EPBOT

One of the things I like best about being a geek is that we geeks still revel in the Joy of the Toy. Sure, we don't always call them toys: "action figures," "art dolls," "limited edition screen-used stand-in photon-rifle prop" - whatever. They're toys, and as a girl geek I say the cuter, the better.

I wouldn't have thought it possible, but somehow they managed to cutify an AT-AT:

Time for a smashing penny update!

First, I think most of you agreed that my Dumbo penny looked out of place on that silver beaded necklace, so I put it on a simple chain:


Then I replaced it with more loops and beads on the silver necklace:

The old key came from a lot off ebay eons ago. I scrubbed off the worst of the rust and then clear-coated it with a matte lacquer, to keep the rust off my clothes.

To keep the pink crystal in place, I put the ring through the chain link, so it can't slide. This is also a *great* way to keep your necklace from twisting around on you. In fact, I may go do this to all my necklaces now.

Here's a closer look at the penny and crystal charm, which came off a broken bracelet:

By the way, I have a whole new respect now for Etsy jewelry sellers: photographing jewelry is HARD! I tried the photo cube, but the light just didn't seem right. My best luck was with these shots, which I took outside in the shade. And since I'm still pretty much helpless in PhotoShop, they're all straight-from-the-camera, for better or worse. :)

Here's a new necklace, where I played around with drilling more holes through the penny:

The two chains are part of a single necklace. All I did was break one in the middle and attach the penny on either end. I scavenged the beads from a third chain which used to be part of the same necklace.

This penny was the most brass-looking of them all, so it goes really well with the gold.


And finally, my most favorite of them all: my seahorse penny.

You ready for this? :D



Now, as you may remember, I started with this:

So to get the shape right, I had to remove the connecting beads, overlap the leaf sections, and then use bronze brads to hold the sections together.

The nice thing about the brads is that once I bent them open, they also held the penny in place on the back, like so:

The other ends I bent around the edge of the pendant, so everything is super snug without a drop of glue.

Once the frame was complete, I started brainstorming ways to cover up the text. Call me crazy, but I just didn't want to have "Virginia Aquarium" showing. Well, believe it or not, I had another necklace with matching crystals on it. A few snips with the pliers and dabs of Gorilla glue, and...voila!

Barring divine intervention and at least two spontaneous surgery reversals, I'm never going to have a baby myself. (Don't worry, that's by choice.) That doesn't mean I can't appreciate the 3 G's of baby cuteness, though.

Adele Enersen uses sheets, towels, and household items to create whimsical scenes around her baby daughter Mila while she naps. Then she posts the pictures on Mila's Daydreams:

Some fun apparel and accessories that have caught my eye recently:

Lisa found this next gem:

I can't find any more info on these, so I don't know what brand makes it. Anyone know?


Then, while I was researching the keyboard shoes, I stumbled across THIS:




So here's the thing: the second John saw this ring (and thanks, Jessica, for sharing the link!), his eyes went big as saucers and he asked, in classic kid-in-a-candy-store form, "Can I have one? Pleeeease?"

C'mon, who can say no to that? Besides, he wanted it for his wedding ring, since it's about a billion times cooler than the plain band he usually wears.

So, we bought it. And while it IS a very cool design, I'm afraid the feel of it is kind of loose and rattly. It jingles when you wear it, because there's so much space between the outer rings and the gears. Plus it feels a little crunchy when you twist it.

I contacted the company (which has excellent customer service, btw) and was told that's just the way the ring works, because they wanted it to be loose enough to spin with one finger. All told, though, we'd much rather see a tighter design that's a bit harder to twist, if that means less rattle and a smoother spin.

The ring costs $165 (available here), so we're going to be returning ours. And yes, we're really bummed about that. Say, any of you make jewelry? :)

Well, to end on a happier note, here's a cool USB ring a bride had custom made for her game-developer husband:

This, my friends, is Epbot reader Jennifer's new tattoo. It's also quite possibly the most mind-blowing fan photo I have ever had the pleasure of viewing. Seriously. I am in awe.

And since I've had a lot of folks ask where my little 'bot came from, this is probably a good place to mention that John and I actually made him! Woot Woot! [<-- me tooting my own horn.]
In fact, here's my original sketch:


I had the hardest time getting his belly round enough. Heh. From here, John did all the real work, though: cleaning up the lines and adding color and shading in PhotoShop. Since neither of us had ever done anything like this before (John was literally teaching himself PS as he went along), we were pretty excited with the end result.

Needless to say, it's pretty surreal for John and I to see something *we* made permanently adorning someone's arm, so a huge thanks to Jennifer for making our week! (Also, the bow tie is a nice touch.)