I've come to realize...

I thought we have found it again. But we did lose it forever.

Within The Walls of Our Fidgety Hearts by Jeannie L. Paske of Obsolete World Artwork on Etsy

Where am I???

It has been a whirlwind this year and now we are in the middle of May. I apologize for not coming here and provide update for my readers for so long. I promise I will do a much better job moving forward!

2013 has proven to be a year of confusion for me so far. Most of you are aware that I have 2 jewelry brands on Etsy. And since last year I have been spending a little more time at my other shop, giving Bunnies Can Dream a slower pace of development and trying to nurture both to be a sustainable business in its own way.

At some point late last year, I realize that it is very difficult to manage both so I have decided originally that I will focus on the other shop this year. But I am at a cross road. As most small business owners, I know I need to work with what I have and there are some hard sacrifices I need to make. What I have envisioned last year as to how I could manage and grow my two jewelry babies are now faced with the challenge of money and time. And I have to reconstruct my plan to make things work. I have to say I am not sure where to go and how to approach everything. What I have learned in the past 2 years are valuable lessons and I am blessed to meet a lot of helpful people and some good friends along the way. But it has not really prepared me well enough for this year so far I have to say...

Well, it will not stop me from trying I can tell you! There is a lot on the plate to work on but I love what I do and I know you guys are always here to support me too. I hope my jewelry can continue to bring you a smile on your face and a spring at your feet every morning when you go out in your lovely outfit with my jewelry.

Now here is a quick look at what I worked on this spring inspired by the flowers. I will get it posted on Etsy as soon as I can. More to come...

 

Goodbye 2012. Hello 2013!!!

Where do I begin...?

2012 had a great start. I went to BMAC as a guest and joined the Art Business Institute workshops, which kick-started the shift-gear from Bunnies Can Dream to Harlequin&Lionhead in 2012, resulted in a 400% growth in revenue for Harlequin&Lionhead (a small pat on my shoulders but more to do in 2013!)

Things progressed really fast in Q1 2012 and then a slow Q2, and a crazy Q3. A trunk show at Henri Bendel followed by a Fashion's Night Out event - definitely highlights of the year! I felt like I have pushed myself forward by leaps and bounds. The lesson learned from here is you will never get what you want unless you ask for it! So don't hold back because you may feel inadequate. There is nothing to lose but your dignity if you get rejected. It is just a small price to pay in order to grow, and gain an unforgettable experience and precious learning experiences.

I have the fortune of some really good friends who have been my support and ally. And I started to see familiar faces coming to my shows at different locations looking for my jewelry. It gave me the greatest joy to see your happy faces when you found the perfect piece to take home every time!

Then came the very challenging 4th quarter, both emotionally and physically. It was an exciting and depressing one at the same time. Some of you were there with me and I have to apologize for my temper and my sometimes psychotic behavior :P I want to say I now realize how blessed I am to have the support of my family in what I am doing. We grow stronger together through the tough times. I can only imagine how this is an important preparation for what may be coming our way in the next few years!

One thing I regret most is that I didn't manage to learn driving. That is going onto my 2013 to-do list. No more procrastination!!!

2013 - I have mixed feelings about it. A year of great things to come, and a year to push myself above and beyond my comfort zone. No matter what, this will sure be a milestone year for me. What will 2013 be for you?

Poisonous Food Journal turned Healthy! #1

Because hubby has been tested to have high blood pressure, and both our families has a higher risk of heart disease, we have decided to get back on the health wagon when it comes to dinner. I cheated all the time during the day on my own with chocolate, eggs and cheese, but he does not have to know.

Anyways, I want to share with you one of my BEST experiments on my lab rat husband. Yes, he is a brave man eating food cooked by the girl who penned the Poisonous Food Journal. Look I'm very nice to not try the coffee maker cooking recipes on him. Let's just say the blood pressure report actually saved him.

This one took nasty extra lean ground turkey breast, small sweet peppers, kale, and black beans into town!

Turkey stuffed peppers

Ingredients:
Extra lean round turkey breast - 90-100g
Small sweet peppers - a dozen or more (you can also replace with bell peppers)
Soy sauce (low sodium) - 1.5 tea spoon
Soy sauce (dark - get that from Chinese grocery stores) - 1 tea spoon
Onion powder - 1 table spoon
Galanga ginger powder - 1/2 table spoon
Ground black pepper - as much as you like
Sesame oil - 1 tea spoon
Olive oil - 1.5 table spoons
Egg white - 1

Instruction:
Marinate ground turkey with onion powder, ground pepper, ginger powder and sesame oil the night before. Mix in egg white before stuffing.
Cut sweet pepper in halves, and stuff the turkey meat in with either a fork of a spoon. Add olive oil in a flat non-stick pan and wait for it to get pretty hot. Put the stuffed peppers in meat side down and let it sizzle for 1-2 minutes with lid on with high fire. Turn peppers and lower heat and let it sit for another 2 minutes. Check to see if pepper are burnt and shift it a little and let it sit for another minute and serve!

Nutrients approx.:
Extra lean turkey breast ground = 120 Cals. (Sat.Fat 0.5g, Cholesterol 41mg, Sodium 58mg)
Soy sauce = Sodium 600mg (that's more than 25% of daily, so be fugal with it!)
All oil added = Fat 30g (stinker, that's almost 60% of daily! See how it all adds up!)


Kale
1/3 of a bag of kale, chopped into 1 inch sections
Wait for water to boil, then put stems in first, and then leaves. Keep it in water still under heat for no more than 2 minutes, take out of hot water, and rinse under cold water. Tastes real good with some sesame oil (1/2 tbsp), Worcestershire Sauce (1 tbsp, Sodium 65mg) and a bit of sugar.


Black Bean Rice

Ingredients:
Black bean from can - 1/2 (Make sure to look for the ones that have the lowest sodium level! I was unpleasantly surprised by the nutrient labels on some of these well known cans!)
Rice - slightly less than 1 cup

Instruction:

Cook rice in rice cooker with half cup of water. Wait until water is boiling, then stir in black bean and some of it's water from the can into the rice cooker. Then wait for it to cook and viola! Delicious!

Who are the bunnies behind Bunnies Can Dream?

As a tribute to Toffee, who passed away 3 years ago, I am doing a rabbit highlight here on Bunnies Can Dream's blog!

Yes, Toffee will always be my special boy. 

He and Charcoal were the original inspiration for the name of the line, Bunnies Can Dream. They are also the two bunnies in the logo my husband and I created together.

Toffee was born as a harlequin (because of the mixed colors in his body) and a dutch (according to my vet) in 2001. He and Charcoal moved with me from HK to NY. It was a terrible trip for them but they took it like solders. Toffee developed head tilt syndrome back in 2008. The little trooper, being always positive and kind, and could eat like a pig, bounced back with a tilted head the same year, and continued to eat like a champ until his last day on earth. His kidneys were attacked and crystalized, a painful illness that he managed to hide and continued to live with happily until both of them gave up on my high spirited boy on Sept 6, 2009. He has since then lived between Rabbit Heaven and on earth in our hearts and possibly sometimes late at night in our house. Recently, I suspect he is either reincarnated into Roxy or my new baby niece. Both are equally happy, energetic and hungry like Toffee.

Charcoal is such a strange creature.

Charcoal was born a lionhead angora mix a few months later than Toffee but he looks much smaller and acts younger somehow. Charcoal has a princely air about him. More like a cat than a rabbit, he is the fuzziest rabbit ever.  Grooming for his appearance was his most favorite thing to do in the world until Roxy came along. Charcoal is also a very emotionally sensitive creature, although he may not be very sensitive about YOUR emotion. He went into a period of intestinal statsis problem when he was living with us alone after Toffee died. When he was turning 11 last year, we got so worried about his health that we finally decided to get him a friend. It was very hard for me to accept a 3rd rabbit and I think it probably wasn't very fair to Roxy when she first joined us. But the addition of this new young playgirl to Charcoal's rabbit mansion seems to have given him a new found joy in life.

Roxy Rock Rock, my girlie girl

Roxy is my first shelter rabbit. We didn't know how old she is but the vet said she was probably 1 or less when we picked her up Sept 2011. I looked it up and she is a british butterfly dwarf. She has almost symmetrical pattern on her body and her face. We thought she looks like a cow, but she is a bit sazzy so we thought we will have to name her something with an attitude. We called her Roxy, short for rorschach. And then it evolved from a simple Roxy to "Roxy Rock Rock" which is what I usually call her around the house, when she is not a girlie girl. This kid has a strange crush for Charcoal when they first met at the shelter. She was obviously keen on playing with Charcoal, who was only keen on having sex with her (oh well can you blame the poor 11 year old virgin?) She kept pushing him off but kept going back to him. We thought, here is a rabbit who knows what she wants and can keep her man in check. That's my kinda girl. And in the 12 months she was with us, she literally took over the place, turned it into a dirty quarter and put on one full pound (that is like 1/3 of her original weight, say equivalent to 30+ pounds?) Talking about white trash...oh well. We only love her more.

So here you go. The inspiration as well behind these animal necklaces I recently made. Both silhouettes for Toffee and Roxy found a nice home last week. And I have decided to keep the Charcoal silhouette to myself. I am looking forward to some toasty down time this X'mas with Charcoal and Roxy. And if you see a cloud in the sky that looks like Toffee, say hi and eat a carrot!

By Upstate

Yesterday I went to a fabric dyeing class in Brooklyn, taught by Katrin Reifeiss. It is about a specific Japanese technique called the Shibori. It involves binding techniques, stitching, folding and pole-wrapping. Here is a quick introduction of Shibori based on what I learned. For a thorough introduction, you can also view videos by Narablog on youtube.

Katrin Reifeiss, who also teaches at Textile Arts Center in Brooklyn if you are interested for the full course. But ours was just 3 hours and it flew by like an hour! Here is our table. There was a bucket of squeeze bottles of dyes we could have used for direct dye method but it would have taken at least 12 hours for the fabric to cure in dyes to complete so we opted for the tub dye method, using buckets of dye water and submerging our fabric in it for a few minutes to 45 minutes to achieve the dye.

There are 4 types of methods as I introduced at the beginning of the post. Below is the Pole-Wrapping Shibori technique called the Arashi "Storm" Shibori. It involves some folding of the fabric (or not), then wrapping it around a pole (you can get the PVC pipes from Home Depot) and then stringing the thread over in horizontal lines tightly, then pushing up the fabric to bunch it up before dyeing. Katrin was demonstrating on a scarf she has made before the class. The red scarf is then dyed in navy so you can see the black lines which is the bunched up fabric exposed to the dye, and the lighter red lines which is covered by the thread (i.e., the resist) which is not dyed. 

The other method is called the Binding techniques. Below are some examples:

Ring Shibori - a string is tied to a little bit of fabric bunched up. The white line seen here is created by the resist of the string.

Shell or Spiderweb Kumo Shibori - It is basically a larger Ring Shibori, and the string is wrapped around the bunched up fabric in horizontal lines to create the white line you see over the orange here.

My attempt at the Spiderweb Shibori was ok. The strings were too thin and the color is a bit too light so I cannot really see the horizontal lines. But the ombre effect of yellow to green is very nice in reality. 

My classmate of the day, Christina, is working on her skirt here to try and create an ombre effect. She did a combination of Spiderweb and Arashi on her scarf below and it came out really beautiful.

Another example of the binding techniques is the pleated stripes. Here Katrin made an example for us using this technique, which starts off with pleating your fabric and securing it with rubber band or a string, then you wind the string down the folded fabric to create the horizontal lines you see here. I tried but mine was horrible. Note to myself, must fold my pleats a lot tidier next time and tied the string tight around the fabric!

Then there is the Stitching Shibori Method and this is called the Ori-Nui. You start with drawing a pattern on the fabric, then fold it up a little into a ridge, and stitch running stitches in regular intervals right under the fold line, pull tight to bunch up, then dye. After you dye it, the pattern will emerge as white dots. It is absolutely beautiful.

The last method is called the Folding techniques. Below is my work (yay!) from yesterday which is a not very regular Tortoiseshell Kikko Pattern. The folding techniques involve pleating the cloth, then folding it in triangles or squares, and clamping it down sometimes on its own, or sometimes with a resist material. To achieve the tortoiseshell, I used a pair of chopsticks clamped on both sides of my folded triangular shaped fabric and submerged it into the dye to get all the fabric colored, except for the part where the chopsticks were clamped in tightly. The yellow is actually part of the black dye which somehow got separated from the black and the effect is random but lovely.

Here is my friend Atsuko, and our teacher Katrin. Atusko's dress was dyed using the folding technique, and then using a plastic resist in the shape of a circle but somehow it came out square...?

Fabric dye is fun and I love the surprise you get everytime you unwrap a piece.  Of course, the masters can always control the dye. But for me, it is like magic!

Things I learned in the past few months

By Microzoa

Well in January I have set up a to-do list for 2012. 7 months later I have only achieved 2 of them, but probably the most important 2 items to me. And I learned a ton so far. Most important lesson of all, is never under-estimate what each opportunity brings to you.

1) "When a door opens for you, walk through it." - Joan Rivers

OK, I didn't get to see her at the Barnes and Nobles in Manhattan for her book signing. But I read about this from Ellese Launer's blog post. But it is so true. Last year I went to a workshop hosted by a friend, Holly Luttrell of Edward Owl. She is also a jewelry designer in NY and has experience in the retail fashion world. She taught a few of us designers how to approach a buyer at an interview and I was told that Henri Bendel hosts open see for emerging designers twice a year. All I needed to do was to line up and bring my A game. And I did. I figured, "I have nothing to lose but my dignity, which is worthless if I cannot sell." I took the chance, and I got in to their 2F for my 3-day trunk show.
One day you will look back at all the choices you made and doors you went through, and see that some doors opened for a reason and that was how you get here. Then you should be grateful and continue on with confidence.

2) Be grateful for what you learned. Be generous with your knowledge.

So pt 1 leads to pt 2, I am grateful for the things I learned from my fellow designers and peers. Do not feel that you don't deserve help or sympathy. A little advice goes a long way and everyone deserves it. Because we can always pass on the knowledge and help to someone in need. And that is how the world gets better. But never take things for granted.

3) Do not evaluate the success of a single event with the immediate return.

Every opportunity leads to the next one. That is a lesson I learned from going to the Arts Business Institute workshop during BMAC, a wholesale show designed for artists to sell to boutiques and art galleries. Like wholesale business, the world runs on relationships. No one will trust a newbie on the block with no credibility. You have to keep doing things a few times at your own expense, and get people to hear about you more, before the real volume of wholesale orders or sales will come in. Like this trunk show at Bendel, I didn't make as much as I would in other trunk shows, but I learned a lot. And I met a great designer friend, Brandy Pham, who is not only talented but generous and kind, taught me a lot about breaking into the fashion jewelry world. That is invaluable.

4) Sometimes it is ok to just do it.

I had always been a control freak (maybe still). I planned a lot before I act. And I think impulses were dangerous. But a person can only see what are in the present. We plan for our future based on what we can see right now. So in a way, planning gives us a false sense of security but in fact, it is just another gambling on our lives. Yes I agree that some level of planning is needed to ensure we eliminate the 100% chance of failure. But when you are faced with a dilemma and things can go either way based on what you see in front of you, then just follow your heart. The only way to not regret an action is to be able to answer to yourself, that you have tried your best to make things work, to make yourself happy. If it does not turn out the way it should be, maybe it was never meant to be. And it is ok. Because now you can move on.

5) Failure is ok. It is not permanent either.

After I got in Henri Bendel, I applied for Zappo's emerging designer contest. I didn't get picked. I also applied for a scholarship, and I didn't get picked either. I was a bit disappointed (but it is easier to overcome because I got rewarded anyways). But then I got a nice email from both contacts, saying that they wish I would continue and that they look foward to seeing my new collections. I am sure they say that anyways to everyone. But you know what? It is true. I can still submit my new work next time. And I may still be picked. Today is just not the right day for me. That's all. And that is how I will keep working, until I think I have done enough. Which kind of brings me my last point, ironically...

6) Never say enough.

That includes "Enough I can't do it anymore." "I have hear enough and see enough, I think I get it." "I have said enough." "I know enough about (this and that) to know this is (right or wrong)." "I have done enough for now." or even "I have enough stock." "I have enough SKUs." "It is bold enough."
Because, it is never really enough. Well, maybe "I have said enough" could really be "enough." Sometimes.


Well, I think I will stop here for now and maybe do more of this later. I need some chocolate now...

By HandMadeByTammy on Etsy.com

How to eat 2 bananas and an orange in 1 min - Poisonous Food Journal #5

On this super rainy late spring day in NYC, I am taking a break from being the designer of Harlequin&Lionhead or Bunnies Can Dream to be the Killerbun that I am, and bring you another episode of the Poisonous Food Journal.

Now this one is not poisonous literally. It is indeed a super healthy one. But the speed I took it in was probably not very good for people with smaller stomach. Eating 2 bananas and 1 orange, all in a minute. Let's just say I have help and I am not going to be at the hotdog eating competition anytime soon. And true to the spirit of this journal, no cooking involved, and possibly no washing even. 280 Cal - more than a bowl of rice and less than a salad lunch. hm, maybe it is just half a post instead. hm...

Got this from Bed Bath and Beyond. Made a great X'mas gift. I'm sure you can find it on Amazon or ebay. Single-serve blender from Hamilton Beach which comes with 2 cups in the packaging. One for you and one for someone else who made you make breakfast. Or if you were me, one cup for morning, one cup for evening. No dishwashing in between hoho...

Dump your fruits in the blender. Add water, or milk (in my case, a splash of Vitamin Water). And drink it in super speed. I left a little bit here for you in the blender. Enjoy.

A grand review and forecast!

2011 is definitely a year of blessing. A few ups and downs. But most importantly, no regrets. It was a year of confirmation and reinforcement. The past 12 months I am able to see which direction I should proceed and set a good foundation for 2012.

After leaving my stressful job in advertising back in May 2010, I have been working on my own terms. I met many new friends and propelled my jewelry shops from a hobby to an initial business. I am a much happier person, and a lot more patient and relaxed. To a point, I would say I have become a little less organized and a little more forgetful! But I love every second of it.

2012 will require some major changes. Big things planned and I am not sure if I can do it all. But I will try my best.

Here is a quick list of 2011 major incidents:

1. Finished 12 handmade markets!
2. Met some really talented people and made a few good friends through Etsy
3. Launched a brand new macrame line on Bunnies Can Dream
4. Launched a brand new polymer clay Whirls collection on Bunnies Can Dream
5. Got my first wholesale order for Bunnies Can Dream
6. Found a stable supplier for Harlequin&Lionhead
7. Launched a brand new Whirls collection on Harlequin&Lionhead
8. Got my first custom order for Harlequin&Lionhead
9. Triple my billing for my jewelry shops
10. Purchased my first work bench ever!
11. Helped Charcoal find his new love, Roxy
12. Became an aunt to my baby niece, Tegan
13. Finally went to Niagara Falls, thanks to my mom
14. Carved my first pumpkin, thanks to Jessica
15. Recovered from a bad little accident

And here is a list of 2012 targets:

1. Triple my 2011 billing
2. Get the Rose and Whirls collection into boutiques
3. Find a fashion related full time job (that would still allow me to work on my shops!)
4. Get into at least 2 major handmade markets
5. Get into at least 1 major trade shows
6. Squeeze in a stone setting course
7. Create a collection of polymer clay Whirls art piece
8. Become a mother (unwillingly :P)
9. Learn to drive
10. Visit a lavender farm

The higher the target, the more anxious I get. But we still have 11.5 months ahead. Maybe, just maybe, the carrot is not too big for the bunny that dreams big.

20 years in the making

I hope you will find encouragement in your life after reading this.

Yoshitomo Nara, Fountain of Life

Sometimes things are tough and you don't see an end to it. Sometimes our plans go astray and we don't know what went wrong. Sometimes it just seems that the world is not fair to you. But one day you look back and you will realize they probably all happen for a reason. The road is tough but it gets you there.

It has been an eye opening year for me. Somehow it brings me closer to my self. The self I thought I have lost many many years ago.

When I first graduated from college I wanted to take a profession that would be on the creative side. I have always like to work with my hands but the young me lacked patience. At some point in my life back then, I decided that being creative and working craft was probably not right for me. Ironically, that is what I am doing now.

But back then, I did not know. And I took a detour to work in an office job in advertising. It was a tiring job with little appreciation. And after awhile, you realize that you don't really "produce" anything. Everything is everybody else's work and most of the time I was just managing expectations and maintaining a network of people. Just when I felt quite lost with my life, I met my husband on a project that required for me to work overseas in US/Canada temporarily. I decided to start a long distant relationship with him being in NY and me in HK, after spending only 2 weeks with him. After 2 years of being away from each other, I decided to move to NY and see if we could make our relationship work for us for good. And fortunately my ex-boss helped me land a job in NY.

My humble home in NY back in 2005. It was just a studio apartment but it was my first own home. 

Looking back, I would not have known my husband if I were not in advertising doing a job that I found out I did not like. My rabbits were moved to NY safely as well and at that point, I knew this will be home for me for a long long time.

But something was still lacking in my life. I still hated my job, if not more with this new company. But at this job, I found jewelry again.

My mom and I used to make our own jewelry and that was how I started working on jewelry back in HK. My boss, whom I cannot enjoy working with, has great taste in jewelry and she made some of her own beaded jewelry as well. After our office relocated to Madison Ave, I realized that I was just blocks away from the Fashion District and a station away from the Diamond District. The jewelry supplies stores were everywhere and I found a jewelry school that could teach me silversmithing during the weekends.

One day, my Japanese co-worker introduced me to a website where a famous amigurumi artist known in Japan was selling her patterns online. And that was Etsy.

I started my Etsy account in 2008, and a year later I started my first Etsy shop, Bunnies Can Dream.

My first postcard for the shop. The offer does not work now of course!

I got married and I finally decided to resign from the company last year. I took some time off and took on another full time class at the jewelry school. Then I started my second shop, Harlequin&Lionhead just for my silversmith work.

This year I joined a lot of Etsy community groups and started selling in craft markets. And through Etsy groups and selling in markets, I have met a few good friends. Some of them my emotional support, some of them taught me a lot of things that will be useful for years to come in my jewelry making life.

A couple months back, I was quite discouraged because the end of the year is approaching, and I am facing a decision if I should go back to full time work next year or not. This may be inevitable but I am unsure of the timing. Yet my jewelry business is too young to support me financially. I was forced to think that the end of the dream is coming.

I was struggling if I should get into the Union Sq holiday market. I thought if that worked out, I would not have to work in advertising again. But it was too much to invest and I decided to fold it. I have been kicking myself for not taking risk ever since. Then another opportunity came up in Brooklyn. It is a lot lower in price and could be a retail location for me for good. I felt like it is another opportunity and something seems to speak to me that I need to make something it happen for my business this year. But again, the numbers don't really work well for me. Just when I was about to give up again, I was introduced a friend and she brought me a chance to work with others and share the space. I felt like it seemed to be a message from high up that I must try harder and don't give up.

Later on this fell through (again!) I was upset but not as much as I would have been, if not for what happened just a few days before it.

As the single child in the family, growing up I was always alone. When I was bored, I played with everything in the house I could find. And I invented a way to work with my blue tac to create amazing pieces that looked like feather or leaves or just whirls of textures. I discovered recently that I could use Polymer Clay to do the same thing. And better still, the clay could be hardened and I could use it as a basis to build my jewelry models.

One of the first few pieces I created with polymer clay. The wax models using these polymer clay prototype will be then cast into metal and made into wearable jewelry. Read about it here.

When I discovered this new technique, I was so happy not only because I will be able to do something no one can, but because something I made when I was a kid, can now be applied to my business. It feels like there is a circle which I started from a point in my life 20 years ago, and is now completed 20 years later. As if it was meant to be.

One of the new friends I met at Etsy groups and at market introduced me to these amazing mold makers who are now helping me turn my polymer clay molds into real jewelry molds.

And that realization came just a couple days before I received the news that I could not share the retail location in Brooklyn with this group of people I was introduced to. Instead of destroying me, I decided that I will just have to make it happen no matter what. So I applied for weekend market booths at the same location and was accepted. If I cannot sell it there as a lease tenant, I am going to be there just as well!

Dekalb Market will be my new corner this holiday season.

My husband calls this series of events "coincidences." I don't mind that but just to think that if any of the steps along the way went astray, I may not be here writing this.

Say...if I didn't enter in advertising, I would not have known him. If I pissed off my ex-boss, I would not have found a job in NY and our relationship would have ended 6 years ago. If our company had not moved, I would not have discovered these supplies store and applied for the jewelry school. If I had not known Etsy, I would not have started my own shop. If I had not found my friends on Etsy, I would not have started selling in markets. If I had not been bored at home back then when I was a kid, I would not have been able to design my new line of jewelry today. And if I had not moved to NY, I would not have started my jewelry at all. There are so many of "What Ifs" that could have gone wrong. But they did not.

I thought I made sacrifices in my life to be with a man I love. But I gain not only him, I found a passion I have lost.  And that is why I am here. And I think it could not have been clearer that no matter what I do next year, I will never give up jewelry making.

My first fabric print design. Read it here.

Sometimes a person can only plan as much for one's life, because all we can see is the past and the present. And the future changes all the time. We get worried. We get disappointed. We complained and we doubt ourselves. But maybe all we need to know is that, everything happened for a reason. We just need to look and piece them together to see the path. And that will lead us where we should go forward to.

If you are religious, it could be God helping you. If you are not, it could be fate at work. If you don't believe in anything, then call it luck. But no matter what, don't worry too much and be grateful. It will all work out fine.

Lazy Rice Cake - Poisonous Food Journal #3

Ok, this entry is a little complicated. The ingredient I am working with this time is Japanese Rice Cake.

It is very much like mochi in texture after it is cooked. And there are many ways to eat it. What you see above, is the more popular way I would say...You put the cooked rice cake in soy bean powder, which is not seasoned but smells great with a soy bean aroma. And you drizzle black sugar syrup over it to eat it sweet. You can buy all these ingredients in a Japanese supermarket, or if you are in Taiwan, normal supermarket.

Japanese prepares the rice cake in an interesting way during festive seasons - pan fry. The cake starts off hard like a plastic. And once it is heated, it softens to mochi texture. When pan fry, it crisps up on the outside, and expands like a balloon during heating, and collapses after removal from heat. And it tastes fluffy and crispy at the same time.

My way and most lazy people's way, is to just boil them in hot water. Or even better, to microwave it for no more than 1 minute and it is served.

So why is it complicated for this entry?

First, to qualify into the Poisonous Food Journal, it has to be strange. This is not strange.
Second, it has to be cooked in a lazy way and the microwave treatment is not especially lazy for this particular type of food.

So my Japanese friend introduced me to a unique way of eating the rice cake. Salty.

Apparently, you can wrap the rice cake in Kraft Singles and seaweed, eat it warm and gooey with melting cheese. It is kinda like a sushi for lazy and strange people...Ok, she protests.  But let me just say, if that is not strange enough, I don't know what is.

Well, I thought I'll introduce you a Chinese way of eating a salty rice cake to complete this journal entry. You can replace the Kraft cheese with Taiwanese dried shredded pork (the kind that you usually eat with congee or bread in Taiwan). It absorbs the moisture from the microwaved rice cake, so when you wrap it with seaweed, the exterior remains crunchy and your fingers clean and dry.

I know, another dish worth dying for. 1 min (rice cake cooking time) + 1 min (wrapping time) + 10 mins (eating time) = about 3 hours of satisfaction. Great bargain.

As usual, eat at your own risk!