Review: Rockets of Awesome

Greetings, Fanatics!

I was recently going through the products that Facebook's algorithm has selected for me and came across a styling service for kids; Rockets of Awesome. The idea behind Rockets of Awesome is that you won't need to go out shopping for your growing child every season; they send a box 4 times a year at the beginning of each season and tailor it to your child's size, fashion preferences, and the corresponding weather/season. Much like any other style subscription, Rockets of Awesome is a neat little service that asks you to fill out a questionnaire of your fashion preferences and then sends you a personalized box full of things that you can decide to keep or send back. The items that you keep are charged to your credit card (which you provide at sign up) and you mail any of the clothes that you decide aren't for you(r child) in the included envelope. My favorite part of this service is that it's free, excluding the clothes you buy!  Shipping is free both ways and there's no sneaky stylist fee per box.

 Last week, we received Isaac's first box.


  I was ecstatic to see this cute box waiting for me on the patio - it was so much bigger than I anticipated. Isaac was napping, so I decided to peek inside.

Everything was extremely cute. As in, I was giddy going through all of the clothes. Both Aaron and I are not a fan of graphic tees.  As a result, Isaac's wardrobe is a little plain. A little sad. These clothes were bright, almost fashionably grown-up in how minimalist and subtle it was in the design, but still incredibly playful. All of the clothes had clothing tags marked with Rockets of Awesome, so I'm guessing these are all designed in-house by them. Our box came with a pair of sunglasses, 7 shirts, and 4 pairs of shorts and out of these, I picked 6 favorites.

We only ended up getting 2 items this time, a pair of shorts and one of the polos. Although the clothes were incredibly cute and seemed very high quality, the price was a little bit of a con for me - each piece averaging to be about $17 each. Maybe because Aaron and I are not particularly fans of summer fashion or maybe because being native Houstonians we know that summer clothes (especially for kids) need to be chosen carefully with the swamp humidity, sweat, and sun bleaching in mind. Isaac is also at this weird in-between size where some of the pieces were much too big and some of them fit just right, maybe on the slightly snug size - which isn't ideal with how random his growth spurts are.

Returning the clothes we decided not to buy was really easy - I just packed up the refolded clothes into the included shipping bag, stuck on the prepaid label, and dropped it into a postal box. The shipping box that everything came in was really fun on the inside and made a great coloring project for Isaac.

A great cat bed too.

Overall, I'm thrilled that there's finally a children's style box that catches my interest. Besides my love of getting mail, I really appreciate the increase in attention to children's fashion in the past few years and with how excited I was over seeing the summer box, I can't wait to see the fall edition. If you have a child that you love to dress up like a doll (cough) or a fashion forward kid who loves getting mail (COUGH), I really recommend giving Rockets of Awesome a try.

Until next time,
stay Fanatic,
Megh

(while we're not affiliated with Rockets of Awesome, by purchasing something through the link to them on this page, you get a free item and we do too!)

Happy 2017

Greetings Fanatics!

I haven't seen you since early November, which means that we've been silent for about 6 months. Winter this past year was too nice to pass up staying busy and I feel like it's appropriate that I usually start posting in the spring after a hiatus. Dormant seeds springing up when it's warm and wet out.

Anyway. There is lots to update you about: new pets, new stuff, new things that we're up to.

Sister Hannah's autumnal bounty of cats produced one fruit for this family's benefit, in the form of a black kitten named Black Philip. He has grown, in the last few months, from being a very bad kitten with a penchant for leaping on my back with claws out to a mostly good young cat that doubles as a bug eater and escape artist.
Last month, we acquired Isaac's first pets, a pair of male gerbils named Sunee (Sunny) and Conee (Coney). They reside in a 20 (?[Correct me, Aaron]) gallon aquarium with a mesh lid and dig tunnels in the coconut substrate that Aaron, the friend of all animals, filled their home with in order to more emulate their natural environment. They're fun to watch.

I've slowed down on plush making for the time being, only having made one custom plush this year so far. I've been focusing on my new job as a freelance online content writer, a job that takes no creativity, only technical skill and a willingness to write. It pays more consistently than plush making does and gives my creativity a chance to rest and recuperate after 2016's push to make as many new toys as I could. As a result, we also skipped Houston's Comicpalooza for the first time in 4 years; besides the waning sales last year, I didn't feel up to the plush rush. An impromptu trip to Austin for Mother's Day took its place.
I've been focused on art as my creative outlet lately, a new zine series in the work - its progress will be shared occasionally on this blog.

Aaron's been up to the usual, collecting bugs and making pixel art and making big, beautiful terrariums. I'm trying to goad him to do more posts this year, or at least consulting with him so that I may make more nature related posts.

That's all for now, I may start writing shorter posts more frequently in lieu of my usually formatted posts. There will still be reviews and party posts, but a lot more rambling as well.

Until next time, stay Fanatic,
Megh

Halloween Hangover

Greetings Fanatics!

How was your Halloween? As you probably know, October is the most active month for we three Fanatics and as such the blog suffers. November has rolled around and now it's time to discuss what we were up to and what the rest of the calendar year holds.

On the 16th, we decided to knock a bunch of stuff off of our Autumn Fun List and visit a pumpkin patch. Originally, we planned on visiting Froberg's Farm in Alvin but when we found out that Froberg's pumpkins are only available to purchase in a box in their market, we decided to visit The Old Time Christmas Tree Farm in Spring instead. Joining us for this adventure was Grandpa Comparetto and sister Hannah.

Weekend Roundup

Greetings Fanatics!

Happy October! We're well into the month, but I'm so happy October is finally here. It's usually our busiest time of the year, activities wise, so I haven't had a chance to sit down and write until now.

What's been going on with us?

• We've been taking every chance we can get to go outside and hike! The weather is finally tolerable, so Memorial Park and the Houston Arboretum has been seeing us more than usual. The parks are jam-packed this time of year, reminding me of the short sci-fi story "All Summer in a Day" by Ray Bradbury, where school children on Venus are let out to play in the sun, which only appears for two hours every seven years. Read it if you love to cry. This weekend is filled with more hiking with a trip to either Froberg's Farm or Dewberry Farm for hay rides and pumpkin picking.
• Sister Hannah's outside cat Fage (like the yogurt) gave us an autumn bounty of 4 black Halloween kittens, born just this last Saturday. I'm hoping at least one of them turns out to be a female, so that I can have one (Aaron doesn't want another male cat because of the health problems they often have)
• Aaron and my anniversary is later this month, celebrating 5 years of Fanaticism.
• We recently went to the Houston Grand Opera's costume sale, which was pretty much a bust for everyone there. Though we did manage to snag 2 sweaters, 2 cardigans, and a dress for $9. The last time they had a public sale of their costumes was 15 years ago and after this weekend, I wouldn't miss it if they never did a sale to the public again, instead just having a sale for schools.
• Halloween is coming up and I'm making Isaac's first Halloween costume.
• Next month, I am participating in Pop Shop America's Winter Fest Market on Black Friday, so I'm also preparing for that.

I have some stuff coming in the mail and some events that we'll attend soon, so there will be some reviews coming up. I've been trying to get Aaron to write a series on the habitats in our house but he's very structured in his writing and is taking forever. So maybe look for that. 

In any case;

stay Fanatic,

Megh

Weekend Roundup: Squirrel Nut Zippers, Shiny Ribs, Halloween Quilt

Greetings, Fanatics!

Hope you had a nice weekend.

Well, next week is the first official day of Autumn and the days are actually starting to cool down. Not "crisp air, sweater weather, drinking hot coffee outside" cool, but a cloud or two has started meandering in front of the sun and staying out in the late evening has become pleasant. 

On Friday, we had the pleasure of seeing the Squirrel Nut Zippers and Shiny Ribs live at the Miller Outdoor Theater in the Museum district. I've been a fan of the Squirrel Nut Zippers since I was Isaac's age and I was ecstatic when I heard that they'd be playing for free at the MOT for their 20th anniversary revival tour. The three of us packed up a picnic and arrived early to make sure we'd get tickets for the seated area instead of having to sit on the hill in the back. This was Isaac's first concert and he seemed excited, even if he did have to sit on our laps with our hands clamped over his ears for much of the show, the ear plugs we brought for him being woefully insufficient. He actually ended up falling asleep toward the end of the evening. 

Shinyribs opened for SNZ. I'd never heard of them before this concert, but apparently they've got a pretty big following! Several people in the audience were singing/participating during the 60 minute set. Shinyribs is pretty great. Touted as an "American country-soul, swamp-funk band from Austin", it's almost impossible to smile at one of their high-energy shows. The band is lead by pistachio suit clad "Mr. Ribs", a jovial man with a rich voice and pretty killer dance moves. 

After a brief intermission, the Squirrel Nut Zippers took the stage. There's a lot of drama surrounding the group - front man "Jimbo" Mathus very clearly voiced the distinction that this tour was a "revival, not a reunion!", and I have to admit that I was too young to care about the falling out between the founding band members. I just like the music. Excitement was buzzing in the air as they played;  people were getting up to dance in the aisles and when the highly anticipated "Hell" began to play, throngs of swingdancing fans mobbed the front of the stage to join in the singing. A full moon hanging over the hill completed the feeling of the evening. 

 With October fast approaching, I've been putting the fabric I bought last Halloween to good use as a Halloween quilt. It's my first quilt, just a patchwork design, but I'm proud of it. So far, I've only got the columns stitched up - I ran out of black thread and haven't had the chance to run to the craft store for more. I've also been busy working on Halloween dolls for Megh's Menagerie (formerly TIM + BEN Dolls) and I've got a new shop in the works for Etsy, so keep your eyes open! 

Stay Fanatic,
Megh

Shop Review: Em and Sprout

Greetings Fanatics!

My holiday shopping has begun and today's review is on shop Em and Sprout. I've previously purchased from Em and Sprout; a few years ago I bought her now discontinued "Things in Space" t-shirt as a reward for doing well at a convention. It's taken me 2 years to revisit the shop, but when I saw this very cute Jack-o-Lantern necklace on the shop's Instagram, I fell in love.

My current necklace model.

Em and Sprout's style can be summed up in one word: cute. Large eyed animals stare sillily at you from shirts and bags and sweet looking ghosts dangle from necklaces and pins. Em and Sprout specializes in screen printing her designs on totes and hoodies and making dresses out of printed fabric featuring her art.

I'm finding myself drawn to Jack-o-Lanterns this season - the seemingly endless variation of expression on orange faces amuses me and I can count at least 5 Jack-o-Lantern items from around my room that were purchased within the last month. This necklace from Em and Sprout is fairly simple- made up of two laser cut pieces of acrylic and a black ball chain- but the simplicity is something that I like about it. It reminds me of vintage Halloween cards - the 2 tone design reminiscent of stamps from my childhood. Looking at this necklace makes me nostalgic and happy. I can wear this necklace around to add an obvious Halloween theme to my outfit or have it hanging on my wall as decoration.

If you love cute or kawaii themed art, give Em and Sprout a try.

Stay Fanatic,
Megh

Happy September 1st!

Greetings Fanatics!

It may not be officially autumn yet, but for me it's officially the beginning of Halloween season! This year I plan on capitalizing on my love for the chillier seasons by writing up posts on seasonal decor, harvest festivals around town, sewing projects, and recipes. Here's a rough list of my planned projects so far:

• Halloween quilt made with sp0o0oky fabrics!
• Isaac's first Halloween costume!
• Goat and horror plushies!

I also plan on turning our porch area into a nice outdoor sitting room to enjoy the few weeks of Houston's enjoyable weather, so expect to see progress posts on that.

See you soon and stay Fanatic,

Megh

I've been busy/ Short Shop Review: Sam Heimer

Greetings, Fanatics!

 This week has been a time of transition for our family. Our littlest creep has started his career in the public school system, a system that Aaron (home-schooled) and I (truant) are both bewildered by and are grateful for. I have a large commission order on my work table, due on the 1st, so I've been sewing away at that. That, plus the change in our sleep schedule (no more midnight movies) means that I haven't had as much time to devote to this blog as I'd like. BUT. As we get into the swing of things and with the approach of the Halloween season, I think you'll find that our blog is about to be more entertaining than it's ever been.

Shop reviews are usually on Wednesdays, but like I said, I've been crazy busy this past week. This week's shop review is on artist Sam Heimer. The school year has started and that's always been my cue to get antsy about Halloween. I've been a long time admirer of Sam Heimer's work and was finally able to put a few pieces from his Etsy shop into my review queue. Although I plan on buying whatever he's been hinting at on his Instagram, for now I settled for a pack of pinback buttons and a small art/comic/sketch book that I've been dying to get a look at.

Sam Heimer's work is dark; I'm not just talking about the subject matter, which features ghouls, Death, and Halloween. With muted tones and a heavy hand with ink, Sam Heimer's art is moody and dark, a number of his pieces remind me of woodcuts with traces of 20's Halloween advertisements.

The two buttons I purchased ( and indeed the only buttons in the shop) are going on my button board, although I'll probably take them off to wear around in October. One features a screeching Jack-o-Lantern and the other cheerily implores you to "Keep It Creepy!". Both are very simple and stylish.

I miss out on the pre-orders for Heimer's mini book, The Decoy and the Detective with a Melted Face", but a few weeks after the pre-orders closed I was happy to find out that there were a few extra copies left up in the store. The Decoy and the Detective with a Melted Face is series of sketches and story bits from a comic that Sam Heimer will never finish. It's a pity because the few pages that have story in it are intense and interesting. I'm glad that Heimer decided to share this small sketch book, even of the comic itself won't reach fruition, because the art inside is incredible.

I'll probably be revisiting Sam Heimer once his Halloween lineup is out for this year.

Stay Fanatic.
Megh

Shop Review: Pretty & Cute (revisit)

This is an affiliate post; while we are not getting products or compensation for writing this article, we do get a commission from any purchase made through the links on our page. All opinions are our own.

Greetings Fanatics!

It's been a minute since we last spoke about Pretty&Cute, the independent shop based in Oregon that imports sought after Asian cosmetics and skin care. Since our last review with Pretty&Cute, Korean brands have exploded in popularity with the mainstream skin care consumers. with popular retailers such as Target and Walgreens carrying products that have been a staple in Asian skin care regimens, such as micellar cleansing water, I thought it was time to recommend Pretty&Cute's services again.

Even though you can sometimes find brands like Tony Moly in stores such as ULTA, it's a hard search to find a physical shop that specializes in a large variety of brands without venturing into your city's International District or going to a specific brand store, like Houston's Lioele shop. Pretty&Cute takes the stress of the search away and consolidates your order so that you can shop from a variety of brands and products at your leisure and have it delivered to your home.

I recently got in a small order from Pretty&Cute: 2 masks, a variety of cleansers, and some BB cream that I'm excited to try and I'll be doing a short review of the products I got under the cut.

A tale of 3 cafes: Doux Cafe, Tree House Craft Coffee, and Tout Suite

Greetings Fanatics!

As Isaac grows older, I find that working from home gets a little more difficult. There are only so many times that I can listen to Isaac incorrectly sing "Jingle Bells" in his high, beautiful baby voice before my nerves get a little frazzled. It's too hot to really walk anywhere right now in Houston, where humidity is often at least 80% and the lows are at 90 degrees, so we often just stick at home waiting for Aaron to come home. As of late we've been going out to more cafes (to stay awake/get out of the house), whenever we can afford to. There are three that we've especially been frequenting and they're all locally owned, which is fun. With locally owned places you stray away from the corporate, homogeneous experience of, say, a Starbucks, which can be great once in a while. And sometimes, not so great.

Affiliate Post: ThriftBooks Review

This is an affiliate post; while we are not getting products or compensation for writing this article, we do get a commission from any purchases made through the links on our page. All opinions are our own.

Greetings Fanatics!

 Since you're reading our blog instead of watching YouTube videos or working, I'm going to assume that you enjoy reading as a hobby at least a little bit. Well, we Fanatics are fans of the written word as well.

Now that Isaac is older (and louder), we don't find ourselves at the local library to borrow books as much as we used to. Instead, we find ourselves at various second hand books stores around town. We prefer the pre-owned books because they're cheaper, don't cause as much guilt for us when we inevitably wear it out, and it's better(?) for the environment. But you can only go to Half Price Books so many times before it feels picked over, and it's disheartening to me to see so many copies of Catcher in the Rye in one place. So, when I stumbled upon a website called ThriftBooks, I was intrigued. I'd never heard of a designated second hand book web-store before (don't talk to me about early Amazon) and I liked the idea of looking through books from the comfort of my own home; no one breathing down my neck (Aaron), no one judging what I was browsing (Aaron). An ideal shopping experience worth pursuing.

Even when we'd go to the bookstores in person we'd usually have a budget of $20 a trip, which would get one paperback novel each for Aaron and I and maybe a book for Isaac. So far, we've spent around $130 on ThriftBooks purchases since March of last year. For hardcore book fanatics, that already sounds quite cheap, even miserly. But consider this; we've purchased 26 books, all on ThriftBooks. That's about $5 a book, which is really great considering that we've bought things ranging from textbooks to novels to children's books to a hardcover 2nd edition.You can even control what condition your books come in - a copy of JAWS in 'fair' condition, one that you might bring to the beach to read is less expensive than a 'good' condition copy. Another thing I like is that shipping is free within the U.S, if you spend more than $10 on books (which, believe it or not, is sometimes hard to accomplish). Shipping is fast, and while the books come from the ThriftBooks warehouses all over the U.S., tracking is included so you can know the whereabouts of your copy of American Psycho at all times.

While it's definitely worth supporting your locally owned second hand book shop, Thriftbooks is a valuable website to consider when you have a certain books in mind or if you want to buy a bunch of books at once. Or if you're a bit antisocial like us and want the mailman to deliver your books.

(And remember to buy through our links or banner so that we get that sweet affiliate cash!)

Stay Fanatic,
Megh

Shop Review: Pam Wishbow

Greetings Fanatics!

Sorry in advance for bad pictures, my phone is being terrible to me today. I recently made a purchase of a few spooky items from PamWishbow, an artist on Etsy. Besides her beautifully cartoony illustrations and use of color, the dark themes in Pam's shop speak to whatever is residing in my bones that compels me to accumulate interesting things. Whatever you can call Wishbow's style, you can be assured that it's got "It". Besides art prints and zines, she carries items you didn't even know you needed: a random pack of items for whatever adventure you might head off on, a personalized haunting for your home, hand sewn sigil banners to protect your home.

For my first (but certainly not last) purchase from Pam Wishbow, I bought a House Ghost, a Quest Pack for Aaron, Professor Pam's Semi-Famous Hex Breaker, and a mini love zine called The Carpenter to gift to Aaron. When I received my package, I was thrilled to see that it included a little print and a Fortune Telling Fish! My previous fortune fish went through the wash and I was excited to get another. Aaron's fortune read "Passionate" and mine was "False" (important for later!).

If you've been reading my reviews for any length of time, you'll know that I like to review each item separately first and then as a whole.

Comicpalooza 2016 (long, rambling)

Greetings Fanatics!

Sorry for the delay on my write up of Comicpalooza, but I always sustain some sort of injury/illness after a big con and this time it was a wrist strain. My sewing machine ate all of the needles I bought it so many of this year's wares were sewn by hand. Even as I type this, my hand is resting on an ice pack.



This year's Comicpalooza was good. It's always fun, but this year was less profitable than previous years; maybe due to the changed date from the usual Memorial Day weekend to Father's day weekend, maybe due to the massive construction being done on the face of the George R Brown and surrounding streets, maybe due to the fact that the disappointing Space City Comic Con was held only two weeks before and people may have been wary/strapped for funds of the next big convention. I don't know. Sales were disappointing, but compliments and business card takers were in abundance, which is very encouraging. Thank you to everyone that stopped by the TIM + BEN booth!

I say that Comicpalooza is always fun and it's true. Even when sales are slow, I always have a good time. This weekend we brought Isaac for all 3 days, which was challenging, but in different ways than we thought it might be. He mostly sat in the back of our space, reading comic booths and refusing to nap. Comicpalooza is very good about having kids' space, to entertain smaller children. This year, we brought Isaac to the bounce houses set up in the middle of the floor, worth the $4 admission each time to get him some exercise (and tire him out). He loved seeing the "robots" (Stormtroopers from The 501st Legion) that were stationed at the end of our aisle. He was too shy to meet Tina and Louise cosplayers from his favorite forbidden cartoon, Bob's Burgers. He had a fun time, considering he had no idea what was going on.
I had fun too; especially in form of walking several miles everyday going back and forth through the convention center and catching comedian Jim Mackenzie's side show multiple times in bits and pieces. The TIM+BEN crew (me, Aaron, and Hannah) have been big fans of Jim's since 2014, when he posted up across from our vendor's booth and started cracking a whip to get the attendees' attention. *No one* is a bigger fan than Hannah, who takes every opportunity to leave the booth when she hears his distinctive voice call over the show floor. This past Saturday, she did something terrific to show her appreciation, even if it didn't go the way she had planned. Friday night, when we went to the grocery store to get supplies for the next day, she purchased a single long stemmed red rose. She trimmed it and planned to throw it at the end of one of his performances the next day. I followed her soon after she left the booth to support her/make sure she did this wonderful thing. We watched Jim's entire show and when the time came and he bowed and the audience was clapping ... she didn't throw it. She missed her cue. She meant to do it while he bowed, to throw it in front of him while he was bowed down so that he wouldn't know where it came from, but she froze. She decided to leave it on his speaker/podium while he was taking Scissor Selfies with fans, but because Hannah has hilariously bad timing, she laid it down just as he was walking back. And he saw her. And thanked her. Over the speaker, While she was power walking away. She was mortified and I was dying of laughter. It was my favorite part of the weekend, better than seeing my favorite hero at the convention. Thanks, Hannah.

There's not much to say about the business aspect of this year's Comicpalooza, We made back our booth fee and that's about it. Our display is getting better; we bought two metal shelf units to display on, upgrading from collapsible wire cubes and stands. I made a few new doll types to test out. We were seated next to Mark Nasso, who created my Pepper from American Horror Story print and some comic/art books we have in our living room. I saw a lot of artists from Tumblr that I recognized and chatted with.


My next write up will be about the challenges of vending plush at a convention because of the lack of resources I feel that plush makers have for in person events.

I'd really like to move onto what I bought at Comicpalooza; fans of the blog will know that I have a slight "junk" addiction. All of the pieces of art and toys I buy would look beautiful if displayed by a home designer in an airy, window filled loft but alas, I live in an apartment in Houston, located off of a creek and optimized to keep the heat out, so my collection is dark and cramped;but interesting. To adorn the walls and shelves of my work space, I purchased:

• a ceramic cat totem from . I almost got $100 worth of stuff but decided to wait until Sunday to see how much extra money I'd have to buy art (none)
• a Silence of the Lambs inspired cat print. I'd been coveting the original painting displayed across the aisle from us since set up on Thursday, but couldn't justify the $400 expense considering the dismal sales this weekend, so I settled on a print. 
• An original sketch of the Creature from the Black Lagoon by Wizard of Barge. They have great woodcuts and shirts in addition to prints and sketches.
• a screen printed devil line art that Aaron picked out for me at the end of the convention, made by the terrific artists at Shaw Illustrations.

My arm needs to rest so please expect an in depth article on plush displaying in the next few days.

Stay Fanatic,

Megh

Dallas Fan Expo 2016 (Guest writer)

Hey there, Fanatics!
My name is Hannah, sister of Megh and blood-sister of Aaron. I have a lot of feelings about cats, dragons and video games, and I go to local conventions whenever I can. I recently attended Dallas Fan Expo with a good friend of mine and her mother, who was kind enough to drive us up to Dallas because we are both terrified of Houston drivers and traffic in general. That being said, I would like to share a little bit about my time at the convention. I'll start off by saying that my first impression of the convention wasn't a fantastic one. The attendees that I passed on Friday seemed unhappy, and after hearing stories about Space City Comic Con, I was worried that we were in for a terrible weekend. Thankfully, I was wrong. As far as conventions go, Dallas Fan Expo is definitely one of the best I've attended.

We're back from Space City Comic Con!

"Back" as in back to our home, as SCCC was held in the same city as us. I'm doing this today, two days after the convention, because while I'm still wiped out from this weekend's event, tomorrow I have to get back to work making plush for Comicpalooza in two weeks.

There's been a lot of controversy and talk about Space City Comic Con. Earlier this year, it was the Houston Convention Bureau's suit against the convention organizer, George Comits, for infringing on the HCB's trademark of "Space City" for trade shows and conventions. This past weekend, it was rumoured that several of the headlining guests from the FX show "Sons of Anarchy" had their appearance fee checks bounce. Since I don't have any firsthand knowledge of either of these two events, I'm not really going to talk about them. All I know is that I had a pretty miserable experience at this show and that TIM+BEN Dolls won't be showing up to it again, as vendors or attendees, next year (although it already looks as if there won't be a next year).

The weeks leading up to the event, Space City Comic Con released an app to help guide attendees. Filled with icons that promised to give you info on what panels were going on, what celebrities would be signing and when, and what vendors would be where, you could tap on any to reveal ... nothing. My biggest concern for the app was the fact that they did not update the vendors past the letter 'A'. Pre-con advertising is pretty important to build hype and excitement for fans of artists attending the con. I'd think that my booth fee kind of entitled me to being at least on a list on a website/app, but it turns out that the money I'd spent would be worth much less than that.

The day of, we arrived to set up. We don't often have the luxury of setting up the day before the convention, as Aaron works during the week and I am still faithfully holding out for the self-driving car, so that our future car-robot overlords will take my loyalty into account when they start treating humans as crash test dummies for androids. I was worried, most of the other convention's we've been to required us to bring proof of purchase for our booth to receive our passes, but I hadn't gotten any info on such a requirement for SCCC. It turns out you could pretty much just walk onto the loading dock and say you were with TIM+BEN's table and have passes handed to you. Well, if you were willing to wait 45 minutes on the noisy, hot, outdoor loading dock. Oh, and they might have run out of actual vendors' passes when you get to the one man checking vendors in, so you'll get handed a pair of weird silver 3 Day Passes instead. Mine was actually broken, so I had Aaron go exchange it. He came back with a Convention Guest's pass, which afforded me many opportunities to sneak into places I wasn't supposed to be.

We walked over to the booth to find that it was a) nothing like the vendor packet said it would be; no dividers, table length was incorrect, trash can not included, colors were incorrect and b) right next to another stuffed toy vendor. I think that handmade stuffed toys are an uncommon enough commodity to space them out, but since I sell basically only original designs and most other plushie artists sell primarily fan art, there's little overlap in our customer base. Unprofessional details overlooked by the con, but not something I can't deal with.

Con was slow on Friday, lots of rain and people still being at work contributed to that. Our friend, author Ian Everett came to hang out with us at our booth! He's in the middle of writing his new novel, so we greatly appreciated him taking the time to hang out with us for the day. We did very well on Saturday; I was jazzed because this is our first booth where we brought only dolls and it's made me confident about the new doll designs I had available. Our friend Jude Vivona of the Caalo Xan audio drama stopped by to say hello, his booth was only a few aisles over. A man with an Ogler from the Caalo Xan booth stopped by for some repairs to his plush. If you're not aware, last year I made a series of large Ogler dolls for them. Sunday was slow-ish. A lot of children and families came for this last day. Not so many sales and we left an hour early because I started feeling ill. My cousin stopped by to see me -I haven't seen her in about 10 years, but she's been a big supporter of TIM+BEN since I started around 6 years ago and I was very pleased to see her and meet her new family. We got recognized from several people who have bought from us before! Fans! What a world.

The con was ok on a vendor's level. Not well-run, but sales were pretty good. I was so annoyed with so many aspects that we won't be coming back. I really like clear communication and feeling like the event I'm vending at actually knows how to run itself, so Space City Comic Con isn't for me.

On a personal note, Aaron got our home an autograph from Doug Jones, a very talented actor and professional sweetheart that we both admire. So, at least one good thing came out of Space City Comic Con for us.

Stay Fanatic,
Megh

Wednesday Shop Review: Dripface

Greetings, Fanatics!

This week's episode will be on Dripface, a shop that sells strange stickers, pins, prints, and buttons - all things I compulsively buy and one of the reasons I keep making repeat purchases from them.

Dripface's Etsy store is stuffed full of weird little goodies - characters like wide eyed goats, horned monsters, and oozing lemon heads populate Dripface-opolis. Besides the doodle style of the art, I was drawn to the black and white color scheme that pervades many of the offerings in the store. Many of my personal items are adorned with Dripface stickers and my snake headed cat print sits neatly by my bedside. Oftentimes, my own shop's packages go out with a Dripface goat sealing it if I've run out of my own stickers. I like the small size of many of the stickers. It offers the chance to make anything it's put on a little creepier without overwhelming it.

If you love weird stickers, pins, magnets, and prints that look great stuck on anything, check out Dripface on Etsy or Instagram.

Wednesday Shop Review: Mother Mountain Herbs

Greetings, Fanatics!

It's no secret that I'm terribly into drinking tea. It's an aisle that I never pass up in stores, no matter how much tea we already have in our cabinets. I can always tell when my family is out of gift ideas for me when I get teas and still, I'm always excited by getting a new tin or box of it.
I came across Mother Mountain Herbs on Etsy when my favorite online blended tea shop closed and was instantly intrigued by the tea variety I found.

Mother Mountain Herbs is filled with organic herbal tea blends, sprays, and oils all handcrafted in Asheville, North Carolina. Each tea is filled with herbs that help promote health with the help of different plants - blends such as ElderMother, Mellow Belly, and Heart Path promise to give your immune system a little boost, help your digestion, and calm your nerves.

 For this review, I tried Psychic Eye.

Psychic Eye is a mix of blue cornflower, holy basil, mugwort, gotu kola, chamomile, and orange peel. The herbs in this blend help promote sleep and are supposed to relax and open your mind to allow better meditation, lucid dreaming, and (some believe) psychic energy. I have some of these ingredients at home; I sometimes use small amounts of mugwort and chamomile steeped in mint to help me sleep, but I am always interested in trying new blends made by others, especially when they come with claims like this. [Before I go any further, I'd really like to stress that besides doing your own research into whatever herbal blends you decide to consume, pregnant women especially should not consume mugwort. It causes uterine contractions and could harm your baby.]

When you steep Psychic Eye, it turns a beautiful gold. Remember to use hot, but not boiling, water for herbal tea! I used 1 1/2 tbsp in a tea bag for each cup. Its taste is mild, slightly grassy or green. I didn't use sweetener for this cup, but a little raw honey would be very good in it. It made me instantly sleepy(er), so I only had one cup, but Aaron had two. This proved to be a mistake. I fell asleep easily and had colorful, lucid dreams. Waking up was a little difficult, but I had to because Isaac was standing over me, singing. A little groggy, I got up for the day and had to let Aaron sleep for another 4 hours. He didn't remember any dreams.

Overall, I would recommend Mother Mountain Herbs if you like blended teas and natural ingredients - shipping is quick and the teas are thoughtfully packed to prevent crushed leaves. Each bag is $10 and comes with enough tea for about 27 serving meaning each cup costs about $0.37, less if you reuse tea bags for multiple cups in a row like I do. I wholly plan on ordering a few different tea blends soon.

Stay Fanatic,
Megh

(All reviews are done on products that I buy for myself, unless otherwise noted. Review requests can be submitted by following instructions at the link above.)

Some short updates - short because I'm typing from my phone.

Greetings, Fanatics!

I've finally got some new items in, so Wednesday Shop Reviews will be starting back up.
We're finally as unpacked as we'll ever be.
My doll making has gotten so efficient that even though we have a convention next month, I'll be able to blog multiple times a week.
Aaron has recently gotten into aquascaping.
Aaron found a ribbon of Houston Toad eggs about to float into a storm drain last week and heroically saved them in his coffee cup; so now we have about 150 tadpoles in our largest aquarium.

See you on Wednesday!

Moving Special

Greetings Fanatics!

So, if you've been following us you know that we recently moved into a bigger place. While we still have a few boxes left to empty, we're more or less settled in.

The extra space is fantastic; I find myself in a much better mood now that I'm not kicking spools of thread or stepping on miniature animals by accident anymore. I've been more productive and efficient with doll making this past week than I have been in the past 6 months due to having a designated permanent workspace. Our cat, Lady Baby, seems to enjoy the hard flooring and enclosed patio and is finally acting like a normal cat instead of a witch in disguise. And we at last have enough space for all of our junk; our house is like a museum for weird thrift store finds and our craft abortions (note:edit that).

Here's a few select photos of some of my favorite places in the house right now (for more snapshots of our personal life, you'll have to follow us on Instagram).

Stay Fanatic,
Megh

My favorite nook, the book and haunted cat teapot corral.

Our Beta fish, Baby Boy Beta, on a corner of our kitchen counter.

Our toad, Jules, is in there somewhere.

A blurry photo of one of our bookcases with no books.

My baby plants.

Taking a break from Shop Reviews this week and next.

See you in April after the move! Maybe keep up with us on Instagram in the meantime?