Phantasmat Collector's Edition

I first learned about Phantasmat when the artist, Gracjana Zielinska, started posting concept art for it on her deviantart. I can't remember how I stumbled upon her but I love her style.  I held off buying the game for quite sometime, until earlier in the week: I really wanted to play something new, so I decided to splurge and get it.  I went for the Collector's Edition because it also included an epilogue.

Topic #6: Food - Recipes

Well, as it's been mentioned, I love food.  I have a list of places I want to try here at home as well as out of state.  And I'm willing to go pretty far to try them out.  I also enjoy cooking, but lately been too lazy to try out any of the recipes that I keep finding.  I tend to find recipes through Pinterest, and I'd thought I'd share some of the ones that are at the top of my list to try my hand at.

Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread

This looks like a lot of fun to eat and I think would be a great breakfast dish, though it would take some time to make, as you do need to let the dough rise.

Cilantro Lime Shrimp

My family tends to eat a lot of shrimp paired with salads during the summer since it's less heavy dish. I would love to find other ways to cook or 'dress' shrimp up other than frying them up in butter and garlic.

Chao Shou (Sichuan Pork Dumplings) - Photo Credit: Ariana Lindquist

I love dumplings of all kinds but I've never actually tried making them at home.  These look amazing but I might go easy on the red chile oil.

What are some of your favorite recipes? Always looking for new things to try, especially meat dishes.

Making Some Shinies

I'm participating in my first swap of the year, a St. Patrick's Day one, and I really wanted to hand make something for my swappee. I decided to do jewelry, since I couldn't think of anything to knit, and since this is a quicker swap, I didn't think I could knit something fast enough.

These beads were originally going to be accents for the quartz pendant necklace I had originally planned to make, but the proportions to the pendant were too uneven for my taste (the chain I was working with also broke).  So, after some more supply shopping, I decided to use them to make a pair of earrings instead.

Topic #5: Nails - My Favs

Really late with this post - rough two weeks at work which left me not so motivated to write.  But here we have the next topic for the #2014BloggerChallenge: nails.  I used to bite my nails all the time, at times to the point where I was bleeding.  I started to make a real effort to stop around high school and when I started going to college, I began to paint my nails on a regular basis.  This really helped me get over the nail biting habit.  In the span of a couple of years, my collection of polish grew from 10 to over 200 bottles.  However, my 'obsession' has died down which does help my wallet and while I have still have a long wishlist of the polishes I want to buy, most are on the pricier side of the spectrum and those purchases need to be planned out.

But today, I thought I would so you some of my favorite polishes that I have in my collection. It's a bit random but these would be counted in my top choices.

 CND Stickey base coat.  This has been my go-to base coat for years now.  The brush isn't the best but I can deal with it.  I really believe that the tacky finish it has does help the staying power of my manicures.