Lamenting over impending doom and pretty things

May 20, 2012April 14, 2013 Samthebear2 Comments

Can’t wait till the end of semester (and exams) so I can do everything that makes life worth living! Baking, cooking, crafting, blogging on all the back logged projects, reading, ~~writing an essay for next semester’s class~~, spending absurd amounts of time with my boyfriend – you know things like that!

[clear] I’ve actually been lusting over this bracelet by Mimco but rather than buying it like any normal person I’m going to try and make something like it for thirty dollars or less (wish me luck!)

On a different note, I’ve been really attracted to pearl cluster bracelets for a while now and the J-crew one look so fresh and bright~
If I manage to make a memory coil bracelet I’ll try making the clustered one next!

Mother’s Day

May 8, 2012April 14, 2013 Samthebear2 Comments

It’s coming up next week and I’ve prepared a gift for my mum for being such a great pillar of support and love to me ^_^ I bought the Verbena cooling hand cream, body lotion and body soap bar from L’occitane to assemble my own hamper gift set. It has such a lovely fresh fragrance and I hope she enjoys it! The following is just a little DIY post on making your own hamper for anyone you’d want to celebrate this mother’s day!

(By the way, the hand cream is divine~ you should get one for yourself if not for your mum!)

Nama Chocolate (Japanese truffles!)

March 10, 2012April 14, 2013 Samthebear2 Comments

These Nama Chocolates are absolutely delicious! I’ve used the recipe from Just One Cookbook|Nama Chocolate written by Nami and they are fairly simple to make (mistakes take some time to fix though! But more on that later) – similar in texture to French truffles but I believe less difficult to make! My last attempt at truffles was not the easiest one (I had a list of ingredients, instructions and mistakes!). [clear]

Glass Float DIY

February 26, 2012April 14, 2013 Samthebear4 Comments

It’s the last day of holidays and as it is such, I will not have a lot of time to continue my DIY projects and post them up =[ so for my last project (for awhile) that I’ll be showing you guys is how to create a decoration more widely known as “Glass Floats” or “Fishing Floats”. Basically it’s a glass ball (sealed) with netting around it. In the olden days they were used to keep fishing nets floating but now everyone uses plastic buoys so they are no longer in production (apart from replicas). Old glass floats can be (on occasion) found along the beach where they have been washed up – but these days they’re a collector’s item with each glass float able to fetch $50 to over $500 depending on size, glass condition, colour, etc.

Newspaper print nails

February 17, 2012April 14, 2013 SamthebearLeave a comment

I saw my cousin do this on her nails one day when we met up and i thought it was really cute! Turns out all you need are news papers, alcohol (of any kind), painted nails and a top coat!

Salmon Onigiri

January 16, 2012April 14, 2013 SamthebearLeave a comment

I bought a set of onigiri shapers today at the Japan import store ($2.80) and decided to try them out for dinner today! They also double as a lunch box so i can bring some onigiri to uni for lunch some day!

Holiday stamped cookies

January 10, 2012January 10, 2012 SamthebearLeave a comment

It is fairly past the season and such but I bought this set of cookie stamps from Williams Sonoma on the post-Christmas sale for ten bucks! tried it out the other day and boy – jet lag hits like a bitch on the third day. I was up at 8 baking these cookies and by 4PM i was pooped out. Passed out by 7PM and slept through until the next day 6.30AM! That aside, the cookie stamps came in a set of three, one snow flake, a gift tag and a holiday wreath.

[two-third]

Felted mushrooms – how to

January 4, 2012January 11, 2012 Samthebear2 Comments

By ~~(not so)~~ popular demand here is the how-to! It is not a comprehensive how-to as it would be too wordy to explain it all but if you want to see how felting is done, just youtube a video =] my instructions are just for the mushrooms.

Materials:
– Wool Roving/felting wool
– felting needle
– old pillow or cushion

Instructions: [one-fourth]
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First post of the new year

January 3, 2012January 7, 2012 SamthebearLeave a comment

It starts with a bang of ideas and brain storming ala my boyfriend using the backs of used envelopes (there doesn’t ever seem to be scrap paper around his room…)

A few hours of surfing blogs and the internets yields me two ideas i can’t wait to try when i get home!

Felted mushrooms

December 30, 2011March 3, 2012 Samthebear2 Comments

Recently my boyfriend and I went to NY to visit his family and we went by a shop that was selling these really cute felted mushrooms! He wanted to fill his office up with like 40 of these and considering each was about $20-$40 we figured it might be worth a shot to make some ourselves. Bought the felting material and needle from ebay (total about $22 for 2 pounds of material and one felting tool) and started as soon as they arrived in the mail! (about 5 days waiting)