Greetings from another shiny, new blogger!

I’m Tonya, a high school foreign language teacher who has a serious love for all things geeky! I spend my day working with teenagers so when I come home in the afternoon, my absolute favorite thing to do to relax is kick back with my crafts in front of the TV watching sci fi or fantasy movies. I have a wonderful, crazy smart, computer programmer husband and two children who are being raised in true geek fashion who can already quote Harry Potter movies and identify mythological creatures.

I started crafting at the age of five when my grandmother taught me to embroider. (She was a firm believer in Idle hands being the Devil’s work and I was always into mischief!) Now, I also crochet, sew, stencil and cook as well as dabble in other mediums.

My nickname is Trouble (and rightfully so!) because I’m a high energy, creative and spontaneous sort of person. My students always stay awake in my classroom because they have no idea what I will do next. Being quirky and unpredictable is sort of a thrill for me.

As for my geeky side, I’m a big fan of Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Mythbusters, Lord of the Rings and old school 80s video games. I’ve only just recently started playing current video games as an adult. I LOVE Kirby’s Epic Yarn and all of the Mario games. I”m an avid reader and can read a series of books with great speed. I’ve read McAffrey, MZBradley, Tolkein, Rowling and T. Hatchett. I’m currently rereading the On a Pale Horse series by P. Anthony.

If you want to check out some of my creations, feel free to check my blog at http://thetroublewithcrafting.blogspot.com/ !

 

Goomba’s Shoe Luigi – Flickr Thursday

Since it’s been a while, let’s refresh your memory. Once a week I go into the Geek Crafts flickr pool to find and share an awesome photo with you. This cannot be done if you don’t join the group and submit your geeky crafts. No, seriously. Go do it now. It’s okay I’ll wait…

Are you done? Okay good!

This week’s find is called Goomba’s Shoe Luigi. Submitted by Danny_8bit, I’m pretty sure it’s a tree ornament. There’s a blog post all about  but not speaking Japanese myself, I still don’t know. I do know, however, that it is awesome!

Check out Danny 8bit on Flickr

Join the Geek Crafts Flickr Group (Did you know we had one?)

More Mario Bros. on Geek Crafts

Well, hello there!

Hello! I’m Coral, another new Geek Crafts blogger! I’m an engineer-turned-web librarian living in Anchorage, Alaska with three birds, a chinchilla, and my very geeky husband. Obviously, I’m a computer geek and a fan of science fiction/fantasy literature: it’s almost required for my job, right? I’m also into tabletop roleplaying games—Shadowrun was my first love, but I’ve enjoyed everything from Exalted to Call of Cthulhu and Dungeons & Dragons—and an ever-shifting array of fandoms. While I’m not a computer gamer, I’m married to one, so some of my crafts have followed that theme. See also: weighted companion cube! (I used plastic canvas and yarn, as well as some deceptively heavy filling.)

As for my craft habits, I have a deep and abiding love of oldey timey craft styles reapplied in funny, geeky, and snarky ways. I love geeky (and subversive) cross-stitch, especially, though I’ve been known to knit on a loom, to home brew beer and soda, to cook up a storm, and to attempt inadvisable things with a hot glue gun. Learning to crochet is definitely on my to-do list, because there are so many excellent patterns out there!

To the left, you can see a QR code cross stitch I did (the first and last ever). It actually resolves to text—a quote I particularly like.


Anyway, I plan to bring the library love, along with my love of SCIENCE!, internet memes, bird nerdery, good speculative fiction, terrible vampire novels, caffeine, RPGs, and bicycles to share with you every Wednesday. If you want to know what I’m up to on a daily basis, you can find me on my personal blog (mostly library stuff, with some craft content), on Twitter, or Google Plus. (If you add me on G+, drop me a note to tell me you belong in my craft and/or geek circles! :))

Bonus points if you get the ::1 joke. ;) If not, I explained it here.

Awesome Mario Birthday Cake of WIN

I absolutely have to share this great geek-cake-of-win that was made by my friend Kirsty for her husband, John’s 30th Birthday. John is co-founder of gaming blog and retro console shop angrydinosaur.co.uk, so this cake works on so many levels.

Gotta love that little Shy Guy down there, but wait, no Luigi?

Left 4 Dead Health Pack earrings

 

I like to think of myself as a helpful person.  I bring a net positive to most situations.

Left4Dead Healthpacks

Except…
There is a specific circumstance during which, I have found, I am downright useless:

Zombie Apocalypses
Gentle reader, should there be a zombie apocalypse, you do not want me anywhere near you. I’ll be worthless.

I will stumble around with my pistols, clumsily shooting at your butt, and thrash about in Boomer Bile. And if you get hurt, oh goodness, if  you were to get hurt, I will have already used up my healthpack. By accident. When I was trying to equip a flashlight.
That is what brings us here, kids. I am loving these ‘lil Left 4 Dead polymer clay earrings. Hand sculpted, painted, and glazed, the earrings are mounted on pure silver fish-hooks. They are small and light-weight as well, so you can wear them comfortably. More importantly, you can wear them and dream that you are the kind of person that always has a spare healthpack with them and they’ll stay on, even if you’re carrying a flashlight. Everyone’s butts are safe!

Apocalypse, interrupted. You are a hero, Kristina Tuck.

There is a lot more video game inspired jewelry where these guys came from, so be sure to check out Ms. Tuck’s Etsy page.

Harness the Power of the Keyblade

When battling the Heartless, it’s always good to have your trusty Keyblade with you.

Jewelry by Aimee has created the perfect necklaces to carry your many different keyblades with you at all times.

These necklaces are awesome, and come in a handful of the different kinds of Keyblades found in Kingdom Hearts. My personal favorites are the Fairy Harp Keyblade and the Oathkeeper Keyblade.