Category Archives: Connecting4

Just the four kids.

What’s in There? — Dissection

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I was inspired by a fellow blogger to do a little post on “dissections”.  I decided that I’d try my hand at becoming a biologist.  I once dissected a fish in my 8th grade science class, but now I’ve taken my skills to a whole different level.  To start out I searched around my house to find some specimens for the operation.  Today we will be looking at the skins and innards of a toy train, a My Little Pony, and toothpaste.  First up, the toy train:  Megan got this on a field trip at the Beijing, bullet train station.  It served it’s purpose as a toy and now it has become a perfect patient.


Next is a more “life like” specimen for our dissection. Of all the delicate instruments and tools I used during the process, a small paper razor was the most helpful. As expected, dissections are far from tidy. Sadly, it was my blood, not the pony’s, which was spilled when my razor accidentally slipped. However, for the advancement of Science I think little of it! Though my hypotheses completely missed the mark, I still enjoyed the dissection.

Finally comes the toothpaste, my personal favorite. It never occurred to me that I had, in fact, never seen the inside of a toothpaste tube before this experiment- it was quite an exciting experience. At the local grocery store I picked up the Chinese favorite, green-tea-flavored toothpaste, as well as the American classic, minty Crest. To avoid stickiness I froze them before dissection, however the green tea toothpaste was more gel-like in nature, which was hard to work with. However, I think as a whole it was a successful dissection!

Langkawi, Malaysia Lookbook is here!

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Check out this Lookbook of highlights on our recent trip to Malaysia during winter vacation!

As of Lately…

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As of Lately…

– I am attending my very first MUN (Modeled United Nations) conference this weekend and while I’m at it I get to skip a day of school… yipee!

– Spirit Week! (mon:PJ Day, tue: Twin Day, wed: Animal Day, thu: Time Travel, fri: Class Color Day)!

– Picture of the week: I have been loving this blog full of amazing pictures… especially this one!

– We can’t wait to share our lookbook coming very very soon!

– Me and the girls have been obsessing over this TV show… It is amazing!

– Michael is thinking of coming to visit us during Easter weekend! (fingers crossed)

– Megan has been sick with the fever for almost 3 days now :[ Hopefully nothing spreads!

– I think we’re finally getting on schedule with our blog posting… well maybe not, but we’re trying! O__o

 

 

Party of Three

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Earlier this month, the girls and I enjoyed a small dinner celebration for the start of this blog, Connecting Four. Maddie made her famous chicken skewers (which are actually BakedBree’s famous kabobs), I mixed up a delicious bread dip which we spread on Mom’s homemade French bread toasted in the oven. Jessie contributed with the cake pops which we are still trying to get a hang of… they take a while to master. I think Dad, Mom and Megan felt a little left out but they made up for it with a “special” dinner with Megan at her little IKEA play table. Oh, and I can’t forget to mention that Michael showed up half way through the meal on skype, we talked over video chat for a while which was nice.

If you are in the mood for a celebration of your own, here are a few tips to spruce up the party:

1.) As far as food goes, small appetizers such as chips and dip, prunes wrapped in bacon, veggies and dip, and other finger foods (things you can find here!) are great.
2.) Table decoration are always fun to make and we’ve found that paper place mats are awesome! Stop by at a crafts store and you can find paper in any color scheme with any pattern imaginable, I’m talking EASY way to expand your options.
3.)Make sure you have music!
4.) Don’t be afraid to move furniture around, we moved couches, chairs, side tables and desks to finally achieve the ambiance we wanted.

Have a wonderful Monday and find excuses to party with your friends and family this month!


 

 

Photo Lantern

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This week, one of my friends asked me to take a look at a blog post she found inspiring. The work displayed was an array of paper jewels-a giant installation made of paper. I agree, the work that she showed me was really inspiring. I really enjoyed the work of Kristen Hassenfeld and decided to try something inspired from her work. This project is very manageable-only taking me one hour to fully complete. I wanted to use some of the printed photos I had lying around, so I tried to re-create a jewel-like-lantern with them.
Here is my product and below are the instructions:

And here is how I did it:

Instructions:
1. Get your supplies. You will need a cutter, ruler, cutting board, tape, laminate paper, string and a marker. (and of course your photos)

2. Cut your laminate paper into a pattern that you will duplicate onto the pictures. I used a hexagon shape.

3. With the pattern cut all of your pictures. Perforate two lines onto the photo (making sure you do not cut all the way through), so that you get a place to fold the picture.

4. Tape all of the flat sides of the hexagons together, making a cylinder of hexagons.

5. Start taping the angled sides together. (Make sure to tape two together, then skip one and tape the next two together-and so on-refer to the above).

6. Take the triangle pieces that you cut off of the hexagons and tape the longest sides together.

7. Tape these into the remaining gaps between your hexagons.

8. Finish by taping these smaller triangles together at their tips.

9. Use string to hang.

Feeling Woody

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Recently I seem to be noticing wood more and more and enjoying the beauty of the unpredictable pattern of the grain.  Maybe it’s because in China everything is made out of concrete and brick;  or it could be that I am tired of staring at my fake wood flooring and go crazy over the real thing.  In any case, these pictures reminded me of the beauty of wood and how much I miss seeing it!  I hope you enjoy!

Sources: chair, owl, shoes, pattern, buttons, tape, trees, carved door, flooring, wood texture

History and Theory: Design Past

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Starting this new semester, we are going into a lot of History and Theory which is included in the shaping of what architecture is as a whole. Our studies have taken us from the debate of art categories-the fine arts as compared to industrial arts; all the way to the push for a violent revolt of the arts and society as a whole. In the first few lectures, we focused on what it meant to be “Modern”, and what that means for architecture.

With the start of the industrial revolution, the world moved into the modern era–but some would say this isn’t the start of the modern era. The real change that occurred what the explosion of new materials and machines that allowed for so many new and different artistic expressions and styles.

The Arts and Crafts Movement was one of the first reactions to the Modern era and its effects. The Arts and Crafts Movement hoped to return to the more handcrafted tradition of creating all utilitarian and decorative items uniquely and personally. This included highly intricate work by people-instead of machines. They created by hand their own furniture, houses, stained glass, fixtures, and even wallpaper.

Art Nouveau was the reaction to the Arts and Crafts Movement. They believed in the machine and the possibilities behind the machine. They praised engineers as artists and embraced new technologies and materials as ways to enhance their artistic expression. They started to use machines in art and created an evolved style based on these ideas.

The Futurists came soon after these two groups, in the beginning of the 1900’s-right before the First World War. They suggested that society should reject all previous styles and ideas-to move onto the next era of thought. This takeover and renewal of thought would be constant-reoccurring every ten to twenty years (in the minds of the Futurists). They imagined a new society based on the machine-and architecture which reflected this.

The Deutsche Werkbund was a group of German artists, architects, and thinkers who were set on changing Germany as a world power and bringing the culture of art and creation to the foreground of German life. They saw little distinction between architecture, art, and print. This idea started to infiltrate into industry and product design.

Image sources: Morris Grafton, Alphonse Maria Mucha, Peter Behren and Antonio Sant’Elia.

I’m Lovin’… Black & White

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I have just started looking over Etsy now and then so I decided to pick out a few items that really stuck out to me to use as some sort of blog post Coincidentally they all were black and white so this post is dedicated to the lovely style of Black & White. The Black and white patterns are so great because it always seems to go well with any season, in every dress (like this dress!). When I picked all these items out I also thought about how perfect they would be for a day of shopping during the summer… I simply cannot get over that yellow mustache bag! Which item is your favorite?

Sources:{one, two, three, four, five, six}

Cake Challenge: January

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Mocha Espresso Drizzle Layer Cake:

Cake Challenge Series: is a collection of posts which document the cakes I bake each month. More specifically, I have a goal this year to bake at least one (hopefully spectacular) layer cake each month, and photograph/post them here. I hope you enjoy this collection as much as I enjoy baking these delicious desserts!

I’m happy to say that I was able to achieve my goal, for the first month at least. My first triple decker cake this year (and EVER) was from my new cookbook, Sky High. The texture of this cake is more dense than it is fluffy. Personally I enjoyed the change, I’m so used to vanilla cakes with sugar based frosting, so this coffee flavored cake with expresso glaze tasted heavenly.

As I describe this to you, I have to remember all the things that did NOT go right when making this cake. You see, I started this venture with high hopes, the ingredients were measured, the batter was spun to perfection, the oven was ready… but little did I know my “ready” was the wrong temperature. Sadly, the first two layers were slightly overcooked and a bit dry. And although the last layer was baked to delicious moistness, more problems were awaiting when I began the glaze. As you will see below, the expresso glaze calls for a bag of white chocolate chips melted. <This was when I started hitting bumps in the road.> THE CHOCOLATE WOUDLN’T MELT! My parents and their friends were coming back for dessert at our house and the glaze wasn’t even close to completion! At this point, I was quite disappointed with myself and honestly just wanted to give up. Jessie keep me going though, she never gave up hope while I on the other hand was pacing back and forth voicing “what ifs” here and there… after much stress and multiple rounds in the microwave, the chocolate finally loosened (I think something was wrong with the chocolate and that is why it wouldn’t melt).

Finally, I mixed in the the sweetened condensed milk, other ingredients and vuoila, the glaze was done. My parents were already home waiting for the cake and although the glaze was on the thin side, we quickly assembled the cake and brought it out to be served. I was definitely not eager to serve this cake; after agonizing over it for so many hours I thought that it would taste horrible for sure. But it DIDN’T! On the contrary, I quite liked it… As I happily ate this beautiful cake, I reflected on my baking experience and found that…

Baking my first layer cake taught me three things:
1.) Check the oven temperature before you start baking!
2.) Only make chocolate based icings/glazes when you are mentally, emotionally, and physically sound- and don’t start unless you have LOTS of time.
3.) If you taste bits of cake crumbs and licks of icing here and there, you won’t have any appetite left to eat the finished creation!

 

Mocha Cake

Ingredients:
1 cup freshly brewed espresso OR double-strength coffee
2/3 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
4 eggs
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 2/3 cup cake flower
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter

Method:
1.Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the bottoms and sides of your cake pans.
2. In a medium bowl combine the hot coffee and the coca stirring until the mixture is dissolved into a glossy, smooth mocha. Let cool to room temperature.
3. In another bowl beat eggs lightly and whisk the buttermilk and vanilla in.
4. Place all the rest of the ingredients (dry) into a mixing bowl. With the mixer on low first add butter, followed by the mocha mixture. Beat until well incorporated. Raise the mixer speed to medium and blend until light and fluffy, at this point add the egg mixture in three additions.
5. Bake the cake layers for 35-38 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out almost clean but still moist. Let cool in pans for 10 minutes then invert onto wire racks.

Espresso Drizzle

Ingredients:
12 ounces white chocolate
3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
6 tablespoons freshly brewed espresso OR double-strength coffee

Method:
1. Melt the white chocolate using either a double boiler (more reliable) or a microwave.
2. Whisk in the sweetened condensed milk and espresso until smooth. (If your drizzle is too thin, stick it in the fridge for an hour)

To assemble simply pout glaze in between each layer of cake, and add more on the top layer so that it will drizzle over the sides!