Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Ornament Tutorials: How to Stocking plus All Links



The Stocking Tutorial:

1. Create a stocking based on the previous tutorials. Sew both sides together and decorate one side with tshirt paint, glitter glue, etc. 

2. Let it dry and design the other side. The example pictured is the same stocking but different designs on both sides. 

I used embroidery floss to sew berries onto the holly, but glue works just fine. You can also leave the stocking open at the top to shove in a mini treat.


Links to other tutorials on my page:





Felt Ornament Tutorial #4

Merry Christmas Eve!
Are you watching A Christmas Story and have busy hands?
Here are some more felt tutorials by me for your holiday enjoyment!


More Felt Ideas:

Links to other tutorials on my page:





Saturday, December 22, 2012

SS of the Week: Mario Party N64


Mario Party 64 
Let the games begin


My sister and I would play this game all night, every Christmas eve. Sure we played it other times, but somehow, this became the night. Our Nana would come and spend the night at our house, resulting in my sister giving up her bed and camping out in my room. This is what we did!


Let's get right to the pain factor, shall we? 

Just a few seconds and you'll be regretting it for days

Infamous Tug of War- 
Why was this so bad?

Well in order to play this game, and a couple others, you had to spin the joystick of the N64 around in a complete circle. Though you can do it with your fingertips, its way more efficient to take your palm of the hand on the controller, place it over the joystick and spin in a circle. This caused an instant bruise, cut, welt, whatever you want to call it. In fact, gamers were so notorious for this, Nintendo actually made a Glove, yes 1 glove you could receive from them if you sent in your receipt and UPC from the box. Well, it was a Christmas gift from Santa so though I tried, I never got the glove. It would have been cool but whatever. Heh I found a handy picture to capture the essence of this little story.

Does this look familiar? If not, you are doing it wrong.


The mini games you play to get coins to win the game come in 4 player, 3 vs 1 and 2 vs 2. Sometimes its basically the computer outweighing you or holding you down. With the controls of the two computer players being set to 'easy' this can pose a problem. 
Well, we didnt want the computer to come in first....

Screw over your friends! Jump on top of them and under the '? box' to take their coins and smush them so they cant get any coins themselves! Bwuhahaha

Screw your friends #2: Pick them up and rob their coins. 
(Plus its so funny to watch em wiggle.)

S.Y.F. #3: Bump them off the cliff by pretending to dangle on the side, move quick and side bomb them to victory!


More like screw yourself....Tap A!
More more more, AAAAAAA to live! (Or is it B??)

BBBBBB hurry!  eh this mini game sucks. Its not alot of fun and not a big payout unless you get the bag of coins which you probably will have to sacrifice so you can stay alive on a 10 second spazz game.


Not to mention you get screwed by the computer at every turn. One minute you are in first place with stars, the next BOOM! you got screwed. Your friend spent up their monies to screw you.

And here, the crappy Easy mode for your CPU ends with death to you - 

Here's to hoping you and your friend end up on the same side because the CPU is more like a big anchor (or shark or Satan) and will sink you and kill you until you freak out and curse out the character's name, and wish certain evil onto their soul.

Whooo getting a little carried away here....

Have the lamest partner, the CPU, tank you into last place with ease.
In conclusion, the word screwed comes up a half dozen times, which clearly indicates the fairness of the CPU and the outcome of the games.

Yes they went on to make sequels, yes we played them too, and yes they suck in their own special way, but none actually make you bleed like this game. Mario Party 64.
What the hell kind of hellish awesomeness is this, in conclusion, to definitely be played during the holidays, when its ok to screw your friends or sister! They get you back. Its all in good fun now.

Sounds like complaints, but it really is fun. How, well, that's a different explanation...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!







Wednesday, December 19, 2012

2012 Felt Ornaments Tutorial: Bear, Bells, Trees


The following links are for additional felt ornament tutorials previously posted:


Holiday Felt Fun! Tutorial: Cookie Ornaments

Holiday Felt Cookie Treat!
Hi everyone!
Here we have some holiday felt fun, starting out with holiday cookies. These will last past Santa's visit. Leave some out on your living room table as an homage to the treats given to the big guy in red for stopping by with presents. Actually, they are more like unfinished ornaments. If a ribbon were attached to each one, thats what they would be.

~

Tutorial Instructions:

1. Create a template (drawing cut out of paper) or get out your cookie cutters and trace the design onto the felt. Cut 2 of the same shape, and 1 slightly smaller but identical shape for 'icing'. I used brown for cookie and red/green/pink for icing.


2. Use matching floss and run a simple stitch with the smaller piece w color on top of the brown felt. Then make a running stitch to connect the two brown pieces.


3. Done! If you want you can glue or sew ribbon onto them to hang. I left some on a plate with some chocolate chip cookies I had already made out of felt to make a bigger plate.


**To make a chocolate chip cookie: Cut out 2 brown circles. Grab some scrap brown for chips.

Sew chips onto felt first, one stitch should be enough. Then sew the circles together with a running stitch. Stuff with microfiber or cotton if you wish.

Merry Christmas!



Craft tutorial: How to make a mod tree ornament


 How to make a 'mod tree' ornament


Cute and simple, these ornaments from felt, floss and glue can be alot of fun to make!

The holidays always make me think of family. Every Christmas, my Nana would hang a mod Santa cutout mobile on her door. I couldn't remember a year she did not hang it up. He would spin around everytime someone came through the door. He brought alot of cheer, even if he is a little odd. My aunt actually mailed him to me today! I have been pumping out ornaments for about a month, so it was a definite happy surprise and a sign to include him in this posting!

hi Santa and Santa's inspired ornament




The instructions are pretty self explanatory. I created my own template for the tree because I could not find my tree cookie cutter. The tree and the bell are the simpler shapes to start on. I didn't bother with stars since they look pretty bad when the 5 sides are uneven, but whatever shape works for you will work with this project.

Please check back later in the week for an additional tutorial on felt ornaments. Some of them are trying to make their ways to homes for the holidays. See you soon!






Saturday, December 15, 2012

SS of the Week: Pokemon Black 2

I choose you, Black Version number 2!




Fire, water, or plant, which of these three will be your first in Pokemon Bv2?


Sunday, December 9, 2012

Chicken w Lemon Caper Sauce - WW




Chicken with Lemon Caper Sauce - derived from WW
4 points plus meal

Ingredients:
Boneless chicken breast
salt, pepper
2 TBSP flour
pinch of salt
olive oil
1/2 c chicken broth
3 TBSP lemon juice
1 TBSP capers
1 tsp butter (optional)

Instructions:
Chicken breast, sliced butterflied with knife.
Salt and pepper both sides, leave sit for at least 5 minutes
Heat saute pan to medium high heat with olive oil.
Use flour to coat both sides of chicken, shake off excess.
Add chicken to hot pan, 3 minutes per side, remove and set aside on plate (cover to keep warm)
Once all prepped chicken is removed from the pan, add 1/2 c broth, 2 tbsp lemon juice and 1 tbsp capers for every 2 breasts. Cook for 2 minutes on medium heat, then return the chicken to the pan to cook for an additional 2 minutes.
Add butter if desired to the sauce.
Drizzle sauce and capers on chicken.
Sprinkle parsley on top of sauce and chicken.

Enjoy!


Can Be Found in the Weight Watchers New Complete Cookbook:



Saturday, December 8, 2012

SS of the week: Ghosts & Goblins NES

Add caption
I saw this screen shot in a Nintendo book, and it looked awesome. Graveyard, zombies, being a knight in white armor, and items! 6 years old and my mind is just blown. I really wanted to play this game. Thankfully, places like flea markets and second hand video game shops were all the rage in the late 90s so I got to pick up some titles I could not afford or find at a younger age.

I had such high hopes. I really did. I mean, I knew it was tough, at least I heard it from one kid that my mom was friends with his mom and my sister and I had to go play with him and his little brother (you know how all that goes when you are a kid. Sometimes you get stuck hanging out with some real screwballs) but these two were not so bad. The older kid had this game in his NES in his room, on pause. It was paused on the map screen. He said it had been that way all weekend. I thought he was nuts. I just had a lousy NES which couldnt stand that kind of play. But turns out, this kid had the right idea. You do get infinite continues in the game so as long as it doesnt shut off, in theory you can beat it.

Take turns dying with your little sister who gives it maybe 30 seconds of a try.


(world map here if I felt like googling this crap one more time, which I dont. So go google it yourself if you need a refresher.)

So the bad news. One big issue is just the game is too hard. You only get 2 chances on a life throughout the level. You get hit once, you lose armor and you are forced to run around nekkid. Then, you die next hit. You can pick up the little items that sort of resemble armor, but they just give points. Plus your weapons are not so strong. 

And their Unicorns (boss) are fugly and not at all cute.


A weird graphic has always bothered me. Take a look at the mountain or cone cloud thing in the middle. It has half a fence growing on the side. Is this where the devil lives? Or Satan? Since there are both in the game, indicating there is a diference between Satan and the Devil. I think the Devil is the thing that kidnaps your woman at the beginning but Satan is the final boss. 

never gonna get there, gonna get there (not a NES ss) never gonna get there, gonna get there...womp womp wah wahh waahh

Anyway, in case you were living under a I hate video game rock in the 80s-90s, you must know this game. Its a classic, tough game and nobody usually beats it. The ending also is a huge let down. Boo on this game, but if someone else is playing it, I will have to watch.

Thanks for reading, until next time! 

Saturday, December 1, 2012

SS of the week: The Birth of FPS


Quake and Doom: The Birth of the FPS in your home





Doom and Quake, two of the first FPS for the PC. FPS means First Person Shooter, which refers to the camera angle in which you interact with the game. You normally view the game through your own eyes and do not see yourself as a character on screen.

Doom








Quake



Choose your path:
beginner, intermediate, advanced