25 Geeky Gifts for Mother's Day

Just in time for Mother’s Day shopping, check out 25 science- and tech-inspired gift ideas, including Morse Code jewelry, a touchscreen watch and customized maps.

Last year’s roundup: 25 geeky gifts for cool moms

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Angelina Jolie has the coordinates of her children’s birthplaces tattooed on her body. For a less permanent option, one of Jennifer Lyons’ pillows ($24.99) will convey just how special a child’s birthplace is to a mom.

Have a coded message for mom etched on a copper pendant ($50) by Jaci Riley, owner of cravejewelrydesign. It’s the perfect size for kids’ initials or a subtle “I love you,” spelled out in Morse Code.

Perfect for spring: brightly colored laptop and tablet cases ($21.50) from JuiJui Studio. It’s an easy, inexpensive way to add a pop of color and brighten mom’s day.

You can’t go wrong with jewelry, and the Nebula necklace from Lara Knutson ($75) has an ethereal, astronomical quality. It’s made of tiny reflective glass beads that create a lightweight, reflective gray fabric that’s out of this world.

Sometimes there’s no better gift than a handmade card, and this artfully nerdy Mother’s Day card from ShopGibberish ($6.50) is the perfect canvas for a heartfelt message to mom.

Math and nature coexist in the gorgeous Geodesic terrarium ($295) from Restoration Hardware, which was inspired by an antique chandelier.

The perfect companion for a laptop sleeve is a handy cord pouch for storing plugs, adapters and the other extras that accompany all our electronic gadgets. Bertiescloset has a range of quirky, colorful options ($14.99).

I’d personally rather be focused on consuming calories than counting them on Mother’s Day, but fitbit ultra ($99.95) is nonetheless intriguing as a tiny gadget that tracks your activities -- such as steps taken, distance walked, stairs climbed and calories burned -- as well as measures sleep.

Continuing on the map theme, Karen O'Leary’s studiokmo shop offers paper maps ($75) ready for framing. You can choose an address that’s special to mom and have it custom cut.

If there’s a place that means something special for mom, you can have it mapped on a blanket ($175) by Soft Cities, a San Francisco company founded by Nikki Gunn Rodenbeck. Soft Cities also prints maps on cloth napkins ($65 for two).

For a mom of a certain age and sense of humor, nothing will top these Mystery Science Theater 3000 coasters. They’re available from Marcus Williams’ Etsy shop, The Coaster Store, in sets of four ($15 per set).

COATT, a family-run design studio, combines gold dots and dashes on silk cords to spell out words, names, and phrases in Morse Code. The sleek MOM necklace ($40) is all dashes, no dots.

If mom is a yoga buff and open to some alternative soundtracks, here’s a music collection with plenty of geeky overtures. The Yoga To Sci Fi & Fantasy Classics ($7.99) includes songs from movies including Star Wars, E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings.

It’s just what she’s always wanted, right? Periodic table flip-flops ($18.95 from CafePress) are sure to get a chuckle out of a geeky mom.

Designed for iPods and iPhones, the Swansea Beach Radio from Sunnylife ($39.99 at Anthropologie) lets mom take her tunes to the beach or the pool without worrying about getting sand or water in her gadgets. The retro-styled AM/FM speaker box is water resistant and runs on four AA batteries.

MoMA Store calls it the “Aqua Crystal Disco Ring,” and the designer is Orfeo Quagliata. The ring is handmade by blowing crystal to create a hollow form then filling the void with Swarovski crystals.

Sure, a cell phone could handle any of the tasks that Mutewatch can, but its mysterious, minimalist form is pretty irresistible. You can activate the touchscreen with a tap, then swipe to access the silent, vibrating alarm and timer functions. Developed by Swedish university students, Mutewatch is available at MoMA Store ($260).

If you’re shopping for a mom who’s tired of the same familiar lineup of kids’ books, Pantone: Colors ($8.95) is a great way to add an art/education title to the mix. It teaches kids about color variations by highlighting nine basic colors and 20 shades of each color.

If the mom you’re shopping for likes word games, Kaelin Tillery’s countercouturedesign shop has Scrabble-inspired letter pillows ($54 for the set of three pictured). NAP is my personal favorite; other options include LOVE, HOME and customized initials.

Mom can wear her geek style proudly with a keyboard skirt ($39.99) from Ashley Mertz’s GoChaseRabbits shop.

Continuing with the pillow theme, this set will make mom feel like she’s in school again, with illustrations from botany, biology and geology class sewn onto these felted wool pillows ($204 for the trio from UuncommonGoods).

A little vintage, a little quirky, the typewriter necklace from Penelope’s Porch ($24) is a cool reminder of the ways things used to get done.

How about a sleek upgrade for mom’s favorite reading spot? Zelco’s Freestyle LED desk lamp has four heads, an adjustable arm, and three brightness settings.

There’s really nothing techie about the ceramic Cargo Container storage boxes designed by Daniel Ballou ($30 for two from Areaware). But there’s no denying they’d add some color and coolness to any mom’s desk.

It’s a perfectly nostalgic, geeky way for kids to write mom a Mother’s Day note. A set of three floppy-disk sticky note pads (50 sheets each) is $9.95.

Last year’s roundup: 25 geeky gifts for cool moms

25 techie Valentine’s Day gift ideas

25 useful iPad business apps