Sade's Blog

Yes, it snowed! And I took pictures:

And then we went out and had a snowball fight, and tried to make a snowman but didn’t go all too well. And I made a sorta snow angel and froze me butt in the proceed. But it was fun! Then we came back up, warmed ourselves up with a cup of “winter mix” tea, and some speculoos. Winter is starting to look like winter, now it just needs to snow a bit more for Christmas!

It’s up and lighted. Feeling the spirit :)

Christmas cards shall be made this week and sent!

So, lets start with the second half of the topic. On the previous post I asked you, the readers, what you thought about the Christmas cards that I’ve been making for the last three years. I got close to no response. I guess I’m just writing for myself then. So I’ll be making myself a nice Christmas card, and maybe share it here on the blog, but this year there won’t be any no-contest where you can get your very own hand made Christmas card delivered to your mailbox. It makes me sad that no one cared enough about them.

Now on to happier business. I made myself a skirt. Yes, she who doesn’t wear skirts, made herself a skirt, and wore it, for the whole weekend. And actually enjoyed wearing it! I got some compliments on it, saying it made me look slimmer (Thanks, Erna!), and that it didn’t look hand made at all (I guess that is a compliment to my sewing skills!). I guess you want to have a look at said skirt, aye? Pictures:

The skirt is made out of tartan fabric in the MacKenzie Modern design. It’s the best I could do to match the MacKenzie Seaforth the boy’s kilt is without breaking the bank. I could have gotten 100% wool MacKenzie Seaforth for around 70€/m. Or I could get MacKenzie Modern, a 45% wool, 55% polyester, for 21€/m from The Scotland Shop. It was a no-brainer, really. The mix also makes it easier to care for (throw in the washing machine in delicate cycle vs. dry-cleaners).

I’m very happy with the purchase from The Scotland Shop. The shipping rate is flat no matter how many meters of fabric you buy. I paid around 4.5€ to get 3 meters of fabric shipped, from Scotland, to Belgium. I can’t complain about that. They take PayPal, besides credit cards, debit cards & money orders. The shipping was fast – it took only two days to get here after it got shipped. The processing time wasn’t as quick, but it was within their estimates. And the fabric is what I expected. Lovely.

On to the skirt? Aye. The skirt is based upon a black skirt I own that suits me well. It was a good purchase on sale, for only 5€. And it now has served to draft the pattern for following flattering skirts. I chose to make it high waisted in this case, but I may make another one with a normal waist. It’s six gores, and the back gore has a box pleat to add some fullness and make it even more swingy. Closes with a zipper, and it’s fully lined.

Stats:

• 1.6m of 1.5m wide fabric.
• 1.4m of lining fabric
• 1 22cm long zipper, nylon teeth.
• 1 200m bobbin of thread
• 1 hook & eye closure
• 4 days of drafting, cutting & sewing

And the reason to make the skirt? I wanted to help out at the Celtic Weekend, and I wanted to fit in as “one of the crew”. So wearing a tartan skirt actually made me feel like one of them, and be seen as part of the group. Helping out also meant free food and drinks, which was nice since we spent 8 & 6 hours there on Saturday & Sunday. And it also meant that I didn’t sit getting bored around! It was fun.

I like to take part in these yearly posts about different topics that Blog Action Day promotes and hosts. This year’s topic is Global Warming.

What is Global Warming?

In short, it’s what its name says, a global warming. The average temperature on the earth’s surface is gradually increasing, and that is causing other problems, such as the day-to-day weather being awkward for the season, the level of the seas increasing due to ice melting, and so on.

The Planet Is Heating Up—and Fast

Glaciers are melting, sea levels are rising, cloud forests are drying, and wildlife is scrambling to keep pace. It’s becoming clear that humans have caused most of the past century’s warming by releasing heat-trapping gases as we power our modern lives. Called greenhouse gases, their levels are higher now than in the last 650,000 years.

We call the result global warming, but it is causing a set of changes to the Earth’s climate, or long-term weather patterns, that varies from place to place. As the Earth spins each day, the new heat swirls with it, picking up moisture over the oceans, rising here, settling there. It’s changing the rhythms of climate that all living things have come to rely upon.¹

What causes Global Warming?

There are several factors that should be taken into account, but the main processes that should be mentioned are²:

• Greenhouse gases: The greenhouse effect is the process by which absorption and emission of infrared radiation by gases in the atmosphere warm a planet’s lower atmosphere and surface. The major greenhouse gases are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane and ozone. These gases contribute in different amounts to the effect.
  Human activity has increased greatly since the Industrial Revolution, and with it the amount of gases in the atmosphere.
• Aerosols and soot: Aerosols created by volcanoes and pollutants scatter and absorb solar radiations, having a slightly cooling effect. They also make the clouds have more and smaller droplets, making in fact the cloud a more effective reflector or solar radiation.
  Soot, on the other hand can both have a cooling and a warming effect. Atmospheric soot aerosols directly absorb solar radiation, which heats the atmosphere and cools the surface. When deposited, it can directly heat the surface.
• Solar variation: Variations in solar output have been in the past responsible for climate changes.

What are the effects of Global Warming?

There are so many that it’s hard to begin. I’ll try to point out the ones I find most important³

• Effects on the weather, such as extreme weather, increased precipitation, bigger areas affected by drought.
• Glacier retreat and disappearance.
• Sea level rises, temperature of oceans increases, acidification of the waters, oxygen depletion.

Effectively, the climate change that global warming is triggering can make the coastal lines recede, and take with them many towns and making people migrate. It can also make food production hard, since increased storms mean a harder time for crops. Drinking water reserves will shrink, with the acidification of all waters. The list goes on and on.

What can we do to slow down / stop Global Warming?

There are many things that we as individuals can do to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions. My favorites are⁴:

• Using energy saving lamps. They take a bit longer to reach full light, but they save a ton of money and energy.
• Using recycled paper, non chlorine bleached is even better!
• Adjusting the thermostat: our heating is set rather “cold” (we wear jackets inside the house), and we don’t have airco at home. If we did, it’d be set for 25ºC!
• We shower instead of taking baths. And our average showers are short.
• We try to buy produce locally, but sometimes it’s just impossible. I’ll still buy the produce that has been grown closer to home even if it’s a tad more expensive.
• Skip the packaging and plastic bags as much as you can. Have you tried making your own fabric produce bags? Make sure to always carry a fabric shopping bag with you, that way you don’t have to accept plastic bags when you do some impromptu shopping.
• If available, use gas / electricity companies that guarantee their energy comes from renewable sources. Might not be the cheapest, but you’ll be happy.
• Use public transport, bike or walk when possible.
• Reduce, reuse and recycle. The classic and basic three Rs are never out of place. Be it for trash, or anything in your home.
• Become a vegetarian! Even just one day a week, and you’ll reduce your carbon dioxide emissions in 170 kg a year.

Do yourself a favor and help protect our planet from Global Warming. Go look for more tips on what you can do.

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I know I haven’t posted in a month and a half. Life hasn’t been so hectic as to put it as an excuse not to post, to be honest. I just haven’t been in the mood to post, and didn’t really have that much to talk about either. I still miss Macchiatto dearly, our little cavy, it makes me sad thinking about all that we could have done and didn’t know to do in time.

What has been going on since then? Not much, I have been getting used to living in Ghent with Jan, me mostly been at home doing stuff, as it was pointless finding a job for two months, then come back to Madrid for another month, then finding another job when I get back to our home at the end of the month. Officially, I’ve been marked as house-wife, never mind I’m not a wife! And that’s actually what I’ve been doing most: grocery shopping (thanks given that we have two shops within easy walking distance), cooking, cleaning, laundry, ironing, and so on and so forth.

I’ve also been preparing more paperwork to enroll at UGent. I need to fill in a lengthy application form and give them ton of information from my previous University. I’m hoping they’ll accept me and also transfer my credits. It’d be a great help if I only have 1 to 1.5 years left to get my Bachelors, and then another 2 for my Masters. The end is near, way closer than at my previous University, which is sad. I’m also going to enroll at UCT for either the preparatory year of Dutch, or only the levels I still need to take (3rd to 6th) preferably.

On the cooking and baking front, I haven’t innovated much or made up any recipes worth posting. I’ve kept to my staples with the savory, and not done much baking either. I made curry, and stir fries, some baked casseroles and the usual. I baked some muffins and was planning on cookies but forgot to buy cookie sheets!

I did get three balcony rectangular planters, and filled them with dirt, put some seeds in, and patiently waited for them to grow. I have Lettuce, Rainbow Chillies, Rocket, Leaf Beet (or Perpetual Spinach), Land Cress, Basil, Rosemary, Marjoram, Chives… All ready to pick when I need some. Nothing better than a sandwich with lettuce right off the plant. Or a pesto with such fresh basil (crossing fingers it grows enough that I have enough to make pesto soon).

Craft wise, I finished a beret (no pic), that still needs the ends sewn in. And I started on a lace shawlette using the Luna Moth Shawl free pattern from Elann, and a fingering weight yarn that’s a bamboo / silk / cotton blend, in creamy white. Since a post without pictures is boring, I’ll put one here of the shawl:

I also got a set of funny giraffe rubber stamps. I made some thank you notes and gift tags that I plan on putting up for sale. I sewed a beach dress for me, using my brand new sewing machine that I plan on use a lot (Promise!). I’m right now waiting on an eBay auction to finish, and hopefully I’ll be the owner of 3.5m of MacKenzie Seaforth tartan to make a high waisted skirt.

I think that’s about it. Hopefully next time it will be sooner than with this post.

Cheers!

As a parting gift for my best friend, who is also moving for next year at University (and the following, to finish her degree in a different University from where we both started), I got her a small Teddy-bank¹ at Tiger. It comes with some paint and a paintbrush to decorate it yourself. The end result can now be showed, since she has the present already.

On moving, I’ve already moved in with Jan. There are only a few details in the apartment left to do, namely paint one small thing, and do some retouching here and there. And then putting everything where it should be. But we’re moved in and happy! We survived our first week together already, inluding our fifth anniversary². One lovely view out of our balcony happened a couple of days ago:

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What I won’t miss from Madrid? Let’s see…

• The weird seasons.
  We have a sort of autumn that’s very displaced towards the end of the actual season, and you can still see trees with green leaves on (that shouldn’t be) very late in.
  A short and dry winter, not much cold, not much rain, and way too short. We might get one snow or two, with luck, but not often.
  The lengthy srping. Gets warm too soon (for my taste, at least). The trees go nuts pollinating, and adding the pollution, allergy attacks are horrible.
  And we don’t have summer, we have something akin to hell. Dry, hot, and very long. Imagine 42-44ºC in the shadows during the day, and not going below 26-28ºC at night. Impossible to do anything during the day, or to sleep at night.
• The noise.
  There is noise. Every day, every hour of the day. It might be louder or lower, but there is constant noise. Last month’s measures gave an average of 63dB if I remember correctly. Which means we’re pretty close to what the WHO considers to be way too much.
• Flying
  Ok, this is not technically related to only Madrid. But this past year I’ve been flying quite often. Weekends are not too bad, but as soon as there is a holiday, all the tourists get out, and go about like sheep to the slaughterhouse. And really, when I fly I just want to get there as fast as possible, and not waste time at the airport

I felt like ranting. And letting you know I’m not dead. Just busy. And tired. And annoyed. And looking forward to just move. Even tho this mean a whole other rant ;)

It’s not quite like MaryPoppins’ Carpet-bag, not because I don’t like hers, but because I’m looking for instructions to make one ;) It also doesn’t fit a lamp, or a night stand or an umbrella, but it does fit all the stuff I carry on Mondays to school¹.

It’s a simple zippered flat bottom trapezoid bag. Bottom is wider than top and the sides are straight. It has two long wide sturdy straps so you can hung it over your shoulder to carry all the stuff. It’s fully lined, and there is a (giant) hole on the lining to insert a cardboard base to make it stiffer. It also has two small pockets inside, for tissues and other small things that I don’t want to have floating around.

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International Woman’s Day (IWD) is marked on March 8 every year. It is a major day of global celebration for the economic, political and social achievements of women¹.

In some countries it’s just a celebration of women as mothers & wifes. Another mothers’ day if you wish. In other countries it still claims back women’s political and human rights.

I don’t think one day is enough to celebrate what women do, to honour them. Equality is not something to be thought about once a year, but to be fought for every single day.

Some facts:

• Of 1.2 billion people living in poverty worldwide, 70% are women
• 80% of the world’s 27 million refugees are women
• Women own around only 1% of the world’s land
• Women do two-thirds of the world’s work but receive only 10% of the world’s income
• One year out of college women earn 20% less than men and 10 years later 31% less²

And finally, a quote I like:

We will achieve gender equality when useless women reach high powerful positions.³

… of class, I can already tell I’m gonna be dead most weekends.

My schedule goes as follows:

• Mondays 9.30 till 12.45, and 16 to 17 (lab)
• Tuesdays 9.30 till 12.45,
• Wednesdays 8.30 till 12.45,
• Thursdays 8.30 till 12.45,
• Fridays 8.30 till 12.45.

Of course to this you have to add the hour of transport to get to university, and the hour back. And waking up an hour before I leave the house to do morning ablutions, dress and break the fasting. Plus expending all afternoons after lunch studying, doing exercises and preparing the classes for the following day.

There will be one Monday when I’ll have another lab, between 14 and 15.30 approximatedly. On Mondays I’m taking lunch along, since the food at university is over priced, bad and I doubt it’d pass a Health inspeaction either. On top of that, there are no vegetarian options. So bento lunches it is for me. Or most likely a salad and a sandwich.

Life otherwise is boring on this side. I haven’t been knitting much either. I think I haven’t picked up knitting in over two weeks. No time, not feeling like it, or just plainly too tired. I have started some sourdough, hopefully in a week I can have sourdough bread and other tasty things!