Pinback Peek (3 of 6)

Hooray! Let the pinback buttons adventures continue with round 3 of 6! (recall round 1 and round 2). I thought I'd break up the "I chose all of leslie's design ideas" trend with one I came up with! Mind you - I didn't come up with it all on my own - the idea grew out of a post I was reading on etsy's blog "the storque" on potential upcoming trends for the etsy world! It forcasted that alice in wonderland themed items will be all the rage as far as crafty trends go, so I figure I'd jump on that bandwagon and do some mushroom buttons! The fact that I've sold out of my mushroom and gnome mycology finger puppets quite a few times further supports my decision on selecting these adorable fungi - and hey, mushrooms are awesome!


This set includes everyone's favourite ascocarp (morel) joining his basidiocarp cousins for the dikarya subphylum reunion! The middle momma and baby fungi are psilocybins (magic mushrooms) and the cute spotted red guy is a classic toadstool (amanita)! Whee! Science is so much fun! And so are these buttons! What are your thoughts?

Pinback Peek (1 of 6)

After many weeks of wide set eye smile drawing, I've finally made some progress on my new collections of pinback buttons to add to my shop! Six whole new sets in fact! Exciting! As you may remember, I held a button brainstorming giveaway allowing my beloved readers the opportunity to aid in my creative process and to potentially win some free buttons too. I tried really, really hard to make designs based on the ideas each commenter suggested but unfortunately am just not that skilled. And although I very much did not plan it this way, I may have chosen almost exclusively design ideas my sister came with....(no wonder she thought my blog should be called "scientific culture and leslie"). I swear - she just knows what anthropomorphic items I'd select and to give her credit - they were some pretty awesome ideas. So once they're complete 5 of the 6 sets are headed your way les! Lucky you!

Since I'm sure you're dying to find out what these new buttons are going to be, I thought I'd sprinkle a peek at each of them into my blog for the next while! I'm also hoping this will keep you all on the edge of your seats to see what posts will come up each morning at 9 am too! It also gives you ample opportunity to comment up a storm and tell me specific opinions about each set (verses the sensory cute overload showing all six sets at once would cause - I'm just thinking of your health here!). So behold - a glance at my first new pinback button design - Geek Wear:


Nothing says, "I'm a huge geek!" quite like a pocket protector, bow tie, and calculator! I'm hoping this one appeals to the geekery and science fans as well as a slight overlap into lovers of bows! I'm really pleased with how this one turned out and am especially fond of the colours I picked. I thought I'd better start off with this set since it's my mom's favourite and I thought I'd aim to win over any giveaway non-winners on this set's charmingly sweet disposition! I mean look at those little smiles! Who wouldn't love them? Which one do you like best?

Adorable Plush Microbe Goodness!

After many months of being sold out of two of my most popular plush microbes (anthrax and chlamydia) my shop is finally restocked! I couldn't find the same light orange and blue fleece that I had for my first round of microbe friends so they're now in gold and teal! I love how they turned out and I think the group bacillus shots are super adorable! So many little cute smiles!


I've even found a new source for their 12mm black safety eyes which has fantastic selection and prices on plush supplies (and it is on etsy - extra bonus)! I must say re-doing my microbe plush pictures was pretty tricky, hence putting off updating them for so long! I'm still not totally sold on how the lighting looks. Hopefully I'll get around to making a light box one of these days and be able to redo them. In the mean time these will have to do until I get through more of my crafty to-do list items. But they are awfully cute don't you think?

In other news - Happy 57th birthday mom! (That's right - I just told the world how old you are) Love you!

Friday Find: FinestImaginary

Thanks to my endless hours of etsy shopping I stumbled across the wonderful etched acrylic goodness of Finest Imaginary! Check out my personal favourite:


Nothing quite says, "I'm super cool" like a glassware pendant! (must be the science geek in my talking). But if beakers aren't your thing, they've got a wide variety of laser cut wonders! Here's a few more I love:


Wonderful detail, great shapes, and reasonable prices! What else could you ask for?

In other news - thanks to the fantastic completion of my msoe january team challenge I've been featured in a treasury! You've got until saturday morning to check it out online or just take a peek here:


And while you're at it go to the msoe blog and vote for your favourite challenge entry!! *hint hint*...

Happy Bday Newton!

So my sister just informed me that it's Sir Isaac Newton's birthday (which I promptly double checked) and thought I should post about! Especially since I sold my last set of famous scientist finger puppets today to a lovely etsy chatter (which I feel obligated to make more sets of - even though they are painfully time consuming). Oh Newton.


He was one heck of a scientist too! Seriously. He did it all - universal gravitation, laws of motion, classic mechanics, reflecting telescope, angular momentum, and the groundwork for differential and integral calculus! Way to go man! And all with that dreamy Micheal Bolton fashion hair style! Perhaps I should listen to my sister more often...but then again she also suggested I change my blog name to "scientific culture and leslie". So maybe not...

Moment #2

So etsy has this lovely "customer appreciation picture" option that people can use when they write feedback on their purchases. I've never really had any, besides some spamy 'you should buy stuff from my shop' ones, until today! One lovely buyer posted a picture of my dear old bacteriophage pin on her lab coat! Sweet!


I find it so incredibly awesome that people like my stuff enough to 1) purchase it and 2) display it for the world to see! And send me pictures! Even better! I really shouldn't be so shocked by these moments - especially since I've sold a gross of buttons sets (literally - I calculated it - 144!) but proof of my pinback button love is wonderful nonetheless. I think I should start giving discounts to people who send me pictures of them wearing my goods - just like threadless. But then again, I am all for the ego stroking, like, all the time....hmm....

More mind reading please?

I stink at guessing what will be popular in my shop. I make items thinking they'll fly off the shelves and others that I think are destine to collect internet dust are gone before I know it! Case and point = my famous scientist pinback buttons.


When I launched the Darwin, Einstein, Curie group they barely budged (minus mom and lucas' purchases) so I didn't really bother to restock when it came to my 2nd and 3rd rounds of button making. Well, I was wrong. Today I sold my last set and won't be able to get to making more until janurary at the earliest. Oh the potential sales I could me missing out on!

Oh, and in other news - I still have a ridiculous amount of thumbs up yetis (which I really thought would be a hot mythical wintry item). Similar to the lack of interest in my sealife and woodland creatures sets. *Sigh* It's ok guys - I still love you.



<3

Friday Find: Mouldy Wall Art

Making biology fun, etsy's elinart creates masterful crocheted mouldy goodness without all the toxic spore drawbacks. I love the attention to detail and texture of her pieces and am particularly fond of the colours chosen in this one!


Now, if only I had a house to decorate and a disposable income...

Friday Find: DNA base pair friendship necklaces

This week's pick is none other than molecularmuse's wonderful base pair friendship necklaces! Allowing you to show off how awesome you pair with someone using a selection of purine and pyrimidine pendants.


Because nothing says friendship better than nucleotide hydrogen bonding. Seriously.

Cute science formula

Random science object (in this case bacteriophage) + wide-set eye smile = adorable.


Why yes. It is that easy. I've divulged the secret, use it wisely.

All the features

Another early morning and another early morning email informing me one of my products was featured on someone's site! This time the credit goes to those sweet craft lovers at Craft Candy, proving yet again how cool Sheffield is (I mean the Full Monty and a neat craft site?)

Indulge a little and check it out when you've got some time to spare...or even if you don't really have time to spare... that seems to be what I did...

Robots need love too

This morning I got a pleasant emailing reminding me just how awesome robots are with a feature in an etsy treasury! And since clearly everyone needs to be further convinced of etsy's ultimate coolness, I encourage taking a peak! (Make haste though, it will only be around until the 8th).


In other news it appears that I've been listening to Dan Mangan's "robots" for the last three hours...so maybe check that out while you're at it. Consider it extra credit.

Update - I'm silly. Here is a picture of the treasury for your non-expiring viewing pleasure:

Remember that other time when I only read the backs of cereal boxes?

Back when I was starting by etsy shop adventures, amidst bed rest recovery from chest surgery - so when I actually had time, I was super stoked on making coffee sleeves. Well I was actually excited about pretty much anything I could potentially sell on etsy, but sleeves were particularly appealing. I had grandiose plans of making tons of different designs then going to indie cafes with friends of mine where we could nonchalantly model them on our lattes be, like, the coolest people in existence.

I spent the next few weeks embroidering my life away (and struggling with that lousy french knot lesson my mom gave me) resulting in the birth of nine reusable coffee sleeve children (three sets of not quite identical triplets to be specific). I was so proud! Dinosaurs, caffeine, and DNA ecofriendly goodness that even had a cool little pocket to stash coffee cards or your weekly coffee budget. Seriously, so excited.

Spring turned to summer which turned to fall and at last I got my etsy shop started, branded (thanks quinn), and I posted my precious sleeve babies for adoption. Not too shortly after, they all sold out and I was back to my empty sleeve nest. *Sigh*

By the time I got around to maybe making more, I remembered how insanely time consuming that embroidery was and how annoying I find unmotivated sewing projects. So I guess being the coolest person in existence will have to be put on the back-burner for now, but I swear I'll get to that sweet love robot coffee sleeve one of these days lindsay...