Merry Christmas from the Allreds! 2013 Edition (A Little Late)

  And to all a good night.

Movie Quoting Win

  A friend from church told me that when her two and a half year old son is mad at her, he yells, "You will NEVER bring your family honor!"

  Like from Mulan.

  This is my favorite thing ever.

THAT. JUST. HAPPENED.

Yippee Skipee Doodles!

  On Monday, I tried out for a local community theater play, The 39 Steps. Which, if you've never heard of it, is a hilarious spoof of the Hitchcock movie where all the parts are played by four people (the part I really wanted is "the woman", who plays all the love interests). I'd gone to the play reading about a month ago (where you sit around and read the play aloud so you can get familiar with it), and I've been practicing accents since, especially German. WHY YOUR ACCENT SO HARD, GERMANS??

  Anyway, the audition went well, and I got to meet some really nice people (I'm STILL surprised by how nice Oregonians are). Besides feeling like I was going to vomit/pee the whole time due to nerves, it was quite lovely. The next day was the second day of try-outs, which the director asked us all to attend as well. Again, it was a fabulous time, and I was awed by the many talented people there.

  Towards the end of the audition, they called out the names of some people they wanted to stay. I WAS ONE OF THOSE NAMES. (By the way, I think it's funny when directors say that something "doesn't mean anything" in auditions. Like, if your name didn't get called, it doesn't mean anything. We ALL KNOW it means something. Just about everything means something in an audition).

  So I was one of three girls left in the theater who read for "the woman". I thought I did well, but I was worried. Thoughts like, we were standing off-center, and I could have paced that one line better, and was my accent going Scottish? were nagging at me. When it was over, they told us some people would get phone calls that night. But, again, if we didn't get a phone call, IT DIDN'T MEAN ANYTHING.

  Right.

  I was tired, and probably would have gone straight to bed (Lincoln wakes up between four and five most days now--thanks, daylight savings), but I wanted to stay up in case I got that magical phone call.

  About a half-hour later, as I was in the midst of describing the audition to McKay, I heard my phone go off. We both started screaming and I leaped for the phone. I took a deep breath and answered.

DIRECTOR: Julia?

ME: Yes?

DIRECTOR: Great audition tonight.

  (Unfortunately for me, adrenaline put my brain into auto-correct, and I thought she asked, "You auditioned tonight?", as if to clarify I was the right Julia.)

ME: Yes!

  (Ugh. Two seconds later I realized what she'd actually said, and that I'm an idiot. Luckily the director didn't seem phased by my seeming-snobbishness)

DIRECTOR: Well, I wanted to see if you would accept the role of "the woman".

ME: (trying not to shriek) Yes!

  After I hung up the phone, I was FAR too excited to sleep. So I played some video games. But in the midst of slaughtering slavers on a Wookie planet, I started to fret. I knew I'd misheard one thing already . . . maybe she'd asked me to be an understudy for the woman. Or maybe she'd change her mind completely based on my acting like a prick. Or maybe THIS WAS ALL IN MY HEAD AND THERE NEVER WAS AN AUDITION.

  After a half hour, I checked the website again. And there was my name, next to "the woman".

  EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!


  Does it make sense to say that I feel more like myself again now that I'm pretending to be someone else on a regular basis? Anyway, I'm so grateful for the opportunity (and not to mention for having an incredibly supportive husband!), and I've been grinning at nothing like an weirdo for the last two days. If you live in the Oregon area, you should definitely check us out come Jan/Feb. I think I'm the LEAST talented of the cast, because they are all remarkable actors. It's going to be an amazing show, I can already tell!

Halloweenies

  After MONTHS of preparation in gathering materials and some assembly required, here we are! Yet another reference to our obsession:

   YAY, DOCTOR WHO!

   I'm Amy the kissogram/Bobby and Lincoln is Rory the Roman! (It was cheaper to make Lincoln the Roman Centurion costume rather than McKay, or Lincoln would have been the Doctor. Then this costume pairing wouldn't be so incestuous-seeming. Ah, well) This is the only halfway decent picture of me, but it's still not great. This weekend we may do a better shoot so you can see all the details we spent all our time and moneys on.

   And, of course, we have to have a Doctor! I think McKay pulled it off quite well. Lincoln was a trooper and put up with our trick-or-treating for an entire hour. Thank goodness we have an excuse to go again! We got a good haul since next to no one goes trick-or-treating here, and people were giving candy by the handful.

  This is McKay in a "Minute to Win It" game at the church Halloween party. He started launching the cookie off his face and attempting to catch it rather than let it slide down. It looked incredibly Doctor-ish.

   A close-up so you can see some of the details of Lincoln's costume. His was BY FAR the hardest to do. The breast plate was bought at the dollar store and sized down for Lincoln by McKay. The cape was an old shirt from the thrift store, the leather skirt consists of old leather belts, boots, and a purse that we cut down to size and sewed (mostly done by McKay). The boots, pants, and red shirt were all thrift store finds. The bracers were made by McKay, as were the criss-crossing shoulder belt things.

  When it came to carving the pumpkin yesterday, I decided to only buy one because I knew McKay was going to do such an awesome job it would put me to shame. So I stuck to pulling out the pumpkin guts, something I enjoy more than I should. I then suggested off-hand that maybe we stick with the Doctor Who theme, maybe with a simple carving of the logo or maybe the TARDIS.

  "Or an Ood!" McKay joked.
  Or so I thought.

  He then looked up some videos of how to shave pumpkins to get more detail, and stayed up til 2 AM last night to finish this baby:

  He's just amazing at everything. It's so unfair.

  How was your Halloween?

Lincoln presents. . . Calvin and Hobbes!

  We did something awesome again!

  Well, mostly McKay did. He's the Photoshop wizard in the family and did 99% of the work. But I had the original idea, so yay me, too!

    Here's the original Calvin and Hobbes cartoon that was our inspiration, done by the brilliant Bill Watterson, of course:

Source

    And here is our homage, an obvious work of art in its own right. We give you. . . Lincoln and Tiger Lincoln! (title is a work in progress)

And then I Exploded into Happiness Confetti

  On a drunken buzz of approval after I posted my Doctor Who dolls post, I emailed pictures of said dolls to the amazing, the hilarious, the wondrous, one and only JEN YATES from Epbot! That's right. The guru of all things girly and geeky. I LOVE both Cake Wrecks and Epbot, and she seems like such a sweet, kind person, and I so, so badly wanted her approval.

   I'm a little bit pathetic, I know.

  But, anyway, to my great surprise, I just got an email back! HOW AWESOME IS THAT??!

  Um, so I may have taken a screenshot just to prove it . . . Sorry it's kind of a weird size, I tried to download a new version, and Blogger informed me I hit my allotment of photos. What the what?? Not sure what's going on there. ANYHOO, JEN EMAILED ME!!

  Okay, you can't really see it, but it reads as follows:

Julia!

I am SO virtually high-fiving you over here! These are AWESOME!! I'm still deciding if the pink Dalek or K-9 is my favorite. Or the Cyberman. :)

Thanks for sharing the big geeky grin! You are *officially* the Coolest Aunt EVAH.

- Jen

  Isn't she the greatest?

  I think I can die happy now. I mean, all the Harry Potter books are out, I'm married, I've respawned, and now Jen Yates emailed me. That's pretty much the big four.

  EEEEEE! JEN EMAILED MEEEEEEE

  What's something recently that made you squeal in delight?

UPDATED: Doctor Who in Felty Goodness (Nicole, do not let your girls see this)

   When I heard my nieces had recently become addicted to one of my favorite shows ever, I was thrilled. I was even more thrilled because I have their family for Christmas this year! Or so I thought. I guess I was mixed up, but luckily my brother traded with me, and blah blah blah, yay, now I have them!

  Anyway, I wanted to celebrate our shared obsession, so I broke out the ol' felt again and set out to make them some dolls. But not just any dolls . . .

"Oh, hello!" -- DOCTOR WHO DOLLS!

   The tenth Doctor and his beautiful companions! Now, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the magic and awesomeness of Doctor Who, here is a little guide for you:

   This girl in pink here? Rose Tyler. The blue box in the back? A TARDIS (Time And Relative DImension In Space). Basically, it's a time machine that disguises itself as a Police Box from the 60's.

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  Rose Tyler is companion to the ninth Doctor and tenth Doctor (there are multiple Doctors because the Doctor regenerates into a new actor every time he's about to die). Rose is known in the real world as Billie Piper. This isn't a great picture, but one of the few I could find where she was wearing the outfit I was trying to recreate (it had to be a pink outfit, of course, or I knew Ella would be horribly disappointed).

   When Rose makes her heartbreaking departure, Martha Jones becomes the rebound companion of the tenth Doctor.

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  Poor Martha. Otherwise known as the lovely Freema Agyeman.


And, of course, the one and only Donna Noble! When Martha makes her exit, Donna and the Doctor are thrust together once again (she has shown up previously) and this time, she sticks around.

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Donna, AKA Catherine Tate. I think everyone hates her the first few episodes, and then you realize she's hilarious.

   And, the man himself, the drool-worthy Doctor! Doctor who, you ask?

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  Just "the Doctor". Or, you know, David Tennant. He looks human, but is actually a Time Lord from the planet Galifrey. He is the last of his kind. The Doctor, that is. Not David Tennant, he's disappointingly human.

   The Doctor, doing what he does best--running! From the Daleks, a relic of the 60's that seem to appear an awful lot for an extinct race. The Daleks and Time Lords fought each other in the last Time War, where they all died. Supposedly.

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 "EXTERMINATE!" 

They generally don't come in pink or purple, but when you're making dolls for 3 year old and 7 year old girls, some adjustments need to be made.

 

  This is one chill Cyberman. They're like Daleks, only they "DELETE!" rather than "EXTERMINATE!". They'll assimilate you if they can, but they're fine about "deleting" as well.

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  When I was finished with the basic pictures, I started to have a little too much fun posing . . .

 

   The Doctor and Rose getting a little makey-outy. Oh, and K-9, too!

   "WELL, YOU'RE NOT MATING WITH ME, SUNSHINE!"

 

K-9 getting overly friendly with a Dalek.

  The whole gang together! 

  Here's hoping that Livi and Ella still love Doctor Who come Christmas!

UPDATE: Awww, YOU GUYS! You can ask McKay, I've had a dopey grin on my face all day from your lovely comments! I'm really touched, thank you. If you would REALLY like your own Doctor Who dolls, I could probably be persuaded (I do love my felt). To cover labor and materials, it would probably be about $45 per doll, $150 for a TARDIS. I could be persuaded to give discounts if you order two or more dolls as well ;) Just shoot me an email if you want one for realsies, at juliabeesley@yahoo.com. Or, if Doctor Who isn't your poison of choice, I could branch out. Star Wars, Star Trek, Buffy, Zelda, Kingdom Hearts, etc etc, just let me know where your heart lies!

  Thanks again, guys. Seriously, you rock.

Some Days

  Some days are hard.
  Some days you just need to pause take a deep breath.

 
And dress up your baby like a gypsy.

  You're welcome, world.

Lincolns are Wonderful Things

   A large part of the draw for me to go back to California again was to go to Disneyland with all my siblings. I couldn't begin to remember the last time all four of us were together, let alone at the place that holds some of my happiest childhood memories, and I anticipated it greatly.

  What I didn't count on was the fact that, with all of us now having families, we're quite a crowd by ourselves these days, especially with three strollers in tow. Getting through the masses was quite the experience. Despite that, it was wonderful to see everyone again, and Disneyland, as always, remains in a dear place in my heart.

  When I was at the height of stress, however, all I had to do was look down at Lincoln. The night before we went to Disneyland, we went to Downtown Disney, where all the kiddos picked out a toy and an outfit for the next day. There wasn't a lot of choice for little boys in clothes, but one thing caught my eye, and I knew I had to get it:

The wonderful thing about Tiggers . . . is they make awesome baby costumes! (there was a cute little tail in the back, too)

  My sister-in-law, Jes, took one look at my choice and said, "You're cruel."

  Perhaps. But I have a SMALL window in which I can dress my baby in any way I desire and he cannot object. So I will make the most of that window. And, seriously, try being upset while holding a baby dressed as Tigger! Not. Possible.

Lincoln was exhausted by the time we stepped in the park. I had to include this picture to counter how hideous I am in the other one.

Just a bunch of animals.

  What do you use as your comic relief?

Bragging About McKay Again

  Isn't my new header friggin' SWEET?? All McKay, of course. I don't think you can appreciate it in all its beauty in its reduced form, though, so here is cartoon me up close so you can all oooh and ahhh:

   Hot, right?! (look at that amazing shading on my dress! And my shoes! And I have nail polish on in the exact shade I'm wearing in real life! BAH, IT'S TOO COOL!) I asked McKay what the paint can says and he said, "If you can read this, you are too close to the paint can. Back away. Now. Mwa hahahaha!"

  I love that man. So very, very much.

  And seriously, isn't this incredibly cool?! He's also working up some magic for the background, so stay tuned!

  And just to explain the new title and such, I felt a little confined by the old "nerdvana" title. Like I shouldn't post something if it wasn't nerdy. I'm multifaceted, and I wanted my blog to reflect that, and also that I have no idea what I'm doing or what I'll be doing next--it's T.B.A. ("to be announced" if you're bad with whipper-snapper acronyms). T.B.A also happens to be my last three initials, so I literally am Julia T.B.A. Oh, the cleverness of me! Except that no one got it, so its really more of an inside joke with just myself! The monster eating the sign and me chilling are just to signify that weird stuff seems to happen when I'm around, so just go with it.

 Hope you like the new look so far, feel free to give comments and suggestions! And to compliment McKay, because he is (I'll say it once again) amazing.