Christmas Round-Up

Jason and I had an awesome Christmas. We got to spend time with my family and his on Christmas day and came home with all of this:

And also all of this:

Jason got me the 50th anniversary Blu-Ray, which came wit a neat little set of trading cards, one for each of the twelve Doctors (including John Hurt, but not Peter Capaldi). My brother got us Dalek and Cyberman coffee mugs. Mom got us a TARDIS cookie jar and a set of TARDIS/Dalek salt-and-pepper shakers.

I put our new pepper pot to use right away...and by "use," I mean "attacking the graham cracker TARDIS."

And finally, our friend Pat got me this Doctor Who/MST3K mash-up tee:

War Doctor: "Timey-what? Timey-wimey?" Ten: "I've no idea where he picks that stuff up."

Which reminds me, Jason also got me the 25th Anniversary set for Mystery Science Theater. Four new-to-DVD episodes, plus the episodes that transition from Joel to Mike.

It was great seeing everyone, although our day was so busy we had no chance to watch The Time of the Doctor. We watched it last night, thanks to Amazon. It made me happy. I will say no more, except that I am looking forward to Peter Capaldi's run.

Advent Calendar, Day 21

Today's activity: Decorate a gingerbread house.

I've been seeing gingerbread house kits all over, but of course when we went looking for one today, they were out. Time for Plan B: Graham crackers!

If you want it to look like a house, you'll need a milk carton as a base. We went with a...different idea.

Can you guess what it's going to be yet?

The windows are filled with star-shaped sprinkles. The light on top is a Dots candy, and the wreath is another one that was smushed and had a hole poked in the middle. For the finishing touch, we dusted it with powdered sugar "snow."

Matt Smith's final episode is the Christmas special! Only three more days until it's goodbye Matt and hello Peter Capaldi...somehow. Apparently the Doctor has used up all of his regenerations (eleven Doctors that we knew about, plus David Tennant's metacrisis Doctor from "The Stolen Earth/Journey's End," plus John Hurt's "War Doctor"). Theories abound as to how he can still regenerate, but I'm going with the simple explanation that the High Council of Time Lords is no longer around to regulate him. I guess. It's probably going to be something more convoluted but interesting.

The idea for our graham cracker house was inspired by this gingerbread house tutorial, which I still think looks awesome.

"Nerdy Nummies" is one of my new favorite channels on YouTube. Her ideas are so fun and they look pretty easy, too!

DIY Ugly Christmas Sweater

We're having an Ugly Sweater Party at work on Friday. I've never been given an "ugly sweater." If anyone in our family is knitting sweaters, it's me, and I try to choose designs the receiver will like. My aunt suggested shopping the secondhand stores for one, but it appears that people are buying them and then re-selling them for upwards of $30. I am completely baffled by this. I blame the hipsters and their "ironic" wearing of everything.

I did find a plain green sweater for $4 at Salvation Army, which I used as the backdrop for my own nerdy/ugly sweater. Behold!

Everything except the lights around the neck and Darth Vader's face was made from felt. It's a great material because there is no fraying, so it can be attached with hot glue or sewn on without having to hem it.

I cut the stars, snowmen, and gingerbread men by tracing around cookie cutters. 

The Santa hat was cut freehand, and Darth Vader's face was cut from an old T-shirt I bought to turn into a pillowcase. I left about an inch around the face to prevent fraying. 

I added a few more nerdy touches: the gingerbread men are wearing Starfleet shirts (in red, of course). I got the idea from a Foxtrot strip. The snowmen are dressed as the 4th and 11th Doctors. Here's an in-progress shot from before I attached all of the pieces.

I embroidered the snowman faces, but all of the other details are done with Sharpie markers. Both look great on the felt. All of the pieces are glued on except for Darth Vader's face, which I sewed on using blanket stitch. 

The finishing touch was my only purchase besides the sweater: a set of Christmas light beads that I found from Oriental Trading Company. They cost $15 including shipping, which is pretty steep, but I think it's worth it.

And one final shot of me in my sweater. The neck is a lot wider than I usually wear, which adds to the "ugly" effect and also shows off the Christmas lights rather nicely.

Happy Christmas, live long and prosper, and may the force be with you.

Advent Calendar, Day 15

Today's activity: Movie night.

It was Jason's turn to pick. He chose the Doctor Who Christmas special from 2011: The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe.

We also did our usual pizza-and-Who on Friday after our shopping. We watched The Runaway Bride, with David Tennant as the Doctor. It's one of my favorites because it's Donna's first appearance. She and Tennant are just marvelous together.

Yesterday I went to a Christmas party at church. We do a grab bag every year, so I brought a snowman plate with two dozen of the cookies I made last week. My mom ended up with the cookie plate, and I got a gift bag with some hand towels and a box of peanut brittle.

Only ten days until Christmas! I'm quite excited.

Advent Calendar, Day 6

Today's activity: Pizza and a Doctor Who Christmas special.

There are plenty to pick from--there has been a Christmas special every year since 2006, when David Tennant first took over from Christopher Eccleston. It was Jason's turn to pick, so he chose "Voyage of the Damned," in between season 3 and season 4. 

It's a good episode, though the ending is bittersweet. Poor Astrid. I would have liked to see her have a few more adventures with the Doctor. 

I went with another Who-themed snowman today: the Cy-brr-man! Or, alternately, the Snowberman.

My package from Think Geek came today. Along with the artificial snowballs, I got us a wreath.

Eight-bit Christmas to all, and to all a good...save state? At any rate, it's geeky and festive. Can't beat that! I also got a string of TARDIS lights, which I plan to string across our balcony as soon as it warms up a bit. If it's going to be twenty-five degrees, I want snow, darnit! Something white and fluffy and clean. Hmmm, that reminds me...better wash the towels this weekend.

Advent Calendar, Day 3

Today's activity: Buy Christmas candy

Jason works late on Tuesdays, so I was in charge of the shopping. I got a bag of holiday M&Ms to fill my Care Bears candy dispenser:

Jason requested a box of Sweet Tarts candy canes, and I was lucky enough to score the last box. To make sure we have enough candy to last us the whole month, my last purchase was a bag of peanut butter-filled chocolate bells. Mmmm, chocolate and peanut butter.

I've also been changing up our snowman every day. The first day was a standard snowman:

For the second, I decided to try something different:

EX-SNOW-MAN-ATE!

And for Day 3, I had to make a "cool" snowman.

It came with the bow tie already, but I had to fudge the fez a little. It came with a red Santa hat, which I turned inside out. Then I twisted around the top and turned it back the right way. Why? Because fezzes and bow ties are cool.

Advent Calendar, Day 1

Today's Christmas activity: Put up decorations!

We have a miniature tree, which is nice because we can keep it in the hall closet when it's out-of-season. Our apartment has two bedrooms, but we have so much other stuff we would have real trouble storing a larger tree. I have had the mini tree since I was a kid. It was originally from the American Girl catalog, along with a set of ornaments.

Now a close-up of what's under the tree:

I'll take a TARDIS under the tree this year, please! Amy stands guard over the police box while the Doctor sits in the driver's seat of my Mini-Mates DeLorean, which was signed by Christopher Lloyd at Wizard World in 2011.

Care Bears, Tom Servo, and Davros. And Reptile. Poor Reptile--someone tried to kill him with a forklift.

The Doctor attempts to work the nutcrackers with his sonic screwdriver. He must have forgotten that it doesn't do wood. Speaking of, Jason and I watched this version of The Nutcracker while we were decorating, to help us get in the Christmas spirit.

Our tree topper is a finger puppet! We also have a few other decorations. Without a chimney, we had to hang our stockings next to the closet with care:

I made the stockings a few years ago. They were my first attempt at intarsia colorwork, and I think they came out pretty well. I embroidered the names and details afterward, but the snowman and tree are knit right into the stocking.

My favorite decoration is something I found last year at a toy show for all of five dollars.

The snowman is held together with Velcro, and it came with a bunch of different accessories. The extras are sitting in the red tin on the right, to encourage people to play around with different ideas. I want to have a different snowman every day until Christmas.

Stuff I Find Exciting

1. An Adventure in Space and Time: Jason and I watched this docudrama about the creation of Doctor Who back in 1963. It's very well-written and acted, with lots of good information for old fans and new fans alike. It might even be a good way to introduce people to the show!

2. Chi-Fi: Chicago's getting a brand-new sci-fi convention! And you'll never guess who they got as special guests. Well, unless you click the link. Or I can tell you now: Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy, AKA Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo from MST3K. I am SO excited! I have been a fan of MST since high school and I would love to meet anyone connected with the show. Jason and I have been watching a lot of Mystery Science Theater lately, because their 25th anniversary was just one day after the Doctor Who 50th. 

Now, the question with Chi-Fi is, how do I pronounce it? Is it pronounced "shy-fi"? Or "chai-fi" like the tea?

3. Turkey Day marathon: Speaking of Mystery Science Theater, their annual Thanksgiving marathon is back! I never got to see the annual twelve hours of bad movies when it was on television, because by the time I started watching the VHS collections it had already been off the air for several years. Jason grew up with it, though, and he assures me they're great fun. I expect nothing less. This year it will be streaming online at MST3KTurkeyDay.com.

4. Leverage is back on Netflix! Now is a great time to check the show out if you haven't already. Think Robin Hood meets Mission: Impossible.

5. Christmas is coming! I love everything about Christmas: buying gifts, making cookies, singing Christmas songs, decorating, watching the snow fall...December is probably my favorite month of the year. Jason and I are starting a new tradition this year. I made an advent calendar garland, which I will be writing about soon. Check back on Friday! Speaking of, if you are going to brave the crowds on Friday, please be careful. Personally, I will be doing most of my Christmas shopping online.

"The Day of the Doctor" Review

This first part is going to be spoiler-free. I know some people are waiting to see it in theaters on Monday or streaming it whenever it's available, so if you didn't watch it live, no worries. Read on! Spoilers will be after the giant picture of River Song.

The Internet is abuzz with Doctor Who-related stuff. The Google game is fantastic (Jason says it's easier to navigate by clicking rather than with the arrow keys). Cake Wrecks has their Sunday Sweets feature up a day early, with a baker's dozen of AMAZING Doctor Who cakes. 

Jason and I have been re-watching key episodes to get ready for the 50th anniversary. Our normal Friday tradition is to order pizza and watch Doctor Who online, so last night we watched Remembrance of the Daleks, with the 7th Doctor and Ace, which ran at the beginning of season 25 of the original series. Then this morning we decided to do a crash-course review of the Time War, so we re-watched The End of Time with David Tennant (sob!) and this season's The Name of the Doctor. 

We got to the sports bar hosting the meetup around 12:15, with the special starting at 1:50. More than half of the place was taken up by fellow Whovians. Jason and I sat down at a table of complete strangers wearing Doctor Who t-shirts and struck up a conversation. There was a college football game playing on some of the screens, with the sound on, and BBC America on the rest, with the sound off. We were assured that all of the screens would turn to BBC America after the game or at 1:50, whichever came first. The game was still going on as the countdown started, and they must have changed the sound exactly at 1:50. Our side of the restaurant was full of cheers.

I had very high expectations of this episode, and I have to say it was even better than I expected. Seriously, The Day of the Doctor can only be described as epic. I loved the way everyone interacted, all of the stories within the episode meshed very well, and I'm looking forward to the new direction the show is headed in.

10/10. If you haven't seen it, DO. Then come back and read the rest. xD

Mmmmkay. As Professor Song would say, "SPOILERS!"

Here are some of my favorite moments from the special:

I loved that they opened the show with the original 1963 opening. The original theme song is one of my favorite versions and it was a great way to tie it in to the beginning of everything, especially since the episode begins in the same place as the beginning of An Unearthly Child. 

I'm so glad they didn't give away all of the jokes in the trailers and clips. My favorite bit was when John Hurt meets Ten and Eleven for the first time. "Are you his companions?...My God, did I have a mid-life crisis?" And when Ten denied any knowledge of the phrase "timey-wimey." Their character arc--initially uncertain and sharp with each other, then deciding to work together, then coming to respect each other--was reminiscent (in a good way) of The Three Doctors. One of the things I love about Doctor Who in general is that, with all of their problems with keeping continuity straight, it's very self-referential. And even the continuity problems can be chalked up to that wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff.

And the biggie: 

My initial thought when they were getting ready to press the button was that it reminded me of Ten and Donna from Fires of Pompeii--they're stuck in a bad situation, and there's no way around it, but they can get through it together. I was actually kind of annoyed when I realized they were going to Take A Third Option, because pressing the Reset Button on the Time War undoes a major part of the Ninth and Tenth Doctor eras. Not to mention that the Doctor did it to stop them from wiping out all of time itself. And, as John Hurt pointed out, his guilt over the Time War serves as a motivator. 

Still, they managed to pull it off very well. Doctor Who has always been set in a universe that is inherently optimistic: bad things happen, but the universe overall contains more good than bad. And really, to celebrate half a century of Doctor Who, there was no other way this could have gone. Everybody wants the Doctor to win and find a way to end the Time War without wiping out his entire race. It just took three of him to do it. As for the Time Lords wiping out all of time, the Doctors used their Third Option on that problem too. They wanted to end the Time War no matter the cost, and they've got an ending that costs significantly less than their original projections. An eternity in a pocket universe should give cooler heads a chance to prevail.

As I said, I'm very excited about what this means for the future of the show. I would love to see Romana return, for example, or the Master, or even some new Time Lord characters who weren't in the classic series. It gives the Doctor something new to search for. He's found his redemption; now he needs to go and find his people.

And now we are only one month and a couple days away from the Christmas special! They had already turned the sound off by the time the promo aired, but from what I could see it looks like the whole rogue's gallery of monsters will be there. It will also be time to say goodbye to Matt Smith and hello to Peter Capaldi. All in all, I would say 2013 was a great year to be a Doctor Who fan. Now I'm off to make pasta for dinner--bow tie noodles, naturally.

Allons-y!

TARDIS Hat (Vworp Vworp!)

Keep your ears warm wherever you go in space and time with this timey-wimey hat!

I made this hat using yarn in my stash. The blue was Lion Brand Wool-Ease worsted weight, and the white and black were acrylic. I found the pattern here as a Ravelry download (you'll need to be a Ravelry member, but the membership and the pattern are both free!). Here's a photo from the designer:

I made a few modifications to the design: the windows on my hat are larger, and the text is smaller. That meant I could repeat the letters three times around my hat, as opposed to twice in the original. It's easier to read that way. I also did a pompom instead of an I-cord for the top, because I have a pompom maker and they're fun to make. ^_^

I love the square top on the hat, which makes it look even more like a box. It's done by placing stitch markers at the corners, and then decreasing on each side of the marker on almost every round. Here's a close-up of the top:

Jason and I have a Friday night tradition of eating pizza and watching Doctor Who. Last night we pulled up The Daleks, their first-ever appearance from all the way back in 1963. I didn't start watching Doctor Who until 2010, and my first Doctor was David Tennant, but I love going back and watching the classic series. Of the classic Doctors, my favorite is probably John Pertwee (yes, even more than Tom Baker!) but I honestly like all of them. It's interesting to watch William Hartnell, especially because he came before so many of the show's iconic elements were established. 

And we are one week away from the 50th anniversary!! I have been watching and re-watching the trailers, as well as "The Night of the Doctor" mini prequel with Paul McGann. I really, really hope the special is as good as I think it will be. Still, we've got Matt Smith and David Tennant, so there's almost no way that can go wrong.

Movie Review, Pac-Man Crochet, and Doctor Who Excitement

Today's post comes to you in three parts. Part one: Ender's Game review.

Jason and I went to see Ender's Game on Sunday. We had both read the book in the past, though Jason admitted he only remembered the basic plot. I remembered more of the details.

For those of you unfamiliar with the story, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin is a teenage boy who is part of a military program to fight a war against the Formics, ant-like aliens who invaded Earth half a century ago. The Formics nearly wiped out the human race before a sound defeat that sent them back to their home planet. Ender is sent to the elite outer space Battle School to become a great military leader.

As a book-to-film translation, it works very well. The biggest change they made was to condense the story time-wise. Ender is older when he leaves for Battle School, and the entire course of events takes place over no more than a year or two. In the book, Ender is seven or eight when they ship him into space and the book takes place over four or five years. There are many reasons for making Ender older, and overall I think it makes the movie better.

I do think they could have either made the movie longer (it clocks in at just under two hours) or even broken it into two parts. The subplot between Ender's brother and sister, Peter and Valentine, is cut out entirely even though it is a significant part of the book. The other big omission, and my biggest disappointment with the film, was the most of the zero-G battles were cut out. We get to see a few scenes, and they look fantastic. I definitely would have wanted to see more, especially since they take up a good portion of the book as well.

Overall, I would give Ender's Game 4/5 stars.

Part two: My latest crochet project!

I found both of the patterns on Ravelry. The ghosts were originally a Halloween decoration in white. In addition to the color change, I eliminated the original bead eyes and the finishing mouth stitches. I attached the googly eyes with my trusty hot glue gun. Pac-Man was originally all in yellow, but I thought he would look better with a black mouth. This was a quick, easy project. The ghosts take about half an hour, and Pac-Man was probably an hour start to finish. You can find the (free!) ghost pattern here. If you're on Ravelry, you can find the (free!) Pac-Man pattern here.

Part three: OMG THE DOCTOR WHO 50TH ANNIVERSARY IS A WEEK AWAY!!!1!

The Day of the Doctor is coming, people. Next Saturday. And I am so. Flippin. Excited.

Can you tell?

Jason and I have plans to see it with the Chicago Nerd Social Club. They're having a meet-up for lunch and viewing. This is great, because we don't have cable. We don't even have an antenna--our big-screen TV is used exclusively for DVDs, video games, and Netflix. Of course, it makes no sense to get a cable subscription just for one show.

So since we're going to be out and about, in the lovely Chicago winter, I decided that I needed to knit myself a TARDIS hat. I started on it last night and I will post pics when it's all done!

Clockwork Droid Complete!

I finished my clockwork droid costume in time for Halloween. Here's a reminder of how the dress looked when I started:

And now the final product...drumroll, please...

Ta-daa! The dress is surprisingly comfortable. I wore it all day on Halloween, minus the mask. I told the kids at my daycare center that I was Cinderella. I also wore my hair down and added a pair of long white gloves. Unfortunately I forgot to get someone to take a picture of my full get-up.

The only problem with the dress is that the shoulders tend to fall down. When I wore it on Halloween, I wore a long-sleeve shirt underneath and pinned it at the shoulders, which solved the problem, but I would like a more permanent solution.

Jason and I went out in costume on Halloween. There's a great retro game arcade in our area--Galloping Ghost-- and they advertised that they were having a costume contest. So I went in my droid costume and Jason went as Smoke from Mortal Kombat.

Galloping Ghost has all of the Mortal Kombat machines, so this led to some very meta pictures.

Flawless victory!

Smoke is also an accomplished light saber duelist.

I posed for a picture in front of the Nerd Fighter game. DFTBA!

Yes, I know it's really called Aero Fighters.

Jason and I decided to play through the TMNT game together. One of the great things about Galloping Ghost is that you pay an entrance fee, but all of the games are on free play. So instead of adding a quarter every time one of us died, you just need to press the "credit" button. Anyway, we were between levels when the owner came over and let us know we had won the costume contest! We won free passes for our next trip. Good times.

Clockwork Droid, Part 4

Work on the costume has been slow, because I like to work on too many things at once. I'm also working on a Super Secret Crochet Project for someone whose birthday is the day after Halloween, so I took a break from my costume to get a big chunk of that done. I switched back to the costume when a friend at work invited us to a Halloween party next Friday. I have one week to get everything finished.

Here is where I am right now:

I've hemmed the ruffle on both sleeves, which is probably the hardest part. I hate hemming, because it seems like no real progress is being made. Also, I had to fold the fabric over twice to keep the raw edges from unraveling and showing through. To top it off, I'm sewing this entirely by hand. My craft room has too much other stuff to allow for a sewing machine, especially since I sew so rarely.

Anyway, the hemming is done (yay!). I've sewn the ruffle to one sleeve. Now I just need to sew the other ruffle on, sew up the side seams, and put the sleeves into the dress itself. I want to get as much done this weekend as possible.

After I finished the side panel and shoulder seams, I was able to try on the dress for fit. Drumroll, please...

Yay awkward selfie!

Fits pretty well, I'd say. Don't worry; I'll have Jason take the "after" picture rather than try to do it myself in the bathroom mirror.

ALSO: If you are looking for costume ideas you need to check out Take Back Halloween. It's the polar opposite of "sexy cop/nurse/Big Bird/whatever" that seems to be everywhere these days. The costumes on Take Back Halloween are all inspired by women from history and mythology. I have to admit I wasn't familiar with quite a few of the people mentioned, but they have a biography for each person to go along with her costume. And all of their costumes are no-sew! A few are DIY but most include links to buy the separate pieces.

This one is my favorite: Lasiren, the Haitian sea goddess.

Via

Gorgeous! And a fascinating back story, too.

Happy costuming, everybody! Now back to my sewing needle.

Clockwork Droid, Part 3

The front panel is sewn in! But before I show you that, here is my mask tutorial. This was the first part of the costume I started working on, back in 2010. The costume was originally going to be for Chicago TARDIS, but then I realized it would need a lot more work than I would have time to complete.

I started with a plain white mask from Michaels, similar to this one:

Via

You can't tell with the black background, but there was nothing covering the eye holes. I found a Halloween mask on clearance and cannibalized the eye hole fabric from that. I attached it with my trusty hot-glue gun. It looks opaque from the front, but I can still see through it just fine.

Then I went to work on the front. I sketched out the basic design in pencil first, then traced over it with Sharpie markers. I used a turquoise marker to match the dress, along with pink, black, and silver.

My initial thought was that silver coordinated more than gold would. I was going to leave it like that, but after my costume search I decided to try it with gold instead. I got a tube of gold puff paint to cover up the silver lines. As you can see, it was kind of tricky to get an even flow at first.

Still, I think it came out pretty well. I was looking at the mask this morning and realized that I had forgotten the line directly underneath the left eye, so I went back and added that in. I also did another thin line on the left to match the thicker line on the right and added a big glob above the nose to match the texture of the original mask from the show.

I may even go back and add more in the little spot above the nose, but first I need to see how it looks when the paint is fully dried.

Stay tuned--next time there will be pictures of the dress, including my first time trying it on after tearing it up.

Clockwork Droid, Part 2

The costume is coming along quite nicely. I went back to the fabric store today to get the rest of my supplies, and now I can picture how the dress is going to look when everything is finished!

I sewed in the new front panel, but only on the bottom. I had to leave the sides undone so I could embellish the front. As I mentioned in the last post, I sewed the new fabric onto the edge of the existing fabric and then cut the old fabric away. You can tell from looking at the inside of the dress, but it's not noticeable at all from the outside.

I used the same fabric for the bottom of the sleeves...and then I was out of fabric. I also had no embellishments for the front. I tried playing around with the leftover lace, but as you can tell the results were not promising.

Not quite what I was looking for. So today I headed back to the fabric store to buy something for the sleeves and ribbon for the front. I brought a sample of the original fabric to try and match the color as much as possible.

None of the solids matched, but I did find a pattern that had a darker turquoise on a background that was darn near exactly the same color. Then I found a nice wide ribbon in the darker turquoise to tie everything together.

After playing around with different ways to attach the ribbon, I settled on gathering it just in the middle, with four lengths of ribbon across the front.

Next I added in the fabric for the sleeves, to see how everything looks together.

Right now it's all just laid out on the floor. Next comes sewing it all together! 

Of course, no clockwork droid costume would be complete without the mask. I'll do a quick post on that as well, so stay tuned.