Category Archives: Uncategorized

Batman v Superman Reversible Capes

Batman and Superman reversible capes aren’t really a new thing or something that I came up with, they have been around forever, and you can get a hold of kids superhero capes quite easily from different places online. The thing is though, they are something that I enjoy making for my kids and for gifts so I thought I would show how I make mine. With Batman v Superman opening next week I thought it was a good time to share them. Also FanX is coming up next weekend and these capes are perfect for an easy cosplay option for kids. I made the traditional Batman on one side and Superman on the other but I also decided to make a girl version. I thought about doing Batgirl and Supergirl but since Superman and Supergirl’s capes would look the same I decided instead to do Batgirl and Wonder Woman.

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How the Stepmother in the New Cinderella Worked

The world we live in isn’t perfect.  There are two ways to deal with it. One, either you take what you want by force and be angry about everything that’s not going your way.  Two, you can accept that you can’t change everything, and you can still treat others the way you want to be treated.

The two leading ladies of the recent Cinderella remake fell on different ends of the spectrum. I admit, because of the complete reversal of character roles in Maleficent I was curious what direction Disney would take with this new live-action fairy tale.  I wondered about the evil stepmother especially.  Would we see Lady Tremaine’s motivations for abusing her stepdaughter?  Would she be given a sympathetic angle? As it turned out, my questions were answered, but only very subtly–blink and you’ll miss it.  I have only figured out Lady Tremaine after almost a year of reflecting on the film and of course rewatching it multiple times.  Cinderella and Lady Tremaine aren’t much different from their counterparts in the classic animated film on the surface, but on closer inspection they are very well-rounded characters.

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Crocheted Lightsaber

Hi everyone, Erica here from 5 Little Monsters sharing another Geek-Craft with you. For a while now I have been wanting to try making a crocheted Lightsaber. I really wanted to try to make it last month before the new movie came out and before Christmas but that is such a busy time of year that it just didn’t happen. I still really wanted to try it though, so a month later here it is.

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Batman v Superman Trailer 3

So it’s late. I’ve been at a basketball game most of this evening, but I promised myself I would write something today on the site, and I have something to write about: Batman v Superman. The newest trailer dropped tonight, and I have watched a few times, and I have mixed feelings about it. There are some things i really like, and some things I don’t. Some of the things I don’t like have something to do with the actual footage, and some of them with the trailer itself. In any case, here is my ever so brief reaction to the newest Batman v Superman trailer.

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Halloween 2015 @ The Grew’s House

So I have Salt Lake Comic Con completed my attentions now turn to one of my other passions Halloween. For some LDS people it is not the most desirable holiday but my mind starts going into overdrive when it comes around. I must thank my wife for being such a good sport when it come to my craziness.

What can I do? How can i give the trick and treaters the best experience they have ever had. Each year has to better than the other. I have a good friend who is also into Halloween and we bash ideas around all year on how we can scare our patrons.

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My Review of Salt Lake Comic Con

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(L-R) Liz Cole, Jake Dietz, and Kevin Grew of The Geeky Mormon

Well, another edition of Salt Lake Comic Con has come to a close, and it’s six months until the next major event, FanX, so all we have now is discussing this major event and reliving it again and again until Easter weekend. One of the hashtags that the folks at Comic Con were encouraging people to use was #EPIC. I can’t think of a better way to describe Salt Lakes third comic convention. It seemed like epic was everywhere, from the guests, to the panels and even the new features. Even our coverage from The Geeky Mormon was epic, as we had all of our major contributors there (Erica is not pictured above, but trust me, she was there). I am sure Kevin and Liz will be offering up some posts about their experiences in the near future, but like all of us, they are probably still recovering. Especially Kevin, who ran his own booth there all weekend. If you didn’t stop by the Ryel Comics booth, then shame on you. It was great. A must do at future events. I had previously only interacted with Kevin and Liz online, so it was great to meet them in person, and see firsthand that we have some very quality people contributing to the site.

Alright, enough of that. Let’s get down to business. The Con. How was it? How did it compare to previous years? What could have been better? Well, I was there all three days, and had the good fortune this time around to be there as a VIP, so I got to see some of those VIP perks firsthand. Was it worth it? I’ll let you know. The way I see it, the convention is broken down into 5 categories, which I have named: Registration and entry, Vendor floor, Celebrity line up and panels, non-celebrity panels, and organization. I will go through each category and rate each, providing us with an overall rating. Sound good? Alright, let’s go.

Registration and Entry

Last year was a debacle when it came to registration and entry on the first day. I mean, it was bad. One of the best things about Salt Lake Comic Con is that they are always listening to fan feedback and trying to improve. During this years FanX, they introduced us to RFID wristbands that we got before the show, and just needed to activate. There were a few snags, including many of the wristbands coming with the little knobby part broken, so they needed to be replaced. This time around, it was similar, in that we received our wristbands before the show and could activate them online. They seemed to pack them with extra care, wrapping the little knobby part in extra bubble wrap to protect it. Some people were concerned as the con drew closer and they still hadn’t received their bands, but overall, I think most people did. These RFID chips make entering the con a breeze. As a VIP, I was looking forward to being on the vendor floor before everyone else. In the description of each level, it said VIPs got early entry, and Gold passes also got early entry, immediately after the VIPs. This isn’t exactly how it worked once I go to the show on Thursday. They had two lines. One was just multiples and the other was gold and VIP combined. This meant Gold and VIP got in at the same time. Not a big deal, since we were all in 3 minutes early, but it just wasn’t as advertised. That’s just nitpicking, and it really doesn’t bother me that Gold and VIP got in at the same time, they just need to add that to the description, so it says Gold gets in at the same time as VIP.

My only other, small, beef would be that they made mention of ordering your free kids’ wristbands by a certain date, to ensure they were mailed to you. I did that, and when my last package came, there were no kids’ wristbands. To make up for this, the mentioned that they would have these wristbands at every entrance. This wasn’t the case. When we came back on Thursday afternoon with our kids, we asked about the wristbands and the volunteer said they didn’t have any, and just that they changed that at the last-minute, and then sent us to the wrong place to get them. It all worked out in the end and we got the wristbands, so it was fine. It would be nice to have these in advance so we could write our phone number on them before hand and have them on the kids when we got there, instead of spending time at the convention looking for them and then getting them on the kids. Small beef, I know, but still important.

Overall, for registration on entry, I give SLCC15 4 out of 5 stars.

Vendor Floor

One of the big attractions for any convention is the vendor floor. This time, it seemed like there was a pretty good line up of vendors and a pretty good layout on the floor. On Saturday, there were definitely a few bottleneck spots, but there were over 100,000 people, so it’s understandable. What I really liked, though, was that they had some pretty great vendors there for the first time. The Funko Pop Life tour was there, which only had 2 other stops in the US: SDCC and NYCC. I was really excited about this, since I love Funko Pop. They had a great selection of Funko Pops, some that were hard to find in the “wild,” and they were reasonably priced. I personally bought 2: Obi-Wan Kenobi and Harry Potter in his Quidditch robes. They were $10 each, which is a fine price. The exclusive Funko figures they had for SLCC were $80, so I passed on those this time around.

One thing I really liked about the floor this time around was that KidCon was in a completely separate area- room 155- so it did not take up a bunch of space or interfere with the vendor floor. I also want to say kudos to Xfinity. One of the big complaints about previous cons was that Xfinity was there, trying to sell cable subscriptions. It just didn’t fit. This time around, Xfinity was there again, but they brought the Iron Throne and offered a free photo op. There was a line at their booth all day, every day. I personally don’t watch Game of Thrones, so it didn’t interest me, but I may have been the only one at the con that felt that way, so it was a huge success.

The one qualm I had with the vendor floor was the way they had the Artist Alley organized. Maybe they have done it this way each con and I never noticed, but this time I was looking for a specific booth: green 4. With the regular vendors, they have huge banners hanging up above each aisle, saying what number that aisle is. There is nothing like that for the artists. Instead, it goes by the color of their table-cloth. On the green aisle, for example, each of the tables had a green table-cloth. That was harder to see. Once I figured it out, it was alright, but couldn’t we have giant banners above each aisle that said “Green” or “White” or whatever?

The vendor floor, as a whole, gets a 4.5 out of 5 stars

Celebrity Lineup and Panels

Chris Evans, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Hayley Atwell: those four alone made this lineup epic. In addition they had the Phelps twins from Harry Potter, Jenna Coleman from Doctor Who, the talent from MST3K, plenty of voice actors and my personal favorite, Sean Astin. It was really great, and really had someone for everyone. With my VIP pass, I tried to experience as many of the celebrity panels in the Grand Ballroom as I could. I definitely got my fill. The best panel of the weekend was Sean Astin. I was star struck just sitting in the audience. I would have embarrassed myself if I had actually met him. I could have sat in his panel for hours. I was disappointed when it was over.

The Chris Evans panel was, obviously, incredible. it would have been nice if it had started on time, instead of 30 minutes late, especially since he was scheduled for a photo op, so he had to leave at 11, leaving just Anthony Mackie. That being said, Anthony Mackie was hilarious. He was really a highlight of the whole weekend. The really amazing thing was the amount of Photo ops they got Chris Evans involved in. He doesn’t usually do that at conventions, and from what I have read online, he was really great with everybody, plus he tweeted out how much he loved our con and getting more up close with the fans, more personal.

Just because we got the Captain America Panel that SDCC did not get, I am giving this area a 5 out of 5.

Non-Celebrity Panels

A lot of people spend most or all of their days in the grand ballroom. They miss out on a bunch of really fun and interesting panels going on throughout the con. This year was pretty special for me, as I got to participate in my first panel for Salt Lake Comic Con. I am grateful to Blake Casselman and Ryan Call for making that happen. It was pretty cool to sit on the other side of the podium, and I was pretty nervous. Once I was up there, though, it wasn’t so bad. I had a lot of fun.

The panels in general are always great. The two gentlemen I mentioned above work tirelessly to put together a stellar list of topics for their panels. Almost any fandom is represented in some form or another, and the major ones get multiple panels talking about multiple facets of a particular fandom. There were multiple Doctor Who, Star Wars, Star Trek, Marvel, DC and Disney panels. Each one is a lot of fun. If you like podcasts, you would love panels. They are like live podcasts. Just look in the list, find a topic that interests you, and then go to it.

One thing that was not as much fun, or one thing I have learned, is that a moderator can make or break a panel. A good moderator is there, prepared with questions, but they ask the questions and then get out of the way and let the panelists answer. A bad moderator makes the panel all about them and they don’t let the panelists talk that much. I saw both at Comic Con. I am not going to hold that against the overall score for the panels. As always this was a highlight for me, so I give it 5 out of 5 stars.

Organization

This is an area of the con that gets better each time. I have to always remind myself that this is only the third Salt Lake Comic Con, and only their 5th show overall. Plus, it got huge very quickly, so there have been some growing pains. Some highlights for organization this year include the RFID wristbands, the multiple entrances, the ZipQ (the greatest VIP perk ever) and moving the Autographs and photo ops to the back of the vendor hall, where the lines there don’t interfere with the vendors.

The major thing that needs improvement is that there sometimes seems to be major communication block between upper management and the volunteers. The important thing to remember is that they are volunteers. Most of the representatives you will meet from Salt Lake Comic Con are not getting paid for this and they have other day jobs. They really do a great job, and I met some of the nicest volunteers. The issue is that sometimes things are advertised and communicated out to the con goers, and then the volunteers don’t know anything about it, or have been told something different. The kids’ wristbands are a good example of that. One thing was communicated to the con goers, but the experience was completely different. This is something that has improved with each con, but it is still a small issue. Each event, they spend more time and make more effort to improve their volunteers, and they have quite a few that have come back for each convention, so they are getting more experienced. This will continue to get better.

Overall rating for organization is 4 stars out of 5.

Bonus: The VIP

I have always just gone with a multiples, but this year we decided I could try VIP. We saved for it, and made it happen. Overall, I liked the VIP experience. If you are into the celebrities then this pass is worth it. Especially with ZipQ which works like a Fast Pass for the big panels. This is brand new, so there are still a few kinks that need to be worked out, but this perk alone makes the VIP worth it. I didn’t have to line up early for any panel in the ballroom. I just showed up 5 till and knew I had a seat. It was awesome. In addition, it is nice for photo ops to have a separate line and autographs, too, I suppose. In any case, if meeting the celebrities is something you are into, then the VIP is for you and is worth it. I don’t know if I will do it again, but I don’t regret doing it this time.

There you have it. A little wordy, but hopefully worth it and thanks for sticking with me as I wrote it. Overall, SLCC15 gets a 4.5 from me. I am still really feeling great about it. It was a lot of fun and well worth it. I can’t wait to see how FanX 16 turns out, but like everyone else, I will have to.

What did you think of Salt Lake Comic Con? Did it live up to your expectations? Let us know in the comments below, or by commenting on our Facebook page or send me feedback directly at [email protected].

Skirts and Bags for Comic Con

This year with Comic Con coming up I started thinking about what to dress the kids up in. Sometimes we will buy their halloween costumes early and they will wear those to Comic Con, in fact we did that this year for the boys, but this year for the girls I decided to do something a little different. All of our kids have plenty of geeky shirts, superheroes, Star Wars, etc., so I decided to make them little skirts to wear with their superhero shirts. I bought more fabric than I needed so I decided to make them some little bags to match, that is why this post is  called skirts and bags for Comic Con, the original plan was just skirts but since there was extra fabric I figured I might as well. Besides, they will be perfect for trick or treating next month. I thought the skirts would be nice because they can wear them anytime unlike a costume that you wear once or twice.

dc skirt and bag

I only made the skirts and bags for my 2 little girls. One of them loves Batman and Batgirl, in fact the other day Jake asked her “What do you want to do today?”, her response, “be Batman”. So for her I bought some fabric that has Batgirl, Supergirl, and Wonder Woman.

marvel skirt and bag

My other daughter is obsessed, and no that is not an exaggeration, with Thor. The best I could find with Thor was some Marvel fabric but as long as Thor was on it she was happy. And she had the perfect shirt to match so it worked out great.

skirt and bag

Both the skirts and the bags are very simple to make. Just a couple of seams on each one. I will explain how I made the skirts but the exact measurements will depend on the size that you want the skirt to be. I will give measurement for the bag but know that I made them small for little kids, they would be easy to make bigger by simply cutting a larger piece of fabric. I also used french seams on the bag so that, even though I chose not to line it, there are no exposed seams inside the bag.

comic con skirts

How To Make Simple Skirts for Comic Con

The skirts I made fit a 2 and 3 year old, the amount of fabric you need will depend on the size of skirt you are making.

You will need:

  • Character fabric in amount needed (I bought 1 yard of fabric and that was enough for a skirt, a bag, and some leftover)
  • 1 inch wide elastic, enough to fit around waist
  • safety pin
  • thread
  • sewing machine
  • scissors and/or rotary cutter, mat and ruler

Instructions

To determine the length to cut your skirt first measure from the waist to the point on the leg where you want the skirt to hit. To that number add 3 inches for the casing around the waist and 1-2 inches for the hem (depending on how narrow of a hem you want). For the width you probably want about twice the waist measurement to make the skirt nice and full. Because my girls are really small I just used the width of the fabric which was more than twice their waist measurement. The measurements I used for my skirts are these:

3 Year Old Skirt: width of fabric x 20 inches

2 Year Old Skirt: width of fabric x 17 inches

Because I used the width of fabric I only had one seam up the back of the skirt, If you need more than the width of fabric you will need to cut 2 panels and sew a seam up each side of the skirt. I could have bought 1/2 a yard for the smaller skirt and 5/8 of a yard for the bigger one. If you need to cut 2 panels you will need to buy enough for twice the length. For example if I needed to cut a skirt that was two panels each 30 inches long I would need to buy 60 inches of fabric. Keep in mind that most character print fabrics are directional so you have to cut them a certain way or your pictures will be upside down. Cut a piece of elastic to fit around the waist and overlap an inch or so.

Once you have figured out your measurements and cut out your fabric, fold it in half (or place the 2 pieces together if you have 2 sections) right sides together and sew the back (or side) seam. Fold down the top 1 1/2 inches two times and sew no more that a 1/4 inch from the edge to create your casing, leaving an opening in the back large enough to put the elastic through.

Attach safety pin to the end of your elastic and push through the opening and around the waist of the skirt, be sure not to pull the other end through. Overlap the ends and sew together with a zigzag stitch. Stitch the opening closed.

Fold up the bottom of the skirt 1/2-1 inch two times and stitch close to inside edge to hem.

That’s it, your skirt is done. A super simple, cute, and fun little outfit for Comic Con.

marvel bag and skirt

How To Make Simple Bags for Comic Con

Finished Size- 9″ x 10″ not including handles

You will Need:

  • 1/2 yard of fabric (you will have leftover)
  • 40 inches of cotton webbing, ribbon, twill tape or something similar for handles (I used this)
  • thread
  • sewing machine
  • scissors, rotary cutter, mat, ruler

Instructions:

Cut 2 rectangles 11″ x 14″

Cut 2 lengths of webbing or ribbon 20″ each

Place 2 rectangles wrong sides together and sew around 3 edges, 2 long, 1 short, with a 1/4 inch seam allowance. (see first and second picture below)

Clip the corners and trim a little bit off of the seam allowance on all three sides. (see third picture)

Turn inside out, make sure seams and corners are all pushed all the way out, it helps to press it at this point. Then sew around three sides again with the right sides together using a 1/4 inch seam allowance. (see first picture, bottom row)

Turn right side out. Your seam should now be fully enclosed, there should not be any parts of the seam showing through on the outside of the bag. (see last 2 pictures of both the outside and inside of the bag.

french seam bag

To attach the handles, first, fold down top edge 1 inch to the inside of the bag.

Measure 2 inches in from the outside seam on each side and pin the handles in place.

Fold again so that the raw edge is now inside and pin so that the handle is folded up and in the position it will be in on the finished bag, the raw edge of the handle will be tucked up inside of the hem.

Sew around the top of the bag twice, once close to the inside edge of the hem and once close to the top edge.

Now you have a little bag perfect for carrying around treasures from Comic Con, toys, or to collect trick or treating candy on halloween.

ready for comic con

I hope you enjoy these quick and easy little outfits for Comic Con. My girls are all ready for tomorrow, are you?

New Who at 10: The Parting of the Ways

The Parting of the Ways was the final episode of Eccleston’s time as the Doctor. This was the episode that wrapped up the whole Bad Wolf story line, and gave us our first glimpse of David Tenant as the Doctor. It was also an epic showdown between the Doctor and the Daleks, who just never seem to stay dead. This is also the origin of Jack’s not dying problem. Mainly, though, this was a pretty entertaining episode that I hadn’t watched in a while, so it was fun to revisit it.

The Daleks in this episode were a little strange as far as Daleks go. They were super religious, believing their creator Dalek was the god of the Daleks. This was a new wrinkle to the Daleks in general, and it was just kind of weird and added to their creepiness. The “god” Dalek was massive compared to the others and had a much deeper voice. He was clearly the big bad guy, and when he and the Doctor conversed, it was an attempt at the classic hero-villain dialogue. It wasn’t a great attempt, as the Doctor was clearly much more clever than the Dalek.

As the Doctor and Jack and Rose find themselves on the Dalek mothership, they gather as much information as they can from the Daleks before escaping back to Satellite 5, which will be the scene of the climactic Dalek-Doctor showdown. The Doctor sends Rose away, tricking her into getting in the TARDIS. While she is gone, we realize that the Doctor’s plan won’t just kill the Daleks, but all of the people on the satellite and on Earth. This sequence, for me, was much more powerful after seeing The Day of the Doctor. Connecting that story, of the War Doctor having to make the choice to destroy all of his people in order to destroy the Daleks, makes this sequence more powerful. The Doctor, in The Parting of the Ways, mentions that all of his people had died during the Time War, but they had taken the Daleks with them, or so they had thought. Now that they were back, it made the sacrifice not worth it. In his mind he is remembering that sacrifice, and how he is remembering it, he was the one who pulled the trigger. He was the one who made the sacrifice, that now, all of a sudden, wasn’t worth it. Then he finds himself in the same position. He must decide this time if he is willing to sacrifice earth in order to save the whole universe. Knowing his past, you would think this would be a harder decision, but he does what he feels like he has to. It was just kind of interesting to think about it in context with The Day of the Doctor.

While Rose is back on Earth, and her mom is trying to cheer her up with fish and chips, we get one of the most awkward exchanges between the two. It occurs when they are in the TARDIS and she starts going off about how Dad wouldn’t want her to give up and she knows because she met him. This whole conversation was just weird. What a weird time to bring it up, and why did it make her mom so angry? The way Rose is telling her, though, it’s like she is trying to make her mom angry, like she could finish the whole thing with a big raspberry. Whatever the conversation was, it works, because Jackie leaves and comes back with a giant tow truck to try to get the TARDIS open. Also while Rose is back on Earth, she realizes that her park is covered in the infamous “Bad Wolf” graffiti. This is the beginning of the answer to the Bad Wolf question, as she realizes it was a message she sent to herself.

I love it when she becomes the Bad Wolf after looking into the time vortex. It always reminded me of when Jean Grey becomes Phoenix. She is ultra powerful and has power to just split all the Daleks apart on the atomic level. She also has the power to bring Jack back to life. The Doctor realizes that this power is going to kill her, so he does what any responsible Time Lord would do. He kisses her, which allows him to soak in the time vortex and save Rose. Unfortunately, it doesn’t save him. It leads to his regeneration.

I love when he regenerates, because he does it in a way that only he could pull off. I love when he tells Rose that she was Fantastic, and then follows it up with “So was I.” He really was fantastic, and in this episode we really get to see all of it. We see him take charge of the situation and be in control, in a way only 9 would ever pull off. We see him have to make the tough decisions, and we see him do it all with his big dopey smile on his face the whole time. I have to admit, when I watched through these episodes the first time, I really was sad when he regenerated. I loved Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor, and would have loved to see one more season. I just think his Doctor was so confident and so cool. However, since there is only the one season, it does help me to appreciate his time a little bit more because it was so brief.

Overall, I enjoyed this episode. Not as good as The Empty Child, but it was still a lot of fun. I think the Doctor really shines in the episode and I feel like it wrapped up his time quite nicely. Rose and 9 had a good chemistry together, and I think I can stand to watch their time together more than I can stand her with 10. I think one thing I have enjoyed with Capaldi’s Doctor is that some of that confidence is back. It seemed like 10 and 11 didn’t have the same confidence, almost arrogance that 9 had, but 12 does, and I guess I’ve missed it.

What did you think of The Parting of the Ways? Did you enjoy? Is it one of your favorites from this season? let me know in the comments. You can also check out my review of The Empty Child here. Next Wednesday, we will be reviewing Blink, so come back next week to find out what I thought about this episode.

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Read all about my thoughts on the current direction Star Trek is headed. Do you agree with my thoughts? Disagree? Let me know in the comments. Check out the post here:

Lord of the Lasersword: Star Trek: Boldly Going Where Everyone is Going…

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