Owls in Space!

After deciding on a space nursery, I realized it would be tricky to find pre-made decor at someplace like Babies R' Us or Target. Thankfully, in this age of the Internet, there are lots of other options. One of my favorites for interesting, unique items is Etsy. Etsy is great for all kinds of things and somehow less overwhelming than eBay. Added bonus: I don't have to deal with bidding (which I hate).

Two of my first Etsy orders arrived yesterday, and I have to say, I'm thrilled! Yay for creativity and customization combined with Internet commerce!

First up is this print that marries our space theme with my "pre-occupation" with owls. I'm trying not to dominate BabyO's room with owls, since that is my thing, but I couldn't resist this one from Nancy Lee's shop.

I ordered mine in a larger size than the 6x6 listing, no problem. And it's gorgeous! I can't wait to get it matted and framed. Even when BabyO's moved on from her space theme, I will gladly pull this print into another room of the house.

The second print is this "I love you from here to Cassiopeia" one from HopSkipJumpPaper:

There are a lot of options for paper color, and in keeping with our color scheme I got this one in aqua. It looks great! There are also ones from here to Jupiter or to Andromeda. It was a tough call to choose just one.

This space theme seems to be coming all swimmingly so far!

Welcome to 2012, Only One Month Late.

As they say, the road to hell is laid with good intentions.

Back in November, I had every intention of giving my little blog more regular attention, even if just small posts, but totally fell off the bandwagon. Well, I got pregnant last fall and have to say, didn't feel like being on a computer beyond working hours until just recently. Actually, I didn't feel like doing much beyond lying on the couch and watching Dr. Who all winter. Apparently the 2nd trimester is the "good" window and my energy is certainly better, so I'm trying to take advantage of it while I can. (I've been assured I'll be back to mid-afternoon naps in another month or so.)

During the 20 week ultrasound, we found out BabyO is a girl. I was absolutely certain it was a boy, so there go my powers of perception. Somehow, getting past that pregnancy mid-way point without complication made everything very "real." I'm not sure what other women go through, but everything felt kind of theoretical (or I was in denial) before that point. In the last 6 weeks, I've found myself laser-focused on critical issues like nursery colors and themes. Who has time to find a doula or schedule maternity classes when looking for the perfect glider and choosing a color scheme? Priorities, people.

Well, I'm happy to say, we've got our "theme!" (We've narrowed names down to 5-7, but again, priorities people.) I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before, but the Better Half works in aerospace and we are both big Sci Fi geeks, so naturally our nursery theme is: SPACE.

Baby Geek in development

Now, some people might think this is an unusual theme for a baby's room, let alone a baby girl's room, and to those people I say, Suck it. After spending more time than is reasonable looking at nursery ideas, I really got overwhelmed by many of the typical "girl" themes: lots of pink, lavender and white; fluffy pom poms; bunting (what is this??); birds/trees (actually, I like these, but kinda overdone based on a Google Image search); butterflies/ladybugs; and princessy decor.

Maybe a little much?

These are all fine in general, but I'm just not a girly girl. And I'm sure as soon as BabyO can make her own preferences known, we'll be inundated with Barbies, Disney princesses, etc. That's fine, but I just can't start there.

So, space it is! It's a bit of a challenge because a) not a lot of mass-produced space-themed baby stuff out there, and b) if it exists, it is very "boyish." Over the next few weeks/months, I hope to share some of the cool stuff I've found or made for BabyO's Space Room (TM). Given my personality (read: a little obsessive), it will be all I can do to limit myself to a few key pieces, even though my inclination is to get everything cool I can find.

My first project for BabyO's room is this wall plaque with the Star Trek: The Next Generation intro. It also includes glow-in-the-dark paint on the stars, sun, planet, and key text.

The second project is this little rocket. Technically I think it's a birdhouse, but I think we'll put a little alien friend peeking out instead.

More to come soon!

More Fantasy Travel Posters

I keep coming across vintage/retro-inspired posters from artist Steve Thomas. He creates some of the most amazing images for a variety of themes, often from the geek realm (video games, sci fi/fantasy movies). In fact, I linked to one of his cool Donkey Kong video game posters back in June. Today, I'm in love with the following set of space travel posters (found via @JasonThibault), so I'm featuring Mr. Thomas' work again.

Nicely done - Keep up the good work! And let's book those tickets to Venus, shall we? I hear it is beautiful this time of year.

Cool Stamps

via io9, there is a super cool set of international stamps, primarily from the 50s and 60s. The complete set is displayed on Karen Horton's Flickr site. Stamps really were cool. Are they still? I'm not sure the "sticker" version stands up quite as well as the classic version.

A few of my favorites:

I love owls...



and maybe cats/kittens...



These two are for my husband, the space geek!




I vaguely recall that one of my dad's friends passed along a huge collection of international stamps to me when I was a kid. But in my many moves since then, I am pretty sure I got rid of them. Too bad. It would've been fun to do something like this with them.

Space, Will We Ever Get to the Final Frontier?

There was some disappointing news today about the Obama administration's proposal to cut NASA funding. Besides the political implications and loss of jobs in key states that produce equipment for space travel, the real news here (as far as I can tell) is that this means we aren't going to the moon anytime soon.

And maybe that's not such a bad thing. I mean, we've been to the moon, right? Was there much there? Shouldn't we be setting our horizons for something more ambitious than just the moon? Or is this the Star Trek lover in me, wishing we would get on with it already and start exploring that final frontier?

What the announcement today did indicate is the intention to award grants/funding for private innovation in space exploration (see specifics here). Now, I'm a big fan of NASA but I also see how hard it is to create change in huge, bureaucratic organizations, especially at the federal government level. So, it could prove promising to spread some seed money around -- particularly during a really rough economic patch -- and see if private industry can do what NASA hasn't done yet and get more commercial means of space travel going.

Rather than look at this is a hit on NASA and space travel altogether, I'd prefer to believe in what the folks over at io9 posted today:

The budget junks a backward-looking program and funds a brand-new one that will focus on developing new space technologies, exploring the solar system with robots, and pushing humans closer to living offworld.

With renewed interest and focus on new engine types, propellants, materials, etc. the potential benefit for science and technology growth/development is so much broader than recreating space travel experiments.

The idea is to pump money into research so that the next time humans explore space we'll know a hell of a lot more about it and can establish viable communities in orbit, on the Moon, or on other planets.

The concept of being able to inhabit or even terraform other worlds is an incredible one at this point, but I love to imagine that the science fiction of my childhood could indeed become science fact within my lifetime. And then we could finally get off this hunk of rock! Now, we need to start working on that Federation...