An eco-friendly Christmas

I've been buying all my Christmas presents on Etsy, or making them myself. It's been fun knowing my family and friends will be getting really special, unique gifts.

However, the problem came up of wrapping paper. As much fun as it is to rip open gifts with that satisfying tearing sound, it's really incredibly wasteful (Unless you're like some members of my family who open gifts very carefully and re-use the paper for years and years and years).

So I decided to make my own little drawstring bags for presents! I found some fabulous fabric at the thrift store a while ago and thought the red stripes with green grasshoppers were sufficiently in the holiday cheer.They were incredibly simple and easy to make, and I feel good knowing the bags will be a gift in themselves and be re-usable. I'm even keeping a few for myself because the fabric is just too cute.

Hoping this post may serve as some inspiration :)

I'm never quite sure...

...How to look at an octopus.

We all instinctively look for the face of an animal in order to satisfy our brains and properly orient ourselves.

But ever since I was little and had a plastic purple octopus bath toy, they've had me puzzled.

I made this as part of a custom order and I'm still not satisfied with which way to look at it.


Now, I *know* which end faces front when they move, but then again, they swim backwards, which makes it strange again.

Part of me always wants the big blobby body to be the head/nose, no matter how much I tell myself otherwise.

I'm not the only one that has pondered this, right?

Bowerbirds are crazy

So, one of the papers I need to write this semester is for my ornithology class. They gave us a bunch of topics, and we got to choose which one to write about and which bird species to focus on.

I chose the satin bowerbird, Ptilonorhynchus violaceus. They live in Australia and make these crazy bowers that they decorate with blue objects to impress the ladies:Now, I'm not going to go over my entire paper about the origins, evolution and strategies involved in the construction of bower nests and object collection, as well as the power of female choice in driving male decision making... but I found this tidbit fascinating:

When the males are courting females, the females sit inside his bower to observe his collection of blue objects and watch his display. The males have particularly aggressive displays involving feather fluffing, running around, buzzing sounds and sudden movements. This is very similar to male-male aggressive displays, and so might frighten an inexperienced female.

To solve this problem, males and females communicate. A study was done using robotic females to test this communication - when females crouch down (the mating position) it shows she's interested in the male's display. When she stays upright, that means she's less interested. Robots were used to see if males would change the intensity of their display depending on how the female was acting. It turns out - the males DO take into account female cues. If she's crouching, he takes it up a notch, but if she shows disinterest, he calms it down. This has also been shown to hold true in the wild, but the robotic female was needed to show a controlled situation.

I found a youtube video of the robot and male in action (you HAVE to see the ending)

10,000

Wow! 10,000 visitors to my blog as of today!

Thanks to everyone who follows me and takes the time to read a little about my life and ramblings.

***celebrates***

Ok, I didn't really want to get political here but yay for Obama! *dances*

Being a person enjoying my own education and from a family in which higher education is valued as essential, it's inspiring to have a sexy intelligent well spoken man as the leader of our country in a couple months.

Of course he won't be magical and our country is still dealing with a lot of crap, and he'll mostly be running damage control... but at least maybe he can inspire enough people to get off their butts and work towards digging ourselves out of this mess.

And he seems like a sciencey tree hugger at heart, I can see it, and I hope that gets through in his policy changes.

In other news I've got one research paper finished, another is halfway done, with two more yet to be tackled.

Working on custom orders... speaking of which!

TIME IS RUNNING OUT FOR CUSTOM ORDERS TO BE MADE IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS!!! If you want a custom order as a christmas present, you have until NOVEMBER 10th. That's my cut off and I'm sticking to it.

I'm also doing a craft show at school on the 25th, and the giveHandmade show in Troy and Albany on December 6th and 7th. Going home for the weekend before final exams, should be a blast :)

Halloween!

I've been crazy busy but had enough time for the school halloween party! It's always a fabulous affair, and everyone had great costumes as usual.

I went as a tree, since I already had the leafy looking dress. Got leaf hair clips made for me by theurbangarden on etsy, along with a few extras that I sewed onto armwarmers I made.

I didn't think it would turn out very interesting, but I ended up liking it.
I'll be back again if anything interesting happens in my life :-P So far it's still just homework and sewing.

My brain hurts

Midterm exams, school projects, essays, presentations, my beetle project, joining the photo club, an award ceremony coming up (scholorship, woo!)... not to mention all the custom orders I'm working on.

I just finished what I'd consider one of my best pieces, but as it's a custom order christmas gift, I can't show any pics yet! So you'll all just have to wait :-P

I probably won't be blogging much for a while until my life gets a bit less hectic.

Home for the weekend

Yay for long weekends! Heading home to see my family, boyfriend, and pets... will be back monday evening.

Don't miss me too much.

Eating machines

That's what my little salamanders are!

As you may recall in a previous post, I have found three adorable blue spotted salamanders. They're each only about two inches long.

Found a girl on campus selling mealworms and crickets, and boy do these guys love to eat! At this rate, they'll be staying with me through the winter.

Yay! Also, the dirt is nice and moist to the point where some plants are starting to sprout in it. I wonder what they are... guess I'll find out.

I've got the coolest hats

Got these from QuteWear on etsy... and they're fabulous! So snuggly and soft and they fit me perfectly.

*rawr*I needed something that covers my ears (they get cold and then I start whining), and looks totally awesome. You can't see it but the purple one also has a little purple heart on the other side. The black and red one will match when I wear my black jacket and black/red striped scarf when it gets colder.

Now I just need to wait for it to get colder outside to wear them. For now it's just muggy and rainy. Yesterday it was really hot and sunny. Oh fall, you are so fickle.