The cutie pi dress

I'm super thrilled to announce that as of today, I'm adding "dresses" to the long list of products available in my store. If you've ever seen photos of my closet, it probably won't come as much of a shock that I really love dresses. In particular I have an affinity for a good novelty-print, and enjoy wearing dresses that match a particular holiday, activity, occasion, or event.

For years I've wanted a Pi Day dress that didn't have baked pies on it. That seems to be the only option out there, and while apple pie is one of my favorite foods of all time, I was craving something a little less sweet and a little more mathematical. I feel like I should acknowledge here that, yes, this is definitely a very niche dress to start off with. I know that I'm in the minority when it comes to my obsession with this holiday, and my pi products hardly ever sell. But I wanted to launch my dress collection with a design that was very special to me, not just something that might sell. If that makes sense? I'll definitely be adding designs with broader appeal in the weeks to come, but for my very first dress I wanted it to be something that I've desperately wanted in my closet for a long time and just couldn't find anywhere else. And that was a pi dress.



My dresses are being manufactured in Montreal, Canada. It's an ethically and environmentally friendly company where workers are paid a fair wage, receive paid breaks, and work normal hours. Extra and irregular clothing is donated to local shelters. The fabric itself is manufactured in Montreal using a process that uses a third less energy and water than normal polyester processes usually do.

I am very smitten with how these came out. The colors were printed exactly the way I intended, vibrant but still pastel. The print is crisp and clear, and the fabric is really comfy. It kind of reminds me of a thinner version of neoprene, very sleek and soft, but not shiny.

The dress has some stretch to it, but I'd recommend sizing up if you're between sizes. I got the medium based on my bust/waist measurements, but it's a little snug in the hips so next time I'm going to go with a large. The medium still fits pretty well though, as you can see in the photo above. You can view my size chart below:



I'm so excited to finally be offering dresses! Ideally someday I'd love to design vintage-style garments (like chiffon dresses with knife pleats and bell sleeves, oh my!) but for now this is pretty darn exciting. If you're interested in the cutie pi dress, it's available right here. And I'll have other designs available within the next month or so.

Please note, if you're ordering the cutie pi dress for Pi Day, be sure to order as soon as humanly possible. These are all made to order and have a turnaround time of 1-10 days so the sooner you order, the better your chances of having the dress in time for March 14th!

Let the Pi Day fun begin!

As you might already know, I'm a bit of a Pi Day fanatic. In Princeton they go all-out for the holiday, seeing as it's also Einstein's birthday, complete with pie-eating contests, pi-recitation contests, pi-shaped chocolates, pie-flavored ice cream, you name it! I personally don't participate in any of the contests, which means I usually celebrate by just eating a lot of fruit pie and pizza pie. And while that's clearly very fun, it's not actually related to the 3.14 version of the word.

Enter -- Yippi!

Last year my dad printed out the first 25 or so digits of pi on copy paper and set two dice on the kitchen table. The object of the game was to roll the dice, and cross off the numbers of pi as you rolled the corresponding digits. Over the course of the game we all came up with some simple rules, and Yippi! was born! This year I decided to turn our family game into a real dice game that other Pi Day fanatics could own & play for themselves! :)

The game comes with 25 Pi Cards (printed with the first 64 digits of pi), 2 dice, an instruction card, and a hand-stamped 5" x 7" muslin carrying case.



I say this a lot, but this is one of my favorite things I've ever worked on. I love seeing an idea come to life in such a tangible way -- starting out as sketches in a notebook, then digital designs on a computer screen, then assembling the final product. It's definitely a passion project (I doubt there's a really high demand for math-themed games) but those are usually my favorites. In fact, it's practically a statistical rule that my most-beloved creations hardly ever sell while my lesser-loved items are usually my best sellers.

However, if you're one of the rare souls who IS clamoring for a very fun, PI-not-PIE way to celebrate March 14th this year, my Yippi! game is available in my shop right here. Be sure to order soon in order to receive your game in time for Pi Day! :)

Happy Galentine's Day!

Happy Galentine's day -- the perfect occasion to launch my new Tina Fey & Amy Poehler collar clip set! :) For today only this collar clip set is available at a special Galentine's Day introductory price of $12.00. They're available in my shop right here.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I'm including 90's valentines in all orders placed now through Sunday night! Maybe you'll be the lucky one who gets an Anastasia valentine with Dimitri on it (swoon!) I also just managed to FINALLY get my hands on some Clarissa Explains it All valentines and I'll be including some of those as well. I've wanted these since another girl handed them out in 3rd grade. I'm not even kidding, I've been looking for them on ebay basically since I first got an ebay account. Needless to say I kept one of each for myself ;)

There's no minimum order to get valentines in your package. No coupon necessary. Offer does not apply to orders that ONLY contain digital downloads or t-shirts.

Happy Valentine's Day! :)

Laser cut jewelry info & care instructions

I received a message today asking if my red and white brooches were made with shrinky-dinks, and I realized that, even though I state in my descriptions that my brooches are laser cut acrylic, it might not be entirely clear what that means. So I thought I'd write a little post to give more details about what my brooches are made of, and how to care for them once you own one!

First of all, these are NOT shrinky-dinks. They are created using two-color 1/16" thick, sturdy plastic. For my red and white brooches the plastic is white with a red coating, and on the black and white brooches the plastic is black with a white coating. My illustration is then etched into the coating with a laser. No ink is involved.

While I'm not advising that you go around dunking your brooches in glasses of water, these are water resistant. You can get your brooches soaking wet and the design won't fade or bleed. I accidentally washed one of my brooches in the washing machine once and it came out fine! These are resilient little buggers :)



The red and white acrylic has more of a shiny surface and retains its color fastness very well. The black and white acrylic is matte and it can lose some of its luster over time. I condition the brooches with wax after they've been cut to enhance the contrast, but sometimes this can fade. If you want to condition any brooches that look like they've faded a bit, you can do the same thing! I just take a small amount of wax on a q-tip (I've used beeswax and synthetic before and they both work well) and massage it into the plastic. Let it sit for a little bit and then wipe it down with a rag, and the contrast will be restored.



Here is a close-up to better show the etching details on my brooches. As you can see, the red color constitutes a thin layer at the top of the brooch, and the rest is white plastic. If you were to run your finger over the surface of the pin, you'd be able to feel that the white parts recede and the red is raised.