In the kitchen with Mel- Ginger bread house (Guest staring my 5 year old cousin, Xavier)

My 5 yr old cousin came over today, bringing with him a build your own ginger bread house from Ikea and 5 packets of lollies. I was up for the challenge and so I volunteered to become a construction worker, architect and exterior designer. I was of the impression that building a ginger bread house would be easy, I was sadly

mistaken. After demolishing one wall I enlisted the help of a professional (shall not be named). He took over my roles of architect and construction worker and managed to assemble the various panels into an approximate house shape. At this stage the house resembled a derelict housing commission, house.

My cousin Xavier

Reconstructed wall

After waiting for the mortar, icing, to dry I let my cousin loose to decorate the house in anyway he saw fit. Using our supply of sour straps, M&M, and two different kinds of party mix (Which had all been previously separated into colours) we created our magnificent creation.

It even had a flower garden.

For those wishing to attempt a ginger bread house, all I say is make sure you have a lot of patience and a cute little kid to help you out and if all else fails just get fat eating the lollies.

All I want for Christmas is...

Hey all, I'm back and to honour this momentous occasion I have found my top 5 gifts for the enterprising scientist. If anyone wants to buy buy me one or all of the listed gifts , please do :)

Gift number 1: Chemistry Cocktail Set

Found at: thinkgeek.com

For all those who want to play with alcohol and citric acid mixes these holidays.

Gift number 2: A Periodic Table table

Found at: boingboing.net

Finally, a practical periodic table

Gift Number 3: Petri Dish Giant Plush Microbes

Found at: Thinkgeek.com

Because who doesn't want to cuddle with some Flesh Eating Virus's

Gift number 4: Chemistry Cookie Cutters

Found at: sciencelabcookiecutters.com

Scientifically proven to be absolutely delicious

Gift Number 5: Lab coat Bling

Found at: etsy.com

The key to being cool whilst wearing a lab coat

Science Week Chemistry Joke-Day 1

In Australia this week, from the 13th of August to the 21st of August, is Science Week. All around the country there are special scientific events taking place. As I have previously mentioned it is also the Intenational Year of Chemistry and therefore I will be posting one chemistry joke per week. However as this week is so scientific I will try to post 1 chemistry/science related joke per day... ENJOY
So, a neutron walked into a bar and said "I’d like a beer, please."

After the bartender gave him one, he said "How much will that be?"

"For you?" said the bartender "No charge."

POTTERMORE- Early Entry Success

I got very excited this morning and decided I would look at the Pottermore website and see if I could solve today's magical quill clue, which was the last magical quill clue before early registration closes.
Now I love Harry Potter and have read every book and seen every movie so today's clue was very easy for me to answer (I didn't even need a calculator). As this was my first time trying to get in I didn't realise how easy it would be. So I would now like to inform you that I am one of the lucky million people to be granted early access to this, hopefully, amazing site. I say hopefully because I am yet to see more of the site than the congratulations page.You see there is a slight catch to this early registration, you have to wait for an email informing you when you can actually access the full site, as they can only allow a select number of people on at one time.
I'm hoping that my email will come before the 30th of September, but I don't really mind if it doesn't, I just can't wait to see this amazing world that JK. Rowling has created for us!

Some Chem for the end of the Weekend

I'm pretty sure for most of you, you dread Sundays. That's because the next day is Monday and we must all return to work or school. So to get you into the mood to get back into school or work here is this weeks Chemistry Joke...
Want to hear a joke about Sodium Hypobromite? NaBrO

The End of an Era

So I have just come back from watching the final Harry Potter film ever and I am a tad depressed. For many of us we have grown up with this movie, grown up with the characters and the world of Harry Potter. Although we may be able to watch the film over and over again this does not change the fact that there will be no more adventures of 'Harry Potter the Boy Who Lived.'
However I believe it was a fitting end to the series and that the movie was seriously fantastic. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did.
Much love
Mel

In the Cucina With Mel and Louise- CROSTOLI

Today my friend Louise came over and we decided to get into the kitchen and make a cake. After discovering that we only had one egg in the house, this idea was quickly changed to making Crostoli. For us, Crostoli bring back memories our year 12 Italian class, where these light airy biscuits were a staple study aid, although we had never actually made them ourselves.
For Louise, the making of these biscuits uncovered her love of deep frying, and for me, I learnt to never turn down an apron when working with flour and icing sugar.
The pictures of the Crostoli above are taken by Louise, who is a fantastic photographer and you can follow her blog at www.raspberriesinwinter.blogspot.com
Mel

Hello World, This Is Me!

As the Saddle club once sung, 'Hello World, This is Me' (if you don't know what the Saddle Club is then your life has been sadly deprived of joy and horses)...and taking into life their theme song I use this post to introduce myself to my random, invisible, fellow bloggers.
As you can see in my about me, my name is Mel (although strictly speaking it is Melissa). I live in Australia but would love to live in Italy (because I can sort of speak the language and because I have some amazing friends from there).
The name of my blog comes from the fact I have my black belt in Tae Kwon-Do and am often referred to a girly ninja.
I also am in my first year of Science, hoping to major in Chemistry.
Some of my favourite things include:

• Reading
• Cooking
• Doing Tae kwon-do
• Hanging out with my friends
• And trying to do Chemisty experiments in my kitchen

I hope you enjoy my blog. hopefully I will keep it updated.
Mel