Iron Craft Challenge # 10 - Home is Where the Heart Is

I'm back on the Iron Craft band wagon. I missed a challenge or two, but I'm back making some cool things. This time around the challenge was Home is Where the Heart Is, making something for the home or something with a house shape. I liked this challenge a lot because we've been in our house for almost a year and I've been constantly making house stuff. So I thought I would feature one of my recent creations.

I love my house!

The front door is boring and white. I stuff a wreath on it with the intention of adding more stuff on and changing it out every season. Well life has gotten in the way and it really hasn't worked out that way. So I wanted to put something on it and I came up with this...

It looks great and it gives the front door some much needed pop of color. I am eventually going to paint the door a kelly green with black accents so thats what dictated my color scheme. I used a block of light wood I grabbed at Michael's. I gave it a coat of green and let it dry. Afterwards I used my favorite new toy, the silhouette machine, to cut out the letters on contact paper. I stuck the letters on the block and spray painted a coat of black and let that dry. I peeled off the contact paper to reveal my green letters. I only had to do a little bit of touch up. I hot glued some wire on the back of the block then hung it on the wreath. Now everyone coming at my front door will know they are at the Sicurella's! 

I'm working on a more detailed tutorial so be sure to look for that in the future! 

A Star Wars fan's fling with Star Trek

I saw Star Trek, I enjoyed it and here are my thoughts. Read with caution, spoilers ahead!

Its one of the biggest feuds in nerdom, your either a Star Wars fan or your a Trekkie. I grew up as a Star Wars fan because it was so much cooler! I felt that Star Trek was for nerds! Tim (my husband) is a rarity because he love both franchises equally. So he always defended Star Trek when I trashed Trek. When the first J.J. Abrams reboot of Star Trek came out he dragged me to the theater and I begrudgingly watched the movie. Boy did I feel pretty stupid when the movie turned out to be awesome. I was so taken with it that I even dressed as Spock for Halloween that year.

I was very excited for the next installment! So after much anticipation I finally got to see Star Trek: Into Darkness! This time around the crew of the enterprise is a little bit more experienced and about to embark on a five year mission to explore unknown space! However there is a little hiccup when a very dashing, John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch) starts to mess things up. He targeted a Star Fleet archive (Mickey from Doctor Who works there!) and shoots up Star Fleet headquarters taking a few starship captains down in the process. For Kirk, now its personal.

The story I felt wasn't completely solid and there were a few plot holes here and there. Despite this shortcomings it didn't ruin the movie for me and I still loved it.

It was pretty faced paced, one thing happened after another. There was barley anything breathing room before the next big thing happened. With the over abundance of action I thought all of it was really amazing. From the Klingon fight scene to the final showdown it was pretty intense. My favorite action sequence was when the Enterprise was getting its butt kicked. The gravity is malfunctioning and as the ship tumbles we see Kirk and Scotty try to manurver their way through the ship. Some of the scenes got me really excited for what J.J. Abrams is going to bring to the new Star Wars trilogy, especially when pursuing the bad guy on foot while jumping from moving vehicle to moving vehicle.

After falling in love with them in the first film I was excited to see the crew back together again. Despite being friends Spock and Kirk were still going at it, Dr. McCoy (Bones) laid down a bunch of ridiculous metaphors and deliver the "Damit Jim I'm a Doctor not a (insert wacky occupation)!" Scotty is perhaps my favorite, perhaps its because of my fondness for Simon Pegg.  The comic relief is my usually favorite character. The only character subplot I could do without was the fight between lovers, Spock and Uhura. She's mad at him because he can't feel anything but he says its because he's Vulcan. Well he's only half and he really loved his mom so you'd think he wouldn't be so robotic all the time. Also wouldn't Star Fleet have some sort of regulation on intercrew dating? At least this relationship didn't get to much screen time. A good part of the movie is spend trying to figure out whats up with this John Harrison guy. Then he reveals that  (SPOILER ALERT!) he's Kahn.

What I really loved about the first film is that the reboot made it really accessible to non-Trekkies. It did so by actually changing the time line creating an alternate Star Trek. That said, I thought they would be adventures that would be completely new and not try to duplicate one of its most iconic villains. I had actually never seen Wrath of Kahn (I know losing nerd cred, but I told you I'm a Trek noob) but after talking to Tim about it, he pointed out all of the similarities and how how things were altered. This is apparent in one of the final scenes in which Kirk sacrifices himself to repair the damaged warp drive, and Spock screams the iconic "Kahhhhhnnn!" While in the original it was the other way around. So I was a little disappointed with that.

Despite loving the movie, I had one big gripe with it. As a fan of time travel I learned the basic rules, don't contact yourself and especially don't disclose information that could alter the space time continium! So when Spock is in some trouble he contacts the other Spock (we were introduced to him in the first one) and he starts hitting him up with questions. Older Spock tells his alternate younger version that he can't reveal anything (because of time travel rules!) but then he proceeds to tell him! That drove me nuts.

Despite its shortcomings I still enjoyed it. I wasn't totally blown away like I felt when seeing the first one, however its still worth the watch. I hope the trilogy closes with something totally new to the Star Trek universe. Till then live long and prosper.

What I've been up to.....

This past week has been quite busy! With my brother here and recovering from epic Zombie race I'm finally able to reflect on all the things that I have been up to....

From a few years ago, but its a nice pic of me and Billy

I was excited to have the bro-ham, Billy here. I don't know why but we have a very special bond. No one else in our family gets along like we do. Even though he lives in Florida we talk almost every day and we are closer than ever. He came up for the Zombie race but it turned into a nice little vacation for him. He had just finished up a tough semester and was going to start summer session in just a few days. So while he was here I wanted it to be jammed packed!

Sunday was race epicness. After we survived the race we needed to recover. The next day we took our older brother, Charlie to the movies and we saw Iron Man 3. The movie has gotten mixed reviews, but I certainly enjoyed it. The previous Iron Man had a lot of flaws but this one made up for it. I also liked how they alluded to the events in the Avengers, however I would have thought some shield agent or maybe Steve Rodgers to show up and be like "hey whats up with this terrorists that calls himself the Mandarin?" I'm sure they were busy with something.

After the movies that night was Craft Night. We all had fun making our magnets. However one of my friends was absent. My friend Trisha (who was also my wedding photographer) was unable to make it because she was training for a new job. She told me next time I was there to pick up a gift she had left there for me. I found a bunch of cool antique sewing supplies and a few pairs of sheers!

Later in the week we took a trip out to Brooklyn. We were planning on going to Brooklyn Botanical Gardens but unfortunately it rained the entire day. We spent the entire day at the Brooklyn Museum instead and looked at some amazing art work. There was an exhibit on sketching and they left out books and graphite pencils inviting museum goers to draw something. I made a portait of Billy with mega hands.

Before I knew it was time for Billy to go back home. Before he left we hung around and got some and do some snuggling with Gypsy. I also made him a pretty sweet Rebel Alliance decal for his lap top.

Tutorial coming soon! 

After Billy left we were off to Citi Field for our first Met's Game of the season! It rained and they played horribly. I still had lots of fun with all of our friends! My other favorite part of going to the games is the food! I got some delicious garlic fries from Box Frites, however after the 6th inning I was hankering for some shake shack. The shakes are so good but the line is always super long. Since they were totally screwing it up (like always - the pains of being a Met's fan) Mike, Noelle and I didn't mind waiting on the line. With admission we received this amazing Mr. Met bobble heads. I don't know why Mr. Met is knitting but as a crafter I appreciate it very much! He lives in the craft dungeon with all of my other toys.

                              

Speaking of the craft dungeon... Tim put the desk top on top of my cubby. Its nice because I know have a space dedicated solely to computer and blogging! I also started making a chalk board calendar to help keep me on task (I'll show you when its all done). There is a second half to the desk top which will be all for sewing and is a work in progress. I love my new workspace and my craft dungeon.

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Bottle cap magnets

I had yet another craft night. This time around we made bottle cap magnets! I thought it was perfect because Callie at Crazy Beans has been working up quite the collection of bottle caps from all of the brews they serve. It was a great turn out and here are some pictures of the wonderful magnets that everyone had made.

Laura always makes something Manatee themed! 

Some of the supplies you will need

If you would like to make your own Bottle Cap magnets here is how to do it!

Materials & Tools:

• Bottle Caps (save them up!)
• Old Magazines, comics or images (for the image in the magnet)
• 1 inch hole punch
• Clear bottle cap coating
• Glue
• Circle Magnets

Instructions

• Figure out what you want your magnet to be. You can use an old picture, draw some small pictures or old comics. They just have to able to fit into a 1 inch circle. I used my hole punch and made some templates to figure out what would work best.

• Once you have your images picked out, dab a little bit of white glue in the cap, then place the image in there. Let it sit and dry for a few minutes.

• Peel off a clear coating circle and place it in your magnet (on top of the image) The coating has an adheasive so it should stick in there. If not a little dab of modge podge will do the trick. Let it sit for another few minutes to let it dry.

• Flip the bottle cap over and glue a magnet to the back. Let it sit and dry.

• Place that sucker on the fridge and enjoy!

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Zombie race!!!!!!

I did it guys, I ran a 5k! But this wasn't just any 5k it was the Zombie Race. It involved getting chased by zombies while also doing military obstacles and getting good and muddy. Its something I never thought I was do. Being physically fit is something fairly new to me so I am extremely proud of myself that I finished! Before the race started I was really nervous. Rebel Race posted videos of other races that they had done and I was really scared and thought, "what have I gotten myself into?" There was no turning back!

The entire reason for doing the race was because of my friend Matt. The race fell on his birthday so we all signed up. I think this helped calm my fears a bit because it meant I wasn't going through this alone. When I was telling my brother, Billy, about it I jokingly said “you should come up to Long Island just to do the race.” He responded with “challenge accepted.” So its an excuse to see my bro!

The race itself wasn't that bad! You start the race wearing a belt with 3 flags that represent your 'life' and the zombies reach for them. That was were most of the anxiety came from. When I started the race I was jogging and was worrying when the horde was coming. When we saw the first batch of walkers everyone ran of the track to avoid them and the group was disbanded a bit. Then we came to the scariest part of the race, running down a steep hill into a mud pool of zombies! That's where I lost my first flag. My friend Laura lost all of them at that one spot alone. I kept on jogging but at some point just had to walk because too many people were on the trail. I made it to just about 2k with a flag but then some little girl zombie snatched it up. After all my flags were gone I felt like the pressure was off and I could relax a bit. I waited around to join up with Team Zeus and everyone was crowded around my friend Kahn and he puked. He's a trooper though and continued on. The rest of the race we just kept saying where are the Lentini bros? My friend Joe and his brother Pat signed up but on the zombie side. They even had a back story, they were former zeus members that got infected. We were approaching the end of the race, running through old cabins and I was asking where the Lentini's were. Pat came bursting out of a cabin and handed us a bunch of flags. Further down the way my friend David jumped out of a bush and grabbed us. It was the one and only time a zombie scared me in this entire race. After our encounter with the Lentini's we had to get past one last zombie horde, a rope wall and put pit with barbed wire. We did it! 

                                 

Afterwards it was time for a much needed drink

I thought I would share with you some of the things I did to get ready for the race: team t-shirts and my motivation running playlist!

As soon as I signed up I knew we needed some sweet t-shirts. One night while playing around on picmonkey I came up with a logo for our team. We are team Zombie Eradicating Utility Squad (ZEUS) I knew we needed a lightning bolt in there and it was perfect for the T ! It came out pretty awesome I must say.

After I got my silhouette machine I was psyched to learn that I can use it to make freezer paper stencils (a technique I am very fond of). After a quick test run, it worked beautifully! So I made a bunch of stencils and we had ourselves a t-shirt party.

I knew training for this thing wasn’t going to be easy. I imagined it would be like a 1980s montage, so I need an appropriate soundtrack to keep me motivated! It turned into a very eclectic mix. Here are some of my favorite tracks that make me feel like I can do anything.

You're the Best

I wasn’t kidding about the 80s montage so this was a crucial addition to my playlist!

Jump In the Line

Ok this is on here pretty much because of its involvement with the movie Beetlejuice.

Animanaguchi

This 8-bit band is behind the theme for the Nerdist podcast. I love the rest of the album. It makes me feel like I’m a video game character dodging evil turtles.  

Latterman

Pop punk is my guilty pleasure! Not the really bad stuff from the early 2000s. I'm talking about stuff like the Get Up Kids. Latterman was a Long Island based band. An ex was friends with them so I saw them play a bunch. Anywho, its good motivation music and pumps me up.

We all had so much fun and can't wait to do the next race! First I need to rest up because I am sooo sore!

Wordless Wednesday (week 1)

Doctor Who Clock

So I had this ugly old clock in my craft dungeon. Ok so it really wasn't that ugly, but I thought it needed an update. I stuck a sticky note on it that said "DO SOMETHING WITH THIS CLOCK!" So I tried to think of a color scheme or theme. Right next to the clock is my Doctor Who action figure and its time, time lords, traveling time and space and its a clock... get it?!

I took this bad boy apart and did some spray painting. While painting the clock face I taped up the hands because I wanted them to stay the same color. So I primed the clock face and gave the wood rim and nice silver coat. After it dried I repainted the clock face with a metallic blue acrylic paint.
While the paint tried I got to play around with my fancy new Silhouette Cameo. Its an amazing die cutting machine that you can program to cut out just about anything you can think of. I cut out the words "Wibbley Wobbley Timey Wimey." Then I used the silhouette's sketch pens as well as cutting to make a TARDIS. It came out pretty amazing. Lastly I made the numbers with a typer writer font on black paper.

After I had all of my pieces I glue them on. I used glue dots for the wibbley wobbley saying and made it look all swirly around the clock. I just used a regular glue stick for the numbers. For the placement of the TARDIS, I was think a few different things, then I thought right on top of the second hand is probably the best place. I used my hot glue gun for that (because I wanted to make sure it stuck real good)

After everything dried I put the clock back together. After I turned it around and looked at it for the first time my jaw dropped. I don't mean to sound self absorbed or anything, but I couldn't believe how amazing this thing turned out! It looks legit, like something I would buy off of Thinkgeek! I always get
excited when I finish a project, but for some reason I was over the moon with this one.

If you are going to attempt a clock re-do of your own here are some helpful tips! 

• Have a plane well before taking the clock apart. 
• Gather all of your materials and have supplies at the ready
• Take your clock apart. It is helpful to put all of the items in a cup or small box (that way you don't loose them) 
• Be very careful when handeling the clock hands (if they are damaged, they will not tell time correctly) 

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