Making a Center Pull Yarn Ball [Tutorial]

I always have a hard time keeping the yarn ball steady while knitting. Turn out my cats plays with my yarn ball because it rolls around the room as I knit - which is NOT GOOD! Saw some tutorials on doing a center pull yarn ball and it is super easy! And here you go.

1. Take your needle, or a stick of any kind, tie a knot around it, leaving a 4-5 inch tail.

2. Leave a little space and start wrapping your needle with yarn.
(The reason to leave some room between the tied knot and where you start wrapping is so that you can easily find the tail after you're done)

3. Keep wrapping in different directions. You can turn the yarn ball around and wrap it in many angles to create a "rounded" ball. I stayed close to the edge of the needle/stick because it's easier to wrap.

4. Untie the knot and take the yarn ball out. [Or do the opposite]. And there you go. A nice rounded yarn ball with a tail from the center. 

Hope you liked this brief tutorial. I've also been thinking of what to do for my next project. Maybe some knitting. Below is one of the scarves that I've knitted a few years ago. It is a double sided two-tone scarf. Some of my friends have been asking me to do a tutorial on it so maybe I'll start a new one. :) Stay tuned!

Double sided two-tone scarf

Nexcare Acne Care - Pimple Bandage/ Pimple Patch

Do you have Acne problem? Do you always squeeze your pimple to try to get rid of it? And do you actually see scars on your face because of that?

I've always squeezed my pimples out since I was young because that's what my mom taught me to do. But as I grew older, I have heard many people saying that we shouldn't be doing that because it actually creates scars. Fortunately, I don't see much scars on my face even I did squeeze my pimples out. But squeezing them out is definitely not a pleasant feeling as it sometimes causes bleeding, it hurts, and it's gross.
Here's what I would recommend - Nexcare Acne Dressing (Pimple Patch)

I've been using these for more than a year and I am amazed by how well it cures acne. I've used these for big and small pimples on my face. [If you have pimple on your body, I think it should work the same way].
What it does is, it absorbs all the things inside the acne without you squeezing it with your hand.
I usually put one of these after I wash my face at night. Leave it there over night and it should already absorb most of the stuff. But usually I will use another one in the morning before I do my make up and just leave it there for the rest of the day. And yes, you will look a little bizarre with a patch on your face but honestly, it's not that obvious unless someone looks at you closely. I normally just tell people it's an acne patch and they wouldn't bother afterwards.
Of course, if you don't feel comfortable for people seeing you with a "thing" on your face, you can put some acne cream during the day and just use these at night. But trust me, they will speed up the healing process.

1. When the acne first started to hurt, you can see some white stuff in the middle (usually meaning it's ready to pop out)
2. Putting a patch on after that
3. After one night, you can see that some white stuff has already been absorbed
4. After using two of these patches, it is obviously much smaller and less obvious now.

Each pack of these comes in big and small patches (12 big ones and 24 small ones = 36 in Total) You can easily find these on eBay.com. Just search "Nexcare Acne Dressing" and it should come up with a lot of options. Get more of these if you're ordering from overseas (usually cheaper but shipping is slower). Or you can make sure you get these from the area where you're at so you can get it faster.

One tip from using these, MAKE SURE TO CLEAN YOUR FACE BEFORE APPLICATION. Do not put any lotion, toner, acne cream, ANYTHING on top of your acne before applying these because you're just going to end up wasting the patch. It will come off easily if you do so. However, you can feel free to use whatever you want on your face after you put on the patch.

Hope this helps! Thanks for reading!

Petting Food: Pho Filet

Went to this restaurant the past July 4th for lunch as I've been craving for Pho for a long time. Since I've moved to LA county, I never really had a nice pho. Westminster, Orange County always has the best pho!
A couple of friends recommended this restaurant since it's close by, and it is also very famous for it's Filet Mignon. Yes, it sounds delicious!

Visit their Yelp Page Here

Date	July 4th, Saturday, crowded.
Parking	♫♫ (out of 5) Not much space. We had to park on the streets
Wait Time	♫♫♫ (out of 5) It was about 15-20 minutes wait. Considering it was a federal holiday and there wasn't many choices left, it's actually not bad. We did have to share a table at the beginning, but after we've ordered our food, a booth was opened and we switched.
Cleaniness	♫♫ (out of 5) Honestly, it doesn't look very clean. I didn't pay much attention to the floor, but it just feels like one of those Asian restaurants... Not clean. But if you don't pay attention to it then you can still survive.
Food	♫♫♫♪ (out of 5) The Filet Mignon pho is pretty good. It came rare and the soup gradually warms it up and gets it cooked. Well, this is pretty much how all rare beef pho is, except this is filet mignon. The filet mignon is tender, but it is chopped off into small pieces. Some might like it, but I can’t really taste the beef. The soup base is nice though. I like how they put extra ginger into the soup, which is different from other pho places that I’ve been to. I don't think the MSG was too strong even though I've drank 1/3 of the soup.  On top of the pho, I’ve also ordered an Avocado Milk Shake. I’ve tried one in Westminster long time ago. This one is actually pretty good too. It is not as “heavy” and “filling” as the one I’ve had before. It tastes light. However, the soup from the pho was too strong that took me awhile to finally get the taste of the avocado.
Price	♫♫♫♫♫ (good deal!) $6 for a small bowl of pho. I consider it as a reasonable price. $2 for Avocado Milk Shake. Pretty good deal. You won’t be able to get a drink for only $2 now at a regular boba place.

* ♫ = how good it is.


** Update on 7/28/2014: We actually just found out there's actually another Pho Filet 2 in Rosemead which is cleaner and bigger. Visit their Yelp page here.

My New Awesome Dresser

After moving in here for a year, I have no place to do my make up so I always had to do it in the bathroom. This was fine until my husband and I start to fight for the bathroom. And on top of that I have no storage in the bathroom for other supplies because I have way too many stuff in the bathroom. So I finally persuaded my husband to get me a new dresser.

With limited space in our room, we cannot afford a whole piece of dressing table (which I would actually love too). So I found this piece of dresser/drawer with an attached mirror on the top at Ikea. For the whole week, I was trying to look for the same dresser at Craigslist but got no luck. So I dragged my husband to get this with me on Saturday morning. I was so excited and so happy that I got it because I finally have a spot to do my make up, and store all my little things. :)

For those who have limited space, I highly recommend this. It is just as wide as my bookshelf with 6 drawers.

I am in love with the mirror. You can even store jewelry there. A mat is included when you purchase this drawer. I still haven't got a chance to lay out my jewelries because I am too used to getting them stored.

The top two drawers are very shallow and can't put much stuff (I think they are intended for jewelries).
I got these jewelry trays at Marshall ($25/3 trays) and I was able to organize my little things very nicely.
As you can see, I put some make up brushes here too because they are too tall, it wouldn't fit the drawers below :( This is one of the down side of this drawer.

I basically moved most of daily make-up tools and stored them in the containers that I already have. I am not a very organized person but I'm loving how it looks to me so far. :P

I really love this little container which I got from Daiso. They have all these little cute containers. :)

Just want to share my joy of getting a new dresser here. :) Thanks for reading!

Reusing Wedding Bouquets

A lot of people had tried to persuade me in using real flowers at my wedding so it wouldn't look "cheap". But I insisted in using silk flowers, not just because it is way cheaper and easier to handle, but also because I can keep the flowers and put it around my home. I always feel sad to see real flowers die and go to waste.

 This is my bouquet. And it turns out to look very nice as a home decoration. :)

This is the bouquet for my bridesmaids. I got it from Afloral.com and wrap it around with ribbon (But obviously the ribbon is coming loose after it was thrown all around)

The little blackboard was used in the wedding also asking people to instagram tag us. I've reused it as a home decoration also. (P.S. No one actually used the tag... T.T)

Anyways, thanks for reading this! :)