2015

Filipina Actress Paints on Luxury Bags Like Hermes and Prada

Bags are not only utility item for women, it is also a fashion statement and sometimes a way to express your inner self. Just like the Filipina actress, named Heart Evangelista who is now customizing many luxury bags like Hermes and Prada for her friends and clients.
Here are some of the bags she painted on:

While working on a luggage bag

The actress is also painting some designer gowns.

The actress said “If I had an opportunity to paint full time, I'd say goodbye to acting. That's how much I'm in love with it now,”

Photos from @iamhearte Instagram

Sausage and Mushroom Penne

How do you usually cook or prepare your sausage? This meal can be prepared in less than 30 minutes. If you love sweet sausage this is a must try recipe.

Ingredients:

1 pack 450 grams penne pasta cooked according to package instruction, reserve 1/4 cup of pasta cooking water

1/4 kilo sweet Italian sausage or Filipino style skinless longanisa (sausage)

1 medium onion finely chopped

1 package sliced fresh button mushroom

1 bunch of arugula or baby kale

grated Parmesan Cheese or cheddar cheese

salt and pepper for garnishing

1. Heat skillet on medium high and cook sausage, if you cannot find Italian style sweet sausage the Filipino sausage or skinless sausage as they call it works perfectly fine. Break or crumble the meat while cooking. Once the meat turned brown turn the heat to medium low so that the pan does not scorch, add some water from the pasta. Stir the mushroom and cook for 8 minutes until softened, stirring constantly.

2. Add the cooked pasta and kale or arugula to the skillet and season with salt and pepper. Toss until the vegetable is wilted or cooked according to your preference.

3. Serve with Parmesan cheese on top.

Grapefruit,Nuts and Cheese Salad With Citrus Vinaigrette

One of the best way to prepare a healthy meal in no time is to make a salad.

Ingredients:
1 head bibb lettuce (chopped for salad)
1 Grapefruit, sections removed, set aside some of the juice for dressing (1/4 cup)
1/3 cup chopped almonds or your choice of nuts
2 ounces goat cheese crumbled
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 cucumber sliced
Salt and pepper (optional)

1. Arrange the lettuce, nuts, grapefruit, and cheese in a salad bowl.

2. To make the dressing: Add salt, pepper and mustard to grapefruit juice and whisk. Add olive oil and whisk again to combine. Pour over your salad. Serve.

You may use orange or pomelo in place of grapefruit.

6 Ways To Break-Proof Your Nails

Are you having problems with nails chipping every time? Try this simple tips to minimize nail chipping.

1. Moisturize-you might think that moisturizing your hand only benefits the skin. The reason for nail breaking is because of dryness. Keeping your hands hydrated also benefits the nails. There are also some cuticle oil that you can purchase from your local pharmacy that is good for your nails, or you may use some argan oil, or castor oil and simply rub it on at night before you go to bed.

2. Don't use metal file for your nail. Metal file is too coarse and hard for your nail. Choose nail file that have soft grit.

3. Use strengthening base coat before you apply your nail polish. Base coat usually have protein and calcium that helps keep your nails hard.

4. Keep nails short while strengthening them. If your nails are chipping, grow and strengthen them first, keep them short for the moment. Short nails chip less than if you have longer nails.

5. Don't use your nails as tools. You read it right. Some of use likes to use our nails to open boxes, scrape gunk off our our furniture, or dishes. This causes nails to bend which eventually weakens it and lead to breaking.

6. Use gloves when washing dishes. Cleaning chemicals, like detergents or dish-washing soaps can strip off the natural oil on our nails, which causes dryness and chipping. Some scouring pads and abrasives can also damage or scratch our nails. Using gloves will not only protect our nails, our hands will also thank you for it.

Shrimp And Zucchini Fried Rice

When you have less than 30 minutes to prepare a meal, how do you manage it? This recipe is my perfect kind of fried rice, healthy, full of flavor, and fiber and easy to prepare.

Time: 25 minutes
Makes 4-6 servings

Ingredients:
4 Cups cooked brown rice
2 tbsp. Sesame oil
1/2 kilo shelled shrimp
2 tbsp maple syrup or honey
3 medium size zucchini chopped according to your preference.
2 tsp soy sauce
some scallions or green onions thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic chopped finely
salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat oil on medium -high until hot. Add shrimp (you may season it with some salt, and pepper) and cook for about 2 minutes or until color changes. Then add 1 tbsp of honey or maple syrup. Stir well and transfer to a bowl.

2. In the same skillet, add zucchini. Stir occasionally, and add the remaining honey or maple syrup, soy sauce and add some water (2-3 tbsp) if the pan is dry. Cover and cook for 4-6 minutes or until the zucchini is tender. Remove from heat and set aside with the bowl of shrimp.

3. This time you may add some oil on your skillet, and saute the garlic, then add the green onions. Add the rice and season with few dash of salt. Stir and cook for 3 minutes. Then add the zucchini and shrimp.

Serve.

You may also use chicken in place of shrimp, and add some carrots and peas for a more oriental style fried rice.

Oatmeal Mask For Eczema

At 2 months, our son had a terrible case of eczema. Our pediatrician prescribed hydro-cortisone cream as medication and we're told to apply it regularly for two months. But his eczema didn't get any better after we stopped the medication. Actually it got even worse. There were many sleepless nights of crying and screaming, sore skin that covered his right cheek and on some parts of his leg, sometimes near his eyes. We can't figure out what he was allergic to, he was breastfed and was not on any formula milk, one time he was ok and next time there would be flare up of eczema again.

One of the worse experience we had was after a vacation. We were on a 9 hour flight back home, he was 4 months old and he was not crying, he was screaming in pain or maybe itch and rubbing his face with his hands and on our shoulder. His medication was no longer working on him. His face has lots of scratches and was very sore already.

The picture below is what he looked like when the topical medication was still working on him . Notice that the redness is still there. On bad days when his eczema flares up the skin get raw and sore, and sometimes it gets crusty.

I couldn't find a picture of him showing how bad it was. But this one closely resembles his eczema case. People would often ask what was on his face, it was very frustrating for us. We switched from one brand of cortisone cream to another but it would only lead us back to worse once we stop the meds.

I decided I have to try all kinds of natural treatment that I could. I kept researching. Until I learned about oatmeal mask and how beneficial oatmeal can be for the skin.

Oatmeal contains avenanthramides, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compounds that soothe itchy, dry and irritated skin.

How did I use it?

I didn't want to mix the oatmeal with anything else that his skin might be allergic to. So I mixed 2 tbsp of quick cooking oatmeal with some water just enough to make a poultice and applied it on the sore skin. Once the oatmeal dries on his skin I would reapply again, the usual interval is every 2 hours. He became calm and the soreness in his skin eventually subsided.

The first week was very promising, so I continued with it. I would also soak about half a cup of oatmeal on his tub (approx. 2 liters of water) for his bath rinse before bedtime. The milky water was starchy to his skin and it added relief specially at night.

After almost 3 months his face almost cleared up. There was still minimal redness that was like a scar from his eczema but it eventually disappeared, except for one patch on his leg that I did not paid so much attention to mask with the oatmeal poultice.

Right now he is 4 years old, and his skin is perfect. No more eczema!