Dungeon Miniature: The Moon Shrine

I'm starting up a weekly column where I make a miniature model every Saturday and post the results every Sunday, regardless of the outcome. I've been reading about miniature making a lot and I was surprised to discover how cheap and easy it can be to make them. Since I like to play Savage Worlds whenever I get the opportunity, I felt like miniatures would be a good hobby for me to get into.

My first project was a shrine to a goddess that had been corrupted by a mysterious evil. My supplies were:

• A sheet of foam board from Dollar Tree. $1
• A set of acrylic hobby paint with brushes. $3
• A bag of floral moss, also from Dollar Tree. $1 
• A bag of miniature flocking. $2
• A bottle of Elmer's Glue-All. $3
• Scrap piece of wood.
• A ballpoint pen and a safety pin, from around the house.
• X-acto Knife
• Nail file

Total cost was around $10, but I only used about an eighth of my foam board, a tiny bit of hobby paint, and around 1% of the glue and flocking so I'll have plenty of supplies for later on.

 

I start drawing my floor piece design with

Shop Review: Howdy, Garters by Lori!

Good evening, Fanatics!


In the slow, drunken wake of my 21st birthday, I thought this week's Shop Review would cover a trade I recently did with Garters by Lori.

I stumbled upon GbL in the lineup of artists participating in my trade groups latest event. I fell in love with both the utility and simple, pleasing look of her flasks and garters. Originally,

Megh's -hic!- 21st Brithday Party

Hello again, Fanatics!
Sorry that it's been a while since you've - blah blah blah we're lazy at writing the blog.

Anywho, last Wednesday was MY birthday. I finally turned 21 and instead of going to Prohibiton, a speakeasy themed restaurant/club here in Houston like we had planned, we bought some groceries and stayed home. I think I cried a little. Aaron's mother baked me a wonderful Black Russian cake, which Aaron and I ate all by ourselves instead of sharing with our guests at my party on Saturday.

My party was a fairly intimate affair, with only 5 people coming over. My best friend from high school dropped by to say hello and drop me off a card and balloon. We only see each other every 3 or years (it's sort of a running tradition). Aaron's friend Tank arrived, shortly followed by our other guests. Having everyone in the living room all at once made me realize that most of our friends are a good half foot (or more) taller than us. Boohoo.

I got a vintage glass candy dish from my friend Sam and Judy (my sister's best friend) and her boyfriend got me a teddy bear tshirt in a can. Tank brought over what looked to be a 24 pack of beer and Marcello (a boy from high school) made pasta sauce and ice cream.

My party differed vastly from Aaron's. We did not play a board game, Isaac did not attend, and half of the party was celebrated outside, mostly because it was a pleasant night. I also made a cocktail shaped pinata for the evening, filled with dollar store candy and chocolate liqueurs. A labor of about 12 hours, it lasted about three minutes. Tank managed to break the thing's stem off with a mighty hit, and I surprised myself by bashing it open.

My first handmade pinata!

I'm embarrassed to say that that I only remember snippets from the rest of the party. We played a party game where each of us made cards that I found hilarious, I am pretty sure someone let me make s'mores near an open fire pit, I convinced Aaron to wrap up sausages in foil and throw them into the fire. It was fun. Everyone stayed over and I did quite a bit of cooking the next morning. Our house is still a mess.

Now that our birthdays are over, the next big thing we have to look forward to is Comicpalooza in May; so our posts now should focus on more Fanatic subjects until then.

Stay Fanatic!
-Megh

Aaron's Bugtastic Voyage

Hello Fanatics! Fun Fact: In addition to my regular odd jobs and hobbies, I am a big big fan of macro photography. Specifically, pictures of the teeny-tiny flora and fauna that can be found in your own backyard. And guess what? My new camera has a sweet super-macro function and I am finally able to take some pictures of my own. They might not be any good, as I don't know much about photography, but I am pretty proud of them and I think they're pretty fanatic subject matter. Click on the images for a better view.

Some small mysterious mushrooms I found growing near our back fence, less than an inch tall.

There were a lot of them.

And they have babies.

A Gasteracantha cancriformis on a lemon leaf.

From another angle!

A silly ol' doodle bug.

A Crane Fly just hanging out with his legs.

A nasturtium flower, with all it's frilly bits.

A Lantana flower, as beautiful as it is toxic.

A Lantana berry bud. Yes, we have a huge toxic bush growing in our backyard.

A shield bug, also toxic.

A juvenile toad frog under a log.

A juvenile june bug.

My favorite I've taken, with a different camera. A Black Swallowtail caterpillar on a Sweet Leaf Tea cap. Suitable for a caterpillar.

That's all I really have for you tonight, sorry this post is so heavy on the "show" and light on the "tell". Until next time, stay fanatic.

Aaron

Shop Review: Howdy, Haunted Hair Candy!

Good evening, Fanatics!

Tonight we will be starting our "Shop Review: Howdy _____!" series. Our featured shop today is Haunted Hair Candy.

Click here to visit the shop!

I found Haunted Hair Candy through a trading team on Etsy; the Needful Things Dark Trading Team. They were hosting a Christmas trading blitz and I traded with quite a few lovely shop owners for lots of neat goodies.

Haunted Hair Candy features handmade bows, clips, and barrettes that are made with a spooky twist. A few days ago, I got my Adorable heart black and pink Sugar Skull Hair clip set in the mail.

The skulls are made with polymer clay and hand painted with intricate designs. They are attached to alligator clips and seems quite sturdy. I am quite happy with my piece.

 To show you the diversity of Haunted Hair Candy, I've included a few favorites of mine from the shop.

This Christmas, I've really focused on getting handmade things as gifts for myself and others. Being a seller on Etsy myself, it feels nice to be able to feel as if someone, an actual person, is behind the products I use and know that someone's hard work went into making this unique, interesting accessory.

____________________

Quality:                                                                                            9

I love the handmade quality of my hairclips, but I feel that the polymer clay could have been sculpted a bit smoother. The paint job was nice, and the clips overall seem very sturdy.

Price:                                                                                                7 The original price for these clips is $6.00, which is a bit high for the size and simplicity of the product. (Each clip is about 1.5" long.) The shipping is free for all U.S. orders though, which is nice.
Shipping:                                                                                          9
The shipping was free and quick, arriving just a week after I ordered them. The packaging was nice and professional.
Shopping Experience:                                                                     9
The shop owner was very nice and friendly, and very quick to respond to my messages on Etsy.
Overall Rating:                                                                                                  8.5

Lady Legends of the Texas Hill Country

Good evening, Fanatics.

This evening I will be talking about Texas's own local legends, La Llorona and the "Donkey Lady".

 On our recent trip to San Antonio, Aaron pointed out "Hollering Woman Creek" as we passed over the bridge. This bridge is named after La Llorona, a legend prevalent in South America, Mexico, and the south-west United States about a woman who, after taking a new lover, drowned her children in order to please him. He spurns her (probably because she just DROWNED HER KIDS), and her ghost wanders around wailing and weeping and haunting local creeks in search for her dead children. There are a lot of variations of La Llorona, including that she was married/ young, the man wasn't ready for children/ran away with another woman because she had children. It really depends on where you hear/ who's telling the story. She also likes to drown people, so don't go looking for her.

That creek actually doesn't look like you could drown anyone in it.

 The tale of the "Donkey Lady" of San Antonio is similar, as it also involves a woman dying and haunting people because she can. Most stories about her agree: there was a woman around the 50's who was asleep in her house when it caught fire (accounts vary on how exactly the fire started) and was horribly disfigured. Her face was melted and healed to become baggy and grey, her jaw left hanging open, the ends of her extremities fused and burned to become hoof-like. Donkey head, human body.

I drew this! I thought she deserved a pretty dress.

Variations of the story include that she was a Chinese woman in a time where that was not common, that she had two children that also perished in the fire, that her husband was the arsonist, or that the town razed the home. She also has a bridge.

This bridge doesn't look so bad eith- oh jeeze!

Don't go there at night! If not for the weeping, murderous ghosts, remember that the mosquitoes and heat are pretty bad too.

Nightmares compliment of Weird U.S.

Insomnia Halloween Party!

Hello Fanatics!

 Aaron and I went to our first Halloween party last night at the fantastic shop, Insomnia Video Game Culture. Before I tell y'all what happened at the party, I'd like to take a minute and tell you about Insomnia.

It's a little shop in North Houston that deals primarily in vinyl dolls, figures, Japanese toys and snacks, trinkets, and artwork inspired by video games. They also hold video game tournaments about every other week, and Munny and Dunny decorating contests every other month or so. I'd been wanting to visit the shop for a while, for reasons that I can no longer remember, and I am very glad we did. The atmosphere was friendly, the owners were familiar but still professional, and it seemed like a nice, laid back place to hang out.

The party started at 7:00 pm, and we got there a little past 8:30. Aaron and I were wearing matching asylum themed costumes, and we met up with our friend Ian, who was dressed as a hobbit.

Ian and Aaron, respectively.

The store was already pretty full of people (about 20) and there was no available place to sit immediately, which was totally fine, considering they had shelves and shelves of stuff for us to check out. We paid our entry fee, $3.00 for each of us since we were wearing costumes instead of the standard $5, which covered entry into the three tournaments they had going on through the evening, pizza, entry into the costume contest, and a raffle. Since Silent Hill: Revelations premiered yesterday, they also gave out movie passes, posters, and Silent Hill t-shirts via raffle. Aaron won a t-shirt!

Silent Hill nurses!

 

They also gave out DVDs to the first 28 people to the party. The people who run Insomnia are pretty cool.

I got Killer Swarm, while Aaron was stuck with Hostel: Part II

After playing a little Super Smash Bros, chatting with people, and checking the store out for a while, Ian suggested that we go see Silent Hill. Probably because they had promos playing on one of the big screens throughout the night. Aaron got me this cute little pug button before we left!

awwwwww.

Overall, I would say that last night was pretty great. Even though we left a little early, we had a blast, met some neat people, and had some really greasy pizza. I mean, seriously, it was dripping orange pizza oil. How do they do that?

Keep it fanatic,

Megh

Ian is also the frontman for the progressive rock band Witherwing. Check them out. 

We're back from San Antonio's Zombie Con 2012! (Review)

And I hate San Antonio.

Ok. Maybe I don't HATE San Antonio, but I much prefer Houston over it. I just don't understand a city whose downtown and main tourist trap (The Riverwalk) is almost completely devoid of people on a Friday and Saturday night. Oh, also the one way streets gave us an exciting adventure on our way to find the hotel because they aren't clearly marked at all.

But you want to hear about Zombie Con.

We did alright for our first convention. Sold out of our zombie kittens (definitely making those into a full time product), learned a lot of things about selling our dolls, and got real-time customer feedback (everyone who stopped at our booth liked the dolls, but thought they were a little too pricey).

And Aaron looked scary good in his costume.

We met a lot of fun characters, including a cute sock monkey dressed as a zombie and a ton of interesting vendors and artists that I was looking forward to seeing for months. Our booth was in between a really awesome special effects makeup team, who made prosthetic scabs, boils, and bites all through the convention, and a vendor who sold handmade horror themed jewelry and accessories. Directly behind us were some ladies transforming teddy bears into undead cuddly creations. A local anime and pop culture shop, Ooples, was across the aisle from us, and there were many San Antonio artists peddling the best of their gory and horror themed wares. A shop called OddbirdsBoutique offered industrial and steampunk light fixtures for the home and shop. There was an artist who had some amazing, cartoony prints of a zombie astronaut that I didn't get to buy because we were too busy manning the booth. :(  I would mention all of the vendors' names (because they were all pretty great), but I can't quite remember all of them.

Our booth. I wasn't aware that we were being photographed!

Let's talk about the actual event for a second, though. It wasn't the most organized convention. It was my first time going to any sort of event like it and I could see that. Now, I get that it was the Cuellar family's first convention ever. They had to plan it, get sponsors, reserve the event center, get vendors, artists, and bands to sign up, AND do publicity all by themselves. I applaud them for actually making it happen. Hopefully the next time they throw a convention, they will have all of the kinks worked out and have a really successful event. :) Some things that I feel could have been avoided really bother me though, like:

• No one knew that parking was going to be paid.

I mean, come on. That's one of the things that ought to be mentioned on your event's website. Aaron and I didn't have to pay because we were vendors, but we didn't even know about it until the day of, when we got to the event center to sign up. I think that made a lot of people upset, especially the ones that weren't very impressed with Zombie Con, because they essentially had to pay a minimum of $25 to find out that it was a start up convention.

People hated the price.



People REALLY thought it was overpriced.

• The booths weren't assigned/setup was a mess.

 When we got to the San Antonio Event Center to choose where our booth would be, no one knew where the booths would be. They were still trying to get a floor plan worked out the day before, and gave us a vague area of where they wanted the artist's booths. That is, when one of them finally spoke to us. Aaron and I went into the event center and stood by Mr. Cuellar, waiting patiently for 5 minutes as he spoke to the setup crew chief/event center director/whoever that guy was. Then we waited for 10 minutes awkwardly as he continued to speak to him, and the rest of the family talked amongst themselves, occasionally throwing glances over to where we were standing and waiting. Finally, the adult daughter Jessica, who is also the Facebook page manager, came up to us and took our names to set up a booth. Which they immediately moved to a different spot because they were still unsure of how to set up.

• The event center was way too large for a first time convention.

Half of the convention center was reserved for vendors and the other half was reserved for bands and events. I'm only guessing that the events were held on the other side of the convention because I couldn't see them from the booth, and they weren't announced in any way. Aaron kept having to go up to the information desk and ask about the costume contest, which they finally started at 9 p.m. Somehow, even though the bands playing were on the complete opposite of the room, I could barely talk to most of my customers over the sound of dubstep, screamo, and something called "Galactic Hardcore". When I took a chance to stretch my legs while Aaron watched our booth, I was surprised to see that they had already started a pinata bashing contest on the other side. The area surrounding the stage was almost completely empty. The bands were playing to an almost absent audience. It seemed like the con could have been done with half the space, one good band or DJ (I personally thought that the music was way too loud, intrusive, and distracting to be indoors, but that's just me and a bunch of people on Facebook), and a cleaner layout.

• The events that were not the band playing weren't organized.

On Zombie Con's website, they boasted a brain eating contest, intestinal tug of war, Zombie Chess, and a costume contest. I can't speak for the other events, mostly because I didn't even know when they were going on (which was a real disappointment), but the costume contest really let me down. They offered $1000 for 1st place, which got a lot of people interested in it. Not enough apparently, because when they announced the winner (who totally deserved it and didn't even know there was a cash prize) they decided to cut out the 2nd and 3rd cash prizes because not enough people signed up. I'm not so much upset that Aaron didn't win, but that they kept putting off the event until 9 p.m. (which is probably why they didn't get as many entrants), had the contest in front of the information desk instead of the stage (which caused massive crowding and had them form some sort of circle instead of an orderly line or SOMETHING, and didn't even get the band to stop playing while they judged.

But the thing that really bothers me?

• They are being really unprofessional now that the con is over.

I don't consider the ':P' emoticon to be softening at all.

The Zombie Con Facebook page has always seemed a little laid back to me. Instead of being professionally friendly, they were a bit too familiar and personal for my taste; but that's just my opinion, and I'm sure a lot of people benefited from them being so personable. But today, after people started posting reviews of Zombie Con, they started getting really insulting to people who didn't love the convention. Bad reviews ranged from polite to rather blunt, but any bad review from a convention attendee shouldn't be met with a response of, "Well, let's see you throw a better con."

Also, yes, a guy in a Gumby suit was running around. He was pretty rad.

Really? That's really how you are going to talk to a paying customer who took the time and paid the money to go to your event. Instead of taking their criticisms and learning from them, politely thanking them for their attendance and promising that the next event will be better, you'd rather act like a child and go on the defense and challenge them to do better than you? What if they could? How embarrassed would you be if they had taken your challenge and threw a better Zombie Con, with more attendees, had made more money, and were actually polite to people? They expressed dissatisfaction and you respond with the easiest answer to give a customer; "You didn't like it? Too bad, we have your money and your opinion doesn't matter anymore." Great to hear, Zombie Con. You just lost the customers that you told that to. And you've lost my respect too.

So, thank you Zombie Con. I appreciate you letting me sell my wares at your convention. I had an interesting time, even if I was extremely disappointed at the event. I learned a lot. The vendors were really great (and professional!), of your attendees were awesome to talk to and get to know, and the bands weren't bad. But I won't be returning to any more of your conventions in the future.

-Megh

P.S. I didn't take the picture of Aaron or our booth, photo credit goes to Otaku Space.

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.

Welcome to Earth, Isaac!

So, I'm finally out of the hospital and able to update the blog. Before I forget my manners, please meet the newest member of the Quiet Fanatics team (and our family), Isaac.

Greetings!

 Isaac was born on August 17th at 8:32 in the morning. He and I spent the better part of the week in the hospital while I recovered from surgery. I'm still sort of in shock that I've already carried and given birth to a baby, but I'm happy he's here. I absolutely adore him. Before I start posting pictures of him, I figured I'd let Aaron share his thoughts on the whole event before I retreat back into my warm, fuzzy little medicated world.

-Megh

I'm co-authoring this post on account of Megh's exciting journey into Ibuprofen land. Her surprise C-Section has her on seven different medications, each one more inebriating than the last.

Isaac was born at 6 pounds, 13 ounces, and measuring in at 19 3/4 inches, although he shrank about an inch by the next day due to his rather elongated head. You see, he had been trying to get out for a while and infant's heads are pretty elastic. They stretch. A lot.
Anyway, he is full of vigor and his strength is increasing exponentially. If he keeps this rate of improvement, projections have shown him to become the strongest man in the world in under four years.

I know you don't want to hear any more from me, so here are the pictures you wanted:

"Hey, c'mere. I wanna tell you something."

"Boop."