FOE Finds: Baby Thrones, Bear Lamps, & CROWLEY SAYS HI!

I'm a perpetual lurker over in Fans of Epbot, because it gives me such joy to see 5,000+ geeks basically participating in the world's best Show & Tell. My Facebook feed is 70% photos of your pets and crafts and toys and outfits and really, REALLY bad jokes - and I wouldn't have it any other way.

As I lurk, I also sometimes screen-shot a few of my favorites. Then, because I'm terrible at this, I wait a good 4 months before asking John to go find all the people whose posts I saved and see if they'll let me share here on the blog. :D Which he - and they! - graciously did. So thanks for the team effort, gang!

Now here's a little sampling of things to make you smile, all from your friendly neighborhood FOE:

 This seems appropriate this week!

 I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "Dangit, Jen, you can't show us a baby Iron Throne without a baby on it!!"

WELL YOU ARE IN LUCK, MY FRIENDS.

BEHOLD!

Allison, I think I speak for us all when I say, Bless you for bringing this into the world. 

(The cute kid, too! :p)

*****

Karen said she made the pot of petunias necklace - my favorite part! - from buttons. So clever!

Karen is actually one of my friends IRL, because a million years ago (or maybe 5-6) I tweeted to the world at large that John & I were at Disney, and did anyone want to meet up? And she did! Just hopped in her car and drove out to Epcot, by herself, to hang with us all night.

I don't know if I'd be that brave, but I'm glad she was.

*****

YASSS. This makes me so happy, and reminds me of all the little Star Trek conventions I went to growing up. Everyone was there to talk and laugh and sing Klingon Karaoke, and I'd never felt more welcome to be my nerdy, Bajoran-earring-wearing self. I hope it's still like that, Melanie. I bet it is. 

*****

You ever see a craft that makes you want to drop everything and go make one just like it?

We Went To An Epic Game of Thrones Dinner Party! ...But We Don't Watch The Show, So Please, EXPLAIN

John and I just had the most AMAZING Game of Thrones dinner experience, but it's not fair because we don't watch Game of Thrones, so I'm going to share all the goodness here and trust you guys will appreciate it even more than we did.

First, a little background:

Our friends John and Anna love to host big dinner parties, and every Christmas, Easter, & Thanksgiving they throw open their home to all of us without family in town. They're basically our adopted local parents. In reality they're our friend Christie's parents, but now we lay claim and she has to share. 

Now, trust me, with Anna's cooking, you do NOT miss one of their dinners. Even if the theme is for a show you've never seen, like Game of Thrones.

And let's get this out of the way real quick: John and I (that's my John, not host John) aren't GoT people. I'm squeamish and easily traumatized, and John won't watch anything with sexual violence, so GoT is a non-starter. Which is cool, just like it's cool if you like the show. Different death strokes for different folks, eh?

That does mean we were clueless over pretty much everything at the party, though, so bear with me as I explain stuff I know NOTHING about.

Oh, but I did find what I think is a pretty sweet hostess gift:

There are versions of this on Etsy where they'll add in a custom name if you have more time, but since I only had a week I ordered this one from Amazon. And it's so pretty!

This wasn't a costume party, but that's never stopped me and John before. He brought & distributed all our fur cowls from our Knights Who Say Ni cosplays:

(Goes great with a polo, right?)

(The sword belongs to our hosts, and is SUPER heavy.)

Meanwhile I did my best with what I had in my closet:

I wore my Hufflepuff cup necklace, because of course I did.

Now, let's set the stage at John and Anna's place:

Their house is lovely, for starters, and their decor is already kind of Thronesy, from what I can tell. (Anna is originally from Estonia, and they've traveled all over.) John even has furs and big swords mounted on the wall in his game room, ha.

 The plates and cups were especially in theme:

 

And the table was set with candles, dragons, coins...

... and fun miniatures:

You'll see the bread in a minute. It's worth the wait, I promise!

We got there early that day to play Borderlands together (told you they're awesome), but here's the table later with everything lit up: