shiitake & chicken broth rice.

with my hopes to live more frugally this year, i'm trying to get the most for my bang.

by that, who doesn't love costco's rotisserie chicken?  it's $4.99, it's flavorful and a good size.  i usually eat half the chicken for dinner the day i buy it.  then i'm sick of it that it sits in the fridge for a day or two.  then i feel so bad throwing half the bird away so i thought to myself, "why not make chicken broth?!" 

but then, i make about four quarts of chicken broth and... uhhh.. what the hell am i going to do with this much broth??

my friend and chef suggested i make rice with it.  and to make it even more flavorful, add shiitake mushrooms.  it definitely reminded me of the rice my mom used to make, but her's consists of sake, mirin, etc. that i don't have on hand.  (i also did get a new zojirushi rice cooker, so it cooked the rice soooo well!)

can you smell that???

it came out so delicious, no salt, no additives, pure chicken broth, shiitake and rice.  full of flavor.  i could eat BOWLS of this!!!  now go try it and tell me how amazing it is!

bubble nails by aya - chevron blues

chevron stripes is totally the new thing/fad these days.  i tried to use tape to create straight and precise lines, but eh, that was taking too much time.  so i decided to hand-paint these thin lines.

chevron blues nails

blue:  gelish - ooba ooba blue

white:  gelish - sheek white

black stripes:  gelish - black shadow

gold glitter:  gelish - bronzed

gold holograms

bubble nails by aya - new year eve

i'm a couple weeks behind, but here's nye nails.  my nails had its own new year's eve party!

party like it's 2012 nails

black: gelish - black shadow

silver glitter: gelish - showstopping

silver small/big holograms

copper flakes

ready for more nails in 2013!

bedazzling your camera strap

i recently purchased a new camera.  a sony nex 5r to be exact.  the only way i can describe this camera is "SO COOL"!  it takes amazing pictures, lots of features (still have lots to learn!) and it even has wifi compatibility!  i can even make my iphone a remote control to take photos!

i have been hooked on pinterest lately and with hopes to live frugally and creatively, it's given me lots of ideas.  this is one of them!

i saw this cute leather/sequin camera strap and wanted to make one for myself!

photo courtesy of sugarandcloth.com

but....  one, i couldn't find sequin ribbon at the store, and two, i didn't want to purchase a rotary punch that i may or may not ever use again.  

so... i improvised and did this:

instead of buying a leather strap, i decided to bedazzle my existing strap that my camera came with.  (i also didn't want to deal with future discoloration of the leather on my skin in hot, humid hawaii!)  i bought multi-color, loose sequins and tacky glue.  one pack of loose sequins had 800 pieces and was more than enough!  i could of gone with plain silver or gold, but since my camera body is silver, the multi-color was great for some POP!

i used my spare tweezer to tack on each sequin, three different colors per row.  the sequins are in no particular order, i felt that laying them out sporadically would make it more special (and less time consuming!)

it only took about an hour or two at most to complete.  (not too bad right?  i thought it would take a lot longer!)  after all the sequins were glued down and dried, i painted a coat of mod podge to seal the deal.  hopefully, this will help from any individual sequins falling off.  

here's the finished product!

it came out fabulous and sparkly, just like me!

annnnnnnd only costed me less than $3!!

pack of 800 pieces sequin = $0.82

tacky glue = $1.42

total cost to bedazzle my camera strap = $2.24 plus tax

bubble nails by aya - christmas

i promise to be better at posting photos of my nails on here more often.  rather, i'll try (not promise!) to blog more often!

i did these nails for christmas.  i'm not a huge fan of "red & green", christmasy nails, so i changed it up and put my own spin on it.

eclectic christmas nails

red/orange:  gelish - tiger blossom

blue/green:  gelish - mint icing

gold, round, flat studs: 1.5mm

yes, those studs were individually placed and straightened with my own hands.

my friend gave me the name "bubble nails by aya" for my nail salon! love.