Two households, both alike in dignity…

…in fair Westeros, where we lay our scene.

House Stark
“Winter is coming.”

House Lannister
“Hear me roar.”

That’s two Game of Thrones critters done! With any luck, I’ll have two more by next week!

A wolf in the den

The first out of an upcoming small group of TV-related critters I’m making. Any guesses to the theme? Hint: it’s a show that recently came back for another much-awaited season. I know, nice ‘n vague.

Showin’ some crochet love: Coffee edition!

I’m a hopeless caffeine junkie. Not in the sense that I chug 5 cups of coffee a day or anything, but more in the sense that I’ve been on a one-cup-a-day habit for so long now that I get throbbing headaches if I go just one day without a caffeine fix. Houston has plenty of good coffee shops in the sense that they’re great places to socialize, lounge around, or get some work done over a nice hot beverage. On the other hand, not many of them actually have good coffee. I’m not saying that the other places have bad coffee by any means, but they’re not going to be the places that you’d visit if you want fresh and local roasted coffee for its own unique and inherent taste. That’s where Catalina Coffee comes in.

Photo credit: Catalina website

I’ll preface this by saying that Catalina isn’t my favorite “stay and hang out” type of coffee shop. It’s relatively small, there’s no free wi-fi (but you can try to bum off of some from the places next door), and tables are small, so it’s not really ideal for students/people trying to simultaneously squeeze in a coffee break and work. But dammit, this is 100% where I go if I want a good, freshly roasted cup of coffee that doesn’t need any extra syrups, whipped cream, or fancy toppings to make it taste better. I usually go for a cortado:  a shot of espresso with equal parts steamed milk. I’m not enough of a coffee buff to drink straight espresso, but the cortado is the ideal grab-n-go caffeine fix for me…small portion, plenty of caffeine kick, and about as unadulterated as it comes in terms of the actual coffee itself. I don’t need to add sugar…the coffee is just that smooth. On the other hand, if a cortado is too strong, they make some mean lattes and mochas too. They’re not overly sweet, and they always have pretty pretty latte art to boot.

That being said, since Catalina’s been my go-to source for good cups of coffee, and the fact that I’ve actually sat down and crocheted “in the wild” there on a few occasions, I thought I’d make them a little gift.

The little heart on top isn’t as pretty as the ones that they make on their lattes, but hopefully it spreads the love one way or another! And with that, I dropped by today, ordered a cortado to go, and handed the lil’ guy off to the barista. Spreading more crochet love around town, one critter at a time.

Catalina Coffee:
Website: http://catalinacoffeeshop.com/
2201 Washington Avenue
Houston, TX 77007
(713) 861-8448

Putting down the hooks for a moment

Back in November, I bought a shiny new toy to help do some drawings for a family cookbook.

It was just easier to do some drawings this way instead of drawing on paper,  then scanning into my crappy scanner, only to find that my crappy scanner would ruin any details or colors that I’d put in even at the highest quality scans. After I finished with those drawings, my new toy was put on the shelf and collected dust. Even signing up for The Sketchbook Project resulted in a bunch of uninspired, half-assed drawings that I scribbled down just to get the thing turned in on time. Recently, I started joining the masses of people with touchscreen phones and played Draw Something like a maniac. I also happened to start plowing through episode after episode of Downton Abbey…pair the two new obsessions together, and I’ve got an excuse to bust out the tablet to digi-draw some pretty costumes.

Business zombie overseeing the operation.

And with my handy-dandy new toy, and the help of Photoshop, I ended up with some digi-doodles.

They’re nothing to write home about (definitely need some practice), but it’s good to pick up the ol’ pen again for once. I guess it took a dumb iPhone app and a British period piece to trigger me to do it. Oh, and if anyone wants to play Draw Something with me, my username is GeekyHooker. DOODLES GALORE!

ATTENTION: Who do you want to adopt at Comic-Con?

*Ahem*…just had to gloat for a second here: GUESS WHO’S GOING TO SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON?!?!?!? YEEEEEAH!!!

Last year was my first time going SDCC, and it was also the beginnings of my adoption endeavors. I dropped off a total of 11 little superheroes, and had a GREAT turnover rate with 9 being adopted out of 11. I’m still not sure what happened to The Green Lantern or the soot ball, but either way, it was the first and most successful series of adoption drops that I’ve done thus far, and I TOTALLY plan on doing it again.

The final yearbook photo before they were all sent off to Comic-Con (Domo-kun didn’t go…I decided to keep him at the last minute!)

Just a recap of who I dropped off last year:

 

Superman and Batman

  

Aquaman and Green Lantern

  

Chun-Li and Ironman

  

The Hulk and Dr. Manhattan

  

Mario mushroom and soot ball from Totoro/Spirited Away

Wolverine

Out of the 11 critters, 8 had confirmed adoptions, and Wolverine’s adoption was witnessed (I saw someone take him from his hiding spot), but I never received a confirmation email/tweet. Either way, it was a little experiment that started out as a shot in a dark (I honestly thought most of my critters were going to end up lost forever), and ended up with far more rewarding results than I could have imagined. Which is why I’ll be doing it all over again this year. So, my question to all of my dear fellow geeks: who would you like to see at Comic-Con this year? Who should I repeat, and moreover, who are some new critters that I should add to this year’s army of drop-offs? Sound off in the comments!

Who do you want to adopt at Comic-Con?

Showin’ some crochet love: Eatsie Boys, part 2

A few weeks ago, I got the following tweet from The Eatsie Boys:

Back in October, I crocheted a little mascot for them based on their logo, and it looks like their lil’ dude wanted some friends. So I was more than happy to get my hook on and grant him that wish. A couple of weeks later, he had two new buddies to hang out with.

Two lil’ eboys, hanging out in my egg crate.

Today I dropped by to unite these dudes with their new friend, and lo and behold, the happy trio was together at last! I’ll let the guys fight it out amongst themselves over who gets which lil’ egg dude.

And of course I got some food while I was at it. I really don’t need to sing the praises of these guys any more than I have already…it’s just plain GOOD. Pork snuggies, Frank the Pretzel, the ice cream…I could eat my way through that damn truck. They’re actually opening a brick and mortar location in the summer, which means mo’ grub for the rest of us! Woohoo! Peace, love, pork snuggies, and the occasional crocheted eggman.

Eatsie Boys:
Website: http://eatsieboys.com/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/eatsieboys

Zombie butcher has a home!

This past weekend, I got the following message in an e-mail:

Howdy!  My name is Justin S. Davis, and I found your AWESOME zombie butcher–well, more accurately, he attacked me!–at Bedrock City Comic Company on Washington Ave in Houston, Tx.

He is now rampaging through my house, and trying to serve up my cat, Zelda.  She batted at him, grabbed him, and tried to gnaw on HIS head.  Oh, cruel irony!

Your creations are delightful.  Thank you for making the world a brighter place!

Zombie butcher has a home! Woohoo! Looks like zombie butcher has found himself a new target too:

Thanks again Justin for taking him in! I’m sure Zelda will do a good job of keeping the lil’ terror at bay.

Zombie prom queen made it home!

The zombie prom queen made it to her new home in sunny California! Looks like she finally got a proper prom portrait too:

Zombie prom queen approves!

Glad she made it to LA safe and sound! Take good care of her, Carol!

Critters across borders: new and improved!

My friend Celina gave me a suggestion to have my critters across borders map populate a photo of the critter when the cursor lands on the location. And with the magic of google maps, it was done. I’ve differentiated between confirmed adopted homes (places that confirmed adopted critters have been taken home to – indicated by blue markers) and drop-off locations with unconfirmed adoption statuses (places where the critters were dropped off, but never heard from again – indicated by yellow markers), complete with clickable cursors with photos of said critters. Check out the new map!

View Larger Map

 

Braaaaains…

Dropped off my zombie butcher for adoption earlier today! He’s at Bedrock City Comics (Washington Avenue location), tucked between copies of The Walking Dead. Awaiting responses as usual! Hoping Houston’s geek population might be more receptive to letting me know if they find this lil’ dude.