Red Dead Redemption

So, I love Red Dead Redemption.  It is a fantastic game, and I am just now going through my second playthrough of it after putting in about 40 hours in the first playthrough.  I could ride around on my horse all day, watching the sun rise in Armadillo and watching it set over my ranch in Tall Trees.

If you have never played this game, I strongly recommend it. Sure it has fun shooting sequences, and like I said, riding around on your horse is fun and surprisingly relaxing, as long as you don't let some robbers sneak up on you or anything.  I learned how to play Liar's Dice, and I learned that even if I get caught cheating at poker I am a faster draw than most anyone.  

But there are parts of the game that are just amazing--anything to do with the mysterious stranger, for one (Seriously, go watch the youtube link.  Even if you've never played the game, the writing and acting are excellent).  And the little vignettes you come across while playing make this game different than anything else I've ever played.  One time I was riding my horse around Mexico, just wandering around, and in the middle of nowhere I came across a woman who had been murdered.  Her husband was next to her, crying, and since there was nothing I could do--no one to track down, no one to save--I left.  About 10 seconds later I heard a shot fired and chills went up my spine.  I didn't go back to check out what happened.

ANYWAY!  Totally not the point of this post.  Check out my little John Marston!

 

 As you can see (well, maybe not from this picture but from the rest) I made little John Marston with legs, instead of the usual round base.  It's the same pattern as the all crochet Link I made, and I really like it.

John here is complete with his revolver, his rifle, an ammo belt (both across his chest and around his belt), his magical bag which can carry 30 wolf pelts in it, a lasso and a fancy belt buckle.  Oh, and a feather in his hat. 

If it looks like his eyebrows are moving, it's because they are not sewed down.  I really like them--I can't picture John without a look of worry and anger on his face--but boyfriend doesn't like them at all.  Plus, when I think of John smiling I think of how creepy Shepard is when he smiles.  I think John would look the same way if he ever tried to smile.

And here's a closeup of his face, so that you can see his scars.  I know they are kind of small and he's missing the scars over his nose and lip, but boyfriend said it would be too much to try and put them all on there.

Do I have a thing for westerns?  I dislike most western movies so much that I waited about 6 months to buy this game because I was afraid I wouldn't like the premise enough to bother playing it.  And then there's the new True Grit movie, which I absolutely loved, which comes out on DVD next week and which I will be buying on day 1.  And I also love Maverick!  And Deadwood!  (PS--The ONLY reason I saw the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie was because Ian McShane was in it.  The ONLY reason I liked the new Pirates movie was because Ian McShane was in it, even though I felt he could have used more screen time.  And a couple more expletives)  Maybe I will have to reconsider my stance on westerns after all.

Anyway, let me know what you think about him!  Stay tuned!

Portrait of an Alien Overlord as a Young Alien

So, I bet a lot of you have been wondering what I've been up to this past year. (What's that? You haven't? Well, I'm going to tell you anyway.) Now that the drywall is up and (mostly) painted we have had time to start to decorate. Here is one of my favorite corners of the house:
Aww, isn't he cute? Well, don't let him hear you say that, he'll feed you to the grablorx. Oh, and if anyone is wondering (again, probably not, but I'll tell you anyway) the pictures on the right side of the picture are portraits of our cats. They can be the alien's evil minions though, if that sounds cooler.

Frame is from IKEA, picture is from me nagging boyfriend constantly to paint a smug alien overlord. Let me know what you think!

Stay tuned!

Just what the Doktor ordered

Check out these amazing sculptures from Doktor A.  I love the steampunkyness to them, obviously, but I really love how unique and full of character they are. 

This is Amnesia Primm.  The name just fits her exactly, right? 

This one is Arbuthnot Wince, the Poisoner.  Just look at that little bottle of poison hidden inside his tummy.  Just look at it!  Also, how cool is Arbuthnot as a name? 

And I just love this one.  A tiny octopus riding a bigger octopus.  Awesome.  And of course he needs a little umbrella and top hat.  So cute.

If you have time you should definitely check out the links for each character, and then visit the site.  Everything is so fully imagined, and all of the characters are so fully realized, it's amazing.  If these little guys don't get their own movie some day, I am going to be extremely disappointed.  Make it happen, Hollywood!

Stay tuned!

More house stuff, now with 100% more dinosaurs!

So, remember how I was saying that Olly Moss totally ripped off my idea for a neato silhouette wall?  Well, it's not technically true BUT boyfriend and I also have some silhouettes up in our house.  While ours may not be as classy as John Mcclane or GOB and Franklin, we have fancy dinosaurs, so yeah.

 We made this dinosaur silhouette wall in our tiny purple hallway.  Now, there's no room in here to even have one tiny piece of furniture, so I thought that we could really go all out with the decor.  I bought the frames off of etsy in the vintage section.  I really didn't even plan what sizes I bought, I just bought anything that was gold and frilly.  Of course, the T-Rex had to go in the biggest frame, because he is the biggest dandy.

The photo is at an angle because of the stupid glare, not because it is wonky.  Anyway, here's a closeup of the T-Rex.  I like his teeth.  It looks like he's smiling.  And his tiny little hands.  The background on the T-Rex is some white wrapping paper we had left over from Christmas.  All of the other pictures are white cardstock.

Boyfriend and I sort of let the frames decide what went in them.  Like so:

 Matching frames for a dinosaur couple.  I actually really like the lady velociraptor's hat.  Very chic.

 And here's a closeup of the other dinosaurs.  I really, really like the brontosaurus, who has his head in one frame and his tail in the other.  Not all of the dinosaurs are fancy like the T-rex and velociraptors, and that was for a couple of reasons.  One, we didn't want to overdo it.  Too many top hats and monocles might have been a little silly.  Second, some of these frames are really tiny, and any details would be lost.  I think they turned out great, though.  Do you think we are missing any?  Maybe a dilophosaurus with a neck ruffle, like Shakespeare?  Or something better? Let me know what you think!

Stay tuned!

Are you still there?

I guess you can tell what game I've been playing lately, huh?  So, one of my favorite parts of Portal 1 and 2 are the turrets. Now in Portal 2, turrets have a bigger role (I won't spoil anyone who hasn't played the game yet, but if you haven't, what is wrong with you? Go play it right now!) which is awesome. And of course many other people loved the turrets as well, and wanted to immortalize this love in the form of a plushie.
But not just any plushie. No no, this plushie is interactive. It talks. It complains, wheedles and lies its adorable way into your heart. Check out the video.


Interactive Talking Plush Portal Turret from Jonathan M. Guberman on Vimeo.
Totally amazing, right? The whole electronic construction part sounds a bit out of my league, although I am quite tempted to just buy all of the parts anyway and try to make it work.
It is a little bit weird to hear the turret say "I see you" and not hear the hail of bullets follow it, but it's a minor concern. I will figure out how to make one of these one day, I swear it!

Stay tuned!
(Oh, and if you don't plan on playing Portal 2 / don't care about spoilers / want to see something awesome, check this out. It's from the end of the game. You've been warned!)

STOP: Hammer Time

So Thor came out a couple of weeks ago.  I saw it, it was okay, I guess.  I believe that Natalie Portman is an astrophysicist as much as I believe Denise Richards is a nuclear physicist in that James Bond movie, which is to say, not at all.  But as far as the movie goes, everything that didn't take place on Earth was pretty frakking sweet.  I love Asgard, and all the other god characters, and I really hoped that Thor and that awesome warrior chick would hook up, but alas.  Also, Heimdall was awesome, but I really wouldn't want to have his job.  The vacation days must suck, although on the plus side I guess you get to see other people vacationing?  No, that sucks even more.  But he was still cool.

ANYWAY, back to the point.  I was browsing the internet one day (as one does) and I came across this picture:

And I thought, well, that's a pretty random picture.  Thor as a frog?  Well, it turns out it's a thing!  And I immediately fell in love with Throg, and felt the need to capture him in knit/crochet form immediately.  And here he is!

I was really not feeling up to making a frog pattern, so I just modified this pattern by Spud and Chloe.  I was worried about the eyes not sitting right, but I think it turned out all right.  Most of his accessories are crocheted, except the hammer, which I just made out of felt because I was done with trying to crochet a square.  Round I can do, square eludes me.  Anyway, I think I'm most proud of his hat.  I had to block those little wing thingies to death before they would even be remotely straight, and the one on the left still wants to curl.

Anyway, I'm really pleased with him!  Boyfriend doubted he would turn out, and for a while there he did look kind of silly, but in the end I think he turned out awesomely.  Let me know what you think!

Stay tuned!

Edited to add: New title for post.  It just hit me!

Do it for Science

As I'm sure many of you are aware, Portal 2 came out just a couple of weeks ago. (PS--it was awesome). Check out these posters made by flickr user wd.farmer that capture the 50's style feeling of the game.
By the way, I love repulsion gel. I love all the gels, actually. I hope that when the Portal 2 DLC is released (and if PSN ever goes back online) that it will deal with all of the different gels. They were so much fun.

If these were available in poster sizes I would probably buy the whole rainbow. Definitely check out the rest of the posters, they are awesome. I can hear Cave Johnson's voice in my head as I read all of these.

Chell and friends

Although we don't get to see her very often, Chell is a big part of Portal 2.  The main part, if you will.  Without her and her stylish boots we would never be able to fall thousands of feet into the earth and sproing around on bouncy gel.  Wow, that makes the game sound kind of lame, huh?

Anyway, with all of the turret / companion cube love that goes around, Chell usually goes unappreciated.  But Nerdigurumi decided that was about to change.

I actually think my favorite part about this pattern is the portal gun.  It's amazing!

 I gotta be honest though--her eyes creep me out.  I would just use safety eyes (which I use for everything, I know) but I think the effect would be a little better.

And the best part?  The pattern is free!  That's right, you can make your very own set.  Finally something good came out of PSN being down!

Stay tuned!

Classier than the Mudflap girl, at least

So, ignoring the fact that Olly Moss totally stole my idea (well, sort of, but I'll save that for another post) this silhouette show is pretty awesome.

 

Whoa!  Look at all those silhouettes!  From a distance, I'm sure it looks like a fairly standard Victorian silhouette wall, right?  Well, let's take a closer look.

 Oh hello, it's GOB and Franklin!  "It's not easy being white..."  I'm pretty sure I saw a blue Tobias out there too (literally blue, not sad) but there aren't too many closeup pictures, so I can't be sure.

 Another sort of closeup; pretty sure that's Mulder and Sculley over there, right above the alien.  Makes sense, right?  Although I feel like if Mulder ever saw that alien (as in, Ridley Scott's alien) he would probably run away screaming "I don't want to believe!  I don't want to believe!"

 John McClane, complete with broken glass.

 And Boba.  Pretty standard by now though, huh?

Anyway, there are way more pictures out there of the entire show, if you are interested.  The show looks like it was packed to the brim with people.  I will post pictures of my silhouette wall later.  It's pretty awesome, if I do say so myself.

Stay tuned!

I've been published!

I don't know if you guys have had a chance to check out the Star Wars Craft Book written by Bonnie Burton, who probably has the best job on the whole planet, by the way.

It's a really awesome book, by the way. I am going to make an army of those AT-AT planter boxes and recreate the battle of Hoth in my front yard. Minus the snow, though, since it hardly ever snows here. And the little Bantha plushie, which is seriously too adorable. Anyway, check out the best part though:



Oh yeah, that's totally me! And my little dudes! When Bonnie contacted me a while ago and asked for permission to use my pictures I nearly died. I am so excited and honored to be a part of the OFFICIAL Star Wars craft book. Too cool. Go check it out today!

Stay tuned!

Link Pattern Now Available!

Alrighty everyone,

After a super long hiatus, I am back, and with a new pattern to boot! I've been in a little bit of a creative funk lately. I didn't want to make the same amigurumi's that I had been making; they took anywhere from 8-12 hours to make, and while I really like how detailed they are I wanted to make something simpler, yet still detailed. If that makes any sense.

So I made this Link! I felt that Link was one of the more difficult original amigurumis to make, mainly because of the insanely detailed sculpey work. So I wanted to make something that was crochet only--no sculpey, no sewing, no felt, just yarn--but still retain some of the really cool details.

Here you can see his sword and shield, which attach to his belt. I'm actually the most proud of his hat and hair, which I think turned out really well, although getting his legs to look right (if you remember, most of my characters don't have legs) was a challenge as well.

Anyway, the pattern is now available at my etsy shop, so pop over and have a look! Zelda is the next project I'm working on, so that Link will have a friend and after that...well, I have some vague plans after that, but I'm willing to hear suggestions! Let me know what you think about this new version of amigurumi in the comments.

Stay tuned!