Kids 2015/2016 Cosplays

We usually start working on costumes for con season/Halloween around March. The kids were really excited about costumes this time around. I love the years they really get into costuming and hate them at the same time. It means lots of work for me. Maybe one day they will decide they want to start making their own.

 

Supergirl

Cat Woman's costume turned out to be one of my all time favorites so far. She decided she wanted to be Supergirl. It helped that she looks a lot like the new Supergirl from the tv show.

      

HeroesCon Picures

   

Process Pictures
- The top is blue leotard with the Supergirl symbol cut from fabric on my cricut machine. I first attach the iron backing to the fabric which gives it the stability to cut the logo out on the cricut.
- The boots are a goodwill buy covered in leather.
- The skirt is a simple half circle skirt pattern.
- The belt is cut from foam and then covered in gold rub and buff.
- The cape I simply cut out and sewed two pieces together.

 
  

Daredevil

Luckily Deadpool decided that he wanted to do something easy since most of my time was consumed with Supergirl. He had been watching Daredevil on Netflix and decided he wanted to be Daredevil before he got the complicated costume. Easy peasy! I bought the boots at a yard sale, he had the pants and shirt, the mask is a fabric remnant I found at the fabric store, and then the weapons are just a couple pieces of a dowel.

 

Star Lord

Sheldon decided that he wanted to be Star Lord. Batman did most the work for this costume. As usual I took over here and there and of course I did all the sewing.

    

5 Fandom Friday: Magical Items I Would Love To Own

Finally getting around to posting again because I found a fun writing prompt. Thanks The Nerdy Girlie and Super Space Chick! Here are 5 magical items I would love to own...

The Lasso of Truth - The first one is kind of obvious for me. Wonder Woman carries it so of course I want it but also can you imagine how much easier parenting would be!? Batman and I often hear "I didn't do it" from all four children; we have even come to the conclusion we must have another person that lives in our house named Ididntdoit. Wouldn't the Lasso of Truth come in handy!

A Dragon Egg from Alagaesia - Not everyone enjoyed these books but I loved them. The movie was okay but in both the book and the movie the part where he takes his first ride on Saphira has always made me wish that I could ride a dragon. I know this weekend is the the kick off of Season 5 Game of Thrones so naturally I should want a Dragon egg from there but truthfully they are just a little too unpredictable for me.

A wand of course. Especially for the scouring charm and apparateing. Being able to transport myself from point A to point B has always been at the top superhero powers I wish I possessed and who wouldn't want to be able to clean their house with a flick of a wand.

A Time Turner - At first when I was talking to Batman about my list I wasn't sure whether this is something that I would want. I don't like the idea of going back in time to change things. I think things happen the way they are suppose to happen but wouldn't it be great just to have a couple more hours in the day!

A Genie Lamp - I had to google magical items to come up with this last one. I could think of other things but nothing that I really wanted. A picture of a magical lamp showed up. I think 3 wishes would be fantastic and I would make sure to make my wish very clear so there was no room for interpretation.

What five magical items would you love to own?

Geeky Family Photo Shoot

I wanted to share all of these since I used one for the title and I think they are awesome! LM Gittings Photography did such an awesome job and all four kids were really in to it which is very rare during photo shoots! We chose to walk around the alley ways of Asheville, NC. There are some amazing place to take photos here in Asheville.

Then each of the kids...

That is One Geeky Kitchen

I love my kitchen. I am sure people think I am crazy but in my 30's I really started to let my geekiness shine. Some people cover their kitchen in roosters, some prefer flower, I cover mine in superheroes and lots of them. I had someone tell me that they admired the fact that I didn't over think things, I just went with it. They liked how childlike it was because adults sometimes hold back; worried what others would think. Hmmmm.... I think that was a compliment. So here is my kitchen. We just went with it. It really is great my husband and I are so alike.

So for lack of a better word we are going for kitschy. Kind of like the walls of Cracker Barrel or Applebees but better because it is done with superheroes. It isn't complete and I will post more pictures as we finish more but here is what we have so far.

This is probably one of my favorite items in our kitchen. Batman and I had a lot of fun doing this one kidless weekend. We spent hours on the floor at our favorite comic book store combing through the 50 cent comics for the perfect pictures of our favorite characters; then coming home to cut them out and paste them down. We started with a simple Melltorp Table Top from IKEA and Lalle Legs from IKEA. I figured this way if I messed up I wouldn't be as upset with myself because I didn't spend a lot of money on the table. We slowly started decoupaging the layout with Mod Podge Super Glossy. Then we sprayed a couple of coats of Mod Podge Acrylic sealer over that. It came out pretty awesome. I may eventually put an epoxy over the entire thing but I am terrified of it ruining our hard work.

We have been collecting action figures from various places for a couple years now. When we moved in to our house a year ago we bought a couple corner shelves so we could display them. One of our yearly geek trips is to Asheville Toy Expo. It is a great place to pick up some awesome action figures. We pick what we like. We don't care if they are in perfect condition or in the package. We don't plan on trying to sell them later. They are totally for our enjoyment. Above those we have some comic books framed.

On our wall we have some tin signs that are mass produced but we also make sure to pick up some unique art while we are at Dragon*con and A.C.E. every year. The TYME Wonder Woman and Zatanna pinup art is by Al Abbazia at Martini Avenue. The drawings of the kids are done by Brent Brown at ACE every year. Make sure to stop by and get your caricature drawn if you ever make it to A.C.E. The Batman and Robin in front of the moon is done by Neil Adams.

Then of course I have a coffee cup collection. 

And what I wouldn't do to also say I had this in my kitchen...

Seen here in one of our favorite shows.

Unfortunately I don't have the $300-500 that it goes for on ebay. Then there is the whole worry that if I did finally buy it for myself my lovely children would for sure end up breaking it.

Menu Plan Monday

There are times when I am really good at planning my meals and then there are times that I want nothing to do with dinner or grocery shopping. Hopefully starting this will keep me more on top of it.

Monday - Chorizo Chili - This is a Batman special and it means I don't have to cook! He is actually cooking as we speak and boy does it smell good.

Tuesday - Pizza - Kids don't have school due to snow so I will probably have some extra littles tomorrow. I will be exhausted by the end of the day so I am going to be lazy.

Wednesday - White Bean and Chicken Chili - Yea, we are doing Chili two days this week but that is what I have.

Thursday - Pepper Crusted Pork Tenderloin and Root Vegetables

Friday - Meal out of the Freezer

Saturday - Buffalo Chicken, Green Bean Fries, Sweet Potato Tots

Sunday - YOYO (your on your own)

Chorizo Chili

This is one of Batman's specialties and it is tasty. I bet you didn't know Batman could cook!

Chorizo Chili
1 chorizo sausage
1 can tomatoes with chilis
1 can pinto beans
1 can black beans
1 can white hominy
1 tsp cumin
chips
sour cream
shredded cheddar
avocado

1. Brown the chorizo sausage in a large pot. Drain the grease.
2. Drain the beans and hominy. Add beans, hominy, and tomatoes
3. Add the cumin.
4. Simmer for 15 minutes
5. Top with crushed chips, sour cream, shredded cheddar, and avocado.

Not the relaxing morning I wanted!

Yesterday was a really productive day. We got the chicken brooder built, baby chicks bought, a lid on the turtle enclosure, and a new wifi thermostat I put in all by myself. I felt very accomplished until this morning.

Sundays we usually sleep in, especially when the kids are at  the other parents house. My goats are never thrilled when I finally get out to feed them around 10am instead of their usual 7am feeding. This morning I woke up with a feeling of dread. I had a dream that all 5 of our baby chicks we picked up were dying. I woke up threw, off the covers and ran to check on them.

Wait... Why is the house freezing. Oh shit! It is only 56 degrees in here. We have 3 cold blooded animals in our house as well as the 5 baby chicks that are suppose to be at 95 degrees with their lamp. THIS IS NOT GOOD! I check on the chicks, all are alive. I check on Cynder and turn on her light, not looking sooo good but I have to give her a little time after turning on her light. I will come back. Same for the turtles. Now what the hell did I break?

Every computer person knows try turning it off and back on again. Well that didn't work.

Time to face the elements and go under the house. It is 7 degrees, feels like -11. UGH! Get under the house and flip the furnace on and off. Smack my head on the light down there and break it. Pieces of glass are now in my hair. Great! And that didn't work either. I pass the goat pen and Daisy and Luigi remind me I have farm chores. I let the goats out and give them some hay. Grab the water bucket so I can give them some warm water from in the house. The bucket handle freezes to my palm. Wonderful! Goats are taken care of. Rabbits are going to have to wait till I fix the heat issue.

Time to call my ex-husband. He isn't going to be happy, it is too early for him on a Saturday but he works on HVAC systems and I am at a loss. After rubber ducking over the phone a bit I realize we have a two part heating system and I don't have the thermostat programmed as such. Fix that and go feel the vent again. SWEET! The air is semi warm. Hopefully it just needs some time to warm up. The thermostat is reading 2 degrees more than it was this morning. 59 degrees is still cold but it isn't as cold.

Now to finish the farm chores and go get some breakfast! Oh and some coffee. I have done all this without coffee.

Thermostat is wifi now so I can check to make sure it is continuing to climb. Awesome! On with the rest of my day.

Our Suburban Farm/Zoo - Part 1

I have a rabbit addiction. I admit it. Those cute fuzzy little things won my heart. Little did we know they were really the beginning of our suburban farm/zoo.

Catwoman walked in to the pet store one day and saw these fuzzy little Lionhead bunnies and fell in love. She gets this from me; sees a cute little baby critter and has to have it. She even takes it a step further and wants to be a vet one day. She isn't a huge fan of people but makes up for it with her love of animals. So she sees these bunnies and has to have one. She begs me for weeks. Said she will pay for it with her own money, etc.... etc... Finally after some talk with Batman we give in.

She saved her money all summer and bought her first bunny and Figaro comes home with us. I built him an awesome cage using these directions. I rarely do anything half way and always think if I do it myself I will save money (usually not the case). He lived in the sunroom that was off our apartment. Over time I too fell in love with him so we bought another one, Butterscotch. We made this cage into two cages. We started looking in to breeding them so we decided to start getting pedigree lionheads. We went to our first bunny show and brought home Black Knight. Yet another bunny in our sunroom. Unfortunately Black Knight got sick and passed away. This is always hard but one of the lessons I think it is important for Catwoman to learn if she is going to be a vet. Sometimes they get sick and some of them don't make it.

By this point we knew that we would be moving. It was only a matter of when. When we started looking for houses we made sure they allowed bunnies and having a shed with plenty of land was a plus. We were looking to rent at first. I passed up on a couple great houses because we couldn't have bunnies. Then one day after many places had fallen through we found a nice house with a little under an acre of land that was rent with option to buy. It was perfect for us and while I hadn't been thinking about buying I started to dream. There was a place to put a shed. I could add a fence. My mind started spinning at this point. I could have a small farm with chickens and our bunnies. We moved in shortly after.

Bunnies temporarily moved to the basement of our new house. We then brought home two more that were full bred pedigree lionheads, a male, Nerd and a female, Prim. About a month later we had our first litter of bunnies. One morning I went down to check on the rabbits and Figaro had pulled out half his hair. What the hell? Then the big ball of fur started moving. I peeked in and there were four little baby rabbits. Ahhh! Figaro wasn't a boy, she was a girl. Rabbits pull their hair to create a warm nest for their kits. She was renamed Figgy and continues to be our best momma bunny.


Shortly after we had a bad storm and the basement flooded. If it had gotten much higher we would have lost Butterscotch who was on the bottom part of the cage. After that the bunnies move to the laundry room. NOT IDEAL! Prim then had her first litter of kits. I started working hard on getting our shed ordered once the house started to smell like 11 bunnies.

 Finally our shed came! Thus Geeky Bunny Rabbitry was born as well the beginning of our farm.

To Do Lists

A symptom of adult ADD is an ever growing number of to do lists. I have them everywhere. I mean every where. I have them in piles, in folders, on my computer, on my phone, on my tablet, on my hand, you get the point. Sometimes when I am rummaging through old notebooks or my piles of paperwork I find lists from years ago. I still haven't done half the things on those lists. All this doesn't keep me from continue to find the perfect app or the perfect system. Eventually something has to work, right? My life is hectic. I need to have something that works.

As far as apps go I have downloaded them all. First for Android then for iPhones. This is one of the things that I miss about Android. I had my to do list right there when I woke up my phone. Unfortunately android phones aren't sturdy enough for me. After going through 5 of them, the last one breaking in the pocket of my jacket I was done! So iPhone it is.

So what have I tried?
Paper Lists - It doesn't work. Like I said I have lists everywhere. They get lost, I don't like my handwriting, the page gets to messy, you get the point. They don't work.

So I started download apps. I have downloaded them all. I will tell you about the ones that I actually spent time using. Some immediately got the boot for one reason or another and for most of them I couldn't even tell you why now.

Evernote - Everyone goes on and on about this app. You can use it anywhere. This is why I have tried it 4 different times. Every time I download it I remember why I don't like it. I want simple. I need simple. I just want to add my items to a list and check them off. It would be great to add pictures and what not but I need them in a simple, check it off list. This is not Evernote.

Wunderlist - I downloaded this because there is an option to add it to the "Today" page on iPhone. The "Today" page is the closest that I am going to get to Androids customizing screens. If you are unaware on how to get to this page you swipe down on the top of our iPhone. Here is my problem with Wunderlist, when I add a task I want to just be able to add it. Not have to go to a second screen and select that I want it to be listed on my today to do list. Of course I want to add it to today's to do list, duh, I want it to come up on my iPhone's "Today" page. So this too gets the boot.

AmazingNotes - This one actually worked... for a while. I had all my folder organized, in ROYGB of course. I used it regularly for about two weeks. I still use it occasionally and for a lot of people I think it is a good option. I didn't like that I wasn't able to add it to my "Today" page but I am finding this isn't an option for most iPhone apps. I also started making to do list for too many separate projects. I need one list! This isn't the issue of app but my issue. I have this strong desire to be this overly organized person and I AM NOT! I do good to remember to brush my hair everyday. This also doesn't have a desktop component which I find useful.

And just to show I was joke about needing to organize everything by ROYGBP. Maybe I got tired of the program because I ran out of colors.

So as usually my ADD and my need for some sort of organization in my life got me started on this blog and again on the search for a better app. So far I sound really picky but I really need something that will keep me on track.

I downloaded Any.do first thing this morning. I like it. It is simple. There is a desktop component and a chrome addon! This is a big plus. I added a couple of things to it. I really like how well it works. So far I think it looks good and would be a good options for someone needing a simple to do list. There are two apps for the phone, one is a to list and the other is a calendar. I think I will use the calendar app, for right now; the to do list is getting the boot for right now but only because I found something better.

So in my search for the perfect app this morning I came across a Lifehack article Five Best To Do List Managers. This site usually has some good advice. It listed Google Keep, Any.do, Wunderlist, Todoist, and HabitRPG. I stopped when I got to Any.do because I hadn't tried it yet. I downloaded it on my phone and on my computer. Added a couple things that needed to get done to my to do list. Started this blog. Then kids started showing up for child care and it was time to work. Came back to my computer during nap and finished scrolling through the article. Got to HabitRPG and knew immediately that was the one that would work (at least for a little while).

HabitRPG makes your to do list a game. Kind of like one of those facebook games where you level up your player. This is right up my alley. I can get sucked in to one of those for hours. Complete this task and you will be at the next level. I swear the person who wrote this app must know me somehow. I am always telling my kids to make it a game when they are thrilled about doing something. Now I can take my own advice. Time to play!