I love gettin’ all decked out for Christmas, and this year was so exception. I’ve got green tights from Target, red boors, a black lace skirt and my favorite basic grey sweater. The reindeer earrings were a new addition (love the front and back for each side) as well as the giant candy cane bow. I loved it. I picked both up at Claire’s. The Christmas light necklace is a holiday staple for me… I wear it every single year and bought it at a craft fair when I was young.

The holiday season has been anything but relaxing, but it’s been a lot of fun regardless. First we started off the week with a Christmas game night, which ended in a way no one could have imagined. I had a handful of friends over (most of which are mega Harry Potter nerds) and for old time’s sake, we decided to play Harry Potter trivia. Somehow, the two least knowledgable in Harry Potter managed to abuse the card-stealing mechanic of the game to take home the win. It was a rough night for most other parties involved.

My friends and I celebrate Christmas a few days early with each other, before we all go home for our family Christmasses. I really enjoy having my own tree and a night of present exchanging with my friends. We really are like a little alternative family and I love them all so, so much. Especially when we do dorky things like taking a “Battle Camp Christmas Picture” together:

Then my family got together for a Christmas football game. I don’t normally go to football games (as I’m sure you can tell, sports aren’t really my thing) but my dad has had season tickets for years and really wanted my brother and I to experience the craziness that is a Seahawks game as of late. So I donned what minimal sports gear I owned and headed down to the stadium.

It was, of course, the WORST game of the season and the only home game our team has lost in years, but you can’t deny the environment of a sold out football game is a sight to see.

Then it was nearly time for real Christmas. I made the short journey to my parents’ house and was happy to see our tree all set up just like I remembered it. Our extended family lives all over the place so we don’t usually get to see them for Christmas, which has made for a lot of quiet Christmasses over the years. I don’t really mind it that way. It’s nice to have a couple of days to just spend at home with my parents and my brother.

I got a lot of lovely presents and gave even more away, and now that it’s all over I’m just gearing up for my birthday. 26 will be the first depressing birthday I have (goodbye dad’s healthcare!) so I am making up for it by having a Frozen themed birthday party, just like I’m a kid again. Hopefully it helps, somehow. Also it’s impossible to get any work done at my parent’s house while they’re home, so I’m going to end this blog post here and leave you with this picture I found of my very first ugly sweater.

Merry Christmas everyone, and I hope everyone has fun plans for New Year’s!

Hey everyone! I have really been meaning to write up my second bucket list post (which highlights my recent trip to the Winchester Mystery House)… but I’ve been both sick and distracted with the Project 4 Awesome, so it hasn’t happened yet. I have posted a lot of videos recently, however, so I thought I would tide us all over with a round-up post of all of those in the meantime.

First up is my Farewell video to my Fiesta, Rainbow Dash. I had a good run with the Fiesta Movement, but it’s back to reality now. This video was my way of saying goodbye:

We also started playing Explore the Dungeon Because I Don’t Know (the new Adventure Time game) over on Team Hypercube. We’re only three episodes in, so it’s a good time to jump in on this new series. Not only will we be bringing on special guests to play with us, but it’s the first game we’ve started using picture-in-picture for… meaning you can see a video of us in the corner while we play! It’s a lot of fun so far and I guarantee it’s only going to get better:

We’re also getting dangerously close to WEEK 100 on Dokapon Kingdom, so you might want to catch up so you don’t miss it! Check out Team Hypercube and subscribe, because more things are going to be happening there in the new year. You’ll want to keep an eye on it.

Coming soon on this blog will be my bucket list post, reviews of the two most recent ipsy bags, and a lot of fun outfit of the day posts for the holiday plans I have on the horizon. Thanks for sticking with me and I’ll be back again soon. In the mean time, let me know in the comments who your favorite Adventure Time character is and which one you’d want to play in the new WiiU game!

It’s that time of year again, folks… the PROJECT 4 AWESOME! As a dedicated nerdfighter, this is one of my favorite projects of the year and I am so stoked for everyone to see the video I made for it. I feature a different charity each year and this year I chose to finally talk about a personal favorite… National Novel Writing Month.

I’m gonna be hanging out in the live stream for most of the next 48 hours, and I should also be hosting it later on tonight or tomorrow when John and Hank need a break (or to like, sleep/eat). If you’ve never heard of P4A or never participated yourself, please go check out the Project 4 Awesome website, donate at the indiegogo page (there are so AWESOME perks, including a handful of UNCUT SHEETS of Jetpack Unicorn that will be going up soon!) and watch/like/comment on as many videos with this year’s thumbnail as you can.

We can get so caught up in the holidays and shopping and gifts that it’s nice to have this annual reminder that we can use YouTube as a force for good, bringing real humans together to donate money to things that really matter to us as a group. I am so proud to have been doing this for seven years and I can just tell this will be a P4A to remember.

Did you make a P4A video this year? What charity did you choose and which are you voting for on the site?

I have been truly terrible at keeping up with my blog this month! I was doing so well for awhile there, and then NaNoWriMo just crashed its way in and wrecked my whole flow – and then, well,  December just sort of speaks for itself in terms of getting off schedule. The holidays are in FULL SWING, and the road trip I was on since Monday didn’t help at all.

But that’s not to say the trip wasn’t totally amazing. I will walk you through a few of the highlights, right now.

Joe and I hit the road early Monday morning but it wasn’t until about midday that we hit snow for the first time. I was a bit worried about getting my Fiesta through the snowy mountainy part of the drive, but it was never really an issue.

I am a rather seasoned road-trip connoisseur, so I filled Joe in on the art of finding good places to eat when you have no idea where you are. All you have to do is look for diner names on the “Food at this Exit” signs, bearing a couple of rules in mind. First of all, you never pick a place you already know. You’re out exploring the open road! Subway can wait! No, when you’re on a road trip, you should always find new places to discover. The best way to pick them (when in reality you have absolutely nothing to go on) is to make sure they match one of two criteria. Rule #1 is to find a restaurant with an actual person’s name (like Rudy’s, or a Glenn’s, or Tracy’s). If the name sounds friendly, the food will probably be delicious. The friendlier, the more delicious. It’s direct variation, folks. Second is to pick a sign that’s written in cursive (or some other cute font). The cuter the font, the more adorable (and subsequently, delicious) the restaurant will be. For example, here’s one of the places we ended up eating at by following this standard set of rules:

Cutest font! And it was delicious! And they had amazing blackberry cobbler!

On the first day of our trip, we made it all the way from Seattle to Redding, California. It was a pretty intense day of driving, but it was made much easier by the beautiful sights as well as the massive amounts of Nightvale Radio we listened to. Joe and I learned you should probably only listen to 3-4 episodes of Nightvale Radio in one sitting. We learned this by listening to at least 12.

The next day we were back on the road where we made a stop-off outside of Sacremento to visit the offices of Wyrd, the makers of Jetpack Unicorn. Which is now available on Amazon, by the way. Our next stop was San Jose, but that may need to wait for its own blog post. I may or may not have accomplished a bucket list item there.

Thanks for sticking with me while I’ve been so crazy busy! There will be many more updates on this blog in the coming days, and in the mean time, please go catch up on my YouTube channel and gaming channel! We just started playing the Adventure Time game and it’s a lot of fun, so don’t miss it.

How’s your December going? Tell me one fun thing you’ve done this month in the comments, and I’ll be back with another post tomorrow.

I’m not sure how it happened exactly, but the Hypercube house mascot has, over the last year or so, become the world’s grumpiest cardboard cutout of Gale (from the Hunger Games). We dress him up for parties, hide him in each other’s bedrooms, and you can always rest assured that if you’re trying to relax in the living room, he will be silently creeping on you from the corner.

Christmas Gale, however, really took it to the next level:

Most people say “it’s not really Christmas until you put up the tree” or “until it snows” or “when my Starbucks comes in a red cup!” But for those of us who live here at Hypercube, it’s now officially Christmas because Gale will spend the remainder of the month silently judging us for having fun. Also, he hates his new hat.

We got this great new tree from my parents this year and we had a ton of fun last night setting it up and hanging all our sentimental ornaments in the perfect order. Pictured above are just a few of the best: Rapunzel, and the ones us girls bought at the Nutcracker last winter. I also have a Pinkie Pie, a big sparkly pink unicorn and a glitter coated pickle [not pictured].

I know it’s totally cliched and people are probably already sick of hearing about it, but the holidays just make me feel so happy. There are so many fun plans in the next few weeks, and I love giving presents to people, and decorating for holidays is just the best.

I really can’t wait to watch Christmas movies snuggled on the couch in my footy pajamas. Especially now that Eia and I have the perfect hot cocoa mugs!

What are you favorite Christmas ornaments? You know, the really special ones you most look forward to hanging on the tree each year? Let me know in the comments!

Well!

It has been quite the month. I apologize for taking so much time off of this blog – I really, truly enjoy updating it nearly every day, but that last stretch of NaNoWriMo just made it really difficult to do anything else, not to mention another writing intensive project. But! I made it through victorious, yet again. 

I’ve been working diligently on on editing my “film myself every day of November to show the craziness unfold” video project, and it should be going up on my YouTube channel tomorrow. If you’ve ever wanted to see a first hand account of what true insanity looks like, you’ll probably enjoy this video.

In other news, I am SO EXCITED about Christmas stuff. My roommates and I are decorating our tree tomorrow night, and then I have my first holiday party on Thursday (with many more to come). There will definitely be ample blog posts about everything I have coming up in the following weeks. It’s been all sweaters and pine scented candles at my house lately, and we’re just getting started.

I’ve just been in such a good mood lately. Not only was Frozen amazing (Eia and I cannot stop dancing around the house to the soundtrack) but I finished my eighth NaNoWriMo novel and we’re entering the month of parties, parties, and more parties. Also I turn 26 this month. But we’ll get to that later when I have decided whether I’m excited or depressed.

Please, give me updates on your NaNo experience this month, if you took part in the marathon. Or tell me what you’re most looking forward to for the holiday season. Or what you want for Christmas! I’m having a hell of a time figuring out what I want this year.

Here’s hoping it snows soon. I love the first snow.