Cucumber Love

This is my bristlenose catfish (Ancistrus sp.) called Mörkö. She is a lovely lady who takes care of her health by including lots of veggies in her diet, such as cucumber and zucchini (and the occasional sword plant, much to her owner's dismay).

She really loves cucumber. Here's the heart-shaped proof, fished out of the aquarium the other day:

Tuesday Finds: Science

Today I picked up my Master's thesis in printed form from the printery. It took a while, but it's finally done. Wohoo! To celebrate, I will fill up this blog with wonderfully nerdy science things for this week's Tuesday Finds.

First up is a necklace I've had my eye on for a while now. It's a caffeine molecule in jewelry form by Raven Hanna from Made With Molecules. Mmmm, pretty coffee. Perfect for this coffeeholic.
($85, molecularmuse.etsy.com)







I suppose it's wrong of me to want kids for the sole purpose of making them as nerdy as me with the help of Tiffany Ard's Nerdy Baby ABC flash cards. Yeah, it probably is. Ah well.
($18, electricbogaloo.etsy.com)

The one thing that deserves to be called 'awesome' is the cell, methinks. The complicated inner workings are just fascinating. The cell section necklace from discomedusa designs, showing layer upon layer, reminds me of the complexity.
($95, discomedusa.etsy.com)

A sneaky peek

Owls and a triceratops; both creatures I've been wanting to make for quite some time and now the perfect opportunity showed itself.


These little ones are all spoken for, but I suspect there are more to come!

Choco Swiss Roll with Strawberries, yum yum

A group of people came to visit the other day and I had the hardest time figuring out what to bake for them. It's summer, which means our tiny place gets HOT, especially when there's more than two of us here, so I wanted something I could make the day before. Preferably something that is at its best when served the next day.

Suddenly, it hit me. A swiss roll! Perfect! Plus it gave me an excuse to get some fresh strawberries. Even better!

For the filling I used something that Wikipedia claims is quark in English. I remember trying to explain it to my New Zealander husband in our early days and he had no idea what I was talking about ("What? You put elementary particles in your food??"), so I don't know how familiar people outside of Europe are with it. It's a type of soft, sour cheese that hasn't been aged, if that helps. Wikipedia also gives the name "Fromage frais".

It's been aaages since I made one of these and I had forgotten how easy they are to make. I think I have a new love in baking. Sorry, muffins!


Choco Swiss Roll with Strawberries (about 18-20 slices)

3 eggs
1 1/2 dl (3/5 cup) sugar
3/4 dl (~1/3 cup) potato flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder

Filling
2 dl (4/5 cup) whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla sugar
2 tbsp sugar
250 g (~9 ounces) quark
3 dl (~1 1/4 cups) fresh strawberries

Beat eggs and sugar until thick and creamy. Mix the dry ingredients together, then fold into the egg-sugar mix. Pour into 30x40 cm (12x16 in) pan covered in baking paper. Bake for 5 minutes at 225 °C (437 °F). Turn out onto baking paper sprinkled with a thin layer of sugar. Peel off the baking paper the cake was baked on and let the cake cool.

For the filling, whip cream with the sugars until stiff. Fold the quark into the mixture and spread onto cooled cake. Chop the strawberries into suitable chunks and sprinkle on top of the cream mixture. Roll up the cake with the aid of the sugared baking paper. Cover the roll with the baking paper and plastic wrap, then place in fridge overnight. Cut the roll into slices right before serving and enjoy!

Busy times plus a front page feature!

I guess I've been busy this week:
Most of them will show up in my shop(s) eventually.

So, my mind's been preoccupied with work and other stuff this week and this morning was no different. I was quite lost in my thoughts. Imagine my surprise then, when I went to the Etsy front page and saw my gloves right there in the middle of the page! Thanks so much, artish!

The treasury list will be up for a few more days, if you'd like to take a look:
f r o s t y

Tuesday Finds: Jellyfish!

The Tuesday Finds are back! Well, at least for now, as I'll take my summer vacation in the near future and may not get around to using the computer much during that time. If the weather is nice, that is. *peers out at the falling icy rain*

Anyway! To make a long story short, this week's theme is jellyfish, because they look cool. So there. There's something truly fascinating about invertebrates.

I'll admit to being a bit lazy and not digging much to find the first item of the week, because I happened to see this Jellyfish Lamp by 1015 Designs on the front page of Etsy the other day. I immediately knew I had to show it off here. How could I not? It's awesome!
($975, 1015Designs.etsy.com)

Frost Indri offers purely decorative, ceramic jellies, such as this one, and even promises they won't sting. ;) Such a lovely surface and colours.
($28, frostindri.etsy.com)




If 2D art is more to your liking, how about a sweet watercolour painting called 'Jellyfishes in the sea' from Uluka Shop?
($24, uluka.etsy.com)

Mmmm, chocolate-banana muffins

Behold! I bring you moist and yummy muffins!

I had overly ripe bananas at home and figured choco-banana muffins would be the perfect thing to do with them. However, it turned out I had no chocolate at home and too little cocoa for the whole batter. I then had the fantastic idea of making marbled muffins.

The problem, it turned out, was that it was also a very messy idea. Especially as I enlisted the aid of Mr Morrgan, in order to divide the batters into the muffin cups quicker. Too many chefs spoil the, uh, neatness of the kitchen? Fortunately not the muffins, in this case.

Eventually we did get most of the batter into the cups, but at that point the mess made me wary of trying out the marbling. Hence, they ended up as layered muffins. Feel free to marble them yourself to your heart's content, however.

Banana-Chocolate Layered Muffins (makes 12)

4 dl (~1 1/2 cups) flour
3 dl (~1 1/4 cups) sugar
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cloves
100 g (~1/2 cup) melted butter
3 eggs
3 tbsp cocoa
2 tsp vanilla sugar
2 ripe, mashed bananas

Mix the dry ingredients together. Whisk the eggs, then add melted and somewhat cooled butter. Fold the wet ingredients into the flour mixture. Divide the batter in two even halves. Mix in the mashed bananas and the vanilla sugar into one half and the cocoa into the other (if needed, add a bit of water to the cocoa half). Layer the batters into 12 muffin cups and bake for 20-25 minutes at 175°C (347°F).

As usual, the less you mix the batter(s), the better they'll be.

Enjoy!

Gerbera's Dream

Why hello hello. It's been a while, but things are calming down now and I've actually had time to do some knitting this past week. Goodie. However, for my return I want to show off photos of flowers, not knitting.


For the first week of June, citizens of Turku were able to enjoy a sea of flowers by the Turku Cathedral. This piece of environmental art, Gerbera's Dream by Kaisa Salmi, was a fantastic start for the summer season. It consisted of a hundred thousand Gerberas, in more different colours than I have ever seen.


As you can see, I even managed to drag Mr Morrgan over to enjoy the colours on this beautiful, sunny day.


There were many paths to follow through the flowers, with benches here and there to sit down on and enjoy a moment of peace. It was almost enough to forget I was in the middle of a city.

If only there was something like this to enjoy all summer!

Happy Easter!

Long Time No See

Oh, my poor neglected blog. I apologize for the lack of Tuesday Finds and I'm afraid they'll have to become an occasional occurence instead of weekly, at least for a few months onwards. Also, my shop will be updated less often than it is now. In fact, the updates have already been less frequent for a week or two now.

The reason? I was recently offered work as a research assistant. How could I say no? :) As much as I enjoy my little shop, biology is still number one.

I won't give up on knitting altogether though, I'll just have less time for it. In fact, I added something new to my shop last week. These arm warmers are made from a soft acrylic yarn in variegated greens and white. I just couldn't resist this yarn in the shop, the colours were so appealing. I'm quite happy with how they turned out, if I may say so myself. =)

Goodbye Nemesis

Last night my marbled angelfish Nemesis passed away. He was 11 years old and, frankly, gorgeous even at his old age. I have and have had hundreds of fish and few make me cry when they pass away. Nemesis is one of those few. :(

Nemesis moved to my tank together with a few other marbled angels in 1997, when he was about 3 cm (a little over an inch) in diameter. From such a tiny little fish he grew into a 16 cm (6 1/3 in) long, handsome male. Despite his large size he never harmed his smaller tank mates, though he'd shown his strength in territorial disagreements with other angels.

He was always curious and seemed to watch us as much as we watched him. When I moved into my own place, there wasn't any room for his big aquarium and it stayed at my parents' place. It is placed in the hall, across from the front door, and he would come out and greet all family members when we got home. He was a bit wary of visitors, but would eventually come and check them out too.

Nemesis lived with his mate Hobart until about a year ago, when she passed away from old age, suddenly but peacefully. She was found in one corner of the tank, with no external signs of any trouble, with Nemesis by her side. For about a week after her death, Nemesis stayed in that corner and wouldn't come to eat. I won't go as far as to say fish grieve, but it was clear that Nemesis was stressed and felt something was wrong. Understandable, considering Hobart and Nemesis had been together for 10 years.

Nemesis himself passed away just as suddenly and peacefully as Hobart. The day he died, he had come to greet my mother when she came home from work, as usual. He showed up around feeding time too, even though he had no appetite. When my mother checked up on the fish one last time before going to bed at about midnight, he had passed away.

Goodbye Nemesis. We miss you.

Nemesis a week before he died.

The non-knitty posts continue...

While I have been knitting, I don't have anything ready to show yet. What I do have to show is one of my few house plants blooming!


Oh my, how proud I feel. I've gotten many aquatic plants to bloom, but I'm no good at taking care of any plants that aren't fully submerged - mainly due to forgetfulness and hence watering them once or twice a month. The aquatic ones are so much easier in that regard. This pretty thing is a Christmas Cactus, which apparently doesn't mind my neglectful care.

Tuesday Finds: Something Fishy

So, I adopted that bronze cory catfish last week. He's doing pretty well so far by the way, healing up and moving about actively as a cory should, looking for food among the sand. As my mind's been on fishy things because of him lately, I thought I'd choose this week's Tuesday Finds in honour of my little recovering adoptee.

So, fishy things then! I adore the detail and colours of this ACEO print of an original watercolour painting, titled 'Watercolor Koi Fish' and painted by Bryan A. Collins. It is also available in other sizes, if an ACEO (Art Cards, Editions and Originals - 2.5 x 3.5 inches) is too small for you.
($3.50, bryancollins.etsy.com)

The outfit of a fishy fan is not complete without a fishy bag, I say! How about a felted and embroidered one in teal? This funky purse is available from mabith.
($30, mabith.etsy.com)

As for wearable fishy things, perhaps this koi tank top by Ahpeele might strike your fancy? Lovely in design and lovely in colour, this one might find its way into my summer wardrobe.
($25, Ahpeele.etsy.com)

So it's been a week since my last post...

...what have I been up to? Well, in no particular order:

- Scratched the cornea of my right my eye, leading to much teary irritation and pain. Ow ow ow. It's almost back to normal now, fortunately, just a bit tender.

- Adopted a poor lonely bronze cory (Corydoras aeneus), to join one of my two schools of them. He was unwanted because he was skinny with torn fins and damaged barbels (his moustache, as I like to call them), but he's eating now and the fins are already healing, so hopefully he'll recover fully. :) (The ones in the photo are two I've raised, not the recovering one.)

- Trying to remember how to do statistics with SPSS while working on my MSc degree. It's been a while since I used it last, but I think I've got the hang of it now. I also found I still detest doing statistical analysis. Bleh.

No knitting news? Nope, afraid not, unless you count organizing my yarn stash better. This week's been full of other things to do and the eye situation didn't help either. Hopefully I'll have something to show next week, or perhaps even on the weekend.

Speaking of the weekend, have a good one!

The monster scarf returns!

Belated happy Valentine's Day! I hope you had a good one, if you're into the whole thing. Hubby and I don't really celebrate it to be honest, but the weather was really nice so we went out for a walk and lunch together. I did get a present though; hubby took care of the long and boring task of defrosting the fridge so that I could go out for drinks with a dear friend. Now that's a gift a girl can truly appreciate. Along with chocolate (which I also got). I <3 my hubby.

In other news, I recently made and listed yet another monstrous scarf! I really get into such a good mood while making these guys. There's nothing like a happily grinning soft monster to cheer you up.

Tuesday Finds: Colours

Today as I was walking home my main impression of the surroundings was grey. Grey sky, grey buildings, grey streets... As if winter isn't dark and depressing enough on its own. Even most people wore dark, muted colours. Why didn't anyone put more effort into making things look a little brighter and happier with more colour? Wouldn't that be much better?

At about this point in my musings I realised I was wearing my grey wool coat today. Sigh.

So, to try to make this bleak day seem a bit more pleasant, I have looked for colourful things for this week's Tuesday Finds.

If it's colour you want, GilBea's handpainted silk scarves are bound to do the trick. How about this gorgeous one, in different shades of blue and purple?
($55, gilbea.etsy.com)

Perhaps green is more to your tastes? These fun fused glass hair pins in bright lime green would be just the thing you need for a smaller spot of colour. They are available from panyizsuzsi.
($11, panyizsuzsi.etsy.com)

Representing red, we have this beautifully designed and made reversible handbag made by Ira Grant. Black and red on one side, white and pink on the other. Perfect!
($44, iragrant.etsy.com)


As for me, I shall be sure to wear my brightest orange scarf and matching gloves tomorrow. I promise.

Mr Morrgan "Chompy" Goldfish

As I was reading this article I began having some odd thoughts. I have goldfish in my shop. I also have wild hearts in my shop. How about combining a goldfish with a wild heart? Could it possibly work? Would I become a Dr Frankenstein of goldfish?

Well, there was only one way to find out. I sat down with knitting needles, crochet hook and orange yarn and began experimenting. Everything went smoother than I expected and I'm pleased to report the experiment was a success! I made a goldfish gone wild!

In fact, he was so much fun to make that I immediately made him a little brother and I foresee a multicoloured school of little chompy fishies taking over our apartment. Perhaps a few will even make it into my shops.

The big one will be on his way overseas on Monday! (Assuming I can get his little brother to let go.)

Man, he's pretty ancient by now

Today my husband turned even older than before! I wonder when the grey hairs will start showing? Well, in any case, enjoy the whiskey, my dear! It's an appropriate drink for an old man. :D


(PS. I am of course kidding. Mostly. He is after all a little over a whole year older than me. That's more than enough for some age-based, loving teasing.)


(PPS. The gloves in the photo are ones I listed recently in my Etsy shop. Just in case you were curious.)

Tuesday Finds: Kitty Cats

I have no special story on how I ended up with this week's theme. I just found some cute kitties and wanted to show them off. So there.

The cat that started it all is this tiny turquoise feline, made from polymer clay. How much cuter can a kitty get? It's available from Endless Whimsy, along with many other cats and kittens in various colours and shapes.
($5, endlesswhimsy.etsy.com)

The previous kitty reminded me of one that has been among my Etsy favourites for a long time. 'Sleepy Kitten' by Vanessa Rodrigues is just too adorable. This kitty cat is available as a print from Ku-Ki Shop.
($10, kukishop.etsy.com)

The cat that sealed the deal for this week's theme was a vinyl wristlet with a sweet kitty and cherry blossoms applique. It's available from the aptly named Kitty Empire.
($22, kittyempire3.etsy.com)


Now I'd better go do something else, before I melt from cuteness overload.

Hubert the Grumpy Unicorn

This guy here is a grumpy little unicorn called Hubert.


Why grumpy, I hear you ask? Well first of all, this particular teenage boy unicorn happens to be very pink. Just how is a poor unicorn supposed to impress that cute pegasus girl when he's as pink as can be? AND named Hubert? Seriously, what were his parents thinking?

If only he was a cool steely grey like his uncle Reginald, then things would be different. Or at least had uncle Reginald's name. Now there's a proper noble name for a mighty unicorn, sure to impress any cute pegasus. Not at all silly. Unlike Huuuubert.

But no, that wasn't to be. This little guy is pink Hubert. A very grumpy pink Hubert.


Hubert is another little creature that came about one sleepless night. I wrote his description at the beginning of January, but it took a while before I was able to put my idea into knit form. Hubert will be available in my Etsy shop soon, as both finished unicorn and pattern.