Chainmail chic

I have totally gotten into chainmail jewelry.  It started when I mentioned Etsy on Twitter and someone named MoodySanguine started following me.  I checked out their Twitter and saw, "Crafting, designing, witchy best friends!" and a website.  I liked the sound of that, so I clicked it and found some of the prettiest jewelry ever!  Pretty enough to be girly, but chainmail enough to be kinda geek.  I followed them back on Twitter and bought my first pair of earrings from them:

We chatted on Twitter a bit (Denise is usually the one online, Melina is the other).  We slowly formed a friendship, all the way from Massachusetts to Canada.  They then introduced me to Tryphyna, also in Canada, and many geeky girly happy chats ensued.  I continued to provide an inordinate amount of business to them as I got obsessed with their creations.  ;)

Cool Off From the Heat Earrings

Rhonda Is a Fancy Pants Earrings 

 

Simple Is Sometimes Just as Bloody

Yes, I seriously own all of those, plus more, and two bracelets.  They also sell purses, but I have too many!  I change my jewelry often enough to justify those!

After chatting them up for a while, I got another Etsy follower, 88Links.  I checked out her shop and found more chainmail goodness.  I asked her for a custom pair of earrings, and bought another pair she had for sale.  Here are my newest pretties:

Rainbow Chain Earrings 

 

Fae Crystal Earrings 

 

Wearing those blue ones today!  I'm now a huge fan of Etsy altogether, bought some home decor things and going to be buying all sorts of wedding things on there.  I love that they have a separate category for geekery alone.  I highly recommend people check it out for all sorts of fun stuff.  Plus buying handmade makes me feel good.  =)

 

My twink hunter will pwn you

I finally did it. I made a twink in WoW.

I admit it, I was bored. I don't have a group to run raids with on my level 80 pally. My level 30 mage is too squishy to quest solo. I got bored with my level 47 druid.  Simon is leveling up a druid and doesn't need my help. I guess it was just time for a twink!

I decided to go with a hunter, one of the quintessential twink classes.  I read up on recommended gear and pets, choose engineering and skinning as my professions, and proceeded to beg dungeon runs off my fiance.  By the time we were done gearing me up, he had the twink bug too, so my orc hunter Seeno and her spider pet Speakno were joined by Hearno the undead rogue.

We ran Wailing Caverns, Shadowfang Keep, and Deadmines over and over for the gear.  Thank the gods for that new "experience hold" feature so we could keep running dungeons long past when we would have leveled to 20.  We're not completely done, but here's a breakdown of our gear so far:

Seeno (me):
Head: Green Tinted Goggles
Neck: Thick Bronze Necklace
Shoulders: Serpent's Shoulders
Back: Sentry Cloak
Chest: Blackened Defias Armor
Wrists: Forest Leather Bracers
Hands: Gloves of the Fang
Waist: Deviate Scale Belt
Legs: Scouting Trousers of the Monkey (+5 agility, +5 stamina)
Feet: Footpads of the Fang
Finger 1: Lavishly Jeweled Ring
Finger 2: Seal of Sylvanas
Melee weapon: Twisted Chanter's Staff
Ranged weapon: Venomstrike

I still need:
Finger 1: Legionnaire's Band
Trinket1 : Insignia of the Horde
Trinket 2: Arena Grand Master

Hearno (Simon):
Head: Green Tinted Goggles
Neck: Thick Bronze Necklace
Shoulders: Serpent's Shoulders
Back: Sentry Cloak
Chest: Blackened Defias Armor
Wrists: Forest Leather Bracers
Hands: Scouting Gloves of the Monkey (+4 agility, +4 stamina)
Waist: Deviate Scale Belt
Legs: Leggings of the Fang
Feet: Feet of the Lynx
Finger 1: Seal of Sylvanas
Finger 2: Meadow Ring of Eluding (+12 dodge rating, +1 agility)
Main hand weapon: Butcher's Slicer
Off-hand weapon: Cruel Barb
Ranged Weapon: Thick Bronze Darts

He still needs:
Trinket1: Insignia of the Horde
Trinket 2: Arena Grand Master
Main hand weapon: Shadowfang or Assassin's Blade

We've been running SFK over and over and over in search of those damn swords!  We of course also have various enchantments on everything that you can check out on our armory pages if interested.

Now, I honestly used to hate battlegrounds when I ran them on my 80.  I'm a blacksmith and made my own armor, but it's nothing compared to the people who run raids over and over and have uber leet gear.  I was constantly annoyed and frustrated and pretty much just gave them up.

When I started running Warsong Gulch on my twink, it was much of the same at first.  However, once I finished gearing up and got used to the strategy, I got better and better.  Until one day...

BAM!  1st place!  I had NEVER ranked #1 in a BG before that.  That's when it hit me...I love twinking.

(Cross-posted to ManaDump)

Fashion rambles

Sorry for the hiatus, working on a twink post but I need pics that are at home.  So I will fill this space with fashion rambling!

I wish I were cool as a kid, like this chick.  She's 13, totally quirky and unique, and verbally awesome.  I wrote some lame poetry at her age.  I think I'd be happier today if I had found myself so fully at a younger age.  I'm still trying to figure out who I am, what I like, what I want to look like.

I'm just transitioning out of another t-shirt phase, which resulted in 40+ tees from Woot, Threadless, and Jinx.  They're cool shirts, but I gotta knock it off.  I wear a men's XL (women's 2X is too tight) and the baggy look just isn't flattering (neither is too tight, of course).  I work in a casual office, but I feel really under-dressed compared to some women.  I wear the tees with flowy hippy skirts, but I saw these pics of me and realized it's just kinda lame looking:

 

I mean, part of what makes me so unhappy with my look is my weight, of course, but I feel like going overboard trying to mask my body might not be the solution.  I went on OldNavy.com yesterday and bought some nicer shirts and slacks.  I love skirts but I wear them less in the fall/winter.  I have been trying to not wear tees to work and realized I have practically nothing in the way of shirts, despite my massive wardrobe.  Once sweater weather is here, I'm set, but till then I wanted some nice tops.

Here's what I ended up with:

Plus a floral halter they didn't have a pic of any more (I'll wear a shrug over it), a black sweater dress, two pairs of slacks (gray and brown) and a pair of dark jeans.  Ten things for $80, woot!  ;)

I've gotten rid of a lot of stuff that doesn't fit me any more, even though I'd been hanging onto it "just in case" I lost weight.  I have a pair of size 14 "goal jeans," but I need stuff to wear now, to make me feel good about how I look even if I haven't lost the weight yet.  I'm engaged now; I want to look like an adult.

I even started wearing a little makeup.  Gasp!  Just some eye liner, eye shadow, and mascara, plus tinted face moisturizer and tinted lip gloss.  Nothing much.  I feel a little better when I enhance my best feature (my eyes), so it's worth the extra five minutes in the morning.

This is all very girly for me, for as much as I love clothes, I am definitely a tomboy at heart.  I like to be comfortable and to be able to get ready quickly in the morning.  I do NOT wear heels, unless it's a wedding or something.  I hang out with guys and ride on Simon's motorcycle and play lots of video games.  Clothes and makeup are not the most important things in my life.  But, just for once, I want to feel pretty.  I want to feel like a woman.
 
Okay, that was cheesy, sorry.  =P  I'm done.

Does this D20 make me look fat?

Please don't think too badly of me for saying this, but...

...being a girl gamer makes me feel more attractive.



Don't get me wrong, I game for all the right reasons; I don't game in order to be more attractive. It's just a by-product of something I love to do.

Case in point: last night, Simon and I walked into a gaming/hobby shop to look for D&D minis. This store, 3 Trolls, was hosting a Warmachine & Hordes League Play night. The place was swarming with male geeks. I walk in, with my Coach hairscarf and cute kimono-sleeve top and kick-ass boots, and instantly feel eyes gravitate towards me. As I wound my way through the BO and acne, I felt like a goddess. Granted, I was the only female in the place other than the owner's old, homely wife, but still. It felt good. And I feel super shallow for saying it.

I'm sure it helped Simon's ego too. "Yeah, I'm a geek, and she is too, and we're getting married. Yeah, I'm hitting that," or something along those lines, may have been running through his head. I'm sure I just looked like a tag-along, until I started questioning the owner about the model paints and discussing the merits of unpainted vs. pre-painted D&D minis. I think the respect level rose a notch then.

In the bigger world, there are far more attractive girl gamers than I, like the entire FragDolls team (which I applied to be part of and obviously was unsuccessful). There are booth babes at ComiCon, and chicks who dress up as succubi for these things, and Nerd Girl Pinups. I will never be that hot. But when I walk into a local game shop, I feel a little more confident than I normally do.

I still wish I were Felicia Day, though.

New money hole

This always happens. I get into something new, and sink a ton of money into it. I fell in love with World of Warcraft, and bought the games, a subscription, t-shirts, figurines, etc. I started motorcycling and bought a bike, gear, and all that. Now...it's D&D.

eBay is my most favorite shopping website. Of course that's where I'm stalking new D&D deals. Figurines, dice, books, bags...you name it, I've bought some. At least I'm not the only one....Simon dropped $100 on arts and crafts supplies the other night to make game boards.



I'm all about painting figurines and amassing an entirely unnecessarily huge dice collection.



But having a new obsession is just too much fun! ;)

D&D and WoW geekery

I had THE GEEKIEST WEEKEND EVER! So awesome.

On Saturday, we had three friends over; Chris, Matt, and Don. We usually get together with these guys for LAN parties at Chris's house, but none of us are playing the same PC games right now. Simon and I wanted to host one in our new house, and Matt suggested we give D&D a try. So we did. And we loved it. Chris and Don have played in the past I believe, and Matt DM-ed because he's been dying to find people to play with. Simon and I were noobs. We had a freaking blast. I cooked noms for everyone, cuz I'm an Italian woman and love to feed people. Buffalo chicken tenders, biscuits, and hot dogs for lunch. Freshly baked cookies and piles of chips for snacks. A huge sandwich spread for dinner. Much Monster and Mountain Dew.



We played for about 10 hours total. It was the best. I made a Genasi Bard named Lyrica Lunarflame. We got so into it that by the end of the night I was online purchasing a bard figurine and paints. Matt had tons of minis, but no genasis in there. He used Jenga blocks for walls, and he and Chris had a collection of monsters. It was very easy to visualize with all the props.


They all left around 2:30 am, and we crashed. The next day, we got up at 10:30 (trying not to sleep all day). We were feeling lazy, and I started playing WoW. I decided that's all I wanted to do. All day. So I played WoW...all day. About 10 hours total. I now have a very well-geared level 19 twink hunter. ;-)

That weekend, I never left the house once. On Sunday, I didn't even shower or get dressed. It was freaking AWESOME. I don't care if that's gross. I needed a weekend like that! =)