Christmas Christmas Christmas

Merry 29th of December, which as tonight's news informed me, is the Italian lucky gnocchi day (well the 29th of any month) so maybe you too will find gold coins under your plate of gnocchi tonight.

I have been home in the Soo for for the last week and a half, and enjoying time spent with family and friends (and not in the lab). What have I been doing most?

Christmas baking! before I left Calgary I made a Rum Cake and Brownie Roll-Out Cookies. Since I've been home I've added the following (from left to right):

• Macaroons
• Biscotti (well my mom made those)
• Mars Bars Squares
• Peppermint Bark
• Peanutbutter and Butterscotch haystacks
• Peanutbutter Cups hide-aways
• Gingerbread Cookies

If you want any of the recipes, leave me a comment and I'll get you a copy. In the future I promise to post some as I do the baking. They all turned out delicious, even the macaroons which kinda flattened out a bit.

Also this year, in an effort to beat the pre-holidays blues, I bought my first Christmas Tree, which I set up in my Calgary apartment (around Dec. 1st!). And I love it!

 My very own white, pre-lit (this is key, no struggling with lights) artificial tree! Decked out all in blue!

 With the exception of this little guy, who I got at Home Sense, for like 4 dollars....so worth it!

And yes, I did the cool thing, and took a picture reflected back in a bulb. You can see my cute little pink Sony Cyber-shot camera, that I use for all my pictures....for the last 3+ years. Maybe I`ll upgrade in 2012.


Anyhow! Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! or Festivus! or Snowflake Day! or whatever! Hope you all enjoyed yours as much as I have been mine! Did you do any baking? Did you decorate a tree? Is it real or fake?

Things to do instead of writing a grant proposal

Have to write a grant proposal for a biochem/mol bio class..... it's due monday.

These are some things I did today instead.

Laundry, vacuuming, dishes

youtube, blogger, mahjong

Watched elf!

Baked amazing cookies, using my "animals of north america" cookies cutter set from ikea.

Get your own cookie cutters here.

Blogged about making the cookies.

Ate some of the cookies, Milk required.

Recipe for Brownie Roll-Out Cookies here. I had to add a bit of milk, since the dough crumbled when rolled, otherwise very tasty cookies!

Other things I might do before I finish this paper:




Chili is defrosting in the fridge, noodles are ready to go!

Anyways, off to sleep.

Keep it classy folks!

antlers....and why they're cool

So for Christmas I've asked my uncle for a set of antlers. Because bassically they are very cool. Here's why:

They make excellent places to hang your necklaces.

 

They make an awesome place to hang Christmas decorations.

Painted white they look uber cool just mounted the old fashioned way.

Better yet, paint them awesome colours.

You can wear them on your head and feel closer to your Cervidae brethren.

Okay, so maybe wearing them like that would make you look a little odd, why not give these a try then?

And before you point out "How could you, a poor deer had to die, like the way the evil hunter shot bambi's mom, so you could have something trendy!" Well guess what! Deer drop their antlers every year, and just leave them lying around in the forest where anyone can get some. Also, some of the loverly things above aren't real anyways. But also venison is very tasty.....


Cheers all!

Calgary Eating: UNA

Yeesh Bad Blogger

Hah! if I had a penny for every one of these posts, well lets just say I'd have a lot of pennies.

All settled in in Calgary by now, my place is mostly furnished (only took about a month and a half and a looming visit from family) pictures may eventually come.

What have I been doing in the mean time? Tis the season of grant applications, so busily working away on those. Having classes now, and therefor more reading to do than normal, plus got some new equipment set up at work. Mostly productive.

Here's what I wanna tell you about today tho, a Great place to eat in Calgary, Una (Pizza +Wine), it's on 17th SW and everybody should eat there.....lots.....and probably take me with you.

Cozy (read a smallish) restaurant with very fun staff, great food (freshly made (in front of you if you're seated at the bar)), reasonably priced, amazing wine (even tho we just had the house, still it was an Italian Import so can't be bad), there's a mural of the ninja turtles on the walls (it's all the turtle's weapons in Raphael's colours). Only con is no reservations, but they'll take down your cell and call you when your table's ready so gives you time to wander 17th ave (or go next door to RA clothing and buy things.... what we did).

What we ate: Grok, the broccolini, some sort of tasty potatoes that don't appear to be on the online menu, the pesto pizza, and the caramely dessert, and two bottles of the house red.

I'm back in my lab coat

I'm back, in the lab, full time, for the next 4-5-rest of my life years.

In the week since I've been back I ran an IHC, and took some cool pictures.

This is an arteriole, with the red blood cells visible, and the more collapsed vessel beside it is the matching vein.
Looks cool, only problem, this is just back ground flourescence, the negative control was the same as all the rest.

But enough science, Moved into my apartment, love it! will get some pictures up asap. But, don't have internet at home yet, so only around at work.

Happy September 1st btw!

Venice

From my trip to Venice this year, all photo's by me.

List time!

Time to hold myself accountable! And make a list of things to get done before the end of the month!

1. Room cleaned out (pack pack pack, you're moving soon!)
2. Make sure you have an apartment to live in (finger's crossed I already do)
3. 10 pounds, bye bye (gasp I never diet! but let's try to look our best before moving back out to Calgary)
4. to avoid having to diet, exercise....daily!!!! get off that lazy ass
5. hair - cut/dye/something it!
6. Garage sale this weekend
7. Refinish old chest into awesome coffee table chest!
8. finish at least one of your many (many!) works in progress
9. post post post....post!
10. many other things I can't think of now......shucks!

Have been quite busy lately, searching for apartments via the internet (hate doing that) and doing man's work (I painted a fence, went to the dump, and the scrap yard this week should have taken pics) and enjoying summer, which has finally decided to grace Sault Ste. Marie

Wordless Wednesday-Royal Botanical Gardens

From a trip to the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington, Ontario last week with my mom and Nana. Acres and acres of pretty flowers, vines, trees, fountains, and if you're there on a Saturday, weddings.

Jewelry Storage Ideas

Currently my jewelry is stored in a mishmash of systems.

 Some of my older stuff lies untouched in an old, girly, jewelry box, carefully guarded by my growing snow-globe collection and some painted wooden animals.

 Most of the stuff I currently wear resides in a set of paper bowls (the making of which is detailed here), this system however results in clutter, tangles and general chaos!

And the pretty stuff, the not so everyday bits and pieces hang out for the most part in their original boxes, hidden from sight, these pieces saw some sunlight yesterday when I wore them to my convocation (more about that later I hope).

Right now I'm searching around for interesting ways to organize this mess (especially after a recent trip to forever 21 which resulted in the purchasing of several new sparkly things).

image from Once Upon a Tea Time

I might like to buy something conventional like these, I especially like the idea of the 3 tiered desert stands.

image from Modern Jane

The idea of using an egg tray for rings and earrings I also love, especially the classy china one above (or I'm sure you could make an eco-friendly up-cycled one from an egg carton).

image from Inspire Bohemia

This picture frame featuring a beautiful piece of knitted lace appeals to me a lot more than the standard metal screen for hanging earrings, I used to have one that was a cheap canvas that I stenciled a lace pattern on, and you could push the earrings right through the canvas, but I lost it last time I moved.

image from Inspire Bohemia 

Finally the idea of using painted branches to hang necklases, love it! Might have to head outside now and look for some good ones to use for a quick DIY.


How do you store your jewelry?

Wordless Wednesday

From a recent trip to Venice, wishing I was back there right now. Happy Humpday Ladies!

Bossypants and no pants days

Just finished reading Tina Fey's autobiography, Bossypants (really only stared it 2 days ago, so it's fast reading people, especially if you are enjoying your summer of unemployment as I am).

From her introduction:

If you are a women and you bought this book for practical tips on how to make it in a male-dominated workplace, here they are. No pigtails, no tube tops. Cry sparingly. (Some people say "never let them see you cry." I say, if you're so mad you could just cry, then cry. It terrifies everyone.) When choosing sexual partners, remember: Talent is not sexually transmittable. Also, don't eat diet foods in meetings.

*And if that paragraph makes you laugh, chuckle, smile, or even just continue breathing normally, then definitely read her book. In fact even if you stop breathing altogether in reaction to your perceived lack of comedy in that paragraph, read it anyways, just because.

And me, as a woman about to permanently enter a male dominated workplace (academia yeesh) by starting grad school next year; loved it.

Anyhow, today I am not wearing my bossypants (do I even have those? yes, they're burberry pants that I got for 30 dollars at a thrift store, and they are bad ass, in a norwegian curling team kinda way, has it been too long since the last winter olympics for that reference, yes, but I don't care). Today so far is looking like "no pants day #2". Does this mean I'm currently wearing a pair of boxers instead of pants, yes, but also more importantly, it's part of my summer plan of wearing shorts skirts and dresses as frequently as possible, befor heading back into the lab in septemeber (mandatory full length pants!).


Anywho, getting back to blogging, hope that was moderately funny for you, if not refer to the * above, and follow those suggestions for my blog.

From the bottom of my heart...

Should get back at this, 2.5 months till I'm back in the lab. They were supposed to be full of love, guess I was wrong.

Cheerier things on the way, made some art today and smell like woodsmoke and have a hot glue gun burn to show for it, but it's beautiful, in a heartbreaking kind of way, especially since it was made from a gift.