessert more difficult than it should have been.

Now, I seem to crave red beans when I go out for dessert. It’s that magical Green Tea Frappuccino with red beans. The next red bean dessert I had was called Hong Kong Red Bean Ice (HK Red Bean Ice). It’s delicious!! The ice is crushed small enough to eat. I guess it’s like shaved ice almost. Then add some milk, red beans and top it off with some ice cream. (Normally it doesn’t have ice cream.) There you have it Hong Kong Red Bean Ice. Sounds so good right now!!

HK Red Bean Ice with Mango Ice Cream

Next, I had something very similar to the HK Red Bean Ice. I specifically had this because they didn’t have HK Red Bean Ice at the dessert place my family and I went to. It was a coconut slush topped with red bean ice cream. The red bean ice cream was delicious! The slushy part was okay, but I still was craving to eat the actually red beans.

Coconut Slush with Red Bean Ice Cream

If dessert wasn’t enough, I got red beans in my milk tea. Ha-ha that actually sounds quite disgusting. It’s really good though! (If you like red beans that is.)

Green Milk Tea with Red Beans

All this writing about red bean drinks and dessert makes me want to get something with red bean to snack on. Yummy!

Cupcake ATM!

Cupcake ATM. Sounds strange right? I heard of this from a friend. She sent me the video and I was amazed. I was on my way to LA for a wedding and I had to stop by. It looked very practical in the instructional video, but in person it was quite magical.

Maybe it seemed magical during my visit because we arrived by limo after my friends and I danced the night away at the Playboy Bunny Mansion for the bachelorette party.

Another magical moment during our visit to the Cupcake ATM was when the Cupcake ATM started to sing. We struck a pose for a picture and it started to sing “I love sprinkles yes I do. You love sprinkles…” It was cute and a bit creepy at the same time. It seemed like it knew we were taking a picture.

After snapping some shots, we finally chose our cupcakes. I’m sure if you come earlier in the day there would be a bigger selection, but at 3am in the morning there was only about 7 to 8 choices. I chose a basic Dark Chocolate cupcake with Vanilla Frosting!

I didn’t get to eat it until I got to the airport on my way back home. I had kept it in the fridge to keep it fresh. It looked like a lot of frosting when I opened it. I’m not big fan of frosting, but that cupcake was delicious!! Frosting and all! The magical singing Cupcake ATM! I wonder when my next visit will be. I can still hear it sing, “I love sprinkles yes I do…”