Sometimes, right when I think it’s not possible for me to get any more nerdy… I develop a new hobby like painting miniatures. I don’t even totally remember how it happened. I think the first time I painted a mini was a few years ago at a con, and I had no idea what I was doing. I distinctly remember making my fighter much, much too orange. Then some friends of mine bought the giant Reaper Bones kickstarter mega pack and invited a few of us over to help them paint, which was the first time I learned anything at all about technique.

Liz, Joe and I spent a fair amount of time in the Reaper painting room at PAX this year as well, and through that, I could feel the bug catching. That’s why when I saw an opportunity to cultivate my own collection of painting supplies and making a fun video about the process in a Fiesta Mission this month, I jumped on it.

 

I am very much still learning (there’s so much crazy technique involved in this hobby, it’s nuts) but I am having a ton of fun along the way. And as I start to fill my new display case with finished pieces, there’s one thought that really strikes me… I need to play more D&D.

Have you ever painted minis before? Did you even know it was a thing you could do? I’ve always been really interested in dollhouses and miniature sets and basically the concept of “really small versions of larger things” so this was totally right up my alley. I hope you enjoy the video, and maybe I will make more as I continue to learn and get better.

I’ve been a bit off the grid for the past week or so, and I’ve rather kept the reasons to myself. I’ve been trying to write it all down in a blog post, but it’s currently sitting, half written, as a draft in my post queue… so that’ll go up whenever I find the words.

Basically (as I’m sure you’ve gathered if you follow me on twitter or instagram) I was in North Dakota surrounded by family for a funeral. This post is not about that, however. It’s about what was happening at home while I was away.

Let me preface this by saying I have some of the most wonderful friends and roommates anyone could ask for. Last week when I was panicking, making arrangements, buying plane tickets – they asked me, “how can we help? What still needs to be done?”

I felt a crushing weight as I imagined my to-do list before my 6am flight left the next morning, and at the tippy-top of that list was my weekly “italktosnakes” video. I knew there wouldn’t be time in North Dakota to make one. I knew it wouldn’t even be on my mind.

“Leave it to us,” they said, wicked smiles on their faces. “We’ll make one for you.”

I didn’t even ask what they had in mind; just enveloped them in hugs, put my trust in them entirely, and a week later came home to this adorable, hilarious video — all ready for me to post.

I’m a lucky girl. For a lot of reasons, I’ve discovered over this past week, but today I am focusing on how wonderful it is to have such unwavering support in your friends. This is a new favorite video on my channel, and I hope you all like it too.

This post is a bit past due, but better late than never, right? Last week one day, two my roommates and I myself decided to play hooky and head down to our local water park. It’s a good forty minutes away, so it can be really easy to go a whole summer without making it down there. But with how busy we’ve all been with Job Hunters (and how little I’ve been allowed in the sun to keep continuity for the season) I think it’s really important to make time for spontaneous trips to really appreciate beautiful summer weather.

I spent most of the day in my bikini, but before that, here’s what I was wearing. Fun bright yellow shorts from Target that I rarely find reason to wear, a blue tourist tank I bought on my family trip to Puerto Vallarta back in February, and brand new right-out-of-the-box sandals from Modcloth.

We spent the day lounging in beach chairs, playing in the wave pool and alternating between all of the best water slides. I brought my GoPro along as well, which was altogether too much fun for a video nerd like myself. There really isn’t much more to say about the day, aside from wanting to reiterate how important summer sunshine outings are, especially when shared with friends. This was the most relaxing and fun day I’d had in a long time, and appreciated Eia and Justin coming along with me so, so much.

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Yesterday I posted my August Favorites video in the form of a “Colors of the Rainbow” tag… basically I picked one thing of each color that I was into this month and compiled them together in this YouTube video for you:

Not only that, but I also created a supplemental Subblime recommendation list that goes into much more detail about each of the products, AND includes a giveaway for this lovely “Part of Your World” eyeshadow palette from The Little Mermaid line at Sephora.

They don’t have any more of the larger Ariel palette unfortunately, but I wanted to let my viewers get in on the Disney makeup collection while part of it are still available! So head on over to Subblime to try and win one, or you can buy it here. Which of the Disney Princess palettes has been your favorite? I heard they’re not doing any more, but if they were, which ones would you want to see next?

Note: This post may contain affiliate or referral links.

The new Plants vs. Zombies game from PopCap came out last week, and being from a native Seattle game company – they celebrated the launch accordingly:

Many have said in the past that the Space Needle looks more like a space craft than any sort of human building, and for this short time – they were right! The zombies have left their warning for our poor city, and now all we have left to do is fight back.

And fight back we will! In fact, I started playing Plants vs. Zombies 2 around the time this Space Needle stunt happened, and decided to film the experience for use on my game channel, Team Hypercube. I’m embedding the first video below if you’re interested, and be sure to subscribe to the channel if you want regular updates when new videos go up.

 

This is one of my favorite new publicity stunts to date. What sort of interesting marketing have you seen in the past that compares to this? Let me know in the comments!

 

About a week ago, Joe and I got a package in the mail containing the first two boxes of Jetpack Unicorn. I’m sure you can imagine our excitement, holding the game we created in our hands for the first time ever. It’s a surreal experience, as I’m sure any creator knows – to work tirelessly on a project and then, suddenly, the finished product just… exists. It’s hard to accept that it’s a wholly real and tangible object you can touch and open and eventually sell to other people who will hopefully in turn love and enjoy it as much as you hoped they would.

We took the game up to AFK Tavern, our favorite nerd bar, and we filmed ourselves opening the box. I mean, come on – you can only open the first game you create once in your entire life, so I felt the moment needed to be saved. We went on to play (with real cards!) with a handful of our friends amidst ordering drinks like the Sonic Rainboom and the Still a Better Love Story Than Twilight, and overall the night rated pretty high on my list of favorite nights.

If you’re interested in see our unboxing, I’m embedding the video below. Also, Jetpack Unicorn will be available in stores and on DFTBA.com very soon! I will keep you all informed.

At VidCon this year I managed to hook up with the people over at Loot Crate — which was a grand decision on my part! I’ll be honest with you. I’ve been at other events that Loot Crate was represented at in the past, and it’s not that I wasn’t interested in it then… but just that at VidCon they were selling My Little Pony Funko Pop! Vinyl Figures. Which instantly attracted me like a bug to a flame. While purchasing said My Little Pony figurine, we started talking, and they welcomed me into their YouTube Loot Crate community. Don’t know what Loot Crate is? Watch the video!

I posted my first unboxing video on my main channel pretty much just to inform people that I’ll be getting these each month, so if you want to catch any subsequent unboxing videos, you’ll want to make sure you’re subscribed to my second channel! I post a lot of casual/supplemental content like this over on that channel, as well as daily vlog type stuff, fanmail videos, and a strange series I call “Questions of the Universe”.

I’m working diligently on getting my Cave Diving/Spelunking video edited… I am so excited to tell you guys all about this crazy adventure I had. That’ll be going up soon, so keep an eye out. In the mean time – what kind of videos would you like to see most from me? I just bought a new handy vlogging camera so I’m playing around with the idea of filming more stuff out and about, which is something I kind of stopped doing for awhile there. Let me know in the comments!

 

As a YouTuber, I often find myself saying the sentence: “Well, this is definitely the weirdest thing I’ve ever done for a video”. That single statement has included things such as “hatching” out of a fake “egg”, wearing a tutu, wrapping my entire living room in wrapping paper, being covered in fake blood and throwing paint at my friends – among many other things I know I am forgetting.

This time, though, I think I’ve taken it to a whole new level.

I’ll be transparent with you – Taco Bell asked me to make this video. They didn’t pay me… I just agreed for the fun of it. I appreciate and respect their keen marketing sense and their food is a huge guilty pleasure of mine, so yeah. When asked if I wanted to anounce the newest Doritos Locos Taco shell flavor, I said yes. And then proceeded to immediately text my roommate Justin, “Can you help me light a taco on fire?”

Bless him, he agreed enthusiastically without even asking why. THAT’S the mark of someone who’s lived with me long enough to know not to bother asking questions. Strangeness is the norm at our house, definitely.

Anyway, you can get the new Fiery DLT at Taco Bell early starting on the 19th, before it’s announced to the rest of the world on the 22nd. But the real point of this blog post is to make sure you watch this video, because I LIT A TACO ON FIRE. And apparently my hand, for a few seconds there. I didn’t notice until I started editing the video together. I promise though, we took all the necessary safety precautions, my gloves were fire proof, and we had a fire extinguisher within shouting distance.

While I was away at VidCon, my roommate texted me saying a large ominous black box had arrived in the mail for me… from Taco Bell. This box; we’re talking big. It’s big enough to hold at least six puppies comfortably, or thirty pairs of shoes, or at least two hundred soft tacos.

Being that I was gone for almost a week though, I really desperately hoped two hundred soft tacos hadn’t been rotting in my swelteringly hot bedroom. Here’s the unboxing video I filmed as soon as I got home:

I’m not exactly sure how or when it happened, but Taco Bell has sort of become that super weird best friend you can’t quite remember how you met but are glad you get to hang out with on a regular basis anyway. I met their head marketing guy at VidCon (he was incredibly nice), and was super impressed with their t-shirt printing booth. Did anyone see my friends walking around with those stupid tees with my face on them? Thanks a lot for that, Taco Bell.  -_-

Anyway, the last thought I want to end on is that… sometimes I forget how weird my life is. Being a YouTuber for as long as I have starts to desensitize you to it – and the weirdness starts to become normal. For instance, Liz came home to this Doritos photo shoot happening in my room last night and she didn’t even bat an eye. “Oh course Justin is taking pictures of Kristina while she’s covered in bags of Doritos,” Liz thought as she arrived home from work. “Can’t wait to help her eat all of those Doritos,” was her only reaction.

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever received in the mail? One time a friend of mine sent me a postcard from a road trip she was on that was entirely made out of tree bark, but I think ten bags of chips has stolen first place for me. Leave a comment and let me know!

Today I posted my monthly favorites/recommendation video over on my YouTube channel.

This video features a couple of games I’ve been playing, a slew of movie reviews and a few of my beauty/fashion favorites for the month. I also linked to a couple of the Subblime lists I’ve created this month – including my standard monthly favorites list, as well as a special Favorite Geek Items of the Moment list, which includes a giveaway for this super nerdtastic Tetris desk lamp. Go leave a comment – you could win it!

I hope you enjoy the video, and moreover, I hope you enjoy this blog/site! I launched it to the general public with today’s video, so if you’re new – welcome! We’re going to have fun here. 🙂