Sew Easy: Pillow Cover DIY Tutorial

We're starting to get settled in the new place and now adding some finishing touches.  One of the items I wanted to update were some old pillow covers.

Easy Pillow Cover DIY Tutorial w/ Envelope Closure

Difficulty: Very Easy

Time: 30 minutes

Materials:

• 1 yard of fabric (this one is Premier Prints Penmanship) for 2 18x18" pillow cases

How to:

• Cut rectangle of fabric for your desired pillow size and add 7" on one side
• I wanted my finished pillows to be 18x18" so cut a rectangle 18x25"
• Hem your short edges.

• Fold your rectangle into a square with overlapping edges (this is where the extra length is used) and sew down the sides

• Snip each corner right above your sewn edge so that when flipped outwards, the corners will be crisp instead of slumped inwards from the excess material

• Turn inside out and stuff - you're done!

What the back of the pillow looks like

I prefer these pillows:

to these:

Easy update!  :)

Mom's Kitchen: Salted Egg Yolk Crab Recipe

On one of my visits to Hong Kong as a kid, we once tried Salted Egg Yolk Crab (called Golden Crab there) and LOVED it.  Fast forward a couple decades to San Francisco where I delighted in finding it at Hakka Restaurant.  Mom, I can never say enough about this woman, decided to find a way to make her own version because she knew how much I craved it.

Prep Time: ~20 minutes (not counting the crab chopping time)

Cook Time: ~10 minutes

Ingredients: 

• 1 Dungeness Crab 
• 2 Salted Eggs - steamed 
• Corn Starch
• Cooking Oil 
• Salt and Pepper

Directions:

• Heat up your wok on medium with about 3/4 cup of oil 
• Let's assume your crab has already been chopped (sorry, squeamish)
• Clean the crab and lightly dust with corn starch (enough to cover all the crab pieces) and salt.  The coating should be very light - not like a batter.  This is enough to give it a bit of crispness and allows the yolk to stick.

• Toss the crab into the wok and let cook a few minutes.  Do not stir at this time or all the coating will fall off.

• Flip after cooking for a few minutes

• Once fully cooked, place crab on a rack to allow any excess oil to drip off

• In a separate pan, heat up a little more oil on medium
• Place your 2 steamed salted egg yolks (this won't work with regular egg yolks) into a pan and mash

• Toss the crab into the yolk mixture and coat.  
• Once coated, you're done.  It's time to eat!

Enjoy!

Mother's Day and Motherhood

Happy Mother's Day to everyone!  This is a particularly special holiday to me for 3 reasons: 1.) our first child arrived on Mother's Day - Happy 5th birthday to my darling V 2.) it reminds me of how lucky I am to have such a wonderful Mother and 3.) it reminds me of how lucky I am to BE a mother.

Dim Sum and Milk Tea to start the day! 

Jia leung (fried dough wrapped with rice noodle, sp?) - a favorite for all 3 generations

My darlings

Ready for some rambling?

Soon after getting married, I started experiencing some health issues.  I underwent tests for a few months and thought I was going to die when the doctor mentioned possible brain tumor (in retrospect, I reacted too dramatically, but when faced with mortality at a relatively young age, I...spazzed).  I'm fine now, as you can see, and just get monitored periodically.  At any rate, I was feeling morbid during that time and reflecting upon what I might not be able to do.  Number 1?  Children.  They had always been a part of our plans, but not top of mind since we were still newlyweds.  After I was cleared, children became our priority.  We had our difficulties, but after years at the doctor, we were blessed with our baby boy.  It was a no-brainer to pursue baby #2 the same way, and thankfully, it took less treatment / time.  My path to motherhood reminds me every single day how blessed I am to have these children <3<3<3

These days,

• Little V
• Will be graduating preschool and starting Kindergarten in the fall 
• Bounded into our room this morning at 6am to exclaim, "Happy Mother's Day!" :)
• Little E
• Her toddler speak is a constant source of laughter - all verbs have an added "y" at the end
• "I needy this" 
• "I wanty sit on lap"
• Loves to help unpack.  It's not productive (at all), but it's sweet

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

Moving In

Just to warn you, this is *another* one of those rambling posts :)

After commuting 3 hours everyday for the last 4 months, I'm happy to say we're finally in our new place!  The new commute for me is about 20 minutes each way and 30 for my husband - much more manageable.  Between the hours of work and on the road, I'd been feeling mommy guilt like never before.  While we are far from being completely unpacked and settled, I'm just happy to be here.

At the moment, we're trying to maximize our smaller space by donating excess furniture, clothing (lots!), toys, etc.  I'm thankful for the nearby charities who offer pickup services and also Craigslist for items the charities can't pick up.  We were a little wary about who might pop up via CL, but they've all been such kind-hearted people.  One lady drove 3 hours to pick up a crib for a single mother who fled her abusive husband.  One gentleman spends his weekends fixing up appliances and furniture for the less fortunate at his church.  Two other gentlemen happened to be loading an Ikea wardrobe into their truck when they dropped everything to help another gentleman load a heavy desk into his car.  They just saw he was struggling and wanted to offer some helping hands.

At any rate, I'm hoping to get back to my regular blogging schedule soon - thank you so much for bearing with me during this transition <3

My future sewing corner (so much unpacking to go!)