Yup....that's right. I finally finished writing! I'm quite impressed with myself, because meeting my deadline didn't involve any all-nighters or involve any major disasters!
Here's the proof!
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
I'm Being Naughty
So........I really don't have time to be blogging right now. I wouldn't even call this procrastination, this an instance of very poor prioritizing. My dissertation is nearly finished....just doing some last minute changes from my advisor (who I think in general was positive about it). But, this thing has been frying my brain, so I took the night off yesterday and..............made a card......
Our friends had a baby yesterday, and what kind of disaster would it have been if I had arrived to visit without some sort of handmade token? As it is, I still need to add buttons to the baby bibs!
Anyway....here it is for your viewing enjoyment!
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Sydney: Yarn Hound
I couldn't resist putting this up. Sydney was nestled up on the couch with one of my knitting projects last night, and my husband got this pic of her...
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Baby knitting....with pictures!!!
Not too much time to go on and on about things....but I did want to put up some pictures of some things that I have been knitting. I've been spending almost all of my bus time with 100% cotton yarn....I was really in a book thing for a while, but I just got stuck on Life of Pi. I'm going to have to pick somthing else soon....
I have been pretty busy with school lately. The pressures on, and I hope to defend my dissertation at the end of July or beginning of August. I did take some time this past week to update my "stash" and "projects" on my Ravelry page. Here are a few of them:
Monday, May 5, 2008
What do you do with fresh strawberries in May?
That's right, you make lots of strawberry daiquiris and get silly drunk!
So--anyone reading this is going to want to go to their local farmer's market this month and buy a bunch of local strawberries. Better yet--pick your own. I recommend doing this mostly sober though.
Take the strawberries home and find your blender.
Combine ice, 2 parts fresh strawberries (stemmed and hulled), 2 parts rum, 1 part triple sec, and some lime juice to taste. Add some fresh mint, too. Blend until it's perfect, and pour into a really fun glass rimmed with sugar.
Enjoy outside under an umbrella and congratulate yourself for supporting local produce farmers.
So--anyone reading this is going to want to go to their local farmer's market this month and buy a bunch of local strawberries. Better yet--pick your own. I recommend doing this mostly sober though.
Take the strawberries home and find your blender.
Combine ice, 2 parts fresh strawberries (stemmed and hulled), 2 parts rum, 1 part triple sec, and some lime juice to taste. Add some fresh mint, too. Blend until it's perfect, and pour into a really fun glass rimmed with sugar.
Enjoy outside under an umbrella and congratulate yourself for supporting local produce farmers.
Heat Sinks
Ok...this weekend, I had my most embarrassing/disastrous baking incident of my entire life. This even tops a few episode from my unruly adolescent years...
On Saturday evening, we attended a BBQ at a friend's home for our church 20's and 30's group. As an accomplished cook and baker (ha!), I decided that I should RSVP for both macaroni and cheese and cupcakes...since both my husband and I would be attending. But in typical Big R fashion, I was running late--I had to dash to the lab, then to Target for groceries, and then home to do all of this cooking. I get through the front door at 4:15 and the party starts at 5, and I still decide to attempt mac and cheese and cupcakes....mistake...
I manage to get the cupcake batter made while the pasta is boiling for the mac and cheese. The cupcake recipe is One Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook. I've made them in the past and they are really yummy and easy. The cupcakes go in the oven, and then I move on to assembling my mac and cheese, and put it in the oven. I start to wonder why nearly 40 minutes later, the cupcakes still don't look done. I pull them out and they are still just goo. After sitting out of the oven for a few minutes, they all collapsed in the middle. I didn't even think at the time to take a picture for the blog, but it would have been really comical. So word to the wise--allow enough time to put your cakes in the oven separately from a full 9x13 Corningware of macaroni and cheese. Apparently, that takes up A LOT of the oven heat!
While I was waiting for those suckers to do something in the oven, I did manage to whip up some awesome Peanut Butter Buttercream Icing to put on the cupcakes. I brought that along to the party, and that was so good, people went ahead and slathered on chocolate cake that another guest had brought. The rest is in the fridge right now, and it is so cold that I was thinking I would mold it into balls and dip it in chocolate to make some candies....yum.
Here's the recipe I made up:
Peanut Butter Buttercream Icing
Ingredients
1/2 c. butter, room temp.
1/2 c. peanut butter
4 c. confectioner's sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2-4 Tbsp. milk
Cream butter and peanut butter in an electric mixture until smooth and creamy. Gradually add confectioner's sugar ~1 cup at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. Mixture will be very dry at this point. Add vanilla, and then milk 1 Tbsp. at a time until frosting is desired consistency.
On Saturday evening, we attended a BBQ at a friend's home for our church 20's and 30's group. As an accomplished cook and baker (ha!), I decided that I should RSVP for both macaroni and cheese and cupcakes...since both my husband and I would be attending. But in typical Big R fashion, I was running late--I had to dash to the lab, then to Target for groceries, and then home to do all of this cooking. I get through the front door at 4:15 and the party starts at 5, and I still decide to attempt mac and cheese and cupcakes....mistake...
I manage to get the cupcake batter made while the pasta is boiling for the mac and cheese. The cupcake recipe is One Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook. I've made them in the past and they are really yummy and easy. The cupcakes go in the oven, and then I move on to assembling my mac and cheese, and put it in the oven. I start to wonder why nearly 40 minutes later, the cupcakes still don't look done. I pull them out and they are still just goo. After sitting out of the oven for a few minutes, they all collapsed in the middle. I didn't even think at the time to take a picture for the blog, but it would have been really comical. So word to the wise--allow enough time to put your cakes in the oven separately from a full 9x13 Corningware of macaroni and cheese. Apparently, that takes up A LOT of the oven heat!
While I was waiting for those suckers to do something in the oven, I did manage to whip up some awesome Peanut Butter Buttercream Icing to put on the cupcakes. I brought that along to the party, and that was so good, people went ahead and slathered on chocolate cake that another guest had brought. The rest is in the fridge right now, and it is so cold that I was thinking I would mold it into balls and dip it in chocolate to make some candies....yum.
Here's the recipe I made up:
Peanut Butter Buttercream Icing
Ingredients
1/2 c. butter, room temp.
1/2 c. peanut butter
4 c. confectioner's sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2-4 Tbsp. milk
Cream butter and peanut butter in an electric mixture until smooth and creamy. Gradually add confectioner's sugar ~1 cup at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. Mixture will be very dry at this point. Add vanilla, and then milk 1 Tbsp. at a time until frosting is desired consistency.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
I'm Back!!!
Well, I suppose this is one of those strange scenarios where I haven't felt like I have been under a lot of stress, so I haven't really needed to "procrastinate" in the more traditional sense. Therefore, I really have had to waste time by writing about wasting time.
We did get the reviews on my paper back, and I have a few more experiments cooking right now. Once that puppy gets sent back in for its second review, I'm sure I'll get that introduction for dissertation cranked right out! I'm an "under the wire" kind of girl. Ugh...that's enough science talk.
Things I have been doing: BAKING! We got a new oven a couple weeks ago, and I have been using it to try out new recipes from the Martha Stewart Cookie Book. It works great, and I have had the chance to try out the convection feature. Last week (in one night!) I made the Peanut Butter Cookies from the book--which were awesome, chocolate chip cookies (off the back of the Nestle bag, there is just no substitute), and white chocolate macadamia nut cookies--recipe courtesy of Nicole. Yum! I should have posted some pictures of those, but I thought that would be mean. I'm started to collect cupcake ideas for my graduation party--yes I think I have spent more time thinking about the graduation bash rather than writing my dissertation.... Check out this blog for incredible ideas--they update it constantly: http://www.cupcakestakethecake.blogspot.com/. I'm going to try to remember to add that to my favorites.
I have also been try to knit as much as possible. Now that TV is back on, it leaves me with a lot of quality multitasking time--i.e. make a burp cloth while watching the office. I've decided to work on a bunch of burp clothes and bibs for the babies that are coming up in the summer--I don't think the mamas are going to want to put the new babies in little sweaters on July--sounds cruel.
Speaking of baby knitting--
My friend Laura was in town this past weekend (that's knitting friend Laura from D.C., not to be confused with paper-crafting friend Laura who lives here in Durham). Together, we made an important discovery which is that Peaches 'n Creme 100% cotton yarn (as their label suggests) is way softer than the Sugar 'n Creme yarn that is sold at most craft stores. We found the Peaches 'n Creme at my Wal-Mart in Durham, but it is also available online at http://www.elmore-pisgah.com/. Totally the worth the shipping. Laura also turned me on to a totally sweet website called Ravelry. It is an online knitting community that just looks awesome. I am on the waiting list for an invitation right now...but from what I can tell from their online tours it looks like it is extremely useful/addictive, so I am looking forward to some quality procrastination time once I get on there.
N.B.--the Baby Kimono pattern from Mason-Dixon knitting fits on 10lb. babies. I found that out twice in April!
Ok--I'll get some pics up this week to make this thing a bit more interesting.
We did get the reviews on my paper back, and I have a few more experiments cooking right now. Once that puppy gets sent back in for its second review, I'm sure I'll get that introduction for dissertation cranked right out! I'm an "under the wire" kind of girl. Ugh...that's enough science talk.
Things I have been doing: BAKING! We got a new oven a couple weeks ago, and I have been using it to try out new recipes from the Martha Stewart Cookie Book. It works great, and I have had the chance to try out the convection feature. Last week (in one night!) I made the Peanut Butter Cookies from the book--which were awesome, chocolate chip cookies (off the back of the Nestle bag, there is just no substitute), and white chocolate macadamia nut cookies--recipe courtesy of Nicole. Yum! I should have posted some pictures of those, but I thought that would be mean. I'm started to collect cupcake ideas for my graduation party--yes I think I have spent more time thinking about the graduation bash rather than writing my dissertation.... Check out this blog for incredible ideas--they update it constantly: http://www.cupcakestakethecake.blogspot.com/. I'm going to try to remember to add that to my favorites.
I have also been try to knit as much as possible. Now that TV is back on, it leaves me with a lot of quality multitasking time--i.e. make a burp cloth while watching the office. I've decided to work on a bunch of burp clothes and bibs for the babies that are coming up in the summer--I don't think the mamas are going to want to put the new babies in little sweaters on July--sounds cruel.
Speaking of baby knitting--
My friend Laura was in town this past weekend (that's knitting friend Laura from D.C., not to be confused with paper-crafting friend Laura who lives here in Durham). Together, we made an important discovery which is that Peaches 'n Creme 100% cotton yarn (as their label suggests) is way softer than the Sugar 'n Creme yarn that is sold at most craft stores. We found the Peaches 'n Creme at my Wal-Mart in Durham, but it is also available online at http://www.elmore-pisgah.com/. Totally the worth the shipping. Laura also turned me on to a totally sweet website called Ravelry. It is an online knitting community that just looks awesome. I am on the waiting list for an invitation right now...but from what I can tell from their online tours it looks like it is extremely useful/addictive, so I am looking forward to some quality procrastination time once I get on there.
N.B.--the Baby Kimono pattern from Mason-Dixon knitting fits on 10lb. babies. I found that out twice in April!
Ok--I'll get some pics up this week to make this thing a bit more interesting.
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