discovery! (ok, old news)

(Not my finger...sadly)

Has everyone met Brookesia micra?? This little dude is the newly discovered world's tiniest chameleon. What a winner.

Apart from the fact that he is just too cute, his discovery also coincides very nicely with our current topic of discussion in biology (you guessed it! evolution!). The researchers who discovered him have written a fabulously interesting report, the gist of which points to the idea of "island dwarfism" which basically means that if you are on an island and the resources are limited, it's much better to be tiny than huge.

I mostly think he's cute, but also, it astounds me that he was ever discovered: he is both teeny teeny tiny, AND a chameleon!! What are the chances of finding him in the middle of a jungle? Someone was bored, huh? It does add another reason to my list of "why to visit Madagascar",ok, in truth, this is the beginning of said list, but now it seems necessary.

(It kills me...look how tiny he is)

There are tons of other too cute images of him floating around the web or in the links above, I highly recommend checking them out. Also, if it interests you and you don't have other work/commitments read more about insular dwarfism, it's fascinating and you can learn about dwarf elephants (who, despite significant decrease in size, are unable to walk on the tip of your finger...).

c'est tout!

alina

great success!

Well, I haven't been very good at balancing the blogging thing with all my other time commitments.
School, homework, work, occasionally running and even less often sleeping seem to take up SO MUCH TIME. I've found it really difficult to fit in creative projects like fun cooking or sewing. It's gotten to the point where I actually put hot dogs in our dinner last night. (I'm embarrassed...nay, appalled...but it's true).

So I've come up with at least a partial solution:

(Chemistry Baking!)

Sometimes I'm so clever that it surprises even me.

I'm taking an "Honors" Chemistry course, which means very little except that we have longer and more advanced labs. This semester we were told to choose an independent study project for the majority of our lab time (Yea, the lab is from 1-5 every Wednesday. Brutal). When the independent study was announced I think we were all a little hesitant, our prof gave examples from previous years of growing algaes and doing little chem demos for kids, which is fun, but not thrilling.

That's when I happened to discover this:

(you clicked to look inside, didn't you)

I happened upon this book entirely by chance when I was doing research for my croissant paper, and I decided right then and there that I would clearly be doing a chemistry project revolving around baking. This may not sound so exciting, but when other groups in my class have chosen to do water purification experiments (I just use a brita, ha!), baking sounds pretty awesome.

The book is laid out like a chemistry course. There are textual explanations and then questions for thought, and then...the best part: Experiments!

This week I learned about the different processes that the dough undergoes, from the addition of fluid, through the order of mixing, and up through baking. The experiment then was to make the same recipe, using the same ingredients and quantities, but using two different mixing techniques- the muffin technique, and the creaming technique. The two are baked for the same amount of time and at the same temperature and then you test them. They taste COMPLETELY different, it's crazy! both texture and taste were affected by only changing the way we added the ingredients together. I would get into the technicalities of why...but I'm procrastinating, and a deadline is coming up, so that will be in the next post.

(sorry for the messy kitchen and crummy photography- I have limited counter space, and a very dark kitchen)

(in order to be experimental we had to weight the amount of dough in each muffin, 2.00 oz)

(I also bought an oven thermometer so I would find out just how wonky my oven is...again, experimental accuracy, etc)

(Checking the differences in: Height, crust, texture, color, and taste. Very technical, very scientific)

The point of all this was simply to say: I have found a way to get some baking into my life again, which is so exciting, especially since it means that Wednesday afternoons can be spent in my kitchen...and not in a lab (we also have a really awful lab director guy- who will find any reason to tell us off, so this is a nice escape! he must be turning purple thinking of us baking for our project- his big thing is no eating or drinking anywhere CLOSE TO the chem lab, he will tell you to throw out your lunch if he catches you in the hallway eating... aw poor guy.)



c'est tout!

alina

This post is dedicated to my lab partner, who thinks I am crazy, but goes along with it. Thanks!

hiatus

My apologies on the brief hiatus.

My days have been filled with lovely, (not so) fun things like limits and regressions, freezing point depressions, plant phylogeny, etc. Yes. That's right. Not only has this semester begun in full force, I already have exams in some of my courses! EXAMS! Seriously, I feel like the semester started yesterday, but in fact, I had a biology exam yesterday, and I have a chemistry exam tomorrow. Thrills.

(OMG! so exciting! It's like watching water freeze...oh wait, it is watching water freeze)

Unfortunately, what this this means is less time for blogging, and more time set for analyzing graphs and numbers, and memorizing plant life cycles. Hurrah! It also means I have had NO time for any kind of fun projects.

(Good old Bryophytes...much more interesting than you would think, but not as fun as the sewing project waiting for me...)

However, I did start running again this week (finally!). I'm signed up for the C'ville 10 miler at the end of March, and decided that just about right now would be a good time to start training. Woops. So far I've run 3 days in a row, tomorrow will be a day off...

In other news, my upstairs neighbors have a child who WILL NOT stop crying. This isn't your average colicky baby, he's way past a year old and can cry for hours without stop. It makes it difficult for us to work or sleep in our apartment, which is pretty miserable. Anyone have tips for how to very kindly mention to his parents that they should probably give him some attention, or possibly learn how to be care for him?! In the meantime I'm seriously considering calling child protective services. It is miserable.

I will get back to posting more often once this nightmare of a week is over. I'm simply much too busy writing a million other things for my English class...which I love, but still, it takes up so much time and energy.

c'est tout.

alina

pingu

Do you guys remember pingu from your childhood?

(claymation : pingu is great, but I have to admit that I prefer when there is dialogue...like Wallace and Gromit)

I'm not even sure if it came to the States, or if I only ever saw it in Canada (insert Canada joke here). This is what I thought of as I worked on my latest sewing project:

(look! I'm a penguin!)

(Now I have little orange feet, finally, I can stand on my own!)

(Maybe if Alina had any small black buttons I would have real eyes, alas-hand stitched it is)

So he's a little sloppy (mostly because I didn't take a whole lot of time to hand stitch the closing on the wings, or the back. And I didn't leave a large enough seam allowance, I was just trying to see what result I would get, and, well, I was lazy. Unfortunately, this means that I can see some of the stitching (done with black thread...gasp!), and also that his belly could open up at any moment.

(Yes, he did get tagged...)

(So did this robot skirt: For my sister, not for me...sadly)

C'est tout.
alina

Yay!

 I have tags/labels!

I realize I've only been sewing for umm, two months? But after much perusal online, my jealousy of other peoples labels got to me. Obviously I did not order actual tags because those cost hundreds of dollars and you have to order HUNDREDS of tags, which I most certainly have no need for. Instead, I did a custom designed fabric at spoonflower, and now I have little framboise labels to put on everything!

(oooooooh.)

(I handstitched it...and made it purposely "hand made" looking. Oh wait, it is handmade)

(I thought I would make this card holder a little bit more professional by sticking to black and gray...until I added a bright pink button that is)

(One last view from behind)

Oh, so about the fabric: I bought just a fat quarter of a repeating pattern with my label, but it gave me over a hundred little labels for $10!! All I have to do is fold the edges back, press on some fusible interfacing, and sew it on! so fun.

I feel like I need to start sewing several projects a day now, just so I can put labels on more things!

alina

Chips

Not the kind that are deep fried and packed into noisy bags which sit on the grocery shelves for months(ew)
Also not the kind that are referred to as "french fries" by Americans. (really? french? not that "freedom" was any better...but still?)

Paint chips.

(paint chip boxes. pinterest, how did I ever waste time before you?)

Taking a large stack of paint chips from Lowe's is completely legal; it is also a little bit less socially acceptable. I must say that I felt red in the face and sweaty as I stocked up on literally tens of paint chips last week. I also felt like I was stealing as I stealthily placed them in my bag. I kept trying to tell myself that they are there so that you can take them. Annnnd, who knows, maybe I will use them to help pick out a future paint color. In the future (far far future). But no. I felt awful, I also felt like the paint department people were looking at me like a crazy person.

Speaking of which: that seems to be a common theme lately.

Hm. I'm ok with that.

Back to what I was trying to say. Those paint chips were for a purpose. I think most people who use paint chips for other projects are looking for a way to use up paint chips they already have...I'm special. I didn't have any paint chips, wanted to do a paint chip project, and so did the unacceptable. gasp.

But look at the awesome result:

(clearly only a small percentage of the chips I actually took...woops)

It was so easy (apart from all of the emotional distress), and looks cool! I have to admit that I was particularly lazy about cutting the chips, and so had a lot of not quite square little boxes. If you see (even though it is a particularly poor quality photo) that they are not evenly spaced: SHHHH! I did them in a completely non-technical and non-measured way. I eye-balled it. Apparently I am wonky. Or at least my eyes are?

What do you think?

alina

Unzipped

Hmm, where to start.

I have huge news!

(ooooh....rainbow...)

I can sew zippers!!!

This may not sound very exciting to my non-sewing friends, but I could hardly contain my excitement. Seriously, I feel like this has opened up the doors to the million sewing projects that are out there and require zips. Any truly self-respecting piece of clothing (or just skirt or dress) has a zipper. Well, maybe not every piece of clothing, but the nice-fitting, slightly more formal looking clothes do.

I hope this skill will catapult my sewing projects to a completely new level. It is VERY exciting. (Thank you to anyone who understands my excitement. Shep looked at me like I might be running a dangerously high fever...)

Unfortunately, the timing of this newly learned skill could not be worse. I sewed my first zipper yesterday evening, and this morning the spring semester started. I wish I could say my grown up attitude of really wanting to get an education and understanding the importance of my education has given me a great positive approach to returning to class after break, but alas, I wish I were still on vacation.

Why is winter break so long? I think it would have been much better had I only been given a week of vacation. Instead I had five weeks off to get adjusted to sleeping in, sewing all day, cooking extravagant meals, and forgetting all about studying and writing. Woops. Well, one day down?

Going back to school (and my composition course) reminded me of my original intentions in wanting to write a blog. I just wanted to write.

My first semester back in school (yes, this past fall) reminded me of how much I enjoy the act of writing. It also reminded me that I write pretty well, when I put some effort into it. The whole idea of starting a blog was so that I would have an outlet for my writing. Instead I've been focusing on other creative outlets. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to have found sewing! I'm really lucky to have found more than one way to express creative ideas, but I'd like to push the direction of this blog a little more into the writing. Particularly since I will most likely have less time to create a new project to share here everyday. (sad, I know)

I will continue to share experiences, projects, food things, and other stories, I just hope to put a little bit more focus on the quality of writing (as much as I enjoy putting random comments in parentheses...)

That being said, tomorrow I start a modern dance class! I don't know which scares me more: my first dance class or my first calculus class (which also starts tomorrow).

My apologies for the general lack of witty comments and pictures. As a part of my apology, a taste of what I was up to this weekend (hence explaining my unusual hiatus from blogland):

(cookie monster cupcakes...cute and delicious!)

(flower buttons. pinterest is so good at giving me ideas for projects to do while babysitting)