Craft: A Tries to Make a Quill!

I've noticed a number of feathers around the coop from Martha and Pat so I thought it'd be nice to try to make a few quills from them. So here's my attempt at making chicken feather quills!

Materials needed

• Feathers!
  If you don't have access to feathers, you can always buy some at your craft store! Just a little note: the bigger the quill, the easier time you'll have writing with them! 
• Ink!
  I have left over ink cartridges from my fountain pen which broke years ago, which I'm going to use. You can get ink from your craft store too!
• Scissors
• Pin or needle
• Possibly an art knife for sharpening the tip and smoothing down rough edges. (I didn't use one)

Step 1: Cleaning

Wash wash wash!

Since I'm using real feathers, I want to make sure they're clean. Starting right at the coop, I've picked out the clean feathers. If they're soiled with poop or they look nasty, they go straight to the bin. Then they sit on my outside windowsill in the sun for at least three days. Once they've been baked nice I rinse them under hot water straight from the tap. The first time I did this step I left the feather in the hot water too long and the black and white stripes turned into a grey feather. After a little soaking, I lathered them up in hand soap and rinsed them off with cool water.

Step 2: Drying and grooming

Air drying

Reshaping the feather

After the washing, I got a tissue and dried off most of the dampness then allowed the feathers to dry in the room. Once they were dry (allow them to completely dry or else you'll have a harder time at grooming), I smoothed and lightly pulled on a finger's width of barbs in a upwards direction to reshape the feather.

Step 3: Preparing the Quill
I wanted more of the feather than a quill so all I did was cut off the fluffier down-feathers and a little bit of the barbs above it. You may need to use a art knife to smooth down rough edges of the quill if you have any. I also cut the base of the quill at around a 45 degree angle to give a nice tip. This is the part where I also used a pin to puncture and remove the dried membrane material inside the quill.

Step 4: Write your heart out!

Quill writing on a piece of scrap paper

Dip the quill in the ink and start writing! I got a nice tip my first attempt and started writing nicely. Unfortunately, I thought that I could better the tip and cut it further... Bad idea. It was too thin and as you can see from the "Addie" above, ink was splatted all over the place!

Extra craft! Quill "marker"! 
Additional material needed: A tissue!

All you need for a quill marker is a tissue. Rip a piece off, roll it thin and stuff it into the quill tip until it can't fit any more in. No need to pack the quill full of tissue, just enough to reach each end and thick enough to cover around 3/4 of the diameter of the quill. Cut your quill to make sure the tissue hangs out of the tip just right. Dip into the ink to fill up your quill and make a test run on paper. You might need cut the tip to adjust the amount of tissue touching paper.

The quill marker holds more ink and it definitely keeps your writing more even in terms of ink flow.

Quill marker writing is lovely! 

End of Semester is very near!

Hey guys,

I haven't posted in a while again because I've been crazy busy with my exams and assessment. I've got two more exams left before I officially say au revoir to studying this year! Then I'm going to be in Sydney for a little bit.

In relation to uni, I decided to drop biochem and change majors, into Wildlife Biology. Before I started this degree I was caught between the Clinical Science major and the Wildlife Biology major. Now that I've almost completed year 1 of this degree, I saw that there is a lot of chemistry associated with Clinical Science. A lot more than I expected. I definitely didn't see myself doing chemistry at all for the rest of the major, let alone the rest of my life! So I made the decision to change to Wildlife Biology.

On another note, I made a tab with my pets for those of you who are curious :)

Catch you after my exams!
A

LotS: Mother Confessor Kahlan Amnell

Legend of the Seeker post!
Due to popular demand, here are some more pics of the lovely Mother Confessor Kahlan Amnell as portrayed by the beautiful Bridget Regan ♥ 

The episode that sticks out for me & the introduction of Cara! - "Reckoning"

If only this really happened! I hope they can bring LotS back for a few more seasons! 

Con dar

My two favourite gals, Cara Mason and Kahlan Amnell

Fan art section! 

By Pankich (Deviantart)

By pinkhimawari (Deviantart)

By bulma24 (Deviantart)

By xStoleninnocencex (Deviantart)

Ok, that's it for now. After looking through these pictures I'm wanting to watch all the episodes all over again!
A

1 week vacation!

Well, it's nearly the end of the semester! Whoop whoop! This semester has passed reasonably fast, looking back. But with the end coming up, exams are coming too! Today I managed to finish all my online modules for one of my classes which I absolutely felt good about!

I've also just finished organising my trip to Sydney in November for N's wedding! I can't wait! I got my flights booked at a reasonable price and I'm staying in a hotel with M and M. I'll post the pictures if there's no one's face in it :)

-sigh- 6 more weeks before I finish this year - 3 teaching weeks, 1 study week and 2 weeks of exam blocks. Then one and a half weeks down in Sydney before I find a summer job somewhere...

Toodles~ I'm heading off to take the rest of the night off :D
A

Week 2 down, 14 more to go.

Let me start with this: ARGHHHHHHHHHGRHHG.

Dammit, I feel like I'm stuck in the middle of the ocean with 4 hungry sharks swimming around me. The sharks being the 4 subjects I'm taking this semester. I already have so much assessment going around and I think I accidentally missed two diagnostic tests in week 1... I think. I don't know. I don't remember. There's already a biochemistry assignment out and I don't know how to join my amino acids, let alone show charges at different pH!

After trying to get a grips on biochemistry in week 1, I totally missed the second folder of videos for another subject so this week I had to watch double the videos and complete double the worksheets. It was pretty darn simple since the videos were on about how to use databases and how to write essays but it was really, really, really time consuming. I don't get why I had to do this, I mean, I know most of the other kids are first years but I've spent the past two years writing essays, judging how reliable sources are and using databases! I don't claim to be an expert but come on, do I really have to sit through hours of "click this tab to do an author search, click that to search keywords and type this to refine the year"?

After dealing with those two subjects, I've pushed back chemistry, yet again. Heck, I haven't even looked at the first lecture slides! Darn, I must get started.

On the plus side, I decided I needed some social interactions with my old friend 'S' so on Friday we went shopping and window shopping. We literally went to all the 'good' shops in the centre and spent an entire four hours walking around! And we also folded at our cravings and had junk food for lunch and frozen yoghurt for a treat. I must say, Tutti Frutti has some amazing froyo! S had eaten some before so she was looking for her favourites, Taro and Green Tea, but alas they didn't have any! I ended up getting a mixture of Blueberry, Watermelon and I think last one was Soy Banana? I got the last one because I thought it was queer and I noticed it had Green Tea in it so I gave it a go. It was delish and definitely my favourite out of the three! Blueberry tasted exactly like I would have imagined frozen blueberry yoghurt  to be and the other two could have passed off as ice-cream. Unfortunately I ate it and forgot all about taking a picture.
After eating that we walked around to find a present for M's birthday coming up at the end of the month. We ended up wandering into Tea 2 since M likes tea and S wanted to get some more Creme Brulee for her mum. While we were there, we tried all the samples, my favourites being a Turkish tea and a mixed tea with Vanilla Soy. Unfortunately I found out after I drank it that the Vanilla Soy mixed tea had cocoa in it! I ended up having a reaction to it at home. Curse reactions.

Going back to biochem,
A

Blog a Lunch at Uni

Spare break, what do I do? Type a blog post!

Its 12:00 pm as I’m typing this, the buzz of a quiet lunch left behind in the indoor seating area. I’m sitting outdoors, behind the main food buildings, the hum of machines whirring and central air-conditioning working overtime even though it’s winter. Very few people pass, probably not knowing this area exists. Those that do are probably heading to the northern car park. I feel like I’m sitting at the same table a young lady with curly brunette hair, who realistically is sitting at the opposite end of the court.

As I sit here pondering my life choices, my chicken baguette loses its warmth and my can of Pepsi Max loses its fizz. As I type this, my stomach complains and I now I take a large bite out of the baguette. Bad idea. Mayonnaise, richly applied to the lettuce runs down the sides of my mouth. I look to the lady, whom is too busy on her phone to look. Good. Quickly, grab that packet of tissues out of your bag. Shit not there. Oh, there it is. Wipe, wipe, wipe. Crap, a couple of cute guys. Quick, wipe your mouth and look normal.

“Hey there,” the tall one says, “You’ve got a little something… Here, let me help you.”

Yeah. Right. They walk past, too deep in conversation to give me one glance. Ok, back to the baguette. Mm, very nice. I haven’t had one of these in an entire year! Wooowowowow! That chicken is actually spicier than what I remember! Large sip of Pepsi. Ahhhh! That fizz burn on top of a spice burn! Oh gosh, that fizz is heading to my nose! Cue the tears. Tissues, tissues, tissues. There you are.

What’s that lady doing? Still on her phone, good. Phew, what craziness! Oh, here comes a group of three guys. They take a seat three tables away from me, taking in their own language. Speaking of other languages, I’ve got to ask Jess if she’s taking Spanish next year.  Might do it with her. Ok, time to finish my baguette. Be right back.

Ah, that hit the spot. “Spot” being my previously empty stomach. Nice and full. Man, I really miss my nursing cohort. I saw two of them this morning but they were in a rush to get somewhere and I was about to enter a lecture theatre. I need a catch up with them. What of my Science cohort, I hear you ask. Well, the thing is, most of them are newly graduated high school kids, with masses of friends already. I guess I feel like I don’t belong with them and GOD DAMMIT. Some guy just walks out and sits next to me and he’s got KFC. CURSE THE WIND AND THAT BOX OF DELICIOUS-SMELLING KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN. 

What was I saying? Right, most of the kids are concentrating on making and keeping friends. Since I've “wasted” a year and a half on nursing, I don’t really want to make more friends, I’d rather quickly finish the damn degree as fast as damn possible.

Oh and on that note of degrees, what the hell do I think I’m doing? Science? Really? Well, you’ve got yourself in a darn fine mess now, haven’t you? Good work, after barely scraping off passing the previous chem course, you've got chem 2, biochem and genetics to deal with on the same plate! Great work. 

Well that's the end of my break,

A

Worst end-of-holiday news: Polycystic Ovaries

You are warned: This is a girl-y post from the heart of a, well, girl!

I really don't know how to start this post. Remember how in April I went to the doctor and I got an ultrasound, blood test and CT scan? The CT scan was normal, the blood test came back with raised prolactin, and the ultrasound came back with a "few follicles" on my ovaries. I went to the doctor yesterday to get another check up after my period barely started when it stopped and the doctor diagnosed me with early stage Polycystic Ovaries.

My doctor thinks that because of all the stress from studying, exams and assignments that I've basically screwed up my hormones. But I've been on holidays for a month, away from that stress. Maybe my body hasn't caught up yet... Last time I had a complete menstrual cycle was back in April and my period lasted 3 weeks. I had both very little bleeding and heavy bleeding. My next period was last week (3 months later) and it was very very light bleeding over two and a half days.

A few months ago I was worried so I did some research on what can go wrong and result in screwed up periods. Polycystic Ovary Syndrome did pop up and was one of the few that I knew I had a strong possibility of having. But I never thought I would get diagnosed with it. Looking back to my research, everything fits now. Mostly how depressed I've been feeling about everything. I've found that ever since my best friend left for a different uni and I started working while studying I've been feeling more down than usual. It may have been my realisation that life after high school is almost completely individual or it could have been my hormones since that's around about when other symptoms started.

Looking to the future, I'm really mixed about my feelings. My doctor said Polycystic Ovaries primarily affects fertility but most women are able to conceive naturally. Since I'm 19, I'm not really concerned about having kids but it does make me wonder. It doesn't help that at least one person I'm connected with in social media posts a picture of a baby... Apparently Polycystic Ovaries are associated with diabetes and heart disease which does have me seriously worried. My grandfather got diagnosed with diabetes at the beginning of the year, and I suspect a couple of other relatives have undiagnosed diabetes, and I have a family history of high blood pressure.

Right now, I've really got to get started with something I've been battling with for many many years - weight loss. I've been on the "chubby" side for almost my whole life. When I moved high schools it started getting troublesome and then when I started uni I began a diet which failed miserably. Last year I joined a weight management program online which did help me to lose some weight but I found keeping track of calories quite difficult since it was an American program aimed primarily at Americans - they had different serving sizes to start with! In addition to that, I wasn't cooking my meals, my parents were and I didn't really know everything they put into the dish. When I finally just gave up on the program, things got crazy with uni and I ended up putting on all the weight back PLUS an additional 6kg! Arghhh.

I guess I'm a whole mess about this topic right now. I hope you had a better holiday than me! Well, I'm pretty sure anything would have been better than this.
A

Ps: My twitter account is currently set to private because of some personal reasons. It'll be back on public in a short while.