Cross-Stitch, Customs & Chain Chomp - What I've Been Up To

There's been a whole lot of action around my house lately! Most of it from new items I'm trying to get ready in time for Maker Faire... which happens to fall on my birthday this year... and which I have never been to in my life!

WHOA! I know. Excited, much?

Here's a collections of photos that I've been releasing to my Facebook Fans & Twitter buds labeled "Sneak Peek of the Week"...

Ltd. Ed. Cross-Stitch Pendant Necklace -
Librarian Cat-Eye Glasses - $36 USD
DEBUT at Maker Faire 2011

I've been thinking about cross-stitch for quite some time now (as you all well know, cos of the teasers I've been giving out about my Nerdy Cross Stitch Kits), but it's taken THAT LONG to get all the ingredients I needed to makes these bad boys.

These MINIATURE Cross-Stitched Pendant Necklaces will be a Limited Edition collection that I'm solely releasing at the Bazaar Bizarre Maker Faire on May 21st & 22nd, 2011. I'm making 10 necklaces and I'll see how it goes. :) Especially since I'm spending 2-3 hrs on each mini cross-stitch!

Ltd. Ed. Cross-Stitch Pendant Necklace -
HELLO Calculator - $36 USD
DEBUT at Maker Faire 2011

Each one of these pendants' images were designed by me, specifically for the Limited Edition Collection or for the Nerdy Cross-Stitch Kits (that I was planning on releasing yesterday, but just couldn't finish the first round of instructions for cross-stitching in time). And all of them were designed with love.

I've gotta admit, I feel like I'm a lot more than just a girl who can crochet video game characters really well, but not get through most levels of Super Mario Bros. I've got a whole lotta geekiness pent-up in this ol' noggin of mine. And I really wanna let all of those geeky bits shine!

So I started going into designing simple cross-stitch patterns. :) It was like drawing with pixels... and, like with amigurumi, there was a certain amount of math involved in making everything look right.

Hence my new found love for gettin' my nerd on!

UPDATE: I've already had Roger help me create the visuals for the Nerdy Cross-Stitch Kits, so I just need to work on the instructions & packaging. But I'm sure you're all gonna love the way I express my Inner Geek!

Either way, if I don't sell out of the Limited Edition Cross-Stitch Pendant Necklaces at Maker Faire, then they should be available in my Etsy shop by May 25th.

CHAIN CHOMP - Custom Order made for birthday gift
Chain Chomp will be making his official DEBUT at Maker Faire 2011

And lastly, but not least-ly - Here's a photo of a Chain Chomp that I designed as a Custom Order for a birthday gift for a gentleman's best friend, that was paired with a Bob-Omb! Wow! Wish I had a friend like that!!!

Either way, the request for this Custom Order came just when I had been thinking up different ways to finally conquer the Chain Chomp/Pac-Man conundrum I'd been battling for so many years. And I was VERY pleased with the results! I only wish there wasn't so much cutting, as all the teeth are cut TWICE, adhered, cut down again, attached/lined up, cut AGAIN and fit together when he "CHOMPS" down! Sheesh! Reinforced mouth & teeth (so that they're "sharp!") and individually sculpted chains! Reinforced base & initial chain link to base to create stability.... needless to say, LOTS of time & love went into this guy. :)

Chain Chomp will be available Made-To-Order at nerd JERK after May 25th as well. 

So that's why I've been so quiet on the blog front. Combine that with 24/7 care-giving duties, my new collaborative Etsy, Inc. I Heart Art: San Francisco project and the insistent urge for cat naps from 1-6 PM everyday and you've basically got my life!

I'd love to hear what you think! :D What kind of nerdiness inspires you? Can you think of ONE SYMBOL FOR NERDITY that you'd like to see cross-stitched?

Word!

Re-Tooling the Site

Yes, it's that time again...

I've got to re-tool the Etsy Shop so that it reflects more of my awesomeness rather than everyone else's fuzzy feelings that are had from Nintendo inspired geekery.

Which is too bad, since I'm a big fan of making things like that.

The new banner up top shows just one part of the new look. I'll finally be making those rad geeky calculator holders for gadgets (I put my new fancy camera in the BOOBS one, spelled 80085). The two prototypes that I had made look something like this:



Classy, right?

Well, I've thought of a new one: The Calculator from HELL! And it'll have flames on it. Which is relatively rad.

I know there are a ton of people that do gadget pouches, but I'm pretty stoked on my designs since they use rad buttons for the buttons on the calculators.

Also, I'm going to finally make the typewriter Post-It holders. :D They'll come in about 4 colours. They'll also have buttons for keys and come with a Post-It pad to start ya off right!

The new Nerdity Notebook designs are taking a little longer to come up with that I could like. I'd ended up finishing "Spike" the Punk Cactus with a Mohawk (or as I like to call him: "Mohawktus") and Indie Kitty is pretty much finished.

Spike/Mohawktus is going to be screen printed onto pretty awesomely soft shirts with a raging neon pink mohawk. We're hoping to sell a lot of the new items with custom designs this way. :D

If you missed them on our Facebook, then you can catch the concept design sketches right here:




So, as you can see, I've got a lot going on. :D Whew!

Plus, my boyfriend, Roger and I are about to take a trip up to Portland, OR for my birthday on Thursday! Right now we're planning what we're going to do for Friday, Saturday & Sunday... It'll be my first real vacation in a while to my favourite place in the whole wide world! Would love to hear some ideas from people that know the area.

We joked about gettin' married at the famous VooDoo Doughnut cos, yeah, you can really, really do that, but since he nevered proposed with a Cracker Jack ring, it might be jumpin' the gun a little bit. ;)

Plus, sugar has been making me feel MIGHTY weird lately (as in my vision goes out of whack and everything gets ultra lucid) so I think I'm going to only have ONE doughnut... and that's the one I wanna marry... The "Memphis Mafia"..! It combines the ultimate tastiness trifecta: bananas, chocolate & peanut butter! UBER BONUS: It's in fritter form!

Probably contains the amount of calories that would be used to power a street lamp for 3 days but *shrugs* I don't get to eat those but once a year and I'm sharing the one I get...

...maybe.

*narrows eyes*

Would you share a banana fritter (think apple, but replace it with potassium-laden goodness) with cinnamon baked in, topped with peanuts & chocolate chips and striped with a dash of peanut butter & fudge glaze?

Only if you were sane.

Well, here's to hoping lots of working out gets done, lots of blog posts get finished and tons of items get posted before I leave on the 20th!

Rock on!