Cream Cheese Filled Pretzels

Ever since my Disneyland annual pass expired last year, I have been having some serious Disneyland withdrawals. Some of my symptoms include: constantly checking Southwest to see when air plane tickets to John Wayne airport go on sale, thinking of a game plan for pin trading with castmembers, daydreaming of finding all the hidden mickeys, and having intense cravings for turkey legs, dole whips, and cream cheese filled pretzels. To help ease my symptoms a little, I thought I could try to make some cream cheese filled pretzels. This recipe is so good, it makes me feel like I am back on Main Street, USA.

Mickey Mouse Nutella Cookies

I love Costco. It has everything I need at good prices and more. My only gripe is that if I'm shopping for myself (one person), the bulk sizes at Costco can get kind of overwhelming. I usually only buy something there if I know that I can eat it everyday for the next month and not get sick of it. But this last time I went to Costco, I could not help myself from picking up the pack of two nutella jars and placing it in my cart. Maybe it was my logical reasoning that the jumbo package of two costs the same as one small stingy jar at other stores or perhaps it was my sweet tooth controlling my body, but whatever the cause, I ended up leaving the warehouse with two bucketfuls of chocolatey paste.

Shrinky Dink Magnets

When I was younger, my aunt gave me a Shrinky Dink kit for Christmas. Back then, just watching how the plastic shrinks in the oven was pretty awesome. My inspiration to revisit my childhood activity of making Shrinky Dinks occurred when I was browsing around Urban Outfitters and found these little mustache magnets that sold a pack of 8 for $8. Deciding that they were too expensive, I realized I could make them using my old leftover supply of Shrinky Dink and magnet strips. 

Beaded Wrap Bracelet

I couldn't believe how much these types of wrap bracelets at the store cost! What I didn't realize was how simple they were to make! I bought some beads at the store, but I also found some old beaded bracelets lying around at home and thought I could give them a much needed makeover.

Wrapping Paper Shoeboxes

The last two weeks I've been busy cleaning out and organizing my room. Two years ago, my mom told me to pack all of my stuff away because she wanted to change the carpet in my room to hardwood floor. So before I left for school, I did what she asked. Months later, she decided to just rent a carpet cleaner to wash the carpets (which didn't require me to pack everything)! I hadn't found the time to unpack all my things until now. And I also had all the boxes that I was moving back from my apartment room. So I guess at one point, my entire life was in boxes, as my friend had pointed out so accurately.

Printed Canvas Tote

The past two summers, I've been working with a great group of first generation college-bound high school students. Our goal was to introduce them to engineering and science through a whole bunch of projects, design competitions, and lab tours. We had originally wanted to give them tshirt gifts on the last day as a way to remember us, but several days before, we had run into some administrative problems that left us with nothing! Feeling a little bummed out, I tried to look for printing companies that would be willing to help us on short notice. Some rude phone calls later, I reluctantly decided that it was a lost cause.

Maybe it's some sort of problem of mine, but a few restless hours later, I realized I could not just give up there.  I searched ways to print my own tshirts and stumbled upon iron on transfer papers. Worried that the ink will just fade after several trips to the washing machine, I ended up settling on the idea of making canvas tote bags. But settling ended up turning into something even better! 

Portuguese Egg Tarts

Being away from the Bay Area definitely has its downside--I miss my yummy Chinese foods! More importantly, there are no sweet and crispy egg tarts to buy. Egg tarts are my one of my favorite childhood treats, so I decided to try to make them! I adapted the recipe from Rasa Malaysia and it yields 16 tarts. 

Mod Podge Canvas Picture

A good friend of mine took the time to teach me how to make my very own canvas pictures using Mod Podge. The canvas pictures are really simple to make (almost foolproof!), but they end up looking like you spent a whole lot of time and money. But that's the thing, it didn't! Calculating the cost for all of the supplies, it took me roughly $5 to make each picture. 

Marshmallow Fondant: First Attempt!

After watching countless episodes of Ace of Cakes and Cake Boss, I wanted to try my hand at cake decorating. It was my friend Jin's birthday, so I decided that since I had some time, I could try it out. Since he's so into photography, buying new cameras every so often, I thought it would be fitting to put on his cake a replica of his favorite vintage film camera. Since this is my first attempt using fondant, I decided to play it safe and stick to a 2D rendition instead of the whole 3D shebang as I didn't want to completely butcher his birthday cake. 

Almond Jelly

My club was selling food at a fair to fundraise last weekend. By the time we started to clean up, we still had a big can of fruit cocktail leftover. After contemplating for awhile about what we should do with it, I finally thought, I could make some almond jelly! A nice cold bowl of almond jelly is a refreshing dessert, perfect to eat during that typical hot summer day.