Ulixis Crafts

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Item of the day: Garlic Keeper

I need this garlic keeper from khphillips - I can't seem to keep my garlic fresh!

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Marcrest Swiss Alpine Dishes

I first stumbled upon the Marcrest Swiss Alpine pattern on Etsy - and immediately fell in love. I quickly snatched up a set of 4 bread and butter plates. Of course, Pat thought it was silly, and I don't have much room in my tiny kitchen, so I left it at that.

Well. The other day I came across this set in the vintage shop MomWaldsPlace. It was such a good price that I just couldn't resist.

Look at all the pieces included! I cannot wait to get them! Of course, buying this means that I've now started a collection (how exciting!). So I figured I might as well search Etsy and add all the pieces I could find to my favourites - for future reference.

That's when I entered the shop SparklePower ... this shop was my undoing. Not only was there a large serving bowl listed but there was also a set of creamer, sugar dish and tea pot. OH NO WAY!!! These pieces are fairly rare, especially as a set......... I had to.

Aren't they adorable? And this teapot! I mean, I already have a perfectly fine teapot (with a really cute cozy), but this one is part of my collection! I really like it's funky shape.

Of course, I may as well add in the serving bowl while I'm at it! I mean, I was already getting a large box shipped, what's another little piece.

Oh boy - and I just snatched up this little pitcher from mamak - I've never seen anything like it!

I'm thrilled with my purchases - I really can't wait to get them! I hope they're handled carefully by the postal workers and arrive in one piece though. Now, over the next couple of weeks, I'll have to go through my cupboards and make some room!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Counting cells

So the last 2 weeks I devoted to Transwell migration assays (4 of them) for an MD candidate that also works for my supervisor. We just needed to hurry and gather a bit of data to have a paper published (deadline of June). Each of my migration assays consisted of 7 different treatments (including controls) in duplicate - that's 14 membranes, resulting in 14 slides. And then I need to take 10 pictures of each slide, and count the cells that have migrated across the membrane (it has holes in it for this purpose).

I've been complaining a lot about counting ... and here's why:

All the little black circles with white centres are the holes, and all the dark blue round smudges are cells. Yeah, I have to count ALL of those (this particular one had 476 cells). Luckily, this is pretty much as bad as it gets - some of the other treatments average around 100, 200 and 300 cells. And I'm using software to keep track of which cells I've counted, so it isn't like I have to remember that. All in all though, it takes an average of an hour of counting per slide. And I'm only half way there...

Oh yeah - and this is a someone nice photo - the vaste majority have 2 photos for the same area because the little membrane is wrinkled and not the whole view is in focus. So I have to flip between the 2 (or 3) photos to make sure I get all the cells without counting them twice.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Item of the day: Binary Geek

I admit it - I'm a nerd. So's Pat - though I'm more science geek and he's more computer nerd. He did teach me binary though, which is why I really get a kick out of this glass, by geekdetails:

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Happy Mother's Day!

plant marker by MudHutt

Happy Mother's Day to my mom and all the other moms out there! :)

Close ups of my face

Ever want to see my face close up? No??!?!?! Well, that's too bad. I enjoy taking pictures of my eyes and lips.... for some reason.

I really love the colour of my eyes. Greenish - blueish - gray, depending on what I'm wearing and the lighting. With golden brown freckles.

And I really can't complain about my lips. Except that they react to cheap (and expensive) lip balm, lip gloss and lipstick. They also have some faint freckles around the edge.