Happy Holidays! 🎄

I started rock climbing with my husband in June of 2024. To be honest, I was pretty scared for the first few months, but by September, I had passed my belay test and entered my first climbing contest at our gym. Like running, climbing is a fun sole sport that I enjoy pushing my limits on.

5 ways to make your holidays sustainable ♻️

The holiday season is upon us! I love this time of year. It feels so cozy and inviting. Even last year as my first holiday season single EVER, I felt happy. I am hoping to go into this season being more mindful on my consumption and focus on how I can do my little part to be more sustainable. Won't you join me? Here are my top five tips!

My Favorite Holiday Albums To Spread Cheer

I LOVE music and Christmas music is so special to me.  It reminds me of all the lovely Christmas' that have past.  I have a few albums that always remind me of the holiday season and I cannot wait to share them with you! And now that the local Denver station (101.1) has begun playing Christmas music, I am all in the season spirit!!

Holiday Drink Station + Recipe

Anyone else into the holiday spirit?! I'm so excited to get my tree up and decorate my home. It always makes it feel just that bit more cozy! Speaking of cozy, let's create a drink for your next holiday party or for while you are decorating your home + a great give idea for all of your interior design friends!

Creating Christmas Traditions

It's the most wonderful time of the YEAR!!!!! I've been celebrating the holiday season since before Thanksgiving! LOL I just can't help it! I am so excited to be spending my 3rd Christmas with Ocean Eyes in Denver. Over the past three years, we've developed some fun holiday traditions and this year we are really refining them! Here are my favorite ways to create Christmas memories with my him and my friends!

Holiday Gifting: 7 Fun Experiences Instead of Things

Every year I realize there is less I need and more I want to experience. I want to be with the people I love, see new things and get cozy and enjoy my Christmas decorations! Here are a few ideas for gift experiences we can all try this year and into the next!

#CANTCLUTCHTHIS November: Making the Holidays Special

I LOVE the holiday season! There is just something different in the air and in hearts! Starting with Thanksgiving and ending with New Years, I am so excited to celebrate the season and make it extra special.

Budget Friendly Finds For This Holiday Season!

We just had our first snow today here in Denver & that has me thinking of Christmas! It also has me thinking of my budget. Lots of fun, exciting & expensive things coming up plus regular life expenses. So I thought I'd share with you some cute & budget friendly gift ideas! All under $25!

Nerd Crafts: Gingerbread TARDIS

@The_Gamer_Geek and I completed a Pinterest project, that I have been DYING to do since I began watching Doctor Who...gingerbread TARDIS'!

Supplies:

*One can of white frosting

* One can of blue frosting

*Graham crackers

*York Pieces

*One small tube black frosting

*Blue sprinkles

We used an entire container of white frosting as our glue.

One container of blue frosting for the TARDIS color.  Blue sprinkles and York Pieces for decoration.

We pipped the white frosting all over the cracks and used an empty creamer carton for stability on the inside.

I even let my OCD take a back seat and didn't clean up until we were totally finished!

TA-DA!!!!!!!!! 

I printed out the Police Box words since that would hav been a PAIN to pipe on {@The_Gamer_Geek would have had NO patience!} and it looks a bit better :)  I think I am going to try and preserve it to save it forever :)

I am so proud of my creation!

Share your creations in the comments below and don't forget to check out ALL our other Nerd Crafts!!

10 Ways to Have a Very Doctor Who Christmas

With all the excitement of the 50th Anniversary and the regeneration of the 11th Doctor in this year's Christmas special, what better way then to celebrate Christmas, than with Doctor Who! Here are TEN of my favorite ways to make your Christmas WHO-y.

1.  This TARDIS blue, Doctor Who inspired Christmas tree, shows off your fandom to the fullest!

2.  Here is a perfect ornament to add to your Doctor Who inspired tree.  Or as just a small surprise in your current tree.

3.  Don't BLINK around this Weeping Angel tree topper!

4.  Sending out cards to family, friends and Whovians?  This one is so cute!

5.  Hang a TARDIS stocking on your fireplace!

6.  Having the family over to celebrate the holidays?  Try out our DIY gingerbread TARDIS!

7.  Counting down the days till Christmas AND the Doctor Who Christmas special couldn't be more fun with this printable Doctor Who advent calendar!  One fun Whovian surprise for each day.

8.  Cozy up by the fire, watch some Who and make this adorable Doctor Who cross stitch decoration for your home.

9.  Light up your tree with a TARDIS!

10.  The perfect tee for Christmas morning!

How do you celebrate the holidays with your favorite fandoms?!  Share with us in the comments below and we can keep our list growing!  Tis' the season!

**Don't forget to get your early shop on with a present for that special nerd in your life: Check out my GEEK shirts!**

The Nerdy Girlie's Music Monday #17: Indie Christmas Playlist

Tis the season nerds! Who started listening to Christmas music the day after Thanksgiving like me?! My favorite way to consume Christmas music is via my record player....ahhhh the sweet crackling of a spinning vinyl, sipping a warm mug of something sweet, watching the Christmas tree lights twinkle...heaven on Earth!

I WISH I could have all of these songs on vinyl but my iPhone will have to do. Enjoy a taste of my FAVORITE bands at Christmas!!

1. A Christmas Song - A Silent Film.

2. Baby It's Cold Outside - The Filthy Souls.

3. You're Just Like Christmas - The Crookes.

4.  Merry Little Christmas - Bad Veins.

5. Just Like Christmas - Dan Croll.

6. Christmas At Our House - A Silent Film. Because you can never have enough A Silent Film at Christmas time! I've been bugging them for two years now to make a Christmas vinyl! This song is an original song and the video is of Robert singing his cat Woody to sleep! #dead

I just also have to mention that my absolute favorite Christmas album is Lee Greenwood's Christmas To Christmas. I'm not a country fan, but to me this isn't country, it's just a cozy home-y Christmas vinyl! Do you nerds have any obscure favorite Christmas tunes?! I'd love to hear them! I LOVE Christmas music so much! Let me know what you think of my list in the comments below!

5 Fandom Friday: My Must See List of Christmas Movies

Are you NEW to 5 Fandom Friday? Welcome and come join along! 5 Fandom Friday was created by myself and Super Space Chick in October of 2014, as a way to get all of our blogger friends keeping on task each week, building a community with our fellow bloggers and connecting with new and old friends once a week! We choose the topics, you do the writing! Let's get inspired together!

This is definitely one of my favorite times of the year {Thanksgiving being the other}!  I LOVE spending time with family, curling up on the couch and sipping something warm with ANY of these wonderful specials on!  

1.  Garfield Christmas - One of the beginnings of my love of orange cats and what we ALMOST named our orange kitty.

2.  A Christmas Story - This has to be on the entire Christmas Eve night until end of showings on Christmas day!  It's a tradition!  Can you believe they made a 2nd one?!  Blasphemy!

3.  The Santa Clause - My childhood is filled with this movie series and they all hold such a special place in my heart.  This one was a fun twist on Santa and it being the first, is of course the best!

4.  A Muppet Family Christmas - I am dying for this to be on DVD but until then, it is still alive via YouTube!  It brings back my childhood.  I love this movie and the Muppets so much!  Great music too!

5.  Home Alone 2 - This movie gave me a LOVE for NYC during the Christmas time.  My first visit, I had to go to the Plaza and FAO Shwartz!  Tim Curry = awesome and one of the rare instances where I like the sequel more than the first!

{Honorable mentions go to:  A Christmas Toy, A Muppet Christmas Carol, Rudolph, The Grinch {animated and not} Arthur Christmas {which I NEVER wanted to see and watched and was GREAT!}, Pluto's Christmas Tree and of course my FAVORITE ballet The Nutcracker!}

I hope you get to catch your favorite Christmas movies on DVR and spend all Christmas watching and relaxing...that is my plan!!  Share your links below and don't forget to tweet me!

ORIGIN OF 5 FANDOM FRIDAY!

PAST POSTS:

October  3rd:  Gateway Fandoms That Made Me Who I Am Today

October 10th:  Geeky Clothing Items I Need In My Closet Immediately

October 17th:  Characters I'd Love To Dress Up As For Halloween

October 24th:  My Must See List of Halloween Movies

November  7th:  Comfort Foods That Always Make Me Feel Better

November 14th:  Smart Phone Apps I Cannot Live Without

November 21st:  Characters I Would Invite To My Thanksgiving Feast

November 28th:  Black Friday Purchases I Would Sacrifice A Night Of Sleep For

December 5th:  My Favorite Holiday Songs To Spread Cheer

December 12th:  Presents I Want Santa To Bring Me

COMING SOON: 

December 26th:  New Years Blogging Resolutions

January 2nd:  New Years Fandom Resolutions

January 9th:  My Favorite Things About Winter

January 16th:  Conventions I've Been To Or Wish To Attend

January 23rd:  Songs That Changed My Life {REALLY excited about this, I already wrote it!! LOL}

January 30th:  Favorite Fandom Accessories I Own

**Don't forget to get your holiday shop on with a present for that special nerd in your life: Check out my GEEK shirts!**

Nerd Crafts: Nerdy Ornaments

Christmas is one of my favorite times of year!  I LOVE Christmas decor and I love nerdy things. I wanted to mash my love of both together in this month's nerd crafts! Hope you enjoy!

Supplies:

*Various Colored Felt

*Clear Gel Tacky Glue

*Twine

*Various Fabric Paint Colors

*Scissors

*Black Tread

*Needle

Serenity Ornament - I used a CD to trace the orange circle.  Cut it out, then placed it under the yellow felt and free handed the yellow circle.  I used this Serenity logo as an example.  I used a red Sharpie to draw on the characters, but think that some sort of paint might work better {I ended up going over it with red fabric paint}.  Make sure you have sharp scissors for the felt!  I used the clear Tacky Glue to glue the circles together and for the twine on the back.

T.A.R.D.I.S. Ornament- This one was easier than I thought it was going to be.  The Tacky Glue worked fine for everything, just let it all dry before doing any painting {just to be safe}.  Black and white fabric painted worked perfect for the details.

Breaking Bad Ornament -  Taking green felt I cut out my squares, glueing two on top of each other for more stability.  I used a white fabric paint for the lettering.  When everything was dried I used the clear Tacky Glue to glue the two squares together in one corner.

Union Jack Ornament - Using blue and white felt, I cut the shapes needed and used red fabric paint for the red stripes.  This one was by far the hardest ornament to make.  I know it is not totally correct, but not horrid for a first try.  Good luck on this one :)

A Silent Film Ornament - This one I made my job harder on myself than necessary.  I took way too much time trying to draw the perfect diamond, when I could have just drawn a square and turned it!

I actually made about four variations of this one to send to all my Lamplighter friends. For mine, it came together as a happy accident.  I had extra black felt and two different sizes. I really like how this one came out.

The original design was cream felt with black lettering.  I then hand sewed a boarder of black thread. This was  super quick and easy {I am not a sewer}!  I cannot wait to give these to all my Lamplighter friends!

Total cost for all the ornaments was around $11.00 and I made a lot!  I had to make three separate trips to Michael's but I did it all for you!  Let me know in the comments how your's turn out and also if you decide to try something different.  Happy crafting!

A Very Girlie Christmas!

Merry Christmas, you're single! This Christmas season hasn't felt much like Christmas. I've had the best time bonding with my best friend Liz the past three weeks here in Denver. We've done a ton of Christmas-y things: set up her tree, went and saw Christmas lights, listened to Christmas music while baking her grandma's famous cookies. But still we don't feel like it's quite Christmas!

I'm sure it is because we are both going through the season single for the first time. The best part has been that we have each other to lean on and navigate the emotion season together.

SO that in mind...grab your bestie and make it a girls night in!

1. Liz has the most comfortable bed! So we have tons of cozy covers to keep us warm while we watch the snow fall. I am kinda loving it {says the LA girl!}. Check out Casper, the sleep experts, for comfortable mattresses.

2. Liz has THE best collection of pillows. All unique, all adorable and all super cozy!

3. We have been to Target so many times since I've been here and every time I leave with something I don't need. BUT you always need cozy PJs and the ones I found are sparkly and have my favorite thing pockets!

4. My new favorite place here in Denver is Sugar Bake Shop. Went there two days in a row their sweets are SO good & they have a typewriter in the shop! I died. The cookies we purchased might not have made them home...LOL

5. SOOOOO I just had to make my specialty: apple pie! Always pie....

6. Our movie of choice. Love Actually. I love love. We are both Anglophiles. I think that even though it has some depressing parts, the movie can give us hope that next Christmas might not be so lonely. And if it is, we will always have each other!

Enjoy these moments. Make memories and love the people in your life this holiday season!

What movie will you be watching?!

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2014!

From The Nerdy Girlie, The Hunny & Symba!!!  We are celebrating with family in San Diego this year!  Hope you are all having a great day no matter where you are or who you are with!  Who's ready for 2015!!??

Even Mr. Grumpy is having a happy day, even though he doesn't show it!

MERRY CHRISTMAS NERDS!!

xoxo

Wish List Wednesday: The Music Maven

By Tillie Elvrum aka The Music Maven

It’s Wishlist Wednesday and I had to think of what I want Santa to bring me this year…it wasn’t too hard because I’m pretty easy to please: music, Sherlock, and anything creative and I’ll be very happy.

1.  Sherlock Limited Edition Gift Set – I love this!  It’s a limited edition Blu-ray/DVD set with Seasons 1-3, a DVD of extra footage, it comes with art prints of Sherlock and John suitable for framing, AND two mini-busts of Sherlock and John.  I am just imagining displaying the busts on my piano – practicing will be so fun with them to keep me company.

2.  Colorado Classic Crocheted Headphones by Late to the Revolution – The Gamer Geek has a really awesome pair of headphones from Late to the Revolution and I’ve had my eye on these Colorado inspired ones.  Colorado Proud!

3.  Sherlock Infinity Scarf – I live in Colorado and pretty much wear scarves all year long. This would be a perfect addition to my collection.

4.  Easel and Art Set – I took my first painting class this fall and I loved it. I need some supplies to get started!

The Nerdy Girlie's vinyl storage station.

5.  Vinyl Record Storage – We have reached a vinyl record storage crisis at our house. Between my old, old vinyl collection and The Gamer Geek’s growing collection, we are overtaken by vinyl – not that that’s a bad thing, but we need better ways to store and protect our precious vinyl.  So any of these options would be great!

And there you have it – everything a music lovin’, aspiring artist, and Sherlock adoring fan girl could ever want!  What is on your list?!