a custom etsy shop for your website

So, for the last couple of days, I’ve been working on a coding project for Proton Paperie & Press — getting a custom shop set up on www.protonpaperie.com. I use etsy for most of my sales these days — they provide a great e-commerce platform with built in traffic, so I didn’t want to change that… but I did want customers visiting my website to be able to see everything I sell there easily. I wanted an easy method that would update my website automatically anytime I changed a listing through etsy….

Luckily, etsy provides an api that’s great for this! Getting this set up does take a little bit of coding knowledge, but it’s nothing too scary. In fact, I knew nothing about accessing apis or writing jQuery 2 days ago, but my shop is up and running beautifully (click below to check out the live version):

Interested in adding this to your website?

Proton Paperie & Press

We’ve been living on the Space Coast for several months now, and loving it! It’s been a fantastic place to launch the business – Proton Paperie & Press. I’ve got a really nice spare bedroom studio set up, and I’m working everyday on new science themed & sparkly products — cards, invitations, coasters, and more! Check out the etsy shop to get your hands on some of it.

Space Coast Tiny House

Space Coast Tiny House

Check out my current major project — our tiny house! The blog will follow construction from the trailer to the roof, with lots of build details and photos. As of early 2015, we’ve made big progress — we’re all dried in! Now to the interior & siding…

new projects!

I’ve been extremely busy preparing for the move back to the US — my husband was offered a great job in Florida, so we’re leaving France a little early! I have two big projects on the horizon:

1) Tiny house! We’re looking at starting to build shortly after arriving in Florida. Here are a few images of the latest floorplan.

2) Starting a business! Instead of looking for my next academic research job, I’m going in a different direction — opening a custom printshop! I’m planning on doing some letterpress and other relief work on my new Conrad etching press.

More details of both of these projects to come…

In other news, I’ve had my Carl Sagan pattern up on etsy since January, and I’ve sold 13 copies! I’ve already had 24 orders this year (across my 3 patterns), which is one more than I had for all of 2013!

tiny stairs

My husband and I are hoping to build a tiny house on a trailer sometime in the future, for a variety of reasons. It will help us reach our goals of financial and location independence. We will learn a lot of practical skills when building it! Plus, it’s just a really fun design challenge to work with — taking a 8’x20′ footprint with a 13.5′ height limit and including all the comforts of home.

Home is wherever I’m with you

My husband and I are starting to look for our next jobs, since we’ll likely be leaving France at the end of my contract next June. Solving the two-body problem can be difficult, and we aren’t sure where we’ll end up next!

I was inspired to design this little cross stitch the other day after listening to Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros’ “Home.” This was a pretty quick stitch, but my first time working with linen (and a lovely sparkly piece at that!) instead of Aida cloth. I did ‘one-over’ style, so it’s quite small, less than 3″x3″.  The pattern’s now available on my etsy shop.

Team Kratankator

This is a bit of an old project, but it was one of my favorites! In 2005 and 2006, Rob and I participated in the Tulane University Robot Battle Olympiad (TURBO), a competition in which each team can spend no more than $200 building their robot. Our first robot, Kratankator is pictured above with us, outside the battle arena.

Quintana Roo

The Yaxmuul cenote is one of the many gorgeous cave systems in Mexico’s Yucatan Pensinsula. This picture was taken during an Outdoor Recreation Georgia Tech (ORGT) Expedition trip in the spring of 2012, of which I was the expedition leader. This project involved a lot of planning and organizational work — making contact with knowledgeable local cavers, budgeting, planning a suitable trip for 13 people of varying levels of experience. It was a fantastic, fun vacation!

Check out this video of the trip, made by Austin Ward. I recommend muting your speakers if you don’t like country music:

pretty posters

I presented this poster at the Workshop on Modelling of Radiation Damage and its Effects on Materials, at Oxford University in September 2013. It’s largely based on work published in Physical Review B, which you can download below.

Hail Sagan

I have completed the cross stitching for my Carl Sagan tribute cross stitch! I have several more steps before it’s entirely finished… first, adding back stitching and beading. Next, I will compile the patterns into a PDF booklet, which will be put up for sale on etsy. I’m really happy with it so far!

the Atomium

It’s not everyday that one gets to visit a huge monument shaped like one’s research — it’s huge bcc unit cell! The Atomium was built for the Worlds Fair in Brussels in 1958.

a tiny house SketchUp model

This is a model I’ve made in Google SketchUp, detailing a tiny house frame and furnishings. It’s an interesting design challenge, and I haven’t decided on the final layout.