~ Why Eat Out When You Can Eat This? ~

I know you miss all my posts about restaurants and stuff. I am sorry, but I just don't feel like eating out much nowadays. Why? Because I am awesome home-cooked Chinese food every day!  Let me show you a typical dinner at my house.  It's usually 3 dishes and a soup.  We try to balance the meat and veggies.

This is steamed chicken wings with black mushrooms and Chinese sausage.  The chicken is so very, very tender!  This is probably one of the healthiest ways to eat chicken wings.

This is a close up.  See how translucent the Chinese sausage is.  Very good stuff!  I think the brand is "Ga Ga".

This is corn beef with potato, Chinese style.  Well, not really Chinese style.  More like my dad's style.  This is awesome on its own or over rice.

We are pretty big on soup.  And I am not talking about canned soup broccoli and cheese.  This is soup made with various veggies or herbs with either chicken or pork or beef.  It is more broth like but it's supposed to be very nutritious.  This one is made with melon, mushrooms and chicken feet.  Chicken feet provides a lot of collagen.  It is probably better for your face than a collagen face mask!

All done.  I don't have to do dishes.  I don't have to cook.  I don't have to pay.  Awesome :)

~ Coreana Moisture Essential Cream and Special Water Active Cream ~

When I was in Hong Kong, I bought a lot of skin care products and one of my favorites is the Coreana Water Active Cream.  It's more like a gel and it just feels so good on my face.  It's easy to spread and just a little goes a long way.  It took me about 3 months to finish a jar and I use it day and night.  It's awesome for summer because it's so light and it makes my face feel so soft.

As much as I love Water Active Cream, I do need something a little more moisturizing for the winter.  When I bought the Water Active Cream, I got samples of the Coreana Special Care Moisture Essential Cream and a matching Serum.  I tried it and the serum felt really oily.  But the cream was nice.  So, I asked my mom to get me one for the winter.  It also has a gel-like consistency like Water Active Cream but it feels a little bit thicker.  It leaves my face nice and soft and not greasy at all.  Just awesome!

Here's a picture of the actual cream.  Both have a light sweet scent.  And I love the frosted colors of the jars! Yes, I am a sucker for packaging.  I would tell you the ingredients but it's all in Korean.  Anyway, if you can get your hands on these, give it a try!

I use this Hydra B5 Soother as serum before applying the cream.  It is a great serum, about $50 for the bigger bottle.  My face has never felt better :)

~ Snow Day ~

I woke up to a light blanket of snow on the ground. I thought nothing of it and got ready to work. It wasn't till I was on the road that I realized visibility sucks and all the cars were crawling on the highway! I should've just stayed home because the boss gave us a snow day anyway. And on the way home, I almost hit a car! It was so scary! I was only going like 5 mph, but my car just wouldn't stop and I was an inch away from my neighbor's car. I think there are like 2 inches of snow outside now. It's not bad at all, but it was just coming down pretty hard.

 

Ok so I took both my Pentax K100D and Canon S95 out for some pictures.  Can you guess which one is taken with which camera?

I only have a few pictures of Momo in the snow today.  He didn't want to stay out for some reason!  To see more, check out Mimolo.com!

~ VistaPrint Haul ~

I placed 2 orders with Vista Print on Nov 30th and Dec 3rd.  I can't believe it but I got the whole order on the 10th!  In total, I spent $65 and here's what I got:

• 1000 business cards with color printing on both sides
• 520 address labels
• 50 rack cards
• 2 wall calendars
• 1 poster calendars
• 1 small stamp
• 1 tote bag
• 1 business card holder
• 1 note pad
• 1 sticky pad

The only complaint I have is that there's a white edge on the Happy Cloud Moment's business cards and only on the front.  And I guess next time I will make the text slightly lighter. 

All the items has uploaded graphics on them.  I think it's a pretty good deal.  The business cards and labels should last me a good 6-8 months I think.  I know I could've saved some money if I just didn't get the color printing on the back.  But I really like the color!  My business cards also serve as my thank you cards and this time I put a coupon code in the back for my supplies shop.  I think you can still see the coupon code if you tilt the monitor a certain way in this picture.

Here are the rack cards and labels.  I used the labels for the first time today.  The guy at the post office thought that it was a picture of orange popcorn.  >.<  Dang it!  Am I the only one that sees them as earrings?

I love this little stamp!  I am thinking about just stamping it on kraft boxes for my jewelry packaging.  I am trying to figure out some new and more consistent packaging system.  I am thinking about making special earring cards and necklace cards using my new Silhouette SD.  

This note pad and post its are just for fun for me :)  I may use them to write notes to my customers too.  Or maybe I should just send them out to my favorite customers.

 

All in all, it was a good haul for me.  Not only did I get my business stuff, I also got the calendars as Christmas presents.  I was being efficient :)

~ Awesome Taiwanese Food at Bob's Noodle 66 in Rockville ~

Did you notice that I haven't posted about restaurants in a while? Well, I haven't been eating out much. My dad cooks awesome meals for me all the time :) Last weekend though, I ventured out in the cold and rain and had lunch at Bob's Noodle aka Bob's 66 aka 66 in Rockville. Let's get right to the food. This is a Taiwanese Hamburger.

I didn't even know this is called a Taiwanese Hamburger.  It's like bread and cilantro and a piece of really fatty pork belly.  Yum yum~!  Who doesn't like pork bellies??

This is definitely one of my favorites!  I love this sweet and tangy sauce.  You know what it is?  It's called Oyster Pancake, but it's really like an omelet with oysters.  Don't worry, it's kinda healthy 'cause there is a bed of spinach underneath it.

See the spinach?  I guess it has a good amount of oil.  That's why it's all shiny and glossy looking.  It also has some kind of gelatin like thingy inside.  Just thinking about this makes me hungry!

Another one of my favorites is this bamboo shoots with pork.  These are like baby bamboo shoots.  Very tender and yummy.  The pork is very tender too.

This is a classic bowl of beef soup noodles.  A little bit spicy and big chunks of tender beef.

This is the Three Cup Chicken aka Ginger Chicken Casserole.  This is so good~!  The chicken is well seasoned and tender.  Some of you may not like it though because it's all dark meat and the chicken has bones and skin on it.  I love the skin.  So bad, but so good~!

This is a stir fried noodles.   It's good, but not as special as the chicken.  If you go there for lunch during the weekdays with a few people, you should try their lunch special.  It's $18.95 with 3 dishes, rice and 1 big bowl of soup to share.  I think it's enough for 4 people.  Or you can get one of those rice dishes like Pork Chop on Rice or Chicken Leg on Rice.  The rice comes with little things like pickled cabbage and an marinated egg.  Very good~!  One rice dish is enough for 2 meals for me and it's only $5.50!! 

Ok, enough about food.  The venue is like a typical Chinese restaurant.  Service is ok, nothing spectacular but nothing to complain about.  It is located conveniently by Rockville Town Center, close to Maxim and Kam San Chinese grocery markets.  It's also close to Cake Dream so you can always hop over there for some cupcake desserts.  Just keep in mind that Cake Dream is closed on Mondays :)  Oooo, by the way, all the food pictures were taken with the Canon S95 and they have not been altered except for the watermark.  Just gotta love that camera~!

~ Love My New Canon S95 ~

My Canon S95 arrived last week! I haven't had time to play with it that much but I did take it out for a quick test drive.  We were eating grape fruits so I just took a few shots.  This is the special mode for taking pictures in the dark.

This is just auto mode.  I think they are pretty comparable.  It wasn't that dark though.

This is with my pentax DSLR with no flash in auto mode. 

This is taken at night without flash.  I think this one is pretty good considering it was so dark outside!

This is also taken without flash at my house.  Not bad at all for a point and shoot I think.  The video is also very good.  So far, no buyer's regrets.  It's definitely a lot easier to just carry around and take day to day pictures.  I tried to take pictures of Momo running with this but it just doesn't zoom enough. 

I started to use the Canon to take pictures of my jewelry and supplies too.  Can you tell which one is taken with the Pentax and which one is taken with the Canon?  I think they both look fine so from now on, the I'll be using the Canon.  It's just easier and I think it's better for macros.  The Canon S95 has a lot of features that I have yet to explore.  I will post more studies soon!

~ Origins Haul & Ginzing Eye Cream Review ~

For Cyber Monday, Origins had a great sale and I grabbed a bunch of skincare products.  I got 2 masks:  Drink up Intensive and Clear Improvements, which my mom just loves.  I also got two moisturizers:  Starting Over and High-Potency Night-a-Mins.  Staring Over has some anti-aging properties.  I just think it's time to start on the anti-aging stuff...it's never too early right?  I also got the Modern Friction and Checks and Balances face wash because I have heard so many good things about them.

 

 All those things listed above are stuff that I wanted, but for sure I don't need them considering how much skin care I have already!  What I needed was this:  the GinZing Eye Cream.  I just love this!  I got this as an example from a prior purchase.  I only use it in the morning and at night I use Clinique's All About Eyes.  This really works!  My eyes are less puffy after using this for a few days!  If you can still get your hands on the gift set that includes this, a mascara and lip gloss, please get it!  It's the same price as the cream alone with out the extras.