Real Simple is Real Awesome.

I came across the Real Simple article about 50 new uses for old things. Which, I love. Their series is always really useful, but when I read too many of them, they all start to sound pretty redundant and sometimes not applicable to my life, but my friend showed me this one and I immediately ran and got a bottle of nail polish. Lucky for me, my house has a couple of polish aficionados, so I didn't have to search too hard (or else I might have gotten distracted along the way).

We have this problem, in our bathroom, with any metal items. Namely, they rust. And if it's a can, it leaves a rust ring on the counter. No biggie, wipe it with some 409. But, we ran out of 409. And now, we have some pretty unattractive rust rings hanging out by the sink, and it just looks bad when we have people over and they need to use the bathroom. Real Simple's solution was to coat the metal bottom with some nail polish. Genius. And so simple. I had been thinking of a way to fix the rust staining, but I couldn't think of anything other than glue some plastic to the bottom, but even then I would have rigged up some sad looking contraption. Plus, nail polish is waterproof so I don't have to worry about replacing a paper towel liner (which I tried for a little while).





I just grabbed the least fancy looking bottle out of our basket and started painting away. I can't believe I didn't think of this/see this sooner.

Fold: Kusudama Flowers

I found this great tutorial somewhere online for these beautiful paper flowers. I have this perfect little stack of colored note papers that I use for notes and other random things (like making origami!) right next to my computer. There are some failed/half-folded things littering my desk, but surprisingly, I actually finished this one. This one is pretty simple compared to some of the more elaborate paper crafts on their site.
















Process photos and full tutorial over at Folding Trees. link here.

Aren't those great, especially the ones made with patterned paper? I don't think I'd ever have the patience to finish a whole ball of them though! I'll just have to stick with the one and put a stem on it for some year round cheeriness.

I used Elmer's white school glue (which btw is pretty much the best thing ever! in my opinion of course) and bobby pins to hold the petals together while the glue dried. The glue stick slowly came apart even after it dried, so I re-pasted with the white glue. I folded all the petals at once, let them dry overnight, and then stuck all the petals together in the flower shape, glue and bobby pin, dry overnight. Pretty easy especially because I don't have a lot of time to spend crafting.

My post titles are getting wordier.

Why is it that my blog posts increase and my productivity goes down when I feel the impending doom of midterms coming up in a few days tomorrow?

Some wistful looking-out-my-window scenery. It's lovely outside, and I'm stuck inside.

Only a third grader would opt to paint her room completely pink.

My room at home that I moved into when I was in third grade has this awful/lovely shade of pink paint on the walls. Overwhelmingly pink even though my mom thought to artfully dab some white/light pink sponging over the pink. It's so pink that even though I tried to change the decor when I was in high school, it still looks like an 8 year old's imagination exploded in there, complete with unicorn stuffed animals and glow in the dark stars. At least I got rid of the twin bed with the pink cast iron frame. Oh and I was the one who wanted to paint it pink. My sister's room is purple but somehow came out more tasteful than mine did.






























And there's my cute little stone giraffe from Nigeria. I tried to spruce up my room with little things from around the house. That retro Pepsi-Cola glass was snatched from the kitchen cupboard.

A little bit of [actual] sexism in the modern day and age.

I was over at my good friend (from high school!) AK's place last night having dinner and catching up. We were making the good ol' stand by: pasta with ground beef. AK's roommate/apartmentmate, Steve, comes home from dinner out with his family. They're all chatting and standing around in the entry way, Steve and his gf, Christine, are getting out bowls and spoons and things for ice cream. AK and I are doing our thing in the kitchen. Steve's little sister Kari, who is about 10, hyper and super friendly, comes up to me and introduces herself and starts talking to me about Rockband. I'm stirring the ground beef and mushrooms which are starting to smell awesome at this point.

Christine: "Wow, that smells so good, good job."
Joking and somewhat indignant, AK: "How do you know I didn't make that?!"
Kari pipes up, "Because she's a woman, duh!" [referencing me as the woman in question, of course]
Me: "Haha, uh yeah."

I'm not at all offended by this, and I'm not going to go all girl-power! on anyone, I just thought this was super funny. I was pretty much unaware that these kinds of "spheres of influence" thoughts and values were still perpetuated in modern society. But she is 10 after all. Probably doesn't even know what sexism is.

All in all, I still find philosoraptor funny.

Nerdy and Cute

For my P.I.'s (the lab boss) birthday the other day, we had cupcakes at our lab meeting! I work in a worm lab, so, appropriately, they were all decorated with little frosting worms. So cute. They were super delicious: white/vanilla (?) cake, lemon gel in the middle, raspberry hidden underneath the fluffy lemon frosting, and sugar sprinkles and a hardened frosting worm to top it off. The best part is that they were homemade! Amazing.















The first picture was a hasty camera phone picture, that's why it's all blurry :/
I also saved the little worm to eat later, it's hanging out with some cookies.
Side note: the worms that I work with are not blue and green.

Science in action!

Have you heard of Ecospheres? So, this was a gift to my lab from a member who left recently. They are a completely self contained ecosystem with sea water, algae, phytoplankton, and you can see at the bottom 4 tiny brine shrimp. The only thing it needs is light! Pretty neat, and they'll continue to coexist for about 2-5 years according to the manual. The shrimp will never reproduce so the lifespan of the shrimp translates into the lifetime of the Ecosphere.

And, what kind of nerdy lab would we be if we didn't name them appropriately after the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? (or the famous Renaissance artists if you want to go with that)

I wish I had gotten a picture of this.

This kid was sitting in front of me in class. Halfway through, I realized what his shirt said on the back. The college A-G requirements. I kid you not. It literally listed "English 4 years, Math 3 years, etc." And the kicker? The very bottom statement.

"Earn a 'C' or better in every class!"

Kid turns around at the end of class, and of course the witticism they printed on the front is "got college?" Who still wears their high school shirt 3 years into college? Yeah, I am occasionally guilty of wearing old tennis team shirts, but this is just appalling.