Emerald City ComiCon 2012

     Well we all know I’m horrible with consistent updates so the lag in this post should be no surprise. Emerald City ComiCon was the weekend of March 30th, 31st, and April 1st. We went on Sunday the 1st, which was apparently the best day to attend. We heard from a few of the people in booths and such that they ended up having to turn people away on Saturday as they reached maximum capacity. On Sunday we walked right up to every booth except one, and even that line was only 15 minutes tops. Overall I don’t think we have enough interest to attend all three days but one day was quite fun. Steven's father let me borrow one of his uber fancy cameras. Let me tell you, I had a camera boner for that thing. None of the following photos used flash, people, and we were indoors.

Lar DeSouza and Ryan Sohmer of Looking for Group & Least I Could Do

I adore LFG and have each volume of the printed. Volumes 2, 3, and 4 are autographed as I was in the first 1000 to pre-order but didn't get that with Volume 1 so was super excited to have them sign it for me.

Lar did a panel on Saturday on Adult Orgami that Steven would have enjoyed but since we attended on Sunday, Steven asked him to fold something for him real quick. He received this with the comment "You have to do your own tassels" from Lar.

 

After that we headed to what ended up being the only panel we attended that day. We skipped the one planned for midday and the one at the end of the day ended up being cancelled, unfortunately. The one we did attend was Con Horror Stories with Katie Cook and Jim Zub. Both were hilarious and shared stories that had us holding our sides. I think the best part was half their stories were of themselves being the horror story. It was a fantastic way to start the day.

We stalked Katie back to her booth to see if she had any copies of her Gronk book left. She had one left, the display one, so yay me! She had already autographed it but I got a little Gronk sketch to go with it. Katie was also wonderful and hilarious. Here's Katie working on one of her adorable little mini paintings she sells.

One of Steven's latest addictions is Weregeek. He has caught up from the beginning way faster than I have since I usually only remember to read it with him around. He ADORES it however and was very excited to see the creator at the con.  Alina was a total sweetheart as he was all sorts of *SQUEE* with her. He actually had her do a personal sketch of one of his D&D moments of awesome.

 

While she sketched and he talked, I saw this gal walking by and snagged a quick shot of her awesome dress. She whipped that adorable little shield out of her bag and struck a pose like a con pro. And yes, she made the dress herself. Its all Captain America comics.

 

Here's a very happy Steven with his sketch from Alina.

 

 I went back for this apron, unfortunately he had sold out by that point. I haven't read the comic yet (L.A.W.L.S.) but it's on my list.

 

The Sweet Tits creator was sharing a booth with probably the greatest experience we had with one of the creators we met that day. Scott of Nerf This was a complete sweetheart and if it wasn't potentially a little creepy I would have sprawled over the table to hug him.

I asked for a quick sketch of his little monster character Monty, and I ended up with an adorably dapper Monty. Scott tried to stop me from tipping him and called me a sweetheart for trying. I ended up dropping it on the table and stepping back so he couldn't give it back. Yup, I'm one sneaky girl.

I have plans for framing my Monty sketch, once I hunt down brown & tan pinstriped paper.

A friend of mine couldn't make the con this year but I asked him quite a few social anxiety laced questions about meeting all these people and he was a lot of help. One of his favorite guys was on our visit list as well so I asked a favor of him on the back of my requested sketch.

 

Jeph Jacques of Questionable Content

The one line we ended up waiting in was for Danielle Corsetto of Girls With Slingshots. She was moving the line pretty well while still connecting with her fans. She was sitting in her chair the weirdest way but I didn't remember to snap a picture. I bought a print of one of her watercolors that she signed to me and Steven had her do a sketch of me writing. The print is framed, pretty darn well if I do say so myself, but that will be it's own post once I get a few more framed how I'd like.

 

Got a Fancy Sketch from Joel Watson of Hijinks Ensue. Since I had gotten my first iPhone just a week before, he drew up his Apple addict character inducting me into the fold.

 

That's about it for the meet and greets. I'll probably post a collective of the sketches, possibly soon. To end on a fun note, I give you Beaker Han Solo.

 Because why not?

*Every photo in this entry was taken by me. Don't be a stealing jerk.

Red Dresses and Silver Ribbons

   It’s raining in Western Washington. It does that a lot this time of year. We spend weeks in the wet and grey…it’s like mother nature is depressed and sharing with the PNW. It’s difficult to remain upbeat when you can’t see the sun, get warm, or remember what it’s like to have dry socks. But this morning I was a part of something so wonderful that even the nasty weather couldn’t keep me down.

   A few weeks ago, maybe even months now, my mother came home with a few acquired items from a friend’s garage. One of those was a red ball gown that would likely never be worn by anyone in this family. Shortly after, Jenny the Bloggess amped up the Traveling Red Dress project. I had found the perfect way to make sure this pretty dress was used by someone who really needed it, instead of sitting neglected in our closet for months and months until finally being sent off to the Goodwill. I posted the dress to the Facebook page and waited for a response. A response I got, a quick few emails to set it up, and today the dress found a new home.
 
   This morning, before leaving to meet at Starbucks, I wore red to remind me to celebrate beauty in everything. And I wore a silver Jewels of Hope bracelet to remind me I am a survivor, depression is a lying bastard, and to never give up. Never. Give. Up. I have a hard time with that one. But I’ve found a color I wear constantly (it being my favorite for years) to remind me I can do this. I can be unapologetically, incurably, furiously happy.

A Foodie Emerges

I have what I like to call a temporarily addictive personality. When I find something I enjoy I will become obsessed with it for an undetermined amount of time. Once I get this obsession out of my system, I’ll move on, keeping a fondness for whatever subject I had latched on to. My latest fling? Food. Yup, I’m turning into a foodie.
Until recently, when it came to food in my life I had little interest in it as long as it tasted decent. Any urge to learn how to cook anything that wasn’t prepackaged came only because of concern for my health. I had little interest in what made each dish different or how adding or subtracting a certain aspect will drastically change the entire thing. The experience of eating itself has even taken on a new meaning for me.
This whole reintroduction to food started with a movie: Julie & Julia. The story of two women looking for their place in the world and finding it in food. It took me long enough to watch the movie but it immediately became one of my feel good movies. Right up there next to Penelope and The Little Mermaid. For those of you who haven’t yet seen it, I highly suggest it. The love these two women have for food and their husbands, and sharing food with their husbands, was a surprising inspiration. I always had a faint sense of the joy that came from feeding loved ones something you created but this movie apparently removed the fog. It isn’t only about the food, amazing as that is, but about sharing the experiences with friends and family.
Since first watching that movie, and the multiple times after in the following few days, I’ve spent hours browsing recipes and watching cooking shows. The only slight problem I’ve found with my time spent watching my own little food network marathons (thank you Hulu) is while I am watching these cooks create amazing, usually gourmet, food I’m eating microwaved top ramen smothered in cheddar cheese. Talk about a *face palm* moment.
This new outlook on food has opened up my mind and shown me options I hadn’t noticed before. As a child I remember being somewhat of a picky eater. I preferred my food to be without any components I disliked and rather simple. Getting me to try something new wasn’t a likely occurrence. Now I find myself curious and wanting to try things I’ve never tasted before. Sushi is a big one, even though it makes me a bit nervous. And I’ve bookmarked at least twenty new recipes I’m hoping to try soon. I just hope my family and friends are willing to indulge me and serve as taste testers.
I recently had a new food experience that my poor boyfriend patiently listened to me babble about for a good 45 minutes. My mother recently treated me to a happy hour dinner at The Melting Pot and talk about a foodgasm! The salad was simple, fresh, and wonderful with the peppercorn ranch dressing. The cheese fondue course was a little sharper than expected but still delicious. And then the chocolate dessert fondue flat out rocked my world. Bananas, cheesecake, and warm melted chocolate? Don’t mind if I do. It has inspired me to do some cyber window shopping for a fondue pot of my own to experiment with.
As this latest fling continues to flourish I hope to share more food experiences with my readers, if any of you are out there. Until then, don’t forget to stop long enough to enjoy what you’re shoveling into your mouth and give appreciation for how much effort went into preparing your meal.

A Wednesday Ramble

I’ve never been one to be described as perky. Unless you only ever saw me on the clock for Disney, but more on that later. I’ve lived years as a cynic, it isn’t a pleasant place to be. Over the last couple years I’ve battled my way through the valley-of-no-silver-lining and finally realized things are much more fun on the sunny side.

However, it is extremely difficult to keep positive in a world pedaling the negative. Right now I am an unemployed 20-something with no idea what to do with her life. It’s overwhelming to think about the bills that need paying, on top of keeping myself alive with trivial things like food, and the lack of income. Money going out but none coming in. I tried to be responsible with all this. I waited until I had a full time, steady job before I signed a cell phone plan contract and got into a car loan. Then I lost that job. Admittedly, that job sucked. The company had spiraled into an unethical group of backstabbers and I was looking for a new job but the plan was to have another source of income lined up before I left the fluorescent hell hole. So much for that.

Now I’m sitting around with nothing to do besides the dishes and Mario Kart Wii. As I spend my times trolling job websites and throwing bananas at Peach, there’s something nagging at the back of my mind. I’ve done the college thing, sort of. Spent two years at a community college exploring and probably only confusing myself more. I have no idea what kind of career I want to dedicate my professional life to. I can tell you a rather large list of things I want to do with my life, but none of them tie into a career that brings me the money that makes those others possible.

I suppose I’ve gone a bit off track from where I originally started but that kind of proves the point. I believe as human beings we’re here to enjoy our lives. How did we get to this point where we weigh ourselves down with all this negativity? Work that shitty job for the rest of your life so you can pay that mortgage on the house that isn’t quite where you want to raise a family and spend your time off…I’d really rather not find myself in that position. I suppose the loss of my previous job can be viewed as a hint that it is time to take the next step in my life. But it’s a tad frustrating when I’m not even sure which direction I want that step to take me.

Trying to keep positive about all this at times feels like just another problem on the pile. But like I said, I’ve spent time on the other side of this particular fence. I’ve found a few things that bring light into my life and with that light, I hope I will be able to see where I can discover…myself, happiness, and contentment.

Procrastination: Motivation's Bully

I would apologize for the lack of entries but in all honesty they weren’t very constant in the first place. My computer recently did attempt suicide but after some reformatting therapy, we’re back in business.

I recently joined the ranks of the unemployed so with all this sudden free time I find myself with, I was thinking I’d do a few things I keep putting off. Uhm…yeah not so much. I’ve always been a procrastinator, much to my own annoyance. My brain has quite a few things it would like to take care of but not only does it keep interrupting itself, it also keeps coming up with excuses to continue putting things off. As I’m sitting, slumped if you must know, on my couch (watching triple D) frustrated with yet another not so productive day. I cleaned the kitchen, that was my “deed” of the day apparently. Yeah look at me go. -_-

Obviously the first thing on my rather large (read: HUGE) to-do list is to find a new job. Trying to find something that gets me going in the career I want but it’s a problem of “experience.” I find myself running in that nasty circle of employers wanting applicants with experience but can’t get hired anywhere so I can get the experience they want. Come on, head-desk with me, ready? THUNK Now pass the ibuprofen.

There are plenty of other fun things crowding around for attention in this brain of mine as well. Want to do a few crafty improvement things to my bedroom. Want to be writing more. There’s always that losing weight thing I needed to start oh about four years ago. Trying to learn to cook a bit more but I continue to find myself with boxed and frozen foods. The usual broke, unemployed wannabe college student shtuff.

And as my sign off, I give you cute.



I want one. Pretty please?!

SteamCon II

All right so I wanted to make this some long, witty post of awesomeness and so kept putting it off until the awesome and witty came to me. It still hasn’t and honestly, I give up on it. And really, forcing my writing to be up to my perfect standards every time is just silly. So, SteamCon. One thing I will say about the experience is there was this amazing overall feeling of creativity being shared. I've never had so many ideas pop into my head just from being around different people, sitting in on panels, visiting with vendors, etc. So, a week later than it really should have been, I give you a small look at SteamCon II through the eyes of me.


My partner in crime at the end of day two. The hair was my idea and it looks awesome, if I do say so myself. He kept getting compliments on that vest all weekend (he wore it with a different look on day one) and I love that blue!


I met, and hugged, Captain Robert. Lead singer of Abney Park. One of my favorite bands. Yes, there was a fangirl freak out moment...just not in front of him.


Some of my new favorite people, a few members of the League of S.T.E.A.M.


Fans of Castle may recognize that arm. He made one for Nathan Fillion for the steampunk episode.


There are quite a few more photos, some of which can be seen on my facebook profile (under that album titled SteamCon of all places) but there aren't as many great shots as I originally had planned. Mostly because I was too busy ogling everything to remember I had a camera with me and because said camera isn't the greatest when the shiny objects are on the move. Next year's con will be held in October, in one hotel instead of two, and the theme is 20000 Leagues Under the Sea. Excited? Oh you have no idea...

Feelin' Crafty

I was hoping to get this posted before Ren Faire but obviously didn’t make it, since Faire was the first three weekends of August and here we are almost to October. Procrastination is strong with this one.

There may be another couple posts similar to this one as we get closer to Halloween and SteamCon. In fact SteamCon will probably get a post all its own since it will be my first non-dance related convention. But more on that later!
For today there are three things I want to share that I worked on. All rather simple but I’m still proud of the accomplishment of finishing the projects. My entire family is like me in their love of creating things. From clothing and jewelry to houses, we love creating something physical to share with others. (The chaos that follows us is another matter entirely.)

Last Christmas my coworker/friend, Caely, bought me one of those glass pendants but the nifty ribbons it came with were too small for my chubby neck. So I bought a pack of multi-beads from WalMart with the intention of creating a chain to use with the pendant. Six or seven months later, I finally got down to it. Right now there is only one simple chain of seed beads but the opening of the pendant is rather large so I’m thinking about creating another chain to add to the look.

Here’s a close up of the chain itself, two different sizes of seed beads:













And here’s the completed look with the pendant:

















There’s one major problem with the chain that I’m hoping some of you few readers may have an idea to help. The beads are cheap, I’ll admit it, and so the color rubs off easily onto my skin. And we all know how attractive a dark grey line around a gal’s neck is. Anyone have a thought on what to cover the chain in to keep the color on the beads instead of my skin?

Project number two was a simple addition to a skirt my awesome aunt, Judy, made for me last year for Faire. I love the rusty orange color of the fabric and the angled cut so didn’t want to do anything changing the physical shape of the skirt itself.











The second weekend of Faire was faery themed so I decided to see if I could find fall colored leaves to sew onto the skirt. A trip to a fall bedecked Joanns later (where I drooled thoroughly) and I had two packages of different sized silk maple leaves to play with. I spent a while fiddling with placement and came up with three ideas that looked really cool while the skirt was flat on my bedroom floor. A good hour or so of pinning around sixty leaves to the skirt and picking it up to see how they fell, I decided to just line the leaves along the bottom hem. I found this really cool holographic orange thread that struck my fancy so I sat myself on the couch and started hand stitching the leaves onto my skirt.













Previous to this I had pretty much no experience sewing so I wasn’t expecting to be quick or for it to last forever. Surprisingly only three or four leaves fell off over the course of the day at the Faire. It did take me an entire day to sew all of those damn leaves on there though.

Project number three was also a skirt. This one I actually wore last year underneath the orange one. It looked great, but the Faire is in an open field in the middle of August. It’s a tad warm that time of year, even around here. Floor length and layered skirts was not my brightest idea.

















So the third weekend of Faire was masquerade themed and while I didn’t have an idea of what to do for a mask, I did figure I wanted to do a pirate look for that weekend. I cut the bottom half of the skirt off clean so I have that extra fabric for something and then played with how thick I wanted to cut the new short skirt into strips for that rugged pirate wench feel. Paired with some black & white striped tights and awesome boots, I felt pretty darn piratey.









The guy I went with that weekend also found a pretty mask for me to wear. It didn’t particularly match but that’s the fun of pirates, nothing matches.

So in October I’ve got a costumed gumbo party to prepare for that will probably involve a lot of black and vampire fangs, Halloween after that, and in November an entire weekend of steampunk amazing-ness. Stay tuned!

Also, a random sidenote, my aunt and grandmother are looking to open an Etsy shop soon so expect some shameless advertising from me.