Can you really earn some money from online survey?

One way I found can save me some pocket money is doing online survey. Out of many I have signed up to, only two sites really give me   reward points that really can redeem usual products or services. I am not going to disclose the names of those that I found not useful, but some survey companies rewards you chances to their lucky draw or with points that are so little, take you forever to redeem some useful things. By saying useful, I really mean something you are already using in daily life, like Startbucks card, Hertz,  Shell car wash, hotel points etc.

Continue reading

Needle felting a cat using cat hair

Inspired by the book Crafting with Cat Hair: Cute Handicrafts to Make with Your Cat, I am using my cat’s hair to try out this interesting needle felting technique. The book is fun to read even though you don’t plan to needle felt anything, it contains step-by-step instructions to projects with various difficulties, like small tote bag, book cover and drawing. Today I am trying out the little puppet that shown in the book cover, took me an hour from start to finish, excluding brushing your cat and collecting the necessary tools. I got my felt needle and some extra cashmere (like the white color) from Etsy.

After 3 or 4 steps, the puppet is almost done.

Continue reading

Copper foiled stained glass – 3 Beginner projects

After a year and half of learning stained glass through a community workshop, I am showcasing my three beginner pieces using copper foiled techniques. The first two pieces have the same pattern but used different color and texture glass for practising purpose. The third one is a window panal for a side window along a stair.  Enjoy the photos!

Case for Google Nexus 7

I have been waiting for Google releasing the official case for Nexus 7 in Canada for months but seems they are not going to sell it here. So my tablet is basically caseless with no protection if I bring it on the go. Those cases selling in Indigo or Chapters for Kindle Fire are actually a good size to the Nexus 7 but comes with a stiff price (like $30) and a not so attractive look.

Continue reading

Making of Kombucha – Fermentation using a home-made scoby

After almost two weeks in preparing a kombucha scoby from a commercial bottled Kombucha, I obtained a very smooth, pale yellow scoby to start my very own home brewed Kombucha. I used Twinings’s White tea and Dutch Baby’s glucose as my tea base for the fermentation process.

My first Kombucha scoby

To see the making process, please click Making of Kombucha tea which is a video posted on YouTube, featuring photos of various steps during my preparation of Kombucha.

Preparing the mother for a living tea – Kombucha scoby preparation

After researching even just a few informations about Kombucha, I have already fallen in love with its amazing “living” nature and the easiness of preparing one by yourself. There are bunches of recipes available on the web, but few sources mentioned about where to get the Kombucha scoby locally. Scoby, also thought as the “mother” of the Kombucha culture. There are a few online stores that sell a Kombucha Starter kit that include the glass container, the ingredients and also the Kombucha culture. For that, one can proceed with the fermentation process right away without preparing the scoby, which usually take a week to two. For person like me who want to have more control and fun with the preparation process, I decided to go in a slow and inexpensive way. In a recent visit to an organic food store, I bought the Rise Kombucha which has four favours. A detailed receipt has been put on the Rise Kombucha website.

Rise Kombucha

Continue reading

How to import and read e-books in Nexus 7

I was a bit confused when the Nexus 7 failed to take my huge e-book collection into its e-book reader during my first attempt. The default e-book reader, Play Books, doesn’t take any e-book acquired outside Google Play. Below is my way to import my e-books collection in epub format, the application I used is Moon+ Reader which I found is highly customizable and has a very user-friendly interface.

Instructions of importing epub e-books to Moon+ Reader:

Continue reading