PRE Chinese New Year (3 Stories to tell)

Chinese New Year is around the corner.. Here's some images to share - CNY preparation.

# 1: Flower Tanglung Ball 

It's my first attempt making DIY Chinese Tanglung. 

It looks pretty good. lol.

To do this paper art, you'll need: 

• 60 square sized ang pau packets (Public Bank's) 
• Stapler 
• Bullets 

Steps: 

Fold 1 piece of ang pau packet into triangle shape like as shown above.

Staple the 90 degrees corner.

Remember to fold it with the inner packet facing you (see photo).

Make 5 of this.

Combine 2 together by stapling at the middle. 

I wasted a lot of bullets at first because I stapled the wrong way. tsk tsk.

You want the "flower" to be shown, thus you need to fold the inner facing you.

Staple 5 together.. like as shown in the photo. 

This is what you'll get after clipping 5 petals together.

It'll form some sort of flower shape.

Make 6 of this type of flowers.

Combine the first 2 flowers together. 

You'll know how to do it. 

Make sure there's one flower at the middle and the rest act as "petals". 

One is done. 

It gives you a satisfying feeling once you get it done correctly. =)

Then repeat the steps above to create the second half circle flower. 

This is how it'll look like at the back.. if you're curious. 

After you have got the two half circles flower done, all you need to do is just staple their edges together.. to form a big flower ball. 

Then, you should be able to create something like what I have shown in the first photo above. =) 

Happy making.

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#2 : Marcato Biscuits Cookie Maker Review

This is the parcel I received for the exchanged product I've requested. 

The first product that I received was terrible in quality. 

First Product Received: 

1. The internal aluminium coating of the barrel where I need to fill in with dough has scratches like.. rusted lines. 
2. The holder where you press it down for the cookie to form shape has rusted surfaces too. Its surface looks like as though it's a used product for quite some time. 
3. There is no logo label on the barrel like as shown on the packaging box. This could further enhance my prediction that the barrel I was given is a used/probably returned deflect item by other customers. The logo probably has been smudged away due to frequent use. 

I was very disappointed when I first received this product.  I had so high anticipation and excitement to begin the cookie making using this little machine which looks so convincing and easy to use in the videos as well as commercial ads. I did check out the reviews on Amazon about this machine before purchasing it. The feedback was pretty good. I didn't aware that this item is an OEM product. Just in case if you have no idea what it is - OEM products are replicas of the original product. 

The seller will not tell you the item is a pirated product. They will you, "it's an OEM product. It's re-created so that we can sell it to the consumers at a much cheaper price.". This sounds a little ridiculous to me because once something is not original, it means it is fake. 

I contacted the lady who sold this cookie maker on MyDeal. Luckily, she is willing to exchange a new one for me.. which I am more satisfied compared to the first received product.

Details about this product: 

Purchased at: MyDeal

Price: RM 35

Delivery: Free to Peninsular Malaysia. Not very punctual. They exceeded the expected date. 

Contains: 1 cookie press machine, 20 cookie moulds and 4 icing nozzles. 

Here's the product's packaging. 

They have the original brand's logo on it but surprisingly, I was told it's an OEM product. 

I wonder if it's legal for them to use the actual logo on the packaging and a manual book that says 2 years warranty (if i'm not mistaken it's 2 years).

Inside the box. 

There's a manual booklet inside that has various languages.. 

like as shown in the photo - those flags (languages). 

This time, I got a barrel that has the logo on it. 

Previously, it was just a total aluminium/some rusted areas barrel. 

Here's the 20 plates of cookie moulds. 

The English version. 

Here's what kind of shape the moulds can help you to shape the cookies into. 

They look pretty, isn't it? 3D. 

As stated on the manual book, you can't immediately use the machine. 

You need to wash it with detergent in hot water. 

So, I did as requested.

BEWARE: 

1. Remember to read the manuals regarding how to use the machine. I got my regulator (1 and 2) stuck. Luckily my brother managed to get it back to normal for me. It's a big wrong not to follow the manual. 
2. Don't use it on dough which is too hard. Soft dough is easier to work with this machine. 
3. You really have gotta be very patient when you're using this machine. I spent like hours learning how to use this little machine.. which looks easy but definitely not easy to manage (for me, yes).
4. Try to do some trial and error to get the best estimation of how much force you should exert. 

We're making sesame cookie. 

We don't make the recipe on the manual.

Beat the sugar and butter until fluffy. 

Add eggs. 

Then flour.

This is how it should look like-- 

Now, it's play-dough time.

Insert the dough into the barrel. 

I snapped the photo until here only.

Why? 

I was too busy investigating how to use that freaking machine that messed up my whole table.

It's really very difficult to make really good shape cookie on the first few attempts. 

It didn't stick at the bottom but it kept oozing out even though I am not exerting force on it.

After several attempts. 

Phew-- 

I got my sunflower cookies done. 

Here's the cookies in the container. 

If you're wondering which cutter I used. 

I used this - sunflower. 

Reviews: 

Price: Fine if it's good to use and does its work well. 

Efficiency: 20% You really gotta spend some time to learn how to use it. It really doesn't look as easy as it does in the videos. Looking at how people use it, you'll notice that the cookies that they made are uniform in size. This doesn't happen to my cookies. If you notice, some of my sunflower cookies are huge and some are small. I tried to get the size similar by estimating the pressure I should exert each time. This means that the size of the cookie corresponds with how much force I am pressing the cookie maker. As a result, my cookies don't look consistent in size which is definitely a big disappointment. I was happy initially to buy this product because I thought it could create cookies of same size with little effort (skipping the part whereby you need to roll the dough and cut the cookies manually with a cookie cutter). Also, I find the size regulator (1 and 2) totally useless. I can't figure out what their purposes are. They make no difference to the size of my cookie. Initially, I thought the cookie is supposed to look uniformly the same when I push the handle all the way down. Too bad, it doesn't work the way I thought it should.  Argh- It's seriously a distress to me. 

Tips: 

1. Fill in the dough into the barrel from the bottom.. not from the top. 
2. Do not turn the regular too hard or else you'll get it stuck up (like what happened to me). 
3. Try not to get the barrel surface very oily because it'll be very difficult to grab it. 
4. Try to play around with the two ways of how to put the cookie cutter plate into the machine. If you put it wrongly, the cookie will ooze out itself even though you're not putting pressure. 
5. Figure out the best force to exert after a few practice. 
6. Be patient.. really patient when you're using this. 

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# 3 : Fake Eyelashes 

I bought at Sasa. 

Kind of expensive. 

These 2 items cost RM 40+ (Sob sob)

I just thought of trying a good brand ones first -- 

as I'm still a beginner.

I don't wanna get lashes which are too difficult to stick on my skin --

The glue itself costs RM 30+

The fake eyelashes cost RM 9.90 (1 pair)

I've the urge to learn how to use fake eyelashes because..

I think it'll make huge difference to the size of your eyes. 

I have seen my cousin using it and I really envied the way how those fake lashes can make her eyes look more attractive. 

I tried to use it with glue. 

I failed horribly because.. I was in a hurry (1), and (2), I didn't watch finish the video tutorial. 

I did it in a hurry. 

Just now, I tried to get it done again without using glue -

There's still some stickiness on the band of the fake eyelashes. 

I just wanted to see if my eyes can fit the size of the lashes. 

I just wanted to trim it-- 

Unexpectedly, I think I've discovered how to use it properly. 

lol... Excitedly, I snapped a photo of myself with the lashes on on 1 eye.

Spot the difference. 

Going back to granny's house tomorrow. 

Good Night. 

Happy Chinese Year to everyone.