An Etsy Interruption

Oh Etsy.

How did it take me until June 4th, 2009 to peruse your charming online marketplace full of homemade and vintage goods???

I mean, I had 'kind of' heard of Etsy before, but never gave it much thought...until 3 days ago!!!

I bought two (2) wayyy cute headbands featured here and here. 

It was a bit overwhelming, but if you know what you are looking for, then you are in luck for sure!

I am thinking it would be perfect for a bride-to-be (which would be approximately 0 of my current readers).

And...I think a certain Art teacher-best friend-whose-name-will-be-spelled-out-if-needed, should consider setting up an Etsy shop of her own. (Hint Hint!!!)

The Artist in question (and me!) circa 2007

So what can someone buy/sell on Etsy?

Art

Accessories

Bags & Purses

Clothing

Jewelry (<-- Wayyy awesome!)

Knitting

Paper goods

Patterns

Quilts

...and so much more!

NC Part 3: Mylapalooza!

This is the 3rd and final installment of the NC series (you can catch up on the adventure by reading parts 1 & 2).

My one-and-only sister made the trek from Ohio to North Carolina with a 2 year old (in a car for 9 hours). I would tell y'all she is crazy, but from what I hear Myla was a perfect angel in the car. Funny how those terrible two's come and go...

Name: Myla Regan

Age: 2

Occupation: Toddler

Interests: Pools, Spongebob, and meow-meows (aka cats)

Sporting an adorable sun-dress for a perfect day in North Carolina

Petting a horse in Old Salem

I'm sure her nose just 'itched' in this picture. 

She's a lady through-and-through

Showing the world its never too early to pick up on fashion trends, taking the over sized purse fad to the extreme!

Finally, something that is her size.

Doing her best 'meow-meow' impersonation. 

Taking after her Aunt Laura with the no-shirt while eating messy foods trend. Fortunately I grew out of this before I started dating (much to my parents relief), and I'm sure she will too! ;)

I'm willing to bet she enjoyed her 1st out of state visit especially after the trip to the kiddie-water-park @ the YWCA. "I PooOOool, I PoOoL" was all we heard for about 2 hours, which coincidentally sounded a lot like something else no toddler (or anyone for that matter) should ever do while in a pool. 

NC Part 2: Family Ties

Back as promised for round 2 of my North Carolina visit!

While Part 1 featured the real reason for traveling to the Tar Heel state, part 2 is going to focus on the people that made the visit so special. <3

My Aunt Mart and Cousin K on her graduation!

The boys looking quite dapper!

Look who made the trek from Ohio! My amazing sister and adorable niece Myla!

Siblings @ graduation lunch in Old Salem

Cousins! 

(I stick out like a sore thumb in this pict for 2 reasons 1) I missed the blue/neutral memo and 2) I am way short. My 12 year old cousin E is almost as tall as I am!)

How adorable are they? Wayyy adorable is the correct answer ;)

Siblings sporting the shades. 

(look @ that, alliteration in action!)

The girls! 

(again, my short stature is quite noticable! I think I need to go dress shopping. In all of my recent pics I've been wearing this dress.)

Photo-Op w/the graduation cake!

Coming your way tomorrow? NC Part 3:Mylapalooza. Did you really think that I spent an entire weekend with my niece and only snapped one picture of her? Ha, you are sadly mistaken....

NC Part 1: University of North Carolina...High School!?!

Yes, yes...this does exist:

The University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) High School. 

(Google it, wikipedia it, see for yourself! I am not lying to you!)

It just so happens that my B-E-A-utiful and talented cousin K graduated from this prestigious school almost a week ago and I got to hop on a plane and spend a glorious weekend with my family!

Friday Night? Garden party for graduates and family!

Haha, a picture of the graduate! (I couldn't resist). Showing off her now 3D-less 3D glasses!

Guess who was giving a Q&A (as an honorary degree recipient and speaker) right around the corner???!!??

Kristin Chenoweth! Oh My Goodness!

Do my eyes deceive me?!? 

Nope, its really her. That's right, the star of Wicked, Pushing Daisies, Mrs. Noodle on Sesame Street....and...

...coming this Fall to Fox on Glee! :)

(I will do a post on that gem of a show at a later date, mark your calendars!)

Saturday = Graduation of course!

This isn't your classic high school graduation....unless your high school has:

a) no dress code for commencement, 

b) Harry Potter-esque diploma delivery to the stage via a professor dressed as Dumbledore complete with Fog, magic wand, and the HP theme song! 

c) KRISTIN CHENOWETH (ok, so she really spoke at the college graduation, but still...)

The UNCSA class of '09!

Diplomas being delivered to the stage!

Cousin K getting her diploma :)

Part 2 coming your way tomorrow! Get ready for family photo overload <3

Graphical Abstracts: The good, the bad, and the ??!!!??

Ah chemistry journals, you provided me with ample blog worthy material today as I scrolled through my google reader.

For those of you familiar with chemistry journals [all except maybe 3 of my 7 readers] skip on down to the pics!

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(Go ahead, you're not missing anything, I promise!)

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Ok non-chemistry folk, you may or may not know that all relevant chemistry journals are available online to peruse at our will. As graduate students we are supposed to keep up-to-date by reading these journals so we can know what's going on in the chemistry world around us. 

In order to catch your attention the author of an article provides a reaction equation or some other graphic to represent the chemistry and give the reader a concept of the article as a whole. (It also makes it way easy to skim to find the important stuff) <-- This is the 'Graphical Abstract'

The most common graphical abstracts are reaction equations:

It's simple, but it gets the idea across.

(Source)

Some people are a bit more creative:

An equation with a bit of flair mixed in. I'll take it!

(Source) 

Sustainable lithium-ion batteries? I see what you are going for here...

(Source)

Another popular option: A collage like this one on fluoride recognition and sensing pulling together the chemistry and everyday life.

(Source)

Others, however, decide go in a different direction:

I don't know about you, but this picture makes me want play Atari, oh and have CONTROL! In no way am I thinking about 'Self Fabricating Polyoxometelate Microtubes' 

(Source)

This one makes my head hurt...and..nope, that's it, nothing else. But for those of you who want to look at this for longer than 2 seconds, you may find there is no route from (1) to (10) in the maze. Maybe that's the point? [I could be wrong about this, I did it quickly]

(Source)

Seriously?!? Is it a pictograph? 'Isonitriles are stinky, but reacting  isonitirles and benzoxazole with n-butyl lithium and RCOX will smell like a cherries?' 

Hmmm....

(Source)

...And this is where it is good to have common sense enough to know that little rats and syringes aren't being reacted with alkynes to give 'starred' triazoles with pickles attached. 

(Source)

Feel free to sound-off in the comments below!

...and I'm going to *try* to make this a weekly post because it was wayyyy too fun!

I graduated?

...well, kind-of

...technically

...a fake graduation.

I got my master's a couple of weeks ago, which is cool, but not too exciting since:

a) I still have 2-2.5 years left of grad school

b) I am still making my grad. school stipend

c) my day-to-day life hasn't (and won't) change at all.

However, it was wayyy fun because:

a) My Momma (and her husband) came to visit, which is the 1st time since they moved me in almost 2 years ago.

b) There was a pretty sweet honorary degree recipient :)

c) It was good practice for the real thing!

And now some pics from the day:

Me and Kate before we had to 'parade' to commencement

Fellow Chemistry people getting ready to go!

The only 'artsy' shot of the day. I have no clue who these people are, but I'm grateful that they donated their backsides to my picture :)

My momma, me, and my stepdad Bill

(I really only noticed now that they matched...haha)

You know, one other thing...the actual diploma is ugly. Not like 'oh this could be cuter' but black&white, all in latin (which is actual pretty cool), and completely blah.

I mean, I'm going to get a nice frame for it (thanks to my Aunt Sarah) only because:

a) I'll lose it if I don't frame it

b) I can save the frame for the real one and use my master's as a place holder until then

Is it really June 2? 

It does not feel like summer at all

...but I'm going to fix that TONIGHT by going to Kate's to grill some Brats. Yum, yum, yum!!!

Also, today's post included a lot of lists, I would say that I'm sorry, but I'm not, it's how I roll.

Next post? Cousin K's graduation in North Carolina (and a special honorary recipient there as well!!!!!) 

Lightning Bolt!

LARP, LARPing, LARPer...I really had no clue what these terms meant before last week.

Live

Action

Role

Play(ing)(er)

That's right...now I'm sure we've all heard of people playing Dungeons and Dragons and such, but I hadn't truly appreciated the 'Live Action' part of the whole ordeal until I saw this video (via YouTube):

...watch it again....and again...and again (like I have)

Oh 

My

Goodness

!!!

Now, are there rules to this type of thing? I mean can you just be like --"Invisibility Shield!"--and then just be immune to everything?

According to wikipedia:

A live action role-playing game (LARP) is a form of role-playing game where the participants physically act out their characters' actions. The players pursue goals within a fictional setting represented by the real world, while interacting with each other in character. The outcome of player actions may be mediated by game rules, or determined by consensus among players.

So, I guess if there are 'pre-determined' rules and outcomes then--"Invisibility Shield!"-- is out of the question.

And so I leave you with this:

"Lightning bolt! Lightning bolt! Lightning bolt!"