The Back Story...

Neurons Not Included™ is the home-based family business of the Green family - Cindy, Randy, Danny and Andy. We specialize in designing and making gift items for those with IQs higher than the average ham sandwich - which rules out a surprisingly large percentage of potential customers.

Neurons Not Included (or NNI, for short) began in 2012 as an offshoot from our original Etsy store - Yellow Bug Boutique. Yellow Bug began in 2009 as a way to express the creative drive of Cindy, as well as to keep her from climbing the walls as the boys began heading off for college. The stores' original focus was on designing and sewing decorative pillows, hence the cutesie sort of name.

One day, on a whim, we made a pillow using the Periodic Table of Elements to spell "BACON", and we discovered a market of severely under-served geeky, nerdy and scientific types. Before we knew it, we were being featured in D Magazine, Huffington Post, Better Homes and Gardens, and were getting tons of likes, pins, grams, yippies and winky-dinks.

Not being complete idiots, we decided that this might be an avenue worth pursuing. It fits nicely into our backgrounds - Cindy has been an artsy-type person since forever, and knows how to build and run a small business. Randy is the resident nerd, having been in the technology biz since the Reagan Administration. Danny just got back from school after focusing on marketing and advertising. Not to mention the fact that we all like each other. Most days, anyway.

So off we went, focusing on creating and making things for those who embrace the world of science and technology while maintaining a sense of humor. It quickly became apparent that the Yellow Bug Boutique brand didn't fit too well with people who do calculus problems for fun. So, after serious consideration of hundreds of potential store names, we finally settled on Neurons Not Included™. We really hope you like the name, because it damn near killed us to come up with it.

Neurons Not Included™ is an actual home business, operating in our actual home. We recently moved to a house with a couple of extra bedrooms and a separate garage, just to hold all the widgets, gadgets and whatsits we need to make all the mugs, mousepads, pillows and other paraphernalia. Being a home-based business has its pros and cons. On the pro side, our morning work commute is really short, and the dress code is casual in the extreme. On the con side, it's hard to not feel like you're living in a factory when the heat presses are pressing, the embroidery machine is chugging, the printers are printing and the tape gun is making that irritating r-r-r-r-ripping noise. All in all, though, we wouldn't have it any other way.

Once we set up shop for Neurons Not Included, we've been gradually expanding ever since. You can now find us in various and sundry corners of the interwebs. We love making connections and gathering fans and followers, so should you feel so inclined as to click on one of those social media buttons, we'd be happy to welcome you aboard. Even if you don't find something that you simply must have right now, we hope we can at least give you a chuckle.

So thanks for stopping by and looking through our slightly warped (intellectually, not physically) goodies. And keep one thing in mind - we're a real live small business, not a Monster Megacorp who imports shipping container loads of cheap trinkets, and we're not making so much money that we decided to spend the excess to make rocket ships. We make everything we sell, and take a lot of pride in making you happy. We appreciate your business!