In the old days, restaurants used to buy blocks of ice from ice vendors who would make ice probably from tap water. And once the blocks of ice is made, they would wrap the ice in saw dust before transporting them over to the restaurants in motorbikes and bicycles. Once the guys get the ice blocks, the would bring out the ice picks and hack away to make smaller pieces of ice to put into drinks.

Thankfully, that’s all in the past. Today, vendors are very professional. Their crew members run around all over town carrying clean ice cubes in large clear plastic bags stored in refrigerated vehicles. These guys bring in ice, once a day, twice a day, or even more, based on the quantity and frequency required.We may take things for granted, but they really provide an important service to the community. By offering clean ice to street vendors, for example, they are really reducing the level of food poisoning in the community. Think about it. I would cringe if I saw restaurant workers breaking up ice in kitchen sinks, and who knows, even at floor level if someone allowed them, at the back of the kitchen. It’s unsanitary, and you know, in the old days, nobody would have bat an eyelid because it was pretty much the norm.

Anyways, I’m just reminiscing, for it’s nice to look back and remember how it was done in the old days.

Some of the Atlas Edible Ice crew members. Atlas is one of the biggest ice manufacturers in Malaysia.
That’s one of the vehicles that carry ice, shown in the background.

I was thinking of Big Bird an hour ago, and then thinking of all sorts of yellow type food. I’m silly today I know.

So what are some the types of yellow raw food that’s good for you? They are here, shown right below.

More orangy than yellow, but still good enough to eat!

I Love You, Man movie was one of the inspirations.

My kids’ favorite fruit of the moment. My almost 2 year old Ethan says “Nummy, nummy” when he takes a

huge bite into a bananaas he can’t pronounce “yummy” as yet

That’s Ethan with his yellow Ultraman T-shirt, trying on a very pink polka dot pair of Mickey Mouse sunglasses!!

Another yellow image from the I Love You, Man movie. Don’t they just look so cute in those yellow dresses!

I love the idea of reusing, reducing and recycling just like any other tree hugging Joe, but this, my friend, is a bit extreme. But it’s too funny not to share.

What is it?

It’s a video of a cheapskate genius cutting away the crotch of his old underwear to fashion it into a sports bra. I shouldn’t show this to my husband. He might actually think it’ll work, thus saving him tons of money.

Me? What would I do with an old unwanted underwear? I’d cut the thing up and use it as a rag. Maybe to wipe an engine oil stains out. Yeah, it’s boring, nothing what that outrageous guy is doing, but that’s just me.

Hubby and I were having lunch at a Japanese restaurant yesterday afternoon.

He was served his favorite Salmon sashimi (raw food) in what looked like frosted glass bowl. Halfway through the meal, he realized that the bowl was not frosted glass but was actually a bowl made of ice.

How cool is that? (Pardon the pun! LOL)

It’s definitely something I would like to make sometime to serve to guests.

Here’s a video of how to make one.

Make An Ice Bowl ! – Funny bloopers R us

You know what I love? Food, and what I love more is food that can double up as a makeup! Which is why I love the idea of a cheap and safe eyeliner. Definitely safer than what you would get from the drugstore. You’ll never have to worry about insidious chemicals like preservatives because you made it yourself. Plus, by making it you are actually reducing carbon footprints and reducing plastic and chemical wastes.

BellaSugar will show you how to make this 10 minute, natural and naturally safe eyeliner.

Meanwhile, check this scary video reminding women how much lipstick they actually consume. 

Often times, we want kids to play with finger paints but we don’t want them to eat the paint. Know what I mean? Besides I noticed that food grade colors purchased at baking stores  stain my kids fingers, clothes and everywhere else like mad.  Not only do I not want  artificial coloring away from my children’s mouths, body and stuff, just think how a Barney the Purple Dinosaur color will look stuck all over a 2 year old for a couple of hours? How would you explain that to people who stare?

So, what to do?

Make our own, with food.

One lady in a forum I’m a member of says she gives her kids the pulp of vegetable after juicing. That’s a really great recycling idea. And good for the environment too.

I make my own colors.

First, I make a simple glue paste by cooking corn starch and water. You can use other types of flour like arrowroot or rice starch (not plain rice flour) if you are allergic to corn.

Then, I add vegetable juices as coloring. Spinach is green. Carrots is orange. Beet is red. I live in Malaysia now, and they have this beautiful edible bright blue flower which we use as safe blue coloring.  You can easily google for other vegetable color choices.

It’s not Play-Doh, but it’s equally fun. It was what my mum made for me and my brothers to finger paint on paper when we were in preschool, way back then.

My kids splashing about, out in the sunshine after a particularly fun but dirty episode.
Mummy doesn’t want them in until they are nice and clean.

I just hate cleaning up after my kids, especially when they dirty up the living room, so what I do is strip them down and let them go wild in the bathroom with the colored pastes. I let them finger paint the tiled walls to their hearts content. Inevitably, everything gets colored. Hair, body, everything. *horrors*  When it’s time to come out, I just hose my kids and wash them. Meanwhile, I’d grab a sponge and wash the bathroom as I go ( a perfect excuse to clean the bathroom, ya know). My mum used to let us out of the house. She’d set up a large table and place some large papers on the tables for us to finger paint. I can’t remember, but we probably were washed outside before we were allowed to walk into the house, clean!