Lunchtime Productivity

A personal goal of mine is to finish one sewing related project a week. Since I am the epitome of a person with no free time I started to bring some of my projects to work where I work on them during my lunch breaks.

I actually have told no one about my secret sewing projects...not because they aren't fabulous but because they are incredibly nerdy and I am well aware not everyone has the appreciation for nerdiness like I do. People just don't know what they are missing!

So, with that said, here is an example of a lunchtime project I did this week. Enjoy! I know I did!

Monday Night - I made the shell (the actual hat) modeled after one of video game's classic characters,

Mega Man

Tuesday at lunch - I cut out the felt details of the hat using random office objects as measuring devices.

I borrowed the lid of a scented candle off the desk of a colleague for part one of the ear piece

Here's a lid from a cleaning product that I also borrowed from another colleague's desk for part two of the ear piece

                                                        

I used the lines of the notebook paper (that I actually had at my desk) to help envision scale

Wednesday at lunch - Finished cutting out the detail pieces and pinned pieces in place

The mouth of this little smiley face was the hardest part...felt is difficult to cut and to keep straight



All pinned up!

Thursday at lunch - Started sewing!

Everyone should have one of these in their desk

Friday at lunch - Finished sewing

Now we are ready for anything!

Aprons in Action!

Tonight was the first time in my life I was introduced as a designer. It was awesome. For months, I have been working with Tell Tale Preserve Company on their store front and kitchen aprons trying to find the balance of form and function…and I think we found both.

The blue apron is for the store front and the grey apron is for the kitchen

Tonight was an open house/trunk show at San Francisco’s Big Daddy’s Antiques. My friends at Tell Tale were there showcasing their fantastic treats and also were celebrating their new pastry spot at the front of the shop. Starting tomorrow Tell Tale will have a coffee and treats spot in the front of the shop six days a week. Of course, they will be sporting the aprons. Tell Tale’s own store front will open in San Francisco in February of 2011. I am glad to be a part of it.

They look so cute!

Tell Tale's pop up shop at Big Daddy's Antiques

Product development opportunity for Tell Tale and friends

"Super Toy" Comic and Collectible Show

San Jose, CA hosts a comic and collectible show a few times a year. Every time I see a flyer for the show I think, "Dude, I am totally going to go this time" and then never make it. Honestly, it makes it tough to remember to go to local events like this when they are advertised over three months in advance and held only on a Saturday.

But anyway, I went this time and honestly, it was a lot of fun.

The crowd was older than I thought it would be in that there were essentially no children, which was only a surprise because it is technically the holiday season when families tend to do more things together. Perhaps the older crowd was part of the reason why the show had a more toys as collectibles feel as opposed to toys are toys and some happen to be collectible.

Justin and Tim outside the toy show's entrance banner.

Either way, the best part of the show was the massive collection of nerdiness from a multitude of generations (and yes, I just used the term "nerdiness" as a real word).

Who doesn't need a vintage tin space gun?!

Star Wars had A-Team vans?!

In the end, I came out with a Wampa and Micro Machines Sand Crawler! Justin is holding my Wampa in the picture earlier in this post. Ha. Somehow, that didn't sound right.

More Comics in the Collection...

I've had my comic wallet for a couple weeks now and get compliments on it when I pull it out of my pocket  (thank you very much) and I got to thinkin'...there has to be other stuff I can make kinda like this wallet.

So...I made a travel bag. Sure, you can call it a makeup bag, but you could also think of it as a nice manly way to carry your toothbrush and razor while you travel.

Sadly, a comic in good condition was harmed during the production of this bag. It was a fairly recent Hellblazer comic that I had a duplicate of. I don't plan on hurting any more comics in the future unless they are in some way torn or have way too many copies on the market. 

Meet Rowan, A Fashion Forward Game Girl

My Friend Rowan is from Malaysia who studies 3D animation in San Francisco and has a passion for Japanese street fashion, building characters for video games, and staying up at all hours playing PC and console games. She is also very personable...every nerd guy's dream.

Rowan. (Yes Rowan, I jacked this photo from your Facebook. Ha!)

For months my professor raved about Rowan's awesome fashion sense and how I would appreciate meeting someone else that enjoyed fashion and video gaming. So, after a while of my professor pestering me, I finally met Rowan and her awesome closet on the same day. I am glad I did. I liked both instantly.

Rowan spoke a lot about her clothing style and how she believes in looking well put together whenever she leaves the house. That makes sense and honestly, I wish more people here in the US thought that way...I know we did at about 50 years ago. Anyway, where Rowan is from it is crucial to look presentable when in public and she brought that same mentality here to the US. Of course, with a little twist.

Two of Rowan's greatest fashion influences are the Lolita style and Mori girl styles from Japanese street culture. Rowan likes the detailing and general forms of the Lolita styled clothing but prefers the not so "matchy matchy" sense of the Mori girl style. Lolita style is indeed matchy. Here is a an example:



Lolita Style. Seriously matchy and seriously cute...but a little much to maintain on the regular 

 If you'd like to know more about Lolita style check out their wiki here. Here is an example of Mori girl style:

Mori girl style. Less about being perfect and more about layers and textures.

After to talking with Rowan and her mischievous cat, Ku, she brought out some of her favorite dresses and accessories for me to see and share with you. The clothing in the following pictures were purchased online  second hand. Clothing like Rowan's is hard to come by and very difficult to size (many things are in one size only) so she relies on her livejournal network to show her the way.

Here is a small glimpse into Rowan's house of style:



One of Rowan's favorite's. She bought this dress during her goth stage.

 

One of Rowan's winter dresses. She loves the tailoring and the "super dress up" feel to it.



Rowan's first Lolita dress. She wore this dress about two times...before she knew what was flattering on her.

She says this dress will be up for sale soon.







 

Rowan's favorite dress that she also likes to call er "safe" dress in that
she can wear it to class and then out to a nice dinner.

A girl's got to accessorize! Many of these necklaces came from Etsy.

An outfit's final touch.



Comics for your Wallet

As I was thumbing through one of the many craft books I have piled in my office I saw a pattern for a wallet made out of an old comic book. I was totally surprised that I have had this book for who knows how long and had never noticed this pattern! Of course, upon seeing the pattern I knew I had to try to make the thing.

The first few times I tried to make it I was unsuccessful. I had never used iron on vinyl. I mean really, who knew there was such a thing as iron on vinyl and that it would work with paper?! So anyway, after a couple times I think it worked out just fine. Check it out:

The comic I used I found in an antique shop for a dollar. It was an old Star Trek comic. Don't worry, I didn't rip the whole thing about. I just used the center advertisement.

Just in case you were wondering, this is what iron on vinyl looks if you ever need to purchase it. Most craft stores carry things like this in the same aisle as their interfacing. Once I got the hang of it, it was pretty easy to use. Beware though, this stuff comes in two yard packages and is about $10.00.

Call of Duty: Black Ops

This last weekend some friends and I went to a Gamestop in Oakland, California to participate in the Call of Duty Black Ops tournament. This was a totally random decision on our parts especially since none of us, except for one, had ever spent more than 1 hour playing. The tournament took place at 9pm and had about 20 participants at our location. Of course, the five of us, were the oldest people in attendance including the store employees. Everyone else was under 21! Hahaha! I suppose we weren’t that surprised, but still.

Anyway, the tournament set up was like this: there were about 10 rounds of 1v1 with a time limit of 5 minutes. Whoever had the most kills in those five minutes was deemed the winner of the round and thus, moved onto round two.None of us made it past round one or even placed within round one. It was pretty funny. All of us had about 15 kills against us and Scott, “the best player” out of all of us had only five kills against the other player. After all of us epically failed the kids who were continuing onto the next round told us that they swore they were going to lose because we are older and must be more experienced gamers,etc. Ha. Not so much.

It’s okay though, it was fun, random and we didn’t have time to play through the ranks and finals anyway, except for Scott, he doesn’t have a job. Here are the prizes just in case you were curious.

Round One Tournament Winners

 1st place Mad Catz 1GB Dog Tag Flash Drive and Xbox 360 throat mic , (wow…first place gets an off brand 1 GB flash drive?! I really missed out…)

2nd place Limited Edition Black Ops Flag

3rd place Limited Edition COD: Black Ops T-Shirt Online part

Top 8 finalists from online ladder play qualify for a trip to the Finals Event (Location TBD)

Finals 1v1 – 1st place $4,000 and Championship Trophy

From Left: Scott, Dan, and Justin. Right before getting their asses handed to them

Skywalker Ranch

This week I had the pleasure of going to Skywalker Ranch -  yes, THE Skywalker Ranch, for lunch and a quick tour.Firstly, Skywalker Ranch is freakin' beautiful. I would love to work for Lucas one day and would especially love to work in an environment that looked like this:




Skywalker Ranch. View from the Main House

 How did I get to visit Skywalker Ranch, you ask? Well, there are a few things: one, I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, second, I have an instructor who has a former student working for Lucas and third, that former student was willing to show me and a few others around a little.

Skywalker Ranch is big and very strict with what visitors can and cannot see...and justifiably so. We were able to enter the Main House where we had a quick bite and a tour of the first floor. Lunch was a delicious made to order pasta and meatball dish and the tour was short and sweet.

Sadly, we were not allowed to take photos of the interior of the Main House but I can tell you that I saw some key props from the Indiana Jones and of course, Star Wars. In addition to the small display of props, we saw a stunning library complete with lit fireplace, Lucas' personal screening room and an attached solarium (like a sun room).

Although we didn't get to see much in the way of props, droids or Muppets we were all excited that were able to drive into the Ranch at all! We all had a great time and hope to visit the Ranch and our new friend again soon.

I know, I know, you want to see pictures. Here. Check this place out, these folks were allowed to take photos...or at least I assume they were allowed.

To Love Nerd is to Give Nerd: Stuff I want online.

Well folks believe it or not, the holidays are upon us and if you folks are anywhere near as cool as I hope you are - which you must be because you are bothering to read this, I think I know what you want. You can all just copy and paste this holiday wish list to hand out to your loved ones. There is no holiday gift list better than this one.


1. NCC-1701 + Pizza = NCC-1701P


   

NCC-1701P

 2.  A Tough Call

Wampa Rug (Leia costs extra)

or



Tauntaun sleeping bag



 

3. Cozy Up for the Holidays


Plush Alien Face Hugger

4.  For the best hot chocolate ever

Caffeinated Stay Puft Marshmallows. Real ones.

5. Your very own android arm. Functionality not included.

Darth Vader's arm...

Darth Vader's arm with Dustin Diamond look-a-like

If you can't tell, I am am thinkgeek.com addict. Check it out.

Hat Brainstorm

Last week I brainstormed with my mentor, Cecile, about making more nerdy hats. Lately, I have received great feedback about my current hats and see an opportunity as well as demand for some new ones. Cecile’s and my brainstorming session started with me showing her pictures of some of my favorite sci-fi and retro video game characters while she sat back and took it in. Cecile isn’t someone I would call a nerd but she does know what Star Wars is and understood the importance of certain characters thanks to her husband, a comic and sci-fi fan, and of course, myself. After reviewing countless pictures and multiple angles of each character we got to thinking about hat design and logistics.

The designing process only took about an hour or so but the sample making took much longer, but, it was totally worth it. Right now, I have a few samples that are well on their way such as a fleece Mega man hat complete with ear covers and a new and improved fleece R2D2 hat.  I will post new pics soon but for now, here are some fancy napkin drawings to wet your appetite.

Every one's favorite bounty hunter. The section in the front center will actually come down onto the face past the rest of the hat. I know. The hat is already totally awesome.

A collection of ideas. The Storm Trooper is actually hard to make a fleece hat out of because they are all about dimension and less about color. We'll see how he comes out soon.

           

APE!

Last weekend I went to the Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco. For those of you that don't know it is a small scale gathering of various comic culture vendors that is run by the same folks as the San Diego ComicCon and San Francisco's WonderCon.

Perhaps the biggest difference between the large comic culture convention and APE, besides the huge size difference, is the lack of hype..and that's a good thing. At APE there aren't many panels or any long lines to see celebrities, there is a few long rows of comic culture related artitsts, crafters, comic shop owers and alternative publishers there.

Perhaps my favorite vendor at APE was a really crafty lady that made cheeseburgers...GIGANTIC cheeseburgers like the one pictured above. The giant cheeseburger was a show stopper. You couldn't pass by it without taking a picture of it or with it. Sadly, there was a stuffed squid about the same size as the burger but I couldn't get a good picture of it...I know I will see it again at WonderCon in the Spring.

The only thing I would change about APE is the lack of costumes. Seriously. One of my favorite things about going to any comic related convention has to be the people watching. Costumes, although I am not big into Halloween, are the best things ever at at comic convention.

APE continues to grow every year. I look forward to being a part of its evolution...although I kinda hope it stays small...it has a nice charm this way.

Hats

I make hats. I enjoy hats…especially the ones that look like retro video game characters.

In a class last year I was asked to come up with an apparel or accessories product line with a theme of my choice. Most of my classmates went with a high end cocktail party dress collection or a vintage inspired jewelry collection… the list goes on. You get the idea: most people went with really conventional ideas.

Now, it seems simple enough to make up a product line right? Not so much. The catch was, not only did you need to do a market analysis to ensure your ideas had a sellable target group but you had to MAKE proto types or at least be resourceful enough to source it to someone who would make it for you for minimal cost and minimal time considering most people procrastinated/underestimated how long it would take to actually get the process completed.

With that said, I went with what I know: nerdiness.

I made a mini collection of fleece hats inspired by the ghosts from Packman and Star Wars’ very own R2-D2. The name of the brand that I ended up with was Nerdbeanie. It is totally awesome and yes, I will totally make one for you. Just ask. 

Clyde. Fleece boody with Felt details.

                                                                R2-D2 Hat. Awesome.



Zombie Protection

So, it is not very often that your job tries to protect you from Zombies. My job is one of the few that is taking proactive measures into ensuring my safety in the event of a Zombie apocalypse by providing me with a handy link on an important company troubleshooting website....just in case. What’s your job doing for you?

Guide to Protecting Your Styles from  Zombies 

 All I can tell you is that I work with panties and other related undergarments. At any rate, here is what you get when you click on the link....and yes, I am totally serious that this is on a legit corporate website. I find it difficult to comprehend that this is allowed to exist on a strict company website. 

Halo:Reach

One of the things I hate most about video game reviews is that they can be too long winded. I generally enjoy the quick bullet pointed reviews or the thought out witty short video reviews. Well folks, I am not one for recording myself talking or doing much of anything. Maybe in the future, so for now, here is my stab at a video game review of Bungie’s Halo: Reach released for the Xbox 360.

Coming from someone who doesn’t normally play first person shooters I have to say that I really enjoyed the game for three reasons: I got to create my own character, the plot was a done such that you didn’t need to have played the previous games to get into it, and the attention to the architecture was stellar. I know to some that creating a character may be a weak point to liking a video game that has so many other awesome elements to it but, it was because I got to create my own character that I felt more attached to the character than the usual solider one would normally expect from a Halo game.

The one thing about this game that I view as a double edge sword is that the realism. While this game looks beautiful, it does depart somewhat from the previous “cartoon” look. This time around you actually feel like you are in a war zone similar to the likes of Medal of Honor.

In short: play it, you’ll like it. Hell, you would even like watching someone else play it.

Oh, and for another end note, this game is awesome to play in campaign mode.