Capital City Comic Con

Back in February I posted about working on my Princess Leia costume, but I just realized I never posted pictures from the comic con. We had a blast! The Lansing Comic Con isn't huge, but it was a prefect con for us to start with. We had a great time. My favorite moment was getting my picture taken with a little Ghostbuster. She told me Princess Leia was her favorite Star Wars character and that she had been trying to catch up with me to get a picture. He dad was kind enough to snap a picture with my camera as well. I also got to hear Tim Russ, who played Tuvok on Star Trek Voyager, speak and answer questions; which made my nerd heart happy.

I went with my good friend, Keith. He's an incredible maker! He really doesn't appreciate it when I brag about his talents, but he really is incredible (and modest.) The man can make / build pretty much anything - his Boba Fett costume for instance. While he bought the jumpsuit and helmet, he 3D printed, built, and painted the rest of it. He even made all the hard parts of my costume, including my helmet, blaster, etc. 

Now we've got to start planning for next year! The nerd in me is thinking Star Trek, but who knows...

I'm Loving It

One of folks in my city harvested seeds from her hollyhock flowers and put them on her fence to share with all. I just love this this is the kind of town I live in!

2024 School Valentines

Our school celebrates Valentine's Day and the kids really enjoy it - even my fifth and sixth graders like making and passing out cards. MIPS is so small that many of the students bring in cards for every student (and teacher) in kindergarten through sixth grade. This year I opted to 3D print flexible dinosaurs to give to my students, and the kids LOVED them! Of course I made a card to share, too. Cheesy, I know, but what is Valentine's Day without a few goofy cards?

Halloween 2022

Halloween this year was different as there were no mama-made costumes; both kids kind of did their own thing with what we had on hand.

My son 3D printed and painted a version of this mask, while my daughter created her own Dr. Horrible costume. Everyone thought she was a Ghostbuster, but she was using my Proton Pack as his Freeze Ray, so it wasn't surprising.

(Neil Patrick Harris as Dr. Horrible)

This year's candy haul was 17.6 pounds (about 8 kg) for my son and and 8.4 pounds (about 4 kg) for my daughter. It may seem like a big difference, but my sone and his friends covered quite  bit more ground than my daughter did. K and I just hit the houses close to home.

A Lilac a Day, Day Fifteen

Lots of the lilacs are starting to fade. It's probably a good thing they don't bloom all year - I don't think I would appreciate them nearly as much if they were here all the time. 

Animal Crossing Birthday

My youngest child turned 15 this spring and asked for an Animal Crossing themed birthday party. For those of you without kids, Animal Crossing is a video game. Players take on the role of a human who lives on an island inhabited by different anthropomorphic animals. Players create and build a village, interact with villagers, collect fossils, fish, and generally live out their happy lives in the village. Interestingly, Animal Crossing simulates the passage of time and players move through the different seasons in real time, or so my kids tell me.

For me the best part of this birthday was copying the cake from the game. (If you play AC on your birthday, the villagers throw a party for you - complete with a cake.) The only issue was - my kiddo is not a strawberry fan, so using real fruit on the top was not going to make them happy. Once again, my 3D printer came to the rescue.

I found a strawberry on Thingiverse, edited it in Tinkercad (changing it from solid shape into a cavity within a solid shape which I then cut in half) and printed out a strawberry mold. From there I just dyed some marzipan red and and made my own non-fruit strawberries. It sounds like a whole lot more work than it actually was.

At first glance, they look amazingly real. In the end all that mattered was the newly-turned 15 year-old was happy with it. Sadly, Grandma and Grandpa didn't get to have any because Grandma tested positive for Covid a few days before and had to quarantine! Thankfully, she'd been vaccinated and her only symptom was a runny nose.

Happy birthday K.

I hope you know how much we love you

and how proud we are of you.

Best Year Ever

That's the plan - to have the best year ever.

The computers are all updated,

my reading corner is stocked,

and my 3D printers are up and running.

Now all I need are my six fantastic sixth graders,

and the first day of the Best Year Ever can begin.

Cookies for my Nerdlet

My daughter needed a D&D worthy treat to take to school for her birthday.*  Of course, I didn't have a 20 sided die cookie cutter in my collection, but Thingiverse came to my rescue. I just downloaded the cookie cutter file and printed it with my 3D printer. (Thingiverse is an online repository for 3D printable things.)

Didn't know I had a 3D printer? Read more here. 

*We may be one of the last schools left that allow homemade birthday treats. Living in a community of only about 500 year-round residents, where everyone knows everyone else, can have its advantages!

Printed

My husband has a 3D printer, and lots of people ask me, "What on Earth do you use it for?"

Most people perceive the printer as a big toy, which in some ways it is. But, to me, 3D printers are really more like the 1980s version of a cell phone; back in the day only a handful of people had them, and while lots of people thought they were cool, most folks agreed that they could live without one. Now, 30+ years later, most people consider a cell phone an important piece of technology they wouldn't willingly give up. I think something similar will happen with 3D printers...

So back to the question - what do we use it for? All sorts of things; this weekend my husband printed me a cookie cutter. This cookie cutter, to be specific. My son loves Dr. Who, (and has for a while now,)  and has asked for a Dr. Who themed birthday party. 

Sure, I could have ordered this set from amazon for $16.00, or  ordered a print right from Thingaverse for about the same price. But it was a whole lot more fun, and much quicker to just print one at home. Plus that way, I could scale the cookie cutter up or down to meet my specific size requirements. 

If you're curious about what people who have 3D printers are using them for, check out Thingaverse. Every day there's something new. Oh, and if you want to make your own Dalek cookies, here's the recipe I used...

Stamped Shortbread Cookies

Makes about two dozen cookies.

What you need:

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 sticks  salted butter, softened

½ cup powdered sugar + more for rolling out cookies & dusting cookie stamp

What to do:

1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter and powdered sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Sir in flour. Blend with pastry blender until the dough comes together.
4. Place dough on a large piece of parchment paper and roll out the dough to about ¼ inch thick. Use powdered sugar to roll out the dough. Don't use flour.
5. Dust cookie stamp with powdered sugar and press onto the dough. Remove cookie stamp.
6. Place cookie cutter over stamped dough and cut out the cookie.
7. Use a spatula to lift the cookie and move it to the baking sheet.
8. Chill the cookies for about 30 minutes before baking.

Bake at 350°F  for about 12 minutes or until edges are lightly brown. Cool the cookies on a wire rack.

Trickery

Some chicken owners use fake eggs to  help show their chickens where to lay, I was just trying to trick mine into laying at all. (They've only been here six weeks and not quite settled in after their stressful move.)

Anyway... Allen printed me some plastic eggs (with his new 3D printer)  that I could use to show the girls that the nest is the prefect place to start a delicious little family, and it worked. Yesterday when I checked the nest, Pong had left this beauty for us...