This design was inspired one morning by two of my favorite seniors who were pouring over a final review in my chemistry class. Everyone was struggling with periodic trend concepts from the beginning of the year and, as frequently happens in my class, these two were talking big and bad because they got the right answers. They claimed to be science “thugs”. According to Urban Dictionary, and Tupac, “thug life” is…“when you have nothing, and succeed, when you have overcome all obstacles to reach your aim.” That’s the joy and fun that my amazing boys were throwing out there for the world when they nailed the right answers. We have lots of “thugs” at our school, and contrary to anyone that claims thugs are criminals, in OUR world, it is more of an endearing reference to success from struggle.  And who hasn't struggled with chemistry??

"My real love for the night skies developed while observing at Palomar Observatory in California, and that love has never diminished." - Carolyn Shoemaker

The next astronomy necklace to be named after a famous female scientist is our lovely Jupiter necklace which shall henceforth be referred to as the Carolyn necklace. It is being named after Carolyn Shoemaker, who along with her husband and scientist David Levy, discovered the comet known as Shoemaker-Levy 9 at the Palomar Observatory outside of San Diego in 1993. In July of 1994, the comet broke apart and collided with the giant planet providing spectacular knowledge to scientists around the world. ..both about Jupiter itself and space debris in general. Carolyn Shoemaker received the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal in 1996. She is considered to be an amazing astronomer, holding the record for the greatest number of comets discovered (32 comets and 800 asteroids) even though she entered the field of astronomy at the age of 51.

Okay, so I'm not actually going to go into the science of butternut squash soup but I did experiment with recipes...That counts, right? I bought a butternut squash from Trader Joe's a little while ago and I was determined to do something with it. I've been on a homemade soup kick lately so it seemed pretty obvious what I should make! I looked up recipes all over the interwebs and decided that I would combine a couple of these two: Here and Here. It turned out pretty darn good and I am so very pleased that there are lots of leftovers!

I didn't include sage since the reviews made me think that I could light my house on fire if I tried...So instead I topped it with rosemary! Which, in my opinion, was the perfect little kick it needed!

It turned out pretty darn good and I am so very pleased that there are lots of leftovers!  

The California Science Education Conference in San Jose, CA was TONS of fun! We loved meeting all the wonderful teachers that attended the event! We will definitely be there next year in Palm Springs! 

Check out our new geeky cuffs! They are available with geek or with nerd and can even be personalized with your monogram or with a short name. Wear them proudly to show your love of all that is nerdy!  www.shopgibberish.etsy.com

We finally did it! We made cloth shopping bags so we can stop using plastic bags and it feels gooooood!

According to the Earth Resource Foundation (and several other scientific organizations), by not using plastic bags we will be helping to reduce the number of plastic bags that become litter, lessen the impact on marine wildlife who can ingest or get caught up in the plastic bags, limit our usage of a material that can take one thousand years to decompose in landfills, and much more! It feels good, let us tell you!

It was a pretty fun process, despite a few sewing machine malfunctions and kitty interruptions! Ever since Corinne made her beautiful bag, we've been itching to make some for ourselves! We used this pattern because the shape is nice and it's pretty big so we can use it at the grocery store or IKEA (yes, please)! The one thing it's missing is a lining...but we can add that later. 

They're simple! But cute, right? Does anyone have any other fun patterns for shopping bags? We'd like to make more since there's a strong possibility we might need more than one shopping bag each!

Since I've been living at home, Mom and I have been trying to finish projects we started a while ago but never finished.It's funny how satisfying it is to finally complete something that's just been sitting there, looking all sad and pathetic with like glue or threads hanging off of it almost saying "help me! help me!" I found an unfinished wooden jewelry box from Michaels a while back and since it was pretty cheap I decided to get it, worrying a little that I might never actually paint it or fix it up the way I wanted. But Mom and I got creative and decided to have a fun artsy day so I painted the box off-white to match the rest of the furniture I have (my dresser, bookshelf, and nightstand all match thanks to my dad and Wayne), then we searched high and low for flocked paper that would look good and be soft enough to put my jewelry on for years to come! We finally found some at Papersource (because it is heaven) and I went to town! I'm pretty happy with it especially since it was an easy project!

We have another project coming up for this long weekend (hopefully) that will help us to complete at least one of my New Years resolutions which is to stop (completely) using plastic bags! I know, I know...A little late but better late than never, right? We picked out some beautiful fabric from the oh so wonderful IKEA a month or so ago and I can't wait to use it! I figure that if I have a really cute shopping bag then I'll be more inclined to remember and use it...hopefully.We'll post pictures of the process and completed project soon! In the mean time, here's a sneak peak at Julie's new project!

Life Science or Physical Science? Which is your fav and why?

So here is my very FIRST blog give-away. The winner of this sign will be randomly chosen from all of the comments I get to this post by November 15 at midnight. It would make a delightful holiday gift for that special geek in your life or just a cool sign for yourself! To make this even MORE FUN, I will also give away a periodic table necklace to the person that sends the most people to my blog. Please let me know the first name of who "sent you" in your reply and GOOD LUCK! (Remember, to qualify, please just tell me which is your favorite and why...physical or life science...guess which is mine???)

and two for my non-geeky shop, found at [email protected]...