Four days of PAX was a whole new experience – but it was nice to have that final day to make sure we saw everything. I opted for a comfy outfit for this final day; I’d been saving this fantastic Power Rangers dress for last for that very reason. Paired with a simple pair of black leggings, sensible black sneakers and the same Threadless cardigan from the day before, I was good to go (go power rangers)!

I was a little preoccupied the whole day because I finally had the good sense to bring my DS and collect Street Passes. I had never experienced the magic of Street Passing at a video game convention before, and I have to say, it sort of changed everything. Maybe it was annoying that I was multi-tasking with Warrior’s Way while doing everything else that day, but on the other hand, my army is now 30,000+ strong after a single day. So… no regrets.

We spent a good portion of the day hitting up raffles (tried again to win hardware at the MSI booth, then Liz and I succeeded at winning a GIANT Magic the Gathering card at the MtG raffle, which was hilarious and awesome albeit awkward to carry around the rest of the con) checking out a fun board game called Dungeon Run, and then painting another miniature over at Reaper. It was a nice, calming way to end the con.

In an attempt to prioritize games and fun on Monday, my group somehow ended up forgetting to eat for most of the day – so the last thing we did was GORGE ourselves on Mexican food over at Pacific Place mall. Let me tell you… enchiladas have never tasted as good as they do after four straight days of conventioning. I could have eaten chips and salsa all night if the restaurant had let me.

I have a huge list of games I wrote down over the course of PAX that I’ll be checking out in the near future… I’m thinking tomorrow’s blog post might go through that list. Let me know if that would be interesting!

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This was my favorite outfit of PAX so far — I called it BMO chic. I incorporated a lot of new PAX purchases into my standard everyday clothing, and I was extremely happy with the result! First of all, the top is a body suit/leotard from We Love Fine, with BMO detailings on both sides. I love it. I paired this with a pink skirt I’ve had in my closet for ages, a pair of black tights, gray ankle boots from Forever21 and a gray cardigan I got from Threadless. The cardigan has a tiny little hidden unicorn on it as well, which makes it one of my favorite pieces of outerwear. To finish the outfit, I added the Mario Star necklace I bought in the Expo Hall the day before from Sanshee.

Sunday started a bit late for Liz and myself (four days of PAXing really starts to take it out of you!) and we meandered downtown on the bus around 11:15. We stopped off at a Gamestop before heading to the Convention Center, because Liz wanted to buy a 3DS. Once she had it in her hands, the entire convention changed for us (as I had brought mine along as well). I’ll admit it – I’d never used StreetPass before. I know, I know. I’m a terrible nerd. We watched in awe as we collected new friends, filled up our region maps, and started collecting puzzle pieces. Having a 3DS at a geek con is the best! How had I not done this before?

So aside from walking around with our gameboys in our hands, we spent the rest of the day hitting up parts of the cons we hadn’t seen yet. The biggest one of note was the miniature painting room, where we situated ourselves for over and hour.

 

I’m not particularly great at it or anything, but I really enjoy the hobby. And attending these painting sessions at cons is great, because everyone is so friendly – so you both end up meeting cool artsy people, and getting a lot of great tips from people who have been doing it much longer. I want to get better at this… especially faces. Man, faces are hard.

We walked around the Expo Hall more and tested games/spun prize wheels/dabbled in a bit of pin trading before meeting up with some of our friends and deciding to try our hand at this complex game called Mansions of Madness. It was fun, if not a bit ambitious for a “quick game”. It took us well into the evening, where we ended the night with an inspiring crafting panel and then raced over to the best show we saw all weekend… the Late Night Dub Fight. It was a panel of improvisers dubbing over crazy old cartoons, and it was hilariously brilliant. I had such a great time.

There’s one more day left, and I’m currently heading out the door to get there. PAX has been so much fun this year, and it’s crazy being at day 4 – a day that previously didn’t exist for our Seattle geek con. Here’s to another full afternoon of nerdy adventures!

Day two of PAX was fantastic and amazing and exhausting – and to celebrate, I decided to go with a unicorn and space-cat theme. The dress is a simple LBD I picked up at Ross a few months ago, the necklace was a gift from a subscriber of mine, and the leggings were a purchase on day 1 of PAX from the We Love Fine booth.

We spent a large portion of the day wandering the Expo Hall, mentally noting which booths to come back to for playing games and buying stuff. I did make one purchase yesterday (well, really a co-purchase with Liz) and that was a pack of eight Pokémon gym badges in the form of pins. I mentioned recently my introduction to the Disney pin-trading world – well, PAX introduced a new thing called “Pinny Arcade” this year and it’s been extremely difficult not to join in. Pins are so expensive! People have been losing their minds over it though, so I cracked and split this one set with Liz.

We attended a couple panels in the afternoon, grabbed lunch at Chipotle, and made our way over to the Magic The Gathering party. This party is exactly the opposite of what you’d imagine a MtG party to be like – with crazy lights, music, drinks and a booth that allows you to get your face printed on a Magic card. We ducked out of that party a bit early (armed with packs of cards) and stopped by another party (this one with free drink tickets) before creating our OWN party over at our friends Tara and Alexander’s place… where we proceeded to play MtG until we were too tired to remember turn order. Or when to keep our eyes open. As you can see below – this game didn’t go well for me.

Now I’m dating off to Day 3 (can you believe this con is only halfway over??) where I am determined to paint miniatures. It’ll happen today. I can feel it.

 

Yesterday was the first day of PAX PRIME and I couldn’t be more excited. On my first day I wandered the Expo Hall, signed up for raffles, purchased a few things from the We Love Fine booth that I’m sure you’ll see popping up in future Outfit of the Day posts, demo-ed games, stopped by a variety show at the Triple Door and ended the night with a hilarious nerdy improv show! It was an amazing first day – and although my feet already hurt, I can’t wait to get back down there and do it all again today.

For the first day, I decided to go casual. I wore a super fun Adventure Time shirt I got from TeeFury a while back, and my brand new blue striped shorts from ModCloth. For the record, I got two compliments on those shorts from strangers, and one crazy bus lady who told me to “wear clothes over my underwear next time”. I’m going to say all press is good press on that one…?

Lastly I threw on my old but reliable Steve Madden boots, grabbed my standard convention bag with the emoticon face on the side and strapped my PAX badges onto a My Little Pony lanyard. I felt awesome – and was never once uncomfortable. I plan to dress up for some of the other days, but shorts and a t-shirt was a solid choice for Day 1.

How do you accessorize a plain t-shirt? I’m curious about your tips – because I usually struggle to find ways to make the embarrassing amount of nerdy tees I own work beyond night shirts. Let me know in the comments!

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This weekend is PAX Prime here in Seattle, and I couldn’t be more excited. It’s our largest Geek Convention of the year here in Seattle, and I’m scrambling to figure out which panels and parties to go to, how much money I’m allowed to spend in the Expo Hall, and most importantly.. what to wear!!

PAX is one of those conventions where I’m never usually on any panels or working it, so I get to just wander and be a fan and enjoy myself. It’s relaxing, strangely, not locking myself into any large plans and just getting to meander freely amidst the hustle and bustle. Something about calmness in the middle of chaos. I don’t know.

That being said; yesterday I poured over the schedule and picked out the events/panels/etc. that looked exciting that I am going to try to be at. I figured I would post it here for you in case you’re interested in any of the same things!

Friday:
Game Show Night: Jeopardy 8pm (Kraken Theatre)
Improv Initiative Strikes Again 9:30 (Unicorn Theatre)

Saturday:
Everything We Know is Sexist: Now What? 10:30am (Wolfman Theatre)
I Love You and Have Your Name Tattooed on My Leg: Brand Personalization vs. Advertisement  2pm (Pegasus Theatre)
Turning Geek Passion into Profit 2:30pm (Serpent Theatre)
You Game Like a Girl: Tales of Trolls & White Knights 7:30pm (Kraken Theatre)
AppJunkies Live: The Worst Apps Ever Made! 10pm (Raven Theatre)

And of course, the Magic the Gathering Hero’s Path Challenge/Party that evening at 7pm

Sunday:
PAX Prime Girls Meetup 10am (Diller Room, 1224 1st Ave, Seattle, WA 98101)
Late Night Dub Fight 10pm (Serpent Theatre)

Monday: 
It’s Not Too Dangerous To Go Alone: Finding the Bravery to Do it Yourself 10am (Raven Theatre)
Gender Diversity in Games: Where Are All the Believable Female Characters? 2pm (Pegasus Theatre)

At some point (probably Sunday afternoon) Joe and I will be bringing a copy or two of Jetpack Unicorn to PAX to play with fans, if people are interested. Keep an eye on my Twitter/Facebook for details about that meet up! Also keep an eye out for my Outfit of the Day posts… I’ll be dressing my convention best all weekend and I can’t wait to share those outfits with you!

I am so pumped for this weekend – are you attending PAX? If so, are there any cool panels or events that I am missing out on? Let me know in the comments!

This past weekend, my parents celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary! Back in the day (in 1988!) their wedding color was a light teal blue. So, they encouraged guests of their party to dress accordingly:

I wore a light blue vintage dress I got at Buffalo Exchange about a year ago, strappy silver sandals from Target and some fun summer jewelry.

Funny story: I had to leave the set of Job Hunters on a huge shoot day to get to this party, which is why my hair ended up in fishtail braids. Spoilers… this is a Season 2 Avery hairdo. Our costume and makeup team also had a heyday dressing me for my party, even though that’s obviously not in their job description. Chunky blue circle earrings and fat white bracelet were courtesy of Markie the costumer, and Mallory our makeup girl removed my false eyelashes and “normalized” my makeup a bit before leaving. They did a fab job! I wish I had people to dress me every day!

My family also looked adorable — and can we talk about how fantastic that cake is? My mom was positively glowing that day, and she totally deserved it. I am so happy and proud of my parents for achieving such an amazing milestone together, and I was so glad to celebrate the momentous occasion on a gorgeous day like the one we had. My family is the best. 🙂

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?

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I got my Ipsy Glam Bag for August, and I love it! I used every single product in my routine today, so figured I would do a write up/review of them, now that I’ve developed my opinions.

First is the Vanilla lip balm from Noya. I’m not going to lie, this was pretty much just lip balm. Maybe I’m a naive lip balm consumer, but it’s all sort of the same to me. I tend to buy more fruity flavors on my own, but I was pleasantly surprised by this vanilla one. I will definitely toss it in my purse and keep using it. Also, a plus, Noya doesn’t test on animals or use preservatives. Hooray!

Next was Lash Booster Mascara from Pixi. I only recently discovered Pixi brand cosmetics, at VidCon actually – Subblime was giving them out to people! I have been very impressed with everything I’ve tried from Pixi so far, and this mascara was no exception. In fact, I think this was my favorite product in this month’s bag. I have really thin eyelashes, but this lash booster mascara made them look fuller than I’ve ever seen them! Will definitely buy again.

I really enjoy trying new facial products, so I was excited to try the Jojoba Charcoal Facial Scrub by Michael Todd True Organics. Right away it kind of freaked me out – the charcoal in the formula makes the scrub itself black – which is a scary thing to rub on your face! It was extremely gentle though, for an exfoliant. Which I really appreciate, as my skin is sensitive and acne prone. I’ll be interested to see if I notice a difference at all in my skin over time, but it feels lovely today.

Moving on, next was the All-In-One Multi-Mineral BB Cream by Pacifica. I’m a little wary of BB Creams (since my skin is so temperamental) but I’ll try anything once. This claimed to be color matching, but it was a little dark for my skin. Also, the tube barely had anything in it, so it was kind of tough to get a good sampling out of it. I’m sure this product is decent, but I’ll probably stick with my current face products.

The final product from this bag was a NYX Blush in Espresso. I wasn’t quite as excited about this one, because I already own a lot of NYX products. I often buy more coral type hues for blush though, so it’s kind of nice to add a more brown tone to my collection. It’s not bad, but again, it’s NYX. Nothing new.

I also got that adorable unicorn themed nail polish in Lime Crime for referring at least two people last month. Thanks guys! If you’re interested in joining Ipsy and getting fun products each month, it’s only $10 and I think it’s totally worth it.

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!

 

Next week, Wonderly is teaming up with the live-streaming site YouNow to launch a fun-filled, two day talent search to find our next Wonderly girl! It’s a combination live show, variety show, and contest all rolled into one… and I’m hosting! I’m not really sure exactly what it’s going to look like yet, but I can tell you that it’s going to be a party on your computer screen. It’s called Becoming Wonderfully Wonderly and the show will take place over on YouNow.com/girls.

Come hang out, say hi, or show us your stuff by joining in the fun! Live shows are only as exciting as the amount of people who join in the chat, so please mark your calendars for either or both of the following days!

Open Call: Tuesday, August 27th, 4pm EST / 1pm PST
Final Round: Thursday, August 29th, 4pm EST / 1pm PST

Get more info about the contest here and don’t forget to check out all of the amazing female content creators that are part of Wonderly. It’s an exceedingly lovely community of people I am proud to be associated with.