DIY inner beauty artwork

I know this DIY isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I personally LOVE it and thought I'd share in case anyone else is equally enchanted with medical imagery.

First a little back story -- In 2005 I was getting crippling migraines, so my doctor ordered an MRI of my brain. After a super scary couple of weeks in between my doctor saying she thought I had a brain tumor and a specialist telling me I didn't (PHEW) I was left with some incredibly cool images of my brain. I've always wanted to find a way to turn them into artwork, but couldn't really figure out how. I also didn't really want to have super dark pictures on my walls, and these images are always mostly black. I finally worked this out a couple weeks ago and now I'm trying to talk my (super reluctant) family to do a really unique family portrait wall. haha!



Okay, so the first thing you need is a medical image. Basically MRIs, X-Rays, CT scans, etc. If you have a printout (like an ultrasound) you can skip this step, which helps to capture the negative image. Just hold it up to a light source, like a window or a lightbox, and take a close-up photo. This highlights all of the details that you normally can't see on the negatives sheet.



When you open the image on your computer, it should look like the first image here, with a dark background. You want to invert the colors, so that the background becomes light. I used photoshop, but you can invert colors in a bunch of different programs, even MS Paint! If you aren't sure how to do it in a specific program, just try googling "invert colors [program name]" :)

Now this is where you can start getting creative! I played around with the hue/saturation controls to get a really bright purple image. You can even do hue/saturation in Preview on a mac. Just drag the controls until you find the colors that you like best. After I settled on hot pink, I used the Fill tool in photoshop to fill in the background with a light pink color. You could always do this part manually, printing out your image, cutting it out, and then mounting it on a colored paper background! Another idea, if you don't have access to photo editing programs, would be to have the image inverted and then printed on bright colored paper at Staples or Kinkos!

I really wanted artwork that showed my whole head, but maybe you want a more discreet way of showing off your inner beauty? ;) Simply crop the image to create a really cool abstract art piece. Here I used a close-up from a CT scan of my sinuses.



If you have photoshop or a similar program that allows you to select specific parts of your image, you can change the colors in sections, instead of the whole image. Here I selected two little areas in the pink and then dragged my hue/saturation control so that the colors would be teal instead.

Like I said, I know it's not for everyone. Personally, I'm absolutely fascinated by images like this. I mean, my brain is processing the fact that I'm looking at a picture of my brain. That's so awesome to me!!

tardy to the science party

dress - modcloth
sunglasses - fred flare
glasses chain - asos
shoes - asos
bag - modcloth

On Saturday my family and I went to the Philadelphia Science Festival outdoor carnival. Unfortunately my "let's leave the house at 11am!" plan didn't work out so well, and we ended up arriving about 30 minutes before it was over. (My family is notoriously tardy... in elementary school kids used to chant "Kate is Late, Kate is Late" since my dad usually dropped me off after everyone else was already seated.) Anyway, the little bit we got to see was still very fun! One booth even had a cardboard stand-up of Nikola Tesla, which is probably THE single most awesome cardboard stand-up to ever exist.

I've been trying to plan a lot more day trips lately. Extended trips are tough since I don't have anyone to watch my cats and refuse to board them. Although, (!!!) I just booked a 9 day trip for me and my mom in November. We're going to Disney World! yay! My brother and my dad are going to stay home to look after the kitties, so me and my mom can enjoy the vacation with peace of mind :) I'm so ridiculously excited... I even put a countdown on my iphone already, even though it's over six months away lol! :D

ps. I must have spent at least 20 minutes staring at my screen trying to come up with a title for this post! gah!

the rising of the milky way

skirt - c/o romwe
shirt - forever 21
bow neck tie - asos
lace cardigan - h&m
shoes - c/o blowfish

It's probably no surprise that I'm obsessed with the galaxy print trend. But despite my love for the print, I haven't really liked any of the garments it's adorned. I think it's considered edgy and it tends to be paired with street style cuts, like bodycon dresses, or things with one shoulder or an asymmetrical hem. They're nice, but just not for me.

When I saw this skirt on Romwe, I immediately fell in love with the cosmic fabric, but not the cut. It originally had an asymmetrical skirt with a sheer train. Upon closer inspection I noticed that it had a raw hem so the wheels in my head started turning... super easy DIY! I carefully measured, and turned this into a normal mini skirt with the help of some sharp scissors. Now it's one of my favorite skirts! :D

ps. The shirt I'm wearing is listed on forever21 as a cropped top but on my 5' frame it hits exactly where a normal shirt should (not mid-thigh like most regular shirts do.) I've been getting a lot of cropped shirts lately and they're all the perfect length for me! Just a tip in case anyone else is super short and has trouble finding proper sized shirts like I do. I'm not usually fond of the selection in petite sizes so I'm finding the whole cropped shirt trend pretty awesome!

star stuff

One of my absolute favorite people to follow on twitter is the astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. This tweet alone made him into my top ten. Anyway, a few weeks ago he tweeted a link to a youtube channel called Minute Physics, which features little one minute illustrated science lessons. Like Tyson and my hero Carl Sagan, the channel makes science approachable without dumbing it down. It's fun, but you definitely walk away knowing something you didn't know before. This video here is probably my favorite (it has cats in it, duh.) but I highly recommend clicking over to their channel and watching every video they've uploaded!

star stuff

I am determined.

wishlist wednesday

1. Dinosaur print sweatshirt from TopShop // $55.00

2. Perforated oxford flat from Urbanog // $16.40

3. Briefcase satchel bag from TopShop // $76.00

4. Houndstooth bow hairclips from Forever 21 // $1.50

5. Natural wonder dress from Modcloth // $99.99

6. Scalloped trimmed belt from Forever 21 // $4.80

7. Dino might necklace from Modcloth // $12.99

8. Pterodactyl stud earrings from PixieHearts // $12.00

9. Dinosaur mix and match earrings from ShanaLogic // $14.00

10. Khaki brogue wedge shoes from Dorothy Perkins // $52.73

11. Thrill of the dig t-shirt from Modcloth // $29.99

star stuff

Lauren posted this AMAZING book on her blog last week & gave me permission to share it here too! :D I think the only thing I love more than science graphics are old school science graphics (in this case quite literally old. school.) I especially love the graphic in the third photo down, with the caption "Look at a nearby object with one eye at a time and it will appear to shift and line up with different objects in the background" because I do that ALL THE TIME. Does anyone else? If nobody else says they do this in the comments, I'm going to come back later and delete that sentence so I don't look quite as crazy, just so you know...

Anyway, as much as I love science, my grasp on most of it is still pretty much elementary school level, so a book like this is right up my alley. As much as I want to understand the Biocentrism book I'm *trying to* read right now, I find myself re-reading every paragraph 10 times each time they bring up quantum physics. (Does anyone actually understand quantum physics? Oh my gosh.) There was one passage I read the other night that explained that the whole "if a tree falls in the forest when nobody is around, does it still make a noise?" question is stupid to begin with because the tree only exists if someone is there to see it. I started thinking, okay.. so does that mean that when I go to sleep at night in my bedroom, the kitchen doesn't exist anymore since I'm not there to see it? hmmmm? Right now I'm facing my computer, does that mean my bed isn't behind me anymore until I turn around to look at it? (just looked.. phew, it's still there!)

I actually looked. Like, that wasn't meant to be funny. It's seriously still there, I checked.

I think my grasp on this whole theory is really really bad because part of me thinks that if I got to sit down with a real quantum physicist and asked them about my whole kitchen theory, they'd laugh in my face.

I have no idea how this turned into a post about my lack of quantum physics prowess, except maybe that I'm typing this at 5am and I haven't been to bed yet? Oh, I schedule these posts, you're not imagining that it posted at 6pm. Of course when you turn around and stop looking at your computer, my post won't exist AT ALL. How about THAT.

star stuff

Even if you aren't a fan (yet!) of Carl Sagan, you need to watch this video. I've probably heard this 100 times and it still gives me goosebumps. The haunting Cosmos soundtrack in the background makes it even more poignant. I got the album a couple months ago, and I'm looking forward to fall when it'll be nice enough out for me to lie in the backyard at night, with the Cosmos soundtrack on my headphones, just staring at the stars until I fall asleep.

star stuff

the galilean moons of jupiter (via)

If you read Science Daily this is probably old news to you by now, but I was perusing the archives today and came across this fascinating article about Jupiter, and how it helped shape our entire galaxy. It's sort of like the ripple effect, except instead of throwing a pebble into a lake you're throwing a giant planet into a galaxy! By the way, I hope you don't mind my incredibly layman understanding of science. I know that my science posts would seem awfully pedestrian to anyone who actually knows their stuff, but I'm more fascinated and in awe of science than I am an expert at it, and I'll be the first to admit it ;)

star stuff

This article on Science Daily is pretty amazing. Apparently when black holes are sucking in gas, the gas heats up SO hot that it creates an x-ray show of lights! They have a video with an amazing animation in the article, but it wasn't embeddable so you have to click through to see it. Frankly, black holes freak me out a bit. I read somewhere that if a human being was being sucked into a black hole, you'd die from your body being stretched in all directions... not very pleasant! When I was younger I used to fancy that black holes were actually portholes into other dimensions. I doubt that's true, but even if it was... if you get pulled into 100 different pieces going through the front door, I doubt you'd get to see whatever mysteries await you on the other side! (Is it obvious yet that most of my knowledge about science is mixed with science fiction? lol)

On a much lighter, and more silly note, I adore this video from NPR about ants and their internal pedometers. Yup, internal pedometers. It's pretty neat stuff:

star stuff

That last photo shows thermal infrared images of Saturn, taken this January, during a rare storm. It's from this fascinating article about Saturn's weather from Science Daily. Saturn apparently gets these massive storms once every year (which is every 30 Earth years) so this is the first time scientists have been able to capture one with our modern technology. It's also the first time images of the storm were ever captured from an orbiting spacecraft. It's amazing to think how far we've come in the 30 years since Saturn's last storm, isn't it?!

Also, I adore this video from NPR about the mystery of why we can't walk in a straight line. I never even knew this.. now I wish I had some giant fields nearby to test it out!

star stuff

I'm obsessed with outer space, science and everything that goes with it. Although my brain isn't wired correctly for a career in science, I still love learning everything about it that I possibly can.. and spend way too much time each week reading science articles, gazing at Hubble photos or looking up old Carl Sagan interviews on youtube (I've concluded that he is officially my favorite person to ever live.) The universe is just so awe-inspiring. I dare you to look at THIS and not get goosebumps..

I want to incorporate my love of science into my blog a bit more, so each week I'm just going to do a little post on Thursday night with a round-up of some of my favorite science photos, artwork, videos and links. I really hope that you enjoy it as much as I do! (All images link back to their source)

a glorious dawn - playlist for april

A still more glorious dawn awaits


Not a sunrise, but a galaxy rise


A morning filled with 400 billion suns


The rising of the milky way

April's playlist is one song, simply because for the last month I've just been listening to this one song on repeat. It's been all consuming.

I found Glorious Dawn on youtube whilst searching for Carl Sagan clips, and immediately fell in love. It's an autotuned song (stick with me.. it's actually good!) using Carl Sagan's voice (with a cameo by Stephen Hawking!) and it's just beautiful. He had such a deliberate, quiet way of speaking, and the words he spoke were often beyond poetic, so his voice is an ideal one to set to music.

One of my favorite things about Carl Sagan was the childlike wonder he retained throughout his entire life. In a documentary I watched recently, "God, the Universe and Everything Else," Sagan laments the way we treat children who ask questions. If a child asks "why is the sky blue?" we're inclined to answer, "just because." or "what color did you expect it to be? yellow?!" when instead we should be explaining to them what we do know, admitting what we don't, and encouraging them to pursue answers to the unknown when they get older. He wanted children to experience the same thrill that he felt exploring the uncharted waters of the world. This enthusiasm that he had for historical, new and future discoveries is what makes Glorious Dawn so beautiful. You can hear that childlike wonderment in his voice, and whether you're listening in broad daylight or in the middle of the night, you'll find yourself staring out your window, gazing at the sky and wondering...

ps. you can buy a 7" vinyl of the song from Third Man Records!

a trip to the moon on gossamer wings

Did anyone brave the cold to catch the eclipse last night? I went out periodically from 1:30am - 3:30am to see it in progress .. around quarter to 3 I decided to just stay outside for a while. I set up the cot in the backyard, bundled myself up in blankets, grabbed my ipod and laid down to just stare at the moon and the stars for about 20 minutes. It was so wonderful! At first I wasn't even cold, and with my music on I couldn't hear the cars (I live on a pretty busy street) so the world seemed very still. I don't know if I've ever felt as serene as I did last night. There's something so majestic about outer space. To stare up and know that it just goes on forever.


You could say I was a tad bit bundled up ;-)
I even had on earmuffs under my hat!
hat-f21 / scarf-uo / coat - h&M

If you missed the eclipse, or like my dad you were just too tired to roll out of bed and look, (he's as gaga about astronomy as I am, so I think that one day he's definitely going to regret choosing sleep over science..) here's a time-lapse from vimeo. It's really incredible!

ps. The photo of the moon was taken by my brother. He actually made me promise I'd give him credit before he'd send me the file :p