Whimsic Alley’s Holiday Geeky Craft Faire

December 7, 2015 Nina Penalosa6 Comments

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!! ♥

geek style

Nerdvember: The Final Week!

December 4, 2015 Nina Penalosa6 Comments

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. 😀

geek style

Outfit Post: Bestie Edition

November 29, 2012 Nina Penalosa6 Comments

My bestest bestie Shanice’s birthday occured a couple weeks ago and we headed to Sacramento to celebrate with a day of shopping and yummy foods at the Tower Cafe followed by cupcakes at Esther’s. She looked SO cute (and it was hell trying to help her find the right birthday dress — her mom came to the rescue in the end though), so I just had to take pictures of her ensemble to share on my blog. 🙂

Shanice is the only friend I have that LOVES animal print. She’s also the only person I know that managed to rock snake skin and leopard print and not make it look like a hot mess. Obviously, that’s not happening in this outfit, but she’s mixing leopard prints and it looks pretty damn cute.

I got her scarf at H&M a couple of Christmases ago. I’ve seen her wear it on a number of occasions, so I’m glad she really likes it 😀

Shanice’s outfit gets a pop of color with the vibrant hue of mustard yellow from her bag, which was a birthday present from her mom (I think…?).

I found this bracelet at World Market (or Cost Plus, whatever that place is called) and knew immediately that I had to get it for Shanice! To some, it’s just a cute yellow, green, and gold braided bracelet, but I immediately thought of Link from The Legend of Zelda. Like me, Shanice is a HUGE nerd (one of the many reasons why we’re friends), and she’s a ginormous fan of video games — The Legend of Zelda being her favorite.

I make geeky connections to everything.

Our friend Jen gifted her with an earring cuff that she crafted herself with chains made out of 14 k gold fill. If you’d like to rock one of these, you can order one on Jen’s Etsy store Walrus of the Sea. <– plug for the other bestie. Woop!

Shanice has made a few appearances in my blog before, but I don’t think I ever mentioned how we became friends. We met about 5-6 years ago in the newsroom of our community college’s paper where we both worked on the entertainment section. Fun times! Well, not always. Tons of drama was always happening and we somehow got dragged into it. So lame! But we often walked across the street to Barnes & Noble after class and ate cookies and sipped on Passion Tea Lemonades with a pump of raspberry (she taught me how to order fancy Starbucks drinks) and we talked about our fandoms and actors we thought were hot… y’know, regular ‘ol girl things. And she’s been my bestest friend ever since ❤

Cheers,
Nina

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outfit details

Dress: Miss Chievous (Marshalls) // Jacket: Xhiliration (Target) // Boots: Charles Abbie (Ross) // Headband: from some cute store in Japan Town that we can’t remember the name of // Scarf: H&M // Bracelet: Cost Plus/World Market //Ear Cuff: Walrus of the Sea // Bag: Steve Madden

geek style · shoppin'

Walrus of the Sea

November 9, 2011 Nina Penalosa1 Comment

Today is my best friend Jen’s birthday! WOOOO!

She would kick my ass if I posted a picture of her on here, so instead, to honor her on her special day, I am shamelessly plugging her fantastically awesome Etsy store Walrus of the Sea where she sells nifty hair bows and knitted goods all handmade by her.

In the picture above I am wearing this bow:

Here are a few of my other favorites from her store:

This one is TARDIS blue and the gold is quite reminiscent of regeneration residue. 🙂

When we picked out fabric for Rory’s bow ties (which can be seen here), I REALLY wanted this fabric. But alas, I picked a paisley for him instead.

Bit bigger than the other bows, but just as cute.

Jen also makes fingerless gloves out of bamboo silk yarn. There aren’t any listed currently, but keep an out for those! She made me a pair of purple ones and they are all kinds of cozy.

Happy Birthday Jen! 😀

geek style

My, What Big Paws You Have!

October 8, 2011 Nina Penalosa1 Comment

Before my thrifting excursion on Thursday, right after class Jen and I headed to our school’s annual Arts & Crafts Faire and stumbled upon these nifty furry animal scarves by Lake Tahoe Treasures/Wild Spirit Animal Hoodies.

If you want more info on my furry mitts, I wrote a post about ’em on Imaginary Battles. Check it, yo.

PS: For those of you that have Tumblr, I set one up for Le Fancy Geek! You can follow me here.

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outfit details: