Happy Things #20

This is a bit of a random Happy Things post.. Because it includes a lot of things I had meant to blog about from a couple months ago and just didn’t find the time to post them. I did share most of these things via Instagram so be sure to follow me there to stay up-to-date 🙂

So back in September I got to attend a Supernatural convention! I went by myself, had a terrible seat during the Q&A, and autograph tickets were already sold out. So typing up a whole blog post seemed kinda pointless since I didn’t take too many photos. But listening to the Q&A with Sam and Dean was awesome, and I did fork out some money to get a picture with Sam Winchester (Jared Padalecki) .. I loved him in Gilmore Girls, too, so that was an added bonus.

Next event I wanted to blog about was the Paramore concert! They’re probably my favorite band, and I danced to all the songs in their set! My mom went with me and we had pretty good seats right in the middle, but neither of our phones got very clear pics. I did buy a shirt, tho 🙂

The day before Thanksgiving, Medieval Times posted on their Facebook that tickets were only $25 for that night’s show. Normally, a ticket is like $60-$70.. so I begged my parents to take me since the price was so low ^.^ I absolutely LOVE going to Medieval Times. I have lost count how many times I’ve been there now. And I am pretty sure some of the knights recognized me. You get to eat a huge meal (with your hands!) and watch an awesome show. Huzzah!

A couple weeks ago I bought this Carissa Rose print. I’d like to get a nice frame for it and hang it up in my room. She makes really cool, colorful artwork.

You may have noticed my hair color changing quite a bit throughout all my posts and pics.. I change it so often that I forget to make new blog posts about it. Or maybe I think y’all get tired of seeing those kinds of posts? I dunno .. but here’s some pics of what I’ve done lately! 

I was planning on just touching up my roots with more purple.. but when I put the bleach on it started turning kinda green. So I just went with it and added more teal dye. 😛

The most recent color I’ve done was bleaching out the green/teal and this time adding pink to the roots. People usually ask me how I change my color so much without damaging it. I always use demi-permanent color, and I haven’t put bleach on the ends of my hair in about 7 months. I only have to do the roots for now. The color at the middle/ends is from that time I put dark purple on it.. and this is what it’s faded to. I did shampoo the pink dye down towards the bottom to give it a more pinkish glow.

This picture makes me so happy!!! I entered the official Mortal Instruments Pinterest board contest and was one of the 5 winners! I heard about it from their Facebook page and since I am totally addicted to Pinterest, I had no problem spending an entire night making a Clary Fray Inspired board. There were quite a few entries, but I saw my name listed as one of the winners and freaked out!! I emailed them my address and a few days later got a box from Sony Entertainment. It had the movie on BluRay/DVD, the movie’s soundtrack, Jace’s stele, tattoos, trading cards, a journal, bag, and t-shirt. The item I was most excited for was The Shadowhunters Codex. I wasn’t expecting to get all these amazing items so I was really really happy!!

My next happy thing is the jewelry I ordered from Kuma Crafts. This beautiful Sailor Moon necklace has been on my wish list for quite some time. I finally decided to order it, and I am so glad I did. It’s exquisite!! It’s so well-made, glitzy and girly, and looks great with any outfit. The package came with some adorable stickers, too!

And finally, a Happy Things post wouldn’t be complete without a picture of Pixie Doodle.

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What has made you happy lately?

(Or in the last couple months since my post has things all the way back to September hahaha)

The Nutcracker Ice Show

Every year at the Gaylord Texan Resort, there is an epic Ice Show put on for the holidays. This year the theme was The Nutcracker! My parents surprised me with tickets to the show for my birthday, and we all really enjoyed going.

The Gaylord Texan is a beautiful resort with all kinds of other attractions inside. There was a gingerbread house, giant Christmas tree, and you could even visit Santa!

When you enter the Ice Show, they give you a HUGE jacket to wear. I didn’t think I would need it on top of my big coat, but I am so glad I wore it. The temperature inside was only 9 DEGREEs! It was so cold I couldn’t feel my face.

They use two million pounds of ice to make all the sculptures. I was amazed at the size and detail of each piece. You can read more about how they make the ice here.

Of course, my favorite sculpture was the pink pegasus!

There was also an ice slide you could go down! That’s me on the slide!! 

The last room in the show was dedicated to New York City. There was a Yellow Taxi, the Statue of Liberty and Big Apples.

If you live in the DFW area, I definitely recommend checking out the Ice Show at the Gaylord. The whole place was beautiful and really put me in the holiday spirit. There are also several restaurants inside, and it’s the official hotel for the Dallas Cowboys!

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Hope everyone has a happy holiday!!

Do you have any holiday attractions in your town?

A Day in the Park

Before the crazy ice storm hit my part of Texas, my mom and I went over to the park across from my apartment. It was a beautiful day and was so warm and sunny I eventually took my jacket off!! I am glad we adventured out before the temperature dropped below freezing the next day.

This park is called “Central Park” just north of Dallas.. It has statues and a water fountain (which sadly was not running.) There’s also a small river behind it and a little lake. I had fun walking around and saw a few other families taking photos. I just wish I had been coming here more often to take more pics!

My outfit:

Pokemon shirt – Hot Topic

Nyan cat hoodie – ThinkGeek

Pink phone purse – Vera Bradley

Boots – Uggs

Jeans – Express

WhoFest DFW 2013

To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who, my mom and I attended a local convention called WhoFest! This was its first year and tickets for it sold out! I was only able to attend on Friday (it was a three day event), but still had a blast with all the other Whovians. There weren’t any celebrity guests, but it did have numerous discussion panels, a cosplay contest, and a really great dealers room.

This was my outfit for WhoFest. I wore a Link/Doctor Who crossover shirt from TeeFury and the 4th Doctor’s scarf from ThinkGeek.

This Dalek could light up, move, and yell Exterminate! at you! Eek! 

My favorite costume was by my friend Jeremy (far right). He was dressed up as Craig from the “Closing Time” episode with baby Stormageddon.

This River Song outfit was spot on!

I also loved this Doctor Whooves costume. It’s a My Little Pony character!

And my good friend CookieCupCakes was there, too in her fabulous homemade costume!

The dealer’s room was very impressive. Even though it wasn’t very big, the booths had some excellent Doctor Who swag to buy. I got a free poster with my ticket purchase and also decided to buy some arm warmers the same pattern as my scarf.

The Piranha Toys booth never disappoints either. It was a great photo area.

And here’s the Dalek in action!

Oh no! It brought reinforcements!

They were building a Tardis the whole time we were there.. and almost had it finished by the time we needed to leave. It was made of wood and had lights in it and everything. Would be so cool to have this at home, don’t you think? 🙂

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Do you watch Doctor Who?

What did you think of the 50th Anniversary special?

Which Doctor is your favorite?

My Little Pony: Childhood Memories

There’s a special memory I have when I was little of me and my mom. I was in elementary school, and I got all A’s on one of my report cards. So my mom said she would take me to Toys R Us to get a My Little Pony. I can remember picking a pony at the store and afterwards going to McDonald’s to celebrate. I got a McNugget Happy Meal and my new pony got to sit at the table with us. I can picture the exact booth we sat in at that McDonald’s back home. It’s one of my absolute favorite memories. I had a lot of wonderful toys when I was little. And I love it when a special toy sneaks into my head so I can think of all the times I spent playing with it. Mostly, my Ponies weren’t “played” with but rather had their hair brushed constantly. I *loved* brushing their manes and tails.

Photo credit: Pony Land Tours

Here is a pic of the pony I got in my memory when we went to McDonald’s. Her name is Lofty!

Photo credit: eBay

This was another pony I loved. I played with her so much her cutie mark wore off. Her name is Sunnybunch.

Photo credit: MyLittleWiki.org

And now let me introduce you to Hula Hula! She was my all time favorite because she had the SOFTEST HAIR. It never tangled and was soooo silky. I was so jealous of her hair (mine was crazy frizzy) .. I loved brushing it and was so envious of her multiple colors 🙂 I guess My Little Pony influenced my hair styling choices! 😀

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There’s a bunch of other toys I absolutely adored as a child. And I am so thankful my mom would get them for me. So as I think of awesome memories I will probably make more posts like this one. I also want to mention that I am really hooked on the new My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. It’s the cutest show and all the characters are so unique. Since I am not sure if my mom kept my old ponies, I have started a new collection with the new series. So someday I can make a post on that, too. ^.^

Do you have a favorite childhood toy?

Tutorial: Legolas Cosplay

Since The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug is coming out next week, I wanted to post how I made my costume for my Legolas cosplay! This was not too difficult to make.. but very time consuming getting all the pieces together. I wore this costume to Dallas Fan Days 2013. I started making it right after I saw the first trailer for the second Hobbit movie!

The first item I looked for was his tunic. I really enjoy recycling other items. So I found this vintage suede jacket on Etsy, and I just knew it would be perfect!!

All it took was trimming the shape into Legolas’ tunic. I cut off the collar, shortened the sleeves and angled the bottom.

The next part was SO MUCH MORE DIFFICULT! LOL … I spent ALL DAY adding the brown suede to the top of the tunic. I am sure there are patterns out there somewhere, but I decided to make my own and “just wing it.” .. In the end it came out exactly how I pictured.

To go along with my “wing it” philosophy.. I freehanded the swirlies with a silver sharpie. I was pretty nervous about this, but had a reference photo (seen here by Alley Cat Scratch) right next to me so I could redesign it.

I also freehanded the swirlies on the back and sleeves based on this reference photo. It’s too bad no one ever saw this since I wore a cloak all day. But I wanted it to be there so it felt complete 🙂

Next I made the quiver.. I just used a cardboard poster tube and wrapped it in some extra brown fabric I had. I used hot glue to attach it to the cardboard.

The arrows were wooden dowels that I painted brown.

And I added convention-friendly arrowheads. These are just pencil erasers painted silver then you glue them to the end of the wooden dowel.

For the other end of the arrows, I cut feathers in half and glued them to each side of the wooden dowel. This was messy because bits of feathers got all over the place.

Here is a finished look at the quiver, bow, and arrows. Also on the quiver I freehanded a swirly design with a gold sharpie (Legolas has a beautiful peacock design on his), and I attached a brown belt to the back. The bow was not made by me.. It’s an officially licensed Legolas bow made out of plastic.. but I thought it looked great! I got mine on eBay for only $10 but they seem to be sold out now.

The cloak was handmade by CloaknDragon, but I had to add a hole in the back so the quiver could go through it.

This wig is the same one I used for my Sailor Venus cosplay. It’s an Eowyn in the color Titanium Blonde by Arda Wigs. I braided it myself!

For the day of the convention, I pinned the two side braids up with bobby pins so they would look more like Legolas. This also helped my elf ears (by Aradani) show better. I did my makeup myself, too.

My leggings were handmade by Wrecking Crew Creation to fit my measurements, and the grey long sleeve shirt is from American Apparel. My boots were from Walmart, and the brown belts were from Target.

The brooch I wore on my cloak was from eBay and can also be worn as a necklace.

And my beautiful bracers were made by RenManLeather .. He customized these to fit my wrist and match the design to Legolas’ actual bracers. These are super high quality; I cannot recommend him enough!

The only thing I wish I had done differently was research how to properly hold a bow and arrow ^.^

I have never used one before and looking back in my photos I realized I wasn’t holding it quite right. So if you decide to make this outfit be sure to look that up!

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I loved wearing this costume at Dallas Fan Days (see that full post here), and I can see myself wanting to wear it again and again. It was pretty comfy and I felt like a magical elven warrior. I am not sure if I’ll get to wear this for The Hobbit premier, but I am definitely excited to watch the new movie and see more Legolas action!

What character from The Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit is your favorite?

Will you go see The Hobbit in theaters?