Ray guns!

I have to admit it. I am an addict. I am addicted to ray guns. I just can't get enough of them. I think they are awesome and cool and sleek and nerdy and cool. Now mind you I wouldn't tote one of these babies around town or anything, but I would most definitely display one of these prominently in my living room. If only I were a millionaire! Or at least made a living wage!

Anyway, in the first of what will probably be many posts about ray guns, I will set the standards for what constitutes awesomeness way higher than I really have any right to. Check out these awesome specimens made by, of course, Weta Workshop.



It's hard to really do these pictures justice, so if you have time you really should click through to the site, where you can minutely inspect every crevice and nook in astonishing detail.

Now I think these are just made (for fun? no no, look at the prices) as an independent project, since as far as I can tell they aren't attached to any movie. If they were, I would probably go see it in a heartbeat, but for now I will just have to ogle from my computer screen. My favorite one if probably the Righteous Bison because I just love saying it so much. I also like the blunderbuss, but only because I think "blunderbuss" is a funny word. I think I want to put that I was shot by a blunderbuss on my tombstone, because then everyone would think I was cool.

Anyway, I want to post these here because eventually we are going to try and make a ray gun. I'm sure they won't be as awesome as these (because if they were I'm sure Weta would try and hire us the boy), but I think we can do pretty well with a trip to Home Depot and the use of the most awesome book I have stowed away in a box somewhere. It may or may not be functional. Stay tuned!

Hello, faithful readers!

Hello everyone! It's been a long, long time since I've updated here, but I can explain! I've been very busy. Yeah I know, that's not much of an explanation. How about this--I bought a house! We've been fixing it up (since frankly it was a piece of crap) and so I haven't had much time or inclination to keep this place updated.

These things haven't helped either:

Um, Assassin's Creed 2 is awesome. If you played the first one and liked it even the tiniest bit you will absolutely love this one. In fact, even if you didn't like the first one at all you will love this one because it's beautiful and fun and stabby.Yeah, I love Ratchet and Clank. Love love love. Now if Naughty Dog could make another Jak and Daxter game I would be in heaven.

Yeah, it's pretty much just Phantom Hourglass but less annoying and more fun.
Yay Battlestar!


Anyway, things have started to slow down around here. The craft room is slowly coming into focus, which means that we can start making some really cool things again. We are starting to actually decorate, which is going to be fun, so hopefully I'll be able to post some of the cool things we do. No wait, don't leave, it's going to be cool, not boring! My bedroom is going to look like Indiana Jones' study if he were an alien bounty hunter, plus some Steampunk elements thrown in for good show. Seriously, it's going to be awesome. I can't wait.

Once our craft room is up and running I would also like to start making more patterns--is there anything you guys would be interested in? I have a couple of original patterns I would like to try out, something a little different from what we've been doing, but if anyone has any suggestions/wish lists I would love to hear it. I would really like to make Lando, and probably another alien (Jawa? Ewok?) but it doesn't have to be from Star Wars.

Anyway, as a thanks to all of you (at least one? anyone? hello?) who have stayed with me through this boring reprieve, I have a special going on! Head on over to bigcartel and pick up all of the Star Wars patterns--the original Heroes of the Rebellion pattern, Yoda, Ackbar and Obi-Wan--for only $15! This offer is only good on bigcartel (not etsy), and only for a limited time, so hurry over!

Stay tuned--this year is going to be awesome!

Jedi (bath) Robe

For the discerning bather who need to stay dry and look devilishly handsome at the same time. Also handy for those times you get ambushed by an evil sith lord when stepping out of the shower.

At almost $100, this is probably the nicest (or it better be) bathrobe I've seen. Unfortunately, the site that sells it doesn't seem to be working right now, so I don't really have a link so that you can go spend your hard earned cash to buy this awesomeness. However, if you're willing to drop $30 at Joanne's for some terry cloth and waste a couple of hours swearing at the sewing machine I'd bet you could come up with something just as cool. Stay tuned!

Blarg!

Another great (and free!) pattern over on Ravelry. That place is amazing, I love searching through all the new patterns put up every day. Anyway, check out this latest one I found!

Recognize it? It's an elven leaf brooch! It's so pretty too that you could wear it and not look like a freak (who knew that wearing a hobbit cloak in public was a weird thing to do?) but the other nerds hiding in the crowd would totally understand what it is. Very cool.

Click here for the free pattern from Ravelry.

I hope you guys know how to knit...

...because you are going to want to knit this. This was created by a wonderful knitter I found over on Ravelry named Kelly. Check out this adorable little Serenity she made!



It's so cute! It could use some glow in the dark yarn on the little engine parts, but whatever. Oh yeah, did I mention that this pattern is TOTALLY FREE? It is so awesome that she would not only take the time to write up a pattern like this (because writing patterns are a total pain in the butt) but that she would put it up for the whole world to use. So go forth and knit! Stay tuned!

Old Timey Sampler

Okay, I'm not sure if too many of you are familiar with cross stitch samplers or not, but if you are, well, most of them are pretty boring. They are pretty much made so that you can have an excuse to try out different stitches and a lot of times commemorate a birth or something like that. Anyway, leave it to the internet to come and make something really neat and interesting out of a sampler.

And it's an Internet Sampler! I know the picture is a little hard to see here, but it's very detailed. It must have taken forever. I love the borders--I think they might be my favorite part. The little emoticons down by the bottom are pretty cute too. I think this is so great probably because it captures the spirit of the Internet so perfectly--it's a place for, by and inhabited by crazy people. Too cute!

Couture Video

Oh my gosh, you have got to check out these awesome outfits. These were made by Craftster user montyfull, and they are pretty amazing.

Look at all the sparklies! And check out the garter around the leg.


The bob-omb dress. It's a little hard to see, but it's quilted up at the top.
Gold coin dress--I think this dress is pretty amazing even without the video game theme.
Toad stool dress.
And a shot of all of the dresses, plus the toad dress in the middle. I bet there are a bunch of super nerdy girls out there who would wear these. Alright, maybe not the one with Mario's giant head on it, but the concept is pretty cool.

Anyway, yeah! These were too cool not to share. Stay tuned!

I'll just leave this here

That's right. It's Tim Gunn. And Iron Man. Just thought everyone should see this.

It's a miracle!

It's a miracle! Not only am I finally making a new post, we have a new dude to show off! AND we have a pattern for him! AND we have some finished amigurumi up for sale in the shop! Wow, I feel kind of productive. Not that I haven't been busy--I have--I have just been doing non-nerdy things. It's time for me to get cracking on Christmas presents if I want to get them finished in time--not because they are complicated, but because I am very bad at actually finishing projects I start. I get distracted with new projects pretty easily.

Anyway--the new dude! Behold!
It's Obi-Wan Kenobi! And he's very cute, if I do say so myself. I think his little white beard may be my favorite part about him.

And without his jedi robes.

Here's the closeup of his little lightsaber. It's very tiny and very meticulously painted.

All together! So what do you guys think? I know it's nothing really out of this world, but I have been wanting to make an Obi-Wan to add to our little entourage. Now if we could just finish our Gandalf the White we will be all set on wise old dudes.

Anyway, if you want to pick up the pattern it will be available in the store by the end of the week--we just need to finish the lightsaber instructions and we'll be set. I am thinking about making another pattern pack available with Obi-Wan, but I am having some difficulty picking out which characters to make for it. I know I want Lando in there, but I was thinking about adding an alien or some sort. Any ideas? Suggestions? I was thinking maybe a Jawa, but maybe Greedo or someone like that would be fun too. Anyway, I'm still thinking about it, so it might be a while before a whole pack is ready.

Stay tuned!