Crochet coin purse & update

I made this pouch some time back when I was sick at home for a week. I couldn't stand not doing anything so there I was in bed either crocheting or reading (when I'm not sleeping that is). I managed to read Life of Pi which was an interesting book and definitely worth a read. I am all better now, that week off put a dent in my progress but I figure if I didn't rest then, I'd never find the time to actually rest. So sad, I know.

Anyways time for an update. I don't know who actually read this blog anymore but it looks like I've got a few new visitors - hello there! So at the moment I'm preparing my progress presentation for labchat tomorrow. It's been 3 months since my last one and boy have I made progress! Not to get ahead of myself but I have worked extra hard these last few months. It wasn't all smooth sailing though, just last week my third attempt at an experiment actually worked. These transconjugants are so tempermental! I was so stressed out and wasn't a very nice person to be around (I yelled at bickering honours students and almost burnt down the lab!). I'm usually a calm and collected person so my outburst really shocked some people lol. I have mellowed down again so don't worry. Thanks to those who have been praying for me during this stressful time! God has been faithful in answering prayers for progress and teaching me patience as well as perseverence.

So how long to go? I hear you ask. My original plan was to be done by October this year (thesis submitted and all) but that ain't gonna happen. I have two more final experiments left to do before I can stay out of the lab for good. One experiment is to detect the plasmid in my transconjugants using pulse field gel electrophoresis (if it all goes well, it'll only take 1 week). The other experiment is to make (clone and express) a certain protein that I need in order to analyse my metabolites. I give this 3 weeks if all goes accordingly. However this is never the case in biological research, things are bound to stuff up along the way so let's multiply the time I need by 2, which means 2 months to wrap this up! So I'm giving myself til October to finish these experiments. That is also when my scholarship money finish (fair enough they've supported me for 3.5 years already!). I've taken up teaching a class for first year molecular biology this semester so that means some extra income to get me over the line. After that we'll just have to live on husband's income alone until I finish and get a job.

My supervisor seem to think I can write my thesis in 3 months! 150-300 pages or 40-80 000 words in 3 months! That's just crazy! But I guess I need that kind of pressure to get me going. I do have until March next year to submit so that actually allow for 6 months of writing time from October if both of my experiments work. So far I've written about 1/3 of my thesis (assumming I aim for 150 pages), very rough draft of mainly Materials/Methods and Results. This also include my paper (we submitted it in June but still haven't heard back from reviewers) being transposed into thesis format. Having written the paper really helps me with the writing process becasue I no longer see it as one big daunting unachievable task.

Sounds all busy and no play right? wrong! In the midst of all this I'm actually going to take some time off to go on a holiday. See! I'm being kind to myself lol. Husband and I have been planning our epic trip to the US of A for over a year now! It revolves around a conference I'm attending call the 13th International Symposium on Microbial Ecology (ISME13): Stewards of a changing world. I will be presenting a poster on my research there. So our itinerary is San Fransisco (~1 week)> Seattle (conference, 1 week)> NYC/ Washington DC (~1 week)> Los Angeles (3 days)> home. We are quite fortunate to have family and friends in most of these places to host us and or show us around. This is my first time to the US so I'm really excited about not knowing what to expect lol. We fly out on the 16th August which is in 12 days!!! I probably won't post anything until after I come back so until then take care!

For Maddie with love

I can't believe how fast this week has gone by! Thanks to the Queen's birthday we had a public holiday on Monday. Hubby and I ended up not doing any of the things we planned (shopping and cleaning) instead we slept in and pretty much lazed around the house all day. That night we went to see Terminator Salvation (loved it!) and had dinner to celebrate a friend's birthday. The whole time I felt myself coming down with something and before you know it I have the cold! That meant the next 2 days at home sick. Hubby was so sweet making congee and freshly squeezed OJ for me which I think contributed to my speedy recovery.

In craft news, I had just finished crocheting a wee little beanie for baby Maddie from church. When I was almost done I tried it on her to see how far I have left to go, I realised her head is actually bigger than I thought! hahaha let's hope it will fit her this time. I got the pattern for the beanie from a Patons crochet book courtesy of Mia. As for the flower and leaves I got the pattern from Attic24 who's one talented lady when it comes to crocheting!

I wonder if Maddie will like her beanie? I'm imagining her to look like these cute gumnut babies :o)

When I was in primary school, my friends and I were obsessed with May Gibb's gumnut babies. We would draw Snugglepot and Cuddlepie in class all day :o)

Have a nice weekend!

Will you help me eat my corn?

Ok so there's no real corn in this post just cornbread. I got the title from this Disney cartoon that my siblings and I watched (over and over again) when we were little..."Peter Pig is strong and big, he'll help me eat my corn!" hehehe I suppose you have to be one of my brothers or sisters to get what I'm on about. Moving along...
A couple of weeks ago I made a funny little pumpkin cornbread (above) from my Belinda Jeffery cookbook Mix & Bake. Apart from the girls in my lab, she's one of my baking heros. Well the cornbread turned out good (I've made it once before). It's quite lovely with chicken and veg soup or any soup for that matter. It also makes a nice breakfast in the morning, warmed with a bit of ricotta cheese and honey or maple syrup.

Recipe - as requested by Tim & Ash :o)

375g pumpkin (use jap or butternut) cut into 3cm pieces
150g cornmeal aka maizemeal or finely ground polenta
1 1/2 tbsp plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt (or less - I used 1/2 tsp)
1/2 tsp bicarb
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
45g butter
3/4 cup (180ml) buttermilk
1 egg lightly beaten

Steam the pumpkin for 15-20min, drain and let liquid evaporate. Mash up pumpkin using potato masher (you can do this the day before or about an hour before baking). Preheat oven to 200 degree C. Combine cornmeal, flour, baking powder, bicarb, nutmeg and salt together in a bowl and whisk for 40sec. Put butter in 20x20cm square tin and place in oven to melt. Mix together buttermilk, egg and mashed pumpkin in separate bowl until well combined. Once butter is melted, take tin out of oven and swirl butter around so that it coat base and sides. Tip excess butter into pumpkin mixture while beating. Add liquid mixture to dry mixture and mix lightly until just combined (it should look shaggy). Pour batter into prepared tin and shake to smooth out. Sprinkle on some pepitas (if using). Bake for 25min or until skewer inserted come out clean. Take out of oven and stand for 10min before transferring onto wire rack to cool. You can eat it at room temp or slightly warmed, it will keep for up to 5 days in the fridge.

Here is a slice on its own:

In other craft related news, I finally managed to get my hands on some crochet cotton to make this:

I've had the tea towel for some time now but look at what a revamp can do to it! Green is my favourite colour in case you haven't notcied :o) I didn't get a pattern from anywhere I just copied this other crochet-topped tea towel I bought at the markets a while ago. I also made another one with a brand new tea towel as a birthday gift for a friend because these things are just so useful!

Addicted to crochet

Starting off with some non-craft news since my last post. Our church market stall went well considering it was our first time! We handed out loads of church flyers promoting our many activities/services and even managed to have some interesting conversations with market-goers. The face painting was a big hit with the kiddies (some of the mums even asked if we do kids parties hehehe). I can't wait til our next one!
We also celebrated hubby's 27th birthday. We are about 6 months apart in age which means half of the time we're the same age and the other half he's one year older so I teased him that he is so old hehehe. We celebrated his actual birthday with a Lebanese dinner at Emma's on Liberty. The place was packed for a weekday but the food was good. The next night we had a karaoke (Singstar) party with our bible study group which turned out to be quite hilarious! I made hubby a marble birthday cake - it was the first time I made it so it didn't turn out quite right hmmm.
In craft-news, I have been trying to teach myself how to crochet from YouTube videos by this lady. I must admit the beginning was frustrating as I wasn't sure which hole the hook is mean to go through etc. My first few attempts at making solid granny squares well let's just say they looked more like rectangles then squares! hehehe I finally managed to figure out where I went wrong - I had been adding extra double crochets in there somehow thus the rectanlges instead of squares. I've made quite a few granny squares since and am becoming more ambitious to try other things. At our church weekend away last week, our minister's MIL offerred to teach me how to crochet hand/tea towel tops. Older folks are so full of wisdom and skills - we can learn a lot from them.

This is the resulting crochet-topped tea towel

I'm so excited! I just wanna go buy a whole heap of crochet cotton and teatowels and make some more - these things are always so useful. The other day I saw a pattern for crocheting flowers in a copy of Better Home & Gardens in our tearoom, so I photocopied it and off I went to crochet some flowers.

My corrected solid granny square and my crocheted flower - not bad ha?

I'm super excited now that I can crochet things maybe to give away as presents for friends/family. I have to research more on yarn as I'm clueless about what to use. A random fact: I just realised that all this enthusiasm for crafts actually comes from my mum who used to sew, crochet and knit when I was little (oh and my brain comes from my dad as my mum said it didn't come from her hehehe)