Yule for Geeks

Christmas/Yule can be a tricky time if you're particularly nerdy, specifically if you don't care for a lot of the normal decorations you can get at the store.  If you've been reading for more than about 3 seconds then you've probably already surmised that my solution is to just make stuff my damn self!  ^_^

Enter:  the nerdy Christmas stockings!

For this project, I used some super fugly pants I found at a thrift store.  These are some horrid, high-waisted, '90's numbers.  And these are junior's sizes, guys.  Yeah, you heard that right.  Some poor child probably got sent to school in these odd, badly cut, awkward, cropped-length pants.  One pair even had -gasp- PLEATS!  THE HORROR!

Anyway, cut off the part you want to use and draw a rough stocking shape.  I tried to use as many existing hems and seams as I could since I'm not the best seamstress in the world.   Okay, okay, I may be the worst. Still, here goes:

Cut that puppy out, flip it inside-out, and pin it.

Thread your needle...Since I only had this thread (sad, I know), I doubled it so that it would be nice and thick.  On some I used embroidery thread since I ran out of my ONE spool of thread.  /facepalm

Stitch it up, then flip it back right-side-out.

Next, choose what nerdy emblem you want on it and cut that out of another fabric of choice.  I chose felt and I didn't use a pattern or anything, just drew the shape directly onto the felt then cut it out.

Time to heat up that glue gun!

While that's heating, cut out some small strips of felt, loop them around, then glue them together as seen above so it forms a loop to hang them from.  Glue everything on.

NERDY YULE!  Here's some snapshots of all the ones I did:

A Halo one I did for a friend.

Mario star for another friend...

Second Star Trek one for yet another friend.  Its good to be my friend.

Hubs' Mass Effect stocking on the left and my  Star Trek one on the right!

These are hung now and are just too damn cute with my nerdy salt-dough ornaments I made for our tree!  *-*

<3
WW

Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Yeah, yeah, I know...I'm seriously lacking in posting recipes lately and I'm going to work harder to post more, but a lot of times I forget to take pictures when cooking.  Sue me.

For this soup, you'll need about 10 large potatoes, one cup of shredded cheddar cheese (half a bag), 6-9 slices of bacon, 1/2 a stick of butter, and about a cup of green onions.  Usually I chop the green onions myself, but the whole ones at the store just looked awful, so I had to get these stupid diced, pre-packaged ones.  Boo.

Step 1 - Melt half the butter.

Dice all the potatoes and set aside about 2-3 potatoes after dicing.

Put the remaining diced potatoes into a large bowl, season with sea salt and black pepper, then pour the butter over them and toss them until they are all coated.

Put your oven on broil and lay the potatoes on a pan or cookie sheet and slap them in the oven until they are golden brown on one side.  Flip them all over and let the other side get all golden-y.  Roasting them will help them hold together in the soup and will make the leftovers keep for several days (or freeze) without turning into a cream-of-potato-and-mush soup.

While those potatoes are roasting, take the 2-3 that you reserved and put them in a large stock pot with enough water to cover them by about an inch and boil them.  At this point you're thinking "why the fuck am I roasting AND boiling", right?  We'll get to that.

While those are boiling, fry the bacon up then chop it...Or tear it apart, whatever makes you giddy.

Once the potatoes are boiled to the falling-apart point, remove and drain them, reserving the liquid - we'll put that back later.

Mash the boiled potatoes up, then mix the liquid back in and put it back into the stock pot with the remaining butter.  What this does is creates a thick, creamy base for the rest of the ingredients to bathe in.  If you're uber lazy you could skip the boiling and just use water and enough instant mashed potato flakes to thicken it, but I'd consider that a crime against humanity.  You have been warned.

Toss in the roasted potatoes, onions, bacon, and cheese....Oh yeah.  Now things are looking good.  At this point they should also be smelling so divine you're ready to chew on your own shoe.

That's all there is to it.

Top it with a  bit of extra cheese and onions if you feel fancy.  The recipe is much easier than it sounds and this amount usually lasts us 4-5 days.

<3
WW

Spiffy Makeup Discovery!

Occasionally we all have an amazingly simple idea that, when we think of it, it is quite like being hit in the head and we immediately think "Why didn't I think of this earlier?!"

My most recent of these ideas occurred when I bought a nail stamper.  After playing with it for a week or so, I started to think of other things I could do with it.  Using it to stamp cute little things on craft projects was the most obvious (and, yes, it works), however I got an even bigger idea:

SO SIMPLE, right?

Eyeliner + stamping plate =

I'm betting this would come out way better with a cheaper liquid liner that takes a bit longer to dry or perhaps even a gel liner.

Yay for easy ideas.  This will make makeup even MORE fun.

<3
WW

Random Photo Post - Thrifted!

I adore thrift stores.  Also, garage sales, junk shops, antique stores, flea markets...Pretty much any place I can get a bargain.  I just simply don't see the point of over-paying for new items that are usually so shoddily made that they will fall apart next week.  There are things I do prefer to buy new, but for a lot of things...Just take me to the thrift store, I'll be fine.

Part of it is the price, part is the fact that these things are perfectly good and need homes and a lot of great items get discarded just because they aren't someone's taste, and the other thing that factors into the fun is the thrill of the hunt.  There's nothing like pawing through a huge pile of what appears to be crap and finding a Vera Wang skirt or a Wedgewood tea cup (true stories, guys, I've found both!)

With that out of the way, I'd like to show off my first of many, many editions to come of a Thrifted edition of the usual monthly random photo post!

This cup was found at a yard sale...I think I paid 25 cents for it.  I loved the bright colors and the retro print!  

This, I love ever so much.  I bought two of these and, in fact, one is sitting right next to me with tea in it at the moment.  They are the perfect size for tea and I think they are adorable.  I got them at the same yard sale as the above one, and both were 50 cents, so that's less than a buck for 3 cups.

I am a fanatic of all things Batman.  A fanatic who has no idea why my pictures look fine on my computer then once in a blue moon one comes out all odd like above the second I upload it to blogger.  Penguin up there was 2 bucks, by the way.  No, I will not be removing it from the packaging.  What kind of nerd do you take me for?

This awsome little blacksmith I got from the guy who makes all the other awesome stuff I blogged about months ago at the local flea market.  He's recently started adding in these little sculptures and this is my favorite one I've seen up there so far so I'm so very glad to have him.

These.  Oh god, these.  Aren't they cute?!  I'm guessing these were from the '50s - '60s judging by the box they were in.  It had no date on it, but they came in their original box.  I paid a buck for them and they were still brand new, though I didn't get a picture of the box they came in as it was a bit beaten up.  They fit, though, and are very cute and comfortable to wear around the house when its not quite cold enough for fuzzy slippers, but not quite warm enough for bare feet.

Monet print...$1.  Yeah.  Will probably be painting these frames, though, not a fan.

Other Monet print...Also $1.  Beat that.  Please excuse cat hanging from camera strap.  These are older pictures.  Cat attacked EVERYTHING.

Oh look!  Another picture fucked up!

This jewelry box is one of my favorite things ever.  Hubs bought this for me at the flea market as the second I saw it, I fell in love...I think his reasoning was it was probably easier to buy it then and there than to watch me lament over the loss of such a good find for the next month.  That, and it was only $20 and it was near my birthday/a holiday (can't remember which, I'm good like that)  It is leather-covered wood and, let me tell you, I can fit some serious goodies in here, this puppy is HUGE.

Shot of the top...The corner designs are sort of pressed in.

Doors open to reveal lots of little drawers.  The middle slot has nothing in it, you can see below, but above is a shot of it with the cigar case I turned into a ring box in it as it happened to just slide right in there like it was made for it.

A shot of the little drawers.  The dust-looking residue on the bottom in front of the drawers...yeah, I don't know what that is.  I wiped at it when I cleaned the whole thing up, but it didn't come off and I don't want to damage it.  I'm thinking of trying a dab of furniture polish on it, though, to see if that fixes things.

What all do you find second-hand that is an amazing deal?

<3
WW

Etsy Re-opening!

My Etsy is back up and running and will soon have more things on it, but right now I have a WoW Horde hand-painted USB mouse for sale on there.  I'll mainly be doing hand-painted mice and console controllers, but that's the only item up at the moment as I'm also going to try my luck on E-bay.

Here's some pictures of some of the ones I've done just for our collection so you can get a taste of what's to come!  :)  Most of these were made before we figured out how to take the puppies apart, so the newer ones I'm doing to sell are much cleaner in the lines around the buttons, etc., but they will always have some level of imperfections as I am hand-painting these and I am not a robot.

Hubs' Fallout controller.

My cutsie, sparkly, PS2 controller.

Hubs' Mass Effect N7 controller.

Hubs' orange controller w/ custom grips and a glitter line to hide where it was splitting a bit since it is quite old.

Steampunky.

Steampunky NES gun with a bit of a Winchester twist.

Red and yellow...This one turned out very Iron Man-esque!

My Sir Daniel Fortesque PS1 controller.  <3 Medieval!

A close-up of Sir. Daniel Fortesque.

This is the Horde mouse currently for sale on my etsy!

My horde mouse.  I've been using this baby for about 4 or 5 months now and it is still in tip-top shape, so these are quite durable.

TONS more projects in the works for the near future, so there will probably soon be a torrential flood of posts.

Also, I added a donate button on the right so now I have a tip jar!  If you'd like to see more awesome crafting/cooking/reviewing then you can help me out with the fundage there!  ^_^

<3 Wookie Wifey

Post-Halloween Haul, Adorable Snacks, and a Manicure

Perhaps my favorite time of the holidays is actually the day after the holiday.  Everything in stores holiday-related goes on clearance for half price or less and its the best time to shop for nifty little things.  Today, I went to check out the Halloween clearance items and here's my little haul!

I'm an idiot and ripped these open like a kid at Christmas and tossed the packages before I took pictures...But these are the Wet N' Wild Fantasy Makers Glitter Tattoo kit and the Dark Swan makeup kit.  I can't wait for an occasion to play with the glitter tattoos!  The nail stickers  are adorable as well and I will be sure to post pictures when I use them.

Here's swatches of the colors from the swan kit.  Hard to see in the photo, but they are SOOOOO SPARKLY OMG!  Ehm.  Sorry.  Glittergasm.

I also picked up (not pictured) a few reusable tumblers, a small decoration, and this little guy.  He's a Hexbug Nano, the first one I've had.  He was on clearance pretty cheap and I couldn't resist as the nerd side of me just pretty much tripped the hell out.   I'd been seeing these around and really wanted to play with one.

He's really a nifty little devil and I'm going to call him Scratchy.  These are too adorable and they run around like mad and turn themselves around when they hit an obstacle, and flip themselves back upright if they fall over.  Usually.

This I bought before Halloween, but still decided to post it here.  This is Wet N' Wild Fantasy Makers "Nail in the Coffin".  Its black with a dark silver shimmer/micro glitter.  This is 3 coats and I'm quite happy with it and that bottle is just too cute.  So worth $2.

And I've saved the best for last...

FOOD PORN!

Finger cookies and mummy dogs!  My sister-in-law made these and I thought they were just too cute not to share.  The fingers are sugar cookies with almonds for nails and went great with coffee, and the mummy dogs are sausages wrapped in garlic crescent dough and were sooo yummy.

Anyone else have good Halloween hauls?

<3
WW