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!)

How To: Galactic High Chair

Good evening, Fanatics!

 So Isaac has entered the stage where he can walk and also likes to feed himself. This means that there is usually a lot of mess and crumbs after he eats because up until now, I didn't think that he needed a high chair.

 I don't really like most of the high chairs out there; they have too many pieces or are too expensive for a small chair with a tray. I found an inexpensive, simple high chair at IKEA for $20, and decided to jazz it up with a space paint job. Ours doesn't have a tray, since they come separately and I like the idea of Isaac eating at the table with us, so if you want the tray you can apply all of the same paint instructions to it.

This will be a rather lengthy tutorial, but the project itself only takes about an hour and a half. 
Materials
IKEA ANTILOP high chair with safety belt
- (1) can of spray plastic paint primer
- (2) cans of black spray paint [note!: I used Krylon Fusion: for Plastic instead of a separate primer and paint. It only took one can to cover the entire seat]
- (1) can of clear spray lacquer or sealant (Make sure it's baby safe!) [note: most lacquers should be safe for children as long as you clean the surface after it dries]
- Acrylic paint in galaxy colors (violet, dark blue, bright blue, gray, white) Look at pictures for inspiration!
- small spray bottle (optional)
- sponge
- small paintbrush or toothpick (for stars)

Poor, Pregnant, and Pro life: My experience at a Crisis Pregnancy Center

 About two years ago, I found myself in a situation that I never thought I would be in.

 I was pregnant. At 19 years old, it wasn't as bad as it could have been, but it was still technically a teenage pregnancy and I was scared. I had no job, I was not emotionally stable, and I was facing housing problems. My parents lived across the country and Aaron and I had not known each other for very long. It was a real mess.

 Being anti abortion is easy when you are not accidentally pregnant. You feel like you can tell people, perfect strangers, what to do. You can hold up pictures of fetuses in the womb, late term abortions, little babies with tiny feet in the air and halos around their sweet heads. You can shout slogans and pray in front of clinics for the women going in. It will most likely not mean a damn to any woman who is desperate and scared. I know that discovering that I was pregnant with a baby that I wasn't ready for shook my dedication.

 As a teenager, I feel like I fought pretty valiantly for the cause. I organized Stand True's yearly Day of Silence twice at my high school. At the time I felt it was not a protest, but rather a day of silent prayer for all of the mothers and babies affected by abortion, to inform others. I held my head high as I was mocked and threatened with rape, and even shoved down the stairs as I wore that red tape over my mouth; I knew that I was right and that these children can joke and hate and try and hurt me as much as they liked, I would never break. I saw my younger sister and dear friends treated similarly.  I helped design fliers and make t-shirts and passed out red tape. I was the president of our Young Republicans club and I called state senators or congressmen or whoever to ask them to pretty please not support such and such or this bill. I was a good little warrior.

 I reflected on that two years ago, as Aaron and I drove to my appointment at the Crisis Pregnancy Center.

Valentine's day date with the Quiet Fanatics

Good evening, Fanatics!

This past Thursday was Saint Valentine's day! Lovers and friends everywhere exchanged cards and chocolates and just, presents and junk or whatever they liked. In our last post, Aaron shared OUR day, which was filled with a fun trip to the Houston Zoo and Hermann Park with everyones' favorite little Fanatic, Isaac.

Aaron and I took this Saturday to have a bit of a couples' date and asked Aaron's parents to watch Isaac for the day. We decided to go back into the city and have a little picnic and then attend Discovery Green's Flea on the Green by night. We had also planned to attend Texas Art Asylum's (a local "junk" and art supply store) grand re-opening, but due to a few closed exits on the highway, we lost about an hour and couldn't make it. :s 

 We stopped by Central Market to get some things for our picnic, which turned out to be fairly short because of the unexpected chill and plus there were some people playing drums in the park, and Aaron and I really have a distaste for large drum circles.

The Quiet Fanatic Recipe for a Romantic Picnic
-Prosciutto wrapped cantaloupe
-Proscuitto wrapped mozzarella 
-Garlic Parmesean Breadsticks (the hard, skinny sort)
-Blackberries
-Crudites
-Iced Tea (with no ice)
-A Chocolate filled croissant (to share)

All in all, the picnic was very fun. I found out that I do not care for raw zucchini, Aaron discovered that he likes chocolate filled croissants, and a young drug addict asked us if we had any cigarettes to spare.

 Flea on the Green at night is much like regular Flea on the Green, with the slight difference of it being at night. Oh, and there was some sort of NBA All Star convention going on at the George R. Brown, which is RIGHT across the street from Discovery Green, so there was like 10x more people than we expected everywhere. They also had a mobile bar (which was closed) set up, and a temporary carnival food station in the middle of the park. We got foot long corn dogs, which I am starting to regret right about now. After milling around the Flea a bit, Aaron bought me a late Valentine's day present and we rushed home to see our little one, who we often miss for some strange reason.

I hope y'all also had a wonderful Valentine's day! 

My gifts! Aaron's mommy got me the Hello Kitty mug and plush, Aaron got me the Sanrio plush Pig and crochet cat. The chocolates were mostly for me, but we shared.

Aaron's gifts! His mommy and sister got him the "Sexy" mug and plush puppy as a joke, and I got him some artist's postcard prints featuring other worldly creatures!

-Megh

Isaac's Valentine's Day Zoo Party

Hello everyone! Yesterday, Megh, Isaac, and I spent our day at the Houston Zoo for Valentine's Day. The weather was temperate, the sun was shining, and there weren't any crowds, so we figured it would be the perfect place. Megh and I got to spend the day together, I got to use my new camera to its full ability, and Isaac got to see animals he couldn't imagine in his most horrible nightmares.

"Meh."

Initially, he wasn't very impressed with the bright sun and the loud, angry birds. But with no context to build on, he had no idea what he was in for.

Suddenly, shock!

"Aliens!"

He was hooked from then on. He liked the aquarium the most, although my camera did not. We made our way from there to the bird exhibit, where we met all kinds of studs:

Like this Corvus Albicollis and its friend, Rattus Norvegicus.

And the America Bird.

And everyone's favourite, the Lemonheaded Bushwinger. I don't know a lot about birds, okay.

The birds, although photogenic, were pretty boring to Isaac. So we decided to take him over to the children's zoo to find friendlier creatures.

But all we found was terror at the hands of the child-eating Woodgoats.

The Pumbahogs were also less than impressive.

We found the Prairie Weasels to be entertaining, but Isaac was busy looking at his feet during this part.

We went over to the climbin' pig to climb around a little I thought the climbing was average, but Isaac really liked it. In fact, Isaac really likes to be out and about; sometimes I feel like he gets frustrated that he can't walk yet.

The synthetic cimbin' pigs are much more hygienic than the real ones, for sure, but nothing feels quite as sturdy as a real climbin' pig under your feet.

Our next stop was the elephant exhibit, where the elephant cubs were having a pool party. There were treats and pool toys and fountain drinks. Everyone had a good time and Isaac learned how to do a backflip off the diving board.

They're cute and all, but in the water they remind me of some sort of terrible sea monster I've seen before.

Then we made our way to the primates, which all look like prisoners.

"Yeah I'm in here for the long run. Life, with no chance of parole. Want some cigarettes?"

Also, this giraffe.

Heating things up on Valentine's Day with his foxy lady, a Foxtail Palm.

Deciding that we didn't have enough pictures of Isaac, we had him pose next to the Waterdog statue.

And behind that, a sea lion.

Then it was well time for a nap, and Isaac slept for the remainder of our visit. I got a few perfect shots of a Golden Lion Tamarin being groomed by a Pygmy Marmoset.

And then it was time for lunch! We swooped down to the secret underground Cafe Express beneath Houston's art museum for a well-deserved lunch.

Isaac ordered the Classic Turkey Sandwich: Deli-sliced turkey, swiss, and  organic lettuce between two slices of whole wheat bread, with kettle-cooked chips on the side.

But of course, he filled up on breadsticks before his order was even ready.

The End.

Stay Fanatic, my friends.

Look! Look at the presents we got!

 Good evening, Fanatics!

The holiday season is nearly over and everyone is scurrying back to school and work. This Christmas, I had the unpleasant surprise of not getting the most presents of everyone as I am accustomed to. Silly, show stealing babies.

Isaac got plenty of developmental toys from his loving, doting grandparents (on both sides), and a handmade, monster themed Ruggle that Aaron and I got him from Bewhiskered.

I got Aaron a print of The Creature from the Black Lagoon from Hardboiled Horror and some fantastic soaps from Red Leaf Bath and Body that I will be reviewing later on this week.

Hello, handsome.

Aaron gave me a Tentacle Kitty Plush, first edition. The creators of this neat kitty are actually based in Houston, and I got the third order of the first batch of Kittys they've ever made. :)

Doc Ock escaped from his box and scaled our Christmas Tree.

I also got an item that is documented on this blog as something I had to have.

Hello.

A Saint Sasquatch print from Joshua Norton! I was so happy and surprised. It is currently over our mantle place. It's actually blue, but I have a habit of misplacing important chargers so our camera is dead. :(

It's also Isaac Asimov's birthday! On this day in 1920, one of the giants of Science Fiction was born. Happy birthday, Isaac! Er... Asimov.
 
Stay Fanatic,

Megh

Shop Review: Howdy, Whoops All of the Other Things I Got Are Christmas Presents!

 Good evening, Fanatics!

So, tonight as I was going through pictures of Etsy purchases, I realized that the only ones that I had left were either things I do not want to review or gifts for friends and family that read this blog.

After the gifts are safely in the possession of their recipients, I will be sure to show off all of the wonderful products that I got. Also, I am exhausted right now.

So I apologize and offer this mash up of "What is Love?" by Haddaway and "Space Jam" by Quad City DJs.

Stay fanatic,

Megh

Christmas, Christmas time is near....

...the time for multiple orders and gift making is here!

Hello, Fanatics! I am sorry that the blog has been so quiet as of late. I have been swamped with holiday and swap orders, gift making, and Isaac.

Which is always a pleasure.

As Aaron mentioned in our last post, I've discovered a site called GothAuctions; where one can barter and bid on spooky, goth culture aimed items to one's content. I immediately, of course, started listing dolls and other goodies on it. They sold fairly quickly, and I hope all of the doll are happy with their new owners.

I also bought a few things.

A medium plaid skirt and an XXL sweater! For about $1.50!

I have also been trading things on Etsy, which is really neat. I got some Christmas shopping done that way and got a few presents for myself.

Some very cute handmade hair clips from HauntedHairCandy on Etsy. I'll be reviewing them tomorrow.

I'll be posting more photos of what exactly I got as they arrive and reviews of the Etsy shops where I got them from.

That's all for tonight, y'all.

Stay fanatic.
-Megh

Baby it's Cold Outside

Last night it was 40 degrees here in Houston and that means one thing: It's time to dust off your heavy coats, because this might be the only day you'll use them this year. Some of you from colder climes (Hei Norge!) might find this silly, but I take advantage of my Leather Jacket Days whenever I can. We've also been having a roaring pecan-wood fire going for the last two days, making the whole house smell like the expensive entree option at an Applebee's. It's been a pleasant few days.

But busy also! I almost forgot! Quick! Order dolls! The Christmas season is still a wintery gleam on the horizon, but we're already selling dolls like hot cakes. If you want one as a stocking-stuffer, be sure to order soon!

Stay Fanatic
Aaron

Did you know?...

I was a vegetarian for about 10 years. When Isaac came along, my stomach was too sensitive and my energy too low for me to prepare any real, healthful vegetarian dishes. So for the duration of my pregnancy, I ate meat. Mostly baked or grilled chicken, as my meat-free childhood ill prepared me for stomaching fattier meats, such as pork and beef (as well as both of those tasting like death to me).

 Last night, I learned that my weak, vegetarian-conditioned stomach also could not handle preparing a whole chicken.

Well, game hen.

I had been wanting to roast a game hen for as long as I can remember, and yesterday I resolved to do it. How hard could it be? After all, I had cooked frozen boneless chicken fillets, and even raw, slimy ones. The hen looked all nice and neat in its little package, so I assumed it would be like the fillets, only chicken shaped and with bones. Let me give you my first impression upon freeing the hen from its plastic case.

"OH MY GOD THIS IS ISAAC." The hen was a chubby, pale pink thing, and was similar to the size of my son when he is curled up. After yelling out out to Aaron that I had murdered something, I inspected the chicken more closely. Moving its wings and legs and little joints made me sad. Finding the cavity through which it had been gutted and cleaned was embarrassing. And picking it up and feeling the weight and remembering that it had once been a living, breathing creature made me swear off meat again, this time forever.

It was delicious.

Zombies! Engagement! Thunder Birds!

Kind of a scattered post here tonight. First off, Megh and I got engaged today! I proposed at the park. Megh thought I was getting her Magic cards. It was one of the best days of my life, even if Isaac was too busy looking at trees to notice what was going on. His mind is prone to wander, and I doubt he even got the context of what was going on, besides.
Anyway, it was quite a shock to Megh. And I was flying by the seat of my pants, so the whole thing was a shock to me as well. We also didn't tell anyone else, so it came as a shock to everyone! Shocks all around!

SHOOOOOOOCKS!

Needless to say, she was speechless. And I don't think she expected it in what was supposed to be a lull after the wake of San Antonio Zombie Con 2012: The Apocalypse. If you don't know what that is, feel free to jump back a few days or weeks in the blog and give me some extra page-views.

The con was a lot of fun, but rough-hewn and unprofessional. There were too few vendors, too many bands, and not enough organization. The staff, composed of a single family, was expectedly unprofessional. It was a good try for the first con, and Megh can give you more details in yesterday's post, but I wanted to talk about Z-Con a bit on my own. Because there was something Megh left out in her review. Something that influenced me greatly, but did little to effect the con as a whole. The food gave me diarrhea. The overpriced carney food gave me the runs. At one of the most inopportune times of my life. I'm not sure I've ever had to sit and wait in one spot for that long before. It is not good for any human to sit at a booth for twelve grueling hours, trying to sell merchandise with a pressure cooker of pickle juice and McDonald's pig grease boiling over in his intestines like a farty witch's cauldron, accompanied by blaring dubstep music and teenagers screaming. It is even worse to have that aforementioned colonoscopy soup waxing and waning inside you like the Gulf Coast tide itself while mouthbreathers in camouflage take pictures of you. And all of the overpriced Gator-Aid in the world could not fix it. The only solace that I had was the fact that, if I did indeed poop myself, I was at least dressed in a straight jacket and could claim it was part of the costume.

So to you, San Antonio Zombie Con 2012: The Apocalypse, I must say that I will not be attending San Antonio Zombie Con 2013: The Post-Apocalypse. Nor any San Antonio Zombie Con to follow. I have eaten pickles. I have eaten McDonald's. And burning hot hot wings, Mexican food, Indian food, my weight in 2% milk, and several things I found on the ground outside, and nothing was caustic enough to bring me such spontaneous and urgent bowel movements. And hopefully, nothing will ever effect me that way again. Good day, San Antonio Zombie Con 2012: The Apocalypse. Good day and good riddance.

Stay classy,
 Aaron

Guest Post: Isaac!

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Isaac is one month old! In other news, my hand hurts from sewing dolls.

Oh boy, guys. Our baby is growing up fast. It seems like just a month ago that the doctors were prying him from an open cavity in my stomach and I was incapacitated for several days.

Celebrate with us!

Also, my dad likes making photo shops of Isaac.

"DJ Knome takes after his mom."- my dad

yup.

I've made over 100 dolls for Zombie Con in San Antonio so far, and those are only the white "Survivor" dolls and green Zombie dolls. I am still looking forward to making several more types of dolls and other products for our first convention. Both Aaron and I are excited for Zombie Con, both for all of the people we are going to meet, and our first real interaction with non-family in nearly a year. We're very quiet, keep-to-ourself types. Working on the dolls and plushies is sort of relaxing. It's nice, repetitive work that offers a tangible result. It also affords me time to take care of the baby, when Aaron's younger sister and mom aren't borrowing him.

-Megh

The Magic of Android!

Did you know you can connect a Wii remote to your Android phone? I was using mine to remotely shoot my camera today.

Isaac's first doctor's visit, Megh's first day out and about, and our shop reopening

  Now that Isaac and I have adjusted to being home from the hospital, I have the time (and energy) to update the blog.
Isaac had his first visit to the pediatrician today, and Aaron and I got to experience the excitement and terror of taking him out of the house for the first time since he came home. Besides an impromptu feeding, a very messy diaper that we had to change in an unfamiliar place, and Isaac having to have blood taken, I feel that we had a very successful outing today. Isaac seems to be in perfect health (no jaundice really, even!) and he's gained a healthy amount of weight. Good job, Isaac!
A few days ago, his umbilical cord fell out and no one noticed until after the fact. According to my parents, I will want this shriveled up reminder of the physical connection that he and I once shared, so we searched high and low for it to no avail. (Aaron and his mom found it today in the washer! Apparently, it had fallen in the wash with Isaac's clothes.)

Do not take on an empty stomach

  I went out into Houston today with my folks who are visiting from Seattle. They drove two days across the country non-stop while I was in the hospital and are going back this Thursday, so I decided to try my best to get out of bed and spend some time with them. We drove around while they reminisced and other parental things. It was lots of fun getting to see them, and especially getting to drag them to The Chocolate Bar to enjoy a slice of Black Russian cake and pick up a box of baby-home friendly cigars.

In TimAndBen news, I have found enough strength to start sewing up new Zombie Dolls for Zombicon and work on new Monster prints for the shop. Heck, one day soon, you'll probably see Isaac sporting some Monster Onesies on the blog and shop.