Happy (Almost) Thanksgiving!

With Thanksgiving soon here, I thought I’d take to Etsy to look for some fun holiday-themed jewelry with everyone.

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First up, this cute pair of pumpkin pie stud earrings. They are made by Zebranas in Haarlem, The Netherlands, and sell for $12.04 per pair. Made out of Fimo silver plating, the earrings are 20 mm x 8 mm.

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Next up are these Butterball turkey earrings, perfect for the hostess with the mostess! This offering comes from Rubiotomus in southern California. They are made of surgical steel kidney ear wires, polymer clay and silver plated french hook ear wires, and sell for $16 per pair. The turkey itself measures 3/4″ long.

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But if you get earrings, don’t you really need a nice ring to go with them? GiraffesKiss of Torquay, England might have the ring you need then: a roast turkey ring, with cranberries, carrots and peas. Made of polymer clay, this ring comes shipped in a tiny roasting pan, for the finishing touch.

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But if funny clay food jewelry just isn’t your thing, then this necklace might be more up your alley: a Thanksgiving pumpkin snowglobe on a chain from Priyasha from Santa Cruz, CA. This adorable and sparkly pumpkin snowglobe necklace is filled with a tiny blown glass pumpkin and gorgeous glitter fall leaves in beautiful autumn colors. The glass snowglobe pendant includes a 20″ gold plated chain with a large lobster claw clasp for quick fastening/unfastening, and it’s available for just $27.

Finding Star Trek Crafts in the Weirdest Places

Full disclosure this weekend: somehow, I’ve ended up sick again, so I’ve been binge watching Star Trek fan films on You Tube. There’s a lot of interesting ones, and a few not so good ones, out there. And because I was in a Star Trek frame of mind for my entertainment, it carried over into my entry for today.

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First up, a “Live Long and Prosper” clock from…Wal-Mart!

Made from red oak, this clock stands 8.75″ tall and 6.75″ wide. It’s available for $46.89. Now, if that’s your mantra in life but you don’t have almost $50 available but you still need something for your home, the phrase, “Live long and prosper” is fairly dominant over in the home and living section of Etsy.

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Next up is your very own Galileo from the USS Enterprise, in necklace form.

Given that you’re celebrating you anniversary with your girlfriend or just that you finish modifying your retro class F shuttle-craft, and you need to treat yourself on this occasion or to accessorize your uniform. Whether you’re off duty or on, this Pennsylvania designer, “Paul Michael Design” beautifully crafted this shuttlecraft. It comes either in gold or silver, with a customizing of what type of gem stones to be “seated” inside the shuttle when it’s open up to see the interior.

The length of the pendant is least 22mm, and is available for $395. Paul Mitchell Design is located in Pittsburgh, PA.

Geek Girl Brunch + Comic Book Ornaments

Geek Girl Brunch

I don’t think I’ve yet shared the awesomeness that is Geek Girl Brunch. I discovered it via the Female Geek Bloggers G+ Community, and was immediately intrigued. Ladies getting together to share brunch, drinks, and geek-talk? Sign me up!

The group started in New York City, with its own meetups. They had so much fun together that they decided to roll out chapters, not only across the U.S but worldwide! Sensing I had found my geek tribe, I signed up to be notified about news of the Kansas City chapter. I got an email a few months later notifying me that chapters were forming, and would I like to be an officer to help launch the KC chapter? Because I love my hometown and want to nurture its geek culture, I said yes!

We had our first brunch in July – an informal meetup at the Cheesecake Factory, followed by Star Wars Day at Barnes & Noble. In September we gathered at the Renaissance Festival and strolled the grounds together. Other chapters have enjoyed a wide variety of themes, from a Zombie Crawl to a Xena-themed yoga session to a Pixel Perfect ode to video games.

Next week is KC’s third event, with a “Let’s Get Crafty” theme. My co-leader, another brunchette, and I are each leading a geek-craft. My craft is comic book ornaments, as seen in the examples below. I figured it was an easy introduction to decoupage, but infinitely customizable to whatever comic brunchettes might favor, along with whatever ornament base they might choose.

Comic Book Ornaments by Angie Pedersen

Basic instructions:

  1. Select ornaments in shapes that will showcase an identifiable amount of comic art, in shapes that should be easy to cut out.
  2. Page through your comics for images that will fit your ornament. TIP: If the image you want is too big, you can scan it and resize to fit your ornament. That’s what I did for the Dr. Horrible cube above.
  3. Place the ornament on top of the comic page and trace around it. Cut out with scissors.
  4. Brush Mod Podge (I used matte, but glossy would also work) on the ornament and position the comic cut out on top. Smooth out any wrinkles (a brayer helps here).
  5. Brush a coat of Mod Podge over the surface of the comic image to seal.
  6. Optional: embellish the edges of the ornament with decorative washi tape (see Buffy example above) or acrylic paint (see TARDIS example above). For the Dr. Horrible cube, I colored the top of it with a bronze metallic Sharpie (top not shown).

I hope you will check out Geek Girl Brunch and join in on the fun! If you’re in the KC area, stop by and say hi!

Links of Interest:

Harry Potter craft: Magical textbook skirt

Harry Potter textbook skirt by Marissa Fischer

I don’t know about you, but this time of year makes me want to pull on snuggly socks, bury myself beneath a cozy blanket (hand-crocheted, of course!), and dive into a good book. Or perhaps dive into a sewing project inspired by a good book – Harry Potter, to be specific.

Marissa over at Raegun Ramblings has posted a tutorial for just such a project: the Hogwarts Textbook Skirt. Her write-up includes a 20-minute a-line knit skirt tutorial (including “super-easy hemming knits trick”), which you can then embellish with your choice of Hogwarts-required reading. I love her furry Monster Book of Monsters with googly eyes! I also love that you could easily add textbook embellishments to a ready-made skirt for an even quicker project.

What textbooks would include on your skirt? Let us know in the comments below!

Links of Interest:

Lady Skellington for Halloween

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Just in time for Halloween, Darkspectre Custom Couture of Newberry, FL, posted this image of a gender bent Jack Skellington dress on Imgur.

It is a one of a kind commission piece, and the store do not have any more in stock, as all of their items are hand crafted and made to order. Their garments are not costumes, but rather, they are actual clothing quality pieces and meant for wear. This dress was in the works for four months.

Make An Amazing Toothless Costume For Extremely Patient Dogs

Loki in Costume

Before we get started, I want to point out there is a dog wearing this Toothless costume.

Don’t believe me? Check this out.

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Say hello to Loki, quite possibly the world’s happiest dressed dog. Loki is the model of a dog’s Toothless costume from “How to Train Your Dragon.” The directions walk through the entire process, and even includes how to make a dummy body of your dog, if you happen to have a dog chill enough to sit still for duct tape and plastic. My dog, not so much, but for those of us with less than patient dogs, there’s also directions on how to take measurements instead.

Rogue Siren is the creator of the costume and she’s also got an Instructable on how to create your own mermaid tail (she performs as a mermaid for parties in the Atlanta area).