Oil Blot Sheets

I’ve been using oil blot sheets for a while now; from the well known Clean n’ Clear, to “unnamed” Asian brands I find randomly at the local Asian markets, and even tried the Toilet Seat Cover “trick.”

The Internet is filled with ideas and comments about these. For me, the ones I find to work best are the plastic-y ones similar to Clean n’ Clear’s. The one I happen to use is from Callas Paris (which is actually made in Japan) that I got from a local beauty supply shop at the rate of $3.00 per pack of 5- sheets. That’s still cheaper than Clean n’ Clear’s and works just as well.

Callas brand. My favorite of all the Clean n’ Clear alternatives

It’s even blue and has got the sticky thing on the lid that pulls a sheet out for you. You’ve got to admit that the black box looks spiffier than Clean ‘n Clear’s blue box.

My comments on the alternatives?

“Tissue-y” ones (aburatorigami, if I’ve read my Japanese correctly): This one was from Marukai for the price of $2-3.00 for a pack of 300 sheets. They work decently. I would assume they work fairly well if you’re not too oily, particularly in the T-zone. It seems that I use 2 sheets per “session.”

These are similar to gift wrap tissue paper. Works fine.

Toilet Seat Covers: Free if you just grab one from the stall (might want to grab the ones toward the middle/back to be sure it’s more sanitary). I’m not sure what the prices are, but I’m fairly certain they’re really cheap. I have ripped some and used it, but it didn’t work all that well for me. Probably because it wasn’t the “waxy” type. And the idea that it’s a toilet seat cover kinda puts me off.

Brown, recycled napkins (like from Starbucks): Works if you’re in a jiffy. Free.

Tissue paper (the type you stuff gift bags with): This is probably the closest to oil blot sheets for me from the list of alternatives. It’s pretty much the same as the thin aburatorigami ones that I have. However, seems that I have to use about 3 sheets to get the job done (or probably the same 2 sheets needed as the aburatorigami had I cut them into the same size). But it does a decent job, nonetheless. And at $1.00 (or less) per pack of tissue paper, it’s a good deal. You can get hundreds of sheets from the one pack of tissue paper.

A stack if tissue paper I had cut and left an my desk. Not the prettiest things in the world, but they work and I just use them at the desk when I’m at home.

All in all, the alternatives generally work well. But for me, as I get oily fairly easily, I prefer the plastic-y kinds if I can get my hands on them for a decent price. Otherwise, the aburatorigami and tissue paper would be tied for my next choice.

Frozen Concentrate

Is there something bad about frozen juice concentrates?  I’m surprised that not many people use it.

I was at Target the other day buying some groceries and got some frozen concentrates of apple and of berry mix.  I’ve never found them to taste bad or the like; if anything, they taste just as good if not better than the bottled, branded stuff.  But nobody every buys them… not often, at least.

For $1.00 and some change (I think it was about $1.52 for the Orchard something or other brand), I can make a minimum of 48 ounces (1 can of concentrate + 3 cans of water); though I think that’s still fairly sweet so I actually add more water.  For Tree Top brand, I’m looking at about $3.00 for a bottle that is 32 ounces.  AND IT’S MADE FROM CONCENTRATE ANYWAY!  O_O  So why not skip the heavy lugging of those bottles, save some money, and mix up your own?  You end up getting more for a third of the price.

And apple was actually the more expensive concentrate of the ones I’d seen.  The berry mix (which I love!) was $0.87 and also makes about 48 ounces.

I dump and mix everything into a Rubbermaid 2 quart drink container, but you can definitely reuse any other containers that’ll accommodate your drink.  I’d only bought it ($2.00) ’cause it was well made and can easily take drink mixes that are “meant” to make 2 quarts (like Kool-Aid).

February Roundup (Picture heavy!)

Oh the times have escaped me. Just a collection of things from February that I didn’t get a chance to blog about. So very quick and dirty:

This was my first time at Mochilato in Irvine with a few lovely ladies. Very good! This one in particular was the one that had everything thrown together.

It also came with 4 servings of Mochilato- mochi with gelato filling. Insanely delicious.

I was really into making Puri this month. These were the lovely ladies who accompanied me to Mochilato.

Some sort of handroll. Crunchy spider or something? This was my first time at Kula in Irvine, a rotating sushi restaurant. Good stuff.

An outing to the “Camp” in Costa Mesa yielded this cool parking lot in which every stall had a different saying. Originally we had parked in one that said “Paddle your own canoe” but as soon as we got out, we scouted the available lots until we agreed on this one and reparked. Yep. Meesho and I are just that awesome.

My mom told me this was my dinner one night… Right after telling me that she’d just done the groceries.

Also at the “Camp.” we found these seed bombs. Apparently, you throw these around and hope that a plant (or weed?) grows.

The stairs at the “Camp” were pretty cool. Motivational.

Plant reproductive system. I didn’t know my iPod could take such awesome pictures through the microscope oculars. Heck, I didn’t even know it was possible.

Burger King of Costa Mesa was too cheap to fix thee ketchup machine. So they had squirt bottles set out.

My Burger King toy.

I’d never seen one of these signs written in Viet, I I had to take a picture.

The condiment line up at The Hat of Brea. They even had ranch and thousand island!

My bestie at The Hat.

Our obnoxiously large order of chili cheese fries. They were the size of those 4-cup cup holders. Came with a side of diced tomatoes and pickles as well. I didn’t think pickles would go together with chili cheese fries, but man they were good!

4Imprint’s alternative to Levenger’s slim wallet writer. I love it! And it was free via their request a sample thing. And of course, the note card was from VistaPrint.

I was really in the mood to colour one day.

This was on the placemat at Jack-In-The-Box.

Teehee! A cool ice cream scoop from Sur La Table at South Coast.

Dookeys from Paper Source at South Coast.

Jake is coming to the OC!

The snails we races in Biology lab. The one on the left is Speedy.

This was at the top of the stairs at school. O_o

Pretty nice. Ready to mail without fumbling or wondering how much for postage.

That’s it for February.

(Semi?) DIY Purikura & Photo Strips

I’ve been having a lot of fun with my new sticker maker (Xyron 150).

My friends love to go out to Cue and Sticki Picki to play with their Purikura machines. However, the cost can add up quickly; as much as $10 per sticker sheet.

For less than the cost of a sticker sheet, I was able to get the Xyron 150; it was about $8.00 after a 40% off coupon at Michaels. The refills are $5.00 per roll of 1.5″ by 20′ (or about $2.50 – $3.00 after coupon; they have them almost weekly, so be patient!).

The Xyron machines come in various sizes, but for my purpose, the 1.5″ width was good enough. Besides, the prices of the refills just aren’t worth it after you hit a certain size.

Using various free “purikura” apps on my iPod Touch, I was able to have my own photo booth in the palm if my hands. Literally!

Individually, the each of the free apps only have so many stamps and frames. But with patience and just transferring your picture between apps, there’s more than enough to keep you busy.

My friends don’t seem to mind this method. It may be a bit of a hassle for those who lack patience (admittedly, it is a little hard to keep track of which app has which stickers…) but it hasn’t steered my friends away from the fun.

If you don’t have a camera capable iDevice, you can opt for editing your photos online as well. Just do a quick Google search for something like “online puris.”

After transferring the pictures onto my computer and resizing them to my liking, I go ahead and print them on photo paper (the price of the photo paper is negligible, for I was able to get 20-packs of 8.5″ x 11″ sheets at Frys for $1.00).

The other option for printing is to resize your pictures into a drawing program (I use GIMP) to fit on a 4″ x 6″ sized print and have them “professionally” processed.

After that’s all done, I cut up the pictures as I like and run them through the Xyron. Instant stickers from your puri-fied photos

For photo strips, I use the PocketBooth app. It was the first app I’d ever purchased and I’m sure glad it did. Of all of the photo apps, PocketBooth is one of the most used apps on my iPod.

Again, I just transfer the stickers, cut them up as desired, and then run them through the Xyron.

Oatmeal and Milk Straws

I was at Albertsons a while back and found these cool oatmeal boxes. They were on sale for $1.00 each for a box of 5 packets.

I went ahead and grabbed the berry one and the chai spice one (not photographed).

Inside, you’ll find individual packets. Sounds typical enough, right? Well each packet actually is a measuring tool; they are marked to measure the amount of water needed.

The front. Cute, isn’t it?

And the back. Complete with instructions and measurement mark. The first one I tried I’d immediately encountered a problem; it leaked. But it was only the one. The rest worked fine.

After a minute and some in the microwave, this was the result. Pretty good stuff. Much better than the Quaker Oat stuff. And it so happens that the package says it’s organic, if that makes a difference.

On to milk straws!

I’d found these while shopping at Henry’s. They were in sale at 2 packages of 5 straws each for $3.00, putting it at $0.30 per straw. There were 3 flavors available; chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla.

Each straw has little flavored beads in them and each end if the straw is heat sealed in such a way that the beads stay inside but there are small enough holes that you can still suck your milk through. As you drink, the milk dissolves some of the beads, allowing you to enjoy a lightly flavored drink.

Yum. Good stuff. I liked the chocolate flavor better though. I found that you can’t drink these too fast though, otherwise the beads wouldn’t dissolve quickly enough to gather any flavor.

My Seedling

I’d found this little grass plant thing at Michaels and thought it was pretty cute and bought it on a whim. It was $2.49 before tax but after using a 40% off coupon (I never shop there without one), it was $1.62 after tax.

I got the one that looks like a bee.

There are 3 different munchkins that you can choose from but I liked the bee the best.

These are the contents of the package; the small ceramic pot, grass seeds (rye), and a little soil pellet about the diameter of a quarter and shy of a centimeter in thickness.

Haha the soil pellet looked like poop after adding water to it (3 tablespoons, the instructions called for).

And so begins Day 1: (04 February 2011)

Day 2: (05 February 2011)

Day 3: (06 February 2011)

*sigh* Still nothing. I hear they take 3-5 days to germinate. But I’m so impatient! I kind of want to get a bunch more of these. And Michaels has a 45% off coupon for today only! I might pick up another one.

Day 4: (07 February 2011)

Yay! My munchkin is starting to sprout! I was starting to think that I fail at growing plants. And yes, I DID get another one. xD With the 45% off coupon, it came out to be $1.49 after tax.

Day 5: (08 February 2011)

(7:37am) Holy cow. This was what spouted overnight! (Day 4′s picture was taken the night if the 7th at about 10pm.)

Day 6: (09 February 2011)

Wow! After only 1 more day! This is amazing! Haha how simple things like this make me so giddy and happy…! it’s been a while since I’ve been so happy and content.

Day 8: (11 February 2011)

Yay! I think I’ll let the bee grow a bit more before styling it’s “hair.” As for the ladybug, I think I messed it up… The soil seemed packed so I decided to loosen it up, moving the seeds around in the process. They’re still growing an all; I just hope there’s still enough soil on top!

Target Finds and Mashed Potato Smiles

Ah… once again, I woke up at about 5:30am to a bunch of arguments next door (or maybe just very loud talking) and had been trying very hard to go back to sleep.  3 hours later, I’m here, sitting at the computer trying to keep myself from going insane from waking up and going to bed to a bunch of arguing.

Yesterday between Chem finals and work, I decided to go to Target to pick up a drink; I was really craving mineral water for some reason.  Here’s what I stumbled upon during my Target adventure:

According to Webster’s dictionary, the term rainbow (as an adjective) is defined as “having MANY colours,” and the word many is defined as “consisting of or amounting to a large but indefinite number.”  I do believe that this “rainbow” that the Keebler elves are referring to only consists of 3 distinct colours, and of only one shade.  That’s sad.    I’d want ROY G. BIV in my rainbow cookies.  For those who don’t know ROY G. BIV from elementary school, it’s an acronym for Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet.

It’s December.  Not October.    Get with the program.  While I understand that it’s not perished and is still drinkable, I think that should have been in their pile of “Clearance” items within the first two weeks of November.  It would have been nice to pick those up on Clearance though; those things cost a sh!t load for what they are.

8 fluid ounces x 6 cans per pack = 48 ounces

These things cost about $3.00 per 6-pack, which comes out to be $0.06 per ounce.

Take a 2-litre bottle (about 68 ounces) of the same stuff that costs at most, $1.50 and it’ll come out to be $0.02 per ounce.

Along the same aisle, I happened upon this stuff.  What is it?  Looks kinda cool.  Non-Alcoholic malt beverage is all I got from it.  I like the packaging; very simple, yet eye catching.  Maybe a bit old-timey as well.

That night, I had a dinner consisting of mashed potato smilies and grape Kool-Aid.  I wasn’t all that hungry and didn’t want anything more than quick finger food and a sweet drink.  So out to the freezer I went.  I was actually pretty lazy too so I asked my brother to accompany me out into the kitchen to toast up them smilies.

The Bag

Before According to my brother, “They look like aliens.”

After

Close Up

  That would be my meal.  The awesome Jack with my Kool-Aid and some mashed potato smilies with a bit of Ketchup.  Good stuff.  It was kind of like buttery french fries… I think.  It’s a little hard to explain.  But it was good. 

Portable Drink Mix

I happen to take supplements in powder form (mixed with water just before ingestion, of course). I usually take it in the morning, before heading out. But on those days when I’m running late, what do I do? No time to measure out the powder and water, mix and drink. It was happening all too often so I came up with a nice “To-Go” single serving kit.

The most amount of liquid I needed was 8 fluid ounces, so I was able to find this Rubbermaid brand kids’ “Litterless” juice box that holds just that amount. There was another one that was 8.5 ounces, by because it was the “traditional” box shape, it wasn’t going to fit my vials in as planned. I tested out the leakproof abilities of the juice box and it passed; it’s got a gasket ring around the inside of the lid; a good thing because I’ll need to shake the bottle to mix.

Next up, I found some 0.4 and 0.6 ounce sample vials from Nalgene. Those would store my supplements and nest inside my juice box until needed.

Overall, I spent about $5.00 on everything, which is a little pricey, but considering that everything is reusable and that I can have my supplements on the go, it was definitely worth it.

Btw, I bought everything in The Container Store; the juice box in the kids’ lunch container section and the Nalgene vials in the travel section. Leakproof goodness.

I think this would be a great alternative for homemade drink mixes. I used to make drink mixes in bulk (like Kool-Aid and such) and portion them out for single servings. However, I didn’t have a way to carry them around, and now I do! I hate how over priced the premade preportioned mixes are. I think it’s over $2.00 for 8 mixes? Versus $0.20 + the cost of sugar to make the same? Yeah. Homemade, here I come.

Oh yeah. And those premade, preportioned drink mixes are normally made with aspartame, that nasty tasting sugar substitute. I think it cuts down on packaging since it’s supposed to be sweeter than sugar but only uses like 1/3 the amount by weight or something like that. Definitely will be going with my homemade mixes. Definitely.

Of course, I think if I were to carry around drink mixes with me, I’d want a larger bottle and Nalgene vial. 8 ounces would not be enough for this girl!

**Update: (07 December 2010)

Looks like Container Store was the only place to find that particular Rubbermaid Litterless juice box…?  I’d searched Amazon, Market America, Google, etc.  Nothing.  Not even Rubbermaid’s own online catalogue had it listed!  Oh well.  At least I have mine.    I love it.  Perfect size and all.

99 Cent Store Finds

Went to the 99 cent store earlier today to get some cheap Christmas decorations. You’ve got to love the random findings there.

Looks like I’ve got myself a high end 99 cent store. Looks like 99.99 cents to me. More than 99 cents but less than a dollar. (Mind you, if you’re thinking it should be 99 dollars and 99 cents, you’d be wrong. That would be 9,999 cents.)

Sometimes, when you walk around the store, something just catches you eye. In this case, I saw some baby sized poinsettias sitting smack in the middle of the aisle. But what came afterward got me thinking…

It reads, “Care Instructions. 1. Unsleeve plant. 2. If soil is dry, water plant.” Apparently, plants don’t need sunshine and such anymore. Great instructions by the way… If you only plan on keeping the thing for less than a week…

Night Out With The Girls

Sushi, Target, and Tangled. What more could a girl ask for?

That would be a typical night out with my girlfriends; dinner, some time to catch up, rent or go out for a movie, and some more time to catch up.

First stop that night was Gesshin for a light sushi dinner. It was fairly good. I think I’ve had better, but at least I was with my bestest buddies.

We ordered:

Sashimi Salad I think I loved this dish the best. The dressing was a simple (I’m assuming) ginger and sesame type dressing. Very light and refreshing. The only thin that bothered me was that the lighter colored fish that they had in there was oddly mushy and didn’t taste all that fresh.

Volcano Roll I love me a Volcano roll any day. But this one was a little much for me. Too heavy with the sauce. And I didn’t like their frying technique either; more oil than I would have liked. But that’s just me.

(not shown)
Spicy Tuna Crunch Roll This was not worthy for pictures. I actually had to ask if this was the spicy tuna. Normally, spicy tuna would be chopped up, no? This was more like a paste.

Overall, the food there was edible, but could be better. If I came back, it’d have to be because somebody invited me. I wouldn’t go out of my way for the food.

The service, however, was outstanding, as was the decor. The waitresses were always happy, came by to take out our plates as soon as they were empty, and refilled our drinks without being asked and always before they were even empty. The decor was simple but aesthetically pleasing. nice and relaxing atmosphere.

We also found this little bit of happiness in their menu:

Yep. That’s right.

Next up, we decided to kill some time before our movie. We headed out to the Target, which happened to be in the dame plaza, and just walked around for a bit. This random outing, I learned that Nabisco had added a new item to their Ritz line of products.

I’d kind of like to try them. Seems interesting. And it kind of reminds me of the commercial where those lab scientists were trying to fit a pretzel into an M&M. I actually never got a chance to try those either. Maybe I wasn’t meant to try pretzel products.

And then I found this little guy:

The little munchkin was so cute. I loved his teeny tiny arms! Admittedly, that goofy smile and the fact that he’d be munching on your feet isn’t the happiest of thoughts, but it was just kind of cute.