Pretty Lily In A Stained Glass Sunbeam

Even when it's a good 80 degrees inside the house (yay Florida), our cats still seek out sunbeams to sleep in. I spotted Lily in the little patch of light under our fake stained glassed doors the other day, and it was so lovely I had to take a picture or ten:

And then, inevitably, from the shadows:

 

Attack of the Ninja Tonks!

And by "attack," I mean "slow-motion-batting until Lily gets huffy and stalks off." ;)

(I love how Tonks' bright orange bow tie gives her away. Ha!)

For those of you in the Lily Fan Club: she's doing great, but still won't let that darned spot on her back heal completely. Most days it's just a little raw, so we keep an eye on it and stick her in the onesie on the rare occasions she makes it bleed. The other week it was almost completely better - fur growing back and everything - and then she went and over-groomed 'til it scabbed again. Arg. CATS, amirite?

***

Ok, time to announce this month's art winners! So congratulations to:

Nicole S., who wins the Batman "Don't Look Back" print

Bethany Luther, who wins the Avengers one, and

Lisa Howard, who gets her choice from the Pinterest Give-Away Board!

Congrats again, ladies, and please e-mail me your mailing addresses!

I've Got My EYES On This Halloween Wreath DIY

Is it a little early for Halloween decorations? 

Well, yes. 

Ahh, but is it too early for a Halloween wreath DIY that you'll put off for a few weeks, only to slap together in a panic the week before when you realize you still have that blue butterfly wreath from last Spring on the front door? 

HECK NO.

 So check out what I put together last week for around $15:

That even includes the wreath and lights!

 

I'll get to the tutorial in a sec. First, let's take a closer look, shall we? 

Here's lookin' at you, (screaming) kid.

 

Dapper skeleton lounging like WHAT.

Sparkly-eyed rubber bat! 

And the part sure to catch everyone's eyes [snerk]:

An all-seeing bouquet of eyeball flowers!

I don't know if it shows, but I was aiming for a mix of glitz, whimsy, and abject horror. How'd I do? :D

The secret to this oh-so-cheap craft is your local Dollar Tree, where you can buy everything except the wreath and lights for just $1 each:

September Art Roundup: Dino Astronauts, Super Girls, & Wood Block Robots!

Time for this month's roundup of awesome geek art!

First up, ASTRONAUT DINOSAUR:

"Space Trike" by tinysnails, $15

I'd like this little Sweetie to have her own cartoon, comic book, and line of plushies, STAT.

Here's another find from Dragon Con last month:

Fun papercraft monster heads by The Legend of Awesome!

Plus, watercolor monster sketches! 

It looks like she only sells at cons, so follow her Facebook page for more goodness.

Lacey Marie Simpson's "Bits" characters are too cute::

Plus she does these fantastic, cheery landscapes:

Disney, Star Wars, Wonderland, and more! I love her candy-colored suns.

 Check out Lacey's Etsy shop for both originals and prints starting at just $10. You can also follow her on Facebook for more.

Warren of Famous After Death recently started making the BEST wooden robot figures... and I totally bought this one:

THOSE EYES. Ha! And he has a button on the top that plays the tick-tick-boom of a toy grenade. 

A few more:

Follow Warren on Facebook or Instagram for new art, and/or check his TeePublic gallery for prints and shirts. (The robots aren't for sale online yet, but he can sometimes arrange sales via e-mail.)

Another moment of weakness: I had to buy this new watercolor print from Mike Maihack:

HAD TO. 

And once I tell you that print is only $5 in Mike's online shop, I think YOU may have to, too. ;)

Mike Victa recently added two more to his TMNT set, and look how cute:

 Shredder and Splinter have never been more adorbz.

Here's Mike's original Turtle set:

Mike sells all 6 as stickers over on Redbubble.

Emily Cheeseman has a stunning, almost storybook illustration style:

 My only complaint is she doesn't have much work online!

Emily also hasn't listed any prints in her webstore yet, but maybe if we ask nicely?

Some punchy Star Wars goodness from Caleb King:

Individual prints are $20 at King's webstore

  You can also follow him on Facebook!


My friend Bianca Roman-Stumpff cranks out more amazing paintings every week. I swear she's an art-making machine:

Prints of these "Tinysaurs" are coming soon.

And I'm crushing hard on this new series:

 Prints of these two start at just $10 in Bianca's online shop.

If you ever see Bianca in person (which is likely, since she travels the whole country doing conventions) - and you're reeeeallly nice, she might let you see her Big Book Of Original Paintings. That's where I first saw that purple & lime girl up there, and fell in love. (I'm, uh, still convincing Bianca to part with the original. :D)

This one would be extra sweet in a little girl's room:

 You can grab a print here, OR you can win this one on the Give-Away Board!


And finally, since I'm a little short on new artists this month, let me heartily recommend this Tumblr:

Slothilda.

Slothilda is every introverted, food-loving, geeky girl's spirit animal. I don't see any actual prints or products for sale [sob!], so just go soak in the animated comic goodness.

This one makes me laugh every. time.


 Ah, but before you go, don't forget to comment for your chance to win your choice of art from my Pinterest Art Give-Away Board!

In addition to one wild card winner, I'll also be picking two MORE of you to win these:

So be sure to mention in your comment if you like either/both of these, so I can enter you for those, too! I'll announce the randomly selected winners in a few days, and I'll ship anywhere, so internationals are welcome!

UPDATE: The give-away has ended, and my winners are:

Congrats, ladies, and please e-mail me your mailing addresses!

Ok, time to announce this month's art winners! So congratulations to:

Nicole S., who wins the Batman "Don't Look Back" print

Bethany Luther, who wins the Avengers one, and

Lisa Howard, who gets her choice from the Pinterest Give-Away Board!

Congrats again, ladies, and please e-mail me your mailing addresses!

- See more at: http://www.epbot.com/#sthash.YxvAaBHU.dpuf

How To Get Chapstick Out Of Clothes: A Lesson Learned The Hard Way

Earlier this month I accidentally washed and dried a tube of mint Chapstick with a load of laundry. The tube opened and melted everywhere, ruining at least 12 of John's brand new geek t-shirts, plus a few of my own. Everything was covered in dark, oil-like blotches and blobs - even though the spots were soft and dry to the touch.

It was NOT a good morning.

We re-washed and dried everything three four times. First we tried a healthy scrubbing of Spray N' Wash on all the spots:

... which had zero effect.

Then John researched The Best Stain Remover Ever online, and hunted down this stuff:

- S-32 Spot & Stain Remover

He used the entire bottle scrubbing all the dark spots all the shirts, but it ALSO had zero effect. 

Updated To Add: Ack, thanks to the comments I just remembered: we ALSO tried Dawn dish detergent after the S-32:

...and like the previous two products, it had no effect on the stains.

So sorry to everyone in the comments who's telling me to use this next time; we did try!

At this point I had given up, and was busy numbing my guilt in the office with a Steven Universe binge.

But John kept going (he REALLY liked his new shirts) and found another recommendation online for spray-on Goo Gone, that stuff you use to remove sticker adhesive:

 And would you believe IT WORKED??

Since I never had much hope of saving the shirts, it didn't occur to me to take "before" shots - but lucky for us, John snapped at least one!

This is one of my old faded tees - I was fine with trashing it, so John used it for the final experiment. He stretched it over cardboard, applied a healthy dose of Goo Gone with a light scrubbing motion, then immediately washed & dried it AGAIN.

And:

The spots were completely gone!

Again, that shirt was already old and faded, so any color variation you see is from age. John's brand new shirts (which are also all dark colors) look completely brand new again. AHH SWEET RELIEF.

One note of caution: be sure to immediately immerse the shirts in water after their Goo-Gone scrub; otherwise it can bleach through dark colors if left on too long. After learning that the hard way, John quickly scrubbed each shirt, then tossed it in the water-filled washing machine before moving on to the next.

So if any of you find yourself in the same Chap-sticky situation some day, save your money on special stain-removers, and just head straight for the Goo Gone!

PS - I know this post was kind of boring, so to make it up to you a little: here's John's favorite new geeky tee, which the Goo Gone saved:

"Ironic Bunny" from Woot.

:D

Dragon Con 2015: The Best Cosplay, Pt 2

(Click here for Part 1, if you missed it!)

Teenage Mutant Ninja GHOSTBUSTIN' Turtles!

Don't question. Just LOVE.

Nearby, I asked these regular human Ghostbusters about their blue stripes, and they told me it was in support of the new movie. Made me all happy and verklempt and stuff:

This Emily from Corpse Bride posed oh-so sweetly:

As did the Warboys:

... gettin' their Chrome on:

There were several really impressive Immortan Joes around - including 2 or 3 stunning gender-swapped versions:

This incredible Big Sister from BioShock was almost overshadowed by one of the creepiest Little Sister I've seen yet: