Pinback Peek (2 of 6)

Time for round 2 of 6 of new pinback button goodness! (See round 1 here). This time it's a design relating to something my city usually doesn't get a whole lot of (being a semi-arid desert and all), especially this time of year (when it's usually still snowing and cold) - Rain! Wonderful, wonderful rain:


Boy, do I ever love the rain! I'm sure a lot of that is to do with the fact that it is so rare for me - I mean I'm pretty sure I've never used an umbrella in kamloops before...well...maybe for novelty purposes...but rain is super common for most people's springs and leads into the fantastic thunderstorm occurrences of summer! I can't wait! And even if you're not a fan of this weather you can celebrate your hatred for it in adorable smiley form! I think that little thundercloud's expression is particularly adorable. Which is your favourite?

Feather Brooch Time

Once again I rock at sticking my 2010 goals! Not only have I managed to somehow come up with a blog post a day all year (and at least until march 9th according to my list of bloggy ideas on my desk) but I've also managed to do the february mad scientists of etsy "feathers" challenge! (In case you're interested the jan challenge is located here). After a long night of embroidering and watching "Forest Gump" and "The secret to my success"I hand crafted this golden felt feather brooch:


I'm really quite pleased with how it turned out and in love with the gold colour! Or according to jim "it looks better then I thought it would". Thanks jim. What do you think?

Friday Find: rosie ok

A few weeks ago I did a friday find on a sweet shop selling knit plush patterns so I thought this week I'd really stir things up and showcase the etsy shop rosie ok who sells crochet plush (amigurimi) patterns! Wonderful! Especially because I'm so skilled with a hook! Take a glance at a few of my favourites:


I originally thought I'd just show one pattern but I couldn't decide which I liked best! I mean look at that little fox! And the wide set eye adorableness of that bear! Or those darling octopus legs! Ack! Or those bird's toes! So cute! I especially enjoy the charming backdrops she takes all her pictures with - such a nice detail! Which ones do you like?

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?

Mystery Mail

The other day I received the most peculiar package - a large brown box addressed to me from rhode island. What's odd about that you say? Well, I don't know anyone from rhode island and I certainly haven't purchased anything from anywhere around there lately (especially not to be arriving in such a large box! and trust me, I pay tight attention to potential mail I may be getting). So I opened it up and this is what was inside:


Yup. Random. A "make your own chewing gum" kit! It looks super cool and even has an informational booklet with fun facts on gum making! Cool! I can't wait to try it out once I have a kitchen again (actually I'm pretty excited to have any amount of kitchen back - being cupboard, stove, and sink-less is awful).

So one question remains: who the heck sent this to me? I guess if I die from poison gum consumption you can be worried (and won't be reading any more of my blog posts) and if not...then the mystery mailer doesn't hate me. Any idea on who it could be?

Cowboy Mustache Cat

Fraser and I often brainstorm cute crafty ideas to broaden the selection in my shop. One topic we're particularly fond of discussing is items relating to my sold out pinback button/magnet mustache cats! I really like the idea of having some mustache cat tea/coffee themed something or other (mug? or tea cozy maybe?) with each kitty with a different stereotypical type of mug - sophiticat with a tea cup and saucer, french cat with a demitasse, and sheriff cat with a camp style tin mug. Adorable right? One issue I have with this scheme is that I'd have to figure out how to draw bodies on the cats and although I do have skills with wide set eye smiles, I'm not exactly a trained and experienced artist. Fraser, however, is outrageously talented. So I thought I'd share the super adorable picture he drew me of cowboy cat:


Look at those sweet boots with spurs! So cute! It certainly puts my button images to shame but I suppose this doesn't quite mesh with my defined "not quite symmetrical" uber cute drawing style. Seriously though, this image just makes me want to rub his little fluffy white sheriff belly! *fluff belly!* Aww! And to continue with the fraser drawn cowboy kitties theme here's a sketch of deputy mustache cat:


That poncho is to die for! Awesome! What a great boyfriend I have :)

An Afternoon with Anthrax

As I mentioned on saturday, I had quite the time taking pictures of my cute previously sold out plush bacilli. As always, one mischievous kitty (el gato diablo) also enjoyed my makeshift photo shoot and had quite the time playing/attacking anthrax. Take a look this adorable action sequence:


I wish I'd caught one of those "fangs sunk into gold anthrax flesh with rage" shots but unfortunately am still a little amateur at photography. I'm sure you can imagine just how charming it was though. As soon as he clued into the fact that I was trying to get a nice picture of him he lost interest, especially when chlamydia and e. coli came to join in. Behold:


Yup. That is one unimpressed cat. Alas. One day Percy. At least you've got your looks going for you...

Nut and Bee and Moo

I've been a huge fan of the adorable character goods of New Zealand's own nut and bee for quite some time now. They've got a wonderfully cute selection of stationary, magnets, buttons, and stamps I drool over on a daily basis. In fact I've purchased at least three separate orders from her site and have a stash of nut and bee goodies in my pen pal rubbermaid tote to share with deserving recipients once in a while!

Well my lovely sister pointed out the wonders of moo.com (an online print shop) linking up with loads of nut and bee designs! Extra bonus since the nut and bee shop is currently closed while their creator is busy being preggers! One item leslie and I were won over by? A fantastic set of 40 nut and bee moo cards. Take a look at some of my favourites:


Her colours and images are so charming! Leslie bought a set of them as address cards with her address and numbers on the back. Such a great idea! I'm so tempted to get some too but I'm not totally decided on what I'd put on the back of them.

Leslie also suggested that I upload some of my own images onto moo.com and make my own cards! I am pretty drawn to the idea of making some postcards for my site or maybe just to send to some selected post buddies. Hmm...any thoughts?

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: Prost to the Host

Yup. Lucas you are right - I do a lot of posts on pom poms. So it's about time I do a friday find that is pom related right? Lindsay must think so because she sent me a wonderful link to an etsy shop full of tissue pom poms! Super cool! Check out prost to the host's sweet pomtastic goods:


There's an amazing arrangement of colours and sizes ready to ship to meet all your pom pom required celebrations! If they weren't destine to get ridiculously dusty in my room I'd be tempted to decorate with them just for fun...but I think saving them for special occasions might be the best idea. Oh pom poms! How I love you!!

Ad space

I received a lovely tweet from Art Tales the other day asking if I had an ad for my etsy shop that she could put on her blog. Well, I quickly rose to the challenge since I certainly didn't want to give up this sweet opportunity for etsy networking!! Fun bonus fact - I met Art Tales back in november when she was one of the three winners of my yeti giveaway. Neato! I spent a while brainstorming on what images would work best for the ad and played around with a few different designs. This is what I came up with:


I didn't want to migrate too far from a somewhat science-y theme (since that is the basis of my shop and all) but I wanted an eye catching simple and uber cute item that might draw people into clicking on the link. I tried to make some ads from a few button images but the colours just didn't pop as much as this one. You can even check out the smaller actual "in blog" version here! What do you think?

Quiz: What's your colour?

Amidst my internet surfing I came across this fun quiz thanks to how about orange:


That's right - just answer a few simple questions and find out which colour matches you! I did the test and apparently I'm black. Hmm...


I'm pretty sure I don't have any problems dealing with mass amount of attention though...just saying.... So the question that remains is what colour are you? And how seemingly accurate is it? Take a moment and indulge in the internet quiz. It's fun. I promise.

Project: pen pal

So as I've eluded to a few times (link, link, link), I'm an avid pen pal! Nothing I love more than connecting with friends in far away cities (or not so far away cities for that matter...). It gives me the wonderful opportunity to indulge in some of my favourite retail therapy purchases - stickers and stationary! And as an added bonus it let's me play that most wonderful of games, "waiting for post". Such fun!

I recently came across the opportunity to hook up with some crafty folks from across the world thanks to tea cups in peony's project pen pals! Nicole arranged a pen pal exchange on her blog and paired all us "wanting to write to strangers" readers to one another! Doesn't that sound like fun? Well I wasn't the only one that thought so - 157 people signed up! I haven't had my chance to write to my new pen pal Ellie from Indiana, but she's got my address and apparently my first letter is on the way. I really hope this little blog inspired pen pal-ery turns out to be really fun! I mean I'm already a somewhat loyal pen pal (ok - I know I've been slacking a little lately but generally I'd say I'm a good pen pal right?) and I'll be sure to keep you all posted on how this goes! Haha. Posted. Haha....ha...

Make your own Shrink-i-dinks!

Here's a tutorial I can't wait to try out! Poopscape projects shows you how to make your own shrink plastic by recycling #6 plastic containers! Too cool! Look at the awesome pendant they made using a little sandpaper and pencil crayons:


Seriously - the projects are endless with this one! I have so many ideas I want to try out! I think I may need to host a "diy shrink plastic" craft night soon!!! (but only if lindsay and quinn are in town...). Eee! Exciting! Now to find some old #6 containers and free time...

A Moment with Dan

As you recall, I recently attended the most fantastic aiden knight/dan mangan concert and at the end of the show gave a set of love robot buttons to my "robots need love too" idol dan! Well to make my life complete take a look at this shot of him:


That's right! Dan Mangan, a lime, and my buttons! A little hard to see you say? Here's a closer peek:


Okay - so I'm terrible at photoshop. But a girl can dream can't she? What a wonderful imaginary moment this has been! And since I'm making things up anyways - I think dan mangan should be my valentine this year!! *Swoon* Keep up the good work dan!

How to store and organize cats

Clearly leslie's time on the internet has been well spent. After a thorough search on digg she sent me this picture:


Now those are some cute (and organized) kitties! If only percy could fall in line like these cats! Adorable!

Friday Find: Danger Crafts

As you may recall, I recently did a post on how much I love bust magazine! My sister leslie really picked up on the publications awesomeness and was inspired to check out all the links and shops advertised there. One such fantastic shop? Danger crafts! Rebecca Danger sells the most adorable and quirky knitting toy patterns over etsy! Fantastic! Check out some samples:


So cute! I think this little monster duo is my favourite. Leslie even bought a few patterns and I can't wait to see how her creations turn out! Now if only I had time to learn to knit...blog deja vu?

Crafty Valentines

Even though I am not fond of the sappy celebrations associated with feb 14th, I am starting to warm up to some of the lovey crafts I've been seeing on the internet lately. I think the darling recycled sweater love robot triggered this slight open mindedness to valentines and best of all sew green even has a tutorial! And since I'm incapable of snubbing wonderful DIY projects here are a few you can try out for this sunday:


If a sweater robot is too ambitious for you the other three projects above promise to be much less time consuming (find them here - valentine garland, tiny crochet hearts, knit hearts). But hey, if you feel like an overachiever there's a complete list of heart crafts available at threadbanger (link) too! Rats - I'm doing a terrible job of being anti-valentines...oh well...I hope you don't mind...

Road Trip: Kelowna

I have returned from the most fantastic road trip to kelowna! It was a wondrous fraser/lindsay/kate music/shopping extravaganza of awesomeness! Seriously! That many slashes are required!! (and exclamation marks!!!!!) So good!

We started off the trip with a great spurt of speedily efficient clothing purchasing and sushi only to be topped by the complete fluke free concert ticket fraser managed to nab for lindsay (who failed at sold out presale ordering). The aiden knight/dan mangan concert turned out to be amazingly perfect! They covered all the possible "excellent show" bases by demonstrating their dreamy musical (sometimes awkward) talents. I even enjoyed the show better than when I saw them both at rifflandia, which I didn't think was even possible! I was really hoping to share some sweet pictures of my well dressed trip but amidst all the excitement my camera never seemed to exit fraser's trunk...so instead you can catch a glimpse of musical wonderment from dan mangan's photographer jonathan taggart:


Was it ever a great time! The following day was easily one of the most successful shopping expeditions I've had in a while, resulting in a boatload of wonderful retail therapy purchases - take a look:


Awesome right? I can't wait to wear more lindsay/kate bff pen pal identical (or in the rings case - not so identical but similar at least) items! Oh! And the super fantastic woman who owns funktional totally made my monday by 1) letting us come shop (even though funktional is closed on mondays), 2) recommending the best falafel cafe of all time, and 3) offering to carry my felt brooches in her rad shop! Overwhelmingly awesome!

But wait! That's not all!!! My favourite item from the entire trip? My new autographed "nice nice very nice" dan album I got after giving him a set of my love robot buttons! I'm not so secretly hoping he wears them to a show/publicized event in the future and my life will be complete. Because after all...robots need love too...

Extra Cute!

Nothing says cute better than amigurumi and ukuleles! The song is super catchy too!



Wonderful! I especially like the full out eyes closed rocking out jam part at 1:13. Yup. Adorable.

Cozy Mail

Remember how I won an apple cozy from a giveaway UnravelMe had on facebook? (Of course you do - link). Well it has arrived! Here it is snuggling up to a gala of mine:


How darling! Thanks again UnravelMe! I love it! And hey, we all win because while I get the joys of toting around unbruised apples you get the pleasure of reading about it? Er...yeah...something like that...

Good Fortune? Yes Please!

Just in case you don't already have enough projects on the go - here is an adorable fortune cookie tutorial that's hard to pass up! I mean look at that wide set eye smile:


So cute! I tried to make a felted fortune cookie back when I lived in nelson (which just so happens to be an xmas tree ornament now i think) but it certainly didn't turn out as good at this pattern! I'm telling you, adding little smiles to things makes every project better. Seriously. And hey, chinese new year is just around the corner (feb 14th) so even more reason to get that hook out! These would totally make cute valentine's too...if you're into that sort of thing...

That's right. More pom poms!

Good thing you aren't sick of pom pom tutorials because I've got even more for you! (link to my last 5 pom pom posts). Ok, the first one's not even really that new because Domestifluff shows you another way to make pom pom flowers. If this last post wasn't convincing, this one should be!! I mean look how cool these look! You can even use them with gift wrapping (and we all know how much I enjoy that).


This tutorial even inspired Wild Olive to transform the pom pom flowers into a fun brooch! I'm really tempted to make this one:


*Sigh* This way I could display my pom pom infatuation with the rest of the world! Ok...the part of the world I run into on a daily basis at least...

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*...

Busty DIY

This past summer I spent a day downtown with my best buddy jim. We went for lunch at a local restaurant, shopped around some of the boutiques, and poked around in (what used to be located downtown) bookland. This is where I discovered the amazing awesomeness that is the magazine Bust! I swear this publication was made for me. It's full of everything I love from etsy shops and great fashion ideas to wonderful music and film reviews. So good! Jim was even nice enough to buy me a subscription to bust for my birthday (which sort of turned into a belated bday present - but I'm grateful regardless).

Yup. Loads of back story right? Well. I do have a point. I received the feb/mar edition of the magazine the other day and am in love with this crocheted blanket!


I've been meaning to make a granny square blanket for a really long time now!! Ok, in all honesty I started one back in 2004 when I moved to kelowna/nelson but lost momentum due to boring colour choices...but the colours on this one are wonderful! And the square pattern is fun and feminine! Plus I've been extra inspired to crochet up a storm thanks to the crocheted wonderfulness in brett and jemaine's apartment on flight of the conchords. So clearly the crochet blanket is a craft must. I mean if bust says so it must be right?

Best of all? The magazine even includes the pattern! Look:

Yup. No excuses now. I must do this project. I just need to go buy like 20 skeins of yarn and find a few weeks worth of spare time. In the mean time, you should go buy this magazine and attempt this blanket along with me...chances are you'll get it done before me too...the challenge is on...

Bloganistas

A few of the blogs I follow do feature posts where they show what sweet outfits they wear during the week. I happen to be quite fond of these posts and was delighted to see there is an entire flickr group dedicated to these so-called "bloganistas"! And yes! I just spent 45 minutes searching through the entire group pool drooling over the awesome accessorized outfits everyone in blogland is wearing!

For your listing pleasure allow me to summarize the trends:

1) Cardigans... galore.
2) Coloured tights and loads of skirts
3) Statement chunky jewels
4) Cats in the background
5) Skinny jeans
6) Empire/waist accentuating belts
7) Scarves! So many of them!
8) Structured jackets with loads of buttons
9) Warm neutrals and jewel tones
10) Flats and knee high boots

and over all? WAY COOLER CLOTHES THAN I OWN. Damn it!

I think I need to start dressing more awesomely...and then take photographic evidence. Yup, I'm pretty sure my entire morning of outfit envy has triggered a new 2010 goal of dressing better!!! Ok, I know I'll still revert to pj pants and hoodies while crafting...but maybe a revised goal of "dressing better once in a while and attempting to take pictures of it". That's doable right? What do you think?

Anti-valentine's

If it wasn't already obvious, I'm very much not into the love-y commercialization of valentine's day. This year I've even decided to book the time off work in order to properly boycott the event and all the fluffy love crap that goes along with it. Instead I will be celebrating "anti valentine's day" involving multiple rounds of mastermind, star trek, and social seclusion. Hooray!

Well, as you can imagine, I was all too pleased to find out that I'm not the only one who shares this grumpy disposition about feb.14th and managed to snag a spot in an anti-valentine's treasury! Take a look:


Wonderful! I think my little love robot looks pretty darned cute in the corner up there. The treasury is up until tonight so give it some click/comment love. Because nothing says "I love you" quite like skulls, pirates and robots!

Happy February!

New month, new playlist, new kittens inspired by kittens inspired calendar page to enjoy!


Loads of exciting things happening this month too! I'm looking forward to a february of crafting, road trips, anti-valentine's day, bdays, and dan mangan! What wonderful things does your february promise?