bloop

So Long, 2015. It’s Been a Real Slice

just some cool people I got to meet in 2015

Welp, it’s 2016 in other parts of the world, but from where I stand (or rather, sit) it’s still 2015 so it’s not too late for me to do a “year-in-review” sort of post!

A few months ago I lamented to my co-worker, Sara, about how I felt like I amounted to absolutely nothing this year. She just looked at me in an exasperated manner and began listing the things that I accomplished: I did a Whole30, I’m now a paid writer that gets their work published often at Wear Your Voice, legit companies have approached me to sponsor my blog, and, um… I know she listed other things that I can’t remember, but the point is she made me realize that I actually did stuff this year.

It’s really easy to focus on the negative rather than the positive. I’m still stuck in the mindset that I’ve had the same job for the past 4 years (which Sara pointed out is good because it shows other employers that I can keep a job), that I’m still living at home in Stockton (which I’m thankful for, but at the same time I feel like I’ve overstayed my welcome), that I haven’t written anything completely worth while lately, I fell off the healthy bandwagon (again), I didn’t read as much as I wanted to, blah, blah blah.

If I look past all the negative things, 2015 was actually quite a great year! Like I mentioned, I completed a Whole30 back in February which I thought was the most challenging thing I did this year until I did the Captain America 10k last month. I didn’t even properly train for that, so I have no idea how I was able to complete it, let alone in an hour and 35 minutes! I also got to see Jenny Lewis in concert again and went to a Neil Gaiman event. I watched the Amelie musical in Berkeley. I celebrated my first Galentine’s Day, I landed a pretty big sponsorship for my blog (which I will reveal in due time). My cousin Amanda got married in Hawaii and I got to fly in first class and stay at the friggin’ Disney resort Aulani!! My Etsy store did pretty well (finally reached over 200 sales), and I did my first successful show at Whimsic Alley earlier this month! I endured the madness that was Force Friday and watched Star Wars: The Force Awakens at an ungodly hour on the day of its release.

I think the biggest thing was I got to meet SO many of my bloggy/Instagram friends this year! Oh, and how could I forget I got to take a picture with Clark Gregg, Chloe Bennet, James D’arcy, and Haley MOTHER EFFIN AGENT CARTER Atwell. Like, WHAT IS AIR, YOU GUYS??? I was so nervous going to SDCC this year because of the social events I told myself I should go to for networking purposes. My social anxiety was through the roof, but all my blog homies were sooo welcoming and I truly believe I’ve made some lifelong friendships and have so many fun memories from that weekend. As a matter of fact, I am currently getting distracted by the Twitter notifications from these guys about a Disneyland trip before next year’s SDCC. Haha!

I know there’s a lot of stuff that I’m forgetting to include, but to all my friends — old and new — and my family, thanks for making 2015 fabulous!

Here’s to 2016!!!

cheers

PS: I was way too lazy to make photo collages to go along with this post, so sorry! But mostly to myself because I’m so anal about these kinds of things. :/

geek style · pup life

Merry Sithmas, Happy Hothidays!

hothiday 2015

Merry Sithmas my little ponies tauntauns!!! Here’s the holiday greeting card I sent out this year 😀

I’m off to SoCal to spend Christmas with my dad’s side of the family — everyone is packing up things last minute as I type this — so this is gonna be brief.

Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, I hope you have an amazing day and a happy new year!! And don’t tell me you don’t celebrate the new year because that happens to all of us. 😛

cheers

geek style

Wookiee Wednesday: DIY Your Own Tacky Ewok Christmas Sweater

It’s the day before Christmas Eve and you want to wear something super amazing for any upcoming festivities, but what? Here’s an idea: make your own tacky holiday sweater! Grab an old blank sweater that you don’t really wear anymore and head to the craft store to get some supplies.

You can put whatever you want on it, but for mine I made an ewok with a Christmas twist. Go figure. If you go along with the following instructions for when you do your sweater, you’ll be good to go whether you make a wampa, a tauntaun, or even a snowman. 🙂

Materials needed:

not pictured: printer paper, marker, pencil, iron, ironing board
  • Blank sweater (whatever color you desire)
  • Felt (in any color you need for your design)
  • Buttons
  • Infusible Web
  • Scratch paper
  • Writing utensil (marker/pencil)
  • Embroidery thread that matches your felt
  • Needle — preferably one with a big eyehole if you’re using embroidery floss.

* pro-tip: Ditch the embroidery thread and needle if you have a sewing machine and aren’t lazy like me.

Step 1: When you figure out what you want your design to be, sketch it onto a piece of paper. I prefer to use printer paper because it’s already a good size for your sweater.

After I sketched my design, I went over it with a black marker.

If you’d prefer to have a template than make one yourself, you can always search the Internet for a stencil of something you might like. But pick something that’s easy to trace, otherwise you’re gonna have some major craft rage.

Step 2: Cut out your templates, place them on top of your felt pieces (you can use sewing pins or tape to secure them onto the felt), and cut along the template.

I cut the ears off and placed them on my tan felt.

Step 3: Once you’ve cut all the shapes you need, place them all on the infusible web. Make sure you put the wrong side down on the sticky side.

Iron on the infusible wed with the tracing paper it comes with on top. That way you won’t risk burning your felt (which I have done before)!

Trim the excess infusible web and peel off the paper from the back.

Step 4: Place a sturdy surface inside your sweater (I used cardboard), put your felt pieces in position on your sweater and begin to iron it on.

Step 5: Place any embellishments you might have onto your design. For mine, I just used brown buttons for the ewok’s eyes and red buttons for the holly berries.

Step 6: If you have a sewing machine and aren’t lazy to whip it out, sew around the edges of your design to clean it up and also to ensure that your design stays on your sweater.

I mainly focused on stitching around the hood of the ewok and its ears.

OR, stitch along the edges with embroidery floss. This can be tedious, so take your time and start a Netflix binge so you’ll have something to distract yourself from wanting to throw your project onto the ground in defeat. Hey, this sometimes happens when crafting. 😛

Ta-da! I got a hand cramp while working on the face, hence a no-mouth ewok. I still think it’s cute 😀

Once you’re done with that step, you’re ready to go ewokin’ in a winter wonderland with your brand new sweater! But if you want to up the ante on the tacky factor, you can add all kinds of bells and whistles to your sweater — both literally and figuratively. 🙂

cheers

geek style · out & about

Wookiee Wednesday: Season of the Force (Part II)

THE FORCE AWAKENS COMES OUT THIS FRIDAY, YOU GUYS!

LIKE, OMG.

WTFF?!

I. CAN’T. EVEN.

I have to wait until 1:30 am to watch it on Thursday night (technically Friday) and I’m just aching because I know that there are people out there who have already seen it! Uuugggggghhh. #SoImpatient

Anyhow, as some of you might remember I was at Disneyland when they kicked off Season of the Force last month and I made a little post about it (which you can find here), and then I said I’d post more pics, but never did because work and life have been craycray… buuuut with The Force Awakens coming out so soon, I thought it was about damn time I make part II. So here it is!

Hope you all enjoyed my pictures! Are you planning on watching The Force Awakens tomorrow night or this weekend? Lemme know in the comments section so we can geek out together! 😀

cheers

geek style

Walkin’ in a Wampa Wonderland

I think it’s so cute whenever families put out personalized holiday greeting cards with a nice family photo on them during this time of the year. My family’s never really put them out — not that we never wanted to, I think we’re just lazy. Mother, if you’re reading this, sorry I’m not sorry! You know it’s true. 😛

Even though I’m a perpetually single dog mother, I don’t see why my relationship status should hinder me from putting out one of my own. So this year, after wanting to ever since Rory came into my life 4 years ago, I FINALLY made a holiday greeting card to send out to friends and family with just me and Rory!

But, as you know, I’m a fancy geek, so I couldn’t just make it a “traditional” card with the Christmas tree and usual red & green color scheme. Nuh-uh, honey. As soon as I realized Rory’s not an albino ewok, but a mini wampa, I immediately searched for doggy wampa costumes and once I found one, I knew that the theme of my very first single-dog-mama holiday card would be “Happy HOTHiday!” Next year we’re probably gonna roll with “Merry Sithmas,” since we have matching Vader sweaters, but who knows? I might want to go with another fandom theme next year. But “Merry Sithmas” is obviously in the lead.

I’m going to be sending out my cards tomorrow, and I don’t want to share what they look like quite yet, but I’m really excited about them! So I thought I’d share a couple of pictures from the informal photo shoot my mom did for me and Rory. 🙂

13932753164_59cedb28ab
Chewbacca sweater: Her Universe (buy here)
AT-AT dress: Utinni Bikini (buy here)

vest: Xhileration | glasses: Firmoo (buy similar here)
necklace: random boutique find in NYC | hair flower: Icing
Wampa dog costume: Star Wars (buy here)

cheers

photos by Carmel Hernandez a.k.a. my Inay

out & about

Whimsic Alley’s Holiday Geeky Craft Faire

Hey my little ponies! Over the weekend I got to be a vendor at Whimsic Alley‘s holiday geek craft faire with my friend Jen who makes super adorable fandom inspired hair bows and brooches @ Walrus Of the Sea. I’ve only done a few shows scattered over the span of the past 3 or so years, and this is by far the best one I’ve ever gotten to be apart of. 😀

It was a two-day show and I was in really good company with Riddle’s Tea Shoppe right across from me (also dangerous because I was basically shopping when things got slow), Crafted Cuteness off to the side, and 1138 Clothing not too far from me either. There were other awesome vendors there too like Nerdy But Still Girly and S&S Ink.

We ran into a few little snafus when it came to setting up our table — the main thing being poor lighting. We forgot that it was a wee bit dark inside Whimsic Alley’s Great Hall, so Jen went across the street and bought some Christmas lights and tea lights for us to put up around our table. While she was gone, a customer came by our booth and said, “I wish there were lights at this table.” Luckily, Jen came back and we had it all set up by the time they came around a second time! After the show I bought another string of Christmas lights to put on the bottom boarder of the table. It really helped bring everything out!

Unfortunately, the spots for next year’s holiday craft faire sold out already. But doing this show put a spring in my step and gave me more confidence in what I’m doing with my Etsy store. 🙂

Speaking of which, I’ll be opening my shop up again this week with my brand new Star Wars necklaces!! And Jen’s shop will have more listings for her adorable fandom hair bows and brooches, so check out her stuff too!

For those that stopped by and checked out our stuff, thank you!! ♥

cheers

geek style

Nerdvember: The Final Week!

Whoooops, I’ve been so busy with work and trying to finish up inventory for Whimsic Alley’s Geeky Faire (which is happening TOMORROW!) that I totally forgot to make a post about my outfits for the final week of Set to Stunning’s Nerdvember challenge/contest! Mah bad.

Day 22: Winter is Coming

My sister and I headed to San Francisco so she could check out the ModCloth Fit Shop and meet up with our friend Brooke. I decided to wear my Lulu Tops Westeros Map dress (I do believe it’s a faux version of the Black Milk Clothing one, but whatever), a pair of earrings by Nerdy Buy Still Girly with Jon Snow and Ghost, and my Robb Stark necklace. We found the perfect snowflake backdrop at the mall to take pictures in front of too! 😀

Day 23: You Can’t Sith With Us

I layered my favorite Darth Vader pullover over my black and white tartan dress and paired it with my faux leather pink motorcycle jacket, Darth Vader brooch, and plushie Vader backpack. Kind of felt very Mean Girls x Clueless.

Day 24: Where the Wild Things Are

I layered my Where the Wild Things Are pullover by Out of Print Clothing over the Old Navy dress I wore for my cousin’s wedding, but totally didn’t realize how wrinkled it was until my friend Norma took my picture after we got out of class. Whoops!

Day 25: BB-8

You guys, I seriously love Utinni Bikini. I have a problem. I bought this BB-8 dress when they were having a special sale during Halloween, so I immediately placed an order. Haha! Even though I love the Dark Side, I do love some of the “good guys” too. And y’all know BB-8 has stolen my heart. ♥

Day 26: Happy Sithsgiving!

Basically a variation of Day 23’s outfit. Haha! My mom also happened to wear a Star Wars sweater for Thanksgiving too. We didn’t even plan to match, it just happened. The Force must be strong in my family! 🙂

Day 27: Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey

The folks at Level Up sent me a package full of some timey-wimey goodness! I paired the TARDIS belt and pendant that came in the package with my Her Universe dress featuring all the baddies from Doctor Who, along with a pendant I made with my companion, Rory, and a hair bow by my friend Jen (Walrus of the Sea). GERONIMO!

I’ll be making a special, more detailed post about the goodies I got, so be on the lookout for that!

Day 28: You Can’t Sith With Us: Part Deux

In case you’re wondering, yes. That is ANOTHER dress by Utinni Bikini. It has AT-ATs and Stormtroopers all over it! After I placed my order for the BB-8 dress, I got a message saying that I could get another dress for a super cheap price plus free shipping, soooo I caved in. Also, I’m feelin’ this bowler hat, you guys. Not sure if you can tell since it’s popped up in quite a few of my Nerdvember photos. 😛

Day 29: BB-8: Part Deux

BB-8 FOREVER AND EVER!! I ordered this BB-8 bomber by Her Universe while my sister drove us to Disneyland for Season of the Force a few weeks ago, and it finally came in on the 25th (unbeknowst to be since my email notification was buried in my inbox). I was also feeling particularly lazy this day and couldn’t be bothered to brush my hair. But I took a picture anyway because I was very determined to get all 30 days of November documented. 😛

Day 30: Girly Looking Nerfherder

For my final outfit of Nerdvember I paired this velvet black dress with Han and Leia pins I got at Disneyland, my Millennium Falcon belt, and Darth Vader purse. On my Instagram my description was:

Han Solo vibes today because sometimes I need a reminder to be a scruffy looking badass nerfherder. And self rescuing princess, and sometimes Sith Lord… I’m complicated.

So that’s a wrap on Nerdvember! I hope you all enjoyed my geek inspired outfits throughout the month. 😀

cheers