Friday Five

I haven't posted a Friday Five in a while, so I have quite a few links to inspire you for the weekend:

1. Flickr photo I wish I took: Clean Sweep by Ric McArthur
2. Must-read blog posts: how to talk to little girls by Lisa Bloom with a great response on Motherhood Mondays by Joanna Goddard
3. Recipes I want to try: green bean & tomato salad by Cookin' Canuck ~beet cake as seen on Tiger in a Jar ~ roasted beets as seen on a Veggie Venture ~ pickled beets by Pinch My Salt
4. Neat tutorial I did try: washi tape magnets via Twirling Betty. Aren't they awesome? I have the urge to keep making more, more, more!
5. Etsy shops I'm drooling over: KateFete ~ take a look at this amazing whale:Her bird ornaments are adorable too!
   KikiMood ~ has such sweet illustrations! And I absolutely love these sheep:

What's inspiring you this week?

Friday Five

Oh hey! Look! I've updated my blog template again. I was just playing around, looking for something new & ended up really liking the end result. I think it's the rounded corners... What do you think?

Besides a fresh new look, here's what's inspiring me this week:

1. Flickr photo I wish I took: Perspective by Gaëtan Bourque
2. Recipes I want to try: honey wheat cookies as seen on A Chow Life & chocolate soufflé cupcakes with mint cream via smitten kitchen
3. Amazing art: paper cut collages inside paper towel rolls by Anastassia Elias
4. Decorating ideas: art on the floor! I am continually inspired by Alisa Burke!
5. Tutorials I want to try: Shibori dyeing as seen on HonestlyWTF:And this dress shirt skirt via Blu Babes Create:

What's inspiring you this week?

Friday Five

Pat's off today & we're on our way up North for the long weekend! For those of you who don't get one (sorry), here are a few things to keep you occupied:

1. A Flickr photo I wish I took: Reflected Droplets by inaudiblemelodie
2. A book I want to read: Eat to Live by Joel Fuhrman
3. A recipe I want to try: yummy zucchini bread (via Rebekka Seale)
4. A cute tutorial to try: fun triangle nails (via The Dainty Squid)
5. I wish I had a backyard: in order to hang cute banners! (as seen on vintagefern)
   

Have a great weekend everyone!

Friday Five

Here's what's inspiring me this week:

1. Flickr photo I wish I took: feather by Jesse Dodds
2. Recipes I want to try: this glazed pink grapefruit loaf by Cooking Canuck - I recently made her Caprese olive oil bread, which was delicious though a bit oily. It also left me wanting a sweeter version of homemade bread. Too bad making bread is hot work. These frozen berries with hot cream chocolate by Kayotic Kitchen sound amazing & just about right for the extreme heat a lot of us are sweating!
3. Place I'd like to visit one day: Papas Andinas - Peru's potato park (as seen on Tania Cavene Ciatorres' blog). I'd especially like to take the cooking class offered!
4. Cool pattern designer site: Japonizer - it generates custom Japanese patterns, just pick the pattern, size & colours! Here are two I made (you can see them tiled here: BLUE & RED):
5. Decision to make: which theme to go with for the Sketchbook Project 2012. I'm leaning towards "fill me with stories" or "forks & spoons"... The deadline is fast approaching. Do you have yours yet?

What's been inspiring you this week?

Friday Five

Here's what was inspiring me this week:

1. A Flickr photo I wish I took: Trixie & her rubber ducky by where the wildflowers gr0w
2. A quote:

   "Take your expectations & throw them into the ocean."

   by beautythatmoves as seen on swallowfield
3. Art exhibit I want to see: Winged Migration featuring Geninne D. Zlatkis, Margaret Oomen, Arounna Khounnoraj, Abby Glassenberg & Abigail Brown at Bookhou in Toronto
4. Bath products I want to make: sugar scrub & salt scrub
5. Recipe I want to try: this amazing lemon cake by Apollinas

What's inspiring you this week?

Friday Five

Here are 5 things on my virtual inspiration board this week:

1. A Flickr photo I wish I took: by Jo Simmons
2. A website I'm obsessed with: listography
3. A recipe to follow: by Kamini Raghavan
4. A digital sketchbook to browse through: my book for The 2011 Sketchbook Project is now online! Check it out!
5. technique I want to try: doily stenciling! by one pearl button

Friday Five

Here are some inspiring things I've seen this week:

1. Flickr photo I wish I took: by timotical
2. Blog post everyone should read: Only Human by kimli
3. Website I started using: Pinterest - it's actually more useful than I thought. Now I don't need to leave all these links open in hundreds of tabs. Follow my pins!
4. Recipe I want to try: naan bread via the novice chef blog
5. New challenge: The 30-day Journal Challenge hosted by iheartrunwithscissors. So much fun! I started on day 15 & am already caught up! I'll show you all the pages soon (or head on over to my Flickr to check them out), but here's a peak at the cover & first prompt:

What's inspiring you this week?

Friday Five

What's inspiring me this week:

1. Flickr photo I wish I took: by Huang-Chao
2. Recipes I want to try: this quick & lazy strawberry salad & this bean salad
3. Two eye-opening infographics: on fooducate & npr
4. Cool photography trick I want to try: make your own bokeh on How About Orange
5. Sketchbook page that makes me want to break out mine: by papersparrow

What's inspiring you this week?

Friday Five

Since starting my Sunday Seven posts, I've felt these Friday Fives to be sort of redundant. And if I blog about my week during the week? It becomes very difficult to find 5 more interesting things to talk about. So I've decided to take a new spin on an old feature. Friday Fives will now be pure inspiration. Photos, recipes, books, quotes, artists - things that have inspired me this week.

1. Flickr photo I wish I took: by HWPhillips
2. Recipe I loved: this amazing pork tenderloin
3. Blog post that everyone should read: when the going gets tough by kayotic kitchen
4. Project I want to try: Martha Stewart DIY shift dress
5. Something I listed on Etsy: Jane ACEO

What's inspiring you this week?

Friday Five

This week was certainly less frantic than the past few have been - it was nice to relax, rest & catch up on some reading. Work was light; I've mostly been concentrating on writing up my thesis & reading more research.

Here's what my week looked like:

1. Monday was a holiday - Pat & I went for a drive because I needed a few things, but everything ended up being closed. We stopped at a random convenient store on our way back - one we don't usually stop at - & some guy approached Pat. Wouldn't you know it, he was someone Pat grew up with, someone from our tiny home town! And he just moved to Hamilton that weekend! What are the odds!?!
2. I made smitten kitchen's rhubarb cobbler Monday evening. It was AMAZING with fresh rhubarb from the market. It was gone before I even thought to take pictures of it!
3. I made this chocolate date bar (again) on Thursday. With only 6 ingredients (plus 3 more for the nutella-chocolate ganache icing), it couldn't be simpler: It was so good last time, I took pictures & kept track of my modifications this time. Expect a recipe real soon!
4. I finished Philippa Gregory's The White Queen over the weekend & am reading The Red Queen now. Each tells a different side of the War of the Roses - a very neat contrast when read back to back. I also finished a nerdy math book over the weekend - I'll be blogging about that one a bit later.
5. I've been listing lots of earrings in my jewelry shop. I really love how delicate these are:

Now I need to get back to writing my thesis! I hope everyone has a nice weekend (& long weekend for those of you in the States)!

Friday Five

Here's what I was up to this week (besides getting ready for Denver):

1. Monday I ran a couple ELISAs with our lab tech. My supernatants did not have any detectable amounts of leptin or adiponectin.... not what I was hoping for. Will be running the experiments again.
2. Tuesday I picked up my tuition support cheque. Yay! Just in time for Denver (& a final tuition payment...).
3. Wednesday I presented my poster at the McMaster Faculty of Health Sciences research plenary. Thankfully, my poster was delivered to me about an hour before I needed to set up - I was a little worried for a while! It looked great & my presentation went really well.
4. Thursday, I was a poster judge for the same research plenary. It was a lot of fun! My co-judge was a big name at St. Joe's, so I was very flattered when he told me I had insightful questions!
5. I've been listing away! I've finally listed all the items I have photographed - now I need to take more pictures! Here's a new set of tags I really like:

I'm off to Denver tomorrow! I can't wait!!! I hope everyone has a great weekend - I know I will! Wish me luck with my presentation on Monday!

I've scheduled blog posts for when I'm away, so stop on by if you get a chance!

Friday Five

Another crazy-busy week... I can't believe I'm flying to Denver next weekend! I have so much left to prepare! Looks like next week will be just as frantic!

Here's what I was up to this week:

1. Pat was home sick on Tuesday... as much as I hate him being miserable, I really enjoy the company.
2. My week has been all fat (samples that is) - I got samples Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday. Which is really good - once I run the experiments with them, I'll be more than halfway done what I have left to do to complete my thesis objectives!
3. I sent Param the first draft of my poster for Denver & received glowing feedback. I only had to make a few adjustments. Over the weekend, I have to run a couple migration experiments to complete a graph & I'm good to print it (just in time for my poster presentation on Wednesday at the research plenary here at MAC).
4. Roasted asparagus is SO easy, SO quick & SO good.
5. I actually went on a bit of a listing binge yesterday - I found a bunch of photos that I'd forgotten about. For example, here's a bracelet I made, oh, probably a year ago:

Don't forget about mom on Sunday! Have a great weekend!

Friday Five

Here's what I was up to this week:

1. Monday, I made these raw chocolate-date bars: I modified the recipe a bit though, since I don't have stevia or agave nectar (stevia is a natural sugar substitute - agave "nectar" is really a syrup, like corn syrup but made from agave, & almost 100% fructose). Instead, I used a 1/4 cup of sugar (mixed in with the cocoa) & honey... close to 6 tbsp I think. Enough to make the dough hold together. Then I iced them with a chocolate-Nutella ganache. Oh yes. They're amazing - it's no coincidence I don't have pictures of them iced!
2. I also broke out my quinoa cookbook & made some raspberry cream cheese muffins:They have cooked quinoa in them, but you'd never know it! It replaces about 1/2 the flour, but doesn't influence the texture of the muffin. Yum!
3. I had a meeting with my supervisor on Wednesday. It went really well - mostly discussing my imminent conferences, defense & job search.
4. I had another amazing Chuck's burger on Wednesday. SO GOOD!
5. My introductory programming course is almost done. I have the weekend to finish up my "app" using the Etsy API. Hoping it'll all come together in time, despite being at home for the long weekend.

I hope everyone enjoys their extra day off!

Friday Five

Oh gosh, can you believe it's already a week into April? Does anyone remember seeing March? It seems like such a blur to me... time is flying by too quickly! I still have so much to do before my conference in May!

Here's what I was up to this week (besides the usual science routine):

1. I picked up my mixer on Monday. I love it! I made dinner rolls & peanut butter cookies that afternoon.In fact, I had a very productive day in the kitchen on Monday. I made broth with the roasted chicken carcass from the night before - & used it to make chicken & dumplings for supper. I washed & ripped up my lettuce & chopped/prepped some veggies for easy snacking & salad making. I felt so organized & ready for a hectic week! I need to do that every weekend!
2. I'm trying to get back into my yoga routine.I was doing about 20 minutes, almost every day ... and then I did nothing all of March. I really like it in the morning - I feel so refreshed & awake afterwards.
3. My mom sent me a package in the mail. A couple bottles of nail polish (green & purple) & a cookbook. This cookbook - Quinoa 365 by Patricia Green & Carolyn Hemming - is a beautiful book. Well written with some really awesome recipes, tips & photos. I only wish there were photos of all the dishes instead of just a few. So guess what I had for breakfast this morning? Quinoa of course! With raspberries & toasted almonds - it was delicious!
4. Thursday night, Pat & I went to a political rally. If you know me, you know I don't care much about politics. And I really don't know much about the parties or their policies here in Canada... I usually vote NDP because they always win in my riding anyway & at least then I could say my vote counted (I really don't like our electoral system - it should be a proportional representation in my opinion). But I figured now was a good time to learn, make an educated decision, whether my vote will count or not. Both the prime minister Stephen Harper & the leading opposition, Michael Ignatieff were in Hamilton Thursday. I do NOT like the Conservatives at all, so I didn't bother going to see Harper - but we did make it to Ignatieff's town hall meeting. The room was PACKED - we were standing outside the main room as he walked in. I SHOOK HIS HAND!!! He looked right at me & said "that's a nice hat!" EEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!! That totally made my day! But we couldn't actually hear him speaking, so we left soon after. Note to self: show up early for the Green Party & NDP rallies!
5. I received another request for a bulk order of mini notebooks. Not sure if it's going to work out yet, but it's very exciting & encouraging. I'm going to add a few listings in my shop for custom bulk orders... but I'll still be creating one of a kind sets. This one is one of my favourites:

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Not much planned here, but I'm hoping to spend most of my time baking & crafting!

Friday Five

Well... if possible this week was even less eventful than last week. I'm so looking forward to just being done!

1. I finished The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski. Good book though I wish the ending had been different.
2. I found out that we have enough Air Miles to get a Kitchenaid stand mixer for free... ummm... yes please!
3. I started an online course, hosted by CodeLesson, called "A gentle introduction to the Etsy API". This week we learned basic html & css. I actually found a mistake in one of the examples... (just like my high school tests!) But I've realized that I really enjoy web design, so expect to see some changes around here once I get a chance!
4. I discovered that I've been using the wrong media for my entire Master's. Not the end of the world, but means I have a few more experiments to do. Ugh. I can't believe how careless I was not to notice..
5. I've listed some new recycled tags - I really like these green ones:

Hope everyone has a great weekend - I'm planning on working on some custom orders & hopefully getting some baking done!

Friday Five

I've been putting this off because I couldn't think of 5 things I did this week! I've been super busy & it all seems like a blur. Let me see what I can remember...

1. Monday night I stayed up until 3:30am reading. I just had to finish Steig Larsson's The Girl Who Played With Fire. SO GOOD. So sad that there's only 1 book left in this trilogy (with no hope of their being more since the author passed away).
2. Wednesday night Pat & I didn't get to sleep until 5:30am. (And I wondered why I don't remember much of this week...) We talked the whole night. He started explaining some of the stuff he was working on & it became a full lesson on recursion, threads & abstraction.
3. I started reading a new book. Which is bad, since I need to focus on reading more science & finishing up my degree. But I made the mistake of walking into the bookstore & seeing some hardcovers on sale (with my discount card I got change back from a $10 bill - how am I supposed to resist that??). The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski sounded too good not to purchase.
4. Good news all around for my family: first, my dad got a new job! Well, more like a promotion to a managerial position (which surprised us since the government typically gives those jobs to ex-military, which my dad isn't & he was in competition against one). My aunt found a wedding dress! And my sister-in-law just found out she has an interview on Thursday for a Personal Support Worker (PSW) program put on by the Red Cross. In North Bay, they're offering to pay you to take the course if you work at least 900 hours for the Red Cross afterwards. Needless to say, we're all really excited for her!
5. I listed some sets of vintage buttons. Imagine my surprise when I found out that I had some Bakelite in my stash (Bakelite is one of the first synthetically-made plastics & highly collectible)! I thought the plastic on these buttons felt a bit different: there are no seams, they have a lovely marbling effect (dark green-grey in colour) & they clink together musically. After a bit of research & a hot water test, these turned out to be the real thing:
Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Friday Five

Lately, each Friday I mention how busy my week was but I think this week was the busiest yet - indeed it was so hectic that I didn't even have a chance to blog the past couple days. Which is something I've noticeably missed - I like blogging, I feel connected to a whole community of friends, inviting them into my home to chat & share & inspire.

Here's what I was up to instead:

1. Work, work, work. The usual.
2. I ran coffee house on Thursday - quite a few people came out this time, it was nice.
3. I took care of Pat after his procedure on Tuesday (nothing serious).
4. I went for my Valentine's day gift: a massage this afternoon. Oh yes. It was lovely.
5. I did list some tissue cozies early in the week. This one features some of my favourite fabric:I'm quite pleased with how my sewing shop is shaping up, the shelves are starting to look stocked. Now that most of my tissue cozies are listed though, I'll have to start thinking of some new things to list. I have lots of Christmas stock, but I'd like to wait a bit before listing that. I want a few new products (perhaps some reusable gift bags, similar to my wine cozies?) & I want to finish a few ongoing projects, including another bird cross-stitch.

Have a great weekend everyone!

I'm planning on taking photos & crafting as much as I can!

Friday Five

Another "blink & it's gone week" for me:

1. Wednesday was Med Sci Research Day - I was a poster judge. There were student presentations & posters followed by a lasagna dinner. It was lots of fun to catch up with some of the people in my graduate program.
2. I've been on a bit of a reading binge. I just finished Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie & am itching to start another one. I recently picked up The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson that I'd love to dig into (not to mention the 30 to 40 books in my library that I still haven't read)... but I should probably start concentrating on reading research articles to prepare for my upcoming conference & eventual defense...
3. The TV series finale for Pillars of the Earth (based on the Ken Follett book) was this week. I loved the book - the series was only OK. There were some liberties taken, obviously & the acting was so-so. Still, I like these period series - Camelot is airing in the fall & I'm really looking forward to it.
4. I bought some corn flour on the weekend & made pancakes Sunday morning. Delicious! Then I made some blueberry muffins with corn flour & oats... I sort of made up the recipe according to a couple different ones I found online. They weren't too bad, the bottoms were a little dry though.
5. I listed a few things this week. Mostly tissue cozies:

Have a great weekend everyone!

Friday Five

The long weekend made this week short & sweet. here's what I was up to:

1. Sunday I went to the arena to watch my niece & nephew at their skating practice. It's almost the end of the season, so they were practicing the end-of-year "spectacle" (it's a very French little town, so that's French for "show"). Jaden is doing really well - the coaches told my sister-in-law that she'd be moved up a level in figure skating & be ready for competitions next year. Edward is doing really well too - he's all about speed.
2. I registered for the ATS conference & booked my hotel in Denver. I just have to book my flight now. I'm hoping for nice weather since I'll be doing lots of walking - anyone know what mid-May is like in Denver?
3. While I was at it, I was planning what I could do while in Denver. I'll be right downtown, so within walking distance of some art galleries, a nature & science museum, the Denver zoo, the botanical gardens & much more I'm sure. I won't have time to see it all... not sure how I'm going to choose! All suggestions welcome!
4. It's been all work & meetings around here: journal club, grad student council meeting, fat sample, muscle baths... Hoping to get in lots of crafting this weekend.
5. I have been listing quite a few new items (as per the MMG challenge) - here's a new bracelet in my jewelry shop:

Have a lovely weekend!

Friday Five + A Recipe

Another busy week - and this one feels like a short one since we're leaving early to head up North for the Family Day long weekend. We were planning on going up for a pond hockey tournament... but that might be cancelled, depending on the weather. Either way, it'll be nice to see our families on the holiday celebrating them.

Here's what I was up to this week:

1. I broke the toilet. The chain that attaches to the handle broke off the other part that lifts up to drain the bowl... so I have to do the lifting manually until we get it fixed. Awesome.
2. I finished a book and started another. Now I'm reading Jeanette Walls' Half Broke Horses. She's such a compelling storyteller.
3. I tried a few new recipes this week, including a lentil soup, a rice dish & a chickpea salad. Only the chickpea salad is worth talking about: it was delicious & so easy. I modified the recipe to accommodate the ingredients I had - you can find my version below.
4. I wrapped up a few things at work, making sure I didn't have to go in this weekend. I also ran a muscle bath: an all day experiment. Except half my tissues crapped out nearly half way through, so I scrapped the whole thing. Wasted days are so frustrating...
5. I listed my MSOE team February challenge: The theme this month is Keith Campbell, a biologist who was part of the team that cloned the first mammal, a sheep named Dolly. I thought this sheep-y paper (though from my Christmas pile) was perfect.

Here's that recipe - it makes a great side or a quick lunch.

Recipe: Chickpea Salad

Ingredients:

1 19oz can chickpeas, drained & rinsed

1 lime, zest & juice

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 small red onion, chopped

1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

Methods:

1. Chop onion & parsley. Rinse chickpeas. Zest lime.

2. Mix together with olive oil & juice from 1/2 the lime (or less if it's a really big one).

3. Add more lime juice & salt & pepper to suit your taste.

Enjoy! Sorry there are no pictures - that's how long it lasted! This salad keeps well in the fridge for a few days. Obviously, you can substitute lemon for the lime, and play around with the herbs & veggies (or go with cheese like in the original recipe). Let me know what you come up with!