A Few of Mandy's Favorite Nerdy Things

Hello So Dang Brilliant readers! I’m so happy to be here with you today. My name is Mandy and I blog about a whole slew of things, much of them of the nerdy variety, over at Chocolate and Cream Cake. I live in Austin with my husband and our dog, Mrs. Mollie Weasley. We spend a lot of time playing board games, attending midnight movie premieres and planning our next trip to a comic con.

When Holly asked me to write a guest post for SDB, I was honored. Holly is one of the most genuine people I’ve met through blogging and her aspiration to make everyone she meets a better person is truly inspiring. (I hope to be more like her when I grow up!) I wasn’t really sure what to write about, but then I thought—be like Holly and just be genuine.

If you hadn’t already put two and two together, I’m a huge nerd. (And proud of it!) I wear nerdy t-shirts on a regular basis, I have a nerdy half-sleeve tattoo and spend a whole lot of time doing nerdy things. While I’ve long inwardly been a fan of such pursuits, it’s taken me a while to get fully comfortable with being outwardly so. But now that I am, I am more than happy to share my love with the world. The following are a few of my favorite things; I hope you enjoy!

The Avengers

I’m a huge fan of the Iron Man, Thor and Captain America movies, but never did I think that a combination of the three would be one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. (I’ve seen it three times in theaters so far.)

I won’t get too deep into spoiler territory for any of you who have yet to see it, but it’s an amazing mix of action, humor and hot mens (and ladies, too). The acting is superb, and it’s just an all-around fun time at the theater. Plus, Tom Hiddleston is absolutely spectacular as Loki. (I could have done an entire post just dedicated to him! I mean, have you seen the Loki’d video?!

 
Music mashups

While music typically isn’t the nerdiest of media, it can be very inventive. Particularly when artists take songs that don’t really sound like they’d fit together and make them sound awesome. Here a couple of my favorite mashups:

Party Ben’s “Boulevard of Broken Songs”: 
DJ Earworm’s “United State of Pop 2011”: 

 
Doctor Who

I jumped into watching this show—which holds the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running scifi TV series of all time—with the Ninth Doctor (played by Christopher Eccleston). I've since fallen madly in love with the wacky hijinks of the show and the great cast of characters, particularly the Tenth Doctor (played by David Tennant).

Fans of the show have wildly different opinions on who the "best" Doctor is ... for me, "my" Doctor will always be Ten. I really enjoy Eleven (played by Matt Smith) and the Ponds, but I still have moments where I long for the camaraderie of Ten and Donna.

(In doing research for this post, I found this video, which covers Donna’s story in 90 seconds. Awesome!)

 

Beards

Beard Love by Powerandlight

It’s hard for me to resist a man with whiskers—it’s a good thing my husband has it!—and I personally think that most men look better with at least a little bit of scruff. I'm sure this infatuation probably stems from the fact that my dad had a beard for most of my formative years. (When he shaved completely, I'd beg him to grow it back.)

I was sent a link to this beard infographic by a friend of mine a few months ago and I think it’s a most excellent take on this fanciest of facial hair.

 

Nail polish

I’m not really a girly-girl, but I do enjoy both looking and feeling pretty. And one of the easiest ways to make myself feel good is by wearing a fun shade of nail polish, particularly one that’s not your typical shade (of pink, red, etc.). I also love myself a good dose of glitter, whether all over or as a gradient.

Currently, I’m longing for a couple of shades that have as yet escaped my grasp (in part because they’re a bit on the expensive side and/or retired shades):

Rescue Beauty Lounge's IKB 2012

China Glaze’s OMG

If you’re a fan of any of the above and would like to learn more about some of my other favorite things, visit me! I’d love to have you stop by.

A Handmade Day in the Life with Liz

Hello there, Holly's friends! My name is Liz and I run (design/own/slave over) a jewelry line called With Care. I've been asked to entertain you while Miss Holly is out of town. I hope I can do a well enough job. Young master Jacko's list of summertime fun was pretty untoppable so feel like there is only so high that I can fly. Seeing as Holly and I have very different lifestyles, I figured that I would do my best to lead you through a fairly normal Thursday. It starts at 9am.



Time to arise and greet the day. I hope the day isn't expecting too much from me at this point. I do what I can. I generally have a difficult time getting out of bed, particularly since my boyfriend and our tiny dog get to sleep for a few more hours.


It's a hard life, right, Martin?

By the time I make it to the foot of the bed, my place has already been absorbed.

I'm not a big breakfast person so plain yogurt with granola, a handful of cherries from the tree in the backyard, and a coordinating cup of coffee will be more than sufficient. While the coffee is perking, I get myself all made up and dressed. I check my email over breakfast. More accurately, I eat breakfast over checking my email. Which has ended in disaster more than once.

I work a mere four blocks from my house so I shuffle over there around 11am. Normally, I ride my bike over but today is my boss's birthday and I'm carrying over a present that just won't fit in my trusty messenger bag.

Ah, work. I work with my friend, Kelly, making clothes and things for her popular Etsy shop, I'm Your Present. There are 3 main employees, myself, Kelly, and our friend Kayla. We turn out a good number of packages each week, somewhere between 100 and 200, all filled with bright, fun, candy colored clothes and accessories. It can be weird working with your friends, particularly when power dynamics come into play. I think that we have managed to do a pretty good job of it, so far. It's taken a few years but no one has lost any limbs and we keep the crying to a minimum. Meatball the cat helps us to regulate.

Kelly really likes her present: a crazy magical picture of a unicorn with a twinsies hairstyle.

I told her that I went back in time and won it for her at a carnival in the 1980s. I know that you can't see the prodigious amount of sparkles in the piece but, trust me, they are there. I start off my morning in the shipping room, figuring out what orders are ready to be shipped and what jewelry must be made.

Then, I sit down to make whatever it is that we don't have in stock.

At some point, I got up to grab a glass of seltzer water (we have a Soda Stream at work and it is the BEST THING EVER) and snap a picture of myself to prove that I was here.

After jewelry, Kelly and I work on a new shirt design. She cuts out the initial pattern and I figure out how it is best put together. Then, we make a preliminary version and check it out. If everything works out, the pattern is copied down, along with any notes, and then filed away for future use. Although, often we are so excited by new things that we make a whole stack of new designs, trying out different color and material combinations.

All the new finished garments are put in a pile and every two or so weeks, our friend Lizzy comes over and models them for the website. We work out of Kelly's house and have managed to fit in a lot of big studio amenities into a double-parlor, Victorian apartment. The photo studio is in the basement. I wonder if the landlord knows... We break for lunch around 2pm. Tomorrow is Kelly's birthday party so we close up the studio and run some pre-party errands.

It's a very nice day outside, a little on the hot side and Providence, Rhode Island is looking especiallylovely.

Can you guess what kind of party it will be?

Ah, yes. That kind of party. After party prepping, I walk home. Our neighborhood is really good looking. I'm not even going to front like it is not. Much of Providence was fully built up by the late 1890s, leaving a wonderful heritage of beautiful, old buildings and areas. I love looking at all the architectural details as I walk around.
 
On the way home, I pass by a piece of land that has just been acquired by my downstairs neighbor. He is tearing up the black top and it will be the new, hopefully permanent, location of his small farm. I keep suggesting that he turn the large building on the property into the "Not-country" store.
On the way home, I swing by the farmers market in the park and check if there are any provisions I'll need for the weekend.
I'm almost when, gee, is that one of the neighbors' chickens roaming down the block? Man, what is this? A Portlandia episode?
It's almost 7pm and as soon as I get home, someone has some demands to make.
Finally, it's food time. I pick some greens from the garden (healthy!) but also make myself a hot dog and avocado sandwich (ew. what?!). It's like when couture meets street style.

I eat, read the paper, and relax a bit. Since I have a guest staying over this weekend, I also tidy up the house a bit. I'm not much for dusting so vacuuming above the mantel will have to do.

At around 9pm, I go upstairs to my studio and begin working on things. Tonight, I'm getting together some items to bring to a local boutique as well as making and packaging up orders from my recent sale on Uncovet.com.

Around 1:30am, I cease working. Dave comes home from his practice space and we spend some time goofing off in the kitchen. Around 2:15 or 2:30am, I realize that I have to do this all over again and, if I know what's good for me, I should turn back time and go to bed, like, 2 hours ago.

Three Sixty-Five: Ideas for Blog Posts, Scrapbook Pages & Art Journal Entries Giveaway

Dreamy dreamboat Kam from the blog Campfire Chic has been generous enough to give one So Dang Brilliant reader a copy of her newest e-resource, Three Sixty-Five.

I have 365 topics in one simple resource that can be used for all sorts of creative exploits. Yes, three hundred and sixty-five topics!

I created this 26-page resource as a springboard for your ideas to come to the surface. There is plenty of room for you to write your own notes that will come bubbling to the surface once you start scanning the topics I have complied for you.

Themes include: Your family, favorites, challenges, goals, reviews, recurring features, you, your town, and more.

Kam also agreed to a mini-interview, in which she is super cute and super silly. 

1. If you could have 365 of anything, what would it be?

My first thought is tacos. But then again, that doesn't seem very sustainable...so paid vacation days is my new answer! I just saw a great trip through a women's adventure program that takes women rafting through the Grand Canyon for two weeks! How cool would that be?? Too bad I don't have enough vacation time for something like that....

2. How long did it take you to come up with all 365 ideas?

About an hour. I could lie and say that it took me days, but I was really jamming and having a ton of fun coming up with them all that I almost couldn't type fast enough! I enjoy coming up with blog post ideas, I just have trouble sitting still long enough to actually draft up a post and schedule one! 

I wrote and formatted 365 to promote brainstorming, readers can break topics down into several additional ideas and jot their ideas down in the blank columns I left in the resource. My hope is that those who buy 365 will end up with even more ideas than they bargained for...and with the low price point, I think both new and seasoned bloggers/scrapbookers/art journalese will agree that they get their money's worth and more!

3. What is the first thing that pops into your head when you hear the word:

• Art: journal
• Journal: oops! (because I just used it)
• Scrapbooking: time
• Blog: header (no idea why)
• Ideas: plenty
  
• Holly: folly!

There are five ways you can enter to win Three Sixty-Five:

• Follow Campfire Chic on Google Reader, Bloglovin' or another RSS feed
• Follow Kam on Twitter at @CampfireChic
• Follow me on Twitter at @flolly
• Follow So Dang Brilliant on Google Reader, Bloglovin', or another RSS feed
• Tweet/Facebook a link to this giveaway

You must leave a separate comment on this blog for each entry, which means up to five entries! Entries without a comment will not be considered.

The giveaway will be open until Friday, June 22nd at midnight. The winner will be notified by email and given 72 hours to reply, otherwise another winner will be chosen. 

Come On, Let's Zentangle Again

To cleanse my mind of the boredom blues, I decided to take Maryam's challenge to get my zentangle on. Her Easy Art tutorial about it can be found here—I can attest to its easiness and to its artsiness.

And let's not get it twisted: I ain't no artist. I feel so self-conscious about creating fine art that I even talked about it on Maryam's blog once. The blog post title? Holly From So Dang Brilliant Sucks at Art. I'm keeping it 100% at all times.

Per Maryam's suggestion, I chose to zentangle on a simple magazine page; I ripped this trippy football one from Caleb's ESPN the Magazine. I went through my scrapbooking supplies and found a black Sakura Glaze pen from four or five years ago (Side note: when searching "Glaze pen" on amazon.com, the book Zentangle Untangled came up on the first results page. Crazy!)

With a few episodes of Star Trek: Voyager accompanying me, I was able to just sit and doodle. I felt totally engaged in the project, but was able to let my mind wander while I did it. And my mind needed to wander. This was a really great project—don't be upset if you receive one in the mail from me sometime, because I think I want to make about a million more.

If you want to see more of my Easy Art attempts, check out my Blind Contour painting of Jacko.

Random Insert: S'mores

You guys, I love s'mores. S'mores are more than the sum of their parts -- chocolate, graham cracker, and roasted marshmallows together are not only delicious, they are interactive with those who enjoy them. You want a s'more? You have to put that marshmallow on a stick (or get someone else to do it for you, which still includes some cajoling effort on your part) and you have to toast that stinker. Thinking about having s'mores all alone on a Friday night? Probably not, because s'mores are definitely a dessert to enjoy in groups. What is the fun of looking in a mirror and telling yourself that there's a smear of melted chocolate on your own cheek?

This week has been a tough week. Not only have we had to unpack and time-adjust the sleeping schedules from the California trip, but there has been a Chatfield family crisis that has arisen on which Caleb and I have taken the lead. We are glad to do it. We are grateful to those who have helped us take care of business. Things will probably resolve come next week, and the only reason I'm being cryptic is because that's the kind of thing you do with family business. If it were about me, I'd obviously be spewing detail-y details. Like, we are for sure NOT having another baby as of this month. Hurray! I'm dropping the weight watchers thing and starting the Fat Smash diet again tomorrow because I know that a half-cup of cookie dough ice cream is four points. Baby weight! We can't get our condo management company to come fix our air conditioner. Heat stroke! See? I'm great at over-sharing my own stuff.

Y'all, I am sitting here alone on my couch, wishing I had a s'more. And even with that craving, these cramps, and those family troubles, I am extremely satisfied with the blessings I enjoy every day.

Personal Preference

Lately, my life has been an exercise in "passionate preference" (thanks for the phrase, Ben!). Maybe I've noticed it more because I am starting to find a rhythm with two kids, meaning that I have a little more brain power to give to the outside world. Or maybe it is simply because I have been looking for a fight.

I'm feisty. Sometimes it happens.

As I have waded through arguments regarding editing preferences (one space after a period, or two?), dating preferences (is there a such a boy type as Crack Groban?), and living preferences, I have come to one conclusion that covers each and every one -- I have got to stay out of it.

I am going to admit that staying out of people's business is not a strong suit of mine. I have strong opinions about myriad situations, and if I really care about someone enough to voice those opinions, I will probably not wait to say them. Over the years, I have lost friends and ticked off authority figures because of this poor personality trait; I might have also championed some really important changes, but I can't pinpoint anything like that. Ultimately, I wish that I could say that I push because I love, but I also really, really like to be right.

But, sometimes there is no "right" preference. Currently, the MLA formatting of spaces after periods differs from the APA format -- who is right? And if a boy asks my sister on a date, but he looks like Clark Kent instead of an emaciated Josh Groban, is it right for her to accept? What if I get a vibe from a certain area and someone else gets another?

My plan for those moments is to get actively worked up, express it to my closest compatriots, and then let it go. Forget the "passionate" portion of my preference. After checking off all of the items on my To-Do list every day, I probably shouldn't make time to stir the pot.

Word Up

I am a huge word nerd.

My last job surrounded me with people who were in love with fonts or colors or photos, but my personal triumph during the work day would be when I found the perfect word to express the essence of a technique or the yet another synonym for the word "cute." In a professional world of colorful creativity, I wasn't too lonely being the black & white sheep.

With work being my last refuge for regular "adult" conversation, I thought that becoming a full-time mom would be a bit mind-numbing. Jack is just learning how to hold a bit of a conversation, teetering between full-fledged words and blabbering that sounds like words. His almost-there abilities have staved off my habit of staying in my own head for 12 hours while Caleb is at work. Of course, the internet and my cell phone also link me to the outside world, which is incredibly helpful (though the phone conversations are usually with my family, chock full of silly inside jokes and nonsense words that were made up when we were kids).

I sometimes lament inwardly that I've lost my SAT words and replaced them with all of the songs on the "Thomas the Tank Engine" sing-along. I beat myself up over the fact that I've studied French on and off for 10 years and still am not fluent. I roll my eyes over my inability to remember the words "street curb" or "underwear." At times, my brain feels empty of all useful knowledge.

And then I surprise myself. I describe my chances of beating Caleb at Mario Kart Wii as asymptotic. The only word that comes to mind in when describing someone's bristly personality is caustic. I declare that the only thing to embolden a certain someone is some good self-esteem. I bust out the vocabulary words without thinking; they spill out of my mouth and I cheer! This happens at least once a day, and it makes me grateful that I have talents that distract from my knock knees and my off-putting love of lentils.