Week 6: Scrub caps

So yesterday, I reached to a friend to ask if she still needed home made face-masks. I remember seeing her ask another friend to make masks for her and her child a couple of weeks ago. I didn't hear anything afterwards and now that I've finished the masks I was making for my sister & parents, I could not make them for my friend. 

Yun nga lang, R replied and said she already had masks, but if I wanted to make her something, can I make her hair caps (scrub caps) instead ? 

*Ulk*  Paano yun ?

I said, I'll have to check it out ... :
- what sorts of patterns are available
- and if there is a pattern out there that I can follow
- and if I had enough continuous (in one piece) fabric to make it

So I found a few candidates, printed out the patterns to "dry-fit" it and they all seemed too large.
I finally got a good pattern from www.twelvebees.ca and this was perfect in all aspects. The author gave clear instructions, the pattern was easy to put together and the size seemed just right (all other patterns I found were too big and I didn't feel confident adjusting the pattern size myself).

It turned out pretty good for a beginner, if I may say so myself. The 2nd one I made was much cleaner than the first one.

I did have to watch some instructional videos to learn how to use my sewing machine and which stitches to use.

Week 5: Bissell Spinwave!

So while everybody's been obsessing about cooking & eating, I was obsessing about my floors.

My floors have been dull and lifeless - dirty, really - and no amount of swiffing with microfiber cloths is doing anything. So a few days ago, I took to looking for an electric mop / buffer / polisher and found the Bissell Spinwave which I promptly ordered. Amazon was nice enough to deliver it this morning even  though the original ETA wasn't until next week.

The Spinwave PLUS model came with extra bottles of cleaning formula and extra cloth buffers. I used the scrubby pads with the cleaning formula to clean my floors (ugh!)

These were how dirty the pads were after I ran them over the floors. This was in the kitchen and:

- we don't wear outside shoes / footwear into the home
- the kitchen regularly gets wiped with a wet swiffer (wet floor cleaner)

The Spinwave is such a great upgrade over plan old elbow grease. The last time husband and I tandem-deep-cleaned & polished our kitchen floor, it took us the better part of the day and we had to down painkillers afterwards for our aching muscles. Today, this was absolutely painless.

Note: I used the included cleaning formula for wooden floors to clean the floor and afterwards, I mixed up my own DIY wood floor polish (vinegar, olive oil, essential oil and hot water) to bring out the glossiness of the floors.

I've already ordered more pads so that we can clean the rest of the house next time.

Week 5: Chefs

Going into week 5 of self qurantine.

Recently, I read a post on FB where someone said that with everybody cooking at home and trying out different dishes, everybody will be a chef when all this is over.

I'm far from chef-material but I've tried different dishes last week - even ones I used to cook before but haven't made in years.

1) Steamed pork with salted duck eggs

I used to make this a lot when we were still living inthe condo. Not sure why I haven't made this since we moved to our current home.

Note also that there's too much green onions for the garnish, this was because the husband bought too much last weekend.

2) Braised Crispy Tofu with Shrimp

Recipe here: https://omnivorescookbook.com/braised-crispy-tofu-with-shrimp

Was looking for a tofu - seafood dish for Lent and this was it.

3) Sweet and sour meatballs

I made a large batch of meatballs last weekend and froze a few. I'm particularly proud of this because I thought about making it into a sweet and sour dish to "upcycle" the meatballs instead of just heating them up in the oven and serving.

Week 4: Face Mask Realizations

Read this in my FB feed today:

and realized that I have something to add:

4. don't burp.

'nuf said.

Costco today

This is my Costco. I went there this morning to get milk and eggs, I saw lots of cars and a crowd of people outside the bldg and decided to just ditch it. I went to a Stop & Shop, they were out of eggs and the milk that Swe-cha drinks. I then went to Shoprite, I was able to get eggs but still no milk. 

I just called up different Costco locations within a 15 mile radius and got the same answer - "yes, there is a long waiting time to get in". I'm not really up to going out for another try again today. 

Week 3: Social Distancing and Waiting

The husband went to Ranch 99 to get groceries this afternoon and lined up for 1 hr and 30 minutes outside before he was even able to step foot inside the door. This was how the line outside looked like. He says that they were given numbers and by 5pm, those who didn't have numbers were sent home - the store closes at 7pm.

I commented that the distance seems a lot more than the requisite 6 ft and he agreed. he says that this was how far apart people were staying and even with the store staff asking them to come forward a little bit, nobody was heeding the repeated requests. People are scared.

The price of rice has also increased. The same 25 lb of jasmine rice we purchased 3 weeks ago for $17.99 is now being sold for $25.99. I initially asked husband to hold off on buying it but changed my mind when I saw that our rice container is down to less than half and realizing that the Covid-19 situation is just getting worse and worse in our state. I quickly gave husband a call and he was just about to pay at the counter but was allowed to run off to grab a bag of rice. This would be a good time to start dieting, perhaps.

He wore a mask I made for him with a folded paper towel filter stuffed into the filter pocket for added protection. It is made of 3 layers of cotton fabric and is worn with elastics that go around the head - more comfortable, I think, than loops that go around the ears.  The mask went straight to the wash as soon as he got home.

On the work front, my work is going on as usual while husband's work hours were cut beginning this week. I see this as a blessing because it leaves him with 2 whole days a week to work with Swe-cha on schoolwork. Hopefully, this is all temporary and that things go back to the regular normal before the situation escalates.

.... and just like that, we're done with week 3 of the quarantine and are all set to start week 4. Swe-cha gets a break from schoolwork next week - sort of - because it is spring break but we do plan on catching up with the remaining tasks in google classroom that we haven't completed yet.