Homemade Vietnamese yogurt

Why should you bother making your own yogurt?

Because it's cheap, it's easy to make, it's good for your health (no preservative and probiotics effect), and it tastes supper yummy. Also because I grew up eating this and I'm not a fan of yogurts sold in US market (don't get me wrong, they taste good too, but just different).

Ingredients: condensed milk- 1 can, whole milk - 2 can, plain yogurt- 8oz, and hot water - 1 can.

First boil some water. While waiting, in a large prep bowl, empty the condensed milk can

Add 1 can of hot water (using the same can to measure hot water), stir it to dissolve all condensed milk

 

Add 2 can whole milk, keep stirring.

Add 8 ounce plain yogurt, keep stirring. It will be clumpy, sift mixture smooth:

Pour in small jars, and put jars in a large pot with lid. Boil some more water, wait for it to cool down a little, fill pot with hot water (it should submerge around 1/3 the jar's height):

Turn on oven to 350F, then turn it off, put the whole pot into oven. Let sit overnight, and you will have homemade yogurt the next morning. Pop them in the fridge and it will be ready to eat. You can also mix it with fruit, with shaved ice, or eat it frozen (my favorite).

If you want to make them again, keep one jar for you next yogurt batch instead of buying plain yogurt from store.

And let me know how it turn out if you tried the recipe :)

Thanks for reading.

New look for my bathroom vanity

Lets start out with how my bathroom shelves used to look:

So messy, so many random stuff lying around, and I didn't even utilize all the space up on the first shelf (too high for me to reach).

The wire shelf had to go out. I replaced them with wood shelves, prime and paint them myself. I got most of my material at Homedepot. If you don't want to mess with bare wood, they have primed board which is easier to paint. Each of these shelves (include hardware) costed me roughly $4 since I got used paint for cheap (like $3 for half gallon).

At first I just randomly put everything on these shelves without really thinking much. It looked better than those wire shelves, but still look like a mess. Things were just all over the place until I found a solution: Baskets. I got these baskets at Dollar General (like $1.5 each). They are cute, sturdy and just the best option to hide all my little cream and lotion jars. I did have to put some items that I used less often in cabinet under sink (and I will need to reorganize them later).

I put all of my stuff on the bottom shelf (cuz I'm a little short haha), his stuff on middle shelf, throw in some decors with flower and picture. I got the picture frame from dollar store and printed out a picture that I like from the internet. I used matte photo paper ($5 for a pack of 50 sheets from Amazon) and printing it myself saved me lots. I bought ink and refill cartridge myself as well, you won't believe how much refilling your own ink cartridge can save you, I really think it's a ripoff to buy new cartridge from retailer.

For the flower vase, it was just a tin can wrapped up in twine thread and secured with hot glue gun. The tin can was free, and I got twine thread at Target, it costed me $1 and was enough for 5 cans.

And guess how much this whole update cost me? Less than $30. I just couldn't be happier with the result:

Thanks for reading.

DIY lazy susan

This is a super easy DIY project that can help you organize your pantry closet

What you need: 2 round baking pans and any kind of beads (I just get bead necklace from dollar store, they sell a pack of 8 for $1).

Place the necklace in between 2 baking pans. That's it. And it works perfectly (a little noisy though):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acC4ne9Xx8k

DIY foam dish detergent

A quick tip on saving $$ using DIY foaming dish soap.

If you ever use foaming dish soap, you might notice that it lasts a lot longer than a same size bottle dish soap. But the foaming soap refill can be a little costly. Making you own foaming dish soap is very very simple and can save you a lot of $$ over time.

All you need to do is watering it down, my ratio for Dawn dish soap is 1 part soap with 2 parts water. If you use a different brand, you might need to experience with the ratio a little bit. If it's too thick, the pump will clog and if it's too watery, of course your soap will not be strong enough to clean.

You need a big container (I reuse my great value soap container), empty out Dawn soap leaving the bottle upside down (helps getting most soap out)

  

Then fill up the same Dawn soap bottle with water, pour water into big container, and shake it up a bit to mix it evenly:

Fill up a foaming soap dispenser (you can find these at dollar store and make your own foaming soap after you use it up)

I usually paid less than $1 or sometime I could get Dawn dish soap for free with coupons. With each Dawn bottle I could make 30fl oz foaming dish soap, the same 30fl oz foaming dish soap, same brand, would cost me $6 at big retailer. I basically save $5 making it myself. Sounds pretty good to me :)

This tip saves me lots of $$, I hope it would help you too.

A decanter for a beautiful bathroom

A beautiful display for bathroom essentials

Before I decided to get a tray, all these stuff were scattered all over the sink counter (of course in theirs original containers). The lotion was in a tube, my cotton ball was in a plastic bag, q-tip came in a huge paper box which I got from walmart years ago. They consumed my counter space (which is already small) and made a total mess.

So in my effort to beautifying my little home without spending a huge fortune buying a whole set from big retailer, I use mostly items that I already have. The big tray was from a yard sale for just $5 (yay summer, I love going to community yard sale). Then I store all my little bathroom necessities in small Mason Jars.

The little jar for Q-tip is 4oz.  I use 8oz jars for cotton ball and a lotion pump (direction on how to make it here). The nice thing about mason jar is that you can remove the lid for easy access and keep the outer cap on. It looks nicer since the cap hide the screw edge of mason jar while also acts as decoration piece. This bathroom set costs me nothing since I already have them on hand (and they are sold at Target, pack of 12 for $8).

I add a silver plate for hand towels (match the Mason jars that I have, usually there is only 1 towel on the plate, but I sometimes put 3 on just for taking picture ^^)

And fragrance candles (my husband loves candles). They are great decoration items as well as refreshing your bathroom with lovely fragrance.

For the space behind the candles, at first I thought of adding a flower vase. But I wasn't sure if putting flower right next to direct heat (and too much decoration pieces on the same tray) would be a good idea. After a long talk with my girlfriend, the flower vase goes on my bathroom shelves (which is in progress so I cut it out of the picture). And she suggested placing my mouthwash on the tray, using a nicer bottle. Therefore, I decided on a decanter with crystal design to match my mason jars. (This is sold on Amazon for $12).

And finally my bathroom sink is now completed:

I am no expert on decoration, and I actually had to go through ton of pictures on Pinterest and Google just to see which style would be best for me. I hope I just don't get bored of it too soon lol.

Thanks for reading.

DIY mason jar soap dispenser

What you will need:

• Mason jar: less than $1 each, Target sells these at $8 for a pack of 12 8oz jar
• Pump: I bought mine at dollar store, just reuse the pump and keep bottle for other purpose
• Some pain/ink that is washable for marking
• Hot glue gun
• Hammer
• Flat head screwdriver

Procedure:

• Start with a mason jar and a pump

• Use acrylic paint, smear it on bottle edge and press the edge against mason jar lid

  

• Using hammer and screwdriver to punch holes around the paint mark (if you have a drill bit that's big enough, this process would be easier but I don' have one that big, hence the manual work)

 

• Cut the plastic tube to fit jar

• Use hot glue gun to secure pump to jar

• The inner side looks a bit dangerous to leave it like that, so I use hot glue gun to cover it up, this also helps secure  the pump

• This is what the final product look like

• Pour in your favorite soap and start using:

Thanks for reading.

DIY makeup brushes organizer

All you need is a glass container of any size ($1 at thrift store, my thrift store never fail me when I need glass item), some glass gems, color as desired ($1/lb at Walmart). I buy 4lb to fill up half this glass container. Super easy, super cute and could make a wonderful gift.

Thanks for reading.

DIY necklace organizer

I have too much jewelry ~~. If you have a thing for necklaces like me, this is a must read. This is so simple to make, costs little and doesn't take too much time of your weekend.

What you will need:

• Wood strip: $1.22 per 8ft at Home Depot, cut to size (as long or as short as you want)
• Cup hooks: $4 a pack of 100 hooks, Home Depot
• Spray paint: $4 a can, Home Depot, already on hand
• Drill and drill bits
• Screws
• Ruler and marking pencil

Process:

• Start with measuring and marking where you will drill.
• I make 2 rows, each 1 inch apart, these small holes are for screwing in cup hooks.

• At 2 ends, I drill bigger holes for securing it to the wall.
• Spray paint everything, include screw's heads. Let dry. Then installing cup hooks using a pliers (or your fingers will hurt, really hurt).

• Hang it up and you are done. (Above is my frame earrings organizer)

• I also make one for my hats with the extra wood I have left, or it can be use for keys, pretty much anything you can hang.

I hope you enjoy reading this post.

Thanks for reading.

DIY ring holder

What you need:

• Any box: mine was a watch box found at a thrift store
• Foam: I got extra foam from one of my previous project, DIY tufted headboard
• Felt: a 8x12 size felt sheet is $0.23 at Walmart
• Scissor, hot glue gun, pencil and ruler

How to:

Measure your box and cut foam to size (you can cut as many strips as you like, as long as they fit your box), and don't worry if your cut is not straight, felt is thick enough to hide imperfection.

Cut your felt sheet to size so that it wraps around foam strip

Use hot glue gun to glue felt sheet to foam piece

Insert to your box and you have a ring holder:

This project is super easy and cute. If you have a lot of rings or stud earrings, you can use the same method with a bigger box and more foam strips. Over all I spent less than $2 for this cute ring holder (and it seriously took me like 30' from start to finish).

Thanks for reading.