The Nail Files #3

 

Linking up again this week for The Nail Files!

This week I did 2 colors!

Little Man got a very belated gift card to Target this week for his birthday and we went shopping. While there, I picked up 2 new polishes, one of which was Golden-I from the Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear line:

 

To be honest, I was a little indifferent about it at first. It lasted just over 24 hours before I decided I wasn't really a fan and put on Tribecca Silver from NYC's New York Minute line instead.

Maybe I'll find a good time/place/outfit to wear the gold with... otherwise I think silver suits me much better!

Mother of Dragons Disney mashup

Someone on my Twitter feed the other night retweeted this Etsy shop owner's tweet about a pre-order of an awesome Game of Thrones Daenery's Targaryen "Mother of Dragons" Disney mash-up shirt they are selling.

It's seriously too awesome not to share!

Daenerys as a Disney Princess with 3 of Disney's well-known
dragons - Pete's Dragon Elliot, Figment and Maleficent!

I don't know if I'd wear it as a shirt, but I definitely wouldn't mind having a print of this!

The Nail Files #2

 

Linking up again this week for The Nail Files as I'm quite pleased with my AWESOME nails from this past week!

I did part glitter for a unique look - I'm liking how it turned out! Although my nails look a bit more blue than how they are showing up in the picture...

I used "First Class Only" by Spoiled (from Wet n Wild) as my basecoat which I picked up on a whim at CVS, Revlon's "Radiant" glitter polish as the accent and of course my go-to top coat of Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri.

The Nail Files

 

Normally I forget to link-up for this one and get my post up in time, however I saw these Mario nails on Sprite Stitch a week or so ago and just have to share them!

 

 How cool are those?!

Sprite Stitch Roundup!

It's been a few months since I last posted about some neat things I saw on the Sprite Stitch blog and since my GReader is overflowing with all the neat stuff they've posted lately, I thought it was time for another round-up post!

First up, this Atari Joystick Lamp:
 

Top 5 Video Game Cakes!
I LOVE the Mario one and the Portal one is pretty cool too!

Top 5 Video Game Shoes!
I *really* like the Super Mario Bros heels from the boss worlds!

I want this car decal:
 

I might just have to make this felt Jedi Star Wars book for Jay.

These Pokemon coffee cup drawings are just too cute:
 

This is cute too:
  

I also want this old school Gameboy mug:

 

 

This lamp is actually a pretty cool way to recycle old action figures:

 

 Lego Mortal Kombat! Poor Johnny Cage though!


Top 5 Video Game Stained Glass Projects
These are all really cool but I especially like the Tetris one!

Noah's Ark Pokemon - this is just funny!
 

This Pac-Man doormat is pretty cool!
 

A super detailed mini Playstation console with game:

An NES Advantage clock:


An NES Guitar:


Fallout Themed Monopoly:
 

I want this Mario Pipe Stool!


This purse made out of a DDR pad is actually pretty neat too!
  

This Space Invaders Argyle Sweater is pretty cool too!


These light switches are really cool, I might even try making them!
 

I LOVE this Triforce lamp too:


These Sonic shoes are pretty cool:

Jay's Super Mario Bros Room, part deux!

Awhile back I showed you Jay's Super Mario Bros room in progress, as I hadn't had the time to really hammer out the details as I surely can't work on it while Jay's around and during the day it's usually just me and him at home.

With hubby on his night job vacation this week he decided to take a couple days off from the day job as well so he'd have several full days of vacation. This was a great chance for me to work on Jay's room during the day!

And work on it I did!

Check it out:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I really wanted to do something unique for his nursery but at the same time, if I was going to put this much work into it I wanted it to be something that could last for a long time. I figure, as he grows, he'll love it when he's a little kid and hope that as he grows into a teen and a young adult (assuming we're in this house that long - who knows!) that he'll grow to still appreciate it - after posting these to my RL friends on Facebook, I had quite a few my own age that thought it was the coolest thing ever and wish they had a Mario World 1-1 room in their house! I hope Jay feels the same way when he's older!

Recent Sprite Stitch Favorites

I know I've mentioned the Sprite Stitch blog in the past - it's a blog that compiles various submitted video game related art, most of it being old school gaming-related stuff like Mario, original Nintendo, Megaman, etc. This past month or so they've had some really neat stuff and Etsy shops displayed!


First, there's these Pop Art Console posters, created by Biscotto:

 

Biscotto also makes ones with other consoles, including the more recent Xbox, PS3 and Wii consoles, as well as 8-bit version of various characters too! Prices range from $15-30 for single images or $35-65 for multiple sets.

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Next are these mini-cartridge rings by Lauren Swingle and her Etsy shop The Clay Collection:

 

 

These rings are made from clay and unlike some actual cartridge clocks that were recently shown on Sprite Stitch (which actually destroyed old school cartridges to make!!), they babies are made custom - you tell her what game you want on your cartridge ring, she'll replicate it! She also does other game systems too, such as Playstation game case replicas.

She also makes various cufflinks and other jewelry - these Call of Duty ones are perfect for most of our spouses! And there's also some Star Wars ones in her collection, among Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Doctor Who, MST3K and many others! I think the DVD cufflinks are pretty neat too!

Prices range from $25-85.

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This next shop, LicketyCut, has a bunch of items I'm planning on buying, however the one that was featured on Sprite Stitch that got my attention was this set:

 

Super Mario red mushroom pendent and earrings!

LicketyCut items are laser cut acrylics. Prices range from $5-45 and while there's lots of video game pieces, they also make other items as well!

In addition to the mushroom earrings seen above (which they can paint in any color you'd like!), I'm also planning on getting these:

 

Portal earrings

 

Fishbone earrings

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Basement Invaders makes some really neat glassware pieces, including these featured Piranha Plant wine glasses:

 

Most of their items are Nintendo themed and they do have some earrings in addition to their glassware. I particularly would like to get a pair of these Yoshi egg earrings in green:

 

 

 And check out these Zelda inspired 8-bit heart glasses:

Prices start at $3 for single items and are as high as $30 for sets.

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And last, but not least for this edition of geeky art found on Sprite Stitch is this Aperture Science Office:

There's too many photos to show on here, but feel free to view the rest yourself - this is actually a pretty awesome Portal/Portal 2-inspired office! Someone did A LOT of work here!

A butterfly for Jay

If you follow me on Twitter or read my Phone Photo Fun Monday post this week then you know last Saturday after I work I finally went and got my tats done.

The blue one the guy ended up just redoing as it had faded so much and he didn't think his co-worker who originally did it did the picture we had justice, so he went back over the entire thing, adding in the detail the other guy originally left out (which I was fine with, but this guy seemed to really want to do it right, so I was like okay, whatever).

And then we added the little green one for Jay.

And yes, I got green instead of a reddish-orangey color like I had mentioned in my tattoo link-up post last week. I thought about it when I went to make a dummy image to take with me and... when I think colors, I don't really associate red with Jay and orange didn't look right next to the blue. When I think of a color for Jay, green looks really good on him. So I decided to go with a bright green, and I love it!

I went to the same company I got my 1st done at a few years ago, only at their newer location (I don't even think the old location is open, or if it is, they don't really promote it anymore), which I was hesitant to go to as when I stopped in there years ago to get my cartilage piercing changed before my wedding (when I got it pierced down in my college town, the guy used a blue hoop, which I didn't want in wedding pictures and wanted more of a silver hoop or a CZ stud so it didn't look odd) I had a really bad experience with the guy I dealt with - what should have taken 5 minutes took like 20 because he kept running outside to talk on his phone every 2 seconds and then when he switched the rings out for me, my piercing started oozing which it had never done before. But I had a coupon I received in the mail where I could get a $50 gift certificate towards a tattoo for just $25 (a similar deal we had used when I got my 1st tat), so I figured I'd check in there, as the guy that did my 1st one is based out of that location now also.

Well, he wasn't in, but the guy that was said he had 10 years more experience on the other guy. He gave a pretty good deal on it too - I only ended up paying about $25 more out of pocket than what I originally paid for my 1st one and this was for the rework on the 1st and adding in the 2nd.

As he was getting the colors ready, I noticed he had the Game of Thrones books (aka Song of Ice and Fire series) on his shelf and struck up a conversation with him about the books and the show. I guess he said he read them all after seeing the show, but still had them there as another guy in the shop wanted to read them.

He put his iPhone on for background music too - the 1st track coming up was "Jack Sparrow" by Lonely Island... took every bit of me not bust out laughing and singing along, as I needed to sit still! Iron Maiden's "Run to the Hills" (which is one of my favorite Maiden songs!) came on too.

It only took about an hour and didn't sting nearly as bad as I recall it did the 1st time. He said he's being doing it so long he's got a pretty gentle technique - last time I was squeezing hubby's hand when it started stinging, but this time I just sat on my hands and yeah... it stung, but not as much as I remember.

It's been stinging every few hours the last few days as it heals (basically when it gets too dry and I need to get it wet and put some ointment/moisturizer on it). But it's still looking good! I was little concerned that the green wasn't green enough, like you could still see some fleshy color in it, but he assured me that once it heals up it'll look fine and if I wasn't happy with it in a week or so just to call and setup a time when he's there to come-in and he'll do a touch-up on it for free (he said his touch-ups are always free, which is good to know in the future!). So I guess we'll see!

I've been putting A&D ointment on it - a girl I once met, said she rubbed Vaseline over her tats daily to keep the colors looking vibrant. She had had hers for years and the color was so bright and vibrant it looked like it was only a week or so old, that's how well it had kept it up! I really want to try and keep the color in mine looking vibrant and I read online that A&D ointment is really good for tats, so since we have several tubes lying around here thanks to Jay I figured I'd borrow one that wasn't getting used. Hopefully this works!

Jay's Super Mario Bros Room

I've recently posted this on my baby/family blog, but since some of you have asked in the past, here's the progress I've made the last few months on Jay's Super Mario Bros themed nursery/room! (keep in mind, it's a work in progress, as I don't have a lot of time sans baby to work on the painting).

  

The name sign on his door. We almost bought one after seeing an ad in one of our parenting magazines and seeing the cute ones on the website, however it dawned on me that, duh!, I went to school for graphic design, why not just make one myself and keep it Mario themed?? So an hour in Photoshop, printing by FedEx/Kinkos, and a dollrod, shoestring and hot glue and voila! Custom door name sign!

 

The "growth tracker" vine I just did this past weekend - I thought it would be a neat thing to use to track his height over the years =)

 

Here's the changing table area. The 4 panels I did at our apartment before we moved but never got around to hanging them until recently. Jay LOVES Elmo and since taking him to the new Winnie the Pooh movie he's been quite taken with his stuffed Eeyore (he never paid any attention to it on the table, opting to eat Yoshi or Tails' faces instead, until after we saw the movie, like he recognized it, lol...). He's got Mario and Luigi figurines that we picked up during Border's going out of business sale, a scent warmer lamp (which comes in handy when changing those dirty diapers!). There's also his Jedi Bear from Build-A-Bear Workshop and Yoda and Darth Vader bobbleheads we also got during the Border's GoB sale.

  

I wanted mushroom dresser knobs and after finding a photo of one on DeviantArt, I decided to just buy plain white ones and paint my own! This is them drying, lol...

 

Red curtains to offset the blue (and Tiger peaking out the window!) and the castle at the end of the level.

 

Another view of that side of the room, you can see the crib and more of the painting

 

The corner on the other side of the crib with his bookshelf and the beginning of the level painting.

 

The lamp on the table - I just painted the shade this last weekend to make it look like a mushroom!

We decided to do Super Mario Bros for the theme as hubby and I are both gamers and I wanted a nursery that was different and unique, plus something that would last for awhile (at least) and that Jay would eventually come to appreciate as he gets older.