Gingerbread (300th Post!)

This year my workplace held its first annual gingerbread contest. Despite starting the night before it was due I think it turned out well! Ava and I had loads of fun putting this together.  The bulk of the candy was leftover Halloween candy, all the "meh" stuff most people just throw away.  I call it

Eversweet National Forest, nestled under Gingerbread Peak.  Everyone at the Christmas lunch threw in their votes.  I overheard a few onlookers saying "this one is super busy!"  Well, of course it is! It's called nature, it's supposed to be messy! Things don't grow all in neat rows, ya know?

UPDATE: The votes have been tallied, I am a winner!
Best Use of Color Category WINNER!

(Check out my Instagram account @spacemason  for more photos)

I drew upon a few sources for inspiration:

A World of Food: Amazing Foodscapes by Carl Warner

Creepmas Day 2: Homemade The Elf on the Shelf

Vintage(?) homemade Christmas Elf! The stuff of nightmares, yes, but I kind of like him/her/it. Just as The Other Mother Witch from Coraline used a doll to spy on children, Santa uses Elves on Shelves.

It's fun to stare deeply into its googly eyes while listening to Santa Clause is Coming to Town. Try it!

Merry Christmas!

On The Third Day Of Creepmas...

...my ghoul friend have to me,

3 Ice Skulls,

2 Bloodshot Eyes,

& Arachnids In A Pine Tree!

These ice skulls were yet another Halloween clearance bargain I just couldn't pass up. At a quarter each they cost me a grand total of 75 cents! 

Each skull has a little LED light glowing inside. The mouths look like try were cheaply drawn on with a Sharpie. The ice skulls are also made out of the same material as a decorative snowman we used to put out every year. My Mum gifted me the Santa hat and it fits perfectly on the ice skull's chilly noggin.

On another note, it started snowing today! It's time to go outside and build a Snow Golem! All you need to make your own is snow, a pumpkin, a candle, and some imagination!

It's alive! It's a Creepmas miracle!

If you don't have any snow in your neck of the woods, not to worry, just use up those white pumpkins you've been saving up. Or if you don't have white pumpkins you can always stop by your local craft store for supplies and dream up a Snow Gollum ornament.

First ever Salt Lake Comic Con!

Now, I know this blog is called "D.I. Treasures" and I'm supposed to talk about things I found at the DI. However, sometimes I like to share good finds from goodwill and other such establishments. Okay, so maybe Comic Con doesn't count as such an establishment, but so what, it's my blog!

Now, when I told some of my friends, we'll say my more senior associates, that I was going to Comic Con they immediately asked,"What is Comic Con?" One person simply said,"Good luck!" I resisted the urge to slap my forehead and kindly explained that Con is short for Convention an that it's a geek thing. Though, I don't think you need to be an all out geek to enjoy "The Con".

Anyhoo, it was a great convention, the attendance was over 9,000! In fact were are a total of more than 47,000 tickets sold. You can check out all the details at www.saltlakecomiccon.com.

Enough about The Con itself, let's talk about what I took away, namely toys!

Now, let's take a closer look at these guys.

First off, I present to you this vintage Star Wars Gonk Droid.

I love robot toys, so I just couldn't say no to this little guy. Just look at him in all his robotic goodness! His legs are even designed to make an endearing clickety-clack sounds as they move. Classic!

Next up, we have the 2 M.U.S.C.L.E. mini figures.

All I know is these are vintage M.U.S.C.L.E. figures. I loved these as a kid! I don't know which ones these are. These may even be bootlegs for all I know. Either way these guys are pretty cool.

Grizzlor!

This one ties as my favorite find. This here's a vintage Grizzlor from the He-Man and The Masters of The Universe toy line. From what I understand Grizzlor is one of the lesser sought after MOTU (Masters of The Universe) figure due to his grizzled look. That exactly why I like him! There's something about misfit toys that I just can't get enough of.

Last of the toys is Moss Man!

Just look at this thing! How could I not buy him!? He's covered in green fuzz! You may have guessed that this is another vintage MOTU figure. All the vintage Moss Man figures actually had a fresh pine scent added to them! I sniffed this guy, but it seems his scent has worn off over the years. After returning home from The Con I had to mow my football-field-sized lawn. I noticed that Moss Man is reminiscent of a freshly mown lawn, so I have named him Lawn Moe. I will use him as a reminder to mow the lawn.

Well, actually, there's one more toy!

IG-88! Him and the Gonk Droid look like an alternate version of C3PO and R2D2. I always thought IG-88 was so cool! A bounty hunter droid bent on destroying all organic life forms, now that's just awesome. Man I love robots! 

I actually almost didn't feature IG-88 (you'll notice he's not included in the group shot) because I was embarrassed at the fact that I thought he was vintage, but upon closer inspection later that night I found a dreaded "1996" on his foot. :( I had a funny feeling he wasn't vintage because of his tell-tale bowleggedness. The vendor assured me that all his stuff was vintage. I'm sure he wasn't trying to deceive me, but I should looked more closely. Oh we'll, I'll just let that be a lesson to me. The figure's still pretty neat, and it didn't cost very much.

Lastly, my own custom made stamp of all things! One of the last booths I visited was selling a stamp kit. They let everyone make their own stamp. This is what came to me. The little guy saying "'ello!" is Glumby. He's a character I made up one time while doodling. They let me keep the stamp for free!

All in all, Comic Con wasn't as cheap as a trip to the DI, but is was a lot of fun. Also, I would have to be extremely lucky to find these toys at my local DI. 

Salt Lake Comic Con haul: $16