geeky recipe and party ideas
ThinkGeek is at it again, and now they’re making me want to re-do our living room.
They’ve introduced a TARDIS rug and an Exploding TARDIS rug for $69.99 each. At almost 6 feet long, they’ll make the perfect statement piece in a space-themed room.
You can pick them up from ThinkGeek.com.
How would you add a TARDIS rug to your decor?
I came across these boots on thredUP (brand new, with tags still on) and the fur lining made me think instantly of the badass Ygritte from Game of Thrones. She can keep up with the boys, seduce Jon Snow with a “girl next door that’s kidnapped you” sort of charm, and still manage to do awesome things with her hair. This outfit is inspired by her.
Sweater: Gap, from many years ago. Find a similar one here
Boots: Bucco Fashion Boot from thredUP.
Hair: Tease the top part, put aside. Pull the bottom sides straight back and secure with a hair tie. Pull the top teased hair back gently, secure with another hair tie. Spray lots of hairspray everywhere. I used Sebastian Re-Shaper
Keep makeup simple, but flush your cheeks as if you just spent hours in the cold and put on your chelsea boots.
Which Game of Thrones character do you most want to dress like?
Check out thredUP and get 25% off your first purchase! Use code GEEKYHOSTESS25 by the end of August.
(This is part 2 in a week-long series of closet cosplay from thredUP. Stay tuned for more!)
Our favorite geeky makeup company is at it again, and this time they’re prettying up our nails. Espionage Cosmetics has launched a Kickstarter Campaign for some “nerdy nail wraps” and I seriously want them all. The wraps include great designs inspired by space, the Ninja Turtles, Cthulhu, zombies, and more. As they hit stretch goals, they’ll release more designs. The campaign itself is essentially a pre-order, so grab your nail wraps now! Pledge $100 or more, and you may get some fun freebies (like glitter eyeliner stickers) if they hit more of their stretch goals.
Really want to treat yourself? For $5,000, you can “Get Espionaged” where they will treat you like rockstars and create an amazing photo shoot starring you, similar to the Pin-Up Wonder Woman one they did with me. Seriously, it’s worth it.
I got to see some nail wrap prototypes in person at VidCon, and they look amazing. I’m most excited for the Ninja Turtle-inspired ones, but will most likely end up buying one of each design they offer.
Go pledge now, then let me know in the comments what designs you’re planning on getting!
I’m back from VidCon and Disneyland, and I did things right: In one day, we rode fifteen rides, caught three evening shows, and had a delightful dinner at Big Thunder Ranch Barbecue, and I did it all in this cute Meg-inspired outfit.
thredUP, an awesome new online consignment store, offered me the challenge of putting together a week’s worth of outfits from items found on their site, and I upped the ante by challenging myself to create a week’s worth of outfits inspired by movie and tv characters. It’s closet cosplay in the most subtle sense.
I loved getting to embody the sassy Meg with this cute dress from Banana Republic, and decided to use some of my existing Greek and Greek-inspired accessories to complement it. I encouraged my whole group to dress up in Disney-inspired outfits as well, and even those who wouldn’t normally be the “dress-up” type were happy to find subtle influences for their outfits. If you want to do the same, I recommend checking out DisneyBound for inspiration!
Dress: Banana Republic Dress from thredUP
Eyes: Smashbox Eyeshadow Quad in Softly Seductive. Find a similar set here
Necklace: Gordian Knot-inspired design from Greece
Check back all week for more closet cosplay, thanks to thredUP!
Check out thredUP and get 25% off your first purchase! Use code GEEKYHOSTESS25 by the end of August.
I’m on my way to sunny Anaheim for a weekend full of Youtubers and Disney! It doesn’t get much better. If you’re at VidCon, make sure you say “Hi!” I’ll be doing a Job Hunters panel on Friday at 11am, and I’ll be manning the Job Hunters merch section at the Wyrd booth at various times throughout the weekend.
Job Hunters merch includes some cute postcards that you can fill out and we’ll mail for you, and some posters that make perfect signing-material for our panel! I also have some free Job Hunters and Geeky Hostess swag if you find me around the con.
Will you be at VidCon?
When it comes to headphones, I’ve often run into the same problem. They’re too big. Ridiculously big. Mr. Geek calls it “adorable,” I call it a nuisance. The tightest option is still too big for my head, and my ears swim inside of the headphones’ ear pieces. When I heard about Frends’ new Taylor travel sized headphones (made for women), I was hopeful and a bit skeptical. “Really, we need our own headphones? And is it just about the looks, or do they actually work well?” Well, smaller headed women, rejoice. These headphones fit SO much more comfortably than the Tritons I’m wearing in the first pic. The metal and leather of the headphones are comfortable and fashionable, my ears fit where they’re supposed to, and the sound quality is fantastic. You can also apparently hook it up to an iPod or iPhone and use the headphones’ controls to make phone calls, adjust volume, and switch between songs. And if girly concerns matter to you, the headphones claim to be made to eliminate hair snags and be comfortable to wear with earrings. So far, no complaints from me!
Best Buy was lovely enough to send a set of the headphones to my local Best Buy Mobile Store, and if you haven’t been in to one, you should check them out. They’ve got all the phones and phone accessories you could want, and a knowledgeable sales team that doesn’t work on commission. While I was in there, I asked one guy to take a look at my phone (an unlocked HTC OneX+ for AT&T that I’m using on my T-Mobile account) and he was able to fix it and offer some great app suggestions in minutes.
If you’ve got a tiny head like mine and you want cute headphones that work AND fit you as headphones should, check out Frends. You can find them at bestbuymobile.com. And for the next few days, you can get them for 10% off by printing out this coupon!
The reviewer has been compensated in the form of a Best Buy Gift Card and/or received the product/service at a reduced price or for free
One perk of going to San Diego Comic Con as Press is that you get invited to press rooms/interviews. And if you’re like me, you take the opportunity to ask the cast of one of your favorite shows about etiquette tips. Because, why not?
For those who don’t know, Being Human is an amazing show on Syfy (based on a BBC show) that focuses on a relatively simple premise: A werewolf, a vampire, and a ghost living together. If they can all get along, then any of us should be able to make our living situations work. Which is why I asked them for their character’s best roommate etiquette tips.
Meaghan Rath, who plays the ghostly Sally Malik, started us off with some practical advice that applies to ghosts and humans alike:
“Don’t do anything that you don’t want someone to see, because there’s always somebody watching. Be conscious of giving people their space, because that’s always important when you do need your privacy; you need to be able to give someone else their privacy as well. Being roommates with supernatural characters sorta breaks all the rules, I guess, because anything goes. Be prepared for your house to get burned down and your shit to be dirty.”
Sam Witwer, who plays the resident vampire Aidan Waite, went for a more simple (but effective) answer:
“Don’t bite your roommates. It’s a good way to start, anyway.”
What are your tips for dealing with roommates? Leave them in the comments!
This may be the post-SDCC Friday Favorites, but I’m going to try to keep some of my SDCC fave finds for other individual posts. So here are some of my fave things outside of San Diego!
Favorite Kickstarter: Broodhollow
If you haven’t read the web comic Broodhollow, what are you even doing here, just go there now and read it all. When you’re done, head on over to the Kickstarter page and buy yourself a book. It’s already been ridiculously successful and there’s till 18 days left. I’m thrilled to see so much support for this awesome comic!
Other Favorite Kickstarter: Forge of Honor
Plush swords, shields, and animals that help protect your child from monsters in their room and encourage the use of their imaginations. I’m in love. Am I too old to get this for myself? Visit their Kickstarter page.
Favorite Makeup: Eyeko Eyeliner
I received Eyeko Eyeliner in a Birchbox a while back and absolutely loved it. It’s a liquid eyeliner that’s easy to use, doesn’t smudge, and lasts forever. I just ran out and tried a few other less expensive options, and wasn’t happy with anything. It’s worth the $16. You can find it at Sephora.
Favorite Tumblr: Disney Bound
As I’m prepping for a Vidcon/Disneyland trip with the Job Hunters cast/crew, I suggested we all “Disneybound” while we’re at the park. (Is that a verb? I’m gonna make it a verb.) Anyway, you dress up in outfits inspired by Disney characters. There will be a whole post on it later, but coming up with suggestions for everyone and finding the outfits has been so much fun! Check out the tumblr that started it all for inspiration.
What are some of your favorite things from the past week?
I love magazines. Whether it’s food, fitness, science, fashion, I can’t get enough of the glossy pages. I feel more relaxed when reading a magazine–I’m not as committed as when I read a book, so I can flip through it while watching tv or doing something else. However, I’ve felt guilty about getting magazines the last few years because I can get a lot of the same information online without worrying about clutter or wasting paper.
Enter: Next Issue. For a small monthly fee, you can get TONS of magazines (and their back issues!) downloaded straight to your iPad. I had the pleasure of trying the app out during my SDCC trip (my weakness for magazines usually means I pick one up for a flight), and I love that I can go back and forth between any of the 32 magazines that I currently have in my library. Plus, having the variety all on my iPad means I can flip through magazines I wouldn’t normally pick up on my own, like Brides and GQ, so I can stay on top of trends without spending money for those specific issues. And when I find sweet recipes I want to make later? I can just take a screencap and save it on my iPad. Basically, it’s amazing.
There are currently more than 90 titles available to look through, and you can get started with a 30 day free trial. (The subscription starts at just $9.99 a month after that.) Next time you’re going to go on a trip or have some doctors office visits ahead, download it and give it a try.
Get started at NextIssue.com and let me know what magazine(s) you can’t live without!
I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.
Today, The Doubleclicks premiered a video for their song “Nothing to Prove” and I’m proud to have been a (small) part of it. You can see my cameo from 1:43-1:47! So today, I wanted to take a bit of time to share my story.
You see, pink is not my favorite color. I’ve never been super-over-the-top girly. But I’ve found that people don’t often get that someone can be feminine and geeky at the same time, so when designing the branding for my site, I decided it needed to be pink. BRIGHT pink. I went more girly than I am in real life because I want to embrace that. I love board games AND makeup. I love sci-fi AND baking cupcakes. I love shopping for comic books AND shopping for clothes. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
I have a pink pencil skirt that I wear often, and I initially bought it because it’s the perfect shade of “Geeky Hostess pink.” I had the privilege of attending GenCon last year in a marketing capacity, so I wore the skirt with my company’s button-up shirt for the first day of the con. (I wanted to look professional, after all.) I was introduced to someone in the world of miniatures gaming who, when finding out I was a marketing person (and not just brought along as a booth babe), asked me a bit about Kickstarter. Should he consider it for his next projects? Oh boy. My face lit up. I started to ramble. I was using buzzwords. Kickstarter is a sweet spot of mine: it’s something I have experience in, I’m fascinated by, and I could talk about forever. His response? Cutting me off by saying “You sound smart for a girl in a pink skirt.” My colleagues were silently appalled. I laughed it off. But it stuck with me. Why the qualifier? Why was he so surprised I would be smart? What is it about the color pink, my gender, or the fact I’m wearing a skirt that would make me stand out as not being intelligent?
From then on I’ve vowed to wear more pink. If I can surprise a few more people into realizing a “girl in a pink skirt” can be smart, then my job here is done. Hopefully it won’t be as shocking next time they encounter it.
This wasn’t the first time I’ve encountered something like this. People often assume I’m working a convention instead of attending it, and when I’m actually working booths at conventions, people assume I’m there to model, not to give them information. It’s often honest mistakes and their reactions aren’t meant to be rude or insulting. So instead of taking them as so, I laugh it off with them, inform them what I’m really doing at the con, and engage them in a conversation about the geeky topic at hand.
Moral of the story? There are a lot of people out there that still don’t quite “get” that women can hold their same interests or intelligence. Getting mad about it or tweeting about it probably won’t help them. Correcting their misinformation in a friendly and informative way will. Lead by example–be friendly and welcoming to those in the geek community, turn offhanded half-insult/half-compliments into an opportunity to chat about your passions, and if someone is being rude or threatening, walk away. And if you want to wear a pink skirt, wear it with pride.
Have a #NothingtoProve story you want to share? Leave it in the comments or submit it to The Doubleclicks’ Tumblr!
